Pro-Union Gaelic footballer

Live Drawing - @TheJohnHewitt [Part 3]

On February 21 2014 I did a third evening of Live Drawing at the John Hewitt. Click below to see a selection of cartoons from the evening. 

Previous night of live drawing at the John Hewitt here and here. Previous night of live drawing at the Ramore Wine Bar in Portrush (@RamorePortrush) here and here. Previous night of Live Drawing in Portrush in the Mermaid Restaurant here. With the Arts Council NI at their 2013 conference here, at the Pump House, Titanic Belfast with the Friday Night Mashup here, at the QUB Peace Journalism seminar here, St Joseph's PS Christmas craft fair 2013 here, at the Thriftway Travel christmas party 2013 here, at the Civic Conversation 2013 here. At a Christmas party (2013) here. At the DUP Conference 2013 here, and drawing the DUP politicians here. Doodling 6 guys in a pub here. At Culture Night Belfast 2013 here. At the GEMS NI Conference here. At Funtastics indoor play park here. At the Wickerman tourist shop here. 

Live drawing in the Black Box with famous political cartoonist Ian Knox here. See my life drawings from the Loft Belfast at 99 North Street here, here and here. My thoughts on life drawing here. One of my favourite cartoonists Andre Carrilho talks about the challenge of caricature here. More cartoons below:

Glenn Greenwald on the abuse of state power through terror laws

Glenn Greenwald said here of the lessons learnt from the Church Committee:

"The lesson of the Church Committee from the 1970s is that when you allow people in government to spy on Americans in the dark with no accountability and without warrant, they abuse that power and that’s what’s happened; it’s rampant abuse and it needs sunlight."

Glenn Greenwald has previously also cited Cicero who said: "Laws are silent in times of war." Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) said of Glenn Greenwald and the abuse of terrror laws:

"In this respect, I can say this to David Cameron. Thank you for clearing the air on these matters of surveillance. You have now demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that these anti-terror provisions are capable of rank abuse. Unless some other facts emerge, there is really no difference in kind between you and Vladimir Putin. You have used police powers granted for anti-terrorism and deployed them to target and intimidate journalists deemed enemies of the state. 

You have proven that these laws can be hideously abused. Which means they must be repealed. You have broken the trust that enables any such legislation to survive in a democracy. By so doing, you have attacked British democracy itself. What on earth do you have to say for yourself? And were you, in any way, encouraged by the US administration to do such a thing?"

We need a new generation of journalists and politicians

It's self-evident that the political class in Northern Ireland is entirely out of step with a people rapidly advancing in civilisation. As Mick Fealty said:

"The irony is that in general terms, sectarianism is on the slide, and mixed marriages are up and the wider population is beginning to adopt a more open view of how the world works than many of their most senior politicians." 

Politicians stand as fountainheads for the most extreme: talking singularly about the past, parades and victims. Yet, as Brian Rowan said of the parading stalemate of summer 2013, "The standoff is in one part of Belfast, and here and everywhere else, people have other worries - food, bills, jobs, education."

The effect of this cause is apathy and indifference which only sustains the bogus cause. A negative and hideous feedback loop. Taking a line from Alex Kane, moderate unionism and nationalism has been replaced with opt-out-couldn't-care-less-about-the-whole-thing-anymore unionism and nationalism. We need to break and replace the negative with a virtuous feedback loop.

This requires a two strand remedy and the dismantling of the older order. Northern Ireland needs a new generation of journalists and new politicians.

A New Generation of Journalists

Micheál Martin leader of Fianna Fáil said:

"Fundamentally, a public discourse once solely focused on conflict has not evolved a new approach. There are only a handful of journalists who pay any attention to the wider cultural, social and economic dimensions of relations within Northern Ireland and between North and South."

A New Generation of Politicians

Alex Kane said:

"Northern Ireland needs a new political generation, a new agenda and new political parties. It needs people who will work together to make Northern Ireland a success. It needs a generation of politicians who will refuse to accept that stalemate, mutual veto and same-old, same-old elections are the best we can hope for."

