Caledoniyya

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

March 9, 2010 • 1:16 pm 0

Association of Moroccan Bloggers “Illegal”

At least, according to the Interior Ministry, which is attempting to close the movement.

Nevertheless, the Association has vowed to fight on, specifically within the following framework:

To renew our call to the Ministry of Interior in order to enable us our founding recite or a written refusal.

Our commitment to the right of exercising any civil and mediatic action that is guaranteed by all the national and international laws.

Our perseverance to continue our struggle to establish freedom of expression and creativity through the press using all legitimate ways and means to achieve our inalienable rights without concessions.

Our invitation to all national and international corporations to show more heed to the issue of restricting the associative work and civil society.

Our solidarity with all bloggers, journalists and Internet activists exposed to harassment renewing our call for the immediate release of their prisoners among them: the blogger Boubken Alyadib, manager of Internet Abdullah Boukfou.

Morocco is fast becoming Internet enemy number one and it’s quest to eradicate all mediums that facilitate freedom of expression remains oddly unreported.

As is observable in the case of Tunisia, the desire to sustain the illusion of democracy in West-friendly countries often is enacted to the detriment of the citizens experiencing the reality.

Democracy should be across the board: we cannot chastise Syria while indulging Morocco.

Censorship and persecution is unforgivable regardless of diplomatic relations; the game of favourites has to end.

Filed under: Africa, Censorship, Culture, Middle East, Pop culture , , , , , , ,

March 8, 2010 • 12:22 pm 12

(en)Gendering the Oscars

With the Oscars now officially over for another year, the opulence and gaiety is once more locked in the drawer and summer rolls mercifully forth.

But what if the Oscars were not merely forgotten for another year; rather, they assume a central point in the debate surrounding gender in the entertainment industry – more specifically, in the allocation of prizes?

In the following article, Elsesser argues that the industry has no legitimate onus to split the Oscars acorrding to male/female roles.

Women, she reasons, have excelled in acting as well as men; it is a skill that is non-biological in nature (unlike sport), thus rendering the ‘equal chance’ category nigh patronizing.

To wit:

Many hours into the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony this Sunday, the Oscar for best actor will go to Morgan Freeman, Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth or Jeremy Renner. Suppose, however, that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented separate honors for best white actor and best non-white actor, and that Mr. Freeman was prohibited from competing against the likes of Mr. Clooney and Mr. Bridges. Surely, the academy would be derided as intolerant and out of touch; public outcry would swiftly ensure that Oscar nominations never again fell along racial lines.

Why, then, is it considered acceptable to segregate nominations by sex, offering different Oscars for best actor and best actress? [Source]

It’s an interesting debate and one that has passed sans address since 1929; check it out here.

Filed under: Americas, Culture, Frivolities & Miscellaeny, Pop culture, Womyn , , , , ,

March 7, 2010 • 12:47 pm 2

The Case for Islam Awareness

In my previous post I outlined the argument of one of the delegates for enhanced awareness of Islam in the US – demystifying the unknown, you might say.

Undoubtedly, this should be a global movement, too; particularly when it leads to the following:

A Los Angeles Muslim civil rights organization has filed a misconduct complaint and requested an internal investigation of police in Henderson, Nev., after seven Southern California Muslim men were detained and questioned for praying in a parking lot.

The men were driving through Henderson on Dec. 20 when they stopped for food and gas at a shopping center, according to the Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

While stopped, the men prayed next to their vehicle. Two patrol officers soon arrived – followed by a police sergeant, according to a Henderson police spokesman.

“We got a call from a citizen saying that seven suspicious males [were] in a parking lot engaging in suspicious behavior,” said Officer Todd Rasmussen, a department spokesman.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations alleges that one of the officers said he was responding to a call about a “bunch of guys doing weird moves.” [Source]

More to the point, when did ‘doing weird moves’ become an arrestable offence?

Simply, baffling.

Via: AngryArab.

Filed under: Americas, Culture, Islam, Religion , ,

March 5, 2010 • 10:36 pm 0

Boga and Other Loves

Today marked the end of the conference and the prospect of a morning passed in bed later than 06:30.

