peace drums

9-1-1

2011-09-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

9/11 changed the life of many. It affected flight crews like no other day. Thousands of innocent men, women and children of all ethnicity and religions lost their lives. However, it has been used to silence, kill, maim, rape, pillage and destroy hundreds of thousands of innocent lives in Iraq, Afghanista, Pakistan, Palestine, Europe, Russia, North America and pretty much all over the world. Take a moment to remember not only the victims of the two 9/11s but PLEASE also consider the victims of state-sanctioned terrorism conducted in the name of security.

No matter what anyone says, Sept 11, 2001 changed the way people look at Muslims and brown people in general. Life has not been the same for my colleagues that are different shades of brown- that is for sure. We have to constantly justify our existence and have gone through a rainbow of bad feeling. From feeling like we have to over-compensate so people would not judge us, to feelings of anger. From being judged by customers and airport staff to being judged by our own colleagues for being Pakistani and Muslim.

I had to educate myself about what happened on that awful day. However, I also had to educate myself about WHY it happened and how to perhaps help and prevent a recurrence of such an act. Western states have only made my job more dangerous with their wars, killing sprees and violent actions. Today as a flight attendant group we are even more unsafe than on 9/11. Imagine if the one million Iraqi victims of US terror decided to take 'blow back' action against us one day?

Today I think of the victims of the two 9/11 and I think about all the violence perpetrated around the world and I am saddened that peace is not on the horizon. Only war. More war. I fear this anniversary is being used in the USA only to rile up support for more draconian actions and more war.

I hope that at least my colleagues will be mindful of the entire 9/11 industry. For the media and the share holders of the military industry, this day is not about support for the victims of 9/11 but rather support for the military industrial complex.

Let us not be pawns. Let us be in solidarity with peace makers. Let us be in solidarity with educators. Let us be in solidarity with unions and join the fight for justice for all.

Let us be vigilant indeed but for the right reasons! This is my 9-1-1 call for compassion.

BOL: Not speaking for the people it depicts

2011-09-06T15:36:00.001-07:00

The much-anticipated new film by Shoaib Mansoor, Bol (speak) is now gracing Western screens. It is a great feat for Mansoor and Pakistani cinema. His last hit Khuda Ke Liye (For God's Sake) did not get wide release. I admire Mansoor and his hard working cast and crew for their dedication to this project. However, there are serious concerns that keep me from joining the masses lauding this film.

The Director

Shoaib Mansoor is well regarded as a great television writer and director as well as a producer for bands of note such as the era-defining Vytal Signs. His films however are over-the-top melodramas that are not far removed from Bollywood with their caricatured depictions of complex characters and simplification of issues. In Khuda Key Liyay he tackled terrorism but from a strictly middle class Pakistani perspective. His white western characters were uni-dimensional. The dedication of the British man who helps the heroine get out of her trauma is merely brushed off. He is abandoned by her despite their unflinching love for each other. It also showed Pakistani military as a force against terror instead of questioning its contribution to terror. The only Sikh character (the neighbor in the USA) was depicted as the one who sells out the Muslim Pakistani. In fact, Sikh groups were in solidarity with the victims of the 9/11 backlash even more than Muslims and they were also the victims of post 9/11 hate. This oversimplification is presumably educational entertainment for the masses but I would argue that it does more harm than good.

The Plot

The premise of the film is promising. A poor family man (Manzar Sehbai) stuck with a dying business (he is a herbal medicine practitioner) and a family of seven daughters (one of them a hermaphrodite). A film about a man with seven daughters; one would think that fact in itself would provide a brimful of ideas to work with. One can imagine the life so many women would infuse into a household; their energy, their love and their hope. However, the Khan household is more like a Nazi internment camp with the Khan as Hitler. Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties, Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women and Fernando Trueba’s Belle Epoque all deal with households filled with women in times of financial distress and extreme poverty. Those films have complex characters whose trajectory is fully satisfying. With Bol we are left with beautiful actresses portraying helpless imbeciles and ghastly caricatured males that are incontrovertibly either good or evil and nothing in between.

The Performances

The film was very well cast. Even minor characters like the female reporter and the pimp's sidekick were really intriguing. I wanted to see and hear more of them.

One could have such fun with the examination of this hermaphrodite character Saifulla (portrayed wonderfully by Amr Kashmiri) and her view of the world around her (I refer to the character as female as that is who she was inclined towards identifying with in the movie). Alas no interiority was ever divulged except for a desire for drag. Amr Kashmiri had a challenging role to tackle as a brutally rejected child of an ignorant and oppressive father. He is made to be 'artistic' yet a bit of an imbecile who stutters. Laying those thick layers of dysfunction is cruel at the best of times. It made Saifu a pitiful character with next to no dignity so that when he does meet his sad fate, most people in the audience might even feel it was all for the better rather than see it as a heinous crime. As if being raped and molested is not enough, the character has to suffer the further indignity of being murdered at the hands of his father- an honor killing that the town and the family quickly recovers from.

There are other outstanding actors in the film who are also not utilized to their full potential. The fiery Humaima Malik plays the only daughter with strength and conviction to challenge her brute father and that too in the most subservient and docile manner. As in most misogynist depictions of strong female characters in cinema, this one too has to die at the end. No happy ending for the outspoken. Quiet subservience always wins over challenging patriarchy and oppression.

Shafqat Cheema is arguably the most lovable and hilarious pimp South Asian cinema has ever offered. His performance was convincing. Atif Aslam and Mahira Khan play love interests. They both have the most sympathetic faces that were just not given enough screen time or dialog to show any kind of depth. One assumes Aslam is a sweet fellow because he is the only man that is not revolted (or perversely attracted) to Saifi and even respects the obvious crush Saifi has on him (a really nice touch here). However, I assume Aslam is a pretty sweet fellow in life as in art. Aslam portrays the only decent person in the film. Most of the other men seem to be sex crazed maniacs who collude in child molestation and rape. Apparently straight Pakistani males in the trucking business are attracted to pudgy, mentally challenged, effeminate men.

As is the case with most South Asian film directors, Mansour made the hijra (eunuch) who comes to take away the hermaphrodite child, a most unattractive and hideous looking creature to be detested even more than the vile father himself. The fact that the hijra is the darkest skinned person in the entire film is also a matter reflective of white supremacy within Pakistani society.

Class:

Mansoor's film helps perpetuates the status quo while ignoring the elephant in the room that is class in Pakistani society. Happiness is associated with consumerism. Consumerism is represented as a positive middle class value. The family have to hide the television from their father. They are not allowed to go shopping. Bol addresses subject matter often overlooked by mainstream Pakistani cinema but never delves into those issues below the surface level. Bol leaves the audience dumfounded with its extreme depictions of characters. The father is a vile creature unable to comprehend the world in any way other than his own. He keeps trying to marry his daughters off to unsuitable men despite a failed attempt with the first one. He keeps his daughters from getting educated past grade five even though the school is right next door. He is respected in the community as the healer hakim (herbipath) despite his awful behavior towards his wife and children. He has friends but they never visit or invite his family over and the girls have no friends at all.

Mansoor is very heavy handed. Bol normalizes oppressive, dysfunctional, middle class norms of Pakistani society such as its concepts of ‘decent’ women and ‘good boys’ being obedient and pious. It perpetuates the status quo and gives credence to power hierarchy in Pakistani society- the noble president makes progressive gestures. The 'normal' guy is fun loving and family oriented yet just the right amount of religious. I would like to think that the Pakistani audience need no longer be spoon fed. Western audiences too know enough about South Asia and international cinema to detect dishonesty in representations of South Asians in cinema.

The Politics

Bol is a perverse film masquerading as a progressive work. It is morally, emotionally and cinematically muddled because it does not actually care to dwell in the hearts and minds of the character it depicts long enough to give them their own voice. The characters are merely landscape in their own melodrama. I do not think Bol does anything to further the cause of women or sexual minorities in Pakistan. It normalizes extreme behaviors such as violence within families and perpetuates stereotypes of 'truck drivers' as sexually deviant child molesters and eunuchs as perpetual recruiters for sexual minorities. It removes responsibility from the state despite considering it corrupt at every level. The president is somehow not only very white but also a noble man sitting at the top of the privilege ladder who will be affected by television news and make things better for all. Real life dictator Parvez Musharraf did nothing for 'Mukhtara Mai' whose rape case (and that of her brother's) brought international embarrassment to his government.

I like the parallel between the pious Mr Khan in white and the pimp who wears black. The pimp however seems much happier and treated his women with more dignity than the pious family man. As if her attraction was not baffling enough, why Iman Ali's character Meena would hand over her daughter to this brutal man who holds his family hostage and treats his daughters like tripe is also a mystery.

The Shia/ Sunni divide and its treatment is also very dubious. Shia's are 'naturally' more open minded about sex trade work than are the ultra pious Sunnis. Shia indulge in prostitution but not Sunnis. It is subtle but this pro-Sunni bias is definitely there in the film.

Technical Aspects

Technically the film takes focus pulling to a whole new level with confounding rack focuses that leave the viewers confused about where to look. The cinematography was inconsistent and I am assuming different stocks were used because the color was inconsistent from one shot to the next within the same scene (as in the song with the whole family). Perhaps hasty post color correction is to blame. The sound and ADR also leave something to be desired. The film was shot in studio so there is no excuse for bad voiceover.

The media scrum around the prisoner that is to be executed plays out like a theatrical farce. The flashback device fails because the whole scenario is too unlikely to suspend disbelief. There is definitely some thought in art direction but that too is unnecessarily over the top as a boy would not be dwelling in a 17^th century castle bedroom. The film has the esthetic of an Alper’s milk commercial with some delicious tracking shots through the Badshahi mosque which would be more suitable in a commercial but do nothing to further the story here.

The music in the film is also not remarkable. The soundtrack is oppressive and orchestrating emotions, trying to pull tears out of the audience. There is no time to breathe and just take it in.

When Khuda ke Liyay came out, everyone said the film should not be criticized, as it is a good attempt from a flailing film industry. What excuse will we have for Bol? Mansoor is the only filmmaker representing Pakistan internationally. As such it is important that his work be examined in detail so that it may perhaps improve. Cinematic representation is a window into the heart of the country and its artistic milieu. In my opinion Bol does not speak truth to the masses. Bol does not speak truth to power. Like Khuda it effectively sidesteps the issue of class division in Pakistan as the root cause for socio-political unrest. It also fails to target cultural norms of patriarchy imbued in religious practice that are stifling Pakistani society. It definitely reinforces negative stereotypes of sexual minorities and reinforces homophobia by depicting homosexual attraction as a mental illness. It works against any progressive feminist agenda by not empowering any of the surviving female characters with a voice. It effectively says that if you want things to change around you, then effectively ‘Mut Bol’ (Don’t speak) and let others fight your fight for you. If you speak out or dare to be different you will end up dead. Perhaps martyred, but definitely… dead!

Trials and Tribulations of Independence

2011-07-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

I am going to start writing about my struggle with a totally independent short film called DOGGONED.

This summer I decided to make the most of my life and be really productive. In May I made a short film called BROWNIE. From concept to DVD it took me 27 days to make Brownie. I wanted to meet the deadline for the Toronto International Film Festival. Yesterday I received word that Brownie was not selected by the festival programmers. Brownie was made for under $1000. It is a cute and funny little film. It has subversive elements such as the idea of an Arab protagonist in what is essentially a take on contemporary sitcom culture which is either black or white. Brownie is still in the festival circuit and I will be uploading it on my website in a few months.

In June I worked on some projects for other friends. I came across a really funny story from a friend of a friend. It was an instantly likeable story and I decided to make a short film out of it. It turned out to be an urban legend as well but I do wonder how many people have ever heard about it. We shall wait and see.

I incorporated the issue of work permits, legal status and student poverty into the film. So many of my friends, colleagues and family members have had to suffer through that at one point in life or another and it is an issue not commonly discussed in the media. International students right out of university have very few options; either get a work permit somehow, get married or leave the country.

I wanted to shoot Doggoned properly using super 16 film format and with a good budget. I asked a friend to play producer. He agreed on co-producer and that eventually fell through as pre-production started.

With less than 10 days to go, I still have to raise $4,000 of the $5000 budget of the film. It is stressful but I must now concentrate on the production and not on the finances. It is a terrible thing to have to wear the producer AND the director hat. I will avoid this in future projects. Right now, a crew of about twenty is looking up to me for guidance.

I have already gone through several auditions and three different leading ladies. We have settled on the lovely and charming Ulka Simone Mohanty- a Montreal dancer and theater actor. The cast and crew are serious up and coming talents in the Canadian film scene and our team is really strong. Let's see how well we work together.

Juggling finances, relationships and friendships. That is what life is all about. That is what being a full time filmmaker and independent artist is all about. Let's see how it goes.

DOGGONED: A short film by arshad khan

2011-07-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

'Race' Key to Lack of Aid for Pakistan Flood

2010-08-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

"A humanitarian catastrophe of terrifying proportions is unfolding in Pakistan, with a fifth of the country under water, and millions of people homeless and desperately needing assistance"-AVAAZ.ORG

Two weeks after the monsoons brought floods to my land of birth, and two weeks after news bulletins and videos of devastation, there is still no outpouring of concern from most of my friends in the West. The reason there is such a lack of Western sympathy for Pakistan is because the media has successfully demonized the Muslim/Pakistani/ South Asian as the modern day "nigger/Jew". Whereas the racist word 'nigger' no longer holds the power it did even twenty years ago, the brunt of ignorance and hatred falls squarely on the South Asian/ Muslim/ Pakistani- aka 'Paki'. The use of the derogatory term 'Paki' too is accepted in the vernacular by a vast majority of people right here in 'liberal' Canada. This is the real reason Pakistan is not getting any aid. Racism! It is clear from the articles and responses to these articles which are justifying (if not outright encouraging) people not to help with the flood relief effort. Here in Quebec we read La Presse and find popularity for absurd articles by the likes of Patrick Lagace finding enthusiasm amongst so-called sophisticated readers. "Hmm... interesting" they claim. "Good article" they endorse on their facebook walls and posted responses.

The Tamil refugee saga and the Masjid fiasco in New York are happening in tandem with this flood in Pakistan. The reactions to the articles on mainstream Canadian media to these events are also overwhelmingly negative, conservative and racist. In the Guardian in Britain they claim that we have given them (South Asians/ 'Pakis') enough and that they are already a burden on the healthcare and welfare system, (particularly speaking about those born in the U.K) and they blame 'the genetic diseases that these people' bring with them. To add insult to injury the mostly unsympathetic comments rejecting assistance to Pakistan also include "you reap what you sow".

I recently watched a Youtube video of Jackie Onasis (as Mrs. Kennedy) visit to a glorious, colourful, EatPrayLove-ish orientalist Pakistan. It was a Pakistan of high heels, tight dresses and sleeveless tops. Women's emancipation was in the forefront of that Pakistan. The men too looked handsome and well groomed. None of this ugly, bearded, Talibani getup. That was a Pakistan headed for educational, cultural and financial prosperity. That was a Pakistan with a glimmer of hope. It was a Pakistan where democratic system could be seen to start taking root. Alas that was not to be. The Coup d'état of the U.S backed Zia-ul-Haq ensured the death of democratic Pakistan. Zia almost single-handedly crushed secular thought and destroyed the educational infrastructure of the country. He was so dedicated to the U.S. agenda that neither Musharraf nor Zardari have been able to beat his record for destruction of the Pakistani socio-political infrastructure and self-gain.

The West was all in favour of this military dictator Zia and his cronies and loved the proxy war against the Soviets and cheered on as orphans were turned into militants in poor madrassas across the country. The tables only turned when the Taliban government refused to cooperate with the US and gave its lucrative oil pipeline deal to Russia instead of the USA. That was just before 9/11. Now all of a sudden women's issues were at the forefront for 'saving' the Afghans from themselves. Meanwhile women's situation deteriorated ten fold after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2002. To this day the Time Magazine tries to trumpet women's liberation as the reason for Afghan involvement without once asking the women of Afghanistan what they really want. In 2009 ousted female Afghan MP Malalai Joya risked her life trying to appeal to Western 'democracies' to listen to the plight of Afghanis and not to trust the likes of Warlords like Karzai (read 'Woman Among Warlords'). No one cared to listen. We did not see Joya on Larry King Live or on the cover of Time Magazine or MSNBC did we? No. It is clear that Western interest in that region has not and will not ever go beyond exploitation and abuse and beyond the extent of colonization for resources. The 'War on Terror' is a lie that even the perpetrators of the lie no longer believe.

Into this malaise comes the 2005 earthquake and now the debilitating 2010 flood- the worst in recent human history and labeled worst than the 2006 Tsunami, 2005 Earthquake, Katrina and 2009 Haiti earthquake combined. And under these circumstances what do we hear from the so-called 'liberal' and even 'critical of war and invasion' media?

Patrick Lagace squarely blames the victims in his articles and tries to convince the readers not to give aid to the victims of natural disasters. He cites government corruption and budget misappropriation as reasons not to give to Pakistan. Lagace also feels that the people evading taxes in Pakistan should perhaps pay for the aid including ex-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who has apparently not paid his taxes in years (I am sure its Lagace's Wikipedia research talking). When I call Lagace out on his self-righteous, racist sermon about Pakistan having money to buy fighter jets and no money for its own citizens (we will disregard the fact that Pakistan is obligated to buy weapons from the same states giving 'aid' as part of the conditions for the aid), there is a head-nodding- 'oh you go too far' by the sophisticates. However, this sort of moral high ground can only be expected from an analysis devoid of the history of feudalism, colonization or the military industrial complex.

Over eighty five percent of the people of Pakistan do not make the decisions of the government. They are hard working farmers, labourers and the like. They have nothing to do with militarism or terror. They just live day to day to provide food for their families. How can Lagace make such lofty judgements about the innocent masses of Pakistan? If Lagace does not want to give because of his own racism or prejudice or conceit, fine. At least as a journalist he should research what he is talking about. Lagace was no friend of Haiti either. However now he seems to have developed a soft spot for Haiti (rated far higher than Pakistan on government corruption) and suggests it worthier of donation that Pakistan.

After Katrina, the most powerful nation on earth was helpless. The water came and just took over the entire city of New Orleans. However the water also receded. In Pakistan the rains are relentless and show no sign of stopping. In Haiti hundreds of thousands died and were later buried. Those struck by the Pakistan floods might as well be dead- they are homeless, shelterless, they need to be fed, they have no clean drinking water, disease is on the rise and help is slow to say the least. It is such a different situation that these tiny racist sound bytes and one-liners from these moronic 'journalists' just do not address any of the issues that the already suffering people of Pakistan face. They cannot explain the situation even if they tried because the web of lies surrounding the dehumanization of Pakistanis and Muslims is just so vast.

UN spokesperson Murizio Giuliano stated that "the challenges are absolutely massive and the floods are not over. The size of (the area affected by) this disaster is equivalent to Austria, Switzerland and Belgium combined. That's pretty scary". The US is the biggest donor and so far they have spent $150 million, however they spend $20 billion on the wars in the region in just one month (Al Jazeera.com). In Canada Harper spent over a billion dollars on security for the G8/G20 but only managed $31 million for Pakistan flood victims- no matching dollar for dollar and no mass appeals for aid. Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to the AfPak region is still perpetrating lies about 'terrorist elements' in the flood refugee camps. Also, while Pakistan is experiencing this catastrophe the USA is continuing their drone attacks on its soil.

White supremacy and racism in relation to the superior race were invented in order to justify African slavery and Native genocide. The 'War on Terror' dehumanizes Muslims to the very same effect and the results are astounding- especially if you're brown. While people are dying, Westerners have the luxury of pondering on whether they like the "image" of Pakistan or not! Shame on papers like La Presse for publishing such nonsense and shame on the racists of the 'democratic' West who lap up the lies and deceit despite having access to alternative sources of information that will help them get the truth. If journalists like Lagace want to write about the issue then they should make the journey to Pakistan and see what is going on there before disseminating their hurtful, racist and judgemental tripe. If they think the 'racist' label is inappropriate then they should prove otherwise.

A Sobering Comedy about Farmer Suicides

2010-08-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

'Peepli Live' is a brilliant first feature by the talented Anusha Rizvi and produced by big Indian film industry names like Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao and Ronnie Screwvala.

Made in the tradition of the 'nautanki' style (folk theater or operatic drama), 'Peepli' is a salt-of-the-earth style comedy about serious social issues facing India today. The slow pace of the action leaves regular 'Bollywood' junkies dissatisfied. However, Peepli is essential viewing for those desirous of the 'real' India. The India where there is a rigid structure of class that

is only exacerbated by the arrival of technology and media. Omkar Das Manikpuri plays the witless Natha, (the farmer about to commit suicide because he was unable to pay his bank loan) and Raghubir Yadav plays his wittier brother Budhia.

Rizvi has written a very clever story that is at once a sharp critique of the Indian political establishment as well as the cow-towing media and its sensationalism. The film also highlights the brutal and critical issues facing farmers from the likes of powerful IMF and World Bank supported corporations like Sonmanto (actually Monsanto) which buy out the politicians and change laws in order to weaken the social infrastructure of Indian farming society.

'Peepli (Live)' is the antithesis of Bollywood. Whereas Bollywood takes a select few and highlights India's 'whiteness' through manufactured representations, 'Peepli' takes the masses and highlights their Indian-ness. 'Peepli' shows what Indians really look like. It shows their wrinkles, their tiredness, their happiness, their brightness- all without the glitz and glamour of Bollywood. It humanizes India and every wrinkle on the frail and elderly farmer's face (the one digging his own grave) speaks volumes without the farmer ever uttering a word.

