pale and blue sagan

by Torrey Meeks


found at Political Remix Video

more occupy

For a look at how many economists feel now about the occupy movement, 
watch this.
 (shared by @caspertk)



Occupy Economics from Softbox on Vimeo.

ai wei wei

I have just finished a great little book: Ai Weiwei Speaks with Hans Ulrich Obrist. 


I want to write about it, but there is a milieu of things I could say about Ai weiwei. 
Mostly in regards to how the Chinese government have treated this 'dissident' earlier this year. But I will focus on this book as a window into the artist's mind. 


This little snippet of weiwei is fascinating. His personality is huge, the way he sees life is fluid and unique and he speaks with stark honesty. Especially in regards to China. 


weiwei's sunflower seeds was showing in the turbine hall of the Tate Modern when I started working there earlier this year. It is breathtaking. And the film that accompanies the installation is a beautiful story of how and why this piece came about. In fact, I almost liked it more than the tiny hand painted seeds themselves. 


I think the thing that makes weiwei so incredible is the way in which he sees the world. Art is an attitude, a way of thinking, or a way of life. His insights into the impact of the Chinese cultural revolution, his fathers experiences, his relationship with books and architecture and blogging are completely fascinating. 


"On the one hand I take art very seriously, but the production has never been so serious, and most of it is an ironic act. But anyhow, you need traces, you need people to be able to locate you, you have a responsibility to say what you have to say and to be wherever you should be. You're part of the misery and you can't make it more or less. You're still part of the whole fascinating condition here."


"And I have one regret: I feel sorry that I can't write well. That's the skill that I value the most. I think that, if I could write well, I'd give up my art for writing. For me, it is the most beautiful and effective way to illustrate my thinking"


Definitely worth a read. 

infographical

oh hello good looking social media debate. hello indeed. 

tumblr

Article 27 have a great tumblr.
take a wee look right here.

the human library

Last month a couple of friends and myself made a human library.

We were inspired by some discussion groups we had been holding for those on our MA and on our Indigenous Studies course. It was the most incredible experience to hear about some of my friends stories. Stories of difficult childhoods, indigenous struggles, living through war, having children, fighting against corrupt or oppressive regimes. Stories that could have gone untold, and many stories that needed to be shared.
It was an incredible experience for which I am hugely thankful. 


So we recruited some books from our group (and a few more from elsewhere), trained them, helped them identify their book titles and contents page and then put them on a shelf for others to browse and select.


 It was a great success by all means. 
 Some books were read 9 times in the 4 hours our library was open, over 50 people attended and all of the books (more or less) were returned in a healthy condition, buzzing from the experience of sharing their stories.


Here is a little video we put together for the event:





Many thanks out to everyone who took part in the event and all of the student groups and individuals that supported us. 
Not bad for two weeks notice. not bad at all. Well done team library!




Remember, don't judge a book by its cover... especially if it isn't a book. 

dark side of the lens

this.
 is beautiful.


Hear more about why and how and who made this little piece of magic here at the most excellent 
do lectures.

 

confiscated life

Extract by Don Delillo on Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo


What happens to the writer caught in the tide of round-the-clock surveillance, enforced isolation, detention without trial?


Think of a man alone in a room. This is the writer's classic condition, cruelly extended when the state locks the door to the room. Think of the writer in opposition, the man who writes against power, who writes against the coiled mechanism of the state and the entire apparatus of total assimilation.


It's the nature of language to pitch itself against the smothering oneness of the state. Words want to be free. Lui Xiaobo's crime is called "an incitement to subvert state power." This is an administrative term for the exercise of free speech - the very activity, Lui writes, that is the mother of truth.


Writers everywhere tend to feel a natural kinship, country to country, language to language. We write to be true to some urgency of self. We find identity in the lines of poetry we write, in the sentences and paragraphs of our novels and essays. We write to think ourselves into existence.








