On 2015-09-14 21:16, Geert Lovink wrote: > (tactical (media) arts or celebrity propaganda? let’s discuss this. as > you all know, I have been critical of the personality cult of julian > assange (coordinated by himself) and was happy to see that snowden and > manning and the (missing) barrett brown had other approaches. this art > work is not working with these differences and instead glorifies the > heroes in a usual way. or not? geert) > > http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Speak-Out-With-Snowden-Assange-and-Manning-Outside-UN-20150914-0009.html > > Speak Out with Snowden, Assange and Manning Outside the UN > > The "Anything to say?” sculpture moved from Germany to the United > Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday. It is “a life size > bronze sculpture, portraying three figures each one standing on a > chair. The fourth chair is empty because it is our chair,” according > to the installation’s website.
One might wonder if a UN Headquarter is the right place to put a whistleblower sculpture in front of: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/14/un-united-nations-ostracised-sacked-arrested-whistleblowers When a United Nations investigator reported the rape of a refugee in Sri Lanka, she did not expect the disclosure to force her into a decade-long legal battle with her employer. Caroline Hunt-Matthes was ostracised and eventually ousted while on medical leave. She has still not secured redress after a decade fighting her case. Her case was remarkable in duration but not in substance. Hunt-Matthes is by no means the first or only whistleblower to fall foul of the UN system. Indeed, her case highlights neatly one of the UN’s dirtiest secrets: that its staff are reluctant to report abuses or corruption within the organisation for fear of losing their jobs. “The bottom line is the UN is not a safe working environment at the minute,” said Hunt-Matthes, who has left the UN and now works at a university in Geneva. “You can’t report misconduct and be protected. What could be more serious than that?” <...> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
