All Knew - Clear
Terrorist-Nuclear Alert
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© 2007 - Ben Heine
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By Andrew Silverai

(Appeared at Haitham Sabbah's blog)
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Top police officer warns that nuclear attack is inevitable

A NUCLEAR attack by terrorists causing widespread panic, chaos and death is inevitable and will happen soon, a senior Scottish police officer has warned. Ian Dickinson, who leads the police response to chemical, biological and nuclear threats in Scotland, has painted the bleakest picture yet of the dangers the world now faces. Efforts to prevent terrorist groups from obtaining materials that could be made into radioactive dirty bombs - or even crude nuclear explosives - are bound to fail, he said. And the result will be horror on an unprecedented scale. Sun Herald 25th Nov 2007 http://tinyurl.com/yr3jyz

No, no, he could be right, he must read the same newswire as me:

Highly radioactive material missing in DR Congo

Kinshasa (AFP) Nov 14, 2007 - Some 15 tonnes of highly radioactive material have disappeared after being seized last month in south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country’s environment minister said Wednesday. “We still have no information on the 15 to 16 tonnes of radioactive minerals from the 19 tonnes seized in Katanga,” Didace Pembe told AFP. http://tinyurl.com/32xskg

But where has this guy been since the turn of the millennium, has he been in a coma or something? Oh! Scotland, now I recall:

Military vehicle carrying nuclear warheads got lost on way from Scotland to Reading

A high-security delivery of nuclear warheads to the south of England turned to farce when vehicles in the MOD convoy got lost on Scotland’s roads. Three military trucks, each of which can carry two of the plutonium and uranium weapons, left the Royal Navy Armament Depot at Coulport, Argyll, under cover of darkness on Monday night. Escorted and heavily protected by MOD police, Marines, a safety truck and fire engine, the convoy was headed for an Atomics Weapons Establishment at Burghfield near Reading. Daily Mail 15th Nov 2007 http://tinyurl.com/2wskat

Maybe he reads the Daily Sport but how did he miss all this?

The Global Impact of Bush’s War Crimes in Iraq: King Midas in Reverse
Walter C. Uhler

Consequently, were we merely limiting ourselves to the catastrophes that has bedeviled both the United States and Iraq as a consequence of Bush’s war, we’d be forced to conclude that Bush’s national security policy has the touch of King Midas in reverse. Everything Bush touches turns to shit! Unfortunately, as serious pre-war scholars and critics feared and predicted, Bush’s King Midas touch in reverse has extended far beyond Iraq and the United States. Simply recall their warnings about the war’s impact on the price of oil, their fears that such a war might undermine US efforts against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, their concern that Bush’s invasion might inflame hatred of America throughout the Muslim world, their suspicions that Iran might be the principal beneficiary of a US-led invasion that placed Iraqi Shiites in power and their worries about how a destabilized Iraq might provoke intervention by it neighbours, Iran, Syria and Turkey, and thus embroil the entire region. Thanks to the perverse King Midas touch of the Bush administration, Iran has indeed emerged as the next most likely target of its wanton death crusade.
http://tinyurl.com/ytdnzh

Indeed, should be a stroll in the park for a man described by Vlad Putin; as ‘like a madman, running around with a razor.’ This of course will lead to WWIII, the final conflict of Armageddon and a total collapse of civilization and by the time global warming bares it teeth we may as well be flicking back the pages and starting afresh at the Book of Genesis.

Still, if the UN could scrape a few half-pennies together and afford to invoke International Law enforcement, pre-empt this tyrant with the well earned arrest that he most duly deserves, then this catastrophe could well be avoided and the rest of us could rest easy for a time. Until then Mr Dickinson, go back to sleep!

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Maurice Béjart
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© 2007 - Ben Heine
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Maurice Bejart, Innovative
Choreographer of Modern Ballet

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By Lewis Segal

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Maurice Bejart, for four decades an extraordinarily innovative and influential choreographer and company leader in Europe who often received critical scorn in the English-speaking world, has died. He was 80.

Hospitalized last week with heart and kidney trouble, Bejart died at Lausanne's University Hospital in Switzerland. In response to Bejart's death, French Culture Minister Christine Albanel called him "one of the greatest choreographers of our time."

He "played an essential role in making a large number of people love contemporary dance, without ever ceding to the easy way out or renouncing his deep demands as an artist," she said. "He never stopped surprising us, until the end."

Although he began his ballet career dancing the 19th century classics in pristine versions staged from the choreography notebooks of what is now the Kirov Ballet, Bejart eventually developed a complex style of contemporary ballet. It incorporated movement influences from a number of cultures, along with a flamboyant theatricality very much in the neo-Expressionist tradition of Western Europe but foreign to classical dancing. A key element of that new style was its refusal to accept conventional notions of what kind of dancing, roles and prominence "belonged" to males versus females.

Contrary to their original versions, Bejart cast a man in the title role of his "Firebird" and in "Bolero" created a sexually indeterminate ballet: It is danced with 40 men and one woman, 40 women and one man or with an all-male cast.

"I and a few others have fought for men's liberation in ballet -- true equality," he said in a 1985 Times interview, "though, of course, it is normal when you fight for equality that it looks like you are too much on the other side." Above all, his approach to ballet was personal and intuitive, insisting, as he said, that "dance is a tool for expressing myself totally, for being, breathing, living, becoming myself."

