Michelle Obama and the Politics of Shifting

December 3, 2008 – 6:11 am

The added benefit of having Barack Obama as president, is that Michelle Obama becomes the first lady. For the first time in American history, an African American female has been uplifted as symbol of grace, beauty and intelligence.  Michelle is setting trends, and has been compared to the likes of Jackie O.

Though Michelle has openly stated that her job is to be “mom in chief”, she cannot be oblivious to the terrible burden that she carries of representing black womanhood to the world.  Every step, every word, and every expression that she makes is carefully scrutinized in an effort to cast her, and all African American women, back into the role of social obsolescence.

Never has the world watched the actions and the decisions of a black woman the way that it has watched Michelle Obama.  We have had our share of sheroes that deserve acclaim, and recognition, but none have been forced to play representative of a race, and a gender, in the way that Michelle has.

Michelle is the quintessential “mystical negress,” and whether she likes that role or not she will have to play it.  As a BUPPIE she is a figure that white people of privilege can relate to with a certain amount of ease.  It is only when she reveals her blackness and questions the systemic inequality that makes her experience the exception rather than the rule, does discomfort begin to enter the equation.

Imagine if during her interview with Barbara Walters, Michelle had talked about serving collard greens, how this would have altered the conversation. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Editor's Pick, Society, beauty, fashion, north america, racism | Comments (1)

Of Terror and Mumbai: Commando Returns

December 2, 2008 – 9:52 am

Desi dogs do it Indianstyle. Outrage is fat-free, gratifying, and comes cheap at wholesale rates. An all-new season of bash-a-Moslem begins and we expect high TRPs.

Another self righteous deshbhakt whines about the politic*nts while doing a jai mata di on the brave boys in uniform.

This is no worse than we deserve, putting our faith in age and caste loyalties. We prefer the criminally senile in our nation’s highest offices. It allows us to bitch indulgently at the regular little accidents involving colostomy bags. Local sentiments are easily represented by facial hair, and the state has a Chief Moustache and a Deputy Chief Moustache parading their cheap dye-jobs in front of the TV cameras. The crowd cheers.

The equipment and training of our cops (even the AntiTerrorismSquad) is no secret and has once again been tragically highlighted. Call the cops when you want bomb scenes trampled on, or random poor Muslims Confessioned and/or Encountered.

Over two decades of assorted terror attacks across the country, and there is still is no operationally capable central crisis management team or protocols in place. There are no established lines of communication between the police, army, paramilitary, intelligence and special forces (SF). Each is suspicious of and barely capable of operating with the other, leading to further tragic one-upmanship.

The first consequence of this reinforces the charming Indian trait of arriving hours after the party has started. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Feature, Society, politics, south asia, terrorism | Comments (0)

Black Friday and Thanksgiving: The Holiday Conundrum

November 29, 2008 – 8:11 am

Families gathered across the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving together this week. For some it involved a great deal of travel and stress. Hours of labour were spent in an attempt to create the perfect meal. This holiday, unlike Christmas, is meant to simply be about coming together as a family to give thanks for another year, and for the bounty Americans typically have in their lives.

What is conveniently ignored is the cause of that bounty. After the dishes are washed and every stomach is satiated at its heart Thanksgiving is the macabre celebration of the near genocide of the Indigenous Peoples.

We teach our children fairytales about the day to maintain the national myth of the benign Pilgrim and the friendly Indian. Schools reinforce the message with the performance of pageants. This holiday is pure Americana, and it is pure revisionist history. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Society, human rights, north america, racism | Comments (0)

“Longford”: Of Prison Reform and Redemption

November 26, 2008 – 4:28 pm

I saw “Longford” after I had lunch with the film’s writer - the funny, talented, and charming Peter Morgan - a former actor with the sort of authoritative voice one finds intimidating at first blush, before realizing that it is in fact quite attractive.

Right now, Morgan is one of the most famous screenwriters in the world, the author of such films as “Frost/Nixon” (coming soon to cinemas), “The Queen,” and “The Last King of Scotland.”

“Longford,” made for television and now available on DVD, is the most recent of Morgan’s docu-dramas - a fictionalized story where he essentially dramatizes people from real life. The film’s director, Tom Hooper, is famous for his “Elizabeth I” TV mini series, a recent favourite at the Golden Globes.

