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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Thanks to B. Smiley for this link Radio Netherlands' Vox Humana series. I just listened to the excellent show about international law. It's only available this week, so catch it soon! Some quotes:
"If there is no public support for a military operation is becomes difficult and in some cases impossible to carry on."
[...]
"Each of us can get a copy of the Geneva Conventions off the Red Cross website. The language is clear. You can be the judge of whether you think violations have been committed, and your opinion can help make or reinforce international law."
[...]
"The Hague Conventions back in the turn of the century, and the Geneva Conventions, have a prinicple of law that is binding on the international community. This legal rule says 'at all times combatants and civilians are protected by principles of law of civilized countries, principles of humanity, and the dictates of the public conscience.' This can be legally relevant in an actual tribunal. Listeners to this broadcast become part of the public conscience as well, and how they may react: letters to the editor or calling in the station or saying 'we think that there are violations,' all of this becomes the backdrop for potential lawsuits."
RM Vaughan wrote about my work in the group show Waypoint in his column for the National Post a couple of weeks ago. He's just posted the piece to his blog. Because of the web component to my project I sent the link out all over the place, and I think that promotion is the reason RM focussed on my work. Please note that there are SEVEN other excellent artists in the show: Scott Berry, Dave Dyment, Karen Henderson, Gwen MacGregor, Paola Poletto, Mitch Robertson, and Laurel Woodcock.
some links:
Cock and Booty show a bio and a slightly out-of-date filmography for Scott Berry at Fever Films
Images Festival where Scott Berry is the new director
0.001 Percent Volume exhibition curated by Dave Dyment at Mercer Union
Superinfinity samplesize project by Dave Dyment and Roula Partheniou
Mecer Union images of an old but excellent installation by Karen Henderson
Royal Road Test post on this blog about a project Karen Henderson collaborated on
La Centrale information on an exhibition by Gwen MacGregor
WADE Gwen MacGregor's horrid/gorgeous blue jello
Digifest where Paola Poletto is director
Who is Paola Poletto? information at kissmachine.org
Mitch Robertson at Robert Birch Gallery
Loch Ness Landscapes project on samplesize by Mitch Robertson
laurelwoodcock.ca
TPW essay about Laurel Woodcock, by Dave Dyment
note: other better links on these artists welcome, send 'em in.
Image from the US Navy Office of Information via Google Images
An article by Geoffrey York in last Saturday's Globe and Mail described a present day backlash against the anti-nuke peace movement, including displays of disrespect for the aging Hiroshima survivors still active as spokespeople. According to the article, "when the survivors joined a peace march in Washington, they were jeered at by passersby who shouted 'Go Home!' and 'Remember Pearl Harbour!" York also makes the point that the "concept of 'ground zero' as the epicentre of the first nuclear blast has been appropriated by New York. Ms Takeoka, an outspoken survivor of Hiroshima is quoted:
Most of those with direct memories of the atomic bomb will pass away in the near future. ... It's a big challenge for us, we are asking the younger generation to carry on our stories. ... People are more interested in the anti-terrorism campaign. The focus has shifted away from nuclear weapons. Of course the war on terrorism is important, but nothing can compare to the horror of a nuclear bomb. ... I feel very sad about the world. I have a feeling that ultimately some country will use nuclear weapons again.
Photograph from Atomic Veterans History Project, taken by Henry Dittmer in October 1945 as his unit
debarked and toured the ruins of Hiroshima.
"A month after the bombings [of Hiroshima and Nagasaki], two reporters defied General MacArthur and struck out on their own. Mr. Weller, of the Chicago Daily News, took row boats and trains to reach devastated Nagasaki. Independent journalist Wilfred Burchett rode a train for 30 hours and walked into the charred remains of Hiroshima."Good stuff via Democracy Now by Democracy Now host, Amy Goodman and fellow journalist David Goodman, who have published an article in the Baltimore Sun describing the trials of journalists attempting to cover the bombing who's reports were dismissed as propaganda and censored outright by the US military. The Goodmans are also calling for the retraction of a Pulitzer Prize awarded to "embedded" New York Times journalist William Laurence:
Mr. Laurence had a front-page story in the Times disputing the notion that radiation sickness was killing people. His news story included this remarkable commentary: "The Japanese are still continuing their propaganda aimed at creating the impression that we won the war unfairly, and thus attempting to create sympathy for themselves and milder terms. ... Thus, at the beginning, the Japanese described 'symptoms' that did not ring true."
Mr. Laurence won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It is time for the Pulitzer board to strip Hiroshima's apologist and his newspaper of this undeserved prize.
Sixty years late, Mr. Weller's censored account stands as a searing indictment not only of the inhumanity of the atomic bomb but also of the danger of journalists embedding with the government to deceive the world.