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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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 CPT demo in Toronto, January 29, 2006. Photo by Andre Fortier | This is from a demo in Toronto held by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). They are protesting the holding and abuse of Iraqi detainees. CPT members have been in Iraq for some time. "Team members accompanied the Iraqi people through the U.S.-led 2003 war and continue during the post-war occupation to expose abusive acts by U.S. Armed Forces and support Iraqis committed to nonviolent resistance." Four CPT members were kidnapped in Iraq in November, and are still missing. The kidnappers are calling for the release of all Iraqi detainees. I am impressed that while CPT are working hard for the release of their friends, they continue to focus their campaign on the rights of Iraqi detainees. Apparently footage from this demo was aired on Al Jazeera. In other news: more photos from Abu Ghraib were released to the media. They're as horrifying if not more so than the first batch. Also, the UN is calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. I am wondering how come I — a priviledged artsy middle class Canadian girl — how come even I know that there is torture going on at Guantanamo Bay, and yet a UN report to that effect is deemed debatable by White House officials? arrrg. |
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 | I haven't been reading VICE lately. I went off it for no particular reason except maybe boredom with other people's party pictures. Then the other day I brought this issue home for no particular reason other than it was free and I was curious to see what the kids were up to. I have never before in my life read a magazine in order, cover to cover, without even flipping through the pages first. This is the "Natives" issue. It's all about a Blackfeet Indian reserve in Montana. Each story is written by a different person living on the reserve. Simple, brilliant idea, better than AdBusters.* And guess what? It's all online. (*I must confess I've also stopped reading Adbusters for no particular reason other than apathy towards design-as-tool-for-political-transformation -through-emotional-button-pushing-and-stylish-formatting-of-painful -personal-email-entries.) |
On the other hand... the discussion threads attached to the Blackfeet articles have a lot of participation by people living on the reserve. A lot of them seem pretty cheesed off at the lead articles which focus on bars and drinking, and there's all kinds of ignorant racial flaming from what I can only assume are dumb white kids. But there's lots of articles that are about other stuff, like this one, by Charlene Burns who is a bundle holder. Charlene's sister shows up in the comments:
Char is my sister. I live in New York, I live in the white world. Our lives are very different. I love how my sister views life and how she lives life. We can all learn from her intelligence and her heart. She is a true humanitarian. I admire her. The Blackfeet people are lucky to have her. She is actively trying to improve things that need improving, and seeing the beauty in these wonderful people.
Our Quantal Strife catalogue lauch was really fun last night. Thanks to everyone who came! I have a backlog of tasks piled up now, included a bunch of things for the blog. There will be some more content up here soon, I promise. (I moderated a panel on art and science at the Performance Creation Canada Conference - must report!) In the meantime, brains and beans.