9.3.05

Magritte & Foucault: La trahison des images



MICHEL FOUCAULT, 1973
Nulle part, il n'y a de pipe.

A partir de 1à, on peut comprendre la dernière version que Magritte a donne de Ceci n'est pas une pipe. En plaçant le dessin de la pipe et l’énonce qui lui sert de légende sur la surface bien clairement délimitée d'un tableau (dans la mesure ou il s'agit d'une peinture, les lettres ne sont que l'image des lettres; dans la mesure ou il s'agit d'un tableau noir, la figure n'est que la continuation didactique d'un discours), en plaçant ce tableau sur un trièdre de bois épais et solide, Magritte fait tout ce qu’il faut pour reconstituer (soit par la pérennité d'une oeuvre d'art, soit par la vérité d'une leçon de choses) le lieu commun à l'image et au langage.

Tout est solidement amarré a l’intérieur d'un espace scolaire: un tableau « montre » un dessin qui « montre » la forme d'une pipe; et un texte écrit par un instituteur zélé « montre » que c'est bien d'une pipe qu’il s'agit. L’index du maître on ne le voit pas, mais il règne partout, ainsi que sa voix, qui est en train d'articuler bien clairement: « ceci est une pipe ». Du tableau à l'image, de l'image au texte, du texte à la voix, une sorte d’index général pointe, montre, fixe, repère, impose un système de renvois, tente de stabiliser un espace unique. Mais pourquoi ai-je introduit encore la voix du maître ? car à peine a-t-elle dit « ceci est une pipe » qu'elle a du aussi se reprendre et balbutier: « ceci n'est pas une pipe, mais le dessin d'une pipe », « ceci n’est pas une pipe mais une phrase disant que c’est une pipe », « la phrase: « ceci n’est pas une pipe » n'est pas une pipe »; « dans la phrase « ceci n'est pas une pipe », ceci n'est pas une pipe: ce tableau, cette phrase écrite, ce dessin d'une pipe, tout ceci n’est pas une pipe ».

Les négations se multiplient, la voix s'embrouille et s’étouffe; le maître confus baisse l'index tendu, tourne le dos au tableau, regarde les élèves qui se tordent et ne se rend pas compte que s’ils rient si fort, c'est qu'au-dessus du tableau noir et du maître bredouillant ses dénégations, une vapeur vient de se lever qui peu à peu a pris forme et maintenant dessine très exactement, sans aucun doute possible, une pipe. « C’est une pipe, c’est une pipe » crient les élevés qui trépignent tandis que le maître, de plus en plus bas, mais toujours avec la même obstination, murmure sans que personne ne l’écoute désormais: « et pourtant ceci n'est pas une pipe ». Il n'a pas tort: car cette pipe qui flotte si visiblement au-dessus de la scène, comme la chose à laquelle se réfère le dessin du tableau noir, et au nom de laquelle le texte peut dire à juste titre que le dessin n'est pas vraiment une pipe, cette pipe elle-même n’est qu’un dessin; ce n'est point une pipe. Pas plus sur le tableau noir qu'au-dessus de lui, le dessin de la pipe et le texte qui devrait la nommer ne trouvent ou se rencontrer et s’épingler l'un sur l'autre comme le calligraphe avec beaucoup de présomption, avait essaye de le faire. Alors, sur ses montants biseautés et si visiblement instables, le chevalet n'a plus qu'à basculer, le cadre à se disloquer, le tableau à rouler par terre, les lettres à s’éparpiller, la « pipe » peut « se casser »: le lieu commun— oeuvre banale ou leçon quotidienne—a disparu.[...] Mais l’énoncé, ainsi articule deux fois déjà par des voix différentes, prend à son tour la parole pour parler de lui-même: « Ces lettres qui me composent et dont vous attendez, au moment où vous entreprenez de les lire qu’elles nomment la pipe, ces lettres, comment oseraient-elles dire qu’elles sont une pipe, elles qui sont si loin de ce qu'elles nomment ? Ceci est un graphisme qui ne ressemble qu'à soi et ne saurait valoir pour ce dont il parle ». Il y a plus encore: ces voix se mêlent deux a deux pour dire, parlant du troisième élément, que « ceci n'est pas une pipe ». Liés par le cadre du tableau qui les entoure tous deux, le texte et la pipe d'en bas entrent en complicité: le pouvoir de désignation des mots, le pouvoir d'illustration du dessin dénoncent la pipe d'en haut, et refusent à cette apparition sans repère le droit de se dire une pipe, car son existence sans attache la rend muette et invisible. Liées par leur similitude réciproque, les deux pipes contestent à l’énoncé écrit le droit de se dire une pipe, lui qui est fait de signes sans ressemblance avec ce qu’ils désignent. Liés par le fait qu'ils viennent l'un et l'autre d'ailleurs, et que l'un est un discours susceptible de dire la vérité, que l'autre est comme l'apparition d'une chose en soi, le texte et la pipe d'en haut se conjuguent pour formuler l'assertion que la pipe du tableau n'est pas une pipe. Et peut-être faut-il supposer qu’outre ces trois éléments, une voix sans lieu (celle du tableau, peut-être, tableau noir ou tableau tout court) parle dans cet énoncé; ce serait en parlant à la fois de la pipe du tableau, de la pipe qui surgit au-dessus, qu'elle dirait:

« rien de tout cela n'est une pipe; mais un texte qui simule un texte; un dessin d'une pipe qui simule un dessin d'une pipe; une pipe ( dessinée comme n'étant pas un dessin) qui est le simulacre d'une pipe (dessinée à la manière d'une pipe qui ne serait pas elle-même un dessin) ». Sept discours dans un seul énoncé. Mais il n'en fallait pas moins pour abattre la forteresse ou la similitude était prisonnière de l'assertion de ressemblance.

Ceci n’est pas une pipe, Fata Morgana, 1973
MICHEL FOUCAULT
8.3.05

Bush's reaction to the Hizb'allah organized protest in Beirut today

Army report: U.S. lost control in Iraq three months after invasion

Maj. Isaiah Wilson, the official historian of the US Army for the Iraq war has written that the US military lost its dominance in Iraq during the summer of 2003.

A report by the U.S. Army official historian said the military was hampered by the failure to occupy and stabilize Iraq in 2003. As a result, the military lost its dominance by July 2003 and has yet to regain that position.

"In the two to three months of ambiguous transition, U.S. forces slowly lost the momentum and the initiative gained over an off-balanced enemy," the report said. "The United States, its Army and its coalition of the willing have been playing catch-up ever since."

The irony of it all: 140,000 v. 14,000

I--just this minute--had the chance to read the Fisk article. Please note, he has lived in Beirut for 30 years now. He knows Lebanon. And I know why I avoided reading the article for so long:

To the outside world, this may seem a victory devoutly to be wished: just two weeks after the murder of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri - a prominent opponent of the Syrian presence in Lebanon - the army of Damascus is pulling out of the country it has dominated for 29 long years. At last, free elections might be held in Lebanon, further proof that - thanks to Mr Bush - democracy is breaking out across the Arab world. Iraq held elections, Saudi Arabia held local elections, President Hosni Mubarak promises a contended election for the presidency of Egypt. So why shouldn't Lebanon be happy?

Have we forgotten 150,000 dead? Have we forgotten the Western hostages? Have we forgotten the 241 Americans who died in the suicide bombing of 23 October 1983? This democracy, if it comes, will be drenched with blood - but the blood will be that of the Lebanese who live here, not that of the foreigners who wish to bestow freedom upon them.

...

[Y]et again, Lebanon risks becoming a battlefield for the wars of non- Lebanese.

For 30 years, America has tolerated - even supported - Syria's military presence in Lebanon. In 1976, both the Israelis and the Americans wanted Syrian troops in Lebanon - because they would be able to "control" the 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon - but now Mr Bush's real concern is Syria's supposed support for the insurgency in Iraq.

The irony is extraordinary: 140,000 American troops occupy Iraq - we shall leave the Israeli occupation forces in Palestinian lands out of this equation - while their President demands the withdrawal of 14,000 Syrian troops from Lebanon.

Half a million?

This is ...gosh. What can I possibly say now?

[Enter Hizbullah]

What happens now?

Well, what I quoted Brent Scrowcroft saying in the podcast from FP comes to mind:

Those who know the president well suggest that George W. Bush’s decisiveness might be attributed, in part, to a higher power. Scowcroft was quoted late last year as saying, “It’s possible that the transformation came with 9/11, and the current president, who is a very religious person, thought that there was something unique if not divine about a catastrophe like 9/11 happening when he was president. That somehow that was meant to be, and his mission is to deal with the war on terrorism.” But, as Scowcroft also notes, the problem with absolutist beliefs “is that they can get you into traps in which the ends justify the means. It can be dangerous to believe that one’s motives are so noble that therefore anything we do becomes okay because we are doing it for a good cause.” The paradoxical implication is clear: From undercutting traditional relationships with allies to Abu Ghraib, the less moral ambiguity you have in your worldview, the more of it you can justify in your actions.

