Sunday, October 30, 2011

Genius of the Crowd



by Charles Bukowski
there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Cavafy Walls

WALLS

They did not seek my permission
to brick me in, to entomb me
before they built these massive walls around me.

I brood forlornly, without hope
contemplating my ignominious fate.

I had plans, such ambitious plans.
While I crouched here intensely plotting
they were building brick on brick
and stone on stone around me.

I never heard a thing, was unaware
how quickly and how stealthily they sealed me.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Sex Slavery from the Inside: a documentary on human trafficking



reporter: what thoughts crossed your mind while you were there? (she means where she was kept in captivity)
Jenea: I have the same thoughts now: it would have been better for me not to be born...

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Jafar Pahani is Free

Jafar Pahani is Free, Jafar Pahani is Free, Jafar Pahani is Free, Jafar Pahani is Free, Jafar Pahani is Free...

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Free Jafar Pahani


Jafar Panahi was due to take his place on the Cannes jury this year. Instead, he is incarcerated in Tehrans notorious Evin prison, after he was arrested for unspecified crimes. The festival has left an empty chair on the jury panel. Stephen Frears, in Cannes for the premiere of Tamara Drewe, added his voice to the protests today, saying reports of the hunger strike were terrible news.

The director has made several films critical of the Iranian regime. All are banned in his own country. Last year, the government imposed a travel ban after he appeared wearing green the colour worn by opposition Green Movement supporters at the Montreal Film Festival.

Binoche is in Cannes to promote Certified Copy, a film directed be another Iranian film-maker, Abbas Kiarostami.

She sobbed as reports filtered through that Panahi had begun a hunger strike. Sitting beside her, Kiarostami called for his release.



The fact that a film-maker has been imprisoned is itself intolerable, he said. If the Iranian government continues to refuse to release Jafar, then we need explanations.

Jafar Panahi was inclined to make his films under clandestine, illegal circumstances, but thats not his responsibility alone. The responsibility is that of the authorities who prevent him from carrying out his profession.

When a film-maker, an artist, is imprisoned it is art as a whole that is attacked, and it is against this that we should react.

Panahi, who won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film festival in 2000 for Dayereh, was arrested in March by plain clothes police who burst into his home.


Tehran has denied that his incarceration is because he is an artist or for political reasons, but opponents of the government believe he was arrested over plans to make a new film criticising the government.

Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Steven Spielberg are among the high-profile directors petitioning for Panahis release.
 

and       Free Jafar Pahani

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

send the Nazis home!

Urgent request for help from Milan, Italy: we are experiencing an incredible presence of neo-nazi and neo-fascist organisations in our city from the past weeks throughout all May 2010.

Please take voice against this attempt, help us to ask for the immediate cancellation of the neo-nazi and neo-fascist events and demos, from the 2nd of May to the "European Hammerfest" scheduled in Milan on May 29, 2010. From your country and from Europe help us to ask for a stop to this dangerous initiatives, and help us to ask to the local and national italian politicians of Berlusconi's coalition to stop immediately to support this extreme right wings organisations.

We ask to european organisation, ngos, movements and european institutions to take voice and take action:

> Sign this call
> Spread this call for help

> Contact us directly if you think you can do something more from your country and/or give pressure on european institutions and european parliament
> Send us documents / dossiers about european neonazi/neofascist groups to unmask them and denounce the danger they represent
> Send us press release / spread them to local and national mass-media / publish them on website / spread the by mailinglists and newsletters

Our contacts: milanoamalaliberta@gmail.com, phone +390236511380, http://www.cantiere.org


European institutions, Italian government, Municipality of Milan: From all Europe we all say no to the neo-nazi and neo-fascist italian and europe an events and demos scheduled from May 2nd to May 29th in Milan, Italy.

Many italian and european neo-nazi and neo-fascist groups are organising several  conventions/events/demos in Milan, Italy for all this month May 2010. The local coalition of Berlusconi it is absolutely majority on the local government of the municipality and county of Milan, those institutions are giving political and economical support to those organisations, despite many democrats and anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations (http://www.cantiere.org; http://lombardia.indymedia.org; http://www.osservatoriodemocratico.org).

The italian extreme right wing organisations involved are different groups, all have been recently officially admitted to be part or partner of the Berlusconi's party called PDL/Partito delle Liberta? so called "freedom's party". The italian national and local government of Berlusconi is doing nothing against those groups, their ideas and symbols and celtic crosses are spreading more and more and so their violence. In the last 2 years Italy is experiencing many dangerous attacks to the freedom and growing and growing escalation of historic rehabilitation of fascism and xenophobic violence against minorities: migrants, romas people, GLBTQ communities.

On our days, both for economical and political reasons, Berlusconi's government is more and more evolving like an authoritarian government which represents a growing alarm for the italian democracy and for all Europe. We all ask to italian Berlusconi's national and local government of Milan to stop the coalition with this extreme right-wing groups.

During the whole last week, from 24th April 2nd May they were scheduled a big neo-nazis and neo-fascists convention in Milan. Thanks to several initiatives, demos and actions made in Milan by many democratic, antifascist and antiracist organizations, some of their events have been blocked or posticipied, but fascists could do a demonstration in the streets of Milan with celtic crosses and fascist slogan, and even with support and participation of Berlusconi's PDL councilors. They also could do a day full of events form the morning of 2nd May untill the night. All this happened in Milan under the complete silence of insitutions, because of their connivance with neofascist movement, and neither the majority of mass-media took explicity part against it.

In the next weeks of May there are still other events organized by extreme right wing, in particularly we ask to stop immediately the support of following conventions:

- the 2nd tattos conventions with groups from Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and Belgium scheduled in Milan on May 8 and 9 organised from the Hammerskin (http://www.skinhouse.info/index1.htm)

- the national italian neo-fascist demonstration scheduled in Milan on 22nd May organized by Forza Nuova and its leader Roberto Fiore (http://forzanuova.org/articoli/il-22-maggio-milano-forza-nuova-contro-le-banche) in which will take part also european delegations from spanish and french neonazis, but expecially from Hungary: in fact Laszlo Toroczkai will come to Milan, he's th leader of HVIM and of the Jobbik party from the Hungarian nazi-extreme-right-wing

- the european neo-nazi convention, so-called "European Hammerfest 1990-2010, 20 years of European Brotherhood" scheduled in Milan on 29th May, 2010 (http://www.skinhouse.info/index1.htm).

Expecially about this we ask european organization to take voice and denounce with us the danger that extreme right wing groups represent: in all europe right wing is growing stronger and in Italy this is happening with the complete support and connivance of goverment parties and institutions.
We all united ask to european organisation, ngos and european institutions to take voice and take action in order to stop those events and generally this alliance extremely dangerous for democracy and freedom, not just for Italy but for all Europe.

Sign this call, Spread it, Contact us directly if you think you can do something more from your country and/or by giving pressure on european institutions and european parliament | to send us press release or documents/dossier

our contacts: milanoamalaliberta@gmail.com, phone +390236511380, http://www.cantiere.org