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Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
marriage equality in all states
right after the vote in NY, i was motivated to create a little celebration logo -- last night, i went ahead and made one for each state. here's the contact:
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click to enlarge
congratulations, NY
i stayed up to watch the vote in NY last night (it was overnight for me). it was good to watch. congratulations.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
democracy in action
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image ©2011 helen sotiriadis
more of my images from syntagma square
this was another very good article in the guardian last week about the protests in greece and the democratic discourse springing from them... more thanks to julia baracco for forwarding the link to me.
snip
'thousands of people come together daily in syntagma to discuss the next steps. the parallels with the classical athenian agora, which met a few hundred metres away, are striking. aspiring speakers are given a number and called to the platform if that number is drawn, a reminder that many office-holders in classical athens were selected by lots. the speakers stick to strict two-minute slots to allow as many as possible to contribute. the assembly is efficiently run without the usual heckling of public speaking. the topics range from organisational matters to new types of resistance and international solidarity, to alternatives to the catastrophically unjust measures. no issue is beyond proposal and disputation. in well-organised weekly debates, invited economists, lawyers and political philosophers present alternatives for tackling the crisis.
this is democracy in action. the views of the unemployed and the university professor are given equal time, discussed with equal vigour and put to the vote for adoption. the outraged have reclaimed the square from commercial activities and transformed it into a real space of public interaction. the usual late-evening tv viewing time has instead become a time for being with others and discussing the common good. if democracy is the power of the "demos", in other words the rule of those who have no particular qualification for ruling, whether of wealth, power or knowledge, this is the closest we have come to democratic practice in recent european history.'
/snip
democracy vs mythology by sturdyblog... and a rant
this is the one of the best posts i've read so far on the crisis in greece -- and it concerns you (thanks, julia, for the link).
no, really. if you're at all interested in our common experience, please read it. after you're finished, come back.
i wasn't very happy with this:
'i did not see a pair of sunglasses not emblazoned with diesel or prada. i did not see a pair of flip-flops not bearing the logo of versace or d&g. the cars around me were predominantly mercedes and bmws. if anyone took a holiday anywhere closer than thailand, they kept it a secret. there was an incredible lack of common sense and no warning that this spring of wealth may not be inexhaustible. we became a nation sleepwalking toward the deep end of our newly-built, italian-tiled swimming pool without a care that at some point our toes may not be able to touch the bottom.'
well, that's true of a lot of people, and also not true for a lot of people. i'm sick of people saying how badly greeks are behaving.
take me, for instance...
take a look at my cheapo sunglasses and my supermarket flip-flops. i spend less than 100€ per year on clothing -- and travel only if i can find a way to do it very cheaply. i don't pay regular sums to addictions, consumable or otherwise. one loan was repaid only after moving to a smaller apartment to make up the difference in rent. yes, i don't own my home. i've balanced every single credit card payment at the end of every single month, in full. my taxes are withheld by each client, as i free-lance, and i must pay for our social/health insurance whether i'm working or not. and it's a hefty sum. and work's scarce. i've been working since i was 15 and i'll (maybe) retire when i'm 65, if i'm lucky. my only true luxury is my camera gear, which has taken me through 4 years of creative pleasure, a passion making up for almost anything else i've selected to not pursue.
i do without a lot, but i'm ok with that... others do without a lot more. i know many people who live responsibly and work very, very hard (lunch hour? what's a lunch hour?). these are the people who are being told they must rescue everyone else.
so no, we're not lounging beside swimming pools, dining on nectar and ambrosia, with gold utensils. we're working as much as we're able, trying to live life. just like you. the media, especially the greek media, are trying to convince us that we're saving ourselves... but we know better.
no, really. if you're at all interested in our common experience, please read it. after you're finished, come back.