Sign the petition to free Lui Xiaobo here

bon iver

This was my other reason for being in Oslo. Bon Iver magic. 
As I said on the night... I want to live inside their music forever. 
And that is not an exaggeration.
I heart crescendos. 
 

transit

This past weekend I went for a little trip down the entire breadth of this huge country to Oslo. It was my birthday, and my birthday plan entailed two things. The second being the Nobel Peace Center (the first to follow shortly).

The Peace centre is hands-down the best museum I have ever been to. The interactive Nobel peace prize winners room glowed brightly with numerous kindles detailing those awarded, their exploits and the reasons behind their importance. There was an interactive story book, an interactive children's room and the most fantastic interactive time line with quotes, videos, articles, pictures and a room full of enamoured american schoolchildren asking "But Liu Xiaobo is a criminal in China?".

It. was. great. 

The first part of the museum was an exhibition of photography works by Espen Rasmussen a Norwegian photographer focusing on the plight of refugees, including a close up portrait of a young refugee living in Norway; Rahman. The pictures were fantastic, the captions honestly interesting and the portrayal of refugees was, for a change, not entirely grim and negative. It gave a slightly positive humanistic dimension to the experience of being a refugee showing a glimpse of family life in amongst the harrowing and shocking majority of the photographs. 

Highly recommended. 

Oo, there is also a great looking website for the Transit exhibition here. 

sheikh jarrah

"Once you no longer have the luxury of ignorance,
 the feeling is that you have to take a stand"


- An Israeli mother who protests in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Jeruslaem, Sheikh Jarrah


If you make sure you do one thing today, you should watch these films. Incredible. 

consensus

So. #occupywallstreet and #occupydc and #occupyseattle and all of the other beautiful, unique and wonderful occupations that are going on out there in the world right now are making my skin tingle.  It has spread so thick and so fast all over the United States of America and now Europe (although I recognise that many peoples are amidst their own struggles which far precede this phenomenon) that today, suddenly, I realised that this could be the big eye opener that our world needs.


And then I watched this video on consensus.
And It made my smile so much more bigger.





I have seen a lot of videos and photos and tweets and blogs around these occupations. And just like a lot of other protests and occupations of the past I have seen things that have made me angry. The authoritarian and brutal actions of the police. The manipulation of private enterprises into stereotyping and condemning the people standing up for their rights. The consistent untruths spewed out by the media day by day. But this video made me feel blessed to have a voice and to be able to use it. It made me feel like I am doing the right thing by working in human rights and vying for change each day, however far away it may seem on those dark days that we all have.  


Good luck occupiers.




Occupy everything

sound of rum

banger of a song from kate tempest and the sound of rum

"because when the whole thing shatters it always starts with a little crack"

article 27

I am now a blogger for the wonderful Article 27.


 In Article 27's own words: 

Article 27 believes human rights issues and stories are often best told through creative means. We research and write on a variety of finds- old and new- that shed light on human rights issues in a unique way.

We want Article 27 to be a hub of inspiration for human rights activists, artists, technology enthusiasts, and anyone who believes in the power of creativity.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 27: 

•  Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
•  Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

You can find my first blog on institutionalised racism represented by a collaborative artwork in the United States of America here: The House That Herman Built


You can also find a rather brilliant piece by the lovely Sushi on the french artist JR here: Women are Heroes


And a very touching photo tribute to Troy Davis, who unfortunately was executed amid national and international outcry last week: The execution of Troy Davis


As my friend Dilhayat told me this week:
 earth without art is 'eh'...


I definitely concur. 

my talented friends

Please let me show you miss aurelia lange (she has already featured on this blog: here, as the artwork for emily teague's album, and here, as a good luck card for my trip to Sweden to embark upon my current adventure. 


Just look at her lovely thoughts and website and blog and enjoy her beauteous imagery. It is just yummy. 