Another problem with this approach, according to Scowcroft, comes from the fact that “if you believe you are pursuing absolute good then it is a sin to depart from it.” Which means that absolutism either creates dangerous policy handcuffs or, alternatively, it leaves the United States open to charges of hypocrisy. “For example,” Scowcroft observes, “we advocate the export of democracy and yet we find ourselves embracing a number of leaders who are anything but democratic in order to advance other policies or even the spread of democracy elsewhere. You can not argue for absolutes and then practice pragmatism without opening yourself up to criticism.”

How can this go on? It's untenable. When Bush says the Lebanese people deserve to have free and fair elections in Lebanon, while at the same time occupying Baghdad...you cannot help but see how it smacks of hypocrisy. How free and fair was the election in Iraq? So, sure, he's correct to say that Lebanese should have free and fair elections. But so should Iraqis.

So, America, GET OUT OF IRAQ NOW.
And, Syria, GET OUT OF LEBANON NOW.

It should be done soon, but in a retracted fashion. Both America and Syria, leave your occupations behind. Make a plan. Then leave. I want a timetable from Syria and America to withdraw their forces from Lebanon and Iraq respectively.

Excuse my idealism.

As far as Hizb'allah goes...well, I'm afraid the popularity of Hizb'allah is a consequence of the misguided foreign policy America has been using in the past half-century (and more) in the Arab world. Yes, I'm blaming American foreign policy for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. And when evangelicals in the US are doing things like allowing for such disgusting displays of nationalism in the sanctuary of a holy place (I mean, they couldn't even leave the weapons behind?) -- like what we saw in the Baptist Church in Kentucky -- then a compounded hypocrisy prevails.

Religion and Politics should be separate. American foreign policy has got to change if there is to be any hope for a safe future and the preservation of liberty and freedom. Terrorism feeds terrorism. Until we realize there is such a thing as state terrorism, then we're only fooling ourselves. And when you fool yourself, you're only hurting yourself.

I am for a free Lebanon. I am for a free Iraq. I am for a free America.

Again, pardon my idealism.

Zoom OUT!

Uncertainty thickens as 100,000 or more protest.

I saw some of the most ridiculous footage of people kissing a Hafez Al-Assad picture. I mean, the guy was practically slobering all over it. And the camera took such a tight shot of him. Ewwwww!!!

So, I heard people were using "Zoom Out!" to describe how these cameras were trying to capture the counter-demonstrators as being more in number than they actually were.

You know you're desparate when you're trying to pull off such BS tactics.

This can't hold. I feel better already. When Syria and the Puppet regime with Lahoud are making such mistakes, they are bound to lose.

Update: Um, nevermind. I don't feel better anymore.

Who to believe?

"But Mr Fini said Calipari had made 'all the necessary contacts' with the US authorities before making the journey."

American news outfits are saying that Calipari did not make any contact with US authorities. Whereas now we have the Italian Foreign Minister saying they had made "all the necessary contacts" with them. Hm...who to believe?

Venus




Irakast #1 in .ogg vorbis format

I realize the other file is kind of big, so I've put it in .ogg format here. The best ogg player out there is the open-source VLC player. Those of you unfamiliar with VLC, it can be used in all operating systems. And you can even play all types of video and all other types of audio with it...very useful. If you're patient enough to download it, then you won't regret it.

Also, I'm aware there are some portables that play .ogg format, like the iRiver. So here's the .ogg version of the first Irakast. I hope it's slightly enjoyable. I'll do much better next time!

Peace, Lim


Irakast 1, From Chinese Reggae to Flipping through FP

Show: 1.0
Length: 17:36
Format: mp3
Bit rate: 64

Size: 7MB
7.3.05

Irakast #1: Flippin' Through Foreign Policy

So I've done my first real Irakast for your listening pleasure! Exciting! I have to warn you, it's a bit raw. I was like, screw it...I'm just gonna do it. The links below were not all discussed. But I hope to address the articles I left out in the next irakast. I promise to actually put a bit of thought into it next time (and make a smaller file). Although I get the drift that not really having a plan could be fun. As long as you like my intro then we're cool.

