Saturday, 30 December 2017
How other musicians handled the pressure to perform or not in Israel (26 Dec. 2017)
Lorde cancelled her show in Israel over politics. Here's how other musicians have handled it
26 Dec, 2017 3:52pm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11966054
In Israel, even concerts are political. For international superstars, deciding whether or not to show up might imply what side you're on: Israel's or the Palestinians'. And over the weekend, the singer Lorde became the latest musician to cancel a performance in Tel Aviv after fans pressured her to do so.
Last week, two of Lorde's fans in New Zealand - one of them Jewish and the other Palestinian - published an open letter to the Grammy-award-winning singer, asking her to cancel a performance planned for June 5, 2018. It cited "the Israeli government's policies of oppression" and "apartheid," and said that "we believe that an economic, intellectual and artistic boycott is an effective way of speaking out against these crimes."
The letter added that "playing in Tel Aviv will be seen as giving support to the policies of the Israeli government, even if you make no comment on the political situation."
The letter did not specifically mention the boycott, divestment and sanctions - or BDS - movement, but the views expressed within it are in line with that Palestinian-led campaign. Since 2005, the BDS movement has urged academic and governmental institutions, companies, musicians and others to avoid visiting Israel and buying its products with the goal of getting Israel to end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and allow Palestinians to return to places they left when Israel was created in 1948.
At first Lorde responded to the letter by saying she would reconsider the concert date, and by Sunday, she said in a statement, "I've received an overwhelming number of messages and letters and have had a lot of discussions with people holding many views, and I think the right decision at this time is to cancel the show." She added that she's "truly sorry to reverse my commitment to come play for you. I hope one day we can all dance."
The production company that was to put on the concert said that tickets would be refunded within 14 days, and Israel's culture minister asked Lorde to reconsider.
In recent years, several artists have canceled tour dates in Israel, either for political reasons or because of ongoing violence. In 2010, the Pixies decided not to perform after the Israeli military raided a Turkish ship bringing aid for the Gaza Strip, an operation that killed nine people. (The band later played in Israel in 2014.) Elvis Costello also canceled two shows in Israel in 2010, saying that "sometimes silence in music is better than adding to the static."
In 2014, when Israel was in a 50-day war with the Hamas-governed Gaza, several artists - including Lana Del Rey, Neil Young and the Backstreet Boys - postponed or canceled shows.
For as many artists who cancel shows in Israel, there are others who face criticism and still press on with their tour dates. In 2014, The Post's Ruth Eglash noted that, since the BDS effort started, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Madonna, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Jethro Tull and the Red Hot Chili Peppers all kept their concert dates in Israel despite public pressure to cancel them. Once on stage, these megastars sometimes use their microphones for more than their lyrics. For example, during a 2012 performance in Tel Aviv, Madonna, who isn't Jewish but follows the Jewish mystical practice of Kabbalah, wrapped herself in an Israeli flag and made a plea to rise above ego, religion and national allegiance to forge peace in the Middle East. "You can't be a fan of mine and not want peace in the world," she said.
Some artists keep their shows in order to make a statement critical of Israel. In 2006, Pink Floyd's Roger Waters moved a performance from Tel Aviv to a village jointly formed by Arabs and Israelis. On that trip, Waters traveled throughout the West Bank and to the wall separating it from Israel, which he tagged with graffiti of his song lyrics:"We don't need no thought control."
Waters has since urged other artists not to perform in Israel. In a 2016 interview with the Independent, he said that the music industry "has been particularly recalcitrant in even raising a voice" against Israel. "I'm hoping to encourage some of them to stop being frightened and to stand up and be counted, because we need them," Waters added.
Was Max Ritchie’s speech the dumbest in radio history? (The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 7 December 2015)
“Safeguarded eavesdropping by the state is a price we might have to pay for our safety.”—was Max Ritchie’s speech the dumbest in radio history?
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 7 December 2015
Jim Mora, Ali Jones, Max Ritchie
The Panel, RNZ National, Monday 7 December 2015
Jim Mora, Ali Jones, Max Ritchie
Just before the 4:30 news, host Jim Mora called for opinions about the SAFE advertisement that appeared in the Guardian yesterday. [1] Predictably, both Ali Jones and Max Ritchie reiterated the Federated Farmers/Fonterra corporate line and upbraided Hans Kriek for not talking enough to farmers and for (according to Ritchie) pushing his vegetarian lifestyle on everyone else. Ritchie should have left his comments at that, but, foolishly, he then went on to quote one of the less respected, crazier people to have appeared on the Panel….
MAX RITCHIE: I heard on the radio earlier that professor of agriculture that frequently comes on your program, I forget what her name is.
