Why make reportage drawings? Graphic artist Olivier Kugler was commissioned by Médecins Sans Frontières (‘Doctors Without Borders’) to travel to Iraq, Kos and Calais to interview Syrian refugees. He took photographs and used translators to record stories. So why not stop at that?
On first viewing, I didn’t like the drawings in this book. I shrank back from lines that didn’t please me, from flat Photoshop washes. But I was curious because something interesting happens in these…
Reportage
It’s 5am. In Parc y Llyn, post-apocalyptic ghost-town of Aberystwyth’s questionable retail expectations, a coach-load of demonstrators clutches banners and sandwich boxes. A motley crew of students and trade unionists right enough, but united in our determination to speak back to an unfeeling government.
It’s 20 October, and we’re heading for ‘A future that works’, the TUC March in London. It’s a 12-hour round-trip but we have to express our feelings of frustration in the face of the…
Some say the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA) is dead but, luckily, we don’t know it! Ever dutifool and never ones to shirk responsibility, we rose from our tombs to conduct another Big Shoe training camp for new recruits in Lampeter on the weekend of 16-17 June. What a feast of foolery, flashes of brilliance, fierce determination and fearless perseverance!
Lampeter hospitality and organising skills never fail and neither does their penchant (and stamina!) for having fun…
Up betimes at 5.30am, to catch the 6.08am tube to Vauxhall and thence the 6.32am overland train, arriving at Ashford (Surrey) station at 7.03am. From there, a short walk brought me to Her Majesty’s Prison Bronzefield.
I’d been there once before - to see Susan Clarkson out of jail - and the reception assured me that Maya would be released shortly. They…
At 9.15am, I was the first one to arrive at the Court.
Maya had told us that she'd been asked to get there for 9.30am. At 9.35am there was still no sign of her, though veteran peace activist John Lynes showed up with some home-made "rollable" banners, which we proceeded to display outside the court, much to the bemusement of the local citizenry.
"Thank you Maya for speaking out bravely…
17 December 2011:
Arriving in Kabul
The sun was setting as my plane approached to land in Kabul. My first sights of Afghanistan were the snow-capped hills and gigantic mountain ranges which seemed to stretch forever.
As I got off the airport bus, I immediately headed for a queue with some other women in it. My pious Islamic outfit purchased from Whitechapel market only a week beforehand was probably too authentic as all the Afghani women wore western jeans and tops with…
Many of us find ourselves in situations where we feel we have nothing to offer, maybe because of personal circumstances; in one way or another weíre really stretched. And at the same time we see the suffering of humanity, see conflict and wars and destruction, and feel compelled to come forward. Yet we are naked and afraid.
We don't come full of promise, bursting with proclamations of what we will achieve. We come because we must. Because we have to respond, and we know we are being…
Wednesday 9th November: Having started what I describe as my first full-time “proper adult job” I become even more aware of the enormous and important job we “peace makers” have to do. I can fit in my peace-making activities around the hours of work which are school hours, and the children I help are primary age and mainly Muslim in my particular school so the Peace issue raises to an even higher profile (for me).
The teachers are very positive and in the main swinging to the left…