Articles by Mark A. Silberstein
THE OVERVIEW: Illegal Migration Bill highlights the tradition of xenophobia in the Tory party with echoes of racial incitement from global history
“Not a pretty picture: A Tory legacy of divide and rule” The Illegal Migration Bill highlights a party that has a history of xenophobic policies.
The UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s controversial Illegal Migration Bill has caused a lot of concern with protests and open letters condemning its harshness, even exposing …
Fighting Words: Poets for Ukraine
“He sits at his table long as a fable planning a banquet of death too sharp are his claws too aglow are his eyes Putin of the great war cry dragging his carcass of history.”
The war in Ukraine has brought together a unified international stance that is saying no to conflict, …
Photo Essay: One Picture Tells…Masks on the Ground
Disturbed by the number of masks of varying types that I have seen since the pandemic when walking around London I decided to do a small experiment.
I wanted to see just how many I could find within 15 minutes. Without barely even looking I found six. This is a disturbing …
Unhealthy Body, Unhealthy Mind: Covid and the Case for Universal Basic Income
The effect of the pandemic must be combatted not just through medicinal but monetary means.
Benjamin Maslow who created his hierarchy of needs stated in his book The farther reaches of human nature that “The need for ‘dignity, for example, can be seen as a fundamental human right in the …
A First Port of Call? Free Ports and the UK Economy
The March budget presented free ports as the remedy to economic uncertainty in the face of Brexit and COVID, but are they a good solution?
The Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s budget speech hailed free ports, where imported goods are exempt from tariffs, as a silver bullet to fix the economic …
Musevini Wins Ugandan Election Amidst Uneven Covid Legislation
The new year continues with the pandemic being used by some authoritarian African leaders as a way to cling to power.
Saturday saw Yoweri Musevini win his sixth term in office after the election was postponed in 2020 due to the risk of Covid, with Mr Musevini telling Ugandan NBS Television …
An old school in Hackney and Hammond’s budget speech: surviving London’s housing crisis
The first time that the Tory Party finally mentioned the housing crisis, since the snap election, was during Hammond’s November budget. However unlike these elitists, who clearly only care about their influential wealthy friends, most of us deal with the problem of affordable housing in this city and country on an every day …
Your Body Your Choice: The Silent Scalpel of Intersex Surgeries
For over 20 years activists within the intersex community have been calling for changes to how operations are performed on those born with the condition and last year a United Nations convention condemned the practice that it describes as “Intersex Genital Mutilation” within 15 countries including the UK.
Are the Regulations on Initial Coin Offerings a Tide Change Towards Cryptocurrencies?
No sooner had China put a ban on ICOs, Initial Coin Offerings, than the following week the FCA issued a statement on their website about how to use them. Should UK companies who use this fundraising system be worried?
Initial Coin Offerings are a means for cryptocurrency companies and Blockchain industries …
A Big Fat White Avalanche: Trump Tries to Take on Europe
Donald Trump’s policy towards Europe is like a glaring white avalanche careering down a hill. The US is on a path to an isolationist freeze, set in motion by Trump’s nationalist rhetoric in which the president is considering changing long-standing foreign policy and this is starting to have a powerful …
Abandoned Buildings, Gold Plated Capitalism, Tarnished Silver Spoons, Queues at Food Banks and the Flying Dutchman of Left Wing Politics that Roams the High Seas of Britain Beyond Distant Waves
The room that I currently write this in will probably no longer be here in a few weeks. The building is going to be torn down. I am a property guardian in a school in central Hackney. What was meant to be six months of accommodation turned out to last …
The Rise and Decline of Eurosceptic Parties and their Impact Within the EU
Even though some Eurosceptic parties in Europe have seen an ebb within support from voters recently, the changing political landscape could mean that their political presence and influence within the union might be irreversible.
The 2008 recession formed a catalyst for Eurosceptic parties across the political spectrum on the continent. Support …
Red Rose-tinted Glasses in our Leftist Island of London Engulfed by a Sea of Blue or the Longest Suicide Blog Post in History?
Putting personal political perspectives aside, I hate to say that I was right in my prediction that Ed Milliband would not win the last election. But his influence certainly left his mark on the party with the rise of Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters, yet I still feel that it is not …
Seek and Ye Shall Find: How to Resurrect Images of Messiahs and the Dark Side
I laughed myself silly on this Telegraph piece on how people have resorted to make money or to prove the existence of a supernatural being. Try photoshop, vinegar art, and just plain coincidence.
So I tried an experiment and found my own faces without trick photography or fabrication, problem was I …
London Short Film Festival 2015: cats, cool, clever, creepy and some…just plain crap!
