Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Friday, January 29, 2010
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Mahmoud Darwish
Celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died on 9 August 2008, at the age of 67, after open-heart surgery. Here is a video of his most famous poem "Identity Card" (published in 1964):
A poet of exile par excellence, Darwish died in exile. The village of his birth in western Galilee, al-Birwa (whose Arabic name is said to have been first recorded in Persian poet and traveler Nasser Khosro's Safarnameh), had been demolished, in whose place Moshav Ahihud was built in 1950.
Simone Bitton's 1997 documentary film Mahmoud Darwich: As the Land Is the Language traces some of the paths of Darwish's exile.
A poet of exile par excellence, Darwish died in exile. The village of his birth in western Galilee, al-Birwa (whose Arabic name is said to have been first recorded in Persian poet and traveler Nasser Khosro's Safarnameh), had been demolished, in whose place Moshav Ahihud was built in 1950.
Simone Bitton's 1997 documentary film Mahmoud Darwich: As the Land Is the Language traces some of the paths of Darwish's exile.
Mahmoud Darwich, et la terre comme la langue
Sunday, July 13, 2008
La Llorona
Two tributes to Frida Kahlo (6 July 1907 - 13 July 1954), one sung by Raphael, the other by Chavela Vargas.
Friday, July 11, 2008
País. . . País. . .
País. . . País. . .
by OkupemLesOnes
Songs of My Country
I'm dying from cold
and my voice is angry
because at this gate of the river
they stabbed the sun
because at this gate of the river,
my country,
they stabbed the sun
oh, my country, my country, my country
This land has a name
from the sea to the mountains
how can I tell my people
what's happening in this land
but how can I tell my people
what's happening in this land
oh, my country, my country, my country
I'm not a man of many words
and there is very little to tell
things are telling their own story
you only need to know how to look
things are telling their own story
you only need to know how to look
And then when I sing
they call it a protest
how can I tell what's happening
to my people and their poverty
how can I tell what's happening,
my country,
to my people and their sadness
oh, my country, my country, my country
Oh, my country, my country, the land of clouds
full of smoke and alcohol
how can I tell my people
what I think of you
but how can tell my people,
my country,
what I think of you
They founded my motherland
by coups and blows
how many voices were silenced
by bullets and machetes
but how many voices were silenced,
my country,
by bullets and machetes
oh, my country. . . .
This video about Colombia was made by OkupemLesOnes, a creator of social movement radio and television programs in Barcelona. For more OkupemLesOnes videos, visit <okupemlesones.blip.tv/>. The video is set to the song "Coplas de mi país" [Songs of My Country] performed by Piero. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi.
by OkupemLesOnes
Songs of My Country
I'm dying from cold
and my voice is angry
because at this gate of the river
they stabbed the sun
because at this gate of the river,
my country,
they stabbed the sun
oh, my country, my country, my country
This land has a name
from the sea to the mountains
how can I tell my people
what's happening in this land
but how can I tell my people
what's happening in this land
oh, my country, my country, my country
I'm not a man of many words
and there is very little to tell
things are telling their own story
you only need to know how to look
things are telling their own story
you only need to know how to look
And then when I sing
they call it a protest
how can I tell what's happening
to my people and their poverty
how can I tell what's happening,
my country,
to my people and their sadness
oh, my country, my country, my country
Oh, my country, my country, the land of clouds
full of smoke and alcohol
how can I tell my people
what I think of you
but how can tell my people,
my country,
what I think of you
They founded my motherland
by coups and blows
how many voices were silenced
by bullets and machetes
but how many voices were silenced,
my country,
by bullets and machetes
oh, my country. . . .
This video about Colombia was made by OkupemLesOnes, a creator of social movement radio and television programs in Barcelona. For more OkupemLesOnes videos, visit <okupemlesones.blip.tv/>. The video is set to the song "Coplas de mi país" [Songs of My Country] performed by Piero. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Junto a Ti
Junto a Ti
On the eve of 1 December 2007, World AIDS Day, singer Joel Guilian, aka Joe, first released a video for the HSH-Cuba (Hombres que Tienen Sexo con Hombres, Men Who Have Sex with Men) Project of the National Center for Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS and the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba.
In the middle of the year, after HSH-Cuba spoke with several artists whose prejudices held them back from becoming its campaign image for sexual diversity, Joe accepted its proposal because he, being gay, especially felt the importance of the topic. First he presented the song "Junto a Ti," which he composed with two of his straight friends: Jessee Suárez y Germán Nogueria. "Junto a Ti" is a song inspired by his relationship of over eleven years, six years of which were spent in a long-distance one, as his partner moved to Miami. The song was accepted, and from then on he worked on the script of a music video for it, which he would also direct. Upon the approval of the script, he began to look for individuals who could play his gay characters in the real streets of Havana's gay quarters. Most heterosexuals in his video are members of the Yoldance Company, who had participated as dancers in the earlier video for "Libertad desde Mi Tierra."
The concept of the video is that a group of friends decide to have a good time and get together on the beach. To show many of the popular gay hangouts in Cuba, they wove together several stories within the video. These gay hangouts are internationally well known: Calle 23, Cine Yara, El Malecón Boulevard, Habana Libre Hotel, Old Havana, El Prado, the Havana Bay Tunnel, La Monumental (gateway to the beaches in the east of Havana), and East Havana Beaches with its white sands, coconut palms, blue sky, and crystal-clear water. The characters are of all races and sexual orientations, enjoying one another's company wholesomely and respectfully. Health educators who do social work for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, also make appearances.
With this video, a group of young Cubans wish to appeal to the world, especially Hispanics: "Respecting, Understanding, and Accepting Sexual Diversity Helps Prevent AIDS."
They expect Cuban Television to echo this noble cause when it is handed copies for public broadcast.
The video has also been distributed to many international television networks, Web sites, and night clubs around the world.
The original article in Spanish was published in Pressenta on 8 June 2008. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi.
On the eve of 1 December 2007, World AIDS Day, singer Joel Guilian, aka Joe, first released a video for the HSH-Cuba (Hombres que Tienen Sexo con Hombres, Men Who Have Sex with Men) Project of the National Center for Prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS and the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba.
Joe, "Junto a Ti"
Joe feat Omara Portuondo, "Libertad desde Mi Tierra"
In the middle of the year, after HSH-Cuba spoke with several artists whose prejudices held them back from becoming its campaign image for sexual diversity, Joe accepted its proposal because he, being gay, especially felt the importance of the topic. First he presented the song "Junto a Ti," which he composed with two of his straight friends: Jessee Suárez y Germán Nogueria. "Junto a Ti" is a song inspired by his relationship of over eleven years, six years of which were spent in a long-distance one, as his partner moved to Miami. The song was accepted, and from then on he worked on the script of a music video for it, which he would also direct. Upon the approval of the script, he began to look for individuals who could play his gay characters in the real streets of Havana's gay quarters. Most heterosexuals in his video are members of the Yoldance Company, who had participated as dancers in the earlier video for "Libertad desde Mi Tierra."
The concept of the video is that a group of friends decide to have a good time and get together on the beach. To show many of the popular gay hangouts in Cuba, they wove together several stories within the video. These gay hangouts are internationally well known: Calle 23, Cine Yara, El Malecón Boulevard, Habana Libre Hotel, Old Havana, El Prado, the Havana Bay Tunnel, La Monumental (gateway to the beaches in the east of Havana), and East Havana Beaches with its white sands, coconut palms, blue sky, and crystal-clear water. The characters are of all races and sexual orientations, enjoying one another's company wholesomely and respectfully. Health educators who do social work for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, also make appearances.
With this video, a group of young Cubans wish to appeal to the world, especially Hispanics: "Respecting, Understanding, and Accepting Sexual Diversity Helps Prevent AIDS."
They expect Cuban Television to echo this noble cause when it is handed copies for public broadcast.
The video has also been distributed to many international television networks, Web sites, and night clubs around the world.
Joe, "Junto a Ti" (shot on Mi Cayito Beach)
The original article in Spanish was published in Pressenta on 8 June 2008. Translation by Yoshie Furuhashi.
