Botero’s Abu Ghraib work in Berkeley, in Washington, D.C., in November

From Body Impolitic blog in the USA:

Reflections on Seeing Botero’s Images of Abu Ghraib

Laurie [Toby Edison] says:

I went to see Botero’s Abu Ghraib pictures last week at the Doe Library in Berkeley. …

I’ve also seen Zurbaran’s painting of St. Agatha with her breasts on a tray but because that’s religious art, it’s really about martyrdom and glory.

Goya’s war drawings now have the distancing of time.

Abu Ghraib is now.

Botero’s ability to make good art while expressing the horrors of the torture confounded and amazed me.

Botero’s Abu Ghraib paintings and drawings will be exhibited at the Doe Library, located at the University of California, Berkeley, through March 25th.

Jack Rasmussen, the Director and Curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, D.C., announced on his web log that Botero’s paintings will be exhibited at the American University Museum from November 6th to December 30th, 2007.

Jack Rasmussen writes, that after 25 March in Berkeley, Botero’s works will

then travel to two venues in Europe (I won’t be there), before coming back here (where they belong).

Yes, Botero’s Abu Ghraib work definitely belongs in Washington, D.C., close to the instigators of the horrors depicted.

It is also good to see Botero in a US museum at last, after a private art gallery in New York City, and a library in Berkeley.

However, without taking anything away from the American University Museum as an institution, and from the courage of its people in displaying Botero’s, according to Bush and his slavish devotees “politically unwanted” art, this still means Botero’s Abu Ghraib work is not (yet?) exhibited in any of the big prestige museums in the USA.

There, top level people do not seem to have the courage (yet?) of exhibiting Botero, who was so very welcome at prestigious places in the US art world as long his work was considered only mildly critical of the powers that be.

Interview with ex US Abu Ghraib soldier: here.

Related articles

• Fernando Botero’s view of Abu Ghraib atrocities
• Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib
• Iraq closes infamous prison in Abu Ghraib
• Iraq Says Abu Ghraib Prison Is Closed

• Botero Sees the World’s True Heavies at Abu Ghraib (paintingsframe.wordpress.com)
• 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Fernando Botero (huffingtonpost.com)
• Military contractor sues Abu Ghraib detainees for legal expenses (jurist.org)
• Parque Botero (colombianwinds.wordpress.com)
• Fernando Botero (paintingsframe2000.wordpress.com)
• US contractor accused of Abu Ghraib human rights violations suing former prisoners (rt.com)

US navy hides behind ‘state secrets’ in dying whales lawsuit

Reuters reports:

U.S. Navy Asserts ‘State Secrets’ in Sonar Case

March 21, 2007 — By Kristin Roberts, Reuters

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy Tuesday said it had asserted the “state secrets” privilege in a lawsuit by environmental groups, a move to keep the military from being forced to disclose classified information about the use of sonar believed to injure whales and other animals.

Navy Secretary Donald Winter, in a court filing submitted Monday, said disclosure of the information requested by plaintiffs “could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security.”

The state secrets privilege, if upheld, renders information unavailable for litigation. It can be challenged, although the federal government often succeeds in asserting the protection.

“It can be challenged and we intend to challenge it,” said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, the group that brought the lawsuit.

See also here.

Fossil whale found in Italian vineyard: here.

Ancient brown bear and other bones found in The Netherlands

This video is called WildLife Sanctuary – Brown bears (Ursus arctos) Full Documentary.

Translated from Dutch news agency Novum:

In Uitgeest, in Noord-Holland province in The Netherlands, at one time there were brown bears and Dalmatian pelicans.

Archaeological research [which also uncovered fourth century human traces] near Uitgeest railway station and medieval village Assum has shown this.

In all, over fifty kilo of animal bones were found.

Besides bears and pelicans, also skeletons were found of dolphins and grey seals, where at one time the water of the IJ estuary flowed. …

The brown bear lived in the wilds of The Netherlands till about the eleventh century.

In Europe today, the animal lives only in remote mountainous regions, like Scandinavia, Russia, the Balkans and Austria.

Spatial patterns in brown bear Ursus arctos diet: the role of geographical and environmental factors: here.

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UK: London mayor Livingstone says Blair, apologize for slavery

From the BBC:

London mayor ‘sorry’ for slavery

Mr Livingstone said slavery was “one of the greatest crimes”

Mayor Ken Livingstone has formally apologised for London’s role in the slave trade.

He called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to follow suit by issuing an official apology on behalf of the UK.

“The government’s refusal of such an apology is squalid,” he said, on the eve of the bicentenary of legislation to abolish the slave trade.

Mr Livingstone urged fellow Londoners to join him in apologising for this “monstrous crime”.

Blair may think: I won’t apologize for the Iraq war, so I won’t apologize for slavery.

Anglican church people: Blair, apologize for slavery.

Debate on slavery: here.

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• London slaves: why slavery exists in the UK today (theweek.co.uk)
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New cartoon on Bush and Abu Ghraib

This new cartoon on George W. Bush and Abu Ghraib, and Rudy Giuliani, is from Internet Weekly in the USA.

Cindy Sheehan on four years of Iraq war: here.

McDonald’s wants to censor the English language

From the BBC:

It is the definition of a low-paying, low-prestige, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job. But is there more to a McJob?

Flipping burgers, stacking shelves, cleaning tables – when Douglas Coupland coined [no, popularized, according to Wikipedia] the phrase McJob in his 1991 best-selling book Generation X, it needed little explanation.

Several years on and it has come to define a whole raft of jobs that are viewed as dead-end, low paid and with few prospects.

It is a term McDonald’s has been fighting to reclaim and re-brand for years.

A few years ago it took exception to the inclusion of the term “McJob” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

From Wikipedia:

Editors of the Oxford English Dictionary planned to include “McJob” in 1997, but did not do so, fearing legal action from McDonalds.

However, today these editors are a bit more courageous about the reality of the English language.

Now, McDonald’s wants to censor the Oxford English Dictionary.

Gee, maybe it would be better for their public image if, instead of trying to censor dictionaries, they would improve the situation in those McJobs …

McDonald’s indignantly claims that the English language “insults” their workers. But aren’t they as bosses doing the insulting themselves?

Talking about censorship: censorship in the USA of cartoons supporting women’s right to choose on abortion.

Ecuador president to help residents suing Chevron oil

Reuters reports:

QUITO – Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said on Tuesday he will help Amazon jungle dwellers gather evidence for their $6 billion lawsuit against Chevron Corp., which charges the U.S. oil company with polluting their communities.

“We will not allow any more preying on our environment and our people,” Correa said in a statement after meeting with plaintiffs’ representatives.

The statement added that the government will help the plaintiffs compile evidence to prove their allegations and said Correa plans to visit affected areas later this month.

The jungle residents, including the Cofan Indian tribe, accuse Chevron’s Texaco subsidiary of dumping 18 billion gallons of oil-laden water into the environment in Ecuador from 1972 to 1992. The nearly 30,000 jungle dwellers demand damages to help with clean-up costs.

Texaco merged with Chevron in 2001 and the company denies any wrongdoing.

See also here.

And here.

Cornell West on leftism in the 21st century: here.

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