What do we know about the Deepwater Horizon disaster?

Page last updated at 13:10 GMT, Tuesday, 22 June 2010 14:10 UK

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Firefighters battled in vain to save the rig

The Deepwater Horizon rig disaster caused the deaths of 11 crew and a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the 20 April catastrophe there has been much discussion in US Congressional hearings and the media about the sequence of events that led up to it.

Here is a summary of what we know so far about the BP oil spill, and the primary questions that are still being investigated.

BACKGROUND

The Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling an oil well in the Macondo prospect that was intended to be plugged with cement and then completed later to become a production well.

The top of the well was about 5,000ft (1,524m) beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Deepwater Horizon was owned and mostly staffed by employees of exploration firm Transocean, under contract to BP.

THE NATURE OF THE WELL

GLOSSARY

Continue reading the main story

• BOP: Blowout preventer - stack of valves designed to stop blowouts
• Blind ram shear: Last line of defence in BOP - cuts pipe
• Centraliser: Device to keep pipe or casing in centre of well
• Cement bond log: Tests to make sure cement is sound
• Annulus: Gap between pipe and rock, or between pipe and another pipe

Underwater oil wells are not just holes with a drilling pipe stuck into them. As the drilling is done, a fluid, usually mud is forced out of the drill bit and debris is thus pushed upwards.

This fluid also counteracts the pressure to stop oil and gas forcing their way upwards.

Once each passage of drilling is completed, metal casing is cemented into place in the hole.

In this case the well had already been cemented ready for abandonment. At the point the disaster occurred, the well was essentially finished.

HOW CEMENT AND CASING IS PLACED IN DRILLING BOREHOLE
Drill, lowered from rig, bores through seabed creating a borehole for sections of casing pipe to be lowered into Casing pipe is lowered into borehole allowing cement to be pumped down the pipe to fix it in place Once the cement is set and secure another stage of drilling begins

CASING AND CEMENT

The first of the two catastrophic problems was in the well itself.

In his evidence to a Congressional committee on 19 May, Transocean chief executive Steve Newman noted that the well was "essentially complete" with drilling having finished three days before the disaster on 17 April.

He said: "The one thing we do know is that on the evening of 20 April, there was a sudden catastrophic failure of the casing, the cement or both. Without a failure of one of those elements, the explosion could not have occurred."

The cementing job was done by Halliburton to specifications ultimately determined by BP.

CENTRALISERS

Much has been made in Congressional hearings of the number of centralisers used. These devices make sure that the pipe or casing is centralised during cementing, to ensure a good job is done.

Congressmen say Halliburton recommended that 21 should be used, but BP decided only six should be used.

In an e-mail, a BP engineer said : "But, who cares, it's done, end of story, will probably be fine and we'll get a good cement job."

CEMENT BOND LOG

Because of the importance of getting a good cement job in the well, one that is bonded both to the casing and to the geological formation in which the well is dug, a series of measurements called a "cement bond log" is usually run.

A sonic scanning device is lowered through the well on a wireline. It checks whether there are imperfections in bonding or other problems in the cement. If there are, more cement can be squeezed into affected sections.

Documents presented to Congress show a team from Schlumberger were called to the rig to be ready to do such work, but that they departed on the morning of the disaster having been told their services were not required.

Other documents suggest the cost saving in not having a "cement bond log" to be about $118,000.

CEMENT ISSUES

Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, noted "the failure to circulate potentially gas-bearing drilling muds out of the well". This should have been done before cementing.

Another issue was the type of casing that would be used on the final, bottom section of the well. BP opted for a single line of casing from the seabed down to the bottom of the well, Congressman say. The more expensive option would have been to use a "liner", a bit of casing hung from the bottom of the casing section above. Inside this would have been a further piece of tubing called a "tieback".

This arrangement would have created more barriers to the upward flow of oil and gas, but it would also have been more expensive.

Other cementing issues being investigated by Transocean include the type of nitrogen-foamed cement used, the volume and the time it was allowed to "cure".

WHAT IS A BOP?

Whatever the exact cause of what happened, it is clear there was some sort of gas-kick and blowout resulting in an uncontrolled upward surge of oil and gas flow to the surface.