Previous posts on "The Two Worlds of Northern Ireland" series here, here, here, here, here and here.

Art is theft, Ctd

By looking at the two cartoons above, you can see a similarity. The one on the left is on I did during an evening of Live Drawing at the Wine Bar, Portush. The one on the right is by Ian Knox for BBC Hearts and Minds, done some years ago.

"Only those with no memory insist on their originality." 

— Coco Chanel 

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest form of learning." 

― George Bernard Shaw 

The point of this is to show, how by learning Ian Knox by heart, I am able to borrow and replicate without reproducing. My piece isn't a like for like, but a homage with an echoe of Ian Knox dancing throught the lines.

The cartoon below is from the same evening. As I looked at my subject I was suddenly reminded of Plug from the Beano. So once again, this work is not a direct reproduction, but a borrowing and reworking.

STEM - There is a disconnect in the Executive

Judith Harvey was recently appointed as general manager of W5. She explained to the Gavin Walker on behalf of the Northern Ireland business magazine Business First the importance of science in schools. She said:

"Science, Technology and Maths (STEM) is relevant to everybody, every day - and that's what we have to impart to our young people before they have made academic decisions that close the doors on potential career paths. Too often our students in both primary and post-primary, are taught the process of science, but not the relevance it has to their lives."

Science is obligatory to GCSE in schools in UK and Ireland, this is not the case in Northern Ireland. Asked if Stormont is failing students, Judith said:

"There is a disconnect in the Executive. Where one part says that STEM is the economic driver for the economy, and we have to put the economy at the centre of everything we do, another part allows science to drop down the educational hierarchy. This send out a contradictory message about STEM to pupils, teachers and parents."

@CharlesMBlow - Writing is hard, Ctd

Writing is alternately a narcissistic and dreadfully self-doubting process, and somewhere in the valley between the two something grows...
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) February 26, 2014

Sarah Gilbert has similarly said:

"You’ve got to be smart enough to write and stupid enough not to think about all the things that might go wrong.”

More from Charles:

Loyalism's phantom fears, Ctd

Raymond Lavery is a veteran loyalist and activist. He has said that loyalists desperately needed a political education programme to convince younger loyalists that their fears are unfounded. He said:

"What is important here is that this generation not only get a better formal education but they get a political education too, which there is a serious lack of. Sinn Féin are putting into people’s heads that because a flag comes down there is a march towards a united Ireland. 

And here's the really important bit:

"Young and old believe that, even though it is not true."

In full here. Previous post on loyalism's "phantom fears" here. I previously looked at Raymond Lavery's comments here.

Live Drawing - @TheWickerManBT1

I have an exhibition running at the Wicker Man (@TheWickerManBT1) tourist and souvenir shop on High Street, Belfast city centre running for the whole month of February 2014. On Thursday 13 February I did an evening of Live Drawing, a pilot event ahead of a bigger more sustained programme of Live Drawing that will run at the Wicker Man. Click below to see a full selection of images from the night.

Previous night of live drawing in the first of four evenings at the Ramore Wine Bar in Portrush (@RamorePortrush) here. Night of Live Drawing in Portrush in the Mermaid Restaurant here. With the Arts Council NI at their 2013 conference here, at the Pump House, Titanic Belfast with the Friday Night Mashup here, at the QUB Peace Journalism seminarhere, St Joseph's PS Christmas craft fair 2013 here, at the Thriftway Travel christmas party 2013 here, at the Civic Conversation 2013here. At a Christmas party (2013) here. At the DUP Conference 2013 here, and drawing the DUP politicians here. Doodling 6 guys in a pub here. At Culture Night Belfast 2013 here. At the GEMS NI Conference here. At Funtastics indoor play park here.                                                                                                                                           Live drawing in the Black Box with famous political cartoonist Ian Knox here. See my life drawings from the Loft Belfast at 99 North Street here, here and here. My thoughts on life drawing here. One of my favourite cartoonists Andre Carrilho talks about the challenge of caricature here.

