Furor over Guernica at the UN

The following is taken from a posting forum called able2know. able2know forum

"Excerpt
NEW YORK.- The "Guernica" work by Pablo Picasso at the entrance of the Security Council of the United Nations has been covered with a curtain. A diplomat stated that it would not be an appropriate background if the ambassador of the United States at the U.N. John Negroponte, or Powell, talk about war surrounded with women, children and animals shouting with horror and showing the suffering of the bombings."

And they say irony is dead."

Direct link:
ArtDaily article

The Art Daily is "The First Art Newspaper on the Net", since 1996. From another poster in the able2know forum:

" The drapes were installed last Monday and Wednesday — the days the council discussed Iraq — and came down Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, when the subjects included Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions in Lebanon and Western Sahara." (from the Washington Times)

To this blog author, this story is utterly ridiculous, ironic, and very very sad at the same time. The whole purpose of the work (which is recognized as one of the most important political statements by an artist in the last hundred years or so) is specifically to bring to mind what horrors result from war. This art is a reminder which is highly appropriate for a global organization directly charged with mediating to avoid such conflict. Since the UN building resides in USA mainland, it cannot be missed that some visitors and staff of the UN see censorship so very blatant in the land of the 'free'. You remember, the land where there is a Bill of Rights? Oh, maybe someone from the Department of Homeland Security will want to look into whether the actual Bill of Rights and the amendments supporting are subject to change if not deemed "politically-correct" to the present federal government administration! Comments are quite welcome here in this blog.

Image link:
Guernica

This is quoted from another blog with similar interests to mine. I believe it to be a fascinating story that will continue forward to spread over the world. Of course, anti-war poetry is not welcomed by 'everyone':

http://bibcognito.com/

This is from a blog called bibcognito and is linked to great librarian blogs. Please look at this article from "The Globe and Mail" that this blog quoted from today.

Poets for Peace

As Bush threatnes that a declaration of war on Iraq is weeks away, poets around the world are launching anti-combat stanzas.

"Canadian poet Todd Swift took only one week to compile an ebook, 100 Poets Against the War, which he released on Monday to mark the report by weapons inspectors to the UN security council.

"We're trying to create something that is like the Vietnam war protest," said Mr Swift, speaking from his home in Paris. He said he was amazed by
how quickly the collection had spread around the world.

"About 25 of the poets in the collection are from the UK or Ireland, and we are adding John Kinsella and a few others this weekend to the revised version, which will be released next Monday to meet Mr Blair on his return
from Bush's ranch," he added.

Contributors to the ebook include George Murray, Ethan Gilsdorf and Maggie
Helwig. (From: CANLIT-L@INFOSERV.NLC-BNC.CA. Posted by: Phyllis Aronoff)"

The whitehouse is not pleased. Laura Bush recently closed the curtains on a poetry symposium upon discovering that many of the invited poets were planning to read ant-war verse.

A spokeswoman for Mrs. Bush, a former librarian (for shame!), said: "While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum," (From the Globe and Mail.)

The Globe and Mail

Following is a sample of what you will get when you click on this URL:

Recently Updated Weblogs, Radio Community Server

Recently updated weblogs
1. the daily gab 11:58 AM
2. yurdlecity 11:58 AM
3. My Life As A Fischer 11:57 AM
4. learnignorance: college happenings 11:57 AM
5. fraught with shane 11:57 AM
6. icann.Blog 11:57 AM
7. NACKT UND WEHRLOS 11:56 AM
8. Kid's Korner 11:56 AM
9. michael britten's Loftware 11:56 AM
10. Cup of Chicha 11:56 AM
11. JFLiu.com Jay Liu Weblog 11:56 AM
12. bibcognito 11:56 AM

* * * * * * * *
Of course, all listed titles are active links on that page. For me to convert the above links to active links I may include in this blog, I will copy to a document in Word. If I want to be able to copy and paste the links in html code, on the actual webpage I will select "View" and then "Source" - voila, all are now active links that show up in your Notepad or Wordpad automatically for you in a second window. With editing for "find" and "replace all" with (just click space bar one time), it quickly edits down to a nice compact list of links for me. See below for sample from the above web page:
* * * * * * * *

the daily gab
yurdlecity
My Life As A Fischer
learnignorance: college happenings
fraught with shane
icann.Blog
NACKT UND WEHRLOS
Kid's Korner
michael britten's Loftware
Cup of Chicha
JFLiu.com Jay Liu Weblog
bibcognito
Hit & Run
WebAlstrom ETP WebSite
OS X
pseudorandom
Kevin Altis' Radio Weblog
/dev/random
alana's dear blog
Little Tiny Lies
edwin: welkom thuis
Emily's Musings
Jewizzle Buddhizzle
Emily's Stars of Thought: A Creative w..

Cool, huh!