Barack Obama: Family Man

A very nice staged image of Barack Obama portraying his ordinary "family man" credentials. I do find the choice of suit odd, though. Does that do anything to the image?

Tony Blair: Sleeves up, Man of Action?

In preparation for this weeks lectures and seminars, I wanted to share this image of Tony Blair giving a speech for the Troops during the Iraq War. I'm interested in the choice not to wear a suit jacket or tie, and to opt for an open collar and rolled up shirt sleeves. In the context of war, and surrounded by soldiers, what do these choices say about Blair?

Cheers,
Josh

The London Riots a Year On, Daily Mail Comment Piece

This comment article by Linday Johns appeared in the Daily Mail a year after the riots. It tries to evaluate the riots and puts together a series of proscriptions about what "we" can do to stop them from happening again. Its use of "we" and "Britain" is interesting, as its framing of young people. It also employs a whole host of rhetorical devices.

Hope you all find it interesting. Here's the link:

Lindsay Johns: The London riots one year on: What still needs to change if we are avoid a repeat of last year, Daily Mail 6/8/2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2184359/London-riots-year-What-needs-change--.html#ixzz2lNcuWaY1

Josh

Question Tim Debates: Public Opinion and the Public Sphere

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4gcg9qAUqo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iKfrY9l2kY

What kinds of argumentation are followed?

Could we class them as part of the Habermasian public sphere?

From my Facebook Newsfeed, a link posted by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen - George Monbiot discussing corporate lobbying and citing Cardiff University research in yesterday's Guardian.

 Even more interesting than her post on the yarn bombing of the Bute Building on Cardiff campus.

Jen

Protest in HK

Thousands protest to 'defend Hong Kong's core values' after failed HKTV licence bid
HKTV chairman Ricky Wong says rule of law at stake as thousands protest at licence decision

Tens of thousands of protesters in black T-shirts marched to the government headquarters in Admiralty yesterday claiming that the decision to deny Hong Kong Television Networks (HKTV) a free-to-air TV licence was a threat to the city's core values.
HKTV chairman Ricky Wong Wai-kay, who did not take part in the rally, said the issue was no longer about giving viewers more choice but whether the authorities respected people's needs and whether Hong Kong was still governed by the rule of law.

About 100 HKTV staff formed a "justice alliance" and said they would camp at the Tamar site until an explanation was given to the company, which lost out last week when the government granted only two licences, to i-Cable's Fantastic TV and PCCW's Hong Kong Television Entertainment. The staff protesters will show HKTV shows on large projectors every night at 8pm.

Police said 36,000 people joined the rally. HKTV suggested 80,000 may have taken part, but this was only an estimate as there had not been an official count.
The march was organised via a Facebook page that has attracted nearly 500,000 "likes".
Some protesters called on the government and Executive Council to explain the rationale behind the issuing of licences as documents leaked to the media revealed there were no reasons not to issue three. When the government decided to open the TV market in 1998 it said there would be no cap on licence numbers.
Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching compared the rally with last year's movement against plans for a national education curriculum, which the government eventually shelved.
HKTV staff and artistes made tearful speeches asking why their efforts to raise the TV industry to a new level were denied without reasons. Members of the public accused the government of crushing the city's core values.
Gallery: Hongkongers take to the streets to protest over free-to-air TV licences
"Under the Lion Rock, we believe if we endeavour, we succeed. But the government has made it a myth now," said Jean Tsang, a housewife in her 50s.
Exco convenor Lam Woon-kwong and the president of the Legislative Council, Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, called on the government to explain its criteria in granting free-to-air licences. Tsang said the government could reveal "the assessment of the applicants' competitiveness".
Lam and justice secretary Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said procedural justice was upheld during the vetting process.
Labour Party lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan wrote to Legco's information technology and broadcasting panel requesting Exco to disclose secret papers about the recommendation.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau repeated that no political considerations or desire to protect existing market players were involved.

Hacktivism

There are already some great examples for this week's seminar discussions, but I just want to add in one more that I'm interested to hear what you think about.