The West clearly realizes the errors of technology and industrialization; the BP Gulf oil spill being a case in point. 'Peepli' documents the struggle Indian farmers are facing and highlights the plight of the farming community in the face of great corporate and government pressure. There are lessons to be learned from capitalist corporate peddling and 'Peepli' is a wakeup call.

'Peepli' is reviving the tradition of nautanki and bringing back the truth to the world about the suffering of the masses and the humanity of the people of India. The viewer comments have been disheartening because as usual the masses going to cinemas are used to the formula flick and editing tricks that quench their thirst for sensationalism. 'Peepli' critiques this very need for the sensational over the real and puts the audience in the uncomfortable position of self-reflexivity and self-examination. There is a poignant scene where one of the television crews is examining the farmer's excrement which directly challenges the viewer to examine the depths that we will descend to in order to get a good scoop.

I really enjoyed 'Peepli' and hope to see more though-provoking independent Indian cinema. I can't wait to see what Rizvi does next.

Expendables Glorifying Mercenaries

2010-08-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

The trailer for the new Hollywood juggernaut 'The Expendables' starts with the line "they are the world's greatest mercenaries". If that is not enough to turn you off wait till you see what it is all about.

Boasting a loaded cast of action heroes from the last three decades including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Shwarzeneggar, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Micky Rourke and Jet Li, 'Expendables' promises to be a no-brain, action-packed, non-sensical, blow 'em-up dick flick. It led Stephen Coles of the Globe and Mail to comment that "there's so much slugging and shooting, so much loose testosterone, male viewers might sprout another testicle".

When George Bush asked Hollywood for help, he got more than he could have dreamed of. While serious films about war are bombing at the box office (Road to Guantanamo, Taxi to the Darkside, Standard Operating Procedure), films that justify illegal armies and glorify the Americans and their agents turning the world into the 'Wild West' seem to be gaining popularity. Is it the overall idiocy of the masses or the fact that people actually endorse this kind of debauched behaviour? Would Al Qaeda not be considered a mercenary army by the same logic? Would the so-called "illegal combatants" not have the same legitimacy as these glorified American mercenary heroes?

The reason there seems to be unlimited resources for this sort of nonsense film (I am sure funded partly by the Pentagon) is because it plays into the justification of real mercenary armies that the USA is using around the world (as in Blackwater in Iraq and now in Pakistan and Afghanistan under the new name 'Xe Worldwide'). This sort of irresponsible film should not be supported at all. In fact it should be banned.

My hope is that at least people that are the victims of mercenary army violence stop supporting such militaristic and brutal film projects. Whereas comedies about Bin Laden (like the recent 'Teray Bin Laden') are banned in places like Pakistan (for they might offend the Taliban), I am sure this will be a big blockbuster hit because the censor boards will never put two and two together; not when they themselves will be first in line at the cinema along with their kit and caboodle.

I hope films like these stop raking millions but instead lose money so that Hollywood learns a lesson. If you want to watch seniors running around and behaving like pubescent teenagers, then I would recommend this film. I for one will not be spending money in a cinema and would urge my friends and acquaintances to either not go and support this film or to at least try to watch it online.

How to tackle Racism

2010-07-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

Blackface at Fantasia Bollywood 'Tribute'

2010-07-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

The creator of Fantasia’s "Bollyood Zappin"Marc Lamothe (aka DJ XL5) is a multimedia artist and one of the directors of Fantasia Film Festival. I went to his show hoping for an entertaining evening. What I got to witness instead was a botched job with clumsy snippets from random mainstream films from India over the last six decades along with song and dance numbers performed by white kids in blackface.

The first film collage started with Indian actor Amir Khan’s drag performance in Ashutosh Gowariker's 1995 film "Baazi". The clip got roaring laughter from the audience, however it was never revealed that the leading lady was actually a man in drag. The line between respectful representation and cheap farce appeared at this point.

In the next segment about twenty young white actors in t-shirts and jeans, with blackface makeup (that really just looked dirty more than anything else), started lip syncing and dancing to an Indian film song. Their attire was extremely shabby. I saw a few South Asian audience members get up and leave at this point.

The second set of clips happened to be from mostly the same movies chosen for nothing more than shock value. A clip from a movie where Amitabh Bachan slaps actress Neelam across the face a few times received much audience applause. The films concentrated on a handful of film stars like Amitabh Bachan, Akshay Kumar, Amir Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan. There was no mention of actresses, directors or writers. Almost entire film trailers were used with no contextualization or explanation of image juxtaposition. There were two distinct clips of South Indian actor Kamal Hassan in black face regalia- afro wig and all. Clips of Rajnikanth and his little dancing dwarf were repeated along with fat Indian celebrities making it with voluptuous young women. The whole shtick got very tiresome.

The Indian film industry is a thriving enterprise with hundreds of state produced films commonly called "art films". Mr. Lamothe makes the false assumption that Bollywood is the "cinema of India". Many Indian filmmakers take exception to the term Bollywood as it is pejorative to Hollywood. Lamothe also claims that the Bollywood films are "Moulin Rouge-inspired" when in fact Moulin Rouge was inspired by Bollywood.

Reductionism is abundant in mass media and Hollywood is no exception. However one expects better from a festival of international caliber taking place in the cosmopolitan city of Montreal. It is no surprise that people will laugh at the "other's" expense. Race always makes those at the giving end a kick for their buck. I pointed out to Mr. Lamothe that blackface theatrics were not only in very bad taste but were also racist. Lamothe explained to me that his intentions were noble. He wanted to pay homage to Indians. I think that indeed may be the case, however reducing a people and their culture into such essentialist caricatures takes away their dignity and agency besides being insulting.Lamothe explained to me that he "ha[s] no Indian friends". I told him that there were many Indian performers of Kathak, Bharatnatyum and Bollywood dance as well as trained actors that work with companies like "Teesri Duniya" in Montreal. He told me he did not look for them at all. Apparently because he did not see the point- anyone in blackface can do the same job- perhaps even better. Does one have to know South Asians in order to know that it is not alright to caricature them?

With Bollywood Zappin’ Lamothe and his contemporaries seem to view Indian film and culture as a monolith. In his interpretation, Indians seem no more than a bunch of ill-trained brown clowns singing and dancing nonsensically to much Western comic relief. There is no dignity in this mockery.

When is black face alright? Never!

The Vancouver Winter Olympics: Orchestrated like Hollywood propaganda

2010-02-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Anti 2010 Winter Olympics symbol.
Design: Native Youth Movement

In 1984 I was glued to my TV watching the summer Olympics as a nine year old kid in Pakistan. It was the greatest show of strength and competition in the world for me and I somehow connected its international scope to Star Trek and Hollywood. So many nations coming together in harmony I thought, in the greatest country on earth… Los Angeles. For me the USA was Hollywood and Hollywood was USA. I did not know the difference between the different cities of the West but I knew they were all just marvelous and trouble free and full of gorgeous people.

Just like a Hollywood film, the fairytale of the Olympics also came to head for me when I realized what a sham the Olympics really are. There is no sportsman spirit in a world where millions are starving while athletes from rich countries essentially compete against one another in order to show off the superiority of their nation and race in comparison with other countries.

Beyond the concept itself, the institution is highly problematic as well. The Olympics are a corporate brand that makes a few people very wealthy at the expense of the many. In 2006, Quebecers finally paid off their $1.5 billion debt from the 1976 summer Olympics and the Olympic stadium called the “Big O” was re-labeled the ‘Big Owe’ because it took thirty years to pay off the Olympic debt.

Signs of strain have already been showing in Vancouver as the budget for security inflated from $175 million to over $1 billion- most of it footed by the taxpayer.

The people of Vancouver are overrun by police brought in from around the country and the army personnel and undercover cops are curbing dissent under the guise of ensuring the ‘safety’ of the delegates descending upon the city.

Canadian Border Service agency has already come under scrutiny for harassing Amy Goodman, the host of “Democracy Now” when she was coming to speak in Vancouver in November 2009. A very surprised Goodman was interrogated about whether she intended to speak about the Olympics? That fiasco continues today with the deportation of Olympic critics like Martin Macias Jr. last week and the continued blockade of Olympic critics -from journalists to activists, from entering Canada.

Activist Harsha Walia wrote in the Vancouver Sun, “Under the guise of this exceptional two-week party, we are left with irreversible policies of corporate welfare, gentrification, land grabs, surveillance and massive debt”. Walia also points out that “Vancouver has experienced a 300-percent increase in homelessness since the Olympic bid, while approximately 1,600 new market housing and condominium units are being built around the Downtown Eastside”. According to Vancouver residents it is getting next to impossible to find affordable rental housing in the city.

Native activists have been speaking out against the B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and his lack of concern for the environment. Mr. Campbell is giving license to builders from all over the world to exploit B.C.’s resources and build highways, ski resorts, hotels and to mine the mountains, which sustain the indigenous peoples of the area. Protesters are often arrested at demonstrations and labeled as thugs creating trouble or impeding progress. The media presents legitimate claims as greed. According to the “No 2010” website, “BC is unique in Canada in that most of the province is unceded, non-surrendered Indigenous territories”.

In order not to be labeled racist and attacking Native peoples, the Olympic committee needed to get some Native support. They got this support from some Indian Act band councils who do not represent the majority of B.C. Natives. The Olympics are also appropriating Native art and symbols in order to seem like they care about the indigenous people of the land and their well being. Meanwhile corporate greed is destroying Native land and continuing a legacy of appropriation of Native land and culture.

The goal of organizations like www.no2010.com is to band together diverse communities of conscience; from environmental groups, to anti-poverty groups to anti-corporate and anti-war groups. All this in order to highlight the plight of the Native and the poor in B.C. and elsewhere so that the exploitation of land and of the peoples in so called democratic societies can be addressed.

In 2008, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government was accused of slashing funding to the arts. His government responded with numbers stating that there has actually been an increase to funding of the arts. What they did not explicitly mention was that funding for the Olympics (the opening and closing ceremony expenses et all) had now been moved into the realm of the “arts” while real funding for visual and performing arts had been slashed significantly.

Despite all attempts to create a show that addresses race injustice in America, Gene Roddenberry was faced with constant revisions by producers and was never able to produce a show that did not keep the white male at the helm of power with all other races shown in relation to his higher moral and ethical place in the universe. Similarly, the Olympics are a circus that ultimately showcases white Western athletic superiority and sportsmanship over the rest of the universe. Meanwhile, the support of corporations, newspapers, magazines and the political machinery help legitimize this misappropriation of tax payer dollars and the redirection of funds that should be going towards healthcare, education and the arts.

Take Back Your TV

2009-11-28T21:25:00.000-08:00

Celebrated Filmmaker Discusses Mashup Video Art

Mike Hoolboom takes image appropriation to another level. In an age of ever-increasing corporate control of media, the Canadian experimental filmmaker makes waves and encourages young artists to take back their right to rip, burn, appropriate and recreate.

This year's Festival du Nouveau Cinema marked the premiere of Hoolboom's newest film, Mark. A tribute to Hoolboom’s longtime friend and editor Mark Karbusicky, it chronicles the life of a man Hoolboom calls an “animal rights activist, political vegan [and] punk maestro.” Mark also follows Karbusicky's life partner and transsexual extraordinaire Mirha-Soleil Ross, a powerful spoken word and video artist in her own right.

WOK: What inspired you to go into writing and then filmmaking?

Mike Hoolboom: I was always supposed to be a writer, but then I made a wrong turn. Filmmaking was a place I didn’t belong, and I arrived without any useful talents or inclinations. It was a world filled with men who could fix things, who could touch the world with their hands and make it sing again. Deep machinery interface. Not to mention expensive. But it promised an escape from a life I never had, and this proved too seductive to refuse. For many years I watched while my comrades produced one shining masterpiece after another while I flailed around in the dark, making small, unintelligible murmurs. But I had this great advantage: I never expected to get anywhere. So I kept throwing myself into it, and eventually, many many years later, the work improved.

You make very personal films and you keep adding to them. How do you maintain that commitment to your work?

I recently attended the premiere of a lovely movie where the director shared with us the story of how many years and hopes had gone into the film’s making. It’s all for this moment, he announced, as the light summary of all that work was about to be unwrapped for the first time. But for this one, happiness arrives in making. I have tried to reduce the aspects of movie making that do not give me pleasure as much as possible—which, for me, means chasing after money, organizing other people, making appointments. What I love is the cutting room, now shrunk to the size of my computer. It is an endlessly renewable resource of cheer. How often I’ve wished I didn’t prefer it to the company of friends and familiars.

How is your personal life related to your work?

My latest movie, still undergoing renovations after an initial test drive of public screenings, is about my friend Mark, who died suddenly and unexpectedly two and a half years ago. Working with his left-behind picture archives and speaking to those who stood with him in the shadows was a way to be close with him again. Ten years ago, I began a long suite of portraits after my friend, Tom Chomont, called me and related a careless moment at a late night danceteria which led to his HIV seroconversion. Alongside his worsening Parkinson’s condition, I wondered how long he could hold up, trapped inside the prison house of his own body. Years after his portrait was finished, he continues to flourish, though his movements are catastrophically restricted. Nonetheless he never drops a word of complaint, or regret, or begins a sentence with the words “if only.”

You challenge your audience with the sexual representations in your work. Are you concerned about mainstream appeal at all?

Really? Do you think they’re challenging? There was a time I was very interested in making privates public, but everyone around me has stopped having sex, so it seems a far shore.

Mainstream appeal? I know so little about it. I don’t have a television. I listen to a couple of programs on college radio, and the music I enjoy sounds like malfunctioning heating ducts. But I would love the opportunity to direct a hockey game. They still play hockey on TV, don’t they? Every match is unique, why shouldn’t each be lensed in a different way?

What do you hope to accomplish with your body of work?

At the recently finished Reel Asian Festival, director Keith Lock was asked: what are you trying to tell us? What is the moral of your film? I was surprised to hear that morals were on the menu, or that if they were, the director would be expected to know anything about them. I would like to make a movie which would make a contiguous and autonomous Palestinian state inevitable. Of course, I don’t know how to make this movie, so instead I am making home movie cryptoriums, tearing down the security walls of my apartment, working for peace amongst my friends.

What will you be presenting at Concordia. Why did you choose those specific pieces?

I’m going to undertake an act of ventriloquism, passing along the thoughts of Swiss film festival director and philosopher king Jean Perret. He insists that there are just two kinds of memory, and two kinds of filmmakers. He whispered to me the difference between mysteries and secrets. And there are four things this professional watcher looks for whenever he sees a film. Then I’ll show André, a ten minute biographical fragment that is part of my next project, a feature length look (in six parts) at artists who died young.

Tomorrow I hope to finish recutting the portrait of my friend Tom, “finished” seven years ago. It has won prizes and traveled the world, even shown on Arte. But after tomorrow it will be shorter, tighter and sexier than ever. A deluge of pictures. I’d like to premiere this new/old movie at Concordia.

You inspire a lot of young people. At the FNC there was a work by a young filmmaker that was dedicated to you. How does that make you feel?

It is hard to describe the feeling of relief that arrives when I see a well-considered, experimentalist media moment from someone who can still fit all their candles on a single cake. Please, before it’s too late, bring on the young! Take our screening spaces, our galleries, our cameras, but come quickly. I am haunted by the prospect of the usual graying suspects huddled beneath yet another screening of difficult movies. What we need now, more than ever, is an infusion of fearless new energies and uncoverings. And don’t worry about opening the door, or having it close behind you. Let me share with you a well-known secret: in the world of the fringe, there are no doors.

What gave you the idea of ripping images and music and appropriating them for your art practice?

Picture theft used to be the exclusive preserve of forgers or empire states looting vanquished territories. But today everyone is busy downloading music, lectures, movies. This is all perfectly illegal, and perfectly necessary. The “interbeing” of digital media is part of its nature, digital gravity leads one to steal again and again in a weightless accumulation.

Tweets, downloading and Facebook may all be expressions of a new form of digital subjectivity: everyone can see who I am all the time. What is being left behind is the old picture of ourselves, which might have looked very much like a book: a finite self, and one which opens and closes. A self with secrets revealed over time. The dark continent of the unconscious, for instance. The digital self, on the other hand, privileges simultaneity, its dominant picture shows itself as a web where everything is available instantly and at the same time.

As someone who is interested in portraiture, I have been inevitably drawn to the stunning technological experiment we are now undertaking. It may be hard to imagine, but only a few decades ago there were no personal computers. None. Today there is hardly an office or home that is imaginable without one. This is not only changing what we do, but who we are.

How do you feel about image ownership laws or other intellectual property restrictions? Does it ever discourage you?

Copyright laws are excellent for corporations, but less than optimal for individuals. At this fall’s Nouveau Cinema Fest, I was privileged to catch a talk by Rick Prelinger, the justly celebrated American archivist who has uploaded more than 4,000 movies and made them available for public use. This is a gesture towards a digital commons. Imagine YouTube filled not only with sentimental pop effluvia and personal messagings, but network archives of the “secret” war in Cambodia (which led to the Pol Pot government and ensuing massacres), or the thousands of photographs of prisoner torture at Guantanamo Bay which have been ordered released by federal courts, but which are being withheld for the usual reasons. We need these pictures, they belong to us, and not to corporations or to governments. We need them to understand who we are, and what the government is doing in our name.

Your work is uncompromising in its support for justice and human dignity. With all the wars being waged and humanity at an all time low, how do you keep going? What motivates you?

Humanity has always been at an all time low. What is the stat I recently grazed? That someone dies of hunger every 3.6 seconds. How many have already died in the time it’s taken to read this interview? We are in the midst of a global hunger catastrophe which is estimated to reach one billion people. Can you imagine a billion people hungry? I know I can’t. And yet in the midst of this debacle there are small moments of kindness, somewhere someone is opening a door, or visiting a friend in a hospital, or babysitting, or writing a letter asking our Prime Minister to stop the war in Afghanistan.

Would you like to tell our readers about your personal struggle with HIV/AIDS and the struggle with friends and family? It has had a tremendous effect on your work. How do you feel about its reception? What changes would you like to see in the support system for HIV/AIDS affected individuals?

Recently, not one but two friends confessed to wanting to have unprotected sex with me, and become infected. The fantasy was not simply bareback and the thrill ride of risk, but the infection itself. How close can I get to you before the wound begins?

It feels an indulgence to speak about my personal struggle when 25 million have already died of AIDS, and so many because they weren’t fortunate enough to have been born here in Canada. What I continue to be amazed by is the sexual desert of so many couples, and on the other hand, the epidemic of unsafe sex. As if the contagion wasn’t happening here, not on my street, not in my bed, never. People under 25 account for more than half of all new HIV infections. How busy we are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. A little latex between friends, is it too much to imagine?

(More info) Mike Hoolboom will be offering a film master class at de Sève Theater (1455 de Maisonneuve) Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

Bigot Preaches Humanism

2009-11-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last week, the Link published a CUP article titled “What is a 'soft jihad'?” on Ezra Levant, the publisher of the now defunct tripe known as the "Western Standard". The author of the article, Jonathon Van Maren presented Lavant as an “activist” for “free speech”. Fawning over Levant, Maren failed to mention that Mr. Levant is a right wing extremist himself. The Western Standard was known to be homophobic, ultra-right wing, racist, anti-abortion, promoting deadbeat dads, Islamphobic, blindly pro-Zionist and extremely pro-war.

Mr. Levant and his magazine were so vehemently against publicly owned media that one of the covers of the magazine boasted that by the time the Conservatives are done with the CBC, no one will be able to recognize it. The "Western Standard" took it upon itself to raise controversy because it was a failing magazine. Levant knew very well that those images of Mohammad will raise controversy and so he published them in pursuit of pure sensationalism. If he cared for freedom of speech then at least one issue of that awful magazine would have had an article by a credible journalist that was not on the Can-West media conglomerate payroll. This is how the magazine was promoting itself: “In the Western Standard, "capitalist," "gun owner," "tobacconist," "America" and "men" won't be dirty words. On the other hand, "bureaucrat," "social worker, " "CRTC" and "United Nations" will be treated with caution.”

Meanwhile, on his blog, Van Maren poses the question "Why has the history of Western Civilization been whittled down to an ‘intellectual’ rant howling about the historic mistreatment of minorities?" This statement raises a floodgate of issues. This proves Mr. Van Maren’s questionable understanding of history, politics and journalism. His blog boasts his publications. When ‘journalists’ of this kind get a voice in community magazines and newspapers, the state of journalism itself should be brought into question.

Centuries of progress on racial and religious issues is at stake when individuals can on one hand posture as ‘activists’ interested in freedom while in the same breath denigrate historic struggles against colonial injustices.

Antichrist: More Than Meets The Eye

2009-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

Contrary to the film review in "The Hour", Antichrist is not a film about "a couple whose mutual sexual involvement causes the death of their child". It is a deeply moving film that visualizes the pain and suffering that a couple feels when they lose a child. It is a story told in metaphor. They do not cause the death of their child- it just happens.

Many have described the first five minutes of Antichrist as arguably the best opening to a movie. It is a psychological film that dwells into the very dark places of human beings and humanity. Some describe it as a horror film but I would disagree because a horror film has too much cheesy role play that Antichrist completely avoids.

Antichrist is arguably Von Trier's best work so far. It is an intensely disturbing and moving film about the madness that human beings can be driven to. The loss of a child is unbearable for a parent. Most relationships break up after such an incident. One of the first things to go is sexual interest and a sort of castration often takes places whereby couples lose desire for each other. The steps of grieving are well laid out in the film and very well demarcated. The intense visual play speaks volumes and the cinematographic beauty of the film is overwhelming. The music is also haunting and very introspective of the interiority of the characters. Charlotte Gainsbourg is remarkable and very deservedly won the top actor prize at Cannes.