i wasn't very happy with this:
'i did not see a pair of sunglasses not emblazoned with diesel or prada. i did not see a pair of flip-flops not bearing the logo of versace or d&g. the cars around me were predominantly mercedes and bmws. if anyone took a holiday anywhere closer than thailand, they kept it a secret. there was an incredible lack of common sense and no warning that this spring of wealth may not be inexhaustible. we became a nation sleepwalking toward the deep end of our newly-built, italian-tiled swimming pool without a care that at some point our toes may not be able to touch the bottom.'
well, that's true of a lot of people, and also not true for a lot of people. i'm sick of people saying how badly greeks are behaving.
take me, for instance...
take a look at my cheapo sunglasses and my supermarket flip-flops. i spend less than 100€ per year on clothing -- and travel only if i can find a way to do it very cheaply. i don't pay regular sums to addictions, consumable or otherwise. one loan was repaid only after moving to a smaller apartment to make up the difference in rent. yes, i don't own my home. i've balanced every single credit card payment at the end of every single month, in full. my taxes are withheld by each client, as i free-lance, and i must pay for our social/health insurance whether i'm working or not. and it's a hefty sum. and work's scarce. i've been working since i was 15 and i'll (maybe) retire when i'm 65, if i'm lucky. my only true luxury is my camera gear, which has taken me through 4 years of creative pleasure, a passion making up for almost anything else i've selected to not pursue.
i do without a lot, but i'm ok with that... others do without a lot more. i know many people who live responsibly and work very, very hard (lunch hour? what's a lunch hour?). these are the people who are being told they must rescue everyone else.
so no, we're not lounging beside swimming pools, dining on nectar and ambrosia, with gold utensils. we're working as much as we're able, trying to live life. just like you. the media, especially the greek media, are trying to convince us that we're saving ourselves... but we know better.
jon stewart's grecian burn disappoints too... but still kinda funny.
comic mind's eye images of the elderly shooting yogurt bombs not withstanding, jon stewart could've been waaaaaaaaaaaay funnier if he got his facts straight.
retirement at 53? 6 weeks vacation??
i love you jon, but i kick myself when i don't fact-check... do you?
still, he's right about some things being better than they are in the u.s... that's what you get when a large part of your population is lulled and/or bribed into a deep sleep.
last but not least, i would have preferred images of a months' worth of peaceful protests (like... i don't know... mine?) than a short outbreak of violence, placed with surgical precision i might add, as is systematically projected by the media... (like... i don't know... boston.com?).
afterthought: blaming the wider population of working people -- who are being ordered to shut up and fix it -- for the failings of a credit/speculation system supported by corrupt politicians, ruthless businesses and their grand larceny and scandals, is the lazy way out.
oh... and....
i get these over the interwebs, and this just popped up, as they do in reverse order, somehow.
retirement at 53? 6 weeks vacation??
i love you jon, but i kick myself when i don't fact-check... do you?
still, he's right about some things being better than they are in the u.s... that's what you get when a large part of your population is lulled and/or bribed into a deep sleep.
last but not least, i would have preferred images of a months' worth of peaceful protests (like... i don't know... mine?) than a short outbreak of violence, placed with surgical precision i might add, as is systematically projected by the media... (like... i don't know... boston.com?).
afterthought: blaming the wider population of working people -- who are being ordered to shut up and fix it -- for the failings of a credit/speculation system supported by corrupt politicians, ruthless businesses and their grand larceny and scandals, is the lazy way out.
oh... and....
i get these over the interwebs, and this just popped up, as they do in reverse order, somehow.
johann hari: it's not just dominique strauss-kahn. the IMF itself should be on trial
at the independent:
snip
so when in 2001 the imf found out the malawian government had built up large stockpiles of grain in case there was a crop failure, they ordered them to sell it off to private companies at once. they told malawi to get their priorities straight by using the proceeds to pay off a loan from a large bank the imf had told them to take out in the first place, at a 56 per cent annual rate of interest. the malawian president protested and said this was dangerous. but he had little choice. the grain was sold. the banks were paid.
