Worries that “sledgehammer” legislation will prevent photography

Photo: Bill Joseph

Pressure groups and industry bodies hit out at “sledgehammer” legislation and the potential for police to wield those laws to prevent photography, curtail civil liberties and dampen dissent in the wake of Ian Tomlinson’s death during the G20 protests in London.

Crucial footage has emerged showing a police officer striking Tomlinson with a full-force baton blow. Tomlinson later collapsed and died from a suspected heart attack.

Campaigners hope this incident will highlight the dangers of police suppression of photography in public places under terrorism laws.

Dumpster-diving: Bin there, done that?

Photo: Wikicommons

Veritas gets down in the dumpster in the hunt for free food

With the country now ‘officially’ in recession, after the worst slump in gross domestic product (GDP) since 1980, unemployment is on the rise in all industries with predictions of two million jobless in 2009. Though quarterly student loans means that Scottish students are less affected, a high proportion of Napier’s international students relying on part-time jobs are less lucky.

But instead of focusing on the recession, and predictions that it’s only going to get worse, Veritas has hit the streets in its first instalment of ‘how to live for free…’ This month we look at food and the practise of ‘dumpster-diving’ – where people go through supermarket chain bins filling their fridges with food waste.

Starting back in the mid-‘90s in New York, the ‘freegan’ movement has gathered momentum in the past year in the UK, with research figures revealing a high proportion of the 6.7 million tonnes sent to landfill annually is  ‘avoidable’. The movement in Edinburgh has also grown in popularity, with numerous online forums organising meet-ups as well as positive media attention.

Pirate Bay no safe habour for file sharing

 

 

Photo: Pirate Bay

 

 

The word ‘pirate’ is derived from the Greek word peira, which roughly translates to ‘to find luck on the sea’. Language lessons aside, it seems Swedish-hosted file sharing site Pirate Bay is no longer sailing through untroubled waters. In a court case that has bordered on farcical, three of the website’s co-founders, Fredik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi and the site’s donor, Swedish dotcom millionaire Carl Lundström, stood in the dock in Stockholm charged with copyright infringement and staring two years in prison and a fine of £98,000 in the face.

The trial has been the scene of comical moments: when asked if he wished compensation for appearing, part of Swedish court procedure, one of the defense witnesses quipped he would like flowers sent to his wife. This resulted in £3,000 worth of flowers sent via the internet by Pirate Bay supporters.

Tommy Shepard: A profile

 

Photo: Wikicommons

Many of the registered voters in Scotland are hoping the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections signal a sea change for Scottish politics. They envisage an empowered, confident Parliament ready to take Westminster to task. However, low voter registration and turnout at elections will make this empowerment difficult. Comparing Scotland’s 46% turnout at its last election to France’s recent 80% shows that something must be done to engage the public. The Stand Comedy Club’s co-founder and Managing Director Tommy Shepard may have the answer.

Shepard’s new project, YouScotland.com, is a collectively owned membership website supporting direct citizen action. A ‘coalition of the disappointed’, it has no secret backers or institutional donors, and is attempting to use the web to pull together like-minded people in an attempt to reclaim Scotland’s political agenda.

“One of the remarkable things about Scotland is the contrast between the hope, ambition and pride people have in their country, and their embarrassment at the people who run it. Scotland is poorly served in terms of politicians and politics, and it could be an awful lot better. The key to that is trying to energize individual people and saying to them rather than elect someone else to go away and do this on your behalf every four years, think about taking control over your own lives and engaging in direct political action to achieve the changes you want to achieve,” says Shepard.

Vanity Kills

 

Photo: Secret Garden - May 06 - (c) Club Noir & Martin Phillimore

Sitting with Vanity Kills, the immediate reaction is to liken her to Betty Page. Setting aside simple similarities such as her raven hair, stunning figure and gorgeous smile, the sense of fun imbued in Page’s work is clearly visible in Kills’.

Page’s fans love the fact that she seems to be enjoying every second, and Kills is the same. Bubbly and personable, she immediately puts people at ease. When she laughs, light glints off her glasses, which she wears during some of her shows. An unusual characteristic in the world of burlesque, it lends, in the words of one of her admirers, a school-marm strictness to her.

Kills became interested in burlesque about eight years ago, first as an audience member and then as performer. The opening of Club Noir, Scotland’s premier burlesque club, in 2004 provided Kill with a venue to indulge her passion.

The Sinking of the Ark

 

Photo: Wikicommons

Despite providing a vital service to Edinburgh’s homeless, the Ark Cafe was forced to close this summer after its annual funding was stopped by the council. The Skinny asked those affected what the future holds…

Over the cacophony created by many people talking in a large uncarpeted room, Bruce Wiseman hands over a bacon roll with a bit of friendly banter. Up to the day I meet him, he had been volunteering at the Ark Café, working from 7am to 12pm, cooking food. Handsome and clean-shaven, neatly dressed and eloquent, he is not your stereotypical notion of a homeless person.

Wiseman is one of the 110 people who depended on the facilities provided by the Ark Trust canteen, which operated to support the homeless and those threatened by homelessness. But these desperately needed services are no longer available after Edinburgh Council withdrew the funding it granted to the Trust at the end of June.

“Before I started volunteering here, I was just a service user. I came in here to get out, have a coffee and a chat. Since I started here, I’ve got my confidence and self-worth back, I’ve got my get-up-and-go back.” Wiseman then confides: “When this place goes I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

For 70 years the Ark Café on New Street provided cheap food, clothes, toiletries, telephone and fax facilities, and housing advice to those on the front lines of homelessness.

All these resources have disappeared since the council withdrew the £167,000 funding the Ark receives per year.

Fight or be recycled

 

Photo: Box Wars

An old man brandishing a Zimmer frame, a Viking longboat, Tank Girl with her missile bra, a rooster and a pirate ship charge into battle, blood-curdling war-cries bouncing off concrete walls. Welcome to Box Wars.

“Box Wars is where people make armour and weapons out of cardboard and beat the shit out of each other to loud music” says Tamsyn Woollcombe, member of the Box Wars UK Council.

Brought over from Australia, Box Wars UK has been held on ten occasions, beginning at Forest Café, and moving to Studio 24 once it began to gain popularity. Participants construct cardboard costumes and take part in mock battles, usually during a concert.

Box Wars developed in Melbourne, and was introduced to Scotland during the travels of a friend of the members of the original Council, Demian Hobby.

“One of my best mates actually thought of the idea. He was like, ‘I have something to show you.’ We were in his backyard and he and some other mates dressed up in cardboard and beat each other up. We thought it was amazing and then they started doing it regularly,” says Hobby.