North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?
?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?
US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty
Anti-Empire >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Army Sergeant Travis Decker Murdered His Three Children After Being Denied Mental Health Care at JBL... Sat Jun 07, 2025 04:52 | JBLM Whistleblowers
A corrupt military police force and incompetent Commander who denied emergency mental health care and crisis counseling to an American service member resulted in the murder of the sergeant's three young daughters
Gaza doctor grieves her nine children killed in Israeli strike Sun May 25, 2025 20:00 | imc
Israeli regime continues it's slaughter
'The children were completely charred'
Paediatrician Alaa al-Najjar was treating victims of Israeli attacks when her children were killed by an Israeli strike on their home
British doctors working in Gaza describe territory as a ?slaughterhouse? Sat May 24, 2025 00:23 | imc
There?s no food getting in so people are starving,? surgeon Tom Potokar says
British doctors working in Gaza have described the territory as a ?slaughterhouse,? where the patients they are treating are severely malnourished.
Plastic surgeons and orthopedic specialists from the UK are based at the Amal and Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis in the south of the territory.
Dr. Tom Potokar, a plastic surgeon specializing in burn injuries, has worked in Gaza 16 times but said this mission had revealed a level of destruction far greater than his last visit in 2023,
It is time to talk about the Out of Control Immigration. Mon Mar 31, 2025 22:12 | imc
For the last few years since the CV19 scamdemic undocumented immigration into Ireland has surged. No one is allowed discuss it because they do not want any rational debate about it. If you do you are labelled an extremist. However this out of control immigration is fully facilitated by the Irish government and the EU and the shady figure behind the Neo Con movement pushing for endless war, wokeism and globalist agenda.
[Dublin] National Demonstration for Palestine: End Israeli Apartheid & Genocide Thu Mar 06, 2025 22:35 | ipsc
Sat, 22 March 2025, 13:00 Assemble at the Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square, Dublin 1
The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by over 150 Irish civil society organisations, has called another National Demonstration for Palestine on Saturday 22nd March.
The march will begin at the Garden of Remembrance at 1pm and finish outside the D?il on Molesworth Street/Kildare Street to bring our demands to the Irish government?s doorstep.
The Saker >>
Starmer to Recognise a Palestinian State Tue Jul 29, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Sir Keir Starmer has declared that the UK will recognise a state of Palestine in September unless Israel makes peace with Hamas, in a move critics say treats statehood as a "bargaining chip" and "rewards Hamas".
The post Starmer to Recognise a Palestinian State appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The NHS ?Non-Jobs? Bonanza Tue Jul 29, 2025 17:49 | David Craig
The NHS is in crisis. Seven million on waiting lists with junior doctors on strike and other staff eyeing industrial action. So why is it continuing to appoint "Environmental Sustainability Managers", asks David Craig.
The post The NHS ‘Non-Jobs’ Bonanza appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Farage Demands Apology After Labour Minister Says He is on the Side of Predators like Jimmy Savile f... Tue Jul 29, 2025 15:32 | Will Jones
Nigel Farage has demanded an apology from Labour Minister Peter Kyle after he accused him of taking the side of paedophiles like Jimmy Savile for wanting to scrap the Online Safety Act over free speech concerns.
The post Farage Demands Apology After Labour Minister Says He is on the Side of Predators like Jimmy Savile for Wanting to Scrap Online Safety Act Over Free Speech Concerns appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Is the Tide Turning Against Woke Comedy? Tue Jul 29, 2025 13:00 | C.J. Strachan
Is the tide turning against woke comedy? After watching Andy Parsons bomb at the Ealing Comedy Festival, of all places, with his usual anti-Trump, anti-Reform schtick, C.J. Strachan thinks its days are numbered.
The post Is the Tide Turning Against Woke Comedy? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Leaked Email Blows Apart BBC?s Impartiality Claims Over Gaza Tue Jul 29, 2025 11:38 | Will Jones
A leaked internal email from a BBC Executive Editor reveals that the corporation has issued prescriptive and biased instructions to staff on how to cover the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The post Leaked Email Blows Apart BBC’s Impartiality Claims Over Gaza appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en
Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en
The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en
Voltaire Network >>
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (14 of 14)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Info on Tkachenko's work in the Pasko case is at
http://www.bellona.org/english_import_area/internationa...26813
the insertion of http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83876* was accidental, but we don't self-edit on this
site (thats a facility wherein a writer can go and make ssimple changes to text when they absolutely
coc-up big-time).
