US anti-terrorism law curbs free speech and activist work, court told
Controversy over NDAA centres on loose definition of key words, such as who are 'associated forces' of named terrorist groups
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/29/journalists-us-anti-terrorism-law-ndaa
A group political activists and journalists has launched a legal challenge to stop an American law they say allows the US military to arrest civilians anywhere in the world and detain them without trial as accused supporters of terrorism.
The seven figures, who include ex-New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, professor Noam Chomsky and Icelandic politician and WikiLeaks campaigner Birgitta Jonsdottir, testified to a Manhattan judge that the law – dubbed the NDAA or Homeland Battlefield Bill – would cripple free speech around the world.
They said that various provisions written into the National Defense Authorization Bill, which was signed by President Barack Obama at the end of 2011, effectively broadened the definition of "supporter of terrorism" to include peaceful activists, authors, academics and even journalists interviewing members of radical groups.
Controversy centres on the loose definition of key words in the bill, in particular who might be "associated forces" of the law's named terrorist groups al-Qaida and the Taliban and what "substantial support" to those groups might get defined as. Whereas White House officials have denied the wording extends any sort of blanket coverage to civilians, rather than active enemy combatants, or actions involved in free speech, some civil rights experts have said the lack of precise definition leaves it open to massive potential abuse.
[...]
Testifying alongside Hedges was Kai Wargalla, a German organiser behind Occupy London, and a supporter of WikiLeaks, which has extensively published secret US government documents.
Wargalla said that since British police had included Occupy London alongside al-Qaida on a terrorism warning notice, she was afraid of the implications of NDAA. She said that after NDAA was signed she was no longer willing to invite an Islamic group like Hamas to speak on discussion panels for fear of being implicated a supporter of terrorism. "We are on a terrorism list just under al-Qaida and this is what the section of the NDAA is talking about under 'associated forces'," she said.
Author and campaigner Naomi Wolf read testimony in court from Jonsdottir, who has been a prominent supporter of WikiLeaks and a proponent of free speech laws. Jonsdottir's testimony said she was now afraid of arrest and detention because so many US political figures had labelled WikiLeaks as a terrorist group.
Despite receiving verbal assurance from US officials that she was not under threat, Jonsdottir testified she would not travel to the US despite being invited to give lectures in the country. "[The NDAA] provisions create a greater sense of fear since now the federal government will have a tool with which to incarcerate me outside of the normal requirements of the criminal law. Because of this change in the legal situation, I am now no longer able to travel to the US for fear of being taken into custody as as having 'substantially supported' groups that are considered as either terrorist groups or their associates," said Jonsdottir in the statement read by Wolf, who is also a Guardian commentator.
In an opening argument, lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that they would try to show the definitions used in the NDAA provisions were so unclear that it would have a "chilling" effect on the work of journalists, activists and academics even if no one was actually detained.
[...]
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Slavoj Žižek, God in Pain
http://allprinceton.com/content/slavoj-zizek-q-book-party-and-signing-%E2%80%93-god-pain
Slavoj Žižek Q & A, Book Party, and Signing – God in Pain
Event Dates: April 10, 2012 - 6:00pm
Location
Labyrinth Books
122 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
Just out is God in Pain: Inversions of the Apocalypse, a brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, from one of the world's most articulate intellectuals in conversation with Croatian theologian Boris Gunjévic. Zizek will be at Labyrinth to celebrate the release and to take questions.
Slavoj Žižek Q & A, Book Party, and Signing – God in Pain
Event Dates: April 10, 2012 - 6:00pm
Location
Labyrinth Books
122 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
Just out is God in Pain: Inversions of the Apocalypse, a brilliant dissection and reconstruction of the three major faith-based systems of belief in the world today, from one of the world's most articulate intellectuals in conversation with Croatian theologian Boris Gunjévic. Zizek will be at Labyrinth to celebrate the release and to take questions.
Slavoj Žižek at the New York Public Library
April 25, 2012
New York Public Library
http://www.versobooks.com/events/402-slavoj-zizek-at-the-new-york-public-library
Come listen to Žižek speak at the New York Public Library
On April 25th, Slavoj Žižek will be appearing at the New York Public Library to speak about his major and long-anticipated new work on Hegel, Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism.
Please visit the NYPL events page and stay tuned ours for more details to come.
New York Public Library
http://www.versobooks.com/events/402-slavoj-zizek-at-the-new-york-public-library
Come listen to Žižek speak at the New York Public Library
On April 25th, Slavoj Žižek will be appearing at the New York Public Library to speak about his major and long-anticipated new work on Hegel, Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism.
