Op de Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI), een wapenbeurs die van 12 tot 15 september jl. plaatsvond in Oost-Londen, heeft wapen- en munitiefabrikant Edgar Brothers een afbeelding van David Bowie gebruikt om haar moorddadig tuig te verkopen……..
Dat ging deze wapenfabrikant echter alles behalve goed af. Darren Cullen, een artiest die werkte op de beurs bemerkte de foto en ondernam actie (volgens theCanary werkte hij op de beurs, maar gezien het artikel is het duidelijk dat Cullen zich vooral bezighield met demonstreren tegen deze doods-beurs…)…. De beheerder van het fotoarchief, waarin de bewuste foto van Bowie zich bevindt, The Duffy Archive bevestigde wat Cullen al vermoedde, er was geen toestemming gegeven voor het gebruik van de foto en na actie van dit archief werd de foto verwijderd……..
Er werden overigens 100 mensen gearresteerd, die demonstreerden tegen deze waanzinnige beurs van DSEI…… Een beurs waar ook wapenhandelaren uit landen als Bahrein, Algerije en Saoedi-Arabië in de rij stonden voor ‘al het moois’ dat te koop werd aangeboden…..
Over de laatste gesproken, Saoedi-Arabië, dat bezig is met een genocide op de sjiitische bevolking van Jemen, kocht de laatste jaren in Groot-Brittannië voor maar liefst 4,5 miljard euro aan moorddadig wapentuig, helikopters, vliegtuigen en munitie, waaronder clusterbommen van Groot-Brittannië……….
De Londense burgemeester Sadiq Khan wilde deze wapenbeurs weren uit zijn stad, maar is daartoe niet gemachtigd……. De schoftenregering May doet er het zwijgen toe, niet zo vreemd, daar het Britse ministerie van Defensie en dat van Internationale Handel de beurs mede hebben bekostigd…… Middels de verkoop van Brits wapentuig, waar duizenden mensen mee zijn en worden vermoord, verdient Groot-Brittannië grof geld, ofwel bloedgeld…….
De Britse overheid heeft dan ook 10 keer meer verdiend aan het leveren van wapens en hardware t.b.v. Saoedi-Arabië, dan het aan noodhulp heeft gegeven voor de bevolking van Jemen, een bevolking die wordt gebombardeerd door S-A en haar coalitiegenoten (onder regie van de VS, dat zelf o.a. middels drones en raketten moordt in Jemen…….)……. Met deze enorme terreur hebben deze landen een grote hongersnood en een enorme cholera uitbraak veroorzaakt in Jemen……………
Hier het relaas over deze zaak, zoals theCanary dit op 15 september jl. plaatste:
A
company just tried to use David Bowie’s image to sell bullets at a
UK arms fair. It didn’t end well.
SEPTEMBER
15TH, 2017 
EMILY
APPLE
A
firearms and ammunition company attempted to
use David Bowie’s image to sell its wares at one of the world’s
largest arms fairs. But it didn’t go well. Because the company
seemed to forget that it needed permission to use the image.
DSEI
The
Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair is
currently taking place in East London. As The
Canary previously reported,
over 100 people have been arrested trying
to stop the arms fair from taking place.
In
2015, arms dealers from 61 countries queued up
to view the merchandise of 1,500 exhibitors. 14 of the countries
invited, including Algeria and Bahrain, had authoritarian regimes.
Four, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, have been listed by
the UK as having human rights issues. And a further 11 countries on
the list, such as Ukraine and Iraq, are currently at war.
London
Mayor Sadiq Khan wanted this arms fair banned from
the capital. But he said he was powerless to stop it. Meanwhile,
there is an eerie silence from the government over DSEI. Although
this is perhaps unsurprising. Because the event is sponsored by
the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Trade.
And figures show that
the UK has made ten times more out of arms sales to Saudi Arabia than
it has given in aid to Yemen.
Meanwhile,
the Saudi Arabian-led bombing of
Yemen continues. And so do the arms sales. Since 2015, the UK
has licensed £3.8bn
of arms to the regime.
Edgar
Brothers
Edgar
Brothers is a company manufacturing ammunition and firearms.
It describes itself
as:
“one
of the oldest, most well established importers and wholesalers of
firearms, ammunition and associated products in the UK and Northern
Ireland”.
And
it decided to use Bowie’s image to
sell bullets. This was noticed by Darren Cullen, an artist who
currently has work at the Art the Arms Fair exhibition.
UK pavilion at #DSEI seems to include a photo of David Bowie to help advertise killing machines. Not sure he’d be down with this. #stopDSEI
Not
down with this
Speaking
to The
Canary, Cullen
described what happened:
“I
was checking Instagram to see if any of the DSEI contractors were
posting about being behind schedule due to the Stop the Arms Fair
blockades and I saw this photo of the UK arms trade pavilion with a
giant picture of David Bowie. It really stuck out to have someone
like Bowie featured among this festival of violence, and just in
really bad taste considering his own recent death”.
So
Cullen took action:
“I
got in touch with the rights-holder of the photograph, the estate of
the photographer Duffy, and just hoped to hell they hadn’t given
permission for these bastards to use his image. They got back to me
the next morning thanking me for bringing it to their attention and
saying they had definitely not given permission and they’d been
frantically trying to have the photo removed. The Duffy Archive were
really on top of it, full credit to them. They finally got hold of a
director at Edgar Brothers and the display was taken down straight
away due to their complaint. As far as I know, they’re still in
discussions as to what the next steps are. I hope the Duffy Archive
hammer them for it”.
Richard
Farrimond, marketing manager for Edgar Brothers, claimed:
“We
are not in a position to comment just yet. We’re actually still in
conversations with the Duffy Archive in relation to the incident in
question”.
A
tale of two events
DSEI
ends on 16 September. Speaking to The
Canary,
Andrew Smith from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) described the
arms fair as “two events”:
“The
last two weeks have been a story of two events. One has been the arms
fair itself, which has seen weapons being promoted to some of the
most brutal and oppressive regimes in the world.
The
other has been the solidarity and the optimism offered by thousands
of activists and campaigners, who have been rightly appalled by these
arms exports and the atrocities they could be used in for years to
come. DSEI is a moral abomination. It’s time to shut it down for
good”.
And
Smith has a clear message for Bowie fans:
“DSEI
and the UK government may be experts at pushing arms exports, but
when it comes to David Bowie they are absolute beginners. The real
heroes were protesting outside DSEI, while the scary monsters and
super creeps were inside. We need to do all we can to keep the arms
fair under pressure”.
Shut
them down
DSEI
may be nearly over, but the arms trade continues throughout the year.
And the arms
dealers have
offices and factories around the country. It’s down to all of us to
let them know that this trade will not continue in our name; that we
can and will keep up the pressure. Together, we can shut them down.
Get
Involved!
– Support CAAT.
– Find
the arms
dealers on
your doorstep and take action against them.
Featured
image via Flickr and Wikimedia
Zie ook: ‘UK to Supply Qatar With 24 Fighter Jets in New Billion-Dollar Arms Deal‘
en: ‘Wij
betalen met ons belastinggeld voor wapens die in Syrië dood en
verderf zaaien. Deze documentaire doet je mond openvallen‘
(van NineForNews, via Stan van Houcke)