It is tragic that people are unable to get over the literal representations in the film. This film should be appreciated for its intense beauty and metaphorical storyline and the subtext that underlies all the visual representations of pain and suffering. It is a classic that perhaps most people are just not ready for yet.

The Book Of Nightmares

2009-10-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Once in a while a book comes along that pulls the Ikea rug right from under your feet and has you landing on your behind. Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes has just that affect. It is essential reading. The Book of Negroes takes us through the horrid world of slavery as seen through the eyes of the young, beautiful and adventurous midwife, Aminatha Diallo (Meena). While in England helping abolitionists with their mission against the slave trade, Aminatha recalls the story of her life and how at the age of twelve she was kidnapped from her village in West Africa and sold into slavery. We see the world through the eyes of this remarkable protagonist who cannot fathom the extent of greed that drives white colonizers to such abhorrent extents for exploitation.

The actual “Book of Negroes” is an enormous document that lists the black men and women escaping slavery, poverty and hunger in the United States with promises of hope and freedom in Nova Scotia. It is a racist document, listing people’s attributes like farm animals and categorizing them in relation to their usefulness to their masters- a predecessor of the Immigration document listings of today.

In Beloved Toni Morrison speaks of the horrors that ‘residual memory’ brings forth to the children of slave ship survivors. There are horrific accounts of slaves who are packed like sardines in the belly of the ships, having to drink the urine of their white captors for water in the morning. According to Butch Lee and Red Rover (authors of the non-fiction political book Night Vision), it was African slavery that gave North America its competitive edge over Europe. By reducing workers’ wages to zero, America became very, very wealthy. This wealth came at a great humanitarian cost. The Book of Negroes is a historical fiction that attests to the Lee and Rover claim. At one point in this incredible novel, Aminatha wonders why the tubabo (whites) went through all that trouble to steal the Africans away from their land, kill their loved ones, destroy their villages and ship them all the way to America just for work? She of course could not imagine the fortunes that were being created at the backs of the slaves and the greed of early capitalism that knows no bounds.

What is striking about Aminatha’s tale is her conviction and strong sense of identity that would melt the heart of even the staunchest of white supremacists. Hill has captured a time of great shame and the brutal and bloody legacy of North America. Its impossible not to feel anguished reading how Aminatha is dehumanized and brutalized by not just the Euro-American white slave owners, but by other Africans as well. Hill vividly captures the role of the collaborator in the suffering of the enslaved and the internalization of race supremacy by the enslaved.

Reading through Negroes its relevance to today’s culture of demonizing and de-humanizing the other (like Muslims) becomes apparent. The realization that time may have moved on but the scars and signs of slavery are still around us is disheartening as well. The book’s account of collusion amongst the British, the Americans and then the Canadians is also extremely revealing as it is made clear that economic and political interest took clear precedence over humanism. There were thousands of so-called “loyalists” to the British cause- the slaves who gave up their lives in order to fight for the British against the Americans in exchange for liberty and freedom. Negroes documents the plight of these people as they go from one situation of desperation in America to another situation of poverty and subjugation in Nova Scotia.

Negroes delves into the lives of slaves, balancing misery with occasional bouts of humor, which lead to a realistic sense of their lived experience. Deprived of their dignity, their clothes, their language, their culture, their society, their family, friendship or even a name, Africans were left to fend for themselves in the oppressive jungle of white oppression.

Negroes brings to light the many sacrifices that have been made in order to achieve the gains we’ve made as people of color or minorities and the struggle of the slaves parallels lives of those who still remain without status or citizenship. At times the book reads like a horror story. Horror is found in interrogation rooms of today and amongst those walking status-less in our midst; at risk of being discovered and deported. Negroes has also been optioned for creation into a movie by Toronto filmmakers Clement Virgo and Damon D'Oliveira. Whether it will be a horror film or a drama remains to be seen.

A Solid Case against Militarism

2009-10-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

A Case of Exploding Mangoes is an award winning first novel by Mohammad Hanif, a BBC journalist and ex-Air Force pilot. Hanif explores the world of the British style military system that has thwarted the progress of Pakistan for most of its 62-year existence in this dark and engrossing novel.

Pakistan is a country that very few westerners know or care to know about. With over 75% of the budget spent on the military and less than 2% on healthcare and education together, the financial investment of the country is in exact opposition to Canadian spending. The results are socially and economically visible. With a population of over 176 million (and over 70 million expatriates), it is an undeniable force on the world stage. The current climate of savagery and suicide bombings are not an organic creation of the state. The seeds of today’s strife in this nuclear-armed state, were sown by the CIA; with the unfaltering support of the US backed dictator General Zia ul Haq- the main villain in the book.

Mangoes tells the tale of how the universe conspired to get rid of this nasty dictator in the 1988 violent airplane crash that also took with it the cream of the military along with the US Ambassador to Pakistan. It is a humorous and at times educational read. We hear the perspective of a hot-blooded Air Force cadet Ali Shigri, a poor blind girl named Zainab and a nameless crow; they all seem to have something to do with the crash that eventually took the country out of the grips of a tyrannical, fanatic dictator… at least for a few years until General Musharraf took back the reigns.

Class is the biggest dividing factor among people in Pakistan. The military (the biggest employer in the country) ensures the perpetuation of this rigid system with its hierarchies of rank and status and its constant dabbling in affairs of the state. Though not dealing with class directly, the book succinctly deals with Zia’s influence on education (and his version of Islam), his hand in curbing women’s rights and his contempt for democracy and freedom of speech. It was Zia that converted children’s schools into religious institutions and privatized public institutions. This week all universities and schools in the entire country have been ordered closed until further notice due to military action and “militant” reaction all over major cities of Pakistan. Today, the seeds of Zia’s creation bear fruit in the form of teenaged suicide bombers exploding all over the country. Mangoes documents the paving of this road to hell.

"TAQWACORE: The Birth of Punk Islam" takes over Montreal

2009-10-09T09:13:00.000-07:00

"TAQWACORE: The Birth of Punk Islam" premiered to a packed audience at the Imperial Cinema at Montreal's Festival Nouveau Cinema. It is a film that documents the travels of Muslim punk bands in the USA that were united by Michael Muhammad Knight's fictional book "The Taqwacores" (god-consciousness and hardcore punk) about the adventures of a punk rocker Muslim band. Director/Editor Omar Majeed and Producer Daniel Cross (of "Up the Yangtze" fame) have created an instant sensation with this film that is bound to turn heads and raise controversy.

Taqwacore is brim full of hope and testosterone. The film’s major protagonists were all men with the white convert Michael Mohammad Knight forming the central character taking us through the journey of Islamic Punk Rock in America with bands like "The Kominas" (rascals), “Vote Hezbollah” and the all-girl lesbian band from Vancouver "Secret Trial Five". Muslims are demonized in Western media and several Islamic nations have been placed on the US security alert lists, which make mobility to and from those nations increasingly perilous. Muslims are constantly the targets of media bigotry and it is rare to see a film that neither victimizes nor demonizes Muslims. I found the parallel between the isolation of the Muslim boys in America and in turn the American boy (Knight) in Pakistan extremely poignant. The homoerotic subtext between Knight and his ‘following’ of young men was consistently present in the film about Punk Rock, which is itself filled with homoerotic angst.

The shooting style and cinematography were also commendable especially because of the shots of Pakistan in its full luscious winter/spring glory. Director Omar Majeed went to great lengths to bribe his way across Pakistan to be able to shoot inside mosques and shrines. There are several scenes with particular nuances that were hilarious to a Pakistani like myself, but lost on the crowd. One such scene was when Knight walks into a Shia Muslim shrine where he joins them in self-flagellation causing much discomfort with the audience observing his white skin turn to disturbing shades of red. It was a highly charged scene with a strong correlation to bondage and sadomasochistic ritual.

The camaraderie between the men was touching, though some in the crowd felt they wanted to hear more from the women as well. The energy of the subjects drives the film full speed but the solitude of Michael and his struggle with Islam and Muslims is intriguing and at times unsettling. Scenes like Michael’s story of abuse by his white-supremacist father set against his conversation with the pot-bellied, misogynist Imam at the Shah Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, created moments that revealed the tensions in his own life and the lives of the millions who struggle with reconciling their conscience with their spirituality.

Taqwacore is an unapologetic film that holds no punches back, however it is a very balanced film and lays out the entire Islam/Punk/Music question for examination. While on one hand it critiques the USA and its fear of brown men and Islam however, on the other, it does not shy away from examining sexism, class oppression (in Pakistan) and bigotry within Islam. A CBC reporter asked me if some would consider this film offensive. I responded that those who want to be offended would be offended no matter what. Taqwacore does what any good documentary is supposed to do. It questions everything, reveals all it knows and lays out bare many questions. It unlocks a Pandora’s box of intrigue along with a ton of hope.

Taqwacore opens for a limited one week run at the Cinema du Parc starting October 19th.

TAQWACORE premiers at the Festival Nuveau Cinema in Montreal

2009-10-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

P.H.A.T.W.A

2009-09-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

This is a great hip hop video by artist Narcicyst directed and edited by talented and beautiful Montreal filmmaker Hala Alsalman at Concordia Universiyty. I am posting it on the anniversary of the Sabra and Shatilla Massacres.

The Narcicyst- P.H.A.T.W.A. (Official Music Video) from The Narcicyst on Vimeo.

A Simple Message

2009-09-09T22:27:00.000-07:00

I have started my degree in Film Production at Concordia. I feel utterly guilty about watching movies and enjoying them and learning to read them critically- No longer just content but structure and style as well.
I would recommend to everyone that is unhappy in what they are currently doing to switch over to what they love to do. Happiness is guaranteed.

I attended my first Film Aesthetics class today but my instructor Matthew Hays is at the Toronto International Film Festival, in the capacity of programmer for Canadian films. We watched the films White Heat by Raoul Walsh (1953) and Standard Time by Michael Snow (1967). We studied camera movement and framing of shots. Pan, tilt, track, aerial movement etc. Very simple stuff. Very exciting!

Our instructor today was "fresh faced" by his own admission. Nice, however I can't wait for Matt Hays return from Toronto.

John Greyson Pulls film "Covered" from TIFF in solidarity with Israeli Academic Boycott

2009-08-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

Covered from John Greyson on Vimeo.

Piers Handling, Cameron Bailey, Noah Cowan
Toronto International Film Festival
2 Carlton St., 13th floor
Toronto Canada M5B 1J3

Dear Piers, Cameron, Noah:

I've come to a very difficult decision -- I'm withdrawing my film Covered from TIFF, in protest against your inaugural City-to-City Spotlight on Tel Aviv.

In the Canadian Jewish News, Israeli Consul General Amir Gissin described how this Spotlight is the culmination of his year-long Brand Israel campaign, which includes bus/radio/TV ads, the ROM's notorious Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, and "a major Israeli presence at next year¹s Toronto International Film Festival, with numerous Israeli, Hollywood and Canadian entertainment luminaries on hand." Gissen said Toronto was chosen as a test-city for Brand Israel by Israel's Foreign Ministry, and thanked Astral, MIJO and Canwest for donating the million-dollar budget. (Astral is of course a long-time TIFF sponsor, and Canwest owners'
Asper Foundation donated $500,000 to TIFF). "We've got a real product to sell to Canadians... The lessons learned from Toronto will inform the worldwide launch of Brand Israel in the coming years, Gissin said."

This past year has also seen: the devastating Gaza massacre of eight months ago, resulting in over 1000 civilian deaths; the election of a Prime Minister accused of war crimes; the aggressive extension of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands; the accelerated destruction of Palestinian homes and orchards; the viral growth of the totalitarian security wall, and the further enshrining of the check-point system. Such state policies have led diverse figures such as John Berger, Jimmy Carter, and Bishop Desmond Tutu to characterize this 'brand' as apartheid. Your TIFF program book may describe Tel Aviv as a "vibrant young city... of beaches, cafes and cultural ferment... that celebrates its diversity," but it's also been called "a kind of alter-Gaza, the smiling face of Israeli apartheid" (Naomi Klein) and "the only city in the west without Arab residents" (Tel Aviv filmmaker Udi Aloni).

To my mind, this isn't the right year to celebrate Brand Israel, or to demonstrate an ostrich-like indifference to the realities (cinematic and otherwise) of the region, or to pointedly ignore the international economic boycott campaign against Israel. Launched by Palestinian NGO's in 2005, and since joined by thousands inside and outside Israel, the campaign is seen as the last hope for forcing Israel to comply with international law. By ignoring this boycott, TIFF has emphatically taken sides -- and in the process, forced every filmmaker and audience member who opposes the occupation to cross a type of picket line.

Let's be clear: my protest isn't against the films or filmmakers you've chosen. I've seen brilliant
works of Israeli and Palestinian cinema at past TIFFs, and will again in coming years. My protest is against the Spotlight itself, and the smug business-as-usual aura it promotes of a "vibrant metropolis [and] dynamic young city... commemorating its centennial", seemingly untroubled by other anniversaries, such as the 42nd anniversary of the occupation. Isn't such an uncritical celebration of Tel Aviv right now akin to celebrating Montgomery buses in 1963, California grapes in 1969, Chilean wines in 1973, Nestles infant formula in 1984, or South African fruit in 1991?

You're probably groaning right now -- "inflammatory rhetoric!" -- but I mention these boycott
campaigns because they were specific and strategic to their historic moments, and certainly complex. Like these others, the Israel boycott has been the subject of much debate, with many of us struggling with difficult questions of censorship, constructive engagement and free speech. In our meeting, for instance, you said you supported economic boycotts like South Africa's, but not cultural boycotts. Three points: South Africa was also a cultural boycott (asking singers not to play Sun City); culture is one of Canada's (and Israel's) largest economic sectors (this spotlight is funded by a Canadian Ministry of Industry tourism grant, after all); and the Israel rebrand campaign explicitly targets culture as a priority sector.

Many will still say a boycott prevents much needed dialogue between possible allies. That's why, like Chile, like Nestles, the strategic and specific nature of each case needs to be considered. For instance, I'm helping organize a screening in September for the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival, co-sponsored by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and the Inside Out Festival. It's a doc that profiles Ezra Nawi, the queer Israeli activist jailed for blocking army bulldozers from destroying Palestinian homes. Technically, the film probably qualifies as meeting the technical criteria of boycott -- not because it was directed by an Israeli filmmaker, but because it received Israeli state funding. Yet all concerned have decided that this film should be seen by Toronto audiences, especially Jews and Palestinians -- a strategic, specific choice, and one that has triggered many productive discussions.

I'm sorry I can't feel the same way about your Tel Aviv spotlight. Despite this past month of emails and meetings, many questions remain for me about its origins, its funding, its programming, its sponsors. You say it was initiated in November 2008... but then why would Gissen seem to be claiming it as part of his campaign four months earlier? You've told me that TIFF isn't officially a part of Brand Israel -- okay -- but why haven't you clarified this publicly? Why are only Jewish Israeli filmmakers included? Why are there no voices from the refugee camps and Gaza (or Toronto for that matter), where Tel Aviv's displaced Palestinians now live? Why only big budget Israeli state-funded features -- why not a program of shorts/docs/indie works by underground Israeli and Palestinian artists? Why is TIFF accepting and/or encouraging the support of the Israeli government and consulate, a direct flaunting of the boycott, with filmmaker plane tickets, receptions, parties and evidently the Mayor of Tel Aviv opening the spotlight? Why does this feel like a propaganda campaign?

This decision was very tough. For thirty years, TIFF has been my film school and my community, an annual immersion in the best of world cinema. You've helped rewrite the canon through your pioneering support of new voices and difficult ideas, of avant-garde visions and global stories. You've opened many doors and many minds, and made me think critically and politically about cinema, about how film can speak out and make a difference. In particular, you've been extraordinarily supportive of my own work, often presenting the hometown premieres of my films to your legendary audiences. You are three of the smartest, sharpest, skillful and most thoughtful festival heads anywhere -- this isn't hyperbole, with all of you I speak from two decades worth of friendship and deep respect -- which makes this all the more inexplicable and troubling.

What eventually determined my decision to pull out was the subject of Covered itself. It's a doc
about the 2008 Sarajevo Queer Festival, which was cancelled due to brutal anti-gay violence. The film focuses on the bravery of the organizers and their supporters, and equally, on the ostriches, on those who remained silent, who refused to speak out: most notoriously, the Sarajevo International Film Festival and the Canadian Ambassador in Sarajevo. To stand in judgment of these ostriches before a TIFF audience, but then say nothing about this Tel Aviv spotlight -- finally, I realized that that was a brand I couldn't stomach.

Peace,

John Greyson

For the duration of TIFF, I've posted Covered at: www.vimeo.com/greyzone

2010 Olympic Nightmare

2009-08-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

District 9 Exposing Truths Encaged by Militarism and Corporate Greed

2009-08-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

District 9 epitomizes the examination of the "Other". It articulates itself marvelously as an anti-colonialist, anti-racist and remarkably anti-militarism film. It is well written and very well directed and acted. The CGI and special FX are fantastic.

The opening sequence and its presentation of the 'wall' as allegory and embodiment of keeping the other out, parallel with that wall in Berlin and that taboo one in Palestine/Israel. The mention of the Nigerians as the ostracized Other is also very compelling.

The film takes you to an imaginary time however you are always constantly aware of the comparisons with our present time and struggles and our present day world, its borders and its human aliens.

Like the recent MOON, District 9 speaks about isolation, confinement, rejection, abuse by corporations and militarism. It humanizes those that are alien and exposes the very inhumanity of the humans that claim to be doing right. The film truly examines "doing good" and raises important issues regarding so-called objective media and 'international' agencies.

The film also examines the gaze of the media and its insidious effects on the notions of justice and fairness. The protagonist (Sharlto Copley) is no hero in this film. He is the regular Joe sitting at his computer or living his suburban bliss, in a place of power granted to him due to his position in society and his contacts rather than capability. His behavior is consistent and his character believable because it is unlike Hollywood movie heroes like Arnie and Willis. His transformation happens at all levels- internal and external, and only then does he open his eyes and come out of his shell of apathy, ignorance and idiocy (criminality in my opinion).

Apathy is a crime. We are all guilty of it. We have been given a brain and feelings. If we do not open our eyes, we are all doomed, sooner or later. I hope the message gets across to those going for just another Sci-Fi action thriller flick. And oh by the way, it is not a Peter Jackson film. This film has been written and directed by the very brilliant Neil Blomkamp and if you read the online buzz, he plans on a sequel as well.

Postcolonialism, Multiculturism and the Delusion of Race-free Society

2009-08-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

The term ‘postcolonial’ is contentious. Often used to describe the set of theoretical frameworks that deal with the colonial period across the global ‘South’, it is the prefix ‘post’ in the term that is misleading. This is mainly because the effects of the colonial period continue to shape and inform the lives of individuals across the ‘global beyond’ theory, both implicitly and explicitly. Much work has been done to establish the legitimacy of the term postcolonial and books such as Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) and Franz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks (1952) are some theoretical works used to define the dawn of this era. However, I will argue in this article that the way the current world order exists, a more appropriate term to describe contemporary art would be “neo-colonial” as colonialism has not ended: it has just changed form like a shape-shifter in the X-Men comic book. The colonizers of the last five hundred years of human history and the Northern nation states of today identify and perpetuate this term in order to make colonization seem like a thing of the past, no longer wreaking havoc on the lives of the global South. People living under occupation or war know that colonization is an existential reality for which they suffer with the complicity of powerful ‘coalition’ states perpetuating the wars. How can we be living in a postcolonial era when the colonizers very much occupy and enjoy centre stage and all the privilege our universe has to offer? This paper will examine a series of relationships that highlight the continued colonial struggles over ownership of identity, land, and visual culture. By looking at contemporary artists of colour, Canadian selective investment in art and ‘multiculturalism’, Canadian complicity in domestic (Native and First Nations) as well as imperial cultural hegemony (Palestine/Israel/Iraq/Afghanistan), I will show how these relationships have been shaped by a colonial history fraught with contentious and problematic power dynamics. The increased support for neocolonialism and military spending comes at the cost of Canadian visual and performing arts that depend on Government support.

Canada and Orientalism: What the Oriental Other is to the culture market in Canada
The tale of European colonization begins with the European ‘discoverers’, the theft of land and natural resources from all over the world, the genocide of over 92 million Natives in the Americas, Aboriginals in Australia and continues with the African slave trade from Africa. The idea of a ‘race’ hierarchy was based on the idea that Western Europeans were morally and culturally superior over others. This was in turn used to justify nineteenth century Western colonialism and continues to inform the politics of neo-colonialism. The whole idea of ‘race’ hierarchy based on whites dominance was essentially perpetuated to justify colonialism and to this day it is the trademark of colonization. We can see this manifest in the Westerner’s unease with the Muslim women’s head covering (or hijab) while nuns have worn similar garb for hundreds of years without alarm. Noam Chomsky writes that the longer the Europeans colonized a region, the worst off it ended up. For example, he notes that the first place in India that the British colonizers arrived in is now called Bangladesh; they called it “paradise on earth” and today it is the very epitome of poverty. The British colonizers chopped off fingers of craftsmen who created the finest fabrics on earth at that time so that the British fabric makers could have the competitive edge over Indian fabric. Chomsky argues that the Europeans never colonized Japan; therefore it is today a thriving country of the ‘developed’ world (Chomsky 60). Chomsky explains, “After the West had robbed the colonies… they changed over to so-called “neocolonial” relationships, which means domination without direct administration” (Chomsky 57). Colonialism has always been about hegemony of the European white race and their way of life over all others. Today this superiority is perpetuated by the USA, Canada and the other G8 European nations which control the rest of the world by either playing host to most corporations or controlling most of the land and most governments around the world. Hollywood and the US military industry are more obvious examples of the current climate of Empire building and the “neo-colonialism”.