America's Jazz Diplomacy Revisited
When America finds itself on the defensive on the PR front, it puts its talented -- and preferably Black -- tenth forward. During the Cold War, it sent its best jazz musicians -- Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and other geniuses -- on international tours, whose photographs are now on display in the exhibition titled "Jam Session: America's Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World" at the Meridian International Center.
But cultural power rises and falls with economic power, and American culture no longer enjoys the same edge -- the ability to combine innovation and mass appeal, drawing upon cultures of Blacks and immigrants, and market its products worldwide -- it did at the height of the Cold War.
Today jazz in America is for connoisseurs, not for masses. The largest film industry in the world is Bollywood, whose films, salacious and yet demure ("[f]ilmmakers in India are banned from glorifying drinking, drug abuse and smoking, or including scenes 'degrading or denigrating women in any manner'"), are "popular in regions where Hollywood has had only limited success, like the Middle East."2 Jackson Pollock's Abstract Expressionism could be plausibly promoted as "free enterprise painting" (in the worlds of then MOMA President Nelson Rockefeller) superior to Soviet socialist realism, but Jeff Koons and his ilk can only serve as a test of what the market bears. As for literature, even English professors would get stumped if they were asked to come up with the ten most influential American writers alive today in whom the rest of the world ought to take interest.
The only field of culture in which America truly eclipses all others may be the art of self fashioning. That's what Barack Obama is good at,3 and that's what he sells. So far, it's sold very well in America. Will the rest of the world buy it, though?
1 Fred Kaplan, "When Ambassadors Had Rhythm," New York Times, 29 June 2008. The historical facts in Kaplan's article are based on Penny M. Von Eschen's excellent research: Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957 (Cornell UP, 1997); and Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Harvard UP, 2004). See, also, Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters (New Press, 2001).
2 Thomas Fuller, "It's Bollywood!/'They Can't Compete with Us in Emotions': Indian Movies Speak to a Global Audience," International Herald Tribune, 20 October 2000.
3 Matt Taibbi on the art of being Obama:
"Louis Armstrong in Cairo in 1961," Louis Armstrong House Museum
But cultural power rises and falls with economic power, and American culture no longer enjoys the same edge -- the ability to combine innovation and mass appeal, drawing upon cultures of Blacks and immigrants, and market its products worldwide -- it did at the height of the Cold War.
Today jazz in America is for connoisseurs, not for masses. The largest film industry in the world is Bollywood, whose films, salacious and yet demure ("[f]ilmmakers in India are banned from glorifying drinking, drug abuse and smoking, or including scenes 'degrading or denigrating women in any manner'"), are "popular in regions where Hollywood has had only limited success, like the Middle East."2 Jackson Pollock's Abstract Expressionism could be plausibly promoted as "free enterprise painting" (in the worlds of then MOMA President Nelson Rockefeller) superior to Soviet socialist realism, but Jeff Koons and his ilk can only serve as a test of what the market bears. As for literature, even English professors would get stumped if they were asked to come up with the ten most influential American writers alive today in whom the rest of the world ought to take interest.
The only field of culture in which America truly eclipses all others may be the art of self fashioning. That's what Barack Obama is good at,3 and that's what he sells. So far, it's sold very well in America. Will the rest of the world buy it, though?
1 Fred Kaplan, "When Ambassadors Had Rhythm," New York Times, 29 June 2008. The historical facts in Kaplan's article are based on Penny M. Von Eschen's excellent research: Race against Empire: Black Americans and Anticolonialism, 1937–1957 (Cornell UP, 1997); and Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War (Harvard UP, 2004). See, also, Frances Stonor Saunders, The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters (New Press, 2001).
2 Thomas Fuller, "It's Bollywood!/'They Can't Compete with Us in Emotions': Indian Movies Speak to a Global Audience," International Herald Tribune, 20 October 2000.
3 Matt Taibbi on the art of being Obama:
Here's the thing about Obama, the reason they call him a "natural" and a "rare talent." When Hillary Clinton spouts a cliché, it's four words long, she's reading it off a teleprompter, and it hits the ear like the fat part of a wooden oar. Even when Hillary announced she was running for president, she sounded like she was ordering coffee. Obama on the other hand can close his eyes and the clichés just pour out of his mouth in huge polysyllabic paragraphs, like Rachmaninoff improvisations. In this sense he's exactly like Bill Clinton, who had the same gift. He is exactly what is meant by the term bullshit artist. ("Obama Is the Best BS Artist Since Bill Clinton," AlterNet, 14 February 2008)
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Federico García Lorca
Federico García Lorca was born on 5 June 1898. In his honor, listen to Estrella Morente sing "Los Cuatro Muleros."