The links to ASEAN/AMARC and the one million signature campaign are generally
on the Movement's Within links and the resources Links;-
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83914
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/83846
There was a really glaring spelling mistake in relation to literacy and libraries also.
if any otherlinks don't work- apologies- uploading photos mean that ye cannot correct
before publication .
*did not write that either..
There is an interesting report on the state of international translation :-
http://internationalpen.org.uk/images/newsItenDownload/...1.pdf
The topic did not get the attention it deserved on the PI website when a discussion took
place about how writers deal with the issue of collaborative translation; and translation that
occurs online to fulfill a need to have access to artistic materials online-at the cost of
eviscerating the intent of the poet (in this case).
[The two versions of the one poem :- 'I Carried Statues ' by Agnes Nemes Nagy, who wrote in
Magyar are in the second comment on the PI thread, and illustrate quite clearly how
an approach to translation is susceptible to failure if not tackled by a talented translator].
will add in link to review of book on the O' Driscoll thread.
I have discussed on two threads how the UK Government in the form of Tony Blair and the
Polish Government had agigtated for the removal of Article 3.3 from the Nice Treaty to facilitate
the drafting of the Lisbon Treaty. The article is now attached as Protocol, this is accessible
through the Government Sponsored Forum on Europe website.
In relation to this the British org of PEN International has accused the HMG of being
in breach of article 10 of the ECHR in relation to legislation on blasphemy.
Lisa Appignanesi writing in Yesterday's Guardian discusses HMG's approach to rights
of Religious association and expression of critique under the aegis of her new
presidency of Pen, while also providing a brief history of creative expression in the
foundation of PEN international.
Rushdie:-
'If there is a God, he certainly doesn't need the protection of the British Legal System.
If there isn't, he doesn't need it either. There is therefore no excuse for preserving
the offence of blasphemous libel and it should be abolished'.
Appignanesi treats of the work of the Christian Union in attempting through the
Law courts to prevent a screening of Jerry Springer, the Opera (!), the Barbican's
censorship of passages from 'Tamburlaine' and Tate Britain's decision not to
exhibit John Latham's 'God is Great, no2' with it's encased Talmud, Koran and Bible'.
These are recent cases wherin the wisdom of men who do not seek to offend
have decided to reduce freedom of religious expression and association to
workable pragmatic ideology- we live in plural societies and Appignaesi states that
it is time Britain endorsed a fully secular public sphere, because it is the
only kind that serve diverse population;-
'The Blasphemy law has no place in a plural society, where it acts to divide people
of different faiths and none"
the full text of the argument is in the arts review section of the Guardian.
(05/01/08)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84331 [The Poet V The British Establishment]
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/81226 [Book Burning]
Book Burning at the Opernplatz 1933
Arthur Koestler, sentenced to death by the falangists during the Spanish Civil War.
Most people would understand the difference between laws designed to prevent offensiveness against religion and the nazi book burnings – the analogy is something of a false one. Besides books are not banned in the UK even for reasons of blasphemy whether it is Christianity or Islam that is blasphemed. The UK is one of the most free countries in the world in this regard. Censorship is most prevalent in Islamic and communist States with death and long terms of imprisonment for offenders being common. Incidentally it is surprising to see Arthur Koestler championed on this thread – he is very much out of favour in feminist and liberal circles since being exposed as a serial rapist. There is an account of this in the Morgan biography of Michael Foot. Foot’s own wife was herself a victim of Koestler.
I should think that Koestler was possibly not a serial rapist when the falangists sentenced him to
death?
As to the efficacy of judging what is and what is not literature, one look at the education policy
of our sacred government would point out that those who value a Cecilia Ahern above a
Mark Haddon would indicate a lack of ability to discern how art makes one think even if
the author (such as Koestler) was criminal or flawed (another current preoccupation).
The people who decide to excise Tamburlaine (sections of) or to remove art from
exhibit cos it may cause offence to those who imagine that they interpret Art for us,
because we are not capable of responding to art (being gullible children an' all)- are not
exactly very culturally devloped- though they seem to be 'politically' developed?