I am living her klubb based dream right now by being in the 'filmklubb' of Tromso Kino. She is one of the greatest and I hope you enjoy her talented talents. 


All images copyrighted to aurelia lange. 

chaplin

the state of things

And so the time has come once again for Palestine to demand recognition as a state and to be accepted by the United Nations in her statehood. 
Those at the Huffington Post have made this jazzy interactive map to show which states are in favour of/ against/ undecided toward Palestinian statehood. 
Find the map here.


It looks like if the EU, France and UK pull through on the side of Palestine, there may be hope. Of course the US' veto power in the UN could always been thrown down on the table all too readily in favour of Israel, as we have seen in the past. 
There are some more excellently informative articles of the proposition of a Palestinian state on the Huffington Post website, #palestinianstatehood.


Personally, I really hope it is time for recognition of the Palestinian people after such a long, bitter conflict that is played out day by day, checkpoint by checkpoint, bullet by bullet in an endless desperate struggle for liberation and security. I worry about what the price may be. Whether the Palestinians will have to make irreversible sacrifices in regards to territory, historical narrative and life. 


In the words of academic Illan Pappe:
"It could be either painful and violent, if Israel continues to enjoy international immunity and is allowed to finalize by sheer brutal force its mapping of post-Oslo Palestine. Or it could end in a revolutionary and much more peaceful way with the gradual replacement of the old fabrications with solid new truths about peace and reconciliation for Palestine. Or perhaps the first scenario is an unfortunate precondition for the second. Time will tell."

alice walker

This beautiful post was written by the wonderful Alice Walker, in the wake of the Museum of Children's Art, Oakland, refusing to show the work of Palestinian children.  (Following intense pressure from pro Israeli groups)


She writes:
"We can educate and increase the capacity for compassion among our children with this Art.  We can make something magical, even of the present disappointing dilemma. We can encourage ourselves, and our children, never to be afraid to feel. No one dies from compassion, is a mantra they might like.
   Empathy is a wave that need never be stopped.  If our children can catch this wave,  from the ocean of tears shed by Palestinian children, they might have a future in a more stable and saner world."


The exhibition is still rejected by the museum, but will be shown outside in the courtyard despite the museums refusal. 

enough

filmklubb

One of my first choices here in Tromso was to join the Filmklubb.

Tonight I watched 'Days of Heaven' by Terrence Malick.

It was entirely filmed between the hours of dusk and dawn, lending itself to beautiful expansive sunsets and cold sharp mornings. The score was incredible. Highly recommended.

Arctic Circle

I have just moved to Tromso for my final semester.

I will mainly be looking at cultural and indigenous rights, and trying to focus on my research questions for my dissertation, knitting, secretly reading novels, walking everywhere, joining Tromso filmklubb and learning litt Norsk.

I will be searching the night skies for the aurora borealis and seeing colours like salmon pink and fishscale blue beginnings behind cut out mountains and mirror clear lakes.

This is the only polar bear I have seen thus far. tbc.

not in my country

I saw this piece in the Guardian many a moon ago. But speaking with a friend regarding comparative immigration issues and policy cross-nationally, it reminded me of this Joe Sacco pull out; Not in My country. The short piece details the significant and overwhelming issues that concern immigrants on the small island of Malta. Read it here.

I am currently half way through Sacco's 'Safe Area Gorazde' which has made me cry about 5 times so far. Such a heartbreaking account of the war in Bosnia and a really personal feel of Sacco's intimacy with the both the places and people that he meets. More so here than in other works.

For more of me on Sacco look here. He has two absolute corkers on the Palestinian situation: Palestine and Footnotes to Gaza. Read them. Now.

uk riots

if you didn't see the uk riots this month on the streets; in liverpool, in bristol, london, all over.. then you must have been hiding in hole.

big debate in clapham, my temporary home this year. listen to it.

my new favourite book

I have always had a gentle fascination for books. I love stories, reading them, hearing them, writing them. But the format of a book. the heavy shape, the dry texture, the musty smell of library books... The way that physical books make me feel is quite something else as to the mystery worlds they hold beneath the covers.

