Musick that Needed Work - Q: Q Lazzus
2 hours ago
Tuesday 13 April 2010
Connecticut bishops fight sex abuse bill
A bill in Connecticut's legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state's Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.
Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations. The proposed change to the law would put "all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk," says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut's three Roman Catholic bishops. The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut's Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill. The "legislation would undermine the mission of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, threatening our parishes, our schools, and our Catholic Charities," the letter says. The Catholic archdiocese of Hartford also published a pulpit announcement on its Web site, which was to be read during Mass on Sunday, urging parishioners to express opposition to the bill. The bill has been revised to address some of the church's concerns about frivolous abuse claims against it, according to Connecticut state Rep. Beth Bye, one of the bill's sponsors. "The church didn't recognize that this bill makes improvements," Bye said. "The victims -- their lives have been changed and some will never recover from years of sexual abuse. For me, it's about giving them access to the courts." Under the bill's provisions, anyone older than 48 who makes a sex abuse claim against the church would need to join an existing claim filed by someone 48 or younger. Older claimants would need to show substantial proof that they were abused. "They were worried about frivolous lawsuits and so we made the bar high," Bye said. The bill does not target the Catholic Church, she said. The bishops' letter raised concerns that the bill would allow claims that are 70 years or older, in which "key individuals are deceased, memories have been faded, and documents and other evidence have been lost." The letter said that the majority of cases would be driven by "trial lawyers hoping to profit from these cases."
The bill passed in Connecticut's House of Representatives, and Bye said the state Senate should vote on it in the next week or two.
Jamie Guzzardo @'SignOfTheTimes'
Attempted rape of farm worker 'led to Terreblanche murder'
South African police are investigating whether there was a link between homosexual sex and the murder of white supremacist Eugene Terreblanche, police said yesterday.
The lawyer for one of the two black farm workers charged with the killing that heightened racial tensions was quoted as saying that Mr Terreblanche was killed after trying to have sex with at least one of the defendants.
A police spokesman confirmed that was among possibilities being investigated. Police had earlier said a pay dispute had led to the killing of Mr Terreblanche, on the political margins since his efforts to preserve apartheid in the1990s.
"We are not going to focus on one thing," said Musa Zondi of the Hawks investigative unit, adding that a sexual link was among the many accusations being made.
"We will investigate all pertinent facts that have a bearing on the matter," he said.
General Jan Mabula, head of the Hawks in the North West Province, told City Press newspaper the suspects' clothes were to be examined as part of checks into whether there was a sexual link. Mr Zondi did not comment on that.
Terreblanche was hacked and battered to death on 3April and found with his trousers pulled down after a murder that has showed up the racial strains in the "Rainbow Nation".
"My instructions from my client are that there was some sodomy going on and it sparked the murder of Mr Terreblanche," Puna Moroko, attorney for 28-year-old Chris Mahlangu, told the Sunday Times newspaper. The other accused is 15.
Mr Terreblanche's Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) has rejected any suggestion of a homosexual link to the murder of its leader, who was one of the most vocal proponents of keeping South Africa's races apart.
Mr Terreblanche was a prominent figure during the dying years of white minority rule with his khaki-clad paramilitary followers wearing armbands with the party symbol that resembles the Nazi swastika.
But he had since lived in relative obscurity, particularly since his release in 2004 after serving a prison sentence for beating a black man nearly to death.
Thousands of angry followers of Mr Terreblanche brandished apartheid-era flags and sang the old South African anthem at his funeral on Friday in his home town of Ventersdorp, 100km (60 miles) west of Johannesburg.
Although political analysts do not expect major unrest, the killing showed up the racial strains in South Africa 16 years after apartheid ended.
Gugulakhe Lourie @'The Independent'
Interesting this as just the other day someone from SA had visited 'Exile' after googling 'Terreblanche sodomy allegations in the 80's'!
What is it with all these neo nazis and here Tyndall & Webster immediately come to mind.
Monday 12 April 2010
Any kind souls...
Have Cabaret Voltaire's 'Body & Soul' or any of the three albums put out by the Manchester band 'My Computer' and wouldn't mind sharing them?
Billie Ray Martin does Cabaret Voltaire
OK, so Billie Ray Martin has a couple of new EPs/mini-albums coming out in the next couple of months. There are a couple of interesting angles to this story but one in particular that got my interest.