Hacktivism - hacking as an activist tactics - came to public prominence in the wake of the Wikileaks affair.  When various businesses withdrew services from Wikileaks after it published the cables leaked by Chelsea Manning (then known as Bradley Manning), Hacktivist groups such as Lulzsec and Anonymous 'retaliated' with DDoS attacks.

Here is a Channel 4 News report on Anonymous explicitly debating their moral and political legitimacy.

Jen

Montreal Student Riot: Charest Speech Marred By Rowdy Protest

I'm posting a story on one of the dozens of demonstrations that took place in 2012 in my hometown of Montreal in Canada. We are well-known for rioting after sporting events, elections, referendums, and pretty much anything remotely polarising. The student strike (as it was known) was a wildly popular story in the media, but very rarely were the protestors portrayed as anything other than nuisances. I've copied and pasted an article from the Huffington Post (but really the Canadian Press) on a protest-turned-riot that happened during a speech by Quebec's then-premier, Jean Charest. I've also found an article questioning the media on why the protestors were portrayed so negatively, which is kind of a follow-up on last week's lecture, if you're interested: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jj-mccullough/quebec-student-strike_b_1473334.html

Lastly, during last week's tutorial we had a pretty good discussion going on surrounding fracking in the UK. Fracking is very common in my area of the US (there's a "fracked" well not 10 minutes from my grandmothers house in Pennsylvania). If you're interested on how fracking has affected the US, I encourage you to check out the documentaries "Gasland" and its sequel, "Gasland 2." They show what happens when fracking goes wrong, touching on flammable and contaminated water, the many illnesses and likening the process to a "mini-earthquake," which would explain the earthquake in Lancashire rumoured to be caused by fracking. I know that we don't all have time to watch a whole documentary, so here's a link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8

MONTREAL - A spring of discontent in Quebec characterized by images of red-clad student protesters took on a darker tone Friday as downtown streets were disrupted by scenes of increasingly intense civil unrest.

Demonstrators hurled projectiles from rocks to flower pots in Montreal, committing vandalism outdoors and interrupting different political events indoors. Some vandals even tossed rocks from an overpass onto a busy downtown expressway, police said.

Riot police fought back by swinging batons and firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

There were no reports of any injuries on the expressway, though at least six people were slightly hurt — including four police officers — in a long day of demonstrations.

Provincial police were called in as local officers struggled to handle crowds that disrupted two separate events, including one featuring Premier Jean Charest and, to a lesser extent, one involving federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

There had already been warnings that some students saw their daily protests as more than a fight against tuition increases. Some had taken to referring to the demonstrations as Quebec's "Maple Spring," in a rhetorical nod to broader protest movements elsewhere in the world.

That point was repeatedly driven home Friday by protesters who signalled that the unrest was about more than university fees — it was about the general direction of the province.

"It's not just the tuition increase," said Alexis Remartini, 18, who took a 60-kilometre bus trip from St-Hyacinthe to attend the protest.

"The movement has grown to include other things we don't agree with."

Friday's most chaotic scene unfolded at a high-profile Charest event, as projectiles and tear gas rained on what was supposed to be the premier's political parade.

The symposium on the premier's signature northern-development plan was to have served, some pundits speculated, as a springboard into a provincial election. No vote date has been set.

Charest's lunchtime speech on his Plan Nord was delayed by 45 minutes after protesters managed to bust into the Palais des congres convention centre.

Protesters made it within a flight of stairs of where the luncheon was being held. They were met with a line of riot police, who eventually removed them from the building.

The premier made it clear he had no intention of backing down from his tuition hikes, or from his northern-development plans.

Charest even joked about the protesters during his speech: "Maybe those knocking on the door this morning, we can offer them jobs," he said, to laughter. "In the north, if possible."

Outside, there were scenes of virtual anarchy.

While some protesters hurled objects and built barricades in the street with construction materials they'd found, police fought them off — at one point firing chemical irritants right into one young man at nearly point-blank range.

Seventeen people were arrested as police announced over a loudspeaker that the protest was being declared an illegal assembly.

Demonstrators left a scene of destruction in their wake as they weaved through the downtown streets, backing up traffic. Garbage cans were overturned and trash strewn about. At least three police cars had their back window smashed, and a window at a main entrance to the convention centre was also broken.