The blowout preventer (BOP) is supposed to stop this happening. The BOP, the size of a five-storey building, consists of a series of high-pressure valves, designed to prevent such a surge or kick from damaging the drilling operation.

In this particular BOP, built by US firm Cameron to specifications by Transocean, there are five ram-type preventers and two annular preventers, according to Transocean's chief executive.

These devices did not stop the blowout. Nor has it been possible to activate them using remote-operated vehicles.

WHY DID THE BOP FAIL?

Blowout preventer

Investigations into the US oil spill are focused on the blowout preventer system of valves on the seabed.

The system's control panel is its electronic "brains", keeping valves open to allow flow from well to rig.

In an emergency, hydraulic valves or shear rams should close shut on the pipe, sealing it and preventing flow.

BACK 1 of 3 NEXT

Two possible scenarios have been discussed. One - suggested by Transocean - is that the kick was so catastrophic it pushed fragments of cement debris through the BOP so fast that it was damaged and could not activate.

The sheer force of what happened is indicated by the fact that cement debris travelled all the way up the 5,000ft of riser and on to the deck of the drilling rig.

The other possibility is that the BOP was faulty in the first place.

There were initial allegations that the batteries in a control pod for the BOP may have been flat. Transocean denies this.

A rig worker has also told the BBC's Panorama programme that a leak had been spotted in one of the BOP's control pods.

The last line of defence in a BOP is usually the blind shear ram. This device, activated hydraulically, uses piston-driven blades to cut the pipe, thus stopping the flow.

Tyrone Benton: 'We saw a leak'

This did not work. One possible explanation is that the section of pipe it was trying to shear was a section of "tool joint". These joints between the pipes are typically so strong that a blind shear ram cannot deal with them.

Another possibility is that something in the hydraulic mechanism of the blind shear ram had failed.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

With the failure to prevent the blowout, the rig was in danger. Everything happened very quickly, according to Transocean boss Steve Newman's hearing evidence.

"It is also clear that the drill crew had very little, if any, time to react. The initial indications of trouble and the subsequent explosions were almost instantaneous."

The surge of gas that reached the surface ignited. Transocean identified two nearby vessels, the rig's own engines and some equipment as the possible source of the accidental ignition.

In the blast and fire, 11 rig workers died, with more injured. Just over 36 hours later the rig sank.

Exclusive -[Video] Ron Artest-“Champion”

Monday, June 21, 2010 1:21 PM | 14 comments

By AHH Staff

Check out the new video for Ron Artest’s “Champions.” Laker haters – get ya hate up. Ron is rubbing LA’s win in your faces.

 

 

Contest Details

SUBMISSION PERIOD NOW OPEN

CONTEST PERIOD DATES

The reading period opens May 1, 2010 and will close at midnight August 16, 2010. Snail mail submissions must be postmarked no later than August 15, 2010 in order to be considered. 

CONTEST RULES

• There is no contest entry fee.
• All submissions are automatically entered in the Contest.
• Submissions not chosen as Contest winners are still eligible for publication.
• Submission guidelines can be found here.

HOW TO SUBMIT

• Read the Submission Guidelines.
• Submit online with our Submission Manager, or submit by snail mail to Memoir (and) Submissions, PO Box 1398, Sausalito CA 94966-1398. To be advised of the status of your snail mail submission, include a SASE, or your email address.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The Memoir (and) Prizes for Memoir in Prose or Poetry are awarded to the most outstanding prose or poetry memoirs—traditional, nontraditional or experimental—drawn from the reading period.

Grand Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry

• $500 cash award
• Publication in print and online
• Six copies of the journal

Second Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry

• $250 cash award
• Publication in print and online
• Six copies of the journal

Third Prize for Memoir in Prose or Poetry

• $100 cash award
• Publication in print and online
• Three copies of the journal

The Memoir (and) Prize for Graphic Memoir is awarded to the most outstanding graphic memoir drawn from the reading period.

Prize for Graphic Memoir

• $100 cash award
• Publication in print and online
• Three copies of the journal

The NEW Memoir (and) Prize for Photography is awarded to the most outstanding and innovative photography submission.