In Orientalism Said established the Oriental as the Other:
Along with all other people variously designated as backward, degenerate, uncivilized, and retarded, the Orientals were viewed in a framework constructed out of biological determinism and moral-political admonishment. The Oriental was linked thus to elements in Western society (delinquents, the insane, women, the poor) having in common an identity best descried as lamentably alien. Orientals were rarely looked at; They were seen through, analyzed not as citizens, or even people, but as problems to be solved or confined or… taken over. (207)
Here Said speaks of the end of the Ottoman Empire, which was eventually carved up by European colonizers into nation states serving the European colonizers; however, he might as well be speaking of the aboriginal and First Nations in North America. This idea of justifying the pillaging of the Other is perpetuated today in Western media of all leanings - liberal to right wing. Empire building and corporate as well as cultural global colonization by the Euro Americans is well under way.

We do not live in a post-colonial time and artists who belong to a formerly ‘colonized’ nation are still entrapped in the clutches of being represented as the ‘Other’ (McKay xiii). Painters William Wilson and Francesco Clemente (both working in France) “infantilize their work in the classic tradition of the mimic, the trickster and performer who adapts a language and persona or wears the guise of pristinely Otherness so as to draw attention or sustain a career” (Oguibe 19). Though both artists are considered postcolonial and their work is considered to be of the same genre and style, Clement is Euro-American and therefore able to “freely step across cultures and geographies in search of inspiration and form without fear of the charge of appropriation.” Wilson is of Tongolese decent:
[His] predicament represents a condition not of choice but of contingency, where every move has consequences, and success and survival hinge not only on the ability to affect required gestures, but to produce to a certain taste and expectation also. As a perpetual outsider in the West, a postcolonial artist like Wilson is required by the Western viewers and clientele to produce work that easily reminds them of the presumed facts of his origins… (Oguibe 19)
Oguibe argues that artists of color have to assume the “constructed” identity of their ethno-racial origins to be recognized by the art world, while white artists are free to work without any such constraints. “Wilson is expected to wear his Africanness on his sleeve, to shout his Afritude… Wilson and his art must be seen to indicate that he is not one of us” (Oguibe 20). Oguibe also addresses the pressure on the postcolony itself where artists make two types of works: one type to please the western buyer who wants to buy “ethnic” art and the other more authentic art made from the artists’ own desires for the local marker. Thus, Oguibe states, “postcoloniality, like coloniality, appears to manifest itself as a condition of duplicity, a condition of performative duality, a locale of the seemingly impossible” (23). The postcolony still suffers from the colonizer because it “develop[s] a culture shaped by outside ideas, desires, and matching patronage” and when its artists are used as historians to document only its misery, victim hood and suffering, “the postcolony finds itself twice overwritten”. Canadian “culture brokers” are at the forefront when it comes to support of artists such as Cheri Samba of Zaire. “Samba’s narrative of life in his country is… mediated by a transparent enthusiasm to satiate the inebriate desires of Western patrons for a cataclysmic narrative of the postcolonial condition… Samba is the native who enjoys the role of authenticating and affirming Western rhetoric of postcolonial debasement” (Oguibe 24, 25). Finally, Oguibe argues:
By yielding to [the] economy of Otherness, postcolonial culture jeopardizes the possibility of constructing autonomous subjectivities. However disguised, playing the Other inevitably implies complicity in a subjugatory relationship. It fosters mythic identities and “realities” by converting difference into formula and promoting a culture that seeks its significance solely in quaint peculiarity.
Thus the immigrant or artist of colour is forever the outsider whether he or she likes it or not.

Canada and Natives: Multi-cultural mask of oppression.
Over 50% of Canadians claim their origins to be other than English or French yet the mainstream Canadian discourse is entirely Anglo-French. It is evident that Canada is complicit in colonial struggle as well as genocide via its suppression of freedoms of the Native and First Nations and its support for war, conquest, racism and Empire building. Colonialism creates the idea of the Other and then allows the colonizer to dehumanize the Other to such an extent that stealing, pillaging, killing the Other for its own gain is made to seem harmless if not necessary. Currently, aboriginal peoples of the world are under colonial assault from states that do not allow them the dignity of self-governance or oppress them in other ways that are hidden. The term genocide is applied to the suffering of the Jews under the Nazis; however, the definition would include many other victims of today’s global world order. According to the 1948 United Nations convention on genocide:
Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group as such: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, forcible transferring children of the group to another group.
From this definition, the peoples of the Middle East (Arabs whether Muslim or Christian) would be considered to be under a genocidal assault by the American military and the media industries. Films such as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s True Lies (directed by Canadian James Cameron) deliberately dehumanize Arabs by showing them as terrorists. Films like Zack Snyder’s 300 (entirely shot in Montreal) skew history to show people of the Middle East as backward, ignorant or barbaric. There is a real dearth of positive or heroic Arab or Middle Eastern characters in Western television shows and cinema. Instead there is a constant referencing of the Middle East as perpetrators of global terror, in an attempt to destroy the dignity of the peoples of the Middle East in order to justify colonial oppression and hostilities against their civilian populations in direct contravention of international law.
Inside its borders Canada also perpetuates the idea of Otherness by its Multiculturalism Act and indifference to Native and aboriginal autonomy. Scott MacFarlane argues that the Multiculturalism Act is itself Eurocentric because it provides “a rationale for the operation of the liberal nation while at the same time obscuring a colonialist history of violence” and explicitly excluding the “Yukon, Northwest Territories as well as First Nations and band councils” (22).
Canadian author and celebrity Grey Owl fooled all of North America and Europe’s whites into thinking that he was Indian. He did not fool the Indians (Francis 137). Similarly, immigrants to Canada know very well that when it comes to “multiculturalism”, Canada only wants the song and dance and the cuisine but not the substance of non-white cultures. “You are born again in the land of opportunity, equality and freedom. Being born again, your relationship to your past is one of death. You are dead but reborn through the narcissistic spirit of multiculturalism…” (McFarlane 24).
Zionist appropriation of Palestinian land, art and history are comparable to the Native struggle against the B.C. Olympics and the Government of Canada. The systemic de-legitimization of the Other’s narrative and the appropriation of culture and the theft of land are all part of the Canadian political landscape. Native imagery has been appropriated for corporate gain for over a century. CP railways printed postcards and magazines in order to promote movement and settlement in the “wild west” (Francis 181). The inukshuk has been used by Air Canada to promote the Winter Olympics in British Colombia is 2010. A Native mural painted across the body of Air Canada aircraft is used to publicize the corporation as the ‘official’ airline of Olympics, with complete disregard of the theft of Native land by the B.C. Government.
In British Colombia, there is a long history of Native oppression concerning the residential school systems where Native children were forcefully taken away from the families and thus prevented from learning about their culture, their identity and language, sexually and physically abused and mentally tortured and destroyed. This could fit the definition of genocide. Similarly, in Iraq the United States has been on a mission to decimate the country for over two decades now. The outright occupation (rendered illegal by even the United Nations and then acknowledged as such by the Obama administration) still has not started any kind of debate for reconstruction and reparation. The “[Canadian] “pluralist tradition” of treaties and policies regarding First Nations people actually became the model for South African apartheid” (McFarlane 28). And before that, it was a model for Hitler’s genocide of the Jews and homosexuals in Nazi Germany. Canada, instead of moving away from the promotion of hidden and overt racism, is actually promoting it through its policies domestic and foreign.

Canada and militarism: Canada’s increasingly militaristic turn under Harper
“Just a decade ago, Iraq boasted one of the most modern infrastructures and highest standards of living in the Middle East. The world’s second largest oil producer, it had in recent decades used oil revenues for ambitious projects and development programs, as well as to build one of the most powerful armed forces in the Arab world. It had established a modern, complex health care system, with giant hospitals built on Western models and using the latest equipment. It had constructed sophisticated water-treatment and pumping facilities. It had an extensive school and university system.” (CANESI)
Today Iraq is considered to be one of the worst and most dangerous countries in the world. Canada has provided logistical support for the Iraq mission (Antiwar.com). Far from condemning the war, the present Prime Minister Steven Harper is on record urging Canada to join in the pillaging of Iraq; a speech he plagiarized from the Conservative Australian Prime Minister John Howard has made rounds on Youtube (Liberalvideo).
Qassam was a Palestinian hero who fought the British Colonizers and was assassinated by British Imperial soldiers. The Israelis have been brutally suppressing the story and calling the 1936-1939 Palestinian revolt against British colonization and anti-Jewish movement. Even the mention of Qassam and those families that try to keep his story alive are persecuted. Sami Kilani, a poet, was imprisoned for three years by the Israeli army for “inciting” with his poetry (Swedenburg 10). His library was destroyed three times and three times he had to rebuild it. His belongings were never returned. In 2006 when Israel attacked Lebanon in what was labeled a “disproportionate use of force” in world media, the Canadian Prime Minister Harper called it a “measured response from Israel”, thus clearly stating his position and support for a colonizer regime that has based its system of mass ethnic cleansing and theft on the Canadian model.
Far from acknowledging the role that the colonizers are playing in systematic destruction on the cultures of the colonized, the colonized are not even allowed to mourn for their loss or remember their victimization in a dignified manner through their art, poetry, cultural or oral traditions. This treatment of the criminalization of memory, it can be argued, is a form of genocide. In his essay entitled “Escape: In Search of the Natural Soul of Canada”, Roy MacGregor speaks about celebrated nature writer John Muir who came to Canada in 1864 as a “draft dodger” escaping the Civil War in the United States because at twenty-two “the young man declared war “so unsightly a monster”(69). Muir was forever moved by his experiences in Canada that allowed him to look inside himself and he went on to influence authors such as John Burroughs, Aldo Leopold, Calvin Rutstrum and Sigurd Olson. The government of Canada under Stephen Harper has barred U.S. soldiers from escaping to Canada as conscientious objectors to war. Despite parliamentary support for war resisters, Harper’s government has been deporting American soldiers and their families not willing to partake in the neo-colonial wars. Canada projects itself as a peaceful nation, yet its policies support U.S. imperialism and neo-colonial conquest.

In conclusion, the concept of postcolonialism is flawed because it presumes the end of colonial relations. This is manifestly untrue. In Canada, the conservative government of Stephen Harper has outright redirected funding from the arts to militarism. The Canadian government claims to have increased funding to the arts; however, they have included sports events such as the Winter Olympics, under the arts banner while diminishing funding to the Arts Councils, artist travel abroad and arts organizations. The government has tabled legislation that would remove critical tax credits from films it considers ‘inappropriate’ from its ideological perspective (Neil). Canada has increased its role in Afghanistan instead of decreasing it. A double language has also been created to support Canada’s wars. Canadians are asked to “support the troops”; however, what the government is really asking is for Canadians to support the wars. This kind of ‘doublespeak’ has been a cornerstone of modern imperial conquest. The terms ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation’ are used to justify wars where actually those exact ideas are being systematically removed from all colonized peoples. Abu-Gharib prisoner abuse by American soldiers and Guantanamo torture by Canadian intelligence are proof of the abuse of the justice system and international law. This is further evidence of Canada’s militarism and support for U.S. imperial hegemony. To claim that we live in a postcolonial time would be like claiming that we live in a post-racism time. We all wish it were true; however, as I have proven in this essay, the sad reality is that colonialism and imperialism exists in the most insidious form in our world today and there seems to be no escaping this foul epidemic that grips the world and is the central cause for global socio-economic and environmental destruction. Canada’s role in this empire building is also very clear as is proven by its exponential military spending and involvement in U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and its unfaltering support of Israel at the expense of the arts and cultural funding. Ask the Iraqis in Baghdad if they live in a time of post-colonialism when they have witnessed the looting of their most precious museums and artifacts. Ask the Native and First Nations of British Colombia as they see their sacred burial grounds bulldozed and their language, culture, art and tradition silenced with all but token relics remaining. Ask the Palestinian villagers whose families have for generations been harassed for keeping alive memories of their heroes and who are imprisoned or persecuted for “incitement” via poetry. The answer to these queries will be a resounding “NO”. History will judge Canada harshly for its complicity in the crimes of neo-colonialism.

MOON Shines!

2009-07-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

One would think that in an age when Aliens and Star Trek have already been done and overdone, it would be pretty difficult to make a Sci-Fi that just blows you away.
It has been done with this phenomenal film. Bravo! Kudos to the filmmaker Duncan Jones and his team. Made with a $5 million budget!

The film is beautifully acted and directed. Sam Rockwell could well be an Oscar contender.

The idea of the other is also very resonant in the film. Without giving away too much of the story, I would say that the whole film questions the ideas of who does our dirty work? Whose backs are we building societies on? Who is progressing and at what cost? My friend Adam even mentioned the resemblance of the moon to excavated areas like the oil sands in Fort McMurray Canada.

MOON is about alienation; it’s about how we anthropomorphize technology; it’s about the paranoia that strikes you when you are in a long
distance relationship; and it’s about learning to accept yourself. A lot to take on for a little indie film, but maybe that was the best place to try. It is “only science fiction” after all. - Duncan Jones Director

I thoroughly enjoyed this multi-layered film. There are so many themes running through this film all at once. One can enjoy it from a psychological perspective, or a purely artistic one. This film is layered with meaning and a real exploration of ideas. It reminded me more of WAL-E than anything else at times. The themes of isolation, corporatization, alienation, environmentalism and technology ran through this film as well.
Great, great film not to be missed!

The Toronto Garbage Strike and the Critique of Ideology

2009-07-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

Article by Matthew Flisfeder

After six months of contract negotiations with the City of Toronto, union members of CUPE locals 79 (representing inside workers) and 416 (representing outside workers) went on strike on June 22nd, 2009. Twenty-four thousand city workers walked off the job to fight demands from ‘cash-strapped’ city management, which is asking city workers to make concessions in their new contract. The top issues in this strike are job security, seniority, and the highly contested issue regarding the banking of sick days that can be cashed out upon retirement. The strike has caused a ‘disruption’ to several municipal services in Toronto, the most visible of which is the cessation of residential garbage pickup.

Within the first week of the strike, the city announced that it would be opening 19 different ‘drop off’ sites for residential trash. These sites were then set up in various public parks across the city. The decision to use local public parks as (what are effectively) garbage dump sites has sparked anger amongst residents who are in an uproar about the whole situation, confused about which side to ‘blame’: the city or the union.

A strike like this, one which has been holding for over one month, is surely bound to cause frustration amongst the public. However, the ‘garbage strike’ also provides us with some interesting insight into the function of ideology, today.

In his 1997 book, The Plague of Fantasies, the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst, Slavoj Žižek, refers to the differences between German, French and Anglo-American toilets to make a point regarding the form of ideology. The form of ideology, at its most basic, according to Žižek, has to do with the different ways in which we dispose of shit. The triad – French, German, Anglo-Saxon – Žižek tells us, was first interpreted by the German philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel as the triad of German ‘reflective thoroughness’ (philosophy/metaphysics), French ‘revolutionary hastiness’ (revolutionary politics), and English moderate utilitarian pragmatism (liberal economics). For Žižek, each of these elements of German, French, and English culture can be interpreted into the different styles of toilets in each country: German – shit falls on a flat surface at the back and is flushed through a hole at the front – ambiguous contemplative fascination: one can look at, and reflect upon their own shit; French – the hole is bigger and at the back so shit can fall directly into the hole and disappear immediately – hasty attempt to get rid of the unpleasant excess as fast as possible: revolutionary radicalism; English-American – taking elements from both, the shit remains but floats in water – the pragmatic approach to treat the excess as an ordinary object to be disposed of in an appropriate way.
Confronting the Invisible

This, I think, is the best way to understand the current ‘garbage strike’ in Toronto. What the garbage strike confronts us with is our own excrement, with our own shit. Here we have a perfect example of the invisible suddenly becoming visible. The transformation of public parks into dump sites is forcing Torontonians to encounter, directly, the waste of their lives: we are forced to see the sight of all of our junk, and to smell the odour of our waste. We are being forced to encounter the obscene underside of our everyday ‘normal’ pleasant existence.

Torontonians are also being forced to confront the invisible labour involved in getting rid of their trash, which is to say that, under ‘normal’ circumstances, no one bothers to question how our trash is disposed of; no one wonders how our junk magically gets taken away and disappears from our lives. Where does it go? But more importantly, how does it get there, and who takes it there? No one really cares to think about this under regular circumstances. Things just seem to happen.

Of course we all know that there are ‘garbage men.’ We know that there are dump sites. We know that we have a hefty ecological crisis on our hands, to boot! However, at the same time, we choose to ignore these things because it is more convenient to do so. In other words, it is convenient for us to avoid thinking too much about where our junk ends up, who gets rid of it for us, etc… It is convenient because it helps us to get on with our everyday lives; it is what allows us to function. If we were constantly worried about these intricate details of a society, we would probably lose our ability to function properly...

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What does it mean to be a Revolutionary?

2009-07-22T15:04:00.001-07:00

Proof That Poofs can be Parents

2009-07-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Critical Media Literacy in times of War

2009-06-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.ncr.vt.edu/mediaproject/home.htm

Conditions worsen in Swat valley as more than 2.5 million are made homeless

2009-06-01T13:04:00.000-07:00

The BBC reports that more than 2.5 million people have been made homeless during the recent operation between the militants in Swat and the Pakistan army.

The situation is dire at best. Meanwhile the rest of the country sits in oblivion.

Art and Neoliberalism

2009-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

As much as I am enjoying going back to school after years and my new Visual and Performing Arts in Canada course, I have to say that the guest speakers so far have been disappointing.

Our professor is Dr. Craig Morrison of the Concordia University music department. His lectures are thought provoking and quite inspirational. When I tell friends that have taken the course previously how much I am enjoying it, I am told that I am lucky because they all found it to be utterly boring. I shared this with Prof. Morrison and he gave his signature smile in response.

Our guest lecturer today was a Canadian artist named Scott MacLeod; a very nice man. His early works are bold, loud, powerful and engaging (Art for Love and Freedom 1988). All the new work he showed us left something to be desired. MacLeod, a handsome white Canadian thoroughbred mentioned his interest in hockey along with some socio-political "dabbling". His trip to Mexico in the 80's left an indelible impression on him because he met artists and environments of openness and an art-celebrating culture amongst the Mexicans. Mexican mural influences imbue his work. Along with two other artists he formed a group called the "Raza Group" inspired by Mexico. MacLeod explains that "raza" means "race" in Spanish, but I still do not understand the reason for that name.

MacLeod showed slides of how he along with his Canadian Raza group members have reached out to the First Nations in B.C., the "marginalized" peoples of Newfoundland and worked on some kind of "abused" women's program. It all seemed like superficial "dabbling" into issues without any real commitment or full appreciation for them. I understood the fun of their Newfoundland visit to mining towns and the hospitality of the people. That was real and did not feel like art "tourism". Next MacLeod showed us slides of famous classical art works that his "Raza group" have copied as restaurant decor for some restaurant in Montreal. I yet again failed to understand the significance of that work. MacLeod introduced some work with a First Nations artist that will be at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, without a mention of the overwhelming criticism of the Olympics coming from Native activists all across Canada.

www.no2010.com

I asked MacLeod about contemporary issues facing Canada such as the war in Afghanistan to which he replied that the dangerous situation in that country prevents him from going and working with school kids in Kabul. Do you have to go to Afghanistan to critique Canada's role in the war? And he never mentioned any interest in a critique of the government or the status quo for that matter. The guy didn't even so much as make fun of Harper and his "arts gala" comments. Is that the trait of an activist artist?

MacLeod also showed us his first 22 minute documentary on the fall of the Berlin wall entitled "After the war with Hannelore- A Berliner war child's testimony 1945-1982". He interviewed a woman named Hannelore who was born in the mid fourties about her life around the Berlin wall. The film started with images from the holocaust museum in Berlin. A student rightly asked what the holocaust museum had to do with the Berlin wall? His response was that "it moved him". There was great animation and composite work in the documentary no doubt, however there was also a complete lack of recognition of the "other" wall that is being built as we speak and destroying peoples lives in the same if not even bigger way. MacLeod also failed to mention "that" wall until I grilled him about it and then too his response was unenthusiastic and vague. I liked the subject he chose for his documentary but the best thing about the film was still the quote "first comes food, then morals". I pondered upon the irony of using that quote. I would use it in a film in defense of the Hezbollah, the Iraqi resistance or even the Taliban and their defense of their homeland.

I think perhaps the lecture was not properly titled. Instead of "Art and Activism" it should have been called "Art and Neo Liberalism". I questioned Prof. Morrison about his choice of neo-liberal artists for our class. He felt that this may be enough material for a first year art course. However, I disagree. In my first year at Ryerson I had the privilege of taking an amazing Philosophy course that really challenged my entire way of thinking and helped me grow. That is what university education should be all about. Challenging the mainstream and growing. Otherwise we can all get the same brain washing nonsense on TV and we would not need to go to school.

www.macleod9.com

Health Diagnosis Pakistan:

2009-04-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

Obvious psychological pathology however complete and utter denial of any and all problems.

I made a trip to Pakistan this March 2009 to study the atmosphere there and figure out whether my feature film project can become a reality despite the political upheaval in the country. I am trying to make a film about class oppression in Pakistan. The historic long march demanding judicial justice had just come to a successful conclusion and there was an air of jubilation in the country. I too went with a clear and positive mind set especially after reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert- she speaks of travel, open-mindedness, spirituality, filling your heart with love and exuding good energy in order to help others realize their potential. So I was determined to make a difference. I was able to have a thick protective covering of self-confidence and able to communicate without having to be defensive which was a certain change from all the other times I have had to visit; where I was inevitably miserable and led down by anything and everything. However, I soon realized the state of denial that exists in that country from a micro -family and friends level to the macro- national level. People are in denial about their mental health, their familial challenges in a Global world and challenges of the failure of the old systems of patriarchy. They are also blind to the challenge that is democracy itself in an uneducated population living in an unjust country with the massive problem of class oppression.