Billie Ray first came to my attention back in ‘80ish with her work with Electribe 101, since then she has amassed a large body of work including both Dance hits and more experimental electronic tracks For her latest EPs she is taking the pioneering step of releasing tracks officially through the Torrent site Mininova in the lead up to the official release.
What got me though, was the tracks themselves. Ms. Martin is dropping her reworkings of Cabaret Voltaire’s double A side ‘Just Fascination’/’Crackdown’, two of my favourite tracks by one of my favourite bands. So it was with some trepidation that I checked the tunes, and they are good! Not only are they reworking but ‘Crackdown’ features none other than Cab’s vocalist himself Stephen Mallinder.
Download @ Soundcloud
Clive 'Crash' Lewis @'Electronic Rumors'
Afghanistan: banking on apathy
On 26 March 2010 WikiLeaks published the 'CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe'. It appears that the CIA Red Cell invited communication experts to look at "information approaches" to better link the Afghan war to the priorities of French, German and other Western European publics.
One chilling aspect of the report is the heading "Why Counting on Apathy Might Not be Enough". After expressing concern that the fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan shows the fragility of European support for the NATO-led ISAF mission, the report goes onto say "...The Afghanistan mission's low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)..."
Reading that made me wonder whether there is an Australian version of the report. If not, why not? Does the CIA think they can safely count on public apathy here?
They'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so, given that the war has attracted few large-scale peaceful protests, little sustained and vocal opposition, and above all negligible in-depth media coverage and debate, notwithstanding the release of:
• the July 2009 United Nations report 'Silence is Violence End the Abuse of Women in Afghanistan';
• the Afghanistan Millenium Development Goals Overview;
• the response given to a Senate Standing Committee late last year about the use of depleted uranium munitions in Afghanistan;
• the UNICEF 2010 Humanitarian Action Report;
• the secret cables from the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry;
• the comments of US military commander General Stanley McChrystal;
• the House of Commons report 'The legal basis for the invasion of Afghanistan'; or
• assessments of the war in Afghanistan made by the respected Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, public intellectual Noam Chomsky and Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
One chilling aspect of the report is the heading "Why Counting on Apathy Might Not be Enough". After expressing concern that the fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan shows the fragility of European support for the NATO-led ISAF mission, the report goes onto say "...The Afghanistan mission's low public salience has allowed French and German leaders to disregard popular opposition and steadily increase their troop contributions to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)..."
Reading that made me wonder whether there is an Australian version of the report. If not, why not? Does the CIA think they can safely count on public apathy here?
They'd certainly be forgiven for thinking so, given that the war has attracted few large-scale peaceful protests, little sustained and vocal opposition, and above all negligible in-depth media coverage and debate, notwithstanding the release of:
• the July 2009 United Nations report 'Silence is Violence End the Abuse of Women in Afghanistan';
• the Afghanistan Millenium Development Goals Overview;
• the response given to a Senate Standing Committee late last year about the use of depleted uranium munitions in Afghanistan;
• the UNICEF 2010 Humanitarian Action Report;
• the secret cables from the US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry;
• the comments of US military commander General Stanley McChrystal;
• the House of Commons report 'The legal basis for the invasion of Afghanistan'; or
• assessments of the war in Afghanistan made by the respected Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, public intellectual Noam Chomsky and Phyllis Bennis, Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
[Doesn't this information lend the lie to Minister for Foreign Affairs Stephen Smith's latest public assurance, made to justify blocking refugees, that in Afghanistan there was now better security as well as constitutional and legal reform? And you'll notice that he seems to focus on changing circumstances for the Afghan Hazaras — who account for no more than 20 per cent of Afghanistan's population — but is silent on the plight of others, like the Afghan Pashtuns, who come from the major conflict zones. One wonders whether the move is really to block what is likely to be a mass exodus if civil war breaks out and Pashtuns become the target of the Tajik dominated Afghan National Army.]
In any case, the continued apathy of a population that treats these revelations as part of the "watch and forget" 24 hour news cycle must be a pretty safe bet.
Yet I'm optimistic that public opposition to the war in Afghanistan is widespread, that it will continue to grow and that eventually it will be galvanised. Perhaps it's misplaced optimism, but I agree with US Senator Morse who said in 1964, in opposing the war in Vietnam, "...I have complete faith in the American people to follow the facts if you give them..."