Of course, Sod’s Law dictates that for the next two weeks – when I shall be free to arise at a more reasonable hour – my body clock will jerk into action at 6.

Otherwise, the conference was superbly organized and the research diverse; however, it was this morning’s panel that provoked the most interest.

In particular, a paper exploring the notion of Orientalism in the portrayal of Arabs in the post-9/11 media.

The conclusions were twofold: first, that the malign stereotypes associated with the Middle East persist due to the absence of a counter system of knowledge from the Middle East; and also that Islamic groups should demystify the faith.

Thus, the Middle East is deemed to be sluggish in its endeavors (or lack thereof) to refute such negativity and by avoiding dialogue it merely acquiesces to the will of the West.

Equally, while much is known about the Jewish and Catholic communities of the US, until 9/11 relatively little was known about the 6 million-strong Islamic community.

Accordingly, a focus needs to be trained on empowering through awareness.

Pretty cogent stuff, no?

On a more flippant note, I am loving: Tunisian food, architecture, hamams, blue, Boga, ojja, harissa, brik, Italian circles, Avenue Bourguiba, délice, sunrises over highrises, glimpses of the azure port, muezzins, delicate pastries, chamia, nut-brittle, icy water, honest cabbies and doors.

Yes. Doors:

Tomorrow: Carthage and Sidi Bou Said.

Filed under: Africa, Frivolities & Miscellaeny, Imagery, Layla, Middle East, Religion , , , ,

March 2, 2010 • 7:06 pm 1

60 Minutes: Paris-Tunis

I have been in Tunis 60 minutes and while my suitcase is still packed, my impressions are unpacking apace.

I’m still ambivilent about Paris CDG airport: its sprawling greenhouse of a departure lounge and the weird reluctance to allow Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth to pass through security (“C’est pas organique! C’est un grand livre!”) render it an utter chore of a transfer.

Tunis, however,  I like.

I like the efficiency: one passport control with entrance documents completed mid-flight, rather than a crazy melee of pen’n'desk searches.

I like the honesty: steeled for a taxi haggle-fest, I was stumped by the driver’s insistence that only the meter would do.

I like the friendly ease with which the people thus far chatter sans innuendo, though with much merriment.

I love the architecture: even by night the facades of the high, white buildings evoke France meets Maghreb in the most beautiful manner.

I love the warm, if not humid, air seeping through the window.

And right now, I’m craving another deliciously sating orange juice.

Mmm. Pity about the early mornings, though…



Filed under: Africa, Frivolities & Miscellaeny, Layla , , , ,

March 1, 2010 • 9:00 am 0

Poetry Corner: Diary of a Palestinian Wound

Read each verse.

Mull it.

Savor it.

And the sheer poetic beauty shall unfurl and irrepressibly astound.

For Fadwa Tuqan

We do not need to be reminded:

Mount Carmel is in us and on our eyelashes the grass of Galilee.

Do not say: If we could run to her like a river.

Do not say it:

We and our country are one flesh and bone.

***

You sang your poems, I saw the balconies

desert their walls

the city square extending to the midriff of the mountain:

It was not music we heard.

It was not the color of words we saw:

A million heroes were in the room.

***

This land absorbs the skins of martyrs.

This land promises wheat and stars.

Worship it!

We are its salt and its water.

We are its wound, but a wound that fights.

***

Sister, there are tears in my throat

and there is fire in my eyes:

I am free.

No more shall I protest at the Sultan’s Gate.

All who have died, all who shall die at the Gate of Day

have embraced me, have made of me a weapon.

***

Ah my intractable wound!

My country is not a suitcase

I am not a traveler

I am the lover and the land is the beloved.

***
The archaeologist is busy analyzing stones.

In the rubble of legends he searches for his own eyes

to show

that I am a sightless vagrant on the road

with not one letter in civilization’s alphabet.

Meanwhile in my own time I plant my trees.

I sing of my love.

***

It is time for me to exchange the word for the deed

Time to prove my love for the land and for the nightingale:

For in this age the weapon devours the guitar

And in the mirror I have been fading more and more

Since at my back a tree began to grow.

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008)

This is now tacked to both my office and home wall, to remind of the sheer beauty that can be rendered by the mere pen and mind.

