palestinian film festival and an american radical.

i look forward to the upcoming palestinian film festival in london starting on the 29th april for two weeks at the barbican, featuring the london premiere (although i think it has been screened previously in the uk) of american radical: the trials of norman finkelstein which has received many accolades already from various film festivals.

for the incredibly lazy, here is a trailer. hopefully it will be as insightful as it looks - finkelstein is a complex and misunderstood character at the best of times.

Some thoughts on the Tunisia/Egypt protests and Political Islam

Fear is growing in the international community that Tunisia’s Velvet Revolution and the wave of protests in Egypt will signal the beginnings of post-Iranian Revolution-style Islamic states. An article in the Telegraph echoed many of these fears, “in Egypt, as in many other Arab countries controlled by autocratic governments, Islamic militants are waiting to exploit any opportunity that comes their way”. Italy’s Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, during a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday, offered a more positive analysis by stating that "I am sure Egyptians will be in a position to choose democracy and civil rights, not extremism, not radicalism”, but the undercurrent of his argument still remains, one that views the world as being consumed in a battle between the East and the West, with the West representing the ideals of freedom, human rights and democracy and the East by radicalism, theocracy and oppression.

However, these arguments offer no insight in to why Political Islam has gained in significance in the Arab world, particularly since the death of Nasser in 1970, and with him the vision of Pan-Arabism. It is as though Islamism, to these commentators and politicians, is an ever-present part of Arabic society. Fitting in with the perception of the Muslim “other”, of whom, the will to destroy the West is a natural urge, to establish a world-wide Caliphate and impose Sharia law, with the beheadings, stonings and female-oppression that comes with it. It also presumes an essentialist understanding of Muslims, one in which many millions of people can be classified by their religion rather than viewed as a diverse and heterogeneous mix of people - teachers, shopkeepers, oil magnates, Imams, atheists, Shiia, Sunni, rich and poor, conservative and liberal - these are all simply Muslims.

It is with this view, then, that America should protect the “stability” of the region, as Hilary Clinton stated, having a pro-US dictatorship is preferable to a democratic regime that may threaten American cultural, political and economic hegemony, not to mention the all-pervasive idea that Islam poses a threat to the very foundations of Western democracy.

Hardly surprising, then, after decades of living under US funded dictatorships, some of 1.5 billion Muslims in the world turn to Political Islam. With political opposition to Mubarak heavily suppressed, subjugated and susceptible to mass arrests, thus effectively blocking any coherent form of resistance to the regime, the Muslim Brotherhood, with its history of grassroots action, including provision of education (both religious and academic), healthcare, community groups and vast network of social services, has become the dominant opposition. This is mirrored not only by the growth in support for Hamas in the Occupied Territory (providing the same kind of social welfare and offering the alternative to the corruption and nepotism of the Fatah and the Palestinian Authority), but also the activities of left-wing groups operating in Latin America, such as the Zapatistas in Mexico and the MST in Brazil.

The reactions of these groups also stem from the same ideas; opposition to American dominance, not only politically (providing billions of pounds in aid to despotic tyrants and corrupt regimes) but also culturally and economically (the ever-present Hollywood blockbuster and cans of coca-cola spring to mind). It comes from the need for change, to break free from the dominance of America and its cultural imperialism. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and rest of the World the elites prosper from the toil of the workers, whether that be the landowners and the landless peasants of the Middle East and Latin America, or the multinational corporations and the alienated workers of the West.

Whilst not wishing to defend the regime in Iran and organisations such as Hamas, one must understand the actions of the popular movements that gave rise to these powers. These are the actions of a people pushed to the edge, left without hope. Many forget that the Revolution that brought Khomeini to power was a mass protest against the American-backed Shah, a movement whose primary ideology was as much the Socialism of Ali Shariati as the Islam of the Ayatollah.

To further the comparison with the Iranian Revolution, Michael Foucault stated at the time that, "the problem of Islam as a political force is an essential one for our time and for the years to come, and we cannot approach it with a modicum of intelligence if we start out from a position of hatred”. By outlawing Islamic parties, propping up autocratic regimes and promoting the view of the Muslim “other”, you are not dealing with the problem of Political Islam, you add fuel to an already well-stoked fire. If the international community does not allow for democracy, then the Egyptian people will once more be forced in to the grip of the radical Islamists. You cannot simply deny the wishes of 80 million Egyptians by calling for a gradual shift to democracy under Mubarak - a tyrannical government with a liberal makeover - you must allow for genuine self-determination - even if that forgoes regional “stability” - universal human rights, not the partial granting of rights under Mubarak, and economic freedom, not US hegemony.

