xer-files
Monday, February 28, 2005
Incommunicado
News flows in on the violent attack today in Hilla, Iraq. I wonder why it is called Hilla now; Ziad just told me it is the other, old name for Babel. The impact of this attack makes me think of the attack on the UN in which Sergio de Mello was catastrophically killed. What is this blowing up people in the first place? There's no sense other than chaos and fear. And in the second place this is a suicide attack against queing up jobless people. It is an offence (out of the many) for human intelligence.
Some other news that I am attached to these days comes from Lebanon where developments go fast!
And something stimulating & creative about internet cultures:
Beyond a Politics of Communication Rights
"After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bilateral order, the discourse of human rights has become an important ’placeholder’ for agendas of social change and transformation that are no longer articulated in ’hird worldist’ or ’tricontinentalist’ terms. In the field of communication and information, major NGOs and their network ’campaigns’ have also decided to approach WSIS-related issues by calling for 'new rights' http://www.crisinfo.org, http://www.communicationrights.org. But when info-politics are approached in the general context of a politics of human rights, what happens to the tactical and interventionist perspectives and practices developed by media activists? What is the role of autonomous efforts like ’We Seize’ http://www.geneva03.org in articulating an alternative politics of information? And what can be learned from the demise of the originally third-worldist project of a New World Information and Communication Order, beyond an embrace of the new politics of human rights?"
more on: http://www.incommunicado.info/ ¶ Monday, February 28, 2005 0 Comments
Some other news that I am attached to these days comes from Lebanon where developments go fast!
And something stimulating & creative about internet cultures:
Beyond a Politics of Communication Rights
"After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bilateral order, the discourse of human rights has become an important ’placeholder’ for agendas of social change and transformation that are no longer articulated in ’hird worldist’ or ’tricontinentalist’ terms. In the field of communication and information, major NGOs and their network ’campaigns’ have also decided to approach WSIS-related issues by calling for 'new rights' http://www.crisinfo.org, http://www.communicationrights.org. But when info-politics are approached in the general context of a politics of human rights, what happens to the tactical and interventionist perspectives and practices developed by media activists? What is the role of autonomous efforts like ’We Seize’ http://www.geneva03.org in articulating an alternative politics of information? And what can be learned from the demise of the originally third-worldist project of a New World Information and Communication Order, beyond an embrace of the new politics of human rights?"
more on: http://www.incommunicado.info/ ¶ Monday, February 28, 2005 0 Comments
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Studio Beirut - Partizan Publik.nl
Democratisation in the Middle East has become a central issue in the world security outlook. Social Engineering in the Arab world has become big business, with most actors focussing on the Arab government or activist groups. For given the political situation in the Middle East, where all societies are, too al larger or smaller extend, dominated by (semi) authoritarian regimes, democratisation would mean a progressive political development, and a confrontational policy. This hard headed political road has so far proven to be rather thorny. Democratisation the hard way has yet to wait for obvious successes.
At the same time, democratisation of the Middle East demands some taboos, political and cultural, to be contested. This progressive cultural change can not be expected to be run top down, but should be facilitated bottom-up. This notion on democratisation requires a change in approach. This confrontation cannot be taken to the political route, as most, if not all, regimes in the Middle East have gone a long way over the last few decades to make their governments ‘coup prove’. This confrontation should be sought in a mass-media youth culture, not much unlike what we have witnessed in Serbia (1999), Georgia (2003) and the Ukraine (2004). We should not try to change politics in order to foster cultural change; we should support cultural manifestation in order to force political change.
Partizan Publik is currently involved in the development of the Studio Beirut Project. We seek to develop a public sphere in the centre of the Arab World, a space that enables people to express themselves, give voice to their view. The Studio Beirut Project supports a scene, not an institution. Studio Beirut does not meticulously try to create the right political circumstances for the open society to flourish; the Studio Beirut Project takes it to the heart of Arab Stagnation, to provide urban youth with a platform for expression and self-development.
By way of http://www.partizanpublik.nl/ -> new new new! ¶ Thursday, February 24, 2005 0 Comments
At the same time, democratisation of the Middle East demands some taboos, political and cultural, to be contested. This progressive cultural change can not be expected to be run top down, but should be facilitated bottom-up. This notion on democratisation requires a change in approach. This confrontation cannot be taken to the political route, as most, if not all, regimes in the Middle East have gone a long way over the last few decades to make their governments ‘coup prove’. This confrontation should be sought in a mass-media youth culture, not much unlike what we have witnessed in Serbia (1999), Georgia (2003) and the Ukraine (2004). We should not try to change politics in order to foster cultural change; we should support cultural manifestation in order to force political change.
Partizan Publik is currently involved in the development of the Studio Beirut Project. We seek to develop a public sphere in the centre of the Arab World, a space that enables people to express themselves, give voice to their view. The Studio Beirut Project supports a scene, not an institution. Studio Beirut does not meticulously try to create the right political circumstances for the open society to flourish; the Studio Beirut Project takes it to the heart of Arab Stagnation, to provide urban youth with a platform for expression and self-development.
