Postcards from cucumber season

What the British call the silly season is refered to in Holland as cucumber time, as summer holidays take priority.

Making pleasant walkabouts in Rotterdam provides a picture of this city in a massive social and physical transition. Its powerful message is of communities travelling together towards new horizons.

Cartoon realities expose identity weakness.

(July 15 2010) -- This week a Moscow court rendered a decision that some say could constrain artistic expression throughout Russia for years to come. In 2007, Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Erofeev curated an art exhibition at Moscow's Sakharov Center titled "Forbidden Art 2006." On Monday, a Moscow court convicted them of public actions aimed at inciting hatred and hostility on religious grounds, marking the latest battle in a long war that pits Russia's Orthodox Christian "patriotic" right against a liberal left.

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed were published on 30 September 2005. It had made a request to forty artists to create a caricature of Muhammad to illustrate an article on self censorship and freedom of expression. The cartoons were later published by other newspapers.

La Reconquista Española

Reaper at the Door 2010

Spain is under attack by the very financial institutions it helped in 2008/9.

Fears were echoed yesterday by the billionaire investor, George Soros, who warned that Europe would almost certainly face a recession next year which might generate "social unrest" and the kind of populist nationalism seen in the
1930s. "That's the real danger of the present situation – that by imposing fiscal discipline at a time of insufficient demand and a weak banking system... you are actually... setting in motion a downward spiral," he said.

It may be true the market can attack Spain for the easy virtual money it craves for. But so can the people attack the markets. Europe's leaders are elected to protect. If they fail new leaders will rise to take their place just as they did in La Reconquista.

Clear divisions in Brussels

FM Brussels Calor - "The victory of the N-VA is very bad news for the Flemings in Brussels" says journalist Guido Fonteyn. "It will be a step towards an independent Flanders. The demolition of the language legislation is imminent."

Another reason in securing the atmosphere for greater European economic union. Will 2010 be the year when Brussels asks it citizens if Superstate ruling is more preferable to bear than the vicious chilly winds of faceless Wall street banking masters.

Under the umbrella of the E.U is it possible for smaller communities such as Wallonia and Flanders to pursue their seperatist ambitions while maintaining financial security within a bigger family. Learing to agree to disagree has not the same pain as divorce. Belgium may soon become a confederation of smaller enities but the real challenge for Superstate is to prevent members enduring extreem economic hardships. Otherwise the wolf pack in Wall street will see opportunity for flesh money.

Netherlands voices its dissent and rushes to buy herring.

"I say to all the newly elected Freedom Party MPs of our beautiful party, bring battering rams with you because, starting tomorrow, we're going to give them hell." Geert Wilders is not the sort one associates with the dark side of extremism. However, the Netherlands vote is a clear concerned message from a section of the electorate as opposed to a call for negative direct action. Although the vote was impressive most Netherlands voters still believe his policies to a bit on the daft side.

Homer is # 1 greatest TV character.

No ringside cheer from a Bush.

On January 27, 1992 President George H.W. Bush made a speech that ignited a feud between the Simpsons and the Bushes. At that point family values were the cornerstone of Bush's platform. He said at the National Religious Broadcaster's convention in Washington "The next value I speak of must be forever cast in stone. I speak of decency, the moral courage to say what is right and condemn what's wrong, and we need a nation closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons. An America that rejects the incivility, the tide of incivility and the tide of intolerance".

So sayeth a leader with a moral conviction to war and torture.

Eurowar Zone #1

Is it any wonder

Is it any wonder people are fed-up with politicians. Has the European idea of democracy got so lost making an endless stream of useless unenforceable and silly laws that they need to be told by the people to grow up.....or are they clever enough to use this silliness to show the necessity of their own slogans..... Brussels, (right) should be protecting people's choice to be different rather than digging a deep hole for Belgium to disappear into.

The Last Death of Christ

Disclosure & Reaction







It is hard to believe there will be any return to the Catholic Ireland of before the great Scandal. Can an educated country ever hand back unquestioned authority to a shamed Church. If Jesus was someone's child who suffered to create that church then the present day suffering of the many children in its care are the nails which crucify and end its reign. Nothing lasts forever, not even God.