Whilst working at the Tate I found this book, which the staff kindly gave to me as my leaving present. It is full of beautiful art crafted out of books. Gestalten's Book Art.

I know this may seem strange, as my friend gt once told me, it is heresy to hurt a book. And as I do have a profound love for books, then I should not condone the tampering of such special objects. But In this book the pages transform into something else. Just as I love to see letters and words taking different shapes and telling different stories to their usual form, some of the works of art in here are completely stunning. They are not destroyed, but transformed.

Here are a couple of mouth waterers:

Alicia Martin

Richard Wentworth

Light

As If Thighs Were Parentheses
by Saul Williams

What my fame affords me
I will use to spread the light
that is caused by the book
that burns to clean the air
at night.

There are some
that would save
the book and others
that would write.

There are those
who would die
for it and soldiers
who would fight.

I have learned
of this book that burns
that it cannot be helped.

There are words
that will catch aflame
as others tend to melt.

There are phrases
soft turns of speech
that shake flesh to the bone.

There are ways
of our saying things
that shape truth into poems.

Or perhaps
they outline a shape
that is already there

like the face
of my sweet beloved
framed by unruly hair.

And these strands
are just words combined
to comb through with
your eyes.

They are wigs
over mountaintops

-the snow
that draws
the eyes.

They are there
when you see them not.

What man sees
his own heart?

He is drugged
and then put asleep
before he's cut apart.

And procedures
like this only done
when arteries are clogged.

Spills and waste
down the mountainside
with forests cut and logged.

All the trees
now shaped
into books
and building-
blocks designed
will take shape
from the mountainside-

the forest of the mind.

And the mind is an active place
where climate will control
means of growth and the greenery
that springs up from the soul.

And the soul
it is like the soil
-as i am into u.

What begins
as a seed of thought
now manifests as true.

It takes time
for a rock to melt
-to decompose a corpse.

And the soil
is full rich with time
like mountains rich with quartz.

Full of charge.
Full of energy.

Full of nutrients and life
sucked from death
which is overturned
and risen to new heights.

Over time
life repeats itself-
the cycle of the wheel.

And the will
is a driving force
to feed, defend, and kill.

What it kills
takes a different shape
as consciousness transforms.

Laws emerge
to defend new life
and thus new crimes are born.

And what's born
from a spinning wheel
is willed and welled
into shape.

Forms emerge
from the sculptors hand
nuanced by love and hate.

And the hate
is grown out of love
of comfort and control

and is shaped by the overgrowth
of fear/hope decomposed.

We compose
with creators hands
the music of the mind.

We choose words
like piano keys
to ease thought to chime.

And we chime upon everything
and every sound we hear.

We diffuse
all times ticking bombs
to distill hope from fear.

And the hope
that we plant we tend.
We water, trim, and cut.

Like the grape
on its path to wine-
we smash beneath our strut.

And we strike chords with expertise.
We lean into each note.
We give time a new signature.
Small hand on big throat.

All the gun barrels
placed in mouths
all the tongues
fingers
parts

can account
for the silent times
where words
play no part.

Love is art
of the give and take
the build and break
the bends.

It is found in
a simple kiss

the laughing bliss
of friends.

And our friends
and our enemies
are much more
than they seem.

They are tall
booming beams
of light with their own
hopes and dreams.

We form teams-
nationalities-
taking sides
with our own.

We commit
to our fantasies
our prayers
and our poems.

And these poems
how they turn to dust
how they blossom with time.

They are like seeds
the farmer plants
with bare hands
in the mind.

And my mind
feels the brush of wind
takes strangers in
notes signs.

It is coaxed
by the pretty face
Egyptian lace
the kind.

And it broods
in it's silent place.

And stirs
when she calls.