Irakast 1, From Chinese Reggae to Flipping through FP

Show: 1.0
Length: 17:36
Format: mp3
Bit rate: 128 kbs

Size: 16.5 mb



Here are the links for the "show" :

Peace out,

L to Da L

UPDATE: If you listen to .ogg vorbis format here's a 7MB version of the Irakast. I'll add it to the feed as well.

Another Scary Neocon "Yes Man" named US ambassador to the UN

Neocon John Bolton is announced as the new US ambassador to the UN. Expect little change in US foreign policy in the next four years. This man is about as scary as they come. Please tell me what the hell is going on. "Isn't appointing John Bolton to the U.N. a little like appointing Dracula to a blood bank?"




Doesn't this image make your skin crawl?


"There's no such thing as the United Nations." - John Bolton, 1994, at a panel discussion spoonsered by World Federalist Association

"If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of a difference."
- John Bolton, same WFA panel

Oh, there's more:
  • During the July 2001 global U.N. conference on small arms and light weapons, Bolton told delegates that the United States was not only opposed to any agreement restricting civilian possession of small arms, it also didn't appreciate "the promotion of international advocacy activity by international or non-governmental organizations." Bolton 's delegation was accompanied by that distinguished American NGO the National Rifle Association. (7)
  • In 1998, when he was senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute, Bolton described the International Criminal Court (ICC) as "a product of fuzzy-minded romanticism [that] is not just naïve, but dangerous." (6)
  • Bolton told the Wall Street Journal that signing the letter informing the U.N. that Washington was renouncing the Rome Treaty to create the ICC "was the happiest moment of my government service." (6)
  • Regarding efforts to add a verification proposal to the bioweapons convention, Bolton told colleagues in 2001, "It's dead, dead, dead, and I don't want it coming back from the dead." (6)
Clearly, he's a man of internationalism.

Update: Note in the video that Jesse Helms, a member of the board of directors of the American Taliban, is quoted as saying about John Bolton on The Daily Show as..."The kind of man with whom I would want to stand at armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in the world."

When somebody like Helms says something so kind, it makes my tummy all warm and fuzzy.

Hm...

Somebody sent me this image from Iraq. What? The body language of the people reading it says it all. It reads, "For an Iraq 'Free of Terrorists', we support the new Iraqi government's decision to rid the country of all 'Arabs'."




Um...ok.

On perspectives...

Robert Fisk's latest article: Is Lebanon walking into another nightmare? I haven't read it, but I'm afraid of what he might have to say. Because I've got more and more of a bad feeling about how things are developing. I haven't seen any of his stuff on robert-fisk.com in over a couple weeks. If anybody finds his last two articles, please direct me to it.

Many Arabic peoples expect the worst so that if something bad happens, we will not be surprised. Of course, it's best to have a more hope. Unfortunately, it's made more difficult if you're cursed with knowledge of history. Arabic peoples are the most manipulated people on the planet. At the same time, we're the most quarrelsome with ourselves.

Another thing: The oil is our curse. And if I could wish it to disappear beneath our lands, I would. We would all be living better lives now if there never was the oil.

Right now, I've got a bad feeling about Lebanon. As recently as three days ago, I felt positive about it. But something is wrong right now. And I've felt that for the past couple days...like there's a cloud-storm gathering above it. I could excuse it as the uncertainty of the political situation. But I feel a sort of deja-vuey forboding thing going on.

I hope I'm wrong. I really do.
6.3.05

Revamping Links, New Email

In the process of revamping a bit, I was completely had by the shark photo. Turns out it was photo-shopped. Thanks to whomever found it out. You've gotta admit it's really hard to tell. Anyway...hahaha. When I come to think of it...it is pretty damn ridiculous.

Oh well, so, yeah I'm going to do a podkast now. The feed is here: . And my side-bar will have some welcome new sections. My new email (if you haven't seen it) is liminal DOT symbol AT gmail DOT com. Please reach me there.

