A portrait of Nelson Mandela by British artist Richard Stone and a portrayal of him playing the role of Jesus at the Last Supper are some of the works on display in London’s “We Love Mandela” exhibition.
Some 22 artists, all South African with the exception of Stone, are displaying around 50 works reflecting the “emotions of people”, their feelings and ideas about South Africa’s first black president, exhibition curator Natalie Knight told AFP.
Many of the artists showcased were forced to work underground during the era of apartheid.
Peace icon Mandela featured “at the top” of the list of personalities whom Stone, portraitist of Queen Elizabeth II and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, wanted to paint.
“It was the most daunting experience I had ever had” and also “the greatest privilege”, the artist told AFP.
“Here we have quite possibly the most famous man on the planet,” he said.
“My goal was to capture something of the soul of this very great man.”
Natalie Knight in front of a Mandela painting in London Photo: AFP
Stone recalled how Mandela “allowed a little window to be open into his soul” during the six sittings which took place in his Johannesburg office in 2008.
The painting, which features a dignified white-haired Mandela wearing one of his trademark colourful shirts, was sold at auction in 2008 for around 480,000 euros ($650,000) during a London concert celebrating his 90th birthday.
The exhibition gives equal billing to numerous cartoons by South African animator Zapiro, one of which shows Mandela sat in a carriage next to the queen as they travel through the streets of London.
A policeman turns to his colleague and says: “The next bloody tourist who asks who’s the little old lady with Mandela…!”
For Knight, the drawing epitomises “the importance of Mandela in the world.”
Another work explores the power of Mandela’s clenched fist, the symbol of his fight against apartheid, while another imagines Mandela as the central figure at the Last Supper, surrounded by “his” disciples, including Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.
The exhibition was postponed on several occasions due to health concerns over 95-year-old Mandela, who was hospitalised in June and is now receiving intensive care at home.
The exhibition is free to the public and will open on October 16 at the South African embassy in London. It will then travel to Paris, while Berlin and the United States have expressed interest in hosting the works.
Rick Owens at Paris Fashion Week won’t get Chinese buyers
Paris fashion this week tiptoed around the scarcity of black models on the catwalk with reaction reflecting the growing controversy surrounding the issue highlighted by models Naomi Campbell and Iman.
Designers told AFP their only concern was to find models who embodied the spirit of their creations irrespective of skin colour.
And one industry professional put the lack of black faces down to a minimalist trend that has sparked a demand for Asian models.
“I don’t only do shows for white girls, but I don’t do quotas (either). I choose girls that please me,” said Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello, whose show included Asian and mixed race models.
Another designer, Damir Doma, told AFP: “I never judge anyone by skin… I’m looking for the right personality.”
Doma’s show featured one black and two Asian models but the number could me “be more or less”, he said.
“It depends on the season and the girl that comes to the casting. If she’s right for the clothes I would definitely take her,” he said.
Their comments follow a letter sent earlier this month to fashion governing bodies around the world by models Iman, Naomi Campbell and US model-turned-activist Bethann Hardison.
In their letter, the trio condemned fashion houses that used just “one or no models of colour” for a collection, saying the result was “racism”, even if it was unintentional.
Virginie Deren of the agency Ford Models Europe stressed the importance of trends in the industry.
“For the last two or three seasons, there has been a real passion for Asian models, especially Chinese ones,” she said.
Chinese consumers have become increasingly important to the fashion world as their economic power has grown in recent years.
Other trends down the years had seen black models in demand as well as Belgians and what Deren called “healthy Americans”.
“We have black models (on our books) but we are not asked for them for the catwalks (at the moment).
“It’s not racism. Things are not like that. Models have to fit in with trends (and) the current fashion is a minimalist one that the designers associate with Asian girls,” she said.
In their letter, Campbell, Iman and Hardison named dozens of labels they considered to be most at fault including Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs.
“Eyes are on an industry that season after season watches fashion houses consistently use one or no models of colour,” they wrote.
“No matter the intention, the result is racism. Not accepting another based on the colour of their skin is clearly beyond aesthetic…,” they said, adding that the issue was specifically a lack of black models, not Asian ones.
Malaika Firth, 19, in Paris for her first catwalk shows, said she had not experienced any difficulties she could link to skin colour but stressed that she was mixed race, not black.
“So far so good…, I support equal opportunities,” said the half-British, half-Kenyan model who has appeared in advertising campaigns for Burberry and Prada.
Other models with more catwalk experience, however, were more nuanced.
