Cash Brown Courbet

L'Origine Du Monde is one of Courbet's most famous paintings. When painted 143 years ago, it was - perhaps not suprisingly - banned from public exhibition. Though there is a tendency to think that what was then was then, and that today we live in a much freer society, a society far more open minded to matters as seemingly trivial as depictions of the human body.
Though it seems that Sydney Olympic Park Authority will have none of this lewdness and have similarly censored an appropriation of Courbet's work by Sydney artist Cash Brown, deciding to display it "behind a curtain with a viewer advisory warning and eliminating it from the exhibition catalogue". (see also; Tea Tree Gully Council's decision to ban a nude painting and sculpted bust last year).

The only online source i could find for this story was the Brisbane times which unfortunatly does not have an image of the offending work, titled Fuck LeWitt. Though luckily Brown's mural seems to follow a series of approriations of Courbet's work; images which are available on her wesbite.
Perhaps Brown would have had more luck if she had instead submitted her work Monochrome (2008) to the exhibition.

As well as being an artist Courbet was an Anarchist, and fittingly, he was one of the founders of Fédération des artistes, a federation of mostly realist artists that aimed to support the free and uncensored exhibition of art. Courbet was one of the more publicly known French artists in the second half of the 19th century, and Napolean attempted to use Courbet's popularity to increase his own appeal by nominating Courbet to the Legion of Honour, however Courbet adamantly refused. Courbet was active within the Paris Commune and argued for the destruction of the Vendome Column;

"Inasmuch as the Vendôme column is a monument devoid of all artistic value, tending to perpetuate by its expression the ideas of war and conquest of the past imperial dynasty, which are reproved by a republican nation's sentiment, citizen Courbet expresses the wish that the National Defense government will authorise him to disassemble this column."

When the scum eventually returned to power Courbet was charged and ordered to pay for the rebuilding of the monument. Instead he left for Switzerland and died the day before his first payment was due.

Sick of cops. Sicks of locked out squats.

As i was typing the last blog entry about getting some photo's up of our squat and it's ad-hoc mastery; the very squat i was typing about was being evicted! This was not your normal Sydney squat eviction. Generally things will go down one of two ways.

• The owner will show up, surprised to find someone living in their wasting house, feign some outrage and ask you to leave. Either immediately or within some time frame they see as reasonable or...
• The owner will show up with the police and do more of less the same thing; ask you to leave or give you abit of time.

But this was not to be the case for our Stanmore squat. Unfortunately Stanmore falls within the jurisdiction of Newtown Local Area Command, if anyone has had any dealings with these unpleasant folks you'll know why this is a problem.

On Saturday morning a few hardened criminal squatters were waking up, making small talk, sharing stories and cooking some pancakes when interrupted by a knock on the door. Without delay, the police arrested everyone within the house, regardless of whether they lived there or not. Loaded them into a paddywagon and left for the station.
When they arrived at the station they were detained for 45 minutes in the back of the wagon, then moved inside where they were separated and held for four hours. They were then charged and held in solitary confinement for a further two hours before being released on bail. All were charged with trespass which is unheard of among Sydney squatters.
All this for living in a house that had been empty for a decade, and will lie empty for another.

While the police response may seem unusual - and it is - it turns out that the kind of overreaction seen is only to be expected from Newtown Cops; those arrested were told by someone giving legal advice that the arresting officer had once stopped a man who was pushing a bicycle home, breath tested him and charged him with drink driving! To know that these kind of sociopaths have been granted amazing powers over our lives is either frightening, infuriating or both.

Although not all is lost. While our little crew has been physically broken up, we're still looking after each other and taking care of each others things. I've since moved into the most breathtakingly large squat i have ever heard of, we're in negotiations with the owners to arrange a caretakers lease and if all goes ahead and we're legalised then our crew will be back again, causing all sorts of nightmares for police, such as living in an empty building.





If you know someone who is taking direct action to better their life and the lives of others, and that person is not interested in perpetuating a system of exploitation then call crimestoppers on 1800 333 000 - Pigs Need To Know.

G20 Benefit

Help out some comrades who need it.

Circuit Bending/Ad-hoc/New Band

While it may not be new to many, it is new to me, and it is certainly looks like tons of fun.

The basic premise is to mess around with the circuitry of a sound producing toy or appliance to make a new and interesting sound(s). Though sound is not the only thing that can be "bent" as the video below shows; video signals too can also be bent to produce some very interesting stuff.