The arrogance of the Western elites is astounding, the presumption is of the primacy of Liberalism and the view of the Muslim “other” - those who cannot be trusted to govern themselves. Just as in Gaza in 2006 with Hamas’s election victory, a victory that neither the US nor the EU would acknowledge despite international observers, including former US president Jimmy Carter, deeming it free and fair, the international community perceives democracy to be a privilege, one that is given when the right candidate is victorious. This issue cannot be broken down in to a fight between autocracy and theocracy, or even democracy and theocracy; it is in fact the struggle between arrogance and self-determination.

John

operation phoenix records

someone's just linked me to the operation phoenix records site, which looks incredible. a punk zine archive containing scanned back issues reproduced (with permission!) from legendary zines like (my personal favourite) HeartattaCk to Profane Existence and maximumrockandroll for your perusal. the sections from each zine are scanned separately which might be a slight inconvenience to download - but it makes it surprisingly easier to read. i can't wait to get stuck in.

the 'underground discography' section looks like it could be awesome, too. i think the aim is for user generated content - the records are there for you to review (but not, i should add, to listen to). there are thousands up there already, a bit of snooping tells me that there are 30,000 to put up in total. THIRTY THOUSAND. although i'm certainly not going to count the ones that are up. they're sorted chronologically, alphabetically and by label and there's a total mix of hardcore, punk, emo, screamo and indie (the good kinds, on the whole).

once they've added more content on (although there is a deceivingly high amount on there, already) it would be pretty cool if they added more flyers from the 'good ol' days' of emo'. i'm thinking along the lines of blogs like beyond failure that features 'musical nostalgia'. i hate that phrase. things will never be as good as it (apparently) was back then though, right?

budrus

i have just returned from seeing budrus, and was completely blown away.

a fantastic documentary that is as humorous as it is depressing highlighting non-violent struggle in the occupied palestinian territories from the perspective of villagers being affected by the construction of the wall. it shows the positive role of women in the non-violent struggle. it features oft-ignored reconciliation attempts between hamas and fatah on a local level along with a subtle questioning of leadership of such movements.


the trailer (and more information) is available here.

al jazeera's riz khan fronts a documentary on the documentary (meta documentary?) that is available here.

for those not feeling persuaded, look it up on rotten tomatoes and budrus.

leeds zine fair!

on saturday 13th november 2010, footprint will be celebrating their tenth birthday with an extravaganza of a day: the leeds zine fair from 11-5 in the ARC at leeds university union (facebook event).

then, the common place will host a more raucous party to mark the occasion, with lots of music and games, which will cost £3 if you're a member (facebook link).

there are other events too, such as a treeplanting weekend happening this weekend - see the footprint website for more details.

who are footprint? footprint are a workers co-operative based in chapeltown, leeds. your favourite uk zines were probably printed by them. they are the top choice for zinesters concerned about ethics/the environment/quality, and they do it for as cheap as they can. seriously, fantastic co-operative.

http://www.footprinters.co.uk/

upcoming film events

really excited about a couple of upcoming film events.

firstly, in sheffield, we have doc/fest - a celebration of international documentary making. there are absolutely tonnes of films to choose from. i'm personally excited about fragments of a lost palestine. it's running from the 3-7th november in sheffield, although i'd ring up the showroom and book tickets direct as i had a bit of bad luck with trying to book online.

next up, we have the world famous leeds international film festival, in it's 24th year. it's always a treat and they have approximately a million films showing this year. my highlighted schedule (available in a physical format at the hyde park picture house amongst others includes:

- son of babylon;
- the robber;
- face the wall;
- the international shorts competition 1;
- the painting sellers;
- kitchen stories;
- article 12;
- best of british uk shorts competition;
- welcome to north korea;
- round trip and the iranian diaspora;
- AND the remastered and 25 minutes longer metropolis!

additionally: i would have liked to see the palestine voices event featuring 'to shoot an elephant' which is happening (for FREE) on the 11th November at the leeds town hall. additionally, the thought bubble event and day of the dead/night of the dead i'm sure will be fantastic.

the leeds international film festival starts on the 4th november and continues until the 21st.


finally, in bradford, we have the film bodrus showing at the cubby broccoli cinema at the national media museum in bradford - the trailer looks incredible. they're also screening the leopard which i HAVE seen, so can confirm that it IS fantastic. it's beautiful and the colours are lovely.

i think that's enough superlatives for one post.

start again!

i procured a new laptop months ago, and will start updating this again - albeit infrequently. yes.

break.

so, i haven't been updating this as frequently as i would like to. the reason for this is that i am currently laptop-less, which makes it surprisingly difficult to upkeep any sort of blog. bobbins.

baa back down (?) on heathrow expansion

the times report that baa have decided against submitting an application to build a third runway and sixth terminal and heathrow.

so, baa (the british airports authority, who own and run several (but not all!) uk airports and run naples airport) have decided against putting an application in to expand heathrow before the next election, and will not fight a tory government over the issue, should they come into power.

as with any surprise news relating to climate change (see: kingsnorth earlier this week), the following responses were experienced:

-> "AWESOME!";
-> "oh hang on, i must be missing something...";
-> "oh, what are other people saying about this?";
-> "okay, that's not as great as i first thought, but on the plus side...".

so, let's start from the beginning.