the next year, the crops failed. the malawian government had almost nothing to hand out. the starving population was reduced to eating the bark off the trees, and any rats they could capture. the bbc described it as malawi’s “worst ever famine.” there had been a much worse crop failure in 1991-2, but there was no famine because then the government had grain stocks to distribute. so at least a thousand innocent people starved to death.
at the height of the starvation, the imf suspended $47m in aid, because the government had ‘slowed’ in implementing the marketeering ‘reforms’ that had led to the disaster. actionaid, the leading provider of help on the ground, conducted an autopsy into the famine. they concluded that the imf “bears responsibility for the disaster.”
then, in the starved wreckage, malawi did something poor countries are not supposed to do. they told the imf to get out. suddenly free to answer to their own people rather than foreign bankers, malawi disregarded all the imf’s ‘advice’, and brought back subsidies for the fertiliser, along with a range of other services to ordinary people. within two years, the country was transformed from being a beggar to being so abundant they were supplying food aid to uganda and zimbabwe.
the malawian famine should have been a distant warning cry for you and me. subordinating the interests of ordinary people to bankers and speculators caused starvation there. within a few years, it had crashed the global economy for us all.
/snip
via bOINGbOING
snip
so when in 2001 the imf found out the malawian government had built up large stockpiles of grain in case there was a crop failure, they ordered them to sell it off to private companies at once. they told malawi to get their priorities straight by using the proceeds to pay off a loan from a large bank the imf had told them to take out in the first place, at a 56 per cent annual rate of interest. the malawian president protested and said this was dangerous. but he had little choice. the grain was sold. the banks were paid.
the next year, the crops failed. the malawian government had almost nothing to hand out. the starving population was reduced to eating the bark off the trees, and any rats they could capture. the bbc described it as malawi’s “worst ever famine.” there had been a much worse crop failure in 1991-2, but there was no famine because then the government had grain stocks to distribute. so at least a thousand innocent people starved to death.
at the height of the starvation, the imf suspended $47m in aid, because the government had ‘slowed’ in implementing the marketeering ‘reforms’ that had led to the disaster. actionaid, the leading provider of help on the ground, conducted an autopsy into the famine. they concluded that the imf “bears responsibility for the disaster.”
then, in the starved wreckage, malawi did something poor countries are not supposed to do. they told the imf to get out. suddenly free to answer to their own people rather than foreign bankers, malawi disregarded all the imf’s ‘advice’, and brought back subsidies for the fertiliser, along with a range of other services to ordinary people. within two years, the country was transformed from being a beggar to being so abundant they were supplying food aid to uganda and zimbabwe.
the malawian famine should have been a distant warning cry for you and me. subordinating the interests of ordinary people to bankers and speculators caused starvation there. within a few years, it had crashed the global economy for us all.
/snip
via bOINGbOING
live streaming
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a long exposure of record numbers of protesters arrive at syntagma square metro station on sunday, june 5th.
please see more images at my greek revolution set or slideshow
©2011 helen sotiriadis
syntagma, athens, greece, june 5th, 2011
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protestkeh.
more images from the greek revolution.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
slipstream
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or, πάντα ρέι· ουδέν μένει.
leaving syntagma square, athens, greece, on sunday, june 5th, 2011, the 12th day of protest. i went early and left early. it was so crowded -- a sea of people, as it's being described -- i felt overwhelmed.
i don't care if you're right -- i don't care if you're left.
i don't care if you cooked your taxes.
i don't care if you voted for the inept and the greedy
to get a job -- for your daughter, your lover, yourself.
i don't care about your small-time corruption.
i don't care what you did to survive.
it's nothing compared to what they've taken from you.
the guilt you feel about your transgressions
is part of the plan
to make you feel afraid,
to stop you from doing what's right.
i don't care if you have the perfect solution
or if you have one at all
as long as you have your priorities straight.
voting's not enough. not voting's not enough.
make yourself seen, make yourself heard.
more of my images from syntagma, perpetually updated.
the image is evidence of master thomas hawk's influence rippling through cyberspace.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
battlestar syntagmatica
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i shot this leaving the protest at syntagma square on june 1st 2011. imagery from the protests, here.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
syntagma square, athens, may 28th, 2011: a show of hands.
click!
i went to syntagma square again on saturday evening and shot some more.
please view the entire set:
set | slideshow
my previous shoot was on may 25th.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
mayday, m'aider
here... have a flower:
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for me, the first of may is two things: a day to celebrate spring, and a day to celebrate international worker's day.
americans tend to honor the working people on a september day off, and not on the anniversary of the haymarket massacre in chicago, the historic rally for the 8-hour workday. how clever, to remove it from its original context and meaning.
people with sleek lives and cool apps tend to tell me that celebrating workers' rights is antiquated. yet... who works 8 hours now? if we're lucky to work at all, we accept any terms, and enthusiastically blaze our trail to certain burnout.
still, from tahir square, to athens, to wisconsin, increasing numbers gather courage for the renewed struggle against corporate greed, as humanity metamorphoses to a curiouser existence.
it's a good day to celebrate spring, and it's a good day to read chris hedges' the corporate state wins again, which begins,
'when did our democracy die? when did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? when did the press, labor, universities and the democratic party—which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible—wither and atrophy? when did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? when did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?'
finishes with
'the game is over. we lost. the corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. most americans will struggle to make a living while the blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the forbidden city and versailles. these elites do not have a vision. they know only one word—more.
they will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. and they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. we will have to take care of ourselves. we will have to create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. it will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and culture values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. it is either that or become drones and serfs in a global, corporate dystopia. it is not much of a choice. but at least we still have one.'
with a great deal in between.
for this image, i used two textures:
paint by numbers by dog ma
texture 129 ttv by nasos3
thanks to both for their lovely work.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
... and check out my reworked website...
like it? click it!
view in the dark
for me, the first of may is two things: a day to celebrate spring, and a day to celebrate international worker's day.
americans tend to honor the working people on a september day off, and not on the anniversary of the haymarket massacre in chicago, the historic rally for the 8-hour workday. how clever, to remove it from its original context and meaning.
people with sleek lives and cool apps tend to tell me that celebrating workers' rights is antiquated. yet... who works 8 hours now? if we're lucky to work at all, we accept any terms, and enthusiastically blaze our trail to certain burnout.
still, from tahir square, to athens, to wisconsin, increasing numbers gather courage for the renewed struggle against corporate greed, as humanity metamorphoses to a curiouser existence.
it's a good day to celebrate spring, and it's a good day to read chris hedges' the corporate state wins again, which begins,
'when did our democracy die? when did it irrevocably transform itself into a lifeless farce and absurd political theater? when did the press, labor, universities and the democratic party—which once made piecemeal and incremental reform possible—wither and atrophy? when did reform through electoral politics become a form of magical thinking? when did the dead hand of the corporate state become unassailable?'
finishes with
'the game is over. we lost. the corporate state will continue its inexorable advance until two-thirds of the nation is locked into a desperate, permanent underclass. most americans will struggle to make a living while the blankfeins and our political elites wallow in the decadence and greed of the forbidden city and versailles. these elites do not have a vision. they know only one word—more.
they will continue to exploit the nation, the global economy and the ecosystem. and they will use their money to hide in gated compounds when it all implodes. do not expect them to take care of us when it starts to unravel. we will have to take care of ourselves. we will have to create small, monastic communities where we can sustain and feed ourselves. it will be up to us to keep alive the intellectual, moral and culture values the corporate state has attempted to snuff out. it is either that or become drones and serfs in a global, corporate dystopia. it is not much of a choice. but at least we still have one.'
with a great deal in between.
for this image, i used two textures:
paint by numbers by dog ma
texture 129 ttv by nasos3
thanks to both for their lovely work.
©2011 helen sotiriadis
... and check out my reworked website...
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