He was born Maurice Jean Berger on Jan. 1, 1927, in Marseilles, France, the son of self-taught philosopher Gaston Berger. His mother, Germaine Capellieres, died when he was 7. From age 14, he trained at the school of the Marseilles Opera Ballet where, he told The Times, he remembered being the only boy in a class of 25 to 30 girls.

"It was not right," he said. "Life is a balance between men and women. If I push the boys [as a choreographer], it is because there still needs to be a reaction against the prejudice that it is not good for men to dance."

After earning academic degrees in Marseilles and in Aix en Provence, Bejart continued his dance studies in Paris and London with a number of major ballet teachers, including Vera Volkova. He made his debut as a dancer in 1945, adopting the surname of the playwright Moliere's wife. His performing experience included stints with the Marseilles Opera Ballet, the International Ballet in London, the Cullberg Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet, where he choreographed for the first time in 1950.

In 1953, after serving in the French Army, he co-founded the Ballets de l'Etoile in Paris, which he also co-directed.

In 1955, his ballet "Symphonie pour un homme seul" attracted enormous attention as the first classical choreography set to musique concrete, music put together from a number of electronic and other noninstrumental sources.

Two years later, the company changed its name to the Ballet Theatre de Paris de Maurice Bejart.

But during this period he also worked with other institutions, including Belgian television and the Opera in Brussels, where he created an enormously popular version of "The Rite of Spring" in 1959. It became his signature work.

Its acclaim led Bejart to move to Brussels in 1960, where he founded the Ballet du XXieme Siecle based at the city's opera house, the Theatre Royal de la Monnaie. After his arrival, attendance at the Monnaie shot up from 40,000 a year to 250,000, and Bejart's success at home was matched abroad.

However, critics often disapproved of works that were long on philosophical and dramatic content but short on pure dance -- particularly ballets that emphasized sensual and often openly homoerotic male dancing.

In hindsight, many of the attacks seem to be barely veiled homophobia, but Bejart took them in stride. "A creator who does not shock is useless," he said at the time. "People need reactions. Progress is only achieved by jostling."

He also created arena spectacles on the grandest scale, in particular his celebrated stagings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in 1964 and Berlioz's "Romeo and Juliet" for Brussels' Royal Circus in 1966. His "Messe pour le Temps Present" premiered at the Papal Palace in Avignon, France, in 1967, and the following year he choreographed "Ni Fleurs, Ni Couronnes" for the Olympic Festival in Grenoble.

He expressed his interest in the music of Wagner not only through choreography for his own company, but also for others, most notably the Wagner festival in Bayreuth, Germany, and the Berlin Opera. Virtually every company on the European continent wanted him or someone with the same unorthodox approach to classical dance.

"Ballet is part of the theater," he told the New York Times in 1983. "I want my dancers to be on stage like human people . . . who give emotion to the audience."

In 1970, he established the Mudra Center, a groundbreaking international performance academy in Brussels. In 1978, Mudra Afrique opened in Senegal. But friction with the Monnaie management caused him to move to Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1987 and found Bejart Ballet Lausanne.

"I want to question, renew myself again," he said to explain the move, downplaying any conflicts. "I want a new start toward the future, to create something new."

In 1992, he founded a school in Lausanne similar to the Mudra Center and began a series of collaborations with international ballet stars, designers and musicians. And his success in Switzerland sustained his reputation as one of the greatest creative artists in all of Europe.

At the beginning of this century, Bejart transformed "The Nutcracker" into an autobiographical fantasy about a young, motherless boy -- and ultimately the ballet became what he called "a kind of hymn to the ideal mother that he does not know of." Eventually, that boy met a woman who might be, in Bejart's words, "the mother and maybe Terpsichore," goddess of dance.

Bejart was a close friend of the late fashion designer Gianni Versace and recently, for the 10th anniversary of Versace's 1997 murder, he choreographed a two-part ballet, "Thank you, Gianni, With Love," in Milan.

His many awards include the Hammarskjold Prize (1973), the Erasmus prize (1974) and the Prize of the Society of Dramatic Authors (1980).

His writings include a number of essays and several books, including a 1963 novel, "Mathilde ou le temps perdu," and two theater pieces: "La Reine vert" (1963) and "La Tentation de Saint-Antoine" (1967).

"I tried to write a few books, but I don't think they are so good," he said seven years ago in a television interview. "But I try to explain myself in every ballet."

He amplified that statement in an interview the same year with the London Independent: "All my ballets are, above all, encounters, with a piece of music, with life, with death, with love," he said, "with beings whose past and work reincarnate themselves in me, just as the dancer who I no longer am is reborn every time in interpreters who surpass him."

Bejart is survived by a sister. His longtime companion, Argentine dancer Jorge Donn, died of AIDS in 1992.

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--> The article appeared on latimes.com
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Maurice Bejart (Obituary)

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Maurice Bejart dances during a rehearsal at
the Comedie Francaise in Paris in 1980.

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French choreographer who attracted large new audiences to ballet with showmanship and work of striking originality
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By The Times
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Maurice Béjart probably did more than any other choreographer in the past century to win vast new audiences for ballet. He was by temperament a populist, eager to make ballet as direct and lively an art as cinema, and to attract the same kind of public; but he found no difficulty in reconciling this with the introduction of philosophical themes into his work, often based on oriental culture and beliefs.
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In his native France and its neighbouring countries, most critics and the public saw him as unable to do anything wrong; many reviewers in Britain and the United States found it difficult to allow that he could do anything right. History is likely to assess him nearer to his own estimation, which was that as a man of the theatre he worked constantly to extend his reach, with results that varied in quality but were rarely dull.

