tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23264015740404117982011-07-07T19:54:57.087-07:00Jacknoreply@blogger.comBlogger31100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2326401574040411798.post-33844037073255562122010-03-03T11:17:00.000-08:002010-03-03T11:27:00.298-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_56ke0MGA0S8/S462Uak-FEI/AAAAAAAAA0w/kG29C2KtJvg/s1600-h/joseph.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 199px; height: 166px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_56ke0MGA0S8/S462Uak-FEI/AAAAAAAAA0w/kG29C2KtJvg/s320/joseph.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444489461385532482" border="0" /></a><br />I met Joseph Marinus at about 21.00hrs on February 20th 2010. There he stood with his spread of candles and brightly coloured envelopes of poems spread on the ground in a gentle patchwork quilt. How could I not go and talk to this man.<br /><p>As I discovered more I learnt about his ongoing battle with council officials who, with all the insight of freshly poured concrete, had tried to prosecute him as an "illegal street vendor".</p>Here in this gentle man's art and sense of community is encapsulated the story of our times in Britain today. We have lost our souls to the mindless bureaucracy of government; the pre-eminence of the paperwork kings of institutional dullness who now suppress in an inquisition like manner all spontanaity and artistic freedom.<br /><p>The very idea that a man delivering poetry on the streets of London has been hounded into the courts by local council officials screams out to us that something has gone badly wrong. The fact that this softly spoken poet had to mount a legal defence of his right to deliver art to the public, that his time was engaged in paperwork and the rituals of complaint and appeal is bad enough. However the fact is that we the taxpayers are funding this absolute nonsense and NON SENSE it is.</p>We are paying for council officials to badger a street poet. We are paying for the bureaucracy of prosecution, we are paying for the courts, the lawyers and the judiciary who are being asked to hear a legal case based on the idea that a man dispensing poetry in the streets is an unofficial street vendor. After appeal and complaint this case was rejected and Joseph Marinus remains. But where is the refund to the tax payer for this shocking waste of money?<br /><p>What is worse is that, in my opinion, this is not an isolated case of the rank stupidity by which we have allowed our society to become governed. All over our country people appear to be enforcing idiocy at cost to the tax payer. Only recently a man who had for years and years been planting daffodils in a verge and mainting some sense of beauty in his community was threatened with prosecution by his local authority for a supposed breach in Health and Safety regulations. Utter madness!</p>We have to stand against this advance of the souless administration of regulation. We have to make a stand against the cultural poverty that is being imposed on us all by City and Town Halls aggrandising their status through the establishment of kingdoms of self importance wherein art is to be forever banished.<br /><p>Maybe you are saying; "This is a bit strong, it's not that bad." but you would be so wrong. We have a very famous artist called Banksy, his medium is graffitti, and his work is now world famous. Yet some person within a local authority decided that a piece of this now historic work had to be removed because it was graffitti.</p>Allegedly he dispatched council cleaners and using the best chemicals, paid for by the tax payer, they removed forever a piece of art. You can see the problem here, a council official with a regulation about graffitti makes a final and condemning judgment on art. There is no reference, there is no discussion, there is no consideration beyond the dry and inhuman regulation.<br /><p> <a href="http://josephmarinus.com/" target="_blank">Long live Joseph Marinus and all he represents</a>.<br /></p><p> A collection of poems by Joseph Marinus will soon be published here.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2326401574040411798-3384403707325556212?l=e-books-human-tights.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2326401574040411798.post-8978973014054450922010-02-17T04:52:00.000-08:002010-02-17T04:53:34.077-08:00HumanRightsTV has announced the opening and ongoing development of its e-publishing operation. The article about this development is in the <a target="_blank" href="http://news.humanrightstv.com/e-book-store-london">Latest Content</a> on their site.<br /><br />The publishing operation will look to become a centre for all of those who wish to produce texts on human rights and related issues. Authors will be welcomed and furnished with a publishing contract on very favourable terms. What makes the HumanRightsTV publishing operation different is that e-authors can be supported and promoted actively to produce sales of their works. the full weight of the marketing team behind HumanRightsTV can be brought into the service of the authors. This includes new media marketing and SEO operations with a full analytic back up.<br /><br />If you have any interest in becoming an author then please send a brief e-mail to info@humanrightstv.com .<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2326401574040411798-897897301405445092?l=e-books-human-tights.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2326401574040411798.post-79099758560117617942010-01-27T13:07:00.000-08:002010-01-27T13:08:00.935-08:00here we go<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2326401574040411798-7909975856011761794?l=e-books-human-tights.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Jacknoreply@blogger.com0