Bio and art statement:

Ling Yuen is a Canadian/Australian visual artist living, working and studying in Montreal and Sydney. Her photographic work ‘boxed’ examines our understanding of identity, culture, hybridism and home.

The complete series  ‘boxed – and if you must put me in a box, make sure it’s a big box’ was exhibited at Concordia University in 2010.

#1

Nadia Bhuiyan

Dreamer/Teacher

Photographed in her home in Ville-Marie, December 2009

Born:                Dhaka, Bangladesh

Homes:              Montreal – Bangladesh

Appreciates:      Family and food

#2

May Chui

Single Mom/Wannabe

Photographed in her home in Outremont, January 2010

Born:                Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

Homes:              Park Avenue, Montreal

Appreciates:      Extended family values

Regrets:              Dysfunctional family/feudalism

#3

Dave Madokoro

Carpenter/Nomad

Photographed at work in the Plateau, December 2009

Born:               Sherbrooke, Quebec

Homes:             Quebec – Peru

Appreciates:     Food and festivals

#4

Carolyn Fe

Artist/Business Person

Photographed in her home in Rosemont, January 2010

Born:                Quezon City, Philippines

Homes:              At home with Hubby, in the studio and on stage

Appreciates:      Food, music, art, theatre

Regrets:             Being judged by the cover and not the content

#5

Dipti Gupta

Colorful/Contemplative – Teacher/Artist

Photographed at her home in Little Burgundy, January 2010

Born:                     Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, India

Homes:                  Montreal – New Delhi – Baroda

Appreciates:          Good architecture – (old 18-19C buildings; tombs, old forts), people from diverse cultures, chance encounters

Regrets:                 Not playing an instrument well or even being able to sing

#6

Alan Wong

PhD Candidate/Activist

Photographed in his home in Villeray, November 2009

Born:                Deep River, Ontario

Homes:              Deep River – Mississauga – Fredericton – Montreal

Appreciates:      Whatever I encounter in my life

Regrets:             Being too old to discover that I really wanted to be a figure skater

#7

Amena Ahmad

Student/Gatherer

Photographed in her home in Downtown Montreal, January 2010

Born:                Lahore, Pakistan

Homes:              Anywhere my family is!

Appreciates:      Importance of family

Regrets:             Treatment of women, general close-mindedness

#8

Janet Lumb

A Laughing Smile/One who Sees & Gets the Best in People

Photographed in her home in the Plateau, December 2009

Born:              Toronto, Ontario

Homes:            Toronto – Vancouver – Montreal – Where the heart is

Appreciates:    Family, arts, ancestors, future

Regrets:           That I needed 30 years to rebel, grow up and realize how much I LOVE my mother

#9

Heidi Mehta

Activist/Community Worker

Photographed in her home in the Mile End, December 2009

Born:        Toronto, Ontario

Homes:      Toronto – Montreal

Jean Talon Market is without a doubt one of the most popular spaces in Montreal. Located just North of Little Italy, it offers a wide variety of goodies that everyone can enjoy. On any given day you are likely to come across Montreal hipsters standing shoulder to shoulder with little Italian grandmothers who never bothered to learn any English or French.

And Yes, there is Little Italy! Some people may never even realize they have crossed into this special area of the city until they close their eyes and listen to the sounds of the street and breathe in the smell of delicious ravioli. People speak French here, but they speak Italian first, and may even expect you to too.

Ah Mile End is an area that owns the heart of many a Montrealer, even if they have swallowed their pride and moved to Toronto to make more money  and make their parents proud. Cafe Olympico and St. Viateur Bagels are popular to the point that hipsters will be writing about them and including them in their blogs until the internet is no more.

And how can Montreal be complete without it`s mountain and the many crowds that pack its slopes in Summer and Winter alike. Just come within ten blocks of Mount Royal on a sunny Summer day and you will be overwhelmed by the steady sound of tams. People have been spreading out their blankets and soaking in the sun here for as long as even the eldest hipsters can remember.

Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Bonin

Montreal! You  have to love it, whether you are here just for a visit or planning to have your ashes spread out over the St. Lawrence River one day.

Freska cookies vendor

A mobile canteen for juices with stickers carrying the date of the revolution 25 January

The ambience of the demonstrations at Tahrir Square combined revolutionary edge with festive elements and scathing political humor. For example, the festive features of the  moulids  (popular festivities  celebrating the birth of one saint or another  that span the whole year across Egypt) were all rallied to the cause of El Thawra (the revolution): peddlers of all kinds of snacks, from popcorn to sweet potatoes, to nuts, seasonal fruits and vegetables and freska ( cookies typically sold at Alexandria beach during the summer as well as tea, coffee,  soft drinks and juices. (168 and 177)

Tents were scattered everywhere as people kept vigil night and day.

Tents were scattered everywhere as people kept vigil night and day.

And like the moulid, there were  people visiting from remote towns setting up all kinds of improvised tents and spreading worn-out blankets  and bed sheets  covered with holes, whole families with their children, older men and women  (188, 189)

Typical moulid gadgets for the kids of El Thawra painted with the colors of the Egyptian flag

Flags ornamented with golden rims for the ladies of El Thawra

The colorfulness of the moulid deferred to the flag’s trio of red, white and black which glowed on every shape and form of the flag and on all the paraphernalia of El Thawra:  tag necklaces, head bands, paper whistles and cone- shaped hats, tiny purses for “the young girls of El Thawra”, flags ornamented with golden braids in honor of “the ladies of El Thawra”.  (166 and 176).

The National Team of Robbers

Humor took many forms e.g. the popular zar (a ritual of exorcism of evil spirits) was given a hilarious twist as dervish-like circles of people performed the ritualistic dance typical of the zar tradition and recited incantations tailored to the occasion, for instance, asking Mubarak to step down “Get lost. Get lost.” and to chase away the evil spirits menacing El Thawra.  A huge poster featured  “The National Team of Robbers” listing the corrupt figures crowned by the “coach” Mubarak , and the sums of money  usurped by each (197).

Humor also came through jokes e.g. Mubarak was told by his ministers that Friday had been declared “The Friday of Departure” , Mubarak answered, “What do you mean, are the people going away somewhere?”;  there were humorous slogans addressed to Mubarak e.g.  “Please step down!  My wife wants to deliver and the baby doesn’t want to see your face.” as well as stand-up comics.

Families joined with their children as the profile of the demonstrators expanded day after day to include people of all ages and classes who poured into Tahrir Square in solidarity with the youth who ignited the first flames of the revolution. 180

Banners carrying vernacular poems encapsulating the grievances and demands of the people were everywhere. This particular banner denounces the rampant systematic neglect and usurpation by Mubarak’s regime of the country’s wealth:  Enough is enough!  Stop suffocating us; stop robbing us.  You made us sell our beds and sleep on the floor.  Enough is enough! Stop starving us. Stop impoverishing us. Enough is enough! We are waking up. We are claiming our rights in a peaceful revolution.   Mr. General Prosecutor, we want our money back!  181 Down with the State Security Apparatus! 183

There were accounts of victims of torture and some of the typical state security officers’ statements reported by political prisoners routinely subjected to torture:  “ If God descends from the sun, you will be released from prison.” ; “ People are a bunch of dogs; we are your masters you sons of bitches.” 193

The foremost demands in the revolution were democracy, freedom and the dignity stampeded by a ruthless police state. This reclamation interestingly preceded social justice in the order of priority among all classes and belied the assumption that a revolution in Egypt would certainly be led by the overwhelmingly poor, in what were referred to as “riots of the starved from the shanty town belt in Cairo.” The banner of this old, poor demonstrator says: I have dug my grave with my own hands here at Tahrir. Give me freedom or bury me here. 190

A mural depicting the map of Egypt paying tribute to the martyrs of the revolution 172

A painting inspired by the revolution with a warning attached: Beware a counter- revolution is in the making by supporters of the toppled regime and the State Security apparatus. 170

We have been brain-washed: if it ain’t written, it can’t be true. The arrogance of cultures who live by the written word is breathtaking.

