ai weiwei arrested in china (art & society 1)

one of my favourite modern artists, ai weiwei, was arrested this week in his home country china. he has been charged with economic crime, according to the LA Times. however, it is very very likely that this is just a form of censoring by the chinese government. ai weiwei has been arrested before, on trumped up charges, even leading to hospitalization.

sometimes i am just so fed up with the world.

ai weiwei is a very talented artist, and a very talented technical craftsman as well. he combines these talents to comment on our society, and sometimes this is especially about his home country china. his art is always respectful in every way, but it does have a message. that is one of the very important functions of art, imnsho.

i hereby wish to give my support to ai weiwei, and to all other artists and like who are hounded by governments, authorities or other organizations for speaking out for those values that are the very essence of a better humanity.

and shame on all those bureaucrats and power-hungry people who wish to muzzle the freedom of speech and other (artistic or not) expression in order to force their world vision on others, and in order to maintain their power positions.

(to be continued)

fukushima: our problems hoisted on future generations

the cleaning up of the millions of gallons of radioactive water at fukushima (which are a waste result of the attempts to cool the daiichi nuclear plant with water to prevent meltdown) could take decades, according to expert opinions reported in the LA Times, if it can be resolved at all.

these news items have a tendency to be understated, because the nature of news is like an extreme version of the nature of fashion, and seldom does public attention linger on any one issue if there are no `dramatic' turns of events.

but since we were discussing these topics on this blog, i felt i should mention this hoisting of our problems on future generations. the cleaning of this nuclear wastewater is actually but a minor issue compared to the nuclear waste that we are creating all over the world, for which we have no long-term solution either.

so, as an artist, perhaps you can see how serious i am on this issue when i say: forget about art, but do not forget about the next generations. who gave us the right to pollute the world in an irreversible manner for eons to come?