TOW #21

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/opinion/the-ugandan-tabloid-that-stole-our-pride.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Recently, Uganda has passed a law that criminalizes homosexuality. Much like Russia, laws in that country very much align with the religious beliefs of the governing bodies, and this law was passed in accordance with the belief that homosexuality is anti-God. Also recently, Uganda's largest tabloid, the Red Pepper, printed an article about how homosexuality could cause mental illness. The author of this article, Denver David Robinson, describes here how the Red Pepper used one of his images without his consent, and how he is planning to rectify this situation. Not only is he angry because of copyright infringement, but because of the homophobic nature of the article and how they are using his work as a face for their hate. Because of this, the people in the picture that was used have been estranged from their friends and family, and he himself has been called out for being homophobic although he, as a gay man, is not. Issues like this shouldn't be prevalent in modern society, but, however, people will sometimes break the law in order to accomplish what they feel as though they need to. For some in Uganda, religion comes before morality, as highlighted in this article.

TOW #20

Sydney Hale

March 2nd, 2014

This is a picture juxtaposing the plaza in Kiev, Ukraine, before the insurrection and afterwards. Whoever photoshopped this image made sure to merge the same areas of the plaza so that we could see exactly what the whole plaza would have looked like without the devastation that has occurred in the country. The first thing that we see from this image is an obvious appeal to pathos, as we see a man appearing to be quickly walking away from the darker right side of the image. The plaza on the left looks very beautiful, while the plaza on the right and the city in the background is mostly destroyed, black, charred and on fire. On the left, we see people gathering and going about daily life, and on the right there are smoking ruins. Even the ground is torn up, black, and patternless as compared to the meticulously completed design on the right. There is also a contrast between the colors in the two sides of the pictures, with the left side being a more happy, well composed blue and the right being a darker black and gray, which further accentuates the difference between the two sides of the picture. The purpose, to show the difference between beauty and devastation, is clear due to the artist’s attention to detail.