Over the last few weeks i have been working on a few ad-hoc objects, making a lamp out of a kettle i found, a candle holder out of the kettle's element and so on, and now i've learnt of circuit bending, i guess i could call those works case bending or something to that effect, as i've not changed any circuitry (yet).

I suppose i enjoy the fact that making do with improvised items is a creative act that has the immediacy of practicality and purpose. At our new squat we have a kitchen sink make of a sink top and milk crates, a door as a bench top, another door as a coffee table and old planks and boards for floors and so on - all these things as well as being free have a wonderful aesthetic that i wouldn't trade for ikea furniture.

I really wish i did have a camera to get up some pictures of our squat as i didnt get many pictures of the last place up either, though we were robbed the other day and unfortunatly a housemates camera was stolen. I have been able to borrow some recording devices from Uni however to record a sound project i've been working on and you can listen to it here. There are some downloads too, coming soon however will be a downloadable .pdf that you can fold into a CD case.

Until next time.

Some of the brightest, sharpest, cruelest, prettiest, most interestingly dangerous words currently circulating

That is how this collection describes itself, and i think it's pretty awesome.

Humans being, human beings
—you call this life? I call it
survival—this rusty heart
pumping blood through tired muscles,
singed lungs and sore eyes, this
infusion of just enough protein, sugar
and caffeine to keep us moving (but
never at rest). But where is life?
Where are we? Everywhere walls and
cages, keeping us out, keeping others
in; everywhere the police and all the
cameras and sensors to ensure that
we do nothing but obey, work, produce,
consume… Not even commodities, but
situations and relations which make
this place a wasteland: a nowhere
that’s everywhere.

UTOPIA / / EMERGENCY aims to simply distribute a wide range of analysis and propaganda produced around (more or less) anarchist struggles over the last half decade or so. There is material on the Tarnac 9 (http://tarnac9.wordpress.com), "Greece's Warmest Winter", fed up Ghetto's and a bunch more.

So if you, like me, just loved reading all the communiques and manifesto's released during the Greek Rebellion, you should definitely check out this collection. The whole jazz can be downloaded from here; http://www.mediafire.com/?zyqmlmkzjnn - If the download goes offline i'll try and mirror it, but it should be Okay for now!

Also downloadable here; http://www.evilshare.com/aaddc148-8570-102c-9186-000b6aa2a5f8

Time Capsule

It's been a long time since a post on here, and a lot has happened. The Squat which is pictured in previous blog entries is still going strong. There are still 4 people living there, down from 7. One housemate and Me have moved into a new squat not too far away, and we've been joined by a friend.
The new place is exciting. It appears to have been empty for about 15 years (!!!), and as such has deteriorated significantly. In some parts of the house, there are holes in the roof, large parts of the interior paint are peeling off, and in some rooms as many as 1 in 5 floor boards are completely rotted through.
So far we've fixed up the rotten floor boards by laying a new flooring of plywood and whatever else we could find, and have placed rugs over the top. The kitchen has been made functional using an assortment of milk crates and a door as the new bench top. And despite how the description may make it sound, the kitchen is lovely. We've painted the fittings with striking red paint, and we have a vintage yellow lamp in the corner, which when turned on makes the whole kitchen look warm and cosy.
We've got the toilet working so we no longer need to bucket flush, though we still haven't put a new door on the toilet, which is a slight problem as it's an outside toilet with neighbours windows looking straight in.
The Lounge room and hallway are now the only rooms that really need to be cleaned out. When we first moved in, the house was packed full of the owners junk. Piles of stationary, boxes of documents from the 70's and an assortment of personal items. We decided to keep items that had an obvious personal value, and to throw the rest of the junk out. I imagine even the things to which we've assigned a personal value aren't especially important, as they have been left in this place for over a decade.
There have been pictures taken, and they will hopefully be posted soon!

When boring landlords (try to) attack!

Okay obviously it's been sometime since a post on here.

We're still living in our squat that we've been in since December 26. I've had limited Internet access since then, and mostly when i get on i do whatever research I've been meaning to do, and of course check facebook!

Last Friday, 27th Feb 09, the landlords showed up. They wanted us to leave, we chatted, they said they'd come back to chat another time, they didn't show up, and now they've said they'll come by on Thursday 5th to "discuss options" for our house.

They've evicted the factory next door which was being used as a peoples kitchen (very successfully), a place to crash for radical tourists, 2009's squatfest and of course as a home.

When there is some progress i will post about it. Until then, wish us luck!

The [We Need A Name For This Place] Squat.

While comrades in Melbourne were being harassed by landlords, squatting communities in Papua New Guinea having their settlements burnt and demolished by cops, Big Bbusiness planning to descend on squatters in Ghana, and Kenyan squatters demanding land be returned by the Government; one of Sydney's largely gentrified, though conveniently located Inner-West suburbs got a whole lot more squatty!

A few comrades and me have turned a really (really) nice empty, into a really (really) great home.

After squatting our place, we noticed that a large industrial building next door was also empty, and so now that is being used as well, with plans afoot to create a people's kitchen.

We were shown our place by friendly squatters from down the road, who have helped us out a lot. which just goes to show that if you want to squat in Sydney, you just need to get in contact with the squatters. The community in Sydney is actually quite vibrant despite being smallish in comparison to other cities, and everyone involved is happy help out - so squat!
We've been living here for about a month now, these photo's were mostly taken before we moved in. So a lot has changed.

For some pictures, starting with the overgrown yard. This was cleaned up pretty quickly with a lot of initial enthusiasm (and before the 40°C days.)
Some of the rooms;
Our ghetto lock;

Front bedroom clothing solutions;

Greece

Perhaps having built a barricade when you’re sixteen provides you with a sort of safety rail. If you’ve once taken part in building one, even inadvertently, doesn’t its usually latent image reappear like a warning signal whenever you’re tempted to join the police, or support any manifestation of Law and Order? - Jean Genet

Greece. What is happening there is too complex and amazing for me to really sum up in a blog post. However other people, much more capable than myself have been attempting to do exactly that.
Over at Libcom there is a great page of info. For those who're more or less unfamiliar with what's going on this article provides a decent summary, and over at hyperborea there is a nice article with some excerpts of manifesto's and other things that have been said and produced by those involved.

I really wish i could provide more stuff myself, but I've been quite busy in the last week or two subverting the capitalist exploitation of roof, wall and suburb fetishism (soon to be written about).

Zinescene

Crowbar My Heart Issue Two
Issue two of Crowbar My Heart (the world's greatest squatting zine) is now out!
It features a sub par article by myself, as well as great articles by Jase + Fez about their squat, an interview/article about Melbourne's SHAC, howto's on composting + squat gardening as well as pigeons, notes, reviews, cartoons and more!
Issues can be got from Comrade Crowbar, if you email at comradecrowbar [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au! Submissions including pretty pictures are welcomed he says.



MAKESHIFT Issue One
Another zine that came into my hands recently was the first issue of Makeshift, with the rather broad theme Alternatives. The broad theme being a great thing as the Zine, full of creative writing, was able to spread out into different areas.
The stories are about housing, kings cross, a anti-hero superhero, an elderly relative, religion and the universe. To get copies or make submissions contact Makeshiftzine [at] gmail [dot] com. The theme for the next issue is Baffle, though submissions have closed for that, so contact the above address and find out what you need to write about!

Kulnura; Up in the Clouds

Empty buildings in Sydney are no rarity. Every time i realise that a particular building is not suitable for squatting, it rarely takes me more than a day at most to find another to consider. You've heard the statistics before I'm sure, 120,000 of these wasting beauties lie in wait around greater Sydney daily, about 7000 of them in the city alone.
Though generally we think of small shop fronts and empty warehouses, orphaned bungalows and terraces - not realising that there exists lonely CBD sky scrapers. To put on the Realtors glasses for a moment; some of these buildings are upon the most valuable land in Australia, and between them would be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
But where are they?

Well a personal favourite would have to be Key College House, located on Wentworth Avenue. This place looks amazing, i can just imagine all the squatters hanging banners out it's bay windows as a stirring black flag flies from the roof. Standing at 9 stories, this place could house so many people, within such an accessible distance to amenities.
It would be perfect for the less mobile or elderly who otherwise have to travel for considerable times on public transport (of questionable suitability) for certain services.

Like Key College House, and also on the same road the Griffiths Teas building is owned by Sydney Couple Isaac and Susan Wakil. The pair own about $75 Million dollars of property in Sydney - all of which is empty except for their headquarters. The Griffiths Teas building is massive and could probably house a large portion of China's teas, or (for a more revolutionary idea!) a lot of people! Susan Wakil remembers seeing her father dragged off to a soviet gulag for being a "capitalist landowner" when living in Romania, though probably has little time for those in Western Sydney increasingly being made homeless by rising rents.
Photo of Griffiths Teas from here. Other great photo's there also.