Brazilian model Muriel Beal, 31, said that there were too few black models working in the industry.
But when asked if the lack of black faces at shows was for this reason or due to discrimination she replied: “It depends.”
Others attending shows who were not employed in the industry expressed more robust views.
Some made it clear that they would like to see a concerted effort by designers to address the issue once and for all.
French visual artist Abby Regis, said he was appalled by the situation. “It is shocking,” he said.
“You can do what you want to do but I see some designers using black models,” he said, making it clear that if it was possible for some, it should be for others.
Laura Bestle, a 23-year-old German international business student, said she suspected some fashion houses included a single black model as a way of “getting critics off their backs”.
And she said described the idea black models were not cast because they were not right for particular clothes as “just an excuse”.
“Why are you so sad?” a TV reporter asked the little black girl with a bright pink bow in her hair.
“Because they didn’t like my dreads,” she sobbed, wiping her tears. “I think that they should let me have my dreads.”
With those words, second-grader Tiana Parker of Tulsa, Okla., found herself, at age 7, at the center of decades of debate over standards of black beauty, cultural pride and freedom of expression.
It was no isolated incident at the predominantly black Deborah Brown Community School, which in the face of outrage in late August apologized and rescinded language banning dreadlocks, Afros, mohawks and other “faddish” hairstyles it had called unacceptable and potential health hazards.
A few weeks earlier, another charter school, the Horizon Science Academy in Lorain, Ohio, sent a draft policy home to parents that proposed a ban on “Afro-puffs and small twisted braids.” It, too, quickly apologized and withdrew the wording.
But at historically black Hampton University in Hampton, Va., the dean of the business school has defended and left in place a 12-year-old prohibition on dreadlocks and cornrows for male students in a leadership seminar for MBA candidates, saying the look is not businesslike.
Tiana’s father, barber student Terrance Parker, said he and his wife chose not to change her style and moved the straight-A student to a different public school, where she now happily sings songs about her hair with friends.
“I think it stills hurts her. But the way I teach my kids is regardless of what people say, you be yourself and you be happy with who you are and how God made you,” he said.
Tiana added: “I like my new school better.” As for the thousands of emails and phone calls of support the family has received from around the world, she said she feels “cared about.”
Deborah Brown, the school’s founder, did not return a call from The Associated Press. Jayson Bendik, dean of students at Horizon in Lorain, said in an email that “our word choice was a mistake.”
In New York City, the dress code at 16-year-old Dante de Blasio’s large public high school in Brooklyn includes no such hair restrictions. Good thing for Dante, whose large Afro is hard to miss at campaign stops and in a TV spot for his father, Bill de Blasio, who is running for mayor.
There is no central clearinghouse for local school board policies on hairstyles, or surveys indicating whether such rules are widespread. Regardless, mothers of color and black beauty experts consider the controversies business as usual.
“Our girls are always getting messages that tell them that they are not good enough, that they don’t look pretty enough, that their skin isn’t light enough, that their hair isn’t long enough, that their hair isn’t blond enough,” said Beverly Bond of the New York-based esteem-building group Black Girls Rock.
“The public banning of our hair or anything about us that looks like we look, it feels like it’s such a step backward.”
Bond founded the organization in response to an episode in 2007 when radio host Don Imus called members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” He later apologized.
In Chicago, Leila Noelliste has been blogging about natural hair at Blackgirllonghair.com for about five years. She has followed the school cases closely. The 28-year-old mother with a natural hairstyle and two daughters who also wear their hair that way said it is a touchy issue among African-Americans and others.
“This is the way the hair grows out of my head, yet it’s even shocking in some black communities, because we’ve kind of been told culturally that to be acceptable and to make other people kind of comfortable with the way that we look, we should straighten our hair, whether through heat or chemicals,” she said. “So whether we’re in non-black communities or black communities, with our natural hair, we stand out. It evokes a lot of reaction.”
Particularly painful, said Noelliste and others, is the notion that natural styles are not hygienic.
“Historically natural hair has been viewed as dirty, unclean, unkempt, messy,” she said. “An older black generation, there’s this idea of African-American exceptionalism, that the way for us to get ahead is to work twice as hard as any white person and to prove that if we just work hard and we look presentable we’ll get ahead, and that’s very entrenched. My generation, we’re saying that that’s not fair. We should be able to show up as we are and based on our individual merit and effort be judged on that.”
Ryan Kiesel, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said legal rulings on hair and other issues pertaining to school dress codes have been fairly clear.