Art is theft, Ctd

Oliver Jeffers wrote of the subtle influence of Maurice Sendak in his work in The Guardian here:

"There is a reason the character of the Boy in my first picture books wears a red and white stripy jumper, and that reason is Maurice Sendak. Or, more specifically, that reason is an homage to my favorite monster in Sendak's most famous picture book, Where the Wild Things Are... As a young artist trying to find my style, I deliberately tried to avoid being directly influenced by – and thus compared with – such strong and unique work. However, as he so informed my childhood, I could not resist one very direct and visual tribute – a red and white stripy jumper."

Live Drawing - @TheJohnHewitt [Part 2]

On Thursday February 20 2014 I settled into The John Hewitt bar (@TheJohnHewitt) for an evening of drawing happy people celebrating the imminent arrival of the weekend. It was a really great night. Click below to see a full selection of cartoons from the night.

The last, and my first night of Live Drawing, at the John Hewitt here. Previous night of live drawing in the first of four evenings at the Ramore Wine Bar in Portrush (@RamorePortrush) here. Night of Live Drawing in Portrush in the Mermaid Restaurant here. With the Arts Council NI at their 2013 conference here, at the Pump House, Titanic Belfast with the Friday Night Mashup here, at the QUB Peace Journalism seminarhere, St Joseph's PS Christmas craft fair 2013 here, at the Thriftway Travel christmas party 2013 here, at the Civic Conversation 2013here. At a Christmas party (2013) here. At the DUP Conference 2013 here, and drawing the DUP politicianshere. Doodling 6 guys in a pub here. At Culture Night Belfast 2013 here. At the GEMS NI Conferencehere. At Funtastics indoor play park here.

Live drawing in the Black Box with famous political cartoonist Ian Knox here. See my life drawings from the Loft Belfast at 99 North Street here, here and here. My thoughts on life drawing here. One of my favourite cartoonists Andre Carrilho talks about the challenge of caricature here.

Political correctness is the worst form of censorship, Ctd

For too long a climate of fear has installed a culture of passivity and submission and obedience among the moderate and the middle classes in Northern Ireland. It is almost universally accepted that any moderate who speaks out will do so under pain of recrimination, likely intimidation and possible physical attack. 

However when any person, group or entity wields power, there must be a check and constraints, a counter-factual, opposition and adversary. Power must be held accountable whoever wields it. All power should be mediated. 

But all we have seen is the promiscuous, indiscriminate and wilful abuse of power. Year after year. After year. After year. 

Martin Firrell - "Security is no replacement for liberty"

Martin Firrell (@MartinFirrell) is a campaigner and cultural activist. In the age of Wikileaks and mass NSA and GCHQ surveillence, his famous quote is of massive contemporary relevance. Though he isn't the only one to be concerned. The maximalist civil libertarian Glenn Greenwald is leading a front against the overbearing US security and surveillance state. He and a team of civil liberties activist have launched a news site The Intercept (@the_intercept). Christopher Hitchens also fought back against the tentacles of the state and said in the August 2003 issue of Reason.

"The trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both."

Gore Vidal said in 199 during during an address, ‘Writer’s Perspective: Smithsonian Institute’:

"I don’t know where the Internet is going to go but I do know that the government is going to try and take it over. You can count on that."

Art is theft, Ctd

Davin O'Dwyer said in the Irish Times:

"Of all Isaac Newton’s gifts to humanity, my personal favourite is his famous turn of phrase, written in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” 

There is such a beautiful humility and economy in the words, a vivid evocation of the process of human learning. The Principia Mathematica is a work of genius, no doubt, but in that phrase Newton acknowledges how his work builds on the breakthroughs of Kepler, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo and so on. 

Since then, of course, Newton’s model of classical mechanics has been superseded by quantum physics, with the likes of Einstein, Planck and Bohr building on, and sometimes dismantling, those earlier theories."