Tom Tomorrow: Nothing to See Here

5.3.05

Slavoj Zizek: The Not-So-Quiet American



The Iraqi elections appear to authenticate the statement George W. Bush made in his January inauguration speech: “America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains or that women welcome humiliation and servitude.”It is difficult to disagree with Bush here: He effectively did touch the Achilles’ heel of many Western progressives, who were often disarmed by the one good argument, repeatedly evoked by Christopher Hitchens, for the war against Iraq: The majority of Iraqis were Saddam’s victims, and they would be really glad to get rid of him. He was such a catastrophe for his country that an American occupation in whatever form would be preferable to them in terms of daily survival and much lower levels of fear. We are not talking here of “bringing Western democracy to Iraq,” but of simply getting rid of the nightmare called Saddam. To this majority, the caution expressed by Western liberals can only appear deeply hypocritical—do they really care about how the Iraqi people feel?

Why, then, does the old story repeat itself in Iraq? America brings new hope and democracy to people, but instead of hailing the U.S. Army, the ungrateful people do not want it. They look the proverbial gift horse in the mouth, and America then responds like a sullen child in reaction to the ingratitude of those it selflessly helped.

With the global American ideological offensive, the fundamental insight of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is more relevant than ever: We witness the resurgence of the figure of the “quiet American,” a naive, benevolent agent who sincerely wants to bring democracy and Western freedom. It is just that his intentions totally misfire, or, as Greene put it: “I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused.”









UnderMars

Visit UnderMars at your own risk


Warning: This site is very very graphic

US Attack Against Italians in Baghdad was Deliberate: Companion

Hm...
this is interesting:



"The Americans and Italians knew about (her) car coming," Pier Scolari said on leaving Rome's Celio military hospital where Sgrena is to undergo surgery following her return home.

"They were 700 meters (yards) from the airport, which means that they had passed all checkpoints."

"Giuliana had information, and the US military did not want her to survive," he added.

When Sgrena was kidnapped on February 4 she was writing an article on refugees from Fallujah seeking shelter at a Baghdad mosque after US forces bombed the former Sunni rebel stronghold.


Bush and Berlusconi will have the wrath of the Italian people after this debaucle. There will be fall-out from this event. I guarantee it.

Update: These are some really important articles via Crooks and Liars. First it has become apparent that there was no checkpoint and they don't know where the bullets came from. Let's wait and see what the investigators come up with, but I believe this is very significant. The important thing is that out of this tragedy some sort of protocol for accountability is born. I am aware of many many incidents where Iraqis have been killed in this manner and not a single investigation is launched. Now I hope this case gets needled to the point where whomever is responsible for this is taken to account and for there, again, to be some sort of manner to avoid senseless deaths as is the case with Italian special agent Nicola Calipari. Here are the summaries of several important articles from several different countries:

via Bloomberg: Sgrena told Rome prosecutors Franco Ionta and Pietro Saviotti that the shots didn't come from soldiers standing at a checkpoint.

`It wasn't a checkpoint, but a patrol that started shooting after pointing some lights in our direction,'' the Ansa news agency cited Sgrena as telling the prosecutors. ``We hadn't previously encountered any checkpoint and we didn't understand where the shots came from.'' ...

via Direland: Dramatic breaking news from Europe: the Nouvel Observateur 's daily news bulletin reports in a Saturday afternoon posting that Scregna says the conduct of the car in which she was being transported to liberty couldn't possibly justify the fusillade that riddled it and its occupants with bullets. "Our car was rolling along at normal speed, so it was impossible for there to have been a misunderstanding," Scregna told the Italian magistrates who've been charged with investigating the murderous incident, according to the Italian wire service Ansa-- which also says her account has been confirmed by one of the Italian secret service agents in the car with her, who was likewise wounded.

via Turkish Press: The companion of freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena on Saturday leveled serious accusations at US troops who fired at her convoy as it was nearing Baghdad airport, saying the shooting had been deliberate.

Again, another thank you to Crooks and Liars for letting me snatch their code to make this post quicker.
4.3.05

Iraki Podkast?

I'll be Irakasting for you soon. This is just a test kast. You can subscribe to my feed by clicking on the XML button in the sidebar or right here...

If you just wanna pick up my podkast, just enter the following into any podcast aggregator like ipodder or doppler: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ShlonkomBakazay

Cut and paste baby!

You can then easily configure your aggregator to introduce the MP3s into iTunes, Windows Media Player, or another media player you may have...to then be uploaded to your handy portable player to take with you to the top of Mount Everest er somethin'. Isn't that special?

In the future, hit my Mainline if you want to get to the main link of that particular post or a direct link to the podkast for the day.

I'll be undergoing some changes. You'll understand as things develop.

Pass the humus,
liminal