And it prays
for a peaceful space.

And answers to Saul.

But it knows
it knows none of it.

And it blurs
by the feed.

It prefers
all the gentler things
and cyclically bleeds.

And it bleeds
flowing streams of words
through the silence of night.

Softest page
of her inner thigh.

She asks
“What would You write?"

I would write
of a burning book.

How each thought stood alone.
How the words had formed families
sheltered from the unknown.

How the unknown would come again
for the words could not hide
truths and meanings
they held within

when the pen
took no sides.

And the pen
could be fingertips
softest tongue
against flesh
little toes
against calves
and necks
behind ear
with soft breaths.

And the writing
became the walls
and proposed new design

until silence took charge again
and disposed
of the mind.

How she laughed
when I told her that.

How she smiled
and she stirred.

How the room
took a different light.

How the lights
beamed and blurred.

All the lights
of the city gleamed
as if all burned at once.

All the thoughts
gently laid to rest-
the bequest of new Suns.

And the books
that would hold these thoughts
were the Suns that now burned
in small rooms that were
just like this
where we basked
and took turns.

And the spotlights
that shine on me
navigate every touch.

I am moved
to the darkest space
where small stanzas erupt.

And eruptions
they blind and quake
when too close
to the site.

As if thighs
were parentheses
holding silence
in light.

information

Over the past few months I have been working part time for an online political campaigning organisation. Through this work I have been impressed with how statisitcs can be tranformed into real life tangible information that can be used and manipulated to evidence certain things. Of course this is not new (see freakonomics, wordle and almost 2 years of writing statistical reports for Barnardo's after leaving university), but recently I have been falling in love with how beautiful this information can look.

And then, when at my paid job, I found this book: information is beautiful
Which hit the nail on the head.

It is full of beautiful diagrams and colourful charts of how information can be translated visually. And then I found a whole host of treats on the blog here. Including lots of things to play with.

This diagram is completely lovely: http://www.rhfoundation.org.uk/
(although perhaps the data not entirely interesting on a personal level)



Consequently I found myself sat on the tube reading a leftover guardian environment supplement which was completely full of lots of lovely numbers and visualisations. for more, try the guardian's datastore here.

I heart information.

tweet

I now 'do' twitter. (@hollynoir)
via twitter I found Charlie Brooker.
via Charlie Brooker I found these Adam Curtis treats.
one of the best human beings to have ever made moving images?
I think so.

close up

I have just stumbled across this little treat on my friend Gavin's blog.

This tool allows you to focus in on Tahrir square during the protests. but really close up. More close up than I can possibly fathom.

its called a gigapan.

If you zoom in and out quickly enough, it will blow your mind.

unloved

This weekend, in my tired splendour, I spent an hour and half of my time watching the 2009 directoral debut by Samantha Morton, the unloved. Notoriously recognised as one of the only successful and prominent British actresses not to come from a long line of welathy and fortunate artistic-type family, Morton herself spent her childhood in care. A fact which I believe shines through every single shot of the unloved.

The rhythm of the episode is beautifully calculated. It comprises of many long lingering shots- at times far too beautiful in contrast to the sadness behind Lucy's eyes. Its difficult to romanticise abusive childhoods, or growing up in care, but Morton steps on the edges of combining gorgeous visual melancholy with the suffering sadness of the individuls portrayed.

This programme made me feel desperately hopeless as to what will happen next under the coalition government and their spending cuts for those in the most need. Children like those featured in the unloved will be made invisible. I just hope enough children in care get to watch this programme and recognise that if Morton can succeed within a field that she loves, so can they. If anyone deserves it most, it is those children society always manages to sideline, ignore, or push to the bottom of the pile.

jr

When I was in Palestine in 2009 I saw some of JR's prints on the wall in Bethlehem.

Only now do i really know what it means.

Watch this:




Then go here:

insideout project

angels in america

Months have passed and I keep meaning to share this find, which I encountered at a friends when I was living back in the west country.