Fintan O'Toole - Libel action should be an absolute last resort

In December 2010 The Sunday Times carried a long, anonymous profile of Irish Times columnist Fintan O'Toole and included the assertion that he drove home from an Irish Congress of Trade Unions rally in a BMW 5 Series. As Fintan O'Toole said, the story "was pure invention and almost every “fact” that followed was wildly and demonstrably wrong." He could have sued, but choose not to. He explained:

"The “profile” was, in other words, a gold mine. I had hit the libel jackpot. The Sunday Times couldn’t possibly go into court to defend an article that was so sloppily written and badly researched. Even the most aggressive lawyer would tell them to stuff my mouth with gold and make the whole thing go away fast."

Mike Nesbitt - The thought police

The DUP and UUP have both rejected the Haass proposals. The theo-unionists DUP have sold out the moderate and capitulated to the mad-men (my post here, 'Stop Appeasing Fanatacism'). Now they want to establish another working group of futility and despair. The UUP have summarily dismissed the Haass document. Full stop.

You can read the DUP response of waffle and wind here. UUP leader Mike Nesbitt gave us a 5 line press release here that tells us nothing. This is intolerable. The moral eunuchs at Stormont owe it to us to transparently and robustly defend their rejection of Haass. However, from the Sunday Politics Show we do know that Mike and his party will have nothing to do with Sinn Fein playing with the term "victim" and rejecting "terrorist."

This is what I want to look at today.

Ezra Klein, Glenn Greenwald, Nate Silver - The future of journalism?

Glenn Greenwald has created The Intercept. Nate Silver has left the NYTs to join ESPN where he is editor-in-chief of the FiveThirtyEight site. Bill Keller has left the NYTs to create a blog on the criminal justice system. Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) is launching a new venture with Vox Media. Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) has said: "We’re at an excitingly early stage in working out how to best produce and provide news in a social world." I looked at Greenwald and his new enterprise here. Ezra Klein is who I want to look at in more detail. This is what Klein has said of his new venture:

"We are just at the beginning of how journalism should be done on the web. We really wanted to build something from the ground up that helps people understand the news better. We are not just trying to scale Wonkblog, we want to improve the technology of news, and Vox has a vision of how to solve some of that.

The Cult of University, Ctd Eisenhower and the Free University

During his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 196, Eisenhower said how university had been captured by government and other interests:

"The free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. 

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded. 

Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite. 

It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system – ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society. 

...We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the [two]."

Address in full here.

Live Drawing - @RamorePortrush [Part 2]

 

On Valentine's Night 2014 I did an evening of Live Drawing at the Ramore Wine Bar (@RamorePortrush), Portrush. The couples and staff loved the unique and memorable momento. Click below to see a selection of cartoons from the evening.

Previous night of live drawing in the first of four evenings at the Ramore Wine Bar in Portrush (@RamorePortrush) here. Night of Live Drawing in Portrush in the Mermaid Restaurant here. With the Arts Council NI at their 2013 conference here, at the Pump House, Titanic Belfast with the Friday Night Mashup here, at the QUB Peace Journalism seminarhere, St Joseph's PS Christmas craft fair 2013 here, at the Thriftway Travel christmas party 2013 here, at the Civic Conversation 2013here. At a Christmas party (2013) here. At the DUP Conference 2013 here, and drawing the DUP politicians here. Doodling 6 guys in a pub here. At Culture Night Belfast 2013 here. At the GEMS NI Conference here. At Funtastics indoor play park here.

Live drawing in the Black Box with famous political cartoonist Ian Knox here. See my life drawings from the Loft Belfast at 99 North Street here, here and here. My thoughts on life drawing here. One of my favourite cartoonists Andre Carrilho talks about the challenge of caricature here.

Moderates versus extremists

1964 Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's support for ultra-conservatives contrasted with the long tradition of Republican moderates. In the cartoon above Herb Block depicted these moderates as drowning.

In Northern Ireland we have seen many model moderate politicians - constitutional and conciliatory - summarily vanquished by the extremist who practices the most inflexible and pitiless declension of unionism or nationalism.

By contrast in the United States of America, the moderate has often out-played the extremist. As I said in the Huffington Post here:

"Let's look at the DUP. These are the political offspring of Ian Paisley, Ireland's answer to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Al Sharpton. Foaming religious fundamentalists. Except none of these reactionaries made any serious in-ways into political office. Unfortunately ours did."