“For decades now, Supreme Court precedent has reaffirmed that clothing, including hairstyle, is part of a student’s speech, and if you’re going to interfere with that, then the school district has to make some findings beforehand demonstrating that there is an immediate threat to the academic environment,” he said. “That wasn’t the case here and in most dress-code cases.”
Denene Millner in Atlanta created a blog, Mybrownbaby.com, for other African-American moms and also followed the school hair controversies. She went natural nearly 14 years ago for the sake of her daughters, now 11 and 14.
“I didn’t want them to grow up with the same idea that I had when I was little, that there was something wrong with the way that my hair grew out of my head,” said Millner, 45. “It’s something that we’ve grappled with for a very, very long time. There’s a whole lot of assumptions made about you that may not necessarily be true: that you’re political, that you’re Afro-centric, that you might be vegetarian, that you’re kind of a hipster.”
She said watching Tiana sob on camera “about these grown-ups, black folks, who are supposed to not just educate her but show her how to love herself, it tore my heart to shreds.” – AP
A senior Russian diplomat has blasted as unacceptable the ongoing attempts of Western nations to impose their values on other countries, while at the same time infringing on the socio-economic rights of their own citizens.
“The urge of Western countries to impose their neoliberal system of values on the other members of the international community as a universal basis of living can only cause concern. This is especially noticeable on the background of their aggressive promotion of the sexual minorities’ rights,” said the Foreign Ministry’s plenipotentiary for human rights, Konstantin Dolgov, while addressing the International Human Rights Forum, currently underway in Beijing.
Attempts to force other nations into accepting homosexuality and same-sex marriage as some natural social phenomenon which deserves support at a state level cannot be tolerated, Dolgov emphasized.
He added that such an approach was met with resistance not only in countries that hold to traditional values, but also those that have always had liberal attitudes to people of non-traditional orientation. He recalled the protests held in France after same sex marriage was legalized earlier this year.
In addition, Dolgov noted that the aggressive advertising of neo-liberal values is often done at the same time with frequent infringement of socio-economic rights and liberties inside the countries that pursue such politics.
The speech was made against the backdrop of the massive international campaign against a Russian act that outlaws the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations to minors. LGBT activists around the world dubbed the act ‘the gay propaganda ban’ and called for protest measures ranging from a boycott of Russian vodka to a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi.
Russian sponsors of the ban and senior officials have repeatedly noted that the law is not discriminatory and only seeks to protect children.
The Russian Olympic Committee at some point issued a special address assuring that LGBT athletes had nothing to fear in Sochi and that people of all orientations would be welcome in Sochi as contestants and guests.
Russia has also addressed the International Olympic Committee with a request to help stop the relentless campaign of speculation and protests over the issue, noting that LGBT activists often distort the meaning of the Russian law in their addresses.
In a recent TV interview, President Vladimir Putin also described the ban as non-discriminatory and said he was ready to meet with leaders of the LGBT community to discuss their problems, but had not yet received any suggestions.
The ban on the promotion of non-traditional sex to children has also caused some protests and a great deal of public discussion inside Russia. However, the majority of Russians support it. In March this year, the Levada public opinion center released the results of the poll that said that about 85 percent of adult Russians were strongly against same sex marriage and 87 percent oppose the idea of gay pride events in their cities. – RT
Suspected Taliban militants shot dead the Indian author Sushmita Banerjee, writer of a popular book about her dramatic escape from the Taliban in the 90s, in eastern Afghan province of Paktika on Wednesday night, police said on Thursday.
“We found her bullet riddled body near Madrassa on the outskirts of Sharan city (provincial capital) this morning,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran told AFP, confirming earlier reports from Indian media. – AFP
A row over a concert due to take place Wednesday has raged at the University of the Witwatersrand. Opponents of th Daniel Zamir Israeli Jazz Quartet staged what was called a “silent protest” outside the Wits Great Hall, where the concert was being held.
According to a Mail & Guardian reporter on the scene, Tawana Kupe, the university’s deputy vice-chancellor for finance, explained to the small crowd that they couldn’t stage their protest inside the concourse of the hall. But the organisers maintained they had permission to picket inside.
Being a silent protest, songs were only murmured. But placards expressed displeasure against both the university’s decision to allow the concert, Zionism and the state of Israel.
“We say no to exclusionary Jewish-only events at our institution,” read one placard, while another said, “don’t entertain Israel apartheid”. Another urged the university to “stop muzzling protest due to Israel lobby”.