But go tell that to the people in India where Sanskrit – Hindi’s mother language - was kept alive for centuries by sheer memorising. Oral cultures get bad press. The written word rules.

The tyranny of the written word. The world went berserk when the Twin Towers fell. For one year, every single day of the week, the Globe and Mail cried. Coming from Peru I was used to the indifference towards the Third World and was taken by surprise by the emotional response of the First World. I told myself: these people are, after all, able to feel compassion for those who suffer. Where is their compassion when the attack is not against their own?

¨White people are being attacked by the Islamic monster!¨ was the rallying cry. The West kept countless minutes of silence. A silence absent from Haitian, Bolivian, Palestinian, Bangladeshi, Chilean, African tragedies. One minute of silence while the demonizing words flow.

We have to accept the truth: El Conquistador Capitalista has won hands down. The sword is the Word.

The onslaught of the written word rarely fails: it pulverized ¨socialism ¨ and ¨feminism¨ among others. Gertrude would say, there is written word and written word. It is also used to resist. Thank god for dazibaos!

All is not lost: truck drivers can sing their truths to the world in their preferred manner: florid writing. "I'm ugly but my loving is delicious"!

Back at the Media Ranch all is under control. El Conquistador Capitalista controls the news. They do it by not putting the events in context. Context must be avoided. They rant against Chávez and Morales but avoid explaining the preceding 200 years. If they write about Haiti its all about bodybags and pathos. Cannon-boat diplomacy? 20 billion dollars in extorsion payment? 150 years embargo? Why add to the confusion with so much detail? It is much easier to show people of color suffering and dying. Take the context out and leave the pornography of misery. That’ll teach’em.

web.me.com/carlosferrandz

Hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis demonstrate weekly against Jewish settlements in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem.   

Over the last few years, the intensity and breadth of the solidarity actions for Palestinian rights dramatically increased.     

The second Intifada was followed by a campaign of non-violent direct-action, popularized in the West Bank by a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Based on the Freedom Summer campaign of the U.S. civil rights movement, the ISM (see http://palsolidarity.org/ ) has brought waves of internationals into the West Bank and Gaza to accompany Palestinians in their resistance. The overwhelming majority of Palestinian resistance is creative non-violence.   

Inside Israel, a new generation of Jewish activists join Palestinians to fight the occupation.   

Globally, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign has grown more in its first five years than the anti-South African apartheid boycott campaign grew in its first twenty, according the National Boycott Coordinator, Hind Awwad. October 22-24, Montreal is hosting a global BDS conference (see http://www.bdsquebec.org/ ).   

ISM co-founders Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf launched the Gaza Freedom Flotillas – ships carrying Pro-Palestinian activists and humanitarian aid to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. There is now a Canada Boat to Gaza being organized (see http://canadaboatgaza.org ).   

For Jews, solidarity with Palestinians is also a platform for our own growing resistance against the Jewish right and the extremist politics of Zionism, just as the U.S. civil rights movement became a springboard for new feminism, gay rights, the anti-Vietnam war movement, etc..   

This photo essay shows a small sample of the visual resistance for Palestinian rights going on this summer. Unless noted as taken by ActiveStills (www.activestills.org, and  http://www.flickr.com/photos/activestills/ ) , photos are by Scott Weinstein, member of the Independent Jewish Voices. (see http://ijvcanada.org ).   

Bil'in, a small (international) village at the centre of non-violent direct-action.

 After the Friday noon prayers, villages throughout the West Bank dramatically and theatrically confront the occupation.  Bil’in with the help of Israeli lawyers, just won a legal case pushing back the Wall that was expropriating their land for the nearby Jewish settlement. Invited by  the Bil’in Popular Committee (see http://www.bilin-ffj.org/ ), The Independent Jewish Voices Canada joined this June demonstration in solidarity with the boycott of the Israeli diamond trade, which accounts for 1/3rd of the Israel’s export economy.   