Filed under: Bookwormery, Culture, Palestine , , , , ,

February 28, 2010 • 3:55 pm 0

Palestine-Israel in 7 Minutes

The following is a 3D short take on the essence of the Palestine-Israel conflict in 7 minutes:

Admittedly it is neither the best nor the most profound – in comparison with the work of Yoni Goodman, for example – of animated activism, but it nevertheless marks an upsurge in the use of such imagery.

In the past year political animations have steadily increased, marking an interesting trend in conflict propaganda.

As so many originate from the Palestinian corner, I am intrigued whether similar animations are emerging from an Israeli perspective.

While the conflicts are covered on the ground by soldiers and journalists, it is the representation of war through art and animation that is providing the most insightful and raw yet.

Filed under: Imagery, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Politics, Pop culture, note-to-self , , , , , , ,

February 24, 2010 • 9:00 am 6

Tunis-Tunis-Tunis

Despite being bogged down with a particularly belligerent strain of the campus cold, I cannot suppress the burgeoning excitement over next week’s trip.

Perhaps this has something to do with the surprising efficiency of the conference organizer who has taken the initiative to ensure we all have rooms not only for the nights of the conference, but those following for tourism jaunts.

Or maybe it is the prospect of visiting (one of) the old countries for the first time, knowing that it is a place that I am tied to, genetically.

While the former is delightfully refreshing, the latter comes with an edge of reticence – what if I don’t enjoy it? What if I leave with terrible memories and forever after shudder at the mere mention of the word Tunis?

For now, as I summon the impetus to complete the slides and notes, I can only hear the word as a burning litany accompanied by impromptu bursts of desire to Google the capital and ponder.

And also enthral in photo-feasts such as this one.

I can’t wait.

Filed under: Africa, Frivolities & Miscellaeny, Layla , , , ,

February 23, 2010 • 11:11 am 0

First Female Governor for Palestine

What better way to start a snowy, cold-raddled day than with the following snippet of female triumph:

On January 22, 35-year-old Laila Ghannam was sworn in before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and became the first ever Palestinian woman, who takes the governor’s post in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) which was established in 1994.

She said that occupying such a high-ranking and sensitive post “is a victory to Palestinian women,” adding that she had received lots of positive reactions and congratulations from different parties and people as soon as she was appointed in her post as the governor of Ramallah. [Source]

More poignantly, and certainly cogently, she affirmed that:

[B]eing religious or being committed to religion, no matter if it is Islam or Christianity, should never keep a woman or anybody else from work or from practicing her or his normal life. [R]eligion is a civilization and provides woman with lots of rights.

Regardless of being a woman or even a man, the new job gave me bigger responsibilities which are more important than my personal relationships. We are just starting, and we are at the beginning. The position of women in the Palestinian society has to be promoted.

Hear, hear!

Filed under: Middle East, Palestine, Politics, Womyn , , , ,

February 19, 2010 • 9:00 am 49

An Honor Killing By Any Other Name…

…is an honor killing, nonetheless.

Last year I posted on a spate of honor killings in Italy, which demonstrated that the act is not defined by location, but rather by ideology.

The post touched upon the murder of 17-year-old Hina Saleem, who was killed in 2006 by male relatives for ‘dishonouring the family’ while cohabiting with an Italian man, wearing jeans and working in a pizzeria.

Her father, Mohammad, confessed to the killing and along with two male relatives received a sentence of 30 years.

So far, so tragically evocative of the numerous cases of honor killings being perpetuated around the Mediterranean region.

But wait.

This was not technically an honor killing: for while dishonor is frequently linked to religion, the Assize Court of Appeal of Brescia has ruled that the murder of Hina – though classed by her father as one of (dis)honor – was in fact motivated by a “pathological and distorted parental relationship of possession“.

Further, it emphasized that her demise was not “religiously or culturally motivated”.

While her father and two cousins were duly sentenced, the reluctance of the court to openly acknowledge the act as an honor crime is unjustly peculiar.

The killing of a young woman in the name of ‘honor’ is an honor killing; by any other categorization – including relationships of possession – it is merely dressing up a dire phenomenon in psychological analyses.

Filed under: Asia, Culture, Europe, Womyn , , , , ,

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