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Laurent Fabius the 66 year old French Socialist politician who served as Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister has been forced to deny rumors of tax evasion. In an article published on France24 by Joseph Bamat, titled ‘French foreign minister denies tax-evasion ‘rumour’’, Bamat states “Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius denied … a rumour that he may have a secret bank account in Switzerland. The allegation comes less than a week after former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac admitted he lied about holding a secret Swiss bank account, in a tax-evasion scandal that has rocked the Socialist government of President François Hollande. There is no “substance or foundation” to the news report, Fabius said in a statement to the press, adding he would take legal action to “stop the diffusion of this false and slanderous information”.  …left-leaning daily Libération reported that the investigative news website Médiapart – which broke the Cahuzac affair – was looking into whether Fabius was also stashing away euros in “one or several” bank accounts across the border. It stated that Hollande’s cabinet is in a state of panic ahead of potentially devastating new revelations. “More than an affair, it’s a potential political bomb. Everyone thinks the same thing: if Fabius really does have a Swiss bank account, the entire government would fall. Immediately,” the newspaper wrote in its Monday edition that headlined, “The nightmare continues”. However, Libération did not publish any information or document proving that one of France’s top government minister’s had an illegal bank account. Left reeling from the Cahuzac affair, France's government attempted to take back the initiative by stating that it was looking into tightening Europe-wide measures against tax evasion. Médiapart chastised the newspaper Libération for publishing the allegations. Contacted by Libération, Médiapart staff journalist Fabrice Arfi said the only news it stood by was “what is published on our site”.”  Inspired by Joseph Bamat, France24 ow.ly/k8WiS Image source Olivier Ezratty ow.ly/k8Wgl Diffusion of false and slanderous information (May 13 2013)

 

Laurent Fabius the 66 year old French Socialist politician who served as Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister has been forced to deny rumors of tax evasion. In an article published on France24 by Joseph Bamat, titled ‘French foreign minister denies tax-evasion ‘rumour’’, Bamat states “Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius denied … a rumour that he may have a secret bank account in Switzerland. The allegation comes less than a week after former budget minister Jérôme Cahuzac admitted he lied about holding a secret Swiss bank account, in a tax-evasion scandal that has rocked the Socialist government of President François Hollande. There is no “substance or foundation” to the news report, Fabius said in a statement to the press, adding he would take legal action to “stop the diffusion of this false and slanderous information”.  …left-leaning daily Libération reported that the investigative news website Médiapart – which broke the Cahuzac affair – was looking into whether Fabius was also stashing away euros in “one or several” bank accounts across the border. It stated that Hollande’s cabinet is in a state of panic ahead of potentially devastating new revelations. “More than an affair, it’s a potential political bomb. Everyone thinks the same thing: if Fabius really does have a Swiss bank account, the entire government would fall. Immediately,” the newspaper wrote in its Monday edition that headlined, “The nightmare continues”. However, Libération did not publish any information or document proving that one of France’s top government minister’s had an illegal bank account. Left reeling from the Cahuzac affair, France’s government attempted to take back the initiative by stating that it was looking into tightening Europe-wide measures against tax evasion. Médiapart chastised the newspaper Libération for publishing the allegations. Contacted by Libération, Médiapart staff journalist Fabrice Arfi said the only news it stood by was “what is published on our site”.”

 

Inspired by Joseph Bamat, France24 ow.ly/k8WiS Image source Olivier Ezratty ow.ly/k8Wgl

Gareth Evans the 68 year old Australia’s former foreign minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and currently Chancellor of the Australian National University has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Valuing the United Nations’ Evans states “No organization in the world embodies as many dreams, yet provides so many frustrations, as the United Nations.  …The peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990’s, dragged the country back from hellish decades of horrifying genocide and ugly and protracted civil war. Likewise, the Chemical Weapons Convention, steered through the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, is still the most robust arms-control treaty related to weapons of mass destruction ever negotiated. …In 2005… endorsed the concept of states’ responsibility to protect populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. With that vote, the international community began to eradicate the shameful indifference that accompanied the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, and too many similar catastrophes. …the UN system’s total cost is still only around $30 billion a year. That is less than half the annual budget for New York City, and well under a third of the roughly $105 billion that the US military has been spending each year, on average, in Afghanistan. Wall Street employees received more in annual bonuses ($33.2 billion) in 2007, the year before the global financial meltdown. The whole family of the UN Secretariat and related entities, together with current peacekeepers, adds up to around 215,000 people worldwide – not a small number, but less than one-eighth of the roughly 1.8 million staff employed by McDonald’s and its franchisees worldwide! …the UN provides fabulous value for what the world spends on it, and that if it ever ceased to exist, we would have to reinvent it. The downsides are real, but we need to remember the immortal words of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second secretary-general: “The UN was created not to bring us to heaven, but to save us from hell.”   Inspired by Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jyVmH Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/jyUWN Valuing the United Nations (April 15 2013)