Bil'in residents, Israelis and internationals walk up to the army gates separating Bil'in from the military zone protecting the settlement, take down the barbwire and open the gate.

A resident defies the army across the road.

Behind this youth, a section of the army is photographing the protesters, and coordinating their counter-attack.

The Israeli army begins by shooting tear gas over the protesters at the gates into the support crowd 1 - 200 meters away. Bil'in Popular Committee leader Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed last year by a tear gas canister fired into his chest.

Soon, the olive groves are full of tear gas smoke and fires.

The dry summer grass ignites easily from the hot tear gas containers.

Demonstrators extinguish the fires to protect the precious olive trees.

Burnt field from one tear gas canister.

Then the army invades again (they raided the village the night before arresting a teenage resident). Everyone escaped today.

After the protest, Popular Committee organizer Iyad Burnat hugs his daughter. Iyad was pleased no one was seriously injured or arrested this day.

 His colleague, Abdallah Abu Rahman’s imprisoned last December, was convicted in August by the Israelis for weapon’s possession (he had spent tear gas canisters), incitement and organizing illegal marches. An international campaign is mobilizing for his release.  (see http://www.popularstruggle.org/freeabdallah )   

Jooneed Khan addresses Bil'in solidarity rally in Montreal. (see Tadamon! http://www.tadamon.ca/ )

Boycott & Resistance from Within   

The most critical resistance against the occupation now is taking place inside Jerusalem. Israeli government and settlers are attempting to take over the Palestinian sections of East Jerusalem, and this has ignited outrage from Israeli anti-occupation activists.   

Benny, an Israeli farmer and member of Rabbis for Human Rights at a Silwan, East Jerusalem solidarity demonstration, pleads with the international community to save Israel from committing suicide.

Silwan, a Palestinian community in East Jerusalem is under assault by the Israeli government with the aid of settlers. This house stolen by settlers, is a good example of their justifiable paranoia.

Zionist archaeology is used to colonize Palestine. This Zionist archaeological project called The City of David is rapidly digging underneath Silwan, desecrating Muslim graves, expropriating territory, and most threatening of all, rushing toward the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third most holy Muslim site. If it starts to crack...

These Israelis have joined the Silwan community, mobilizing large numbers of people to protest the City of David and the settler take-over of Silwan. (see http://www.awalls.org/ )

Silwan settler tries to drive over Israeli protesters in August. Their tee shirt says "We refuse to be enemies". Photo ActiveStills.

Al Kurd family in front of their Jewish settler-stolen house in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem. The Al Kurds who live now in the 'garage', are helping organize resistance against the slow-motion Israeli occupation of their community. ISM member Emily Henochowicz who lost an eye protesting the deadly raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotila, stayed with the Al Kurds family, they fondly recounted, (see http://thirstypixels.blogspot.com/ ).

Jasmine played Israel's national anthem off key in front of the police at the Sheikh Jarrah protest. They asked her to play "something Israeli".

Noted Israeli author David Grossman at a Sheikh Jarrah solidarity protest. He has recently joined (as of this writing) 150 Israeli authors, actors and artists pledging to boycott any cultural events inside the settlements in the West Bank. Photo by ActiveStills

Cynthia Nixon, actor in Sex And The City, along with other American actors, pledged to support the boycott of events inside the settlements.

Mia, an Israeli army resister, is arrested in Sheikh Jarrah. Photo by ActiveStills.

Mia, banned from Sheikh Jarrah because of her arrest, now gives tours with the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, about how Israel colonizes Palestinian East Jerusalem. Section of the Wall in background. (see http://www.icahd.org/ )

In Tel Aviv, clowns denounce the occupation of Sheikh Jarrah. Photo by ActiveStills.

A country where Palestinians refuse to disappear    

A Palestinian is forced to walk beneath one of the Israeli-only highways inside the occupied West Bank. This tunnel is under Route 443.

Palestinians and Israelis attempt to take down the gate barring Palestinians from Route 443. Photo by ActiveStills.

