By Mitu Sengupta
Despite all the hype, "Slumdog" delivers a patronizing and ultimately sham statement on social justice.
These honors will probably add some $100 million to "Slumdog's" box-office takings, as Oscar wins usually do. They will also further enhance the film's fast-growing reputation as an authentic representation of the lives of India's urban poor. So far, most of the awards collected by the film have been accepted in the name of "the children," suggesting that its own cast and crew regard it (and have relentlessly promoted it) not as a cinematically spectacular, musically rich and entertaining work of fiction, which it is, but as a powerful tool of advocacy. Nothing could be more worrying, as "Slumdog", despite all the hype to the contrary, delivers a deeply disempowering narrative about the poor that thoroughly undermines, if not totally negates, its seeming message of social justice. read more...>
From Wikipedia
Precarious work is a term used to describe non-standard employment, which is poorly paid, insecure, unprotected, and cannot support a household. In recent decades there has been a dramatic increase in precarious work due to such factors as: globalization, the shift from the manufacturing sector to the service sector, and the spread of information technology. These changes have created a new economy, which demands flexibility in the workplace and, as a result, caused the decline of the standard employment relationship and a dramatic increase in precarious work. An important aspect of precarious work is its gendered nature, as women are continuously over-represented in this type of work.
Precarious work is frequently associated with the following types of employment: “part-time employment, self-employment, fixed-term work, temporary work, on-call work, home working, and telecommuting.” All of these forms of employment are related in that they depart from the standard employment relationship (full-time, continuous work with one employer). Each form of precarious work may offer its own challenges but they all share the same disadvantages: low wages, few benefits, lack of collective representation, and little to no job security.
There are four dimensions when determining if employment is precarious in nature: “(1) the degree of certainty of continuing employment; (2) control over the labor process, which is linked to the presence or absence of trade unions and professional associations and relates to control over working conditions, wages, and the pace of work; (3) the degree of regulatory protection; and (4) income level.” read more...>
"THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD" WINS PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARD AT BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
LONDON/BERLIN. Having received standing ovations at its World Premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last week, the hilariously shocking The Yes Men Fix the World opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama Dokumente section to equally responsive crowds, culminating in its win of the Panorama Audience Award, announced today.
Directed by the ‘Yes Men’ (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) in collaboration with Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 editor Kurt Engfehr, who co-directs, The Yes Men Fix The World leads us through the daring political pranks of two gonzo activists as they take on the fake identity of corporate executives in a bid to highlight the greed and brutal selfishness of some of the world’s biggest and most powerful multi-national corporations.
The film begins with the Yes Men's famous 2004 impersonation of a Dow Chemical spokesperson on BBC World News, in which they took responsibility for the largest industrial accident in history – the Bhopal disaster – in a broadcast that reached 300 million people. Dow’s share price dropped by $2 billion in just 23 minutes as shareholders rejected the idea of compensating families who suffered death, disability and disease after 42 tonnes of toxic gas from a leaky chemical plant engulfed the city’s poorest neighbourhoods.
The film also shows the Yes Men posing as Exxon and Halliburton representatives, presenting shocking and ridiculous solutions to climate change to industry audiences, as well as appearing alongside the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans to show how government could right the wrongs done to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Besides covering the Yes Men's daring hoaxes, the film investigates and attacks the blind worship of the free market that has led so many corporations and government agencies to put profits before people.
Michel De Certeau - Gündelik Hayatın Keşfi-I / Eylem, Uygulama, Üretim Sanatları
Rönesans'tan bu yana, Tanrı dünyadan elini eteğini çekti ve yazı, onun özünün gizli anlamını yorumlayan mütercimlik rolünden sıyrıldı. Böylece, yazı, her tür erkin kaynağı, büyük üretici durumuna geldi. Michel de Certeau tarihin bu yeni betisini ifade etmek için sürekli ve yeniden okumaktan ve yorumlamaktan hiç vazgeçmediği eserlerden biri olan Robinson Crusoe'daki mitlere özgü bir deyişi kullanmayı düşündü: Bundan böyle "yazının öznesi efendidir ve dilden başka bir araca sahip olan işçi de Cuma'dır".
1974 ile 1977 yılları arasında yürütülen ve 68'li toplumu anlamayı amaçlayan bir araştırma sıradan insanın gündelik hayat içinde ürettiği ve kullandığı becerilerin şaşırtıcı bir çözümlemesine dönüşür. De Certeau tüketim toplumunda sıradan insanın içinde bulunduğu bağlama direnirken kullandığı taktik ve kurnazlıkları önce bir sanat, sonra da bu sanatı irdeleyen bir söylem olarak çözümlüyor.
PROJECT SPACE
FATMA ÇIFTÇI – SHOW ROOM
Fatma Çiftçi (1981) returns to Spike Island after completing a three month residency in summer 2008 funded by Visiting Arts. This residency is an on-going collaboration with Platform Garanti CAC, Istanbul and has previously been awarded to Can Altay (2007). This will be her first solo show in the UK.
In Show Room, Çiftçi has created a series of works that play on juxtaposition, setting found images and objects in new contexts. These playful combinations make allusions to social and cultural differences through carefully crafted, handmade or digitally montaged works which sometimes have dark undertones. Cross-stitch pictures of military positions taken from toy soldiers, I will be a soldier (2008), refer both to childhood games and the reality of national service. An adjacent work, Would you like to marry me? (2009), has a cartoonish sexiness which is subverted at closer reading; the artist has programmed the LED screen of a pair of novelty knickers with a loaded question which has political rather than erotic undertones. Untitled (2005), is another archetype, this time a portrait of a policeman, rather than a solider or sexualized mannequin. The policeman stands on a cliff, appearing to be waiting for something as he guards the rugged landscape which is a well known tourist destination in Turkey. The video that greets the viewer at the entrance to Show Room, Once Upon a Time in Istanbul (2009), is a more whimsical project. Comprised of extracts from a found 16mm film of everyday life in Istanbul shot by an unknown amateur in the 1970s it is interspersed with romantic dialogue from a popular melodrama from the same period, contrasting incidental moments from everyday life with the heightened emotions of cinema.
We won’t pay for the crisis. The rich must pay!
Declaration of the Assembly of Social Movements at the World Social Forum 2009, Belem, Brazil.
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