Artist Flees Turkey
It's eight months since I reported that British artist Michael Dickinson had been acquitted of the serious charge of insulting the Turkish Prime Minister (CLICK). A week ago the acquittal was quashed and a new case against Dickinson is pending. He fled back to England, but could be deported if found guilty. The trial is expected to go ahead in absentia with Michael being represented by his lawyer. And Turkey thinks it's fit to join the EU. No way! What the idiotic authorities in Turkey don't seem to realise is that every time Michael is persecuted by the legal process, we all publish his "insulting" collages of the Turkish PM! Yes, folks, for posting the above images I could get 10 years in a Turkish hellhole. Don't even think about visiting that backward country for your holidays. Click the title link for the history of this case on the Stuckism International website.
posted by Unknown @ 29.6.09
8 comments
8 Comments:
I LOVED the place Ian. The food, people, and places are amazing.
The Turkish government have to be psychotically sensitive to any criticism as if they show any sign of weakness the place would quickly become Iran or Iraq.
I had no sympathy for the artist as he knew the rules. You dont take drugs into Asia and you dont criticise leaders in Turkey. Dont go to asia if you like drugs and dont go to turkey if you like to create controversy.
Having said that, it's a backward law. But then show me a country anywhere on this planet that isnt backward. I think we need to give the steering wheel to monkeys as we're complete retards.
Hi, Woopidoo
Michael loves the country and the people too. That's why he's lived there for more than a decade. And yes, he did know the rules, but he's an idealist.
No prizes for guessing which side you're rooting for when you watch Planet of the Apes!
It's incredible how stupid our governments are. Yet the arrogant clots think they're leading us. So far, China is the only country that's grasped the nettle and limited population growth to one child per family. And the USA complains about human rights! The human right to die of starvation if we don't limit the population to what this planet can support.
Oh, youre right, I did always have more empathy for the apes in Planet of the Apes..lol. Im not a human hater but our primitive thinking and actions do get me ranting and raving sometimes. I try not to dwell too much on stuff that I cant change though.. life is too good to be wasted on banging your head against a brick wall.
I heard that China is relaxing the one child policy for at least some couples. I dont know if it was an across the board change or just selected couples.
The one child policy from China will go down in history as the greatest environmental action that any country in the world was brave enough to take. Much more powerful than anything Europe or America has contemplated. It takes balls to tell your people that you can only have one kid. I cant praise China enough for it. It's the only thing that will save us. Fuel efficient cars and green energy arent going to do Jack! The simple fact is that there's billions too many people on this planet. We're a destructive plague.. or a life threatening disease to the earth.. whichever feels better to us.
End rant..lol
A lot of children were lost in this year's earthquakes in China. I assume parents who lost their only child are allowed to have another one without breaking the one-child-per family law. Perhaps this is seen as a relaxation of that law, but I don't think it is.
Bio-fuels are insane. A UN spokesman called them "a crime against humanity". Have a look at this advert I posted 2 years ago. The warning was clear then.
http://coxsoft.blogspot.com/2007/05/orang-utan-advert.html
Yeah, but people can make a lot of money from the crops Ian. We dont do what is right, we do what makes us the most money. Big ag companies have a LOT of influence in the usa, australia, and Im assuming most other countries. Theyre no longer family farmers feeding the people, theyre mega-corps taking all they can get.
I have almost given up on the environment as its all just too frustrating. I no longer read any environmental books and rarely ever look at green news on the web as it just depresses me. I even bought shares in a mining stock since handing in my idealist badge..lol I started with buying bhp stocks when they were $33 and the amount I selected came to $6,666!! I felt like I had sold my soul as soon as I bought them..lol
We don't have so many big farms in the UK. Many of our farmers are going bankrupt, and their suicide rate is the highest of any profession.
Being green on a global scale is hopeless, but you can win small victories locally. My local council wanted to build houses on allotments across the road from my house. We kicked up such a fuss that the council backed down. (I don't suppose you have allotments in Australia. They're patches of council-owned land put aside for people to grow their own vegetables. They're a hangover from WW II: "Dig For Victory".)
We do have patches of council owned land around the place, but I dont know of any community gardens on them. It would be a great idea though. It's what we need; communities growing their own food, producing their own energy, and generally working together.
Capitalism doesnt work as well if we all become self sustainable though, so I hope we're not waiting for big business or the government to tell us it's ok to become sustainable communities.
Community wildlife gardens is another of the ideas being tried out here. Butterfly meadows, nest boxes for birds and bats, that sort of thing. The BBC is helping to promote such ideas though its Springwatch and Autumnwatch nature programmes. You can visit their websites to see what is going on.
The UK also has a long history of "common ground", which is where the terms "commons" comes from. People with sheep, pigs, cattle or horses could graze them on "commons", ie public land. The New Forest has its ponies, and pigs are still turned loose there in the sutumn to eat acorns, which are great for pigs but poisonous for horses.
But the farmers want to kill our badgers to stop bovine TB. That's another of the campaigns I've been involved in. We've stopped a major cull of badgers in England, but the Welsh are going to kill their badgers.
Win some, lose some. It's worth having a go and seeing what you can do.
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