My savior was the great weather in otherwise less than ideal situations that I found myself in everyday. I could not have prayed for better weather (around 22 degrees during the day and 18 degrees Celsius at night). The weather helped keep me sane. Spring was in full bloom in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore and the people drunken by complacency or routine I don't know which, but perfectly oblivious to the beating war drums. Every couple of days I saw reports of suicide bomb attacks on police. There was a major suicide attack in a mosque in the North West Frontier province of Pakistan that killed over 70 people and injured hundreds and there was a killing spree at the Lahore police academy which made news globally. In a lopsided country with such massive poverty and widespread injustice, it is very easy to find people who will do horrific things for short term gain and money. With an overwhelming population of teens, is it any wonder most of the suicide bombers are under the age of 18 years old?

A stroke of luck allowed me to rub elbows with the elite of Lahore and Islamabad society where I discovered yet more material for my screenplay. There were parties and festivities in the homes of the rich and well to do and the discussions never veered off into what I think is surely an impending war on Pakistan. "Life goes on" is the comment my aunt made when I asked her about the looming crisis in Pakistan. No one knows exactly who is to blame for the bombings, killings, mayhem that is all around. Many blame America, many blame India and very very few really blame the Taliban or radicalization. There was talk of "good" and "bad" Taliban as well. Someone working for an NGO recalled a story where the "good" Taliban would come in their van with full combat gear everyday to guard the property where a school for girls was being built in order to ensure that the "bad" Taliban would not attack it. Any horrible acts by extremists were blamed on the "bad" Taliban or foreign spies.

One of my cousins deals with obsessive compulsive disorder which he has struggled with from childhood. His madness is affecting the entire family, yet he refuses to go and seek psychiatric help or even to recognize that there is indeed a problem. His family struggles to perpetuate its age old patriarchal system. It is not working however, because some in the family are educated and refuse to live by that standard. It is no longer the head of the household oppressing all under him or her. Now every one that earns money in the family wants to have a say; whether they contribute to the running of the house or not. It is driving Pakistani middle class mad.

The servants were another really interesting issue. No one wants to recognize them as human beings. Therefore, they refuse to work for such "masters". Servants are pretty much to be treated as slaves in Pakistan. From pre-pubescent girls as nannies (even though the Phillipino nanny is now the status symbol) to teenage maid servants. The masters treat the servants with utter disrespect and have no regard for the hours that constitute a "work day". Some work their servants for 10, 12 even sixteen hours a day and then expect them to be there bright and early in the morning when they wake up for their breakfast. So servants, who are getting wiser to this ill treatment, are deciding not to work for such masters. In my aunt's house, rumor has it that the boys of the house do not pay attention to the girl servants (they do not hit on them or sexually harass them) therefore the servant girls (who are presumed to be desperate for the attention of said boys) are refusing to stay and work. No mention of the horrific mistreatment or terrible pay (less than $100 Canadian a month).

My overall trip was somewhat successful as I was able to meet with some great talent (actors and film crew) desperate for good, original stories and quality work. And within my own family I was able to help make amends amongst loved ones and bring a "Canadian" perspective into their struggle with patriarchal hegemony. This will help them for now. I advise long term therapy and trust in objective third party intervention for conflict resolution- an idea that I feel will take another century to finally take root in Pakistan. From a micro to a macro level. There are only two political parties in the country and any third party is laughed at or simply not taken seriously. A third option is no option for most Pakistanis who consider the borders of that tiny country to be the ends of the earth. Anything outside is just too foreign, too alien and too "modern" to be any good.

Introspection is what the Pakistani socialist band "Laal" is singing about in this time of turmoil. They were a fantastic discovery for me and their music is moving millions and bringing hope. Laal sings to the lyrics of Pakistani revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz who spoke out against tyranny, against dictatorships and in favor of true democratic systems for Pakistan. The fact that to this day the biggest problem in Pakistan is class oppression- the naukar (servant) and the malik (master) class and that this is the biggest elephant in the room is just lost on many Pakistanis. For now wherever you look its still mostly denial, denial, denial.

Silent Siege behind Politeness

2009-03-05T02:45:00.000-08:00

A silent siege behind politeness,
Domestic harmony for show.
Lost in the mirage of a marriage,
Outside a world she'll never know

Once Zoora Shah, then Aqsa Parvez and now Aasiya Zubair and God knows how many more...

The Stranger

2009-02-23T20:55:00.000-08:00

Obamania

2009-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

I was very excited about Obama winning the most important presidency in the world.

Everyone thought that Obama will bring accountability once elected even though he was not showing any signs of serious progress in the run-up to his inauguration. However, after observing his inaction over holding the war criminals of the previous administration accountable, I am very skeptical of this man.

Over the past couple of months Obama has chosen war criminals and war mongers for his cabinet, been silent on Israeli war crimes and continues to bomb Pakistan. He wants to increase the level of war in Afghanistan despite all experts advising dialog and nation building initiatives in that region.

Canadians should have their shoes ready!

The latest video by Sikh Knowledge, directed by Arshad Khan

2009-02-16T09:00:00.000-08:00

PUSH; Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance

2009-02-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

L.A. Jews oppose Israeli onslaught on Gaza

2009-01-29T15:33:00.000-08:00

Continuing Bush policies in Israel and Afghanistan

2009-01-27T07:32:00.000-08:00

by Glenn Greenwald

By all accounts, the U.S. is suffering extreme economic woes. We continue to borrow trillions of dollars simply to prevent financial collapse. Our military resources are spread so thin that the establishment consensus view blames the failure of our seven-year (and counting) occupation of Afghanistan, at least in part, on the lack of necessary resources devoted to that occupation. And a significant (though not the only) reason why we are unable to extricate ourselves from the endless resource-draining and liberty-degrading involvement in Middle East conflicts is because our one-sided support for Israel ensures that we remain involved and makes ourselves the target of hatred around the world and, especially, in the Muslim world.

Despite all of that, the Bush administration, just days before it left office, entered into yet another new agreement with Israel pursuant to which the U.S. committed to use its resources to prevent guns and other weapons from entering Gaza. That agreement cites "the steadfast commitment of the United States to Israel's security" and "and to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to deter and defend itself," and vows that the U.S. will "address the problem of the supply of arms and related materiel and weapons transfers and shipments to Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza."

Speaking about that new U.S./Israeli agreement on her show late last week, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (in the course of aggressively questioning an absurdly evasive Sen. Claire McCaskill on the wisdom of Obama's plans to escalate the war in Afghanistan and noting the cadre of Bush defense officials on whom Obama is relying -- video below) observed that the Obama administration has enthusiastically expressed its full support for the new Israeli agreement entered into in the last days of Bush's presidency. Maddow said (h/t Antiwar.com):

Also, not particularly change-like, then-President Bush made a deal in his final day in office with Israel about the terms of Israel's relationship with Gaza. I'm sorry - it wasn't his last day in office. It was within his last few days in office -- my mistake.

The U.S. under President Obama is bound by that last-minute agreement between the U.S. and Israel. And a statement from Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today says that President Obama supports the agreement fully.

Please Read Full Article Here

The video on Gaza that BBC and SKY refuse to air

2009-01-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Bob Simon discusses whether Peace is possible in the Middle East

2009-01-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

Watch CBS Videos Online

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X on Racism

2009-01-20T08:33:00.000-08:00

Gandhi on Palestine and a Jewish State

2009-01-18T14:00:00.000-08:00

Excerpts from Gandhi's writings:

Segaon, November 20th, 1938

Harijan, November 26th, 1938

Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany . It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question.

My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa . Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity. The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close. Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews.

But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine . Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.

The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine , will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colourable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.

But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity. If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany , to ... [text missing in original]

Can the Jews resist this organized and prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is therefore outside my horizon or province.

But if there can be no war against Germany , even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany . How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?

Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though, as a matter of fact in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless.

If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this, I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can.

Indeed, even if Britain , France and America were to declare hostilities against Germany , they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of
thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the godfearing, death has no terror It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep.

It is hardly necessary for me to point out that it is easier for the Jews than for the Czechs to follow my prescription. And they have in the Indian satyagraha campaign in South Africa an exact parallel. There the Indians occupied precisely the same place that the Jews occupy in Germany . The persecution had also a religious tinge. President Kruger used to say that the white Christians were the chosen of God and Indians were inferior beings created to serve the whites. A fundamental clause in the Transvaal constitution was that there should be no equality between the whites and coloured races including Asiatics. There too the Indians were consigned to ghettos described as locations. The other disabilities were almost of the same type as those of the Jews in Germany . The Indians, a mere handful, resorted to satyagraha without any backing from the world outside or the Indian Government. Indeed the British officials tried to dissuade the satyagrahis from their contemplated step. World opinion and the Indian Government came to their aid after eight years of fighting. And that too was by way of diplomatic pressure not of a threat of war.

But the Jews of Germany can offer satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than the Indians of South Africa. The Jews are a compact, homogeneous community in Germany. They are far more gifted than the Indians of South Africa. And they have organized world opinion behind them. I am convinced that if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope. And what has today become a degrading man-hunt can be turned into a calm and determined stand offered by unarmed men and women possessing the strength of suffering given to them by Jehovah. It will be then a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of dehumanized man. The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity. They will have rendered service to fellow-Germans and proved their title to be the real Germans as against those who are today dragging, however unknowingly, the German name into the mire.

And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God rules the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in their favour in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them.

I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilization by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world's literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcaste of the West, to be despised or patronized. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being man, the chosen creation of God, instead of being man who is fast sinking to the brute and forsaken by God. They can add to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.

Collected Works Of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol 74: 9 September, 1938 - 29 January, 1939, pp. 239-242.

Panchgani, July 14, 1946

Harijan, July 21, 1946

Hitherto I have refrained practically from saying anything in public regarding the Jew-Arab controversy. I have done so for good reasons. That does not mean any want of interest in the question, but it does mean that I do not consider myself sufficiently equipped with knowledge for the purpose. For the same reason I have tried to evade many world events. Without airing my views on them, I have enough irons in the fire.

But four lines of a newspaper column have done the trick and evoked a letter from a friend who has sent me a cutting which I would have missed but for the friend drawing my attention to it. It is true that I did say some such thing (Note 1) in the course of a long conversation with Mr. Louis Fischer on the subject. I do believe that the Jews have been cruelly wronged by the world. "Ghetto" is, so far as I am aware, the name given to Jewish locations in many parts of Europe . But for their heartless persecution, probably no question of return to Palestine would ever have arisen. The world should have been their home, if only for the sake of their distinguished contribution to it.

But, in my opinion, they have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism. Their citizenship of the world should have and would have made them honoured guests of any country. Their thrift, their varied talent, their great industry should have made them welcome anywhere. It is a blot on the Christian world that they have been singled out, owing to a wrong reading of the New Testament, for prejudice against them."If an individual Jew does a wrong, the whole Jewish world is to blame for it." If an individual Jew like Einstein makes a great discovery or another composes unsurpassable music, the merit goes to the authors and not to the community to which they belong.

No wonder that my sympathy goes out to the Jews in their unenviably sad plight. But one would have thought adversity would teach them lessons of peace. Why should they depend upon American money or British arms for forcing themselves on an unwelcome land? Why should they resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in Palestine ? If they were to adopt the matchless weapon of non-violence whose use their best Prophets have taught and which Jesus the Jew who gladly wore the crown of thorns bequeathed to a groaning world, their case would be the world's, and I have no doubt that among the many things that the Jews have given to the world, this would be the best and the brightest. It is twice blessed. It will make them happy and rich in the true sense of the word and it will be a soothing balm to the aching world.

Collected Works Of Mahatma Gandhi, Vol. 91 : 20 May, 1946 - 8 August, 1946, pp. 272-273

Note 1: According to the newspaper cutting Louis Fischer had quoted Gandhiji to the effect that the Jews had a good case but he hoped the Arabs too would not be wronged.

How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

2009-01-18T10:30:00.000-08:00

Oxford professor of international relations Avi Shlaim served in the Israeli army and has never questioned the state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions

A wounded Palestinian policeman gestures while lying on the ground outside Hamas police headquarters following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel's vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's prospects were never bright. Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the drawers of water, into a source of cheap labour and a captive market for Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination to Israel and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real political independence.

Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era. Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip remain an affront to civilised values, a powerful precipitant to resistance and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.

Read Full Article Here

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

2009-01-15T21:00:00.001-08:00

An insightful documentary into the media spin regarding Palestine.
Click to watch

We are all Palestinian

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 180 .... January 15, 2009
_________________________________________________

"We are All Palestinian":
Gaza, the War, and Global Solidarity

David Wiebe

Across the world, the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has been viewed with horror and outrage. The massive loss of human life in the densely-populated occupied territory has sparked worldwide condemnation and protest. In Europe, North America, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa and Asia, millions of people have demonstrated against the Israeli version of "shock and awe." The number and size of these protests are a testament of global solidarity with the Palestinian cause, and open new fronts against Zionism and U.S. foreign policy in the region.

Global Solidarity with Palestine

In the Middle East, for example, hundreds of thousands of people have gathered and marched in Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Egypt. In many cases, these protests have blamed the Arab regimes for colluding with Israel and the United States, and have faced severe repression as a result. Protests and riots have also occurred across the occupied West Bank and have suffered repression from the joint forces of Israel and Fatah. In Israel itself, protests by Arabs, communists, anarchists and Jews have also taken place, including a few "civil disobedience" actions.

Expressions of solidarity from outside the region have been no less remarkable, especially in terms of their size, intensity and political composition.

As part of the global day of protest on January 3rd, up to 60,000 people gathered in London against the war and British complicity. After the rally, more than one thousand shoes were tossed at the Prime Minister's Office on Downing Street. Solidarity protests were also held in smaller cities in England such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle. On January 10th, more than 100,000 people marched in a loud, militant protest in London.

The size and scope of these demonstrations cannot be overestimated: for the first time, they mark the Palestinian struggle as a central, galvanizing issue for the anti-war movement in Great Britain, even in small towns and cities.

Click for full article

Michelle Shephard interviews Hassan Almrei, last victim of "secutiry certificates".

2009-01-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

After September 11th 2001, the Canadian Liberal Government at the time introduced draconian measures to curb civil liberties within Canada in order to show the US that they are "tough on terror". They implemented changes to the Canadian Immigrant and Refugee Protection Act (which protects neither immigrants, nor refugees). With the help of the Canadian Intelligence Services (CSIS), they compiled legislation whereby any individual could be arrested without warrant and kept indefinitely on "suspicion". Hundreds fell victim, none every convicted. The Security Certificates were the most insidious of these measures because the victim and their lawyer were not allowed to see the evidence against them and it was almost impossible to build a defense without finding out what you are defending yourself against.

The last victim of the security certificate fiasco has just been released after seven years of mostly solitary confinement. Here is the Toronto Star video with Hassan Almrei.

Israel's Moral and Political Insanity

2009-01-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

"The only difference between this (Obama) gaggle of pro-Israel hawks and the Bush claque is that they are more adept at creating the illusion of a "peace process" to conceal the theft of Palestinian land. Other than that, the differences are negligible. These are hardline Zionists whose aims are the same as the Haganah in 1948 whose task it was "to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves." The basic job description hasn't changed in 60 years." Mike Whitney

Full Article

Sikh Knowledge joint for the people of Gaza

2009-01-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

Palestine Ch-Ching. Listen to this great song by Montreal artist "Sikh Knowledge".

Canadian Newspapers call it a "measured action"

2009-01-06T18:10:00.000-08:00

Since I am critical of the Israeli massacre of the Palestinians therefore, I must be anti-Jewish. Since I am critical of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan etc, I must be anti-Muslim. Since I am critical of USA, Canada and the European Nations I must be anti-Christian. Since I am critical of India I must be anti-Sikh-Hindu-Buddhist.

I am bombarded by my Israeli friends and acquaintances about my support for Palestine. If we were living in Nazi Germany and I criticized the Nazis, would I be considered anti-Christian?

Israeli Defense Forces should change their name to Israeli Offense forces. That is all they seem to be doing. I guess since the "war on terror" started the whole idea of "pre-emptive" strikes and extra-judicial killings came back in style, offense is the new defense.

I am disgusted to read the Globe and Mail editorial today justifying Israel's actions in Gaza as necessary for peace.

Here is the gist of the media's response to today's attacks on UN schools in Gaza that killed dozens of children. "Today terrorist Palestinian children fired themselves at poor Israeli missles". Meanwhile the death toll in Gaza has reached 660.

Measured action on the ground

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

January 6, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST

The ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel, is consistent with the Israeli government's prudent, limited war aims.

Though the invasion is unlikely to change Gaza in the medium or long term, the rocket attacks are intolerable and must be stopped at their source before more Israeli civilians are killed. If the Israel Defence Forces have to return again and again, to suppress new supplies of such rockets, so be it.

Mark Regev, the spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, made clear on Sunday that Israel is not trying to depose the Hamas government, much as a new regime in Gaza would be welcome. Some members of Fatah go so far as to complain that Israel is refraining from regime change in order to keep the Palestinians divided. But Israel is wise not to attempt a reoccupation of Gaza, and a removal of Hamas personnel might well open the way to a similarly fanatical faction.

The IDF is also right to be cautious about getting bogged down in street-by-street fighting in the city of Gaza itself, avoiding the horrific precedents of Stalingrad in 1942 and Manila in 1945. The seizure of a few apartment buildings on the city's outskirts, however, makes sense to provide the IDF with good vantage points."

Full Globe and Mail article

Arundhati Roy on Palestine

2009-01-02T17:56:00.001-08:00

Top Eleven Movies of 2008

2008-12-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

11- Waltz with Bashir
It was almost a tie for number ten between Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis. Waltz is a heartbreaking film about the massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatilla at the hands of the Phalange militia in Lebanon with the complicity of the Israeli defense forces. This film could not have been released at a better time. Kudos to Ari Folman for humanizing the suffering of Palestinians and Israelis alike. The film should could have gone a lot further and tied the incident into events of present day Palestinian territories.

10-Wall E
A phenomenal piece of animation with a really important message for the world.

9- Be Like Others
The most shocking documentary that really left an impact on me this year was a small film out of New York about the fate of homosexuals in Iran. Young men in Iran are coerced into going for gender re-assignment surgery in order to become "normal".
Be Like Others Website

8- Doubt
A drama about a a Catholic school riddled with a power struggle and doubt over the actions of a "liberal" priest. Beautifully shot and acted. Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman build great tension on-screen.

7-Vicki, Christina, Barcelona
This Woody Allen film is surprisingly intimate and refreshingly honest in its contrast between Spain and America. Great performances by Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansen.

6-In the Valley of Elah
The most moving film about the Iraq war this far. Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron just blow you away with their astounding performance in this brutal film about what war does to people.

5- Miss Pettigrew lives for a day
Bharat Nalluri's hilarious and delightful period piece starred the talented Amy Adams and the versatile Frances McDormand. It is a fast-paced comedy, beautifully shot and really cleverly executed.

4-Milk
Sean Penn deserves another Oscar for his performance as Harvey Milk, the first ever openly gay man elected to major public office in the USA. Gus Van Sant's masterful direction will put this film on many people's top ten lists.

3-Amal
Toronto filmmaker Richi Mehta's beautiful and simple story about honesty and poverty won the hearts of viewers world over. This film deserves recognition and praise because it truly makes one think about priorities in life.
Amal Website

2- Slumdog Millionaire
A beautifully written, edited and shot film about the prospective winner of a game show in India. Blends politics, culture, love and pop culture in the blender to create the perfect nail biting thriller. Fantastic soundtrack by A.R. Rehman featuring MIA.
Trust me, don't watch the trailer, just go catch it at the cinema.

1- Heaven On Earth
A bold and honest look at the trials and tribulations of being an Immigrant. A brutal portrayal with magic realism and real magical performances. A great performance by Indian film diva Preity Zinta. One of Toronto director Deepa Mehta's finest achievements and a highly underrated film.

Gaza: the logic of colonial power

2008-12-30T11:04:00.000-08:00

As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen under cover of which the strong crush the weak

I have spent most of the Bush administration's tenure reporting from Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia and other conflicts. I have been published by most major publications. I have been interviewed by most major networks and I have even testified before the senate foreign relations committee. The Bush administration began its tenure with Palestinians being massacred and it ends with Israel committing one of its largest massacres yet in a 60-year history of occupying Palestinian land. Bush's final visit to the country he chose to occupy ended with an educated secular Shiite Iraqi throwing his shoes at him, expressing the feelings of the entire Arab world save its dictators who have imprudently attached themselves to a hated American regime.

Once again, the Israelis bomb the starving and imprisoned population of Gaza. The world watches the plight of 1.5 million Gazans live on TV and online; the western media largely justify the Israeli action. Even some Arab outlets try to equate the Palestinian resistance with the might of the Israeli military machine. And none of this is a surprise. The Israelis just concluded a round-the-world public relations campaign to gather support for their assault, even gaining the collaboration of Arab states like Egypt.

The international community is directly guilty for this latest massacre. Will it remain immune from the wrath of a desperate people? So far, there have been large demonstrations in Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq. The people of the Arab world will not forget. The Palestinians will not forget. "All that you have done to our people is registered in our notebooks," as the poet Mahmoud Darwish said.

I have often been asked by policy analysts, policy-makers and those stuck with implementing those policies for my advice on what I think America should do to promote peace or win hearts and minds in the Muslim world. It too often feels futile, because such a revolution in American policy would be required that only a true revolution in the American government could bring about the needed changes. An American journal once asked me to contribute an essay to a discussion on whether terrorism or attacks against civilians could ever be justified. My answer was that an American journal should not be asking whether attacks on civilians can ever be justified. This is a question for the weak, for the Native Americans in the past, for the Jews in Nazi Germany, for the Palestinians today, to ask themselves.