       Prize for Photography

• $100 cash award
• Publication in print and online
• Three copies of the journal

 

2011 Emerging Voices Application

About the Emerging Voices Rosenthal Fellowship Program

Emerging Voices is an intensive eight-month program for writers in the early stages of their literary careers. The program includes a one-on-one mentorship with a professional writer; Q&A evenings with professional writers, publishers, editors, and agents; master classes by genre with a published PEN author; day-long work shops on various elements of publishing; a $1,000 stipend. The program culminates with a public reading and reception.

Emerging Voices serves writers from underserved communities, though selection is not based solely on economic need. Participants need not be published, but the program is directed toward poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction with clear ideas of what they hope to accomplish through their writing. There are no age restrictions.

A Successful EV Application will include:

Completed EV Application

Summary Sheet from your 2009 federal tax return

Professional CV that details your work experience, education and publications credits.

Short Answer Section Responses

Two letters of recommendation written by people who are familiar with your writing and can comment on your commitment to large projects.  Letters from relatives will not be accepted.

Writing Sample should include up to 20 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction or 10 pages of poetry.  Sample should be typed and double-spaced.  Please indicate if/how the work in your sample is relevant to the project you plan to propose as an EV fellow.

$10 application fee Please address checks and/or money orders to PEN USA.  No cash.

Five (5) copies of your application packet

Only completed applications will be reviewed. Materials are not returned. Please make copies for your records.

DOWNLOAD The 2011 Emerging Voices Application

Send application to: PEN Center USA, Emerging Voices, 269 S. Beverly Dr. #1163, Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Applications must be received on or before August 31, 2010.

---- 2010 Submission Guidelines ----

All contributors receive books, chapbooks and journals equal to, or more than, the entry fee.
Please mention this to your friends and all others who might be interested!

Electronic and mailed entries must meet these requirements:
1. The manuscript should be at least 48 pages of poetry and no more than 70 pages of poetry in length. Separations between sections are NOT a part of the page count.
2. A one page cover letter. Include a brief biography, the book's title, your name, address, and telephone number, and, if you have e-mail, your e-mail address. This should be followed by a page which lists publication acknowledgments for the book. For each acknowledgement mention the publisher (journal, anthology, chapbook etc.) and the poem published.
3. The manuscript should be bound with a single clip and begin with a title page including the book's title, your name, address, and telephone number, and, if you have e-mail, your e-mail address.
4. The second page should have only the title of the manuscript. There are to be no acknowledgments or mention of the author's name from this page forward. Submissions to the contest are blind judged.
5. There should be no more than one poem on each page. The manuscript can contain pieces longer than one page.
6. The manuscript should be paginated, beginning with the first page of poetry.

Each year Pavement Saw Press will publish at least one book of poetry and/or prose poems from manuscripts received during this competition. Selections are chosen through a blind judging process. The competition is open to anyone who has not previously published a volume of poetry or prose. The author receives $1000 and five percent of the 1000 copy press run. Previous judges have included Judith Vollmer, David Bromige, Bin Ramke and Howard McCord. This year David Baratier will be the judge; past students, Pavement Saw Press interns and employees are not allowed to submit. All poems must be original, all prose must be original, fiction or translations are not acceptable. Writers who have had volumes of poetry and/or prose under 40 pages printed or printed in limited editions of no more than 500 copies are eligible. Submissions are accepted during the months of June, July, and until August 15th. All submissions must have an August 15th, 2010, or earlier, postmark. This is an award for first books only.

If you wish to send via regular mail your manuscript should be accompanied by a check in the amount of $20.00 made payable to Pavement Saw Press. All US contributors to the contest will receive books, chapbooks and journals equal to, or more than, the entry fee. Add $3 (US) for other countries to cover the extra postal charge. Do not include an SASE for notification of results, this information will be sent with the free book. Do not send the only copy of your work. All manuscripts are recycled and individual comments on the manuscripts cannot be made.