Lorca cherished the profound influence of Arab, Persian, and Islamic cultures on the culture of Spain, and he highlighted it in his poetry and lectures:
Ironically, the European Union chose to issue tough new rules to expel undocumented immigrants (many of whom are from Europe's former colonies in North Africa and West Asia) on the birthday of the poet who lamented the "Reconquista" of 1492 -- "An admirable brand of civilization, of poetry, of architecture, and delicacy unique in the world -- all were lost, to be replaced by a poor, craven town, a 'wasteland' now dominated by the worst bourgeoisie in Spain," said Lorca -- which compelled Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity and expelled those who refused to submit to forced conversion: "Les Etats membres de l'UE s'accordent sur les conditions d'expulsions des sans-papiers" (Le Monde, 5 June 2008).
Lorca cherished the profound influence of Arab, Persian, and Islamic cultures on the culture of Spain, and he highlighted it in his poetry and lectures:
- "Just as in the siguiriya [the prototypical song form of the cante jondo. . .] and in its daughter genres are to be found the most ancient oriental elements, so in many poems of cante jondo there is an affinity to the oldest oriental verse. When our songs reach the extremes of pain and love they come very close in expression to the magnificent verses of Arab and Persian poets. The truth is that the lines and features of far Arabia still remain in the air of Cordoba and Granada." -- Federico García Lorca, "Historical and Artistic Importance of the Primitive Andalusian Song Called Cante Jondo"
- "In all Arabian music, in the dances, songs, elegies of Arabia, the coming of the Duende is greeted by fervent outcries of Allah! Allah! God! God!, so close to the Olé! Olé! of our bull ring that who is to say they are not actually the same, and in all the songs of southern Spain the appearance of the Duende is followed by heartfelt exclamations of God alive! -- profound, human, tender, the cry of communication with God through the medium of the five senses and the grace of the Duende. . . ." -- Federico García Lorca, "The Duende: Theory and Divertissement"
Ironically, the European Union chose to issue tough new rules to expel undocumented immigrants (many of whom are from Europe's former colonies in North Africa and West Asia) on the birthday of the poet who lamented the "Reconquista" of 1492 -- "An admirable brand of civilization, of poetry, of architecture, and delicacy unique in the world -- all were lost, to be replaced by a poor, craven town, a 'wasteland' now dominated by the worst bourgeoisie in Spain," said Lorca -- which compelled Jews and Muslims to convert to Christianity and expelled those who refused to submit to forced conversion: "Les Etats membres de l'UE s'accordent sur les conditions d'expulsions des sans-papiers" (Le Monde, 5 June 2008).
Friday, May 16, 2008
Politics of Disasters
A cyclone devastates Burma's Irrawaddy Delta, and an earthquake strikes China's Sichuan Province, and the empire smells blood, itching to send "aid at the point of a gun," urging the United Nations to invoke the "responsibility to protect": "France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has spoken of the possibility of an armed humanitarian intervention, and there is an increasing degree of chatter about the possibility of an American-led invasion of the Irrawaddy River Delta."1 Why such an unseemly display of arms? Because a natural disaster can turn into a legitimation crisis, giving foreign powers a shot at regime change.
Michel Foucault reported in Corriere della sera on 28 September 1978:
One of the casualties of the Bam earthquake was an American man, Tobb Dell'Oro, who was vacationing with his fiancée Adele Freedman in the city. Freedman, who credits the "kindness of the Iranian people" for her survival,4 became the subject of an important documentary film, Bam 6.6: Humanity Has No Borders (Dir. Jahangir Golestan-Parast, 2007), which shows Iranians' solicitude for her wellbeing and gracious hospitality to her parents who initially thought Iran would be a terrible place for Jewish Americans like them to visit but have changed their minds about the Iranian people.