But some students were clearly frustrated by the form of protest. “Silent protest never achieved anything guys, we’re not a silent country,” one student was heard saying.
Tokelo Nhlapo, deputy president of the university’s students representative council (SRC), told the protestors they had to ensure Zionists do not use Wits to further their agenda. “Zionism will not be tolerated at this university,” he said. “Not in our name.”
Comparing Israel to apartheid, Nhlapo said the state, which has been in a bitter war over land with Palestine since 1948, must exist to promote everyone’s human rights, not just those of Jewish people.
In its turn, Mr. David Saks of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies issued a statement denouncing the “desperate last-ditch tactic to discredit a concert by an eminent Israeli jazz quartet that was taking place at Wits University on Wednesday’. He described the protestors as “anti-Israel extremists who have resorted to leveling scurrilous and thoroughly baseless smears against the Jewish communal leadership”.
Saks said: “Those making these accusations are the self-same activists whose members were responsible for the disgraceful break-up of a piano recital by an Israeli musician on the same campus earlier this year. Having blatantly trampled on the rights of those who wanted to attend that event and greatly embarrassed Wits University in the process, they now presume to cry ‘racism’ when steps are taken to prevent a repetition of such thuggish behavior.
Saks denied that only Jews were permitted to attend the concert. “The only ‘evidence’ that has been advanced is the response by an independent contractor engaged to sell tickets, who had simply misunderstood what the brief was,” he said.
The Jewish leader “applauded Wits University for upholding the democratic values and freedoms that have made it so fine an academic institution and for its forthright rejection of the intimidatory, bullying tactics of those who do not scruple to undermine those freedoms in order to push their own radical political agendas.”
British radio presenter Dave Lee Travis, who counts Aung San Suu Kyi among his fans, appeared in court Friday charged with committing 11 indecent assaults and one sexual assault.
The 68-year-old former BBC star, wearing a suit and a colourful tie, faced a scrum of photographers and cameramen as he arrived at a London magistrates’ court.
Travis is one of several older celebrities in Britain arrested under the police’s Operation Yewtree, set up in the wake of revelations that late BBC star Jimmy Savile was a prolific sex offender.
Asked by reporters outside court if he would be protesting his innocence, Travis said: “I’m not protesting anything.
“I’d like to speak for three hours to everybody to tell you the story but no sound bites, I’m sorry.”
Travis has consistently denied any wrongdoing since he was arrested in November and his lawyer told the court he would be pleading not guilty.
The disc jockey, whose real name is David Griffin, spoke only to give his name, address and date of birth, and will appear at a higher court in London on September 6.
As he left the magistrates’ court, he told the press: “I am supported by my wife and my friends.”
The charges of indecent assault relate to eight women aged between 15 and 29 at the time of the alleged offences. They date from 1977 to 2003.
He is also charged with one offence of sexual assault relating to a woman aged 23 in 2007.
Travis, nicknamed the Hairy Cornflake, worked at BBC Radio 1 during the 1970s and 1980s and was one of the most recognisable faces in British broadcasting.
Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi said his BBC World Service music request show had helped her to get through more than two decades under house arrest.
Travis met Suu Kyi when she visited BBC studios during a visit to Britain last year.
Some 14 people have been arrested under Operation Yewtree, three of whom have been charged.
The charges against Travis are not connected to his former colleague Savile, who police believe was one of Britain’s worst-ever sex offenders. – AFP
US actor Ben Affleck will replace Christian Bale in the next Batman film, Warner Bros. Pictures said.
Affleck will appear in a Batman-Superman mega flick slated for release in 2015 that follows on the heels of this summer’s Superman hit “Man of Steel.”
Bale, who played the title role in Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy, had left the doors wide open for a new successor.
“We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics’ most enduringly popular super heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill and then some,” said Warner Bros. president Greg Silverman in a statement.
The film, which is not yet titled, will be directed by Zack Snyder, who was behind this summer’s “Man of Steel” starring Henry Cavill of Britain.
Cavill will appear alongside Affleck in the 2015 film.
“Ben provides an interesting counter-balance to Henry’s Superman. He has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne,” Snyder said.
“Man of Steel” has earned some $650 million worldwide and $290 million in North America alone.
Affleck is no stranger to superheros, having played Matt Murdock in the 2003 flop “Daredevil.”
