EDITORIAL
This week it's been very political, mostly thanks to Russell Brand (go figure). You may or may not agree with his thoughts and his ways, but he has given us a lot of material to talk about, the real stuff, not celebrity bullshit, and drawing attention to what really needs our attention is already remarkable, is already making our procrastination time meaningful and inspiring.
That on one side. On the other side, we are absolutely delighted to be starting a new photography section curated by our favourite Brooklyn-based photographer, friend, and partner in crime, Andreína Restrepo. Welcome Andre! So, pay close attention at Photoautomat, and if you want you can follow Andre in twitter:
@pianpianpian.
Have a nice reading and a super happy Sunday!
NEWS
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| Knitbombing revolution? Photo: Reuters/Cathal McNaughton via the New Stateman. |
You probably heard a lot about Russell Brand this past week. His
interview with Jeremy Paxman in BBC's Newsline (E.T.P. 10'46'') about him
editing an issue of the New Stateman magazine (E.T.P. 4'), became viral shortly after, firstly because most people still can't get pass Brand's appearance, fame, lightheartedness, (you name it), and fail to consider him a man with something to say. But more importantly because he is absolutely right in almost everything he is saying.
Honestly I started paying attention to him, when I read his article in
The Guardian about Margaret Thatcher E.T.P. 4'). Shortly after that he was invited by an
American so-called news show (E.T.P. 8'34'') to talk about his play "The Messiah Complex" and he demonstrated that he was the most lucid person in the studio. By far. It was painful to see and I think that those anchormen and women still don't get it.
"I have never voted. Like most people I am utterly disenchanted by
politics. Like most people I regard politicians as frauds and liars and
the current political system as nothing more than a bureaucratic means
for furthering the augmentation and advantages of economic elites." That is a fragment of his article in the latest New Stateman's issue. That along with the
Newsline interview had a lot of people saying (in social media at least) that he might have started a revolution, and in that scenario, ironically enough, Brand might be becoming some sort of messiah.
For me the word "revolution" when is not describing the movement of an object in a circular or elliptical course around an axis, is a bit rusty and an amazing way of subtracting value to any proposal, but, hey that's just me. People is free to use words and adjectives however they want. So I ask you, what do you think about Brand's remarks, about this dying pre-existing and quite narrow paradigm and about the possibility of starting a revolution?
It would be awesome to hear from you. Please do leave a comment.
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| The Trojan horse is the symbol of the Partido de la Red, of course. Photo via Twitter. |
In the same order of ideas, in a highly political, deeply serendipitous afternoon, I came across "El Partido de la Red" (The Net's Party), an Argentinean party created by Santiago Siri, a developer, coder, gamer, that believes that in one of the most bureaucratic countries of the world (I lived in Argentina for 5 years, I know what I'm taking about), change is possible through technology.
Weirdly enough I read about Siri and El Partido de la Red thanks to a tweet from BuzzFeed, that I didn't know where producing original content. You really, really, really have to love the Internet. This is a fragment of that article:
At the heart of his new program is a piece of software: DemocraciaOS,
a mobile web application that offers, right now, easy access to the
doings of the Argentine Congress, and an easy way to comment on them.
It’s a small taste of the digital governance Net Party candidates
promise. And Siri is operating on the counterintuitive theory that
Argentina, with its ossified and corrupt politics, is actually
particularly ready for the revolution. “The first thing you get
told when you’re proposing online democracy in a place like this is
those are things for Sweden or Iceland — countries that are very rich in
resources, it would never happen here,” he said. “But innovation
usually happens in the place where nobody is innovating.”
Read the full article in
BuzzFeed (E.T.P. 3'30''). And please, again, any comment on this subject would be highly appreciated.