At his best, Béjart produced some of the most exciting dance theatre of our time. Among his astonishingly large output of about 220 creations, the three most likely to survive in the repertoire are his devastatingly simple but gripping Bolero and his highly original treatments of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and The Firebird. In both of these latter, characteristically, he gave more importance than usual to male dancing. His Firebird was the leader of a partisan troop, shot and killed in battle but returning in spirit to inspire continued resistance. For Rite, he abandoned the original idea of a single female sacrificial victim in favour of showing a man and a woman chosen to save their tribe through ritual copulation and death.

Often, Béjart worked on a monumental scale, producing spectacles that demanded large arenas and sometimes involved actors as well as dancers. The huge Forêt National sports stadium in Brussels and the courtyard of the Palais des Papes at Avignon were long among his regular venues, and for the bicentenary of the French revolution, the French Government commissioned him to create 1789...et nous in the great hall of the Grand Palais in Paris.

At the other extreme, however, he could make a fastidiously precise short pure-dance piece such as Webern Opus 5 for just two dancers, and in Ni fleurs, ni couronnes he created variations on episodes from The Sleeping Beauty. The Paris Opera commissioned several ballets from him, and his Le Molière imaginaire, based on the playwright's life and works, had its premiere at the Comédie Française starring Robert Hirsch, doyen of that theatre, in the central role, which Béjart himself later played with distinction.

There was often humour as well as showmanship in his creations; Le Concours, for instance, combined a whodunnit mystery with parodies of ballet life, including recognisable caricatures of some habitual competition judges.

Dancers loved working with him. Among the international stars for whom he created roles were Jean Babilee in Life, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Fernando Bujones, Suzanne Farrell in Nijinsky, Clown of God, Sylvie Guillem repeatedly, Rudolf Nureyev in Songs of a Wayfarer, Maya Plisetskaya in Isadora and Vladimir Vassiliev in a very personal treatment of Petrushka. But he also grew his own stars within his company, especially the male dancers; Paolo Bortoluzzi, Jorge Donn and others brought both poetry and heroism to their roles, leading a marvellous men's ensemble from which new talent constantly emerged at need. Nor did his women soloists ever lack notable roles to show off their gifts.

Born Maurice-Jean Berger in Marseilles in 1927, he was educated at the lycée there and extended his mind by avidly reading the books in the library of his father, a professor of philosophy. He also began ballet classes at the Marseilles Opera, making his inauspicious debut as (by his own account) a weedy-looking grub crawling out of an apple in Le Festin de l'araignée. As a teenager he first tried his hand at choreography with a solo for himself, Petit Page. Moving to Paris, he furthered his studies with some of the best ballet teachers including Lubov Egorova, Madame Rousanne (whom he lovingly depicted in his ballet Gaite Parisienne) and, later in London, Vera Volkova.

After a season in 1948 with Roland Petit's Ballets de Paris (during which he was one of Margot Fonteyn's partners in the Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty), Béjart joined Mona Inglesby's International Ballet, dancing the classical leading roles — Bluebird, Prince Siegfried, the man in Les Sylphides — on tour all over Britain. There followed a period dancing with the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm, for which he staged an early version of Firebird on Swedish television.

The 1950s were for Béjart a decade of struggling to establish himself with freelance work and his own small companies. He began to make a name with experimental work such as Symphonie pour un homme seul, which in 1955 was the first ballet to use the musique concrète (by Schaeffer and Henry) that was about to become fashionable, and Sonate à trois, a danced version of Sartre's Huis Clos to music by Bartók.

Béjart's breakthrough came in 1959 when the new director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, Maurice Huysman, wanted to present The Rite of Spring and invited Béjart to choreograph it. To provide enough dancers, they added to the local opera-ballet Béjart's own group, Janine Charrat's company from Paris and the Western Theatre Ballet from England.

The enormous public success of this production led Huysman to offer Béjart his own large company based in Brussels but touring widely, which he boldly named The Ballet of the Twentieth Century.

It was only after more than a quarter-century of success with a world-wide public that a dispute over funding with the new director of the Monnaie, Gérard Mortier, led Béjart to move his base from Brussels. In spite of a personal plea from the King of the Belgians, and tempting offers from other cities, he chose to accept an invitation to settle in Lausanne, where he was promised complete artistic freedom, good working conditions for his dancers, and the facilities to continue the dance and theatre school which he had started in Belgium. It is notable that the school's graduates include many choreographers who have never emerged as imitators of Béjart but have been encouraged to find their own way forward.

Béjart had more than once been offered the directorship of the Paris Ballet de l'Opéra, but had declined it. This did not prevent him from announcing the promotion to étoile of two men in that company for whom he had created roles — an announcement that had to be formally contradicted by the management as being without authority. In 1974 Béjart became, jointly with Dame Ninette de Valois, the first from the world of dance to be awarded the highly respected Erasmus Prize.

With maturity and success, Béjart developed an impressive appearance, not tall but with a commanding air, helped by the unexpectedly blue eyes that shone keenly in contrast to his dark complexion, black hair and beard. Besides his prolific work for the dance stage, he produced operas, always controversially, and made a revealing film, Je t'aime, tu danses, in which he appeared with the young dancer Rita Poelvoorde.