More notably, Affleck arrived at the pinnacle of Hollywood accomplishment in 2013 when his movie “Argo” won the Oscar for best film last February. – AFP
Ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters during a concert
In an impassioned and hard-hitting open letter to fellow “Rock and Roll” musicians, Roger Waters (frontman and lead guitarist of world-famous rock band, PinkFloyd) has invited and called-on his peers to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel campaign (see the full letter underneath). In a letter issued from Warsaw (Poland) earlier this morning, Waters writes:
“To cut to the chase, Israel has been found guilty – independently – by international human rights organizations, UN officials, and the International Court of Justice, of serious breaches of international law. These include, and I will name only two “the Crime of Apartheid” [and] the Crime of Ethnic Cleansing…[I]t falls to civil society and conscientious citizens of the world, to dust off our consciences, shoulder our responsibilities, and act. I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel.”
Waters explains in his open letter that there are two recent events that have prompted his letter, one of which was the December 2012 cancellation by Stevie Wonder of a headline performance at a benefit dinner for the Israeli Defence Force. Water adds that he, together with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “wrote to Stevie [Wonder] to try to persuade him to cancel. My letter ran along these lines, ‘Would you have felt OK performing at the Policeman’s Ball in Johannesburg the night after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960?'”
Roger Waters (60) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and composer best known for his role in world famous rock-band, Pink Floyd. Waters served as bassist, co-lead vocalist, lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader of the band. Pink Floyd subsequently achieved international success with the concept albums “The Dark Side of the Moon”, “Wish You Were Here”, “Animals”, “The Wall” and “The Final Cut”. Pink Floyd has sold more than 250 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States as of 2013.
In his open letter from this morning to rock and roll musicians, Waters also challenges mainstream media and specifically criticizes the USA media, stating that: “The clear inference would be that the media in the USA is not interested in the predicament of the Palestinian people, or for that matter the predicament of the Israeli people. We can only hope they may become interested as they eventually did in the politics of apartheid South Africa.”
The open letter by Roger Waters ends with reference to the former Apartheid regime in South Africa, the 1980s international boycott of South Africa movement and specific mention of the African National Congress’ (ANC) recent Mangaung boycott of Israel resolution:
“Back in the days of Apartheid South Africa at first it was a trickle of artists that refused to play there..then it became a stream, then ariver then a torrent and then a flood. (Remember Steve van Zant, Bruce and all the others? “We will not Play in Sun City?”)…The sports community joined the battle, no one would go and play cricket or rugby in South Africa, and eventually the political community joined in as well. We all as a global, musical, sporting and political community raised our voices as one and the apartheid regime in South Africa fell…Maybe we are at the tipping point now with Israel and Palestine. These are good people both and they deserve a just solution to their predicament. Each and every one of them deserves freedom, justice and equal rights. Just recently the ANC [African National Congress], the ruling party of South Africa, has endorsed BDS. We are nearly there. Please join me and all our brothers and sisters in global civil society in proclaiming our rejection of Apartheid in Israel and occupied Palestine, by pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept any award or funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.”
Background
With Israeli discrimination, human rights abuses, violations of International Law and illegal settlement construction on the increase, Palestinians, inspired by the successful boycott and isolation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the international community in 2005 to play a decisive role in their struggle for self-determination and an end to Israel’s Apartheid policies. Palestinians called on global civil society, artists and multi national corporations to impose a program of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The Palestinians laid out three demands that Israel needs to respect for the boycott to be called-off. Firstly, an end to the illegal Israeli Occupation. Secondly, allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. And, thirdly, for Israel to ensure full equality for Palestinian citizens living inside Israel (see:www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro). Activists maintain that the BDS campaign is not a malicious, blunt or punitive one which is out to punish Israelis but rather it is a practical, non-violent, goal-orientated and focused campaign that is uncompromisingly entrenched in international law and human rights – and also one that is increasingly supported by (progressive) Israelis themselves. Just some of the artists and intellectuals who have publicly lent their support and respected the boycott in recent years include: award-winning musician, Stevie Wonder; Jazz artist, Cassandra Wilson; Maxi Jazz of the UK band, Faithless; musician, Elvis Costello; Pultizer-prize winning author, Alice Walker; intellectual, Stephen Hawking and most recently, the film director, Mira Nair.
BDS South Africa warmly salutes Roger Waters for his principled position. His open letter is sure to go down in history as a turning point in the boycott of Israel campaign and the larger movement for a free Palestine.
