Friday, August 4, 2006

testament

it seems that this blog is censored in the united arab emirats. i received more than 10 emails assuring this. if this is true, it means that it is possible to do it on a larger scale.
two things should be done to address theses issues.

first, if every person who read this and know people in dubai or abu dabi can download ALL of the drawings and send them by emails there it would be great. you should also ask to the people to make them availbale for as much people as possible there.

second, regarding the possible shut down of this blog one day (the more it grows the more i am afraid of such a censorship), here's what should be done in my opinion: every person who have enough place on her hard disk should download and keep ALL the drawings and texts posted on the blog. this will be useful in two ways:
1- the blog can be recreated at different addresses in different countries to avoid the censorship. i will for sure recreate it also and continue it somewhere else. but i might not have the possibility to do so with the electricity problems that are becoming worst and worst.
2- the scans you find on the blog are the only other versions of the real drawings that are made on my notebooks. if this notebook or myself or both of us disappear some day. there'll still be a trace of it. even in low-res.

it is 2:40am in beirut and there is still eectricity.
the vultures are revolving above us.
i am going to try to sleep.
good night
more drawings, and words and bombs tomorrow.

48 comments:

  1. Sure I will download all your sketches! It's the least I can do!
    Also, I will pass them on to all the people I know!

    Sleep tight Mazen.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mazen, another aproach might be to burn the postings on a CD. My wife has the hard drive really loaded up with her shit, but I have plenty of blank discs. Hope you get some sleep.
    Bill

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  3. Mazen, amazing work you're doing. Your bomb recordings hold stillness. And I truly hope the fuckers don't censor your blog.

    I linked to you today, thinking about how everything is happening at once. We must resist, I'm with you.

    Sound.

    Sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I herewith ask everybody with sufficient web-space on his server(thats basically everyone posting here) to mirror Mazens blog.

    As more of us do this - only a few in different countries are necessary - as smaller the chance Mazen can be silenced.

    Thats the least we can do
    So folks - lets stop talking - lets get to work for something good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mazen, your drawings are amazing, terrible, creepy, but as u've said on an interview, what's beautiful about bombing?
    Keep doing this.
    Hope this shit ends soon.
    From Argentina, South America.

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  6. Mazen,
    The reason people in the Emirates cannot view your blog is not because you are banned but because Flickr hosts your pictures. They cannot access Flickr at all (my brother lives in Dubai and can't even access my Flickr page full of silly cat pictures).
    Another way to remedy this is to have an alternate page (from a non-banned service) where people who have a quicker internet connection could upload your drawings.
    Just my 2 cents.

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  7. I'll download everything. May I link you to my site (when I figure out how)?

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  8. hi mazen or anyone.. if you guys know of anyone who keep an archive of all the posts and threads as well as photos, and have done it in a well organized way such that it can be posted or emailed easily (maybe through zip files), i think that's the best way to go. if this site is to be censored, better have backups. these backups can also be the files to send around for those at uae.

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  9. if anyone has a quick and reliable solution for how to mirror this blog on your own web space, please post it. I think that's an excellent idea. I've been trying to download every image and piece of text from this blog in case it comes down for whatever reason.

    ReplyDelete
  10. a quick and reliable solution would be:

    http://www.google.com/base

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  11. i tried sth.
    u can save the page as a complete webpage. u get the html file and all the links. u can then zip and email.
    one glitch though: u only save what's on the page, not the content of the whole blog.

    hope that helps...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Complain straight to the Internet provider, by filling a comment:
    http://feedback.ecompany.ae/confirm.jsp?choice=3

    If the company receives thousands of complaints, maybe will it consider authorizing Flickr / finding a solution for Kerblog.

    I have posted the "Blocked" screenshot. For those who want to attest its reality:
    http://nadche.blogspot.com/2006/08/from-uae-to-mazen.html

    Mazen, keep on posting.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello Mazen,
    Don't worry!
    All your drawings are save in jpeg format and your
    text with drawings in pdf format on my desktop. I will continuing to copy them. If you need them you can mail me and I upload them to any e-mail adress
    you want, by Mofile.

    greetings dolfpauw Rotterdam The Netherlands

    http://dolfpauw.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Mazen, www.flickr.com is restricted in UAE, and this is why people living in dubai or Abu-Dhab have no access to your drawings. Try www.bubbleshare.com or www.buzznet.com or Yahoo photo album.

    Regarding your posts, blogger has a program that you need to download, which allows you to post to your blog via MS Word program and save these posts on your hard drive; this program doesn't allow you to post pictures, however. But I don't think your blog is restricted or blocked anywhere.