Cyber wars a new battlefront reality

Art & the City

The use of photography is moving towards a new crossroads to inform and influence perspectives on contemporary issues. Democratization of the camera means many points of view will spotlight the political agendas. Expression is vital to the health of society even if that expression is later regretted. Can Art & the City help to win over the anti-cultural negativity growing in our cities. Reports from Antwerp, Brussels, and Rotterdam suggest this negativity is about to show itself in a more visible manner. Art & the City should also be more visible in supporting a counter culture against this negativity.


Two views from Rotterdam feb 2010

2010 A Greek tragedy unfolds in the arena.

The road is paved for 2010. The western financial consipracy for political control by use of market bullying has entered its current phase. After it manipulated the world into giving it a bailout to stop a deep recession it has embarked on course to again threaten the world. The Bankers have the upper hand do as we say or its a recession you cannot take. Who will fight with the people this day to win freedom. Can the Brussels mandarins stand up to them or will a Greek tragedy play the role of first euro victim.

It can be useful to read some quotes from previous observers on the banking cartel, their mission and the battle for the new order which began in 1776.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws" — Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild (Banker)

"The few who understand the system, will either be so interested from it's profits or so dependant on it's favors, that there will be no opposition from that class." — Rothschild Brothers of London, 1863

"From now on, depressions will be scientifically created." — Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh Sr. , 1913

"We have, in this country, one of the most corrupt institutions the world has ever known. I refer to the Federal Reserve Board. This evil institution has impoverished the people...........". — Congressman Louis T. McFadden in 1932 (Rep. Pa)

Ulster Suburban Dreams

The suburban dreams of many will refuse to secede their taste of material wealth and affluence even if its contradictory to acknowledgment over a battered economy and spiraling domestic debt. There can be no early return to the frugal simple life of previous generations now that expectations race to match the recent financial gluttony fueled by politicians shamelessly milking the expenses system.






Craigavon, Co Armagh 2009

The enemy of the state-hail Regime change

In the history of conflict has there ever been an easier excuse for starting a war. Regime change is decided in the eyes of the Combatant and whereas regime change in democratic countries usually means an election, Blair has greatly undermined Parliament's credibility and the rule of consent...His admission in tricking parliament to partake in an illegal war against Sadaam is not a justified means to an end. Surely a fraction of the 3trillion war dollars could have been used to remove the tyrant and avoid the heartbreaking loss of life. Emperor Nero was declared "Enemy of the State" in AD68 and for this his exit from office was swift....... Cui Bono...from this new excuse to invade countries (with loot a plenty).....the arms industry must see a bloody future ahead.

(Nero Claudius Caesar) his last words were, "What an artist the world is losing in me!" His memory was publicly execrated. Will Blair suffer a similar fate.

Atheist ethic: Step forward and help

This week herald the Lisbon treaty into force while the Swiss openly attacked a principal of freedom reminiscent to some medieval diktat from the inquisition. Truly a bad day for freedom but a day when democracy needs to ask questions about the consequences of bad choices.......The Swiss are ordinary concerned people but being influenced by misguided, emotional and negative movements searching forever to provoke trouble from the sectarian or anti-democratic forces will only help those who oppose Populism as a movement unworthy of serious decisions.....The message is not so difficult: judge by what you know and not by what you hear.....I know there is no threat from Islam to force me into a mosque just as there is no threat to force me into a Christian church......there is now room for the atheist ethic to help prevent a sectarian conflict and protect the democratic movement.

A 21st century Franco -German axis

"Old Europe" is back in power. First and second ministers A. Merkel & N. Sarkozy have now Europe under stable political control with institutions (Lisbon) to manage its civil service. Identity, economics, foreign attitudes to the wider world, energy and a resurging interest in ethnic nationalism, are some of the immediate tasks facing the new super cabinate of interior minister j. m. Barosso.

Banning the burka-the French president has already given his view that "France is a country where there is no place for the burka". Will this mean men wearing berets, beards, kilts and sunglasses are also to be made illegal.

President Merkel names new managers

EU leaders have chosen the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, to be the first permanent European Council President, foreign affairs supremo - has gone to Baroness Catherine Ashton from the UK.

Both are seen as consensual politicians with limited foreign policy experience.

BBC - Today - Who will be EU president?

sorry I meant e.u. secretary

Thursday night's dinner party will be just that.... a party. A gathering of European latter day earls, barons and viscounts where in lavish style they will toast the appointment of a voice at the end of a phone when the rest of the world want to speak to europe.............The real president of europe is germany's angela merkel, good choice and her vice president is nicolas sarkozy. It all smacks of a bit of power sharing amoungst the middle aristocracy.....or maybe a upgrade of a German Politbüro.........the message from the people is clear....don't mess up.

disturbing words from the UK press

This day marks the end of division in Germany, this weekend marks the beginning of the awakening of opposition to the EU project....words like Hate, Deception, Mistrust, Unelected, Unaccountable, are pouring from the pages of the UK press...but the most worrying of all is from Pravda......
Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU is a Reincarnation of the Former Soviet Union.....
How much of this is the ignorance of fuddy duddies stuck in the mud and how much is the minds of people privy to information we are not hearing about. Brussels should be wary of re-building walls physical or mental as the unfamiliar enemy is easier to demonise and destroy.

Oh for the gift of the Gab! Flowers say it all

So the British Tories were taken aback by the language used by the French Secretary of State for European Affairs.....they had "castrated" their influence in Europe he said. "They have one line and they just repeat the line. It is a very bizarre sense of autism". He denounced their plans to bring back fffffff...pppp powers from Brussels to Britain as "pathetic". 8:51 UK time, Thursday, 5 November 2009
Just two days officially married and the sparks are flying about. But no one said it would be a bed of roses......ooops ......I meant I Iris........not her of course but the Fleur. But soon, as young lovers so often do, there was the make-up......not the cosmetic kind but genuine kiss and....steady......just words really... nice ones like I didn't mean what I said........ it was a mis-understanding.....and so on and on and on.....why can't they just send flowers....

In the language of flowers, an Iris means: your friendship means so much to me.

Its Done

updated at 18:07 GMT, Tuesday, 3 November 2009
The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the final step in the charter's ratification.

Czech court clears Lisbon treaty

following headlines and quotes are from the BBC London updated at 11:34 GMT, Tuesday, 3 November 2009

The Czech constitutional court has ruled that the Lisbon Treaty is in line with the constitution, clearing the way for President Vaclav Klaus to sign it. The Czech Republic is the only EU member yet to ratify the treaty, and the decision removes the penultimate hurdle to its passage.

To Preside or not to Preside that is the question?
German party cool on Blair for EU......oct26 2009.
Joerg Essen, explained his party's position "We know Tony Blair for a very long time but I must admit there is a sympathy in my party for candidates from a smaller country," he told the BBC.
"We want to bring European countries closer together, and I think if someone is from a smaller country these people are more sensitive and they know the problems of the smaller ones, and I think that would be helpful for Europe. Europe is too dominated by the biggest ones".
"The EU should have no-one as its president. It is, and always was a treading block and giving it a president will merely blur the line between economic co-operation and political intervention."

idle eric, Portsmouth, UK

The fight over a Blair presidency

11:04 UK time, Sunday, 25 October 2009

In the days and weeks ahead the arguments over whether Tony Blair should be the first President of the European Council are likely to intensify.
Increasingly the presidency is developing into a split between the big countries and the smaller states. Britain wants a powerful big hitter as president, so does France, Italy and probably Spain. Angela Merkel's positionis not yet clear and much will rest on what she decides.
Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are set against a strong presidency. One Blair supporter is quoted as saying .......it was very important for Europe to have a strong figure, who when they land in Beijing and Moscow the "traffic stops" for the motorcade.

Tony Blair believed God wanted him to go to war to fight evil, claims his mentor published:9:00PM BST 23May2009 Daily Telegraph

Is Tony Blair the right man to be president of Europe? The Observer, Sunday 25 October 2009

Of the 562 readers comments on this debate in the Observer, 99% were against the idea of a Blair Presidency........with the vast majority citing him as a war criminal

The Third identity

Alea jacta est....the die is cast..... reputedly said by Julius Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon river to conquer Rome and become the First in a long line of Roman Emperors.