By way of http://www.partizanpublik.nl/ -> new new new! ¶ Thursday, February 24, 2005 0 Comments
Monday, February 21, 2005
Fear 'n loathing on Earth
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson is dead, has he killed himself?
An audio interview with Thompson ended up in talking about threats against him.
Ear it at:
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/hunter_s_thompson-911.mp3
Christine has her own Hunter S. Thompson site: http://www.gonzo.org/
to ease
"I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach
(Coleridge: The rime of the ancient mariner)
¶ Monday, February 21, 2005 1 Comments
Hunter S. Thompson is dead, has he killed himself?
An audio interview with Thompson ended up in talking about threats against him.
Ear it at:
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/hunter_s_thompson-911.mp3
Christine has her own Hunter S. Thompson site: http://www.gonzo.org/
to ease
"I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach
(Coleridge: The rime of the ancient mariner)
¶ Monday, February 21, 2005 1 Comments
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Being-in-between: inter-esse
Nice to read some inter-esting stuff by Henk Oosterling
"The safety and vitality of the public space probably has more to gain from smashing the capsule. The interest of being interested is unconditional interesse."
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0502/msg00052.html ¶ Sunday, February 20, 2005 0 Comments
"The safety and vitality of the public space probably has more to gain from smashing the capsule. The interest of being interested is unconditional interesse."
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0502/msg00052.html ¶ Sunday, February 20, 2005 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
rah-FEEK' hah-REER'-ee
damnit, feel like i have to write down wise words. for myself at least. but in my head no wisdom, no intelligence, but up to the nerve thoughts sounding like caws of ravens: rah-FEEK' hah-REER'-ee, dzjuliAna sGrEEna, floorA-ns obenAs! the last two being the names of journalists being brave and getting kidnapped by a bunch o' creeps right in the journalistically very black hole bearing the name of Iraq.
yes: i promised myself not to write about Iraq herezo. but how? let me make a quick effort and try again, but now from an environmental & climate perspective, so: kyoto fake agreement leads to air leads to cars leads to oil leads to military complexes leads to warpornpolitics. hahh: we're yet being catapulted straight back inside Iraq. where are people in this picture? are they really thinking in the numbers that they will be saved by the gods?
circle stuff characterizing human race. don't matter their color, hair, beard, skin or beef.
here's to you Giuliana, my thoughts are with you ¶ Wednesday, February 16, 2005 0 Comments
yes: i promised myself not to write about Iraq herezo. but how? let me make a quick effort and try again, but now from an environmental & climate perspective, so: kyoto fake agreement leads to air leads to cars leads to oil leads to military complexes leads to warpornpolitics. hahh: we're yet being catapulted straight back inside Iraq. where are people in this picture? are they really thinking in the numbers that they will be saved by the gods?
circle stuff characterizing human race. don't matter their color, hair, beard, skin or beef.
here's to you Giuliana, my thoughts are with you ¶ Wednesday, February 16, 2005 0 Comments
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Engineers of the soul
Some longer ago
"There is no such thing in America as an independent press, unless it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to writes (sic) his honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid one hundred and fifty dollars a week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with -others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things - and any of you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. The business of the New York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race and his country for his daily bread. You know this and I know it, and what folly is this to be toasting an 'Independent Press'. We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
John Swinton, editor of the New York Tribune, in the 1880s, at a banquet of his fellow editors
Some while ago
" I have the greatest admiration for your propaganda. Propaganda in the West is carried out by experts who have had the best training in the world - in the field of advertizing - and have mastered the techniques with exceptional proficiency ... Yours are subtle and persuasive; ours are crude and obvious ... I think that the fundamental difference between our worlds, with respect to propaganda, is quite simple. You tend to believe yours ... and we tend to disbelieve ours. "
a Soviet correspondent based five years in the U.S
*In a dictatorship, censorship is used; in a democracy, manipulation.*
Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist
Now
For the actual Italian mediapolitical situation I add: “The Italians float in a virtual reality prefabricated by the mediatic regime. If television doesn’t mention a fact or an argument, the people convince themselves that it doesn’t exist, or that it is not important.” ¶ Saturday, February 12, 2005 3 Comments
"There is no such thing in America as an independent press, unless it is in the country towns. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to writes (sic) his honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid one hundred and fifty dollars a week for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with -others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things - and any of you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. The business of the New York journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his race and his country for his daily bread. You know this and I know it, and what folly is this to be toasting an 'Independent Press'. We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping-jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
John Swinton, editor of the New York Tribune, in the 1880s, at a banquet of his fellow editors
Some while ago
" I have the greatest admiration for your propaganda. Propaganda in the West is carried out by experts who have had the best training in the world - in the field of advertizing - and have mastered the techniques with exceptional proficiency ... Yours are subtle and persuasive; ours are crude and obvious ... I think that the fundamental difference between our worlds, with respect to propaganda, is quite simple. You tend to believe yours ... and we tend to disbelieve ours. "
a Soviet correspondent based five years in the U.S
*In a dictatorship, censorship is used; in a democracy, manipulation.*
Ryszard Kapuscinski, journalist
Now
For the actual Italian mediapolitical situation I add: “The Italians float in a virtual reality prefabricated by the mediatic regime. If television doesn’t mention a fact or an argument, the people convince themselves that it doesn’t exist, or that it is not important.” ¶ Saturday, February 12, 2005 3 Comments
Friday, February 11, 2005
BIO-terrorism is not ART, or: my flu and television
Every disadvantage has its advantages (famous statement by Dutch old soccerplayer Johan Cruyff), so because of a fever i didn't go join my happy iraqi-arabix class; instead i watched a documentary on television with the hypothesis about the origins of the HIV-virus in connection to the development of a Polio-vaccin. According to this docu the HIV-virus must have come to existence in contacts between humans and the genetically strong alike chimpanzees, that were infected with the to the HIV connected SIV-virus. The circumstances of that contact are insecure. In conversations with experts 'The origins of Aids' unfolds the hypothesis that the HIV-virus was created by people at the end of the 1950's in Africa, during the developments and experiments with vaccinations of a vaccin against Polio in Africa's Congo, and by an other scientist in Kazachstan and surroundings, involving roughly more than 6million people. Investigative journalist Edward Hooper concluded this in his book The River, which was jeered at on a scientific conference (Royal Society Discussion Meeting) in the year 2000 in London. The question is if the control over one disease created the rise of the other disease?