In the tradition of Peter Morgan’s other work, “Longford” examines a relationship between two different people - Lord Longford, a peer, and Myra Hindley a serial murderer. Although it makes for great drama, the film’s underlying theme is forgiveness. “Longford” pushes you to consider whether it can be possible to forgive somebody even when they have committed one of the cruelest crimes in history.

The real-life Myra Hindley, a woman who murdered children along with boyfriend Ian Brady in one of the most high-profile criminal cases in history, allowed the 7th Earl of Longford to campaign for her parole.

In the film, Longford’s belief that everyone is capable of redemption, furthered by his conviction that Myra was corrupted by her boyfriend, pushes him forward against the urgings of an entire society. Myra, however, is more than she seems. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Arts & Literature, Society, crime, europe | Comments (2)

From Supermodels to Common Folk: Everyone Must Have “A Passion For Giving”

November 11, 2008 – 11:32 am

One day, having returned from a charity project in the Sahara desert, I was exhausted from the heat, barely recovered from a stomach bug, and found myself seriously appreciating New York’s rain.

The desert trip made me realize how lucky I am in my life, and it inspired me to want to do something more to “give back,” to use a popular phrase.

Whilst talking to my friend Victor, I mentioned how I thought that all those charity parties in New York may do good work, but how it doesn’t feel rewarding or challenging just to show up to a black-tie event. I quoted my stepmother to him: “If you didn’t buy the dress to go to the charity, and put that money instead towards the cause, the charity would be fine”.

He argued back and told me that such events are important because they get attention from the press, highlighting causes we would otherwise be ignorant about, and persuaded me to go with him to an event held for the Naked Heart foundation, which builds playgrounds for children in Russia.

While at the Naked Heart Foundation event, I ran into my friend Robin Leacock, and mentioned my desert trip. She told me she had a great idea for a film - and would I like to help?

And so while I had some understanding of giving I never really learnt what it could mean, until I ended up co-producing a new documentary - “A Passion for Giving” - directed by Robin Melanie Leacock for cinematic release.

We started the very next day after our meeting. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Society, movies | Comments (0)

I Triumph Over Group Theory Via Halloween Costume and Rum

November 9, 2008 – 12:31 pm

I realize I have been slipping into the blogosphere for some time now, but only recently did I achieve acceptance. I don’t think that my past concerns about being labeled as a “blogger” were groundless. While some blogs are wonderful, well-written narratives that range from moving, to funny, to just incredibly interesting, they are few and far between. In fact, you should just exclude this shining minority from everything I say in the rest of this article.

Instead, I ask you to look at the other 98.2% of the blogs that comprise the underbelly of the internet. Overly emotional. Terribly written. Careless, self-indulgent work that you can’t even shudder at and then burn off with a handy cigarette.

Perhaps I’m being uppity, but I feared being lumped in with a crowd that, in large part, sees correct spelling as optional. A crowd that is often willing to list their “mood” above their post. Maybe this is just the wide-eyed optimist in me, but if you’re writing multiple entries about how breakups are hard, the reader can infer things like “feeling frowny.”

Sometimes, I think about all of this… and I think about how alien overlords probably wouldn’t allow things like this to go on. And then, next thing you know, I’m writing in Glaxxor the Wrathful in on my voting slip.

Of course, I did also dress up for Halloween, and in doing so, tacitly joined forces with another questionable group altogether. Read More »

By Joe Sapien | Posted in Columnist, Society, humor | Comments (3)

If You Don’t Go to the Party, You Don’t Get the Balloon

November 9, 2008 – 10:51 am

My niece Flaminia once said, “If you don’t go to the party, you don’t get a balloon.”

She was only about seven or eight at the time (she’s twelve now), and I doubt she realized how profound her words actually were. But her spontaneous words of wisdom reflect her personality. Flaminia is a clever, determined little girl who doesn’t just rise to challenges, she creates them. And when she goes to parties, she comes home with fistfuls of balloons.

I like balloons too. The trouble is: I’m a chicken crossed with a scaredy cat. Put me in a challenging, unfamiliar situation and I feel the fear. My half-Italian origins erupt in my armpits, my pulse risks a speed ticket, my bladder becomes super demanding. My instincts urge me to never say boo to a sparrow, let alone a goose. My list of favorite things read like that annoying song in “The Sound of Music” (which is now going to be stuck in my head all day…).