Please visit the NYPL events page and stay tuned ours for more details to come.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Slavoj Žižek visits Brunel to discuss the revival of radical politics
Friday 16 March 2012
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/sss/politics/news-and-events/news/ne_166996
Slovenian philosopher and bestselling author Slavoj Žižek visited Brunel University to talk about worldwide revolutions and protests in recent years to a large audience.
As part of the research seminar series Crisis, Transition, Transformation. Revolutionary Thought Today, organised by the Social and Political Thought research group, the seminar discussed events from Occupy to the Arab Spring.
Politics and History Lecturer Dr. Peter Thomas said: “He covered the numerous crises in the contemporary world with particular reference to the different protests and revolutions of the last year."
“Slavoj Žižek talked about the critiques proposed by these movements and the possibility of positive social change, and posed the classic question of revolutionary politics: ‘What is to be done?’”
Around 250 people attended the event, travelling not just from London but also from as far as Brighton to listen to the thoughts of the prominent contemporary philosopher and author.
Žižek’s seminar also coincided with the launch this year of Brunel University’s master's course Modern Political Thought: Violence and Revolution, which focuses on the role of concepts of violence and revolution in political change.
Dr. Peter Thomas said: “We distributed information about the new course and the many other activities of the growing Social and Political Thought research group, which was very favourably received.”
Overall, the Brunel University lecturer was pleased with the event and particularly the attendance, which was so large that the event had to be moved to a bigger venue.
“Slavoj Žižek is in high demand as a speaker as he is very well known as one of the leading voices of contemporary critical thought. It was a pleasure to host him here at Brunel, and we look forward to inviting him back in the future.”
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/sss/politics/news-and-events/news/ne_166996
Slovenian philosopher and bestselling author Slavoj Žižek visited Brunel University to talk about worldwide revolutions and protests in recent years to a large audience.
As part of the research seminar series Crisis, Transition, Transformation. Revolutionary Thought Today, organised by the Social and Political Thought research group, the seminar discussed events from Occupy to the Arab Spring.
Politics and History Lecturer Dr. Peter Thomas said: “He covered the numerous crises in the contemporary world with particular reference to the different protests and revolutions of the last year."
“Slavoj Žižek talked about the critiques proposed by these movements and the possibility of positive social change, and posed the classic question of revolutionary politics: ‘What is to be done?’”
Around 250 people attended the event, travelling not just from London but also from as far as Brighton to listen to the thoughts of the prominent contemporary philosopher and author.
Žižek’s seminar also coincided with the launch this year of Brunel University’s master's course Modern Political Thought: Violence and Revolution, which focuses on the role of concepts of violence and revolution in political change.
Dr. Peter Thomas said: “We distributed information about the new course and the many other activities of the growing Social and Political Thought research group, which was very favourably received.”
Overall, the Brunel University lecturer was pleased with the event and particularly the attendance, which was so large that the event had to be moved to a bigger venue.
“Slavoj Žižek is in high demand as a speaker as he is very well known as one of the leading voices of contemporary critical thought. It was a pleasure to host him here at Brunel, and we look forward to inviting him back in the future.”
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Ukrainian Art World Gets Political
By GINANNE BROWNELL
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/arts/24iht-sckiev24.html?_r=1
KIEV — The shutting down of an exhibition in Kiev last month became something of a performance art piece in its own right. The show, “Ukrainian Body,” which opened Feb. 7 at the Visual Culture Research Center at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, aimed to explore corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society. Alongside pieces like Oksana Briukhovetska’s picture book of the elderly and destitute in Kiev and a trident shield (the symbol of Ukraine) hand-carved by Vova Vorotniov were Sasha Kurmaz’s photographs of nude women, a few drawings of naked men by Anatoliy Byelov and a video installation by Mykola Ridnyi that looped contrasting images — one of a vagina and one of the Ukrainian Parliament — and asked viewers which image was more irritating.
The Mystetskyi Arsenal, an arts space set inside a vast former arms depot, will play host to Kiev's first contemporary art biennale in May.
Three days after the exhibition opened, the academy’s president, Serhiy Kvit, visited it. As Vasyl Cherepanyn, the director of the center tells it, a few hours later Mr. Kvit came back to the exhibition, keys in hand, and began shutting down video monitors and turning off the lights. “I asked him what he was doing,” said Mr. Cherepanym, who teaches in the university’s cultural studies department.
“He told me ‘This is not an exhibition,”’ and used an expletive to describe it.
Mr. Kvit later told the media, “The exhibition is not closed, it is just locked.”
The president did not reply to e-mail requests for an explanation of his actions, though the academy provided a link to a page — in Ukrainian — of comments made by Mr. Kvit on the case.