Issued by Muhammed Desai on behalf of BDS South Africa
Roger Waters’s letter
To My Colleagues in Rock and Roll
Nigel Kennedy the virtuoso British violinist and violist, at The Recent Promenade Concerts at The Albert Hall in London, mentioned that Israel is apartheid. Nothing unusual there you might think, then one Baroness Deech, (Nee Fraenkel) disputed the fact that Israel is an apartheid state and prevailed upon the BBC to censor Kennedy’s performance by removing his statement. Baroness Deech produced not one shred of evidence to support her claim and yet the BBC, non political, supposedly, acting solely on Baroness Deech’s say so, suddenly went all 1984 on us. Well!! Time to stick my head above the parapet again, alongside my brother, Nigel Kennedy, where it belongs. And by the way, Nigel, great respect man. So here follows a letter last re-drafted in July.
To My Colleagues in Rock and Roll.
In the wake of the tragic shooting to death of un-armed teenager Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his killer Zimmerman, yesterday, Stevie Wonder spoke at a gig declaring that he will not perform in the State of Florida until that State repeals its “Stand your ground” Law. In effect he has declared a boycott on grounds of conscience. I applaud his position, and stand with him, it has brought back to me a statement I made in a letter I wrote last February 14th, to which I have referred but have never published.
The time has come, so here it is.
This letter has been simmering on the back burner of my conscience and consciousness for some time.
It is seven years since I joined BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) a non violent movement to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. The aim of BDS is to bring international attention to these Israeli policies, and hopefully, to help bring them to an end. All the people of the region deserve better than this.
To cut to the chase, Israel has been found guilty, independently, by international human rights organizations, UN officials, and the International Court of Justice, of serious breaches of international law. These include, and I will name only two;
1.The Crime of Apartheid:
The systematic oppression of one ethnic group by another.
On 9 March 2012, for instance, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called[1] on Israel to end its racist policies and laws that contravene the prohibition against racial segregation and apartheid.
2.The Crime of Ethnic Cleansing:
The forcible removable of indigenous peoples from their rightful land in order to settle an occupying population. For example, in East Jerusalem non Jewish families are routinely physically evicted from their homes to make way for Jewish occupants.
There are others.
Given the inability or unwillingness of our governments, or the United Nations Security Council to put pressure on Israel to cease these violations, and make reparations to the victims, it falls to civil society and conscientious citizens of the world, to dust off our consciences, shoulder our responsibilities, and act. I write to you now, my brothers and sisters in the family of Rock and Roll, to ask you to join with me, and thousands of other artists around the world, to declare a cultural boycott on Israel, to shed light on these problems and also to support all our brothers and sisters in Palestine and Israel who are struggling to end all forms of Israeli oppression and who wish to live in peace, justice, equality and freedom.
I am writing to you all now because of two recent events.
1. Stevie Wonder.
Word came to me, the first week of last December that Stevie Wonder had been booked to headline at a gala dinner for the Friends of The Israeli Defend Force in LA on 6th December 2012. An event to raise money for the Israeli armed forces, as if the $4,3,000,000,000 that we the US tax payers give them each year were not enough? This came right after The Israeli defence Force had concluded yet another war on Gaza, (Operation Pillar of Defence), according to human rights watch, committing war crimes against the besieged 1.6 million Palestinians there.
Anyway, I wrote to Stevie to try to persuade him to cancel. My letter ran along these lines, “Would you have felt OK performing at the Policeman’s Ball in Johannesburg the night after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 or in Birmingham Alabama, to raise money for the Law Enforcement officers, who clubbed, tear gassed and water cannoned those children trying to integrate in 1963?”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu also wrote an impassioned plea to Stevie, and 3,000 others appended their names to a change.org petition. Stevie, to his great credit, cancelled!
2. Earlier that week I delivered a speech at The United Nations. If you are interested you can find this speech on you tube. The interesting thing about these two stories is that there was NOT ONE mention of either story in the mainstream media in the United States.
The clear inference would be that the media in the USA is not interested in the predicament of the Palestinian people, or for that matter the predicament of the Israeli people. We can only hope they may become interested as they eventually did in the politics of apartheid South Africa.
Back in the days of Apartheid South Africa at first it was a trickle of artists that refused to play there, a trickle, that exercised a cultural boycott, then it became a stream, then a river then a torrent and then a flood. (Remember Steve van Zant, Bruce and all the others? “We will not Play in Sun City?”) Why? Because, like the UN and the International Courts of Justice they understood that Apartheid is wrong.
The sports community joined the battle, no one would go and play cricket or rugby in South Africa, and eventually the political community joined in as well. We all as a global, musical, sporting and political community raised our voices as one and the apartheid regime in South Africa fell.
