Introduction Sarai Reader 04: Crisis / Media
"The darkest, hottest place in hell waits for that repulsive angel choir
Which, at the hour when crisis strikes, sings equivocal, neutral songs".
Dante, Inferno, Canto III.
"The darkest, hottest place in hell waits for that repulsive angel choir
Which, at the hour when crisis strikes, sings equivocal, neutral songs".
Dante, Inferno, Canto III.
CAPABLE OF cutting through time and space, the Internet offers a means of communication not previously dreamed of. It has created important new possibilities as it shrinks distances and provides an astounding volume and variety of information to those who have computer access. One result of these is the acceleration of the development of solidarity networks among peoples, regions, and countries. In Indonesia, it has even managed to help topple a strongman who, until his unscheduled resignation in May 1998, had been Asia's longest reigning postwar ruler. To Indonesia's powers that be, controlling the Internet has become close to being an obsession.
Read"Free Pussy Riot collective members Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from Russian prison and drop all charges now. Write a letter of support pussriotsolidarity@gmail.com visit the site freepussyriot.org & donate/sign petition"
ReadIt is time to break the silence!
ArtLeaks is collective platform initiated by an international group of
artists, curators, art historians and intellectuals in response to the
abuse of their professional integrity and the open infraction of their
labor rights. In the art world, such abuses usually disappear, but some
events bring them into sharp focus and therefore deserve public
scrutiny. Only by drawing attention to concrete abuses can we
underscore the precarious condition of cultural workers and the
necessity for sustained protest against the appropriation of politically
engaged art, culture and theory by institutions embedded in a tight
mesh of capital and power.
No One Is Illegal is an international network of local groups of immigrants, refugees and
allies who fight for the rights of all migrants to live with dignity
and respect.
The DARS Page chronicles daily acts of resistance and subversion (DARS) in contemporary Arab societies and beyond. All forms of resistance and subversion to political, economic, social, or cultural forms of exploitation will be of interest. This includes resistance to authoritarianism, occupation, imperialism, and social norms, and the many ways these are subverted.
ReadOne day seminar and public evening debate on social media activism in the Arab World and China, organised by the Centre for Globalisation Studies of the University of Amsterdam, Monday 21 January 2013.
Read"My 'Wahlen sind Betrug' ('Elections are a Con') poster project was selected in November 2011 by a jury using an exemplary open process for the TKI open competition by TKI (Tiroler Kulturinitiativen) on 'No theme'. For the first time in the 10-year history of TKI open, the province of Tyrol (Austria) denied funding for an artistic work selected by a jury of experts.
ReadThis debate in the frame of the International Film Festival Rotterdam's
Power Cut Middle East programme, takes a look at the images, both moving
and still, that have come from the Middle East like a huge wave in the
past few months. Due to the increase of mobile phone films and photos,
we have a great deal of material whose origin is uncertain. It seems
authentic, but who is coming to blows with whom? And who has made the
films and taken the photos? Regimes are also aware of this, and use it
to their advantage. Are we seeing actors, paid demonstrators, real
people? How do we read and interpret these images?
Global Uprisings is an independent news site and video series dedicated to showing responses to the economic crisis and authoritarianism. Since 2011, Brandon Jourdan and Marianne Maeckelbergh have been travelling, researching, and making documentary films.
Their short films detail social movements in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Egypt, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US. Their films cover strikes and demonstrations in the UK, the large-scale housing occupations and street mobilizations in Spain, the various general strikes, protests, and factory occupations in Greece, the revolution in Egypt, the Gezi Park uprising in Turkey, the 2014 social explosion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the revolt against austerity in Portugal, and the occupy movement in the United States.
A demonstration in solidarity with Anonymous Hacker Jeremy Hammond occurred last night (December 3, 2013) at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn where he is temporarily being held. Just two weeks ago, the 28 year old was sentenced to 10 years in federal detention for cyber crimes. Amongst other high-profile breaches, he leaked confidential intelligence data to Wikileaks from a private intelligence firm known as Stratfor. Many consider Stratfor to be a "shadow CIA" operating under even less regulation and oversight than a government entity.
Read"The investigation against Netzpolitik.org for treason and their unknown sources is an attack against the free press. Charges of treason against journalists performing their essential work is a violation of the fifth article of the German constitution. We demand an end to the investigation into Netzpolitik.org and their unknown sources."
ReadWIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks.
ReadSixty-two-year old Jordanian Labibeh Tannous was trying frantically to
decide which satellite dish to buy. Should she go for the simple kind
that only has the Arab satellite stations that goes for about $100 or
should she go for a rotating dish that can pick up European stations as
well which can be bought for about $150?
Her interest reflects both how inexpensive satellite dishes have become
and the great thirst people throughout the Arab world have to go beyond
what their national station is providing in television news.
To: nettime-l {AT} bbs.thing.net
Subject: <nettime> Rise and Decline of the Syndicate
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 15:52:49 +0100
The Syndicate mailing list imploded and went down in August 2001, destroying the life-line of the Syndicate network. The network had been in a shaky situation for a while, due - we believe - to the destabilisation of the problematic balance between personal contacts of list members, lurking and filtering-and-not-reading-let-alone-posting subscribers, and a growing number of self-promoters who used the list as a personal performance space and disregarded the social rules of the online community.
Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison, Anarchist Hacker Jeremy Hammond Uses Allocution to Give Consequential Statement Highlighting Global Criminal Exploits by FBI Handlers.
ReadThe global occupy protest movement is proliferating by "contagion, epidemics, battlefields, and catastrophes".[1] Furthermore, it materialises and disperses in multiple ephemeral processes of transformation that construct a common for the multitude of protestors. The common produced by the global occupy movement is not a mutually shared opposition to the capitalist crisis, nor a collective identity (of the "indignados" or of the 99%), nor a consensual political project (for real, authentic democracy). The common does not even embody an identical strategy of occupying public space, but rather to a series of becomings that question established categorizations and taxonomies that normalize the production of subjectivities and the organisation of life.
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