The Bedouin Al Arakib village inside Israel , declared "illegal', was destroyed four times recently by the Israeli government. Photo by Orin Ziv, ActiveStills.

Palestinians, Israelis and internationals help clear the rubble of destroyed Al-Farisiya Bedouin village. Photo by Orin Ziv, ActiveStills.

Rebuilding Al Arakib village, Israel, this July. Photo by Orin Ziv, ActiveStills.

In Hebron, the struggle against ethnic cleansing is brutal. Ex-Israeli soldiers who served in Hebron formed Breaking the Silence (see http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp) now take people on tours of Hebron. Shaduah Street from left to right: Jewish settlement, Israeli soldier, cleansed Shaduah Street, photo of street from several years ago, empty shops, graffiti of the terrorist Jewish Defence League.

Shaduah Street resistance. Her neighbours have been evicted by the settlers and the army, but this Palestinian woman from a 2003 photo, still remains today.

Hebron. Also from a 2003 photo, despite the hate graffiti and ammunition fired into their house, this Palestinian family remains today.

The freedom flotillas to break the siege of Gaza are global news. Both Canada and the US are planning boats for 2010. (see http://canadaboatgaza.org ). Photo from web.

Note: At the bottom of this article you will find a powerful video version, best seen at full screen.

When I was first offered to opportunity of moving to Montreal, I deeply questioned myself, not knowing whether I would be able to tolerate living in a city anymore, especially after 15 years of having been in a very small rural Mexican town surrounded by corn fields, with a magnificent mountain chain as an horizon. In my early adulthood, I had fled from Mexico City, moving south of the huge metropolis to a small place that was till to some extent cosmopolitan. Now another change beckoned. I had already visited Montreal a couple of times before, and I had the feeling that it was a still altogether a human-scale city. An urban conglomerate—yes, but one that offered breathing spaces, open sights, the refreshing contact of water and plenty of choices here and there to escape from the “concrete jungle” even if one were still in the midst of it. So I took my chance. And here I am on this island, four years later, not regretting my decision at all, but rather enjoying a quality of life that I had thought impossible to find in a big city.

Of course, like any urban centre in the world, Montreal has many serious issues—expanding expressways, underfunded public transit, contaminated industrial sites (don’t forget Technoparc), waste management, the threat of growing built-up areas at the expense of green spaces, just to mention a few. Sure enough, we all have to deal with them to a greater or lesser extent, and ideally we will play an active role in their solution. Nonetheless, through this very short collection of images, rather than focusing on Montreal’s pressing environmental issues, I want to pay tribute to those aspects that from my perspective make this city so liveable, an environment for us to cherish, enhance and preserve.

1.  A mountain within the city

What would Montreal be without its Mount Royal?

Not many cities in the world have a mountain right in the middle of their urban core, with a wooded parkland that has been preserved to a large extent rather than having been swallowed up by built-up areas.

In spite of human intervention, Mount Royal still holds a fine tract of maple-hickory forest, right in the heart of the southwest of Quebec, that larger domain with the greatest biodiversity found in all the province. 

2.  Green landscapes (natural and urban parks)

Montreal stands out for the number of natural and urban parks of all sizes distributed across the island.

Many cities have a vestige of their original surroundings, but with a network of 17 sizeable parks, Montreal keeps an invaluable heritage of natural habitats within its urban fabric. These “islets of biodiversity” not only buffer the impact of land development, creating beneficial micro-climates and improving air quality, among other many beneficial effects, but also provide Montrealers with an improved quality of life and opportunities to reconnect with nature “just around the corner.”

3.  Water (the river and canals / fountains)

Coming from a semi-arid climate, I find water to be a most essential element of any urban environment. In addition to the St. Lawrence and its tributaries embracing the island and contributing to the uniqueness of Montreal’s lush landscape and shoreline areas of high ecological value, the city features any number of waterways, canals and fountains highly appreciated by Montrealers for their leisure and recreational potential.

4.  Green neighbourhood alleys (ruelles vertes) and pedestrian streets

Today, Montrealers are creating new urban spaces by greening alleys, an initiative that started some ten years ago in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough.

In a “green alley,” cement is removed along both sides of the street to create planted corridors with perennial plants, bushes and trees (ideally native). The impacts of increased vegetation are immediate: better air quality and cooler neighbourhoods in the summer.

5.  Urban agriculture (community gardens, green roofs)

Montreal has been referred to as a “gardening Mecca.” Besides a longstanding and extensive municipal community garden program, many successful grassroots gardening efforts and urban agriculture projects have helped groups and individuals alike reclaim land—school yards or abandoned areas, rooftops, terraces and balconies—for beauty or for food production, encouraging active citizenship and collective ties: people doing something for themselves and for their community at the same time.

6.  Bike paths and public transport

Turn around and you’ll see a bike. Who would have thought that a city with a winter as long and hard as Montreal’s would become a major cycling centre? But the passion of Montrealers for their bicycles, and a wonderful, constantly expanding system of bike paths, is remarkable.

In fact, that’s one of the things that I’ve enjoyed most in Montreal—being able to live without a car. Eight months a year my loyal bike gets me around wherever I need to go, and the other four, a really good public system solves my transport needs. (I admire those brave enough to keep on biking through the winter; my tropical blood doesn’t take me that far.)

A new component of Montreal’s public transport system is the Bixi, a self-serve bicycle system, solar-powered, and available to Montrealers and tourists alike. Our city is the first with such a solar-powered system and its success, even after only one year of operation, has led other cities around the world to take Bixi as a model.

7.  Neighbourhood/social networks, community action for the environment

Behind all of these features that I so much appreciate in Montreal is—no doubt—community action and the persistent work of social networks.

It is for each of us to dare to dream of different, better and more sustainable ways of making the city our own. And with small, day-to-day actions, we all are making that change possible.

What is at stake right now — on our planet –is complexity at the highest level: intelligence, consciousness, artistic activity.

Hubert Reeves

******************************

When I left Montreal on February 15th I knew that this would not be a predictable trip.  From all that I’d heard, the border crossing from Egypt to Gaza (at Rafah) was unpredictable, at best.  Yet I did not hesitate to pack and go, backed by the support and endorsement of many groups and individuals.

The need to lay the ground for sending larger Canadian delegations, the show of support to the suffering people in Gaza and the importance of witnessing and reporting the reality in the besieged territory were the major reasons and motivations behind this trip.

It was also important for individuals and activist groups to challenge the brutal and unjust siege of Gaza, since countries worldwide, for the most part, were either participating in it or silent about it.

Map: The tiny Gaza strip measuring an average of 8km x 40 km. (from Google Earth)

Map of Gaza

Photo 1: Blocked at the border.

The trip was not an easy one.  My first two attempts to cross from Egypt to Gaza ended at the Rafah border crossing when the Egyptian authorities denied us exit announcing that, “the border is closed”.  International activists, including myself, held a picket in front of the gates.

Photo 2: Tunnel police.

Tunnels between Egypt and Gaza are the lifeline for the besieged population of the strip.  It is an industry that is flourishing and a few are making millions out of it.  The tunnel industry is not sustained by arms smuggling, although some weapons must be passing through.  The profits made through this trade are the reason the Egyptian government will never be able to crush the smuggling industry despite turning the border area into an army base.  The only way to crush the tunnel trade, and also curb the arms smuggling, is to lift the siege and allow legal exchange of goods between Gaza and the world.

Photo 3: International delegations.

I met many internationals at the border, both individuals and small delegations from Britain, France, Jordan, the US as well as Bosnia.  All were denied passage to Gaza.  But when larger delegations were on the horizon: Code Pink from the US and Canada and Viva Palestina from the UK, the Egyptian government succumbed to the pressure and opened the border.

Photo 4: Two borders.

The contrast between the inefficiency at the Egyptian side of the border and the simple but efficient setup on the other side is astonishing considering the lack of resources available to the Hamas government in Gaza.

Photo 5: Targeted assassination.