Yet I'm optimistic that public opposition to the war in Afghanistan is widespread, that it will continue to grow and that eventually it will be galvanised. Perhaps it's misplaced optimism, but I agree with US Senator Morse who said in 1964, in opposing the war in Vietnam, "...I have complete faith in the American people to follow the facts if you give them..."
Australians aren't any different, and the "facts" - like the US propaganda aimed at faking legitimacy and engineering popular support, and the gruesome realities of the war and its destructive consequences - are steadily leaking out.
We're insulated from the realities of war when it is fought a long way away and when what we see and hear about it is so heavily censored and sanitised, first by our governments and then by our media, but truths eventually emerge and humanity eventually will then prevail.
The Stop the War Coalition (SAWA), and other groups continue to mine away, voicing their opposition in the face of what must be disheartening political and media disinterest. This week Business & Professional Women Australia issued a press release calling on the Government to withdraw Australian troops from Afghanistan and replace military spending by accountable expenditure on local institutional and social reconstruction. Other organisations will no doubt follow when others realise that Afghanistan is a war without end and no benchmarks have been set for victory or defeat, and many more Australians will become active in their support in the face of incontrovertible facts like the harrowing video of US military personnel killing unarmed (Iraqi) civilians by raining down machine gun fire from a circling helicopter
What the final straw will be for the Australian public is anyone's guess. Perhaps the next, soon to be released Wikileaks video, which allegedly shows civilian killings in Afghanistan, will prove to be the catalyst. Perhaps it will be the rising toll of young Australian soldiers being killed and wounded and otherwise traumatised. Only time will tell.
We're insulated from the realities of war when it is fought a long way away and when what we see and hear about it is so heavily censored and sanitised, first by our governments and then by our media, but truths eventually emerge and humanity eventually will then prevail.
The Stop the War Coalition (SAWA), and other groups continue to mine away, voicing their opposition in the face of what must be disheartening political and media disinterest. This week Business & Professional Women Australia issued a press release calling on the Government to withdraw Australian troops from Afghanistan and replace military spending by accountable expenditure on local institutional and social reconstruction. Other organisations will no doubt follow when others realise that Afghanistan is a war without end and no benchmarks have been set for victory or defeat, and many more Australians will become active in their support in the face of incontrovertible facts like the harrowing video of US military personnel killing unarmed (Iraqi) civilians by raining down machine gun fire from a circling helicopter
What the final straw will be for the Australian public is anyone's guess. Perhaps the next, soon to be released Wikileaks video, which allegedly shows civilian killings in Afghanistan, will prove to be the catalyst. Perhaps it will be the rising toll of young Australian soldiers being killed and wounded and otherwise traumatised. Only time will tell.
But one thing is certain. War in any form is an abomination. It is not an act of kindness. War rains death and destruction on civilian populations with devastating personal and social consequences.
It's the duty of every citizen who opposes the war in Afghanistan to make their view known, whether in the press or at public gatherings, or by telling their elected representatives, or by discussing it with their friends and neighbours. It's time our politicians understood that we want our soldiers to be brought home to their families and the people of Afghanistan to be allowed to rebuild their lives.
Kellie Tranter @'ABC'
Saif al-Adel on the Loose Again?
Leah Farrall over at All Things Counter Terrorism has found an interesting item online claiming that Saif al-Adel, a one-time very senior Al Qaida leader, was released from detention in Iran. This would be very interesting and not good news, if true. Here is some background information on al-Adel from West Point’s CTC.
Al-Adel, who became a colonel in the Egyptian military before going over to the dark side, used to write some of the more practical jihadist works on things like security, counterintelligence, and those sorts of things.
Assuming the story is true, this isn’t good news really, unless you are now in a position to turn him in to American authorities. There’s a $5 million check waiting for you at the State Department, if you are.
Here Lies Love - Abuse and Other Bits by David Byrne
For some, pushing a new album is nothing but a press junket but for David Byrne and Here Lies Love, it’s a reflective process where he considers the Marcoses’ human rights and financial abuses; their nefarious behavior; the human capability for evil and the future of the record industry.
I’ve just finished a press tour of London, Paris, Hamburg and Milano talking about the Here Lies Love project. It comes out in about a week over here. Norman (Fatboy Slim), my collaborator, would have joined me but he and his wife Zoe have just had a baby and have taken a holiday.
A tour like this consists of day after day of one interview after another. I was told that Ry Cooder once fell asleep in the middle of a phone interview. To be fair, in addition to fulfilling a publicity function, I also find out how the work is being perceived - if it’s confusing or if one aspect I hadn’t noticed seems important to people.