He also wrote voluminously: a novel, Mathilde ou le Temps perdu, inspired by his passion for Wagner, two plays and three volumes of autobiography, besides long discursive programme notes for many of his productions. These last could sometimes seem pretentious, but in private life he was a man completely without side: simple, direct, even earthy, and full of admiration for the work of others (Frederick Ashton's choreography was an early and lasting inspiration for him). He neither flaunted nor hid his homosexuality but chose almost always, even in long-term relationships, to live alone.

Advancing years, and sorrow at the death of some close friends, did not interrupt his activity and originality. He continued making new ballets right until this month, in spite of illness (exhaustion plus heart and kidney problems) that required his frequent admission to hospital. His final creation, under the title Round the World in 80 Minutes, will have its premiere on December 20 in Lausanne.

It was characteristic of Béjart that when he reached his 70th birthday he celebrated it with the creation of a big new work, Le Presbytère, to music by Mozart and the group Queen, which took as its theme those who had died young, especially from Aids, but treated it with a startlingly positive outlook and celebratory conclusion.

Maurice Béjart, choreographer and ballet director, was born on January 1, 1927. He died on November 22, 2007, aged 80

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The Obituary appeared on timesonline.co.uk

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Creative Commons License
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World’s Most Famous
Men/Women in a Single Painting
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(Click to enlarge)
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Hamed Nabahat
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© 2007 - Ben Heine
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Hamed Nabahat is the co-founder of Hopcartoon,
a website dedicated to cartoons based in Iran.
Below is a selection of his artworks.
He can be contacted at hamed_nabahat@yahoo.com
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(click to enlarge)
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To see more of his cartoons, click here
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McDonaldization
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© 2007 - Ben Heine
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Globalization of McDonalds
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By honors.rit.edu

A person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others is defined as having power (dictionary.com). In the minds of most it is the political leaders and governments have power over the people. However, many institutions and business corporations we may not think of also hold a lot of the world’s power. Unfortunately, through globalization corporations such as McDonalds are attempting to Americanize the whole world. Human societies across the globe have established progressively closer contacts over many centuries, but recently the pace has dramatically increased. Jet airplanes, cheap telephone service, email, computers, huge oceangoing vessels, instant capital flows, all these have made the world more interdependent than ever. Multinational corporations manufacture products in many countries and sell to consumers around the world. Money, technology and raw materials continually move across national borders. Along with products and finances, ideas and cultures circulate more freely. As a result, laws, economies, and social movements are forming at the international level. Many politicians, academics, and journalists treat these trends as both inevitable and welcomed. But for billions of the world’s people, business-driven globalization means uprooting old ways of life and threatening livelihoods and cultures. The global social justice movement, itself a product of globalization, proposes an alternative path, more responsive to public needs. Intense political disputes will continue over globalization’s meaning and its future direction. (link)

The biggest multinational companies are very rich. Of the 100 biggest economies in the world, just over half are companies rather than whole countries. The 200 biggest companies control a quarter of all the world’s trade. These 200 companies have more than half the economic power over four billion people. Multinational companies, like all companies, want to make profits. Their profits will be affected by the level of taxes in a country, how well skilled the workforce is, how easy it is to find sites to build factories, and even how strong a country's currency is. This means governments will think carefully about their economic policies. For example, a multinational may decide to close a factory in one country because it is cheaper to make its products in another. This can mean hundreds or thousands of jobs will be lost. It can mean that countries have a tendency to weaken rules about working conditions in order to attract multinational investment. In less developed countries dependence on multinational companies for investment and jobs is proportionately even greater. In these countries employees often work harder, for less money and in poorer conditions. Because of the importance of the companies, governments in these countries may be less willing to press for better wages and working conditions for their workers.

In poor countries vast areas of land are used for cash crops or for cattle ranching, or to grow grain to feed animals to be eaten in the West. This is at the expense of local food needs. McDonald's continually promote meat products, encouraging people to eat meat more often, which waste more and more food resources. According to the London Green Peace Group some 'Third World' countries, where most children are undernourished, are actually exporting their staple crops as animal feed to fatten the cattle being into burgers in the 'First World'. Millions of acres of the best farmland in poor countries are being used for United State’s benefit by means of tea, coffee, and tobacco, while people there are starving. McDonald's is directly involved in this economic imperialism, which keeps 7 million tons of grain fed to livestock produces only 1 million tons of meat and by-products. On a plant-based diet and with land shared fairly, almost every region could be self-sufficient in food (link). McDonalds not only effects the economic position of people in foreign countries, but it also affects American ranches and McDonald’s employees economically.