It was a cold Tuesday and high above the hustle and bustle of Mare Street people reclined in couches in the Hackney Picture House Cinema to watch the young and the old showcase their films at the LSFF. The festival, which this year ran from 9 to18 January, had been …
Political Comparative Journalism, False Flag Operations, Putin, Georgia 2008 and Crimea 2014, Hitler, Sudetenland 1938 and Poland 1939
It was while reading the salmon coloured pages of the Financial Times that I came across an excellent piece by Tony Barber in the Global Insight section entitled:“Baltic states fear Kremlin concern for their ethnic Russians”.
This FT piece sparked a memory of a point that I had raised to a Goldsmith’s lecturer, when I …
The Barbican, Brett Bailey, Blankets Woven with PC, the BBC, Nick Griffin
Brett Bailey’s planned Barbican installation, Exhibit B has come under fire from criticisms that it is racist as it shows black models in poses as slaves.
Yet to see is one thing and to understand is quite another. Bailey has been known for his other work that confronts racism and colonialism.
I …
Tintin, Fleet Street, Russel Group and the World of Journalism in the 21st Century
It all started with a brown trench coat, a tuft of ginger hair and a white dog. Yep it was while growing up reading Tintin annuals that I became enthralled with the concept of reporting and the world of journalism. Here was a character who did not just travel the world …
James Foley Another Casualty of War to an Unappreciative Journalism Industry
Journalist James Foley’s death highlights a bigger problem for freelancers out there desperate to put themselves in harms way to make a living for what they love!
Read the Guardian piece by Martin Chulov, it illustrates the lack of care and of training by news organisations as they quite happily take the stories of …
The Truth is out There: One Rogue Reporter Documentary Review
Press, smut peddlers have their whole operation opened and dissected by Rich Peppiatt, former tabloid reporter, in a new documentary called One Rogue Reporter. Shown as part of the films of the East End Film Festival at the Rio Cinema in Dalston last weekend.
Peppiatt worked for the Daily Star tabloid until …
A Matter of Chance: The Artist Daniel Ginns and his Evolving Mediums
Daniel Ginns expresses his artistic versatility through continuous line drawings and Mark Rothko wall photos. Recent work was for the Tate Britain as part of a project created by Scottish artist Alan Johnston called Tactile Geometry.
Ginns and I went for a cup of tea to talk about nature over nurture, chance, …
Portrayals of Gang Youth Violence: Two Short Films at the Rio Cinema, London
One of London’s last independent cinemas, the Rio in Dalston, hosted shorts by two visionary women filmmakers at a private screening on Sunday 21 July.
The two directors portrayed gang life in the city through different approaches. Dionne Edwards, 27, from Bristol, who moved to London when she was 18, took …
From PCC to Royal Charter: The Forming of a New Press Regulatory Body
Dr Benedetta Brevini, responsible for communication in the Media Reform Coalition (MRC), a coalition consisting of 20 different organisations from the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) to the Hacked Off group headed by actor Hugh Grant, says the outcome of a Royal Charter as the new press regulatory body wasn’t quite what …
Viewpoint – Alternative: Education that Says what it Means, the Original Free Schools
Taught by volunteers and inclusive to all, squat schools provide an alternative to Cameron’s Big Society free schools, without cost to the taxpayer.
Talia Rose, 28, who has been an English Foreign Language (EFL) teacher for the last nine years, volunteered as a facilitator in free schools in squats. She passionately …
Planet Issue: Long after Pythagoras – The World of the Flat Earth Society
Flat Earth believers have been around since biblical times and even photos of Earth taken from space have not deterred them.
Michael N Wilmore, 27, was born in London and moved to Ireland in his teens. He is the vice president of the Flat Earth Society, which he joined in 2006. …
Alternative Issue: Dark Parks – the Photos of Stjepan Sedlar
Seeing the world through Stjepan Sedlar’s eyes requires a lot of patience and having no fear of the dark. His parents are from Croatia and this Hamburg born photographer, who lives in Berlin, would stray into parks at night taking colour photos without lighting.
It is late afternoon on a cold Sunday in …
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2012: Propaganda North Korean Style
Propaganda is a documentary purported to have been made in North Korea with images of decadent western lifestyle, capitalist culture and a message of salvation. A couple claiming to be North Korean dissidents approached a translator in Seoul handing her a DVD on condition that she translate and disseminate it.
All the …
Country in Focus the Health Issue: Longevity and the Italian Lifestyle
Ruggero Galtarossa is from a small city in Northern Italy called Padova. He is 22 years old he has been living in London for two and a half years. He is in his third year studying journalism and sociology for a BA joint honours degree.
