i get such a kick out of the dirty old men who comment on your photos. it’s so funny. i think you do it on purpose just to provoke them. anyway, i hope that you are well. i’m proud of you and the fact that you’re getting to publish books. you have such a passion for it and i think that’s why i’ve always been interested in keeping up a friendship with you. you’re good people.

***

i’ve always been interested in sexy stuff and why just a certain type of people are open about it and often seen as ‘creepy’ if they are… still 2008, and yes they can be creepy but where’s all the other people? hello? i think smart and sexy works together but what’s with -only- the creepy dudes? the rest of you think you’re “too good” for “it”?

’sexy’ makes a lot of ’serious’ people ANGRY. stereotypes = zzzzz. in my self portrait book - which NOT just contains “sexy” pictures - the interview tells about “being provacative”, you’re not allowed to have more than one side? if you’re ’sexy’ sometimes you can’t be smart or funny or serious as well? stereotypes is fun to play with and sometimes sad.

***

..i think a lot of dudes troll the internet. i think they think they are more charming in anonymity than they are in real life. i get it, but it’s creepy. and your sexy, provocative photos attract them in droves. it’s kinda funny. YOUR grasp on sexuality, you see, isn’t the same as others. you deal from a position of power.

still, like i said, no matter what you look like, i enjoy seeing your world through your eyes, and your photos are great and your disposition is addictive.

***

we want women to succeed and gain access to all the educational, political, and workplace opportunities they can. however, i don’t think any of us should have to sacrifice our sexuality in order to do so.

From last year I’ve been talking to Obama supporters now and then. I wish I could have been in the US right NOW documenting some of these people but money must be funny… in a rich man’s world like ABBA would say. So I’m very stuck here in Stockholm. I’ll stay up all night and hope the “third world voting system” over there won’t fuck up too much… I talked to my friend Zoriah earlier. He just thinks the election is scary. Nothing will surprise him, ‘they’ voted Bush twice after all. Zoriah’s not been too popular over there since he showed the world the real scenes from war… *click here*

Tim Robbins says his name was missing from the voting register when he arrived to vote in New York… “I’m just waiting for an explanation. I want a real explanation, and I want that explanation for the hundreds and thousands of people in my district and throughout the city who are experiencing the same thing today.” Robbins told CNN. Nuts!

Not surprised that Mcburgercain wins Kentucky. I’m not going to be able to sleeep tonight. Come over!
***
I love this man more than I can say so I’ll just post this:

Pennsylvania, over 60% Obama! Wow!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com *click*

05.09 AM - I’m crying. And I’m NOT sad.
I actually didn’t think you would vote right, yes sure all my American friends, who I keep very close to my heart, I knew you would… but what about the rest who voted Bush twice? I hoped for Obama since day one but I just couldn’t be sure. But now I am. Crying. United States got a black president! It’s not a TV show. It’s not a movie. It’s reality. In Sweden Obama wouldn’t be ‘radical’ but for the US, he is. He’s not perfect… but…

McCain is having his “Congratulations Obama I lost - speech” right now - a pretty great one actually. His crowd seem to be a bit scary though… I prefer seeing the Obama-crowd. I won’t go to bed until I’ve seen the new president meet the people in Chicago.
***

World Press Photo of the Year: 1957 Douglas Martin, USA, The Associated Press.

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, 4 September 1957. Dorothy Counts, one of the first black students to enter the newly desegregated Harry Harding High School. Reporters and photographers bore witness and recorded the violence that erupted when Dorothy showed up for her first day. People threw rocks and screamed “Go back where you came from”. They got their way - after a string of abuses, Dorothy’s family withdrew her from the school after only four days.

Elizabeth Eckford and eight other African American students attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, a school that previously had only accepted white children. The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, was determined to ensure that segregation did not take place and sent the National Guard to stop the children from entering the school.

***

From my friend C in NJ: - “I thought of you last night. After talking politics for all these years with you and knowing what kind of person you are, and what this would mean to you, I very much wanted to talk to you. I was up all night too. I was with a bunch of friends in a bar here in NY. People were crying. People were hugging.”

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

I wish those who make war would truly understand the price of their actions. We will now never know how much happiness and laughter this little girl could have brought to the world, what contributions to society or science, what beautiful children she could have mothered. We will only have this heartbreaking picture to now remember her by.

Words can’t do justice to pain.

My friend Zoriah I utterly fucking admire.

You should check out his important work if you can deal with it.

The images in this post I link to are very graphic and include death.
However, I think you should keep your eyes open.

Zoriah’s blog post that got a lot of attention…*click here*

“If pictures like yours were on the front page of the daily papers and the nightly news, the war would have ended in weeks.”

Läser Aftonblaskan om riksdagens beslut att flyktingar inte ska ha samma rätt till vård som andra i Sverige.

“– Det här innebär att livrädda människor kommer att särbehandlas. Det är obegripligt, säger överläkare Henry Ascher. Demonstrationer har hållits, läkare har vädjat och FN har sagt att Sverige bryter mot de mänskliga rättigheterna.”

“– Det här är absurt. Vi skulle inte neka Englas mördare eller pappan i Österrike vård. Det är inte vårdens uppgift att vara domstol. Så varför ska vi gå ifrån den principen när det gäller flyktingar som dessutom är svårt traumatiserade?”

Det är så hemskt att jag mår illa.

*klicka här*

“– Vi gick till vårdcentralen för att få psykologhjälp men de vägrade att ta emot oss.” = Vidrigt

“Mottagningen har ordnat med en läkare som gratis tänker utföra ingreppet, utan att se till Marias ställning som papperslös.”= Hjälte.

Read this article in the Washington Post…

Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason *click here*

“Involuntary chemical restraint of detainees, unless there is a medical justification, is a violation of some international human rights codes.” No shit!

And it’s scary how little respect regular people have for human rights:

“They obviously felt impassioned enough to risk their lives to get here, what’s to say they won’t do the same when being forced back out to where they come from?”

“They have no rights under American law. What has to be done to get them out of the country, so be it.”

“If you’re against it think about this…. I’ll come over to your house, break in and refuse to leave.”

And, it’s also funny these days how these young Americans sit and talk about immigrants, forgetting that USA was founded by immigrants! So ignorant. And think they’re better than these “other” people because they’re all “criminals”.

Also read the story about Mudey, here, it made me cry:

“Alone and speaking little English, the Somali woman arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on April 11, 2007, seeking political asylum. With no interpreter to question her, immigration agents shackled her ankles, wrists and waist, and put her in a van…* click and read the article here*

” - This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century — solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.” - Elie Wiesel

Hillel Neuer of UN Watch exposes the hypocrisy of the UN Human Rights Council. For the first time ever, the Council president rejects the speech as “inadmissible” and bans it from ever being delivered again: