Mighty Might—C.O.P.

This Is The Life (Trailer)

In Tunisia, Women Play Equal Role In Revolution

“Female voices rang out loud and clear during massive protests that brought down the authoritarian rule of Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

“Women in Tunisia are unique in the Arab world for enjoying near equality with men. And they are anxious to maintain their status.”

@NPR

Bombino—Tar Hani

Public Workers Strike in Britain Over Pensions

“Joining a growing wave of unrest in Europe over government austerity measures, tens of thousands of British teachers and public-sector workers walked off their jobs on Thursday to protest proposed changes to their pension plans.

“More than 10,000 schools were affected by the strikes, as were universities, social security offices, courtrooms, airport customs desks and other governent operations. Union officials warned that the strike could be the first of a series of walkouts here in the next few months, reflecting growing unhappiness over layoffs, salary freezes, tax increases and a persistently sluggish economy.”

@The New York Times

God is Here

US extends drone strikes to Somalia

US extends drone strikes to Somalia

First drone strike in Somalia reported to have wounded senior al-Shabab militants.
The US has conducted its first drone strike on Islamist militants in Somalia, marking the expansion of the pilotless war campaign to a sixth country.

Declan Walsh
@The Guardian

Colonialism in 10 Minutes: The Scramble For Africa

Gogol Bordello—Not A Crime

Fighting Wars With Music and Art

Katibe 5: Rapping Against Occupation from Cultures of Resistance on Vimeo.


“Out this week on DVD, director Iara Lee's new documentary, Cultures of Resistance, serves as a sharp reminder that at any given moment, a sobering portion of the world is embroiled in political turmoil. The film hops us from one fraught location to the next, showing the graphic truths of oppression, civil war, and industrialization. Lee's purpose, though, is not to send you into a permanent funk, but to highlight artistic forms of resistance and protest all over the globe.”

@Mother Jones

Nostalgia (for an age yet to come)

Hauntology: A not-so-new critical manifestation.



“Hauntology is probably the first major trend in critical theory to have flourished online. In October 2006, Mark Fisher—aka k-punk—described it as ‘the closest thing we have to a movement, a zeitgeist’. A mere three years later, Adam Harper prefaced a piece on the subject with the following caveat: ‘I'm all too aware that it's no longer 2006, the year to blog about hauntology’. Two months ago, James Bridle predicted that the concept was ‘about six months away from becoming the title of a column in a Sunday supplement magazine’. Only four months to go, then. My hunch is that hauntology is already haunting itself. The revival starts here.”

@The Guardian

The New Panopticon

“If Internet service providers or police agencies randomly monitor Internet users, then the Internet begins to share similar properties with the panopticon prison structure. The panopticon as a conceptual structure can be applied to any physical structure that provides the ability of those in a position of authority to monitor the ‘inmates’ without the ‘inmates’ knowing when they are being monitored. What is unique within the structure of the Internet is that it allows multiple layers of observation to occur such that the ‘inmates’ can become the observers of other ‘inmates’. In such a situation, no one knows who is the observer and who is the observed.

“This paper is an attempt to describe what the panopticon model is and to provide support that elements of the panopticon model inherently exist in the structure of the Internet. This paper provides examples of how Internet user’s privacy is being overlooked in order for certain corporations to provide declared necessary services such as security against terrorists and hackers, control over illegal content (pornography, pirated computer, music, and film files, and dangerous information on how to build bombs etc.). Still, it remains too early to say that any kind of organized conspiracy exists with the goal to strip Internet users of their rights and monitor every interaction.”

@Theory & Science