If you were to stroll further up Wentworth Avenue and continue onto College street you would eventually encounter a twenty story monstrosity of a building that also has remained empty for years. The building was at one time the former headquarters for NSW Police, though now sits empty with nobody coming nor going. Once again this building is located a convenient zero minute walk to just about everywhere, and right across the road from Sydney's well known Hyde park (A cheap imitation of the slightly older London, Hyde Park).
I believe the building is owned by the Gov, and therefore would be a perfect place for some inventive housing affordability protest - after all who likes the government?

Then there is this fantastic 8 story building on Clarence street. This is almost exactly where i catch a bus from often. The only difference being that when i want to catch the bus it is preceded by a 15minute walk, a 40minute train trip and another 5 minute walk. From this empty nest i could forget about the first walk and the train trip, and dream dreams for almost another hour. This place reminds me a little of Key College House, but only cooler, sweeter and cuter.

And when you thought that was it, just a few blocks away at 82 Sussex St there is a quaint little warehouse space, again of about 8 stories. It stands defiant, confident in it's history as thousands of sheets of glass approach it from both sides and construction rumbles just across the street. I can only imagine how many people could paint, sculpt, write, think, draw, play and live inside the unused walls of this building.

And these are only the ones i know about. Most (if not all) were found here.

And of course if any of you out there have fantastic idea's for these buildings please comment. Comment even if you don't.

-Liam

Being Realistic

When you first decide to squat, nothing could seem easier.
What is there to it after all?

• Find an empty building.
• Get in.
• Inflate your airbed.
• Raise your flag.

This is almost how easy i first imagined it would be. And yet months after beginning my search for affordable and subversive housing i am still squatless, though immensely lucky in that i do have a home.
Now it's not as if the issue is a shortage of abandoned properties, but vacancy is only the first tick on a long, and changing check list of favorable attributes. And each building has its own unique issues and quirks that only become obvious once you've made contact with that particular building.
The first building i intended to squat was a two storey terrace in Surry Hills. Being the first building I had staked out, I was more or less incompetent. The majority of my first mission was spent across the street gazing into its cloudy windows repeating to myself "It's definitely empty", as I worked up the courage to cross the street. When I did, I peeped through the mail slot to see an awful lot of junk, and walking around to observe the back entrance, saw more and more junk piled up in the windows. At this stage, I was under the impression that some junk was probably a huge inconvenience, after all I was still working within the frame work mentioned in the dot points above. And for the time being, that house was written off.

The second house I considered was a single storey, single bedroom terrace near my campus. It was cute, it was secluded, it was definitely empty and definitely unloved. I was doing it a favor!
One evening a friend and I planned to enter and change the lock.
Once again, this was preceded by long moments standing across the street in anticipation, waiting for a break in the steady stream of professionals returning from work. We had anticipated some difficulty entering as the door was obviously locked, and the only other entry was the front window which was broken and boarded up. Though as it turned out, the board was loose and moved with the wind, and I was able to slide in the broken window (cutting my hand, and not caring), to take my first steps within, what i thought at the time to be, my future home.
This building had a few inconveniences also. Namely no glass in any windows, no electricity nor gas, and many repairs to do. Though by now, i was beginning to understand that this squatting would not be as easy as I had imagined and that these were reasonable tasks to undertake.
Over the next few weeks as i began doing some cleaning and planning, the landlords decided that they would prefer their house to remain empty and rotting, and screwed the door to the frame. A perfect waste.

As well as these, there was a key cutters in Sydenham, which turned out to have a pending Development Application. A small place in Hannam street which despite appearances, was for lease. A petrol station in Rozelle that would have provided a bizarre and inspiring home, that sold years after sitting vacant, and only weeks after entering my plans. A terrace in Darlinghurst that on the day i had planned to liberate, turned out to be owned by someone with a vague connection to me. And of course there were countless other empties spied on walks, for which plans and research were never begun.

Which brings me back to the first building I intended to squat.
The junk no longer seems like such an inconvenience. Though I've not been inside this house yet, and am yet to see the full scale of the mess. Though still, all these months later (on top of all the years before), it sits empty. In a nice part of town, neglected and seemingly of no consequence to anybody but myself. And I find myself thinking about it again.

Despite all the obvious set backs, and what has quite honestly been heartbreak. I'm pleased with the way things have gone. As the person who I love pointed out, it has developed my skills of researching buildings through the various beaurocratic avenues (one way streets and stop signs!) that exist. And I've also gained a more realistic understanding of what it is to squat. The next thing to do? Well, squat of course!