And another question is: does this story discredit polio-vaccinations?
This all makes me think of: John Le Carre's book: The Constant Gardener
And it makes me wonder where the bird-flu will take us.
What are the big corporate drug companies doing?
I don't feel so well today: i am going to read the Donald Duck! ¶ Friday, February 11, 2005 0 Comments
And another question is: does this story discredit polio-vaccinations?
This all makes me think of: John Le Carre's book: The Constant Gardener
And it makes me wonder where the bird-flu will take us.
What are the big corporate drug companies doing?
I don't feel so well today: i am going to read the Donald Duck! ¶ Friday, February 11, 2005 0 Comments
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
ART IS NO BIOTERRORISM
Tonite, tonite: live program from De Balie in Amsterdam:
http://www.debalie.nl/mmbase/images?30209
+
http://www.debalie.nl/live.jsp#
A live support concert and performance event with Snowcrash (.nl), The Yesmen and Critical Art Ensemble as a support to artist Steven Kurtz and scientist Robert Ferrell, threatened by an unfounded indictment for 'bioterrorism'.
Live online + radio + TV
LIVE registration from the Grote Zaal in De Balie, Amsterdam.
+ live online @: www.Snowcrash.nl + VrijeKeyser.TK + Live.nU
Live TV: SALTO A1 + live radio: De Vrije Keyser FM 89.6 from 20.00 hours until 23.59 uur (CET)
Chat start Realplayer start debalie pop-up player
¶ Wednesday, February 09, 2005 1 Comments
http://www.debalie.nl/mmbase/images?30209
+
http://www.debalie.nl/live.jsp#
A live support concert and performance event with Snowcrash (.nl), The Yesmen and Critical Art Ensemble as a support to artist Steven Kurtz and scientist Robert Ferrell, threatened by an unfounded indictment for 'bioterrorism'.
Live online + radio + TV
LIVE registration from the Grote Zaal in De Balie, Amsterdam.
+ live online @: www.Snowcrash.nl + VrijeKeyser.TK + Live.nU
Live TV: SALTO A1 + live radio: De Vrije Keyser FM 89.6 from 20.00 hours until 23.59 uur (CET)
Chat start Realplayer start debalie pop-up player
¶ Wednesday, February 09, 2005 1 Comments
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
XER - Files
No, i don't have an idea what this will be. Maybe this will be the first post ever, since the passwordstuff is really starting to annoy me. For the moment i am just playing and searching for some twinckling humor cuz' too many wars, and narrowing *space* urgently demand for a search of positive creative thought and so I wondered what some of the peoples below do, think and head for nowadays:
COMIC STRIP & CHANGES
Comic strip before the elections - in the course of the decisive election campaign, in the year 2000, the initiative named "It's time!" aimed at motivating young people to vote, tried to attract the attention of the so-called youth and explain social situation to them through several comic strip forms.
http://www.cyberrex.org/comics.htm
http://www.crsn.com/striper/
http://www.cfront.org/cf00/links.html
I'll be definitely hangin' out on stripers' site for a while (:no work today:)
¶ Tuesday, February 08, 2005 0 Comments
COMIC STRIP & CHANGES
Comic strip before the elections - in the course of the decisive election campaign, in the year 2000, the initiative named "It's time!" aimed at motivating young people to vote, tried to attract the attention of the so-called youth and explain social situation to them through several comic strip forms.
http://www.cyberrex.org/comics.htm
http://www.crsn.com/striper/
http://www.cfront.org/cf00/links.html
I'll be definitely hangin' out on stripers' site for a while (:no work today:)
¶ Tuesday, February 08, 2005 0 Comments