Nicolas Moran, 21-year-old law student at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, was one of the students who had earlier managed to get into the building.

He had a gash on his forehead and blood on his shirt.

"I wasn't doing anything violent," he said. "A police officer hit me over the head... But I doubt the education minister will denounce violence from police."

Well behind schedule, Charest finally began a speech that some had expected might serve as a precursor to an election, which the premier must call by late next year.

Charest earned a standing ovation as he walked on stage.

After thanking the crowd for its patience, the premier quickly slipped into his prepared text and described northern development as an inter-generational project deeply embedded in Quebecers' "DNA," sharing his own family history with the north.

He said the plan, which focuses on mining and energy production, would help create thousands of new jobs and "move Quebec forward."

Speaking with reporters afterward, Charest insisted he will not back down on $325-a-year tuition hikes that will raise fees 75 per cent over five years. Even with the increase, Quebec would still have among the lowest tuition rates in the country.

While police said Friday's worst vandalism was not necessarily tied to tuition protests and was possibly the work of other troublemakers, Charest stuck to a familiar script.

The premier focused his response to the events on his preferred political target: the most radical student protest group, whose acronym is C.L.A.S.S.E. Opinion polls have been unkind to the premier lately, but the latest surveys suggest there is some sympathy for his position on tuition fees.

Charest has been refusing to negotiate with the C.L.A.S.S.E. because the group has avoided taking a stance against violent forms of protest.

"The social disruption is unacceptable," Charest told reporters after his speech.

"I've had ministers' offices ransacked. We've had ministers who have had tanks of gas put on the grounds of their homes. Molotov cocktails in front of their offices. Death threats.

"And they refuse to condemn violence? In 2012, in Quebec? That's unacceptable."

Also looming in the backdrop are conflict-of-interest and ethics scandals dogging Charest's government.

His latest headache stems from an investigative report that a well-connected political organizer has been peddling cash-for-access schemes related to the Plan Nord.

Charest's goal is to develop a 1.2-million-square kilometre stretch of the province's north over the next 25 years. Charest has said it will create 500,000 jobs, though his claims have been met with skepticism from opponents who call the plan everything from a marketing gimmick to a sellout of Quebec's resources.

An investigative show on the French-language CBC showed a provincial Liberal organizer — and onetime prominent organizer for the Harper Tories — discussing the Plan Nord while being surreptitiously videotaped.

That organizer, Pierre Coulombe, was videotaped suggesting to reporters, who pretended to be potential clients, that they could have access to Plan Nord decision-makers for a fee.

Instead of handing cash-filled envelopes to political insiders, he suggested clients should simply promise them multi-year jobs on their departure from politics.

He indicated such jobs might pay them about $25,000 annually and require that they attend only one meeting a year while being sent on occasional business trips to Europe.

Not far from Charest's event, an announcement by the federal immigration minister was also interrupted by two protesters who had bought tickets to his speech.

As Kenney began his speech, they twice shouted that his immigration reforms would destroy people's lives. They were both quickly escorted out of the hotel room.

Kenney was in Montreal to announce, in his latest immigration policy reform, that people must prove they can speak English or French to gain Canadian citizenship.

link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/04/20/montreal-student-riot-charest-speech_n_1440910.html

Colin Woodford

Protest in Russia

Artist Pyotr Pavlensky sits on the pavestones 

of Red Square during a protest action in front of the Kremlin wall in central Moscow. Photo: Reuters

Moscow: A Russian performance artist has been hospitalised after stripping naked and nailing his testicles to a Red Square cobblestone in protest against the Kremlin's crackdown on political rights.

A video of the graphic action, available on Russian websites, shows artist Pyotr Pavlensky sitting naked outside Lenin's Mausoleum being covered with a blanket by police officers while horrified passers by look on.

The state-run RIA Novosti news agency says Mr Pavlensky was taken to a police station after being treated in a central Moscow clinic.

The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society's inaction in the face of the development of a police state.

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AAP

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/man-nails-testicles-to-red-square-to-protest-russian-
crackdown-on-rights-20131111-2xah2.html#ixzz2kGtLvSKW

Jess Fricke