In the Jabalia refugee camp (one of the most populated and dense areas in Gaza) Israel assassinated Nizar Rayan, a Hamas leader, by bombing the apartment building he lived in, killing him and over 10 members of his family in addition to other neighbours. A tent now stands in place where the building used to be, between the heavily damaged neighbouring buildings.

Photo 6: I don’t want to make new friends.

How do you react when a 13 year old tells you that the death of his friends is so painful that he does not want to make friends anymore?

Photo 7:  This is what my factory looked like.

To remind the world how his factory was before Israel destroyed it, the owner placed a photo in front of the ruins. The destruction of this factory is not unique, Israel flattened anything that stood (houses, factories, schools, mosques and even plantations) in an area extending up to two kilometres from the border.

Photo 8: Tents again.

How many times will we have to build then move back to tents again?

Photo 9: We don’t want handouts …

We want our houses back and we want security, she told us.

Photo 10: “We don’t like your democracy.”

Israel also targeted the Palestinian Legislature in Gaza city.

Photo 11: Gaza is still beautiful.

Sunrise at the Gaza harbour is spectacular, despite the warning gunfire heard whenever a fishing boat leaves the harbour. The Israelis are always trying to intimidate. 

One thing was clear to me by then, my last morning in Gaza before heading back to Egypt: The Palestinians will not disappear.  Their persistence and determination to continue their lives as normally as they can, despite all difficulties, is the pinnacle of peaceful resistance.

This is a farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.

Here in Montreal, on December 20th, Block the Empire, a local collective working against occupation and exploitation, rallied local people, independent media and activists, to hurl shoes in support of Muntadar al-Zeidi’s right not to tolerate the intolerable:  the one million Iraqis, many of whom children, killed; the millions still suffering the illnesses, displacement, and violence caused by Western weapons and war; the daily plunder of Iraq’s resources. They threw too in protest at Canada’s part in all of this.

At the doors of the US Consulate and the Canadian Forces Recruitment Centre, shoes of all sizes, were thrown with two collective aims: to take apart a war criminal and to directly highlight the Harper government’s complicity in the war.

Current Western military operations in Afghanistan are part of the same war launched with Operation Enduring Freedom in the aftermath of September 11. Canada’s military presence in Afghanistan, under NATO and US command, must share some responsibility for the 11,000 Afghanis killed and the many maimed and made refugees in their own land.  The highly destructive nature of search and kill missions continue to drive villagers into the ranks of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, while Canada’s participation in the occupation of Afghanistan has made more US troops available for the war in Iraq. Now that the Obama administration plans to escalate the military occupation of Afghanistan, the situation for Afghanis hardly appears set to improve.

The war in Afghanistan is the same war in Iraq to secure and plunder resources.  Afghanistan is mineral rich and Canada is a miner in search of rich pickings.  Canada now ranks 6th among NATO’s member states for military spending and is a major military power, ready and able to throw its weight around.  In 2008 Canada’s war spending in Afghanistan amounts to $1.915 billion; only a minute fraction of which has gone to the reconstruction that the Canadian government has promised.

The shoe action of December 20th stood and threw in opposition to the terrible US occupation of Iraq and also to Canada’s participation in waging terror upon local folk in Afghanistan.

Here are photos by Darren Ell of Montreal’s Shoe Action:

All images: © Darren Ell 2008

Purchase  Prints: http://www.redbubble.com/people/elldarren/
Online Archive:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrenell/
Wedding Photography:  http://photooxygene.com/

DARREN ELL
T: 514-992-8908
E: elldarren@gmail.com

Daily Life in Cerro de San Pedro

Canadian multinational New Gold Inc. is operating a heavily-contested open pit gold and silver mine in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico. For over 10 years, the residents of Cerro de San Pedro and the surrounding area have been fighting the mine. Corporate officials have been working closely with the local government to ensure that the mine moves forward, using tactics such as bribery, the repression of dissent, political assassination and corruption. The anti-mine movement continues to grow and gain strength in Cerro de San Pedro. For more info: cerrodesanpedro.org or faomontreal.wordpress.com/