For example, in this piece thus far, I don’t detail the Marcoses’ human rights and financial abuses. I allude to their nefarious behavior, but don’t list their nasty habits one by one. I often brought up this omission to the interviewers myself - saying I chose to intentionally focus on the psychological issues that drove Imelda… issues which, as I see them, manifested in more influential and sometimes tragic behavior later on - decisions that affected their whole nation.
I wrote in the Here Lies Love (HLL) book that this whole project originated when I became fascinated reading the late Kapuscinski’s (now questionable) account of the court of Haile Selassie, and how theatrical it seemed to me. It was a theater of the absurd, stylized and in no way naturalistic - absolutely stagey, with proscribed movement and gesture, dialogue and ceremonial dress.
I just now stumbled upon the phrase “political theater” in a book by Chris Hedges, in reference to contemporary TV reporters - they who often debate whether a pseudo event was convincing or not. Perfect. It’s already theater, I just needed to make it explicit.
I also mentioned that the piece might be an allegory for the human capability for evil. We see Imelda’s extravagant, ruthless and decadent behavior, which became especially prevalent after martial law was declared in the Philippines, becoming increasingly bold and widespread, as reporting of said behavior didn’t filter back much due to a censored press. When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, all opposition papers and TV were shut down; the populace only heard what the government wanted them to hear. (Hello, China and Italy!)
In the most inexcusable behavior I saw a manifestation of a common human trait - that when all restraints are removed, we tend to lose our moral compasses. I think it could happen to any of us. In the interviews I noted that, for example, I don’t think the soldiers at Abu Ghraib were particularly bad apples as was claimed, but that they were put in a situation where they were handed absolute power - and that kind of ultimate power corrupts absolutely. In a way, there are no evil people, but situations and contexts that allow the evil in all (or many) of us to come out. See the famous Milgram test regarding our capacity to inflict harm.
Granted, not every soldier at Abu Ghraib engaged in torture and disgusting behavior, but let’s put it this way - the leaked pictures that were proudly circulated were the whistleblowers, not the soldiers. The few bad apples rationale put forward by the administration acted in effect as an excuse for them, the higher ups - and let the poor grunts be the fall guys.
Lastly, I stated that the project is about understanding that the Marcos era is perceived, especially in the Philippines, in shades of gray, not as black and white, good vs. evil as we outsiders might tend to assume. While both Ferdinand and his wife brutally suppressed dissent and opposition, and sunk their country heavily in debt, there is in the Philippines a common perception that they, at least before martial law was declared, did some good too.
When Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, all opposition papers and TV were shut down; the populace only heard what the government wanted them to hear. (Hello, China and Italy!)
They built rural schools and clinics, roads and higher education facilities that everyone there is proud of. Later, there were vast, expensive art centers built that were meant to impress foreigners and the elite, and self-commissioned monuments to the Marcos glory. Also, in the early days of their era, as a handsome couple, they represented their country on the world stage - flattering photo essays in LIFE magazine, etc.This was all something that hadn’t happened before. Of course, the good does not excuse the bad, but it makes any absolute judgment more complicated. One wishes that in this and other cases the bad could be fixed or dealt with in some way, though the most obvious - revenge and punishment - doesn’t really get us anywhere.
Looking for other gray examples, I asked a friend in London, “Did Margaret Thatcher do anything good?” Needless to say I’m no friend of Thatcherism. The answer was yes - one thing she did was to allow people living in public housing to buy their own dwellings. Developers and speculators weren’t allowed to do this, only the residents. So, eventually you had people, some of whom might have been living in squalid housing estates (projects, as they’re called in the US), beginning to take an interest in their homes, surroundings and neighborhoods.
Does this mitigate the other stuff Thatcher did? (With an understanding that not everyone might agree that this housing policy was good.) Well, it humanizes the Iron Lady just a little bit; it adds a tiny diamond to the pile of brutal nastiness.
Maybe the South African Truth and Reconciliation system is a model for dealing with past crimes? If the perp comes clean, absolutely, and admits to every wrongdoing, then forgiveness can be granted in some cases, and healing begins. But if there is an insistence on excuses and an attempt to justify offense, and the plea is refused, it gets them a court prosecution.
Maybe this is better than The Hague, which the US set up as a sort of legalized vengeance institution. In this process it seems it’s not about healing, it’s about punishment. But throwing one man in jail for slaughtering hundreds, or hanging another, doesn’t soothe the pain - it merely makes the object of hatred vanish.
