Politics, Canadian Politics, Technology, Social Issues

Archive Page 2

13
Apr

The Shifting Art Offensive

Public funding for art has always been a prickly issue. In Canada, the movie industry is rallying against a bill that would deny tax credits to film productions deemed offensive:

The change to the Income Tax Act (Bill C-10) would allow [Heritage Minister Josée] Verner, or a government committee, to deny tax credits to productions deemed offensive and “contrary to public policy.” Members of the Canadian film and television industry have criticized the possible amendment for threatening to deplete Canadian production by casting doubt over its financing.

The amendment has also been condemned by the Canadian Film and Television Production Association for having been possibly motivated by special interest groups.
When asked if Bill C-10 were influenced by the head of the Canadian Family Action Coalition Charles McVety - who has claimed credit for the provision - Verner denied any involvement.

“Offensive” is a relative term, of course – McVety feels that tax credits should be withheld from film films that promote homosexuality, extreme violence or graphic sex. Which acts qualify as such and whether all depictions necessarily constitute promotion is unclear. However, Canada’s fiction-based movie issue pales next to the furor brewing in Costa Rica over the “torture art” of Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. Having received honorable mention at the 2006 Central American Biennial, the 50-year old artist caused a firestorm with his 2007 display Eres lo que lees (“You are what you read”). According to British newspaper The Guardian, Habacuc leashed a stray dog without direct access to any food or water, but within smelling range of the dog biscuits used to create the title. The display also included the Sandinista anthem being played backwards along with a large amount of crack-cocaine smoldering in an incense burner. The dog reportedly died on the scene without any intervention by Habacuc or the audience.

A Central American artist who used a starving dog as the centrepiece for his exhibition has unleashed a storm of protest.  In the name of art, he chained the animal and deprived it of food and water.

Habacuc defended his display as a reflection on society’s treatment of animals:

Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Vargas Habacuc. I am 50 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been criticized for my work titled “Eres lo que lees”, which features a dog named Nativity. The purpose of the work was not to cause any type of infliction on the poor, innocent creature, but rather to illustrate a point. In my home city of San Jose, Costa Rica, tens of thousands of stray dogs starve and die of illness each year in the streets and no one pays them a second thought. Now, if you publicly display one of these starving creatures, such as the case with Nativity, it creates a backlash that brings out a big of hypocrisy in all of us. Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway.

Visitors to Central America or the Caribbean have most likely run into a few of the many stray dogs that run around the countryside and occasionally in the city (the strays in Trinidad enjoy walking along very thin brick barriers that separate mountain roads from +100 foot drops). Thus, the informed skeptic’s question is simple: if Habacuc is so interested in drawing attention to the plight of stray animals, why didn’t he just photograph some of readily-available examples?

Furthermore, his statement that the dog would have died anyway smacks of opportunism. Imagine if a Costa Rican government official suggested that dangerous drug experiments should be performed on the sick and destitute since they will probably die anyway.

A Central American artist who used a starving dog as the centrepiece for his exhibition has unleashed a storm of protest.  In the name of art, he chained the animal and deprived it of food and water.

Alas, attaching the word “art” to an act or display seems to invite defense for what would otherwise be considered psychopathic and indefensible. Juanita Bermudez, director of the gallery, asserted that the dog was only tied up during the public display and didn’t die on the premises (which contradicts the implication of Hubacuc’s earlier quote). Similarly, there will be many arguments about how art is supposed to challenge the senses and evoke strong reactions among its viewers.

Perhaps. However, most art accomplishes this through depiction. Action movies, death metal and first person shooter games all deal heavily with the macabre but do not physically commit violent acts to convey the message.

The Central American Biennial is one of a network of general art shows and the official sponsorship list has proven evasive. Assuming there was at least SOME government funding involved, would it have been appropriate to withdraw support for the show based on Hubacuc’s cruelty? Arguably, most Canadians would say yes. But by doing so, are we putting ourselves in league with McVety and his moral police? It seems the best solution would be for the government to get out of the art funding business except when commissioning specific works (e.g. a mural on some government property).

The odds that Canada or any other nation will ever settle on a standard for what is “offensive” are vanishingly small. In a free market, people can determine what is to their liking via purchasing art works and attending art shows. Those who are offended can simply not attend and have no other recourse since their dollars are not being used to fund it. If a market-driven approach is ever proven to be heavy-handed, the government could alternatively pass a law withholding funding to “art” involving real (not depicted) activity that would otherwise lead to an arrest.

30
Mar

Wordpress 2.5 is Out - How Well does it Work?

Wordpress 2.5 is finally out and, like many, I chose to install it before the developers addressed the critical security fixes. The changelog can be found on the original website but here are some of the highlights:

  1. Cleaner, faster, less cluttered dashboard
  2. Dashboard Widgets
  3. Multi-file upload with progress bar
  4. EXIF extraction
  5. Search posts and pages
  6. Tag management
  7. Password strength meter
  8. Concurrent editing protection
  9. Few-click plugin upgrades
  10. Friendlier visual post editor
  11. Built-in galleries (create a gallery automatically, allow comments for individual photos!)

So far the upgrade has not caused any major malfunctions. The biggest improvement I see so far is improved use of real-estate in the editor - the save buttons are now beside the edit window and the user can easily see when the post in progress was last saved. The concurrent editing protection is nice because it allows multiple users to work on a post without clobbering each others’ changes. The image gallery (see below) is a very welcome addition that should reduce dependency on Flickr and similar external services.

This thread is for comments from anyone who has upgraded or is considering upgrading to Wordpress 2.5. Please share any comments, questions and observations.

Updates: Compatibility Issues

2008-03-31:
Redoable Template v1.2 - LiveSearch option no longer works. Searches fail to find any results (tested searches that previously worked under WP2.3)
2008-04-15:
Inserting a picture from the gallery works absolutely perfectly on one computer but hangs on the other. Both machines are running Firefox 2 on Windows XP. The non-working machine requires the user to load the picture to the gallery, copy the URL, exit the gallery, press the image button and paste the URL.

Updates: Welcome Discoveries

2008-03-31:
Editor opens and reloads in most recently used editing mode. No more defaulting to Visual/WYSIWYG mode after saving a post.
2008-04-13:
Upgrading to WP2.5 can improve the display of certain templates. After upgrading Crux of the Matter, the template WP-Andreas09 2.1 now displays the font consistently in the left and right columns on IE browsers. Previously the fonts were noticeably larger in the right column, although the CSS template did not specify this difference.

Updates: Other Views

2008-04-13:
Sandy (Crux of the Matter) recently upgraded to WP 2.5 and has shared her own observations.

29
Mar

Movie Review: Fitna

Title: Fitna
Release: 2008
Genre: Documentary
Run Time: 15 Minutes
Studio/Publisher: Geert Wilders
Rating: 20%

Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), released a bombshell in the form of Fitna – a self-proclaimed documentary and wake up call to Europe in the face of growing Islamicization. Arabic for “disagreement and division among people”, Fitna has caused much division among nations and even within the ranks of those critical to radical Islam. Kurt Westergaard, the Danish cartoonist whose bomb-laden depiction of Mohammed resulted in worldwide riots and death threats, publicly condemned Wilders’ use of his drawings due to the film’s sweeping indictment of Islam as a whole. Web host Network Solutions suspended film’s website and video streaming company LiveLeak hosted the movie for only two days. Pakistan briefly banned YouTube while Al Qaeda has issued a fatwa against the blonde instigator. Controversy, thy name is Geert.

Fitna The Movie (screenshot)

Information-wise, Fitna offers little new material to those who have spent much time studying radical Islam. The 15-minute presentation consists of gory footage spliced with inflammatory Muslim speeches and confrontational suras from the Qur’an. Some viewers will recognize footage originally seen in Islamist documentaries like Beneath the Veil and Cult of the Suicide Bomber. Other video includes of people jumping from the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attacks and neatly-edited clips of executions by Iraqi insurgents.

The soundtrack consists of passages from Edvard Greig’s brooding “Aase’s Death” and Tchaikovsky’s “Arabian Dance” looping intermittently between apocalyptic Muslim prayers. Much of the dialog is in Arabic so most viewers will rely on the [thankfully minimal] English/Dutch subtitles. There is no narration in the film per se but the violent speeches by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and various Imams set the pace just as effectively.

The latter portion of the film pushes the immigration buttons familiar to Wilders’ PVV platform. Under the title “The Netherlands of the Future?”, a graphic slideshow displays images of gay/female executions, blood-smeared children and female circumcisions. This macabre presentation is followed by a series of inflammatory news headlines:
“We do not agree with freedom of speech, because we denounce democracy”
“Explosive increase honor killings in Amsterdam”
“School closes on muslim holidays”
“Jihad-lessons in elementary school”
“Foreign imams allowed in more quickly”
“Mosques under the spell of radical muslim group”
“Suicide commandos in the Netherlands”
“Hamas gathers in Rotterdam”
“Mosque: turning the Netherlands into a muslim state”

Fitna The Movie (screenshot)

Fitna closes with a short clip of a hand turning a page of the Koran. The image fades as the sound of a page tearing is heard. The implication is quickly followed by the message “The sound you just heard was a page being removed from the phone book. For it is not up to me, but to Muslims themselves to tear out the hateful verses from the Quran”. The film’s final message states that Muslim Europeans have no interest but to conquer the west and that Islamic ideology must be defeated by freedom-loving Europeans as Nazism and Communism were before it.

It shouldn’t even need to be said that Fitna is a hatchet job, plain and simple. Compressing 15 minutes of footage and inspiration from Islam’s violent minority and passing it off as the summation of a centuries-old religion that contains over a billion followers smacks of a “solution” in search of a problem. A structurally identical film could be made in the Islamic world about the invasion of Christian (re: coalition) warriors, splicing scenes of dead Iraqi citizens with violent passages in the old testament and assorted rants by Jerry Falwell. The facts presented would be “true”, but hardly representative of the entire Christian world.

Nontheless, such a film would stand as firm proof to Islamists about the need for Muslim forces to crush the Christian enemy. Fitna will appeal similarly to modern-day crusaders who have already convinced themselves of the necessity for a second Crusade.

Fitna The Movie (screenshot)

Offense is in the eye of the beholder, so it would be difficult for an outsider to say whether this film warrants the extreme outcry and calls for censorship – perhaps that’s a Westerner mindset. Stronger anti-Islamic sentiment has long existed on the pages of FrontPageMag or Little Green Footballs and to my knowledge neither of these online publications have been threatened.

Fitna preaches a drastic scenario to the converted and would likely fail to penetrate mainstream Western thought even if it were given wide release. Wilders’ political associations, combined with his decision to attack all of Islam rather than its extremist elements, will cost credibility among discerning audiences.

26
Mar

No Country for Boorish Men

Toronto’s favourite grandstanding politician has done it again. Not content embarrassing himself in a drunken furor at a Leafs game or offending the Asian community with railway-era stereotyping, Councilor Rob Ford has allegedly spread his venom a little closer to home:

Toronto city councillor Rob Ford, a maverick best known for his campaigns against spending at City Hall, has been charged with assaulting and uttering death threats against his wife after police were called to his Etobicoke home yesterday morning.

Mr. Ford was arrested and taken to 22 Division headquarters in Etobicoke and released without bail after promising to appear in court on April 28.

Mr. Ford’s lawyer, Dennis Morris, confirmed the alleged victim is Renata Ford, Mr. Ford’s wife and mother of the couple’s three-year-old daughter and baby son.

Discretion is simply not in this man’s arsenal. Since criminal proceedings are all but guaranteed, Mr. Ford’s political fortune may finally have run out. The press will have a field day dissecting every public aggression and analyze every sneer / hiccup / utterance for meaning. Perhaps we’ll be treated to a panel of experts who will –in hindsight- proclaim that the signs were all there and that the bombastic Ford was a ticking time bomb.

Is Rob Ford a drunk, a wife-beater or a bigot? Possibly (note to lawyers: “possibly” does NOT equal “yes”), but the term boorish seems more appropriate. Rob Ford is a 1950’s man – a pre political-correctness alpha-male for whom getting the job done entails precisely what is written on paper (at which he excels), with the rest of his conduct being precisely none of your business. Unfortunately, this old school brand of politician is easy prey in an internet-driven world where even a slight slip of the tongue can be posted on YouTube, dissected by the mainstream media and blogged by thousands of publicity-hungry pundits before end of day. The proliferation and endless analysis of damning evidence against public figures that will be forever stored in modern data links renders slim any chance of the whitewashing that yesterday’s politicians enjoyed. Many of our favourite historic figures carried scandal and contradiction that would not be so quickly forgiven today:

  • Christopher Columbus, crowned discoverer of much of the Americas, was far from the first to reach western shores. Of course the natives had migrated tens of thousands of years earlier, but confirmed voyages by the Vikings and rumoured voyages by the Irish/English cast doubt on his title as first European. Crediting Columbus for first conceiving a round earth is also incorrect – Greek records show Plato (427 BCE - 347 BCE) teaching his students the idea of a spherical earth. Indian astronomer Aryabhata and Armenian philosopher Anania Shirakatsi also promoted a round earth model long before Columbus was born. Conversely, Al Gore allegedly tried to take credit for inventing the internet and is pilloried for it to this day – on his own supposed invention, no less.
  • Mohandas (”Mahatma”) Gandhi –revered champion of Indian equality and pacifist inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr- became conveniently colonial in his attitude towards native Africans during his time in South Africa. Contrasting his struggle with that of black South Africans, he stated “Ours is one continued struggle sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.”. At another point he stated in The Indian Opinion “We believe as much in the purity of races as we think they (the Whites) do…by advocating the purity of all races”. Such demagoguery is far more contradictory than post-racial Democrat Barack Obama consorting with a racially-charged preacher.
  • As late as the 1960’s President John F Kennedy’s powerful oratory skills and general charm were sufficient to keep his image generally unsullied by mounting stories of serial infidelity. Though the FBI possessed reports of immoral sexual behaviour going back to World War II, the media (which at the time really was a small fraternity) upheld JFK and Jackie’s marriage as loving and flawless. If only Bill Clinton commanded such loyalty from the press…

None of these posthumously anointed heroes would have survived present-day media scrutiny and at best would have been labeled flawed benefactors. Rob Ford –having not spread western influence, uplifted a people or stared down a communist menace- will in memoriam be a CityNews punch line. His biggest mistake was being born too late. We should keep this in mind before sending him to the gallows.

17
Mar

Garfield - Garfield = Madness

Garfield was once my favourite comic strip. Then I hit puberty and realized it really wasn’t that funny. Luckily, one twisted individual has found a way to make the comic strip hilarious by removing any trace of Garfield from the original Garfield comic strips. The result is a delusional, lonely and possibly dangerous Jon Arbuckle.  Kinda reminds me of a girl I used to date.  Anyway, here are some of the better ones from the last couple months.

Garfield Minus Garfield Comic Strip

Garfield Minus Garfield Comic Strip

Garfield Minus Garfield Comic Strip

Garfield Minus Garfield Comic Strip

Garfield Minus Garfield Comic Strip

View all the comics at Garfield Minus Garfield

15
Mar

Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival

1ST ANNUAL MIXED ROOTS FILM & LITERARY FESTIVAL TO BE HELD AT THE JAPANESE AMERICAN NATIONAL MUSEUM

WHAT: The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival celebrates those who have created and continue to create works addressing the Mixed racial and cultural experience through film screenings, readings and workshops.

WHEN: June 12 - June 15, 2008, in celebration of Loving Day, the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming the right of people of different races to marry.

WHERE: Japanese American National Museum, 369 E. First St., Los Angeles, CA

WHO: Co-producers Heidi Durrow and Fanshen Cox of Mixed Chicks Chat (www.mixedchickschat.com, also available on itunes, keywords: mixed chicks) will host the event. The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival is inclusive: anyone who identifies as Mixed, has a trans-racial/cultural adoptive family, or who supports interracial/cultural relationships is welcome. Admission to the Festival is free, however, pre-registration at www.mixedrootsfilmandliteraryfestival.org is highly recommended.

WHY: In the past, artists of Mixed heritage and their works have been forced into mono-racial/cultural categories based on antiquated notions such as the ‘one drop rule.’ The Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival validates and celebrates Mixed identity and experience. The goals for the festival are to encourage emerging storytellers to explore the Mixed experience; introduce and encourage role models for future generations of Mixed artists; provide a safe and positive forum for honest discussions about race and culture; and to promote the Mixed experience as a valuable and important part of World History.
Continue reading ‘Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival’

10
Mar

Cynics Redoable

Welcome to the new server!  After some tinkering I’ve set up a new template on a new host.  The template in question is called Redoable and is based on the venerable K2 framework.  If one observation can be extrapolated from the last few posts, it’s that I am fairly colour averse.  Fruity colours really aren’t my thing.

Anyway, if you are reading this, you are seeing the updated site and the comments are turned on.  Go nuts…





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