    Btw, I found your blog among many other Lebanese blogs listed on Zena El-Khalil's blog, Beirut Update.

    Please keep up the great work, Mazen. Peace loving people everywhere in the world are supporting you; you are in our minds and hearts. Remember you are not alone, we pray for you, and are sure you guys will make it, soon...

    Peace!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi Mazen

    I hope you get to read this. I am a peace activist in West Wales, UK and I have just put up a link to your blog via my website at http://www.wildwestwales.com/campaignforpeaceandjustice I will set up a page with all your pictures on it and I will send your blog details out to all my contacts. We feel so powerless here in terms of stopping the war crimes that our government is party to in their alliance with the insane Bush/Israeli axis. We are organising some direct action here and have called a public meeting where we trying to mobilise local people into action. Your pictures are great and I would like your permission to use some of them to publicise our meeting and also on any handouts we produce as publicity for our activities. See also our website http://www.bepj.org.uk where I will try and ensure links to your blog are also set up.

    You are not alone, we will do our best to influence as many people as possible to bring about an end to this madness, keep drawing and living your life,
    Peace and love
    Harry

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  16. This blog is not 'findable' through Google.
    Can someone post a clear guide to using google base or whatever.
    A link to another site would be good so we don't waste time here.
    Mazen - Sun City Girls know about you.
    P

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  17. it's all downloaded...
    i'll pass them around

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  18. Your shit is amazing. I've posted on my blog. I also really liked your post 'to an israeli interviewer'. I myself am about to be in interviewed. in 30 mins. it'll be about the war by a spanish based toronto station.

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  19. we download your images every day.
    I read the news and every day i think,Mazen is there with his family and they have no way out and then i multiply it by the millions.

    then i read your blog.

    It is hard to not say anything political in the middle of such political horrific abuse.

    but we respect your request.

    all i do know to say is that you are being held in many hearts and you are being thought of many many times a day and we are with you in our protests and our shame at this continuance of hatred that is happening while the world community sits on its hands.

    i am speechless in front of it all.
    but with you.

    smesa

    ReplyDelete
  20. http://www.mikebullock.com/KERBLOG/KERBLOG.html

    I've posted the complete Kerblog up till august 5 on my website. If anyone knows people in UAE or anywhere who finds Kerblog to be blocked, please feel free to send them this link. I'll try to keep up on it, but I probably won't be able to update it exactly with Mazen all the time. Also, people in UAE may find that the images still don't load from Flickr. I'll try to post those separately.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Mazen
    Your blog is linked from my site
    http://www.pkms.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
    Thanks Mike.
    Sadly website don't stop bombs, yet.
    P

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mazen, I appreciate your drawings and commentary very much. I have created a section on my arts magazine online and it has a link to your blog. It's at:
    http://www.art-is-ife.com/mazen.htm

    Please be safe.

    Audrey Regan
    http://www.audartgallery.com
    http://www.art-is-life.com

    ReplyDelete
  23. MAZEN WE SALUTE YOU...WE THANK YOU...WE RESIST WITH YOU AND WITH ALL OTHER ANGRY LOGICAL SANE NORMAL PEOPLE....THERE ARE NO TWO SIDES TO THIS STORY...THIS ONE IS UNFORTUNATELY REALLY SIMPLY BLACK AND WHITE...RIGHT VS. WRONG...AND WE RESIST THE SELF RIGHTEOUS ARROGANCE AND BIGOTRY OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS STORY...AND WE ARE TIRED OF THE WHY'S AND HOW'S OF IT ALL...AND THE DUMBED DOWN RHETORIC OF IT ALL...WE RESIST..AND WE ANSWER TO ALL OF IT..
    GOD MADE US LEBANESE!
    AND
    WE LOVE BEIRUT

    SO SUCK IT UP...

    If you see it appropriate please find the time to link to us..www.the lebanonchronicle.com..or www.ilovebeirut.org

    Thank You,
    The Lebanon Chroniclors

    ReplyDelete
  24. NO COMMENT.

    Beirut. 5 de Agosto de 2006

    http://periodistasenguerra.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  25. NO COMMENT.

