In October 2003, as part of the “Home Works II: A Forum on Cultural Practices” at The Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, Ashkal Alwan, Pope visited Beirut to install an xurban exhibition “The Containment Contained”. Some photographs from Beirut are uploaded to the main page.
“Refresh” the main page to change the images randomly…
As Tolstoy says, government is violence and the state is the number
one terrorist. The “Terrorist States” and “Terrorist Organizations”
as designated by Bush and allies are neither more nor less violent
than the governments of the free world and the third world and the
ones in between. With a dint of excuse, terror is unleashed, towards
Lebanon and Palestine, in Turkey* and Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Russia
and everywhere else, as dissent is crushed violently by an approval
from the sole superpower in the world. The rhetoric of the ‘war on
terror’ is, in almost every case, appropriately stretched and bent to
legitimize the violence of the state on its subjects and onto others,
to the cheers of the hysterical masses and their media. The thirst
for blood and its spectacular exposition on the screen, as obscene as
it is, sedate the critical mass, contain speech and revulsion,
immobilize critical reflection. The monstrosity of military jargon
grips language as masses naturalize terms like ‘the civilian
casualties’ or ‘collateral damage’ in a show of hypocrisy induced by
the mainstream media. When empathy and compassion is indexed to other
‘worthy’ items of the news and when the spectacle of bombing is on a
par with football, no one is a civilian and the militarization of the
world is complete. The globalization of the rising nationalist
hysteria, an oxymoron par excellence in the order of globalization on
the whole, keeps pumping the idea that justice can only be attained
by force: designate the crime and unleash the punishment,
individually and collectively. We think otherwise…
xurban_collective
july 20, 2006
* As a dreadful development, Turkey follows Israel as a model, and
claims that its territorial sovereignty can only be secured by the
extended border control and wants to break down (Turkish) Kurdish
guerrilla groups in Northern Iraq. A scream of war is slowly rising
with the approval of the entire nationalist/fascist majority (like in
Israel). While there is no resisting force that can stop nationalists
at this moment, strangely the US is calling for calm and democratic
solution to the Kurdish problem. Conflicts conflict sometimes, even
for the US.
Haifa is beatiful pop singer in lebanon and she says:
When People magazine asked me to interview Haifa Wehbe, a Lebanese pop singer, for its 2006 “100 Most Beautiful” issue, the assignment seemed like a welcome break from the usual high-risk, low-paying jobs I receive as a freelance journalist in the Middle East. After all, how difficult could it be to throw a few softballs at the sexiest woman in the Arab world? Several of my normally serious colleagues among the Beirut foreign press corps practically begged to be taken along as photographers or assistant pencil sharpeners. But then People sent a list of questions the editors wanted me to ask–What’s your best feature? What’s your worst feature? What kind of moisturizer do you use?–and I knew I needed to do this alone….
Haifa is the thirdest big city in Israel and is based by a port, and they say:
Israeli military operations in Lebanon are taking place in response to an unprovoked border attack which left 8 Israeli soldiers dead and two kidnapped by the Hezbollah. Since then many more Israelis have been wounded and killed by over 700 Katyusha missiles and mortars that have rained down on Israel’s northern cities, including as far south as Haifa and Tiberias. Israel is exercising her legitimate right to self-defense.
07.18.06 - The Vatican Museums, half a millennium old and home to works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Caravaggio, are looking for modern art, reports the New York Times’ Lawrence Van Gelder. Francesco Buranelli, director of the museums, told the newspaper La Stampa that he “would like very much to have a Picasso” and plans acquisitions “above all in sectors like contemporary art….”
From: emily
Sent: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 8:18 PM
Subject: Updates on Lebanon - DONT FORGET GAZA
Firstly, please check out this new site. There are constant updates on the situation in Lebanon as well as dispatches and diaries:
http://electronicLebanon.net
For Palestine go to:
www.electronicintifada.net
Report: 92 Palestinians killed, 326 injured, in last ten days of Israeli attacks on Gaza
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20062&Itemid=1
In Lebanon There are horrifying pictures of children burned to death by the Israeli attack on Lebanon, DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE IF YOU CAN NOT STOMACH IT posted at:
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-have-just-received-these-pictures.html
Last week I sent you Mohammed’s blog from Rafah - he was hit by shrapnel since then taking pictures : see his blog:
http://rafah.virtualactivism.net/news/todaymain.htm
Israel’s “Operation Summer Rains” Offensive Includes Internationally Banned Toxic Weapons This is not new for Israel. Many of you remember the crazy gas that they were using in Gaza and the West Bank and the beginning of this Intifada. (James Longley captured footage of this in his film Gaza Strip) Also my latest email from a friend in Beirut says that they are now using phosphorous bombs in the south…
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20020&Itemid=1
Family of nine killed as they slept
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1819128,00.html
Also regarding the bullshit fake resolution that two american members are trying to pass in the house regarding the so-called persecution of christians by the Palestinian Authortity. Here is one story (from thousands) of who is really persecuting the Palestinians
Tina, the Palestinian American women beaten this week with her 17 year old son by an Israeli soldier on the border had a compelling story to tell us (see the images and read the details at:
http://www.thecornerreport.com/index.php?p=638&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more638
and from Mazin, a reminder of the murder of another brave feminist and peace activist in Nablus:
http://www.remembershaden.org/
Bir “savas sozlugu” ortak uretim projesi.
http://dictionaryofwar.org/
“DICTIONARY OF WAR is a collaborative platform for creating 100 concepts on the issue of war, to be invented, arranged and presented by scientists, artists, theorists and activists at four public, two-day events in Frankfurt, Munich, Graz and Berlin. The aim is to create key concepts that either play a significant role in current discussions of war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created.”
Comrades,
Finally we are ready to start the logging.
imam.