McDonald's comes in, saying that the brand will bring many jobs. Beef producers, flourishing for years, now have McDonald's as their only market. In 1968, McDonald’s bought ground beef from 175 local suppliers. A few years later, seeking to achieve greater product uniformity as it expanded, McDonalds reduced the number of beef suppliers to five. In the United States many ranchers now argue that few large corporations have gained stranglehold on the market using unfair tactics to drive down the price of cattle (Schlosser, 134). The four major meatpacking companies now control about 20 percent of the live cattle in the US through “captive supplies” cattle that are either maintained in company owned feedlots or purchased in advance. When cattle prices start to rise, the large meatpackers can flood the market with their own captive supplies driving prices back down. The suicide rate among ranchers and farmers in the United States is now about three times higher than the national average. A 1996 USDA investigation of concentration in the beef industry found that many ranchers were afraid to testify against the large meatpacking companies, fearing retaliation and “economic ruin.” When Mike Callicrate, a cattleman from St. Francis Kansas, decided to speak out against corporate behavior before the USDA committee, the large meatpackers promptly stopped bidding on his cattle (Schlosser, 143)

Outside the United States, Jamaicans not allowed to use cancer-causing agents in their burgers. McDonald's imports the beef from a country or free zone where cancer can legally go into the food. Therefore Jamaican beef producers have no market, and cannot export so the business dies. People line up at McDonald's for cancer, driven by global advertising. No native farming, no native products, nothing left but McDonald's.

According to George Ritzer, “The fundamental problem with McDonaldisation is that it's other people in the system structuring our lives for us, rather than us structuring our lives for ourselves…You don't want a creative person at the counter - that's why they are scripted. You don't want a creative hamburger cook - you want somebody who simply follows routines or follows scripts. No, you take all creativity out of work and turn it into a series of routine procedures that are imposed by some external force. That's the reason why it's dehumanizing... it turns human beings into human robots"

Not surprisingly staff turnover at McDonald's is high, making it virtually impossible to unionize and fight for a better deal, which suits McDonald's who have always been opposed to Unions. A recent survey of workers in burger-restaurants found that 80% said they needed union help over pay and conditions. McDonald's have a policy of preventing unionization by getting rid of pro-union workers. So far this has succeeded everywhere in the world except Sweden, and in Dublin after a long struggle Green Pease Group). In February of 1997 workers at a McDonald’s in St Hubert, Canada, applied to join the Teamsters union. More than three quarter of the crewmembers signed union cards, hoping to create the only unionized McDonalds in North America. Tom and mike Cappelli closed the McDonalds just weeks before the union was certified. This was not the first time this happened, during the early 1970s workers in Lansing Michigan were organizing a union. All the crewmembers were fired and the restaurant was shut down, a new McDonalds was build down the block and the unionizing workers were not rehired (Schlosser, 77)

As a global and national economic power, McDonalds negatively affects the lives of people in foreign countries as well as people in the United States. Because multinational companies want trade across the world to be free from restrictions as much as possible they are likely to use their influence with the World Trade Organization to get restrictions on manufacturing and trade reduced to a minimum. Is McDonalds so powerful that nothing can restrain the terror it forces upon the world’s people?

Globalization is political in the sense that the dominant powers insist on the adoption of certain versions of their policies and values for example, the adoption of liberal democracy and opening up of economies. This meant national states increasingly restructuring their position and their responsibilities in relation to both the global capitalism and to the local economies and societies. This tendency towards homogenization of politics seeks to form a world government with singular security, army, and judiciary branches with most of its important institutions located in the west. Globalization in this sense is referred to as hegemonisation (link).

Behind the smiling face of Ronald McDonald lurks a self-important and singularly determined multi-national corporation that wields serious power over national governments. McDonalds doesn't only convert its influence into political clout. It uses its dollars and donations to target the most vulnerable people in society. Ronald McDonald has a proven policy of suing the ass off of you or your employer, if you, as they put it, "tell lies about the company". McDonalds has even threatened to sue perfectly credible media institutions such as the BBC and the Guardian. This indicates that they are trying to stop the expression of free speech, a civil liberty, at least insofar as it affects their commercial operations. The list of media organizations that have been suppressed or pulped is growing (link).

In 1986, the London Green Peace group published a leaflet titled, "What's wrong with McDonalds". When the leaflet came to their attention, McDonalds demanded they retract the leaflet and its allegations or face court with the obvious possibility of a huge costs, they were denied legal aid, incurred by facing some of the top legal players money can buy. Two individuals from the group, Dave Morris, a postman, and Helen Steel, a gardener, felt they had no choice but to face McDonalds in court. On the 28th June 1994 the libel trial began in London and ended up becoming the longest ever seen in a British court. It's now known as the "McLibel" trial. The defendant's legal costs of £35,000 were met by generous donations by members of the public. On the 19th June 1997 McDonalds were awarded damages of £90,000 for certain items in the leaflet concerning the health implications of eating at a McDonalds restaurant and its role in Third World starvation and environmental damage, which remained 'not proven'. The Judge agreed that "McDonalds advertisements, promotions and booklets have pretended to a positive nutritional benefit which McDonald's food did not match" and that the firm "paid its workers low wages, thereby helping to depress wages for workers in the catering trade".

The current government is happy to let McDonalds participate in the education of the country's schoolchildren. In 1998, David Blunkett and Steven Byers, Ministers of State for education and industry, permitted the corporation to be a partner in the North Somerset Education action zone. In 1999, the National Year of Reading Received support in the form of branded lunchboxes. During the McLibel trial Dave Morris, claimed in court that the firm sees schoolchildren as the next generation of cheap labor as well as consumers. In summing up, the judge agreed that McDonalds influence on the young was remarkable, commenting that the fast food chain targets "susceptible young children to bring in custom, both their own and that of their parents".

McDonalds is so politically powerful that it can sue anyone and get away with it even if the information that they are suing over is true. Just because the information in the London Green Peace Group leaflet wasn’t proven true doesn’t mean it couldn’t be proven true. But the little people can never be correct when going up against the huge capital of the McDonalds Corporation.

