The Great Wall of Sydney

The Great Wall of Sydney by Trinn Suwannapha

’Pong has started photographing The Great Wall of Sydney which descended with the start of APEC — naturally bringing his own “urban abstract” eye to the game.

Police have been deleting photos from cameras, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens when ’Pong returns to The APEC Zone tonight now that GWB has arrived.

When I phoned the police media liaison unit today, I didn’t get a very clear message about what was and wasn’t permitted. It all seems to be at the discretion of the officer on the ground. To me that just says “arbitrary” and “unaccountable” — and combining that with arrest-without-charge and the suspension of habeas corpus spells “danger”.

Anyway, check ’Pong’s images — and don’t forget to click through for the full-sized beauty.

US newspapers pull “offensive” cartoon

Opus cartoon

Newspapers across the US have pulled this Opus cartoon by Berkeley Breathed, afraid of offending people. Yet as I read it, the only people it’s making fun of are people like character Lola Granola — people who jump onto bandwagons because it’s “fashionable” instead of holding genuine beliefs.

Dan Gillmor says it’s a case of puritan prudishness and political cowardice. Salon have written an editorial. Thanks to BoingBoing for the pointer.

Now watch this cartoon spread across the blogosphere faster than you can say “Danish pastry”.

Swedish Foreign Minister resigns over web censorship

In stark contrast to John Howard’s closure of johnhowardpm.org and Melbourne IT’s subsequent silence, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Lalla Freivalds has resigned over allegations that she pressured a private Internet hosting company to close a website — something which is illegal in Sweden.

She becomes the fourth government minister around the world to lose a job over the anti-Muslin cartoons which originated in Denmark.