Dresden's Treasures

 

A large bouquet of flowers made of mother of pearl

There's a lot to see within walking distance in Dresden, churches and museums each with their own story. Many intersect with World War II that was destroyed in air raids and buildings were slowly rebuilt.

One of these examples is the Frauenkirche or the Church of Our Lady. It was originally a Catholic church built in the 11th century in Romanesque style, but became Protestant during the Reformation. Hence the statue of Martin Luther in front.

The Frauenkirche rebuilt only recently

It has one of the largest domes in Europe at 96 metres high, called die Steinerne Glocke, or "Stone Bell". 

But in World War II it was severely damaged by air raids, the roof finally collapsing after having withstood two days and nights of attacks. The church was left in a pile of rubble for 45 years, because of Communist rule in East Germany, though the residents had already begun trying to salvage what they could and numbering them for future reconstruction.

That didn't happen until 1994, after Germany's reunification and raising money to rebuild Frauenkirche, which took 11 years and over 180 million euros. Some of the stone blocks are black, from the original building, but most are relatively new, a testament to the residents' determination to rebuild it also using the original plans.

Another jewel in Dresden is the Royal Palace or Residenzschloss. We came to see the Green Vault, which was amazingly not damaged during the air raids, and contains immense treasures royalty collected over the centuries.

The interior is stunning and awe-inspiring

The Historic Green Vault has its rules -- no bags or coats -- these must be placed at the coat check or in a locker, and you must be there at the time issued on your ticket, to limit the number of people in there. And at one point you must enter a room at most two by two into double doors, much like entering a jewellery store. It's that intense.

But it's worth the hassle -- the items they collected, from stunning wood carvings, mother-of-pearl decorating boxes, horns covered in carvings, massive silver platters, goblets, tiered platters lavishly decorated with tiny tea cups and the jewels! Massive rocks from diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and rubies… how did they wear all that jewellery?

It was impressive to say the least. The Dresden Green Diamond is quite the stunner at 41 carats, decorated with two large diamonds and many smaller ones. For us plebs, we’d be happy with one small stone or two. They had hundreds of them. Even the rooms themselves are examples of the height of opulence, with each room decorated in a different colour and accentuated with curvy shaped mirrors framed in gold (of course).

Above the painted dome that is 96 metres tall

There’s tight security for the History Green Vault, but when it comes to the New Green Vault, visitors are taking pictures, and the stuff is still impressive, but not as much as those crazy jewels and boxes covered in glowing amber. There’s a massive display like a miniature stage filled with characters in a lavish set called The Throne of the Grand Mogul Aureng-Zeb.

August the Strong bought the work in 1709 for a massive sum at the time, and he and other royalty would buy items from jewellers and artisans, which ended up in this giant collection that reflects artistic and technical skills at the time. Interestingly they even used coconut shells to carve, and the stones of fruits. The ivory balls, with several balls inside look similar to the ones made in China – were they influenced by the Chinese? We didn’t get the audio tour to find out.

The Throne of the Grand Mogul Aureng-Zeb

Nevertheless the collection is stunning and worth just seeing for the admission alone (21 euros/$23.52). The upper floors are exhibition spaces and we saw one on Kandinsky and his woodblock prints.

Another place nearby worth checking out is Zwinger, another palace steps away from Residenzschloss that dates back to the 18th century, designed in the Baroque style by Matthaus Daniel Poppelmann for Augustus the Strong.

Zwinger means an enclosed killing ground in front of a castle or city gate, and this palace was formerly a fortress complete with a moat. The palace was used as one point to grow oranges, an exhibition space and festival area for the Dresden court.

It too was destroyed during World War II and luckily the art collection was evacuated earlier. Reconstruction began with the Soviets in 1945 and was completed finally in 1963, restoring Zwinger to its pre-war state.

Zwinger with the massive crown down at the other end

Walking into the massive courtyard leaves you in awe of such an amazing space and the giant crown at the top held up by four golden eagles. It is a replica of the Polish royal crown that Augustus the Strong wore from 1687 to 1704.

Visitors can see the massive amount of art amassed here, like the extensive porcelain collection of 20,000 pieces, with ceramics from Jingdezhen in China. There is also the Old Masters Picture Gallery that houses many well known paintings like Raffael's Die Sixtinische Madonna or two angels looking upwards, works by Van Eyck, Durer, Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer are here. The highlight is The Sistine Madonna by Raffael.

But it must also be amazing to come here to listen to live concerts that are put on here during the summer.
 

Man's Disturbing Effect on the Planet

Striking images of elephant tusks being burned show destruction by man

Another documentary I saw on the plane was Anthropocene by Nicholas De Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky. Baichwal and Burtynsky have also worked on Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark, and Anthropocene is the third of the trilogy about how man is changing the natural landscape.

Manufactured Landscapes was about China being the world's factory, watching hundreds of thousands of workers doing the most mundane tasks to make products for us in the West to use.



Their next project Watermark was about how water levels are dropping around the world due to overuse or pollution, and how dire it is for farmers not having enough water to produce crops and how they have to dig deeper to get water.

And finally Anthropocene refers to our current geological age where human activity is affecting the climate and environment.

Carrara marble being extracted from a quarry in Italy

The documentary takes viewers around to 20 countries on six continents to see the devastating effects humans are having on the planet. For example tone scene shows Carrara marble being cut out of the quarry and one of the workers jokes the success of Carrara is thanks to Michelangelo, who demanded to only use this kind of marble for his masterpieces.