And a note to would be squatters; be prepared for dissapointment and frustration at the hands of the jokers of beaurocratic capitalism.

£6m House, 30 Rooms, One Careful Anarchist Collective.

An Anarchist/Artists collective called the Da! Collective, have opened up a beautiful house in one of London's "Poshest" areas according to this ^^ photo and this report. Amazingly, the article does not incite the lynching of the squatters, rather it just seems to see them as a curious oddity, which i suppose ain't half bad.

It is one of London's most exclusive addresses. Michelin-starred restaurants are just a block away, the American embassy is around the corner and Hyde Park is at the end of the road. To share the same postcode ought to cost millions.

But the new residents of 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, a raggle-taggle of teenagers and artists called the Da! collective, haven't paid a penny for their £6.25m, six-storey townhouse in Mayfair.
...
"If anything, we are improving the building by mending leaks and things like that. The building is listed so English Heritage might be interested to see how the owners have let it disintegrate."

Don't do this at home; but it helps if you've got a home!
And for some more English squatters, check out this video I've recently uploaded to youtube. I've had it sitting around for some time, and thought it was as good a time as any to upload it now, so i have.



Also, if this weekend goes according to plan, there may be another home improvement post very soon!

Soulwax, Coldcut + Tv Sheriff

Soulwax - NY Excuse:


Coldcut vs. TV Sheriff - World Of Evil:


Oldies, but goodies.

What's the G20?

Dubya is supposed to have asked "Revin" Rudd. Although where others have called them "Some of the world’s most brutal warmongers and economic rationalists", it's hardly the response I think Rudd would've given.
The libs have demanded that a federal police investigation be launched into who leaked the details. Rudd claims it never even happened. The libs also demand Rudd apologises to Bush, and now Rudd demands that the libs apologise to Obama. Wow.
The wonderful photo of the two rulers (above) is stolen from the terrorgraph, which I've included because i find it bizarre to have someone photoshop an image of the two together when photos like these (below) already exist:



GHOUL - A MOUTHFUL OF GOLD
And in news that might actually mean something to people. Sydney band Ghoul have released their EP. In fact they released it a little while ago, and I've just been quite late with this post. In keeping with awesomeness they have made the EP freely available for download, from here.
As the band is happy to boast, they have been described as "a young band with no hooks" by a "dude from bluejuice", and "a fantastic lo-fi(ish) band from Sydney with a definite haunting element to their sound" According to Polaroids Of Androids.

Apart from getting the chance the hear some awesome music, other incentives to see ghoul include;
- Free Ep Give aways at their gigs at COFA on the 26th of November + Oxford Arts Factory on the 27th.

Gary Snyder - Front Lines / As the crickets' soft autumn hum

The edge of the cancer
Swells against the hill-we feel
a foul breeze-And it sinks back down.
The deer winter here
A chainsaw growls in the gorge.

Ten wet days and the log trucks stop,
The trees breathe.
Sunday the 4-wheel jeep of the
Realty Company brings in
Landseekers, lookers, they say
To the land,
Spread your legs.

The jets crack sound overhead, it's OK
here;
Every pulse of the rot at the heart
In the sick fat veins of Amerika
Pushes the edge up closer--

A bulldozer grinding and slobbering
Sideslipping and belching on top of
The skinned-up bodies of still-live bushes
In the pay of a man
From town.

Behind is a forest that goes to the Arctic
And a desert that still belongs to the
Piute
And here we must draw
Our line.

As the crickets' soft autumn hum
is to us
so are we to the trees
as are they
to the rocks and the hills.

More posts coming soon with the ending of the semester, as well as more Home Improvement! This time hopefully will be somewhat more successful.

Comprehensive failure of [extreme] Capitalism

Australia's Maoist PM (proof) Kevin Rudd has declared capitalism's failure is behind the recent economic disaster - almost. "What we have seen is the comprehensive failure of extreme capitalism — extreme capitalism which now turns to government to prevent systematic failure," said Rudd recently.
However Rudd makes sure he doesn't criticise the good capitalism, the capitalism where workers are exploited normally (not extremely!), and where divisions are fostered between human beings normally (not extremely!), and people alienated from one another and the product of their labour normally (not extremely!). The kind of capitalism Rudd likes is the one where the working class are kept firmly under the cosh, yet also in a home, and able to buy some distracting flat screens on credit once and a while.
However some of us might be asking - well isn't this outcome logical considering the kind of scum that controls markets and governments the world around?
Lumpen Professoriat has looked at this in a recent blog titled Not Forbidden. Lumpen Professoriat reckons that "What the striking lack of regulation in these strange new markets trading in mortgage debt has meant is that every risk becomes not just possible, but mandatory. The competition to produce the highest rate of return possible insures that those too squeamish to pursue unforbidden risks will fall behind. This is different from individual greed. It is institutionally required greed."