Globalization also impacts cultures. It tends to promote homogeneity towards western and American values and influences. In this sense, some see globalization as westernization or even Americanization. They cite, among others, instances of expansion of coca cola, McDonalds, and the rock-and-roll music relayed by adverts, radio, and global satellite television. Such expansion, they argue, happens at the expense of local cultures that are the sources of diversities.

George Ritzer say, “I think that McDonald's has a profound effect on the way people do a lot of things I mean it leads people to want everything fast, to have, you know, a limited attention span so that kind of thing spills over onto, let's say, television viewing or newspaper reading, and so you have a short attention span, you want everything fast, so you don't have patience to read the New York Times and so you read McPaper, you read USA today. You don't have patience to watch a lengthy newscast on a particular issue so you watch CNN News and their little news McNugget kinds of things so it creates a kind of mindset, which seeks the same kind of thing in one setting after another. I see it in education where you have, in a sense, a generation of students who've been raised in a McDonaldised society, they want things fast, they want idealic nuggets from Professors, they don't want sort of slow build up of ideas, you gotta keep them amused, you gotta come in with the Ronald McDonald costume and quip a series of brilliant theoretical points or else they're going to turn you off” (link).

According to George Ritzer in other countries when going into a McDonalds, it's not just that you are buying a product, but you are buying into a system. In the 1940s there was a big flap in France over what was called a Coca Colonization. The French were very upset about the coming of Coca Cola to France. They felt it threatened the French wine industry and French way of life. But that was just the influx of an American product. Now, with McDonalds, we have the influx of an American way of life, which is to trivialize eating, to make it something that is fast, make it something that's to get done and over with. But it's striking to me that the last time I was in Paris the Parisians appeared to have embraced this kind of fast food phenomenon. You have developments of fast food croissanteries where this model French way of life and the croissanterie has been reduced to fast food. French bread is more and more treated on a fast basis rather than lots of local bakeries baking their own distinctive kind, so if the French succumb to this in the realm of food there is little that is safe from the expansion of this process.

Within this world, however, McDonalds has sufficient influence to actually change established dietary practices across whole regions. For example, according to "Behind the Arches", a book authorized by McDonalds in 1987, McDonalds in Japan faced a fundamental challenge of establishing beef as a common food. Their president Den Fujita stated “the reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years, if we eat McDonalds hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white and our hair blonde.” McDonalds also changed eating habits in Australia, Peter Ritchie, at the time McDonalds Australian president has stated he attributes “that change to the influence McDonalds has on children.” "Behind the Arches" concludes that rather than adapt to local tastes and preferences, “McDonalds’ foreign partners made major changes in marketing in order to sell the American system. Indeed, McDonalds is prepared to support such means as are necessary to sell the American system, the company supplies symbolic practical support and important ideological support to the military imperialism necessary for the onward march of mono-culture. For example, they provided food to US troops as a token of support for the genocide about to be perpetrated against the people of Iraq. (link)

McDonalds told Scottish sandwich bar owner, Mary Blair, that her shop in Fenny Stratford near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, can no longer go by the name McMunchies because McDonald's is the registered user of the 'Mc' prefix, it emerged yesterday. Mrs. Blair, a 36 year-old Scot, who does not sell burgers or chips, said she chose the name because she liked the word "munchies" and wanted to add a taste of Scotland. The sign bears a Scottish thistle and a St Andrew's flag. But in a statement to Mrs. Blair's solicitors, said if someone, "either deliberately or unintentionally," used their trademark, they were “in effect using something that does not belong to them." The company that has quietly set about taking over the world ensuring that there is not a high street which does not feature its red and white sign and its golden arches, also the property of McDonald's, now wants to take over Britain's heritage. Telling the Scots that they cannot use the prefix Mc is like someone registering the name Singh and then ban its use in India. Where do they think Mc originated, Illinois? McDonald's say that the "unauthorized" use of the 'Mc' prefix may confuse the public." (link)

McDonald's also affects culture in promoting their food as 'nutritious', but the reality is that it is junk food. It is high in fat, sugar and salt, and low in fiber and vitamins. A diet of this type is linked with a greater risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. Their food also contains many chemical additives, some of which may cause ill health, and hyperactivity in children. Meat is also the cause of the majority of food poisoning incidents. In 1991 McDonald's were responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning in the UK, in which people suffered serious kidney failure. With modern intensive farming methods, other diseases, linked to chemical residues or unnatural practices have also become a danger to people too.

As a global power McDonalds has negatively affected the world’s people economically, politically, and culturally. Criticism of McDonald's has come from a huge number of people and organizations over a wide range of issues. In the mid-1980's, London Greenpeace drew together many of those strands of criticism and called for an annual World Day of Action against McDonald's. This takes place every year on 16th October, with pickets and demonstrations all over the world. McDonald's, who spend a fortune every year on advertising, are trying to silence worldwide criticism by threatening legal action against those who speak out. Many have been forced to back down because they lacked the money to fight a case. Protests against the $30 billion a year fast-food giant continue to grow. It's vital to stand up to intimidation and to defend free speech. (link) “Nobody in the United States is forced to buy fast food. The first step toward meaningful change is by far the easiest which is to stop buying it. They executives who run the fast food industry are not bad mean. They are business mean. They will sell free-range, organic, grass fed hamburgers is you demand it. They will sell whatever makes a profit” (Schlosser 269)

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References:

animalfrontline.nl
mcspotlight.org
mwr.org.uk
mcspotlight.org
sidamaconcern.com
globalpolicy.org

Schlosser, Eric. "Fast Food Nation",
Haroer Collins Publishers, 2002.