I admire Mailer (even wrote an obit too), despite his violence, I admire Genet,
Collette- I do not seek to judge the personality of the artist but the work they created
that has its place in the canons of our literature or visual art- there ye go, a weird, short feminist
analysis of a culture of mystifying censorship by those who would think they are holier than thou
rather than attempt to look at how fucked up everything really is- there is an argument for
secularisation of the public sphere- I imagine everyone would be happier.
[especially those who would criticise Harry Potter books- I mean wtf is that?]
Interesting expression that "total secularisation of the public sphere". I wonder what we're getting into if artists and writers can lose all inhibition and produce anything. [I know, "hate speech" against ethnics, the Jews and gays will be banned.]
Where will western society be when any newspaper editor feels free to publish crude cartoons that mock Jesus, Mohammed, the Hindu deities, the reclining Buddah... or when every other art gallery lets go and hangs up a framed oil painting called "Piss Christ" [been done at MoMA in NYC already] or "The Buddah reclining in the grass with Krishna", or... You get it? Who will pay for the massive police protection subsequently needed for offending editors and gallery directors?
Artists and writers may have total freedom to provoke the spiritual beliefs of the wider public. Maybe, but what's so special about artists and writers? Do they know more than the rest of us? Name a few living Irish artists and writers who have profounder insights than the rest of us hibernian mortals! Just because they have a way with words, or are highly skilled at jibbing blobs of oil onto canvas, doesn't mean we have to treat them as gurus. Their opinions on politics, sex, religion and the weather are as prone to speculation and error as anybody else's.
There are other concepts like decency and decorum. There is reticence and humility. There is sensitivity towards the feelings of others. There are unwritten rules of society. Such conventions evolve in the course of the rise of civilisations. They make human societies more noble than herds of wild animals.
I would imagine that the artist's first responsibility is to their 'muse' or in Lorca's case, his 'duende'.
Now thats a relationship that may be understood by the proponents of religiousity, that would not
necessarily have the expertise in artistic interpretation?
Did the young falangist who accompanied Federico Garcia Lorca into a field where he shot him
in the head and 'in the arse for good measure' do it cos he was told that the man who wrote the
most tremendous poetry was a homosexual? or was it because he wrote Gypsy Ballads- was
he brought up with books, with knowledge of language and music?
I would imagine that those who inculcate hatred of difference in people play on their fear;
and on garnering illiteracy through censorship and ignorance.
And what of the book-burners and repressers in this first world state who rejected what Joyce gifted us?
I hold no brief for whoever murdered Lorca during the Spanish civil war.
There are various ideas and images of the artist, whether it is a painter, sculptor, composer of music, a poet or a prose writer. Your assertion "I would imagine that the artist's first responsibility is to their 'muse' or in Lorca's case, his 'duende' '"
represents the romantic image and role of the artist i.e. the person apart from [bourgeois] society who mystically tries to bring that society to epiphany by various means of introspection and "interrogation", this latter a current buzz word in the visual arts world.
There have been other concepts and images of the artist throughout European history. Some have been married with children and mortgaged homes; others have been anarchist bohemians dreaming and chainsmoking in unheated attics. Their creations can be judged according to the aesthetic traditions of art, literature and music, not according to whether their lives are conventional or radically unconventional. As artists their responsibilities are to the accumulated traditions of their chosen art. As citizens they might surely have responsibilities towards the rest of the citizenry.
But what is meant by responibility? That art should be banned if a majority of the people dont like/understand? That an artist should not offend peoples superstitions? By whose standards is Art to be judged? Someonme who "knows the 10 commandments" or the Muslim/Sikh/Hindu etc equivalent?
Should "The Life of Brian" be banned? (Imho it is Art.)
Take a look at these pics below.
Should Last Supper: Picking The Bones be banned because it upsets a few people that dont realise they're supposed to be eating JCs body when they take communion?
How about: Mao as Christ? Hes certainly responsible for a lot less deaths than Christianity.
Or a Stalinist Superman. That would upset a lot of comic fans. How about that?
Last Supper: Picking The Bones.
Mao Messiah
Stalinist Superman
'I hold no brief for whoever murdered Lorca during the Spanish Civil War'
What on earth does that mean???
The artist's responsibility is to the art and not to the uptight moralist views of someone who is
not visually educated- the good thing is that anyone can be visually educated by art, or
aurally through music, it may necessitate dropping predijuice.