Angels in America is an epic film compiled from a tv series, adapted from a broadway play. It is searingly beautiful. It is extremely poigniant and it is fantastically acted with amazing vigour and carelessness and sharpness that only true stage artists can evoke - even on film. It is heartbreaking. It is terrifying. It makes you feel entirely helpless and completely powerful at the same time.
It makes you realise how vulnerable our bodies are, and how powerful our will can be.

The props are awful, the graphics very questionable, but it feels like you are watching a play on the screen, with all the gusto and glory of the theatre.

If you find yourself with 6 hours of spare time, I highly highly reccommend you spend it watching this.

the future of things

Over the past week or so I have become a little bit obsessed with watching short films.

This mainly include those by 'futute shorts' a fab little film production peoples that keep sending me little lush little treats in less than ten minute shaped moving images.

Three of my very favourites are as follows:

1. The art of drowning
Not quite as profound as, nor quite as enchanting as the waking life promises. But very simple and funny and beautifully graphic novel esquely animated.

2. The Ganzfeld procedure
Very adorable video to florence and the machine (I was told never to say adorable because it's apparently kind of offensive. but I really think this is lovely in a non-fluffy kitten kind of way)

3. and a new Earth
This is a little treat. so please watch it if you want to feel nice. by wirrow. lovely.

more than a billion

I had a fantastic day at 6 Billion ways today.
Full of intelligent, enthusiastic and interested people, I wandered the rooms, looked at the book stands, chatted with the other nice and interested and enthusiastic people, drank my tea and felt quite comfortable amongst my peers and academics and activists with things to say about the complicated world in which we live. I made it to three talks all in all, but tended to scamper off before the q&a's... You may call this childish (due to the lack of concentration skills at 26 years) but I find it almost impossible to sit still for more than an hour without a break, or cup of tea, or a wee.
So I cut short all of the talks i made it to.

Democracy now! Revolt in the Arab world was fascinating on many accounts and my favourite talk of the day. This was mainly due to the impassioned speakers, the description of the Egyptian uprising first hand by Gigi Ibrahim and the presentness of the subject matter (although the history of revolution in Tunisia was really bloody interesting). This talk resonated most profoundly for me as I felt it touched on the transitional reverberations that are rumbling (or being made to rumble by some hard and fast foot stamping) across this small planet.
It was inspiring to see lots of young virile human beings coming together to think and brainstorm and discuss issues of globalisation, human rights, democracy and the future of capitalism (all for free). It felt particularly forward thinking due to the prominent role of activists, activism and the power of the internet for all of these elements. The power of people indeed. If only this discussion could be taken out onto the street into open public spaces where 'ordinary' people have the opportunity to take part and engage... Those 'non-political' people who claim not to give a shit. The time is coming. Politics is seeping out on to the streets. And soon, following the disenchantment and outrage spurned by threats on the forests and NHS, people won't be able to distinguish between being political and giving a shit enough to do something about it.

the girl

She picks up her pen and lets it move. The shapes pour out of her mind, into her body and out in a trickle of ink that twists and turns and twists and turns telling stories of beauty and grace and hope and betrayal. She pauses, bringing the pen to her mouth momentarily, breathing in, letting her lungs refuel and her thoughts collect. The pen touches the paper again with such a force the paper prepares itself to tear.
Yet it holds true, soaking up the black liquid, allowing itself to turn its surface into something new, a tattoo of what is yet to come.

She loses herself.
Has it been an hour? A day? A month? How long has she been sat under this spotlight, hunched over her note book, churning out images that pull at her imagination, forcing themselves to take form. She stops and places the pen beside the paper carefully, as if she was nervous of disturbing the drying pictures, heavy with ink. She always pressed too hard when she drew. It is what gave her drawings such intensity I think.