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--> The above analysis appeared on honors.rit.edu
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Life's Scars
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Scars Like Memories


By Kylie M. Lynch

My heart and mind
like my body
have scars
for all the
things
I have
healed
from but
still don't
forget.

Scars
like memories.

I see them
and remember
and so,
don't really heal
I remember the moment
I remember the pain
and
once more
feel the wound.

(Poem's source : thatpoem.com)
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Creative Commons License
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"Willem Rasing's Company"
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© 2007 - Ben Heine
Virginia Tech Massacre :
Lest We Forget
My Cartoons on Art Limited
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(Click on image to go there)
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Farewell to
Norman Mailer
.

Audrey and Phil
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These are the portraits of
Audrey and Philippe Tshilumba
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A Lover's Delight

By Malini Kadir

Waiting Awaiting
As days pass
Thinking; writing
In mid thoughts pause

Multiple visions
Arise in mind
Joyful Fashions
Of very colourful Kind

His mind ventures
Dwelling on every part
The secret treasures
Curiosity trickles a start

Wandering thoughts
Rest on her mid waist arrow
Down further brought
A curly tuft of dark furrow

Exotic thoughts spicy temptation
Dragging His mind to thrilling peaks
His Lips are wet in justification
His thoughts impatiently seeks

The bell at the door rings
His visions Chased in Haste
Preoccupied thoughts to present brings
Alluring woman but still pure and chaste

(The poem appeared on poemsabout.com)
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Creative Commons License
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Ben by Stoff
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Artwork by Stoff
.
This is my portrait realized by Stoff. He called it "Le Jocond". Ha ha!!!

Stoff is a talented Web designer. He created my website : www.benheine.com (which is currently being fully updated). Have a look at his own website : Stoff Design
.
Thank you dear Stoff!!! I laughed a lot! Below are 2 portraits of him I did some time ago.
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(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
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Stoff Design is a one man operation, leaving complete control of art direction and art creativity in the hands of one person. This provides a more direct and personal connection to each client.

Stoff Design produces innovative solutions for a wide range of areas, from corporate identity to Websites.

Stoff currently works in association with Digilicious media and is the Art Director of Pulse magazine, but he still works as a freelance graphic and Web designer from home and can also work on site. You can contact him at : allirot@hotmail.com
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Filled With Fire
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(Ben Heine © Cartoons)
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Freedom
.
By Daniel Hooks

We are free to be free
To make our own destiny
To shine like the sun
To become one
To hide under the moon
Under in the gloom
To run with the deer
To make worry disappear
To listen and to hear
To love and to fear
To make our minds be clear
To laugh and to cheer
To travel and to steer
In the path we have chosen
To be hot or cold or even frozen
We are free to be free
To make our own destiny
And to look back from the finish line
And to shout with joy and not to whine.

(The poem appeared on writeoutloud.net)
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Look Into My Eyes
.
Like Eyes That
Looked on Wastes


By Emily Dickinson

Like eyes that looked on Wastes—
Incredulous of Ought
But Blank—and steady Wilderness—
Diversified by Night—

Just Infinites of Nought—
As far as it could see—
So looked the face I looked upon—
So looked itself—on Me—

I offered it no Help—
Because the Cause was Mine—
The Misery a Compact
As hopeless—as divine—

Neither—would be absolved—
Neither would be a Queen
Without the Other—Therefore—
We perish—tho' We reign—

(The poem appeared on bartleby.com)
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Creative Commons License
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Marcin Bondarowicz, Interview


(Ben Heine © Cartoons)


Below is an interview I had several months ago
with the Polish artist Marcin Bondarowicz.
I just noticed I didn't publish it here yet!

“Close to the People,
Far Away From the Government”

By Ben Heine

Marcin Bondarowicz is a Polish satire drawer and journalist, born in 1976 in Starachowice. He is also a painter, photographer and poet. He works today as a freelance. Marcin Bondarowicz uses traditional and digital techniques. Since a while back, he specialises in newspaper-illustrations. He works for a number of Polish and international magazines and papers. A permanent exhibition of his artworks and projects of posters can be viewed on his website : [link] and his online portfolio : [link]


BH : How did you come to draw professionally?

MB : I can’t give an exact date. It was a long process of observing, finding the right form of expression and a pictorial language of my own.

The more serious you try to be, the more you run the risk of criticism. In that situation you’re a target. Nothing occurs in the abstract.

With his penetrating gaze, the skilful drawer always finds interesting issues and portrays them in the most suited way to provoke a number of feelings. My goal is not to provoke laughter but to raise the level of awareness.

In my work humour is not an end in itself but rather a way of drawing attention to the issue in an enticing way.

An important element in my drawing is that they are autobiographical. I account for someone’s life, someone I know well.

BH : Which papers, magazines and Internet sites do you work for?