Another favourite from school is of course Tempus Fugit- time flies and it has. In fact it has run out for those Euro sceptics wishing to hold up the ratification of the infamous Lisbon treaty. Now the emphasis is on what next for Europe. Latin has many proverbs depicting all aspects of human life. For the Europe project there is no going back the die is truly cast and it is up to the citizens to provide instructions to its leadership on how they perceive the road ahead regardless of the current political set-up. Latin says it for post Lisbon Omne initium difficile est.... Every beginning is difficult....... but as the great Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca pointed out Aut viam inveniam aut faciam....... I'll either find a way or make one.........

The last Plebiscita

President Vaclav Klaus (left) announced saturday Oct 3 2009 that after the Irish yes vote on the now infamous Lisbon treaty, "there will never be another referendum in Europe". He was then asked whether he had a message for Britain. "I am afraid," he replied, "that the people of Britain should have been doing something really much earlier and not just now............,"


In ten short years since negotiations began on the treaty, the Union everyone wanted and still wants to be part of, has become the biggest Euro story since the fall of the Berlin wall exactly twenty years ago next month.

Combatants exhibition for ex-prisioners in Belfast

War reminds Europe of divisions floating beneath the surface and is recorded through portraits of recent European combatants within and around its newly extended borders.

Since 1973 a viewpoint observes the European project. With images from daily animation, politics, social issues and conflict, a series of selected moments presents a reflective visual narrative.

While living and working in the Balkans for the American Associated Press news agency during the break-up of Yugoslavia and post communist Europe, he engaged in compiling a visual narrative on the birth of Empire.

"Combatants" describes the actuality of European conflict. In a continuum of history, “combatants”are as much a part of our society as they ever were and this reality casts shadows on the birth of Superstate

The future of journalism is under scrutiny as objectivity is challenged. Should we desert the legacy of the media as a bastion of public defense to take sides in a new bout of spectacle wars aimed at deflecting attention from leadership failures. This article below will prove to be either a visionary report or part of that spectacle on which it comments.


The American Empire is bankrupt
by Chris HedgesFeatured WriterDandelion SaladTruthdigJune 15, 2009

who spent nearly two decades as a war correspondent for The New York Times and other newspapers, is the author of “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle,” due out in July.


This week marks the end of the dollar’s reign as the world’s reserve currency. It marks the start of a terrible period of economic and political decline in the United States. And it signals the last gasp of the American imperium. That’s over. It is not coming back. And what is to come will be very, very painful.
Barack Obama, and the criminal class on Wall Street, aided by a corporate media that continues to peddle fatuous gossip and trash talk as news while we endure the greatest economic crisis in our history, may have fooled us, but the rest of the world knows we are bankrupt. And these nations are damned if they are going to continue to prop up an inflated dollar and sustain the massive federal budget deficits, swollen to over $2 trillion, which fund America’s imperial expansion in Eurasia and our system of casino capitalism. They have us by the throat. They are about to squeeze.
There are meetings being held Monday and Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia, (formerly Sverdlovsk) among Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials of the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The United States, which asked to attend, was denied admittance. Watch what happens there carefully. The gathering is, in the words of economist Michael Hudson, “the most important meeting of the 21st century so far.”

There will be block after block of empty stores and boarded-up houses. Foreclosures will be epidemic. There will be long lines at soup kitchens and many, many homeless. Our corporate-controlled media, already banal and trivial, will work overtime to anesthetize us with useless gossip, spectacles, sex, gratuitous violence, fear and tawdry junk politics. America will be composed of a large dispossessed underclass and a tiny empowered oligarchy that will run a ruthless and brutal system of neo-feudalism from secure compounds. Those who resist will be silenced, many by force. We will pay a terrible price, and we will pay this price soon, for the gross malfeasance of our power elite.

War & the Plastik heaven/display only

War & the Plastik heaven

(From a photographer's journey through Europe)

Intro

140 Pictures are presented from the current catalogue of 420 edited images which is “War & the Plastik heaven.” (a combination of individual projects from 1973-2008)

Events of 1973 brand the mind of the young photographer at college.......... the E.U enlarged to include his country....the Vietnam war ended, an oil shock rocked the western world, as did the 60's & 70's social revolutions.

Balkan Europe, Middle East, the former Soviet Union, divided cities, Berlin,, Jerusalem , Belfast & Nicosia; controlled the photographer's journey. New Europe extended eastward with its motto "United in Diversity", a catchphrase designed to evoke a continent into working together for peace and prosperity against a backdrop of chaos & battle.