 

Gareth Evans the 68 year old Australia’s former foreign minister and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group and currently Chancellor of the Australian National University has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Valuing the United Nations’ Evans states “No organization in the world embodies as many dreams, yet provides so many frustrations, as the United Nations.  …The peace plan for Cambodia in the early 1990’s, dragged the country back from hellish decades of horrifying genocide and ugly and protracted civil war. Likewise, the Chemical Weapons Convention, steered through the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, is still the most robust arms-control treaty related to weapons of mass destruction ever negotiated. …In 2005… endorsed the concept of states’ responsibility to protect populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. With that vote, the international community began to eradicate the shameful indifference that accompanied the Holocaust, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, and too many similar catastrophes. …the UN system’s total cost is still only around $30 billion a year. That is less than half the annual budget for New York City, and well under a third of the roughly $105 billion that the US military has been spending each year, on average, in Afghanistan. Wall Street employees received more in annual bonuses ($33.2 billion) in 2007, the year before the global financial meltdown. The whole family of the UN Secretariat and related entities, together with current peacekeepers, adds up to around 215,000 people worldwide – not a small number, but less than one-eighth of the roughly 1.8 million staff employed by McDonald’s and its franchisees worldwide! …the UN provides fabulous value for what the world spends on it, and that if it ever ceased to exist, we would have to reinvent it. The downsides are real, but we need to remember the immortal words of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second secretary-general: “The UN was created not to bring us to heaven, but to save us from hell.”

 

Inspired by Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate ow.ly/jyVmH Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/jyUWN

Ahmet Davutoglu the 54 year old Turkish Foreign Minister, former political scientist, academic Professor and an ambassador at large has stated that “'Jihad' not to be confused with terrorism”. In an article on France 24 reports that Davutoglu told a business conference in Istanbul, the idea of jihad should not be confused with terrorism adding that the notion is often misunderstood by American "neo-cons and pro-Israelis".  There is no connection between jihad and terrorism, adding that suggestions to the contrary come from American neo-cons and Israelis. “'Jihad' is the name of fighting for our honour, if required, but above all it means fighting against one's own limitations,” Davutoglu said at a business conference entitled “Turkey in light of international developments, 2013” at the headquarters of the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association. “For us, jihad is a sacred notion; let us not taint this notion by using it like neo-cons and pro-Israelis in America,” Davutoğlu said, while condemning an opposition party deputy who asked the Turkish government on its policy regarding the jihadist movement in Syria at a Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission meeting on Feb15. Wikipedia states Davutoglu was granted a title of ambassador in 2003 by the joint decision of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Abdullah Gül. His publications include Alternative Paradigms: The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory, and his book Strategic Depth is a very influential book in Turkey's foreign policy orientation. He is very influential in the military, academic, and government triangle shaping Turkish foreign policy. Davutoglu was one of the leading actors on behalf of the Turkish government during the shuttle diplomacy for the settlement of 2008 Israel–Gaza conflict. He has since called for Turkey to become more than just a regional power within Europe and the Middle East and desires Ankara to have a far more influential role in world politics.  Inspired by France24 ow.ly/iuWZ0 Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/iuX5X Jihad not to be confused with terrorism (March 31 2013)

 

Ahmet Davutoglu the 54 year old Turkish Foreign Minister, former political scientist, academic Professor and an ambassador at large has stated that “’Jihad’ not to be confused with terrorism”. In an article on France 24 reports that Davutoglu told a business conference in Istanbul, the idea of jihad should not be confused with terrorism adding that the notion is often misunderstood by American “neo-cons and pro-Israelis”.  There is no connection between jihad and terrorism, adding that suggestions to the contrary come from American neo-cons and Israelis. “’Jihad’ is the name of fighting for our honour, if required, but above all it means fighting against one’s own limitations,” Davutoglu said at a business conference entitled “Turkey in light of international developments, 2013” at the headquarters of the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association. “For us, jihad is a sacred notion; let us not taint this notion by using it like neo-cons and pro-Israelis in America,” Davutoğlu said, while condemning an opposition party deputy who asked the Turkish government on its policy regarding the jihadist movement in Syria at a Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission meeting on Feb15. Wikipedia states Davutoglu was granted a title of ambassador in 2003 by the joint decision of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Abdullah Gül. His publications include Alternative Paradigms: The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory, and his book Strategic Depth is a very influential book in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. He is very influential in the military, academic, and government triangle shaping Turkish foreign policy. Davutoglu was one of the leading actors on behalf of the Turkish government during the shuttle diplomacy for the settlement of 2008 Israel–Gaza conflict. He has since called for Turkey to become more than just a regional power within Europe and the Middle East and desires Ankara to have a far more influential role in world politics.