    Beirut. 5 de Agosto de 2006

    http://periodistasenguerra.blogspot.com/

    Best from Spain

    ReplyDelete
  26. This blog is of cosmic importance. We are all connected. My friend who is Lebanese-Canadian said that ground forces invaded the village he's from claiming Hezbollah is there. According to my friend, the village is made of a bunch of old people...you speak for them too and you speak for my friend

    ReplyDelete
  27. I sent a link to your blog and your mother's to the site relieflebanon, some drawings are already on their site.And i advertised on deviantArt.com
    Maybe i can open an account on deviantArt for you and upload all the drawings. When i do it i send the link. And one more thing, i listened to Starry night and it moved me in such a way..(isn't the purpose of art and music? ) For that, Thanks.
    And for all the people here who want to listen to the interview with Mazen on an australian radio go to:

    http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/jayandthedoctor/listen/mp3s/blogger.mp3

    It gives an idea about the way people in Lebanon,in the somehow secure region percieve this shit..anyway.
    Take care

    ReplyDelete
  28. what can I say? It's painful. For the world.
    For you most of all!
    Sorry my friend, for all this pain.
    I love Lebanon and trough your sketches i can have an idea of what you and my few friends in Beirut are going through. i send to them emais but your blog is immediate and i feel closer to all of you.
    I think I've read you don't want to give interviews anymore. I can see that.
    But well, i just want to try.
    you can find my email here on the blog.
    take care, try to sleep well.
    I just hope this nightmare will be over soon,
    beatrice

    ReplyDelete
  29. People: while Mazen's work as a musician and visual artist is wonderful and should---as all art---be protected from censorship, keep in mind that that will not stop the bombs. The webtifada is a fine idea, as long as it somehow encourages people of conscience to step away from the computer and act.

    Organize locally. Surround embassies. Stop traffic. Disarm the weapons being used against innocent people. Be creative.

    As long as we all sit at our computers, we're not out there preventing the violence.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Dear Mazan,
    last week your blog was in my morning paper in kiryat tivon, israel.i read it every day. i love your drawings and i will keep your files in case someone will shut you up...
    you might have heard my town's name since we are being shot with katushas, so we are famous even in the cnn... i run to the shelter 4-8 times a day and i can not work in my studio,since it is far away from a hiding place.
    my neighbours son was killed 4 days ago in lebanon.my daughters husbands are there.
    it is horrible and i wish we did not have to to save our lives by destroying beautifull lebanon.all israelies feel the same!
    my heart goes out to you.
    but,you do not have the prevelage to be weak.
    the link is a phtograph i took last week which i feel you can relate to.
    nona,
    0rbachen@netvision.net.il

    http://www.nonaorbach.com/nona/common/common.html

    ReplyDelete
  31. Hi,
    I've been reading your blog all the evening.
    I'm in US, in California (the country and the state of two assholes) and I have the impression that nobody cares about anything that is happening all over the world.
    There are dolls in the news. They speak about weather and lost dogs in Michigan.
    People are even more interested about soccer world cup than about war. They kept talking to me about Zizou. I don't care.
    I'm not better than they are.
    I don't have the courage to listen to your bombing recording. I thought I would have a lot of nice and thoughtful things to say, but no.
    I'll speak about your blog. I'll try to find time to save it. I hope this will help a little bit. This is just a fucking reality.
    Keep surviving

    ReplyDelete
  32. Mazen: I'm an argetninian, living at Dubai..I visited Beyrouth a couple of months ago...I'm so sad.
    I will post your drawings on my spanish site..
    http://buenavistaclubsocial.spaces.live.com/
    Because, what's happening in Lebanon , should be show on Westerns countries, to show them US, UK, Israel' s Lies.

    ReplyDelete
  33. mazen, you are very important and contrevarsial, but on some servers, all blogs are censored in dubai

    ReplyDelete
  34. It's August 6 and nothing so far from Mazen.
    Hope everything is as OK as it can be in a war.
    I just read this:
    "Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets

    Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence

    Inigo Gilmore at Hatzor Air Base, Israel
    Sunday August 6, 2006 The Observer"

    I didn't make that up, I didn't dream it. The process of shifting the blame, denying responsibility has started while the weapons are still flying.
    To all the lebanese people : good luck.
    P

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  35. mazen,

    thank you for showing us the best way to fight against the war...

    stop terrorism
    stop wars
    stop killin people...

    take care and go on...
    we believe in you...

    save your hope...

    from istanbul,Turkiye

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hi, Mazen!
    I've just read about your blog in a major national news-paper here, in Bucharest, Romania. Be sure that your work makes a difference for all of us!

    ReplyDelete
  37. HI TO ALL

    I WAS REALLY UPSET NOT TO FIND YESTERDAYS DRAWINGS NOT EVEN A WORD FROM MAZEN, BUT I HEARD ON THE NEWS THAT ISRAELIS HIT THE ELECTRICITY PLANT THAT GAVE POWER TO NORTHERN LEBANON, MAYBE BEYROUT'S PART WHERE MAZEN LIVES WAS SUPPLIED BY THAT PLANT...

    ReplyDelete
  38. I visited Beirut for the first time in July 2005 to perform on the Irtijal Festival of Experimental Music, and then again in April 2006. (I'll be back soon!)

    It was during these visits that I became aware of a journalist and intellectual named Samir Kassir. A friend of Mazen's, Samir had just been assassinated on June 2, 2005, one month before my first visit. I began trying to find his words and to understand what he was advocating for Lebanon, the Middle East, and the world in general.

    Reading his words today, as this terrible war continues, I am chilled by his vision and his accurate account of the situation in the region, and how Lebanon can move forward. I would strongly encourage all of the friends of this blog who live in other countries to check out this amazing intellectuals writings (in English, French, and Arabic) at:

    http://www.samirkassir.net/

    Best regards and solidarity from Chicago,
    Michael Zerang

    ReplyDelete
  39. fucking electricity plant...

    fucking bombs...

    ReplyDelete
  40. Hello Mazen.

    I would like to have met you and your work in other circumstances, but… what can I say?

    I'm following your blog and your mother's with interest and with a deep sense of powerlessness, and I really would like to help in some way.

    I'm a musician and a web designer from Portugal and I've used my blog (http://joaomartins.blogspot.com) to spread the word about your work and your situation, but I think I can do something more. I saw in your Flickr gallery that some people (a dutch guy, at least) are printing and posting your drawings in public places, and I think that's a really good idea.
    I suggest, however that we (myself and some fellow musicians and artists) could organize an exhibition of your drawings that could be always updated, and where we could organize some events of improvised music… some way of getting "in touch" with your situation, I think.
    I suppose that your latest appeals to have your work made public to a wider audience could encompass this situation, and if you cannot answer this e-mail, I will take that as an autorization, but we would like to have a more active answer from you. Do you think this is a good idea? Do you have any suggestions about how this should be done?

    I think we could print all of your drawings and have them exhibited in a central space in my hometown (Aveiro), where we could organize some jam sessions. The events would be made public, by conventional media and on-line, with photos from the events.
    I would also keep an organized backup of your drawings and texts and I could supply them to other musicians in other cities who would want to make similar events.
    I'm associated with musicians in Lisbon and Oporto and we could do something there, of course.

    I hope you can keep strong and that we can meet sometime in the future so that I can compliment you on your courage, in person.

    Best regards,

    João Martins

    blog: http://joaomartins.blogspot.com
    bio: http://www.granular.fm/--/a/joaomartins.php

    space in Aveiro: http://mercadonegro-aveiro.blosgpot.com
    Lisbon liaison: http://www.granular.fm
    Oporto liaison #1: http://www.letsgotowar.com
    Oporto liaison #2: http://www.rockncave.org

    ReplyDelete
  41. Mazen, love your sketches, downloaded on floppy and hard drive.
    Die Zeit (www.diezeit.de) is writing about your blog and Beirut music scene.
    Dumb question: why are you being censured? Don't get it.
    All the best to you and all Lebanese people.

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  42. Hi! Your blog has reached Finland. Great drawings - keep up the spirit...

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  43. UPLOAD TO ...ARCHIVE.ORG
    may God protect you and your family...wo in Oklahoma, USA

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  44. Things are very very bad in Beirut now. We, at art-is-life.com, hope and pray for Mazen, his mother and their friends.

    Audrey Regan

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  45. keir, the concept of webtifada, afaik, revolves around the use of the internet as a means of resisting. i do not think that going away from the computer will still make it a webtifada. although we do need to step out of the computer every now and then and interact and in tiny particles of actions, be able to change things for the better, i believe we should also go back to the net since it will be our means of communication.

    just a warning: once (and if) webtifada proliferates worldwide, expect retaliation and censorship on a worldwide level as well. this is a serious matter.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Nice that soemone has created a dump of Marzen's whole blog, but it leaves our friends in the UAE squinting since they can't click to see the full-size flickr images.

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  47. For those in the UAE using Firefox there's a very easy solution to access banned websited through the TOR firefox extention.
    Go to "tools", then "extentions", then "get more extentions". It then comes in in your lower right corner of your browser.
    The TOR button pretends that you access internet from somewhere else random place, very useful.

    ReplyDelete
  48. i will try also

    thank you mazen for what you share and show

    -lisa

    ReplyDelete