The Italians have an exceptionally high …
Has the Paralympics Effect Started to Wane?
The Paralympics brought with them a positive change in attitudes towards disabled people, yet there is still a long way to go.
The French company Atos, contracted by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to reasess the situation of 2.6 million people on incapacity benefits by 2014, was one of …
Viewpoint – Sex: The Struggle for Sexual Sobriety
Most people have some idea of what an addiction is, but sex doesn’t seem to be one that first comes to mind.
When Steve McQueen’s Shame, a film about a sex addict living in New York, hit the cinema earlier this year, it provoked a lot of controversy. It seems that …
City University Muslim Extremist Threatens Moderate Senior Cleric in Mecca
A senior Muslim cleric from the UK was threatened with arrest by an extremist in Saudi Arabia last month.
Dr Usama Hasan, a physics lecturer at Middlesex University and Senior Researcher of the Quilliam Foundation, a Muslim counter-extremism group, was on a pilgrimage in Mecca, when a former president of the …
Symphony of Bird Song – The Music of Ebe Oke
Before instruments there was nature, and Ebe Oke is an artist who lets certain elements of this world resound through his music.
It was this unique sound and his voice that caught the attention of Geoff Travis, the founder of Rough Trade Records, who offered the US musician a development deal. Travis introduced …
Donnacha De Long a Journalist with Many Callings: from NUJ to the Irish Rebellion
Donnacha De Long is president of the NUJ and last week he chaired a debate on the topical Leveson inquiry for the Benn Lectures. He became President in April 2011 after being a National Union of Journalists (NUJ) member since he was 19. As his role as president is coming …
Viewpoint – Censorship: The Long Walk to Freedom into a Cul-de-sac? The South African ‘secrecy bill’
An information bill that is being debated in the next few months in South Africa could put democracy to the most extreme test.
Nelson Mandela came out of prison in the 90s at the end of apartheid, which was a state led separation and oppression of non-whites, and assumed power in …
Independence Issue: Could Anarchism Work in the Age of Austerity? Anarchist Book Fair 2011 Review
The sound of a brass band greeted me as I walked into Queen Mary University’s Library Square for the Anarchist Book Fair. This is the fifth year running that this event has been held at the campus in Bethnal Green.
The book fair was started in 1983 by a group of …
Europe Issue: Ignited Indignation – Stéphane Hessel’s Time for Outrage! Book Review
Dynamite comes in small packages and Stéphane Hessel’s book Time for Outrage! is a testament to this, delivering an exceptionally powerful political punch in just 37 pages.
The metaphor of explosions are extremely fitting here as the author survived world war two as a resistance fighter in France amongst other things blowing …
The Largest Frontline Club Event: Julian Assange and Slavoj Žižek Talk Hosted by Amy Goodman
Wikileaks has lost its capital and possibly its founder, yet a few months ago at the Frontline club Assange seemed untouchable. The talk was between Julian Assange and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and was hosted by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on 2 July 2011 at the Troxy, a beautiful …
Europe Issue: From Small Town to Big Sound – We Walk on Ice and their Unique East End Indie Sound
When We Walk on Ice start playing their captivating tight sound, it is hard to believe that only two souls are creating it.
Their unique Indie sound reminds me of at least two bands that I love: Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Star. We Walk on Ice have a similar ethereal feel to …
Viewpoint – Europe: Overreaction to a right-wing Threat? A Q&A with Dan Hodges of Searchlight
Since the recession of 2008 there seems to be more than just financial issues at stake. The disillusionment with traditional politics has resulted in hung parliaments in Britain and in some countries in Europe.
The knock on effect of this lack of support has seen voters trying to find solutions. Some …
Europe Issue: A Reality of a Big Society – Red Gallery London Exhibition
An exhibition about life in a Communist-era town in the former East Germany is highlighting what its organisers claim is the real nature of the Prime Minister’s much vaunted ‘Big Society.’
The exhibition at the Red Gallery in Shoreditch displays the changing nature of the murals that once adorned the walls …
Viewpoint – Independence: Distortion of a Struggle – 2011 London Student Fees Protest
Streets full of noise and faces full of smiles – that was the picture that was apparent in London at the student protests on the 10th November. Even the sun was out to illuminate the way.
The feel was like every other march that makes this revolutionary city such a special …
Country in Focus the Independence Issue: To Live and Dwell with Nostalgic Notions of South Africa
“The Call” was the national anthem and the voice of the orange, white and blue the colours of the oppressive regime that was South Africa. The masses beaten into submission by the nightstick known as apartheid.
I was very young in the 1980s when I saw the photographs in the papers showing …
