Easter Elections
Fictional TV president will become president
- after US, Ukraine elections also becomes a reality show financed by a billionaire
Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his rival and incumbent president Petro Poroshenko
Ukraine: Ukrainians are going to vote today, to elect their new president. After a whopping 44 candidates in the first round, it has been brought down to two for the final round. The Candidates are the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko and a comedian with no political experience apart from acting as a president in his TV show Volodymyr Zelenskiy. A recent opinion poll suggests Zelenskiy will win with a 72% vote.
Trump got into power partly using his fame as a reality show star. Democracy is at verge when people start mixing entertainment with political reality and vote for inexperienced leaders. However, this is not to equate Zelenskiy with Trump. Zelenskiy’s ideas are pro Europe, anti-corruption, and pro-development. He said he is willing to make better relations with Russia and also wants to end the conflict in the Donbass region and hold a referendum on a NATO membership. There is one important source of concern, he is funded by a billionaire oligarch, Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The power in Ukraine will transit from one billionaire to the other, and a comedian will be the public figure.
The mayor of Ukraine's capital city Kiev is the Cinema for Peace committee member Vitali Klitschko, who is proud of the progress achieved despite the setbacks by corruption and war - and Poroshenko's failure to stabilize the country.
The then reigning world champion Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko with Leonardo DiCaprio at the Cinema for Peace Gala 2009
Trailer: Elections as comedy - Swing Vote by Joshua Michael Stern
Trailer: Donbass by Sergei Loznitsa
Trailer: Fahrenheit 11/9 by Michael Moore
National symbol of France -Notre Dame on fire
The Footage of Notre-Dame de Paris fire
PARIS - “Notre Dame resisted the Nazis, it will not leave us now”, words from one of the residents as the 850-year old spire of the Notre Dame de Paris collapsed down. Notre Dame has not only been the navel and hub of the city of Paris, but also a symbol of history and a landmark of all the culture that it inspired and cultivated around it.
The 1939 film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” by William Dieterle famously captured the beauty of the gothic architecture. In the film, the cathedral’s bell ringer Quasimodo rescues Esmeralda from public hanging because of witchcraft by giving her sanctuary at the North Tower. Fortunately, the North and South Towers survived the fire.
Several people turned up in support to aid reconstruct the cathedral. Over 300 million Euros were raised in about 24 hours to aid the reconstruction. Such solidarity is an example and hope that we will be able to survive any disaster, provided we join hands together. This is not the first time we have witnessed a famous cathedral catching flame. The York Minster Cathedral caught fire in 1984. Is it time for us to equip with better facilities to aid instant fire fighting abilities, perhaps from the air with helicopters?
Trailer: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) by William Dieterle
Trailer: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997) by Peter Medak