 

Inspired by France24 ow.ly/iuWZ0 Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/iuX5X

Why Did Ecuador Grant Asylum to Assange (August 27 2012) Why Did Ecuador Grant Asylum to Assange (August 27 2012)

Kevin Gosztola the American undergraduate writer and filmmaker has posed the question: Why Did Ecuador Grant Asylum to Julian Assange? in an article he published in The Nation magazine. In the article he states “…in the face of rumors that British authorities were considering storming the Ecuadorean embassy in London to arrest Julian Assange, Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patiño, announced that his country will grant the WikiLeaks founder diplomatic asylum. He declared that his government endorsed the “fears” expressed by Assange that he could face political persecution if sent to Sweden, and that such asylum would protect him from the possibility of being extradited to the United States. …Patiño read from a list of points detailing the foundation for the asylum request by Assange, who he described as “an award-winning communications professional” known “internationally for his struggle for freedom of expression, press freedom and human rights in general.” He cited “strong evidence” that Assange faced possible “retaliation by the country or countries that produced the information,” revealed by Cablegate, noting that such retaliation “may endanger [his] safety, integrity, and even his life.” He said that “given an extradition to the United States of America, Mr. Assange would not have a fair trial, could be tried by special courts or military” and could be the victim of “cruel and degrading” treatment. …if the Swedish government is genuinely concerned over the women who brought forth the allegations against him, it is troubling to see its government continue to refuse to send someone to question Assange in London. It is this refusal that ultimately helped convince Ecuador to grant asylum.”

 

Inspired by The Nation ow.ly/d7cxQ image source Twitter ow.ly/d7d4c

Zalmai Rassoul the 68 year old Afghanistan Foreign Minister has met for the first time with his Indian counterpart, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna where wide-ranging talks were held. The meeting took place at the India-Afghanistan Partnership Council, set up during the visit of Afghan President Hamid Karzai under the first bilateral strategic pact Afghanistan has signed with any other country. India has concerns with the safety of nearly 4,000 of its nationals living in Afghanistan along with its missions and facilities. Rassoul stated at a joint press conference after the talks, “With India, we are not only willing to discuss the training of our officers, but also equipping of security forces. Security organisations of the two countries are in discussion.” The nature of the Indian assistance to Afghanistan has not been specified, although India is involved in the training of the Afghan National Army. Krishna stated at the press conference “We have always reacted positively to any suggestions from Afghanistan” and has pledged $2 billion for reconstruction activities. India is obviously keen for security of its strategic neighbour which its foe Pakistan tended to regard as its own backyard, as the time runs down for the withdrawal of the international coalition force.

 

Inspired by Russia & India Report http://ow.ly/aFIBI image source Wikipedia http://ow.ly/aFIhP

Tariq Aziz the 74 year old former deputy to Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime and it’s public face to the outside world as its foreign minister has been sentenced to hang for his role in the commission of wholesale murder. Aziz took part in a campaign to demonize the country’s political opposition, primarily the Shiite Dawa party, through a process of organized torture imprisonment and murder following an assassination attempt on Saddam Hussein in 1982. Two other co-accuseds were also sentenced to death. Aziz is a Christian and is likely to receive humanitarian intervention from the Vatican to urge the Iraqi authorities not to proceed with the death sentence.

Political Arts | Ian Bunn Visual Artist

My digital art work is essentially politics and art. It’s about iconic people, places and events of our day.  Recorded visually through daily compilations of manipulated digital images, posted online and disseminated via online media and social networks. The works are diaristic in nature that metaphorically record a spectator’s experience of the contemporary digital age.  The resulting work intentionally has a painterly aesthetic acknowledging my historical painting practice.

Adapting Pop Art’s notion of mass media imagery into a context of the contemporary digital age, the work draws on a myriad points of reference. Utilizing fractured images to provide an allusion to the digital noise pounding away daily into our sub consciousness.  The work is essentially popular culture arts, diverging from the traditional Pop Art notion of a pronounced repetition of a consumer icon, instead this work focuses on the deluge of contemporary digital content. The compilation of the fragmented imagery is vividly distractive, not unlike cable surfing or a jaunt through Times Square.

This digital photo manipulation art work is premised on the basis that Pop art in its beginnings, freeze-framed what consumers of popular culture experienced into iconic visual abstractions. With the advent of the techno age, visual information circulates in such quantities, so rapidly and exponentially, that to comprehend a fraction of it all becomes a kind of production process in itself.  Hence this work considers fragmented elements of Popular Culture through an artistic and conceptual exploration of specific people and events of the day.

www.ianbunn.com

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