But life isn’t all whiskers on kittens and when the going gets tough, retail therapy doesn’t provide any answers. As my dressage teacher says (when Kwintus, my horse, has personal opinions that clash with mine), “Push him through it.” Five hundred kilos of equines opinions can be daunting, but when the argument ceases and harmony prevails, there’s no feeling like it.

“You should enter Kwintus in the competition this weekend,” said Pam, my dressage teacher’s daughter, shortly after having seen me enjoying a particularly harmonious equestrian moment. “He’s going really well. It would be a pity not to.”

My heart skipped the country and raced off along a German motorway (most of it still doesn’t have speed restrictions). Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Society, essays, europe, humor | Comments (0)

Springtime for Skinheads: Murdering People for the Colour of their Shoelaces

October 22, 2008 – 2:12 am

I didn’t find out about this murder in Irkutsk, Russia, on the news. I discovered this first through the blog of a friend of a friend. An independent media source has highlighted this incident, the mainstream news is rather quiet.

Olga Rukosyla was sixteen years old. She enjoyed dressing like a punk, and wore red shoelaces which, to some, signify the famous “Antifa” (anti-facism) movement.

Indymedia reports that on the 8th of October, Olga was surrounded by three young men dressed, as witnesses say, in typical skinhead fashion. One of them grabbed her hand. She said something angrily to him. This was when the men surrounding her threw her on the ground and literally kicked her to death.

Three men, murdering a teenage girl in broad daylight.

Skinheads operate like packs of wild dogs. They prefer to outnumber their victims, and seem to forge bonds through frantic eruptions of group violence.

My neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine has been spray-painted with their slogans, and I’m afraid for the African and Asian kids living in the dorms around my building, for my Jewish neighbours, for my Arab boyfriend, who stays with me there sometimes. I’m afraid that my kid brother might wear the wrong t-shirt and piss them off.

How can we be safe when the only visible opposition seems to arise in the form of Antifa groups spraying their own slogans over Nazi ones? (Hey, kid who drew the gallows around the swastika that was spray-painted on my family’s garage - thank you.)

The terror skinheads have spread has inspired some to take their side, to excuse their actions, to even boldly proclaim that they are “ridding society of unsavoury elements” (i.e., they are ridding society of anyone who’s in any way different, be that due to skin colour or the colour of one’s shoelaces). Read More »

By Natalia Antonova | Posted in Columnist, Society, crime, essays, racism | Comments (4)

When Hope Floats and the Light at the End of the Tunnel is Nuclear Powered

October 2, 2008 – 10:24 am

Governance in my country suffers a tragic death every moment. It is drowned, it is smothered, it is stabbed, it is genetically altered, it is poisoned with sweet candy and it is given the quietest of all burials.

Yamunprasad asked his neighbour as they trudged kilometres from waist deep water to neck deep water leaving behind their flooded huts and fields; why there is no sign of any Government help. The neighbour replied earnestly that government and the Lord cannot exist together and the Almighty is with them. The neighbour is right, in the land of a billion Gods and trillion Godmen, the state has to jostle with divine beings to provide elementary governance. Spiritual salvation and temporal agony lie in perennial coitus.

River Kosi bursts its embankments, adopts a new course and floods thousands of hectares of impoverished villages in the dark Indian state of Bihar. The Indian government with its booming economy, democratic mandate and behemoth standing army, watches. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Science & Technology, Society, essays, south asia | Comments (0)

Where Chili Powder-Aided Gang Rape Counts as “Molestation”

September 29, 2008 – 8:01 am

Loud silences really don’t convey much except a sense of defeat. This is more than apt in case of the historical Khairlanji verdict meted out in a sleepy town in western India, not too far away from the bustling metropolis known as Bombay, a place I call home.

In a country that’s replete with as many sexual assault cases as the number of babies born per minute, heinous crimes are everywhere, but one particular heinous crime has recently stood out from the rest.

Giving its verdict in the 2006 Khairlanji case, the Sessions court has held eight people guilty of murder. It has, however, acquitted three.

The Indian legal system usually makes for a perfectly submissive flogging partner, given the amount of beating it enjoys from barbaric scoundrels who repeatedly flaunt their entitled dicks in its face.

This time though, it’s done fairly well for itself. Yet, some problems remain obvious.

Let’s provide some background on why the court ruling still involves a heavy dose of B.S.: Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Society, death penalty, feminism, human rights, rape, south asia, women | Comments (11)