And some bloke frequently quoted is supposed to have said;
With adequate profit, capital is very bold. A certain 10 per cent will ensure its employment anywhere; 20 per cent certain will produce eagerness; 50 per cent positive audacity; 100 per cent will make it ready to trample on all human laws; 300 per cent, and there is not a crime at which it will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged. If turbulance and strife will bring a profit, it will freely encourage both. - Karl Marx

Anyway, read the original post, it's much better than this.

Doll Praises Islam... and Satan
While some people choose to worry about a looming (is it still looming?) financial crisis, thankfully some people have their priorities right. It seems that ZOG has joined up with Islam in an attempt to convert American toddlers to "the light", while simultaneously praising Satan.
The toy company Mattel has fielded calls from consumers who wonder whether their Little Mommy Cuddle 'n Coo doll, which giggles, gurgles and coos, is also mumbling, "Satan is king" and "Islam is the light." More.
The reaction to this doll is bizarre.

Cops a-Zappin' the whole world round.

"[It was] the most horrendous experience [of my life]. At one point I just pretended like I was dead because I thought ... then they would stop." - Patricia Skelly, who has a mental illness, was tasered between nine and 15 times while in custody in jail and later in hospital.

The fact that police have been using tasers with little scrutiny in the USofA may come as little suprise to many of us, though the normal Australian reaction of "Heh; America is so fucked.", doesn't seem quite as comforting now that Aussie plod are carrying the electric weapons.
Between September 1999 and October 2008 at least 378 people have died after being stunned by police, and that's in North American alone, according to a list compiled by Truth Not Tasers. Despite the alarming statistics, Top Dog Scipione pushed hard to grow the ever expanding police powers to include the devices, that the United Nations has deemed a form of torture, into the Arsenal of NSW Cops.

Scipione is quoted as saying "There are people out there who are generally not very pleasant when it comes to having to intervene as a police officer - they're in the business of committing crimes, or they've lost control of their senses, be they heavily under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and police have to subdue them, we have to take them into custody,"
So perhaps Australia's mentally ill will face a similar experience that Patricia Skelly did. If not the mentally ill, scipione certainly seems interested in the use of electroshock weapons on drug effected people - a group that many say are most at risk when it comes to the use of tasers.

However; in the unlikely event that these tasers are withdrawn, police needn't worry about waste. Welsh police have shown recently that you don't even need a person to target when using a taser! "POLICE zapped a runaway sheep that was blocking traffic with a Taser stun gun, a weapon issued for use in violent situations." reports LimitedNews.

Pack'em, Rack'em, Stack'em.

"Thirty of South Australia's most hardened criminals have surrendered to police after rioting inside a jail.

The prisoners were barricaded in a high-security compound of the Port Augusta jail, surrounded by tactical response police who today brokered a resolution on a second day of negotiations with the inmates.

A group of 39 prisoners rioted late yesterday, forcing staff to withdraw as the inmates, brandishing weapons such as chair legs, smashed windows, computers and air-conditioners." Reports LiveNews.

Few news reports seem to shed any light on the legitimacy of the prisoners claims of bashings, though history would suggest that what happens behind the bars generally doesn't get out. Most News reports seem to focus attention on overcrowding being the cause for the "riots", while not exploring the fact that people denied of almost all liberty will probably harbor some resentment for the people and institutions involved in taking it from them.

Squatting rises in the US of A

While banks continue to make thousands homeless in the persuit of massive profits, real estate agents bemoan the rise in squatting. The dreadful fact that people are being evicted from their family homes in order to keep the buildings empty doesn't seem to warrant a mention in this article from mercury news.
Instead the article dramatises the supposed danger that is posed by trespassers, continually citing the pepper spray that the realtors insist on carrying despite none of them actually knowing of any instances of a violent squatter.
Some realtors go further, like Kirsten Amodeo who has organised self defense classes so the families who've been evicted by banks can now be beaten by realtors. But if that doesn't learn them, Felicia Horkins (Amodeo's associate), only wishes she could carry a concealed weapon.

By the way, i stumbled across this story on this cool blog called SquatterCity. Check it out.