After that, the academy only opened the show to the public when journalists requested entry. The closure prompted major debates over censorship not only among those involved in contemporary arts in Kiev, but also in the mainstream media.
Sympathizers across Ukraine showed solidarity with performances of their own, including one man in Donetsk who stripped naked in the freezing cold and carved the symbolic trident shield into his stomach with a razor. “Ukrainian Body” never reopened and the university closed the exhibition space altogether this month for what it said were “renovations.” According to Mr. Cherepanyn, the space will now be used to house the university's archive.
A petition to protest those actions — signed by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, artists including Artur Zmijewski and Sara Goodman, and academics including Eric Fassin and John-Paul Himka — and calling for the “restoration of academic and artistic freedom” has been circulating across the country.
Despite widespread disappointment at the censorship, however, many see the outraged reaction of the general public as a sign of positive growth in the arts world here.
[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/24/arts/24iht-sckiev24.html?_r=1
KIEV — The shutting down of an exhibition in Kiev last month became something of a performance art piece in its own right. The show, “Ukrainian Body,” which opened Feb. 7 at the Visual Culture Research Center at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, aimed to explore corporality in contemporary Ukrainian society. Alongside pieces like Oksana Briukhovetska’s picture book of the elderly and destitute in Kiev and a trident shield (the symbol of Ukraine) hand-carved by Vova Vorotniov were Sasha Kurmaz’s photographs of nude women, a few drawings of naked men by Anatoliy Byelov and a video installation by Mykola Ridnyi that looped contrasting images — one of a vagina and one of the Ukrainian Parliament — and asked viewers which image was more irritating.
The Mystetskyi Arsenal, an arts space set inside a vast former arms depot, will play host to Kiev's first contemporary art biennale in May.
Three days after the exhibition opened, the academy’s president, Serhiy Kvit, visited it. As Vasyl Cherepanyn, the director of the center tells it, a few hours later Mr. Kvit came back to the exhibition, keys in hand, and began shutting down video monitors and turning off the lights. “I asked him what he was doing,” said Mr. Cherepanym, who teaches in the university’s cultural studies department.
“He told me ‘This is not an exhibition,”’ and used an expletive to describe it.
Mr. Kvit later told the media, “The exhibition is not closed, it is just locked.”
The president did not reply to e-mail requests for an explanation of his actions, though the academy provided a link to a page — in Ukrainian — of comments made by Mr. Kvit on the case.
After that, the academy only opened the show to the public when journalists requested entry. The closure prompted major debates over censorship not only among those involved in contemporary arts in Kiev, but also in the mainstream media.
Sympathizers across Ukraine showed solidarity with performances of their own, including one man in Donetsk who stripped naked in the freezing cold and carved the symbolic trident shield into his stomach with a razor. “Ukrainian Body” never reopened and the university closed the exhibition space altogether this month for what it said were “renovations.” According to Mr. Cherepanyn, the space will now be used to house the university's archive.
A petition to protest those actions — signed by the philosopher Slavoj Žižek, artists including Artur Zmijewski and Sara Goodman, and academics including Eric Fassin and John-Paul Himka — and calling for the “restoration of academic and artistic freedom” has been circulating across the country.
Despite widespread disappointment at the censorship, however, many see the outraged reaction of the general public as a sign of positive growth in the arts world here.
[...]
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
March 21, Happy Birthday Professor Žižek!
http://continuumphilosophy.typepad.com/continuum_philosophy/2012/03/happy-birthday-for-tomorrow-slavoj-%C5%BEi%C5%BEek.html
March 20, 2012
Happy birthday (for tomorrow...) Slavoj Žižek!
Dubbed 'the world's hippest philosopher' by The Telegraph, 'philosophy's answer to Bob Dylan' by The Guardian and an 'intellectual rock star' by The Times Literary Supplement, Slavoj Žižek turns 63 tomorrow (21st March) and so we felt it was only right to celebrate with some of our popular books by and about the man himself.
Whether you're just dipping your toe into his writing or are well-versed and looking for something new to read, we're guaranteed to have something to interest you.
[...]
March 20, 2012
Happy birthday (for tomorrow...) Slavoj Žižek!
Dubbed 'the world's hippest philosopher' by The Telegraph, 'philosophy's answer to Bob Dylan' by The Guardian and an 'intellectual rock star' by The Times Literary Supplement, Slavoj Žižek turns 63 tomorrow (21st March) and so we felt it was only right to celebrate with some of our popular books by and about the man himself.
Whether you're just dipping your toe into his writing or are well-versed and looking for something new to read, we're guaranteed to have something to interest you.
[...]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)