Terrorism is a normative term and not a descriptive concept. An empty word that means everything and nothing, it is used to describe what the Other does, not what we do. The powerful – whether Israel, America, Russia or China – will always describe their victims' struggle as terrorism, but the destruction of Chechnya, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the slow slaughter of the remaining Palestinians, the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan – with the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed … these will never earn the title of terrorism, though civilians were the target and terrorising them was the purpose.

Counterinsurgency, now popular again among in the Pentagon, is another way of saying the suppression of national liberation struggles. Terror and intimidation are as essential to it as is winning hearts and minds.

Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power determine what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal prohibitions to prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is illegal by definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used normatively as if a neutral court had produced them, instead of the oppressors. The danger in this excessive use of legality actually undermines legality, diminishing the credibility of international institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes apparent that the powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely to preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and colonialism.

Attacking civilians is the last, most desperate and basic method of resistance when confronting overwhelming odds and imminent eradication. The Palestinians do not attack Israeli civilians with the expectation that they will destroy Israel. The land of Palestine is being stolen day after day; the Palestinian people is being eradicated day after day. As a result, they respond in whatever way they can to apply pressure on Israel. Colonial powers use civilians strategically, settling them to claim land and dispossess the native population, be they Indians in North America or Palestinians in what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories. When the native population sees that there is an irreversible dynamic that is taking away their land and identity with the support of an overwhelming power, then they are forced to resort to whatever methods of resistance they can.

Not long ago, 19-year-old Qassem al-Mughrabi, a Palestinian man from Jerusalem drove his car into a group of soldiers at an intersection. "The terrorist", as the Israeli newspaper Haaretz called him, was shot and killed. In two separate incidents last July, Palestinians from Jerusalem also used vehicles to attack Israelis. The attackers were not part of an organisation. Although those Palestinian men were also killed, senior Israeli officials called for their homes to be demolished. In a separate incident, Haaretz reported that a Palestinian woman blinded an Israeli soldier in one eye when she threw acid n his face. "The terrorist was arrested by security forces," the paper said. An occupied citizen attacks an occupying soldier, and she is the terrorist?

In September, Bush spoke at the United Nations. No cause could justify the deliberate taking of human life, he said. Yet the US has killed thousands of civilians in airstrikes on populated areas. When you drop bombs on populated areas knowing there will be some "collateral" civilian damage, but accepting it as worth it, then it is deliberate. When you impose sanctions, as the US did on Saddam era Iraq, that kill hundreds of thousands, and then say their deaths were worth it, as secretary of state Albright did, then you are deliberately killing people for a political goal. When you seek to "shock and awe", as president Bush did, when he bombed Iraq, you are engaging in terrorism.

Just as the traditional American cowboy film presented white Americans under siege, with Indians as the aggressors, which was the opposite of reality, so, too, have Palestinians become the aggressors and not the victims. Beginning in 1948, 750,000 Palestinians were deliberately cleansed and expelled from their homes, and hundreds of their villages were destroyed, and their land was settled by colonists, who went on to deny their very existence and wage a 60-year war against the remaining natives and the national liberation movements the Palestinians established around the world. Every day, more of Palestine is stolen, more Palestinians are killed. To call oneself an Israeli Zionist is to engage in the dispossession of entire people. It is not that, qua Palestinians, they have the right to use any means necessary, it is because they are weak. The weak have much less power than the strong, and can do much less damage. The Palestinians would not have ever bombed cafes or used home-made missiles if they had tanks and airplanes. It is only in the current context that their actions are justified, and there are obvious limits.

It is impossible to make a universal ethical claim or establish a Kantian principle justifying any act to resist colonialism or domination by overwhelming power. And there are other questions I have trouble answering. Can an Iraqi be justified in attacking the United States? After all, his country was attacked without provocation, and destroyed, with millions of refugees created, hundreds of thousands of dead. And this, after 12 years of bombings and sanctions, which killed many and destroyed the lives of many others.

I could argue that all Americans are benefiting from their country's exploits without having to pay the price, and that, in today's world, the imperial machine is not merely the military but a military-civilian network. And I could also say that Americans elected the Bush administration twice and elected representatives who did nothing to stop the war, and the American people themselves did nothing. From the perspective of an American, or an Israeli, or other powerful aggressors, if you are strong, everything you do is justifiable, and nothing the weak do is legitimate. It's merely a question of what side you choose: the side of the strong or the side of the weak.

Israel and its allies in the west and in Arab regimes such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have managed to corrupt the PLO leadership, to suborn them with the promise of power at the expense of liberty for their people, creating a first – a liberation movement that collaborated with the occupier. Israeli elections are coming up and, as usual, these elections are accompanied by war to bolster the candidates. You cannot be prime minister of Israel without enough Arab blood on your hands. An Israeli general has threatened to set Gaza back decades, just as they threatened to set Lebanon back decades in 2006. As if strangling Gaza and denying its people fuel, power or food had not set it back decades already.

The democratically elected Hamas government was targeted for destruction from the day it won the elections in 2006. The world told the Palestinians that they cannot have democracy, as if the goal was to radicalise them further and as if that would not have a consequence. Israel claims it is targeting Hamas's military forces. This is not true. It is targeting Palestinian police forces and killing them, including some such as the chief of police, Tawfiq Jaber, who was actually a former Fatah official who stayed on in his post after Hamas took control of Gaza. What will happen to a society with no security forces? What do the Israelis expect to happen when forces more radical than Hamas gain power?

A Zionist Israel is not a viable long-term project and Israeli settlements, land expropriation and separation barriers have long since made a two state solution impossible. There can be only one state in historic Palestine. In coming decades, Israelis will be confronted with two options. Will they peacefully transition towards an equal society, where Palestinians are given the same rights, à la post-apartheid South Africa? Or will they continue to view democracy as a threat? If so, one of the peoples will be forced to leave. Colonialism has only worked when most of the natives have been exterminated. But often, as in occupied Algeria, it is the settlers who flee. Eventually, the Palestinians will not be willing to compromise and seek one state for both people. Does the world want to further radicalise them?

Do not be deceived: the persistence of the Palestine problem is the main motive for every anti-American militant in the Arab world and beyond. But now the Bush administration has added Iraq and Afghanistan as additional grievances. America has lost its influence on the Arab masses, even if it can still apply pressure on Arab regimes. But reformists and elites in the Arab world want nothing to do with America.

A failed American administration departs, the promise of a Palestinian state a lie, as more Palestinians are murdered. A new president comes to power, but the people of the Middle East have too much bitter experience of US administrations to have any hope for change. President-elect Obama, Vice President-elect Biden and incoming secretary of state Hillary Clinton have not demonstrated that their view of the Middle East is at all different from previous administrations. As the world prepares to celebrate a new year, how long before it is once again made to feel the pain of those whose oppression it either ignores or supports?

Full Article

Peace on Earth

2008-12-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

"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" --Dwight D. Eisenhower

The people of Gaza are yet again under siege. The most populous area on earth is under attack by the biggest military power in the world- IsraeloUSA. The world is silent.

Just last month when terrorists attacked Mumbai, there was outrage and 24-hour media coverage. Do Palestinians not even deserve that? There is a 2-4 km barrier to keep journalists at bay of the atrocities in Gaza. Meanwhile there is a cycle of spin and disinformation being weaved in the US media. The peoples of the USA are still unaware of the true nature of the attacks. If the American peoples knew the truth about the atrocities their government is committing would there be peace in the world?

After Mumbai I posted an excellent and thorough article by Arundhati Roy. Now I feel compelled to post an article by Nir Rosen regarding Gaza.

The truth about War in South Asia as per Arundhati Roy

2008-12-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

The Mumbai attacks have been dubbed 'India's 9/11', and there are calls for a 9/11-style response, including an attack on Pakistan. Instead, the country must fight terrorism with justice, or face civil war

Azam Amir Kasab, the face of the Mumbai attacks. Photograph: Reuters

We've forfeited the rights to our own tragedies. As the carnage in Mumbai raged on, day after horrible day, our 24-hour news channels informed us that we were watching "India's 9/11". Like actors in a Bollywood rip-off of an old Hollywood film, we're expected to play our parts and say our lines, even though we know it's all been said and done before.

As tension in the region builds, US Senator John McCain has warned Pakistan that if it didn't act fast to arrest the "Bad Guys" he had personal information that India would launch air strikes on "terrorist camps" in Pakistan and that Washington could do nothing because Mumbai was India's 9/11.

But November isn't September, 2008 isn't 2001, Pakistan isn't Afghanistan and India isn't America. So perhaps we should reclaim our tragedy and pick through the debris with our own brains and our own broken hearts so that we can arrive at our own conclusions.

It's odd how in the last week of November thousands of people in Kashmir supervised by thousands of Indian troops lined up to cast their vote, while the richest quarters of India's richest city ended up looking like war-torn Kupwara – one of Kashmir's most ravaged districts.

The Mumbai attacks are only the most recent of a spate of terrorist attacks on Indian towns and cities this year. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Guwahati, Jaipur and Malegaon have all seen serial bomb blasts in which hundreds of ordinary people have been killed and wounded. If the police are right about the people they have arrested as suspects, both Hindu and Muslim, all Indian nationals, it obviously indicates that something's going very badly wrong in this country.

If you were watching television you may not have heard that ordinary people too died in Mumbai. They were mowed down in a busy railway station and a public hospital. The terrorists did not distinguish between poor and rich. They killed both with equal cold-bloodedness. The Indian media, however, was transfixed by the rising tide of horror that breached the glittering barricades of India Shining and spread its stench in the marbled lobbies and crystal ballrooms of two incredibly luxurious hotels and a small Jewish centre.

We're told one of these hotels is an icon of the city of Mumbai. That's absolutely true. It's an icon of the easy, obscene injustice that ordinary Indians endure every day. On a day when the newspapers were full of moving obituaries by beautiful people about the hotel rooms they had stayed in, the gourmet restaurants they loved (ironically one was called Kandahar), and the staff who served them, a small box on the top left-hand corner in the inner pages of a national newspaper (sponsored by a pizza company I think) said "Hungry, kya?" (Hungry eh?). It then, with the best of intentions I'm sure, informed its readers that on the international hunger index, India ranked below Sudan and Somalia. But of course this isn't that war. That one's still being fought in the Dalit bastis of our villages, on the banks of the Narmada and the Koel Karo rivers; in the rubber estate in Chengara; in the villages of Nandigram, Singur, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Lalgarh in West Bengal and the slums and shantytowns of our gigantic cities.

That war isn't on TV. Yet. So maybe, like everyone else, we should deal with the one that is.

There is a fierce, unforgiving fault-line that runs through the contemporary discourse on terrorism. On one side (let's call it Side A) are those who see terrorism, especially "Islamist" terrorism, as a hateful, insane scourge that spins on its own axis, in its own orbit and has nothing to do with the world around it, nothing to do with history, geography or economics. Therefore, Side A says, to try and place it in a political context, or even try to understand it, amounts to justifying it and is a crime in itself.

Side B believes that though nothing can ever excuse or justify terrorism, it exists in a particular time, place and political context, and to refuse to see that will only aggravate the problem and put more and more people in harm's way. Which is a crime in itself.

The sayings of Hafiz Saeed, who founded the Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure) in 1990 and who belongs to the hardline Salafi tradition of Islam, certainly bolsters the case of Side A. Hafiz Saeed approves of suicide bombing, hates Jews, Shias and Democracy and believes that jihad should be waged until Islam, his Islam, rules the world. Among the things he said are: "There cannot be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy."

And: "India has shown us this path. We would like to give India a tit-for-tat response and reciprocate in the same way by killing the Hindus, just like it is killing the Muslims in Kashmir."

But where would Side A accommodate the sayings of Babu Bajrangi of Ahmedabad, India, who sees himself as a democrat, not a terrorist? He was one of the major lynchpins of the 2002 Gujarat genocide and has said (on camera): "We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire … we hacked, burned, set on fire … we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards don't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it … I have just one last wish … let me be sentenced to death … I don't care if I'm hanged ... just give me two days before my hanging and I will go and have a field day in Juhapura where seven or eight lakhs [seven or eight hundred thousand] of these people stay ... I will finish them off … let a few more of them die ... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."

And where, in Side A's scheme of things, would we place the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh bible, We, or, Our Nationhood Defined by MS Golwalkar, who became head of the RSS in 1944. It says: "Ever since that evil day, when Moslems first landed in Hindustan, right up to the present moment, the Hindu Nation has been gallantly fighting on to take on these despoilers. The Race Spirit has been awakening."
Or: "To keep up the purity of its race and culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here ... a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by."

(Of course Muslims are not the only people in the gun sights of the Hindu right. Dalits have been consistently targeted. Recently in Kandhamal in Orissa, Christians were the target of two and a half months of violence which left more than 40 dead. Forty thousand people have been driven from their homes, half of who now live in refugee camps.)

All these years Hafiz Saeed has lived the life of a respectable man in Lahore as the head of the Jamaat-ud Daawa, which many believe is a front organization for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He continues to recruit young boys for his own bigoted jehad with his twisted, fiery sermons. On December 11 the UN imposed sanctions on the Jammat-ud-Daawa. The Pakistani government succumbed to international pressure and put Hafiz Saeed under house arrest. Babu Bajrangi, however, is out on bail and lives the life of a respectable man in Gujarat. A couple of years after the genocide he left the VHP to join the Shiv Sena. Narendra Modi, Bajrangi's former mentor, is still the chief minister of Gujarat. So the man who presided over the Gujarat genocide was re-elected twice, and is deeply respected by India's biggest corporate houses, Reliance and Tata.

Suhel Seth, a TV impresario and corporate spokesperson, recently said: "Modi is God." The policemen who supervised and sometimes even assisted the rampaging Hindu mobs in Gujarat have been rewarded and promoted. The RSS has 45,000 branches, its own range of charities and 7 million volunteers preaching its doctrine of hate across India. They include Narendra Modi, but also former prime minister AB Vajpayee, current leader of the opposition LK Advani, and a host of other senior politicians, bureaucrats and police and intelligence officers.

If that's not enough to complicate our picture of secular democracy, we should place on record that there are plenty of Muslim organisations within India preaching their own narrow bigotry.

So, on balance, if I had to choose between Side A and Side B, I'd pick Side B. We need context. Always.

In this nuclear subcontinent that context is partition. The Radcliffe Line, which separated India and Pakistan and tore through states, districts, villages, fields, communities, water systems, homes and families, was drawn virtually overnight. It was Britain's final, parting kick to us. Partition triggered the massacre of more than a million people and the largest migration of a human population in contemporary history. Eight million people, Hindus fleeing the new Pakistan, Muslims fleeing the new kind of India left their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Each of those people carries and passes down a story of unimaginable pain, hate, horror but yearning too. That wound, those torn but still unsevered muscles, that blood and those splintered bones still lock us together in a close embrace of hatred, terrifying familiarity but also love. It has left Kashmir trapped in a nightmare from which it can't seem to emerge, a nightmare that has claimed more than 60,000 lives. Pakistan, the Land of the Pure, became an Islamic Republic, and then, very quickly a corrupt, violent military state, openly intolerant of other faiths. India on the other hand declared herself an inclusive, secular democracy. It was a magnificent undertaking, but Babu Bajrangi's predecessors had been hard at work since the 1920s, dripping poison into India's bloodstream, undermining that idea of India even before it was born.

By 1990 they were ready to make a bid for power. In 1992 Hindu mobs exhorted by LK Advani stormed the Babri Masjid and demolished it. By 1998 the BJP was in power at the centre. The US war on terror put the wind in their sails. It allowed them to do exactly as they pleased, even to commit genocide and then present their fascism as a legitimate form of chaotic democracy. This happened at a time when India had opened its huge market to international finance and it was in the interests of international corporations and the media houses they owned to project it as a country that could do no wrong. That gave Hindu nationalists all the impetus and the impunity they needed.

This, then, is the larger historical context of terrorism in the subcontinent and of the Mumbai attacks. It shouldn't surprise us that Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba is from Shimla (India) and LK Advani of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh is from Sindh (Pakistan).

In much the same way as it did after the 2001 parliament attack, the 2002 burning of the Sabarmati Express and the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express, the government of India announced that it has "incontrovertible" evidence that the Lashkar-e-Taiba backed by Pakistan's ISI was behind the Mumbai strikes. The Lashkar has denied involvement, but remains the prime accused. According to the police and intelligence agencies the Lashkar operates in India through an organisation called the Indian Mujahideen. Two Indian nationals, Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed, a Special Police Officer working for the Jammu and Kashmir police, and Tausif Rehman, a resident of Kolkata in West Bengal, have been arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks.

So already the neat accusation against Pakistan is getting a little messy. Almost always, when these stories unspool, they reveal a complicated global network of foot soldiers, trainers, recruiters, middlemen and undercover intelligence and counter-intelligence operatives working not just on both sides of the India-Pakistan border, but in several countries simultaneously. In today's world, trying to pin down the provenance of a terrorist strike and isolate it within the borders of a single nation state is very much like trying to pin down the provenance of corporate money. It's almost impossible.

In circumstances like these, air strikes to "take out" terrorist camps may take out the camps, but certainly will not "take out" the terrorists. Neither will war. (Also, in our bid for the moral high ground, let's try not to forget that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the LTTE of neighbouring Sri Lanka, one of the world's most deadly terrorist groups, were trained by the Indian army.)

Thanks largely to the part it was forced to play as America's ally first in its war in support of the Afghan Islamists and then in its war against them, Pakistan, whose territory is reeling under these contradictions, is careening towards civil war. As recruiting agents for America's jihad against the Soviet Union, it was the job of the Pakistan army and the ISI to nurture and channel funds to Islamic fundamentalist organizations. Having wired up these Frankensteins and released them into the world, the US expected it could rein them in like pet mastiffs whenever it wanted to.

Certainly it did not expect them to come calling in heart of the Homeland on September 11. So once again, Afghanistan had to be violently remade. Now the debris of a re-ravaged Afghanistan has washed up on Pakistan's borders. Nobody, least of all the Pakistan government, denies that it is presiding over a country that is threatening to implode. The terrorist training camps, the fire-breathing mullahs and the maniacs who believe that Islam will, or should, rule the world is mostly the detritus of two Afghan wars. Their ire rains down on the Pakistan government and Pakistani civilians as much, if not more than it does on India.

If at this point India decides to go to war perhaps the descent of the whole region into chaos will be complete. The debris of a bankrupt, destroyed Pakistan will wash up on India's shores, endangering us as never before. If Pakistan collapses, we can look forward to having millions of "non-state actors" with an arsenal of nuclear weapons at their disposal as neighbours. It's hard to understand why those who steer India's ship are so keen to replicate Pakistan's mistakes and call damnation upon this country by inviting the United States to further meddle clumsily and dangerously in our extremely complicated affairs. A superpower never has allies. It only has agents.

On the plus side, the advantage of going to war is that it's the best way for India to avoid facing up to the serious trouble building on our home front. The Mumbai attacks were broadcast live (and exclusive!) on all or most of our 67 24-hour news channels and god knows how many international ones. TV anchors in their studios and journalists at "ground zero" kept up an endless stream of excited commentary. Over three days and three nights we watched in disbelief as a small group of very young men armed with guns and gadgets exposed the powerlessness of the police, the elite National Security Guard and the marine commandos of this supposedly mighty, nuclear-powered nation.

While they did this they indiscriminately massacred unarmed people, in railway stations, hospitals and luxury hotels, unmindful of their class, caste, religion or nationality. (Part of the helplessness of the security forces had to do with having to worry about hostages. In other situations, in Kashmir for example, their tactics are not so sensitive. Whole buildings are blown up. Human shields are used. The U.S and Israeli armies don't hesitate to send cruise missiles into buildings and drop daisy cutters on wedding parties in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.) But this was different. And it was on TV.

The boy-terrorists' nonchalant willingness to kill – and be killed – mesmerised their international audience. They delivered something different from the usual diet of suicide bombings and missile attacks that people have grown inured to on the news. Here was something new. Die Hard 25. The gruesome performance went on and on. TV ratings soared. Ask any television magnate or corporate advertiser who measures broadcast time in seconds, not minutes, what that's worth.

Eventually the killers died and died hard, all but one. (Perhaps, in the chaos, some escaped. We may never know.) Throughout the standoff the terrorists made no demands and expressed no desire to negotiate. Their purpose was to kill people and inflict as much damage as they could before they were killed themselves. They left us completely bewildered. When we say "nothing can justify terrorism", what most of us mean is that nothing can justify the taking of human life. We say this because we respect life, because we think it's precious. So what are we to make of those who care nothing for life, not even their own? The truth is that we have no idea what to make of them, because we can sense that even before they've died, they've journeyed to another world where we cannot reach them.

One TV channel (India TV) broadcast a phone conversation with one of the attackers, who called himself Imran Babar. I cannot vouch for the veracity of the conversation, but the things he talked about were the things contained in the "terror emails" that were sent out before several other bomb attacks in India. Things we don't want to talk about any more: the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the genocidal slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, the brutal repression in Kashmir. "You're surrounded," the anchor told him. "You are definitely going to die. Why don't you surrender?"

"We die every day," he replied in a strange, mechanical way. "It's better to live one day as a lion and then die this way." He didn't seem to want to change the world. He just seemed to want to take it down with him.

