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Salil Shetty the Indian long-term activist on poverty and justice, former director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign and now Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Nigerian government should address the problems’. Shetty states "A country with global aspirations should also be a country of the rule of law. On that count, Nigeria is failing dismally - particularly when it comes to Boko Haram [Islamic militant group]. …The death of 43 adds to the toll of more than 1,000 people killed by Boko Haram over the last two years, including attacks on churches, outside mosques and in markets. Such an assault from within is a challenge to any country. But Nigeria has to find a more effective means of response than it has to-date. The country is positioning itself as a global player and is seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The terrible crimes of Boko Haram can never be a justification for a country's security forces to kill or disappear people with impunity. The security forces' response is creating an atmosphere of lawlessness across vast swathes of the country. In the words of one Nigerian judge, the authorities' disregard for due process is "barbaric". … Unlawful killings, detention without charge, and enforced disappearances are just some of the human rights violations being perpetrated by Nigeria's security forces in the name of national security which Amnesty International identified in a report launched in November. … The Nigerian government should address the problems, not blame the messenger or deny the undeniable. The Nigerian government owes its own people respect for the rule of law - including by the lawful prosecution of Boko Haram crimes, which we see too rarely. If official lawlessness is denied and goes unpunished, Nigeria will not gain the stability it so badly needs.”  Inspired by Salil Shetty, Aljazeera ow.ly/hYDEp Image source Facebook ow.ly/hYDC8 Creating an atmosphere of lawlessness (March 7 2013)

Salil Shetty the Indian long-term activist on poverty and justice, former director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign and now Secretary General of the human rights organization Amnesty International has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Nigerian government should address the problems’. Shetty states “A country with global aspirations should also be a country of the rule of law. On that count, Nigeria is failing dismally – particularly when it comes to Boko Haram [Islamic militant group]. …The death of 43 adds to the toll of more than 1,000 people killed by Boko Haram over the last two years, including attacks on churches, outside mosques and in markets. Such an assault from within is a challenge to any country. But Nigeria has to find a more effective means of response than it has to-date. The country is positioning itself as a global player and is seeking a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The terrible crimes of Boko Haram can never be a justification for a country’s security forces to kill or disappear people with impunity. The security forces’ response is creating an atmosphere of lawlessness across vast swathes of the country. In the words of one Nigerian judge, the authorities’ disregard for due process is “barbaric”. … Unlawful killings, detention without charge, and enforced disappearances are just some of the human rights violations being perpetrated by Nigeria’s security forces in the name of national security which Amnesty International identified in a report launched in November. … The Nigerian government should address the problems, not blame the messenger or deny the undeniable. The Nigerian government owes its own people respect for the rule of law – including by the lawful prosecution of Boko Haram crimes, which we see too rarely. If official lawlessness is denied and goes unpunished, Nigeria will not gain the stability it so badly needs.”

 

Inspired by Salil Shetty, Aljazeera ow.ly/hYDEp Image source Facebook ow.ly/hYDC8

Asia is experiencing an economic slowdown (December 15 2012) Asia is experiencing an economic slowdown (December 15 2012)

Supachai Panitchpakdi the 66 year old Thai Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has published an article on IPS News titled ‘Global Rebalancing – Implications For Asia’. Panitchpakdi states “Although it remains the fastest growing region, Asia is already experiencing an economic slowdown, with gross domestic product (GDP) expected to fall… In China and other major economies in the region, however, internal rebalancing remains unfinished as private consumption should take on a greater role relative to investment. High wage growth will help to support this goal as well as helping to promote further external rebalancing. High and volatile commodity prices also present a risk to the rebalancing process for the Asian region, because they can be a drag on growth. Rising oil prices, for example, act as an immediate dampener on aggregate spending in fuel-importing countries, contracting spending more or less immediately, whereas any spending expansion from fuel-exporting countries occurs only after a lag. However the main risk continues to be concentrated in the developed economies, where the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has long been concerned that premature and excessive fiscal austerity is choking recovery and growth unnecessarily. The developing economies in Asia have played a major role stoking the engine of growth since the crisis, but this could be derailed if there continues to be a decline in consumer demand from their traditional markets in the advanced economies, and the effects of a reduction in this demand would of course have further spill-over effects if it provoked a downturn in Asian household and investment demand. … Ultimately, what is most important is that regional markets remain open, so that rising domestic demand in each country is met not only by domestic enterprises but also by those operating in other countries of the region.”

 

Inspired by IPS News ow.ly/fWkFo image source Roberto Barroso ow.ly/fWkAq

Ban Ki-moon the 67 year old South Korean former diplomat and current Secretary-General of the United Nations has expressed frustration at the minimal progress on a plan of action for the upcoming U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as the Rio+20 summit. This conference follows-up on the 20 year earlier 1992 Earth Summit that was also held in Rio, and renowned for affirming the integration of environment concerns into the U.N.’s development agenda. The plan of action titled “The Future We Want” is anticipated by Ban to have been well progressed prior to the summit, however fears are held the summit is being hijacked by corporate lobbyists particularly in the USA and Canada. Ban states “I am disappointed with the negotiations. They are not moving fast enough. We have an ambitious plan for real progress. But we need agreement on the tough issues. We cannot wait until they get to Rio, success will mean light in homes where people live in darkness. It will also mean food for families that are now hungry, It will create progress across our planet.” Martin Nesirky a spokesperson for Ban, also stated “It is a major and a very important conference, the aims of which are obviously also profoundly important for the whole of humankind.”

Inspired by Thalif Deen ow.ly/bqagD image source Gobierno de Chile ow.ly/bqab3

Nouri Kamil Mohammed Hasan al-Maliki the 60 year old Iraqi Prime Minister and Secretary general of the Shite Islamic Dawa Party has been returned for a second term in office following eight months of political deadlock between al-Maliki and major rival the Sunni backed Iraqiya coalition. The new government will comprise a power sharing arrangement where the Sunni bloc will fill the Speakers role and the Kurds with its incumbent for the ceremonial position as President. The agreement should help dampen the violent sectarian divisions that exist in Iraq as minority Sunni extremists seek to destabilize the government and fill the power vacuum that has existed due to the protracted post election negotiations.

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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