The Bam earthquake also moved many of the normally fractious Iranian diaspora, as well as the populace of Iran, to solidarity, holding benefits and raising funds for their countrymen and women in need back home.
Artists did their part, too. Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the finest musician in Iran, held a concert "همنوا با بم" [In Harmony with Bam] with Hossein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor, and Homayoun Shajarian in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake.
Iran's Islamic government, by the way, did not reject international, including American, offers of assistance -- unlike the Bush White House who didn't let Cuba or Iran help Americans after Hurricane Katrina -- and welcomed international NGOs as well, even though well-intentioned outsiders can create as many hindrances as aids they bring:
1 Robert D. Kaplan, "Aid at the Point of a Gun," New York Times, 14 May 2008.
2 Naomi Klein, "Regime-Quakes in Burma and China," The Nation, 15 May 2008.
3 Michel Foucault, "The Army -- When the Earth Quakes," in Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, U of Chicago P, 2005, p. 190. An endnote omitted from the quotation and replaced by a parenthetical editorial clarification.
4 Corey Kilgannon, "For One Earthquake Survivor, Joy Is Tempered by Sorrow," New York Times, 10 January 2004.
5 Jenty Wood, "Improving NGO Coordination: Lessons from the Bam Earthquake," Humanitarian Practice Network, 2003.
[N]othing terrifies a repressive regime quite like a natural disaster. Authoritarian states rule by fear and by projecting an aura of total control. When they suddenly seem short-staffed, absent or disorganized, their subjects can become dangerously emboldened. It's something to keep in mind as two of the most repressive regimes on the planet -- China and Burma -- struggle to respond to devastating disasters: the Sichuan earthquake and Cyclone Nargis. In both cases, the disasters have exposed grave political weaknesses within the regimes -- and both crises have the potential to ignite levels of public rage that would be difficult to control.2A regime's failure to respond promptly and effectively to suffering caused by a natural disaster, the failure that the opposition can exploit, can indeed become a factor in its downfall. Such was the case with the Shah's regime and the earthquake of 1978 that wiped out Tabas and damaged forty other villages in Iran.
Michel Foucault reported in Corriere della sera on 28 September 1978:
Who will rebuild Tabas today? Who will rebuild Iran after the earthquake of Friday, September 8 [Black Friday, when the army massacred hundreds of protesters in Djaleh Square of Tehran], right under the treads of the tanks? The fragile political edifice has not yet fallen to the ground, but it is irreparably cracked from top to bottom.Neither Islamic nor Marxist nor liberal revolutionaries of Iran, however, called upon the West to claim its "right to protect" and send its armies to save them from the Shah. They overthrew the Shah's regime on their own, and Iran's Islamic Revolution has grown into a republic that can survive natural disasters, such as the earthquake of 2003 that destroyed Bam, killing more than 20,000 and injuring many more.
In the torrid heat, under the only palm trees still standing, the last survivors of Tabas work away at the rubble. The dead are still stretching their arms to hold up walls that no longer exist. Men, their faces turned toward the ground, curse the Shah. The bulldozers have arrived, accompanied by the empress; she was ill received. However, mullahs rush in from the entire region; and young people in Tehran go discreetly from one friendly house to another, collecting funds before leaving for Tabas. "Help your brothers, but nothing through the government, nothing for it," is the call that Ayatollah Khomeini has just issued from exile in Iraq.3
One of the casualties of the Bam earthquake was an American man, Tobb Dell'Oro, who was vacationing with his fiancée Adele Freedman in the city. Freedman, who credits the "kindness of the Iranian people" for her survival,4 became the subject of an important documentary film, Bam 6.6: Humanity Has No Borders (Dir. Jahangir Golestan-Parast, 2007), which shows Iranians' solicitude for her wellbeing and gracious hospitality to her parents who initially thought Iran would be a terrible place for Jewish Americans like them to visit but have changed their minds about the Iranian people.
The Bam earthquake also moved many of the normally fractious Iranian diaspora, as well as the populace of Iran, to solidarity, holding benefits and raising funds for their countrymen and women in need back home.