If you wish to submit electronically, use the appropriate PayPal button below:

Transcontinental Award payment for US Entries

Transcontinental Award payment for Non-US and Canadian Entries

We will then send you an e-mail confirmation as well as where to e-mail the manuscript. Electronic submissions need to be sent as PDF files or as word (.doc) files. Other formats are not accepted. The extra cost is to cover the paypal fees as well as the time, labor, ink, and so on, to print out your manuscript. In addition to the prize winner, sometimes another anonymous manuscript is chosen, if enough entries arrive. This "editors choice" manuscript will be published under a standard royalty contract. A decision will be reached in November.

 

Entries should be sent to:

Pavement Saw Press
Transcontinental Award Entry
321 Empire Street
Montpelier, OH 43543

All submissions must have an August 15th, or earlier, postmark. Submissions are accepted during the months of June, July, and August only.
If you have questions, please ask us: info AT pavementsaw DOT org

Book Review: Anna In-Between by Elizabeth Nunez

 

“Over there in America, I’m a Caribbean-American, but that hyphen always bother me. It’s a bridge, but somehow I think there is a gap on either end of the hyphen. Sometimes I think if I am not careful, I can fall between those spaces and drown” (347).

Paul Bishop, the speaker in this section of Anna In-Between, voices the apprehension of many Caribbean-Americans about the lack of rootedness they encounter in North America and it is one of the themes in the latest novel by award winning novelist, Elizabeth Nunez. But to limit any reading of the novel to yet another treatise on Caribbean alienation in a metropolitan country would be to miss the intricacies of Nunez’s storytelling. For Anna In-Between is a novel filled with intriguing characters written by a author with a catholic literary imagination.


It is tempting to think of Anna In-Between as merely the story about a Trinidadian woman, Anna Sinclair, who returns to the island for a vacation only to discover that her mother, Beatrice Sinclair (with whom she has never been close) has breast cancer, and to watch how the family members cope with the disturbing change. But in this aptly named novel, Nunez explores nearly every variation of Anna’s in-between-ness through highly charged scenes and with characters perfectly suited to explore the ideas that Nunez presents in the novel.


As a highly literate protagonist, Anna Sinclair, a senior editor at Equiano Books and who is fast approaching mid-life, is caught between the limiting stereotypes of African-Americans, “For in America she is black, and in America the ways of black people have been defined, set in stone,” and Caribbean-Americans, “Is a true West Indian woman one who plasters her face with make-up, layering her cheeks with rouge, her lips with bright red lipstick?” (75). Anna bristles at either definition, for she is in many ways a crossroads figure and as such possesses a Janus-like capacity for being able to comprehend disparate points of view.


As a member of a privileged class in Trinidad, Anna is also caught between the democratic ideals of North America and the old colonial values that are preserved by compliance with unspoken rules of privacy and “knowing one’s place” (26). In her discussion with Singh, the family gardener, the social inequity is placed in stark contrast:

“How casually she accepts that. He knows his place. Her friends in America would be shocked to hear she thinks this way, her African American friends especially… but having a place and knowing where others are in relation to one’s place is to have the comfort that order brings, the reassurance of stability” (26).

Anna is able to parse the difference between privacy and intimacy in the relationship of her mother, Beatrice Sinclair, and her father, John Sinclair, another theme that Nunez explores throughout the novel. “This obsession with privacy” (73) is carried to absurd lengths when Anna’s father, John Sinclair, becomes aware of his wife’s cancer: “I saw blood on my vest, he says,” (57), yet John Sinclair does not say or do anything to violate his wife’s sense of privacy.


 When Anna confronts her father, whom she had always adored, she is flabbergasted by his response:

“You saw blood on a vest she wore. Blood, Daddy?”
“I knew she would tell me when she was ready.”
“But you must have known…?”
“Yes.” It is a simple acknowledgement of information he has kept to himself” (57).

Nunez’s prose cuts through many of the social hierarchies that still divide post-colonial Trinidad and the West indies. The characters “know their place” and do not want to disturb the boundaries. Anna, on the other hand, while cognizant of the social constraints tries to break through her parents’ frame of reference because of the limits they place on her connection with her mother, who enforces colonial mores in nearly every social interaction: “In my day,” she says, “mothers did not do that; they did not hug and kiss their children. The queen…” (317).