If the men were indeed members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, why didn't it matter to them that a large number of their victims were Muslim, or that their action was likely to result in a severe backlash against the Muslim community in India whose rights they claim to be fighting for? Terrorism is a heartless ideology, and like most ideologies that have their eye on the Big Picture, individuals don't figure in their calculations except as collateral damage. It has always been a part of and often even the aim of terrorist strategy to exacerbate a bad situation in order to expose hidden faultlines. The blood of "martyrs" irrigates terrorism. Hindu terrorists need dead Hindus, Communist terrorists need dead proletarians, Islamist terrorists need dead Muslims. The dead become the demonstration, the proof of victimhood, which is central to the project. A single act of terrorism is not in itself meant to achieve military victory; at best it is meant to be a catalyst that triggers something else, something much larger than itself, a tectonic shift, a realignment. The act itself is theatre, spectacle and symbolism, and today, the stage on which it pirouettes and performs its acts of bestiality is Live TV. Even as the attack was being condemned by TV anchors, the effectiveness of the terror strikes were being magnified a thousandfold by TV broadcasts.

Through the endless hours of analysis and the endless op-ed essays, in India at least there has been very little mention of the elephants in the room: Kashmir, Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Instead we had retired diplomats and strategic experts debate the pros and cons of a war against Pakistan. We had the rich threatening not to pay their taxes unless their security was guaranteed (is it alright for the poor to remain unprotected?). We had people suggest that the government step down and each state in India be handed over to a separate corporation. We had the death of former prime minster VP Singh, the hero of Dalits and lower castes and villain of Upper caste Hindus pass without a mention.

We had Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City and co-writer of the Bollywood film Mission Kashmir, give us his version of George Bush's famous "Why they hate us" speech. His analysis of why religious bigots, both Hindu and Muslim hate Mumbai: "Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness." His prescription: "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Mumbai more than ever." Didn't George Bush ask Americans to go out and shop after 9/11? Ah yes. 9/11, the day we can't seem to get away from.

Though one chapter of horror in Mumbai has ended, another might have just begun. Day after day, a powerful, vociferous section of the Indian elite, goaded by marauding TV anchors who make Fox News look almost radical and leftwing, have taken to mindlessly attacking politicians, all politicians, glorifying the police and the army and virtually asking for a police state. It isn't surprising that those who have grown plump on the pickings of democracy (such as it is) should now be calling for a police state. The era of "pickings" is long gone. We're now in the era of Grabbing by Force, and democracy has a terrible habit of getting in the way.

Dangerous, stupid television flashcards like the Police are Good Politicians are Bad/Chief Executives are Good Chief Ministers are Bad/Army is Good Government is Bad/ India is Good Pakistan is Bad are being bandied about by TV channels that have already whipped their viewers into a state of almost uncontrollable hysteria.

Tragically, this regression into intellectual infancy comes at a time when people in India were beginning to see that in the business of terrorism, victims and perpetrators sometimes exchange roles. It's an understanding that the people of Kashmir, given their dreadful experiences of the last 20 years, have honed to an exquisite art. On the mainland we're still learning. (If Kashmir won't willingly integrate into India, it's beginning to look as though India will integrate/disintegrate into Kashmir.)

It was after the 2001 parliament attack that the first serious questions began to be raised. A campaign by a group of lawyers and activists exposed how innocent people had been framed by the police and the press, how evidence was fabricated, how witnesses lied, how due process had been criminally violated at every stage of the investigation. Eventually the courts acquitted two out of the four accused, including SAR Geelani, the man whom the police claimed was the mastermind of the operation. A third, Showkat Guru, was acquitted of all the charges brought against him but was then convicted for a fresh, comparatively minor offence. The supreme court upheld the death sentence of another of the accused, Mohammad Afzal. In its judgment the court acknowledged there was no proof that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group, but went on to say, quite shockingly, "The collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender." Even today we don't really know who the terrorists that attacked the Indian parliament were and who they worked for.

More recently, on September 19 this year, we had the controversial "encounter" at Batla House in Jamia Nagar, Delhi, where the Special Cell of the Delhi police gunned down two Muslim students in their rented flat under seriously questionable circumstances, claiming that they were responsible for serial bombings in Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad in 2008. An assistant commissioner of Police, Mohan Chand Sharma, who played a key role in the parliament attack investigation, lost his life as well. He was one of India's many "encounter specialists" known and rewarded for having summarily executed several "terrorists". There was an outcry against the Special Cell from a spectrum of people, ranging from eyewitnesses in the local community to senior Congress Party leaders, students, journalists, lawyers, academics and activists all of whom demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident. In response, the BJP and LK Advani lauded Mohan Chand Sharma as a "Braveheart" and launched a concerted campaign in which they targeted those who had dared to question the integrity of the police, saying it was "suicidal" and calling them "anti-national". Of course there has been no inquiry.

Only days after the Batla House event, another story about "terrorists" surfaced in the news. In a report submitted to a sessions court, the CBI said that a team from Delhi's Special Cell (the same team that led the Batla House encounter, including Mohan Chand Sharma) had abducted two innocent men, Irshad Ali and Moarif Qamar, in December 2005, planted 2kg of RDX and two pistols on them and then arrested them as "terrorists" who belonged to Al Badr (which operates out of Kashmir). Ali and Qamar who have spent years in jail, are only two examples out of hundreds of Muslims who have been similarly jailed, tortured and even killed on false charges.

This pattern changed in October 2008 when Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that was investigating the September 2008 Malegaon blasts arrested a Hindu preacher Sadhvi Pragya, a self-styled God man Swami Dayanand Pande and Lt Col Purohit, a serving officer of the Indian Army. All the arrested belong to Hindu Nationalist organizations including a Hindu Supremacist group called Abhinav Bharat. The Shiv Sena, the BJP and the RSS condemned the Maharashtra ATS, and vilified its chief, Hemant Karkare, claiming he was part of a political conspiracy and declaring that "Hindus could not be terrorists". LK Advani changed his mind about his policy on the police and made rabble rousing speeches to huge gatherings in which he denounced the ATS for daring to cast aspersions on holy men and women.

On the November 25 newspapers reported that the ATS was investigating the high profile VHP Chief Pravin Togadia's possible role in the Malegaon blasts. The next day, in an extraordinary twist of fate, Hemant Karkare was killed in the Mumbai Attacks. The chances are that the new chief whoever he is, will find it hard to withstand the political pressure that is bound to be brought on him over the Malegaon investigation.

While the Sangh Parivar does not seem to have come to a final decision over whether or not it is anti-national and suicidal to question the police, Arnab Goswami, anchorperson of Times Now television, has stepped up to the plate. He has taken to naming, demonising and openly heckling people who have dared to question the integrity of the police and armed forces. My name and the name of the well-known lawyer Prashant Bhushan have come up several times. At one point, while interviewing a former police officer, Arnab Goswami turned to camera: "Arundhati Roy and Prashant Bhushan," he said, "I hope you are watching this. We think you are disgusting." For a TV anchor to do this in an atmosphere as charged and as frenzied as the one that prevails today, amounts to incitement as well as threat, and would probably in different circumstances have cost a journalist his or her job.

So according to a man aspiring to be the next prime minister of India, and another who is the public face of a mainstream TV channel, citizens have no right to raise questions about the police. This in a country with a shadowy history of suspicious terror attacks, murky investigations, and fake "encounters". This in a country that boasts of the highest number of custodial deaths in the world and yet refuses to ratify the International Covenant on Torture. A country where the ones who make it to torture chambers are the lucky ones because at least they've escaped being "encountered" by our Encounter Specialists. A country where the line between the Underworld and the Encounter Specialists virtually does not exist.

How should those of us whose hearts have been sickened by the knowledge of all of this view the Mumbai attacks, and what are we to do about them? There are those who point out that US strategy has been successful inasmuch as the United States has not suffered a major attack on its home ground since 9/11. However, some would say that what America is suffering now is far worse. If the idea behind the 9/11 terror attacks was to goad America into showing its true colors, what greater success could the terrorists have asked for? The US army is bogged down in two unwinnable wars, which have made the United States the most hated country in the world. Those wars have contributed greatly to the unraveling of the American economy and who knows, perhaps eventually the American empire. (Could it be that battered, bombed Afghanistan, the graveyard of the Soviet Union, will be the undoing of this one too?) Hundreds of thousands people including thousands of American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. The frequency of terrorist strikes on U.S allies/agents (including India) and U.S interests in the rest of the world has increased dramatically since 9/11. George Bush, the man who led the US response to 9/11 is a despised figure not just internationally, but also by his own people. Who can possibly claim that the United States is winning the war on terror?

Homeland Security has cost the US government billions of dollars. Few countries, certainly not India, can afford that sort of price tag. But even if we could, the fact is that this vast homeland of ours cannot be secured or policed in the way the United States has been. It's not that kind of homeland. We have a hostile nuclear weapons state that is slowly spinning out of control as a neighbour, we have a military occupation in Kashmir and a shamefully persecuted, impoverished minority of more than 150 million Muslims who are being targeted as a community and pushed to the wall, whose young see no justice on the horizon, and who, were they to totally lose hope and radicalise, end up as a threat not just to India, but to the whole world. If ten men can hold off the NSG commandos, and the police for three days, and if it takes half a million soldiers to hold down the Kashmir valley, do the math. What kind of Homeland Security can secure India?

Nor for that matter will any other quick fix. Anti-terrorism laws are not meant for terrorists; they're for people that governments don't like. That's why they have a conviction rate of less than 2%. They're just a means of putting inconvenient people away without bail for a long time and eventually letting them go. Terrorists like those who attacked Mumbai are hardly likely to be deterred by the prospect of being refused bail or being sentenced to death. It's what they want.

What we're experiencing now is blowback, the cumulative result of decades of quick fixes and dirty deeds. The carpet's squelching under our feet.

The only way to contain (it would be naïve to say end) terrorism is to look at the monster in the mirror. We're standing at a fork in the road. One sign says Justice, the other Civil War. There's no third sign and there's no going back. Choose.

Full Article

My Brightest Diamond

2008-12-07T23:03:00.000-08:00

My Brightest Diamond - Inside a Boy from My Brightest Diamond on Vimeo.

Blameshifting to culture will not end misogyny

2008-12-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

In my first year of university at seventeen, I went to a meeting arranged by the White Ribbon campaign. A man was speaking about the group "men against violence against women". In my ignorance and naiveté, I raised the point that women should be more responsible and not perhaps drink too much or allow themselves to be in a situation where they may be vulnerable to rape or violence. The women at the gathering almost pounced at me with rage. I was bewildered. My education in justice and gender equity was about to begin.

On December 10th last year, sixteen-year-old Aqsa Parvez was strangled to death by her brother. Her father initially took the blame. It was revealed that Aqsa's mother and a brother close to her had also left home due to the violence in the home. The media was quick to label it an "honor killing" and point fingers at multiculturalism but most insidiously blaming Muslims. Statistics within and outside Canada show that violence against women transcends culture and religion.

Deepa Mehta's new film "Heaven on Earth" outraged some in the South Asian community who went so far as to say "well she is a Hindu therefore she is making such films about Sikhs". The film could have been about a Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jew and all that happened in it could have in some form or other applied to the modern immigrant experience that was depicted in the film.

"December 6th marks the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The issue became highlighted nearly 20 years ago, when a deranged anti-feminist walked into the École Polytechnique in Montreal and selected and then shot down 14 young women".

http://www.rabble.ca/news/memory-aqsa-parvez-and-future-feminism

Pakistani newspapers called Aqsa "ziddi larki (stubborn girl), addicted to internet chatting and wearing tight clothes". Canadian newspaper labeled the whole affair an international cultural import despite the fact that the wars raging in Afghanistan and Iraq are the biggest acts of violence against women possible. Women and Children are the biggest casualties of war.

In Canada we have a government that does not even think a woman should get paid the same wage as a man for the same job, how can we expect it to make headway towards dealing with this global pandemic?

I have come a long way since first year of university. This education is not taught in primary or high school. Neither is there a course to deal with it in business or engineering college unless you take a women's studies course for good measure. However, all the struggles for justice and equity are related. Working on eliminating my racism led to the struggle to eliminate my sexism which led to the struggle to eliminate my homophobia. It is a life long learning and growing process. This "jihad" (struggle) never ends. I hope the rest of the world will one day move in that direction as well.

Thank you Stephen Harper

2008-12-04T21:27:00.001-08:00

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to bulldoze worker rights by introducing legislation against the public servants right to strike, he tried to kill legislation that would bring pay equity for women (i.e. a woman doing the same job as a man to get paid the same amount as the man) and he tried to stop government funding of political parties. This along with a slew of other draconian measures unilaterally, ignoring the will of the majority of parliament. When the opposition parties, rightfully outraged, decided that they better take matters into their own hands before this buffoon makes a train wreck of the Canadian economy, he back peddled, and fast.

When a Coalition Government seemed to be becoming a reality, Harper cried foul over the idea. He wrongly claimed that a coalition government was "undemocratic". Newsflash: A Government IS a "coalition" of different parties already. What we have now is a minority with a lot of power that thinks it can bully the majority in the "coalition". The majority has decided not to accept the disastrous position of the Conservative and their dysfunctional minority government. They decided to listen to the majority of Canadians, band together to represent them effectively in the difficult economic time that lie ahead. A green shift is essential for the survival of our economy. A shift away from petroleum dependence will save our collective asses for years to come. This government cannot see past Harper's nose.

The mainstream media in western Canada are party to this wave of disinformation spread by the Conservative party spin doctors that somehow Quebec is still interested in sovereignty. Harper still refers to the "sovreignists" as separatists; to the detriment of the already tarnished conservative image in Quebec. So much for any future chance of the conservatives gaining ground in Quebec.

I am immensely disappointed with Michelle Jean for allowing the prorogation of parliament. The taxpayers are basically paying for a two month paid vacation for the Canadian Parliament when they should be busy helping save the economy. The Conservatives are effectively shutting out our elected representatives from doing their job as stated in the CTV article.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081203/harper_undemocratic_081204/20081204?hub=Politics

The cat is out of the bag. The idea of different parties working as a coalition to defeat the regressive and racist policies of the extreme right wing Conservative party has now reached all of the countries dining tables. For this we have just one man and his party to thank. Thank you Mr. Harper!

YES WE CAN! Throw out Harper!

Overload with Pakistan's Pappu Sain

2008-12-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

Bound by sorrows

2008-11-29T23:32:00.001-08:00

India and Pakistan are in this together. Their fights against extremism will founder if fought alone

In the rush to blame Pakistan for the terrorist atrocity in Mumbai, a dangerous mistake is being made. The impulse to implicate Pakistan is of course understandable: the past is replete with examples of Pakistani and Indian intelligence agencies working to destabilise the historical enemy across the border.

But it is too soon to know who is behind the current attacks. Some or all of the attackers may indeed come from or have supporters in Pakistan. Equally, some or all may be Indian. The desire of some in India to ascribe guilt to Pakistan before the evidence is in is, therefore, an attempt to avoid introspection.

India and Pakistan are more alike than politicians of either country tend to acknowledge. The triumphal narrative of India as an incredible success, and the defeatist narrative of Pakistan as an impending disaster are both only half true. For much of this young century, Pakistan has enjoyed economic growth rates not far behind those of India, and this year Pakistan has emulated its neighbour by returning to democracy.

India, meanwhile, is, like Pakistan, home to many simmering insurgencies. Had recent protests in Indian Kashmir occurred in a former Soviet Republic, they would have been hailed by the world as a new Orange Revolution (and had they occurred in Tibet, they would have resulted in calls for international pressure on Beijing). Similarly, the tensions in India's northeast, the armed Naxalite movement, and the slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat all run counter to the half-truth of "India shining".

Both Pakistan and India are plagued by extremist violence. Both have in their six decades of independence dramatically failed their poor. Earlier this year, the World Bank reported that half of Indian children are so malnourished their bodies fail to achieve normal size. That is twice the rate of child malnourishment found in sub-Saharan Africa.

The reason to look at the similarities between India and Pakistan is not to drag India down or to deny the wonderful accomplishments of which Indians should be proud. Rather, it is to point out that the countries are in this together. Their fights against extremism cannot be separated by national borders into convenient compartments, one marked "domestic" and the other "foreign". Just as Pakistan and Afghanistan must cooperate if they are to solve the problems of violent extremism, so must Pakistan and India.

There has never been a better time for such cooperation. The people who can best understand what the residents of Mumbai are going through are the residents of Islamabad. The destruction of the Islamabad Marriott only weeks ago foreshadowed the attacks on the Oberoi and the Taj, and the pitched gun-battle between extremists and government forces in South Mumbai has eerie echoes of last year's bloody and prolonged standoff at Islamabad's Red Mosque.

Just as Delhi has seen bombings this year, so has Lahore. Just as rogue elements of Pakistan's armed forces have been accused of supporting terrorists, so has a lieutenant colonel in the Indian army. Of course India and Pakistan are not the same, but the parallels are remarkable. Continuing to ignore this serves only to divide two countries that could benefit greatly from greater unity.

Fortunately, a coming together is possible. Pakistan is emerging from a long period of denial about its terrorism problem. The Pakistan army is engaged in a massive offensive against extremists in the tribal areas, willing to take hundreds of casualties and displace hundreds of thousands of Pakistani citizens in the process. President Zardari is extending olive branches to India in the form of calls for greater cooperation against terrorism, more economic integration, and compromises on Kashmir.

The Indian government has been slow to seize this opportunity. The Mumbai attacks now provide a perfect pretext to reject Pakistan's overtures and set in motion a train of events reminiscent of 2001, when the terrorist attack on India's parliament brought the countries to the brink of war. Such a reaction would only benefit the terrorists. It would do so directly by distracting the Pakistan army from its offensive in the tribal areas, and it would do so indirectly by turning public opinion in Pakistan, which is slowly hardening against extremism, against India instead.

The alternative is to acknowledge that - like rivers, languages, and history - terrorism ties India and Pakistan together. India cannot prosper while Pakistan festers. Pakistan cannot progress while standing in the way of India's ascent. Only by cooperating can both countries hope to achieve security and make dreams of prosperity come true for more than a small minority.

When terrorism strikes, divisive anger is a natural response. Wisdom lies, however, in realising that we of India and Pakistan are united by our shared sorrow.

• Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist mohsinhamid.com

We're the government and you're not

2008-11-24T21:14:00.001-08:00

Is our education system failing us?

2008-11-24T18:25:00.001-08:00

Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney may never set foot outside the USA

2008-11-21T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dastan-e-Sufism; The story of the Sufi

2008-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Brazillian Street artist Alexandre Orion's "Art less Pollution"

2008-11-12T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Diamond Market of Lahore (Heera Mandi)

2008-11-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

This is a really insightful documentary by filmmaker Maheen Zia about the red light district in Lahore, Pakistan. Beautiful narration by filmmaker Ehteshamuddin. I hope you enjoy it.

We can hear the peace drums beating! The question is will Obama hear them?

2008-11-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

There is an understandable amount of excitement around the fact that Barack Obama is the "first black president". However, history teaches us that minority leaders often do more harm just to prove themselves tough. Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto all got elected with much fanfare and excitement about "women in power" yet proved to be brutal leaders who did little or nothing to promote womens' issues or human rights and justice. So now that Obama is to be the next President of the United States of America, we must be cautious because it may not be the tsunami of change as promised but the wafting stench of the status quo.

Reading Ralph Nader's letter to Obama one realizes very quickly that Obama may be an ingenious Democratic party invention created just to get the African American and the leftist vote while keeping its very right of center ideology.

After all, Obama has promised nothing about ending war, he has said nothing about the elimination of poverty in America, he has stated nothing about holding the war criminals like Dick Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rove and others accountable. Even in his acceptance speech Obama told Americans not to expect too much in the next term and acknowledged the two wars. His speech contained the rhetoric of rights and well being for the American people without the mention of any solid steps towards change.

Obama spoke of "bipartisanship" and working with the other side. Isn't that what the Democratic party has been doing all along? The Democratic party has failed as the opposition in opposing wars or any other regressive Republican measures. Now is a time for "partisanship" and a time for listening to the electorate instead of the lobbyists and corporate interests.

When Colin Powell endorsed Obama, it was a wake-up call. The man who held a fake vile as evidence for Saddam's "chemical weapons" and made the case for war at the UN just five years ago and lied to the world, is now endorsing Obama? Something is very wrong with this picture. According to many critics Powell should have "no credibility" left by now.

In his letter Ralph Nader mentions how the Obama campaign purposefully marginalized the Muslim voters during the campaign in order to distance themselves from any association with Muslims. Obama seemed to bend over backwards for the Israeli Lobby group AIPAC thus shattering any hope that he will be bringing justice to the Palestinian cause.

In a recent documentary aired by CBC television, Obama supporters shut out Amy Goodman of the show Democracy Now when she was trying to get an interview with some of the leading Obama campaign contributors. The show went on to reveal how many corporate contributions Obama is actually getting and how much money from Main Street is pouring in for his campaign.

Michael Moore could not contain his excitement and disbelief at the outcome of this election. Many feel Moore had a huge part to play in the election of Obama with his new doc "Slacker Uprising" available for free online download. The youth vote is what put Obama over the edge with Mc Cain. Obama got three quarters of the youth vote.

Many in the youth, activist and the pro-peace community are energized and heartened by an Obama victory. They are calling out for peace, justice, equity and accountability. The question is, can Obama hear their peace drums or will he march to the agenda of the Military Industrial Complex?

Nader letter to Obama

Jihad for Love

2008-10-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

I ran into director Parvez Sharma last year when he was screening his film "A Jihad for Love" at IMAGINATION- The Montreal gay and lesbian film festival. I was a little embarrassed because I was reminded of the day five years ago, when I first met Sharma for the first time at a conference in Washington D.C. The conference was organized by Al-Fatiha (a queer Muslim group) and it was about exploring Islam and Sexuality. I watched the first cut of the film and I hated it. The film started with two men having sex and it was initially titled "In the name of Allah". I freaked out and told everyone not to participate in the project. Needless to say, that did not make me very popular with the organizers of the event or with Parvez himself.