"AWESOME!"
GREAT NEWS! so baa are finally listening to what residents, local businesses, scientists and activists are saying! it's unnecessary, unwanted, will contribute to climate change and will ruin the surrounding area further.

"oh hang on, i must be missing something..."
wait. why mention the tories? what the times has actually reported is that baa told the tory party conference that they won't bully them into accepting it. the tories have held a strong, disapproving stance on heathrow expansion, but if they win by a landslide in the next election, there is no guarantee that they will not back down to the aviation lobby, just like the labour government did despite fervent opposition even within the party. there has been no indication of what could happen should labour remain in government (most likely, nothing, considering their fast track approval of expansion earlier this year). so why are baa doing this? in all likelihood, it probably means very little and they are just trying to keep the tories sweet to make likely further (possibly more controversial, who knows?) proposals easier to get approval for.

"oh, what are other people saying about this?"
there's currently very little available about this on the internet right now. thisislocallondon state geraldine nicholson from notrag (no third runway action group) as suggesting that the willingness of baa to back down show that there is no 'compelling case' for a third runway. this may be true, but even the notrag website's piece on it states that baa have asked the tories not to completely write off plans for expansion at heathrow.

"okay, that's not as great as i first thought, but on the plus side..."
so, whilst it might not be what we were hoping for (a definite decision not to go ahead with third runway plans), we should be wary of baa's motives in terms of keeping the tories happy, particularly considering their willingness to look into a new airport in the thames estuary instead of expanding the current sites in london.

ultimately, any delay of a project like the third runway at heathrow is a welcome one, the more delays occur the higher the chances of it being completely written off. with the guardian reporting this week that british airways will cut 1,700 jobs from heathrow alone, and with the bbc reporting that baa is looking into shutting its glasgow airport for several weeks during the winter as part of new cost-cutting measures, you do have to wonder whether there even exists such a demand for airport expansion.

meanwood valley urban farm

dropping a 70ft banner off niagra falls!

this photograph is insane!

activists dropped a SEVENTY FOOT banner off an observation deck at niagra falls to highlight that not changing the current policy on destructive tar sands is a backwards move for the us and canadian governments. such a ballsy action!

click here for the full article on the 'it's getting hot in here' site.

bp, shell and museums. you are in imminent danger of being misguided.

did you know that bp is a 'diamond level' corporate member (the highest available) of the natural history museum, and is a 'patron' of the science museum (as well as being 'global partners' of the british museum)?

did you know that shell is also a 'diamond level' corporate member of the nhm?

there are a dozen other controversial companies that can be found on lists available from museum websites, but i want to talk about bp and shell (big surprise there, then). i'm singling out the natural history and science museums just because i happened to visit yesterday with a housemate and we visited two exhibitions that just didn't sit well with us. of course, they were loosely themed around climate change, energy, and the environment.

the natural history museum's display is entitled 'earth today and tomorrow'. it was advertised as being 'sobering food for thought', but it was so far from this. with the global film premiere of the age of stupid in a few weeks, i was (naively!) expecting something more like that film, with more (ahem) dramatic imagery of how global warming has affected the world so far. what i found was a confused exhibition. there were a few great things there, such as the information on how co-operative, community work can be an effective solution, but a few clangers were dropped, such as a screen with information on car oil's impact on the environment stating that: 'carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are believed to be responsible for changes to the global climate that could lead to a significant rises in temperature' co2 and other gases might contribute to something called climate change? what age are we even living in? absolutely ridiculous. this just confused the message of the exhibition: reduce the amount of rubbish you use, rethink your choices, but not about car oil, because suddenly when we talk about oil climate change might not be real! oh, did i mention that the bp were mentioned at the end of the exhibition as having contributed? additionally, the website states clearly that co2 and other greenhouse gases cause global warming, and encourages individuals to walk or take public transport. bizarre!

moving on: the science museum. oh, the science museum. this shell-sponsored exhibition nearly had me in tears. i couldn't believe what i was seeing. i'd heard about it, but not until i was there experiencing it myself could i really understand. the object of my incredulity was the energy game - 'world energy - you're in charge!'. this game simulates the role of an energy minister, in a fictional country. with a growing population and the need for energy increasing at a phenomenal rate, you must decide which energy source is best, and implement it. i was genuinely shocked to see my ratings drop instantly when i installed a wind power farm in the sea, and nearly lost the game because the population revolted against my decision. similar problems arose when using other, greener, sources of energy to replace coal and nuclear power.