A lot of the interviewers zeroed in on the statement in my written introduction in which I proposed that this package - with its thematically linked songs, DVD, 120-page book and 2 CDs - might be a response to the “death of the album.” I guess there are some record collectors out there who will miss that format.
All, however, agreed that CDs, especially in their plastic jewel boxes with tiny booklets, are ugly. Most had trouble imagining what might happen in the near future. I suggested that multimedia packages (with links, text, video and images) might be perfect for smart phones and other new devices; they might be better than CDs in some ways, which have gotten increasingly stingy in their packaging and content, offering the consumer less and less for their buck.
Mega pop artists might, for example, just release a few singles and attention grabbing videos of those songs. Many more millions might be willing to spring for a couple of songs (or video downloads) than for a whole album from artists who typically fill out their CDs with less than stellar tunes.
Others will have to find some other format, which is only regrettable in the sense that there is an economy of scale in selling bundles of 12 tunes. It doesn’t cost a whole lot more to market a CD that contains 12 tunes than a single - but the income from the 12 song bundle is 10 times as much, or more. So, while mainstream pop artists might sell many more singles, the lower ends of that bell curve - the artists whose output will never sell millions of singles but does have an loyal audience - won’t find that model very sustainable.
Much of the personnel of the local Warner branch have been laid off not too long ago. Some actually got their notices very recently, and the day I arrived was their last day on the job. The woman who represents Italian artists to the world was let go. I saw her vanish down a hallway - she resembles the fashion mistress in The Incredibles.
I wonder who and what will be left of these regional offices in the next few years. Not much, I fear. I heard a story that one executive felt the obligation to visit Tori Amos and her husband at their home studio complex in Cornwall to assess or hear a record of hers. It’s a good four hours from London by train and car (I know because I went there to record her vocals on this project), so the exec took a helicopter. Those days are over.
China charges online 'swingers' in Nanjing
"A marriage can be like a bowl of cold water that has to be drunk, swapping partners is like a bowl of sweet wine"
Sunday 11 April 2010
Catholics outraged over German cartoon
A German cartoon mocking the Catholic Church has sparked holy outrage among believers here who say it incites hatred against the Pope and the Catholic faith.
The caricature, published in the Good Friday edition of satire magazine Titanic, shows a priest apparently having oral sex with a crucifix of Jesus on the cross.
The crucifix cartoon is a barbed commentary on recent revelations that 250 people in Germany were sexual abused at Church-run schools in the past decades. The scandal has shaken the German Church. A recent poll said Germans’ trust in the Catholic Church had fallen to 17% from 29% in late January and approval ratings for Pope Benedict have dropped from 38% to 24%.
The German Press Council reported that some 100 formal complaints have been filed since the magazine came out, a level of protest not seen since 2006, when German newspaper Die Welt reprinted the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons.
Two criminal complaints have also been filed against the cartoonist and the editors of Titanic, claiming the picture slanders their religion. The state prosecutors office in Frankfurt, where Titanic is based, said it would decide next week whether to begin an investigation against the magazine.
@'Disinfo'
The caricature, published in the Good Friday edition of satire magazine Titanic, shows a priest apparently having oral sex with a crucifix of Jesus on the cross.
The crucifix cartoon is a barbed commentary on recent revelations that 250 people in Germany were sexual abused at Church-run schools in the past decades. The scandal has shaken the German Church. A recent poll said Germans’ trust in the Catholic Church had fallen to 17% from 29% in late January and approval ratings for Pope Benedict have dropped from 38% to 24%.
The German Press Council reported that some 100 formal complaints have been filed since the magazine came out, a level of protest not seen since 2006, when German newspaper Die Welt reprinted the infamous Danish Mohammed cartoons.
Two criminal complaints have also been filed against the cartoonist and the editors of Titanic, claiming the picture slanders their religion. The state prosecutors office in Frankfurt, where Titanic is based, said it would decide next week whether to begin an investigation against the magazine.
@'Disinfo'
An interesting stat...
Out of 4795 posts @'Exile' to date, I have received 135 comments...half of which would be my replies!
The biggest number of downloads of a file is over 830 (but I suspect that my download link was hijacked and posted elsewhere...) the next highest is over 250. Neither of those posts received one "thank you"!
Just saying...
Just saying...
Saturday 10 April 2010
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