In It For The Money

Barry Reigate

In for the money
Original silkscreen print
80 x 60 cm
Printed on 410 gr. Somerset satin paper

The childlike black smudge hides a darker reality, money, a taboo subject in relation to an artist’s practice. The title thus embraces the base subject matter of an underlying secret and at times sinister objective, of an artist’s intentions. In For The Money is at once simultaneously playing with fun and a darker undertone in regards to art and commerce.

 

Tuesday Morning

 

.emaraat

 

The beginning?

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran is sending aid ships to blockaded Gaza, state radio said on Monday — a move likely to be considered provocative by Israel which accuses Tehran of arming the Palestinian enclave’s Islamist rulers, Hamas.

One ship left port on Sunday and another will depart by Friday, loaded with food, construction material and toys, the report said. “Until the end of (Israel’s) Gaza blockade, Iran will continue to ship aid,” said an official at Iran’s Society for the Defense of the Palestinian Nation.

Iran has sent aid to the coastal territory in the past via Egypt. It was not immediately clear if the latest shipments would do the same, or try to dock in Gaza itself.

In January 2009, an Israeli warship approached an Iranian aid boat heading for the Mediterranean territory and told it to leave the area, 70 km (45 miles) from Gaza. The ship went on to Egypt, which borders Gaza, but was refused permission to unload.

 

Self Determination

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.

….

 

The Cocaine Trail

WEST AFRICA has become an attractive trade route for Latin America’s cocaine smugglers in recent years. On June 8th two tonnes (2000kg) of the stuff (with an estimated street value of over $1 billion) were seized in the Gambia. While cocaine use in America has fallen by 50% over the last two decades, some European countries have seen consumption rates double or triple. Aided by its corruptible police and flimsy money-laundering laws, up to 150 tonnes of cocaine are estimated to pass through the region a year. In 2006 36% of the cocaine carriers caught in one network of European airports had come from west Africa. In 2008 this had dropped to 17%. Whether this reflects a drop in trade or the traffickers’ increasing skill in avoiding capture is unclear.

 

That Was Then, This Is Then

 

Monday Morning

 

A Parking Lot & A Bathroom

 

The New Casablanca

The new Casablanca: Why Dubai draws Iran, intrigue, and tusk smugglers

Indeed, with so many Iranians in Dubai, US consular officials here regularly pump that large pool for information or recruit them to spy, says Jim Krane, author of a recent book about Dubai.

Many countries have active intelligence operations here in this open and strategic spot, he says. “There are so many reasons to be in Dubai … business, tourism, and conferences, that it’s easy for spies to maintain ‘plausible deniability.’ ”

Israel’s Mossad is widely believed to have sent dozens of agents to Dubai to assassinate Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas operative, though Dubai’s tough-talking police chief made clear that such a brazen attack was a step too far. After a quick and impressive investigation, his department secured international arrest warrants for some two dozen suspects from abroad.

Dubai has also drawn praise for its “swift and extensive” cooperation in cracking down on terrorism financing after the US Congress’s 9/11 com­mis­sion found that most of the funds for the 2001 attacks were funneled through the city. Suspected terrorism activity was “dealt with expeditiously” and punished, said the FATF.

As for the crackdown on illicit trade with Iran, it’s unclear how much the authorities are making a dent – particularly for state-backed companies. US officials say they may be fighting a long battle and that they hope to persuade Dubai to crack down harder or risk its international reputation.

Yet even if the emirate were to sacrifice its breezy business climate, illegal traders would just go elsewhere, says Prof. Jean-François Seznec at Georgetown University in Washington, a Gulf specialist.

Dubai follows a long line of entrepôts where smugglers and money launderers gather, he points out, arguing that “there’s always a market for this kind of free trade.”