Toban Black

[via Bouphonia]
(Click to enlarge)

That image…
is a metaphor for the divisions that separate the ‘First’ ‘World’ from the ‘Third’ ‘World’
and
it captures the ultimate dream of people who seek to profit without accountability for the consequences of their enterprises

Surbordination and exploitation are the lowest common denominators there.

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(Here in London, Ontario, Canada)

“FREE GAZA”

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Who Profits from the Occupation?

“Israeli and international corporations are directly involved in the occupation: in the construction of Israeli colonies and infrastructure in the occupied territories, in the settlements’ economy, in building walls and checkpoints, in the supply of specific equipment used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.”

“Currently, we focus our attention on three main areas of corporate involvement in the occupation: The Settlement Industry, Economic Exploitation and Control of Population. At this stage in our project, we are not investigating the vast industry of military production and arms trade. The information we provide on the exploitation of Palestinian labor and production is also very limited.”

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Those images are small thumbnails from a set of photos from Israel that Alex Segre has posted on Flickr.

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Bryan Farrell on the Waging Nonviolence blog -
“Nonviolence goes overlooked in Palestine”

“joy_in_palestine” on their In Palestine blog-
[ Nonviolent Palestinian resistance ]

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Gwen on the Sociological Images blog -
“ ‘1 SHOT, 2 KILLS’ [Israeli] army t-shirts” (March 24th)

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Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler (in this article) -

A recent “Human Rights Watch (HRW) report focuses on six cases of Israeli drone-launched missile attacks in which 29 Palestinian civilians, eight of them children, were killed. Based on cross-referenced eyewitness accounts corroborated by doctors, as well as ballistics and forensic evidence collected on the attack sites, the report asserts that ‘in none of the cases did HRW find evidence that Palestinian fighters were present in the immediate area of the attack at the time.’ ”

“Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at the emergencies program of HRW, estimates that at least 87 civilians were killed in 42 drone attacks.”

“Israel is the world leader in drone technology.”

“Israeli drones have advanced sensors, combining radars, electro- optical and infrared cameras, and lasers providing real time imaging by day and night.”

“According to Palestinian sources, 900 civilians were killed during the military operations, among a total of more than 1,400 killed. The HRW report says a third of the fatalities were from drone-launched missiles. Israeli sources put the civilian death toll at 300.”

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(Photo by “TLV REVOLTER“)

In Israel

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George Monbiot (in this article) -
“Blaise Pascal (’the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his own room’) couldn’t have been more wrong.”

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(Photo by Antonia Schulz)

Public art in Berlin

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Edited exerpts from an article by Joe Bageant -

Americans “remain one of the most controlled peoples on the planet, especially regarding control of our consciousness, public and private.”

“I know it doesn’t feel like that to most Americans. But therein rests the proof. Everything feels normal; [almost] everybody else around us is doing the same things, so it must be OK.

This is a sort of Stockholm Syndrome …, in which the prisoner identifies with the values of his or her captors, which in our case is of course, [American corporations, the American state, and a wider status quo -- including] its manufactured popular[ized] culture.

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The guys in the expensive clothing were discussing their coffees (which were too hot for them).
They clearly were oblivious to poverty in others’ lives — right beside them, and elsewhere in the world.

The yellow box has “AUTO MART,” “Renters NEWS” and “New HOMES” labels on it. Those publications basically are advertisements for automobiles and real estate –
which the guy sitting on the sidewalk wouldn’t be able to afford.

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(Photo by Albus Cavus)

Rainbows

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Anthony DiMaggio in CounterPunch -
“Transcending Race?”
“Obama’s Victory and the ‘End’ of Racism”

Lisa at the “Sociological Images” blog -
“CNN Pundit: Obama won, therefore racism is no longer a problem”

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The end of Ku Klux Klan racism -

[via Bastard Logic]

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Judith Siers-Poisson in CounterPunch -
“How Far Have We Really Come From the ‘One-Drop Rule’?”

( “Does framing [Obama] as America’s ‘first Black president’ show that we have not come nearly as far as we’d like to think? …”)

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Jenny at her blog -
“The Illusion of Independence”

(… “We require community, in the most robust sense of the word” …)

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Christopher J. Ryan (in this blog post) -

“Quiet desperation is a good cliche to apply to the situation we face today. We see many people go about their [lives] as if nothing serious were the matter. Yet even the comfortably ensconced middle class are going out to dinner less, shopping at the discount grocery instead of the upscale natural food store, and taking less day trips over the weekend. Here in Massachusetts, we received word from the Attorney General that this winter will be devastating to the low and moderate income populations related to heating and even the middle class will be severely impacted. But typical polite conversation doesn’t include these concerns as we continue to talk about the baseball playoffs [and so on]. Little consideration is given to the car sleepers in Santa Barbara, the people who use their stoves to heat their homes, abandoned children and pets, and the many who use one credit card to pay another or their mortgage or the baby food.

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Simran Sethi on AlterNet -
…”Heating bills may be [a] killer this winter”

Selected exerpts (which I’ve also edited — a little) -

“According to the United Kingdom’s National Housing Federation, one in four residents are facing ‘fuel poverty,’ spending more than 10 percent of their household income on fuel bills. By the end of 2009, 5.7 million UK households will be spending at least 10 percent of their income on energy bills. That’s a 100 percent increase since 2005.”

“The United States Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration estimates each American household will pay, on average, $1,182 in heating costs this winter — a 20 percent increase from last winter and a 65 percent increase from the winter of 2003/04.”

“Yet, a closer look reveals that this pain isn’t shared equally. Costs are a reflection of a host of factors including geography, consumption levels, and the quality of energy used.”  (The author then discusses two examples: American “Northeasterners” and American “Westerners.”)

“This energy crisis is creating an opportunity for us … to take back our power.”

“In addition to considering what we use and how we use it, we must consider issues of [social (rather than biological) ] race and class. The impacts of rising temperatures, fossil fuels prices, and heating and food costs disproportionately impact the most vulnerable among us.

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(Photo by “skonen_blades“)

“SOMEONE SLEPT HERE”

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BBC - “‘Car sleepers’ the new US homeless”

Associated Press - “In hard times, tent cities rise across the [United States]”

(Here’s a photo of those housing tents.)

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A few street signs from a set that Mark Daye put up
in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) -

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“Homeless Warming Grate, Please Keep Clear”

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“Please keep our streets clean, over 818 people have to sleep on them.”

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Background information

(… The intent was to catch people off-guard by making the invisible visible through a respected and authorized medium …)

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There are more photos of more of those signs (on Flickr).

A video about the signs also was made and posted (on YouTube).

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Here’s a photo from Washington, DC
that raises similar issues -

That scene was set up by Mark Jenkins.