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CMOT Dibbler wrote:

Fault Lines- Harry Belafonte

Outstanding. There's reason right there, in case anyone needed it, why Canadians (and Americans) desperately need al-jazeera.

Quote:

Harry Belafonte: There is in all of our systems - i'm talking (about) globally - there is one important ingredient that has never been fully exploited, and that is the whole issue of culture. I believe that art is the most powerful force on the face of the earth - more powerful than politics, and more powerful than the church. And I think that we as artists - or those of us who call ourselves artists - have never used ourselves to the full measure of our power and what differences we could make. I mean, if you think about it, the voice of the artist is every day and in everybody's life. We're in your bedrooms, we're in your bathrooms, we're at your dinner table - there's no place you can go and not bump into the presence of art or artists.

Why haven't artists been more aggressive in extricating themselves from those who have misled us, misguided us, and exploited us, and crushed our sense of independence?

We (artists) play homage to the devil. We giv up ourselves to the corporations - Time-Warner, Sony, 20th Century Fox, everybody who controls, all the banks - who dictates what artists says and does not say. When do we purge ourselves of that? And as a collective, as a group, [when do we] begin to take the high ground and do what art historically has always done. I mean, we would not be the first that used the power of our gift to change the social and politial horizon.

I think we [artists] should find that moment. Ironically, I believe that this very moment was our greatest opportunity to make a very aggressive move towards changing the game.

What Belafonte did not say, but perhaps thought, is that the self-silencing of criticism of an African-American in the White House (by those whose support Obama relied upon without granting a single concession, such as support for the poor or addressing the repulsive and unending racism in American life) has also silenced the artists who, maybe, could be now finding that moment that Belafonte talks about.

The harm that liberals do, eh? Better just to fight the enemy directly.

Anyway, 3 cheers for Harry Belafonte. He's still got it and his social partisanship is unshakeable.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V8HFXsWNQs&feature=related]Birthday[/url] I finally found this rare bootleg of the Beatles' "Birthday" Enjoy

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zlViU5PBPY&feature=related]Night at the Roxbury - What is love?[/url] Who knows? 

Bump!