Yes, Herschel's original post was on topic and important. But the
digressions and diatribes and dogma follow so swiftly anymore that
it gets hard to find the origin. I love to argue politics and vent
my ire over the current situation in the US but I don't want to do
it here and I don't want others to do it here. I know it's not my
list but I have been a member here for about 15 years and I feel
some affection for what it used to be. Maybe we really didn't know
how good we had it with Jan Faul and Bob Rosen and Randy Little
stirring up photo emotions. Be careful what you wish for as they say.
Don
Bob Talbot wrote:
Can we get the hell back on topic here? Or isn't photography
important anymore? Has television made this all irrelevant?
Herschel's post was on topic wasn't it?
It talked about photography during the Apartheid era. That is
important, no? It's the way the UK is going: you can certainly be
detained as a suspect for taking photos in the wrong place - heck ,
there are documented cases of our new "Anti-Terrorist" (read
Anti-Protestor) legislation being used against people for wearing the
wrong T-shirt!!!
<QUOTE>The stop-and-search form filled out by the police officer
stated, under grounds for intervention, "carrying plackard [sic] and
T-shirt with anti-Blair info". The purpose of the stop and search was
stated as "terrorism". </QUOTE>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,12780,1583684,00.html
If I take a photo with a big overt SLR anywhere near a military base,
industrial complex, port, railway station ... I'm likely to become a
suspect. Use a discrete cell-phone to take the same picture (with a
smiling accomplice in the picture) and I don't. You see, terrorists
are almost as stupid as our police: they wouldn't dream of taking
photos discretely now would they? ;o)
The laws are being used to control and intimidate ordinary people
under the umbrella of the bogey-man. Taking pictures in the wrong
place in the wrong manner singles you out.
Bob
--
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are
always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel
laureate (1872-1970)
