I’m terrible at keeping up with the themes of my blog. But I have some things I want to say.
So i’m writing this review of Muslims of Metropolis by Kavitha Rajagopalan, and I keep thinking about these two quotes, which may or may not have anything to do with the book, but certainly speak to a certain political mood-crisis i find myself in:
“A lot of the times because of the media and stuff people get forced to be reactionary, like i find myself trying to be the opposite of the media’s perception or something like that. And it’s really fucked up because it fucks with your creativity because you end up always having to answer questions that are based on lies.” — Kathleen Hanna
“I’m doomed to fight on the side of people that have no space for me in their social imagination, and I would probably be the first person that was strung up if they won. But the point is that they are the ones that are resisting on the ground, and they have to be supported, because what is happening is unbelievable.” – Ahrundhati Roy
I also re-read Jigsaw Youth for the first time in forever and i was like dang, this is still relevant to my life.
Also, last week I totally developed emotional problems based on people posting this story to their Facebook profiles. It’s like totally awful and i get that, but I’m also like “Yeah, no fucking shit.” and then i’m all, “The blood of gay Iraqis, much like the blood of all Iraqis is on your hands. talk to you later.”
Send.a.message is a Dutch website that was shared with me yesterday. The basic point is you pay 30 pounds to have your message spray-painted on that which Israel calls their “Security Fence” or “the wall” as it is referred to more commonly. The wall is one of the more obvious symbols of Israel’s apartheid system. The wall, which in large is built by Palestinian labor, effectively annexes Palestinian land and resources. Furthermore, the wall stands as a gross reminder of extremist nation-building practices of the present.
So, back to the website. I don’t really have anything snarky or bitter to say about it. I rather like it actually. It’s just one of those, holy-fuck-the-internet-is-bonkers moments for me. The project offers an interactive and creative way for people to engage with this rather gross symbol of oppression; all the while supporting Palestinian organizations and cultural centers. The website however, offers no Arabic, Hebrew, or Farsi language messaging. Also, I also feel complicated about proposing marriage to someone on said wall. Like, I get that the point is the transform this symbol of oppression into a creative space of love, peace, blah, blah. However, a marriage proposal strikes me as a fucked-up performance of chivalry on some global platform. Like I’m really happy for you Cindy and Mark, but stopping shoving your civil rights in other people’s faces, right? Right.
Special thanks to Meena for brining this to my attention.
Dear Omer,
How you doing? Where are you? I wonder
you got your new phone. Please don’t put
my name as” F Bomb” in your phone like Meena
did in the past. You should be very proud to call
me your mother. ” Mother” is such wonderful
word to be used by children, not a word to demean
her.Mom is person who is selfless from the minute
she finds out she is carring a new life,and go through
a lots of hardship till is new life be come a adult.
Please don’t forget God said that heaven is under
mother feet,if your mother is happy with you God is
not happy with you. Don’t forget all good things will
come to an end, and we will all face Almighty God,
with our deedes. Take care, and be good.
Benazir Bhutto’s daughter has released a rap song in tribute to her mother. While I am wholly uninterested in saying anything snarky about Bhutto’s assassination; nor am I interested in further promoting the cult of Benazir–the richness of this is really too much to pass up.
So, the IDF now has a YouTube page. Which is in my opinion is gross — although, perhaps not suprising. The YouTube site has videos of Israel “targeting” Hamas strong-holds in Gaza and also providing “humanitarian” relief to Gaza. The IDF rather pointedly lists its age as “60″ and writes, “We thank you for visiting us and will continue to update this site with documentation of the IDF’s humane action and operational success in operation “Cast Lead.”
Days ago, the Israeli Consulate of New England conducted a press conference on Twitter about the strikes on Gaza. Where Nathan Hodge of Wired magazine writes of the twitter, ” It’s pretty interesting to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reduced to tweets of 140 characters or less (“We hav 2 prtct R ctzens 2, only way fwd through neogtiations, & left Gaza in 05. y Hamas launch missiles not peace.)” Interesting, indeed.
I guess anyone with half a brain or anyone who hasn’t been entirely brain-washed by the Israeli state can read Israel’s web 2.0 efforts as yet another device in which the Israeli state narrates its national project vis-a-vis their rather hideous attempts to decimate the Palestinian people. Although, again — not entirely suprising that the internet is doing for war what it did for animal lovers and pornography. I do and I think we all should feel somewhat complicated about watching genocide in Gaza on the internet all hussied up as a humanitarian effort.
As you can tell, I’m just sort of using the YouTube and Twitter stuff as a way for me to express how upset I am about all this. Donate to humanitarian efforts in Gaza here.
“I reached the conclusion that the statue of Buddha was not demolished by anybody. It fell down out of shame – out of shame for the world’s ignorance towards Afghanistan. It broke down knowing its greatness didn’t do any good” – Mosen Makhmalbaf
So, while part of me thinks this is totally awesome, another part of me thinks it is totally corrupt. Look at me, conflicted as usual! Also, why did I know Frank Gehry had his dirty little fingers on this.
Oh and this is insane too – off topic, but Frank Gehry related.
Sorry, i’ve been too busy working on my other blog, Otter Desis of the World Unite [and Take Over]. But i’ll be doing more posting here from now on. I’ve been meaning to post on this Dang since September and well, here you go:
