Monday, 29 June 2009

500 κάμερες, 500 στιγμές ζωής

Οι παλαιστινιακοί προσφυγικοί καταυλισμοί στον Λίβανο μέσα από τα μάτια των παιδιών

Η προσφυγιά στοιχειώνει τις μέρες μας. Περιδιαβαίνοντας τους δρόμους του Μεταξουργείου, αναζητώντας με τον χάρτη ανά χείρας τους διάσπαρτους στον αστικό ιστό παλιούς, άδειους χώρους που φιλοξενούν το πρόγραμμα REMAP2, παράλληλο με τη 2η Μπιενάλε της Αθήνας, ο φιλότεχνος θα σκοντάψει πιθανόν σε κάποιο αστυνομικό μπλόκο: μία από τις πολλές επιχειρήσεις-σκούπα για την πάταξη της ««λαθρομετανάστευσης» που είναι σε εξέλιξη.

Στον ημιόροφο του κτιρίου της οδού Λεωνίδου 15 στο Μεταξουργείο φιλοξενείται μια έκθεση φωτογραφίας μ’ έναν παράξενο τίτλο. «LAHZA» σημαίνει στα αραβικά στιγμή αλλά και φευγαλέα ματιά. Ένα πρωτότυπο εγχείρημα με σκοπό να αποτυπώσει στιγμές ζωής από 12 παλαιστινικούς προσφυγικούς καταυλισμούς στον Λίβανο μέσα από τα μάτια των παιδιών.

Όλα ξεκίνησαν το 2007 από μια ιδέα του Ραμζί Χαϊντάρ, βετεράνου φωτορεπόρτερ του πρακτορείου Agence France Press. Επιστρέφοντας στον Λίβανο, μετά την κάλυψη της αμερικανικής εισβολής στο Ιράκ, προσπαθεί να μυήσει στη φωτογραφία τα παιδιά των προσφυγικών σταρτοπέδων. Σε συνεργασία με τον Μη Κερδοσκοπικό Οργανισμό ZAKIRA («μνήμη» στα αραβικά) επιστρατεύει μια ομάδα από φωτογράφους, καλλιτέχνες και εθελοντές. Η αρχή γίνεται με χαρτί και μολύβι. Παιδιά ηλικίας 7-12 ετών ζωγραφίζουν σκηνές από τις αντίξοες συνθήκες ζωής τους, τους φόβους και τις ελπίδες τους.. Στη συνέχεια τούς μοιράζονται 500 κάμερες μιας χρήσης.

«Το κλειδί» εξηγεί ο Χαϊντάρ, «είναι ότι πίσω από κάθε εικόνα κρύβεται μια ιστορία. Το πέρασμα από τη ζωγραφιά στη φωτογραφία έγινε φυσικά, γιατί τα παιδιά είχαν ήδη μια σαφή αντίληψη για τη σημασία της εικόνας: αυτήν της Παλαιστίνης, μέσα από τηλεοπτικές εικόνες, εφημερίδες, ιστορίες που ακούν απ’ τους γονείς τους. Είναι ο μόνος τρόπος να επανασυνδεθούν με την πατρίδα τους». Η σοδειά ήταν εντυπωσιακή: 13.500 φωτογραφίες από τις οποίες επιλέχτηκαν τελικά 141. Ακολούθησε η έκδοση ενός λευκώματος, εκθέσεις στη Βηρυτό και το Παρίσι, τηλεοπτικά αφιερώματα στο CNN και σε άλλα διεθνή δίκτυα. «Δημιουργήσαμε έναν χώρο όπου η φωτογραφία και το νόημά της μπορούν να συζητηθούν… όπου η φωτογραφία δεν αντανακλά απλώς την κουλτούρα αλλά γίνεται οργανικό μέρος της».

Διάρκεια έκθεσης έως 26 Ιουλίου και από 2 Σεπτεμβρίου έως 4 Οκτωβρίου 2009.
Ώρες Λειτουργίας: από Τετάρτη έως Κυριακή, 17:00 – 21:00.

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Εξέγερση στο Ιράν / Ο πόλεμος της ενημέρωσης [αναδημοσίευση από]

Excerpts from The Green Brief / The State of Iran 6/23

Josh Shahryar from Anonymous Iran brings us this.

1. Although most sources had confirmed that there was going to be a strike today in Tehran, the city had only partially closed down its shops. Throughout the day reports kept arriving that Mousavi had not ordered the strike, however, most people continued urging protesters to comply with the strike. It seemed that there was a complete lack of coordination between the movement and its leader. This is the first time it has happened, however, and seems to be a direct result of government’s tireless efforts at trying to jam communications between protesters and their leaders.

2. There were sporadic reports of a more successful strike in parts of the Kurdish-inhabited areas of northwestern Iran. In Kurdistan province, the cities of Sanadanj and Seqqez were reported to have had half their shops closed. There were also reports from Mahabad in Western Azerbaijan province to the north of Kurdistan province. That city is also inhabited by Kurds. The main stream media has not confirmed these reports; however, sources were pretty uniform about the veracity of them. (many many tweets in Farsi about this earlier) There have been unrests in Mashhad and Tabriz as well, but no solid news came out for us to investigate further.

3. People in Tehran, though, acted in different ways to continue to defy the authorities. There were anti-government posters stuck on walls, anti-government slogans adorned parts of the walls of the city (I am holding off on posting one of these until I get the go-ahead for security reasons) and waves of small rallies broke out in various parts of the city. Car headlights were turned on in the city at dark to commemorate those killed in the protests and chants of Allah o Akbar continued to ring loudly at night. Among these chants, there were also chants of “Death to the Dictator” and surprisingly enough, some people also chanted “Death of Khamenei” – although the last one was only reported in isolated areas.

4. The city of Tehran was literally crawling with Basijis and police. There were roadblocks everywhere and the streets were heavily patrolled by the security forces. Most sources complained that going outside was dangerous for anyone – even if the person wasn’t a protester as security forces continued to beat up anyone they could get their hands on.

5. There were reports of clashes in northern, western and eastern Tehran between small numbers of protesters and the security forces, though; no news of any casualties reached us. Shots were fired late at night as well, but still no word of casualties today. (No tweets/messages my way of casualties today, just injuries) People had started small fires on the streets that were continuously being put down by the security forces.

6. Arrests continue to take place throughout the day. Journalists from Kalemeh newspaper were picked up and there were unconfirmed reports of the arrest of at least 2 journalists affiliated with the foreign media, however, the latter claim could not be independently verified. One of these is a Greek reporter with the Washington Times. The government has now announced the creation of a special court in order to investigate and decide the cases of people who have been so far arrested by the government.

7. There was also sickening news of security forces asking the families of protesters who’d been killed for large sums of money – typically between 3-5 thousand dollars - as a “bullet fee” if they wanted the bodies of their dead relatives back. At least two cases were confirmed by our reliable sources, but it seems to have not picked up with MSM yet. (One confirmed case I’ve heard of) Also, relatives of protesters went today to Evin prison to see if they could get information about the ones arrested recently. They were turned away without a chance to verify whether their relatives were in custody.

8. The Iranian government continued to blame the West for Iran’s current state of affairs. (Israel too… oh, if only they knew..) As a direct result of this, Iran expelled to British diplomats in protest, resulting in the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats by the British government. There are reports of the EU mulling over imposing sanctions against Iran. Shirin Ebadi – the Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Iran – has asked the world to only impose political and not economic sanctions on Iran.

9. Mousavi and Khatami’s offices have told their supporters to use a different tactic to get their demands by going to the bazaars with their families everyday starting Tuesday at 9 and not buy anything at all. If anyone is to ask them, they’re to say they’re there to shop. According to Khatami, time had come people to stop wasting their energies on the government in the old ways and start new ways of defying the authorities’ refusal to meet their demands. According to Khatami, the actions described above will halt all business in Tehran. (Civil Disobedience instead of violent protests)

10. State media in Iran are continuing to denounce protesters as thugs, hooligans and terrorists. It has been reported that Keyhan Daily’s tomorrow’s edition is going to call for Mousavi’s arrest. Reports were also published and broadcasted about Mohsen Rezaee – on of the four candidates during the election – has taken back all his complaints against the elections. Khamenei has extended the period for registering complaints against the elections for five more days. The deadline was Wednesday, before.

11. Throughout the day, there were reports of Mousavi organizing a fresh rally as well as Karoubi calling on people to stage rallies in different locations. Both leaders were said to have wanted rallies late afternoon on Thursday. Yet, the reports were often so conflicted that for now, the place and time of the protests cannot be verified. As before, it seems they are trying to confuse the government into keeping less armed personnel around the protest area by not letting them know where it’s actually at. So far, reliable sources have mostly agreed upon a rally at Baharestan Square in the late afternoon. (What I’ve heard, but fearful this message may be too widespread and govt. forces will be waiting)

12. There was word all over twitter about Britain freezing more than a billion dollars worth of Iranian assets as a result of the protests. However, this had actually happened way before the protests as a result of Iran’s non-compliance with the recommendations of IAEA during the nuclear standoff. The news of Iranian footballers that wore green bands in their game against South Korea being forcibly retired has been confirmed. (Unsurprising, but brave of the players)

Today it was very difficult to get news out of Iran as people were definitely feeling the effects of the government crackdown and bandwidth was very limited. It looks like judging from the traffic to my proxy, though, that more people have caught on about using SSL and communication may improve somewhat in the days to come. Don’t give up hope, we’re still here.

Good Night, and Good Luck —@kappuru
Jun 24 2:57 am

Why We Fight

I’ve decided to respond to the numerous emails and tweets about what the purpose of this blog is and why I’m running it. I’m trying to keep myself out of the spotlight and focus on the story here, so this is all I will say.

I am not an dissident. I am not a mujahideen. I am not a journalist. I am not a hipster-revolutionary. I am not one of Mousavi’s long-time supporters. I wrote a report about the deposed Shah of Iran in seventh grade. I went to a hookah bar once with a guy named Faison. I am not prepared for the role that I have fallen into accidentally.

But I am not alone. You are with me, and together, we can support and effect change in Iran.

Yesterday, there were 14 sites with pictures identifying protesters.

Today, at posting time, as of five minutes before I started typing these words.. there are none (that are drawing any significant numbers of traffic.)

Three days ago, this blog didn’t exist.

Today, it is one of the top blogs on this service.

Saturday, a girl named Neda was shot in the chest, to die a lonely death in the streets of Tehran.

Today, she is a symbol of the revolution.

The road ahead is dark and filled with unknown obstacles. But we will overcome them. Resistance to the Shah of Iran started in 1946. He was deposed nearly 30 years later. All they had was a lone BBC radio station to carry the message of the revolution.

The people of Iran have us. (And yeah, the BBC is still around too)

Don’t give up… Hope is still alive in Iran.

feel free to reblog and tweet, and keep the information flowing— @kappuru

The revolution will be televised… after we’ve posted it on Youtube.

see also