To which Anna counters:

“She was protecting her progeny.”
“I don’t know what you mean.’
“Lust,” Anna says.
“Lust?"
“They weren’t as lucky as we are. They didn’t have birth control. So no hugging or kissing relatives. Not even your children. It was one way to prevent pregnancy, to keep bad thoughts out of the minds of relatives” (318).

I usually develop an immediate disdain for books in which the main character is a writer or editor, but in the case of Anna Sinclair, Nunez has found a character perfectly suited to deconstruct ideas about class, race, and socio-economic relationships in the Caribbean and North America. Anna’s knowledge of literature (from Shakespeare to Derek Walcott) and music (from Bach to Nat King Cole and calypso) doesn’t seem forced and her musings place the action within a historical and cultural context. With Anna In-Between, Elizabeth Nunez, the author of many other award winning novels such as Prospero’s Daughter, has written the quintessential Caribbean-American novel.

***

 

I have the Dutch

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 by Andy Davis, images by Justin McGee

You can keep your ProKid, Proverb, HHP and JR… Tumi Molekane, right now, is South African hip hop’s leading light. Along with his band The Volume, they’re signed to a French label and perform most regularly in front of European crowds, 10 thousand strong. His recent solo album, Whole Worlds, has received major critical acclaim at home and abroad. And he’s about to release the new genre-busting Tumi and the Volume album Pick a Dream in South Africa.

Tumi has an uncanny ability to pull amazing musicians around himself, to make the innovative soundscapes for his rhymes. He pulled together Tiago and Paulo from 340ml and David Bergman for The Volume, then handpicked the Pretoria rock kids, Richard Brokensha and Alex Parker from Isochronous and Peach Von Pletzen aka Yesterday’s Pupil on drums, to back his live set on Whole Worlds. Add to that an ongoing creative collaboration and mentorship with Danyel Waro (described here as the Hugh Masekela of the Indian Ocean islands). But more than just working with incredible musos, Tumi is more on point than ever. You really get a sense that here’s an artist with something to say.

But right now the zeitgeist in South Africa is all about football, so what does the corporeal MC have to say about the World Cup? Is it a big deal or will it be forgotten by August?

Tumi: It is a big deal man. I tell you why, personally, people that I know have changed their homes. Have geared up to host people. A lot of people are very excited about that. To me, that’s not always the thing that gets me. What gets me is the ordinary people, like my cousins and uncles are going to get exposed to a Spanish guy, Italian people, Ghanaians. You know what I mean? It’s not a conference. It’s not exclusive. It’s shit that everyone speaks. The beer is the same. The culture is the same. And for me that’s the thing, as insular as South Africa is, that’s the biggest gain my people will receive from this thing.

Mahala: You’re playing at the FIFA gig?

Yes.

Are you getting paid.

No.

Don’t you think that’s fucked up?

It is fucked up. Especially considering that we were consulted about this gig early on in the process. And it feels like they filled the roster and then someone complained…

But if you’re on the bill because people complained, and there was a public furore, surely they should pay you as well. Otherwise it’s just tokenism.

It is. And it isn’t. I tell you two things… I’ve never seen a World Cup or Olympic event that is hosted in Barcelona or wherever and all the people that are performing are from that country. It’s an international event, people. And I just feel like, it works for me. I calculated things and it works for me. I’ve done free gigs for less people, that were less valuable, than this. I can go there conscience free. But I do understand the outcry. I do understand the movement. Personally, I get it. But it’s not that deep to me.

So what does football mean to you?

My earliest memories… Diego Maradona, I think it was against West Germany, or some shit like that. You know that game where he was always being fouled? Yeah! That was the one for me. This guy just diving and getting fouled for real. A marked man. I never really paid too much attention to football until that day.

You didn’t grow up in South Africa…

I supported the Zambian national team. I supported Kapambwe Mulenga, Kalusha Bwalya that 1994 Zambian team that tragically died, right before they fucking went and lost to Nigeria in the Africa Cup of Nations. They would have whipped Nigeria’s ass by the way! That was a team that I was very familiar with. When I came back to South Africa, my grandfather supported Swallows, and he demanded loyalty. But after I saw their losing ass I was like… And then Chiefs were too flowery for me, they were like, after their whole story with the US, I was just like… yech! So it’s Pirates nigga. Pirates! Those guys were goons. Every time they lost something burned. I loved that shit. So I was just like Pirates. That’s my team.