Maybe we are at the tipping point now with Israel and Palestine. These are good people both and they deserve a just solution to their predicament. Each and every one of them deserves freedom, justice and equal rights. Just recently the ANC, the ruling party of South Africa, has endorsed BDS. We are nearly there. Please join me and all our brothers and sisters in global civil society in proclaiming our rejection of Apartheid in Israel and occupied Palestine, by pledging not to perform or exhibit in Israel or accept any award or funding from any institution linked to the government of Israel, until such time as Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.
On Thursday, CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker, stars of Oscar-bait The Butler. During the interview, in which Cooper thoughtfully nodded as Winfrey and Whitaker race-baited, Oprah suggested Emmitt Till and Trayvon Martin were equivalent symbols, and that Americans were racist even if they didn’t have ill will toward black people.
When Cooper cited polls showing that black Americans were upset about Trayvon Martin and whites thought too much had been made of the case, Oprah sighed, “Oh, I know, I know. That’s why I love the film in light of this discussion is because it brings context to this discussion. I mean, look at the film, beginning with that lynching scene and ending with walking into Obama’s office, look at what has happened in the span of one man’s lifetime.”
Whitaker chimed in, “This movie reminds us of the circular motion of things still trying working themselves is going on, as in Emmitt Till, and we’re looking at Trayvon, we’re looking at Oscar Grant, we’re looking at all these situations and recognizing we have to move ourselves forward with this change.” Oprah said, “Emmitt Till became a symbol for those times as Emmitt Till has become a symbol for this time. I mean, there are multiple Trayvon Martins whose names never make the newspapers or the headlines. The circumstances surrounding that allowed that to be. There were multiple Emmitt Tills, there were multiple lynchings, there were multiple young black boys whose names are not remembered and often not even recorded.”
Cooper asked, “It’s amazing to me how people from different backgrounds see this.” He then talked about a juror “who did not understand, did not feel linked to Trayvon Martin, felt connected to George Zimmerman in a way, but not Trayvon Martin, she felt race was not part of this case at all.”
Oprah couldn’t wait to jump in, blurting, “People don’t feel it’s race because people don’t call it race…A lot of people think if they think they’re not using the n-word themselves, they physically aren’t using the n-word themselves, and do not harbor ill will towards black people that it’s not racist. But to me it’s ridiculous to look at that case and not to think that race was involved.” – breitbart.com
The BBC is due to cut comments made by violinist Nigel Kennedy about “apartheid” in Israel when it broadcasts his concert, performed with Palestinian artists as part of the Proms musical festival, on British television channels next week.
The concert, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall last week, featured 17 musicians from the Palestine Strings, the troupe performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside Kennedy.
Kennedy likened the situation in Israel to apartheid in South Africa.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a bit facile to say it but we all know from experiencing this night of music tonight that giving equality and getting rid of apartheid means there’s a chance for amazing things to happen,” said Kennedy.
The decision to cut Kennedy’s comment was made due to “editorial reasons,” they removed because of “the way it fitted in with the program, ” a BBC spokesperson told Al Arabiya English.
“Nigel’s comment to the audience at his late-night prom on August 8 will not be included in the deferred BBC 4 broadcast on August 23 because it does not fall within the editorial remit of the proms as a classical music festival.”
Kennedy has previously refused to play concerts in Israel, but has participated in the Palestinian-run Jerusalem Festival in East Jerusalem.
In 2007 he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: “It’s no coincidence. I became aware of the Palestinian story while I was a student in New York. My girlfriend then was Palestinian, and, through her, I began to familiarize myself with and understand the problem even before the [separation] wall and the other atrocities.
“She had to return home every year or she would lose her citizenship, and, like it was for all of us students, that wasn’t exactly her thing. Then I understood that it was simply a way to harass the Palestinians and prevent them from studying,” he added.
Kennedy dedicated his performance at the Proms to Palestinians, according to his introduction.
“The concert tonight is very emotional, because I am performing for people who are imprisoned, to give them two hours of fun and show them that the world has not forgotten about them,” he said.
Dressed in popular Palestinian garments, the players from the Palestinian orchestra played a specially-curated fusion of classical work with Arab and folk music alongside the celebrated violinist. – Al Arabiya
A deep distrust of government has led young Americans to hold up NSA leaker Edward Snowden as a hero, Sen. John McCain said Sunday.
“There’s a young generation who believes he’s some kind of Jason Bourne,” the Arizona Republican said during on “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the lead character in the Bourne movie trilogy who battled his own government, particularly the CIA.
