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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Ai Weiwei - Julian Assange deja vu??

I agree with Rushdie's observation, that artists even in free societies risk derision when they perform a public role. It seems that it is not just artists, it's anyone who tries to live an authentic life could be in such danger. Salman Rushdie writing in NYT yesterday in a piece titled Dangerous Arts tells about the experience of artists in protesting against public authorities. And as he rightly points out, this is something that happens in free societies as much as in repressed ones. So may be free societies need to set a better example?
Just read Rushdie's account of the treament meted out to Mr. Ai Weiwei.
"The authorities have embarrassed and harassed him before, but now they have gone on a dangerous new offensive.
On April 4, Mr. Ai was arrested by the Chinese authorities as he tried to board a plane to Hong Kong. His studio was raided and computers and other items were removed. Since then the regime has allowed hints of his “crimes” — tax evasion, pornography — to be published. These accusations are not credible to those who know him. It seems the regime, irritated by the outspokenness of its most celebrated art export, whose renown has protected him up to now, has decided to silence him in the most brutal fashion. "
If it isn't almost to the last line taken from the West's playbook on Julian Assange, I don't know what else is!!!
I think the only thing left for us to do is to slap an Intellectual Property lawsuit on the Chinese for stealing our tactics on dealing with artists, bohemians and now plain old database engineers who hold a mirror to our faces and dare to spill the truth!

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