civil_rights

"For hours after the attack on Taksim the whole neighborhood looked like a warzone. Police charging everywhere. Teargas everywhere. The black block anarchists were fighting back. Citizens who didn’t even know what the IMF was got trapped in between. In clouds of teargas. Horrible sightings. Horrible." - Battal: Resistanbul 06 10 09

Recently I have been re-earthing myself. I have had a few personal revelations which have given me much to think about. It has a lot to do with a recent death in the family, which I will not share in great detail on here if that's ok with you. These revelations are not religious at all, I have never been one for such things, but I do know that one is able to possess as much and perhaps more, spiritual wealth, connecting to one's and other people's inner depths without the aid of 'organised' mono-cultural cults or religion; for me this feels like a more authentic form of human expansion.

recently i posted about an internet blackout protest against section 92a, a proposed nz law that would have forced ISPs to take down a web site on accusation of copyright infringment, no proof required. this week, the nz government scrapped it - following organised protest & lack of industry support.

On WIKI as Art On Valentine's Day 2009, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern launched the Wikipedia art page, which resonated with the history of media art, authorship, and media formalism on many levels. Has this particular piece updated Beuys' admonition of the openness of art? Not only that, does art based on open Web 2.0 standards like the Wiki define art that is a palimpsest by definition? What is interesting yet disturbing about this is not only the obliteration of discrete authorship, but the total indeterminacy of intellectual ownership whatsoever.

i've just received my second tresspass order. i wish i could say it was for my daring political activism (i did trespass on the waihopai spy base back in the late 80s but i got away with that, & i'm sure i've crossed the line many other times) but sadly, these trespass orders are being served on me by the owner of the house next door to mine in wellington.

i am not sure what to do with all the photos from tibet that i am receiving. tanks and soldiers on the streets, dead bodies, monks protesting. one that appears to be chinese soldiers preparing to dress as monks: their heads are shaven and they are carrying orange and maroon robes folded neatly in their arms. what is that about? what might they do disguised as monks? in another, a white woman holds a sign that reads "China, would you shoot me too? The world is watching."

i'm in sydney this week with my grandmother, and this morning we got up early to watch The Apology broadcast live on TV.

Been enjoying Karen Blisset's recent image posts to the Netbehaviour mailing list. Here's a snapshot from today's topical image sequence.

a couple of months ago, the howard government in australia declared a state of emergency in northern territory aboriginal communities, claiming that widespread child abuse required nothing short of massive state intervention - including confiscation of land - to ensure the safety of aboriginal children. this is the same government that, since its election in 1996, has been steadily eroding state assistance to these remote indigenous communities, including passing an amendment to the aboriginal land rights (northern territory) act last year which explicitly states that "The principal objectives are to improve access to Aboriginal land for development, especially mining".

Calls for support have been circulating around various related mailing lists for several weeks now, and I hope that many, many people will sign the online petitions calling for the suspension of §129a proceedings and the release of those imprisoned in Germany: open letter The charges against Andrej H. are especially outrageous and clearly pose a threat to the freedom of academic research and political engagement, and a wave of protests has responded accordingly. I wholeheartedly support these efforts on the basis of my own political convictions, but also for personal reasons.