Mr. Snowden’s revelations — including details of the National Security Agency’s data-collection efforts — have led to a debate on the national security vs. privacy question, and how to balance the two.
President Obama last week laid out a series of proposed reforms to government spying programs in an effort to reassure Americans that their Fourth Amendment rights aren’t being trampled. His proposals include having a privacy advocate argue against the federal government in court, more restrictions on the mass collection of phone records and other steps.
Mr. McCain, a widely respected figure on national security and his party’s 2008 presidential nominee, said the White House’s recommendations could be beneficial.
But there’s a deeper problem that must be addressed, he said.
“Right now there’s kind of a generational change. Young Americans do not trust this government,” Mr. McCain said. “Without trusting government you can’t do a lot of things.”
Mr. Snowden now has been granted asylum in Russia in another blow to relations between the U.S. and its old Cold War foe. – Washington Times
Flying pig… the inflatable pig used by Roger Waters at his concerts with the Star of David showing
Ex-Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters during a concert
Former Pink Floyd star Roger Waters attempted to deflect accusations of anti-Semitism and defend his decision to use a pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with the Star of David, among other symbols, during a concert in Belgium.
Waters, who last year voiced support for the boycott of Israeli goods, came under fire for the use of the inflatable pig, which was destroyed by the audience at the end of the show. Apart from anti-Semitism claims, some accused him of being a Jew hater and Nazi supporter.
In a response posted on Facebook, Waters denied the allegations and said the Star of David represents Israel and its policies, and not Judaism.
“[I]n a functioning theocracy it is almost inevitable that the symbol of the religion becomes confused with the symbol of the state, in this case the State of Israel, a state that operates apartheid both within its own borders and also in the territories it has occupied and colonized since 1967,” wrote Waters. “Like it or not, the Star of David represents Israel and its policies.”
The statement said Waters is regularly criticized by pro-Israel groups for his support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
As for the inflatable pig, the musician argued that it represents “the evil of errant government.” Waters said the balloon was used in 193 shows since 2010 and that it was destroyed by the audience at the end of each one.
Waters noted that the show also uses other religious and commercial symbols such as the Crucifix, the Crescent and Star, the Shell Oil logo, the McDonald’s sign and a dollar sign.
The show, Waters concluded, “is many things. It is thoughtful, life affirming, ecumenical, humane, loving, anti-war, anti-colonial, pro universal access to the law, pro liberty, pro collaboration, pro dialogue, pro peace, anti-authoritarian, anti-fascist, anti-apartheid, anti-dogma, international in spirit, musical and satirical. It is not anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi.”
Waters pointed out that the Anti-Defamation Leaguesaid it does not believe he had anti-Semitic intent, although it did regret the use of the Star of David.
This is not the first time Waters has come under fire for using Jewish symbols. In 2010, the ADL criticized the musician for using imagery associated with perpetuating Jewish stereotypes. – Haaretz
Also read Jolene Marks’s opinion piece criticising Waters.
“It is scientifically proven that we belong to one family. That is why ubuntu is so important. Ubuntu started here.”
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu left his decidedly unscientific mark during a ceremony at Maropeng Visitor’s Centre in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
Maropeng, Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, as the grand title suggests, is a political entertainment park where vistors are fed “scientific facts” on why there are no differences between races and cultures.
Archbishop Tutu, together with a slew of politically implicated academics, his family and friends, and members of the media all gathered to witness yet another propaganda effort.
After a gushing welcome from the CEO of Gauteng Tourism, Dawn Robertson, Archbishop Tutu was asked to take off his shoe and sock to leave his footprint.
“This spectacular journey of a species was all done on two feet. So no matter what complexion and physique your recent ancestors had, you ultimately are an African. What incredible feet!” Robertson screeched in adulation.
The Archbishop, who was full of jokes during the ceremony, entertained the media and others with his usual antics. His child-like excitement was clearly infectious to those who were part of the event.
Attendees could not help but feel that they were all part of history – their own – in the making. Most could barely hide their incessant obsequious flattery.
After leaving his footprint in a block of concrete and also signing his name, the Archbishop loudly reminded everyone why he was left-handed, bringing forth yet more merriment: “God made perfect people, and the rest He made right-handed.”
Other footprints outside the Tumulus building at the centre include those of former president Thabo Mbeki and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, all resolute One Worlders.
The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the South African Anglican Church described the event as a “huge privilege”, but did not disclose the amount of money he received to be part of it.
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