MB : I work with the following publications:

Harvard Business Review Polska, Poland Monthly, Manager Magazin, BusinessWeek Polska, Przeglàd Podatkowy, Puls Biznesu, Gazeta Bankowa, Dziennik Zachodni, Integracja, Europejska, Tygodnik NIE, Nowy Robotnik, Najwyýszy CZAS, Regiony, NIE, Gazeta, Samorzàdu i Administracji, Le MONDE Diplomatique, INPRECOR Correspondance de presse internationale.

I’ve taken part in the following projects:

DV DatevSymfonia, Nestle Waters DAR NATURY, Wydawnictwa INFOR S.A., Wydawnictwa MELAS

I’ve worked with the following companies:

APOLLO, BABYONE, Only One, Hard Rock Cafe

I have also worked with the drawer’s leagues J&J [Poland] and Okcomic.net [China]. Several of my products are also to be found in private collections in Poland and abroad.

BH : What is it in the political language that inspires you the most?

MB : I have always been shocked at human misery and social injustice. As soon as I hear the word " problem "; I am always prepared to rush over there. Most important to me are the truth-tellers.

In spite of the geographical distances separating people of the world, I wish to try to bring them closer to each other and give as much of myself as possible.

BH : Should there be any limitation to freedom of speech whatsoever? If yes, then what boundaries is one not allowed to transgress?

MB : Much depends on the drawer’s distinctiveness, character, conduct towards others and the principles they have in life.

But there’s always a red line, a boundary you should never transgress.

The power of the word can stir up and be life-giving. The word owns the power to cut like knives. They are destructive and can even bring death. The drawing, in my view, possesses a similar power. It is a real weapon in the hands of a drawer who knows how to use it.

BH : Is there, according to you, one single form of freedom of speech or are there several? (Depending on diverse cultures and different countries.)

MB : The word freedom is an abstract term. Political, cultural and religious differences divide the world. We don’t have enough time or strength for bringing them together.

The belief that we have the ability to create new rules of the game in this world is a utopia. The only thing we can do is to try to get a better understanding and be more tolerable towards our neighbour. We have to move forward without hurting others.

BH : What do you think of the Holocaust cartoon contest arranged by the Iranian daily Hamshari in response to the caricatures of Mohammed published in various European dailies?

MB : I feel a lot of grief and bitterness with regard to this contest. I think the cartoons speak for themselves.

If they are to be condemned, then let them be condemned. The readers can tell the difference between big and small on their own. I have myself made drawings with the Holocaust as the motive but am immune since I never attack anyone.

BH : Have any of your drawings been censured? If yes, then why and under what circumstances?

MB : Yes, I’ve found myself in such situations. It’s always been about drawings depicting politicians in my country. I cannot reveal the names of these individuals because if I talk about them, they’ll receive attention they don’t deserve.

BH : Are you practicing self-censorship? Which are the most difficult topics to depict?

MB : My only self-censorship is deliberate. If touching certain of my topics hurt, I abandon them, I don’t go any further. I like to experiment but try to avoid repeating the same mistake.

BH : Do you think the drawing is a political power able to change people’s behaviour?

MB : Yes, the satirical drawing possesses great power. One mustn’t forget that it has the power of a weapon. In a lunatic’s hands it can cause a lot of damage. I sometimes ask myself if the drawing-diploma isn’t comparable to a firearms permit.

To answer the second part of the question: can the drawing change people’s behaviour? I believe the drawing can intimidate.

If the drawing is suggestive enough to leave an impression on people’s unconsciousness, then that’s an important first step in a transformation process of people’s attitudes (but they will first have to incorporate it). It’s only a matter of time, but according to me man is not perfect, she always goes for the least strenuous.

BH : Do you think that the satirical drawer is an artist or rather a journalist, or even both?

MB : That question means a lot to me as I am at heart a TV-journalist Right now I’m making satirical drawings in cooperation with the editorial office of my paper.

If you’re practicing this profession, the drawing profession, you have to be in accordance with your own conscience and choose to say the truth and not express the political beliefs of the editors or art directors.

You always have to bear in mind the assignment you’ve accepted. Close to the people, far away from the government. The drawing profession has a lot in common with journalism.

But in order to have fun you have to translate the issues you deal with into illustrations and put the emotions of the onlookers in motion. You have to be an artist in order to achieve this. It is this that creates the bond to the shared fantasy of the readers.

BH : According to you, is the role of the drawer to make people laugh or to think?

MB : Thinking means most, because reason is eternal. Laughter is temporarily.

BH : Which situation or person do you think is hardest to draw?

MB : I can never draw a magical formula to make the world a better place because I am myself a part of it.

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--> This interview was translated from Swedish to English by Kristoffer Larsson

--> Original Interview and portrait by Ben Heine

--> Marcin Bondarowicz's art can also be seen on the following websites:

BRAZILCARTOON GALLERY: [link]

BONDAROWICZ 2006 Benjamin HEINE CARTOONS: [link]

CARTOONIA MARCIN BONDAROWICZ PROFIL: [link]

:::HOP CARTOON::: CARTOONS by MARCIN BONDAROWICZ: [link]

AGENCJA RYSUNKOWA J&J – MARCIN BONDAROWICZ: [link]

BLOG SATIRA – MARCIN BONDAROWICZ: [link]

PersianCartoon GALLERY Marcin Bondarowicz: [link]

AZERBAIJAN CARTOONISTS UNION: [link]

ARTIJA - LINIJE I BOJE - CARTOON GALLERY: [link]


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