Artists did their part, too. Mohammad Reza Shajarian, the finest musician in Iran, held a concert "همنوا با بم" [In Harmony with Bam] with Hossein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor, and Homayoun Shajarian in remembrance of the victims of the earthquake.
Iran's Islamic government, by the way, did not reject international, including American, offers of assistance -- unlike the Bush White House who didn't let Cuba or Iran help Americans after Hurricane Katrina -- and welcomed international NGOs as well, even though well-intentioned outsiders can create as many hindrances as aids they bring:
In a recent lessons-learned meeting on the Bam earthquake in Iran, a polite and respectful colleague from the Iranian Ministry of Health related his frustration at international NGO coordination in the early days of the emergency. He said that, at the same time as he was desperately trying to set up field hospitals and bury the dead, representatives from over 100 international NGOs had individually requested meetings with him. He appreciated their help, he said, but some organisations wanted to ask him about the siting of rural clinics when he was still trying to arrange emergency medical evacuations. Was there no way, he asked, that these agencies could organise themselves better in the early days of a disaster?5But Iran's government, even under President Khatami, would not have accepted international relief if it had been imposed upon it by a show of force.
1 Robert D. Kaplan, "Aid at the Point of a Gun," New York Times, 14 May 2008.
2 Naomi Klein, "Regime-Quakes in Burma and China," The Nation, 15 May 2008.
3 Michel Foucault, "The Army -- When the Earth Quakes," in Janet Afary and Kevin B. Anderson, Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, U of Chicago P, 2005, p. 190. An endnote omitted from the quotation and replaced by a parenthetical editorial clarification.
4 Corey Kilgannon, "For One Earthquake Survivor, Joy Is Tempered by Sorrow," New York Times, 10 January 2004.
5 Jenty Wood, "Improving NGO Coordination: Lessons from the Bam Earthquake," Humanitarian Practice Network, 2003.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Fairuz Sings Palestine
Listen to two songs by Fairuz to commemorate the Nakba of 1948.
First, زهرة المداين, "The Flower of Cities," a song about Jerusalem.
Then, سنرجع يوماً, "We Shall Return."
First, زهرة المداين, "The Flower of Cities," a song about Jerusalem.
Then, سنرجع يوماً, "We Shall Return."
Friday, April 25, 2008
25 April 1974: The Carnation Revolution in Portugal
Listen to José Alfonso's song "Grândola, Vila Morena," the song that announced Portugal's Revolução dos Cravos (Carnation Revolution) thirty-four years ago today.
Carlos Saura's Fados features scenes of the Carnation Revolution accompanied by this song near the end of the film, suggesting that working-class experiences of dispossession and displacement expressed in fados, a musical genre which, like blues and tango, originated in the process of industrialization and working-class migration in the nineteenth century, could, and sometimes did, culminate in revolution.
Carlos Saura's Fados features scenes of the Carnation Revolution accompanied by this song near the end of the film, suggesting that working-class experiences of dispossession and displacement expressed in fados, a musical genre which, like blues and tango, originated in the process of industrialization and working-class migration in the nineteenth century, could, and sometimes did, culminate in revolution.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Republicanism, Irish and Iranian
Listen to "The Foggy Dew," sung by The Wolfe Tones, in commemoration of the Easter Rising (24 April 1916). The song's lyrics contrasts Irishmen who served on the British side in the Battle of Gallipoli with Irish republicans who fought against the British Empire:
Intrigued, I looked up more signs of Iranian identification with Irish republicanism. Here's the most eloquent: Iranian revolutionaries renamed "Churchill Street" -- the street behind the British Embassy -- "Bobby Sands Street" (Pedram Moallemian, "Naming Bobby Sands Street," The Blanket, 24 February 2004). Despite the British government's pressures on the Iranians to change the name again, the street remains dedicated to the memory of the Irish revolutionary.
Neither in Iran nor in Ireland have the highest revolutionary goals been achieved yet. But the flames of republicanism are still alive in the finest of their men and women. Tiocfaidh ár lá. Our day will come.
Right proudly high over Dublin TownAn Irish friend of mine in Belfast, James Daly, told me: "By the way, the Iranians sent a plaque to the family of my friend Patsy O'Hara commemorating his hunger strike to the death."
they flung out the flag of war
'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky
than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar . . .
'Twas England bade our wild geese go,
that "small nations might be free";
But their lonely graves are by Suvla's waves
or the fringe of the great North Sea.
Oh, had they died by Pearse's side
or fought with Cathal Brugha
Their graves we'd keep where the Fenians sleep,
'neath the shroud of the foggy dew.
Intrigued, I looked up more signs of Iranian identification with Irish republicanism. Here's the most eloquent: Iranian revolutionaries renamed "Churchill Street" -- the street behind the British Embassy -- "Bobby Sands Street" (Pedram Moallemian, "Naming Bobby Sands Street," The Blanket, 24 February 2004). Despite the British government's pressures on the Iranians to change the name again, the street remains dedicated to the memory of the Irish revolutionary.
Neither in Iran nor in Ireland have the highest revolutionary goals been achieved yet. But the flames of republicanism are still alive in the finest of their men and women. Tiocfaidh ár lá. Our day will come.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Al Dhameer Al Arabi
Watch a video of "Al Dhameer Al Arabi," The Arab Conscience, produced and directed by Ahmed Al Arian, featuring 106 Arab singers. Much of the video cuts back and forth between harrowing images of deaths and destructions inflicted upon Arabs by American and Israeli wars and occupations, from Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine, and shots of singers reminding the audience that Arabs must overcome the game of divide and conquer played by the empire.
The only source of pride for Arabs today, as suggested by the video, is Hizballah. Arabs who listen to this song must go beyond its pan-Arabist framework and consider why the only governments in the Middle East that are giving material support to Hizballah are the governments of Iran and Syria. When the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon began, the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia were in fact quick to condemn Hizballah till the overwhelming Arab support for the Party of God forced them to retreat, at least in rhetoric. Hamas's breach of the Egyptian border to break the siege of Gaza in January this year also briefly highlighted the Egyptian government's role in imprisoning Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The same role is played by the other pro-American Arab governments as well, albeit less visibly.
Arabs who care about Palestine and admire Hizballah, a majority of common people in the Arab world, therefore must reject the empire's attempt to pit Sunnis against Shi'is and Arabs against Iranians and establish new governments in their own countries that actually reflect the Arab public opinion.
By the same token, Iranians mustn't fall for an illusion that, if they abandon Hamas and Hizballah and help the Americans in Iraq, the empire will make peace with them. It won't.
Now, an aside to Western leftists. Western leftists must stop and think about who in Iran are the least enthusiastic about supporting Hamas and Hizballah: secular and religious liberals who solicit the support of the West in the name of human rights and democracy, the very type of people whom Western leftists professed to love. The only thought about Palestine that occurs to Iranian liberals, in Iran as well as in the diaspora, is usually "a waste of money" (the same thought that Russian liberals thought under the Soviet government as they contemplated the expenses of the Soviet Union's international commitments). A line from a Persian band Kiosk's song "Eshgh-e Sorat," Love for Speed, speaks for them: "scraped up the very last dime / sent it all to Palestine."
The most fervently anti-Arab Iranians, dogmatic secularists, even think that their nation began a long decline when Arabs conquered Persia and brought Islam to its people.
In conclusion, all major problems for Arabs and Iranians -- the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the US occupation of Iraq, the US-Israeli threat to Iran -- really require regional, not national, solutions. Whether such regional solutions can be found depends on whether Arabs and Iranians can learn to collaborate with each other in search of them and include both Turks and Kurds as part of their common regional project in the end.
The only source of pride for Arabs today, as suggested by the video, is Hizballah. Arabs who listen to this song must go beyond its pan-Arabist framework and consider why the only governments in the Middle East that are giving material support to Hizballah are the governments of Iran and Syria. When the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon began, the governments of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia were in fact quick to condemn Hizballah till the overwhelming Arab support for the Party of God forced them to retreat, at least in rhetoric. Hamas's breach of the Egyptian border to break the siege of Gaza in January this year also briefly highlighted the Egyptian government's role in imprisoning Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. The same role is played by the other pro-American Arab governments as well, albeit less visibly.