She lets her hand drop to her lap and fumbles about in her back pocket for her tobacco and papers, still focused intently on the images before her. She breaks her gaze to roll a cigarette and rubbing the paper with her stained fingers, brushing her cheek with her hand, leaving a smudge of her creation on her jaw line. Lifting her lighter for her cigarette she catches sight of her hands, pale in the soft surrounding light on the periphery of her desk lamp. She flexes her fingers and holds her hands out, palms down, for an inspection. Flecks of ink spattered across her skin and dark patches shined where she had pressed down on spilled ink that still remained from the previous days work. Her short nails made her hands her own, feminine, light with their touch, still and passive. Insatiable.

She lowers one hand and finds her cigarette with the other. She leans back and smiles, wiping the loose hair from her face, rubbing her eyes, relaxing her smile and letting her head roll to one side. She closes her eyes and sees the images she had just painted dance in front of her.

Her eyes snap back open and she grins quickly, eyes sparkling as she stubs out her cigarette.

There was work to do.

freakonometry

I have recently finished reading 'Freakonomics' by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Which has now also become a documentary film.

It is one of those books I have seen kicking about for a while and I kept thinking that eventually I would get around to picking it up and reading it in a couple of sittings, like Gladwell's the 'Tipping Point' or 'Blink'. And true to my ideas, I found myself in Battersea library with some spare time and a new library card (Which I found painfully exciting... all those free books) and so decided this was the time. A new start at a new university, a new city, a new interest in economics (heightened by our change in government and the stronghold the economy has in determining the realisation of human rights) and so the time had come for this book.

And I have to admit is it extremely interesting- a little bit too neutral at some points, but able to show a side of data collection and analysis which makes me question every statistic that has ever been quoted before me. There are so many barriers and boundaries, so many correlating factors in the universe that attribute to a certain phenomenon, that it is nigh on impossible for a little left-winged student like myself to begin to grasp the ideas encompassed in this book. They did however, make me laugh out loud on the tube, smiling at the very ideas themselves and their blatancy.

It is very USA orientated, and very data heavy (of course) but the two Steve's have a magical way of explaining things without seeming condescending or over complicated, in a natural, lecturer to student kind of dynamic. They ask you to question what you thought you always new, and present you with a new, different way of looking at the links between different things... causality if you will. Which is very relevant in society today. After all, we are spoon fed things to believe in by the ever more conservative main streem media facets every single day. Why not question their angle?

The content you will have to judge for yourself, but the way in which the information is executed is fantastic and readable. The only problem is, I think it has planted a seed of doubt in my already cynical mind as to the nature of data and statistic gathering... so obscure and so dense, I honestly doubt I could see the trees for the woods.

bail ins

brilliant social media networking activism with a big grin and angry shout... tbc

promises promises

A new channel 4 drama was aired this last weekend entitled 'the promise'.

Now, I have seen absolutely massive posters of this show plastered all over the underground, at every station, on every billboard. The picture shows what at first glance appears to be a favella, or bantustan, but is in fact, two villages divided by a wall. And the wall in question is the Israeli Security Fence, or the apartheid wall, depending on which side of the structure you are sat.

The fruition of this programme is very important I feel. And it ties in directly to the process of dehumanization of conflict we see in society today. The documentaries on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that have called to me the most have been those which encapture the human side of the conflict (eg. encounterpoint) and yet, address the fact there there are two sides, both trapped in a cycle.
The drama highlights the fact that these are real human beings, that live in a shared space, that affect one another completely in all aspects of their lives. And with this, the element of history is tied to the conflict with the role of British (which many forget and know very little about).

I am extremely interested to see how the programme develops. I felt there was a distinct lack of Palestinians in the first episode, yet I feel it has the capacity to show the extent of dehumanization of Palestinians and Palestinian Israelis. But we shall see.

Watch it here.

and read and interview with the director Peter Kosminsky here.

ice and fire

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination.

Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

Eleanor Roosevelt