now, you could accuse me of presuming that this game would be accurate and that everyone holds the same views as me, so that is how it should be represented. there are a plethora of sources on the internet that suggest that wind farms are becoming more popular (seriously, google it), but the idea that green sources of energy are still optional and not mandatory really surprises me. the game was quite clearly trying to suggest that implementing greener sources of energy are a nice idea, but not feasible. such outdated opinions have no place in an educational place such as a museum, but companies such as shell are clearly using these places as an opportunity to spread propaganda, which contravenes the purpose of a museum. stating such beliefs as facts to be learnt is nothing short of dangerous, and damaging to future education.

having worked in a (much smaller) museum briefly, i do understand that benefactors of the museum have some sort of input into what goes into the museum, but i wasn't aware of how much they can affect the content of the information put on display for the public. if there is anything debatable, say that there is room for debate. provide resources, links, encouragement for further research, but bp and shell's involvement takes away any sort of impartiality, and legitimate educational authority that museums (certainly for me, anyway!) once held.

as we left the science museum, we had all agreed that the exhibitions were fundamentally misguided. not to educate to the public the changing environment around us, but instead the sort of greenwash that you'd expect to hear from top politicians (and not museums that, as a child, were definitely a top educational source). climate change may or may not be occurring (SERIOUSLY, ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS?), but it's okay, because bp and shell are on it with their new (aggressive, controversial) biofuels. so relax kids, don't worry! everything will be fine.


post script - amongst all of this moaning, the dinosaurs were really great to see again. the tuojiangosaurus (phonetically: two-wang-oh-sore-us) became a new favourite. and love was rekindled for the good old deinocheirus, better known as terrible hand.



terrible hand.

anger. hostility towards the opposition.

i really enjoyed this video clip of noah levine talking about anger, despite the fact that i didn't think i was going to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMqnYLtEPug

climate camp vows to strike again

this photo (not taken by me, hence the link) accompanied this press release on the climate camp website, absolutely brilliant.

academic failure(?) II

i thought that i should mention on this blog that even writing it is having a positive effect on me. our current toilet literature includes the recent guardian weekend supplement on happiness and how to attain it, revealing what most people know, that being positive perpetuates further positivity. i've noticed a trend whereby most pieces on how to be happy include this idea -  in order to achieve happiness, you have to be happy. it's an old truism often repeated, but they never tell you how exactly you're supposed to be happy in the first place. surely pretending to be happy won't yeild any sort of worthwhile, permanent happiness?

now, to get off this sidetrack. i think i've started to be a bit more posi and writing a little more (even though i don't post a lot of it on here, i'm still writing). anyway, if i weren't thinking positively and trying to get things done, then i wouldn't have applied to do a course that i didn't think that i had a hope in hell of getting in to. i spent hours laboriously editing my application, 'does this make me come across as a hippy? does this sound pretentious? am i wasting my time?'. time will tell in terms of the last question, but i actually got in (!). now, in the right (positive) frame of mind, i would apply for anything that i was eligible to apply for. what really made a difference to me was that the application showed that other people had faith in me. two tutors, that know me, were willing to vouch for my me, despite my lacklustre performance in this year's modules. the admissions department actually wanted to give me a chance. i'm really looking forward to all aspects of my course. furthermore, i had an interview for a position recently that i would love the opportunity to prove myself in. i'm trying to create opportunities, which is something that i wouldn't have done if i wasn't in a positive frame of mind.

dear barcelona...

... i was going through my photographs taken just after christmas, please could you explain this photograph to me?

skarinou, cyprus

wish i'd gone to cyprus this year.

delivering fish and chips to vestas

getting food into vestas video

i love this video. a women who is slightly, shall we say, not your typical activist, decides that she is going to deliver fish and chips to the vestas workers personally, despite security. i found it incredibly poignant because she gets to the core of why the vestas workers were there in the first place: "we can't have bullies like that telling us what to do!". she may have over simplified the issue, but ultimately, i just love the sentiment. everyone could benefit from time to time to just look at things in its most simple form; similar to the ockham's razor principle- the simplest explanation is the most preferable.

save vestas blog

charles bukowski's nobody but you

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put up again and again
into nearly impossible
situations
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don't, don't, don't
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you're worth saving.
it's a war not easily won.
but if anything's worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving yourself.
your spiritual self.
your gut self.
your singing magical self and
your beautiful self.
save it.
don't join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self
with humor and grace
and finally
if necessary
wager your life as you struggle
damn the odds, damn
the price.

only you can save your
self

do it! do it!

then you'll know exactly what

i am talking about.

this year's adventures, so far.

hi, i'd really like to go on another adventure again soon please. preferably somewhere like here (kilburn, northy yorkshire):






or here (coniston, the lakes):






or here (malvern):