Then there's a shot in a workshop where several artisans make copies of Michelangelo's sculptures -- using the same marble he used hundreds of years ago. I also think of the luxury apartments in Manhattan that feature Carrara marble in their bathrooms.

The film goes to a bleak town in Russia called Norilsk that is considered the most polluted in the country. The main industry is smelting to extract minerals in high heat. Three Russian women are interviewed and one says how the town is dreary, but you get used to it and see the beauty in the stone. They laugh.

Another scene shows an unscripted moment of two workers having lunch and talking about how the filmmakers are recording everything they are saying.

Scavengers, animals and humans, hunt around a landfill

In Germany there is a giant machine that weighs 12,000 tons and scrapes out an entire hillside of dirt. The man running the machine is proud of this piece of technology and not really thinking about the effect it has on the environment.

Then in Nigeria there's a massive landfill with men, women and children literally ripping up garbage bags and scrounging for anything that can be recycled. They dig through the dirty trash with their bare hands and carry what they've found in baskets on their heads. Meanwhile birds hang around them, looking for bits of food to feed on.

Meanwhile in Kenya, a black woman activist talks about trying to stop the ivory trade. She feels guilty for not being able to save elephants' lives, but at least she has stopped people from making a living from killing the animals to get their tusks.

There are scenes of men carrying the tusks one by one and creating giant pyres that are later set alight to show the world that the ivory trade will be stamped out.

However go to Hong Kong, and a master carver prides himself on making intricate masterpieces on these tusks. he has a team of people using various tools to create a sea of people, flowers, trees, dragons and landscapes all on one tusk.

Baichwal, De Pencier and Burtynsky are the film's directors

He boasts the prices can range from several hundred to millions of dollars. But because the authorities are cracking down on the ivory trade, the man speaking Cantonese says he has found another better source -- that is not yet illegal -- mammoth ivory tusks. He won't be idle any time soon.

There's also shots of old growth forests in British Columbia being cut down and the narrator says there are less than 20 percent of the forests left in the world. It's shocking statistics like these that are disturbing and hopefully jolt people into realizing how much we have lost.

Nevertheless, some people in the documentary are indifferent because what they are doing is their livelihood, while others are very worried about the impact these actions have on the environment but are too small to stop them.

The images shot particularly from drones are beautiful and shocking at the same time -- this tension that Burtynsky is very well known for. A bulldozer pushes salt along a path and the camera pulls back to see how big the salt field is, that seems to go on forever.

Anthropocene first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and hopefully more people will see this documentary, and see what we collectively as humans are doing to the planet we live on.

A Tale of Two Leaders

Leung Chun-ying's speech was read out like a laundry list for two hours...

This morning our time, the President of the United States, Barack Obama gave his last State of the Union address. While he noted the differences between the Democrats and the Republicans is more divisive than ever, he also praised the country for its diversity, and how the rest of the world looks to America for leadership.

He also talked about the country's future: how to ensure equal opportunities for everyone, how to harness technological change, how to keep the country safe, and how to bridge the political divide.

...while Barack Obama talked big ideas in his speech

This is Obama's vision for the country in his last year in office, and the way he spoke instilled pride and inspiration in the audience.

Contrast this to Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's policy address this morning, his last one before the election next year.

He spoke at the Legislative Council for two hours -- even taking a 10-minute break in between --  to read out a laundry list of initiatives his administration has done or will do, from free kindergarten for some families (details to be ironed out), give HK$2 billion to startups, double the number of wifi hotspots to 34,000 in three years, make the city more accessible for the elderly, and free admission to permanent exhibitions in museums.

Whoohoo.

More interesting were the four times Leung was interrupted by lawmakers who complained the chief executive was not fulfilling election promises, how the government would destroy the environment when developing Lantau, and demanding to know where missing bookseller Lee Bo and his four associates are.

Leung's speech hardly contained any vision. While he is concerned about the growing aging population, with nearly one-third of the population will be seniors within 20 years, Leung only proposes making public areas more accessible and extra hospital beds for them.

Lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan demands to know where Lee Bo is

Why not look far into the future and propose more preventive health measures, like encouraging seniors to exercise more, give them more money so they can eat better, and build more assisted living facilities.

And for kindergartens, it is only free for those who attend half day, and even then, the scheme looks to be more complicated with various conditions. As a result some families will be shut out. If 70 to 80 percent of kindergartens are supposed to be free under this scheme, why not just make all of them free of charge?

While throwing HK$2 billion to startups is generous, will that actually lead to something Hong Kong will be famous for globally? What startups have been successful here so far? Seems like a long shot bet that may not result in much except for an easy grab for startups desperate for funds. Is this the most effective way to spend our taxpayer dollars?

Perhaps the only bold initiative on Leung's part is banning the ivory trade "as quickly as possible" he said in the press conference afterwards. Again details need to be worked out, but at least the government is taking a strong stand on this issue.

Other than that, as Leung's critics have pointed out -- including Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee -- the speech only talked about piecemeal items that don't show any sign of looking at Hong Kong's long term future. There are no big ideas, only small initiatives to try to win quick points.

We don't want a government that only picks the low-hanging fruit. We want a vision of the city's future. And today was far from inspiring...