Chagall was 'degenerate', Crevel was rejected by socialists, Grosz and Dix were
destroyed by those who thought that everyone should accept the Nationalistic fervours
of the Third Reich and Bush is currently torturing not alone artists, writers and Librarians
but anyone whom does not buy the whole religious expedience of his war -thrust.
(contemporary poetic interpretation of Greek tragedy- and a curse:-)
"In a cavern Lycurgus for his sin was imprisoned.
In such wit did his madness bear a bitter fruit,
which withered in a dungeon. So he learned it was a god
he had ventured in his blindness to revile and taunt.
The sacred dances he had tried
to quell, and end the Bachic rite,
offending all the tuneful muses'.* (Sophocle's 'The Antigone'.)
Of course it can be translated into the Irish realm if ye wish, the
poetry of a Sands, A Pearse or in Basque Gabriel Aresti....
The Image is of a performance of Greek Tragedy from the Didaskalia Site, the words can be
got from 'Theatre Works' by Tony Harrison, published by Bloodaxe.
Marcus Aurelis- from the Didaskalia Site
I don't adhere to an aesthetic that holds the more outrageous the better. I didn't talk about banning art or writings either. I said freedom of artistic expression is one value in a society, but that there are other values which make human civilisation better than wild animals, viz: "There are other concepts like decency and decorum. There is reticence and humility. There is sensitivity towards the feelings of others. There are unwritten rules of society."
The artist as citizen can take these human values on board since s/he has been raised in the civilisation that nurtured them. Artists as citizens have the cop-on to realise what impact their creations can have on mass emotions, whether tutored or untutored. Their artistic skills and vocations don't release them from common sense.
If artists (painters, sculptors, composers and writers) presume to have a right to outrage the values of the majority populace around them, they may be surprised (and outraged) to find that members of this populace exercise a reciprocal right to outrage the aesthetic and social values of artists.
I wonder what the visual art community (who they?) in New York City would have thought of posters being put up on lamp posts around MoMA showing the face of the creator of "Piss Christ" preserved in a container of urine? Or what if a small group of men had stood silently in a line before the offending painting and urinated on the floor, calling the action an example of installation art? Artists sometimes like to create "artistic provocations", but they should beware of a time to come when "counter provocation" might become all the rage. Freedom of expression cuts both ways.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84095
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84640
Art is about 'form', its about dialogue and its about maturity.
Some of the stuff brought up in the last comment discussed in the above links.
Last entry on this thread:-
This poem was commissioned in 1991 , its called 'A Cold Coming' by Tony Harrison.
He wrote it at the outset of the First Gulf War, and whilst Bush tries to salvage Republican
election hopes in Israel today, it seems fitting.
'I read the news of three wise men who left their sperm in
nitrogen,
Three foes of ours, three wise marines with sample flasks
and magazines,
Three wise soldiers from Seattle who banked their sperm
before the battle.
Did No1 say: 'God be thanked I've got my precious Semen
banked.
And No2: O Praise the lord my last best shot is safely
stored.
And No3: Praise be to god I left my wife my frozen wad?
So if their fate was to be gassed at least they thought their
name would last,
and though cold corpses in Kuwait they could by proxy
procreate.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,894707,00.html
(or just google 'A Cold Coming')
The Poet is interviewing an Iraqi male whose been atomised by US foreign policy..
Piss Art might be included in your etcetra.
Will click later on the links and read what they discuss.
One of the issues raised in comments above and on another thread pertains to Societal nurturing of
the artist and 'citizen' responsibility- (in the images included within the comments on blasphemy
and censorship, there is an image of young people bringing their books to burn at the Opernplatz
in 1933- these books were burned because they were 'UnGerman'): they did not represent
what the State saw as the role of Germany in Modernist society- anything that was not categorically
useable for visual propagandist purposes was 'degenerate'.
(Though much of it turned up for sale in auction houses in Europe and America in the post WW2
period)
The Arts Act 2003, coming under the FF/PD Government had sought to
tie the work of an independent body such as the Art's Council closely to Government
ideas of what constitutes Irish Art and therefore gets the funding. it is only the second
time that this has occurred in the State's History , the first being at the inception of the State,
when overt control of Visual and literary expression was seemingly of Fundamental Importance
to the De Valera administration.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76354
I would imagine that of all things 'Nationalising' artistic expression has shown itself to be a
failure in both visual propagandist and artistic terms.