Tell us about the new Volume album. You can really feel the French flavour. And you’re singing a lot more melodies on songs like “Light in Your Head” and “Moving Picture Frames”… So here’s my thing. Hip hop is almost dead. After a while all this shouting into the mic, spitting out lyrics is just the same old same old. So after a while to flip things up, you just start singing. And it sounds really good. Where are we going from here?

It’s because of the music. It’s the nature of the MC. You spend so much time riding the beat and understanding nuances and rhythm and how melody works, that after a while, dude, you start to understand that’s how to write a song. You learn it without being taught. You know what I mean. And also, I’m a vocalist. A vocalist raps, sings, whatever. And sometimes you just feel, this needs singing. You’re the vocalist, sing. In that way, knowing Danyel Waro changed my life. Danyel told me, ‘you go to a funeral and everyone’s singing’. I used to think of singing as Whitney Houston and Freddie Mercury. This is some high level, don’t fuck with this shit. It’s the same way I view acting. You know people are like, ‘you’re a celebrity, you have appeal, come do this scene for us’. And I’m like, yo guy, this is a craft. I need to understand this thing. But Danyel Waro was like, ”this is functional art. It doesn’t matter where it is, at a funeral, at a wedding, when you’re happy, when you’re sad. It’s your voice. So just sing man. Express yourself’. And I’ve always tried to be more melodic in my rapping anyway.

The jump from where you were before Whole Worlds to this, Pick a Dream, it seems like you’ve slowed down, caught your breath, and you’ve got something to say. It’s much easier to get the message.

Before, if you listen to those old records there’s stuff in there. But it’s thick shit. It’s thick, gon’ take me some time to get this one. You know what I mean? With this album, I don’t think I rhyme better than Live At The Baseline but I do think I listen better. I know how to say something easier. I can get to the point quicker than before. Before it was like, I need to impress you. I need to prove that I’m fucking dope. I need you to know that when the song is done… this mother fucking band! Now if it’s a good song, it’s a good song. Now I know that you motherfuckers don’t have 3 minutes to waste and still tryna figure shit out. I definitely know you don’t have time to figure out what I mean about Malcolm X and blah blah blah. So when you just play it’s got to be nice, whether you engaging or not. I still put it in there but it’s clear.

What do you make music for.

To change the world.

Is it entertainment or politics?

It’s both. But I wouldn’t like to be quoted as saying it’s both. It’s politics, and I tell you why. When you go to a football game, right, there’s two teams competing for something. The reason they’re there is to win a cup. That’s the point. But then there are all these other things. There’s Messi on the field, this motherfucker is just lovely to watch. There’s some handsome players, the best dressed coach. All these other sideshows that make football this whole theatre production. I feel like, with music, that when a person first uttered something that was musical, there was a point. This person was either trying to soothe somebody, or exorcise something, it was some kind of cathartic thing. And for me, the point is more important than the form. So it’s always been politics first. But fuck dude, I love hip hop. The reason I don’t make rock music is because that’s the thing that got me, not rock. I mean I like rock, but hip hop was the thing that appealed to my circumstance, my socialisation. That’s the thing that got me. I mean shit, the guys look like me, they dress like me, so I’m fuckin’ with these guys. But with rock, as you get older, I get it now. It’s the same goddamn thing. This guy’s angry, the only difference is that this guy’s rapping and this guy’s singing and shouting.

Do you think we’re just waiting for a song to kick things forward. That someone hasn’t stumbled across the right formula to unlock what it is we have inside?

Nah, I think the songs are waiting for us to discover them. All those emotions, everything you’ve described, exist already. And I think the reason that there’s still even a music industry is because people ain’t getting it. I want something that soothes me, but I’m in 2048. Jazz doesn’t work anymore. We’re competing with spaceship billboards, so you need something new. So the packaging is different. Everything has been said, everything has been done. It’s just, it’s like the self-help books. There’s always a new one. If they worked they wouldn’t need to keep publishing them. There’s always a new one because people change, the world changes, people need stimulation.