(Presentation, curatorial & media exposure to to be arranged on merits)

Combatants/display only

Intro

Combatants is a visual narrative on the continuing shift beyond our divisions and conflicts, seen during a photographers journey through Europe. From its concept in 1973, the project presents a documentation of the men women and children who have, are and continue to use their option of armed engagement to influence contemporary political and social changes.

The project is an unbiased communication in the educational modal of traditional photojournalism & portraiture. It endeavours to inform the viewer by visual teaching while providing an interesting and entertaining recount on Europe in our time. Covering a variety of conflicts, topics & issues reflecting stages of alteration, Combatants is aware of history and the importance of disseminating a shared commonality of experience.

Combatants,

(From a photographer's journey through Europe)

Project motivation, description & development

135 Pictures are presented from the current catalogue of 220 edited images which is “Combatants” (1973-2009)

Events of 1973 brand the mind of the young photographer.......... the E.U enlarged to include his country....the Vietnam war ended, an oil shock rocked the western world, as did the 60's & 70's social revolutions.

Across Europe armed engagements from Pira, Eta, Raf, Badder-Meinhof, Action Direct, Black September, and others created climates of uncertainty. These battle arenas controlled the photographer's journey as he recorded glimpses of discord and change which influenced the path of today's society.

The project not only records an outpouring of tragedy & cultural partition, but equally represents the immense struggle of human effort in pursuing goals of peace, reconciliation and cohesion.

Juxtaposed against the continuum of dispute, the study of “Combatants” presents life, "history & future” the story behind the photographers journey through Europe exploring the growing need for a universal accommodation in pursuing safer and tolerant societies.

In thus reaching out to Europe's expanding community, exhibiting the message of Combatants" to its variety of citizens will accommodate a contemporary vehicle to provide an all-important bridge between the project, the general public and groups on which the message focuses.

(Presentation, curatorial & media exposure to to be arranged on merits)

Borders beyond borders

Krakow 2008






Prisoners' lives #1

Borders beyond borders wants to examine the if my photography can convey the dark side. I think there is a cause to focus on the continuing use of excessive and criminal force against civilians caught up in conflict. I wish to compile a report using my own and archive images to further the outlawing of what has become in recent history an all too common and babaric attitude to human life. " "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Adolf Hitler 1939

Genocide in Cambodia & Armenia shamed humanity:the stacks of Auschwitz furnaces covered surrounding areas with human ash.

ArtNews: Pluralism is dead, Syncretism lives O.k. :

The Art of many styles is over. Its reign in the nineties past the optimism of the new millennium has grinded to a finish. Its noble message of multiculturalism, diversity & tolerance embodied in such persona as Schuman, Delors & Kohl is buckling under the pressure of a militarist culture rising from the efforts of extremists. The approaching deadly Wars, through manipulation, public fear & moral corruption will ensure that the coming years will provide the masses with a suitable decoy to the financial hardship which will syncretise the living & cultural standards of Europe as its leadership speeds up imperial ambitions.

The Masada complex

looking down from a roof top in old Jerusalem; same as it ever was
The current crisis, may prove to be more stubborn and damaging than first intended. It is one thing to ride the tiger it is another to control its direction.
As with the people at Masada and the first crusaders, events can lead to unimaginable tragedy. Modern initiators of confrontation should remember not to break off more than they can chew.

The new world military order

One might be forgiven, by looking at this map, that Christians are on a wining ticket towards what the American military terms "full spectrum dominance" in the world. Whereas globalisation in trade and industry may be just a modern name for something that has always been around, the multi polar military outlook will reflect the colours above. Christians maybe fragmented in their love for one another.....Russia, South America, Cuba, Latin Europe, and Africa are hardly praising the actions of the "Alliance states," but China and India are solid in religion, language and national identity. Both are armed, lean and willing to defend their geo political interests. After the oil shock of 1973, we children were told in school to prepare for war with the Muslims over oil.....Thankfully this never materialised as they strengthened their financial defenses. A multi-polar world is much more favourable to the aspirations of Christianity, two generations removed from the most horrific crimes in the history of humankind.