Arabs who care about Palestine and admire Hizballah, a majority of common people in the Arab world, therefore must reject the empire's attempt to pit Sunnis against Shi'is and Arabs against Iranians and establish new governments in their own countries that actually reflect the Arab public opinion.
By the same token, Iranians mustn't fall for an illusion that, if they abandon Hamas and Hizballah and help the Americans in Iraq, the empire will make peace with them. It won't.
Now, an aside to Western leftists. Western leftists must stop and think about who in Iran are the least enthusiastic about supporting Hamas and Hizballah: secular and religious liberals who solicit the support of the West in the name of human rights and democracy, the very type of people whom Western leftists professed to love. The only thought about Palestine that occurs to Iranian liberals, in Iran as well as in the diaspora, is usually "a waste of money" (the same thought that Russian liberals thought under the Soviet government as they contemplated the expenses of the Soviet Union's international commitments). A line from a Persian band Kiosk's song "Eshgh-e Sorat," Love for Speed, speaks for them: "scraped up the very last dime / sent it all to Palestine."
The most fervently anti-Arab Iranians, dogmatic secularists, even think that their nation began a long decline when Arabs conquered Persia and brought Islam to its people.
In conclusion, all major problems for Arabs and Iranians -- the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the US occupation of Iraq, the US-Israeli threat to Iran -- really require regional, not national, solutions. Whether such regional solutions can be found depends on whether Arabs and Iranians can learn to collaborate with each other in search of them and include both Turks and Kurds as part of their common regional project in the end.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Pirate Jenny
Today's Bertolt Brecht's birthday, so listen to "Seeräuber-Jenny" [Pirate Jenny], sung by Hildegard Knef.
Here are the full German text and English translations (one literal and the other by Marc Blitzstein) of the song's lyrics. A great proletarian feminist song, isn't it?
Here are the full German text and English translations (one literal and the other by Marc Blitzstein) of the song's lyrics. A great proletarian feminist song, isn't it?
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Every Day Is Ashura, Every Land Is Karbala
Listen to "Salam bar Hossein," sung by Sadegh Ahangaran, to commemorate the day of Ashura.
Via Ihsan
"What is?" I had inquired, to which, in deep and solemn tone, he replied: "Struggle!"PS: Several other songs by Ahangaran are made available at the Web site of Radio Iran.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Um Kulthum Sings for Palestine
Um Kulthum sings for Palestine.
طريق واحد
Friday, November 30, 2007
¡Ahora Sí!
Here are two songs in support of YES to Venezuela's constitutional reform, whose fate is to be determined by the referendum of 2 December 2007.
¡Ahora Sí!
by El Jekke y su Banda
Click here to download "¡Ahora Sí!" in MP3.
Ahora Vamos por el Sí
by Lloviznando Cantos
Click here to download "Ahora Vamos por el Sí" in MP3.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Meri Awaz Suno
Here are two montages of protests against the dictatorship in Pakistan, set to Junoon's "Meri Awaz Suno" and "Dharti Kay Khuda".
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Streikpostenlied
Victor Grossman says that the GDL's rail strike, "the biggest labor struggle in years in Germany," is far from over: "Unless the railroad company comes up with a new offer, they may close down municipal train service, long-distance passenger service, and freight transportation all at the same time, holding out as long as the railroad company stays stubborn" ("German Rail Strike Hits Hard," MRZine, 18 November 2007). Watch a video of the strike, set to Joint Venture's "Streikpostenlied" [Strike Picket Song]:
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Peace
Chris de Burgh, an Irish pop singer, and Arian, an Iranian pop band, are collaborating on a song called "Peace":
"ترانه مشترک کریس دی برگ و گروه پاپ آریان" (BBC Persian, 12 November 2007). I'm afraid that the song will be excruciatingly sappy, if De Burgh's 1986 hit "Lady in Red", his best known song, is any indication. It will test our commitment to peace, which may be the reason why it is being promoted by BBC Persian.
"ترانه مشترک کریس دی برگ و گروه پاپ آریان" (BBC Persian, 12 November 2007). I'm afraid that the song will be excruciatingly sappy, if De Burgh's 1986 hit "Lady in Red", his best known song, is any indication. It will test our commitment to peace, which may be the reason why it is being promoted by BBC Persian.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
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