Words without actions mean nothing

The last 48 hours have seen some huge statements, from Cairo to Westminster and far beyond. We’ve had Hilary Clinton’s demand for a full disclosure on deaths in Tiananmen Square, Obama’s words of peace and his hope for a 2 state resolution in Israel/Palestine, and of course, we’ve had the war of words at Westminster enhanced by the James Purnell has sent round, calling on Brown to resign as Prime Minister, and the subsequent responses.

The Camera Revolution World wide

Spare a quick thought for this team of intrepid camera-folks, not filming in the City of London, but rather on the streets of Burma 18 months ago. For all the importance of pushing cameras around during protests in this country, I feel the gravity of working on the streets of Rangoon and elsewhere in that country, and the work done in Tibet months later, were both far more commendable.

Olympic Torch protests too successful?

The BBC reported some time ago that the Olympic Torch procession around the world that occurred before the Athens and Beijing Olympics will not be repeated, mostly because of security issues, i.e. because the protests last year were too much to handle.

A top-down guide to avoiding “Ghost Town Syndrome”

Council are demanding the ability to tidy up their town centres by finding uses for closing shops, mostly for the avoidance of “anti-social behaviour”. What is to be categorised in that term is anyone’s guess, but here’s some very social ideas on how these premises should be handled.

Thoughts on Tolerance 2.5: Censored for trying to cope

Found something I want to stick in as an extra, so its 2.5 out of 3. Having talked about tolerance of sex where one can at least assume that the sex itself is consensual, here’s something rather interesting about how society handles the more horrifying side of sex.

Dresden Doll’s Amanda Palmer on Abortion, Rape, Art and Humor.

Brown on Burma

I have to start by saying that this post is a little overdue. Well, I did talk about the situation in Burma right when it started, but it was one of three signs of people power in the big wide world that I focused on. At that stage, this was simply an unusual protest, not a full blown Non-Violent Revolutionary Action being met with guns and tear gas. Am I glad the UK government has finally decided to speak out? Yes, in a way, but No in plenty of others.

Uzbek oligarch forces British blogs to close

There has been a call for British bloggers to speak out in defence of free speech on account of several significant political figures having their blogs shut down by their hosting company after it received letters from a law firm acting on behalf of the potential new owner of Arsenal FC. This is a very disturbing incident, but I shall leave it to my friend Peter Sanderson to explain the full case, as he’s followed it more closely than I have.

The ones to watch

Sometimes I get really downbeat about the lack of people across the world who are standing up to oppression. Its happened a lot lately, especially because there’s hardly anything going on in the UK now the summer is over, and most of the opportunities that do exist right now for doing political actions are being missed. Given I’m part of the human race and should by now know its tendency to be ever-resistant of repression, its weird how it takes me until there’s a few random news stories here and there before I actually remember that somewhere, as ever, someone is resisting.

BBC makes itself a political football again

Many people it seems are saddened by the spinelessness of the BBC as it has given in to pressure to scrap its Planet Relief day of programs to highlight the effects of Climate Change. Inevitably, a Facebook group now exists to allow you to voice your concerns. But anyway, what I want to draw on here is the way in which political neutrality is dangerous, not because it prevents an organisation like the BBC from speaking out, but because, by attempting to stay out of muddy ground, the BBC has made itself a football to be kicked around.

In Defence of Jailed Street Artists

I’ve found myself, not for the first time, drawn to speak out in defence of Street Artists who have been penalised for their work. Thomas Dolan (20) and Thomas Whittaker (18), aka Krek and Mers, have been given 15 months and 1 year for their work, at a time when much more serious offenders are getting lesser terms and we’re being told that jails are over crowded. Their parents are outraged, and their friends have set up a Facebook campaign in their defence.