Who is going to win the World Cup?

Ah, good one. I have two contenders. I have the Dutch. The Dutch. Top of my list. And… Cesc Fabregas. Cesc fucking Fabregas.

All images © Mahala.

Watch Now – “Soweto Beach Party” (The Resurgence Of Afrikaans Among South Africa’s Black Population)

By Tambay, on June 21st, 2010

Afrikaans is an offshoot of Dutch introduced into South Africa by the early white Dutch settlers, known collectively today as Afrikaners. Afrikaans was spoken by those whites who developed the Apartheid policy which discriminated against South Africa’s indigenous blacks. Soweto – a township that’s historically been overwhelmingly Black, was the site of a few watershed events in the struggle against Apartheid – notably the Soweto Uprising of 1976; mass protests erupted over the then Apartheid government’s policy to enforce education in Afrikaans (the language of the oppressors).

The below documentary from Al Jazeera’s Witness series, titled Soweto Beach Party, asks, in short: Are black South Africans willing to accept and acclimate themselves to music in the language of their former oppressors…?

South Africa: Role of the Iconic Image, Cont'd

 

Africa is a Country reviews some documentaries about the youth uprising in Soweto, June 16, 1976. CNN's Isha Sesay talks about the iconic photograph that's become emblematic of the day:

More thoughts on iconic photographs, the state and uprisings - here.

 

 

 

Iran: You've Come A Long Way Baby

(Photo: A supporter of defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shouts slogans during riots in Tehran on June 13, 2009. By Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty.)

In the 1.11 PM post, Sullivan is struck by the number of Iranian women in the trenches of this revolution. NY Times' Roger Cohen, who is on the ground, concurs:

I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!”

Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her.

Already the pictures/video of the woman shot by the Basij has iconic written all over it--think Killing at Kent State or Accidental Napalm --and whatever becomes of this revolution, Ahmedinejad, Khamenei, the Sepah and the Basij's days are numbered. As one of Sullivan's readers puts it, "...way I see it, that truly horrific footage of the conservatively dressed woman bleeding out...

 

... will do more damage to Ahmadi and Khamenei than any military strike ever could."

 

The role of iconic images in the way people relate to the idea of the state or any collective identity is well captured in this essay by Robert Harriman and John Lucaites, where they argue:

We want to go a step further to suggest that the public sphere depends on visual rhetorics to maintain not only its deliberative "voices," but also its more fundamental constitution of public identity. Because the public is discursively organized body of strangers constituted solely by acts of being addressed and paying attention, it can only acquire self awareness and historical agency if individual auditors "see themselves" in the collective representations that are the materials of public culture. Visual practices in the public media play an important role at precisely this point. The daily stream of photojournalistic images, while merely supplemental to the task of reporting the news, defines the public through an act of common spectatorship. When the event shown is itself a part of national life, the public seems to see itself in terms of a particular conception of civic identity.

Twitter and YouTube afford the protesters, unlike no other time in the history of human communication, the ability to create the necessary "collective representations" that instantaneously add up their individual acts into an identity and is constantly feeding that identity being constituted into the discourse of a growing rhetorical shift we see transpiring right before our eyes. What is, however, trippy about these images is how they serve as legitimating and constitutional materials for not only the Iranian protesters but for the Obama age of foreign relations and for Obama supporters in America -- the interdependency and coexistence of this new and old bloc is fueling the creation, consumption and distribution of these visuals and, hand-in-hand, creating the hunger for the overall rhetorical exertion still in progress.

 

On this side of the ocean, the West welcomes and have technologically enabled the visual rhetoric coming from Iran, which oddly turns out to be the affirmation of the fight--and continuing liberal struggle--for the new identity American voters rolled the dice on less than a year ago. On the Iranian side of the fence, the images they are creating and which their leaders want suppressed, also feed into that particular conception of Islam, modernity and of the collective identity they desire and are in fact dying for right now on the streets of Tehran.

 

>VIA: http://bombasticelements.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-youve-come-long-way-baby.html