News to make you feel bad
Aug. 17th, 2012 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyYou know about this, I'm sure, but three members of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pussy_riot got two years in jail for a political protest. Isn't it great that there's no more Soviet Union and Russian citizens are free to express their beliefs?
Here's a letter from Billy Bragg to Pussy Riot:
There was a protest today, but I missed it. At least the world is outraged? That's something, I guess.
In South Africa, police murdered 34 striking miners, because apparently we've travelled back in time to that era of labour and race relations.
In Jerusalem, dozens of Israeli youth attacked three Palestinian kids, one of whom is now in intensive care.
It's a much smaller thing and no one got killed, but apparently it's a problem to have Asians on our money. Because Canada doesn't have a problem with racism at all.
pussy_riot got two years in jail for a political protest. Isn't it great that there's no more Soviet Union and Russian citizens are free to express their beliefs?Here's a letter from Billy Bragg to Pussy Riot:
There was a protest today, but I missed it. At least the world is outraged? That's something, I guess.
In South Africa, police murdered 34 striking miners, because apparently we've travelled back in time to that era of labour and race relations.
In Jerusalem, dozens of Israeli youth attacked three Palestinian kids, one of whom is now in intensive care.
It's a much smaller thing and no one got killed, but apparently it's a problem to have Asians on our money. Because Canada doesn't have a problem with racism at all.
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no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 01:47 am (UTC)Yeah, its better than it USED to be, but its still totally fucked.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 03:21 am (UTC)Yes, there are 10,000 atrocities happening a second that are worse.
You know why those other ones arent getting covered?
CAUSE GUYS JUST LIKE SAYING "PUSSY RIOT."
no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 03:22 am (UTC)Chess players, too
Date: 2012-08-18 03:58 am (UTC)I'm going to suggest that there is hope hidden in the growing extremes to which the fascists are going, not just in Russia and Israel but (it seems) just about all over. Namely, that behind the arrogant triumphalism is a fear that the party is just about over for them.
Somewhere in what passes for their paranoid and avaricious hearts is the realization that if they take all the money, there will be no one left to buy there crap. The world doesn't in fact run according to the notions of Ayn Rand; you can't build railways if all of the passengers have starved to death.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 08:40 am (UTC)At least the Russians are having show trials these days. Under Stalin you'd have been on the train to that extended survival holiday in Siberia long before you could even protest about state oppression. I guess it's progress of a kind.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 10:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 02:12 pm (UTC)I saw what happened in South Africa, but by that time, the only thing I could think was "wow, this is how super villain origin stories work."
One super power from being Magneto,
e
no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 01:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-19 02:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-18 03:13 pm (UTC)And while sure, including more diversity by putting some other people of colour on other bills would be great, that was not the Bank of Canada's response to the complaints - instead, they've replaced her with a "so-called 'neutral,' non-ethnic look". IN other words, they made her white, which is somehow "non-ethnic".
So yeah, apparently including an actual person of colour somewhere in amongst a sea of white faces is somehow not multicultural enough, but if you get rid of her and make everyone white, that's OK, because white people are "neutral" and "non-ethnic" and therefore represent everyone. FFS. *headdesk*
no subject
Date: 2012-08-22 11:50 pm (UTC)Perhaps releasing that story was actually just a very clever way for the Bank of Canada to have a generic woman on the bill (and involved in sciences, at that!) without having a big backlash against her gender. Or maybe it's not that likely to be an issue here in Canada. *Shrug* Me, I don't see why the hell it's an issue. "Canadian" doesn't denote or imply race, just nationality.
I must say, I would like to know if any of the bills with the old design made it into circulation. And now I'm kind of pissed, because I did have one of these new bills (and some of the old paper ones; the new ones are freaky, man-- I'm scared to fold them! Feels like taking a mint comic out of its bag...) and was going to hang onto it, because it was all new and different, and then I realized that it's gonna be the old ones that will be more interesting in a few years, so I spent that one instead. My luck, the BoC will have thought none of the old ones made it into circulation, but a few did, and that was one of them. *Facepalm* I did look very closely at it, but damned if I noticed (or cared) what race she might be. Oh well, this pic looks familiar enough that I'll assume my one wasn't one of the original ones, for the sake of my sanity. XD
(An aside: Back in the early '90s I was collecting comics, and I came across an article in Comic Shop News about a cover with the then-new Robin, which erroneously showed a hail of bullets going through his supposedly Kevlar cape. Dug a copy off the stands, saw the bullet holes as advertized, laughed-- and put it back on the shelves. Didn't pick it up; wasn't one of the ones I was collecting. Found out later that so far as DC was aware, all the screwed-up covers had been destroyed before they left the printers, and only the re-touched, no-bullet-holes covers were in circulation. Coulda gotten a pretty penny for that one, damn it all! So I'm sensitive to these things now lol.)