This time around however, I had a much greater respect for Sharma's work and his struggle with the film because I had myself become a documentary film maker. Sharma met me outside the theater and recognized me at once. He was his usual warm and cordial self and assured me that this film was quite different from the first cut.

I watched the second of two sold-out screenings of "A Jihad for Love". It is a beautiful and well-researched documentary about the plight of queer peoples across the World. I was very moved by Sharma's choice of subjects and about the way he chose to present this very important story. He traveled across the Muslim world and his film is as diverse and colorful as Islamic cultures. Finally a film that does not deal with Islamic culture as a monolith.

Produced by Sandi De Bowski (Trembling before G-d), "Jihad" is a very moving, informative and insightful film. It leaves no avenue unexplored. It has some pre-HD challenges but it has been shot very well considering the time span that it has been filmed over.

The courage of the participants in the film is remarkable as is the courage and determination of this very promising filmmaker Parvez Sharma. I wonder what he'll be up to next?

"A Jihad for Love" screens at Concordia University as part of Cinema Politica weekly screenings. Monday, November 3rd at 7:30 pm. Room H-110

Matt Gonzales, a Politician for the future

2008-10-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

We live in a democracy. We are told to vote. We are however encouraged not to vote for the candidate we believe in, but to vote against a candidate we hate.
Matt Gonzales, Raplh Nader's running mate speaks about voting for who you believe in.

Beyond Obama: Zinn Says Direct Action Needed

2008-10-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Howard Zinn says small differences matter, but a powerful social movement needed for real change

This a pivotal presidential election that finds America mired in two wars abroad, floundering through an economic crisis and digging itself deeper into debt every day, all during a time when global credibility is at an all-time low.

A person who wants a bold change in the way United States is going is not going to find them represented by either democratic or republican candidate. There are certain moments in history when even a small difference between the candidates may be crucial.

The Real News spoke to Howard Zinn, an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright. He is best known as author of the bestseller 'A People's History of the United States'.

Zinn states " We have gone through an insufferable 8 years with the Bush administration, probably the worst administration in history. In this situation we are desperate for a change. So even though Obama doesn't represent any fundamental change he creates an opening for a possibility of change. That is why I am voting for Obama. That is why I suggest to people that they vote for him. But I also suggest that Obama will not fulfill that potential for change unless he is enveloped by a social movement, which is angry enough, powerful enough, insistent enough, that he fills his abstract phrases about change with some real content."

Heaven on Earth

2008-10-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

" I will not say "enjoy the movie" but I do hope that it will move you"- Deepa Mehta

I could not sleep all night. Last night I watched Deepa Mehta's latest film "Heaven on Earth" at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal. I do not think there was a single person at the Imperial Cinema that was not moved by it.

The film starring popular Indian film diva Preity Zinta, portrays a young woman imported from the Punjab for marriage to a Brampton limo driver. Using magic realism to portray religious symbolism and imagery, Mehta crafts a very real portrayal of life in a western ghetto-suburb. Medium and closeup shots are effectively used in this film to convey the feeling of the completely isolating and enclosed life of home and work that most new immigrants endure.

Heaven On Earth is filled with beautiful images from India, from the hot cup of chai that the mother enjoys at dawn to the old lady dancing at the "sangeet" of the bride. However, Mehta delivers a powerful slice of life without the frills of Bollywood or the fake romance of Hollywood. Chilling yet completely honest.

Preity Zinta and Vansh Bhardwaj have delivered career-defining performances. Preity Zinta uses her mother's advice about courage and builds an imaginary world to help her coup with her new life, never once betraying her character and it's innocence. The entire family and its dysfunctional relationship is played out like the prison that is often the hostile confine of the immigrant world. Truly remarkable casting helps this film explore the trials that the young and the old alike face and try to deal with. Violence, like a snake, creeps into everyone. No one is left untouched except for the one that is enlightened from within.

Hopefully the film will help immigrants contemplate their situation. Hopefully Heaven will help non-immigrants understand the tribulations of immigrants and in turn encourage compassionate dialogue. And hopefully, immigrants will one day find it easier to fit in and be embraced by all irrespective of their status, religion, color, culture or creed. Until then, many continue to suffer a life which is anything but heaven on earth.

Opens in Theatres October 31st 2008

You have a choice

2008-10-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

We are all paying more that $18,000,000,000 for War

2008-10-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Well if you have been following the news in Canada it turns out that the cost of the war in Afghanistan is going to be over $18.1 billion. This translates to over $200 million per month or more than $1,500 per household. Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois stated that only 9% of that money is spent on "humanitarian" work and more than 91% on combat. Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party wants an immediate end to the NATO mission and wants the Canadian troops back.

Jack Layton was on CTV's Mike Duffy Live stating that Canada needs "an alternative path based on the principles of (former prime minister) Lester Pearson, who said that peace is tough to accomplish but you've always got to strive to achieve it". "I hope I can persuade Mr. Dion to grab hold of the leadership that's needed here," he said. "I'm hoping he won't go down the path that (Prime Minister Stephen Harper) has laid out, that calls for really an endless commitment of our military to a war-fighting counterinsurgency role, which shows no sign of reaching a conclusion."

With the state of the economy as it is predicted, if you were not morally outraged by this mission in the first place, then perhaps it is time for serious financial considerations. This war is making the war mongers very rich and the rest of us very poor.

The cost could go up to $21 billion, Mr. Page the parliamentary budget officer stated. Stephen Harper and Stephane Dion are both sidestepping the issue and calling it Canada's responsibility to "protect" it's soldiers no matter what the cost to the taxpayers. And they claim to be "fiscally responsible".

So far, none of the media outlets think that war is on the list of priorities for Canadians. Perhaps this strike against their pocket books will change their priorities.

Sarah Palin Interview

2008-10-05T19:29:00.001-07:00

Stickin' with the NDP

2008-10-04T11:53:00.001-07:00

Bailout Defeat Victory

2008-09-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

The US congress has defeated George Bush's bailout plan for the markets. What is interesting to note is that the bill was defeated by the Republicans and no thanks to the Democrats. It is a small victory for the American people though.

Democrat Nancy Pelosi was all for this bailout plan to help her fellow billionaires and millionaires in crime. This goes to show that a majority of the Democrats are in on the campaign to screw the American tax payer. They did not do their job as the opposition for the last eight years. To this day no one is talking about the War in Iraq taking money away from the taxpayers.

Personally I see very little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. Obama should be answerable about the behavior of the Democrats because this makes them look very bad. No oversight, no transparency in the corporate sector. Executives are running off with millions. As someone said recently, the business world is out there to "socialize losses and privatize profits". When there is a downturn, the taxpayers must pay but when there is profiteering in corporations then that money is to only go to the upper management and shareholders. Is this democracy?

Is Canada going to learn from this US disaster? Are there going to be calls for salary caps on Canadian corporate profiteering and demands for corporate transparency and accountability?

http://www.stopthehousingbailout.com/

Democrat Marcy Kaptur on US Financial Bailout

2008-09-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

2008-09-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

War on Pakistan

2008-09-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

Pakistan is being set up for the next great American adventure and all the players are falling into place like pawns on a chessboard.

If you live in the west, you already know what the world thinks of Pakistan. Remember the 2005 earthquake and the lack of support for Pakistan? By and large people in countries like France and the UK did not give enough because they felt that it was Taliban and other terrorists who were killed in the earthquake anyway. Good riddance.

Pakistanis know very well that the people of Pakistan want food, shelter, education, clean water and health care. They are not and have never been a war-mongering nation. The successive western-backed governments have been the ones to promote war and instill the fear of India into the populace. Otherwise Pakistanis would have preferred government spending on housing and job creation instead of American F-16s (essential parts of which were not even sold to Pakistan until many years later).

I read Alan Nasser's in-depth and well-researched article on the mess that the US and its "allies" have helped to create in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is almost certain that the next great US attack will be against Pakistan. The government is weak and filled with corrupt politicians, the last dictator Parvez Musharraf left little or no dignity of the institution of the army and many people in the world think that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is a threat to world security. The dilemma of Pakistanis having to kill other Pakistanis that have been labeled "terrorist" does not sit well with the conscience of the military personnel. The fact that thousands of civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced due to US and Pakistani bombings is not sitting well with the peoples of the North West of Pakistan whether they are supporters of extremism or not. It is uniting them all in their hate towards the state.

Maybe as Nasser states, Al Qaeda is setting up Pakistan as a trap to fight their US enemy and to drain the US. Maybe the Pakistani government is too "soft on terrorists". Maybe India and Afghanistan are funding the terrorism in Pakistan. Maybe it is the USA. All that will not matter when the war drums start beating. This time we may not even need a lying Colin Powell in the UN to make a case for war.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/23-5

Immigration and the Elections

2008-09-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

When I read Lawrence Martin's article entiteld "Why is no one talking about Immigration" in the Globe and Mail, I had to do a double take of the writer. I was surprised to see that it didn't say "Margaret Wente".

According to the article Mr. Bisset (a former Canadian bureaucrat and diplomat) told Olivia Chow that "you're supposed to be a socialist but you want to bring in 330,000 to undercut Canadian unions and workers' wages?", however he never bothered to provide us with her response.

How is it that Mr. Lawrence can throw out this racist and untrue idea that immigrants take away employment from the country and have no counter arguments in his article?

Immigrants create jobs. Without getting into a lecture on immigration, I would like to remind the readers that the Canadian economy is surviving on immigration. Were it not for immigration, Canada would not exist as a country due to it's low birth rate. Also, not enough "desirable" immigrants will venture to this country because it does not have the most desirable weather or economic conditions or social infrastructure as Europe. So a message to racists: "You're outta luck and stuck with us non-whities".

I think Mr. Martin is sitting in oblivion of the fact that the "bigot" label is still very much applicable to many politicians and supporters alike as one can observe from the slew of comments posted on the pages of the Globe and Mail website.

The right wing extremist turn that this country is taking is disturbing to immigrants and citizens alike. Just because Mr. Bisset has immigrants as his relatives does not make it alright for him to make racist immigration policy recommendations and the Globe and Mail or any other newspaper should not be encouraging such disparaging comments against immigrants.

I was glad to read a comment by Mr. Abu Kasim: "Before anyone dares to throw the dust on immigrants and criticize the immigration, he or she should first and foremost look at himself", "because everyone is or was at some point an immigrant", except if you belong to the First Nations.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080919.wcomartin22/BNStory/politics/home

Massacre and Mayhem in my hometown

2008-09-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

So far sixty dead and over 250 injured in the enormous bomb blast in Islamabad that has destroyed the Marriott Hotel, the second largest in the city. It has caused an enormous and ugly crater in the beautiful and lush capital city of Pakistan. It has hit the heart of the bourgeoisie bubble in the land of the overwhelming proletariat.

My family had dined there the night before the blast. It is interesting to note that while applying for funding for my feature film, I was adding that shooting will take place in Islamabad, "the safest city in Pakistan".

The enemies of the State along with the enemies of freedom have yet again struck another one of my favorite cities. Last week it was Delhi and now Islamabad. We now live in a culture of terror and fear thanks to the US led "wars on terror"- The never ending perpetual wars of Orson Wells classic "1984". All War all the time. The US "condemns" it. Well thanks George Bush but we all know that if it weren't for horrible US foreign policy on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, we would not be at this juncture today with no end in sight.

Asif Ali Zardari, the crowned president of the rotten Government of Pakistan has been making speech after speech about brining the perpetrators to justice. What justice is Mr. Zardari talking about? This is the man who has not even restored the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chauhdry or the rest of the judiciary, because he is fearful that they may carry out "justice" against him.

The question arises, who is committing these acts of violence? Who are the suicide bombers? Who are they likely to be? Are they the well-off Pakistanis who are collaborating with terrorists as in 9/11? Are they the educated middle-class Pakistanis? Or are they the very poor? Those who have never even been inside of a hotel let alone a Marriott Hotel. Those who have so little in their lives, they perhaps don't see the point of life. I am posing these questions because I myself want the answers. It is well understood that under Zia-u-Haq and with the help of the CIA, Regan and Bush Sr. poor young men were trained to be killers and fight in Afghanistan. Are these the same and their children coming home to roost?

It is well understood that a country with no respect for the rule of law and no human rights code can never be a prosperous country. A people so steeped in the nonsense of what the mullahs tell them or what they think Islam is but follow no code of ethics when it comes to business or human rights or equity or women's rights, is headed for historic chastisement. It will burn physically and be tortured psychologically.

My heart goes out to the families of those perished or suffering in Pakistan due to the terrorism, due to the murders, due to the violence. But my bereavement also extends to the over 80% poor and working class people of Pakistan whose life is a living hell because of the class difference in the country that never gives them a chance to make their lives better; bombing or no bombing. Those who suffer from the "afsar-shahi", the master-servant relationship and those who suffer from the brutal oppression that is caused by poverty.

I grew up in a very peaceful, peace-loving, open, cosmopolitan Islamabad. My sisters and I could go on late night walks with no threat at all. We could go shopping or for picnics or have parties and we never thought twice about security. I hope one day the whole country is able to see prosperity and days of safety and security. I know that even in those days, the rest of the country was burning while we were in our little "Isloo" (Islamabad) bubble.

I hope one day our generation will get out there and make a difference. It is about time we say NO to violence, No to brutality, No to abuse of women and the poor. YES TO THE RULE OF JUST LAW.

Beauty tips by Audrey

2008-09-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

I was reading Shaila Kibra's blog when I came across this gem.

Below is a wonderful poem Audrey Hepburn wrote when asked to share her “beauty tips.”

It was read at her funeral years later.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

Hinzman on CBC show THE HOUR

2008-09-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Hinzman, the conscientious US War objector and his family are to be deported unless we Canadians rise up and stop the Government from carrying out this undemocratic action. You can watch the Hinzman interview from CBC television here:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=858923262

It is election time so please call your local MP, your candidate for Prime Minister and the media that you follow. Please write to them and take action now so that this injustice is not committed in our name.

Breaking Ranks and the case of Canada's reputation

2008-09-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

I am indeed heart-broken today. I watched Michelle Mason's brilliant documentary film "Breaking Ranks". It is a film about the US soldiers that are trying to seek refuge in Canada from the illegal and immoral US led wars. I have written about it before but it just didn't kick me in the guts until I watched the movie. It reminded me of when I was working to help the Project Thread victims in 2003 and shooting the documentary Threadbare (www.arshadfilms.com/news.htm). The same old struggle against an unjust immigration system that does not care about the will of the Canadian people but constantly imposes it's own exclusionary and racist policies in order to further the agenda of the big lobby groups that form most of the Canadian Conservative/ Reform Party and a chunk of the Liberal Party.

Mason interviews some ex-die hard Republicans that became soldiers to defend their country and to defend freedom. They went in thinking that they were doing the right thing only to find out that they were being lied to from the start. From the stories of the soldiers on the day of their recruitment to their service in Iraq to their escape to Canada, we see articulate, well-informed bright young men and their wives and children who are conscientious objectors of war. These men and women are not afraid to give their lives for their people or their country, they just do not want their lives to be wasted for the sake of these immoral and illegal wars.

I was nauseous at several descriptions of what the US soldiers are up to in Iraq, but when I heard about soldiers desecrating Iraqi bodies and "playing soccer with someone's head", I thought it was too much to take. The stories of the war resisters still resonate in my head.

Despite the Canadian parliament voting in favor of keeping the war resisters, Canadian Immigration is set to deport the Hinzman family on the 23rd of September 2008. I appeal to anyone reading this blog to please take action and call the Prime Minister of Canada at the following numbers on the 17th of September and ask him to stop the deportations of Jeremy Hinzman and his family at once. This deportation will set a dangerous precedence. If we can all stop the deportations of these men and their families, we could actually help stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Canada must keep it's reputation as a sanctuary to conscientious objectors of crimes against humanity. We must not let the war resisters be deported. We must save Canada's reputation from the tarnation brought on by the Governments militarism and pro-US War policies.

Stephen Harper:
Campaign office: 1-403-266-4451
Constituency office: 1-403-253-8203

Diane Finley:
Campaign office: 1-519-429-3382
Constituency office: 1-519-426-3400

Jeremy Hinzman will be on the CBC show The Hour tonight at 8pm (16th September 2008).

(http://www.breakingranksthefilm.com/index.html).
www.resisters.ca

US doublecross EXPOSED

2008-09-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

You heard it here first. The USA was pretending to support Pakistan in it's "War Against Terror", however, it was funding the enemies of the State all along in order to weaken the Army, weaken the country and weaken the population and cause civil war.

Journalist Ahmed Quraishi writes the following about the whole affair:
"LONDON, U.K.—Pakistan is nervous; it cannot believe that the United States can turn on its ally so fast and so easy. President Bush has proclaimed a new war theater in Pakistan alongside Iraq and Afghanistan. But President Bush is dead wrong; the nature of the war in the three countries in quite different.

In Iraq, the resistance to U.S. occupation is organized by sectarian militias that are not excluded from participation in politics; they even have representation in government.

In Afghanistan, the resistance is carried out primarily by the Pashtun majority, which is represented in government only by traitors and turncoats.

Pakistan is not occupied. In Pakistan, the main terrorist organization - Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – has political aims and it seeks to capture and control territory. The TTP is sponsored by the CIA, which provides it money, weapons and equipment.

All the three countries – Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan – are similar in that the American aim is the same: to fragment the nation and impose unpopular/weak governments that will bend to U.S. will. "

He further exposes the whole game by stating:

"Pakistanis now also have damning evidence that shows that Karzai’s security apparatus, which is heavily infested with Indian security and intelligence advisers, has been directly supplying weapons and money to clusters of thugs masquerading as ‘Pakistani Taliban’.

The main assignment for these fake ‘Taliban’ is to target and kill Pakistanis – military and civilians – and kidnap Chinese citizens in Pakistan. Which is surprising because the Afghan Taliban, the real Taliban, are focused on targeting U.S. occupation forces in Afghanistan and not on spreading fear and chaos among Pakistanis. This is more like someone is trying to punish Pakistan through a planned effort."

I am not surprised, but I am saddened that so many people have fallen victim to this theater of War. The US and all other players have Pakistani blood on their hands.

www.ahmedquraishi.com/latest_col.php?id=67

The Axe to Freedom of Speech

2008-09-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Stephen Harper's Conservative Government has axed many Canadian social programs. He began with the low income pregnant womens "eat for two" program and continued until last month when the cuts to film funding were announced. This sort of funding cut does not affect big budget films or well-known filmmakers as much as it affects emerging artists and those trying to make a film in Canada (like yours truly).

I have attended the Canadian Screen Training Center, and I was thinking of applying to the National Screen Institute next year, both of which will no longer exist due to the Harper cuts.
Already the Harper Government wants tax credits revoked from films it deems "inappropriate". Isn't that like muzzling freedom of expression?

In the awful right-wing publication The Western Standard (now defunct), the Conservatives vowed that when they are through with the CBC no one will be able to recognize it. Is that what Canadians want?

As it is, over 84% of Canadian media is owned by four or five corporations which have interest in trade with the US as well as Oil and the Military Industrial Complex. With the CBC gone or no longer what it used to be, our only hope and half-decent source of information will be the Internet.

If Harper gets elected again, we can say goodbye to Freedom of Speech in Canada.

So much for peace

2008-09-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

The BBC just posted that there have been five bombings in New Delhi which happens to be my favorite city in the whole world! Twenty people dead ninety wounded. I am truly saddened.

Who are these people that think it is going to make an iota of a difference to their cause if they perpetrate violence on civilian populations. If if it Muslims, I checked the Quran for confirmation, and indeed there is nothing condoning undeclared acts of war or targeting civilians or even indiscriminate killing. Nothing. Perhaps this time it is not a Muslim group that is to blame. That remains to be seen.

Meanwhile the Indian Government recently took back the land it had alloted (to build a Hindu shrine) in Muslims majority Kahsmir due to the massive protests and demonstrations. Now Hindus are angry and demonstrating against this decision.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=113390&d=26&m=8&y=2008

In other news, George Bush has authorized missile attacks on Pakistan which have already missed targets and killed and injured over 200 civilians just in the last two weeks. This aside from the fact that over 300,000 civilians have been displaced from the Bajaur district of Pakistan's tribal areas due to military strikes against civilian populations in that area.

And apparently the USA is making new nuclear armament deals with India. So much for peace!

www.bbc.co.uk/southasia

War Resisters Day of Action

2008-09-13T13:35:00.001-07:00

My friend Matt Jones arranged the Montreal part of the International day of action in support of the US War resisters. It is interesting to note that on 3rd June 2008, the House of Commons stating that the Canadian Government should create a program that would allow these war resisters to apply for permanent resident status in Canada and that deportations against them must end immediately.

However, the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper is paying no attention to that motion and is deporting these men and their families. What happened to the Canada of Trudeau which provided sanctuary to conscientious objectors?

I wonder if the lies of the disinformation industry that is the Canadian media, have been victorious in their endeavors?

www.echecalaguerre.org

Deliberative Discourse

2008-09-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

So after much arm-twisting and coaxing I am finally convinced that I too should have a blog since I apparently have a lot to say. So here is my first ever blog believe it or not.

This blog is about film and politics. I will have another blog about film and travel where I shall post glamorous photos and videos of my travels.

This blog will be about my views on the upcoming Canadian and US Federal elections as well as the motion picture that I am currently working on entitled "Fault Line: Daraar". I hope that readers will gain important information about independent film making in Canada and overseas from my blog entries.

Thank You and Enjoy!