This morning I woke up thinking of my old friend Huw Davies, who took his own life in early 1994.

Huw Davies: via PhotoAccess, Canberra

Huw was a talented art photographer and ‘life artist’.

His friends adored him for his kindness, his compassion, his amazing energy and above all for a wonderful sense of humour.

About a year before his death, I had an intense debate with Huw about prospects for humanity. I took the optimist side, arguing we’re not only part of creation, but a special and significant part – for all our faults and weaknesses.

Huw – in blacker mood than I’d  seen him before – countered that humans are more like a lethal virus. I clearly remember him saying that if humans ever truly escape from the bounds of this planet, we’ll screw up the rest of the universe too.

I still can’t agree with Huw about that. Yet 15 years on, it’s hard to adduce much evidence he was wrong. I don’t think Huw believed all humans as intrinsically evil. His point was about the powerful (those most likely to head for the stars).

Perhaps our outward progress is stalled until we develop the wisdom to coexist and co-evolve?

I wish Huw was still around to continue the discussion.

In the last years of his life, Huw Davies developed a style for retouching photos by fingerpainting. The similarity with the painting style of Vincent Van Gogh was obvious. Somewhat later, he became intensely depressed and took his own life, like Vincent before him.

I first noticed this story yesterday on the International Solidarity Movement website: US activist loses eye after being shot in face with tear gas canister

Emily Henochowicz recovering in hospital

Emily Henochowicz, a courageous 21 year old girl from New York, was shot in the face close to the Gaza border crossing by Israeli troops, while protesting the Israeli military’s attack on the Gaza freedom flotilla. A talented artist, she’s now recovering in hospital. One of her eyes has been surgically removed.

This tragic assault was first reported by the ISM on May 31st. One might think a brutal attack such as this – defacing a young American – would be headline news in the USA – or in Israel. Yet with a handful of honourable exceptions, it doesn’t appear to have been reported at all!

This is from the ISM:

Emily is recovering at Hadassah Hospital after two surgeries Monday night. She lost her left eye, three metal plates were inserted into her head/face, and her jaw is wired shut. The bone surrounding her eye socket, cheekbone and jawbone are all fractured. Emily was standing peacefully during a demonstration at Qalandiya checkpoint Monday when Border Police fired a large number of tear gas canisters directly at the heads of Emily and another ISM activist.

I dedicate this hateful poem to all who read this blog out of dubious motives

The Mostly-Unlamented Crabbaloon

Whose Rotten Attitude left him vulnerable to the flapping of a butterfly’s wings

Moral: Don’t be crabby!

Blue Meanie*

A Crabbaloon sat on a log near the coast
Grumpy and greedy and quite prone to boast
He wished all his ‘enemies’ soon become toast
That crabby old crabbaloon!

The Crabbaloon thought it was time to have fun
He tired of the peace and the sea and the sun
He wished he’d remembered to pack a shotgun
That vicious old crabbaloon!

Then Crabbaloon noticed a butterfy flutter
In front of his face and before he could utter
A cry or a sneer or a tut or a mutter
The flutterbye flittered away

The Crabbaloon lunged at the slender blue fly
But he tripped on a rock and the shock made him cry
Then he rolled on his back and he swore at the sky
In a terrible, violent rage

The Crabbaloon cursed, then he swore once again
Only vaguely aware of the cause of his pain
(Another free spirit had escaped him again!)
It made him most horribly crabby…

The Crabbaloon managed to curse all day through
He cursed and he swore ’til his whole face went blue
Then he cussed once again and collapsed on the dew
And expired that very same night

The Israeli Tourist Board is keen to get more Britons to visit the SLASOUPT (Shitty Little Apartheid State on Usurped Palestinian Territory).

It’s latest advertisement carries the rather modest slogan: “Few countries pack so much variety into such a small space as Israel!”

Fancy bird-watching in the Golan Heights? How about a fishing holiday in Gaza? Don't miss the all-inclusive tours of checkpoints and Palestinian refugee camps!

Users of the London Underground have been treated to these delightful ads in the form of large wall posters (presumably secure beneath the watchful eyes of CCTV cameras, strategically located to discourage paint-bomb attacks?)

But the advertisements may may not be up for long. Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority received a torrent of complaints and has upheld the principal  concern: the ad includes a map which, to put it bluntly, wipes Palestine completely off the map!

The boundaries of Gaza and the West Bank are marked, but with lines so delicate they’re almost invisible.The ad is therefore in breach of the Committee of Advertising Practice Code 7.1 , which comes under the quaintly old-fashioned heading of ‘Truthfulness”: “No marketing communication should mislead, or be likely to mislead, by inaccuracy, ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise.”

According to the BBC report Advert Implied Gaza in Israel:

Advertising Standards Authority: promotes honour among thieves

A kindly beast, my fly is black
He rarely lies upon his back
And when he does, I note he’s dead
(Stuck in the butter on my bread)

'Flies'

Beware the fly with purple legs!
His buddies are the very dregs
They like to sit around and fart
Because they think it’s cool and smart

The fly who has bright orange wings
Is lots of fun and rarely stings
He likes to jest and wears a vest
(His mother told him, she knows best)

So please don’t crush a fly for fun
And put away that sticky bun
A fly that’s free is full of glee
And buzzes off soon after tea.

_________________

Cartoon by Ian Baker

Check out the 2009 NewMatilda.com Political Cartooning Competition as it approaches the final round. Australia has some talented cartoonists.

I especially like a runner-up in Heat 10 by freelancer Jon Kudelka.

It’s a nice follow-up to the notorious Doonsebury moneychangers cartoon.

'The Evolution of the Parasite'

As cartoonist Garry Trudeau – creator of the syndicated Doonesbury cartoon strip – recently discovered, the difference between money changers and money lenders is not insignificant. Getting it wrong can lead to trouble.

Garry Trudeau: can't tell the difference between change and a loan

Money changers are the guys who cash you up in local currency when you go on overseas holidays. If you play the foreign exchange market, they make the swaps. Useful, hard-working service providers, those money changers!

On the other hand. money lenders are often considered a disreputable lot. It’s not the lending as such that usually annoys people. It’s the interest they charge. Money lenders are loan sharks. If they get big and respectable, they call themselves banks. Bankers have earned themselves a bad name, over the centuries.

Now, here’s a simple exercise. Don’t think too much about it… just give the first answer that comes to mind…. In the famous account from the New Testament, who did Jesus whip out of the temple? Was it money changers – or money lenders?

The Doonesbury cartoon that the Anti-Defamation League considers 'anti-Semitic'

The correct answer, according to most translations of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, is money changer. Abe Foxman of the US Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith believes that matters a lot. Along with a few other Jews who emailed the Doonesbury website to complain, Abe considers the Doonesbury cartoon above is an anti-Semitic slur. Not for the first time in his long career as a professional offense-taker, Abe is demanding an apology.

Ulysses and the Sirens

The sirens’ soft enchanting song
Might make our hero linger long…
And so they strapped him to a mast.

Now Conroy‘s Filter’s here at last!
(The latest thing in self-control
No need these days to hug a poll)

'Ulysses and the Sirens' by Otto Greiner, 1902

No Sleaze, Please – We’re Australian!