JIM MORA: Jacqueline Rowarth.
MAX RITCHIE: That’s the one. Well, she said that our animal welfare standards are the best in the world.
Ritchie should have carried out due diligence. If he had, he would have quoted someone better than Jacqueline Rowarth, who has established herself alongside such notorious characters as Dov Bing, Ron Smith and Willem de Lange as one of the loopier academics to periodically slither out from under the rock of Waikato University. Jacqueline Rowarth blundered into our line of sight last year, when she came on to assure the Panel that there is no such thing as poverty in New Zealand, that it’s all in the minds of the poor, who actually don’t exist anyway, and that media reports of children without shoes were rubbish: it was nothing more than kids who just didn’t want to wear shoes. [2]
Endorsing a loopy provincial academic was bad enough, but there was worse to come from Max Ritchie. He announced grandly that his Soapbox piece after the news would be about “freedom”. In fact it turned out to be nothing more than a windy homily about how he is perfectly happy to prostrate himself to the state, which he trusts absolutely to do the right thing: “Safeguarded eavesdropping by the state is a price we might have to pay for our safety,” he intoned. He then went on, speaking as solemnly and as slowly as he could, to state that New Zealand doesn’t have a culture of heavy-handed persecution by the state, and that we could be perfectly confident if we did as he suggested, and surrendered all our rights to politicians and bureaucrats.
After he finished speaking, there was a pause. Jim Mora does have a tendency to make a glib wisecrack after one of his guests makes such a portentous statement, but this time he was obviously flabbergasted, and said nothing at all in response. Neither did Ali Jones. It was like they were hoping that what had just been said—in essence, “I am happy to be a slave, and so should all of us be happy to be slaves”—was a horrible phantasm, and would vanish into the ether if they just stayed silent.
Interestingly, five minutes after expressing his confidence in the benevolence of the state, Ritchie indulged in a lengthy whinge about being stopped by the police for speeding on Orakei Road on January 4th this year. “Utterly RIDICULOUS,” he growled, “I am not at ALL convinced that this is an appropriate way of policing!”
Perhaps Max Ritchie would not enjoy his voluntary enslavement as much as he thinks he would.
[1] http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/74783076/new-zealand-dairy-cruelty-claims-target-uk-consumer-in-guardian-ad-campaign
[2] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23092014/#comment-895173
[2] http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23092014/#comment-895173
Macro30.1
Yep! Whenever I hear Jacqueline Rowarth on air – I switch off – Why is she always the go to gal whenever they want some input on rural matters? Ok that’s her job – but surely there are others less loopy? She posts on Pundit too from time to time
You do a great job for us M, I don’t know how you do it!
Chooky30.2
+100 Morrissey…for stripping down what they say and critically examining itI also think Prof Rowarth is loopy…and a mouth piece for interests which are not necessarily farmers’….”Waikato University agribusiness professor Jacqueline Rowarth questioned whether New Zealand should be doing business with Russia.“We need to be looking carefully at the reasons others have stopped trading with Russia,” she said.“We stood up against the Springboks in 1981 because we didn’t like the way people were being treated.”Rowarth said New Zealand could experience “short-term gain, long-term pain” from continuing to send dairy products and other food to Russia.“There could be repercussions for other trade if we just say we’ll keep selling you our products,” she said..”..
Friday, 29 December 2017
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Leading thinker tries to explain the huge RWC crowds in England
The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 28 September 2015
Jim Mora, Gary McCormick, Wendyl Nissen
2. Scott “Sumo” Stevenson
3. Murray (“Too many boofhead Islanders in the team”) Deaker
4. Martin “Moron” Devlin
5. Doug (“That black PIG Mugabe!”) Golightly
6. “Sir” John (“Too many Darkies”) Graham
7. Wynne “Sensible” Gray
8. Andy (“Too many Darkies”) Haden
9. Jim “Kadaverous” Kayes
10. David (“Too many dark faces for my taste”) Kirk
11. Paul “Lackwit” Lewis
12. Willy (“Gwaham Henwy can just PISS OFF!”) Lose, AKA Wiwwy Wose
13. John (“Are there too many darkies?”) Matheson (R.I.P.)
14. John (“Second Fiddle”) McBeth
15. Graham “Moods” Moody (R.I.P.)
16. Chris “Rat Shit” Rattue
17. Andrew (“Nothing to do in Cardiff”) Saveloy
18. Tony (“It wasn’t really me who hospitalized my fiancĂ©e”) Veitch, AKA “Veitchy”
19. Nigel (How many times can I say “Opportunity”?) Yalden
20. Spiro (“Rugby is ballet, it’s opera, it’s Swiss watch-making”) Zavos