Tag Archives: culture

Pop Music Power From Pakistan: “This Video Is Sponsored By Zionists”

18 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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865,310 YouTube Views.

A page in Wikipedia that notes:

The song Aalu Anday challenges censorship and the celebration of violence in Pakistan (particularly from its leaders) with references including:

  • Ajmal Qasab, one of the 2008 Mumbai attackers;
  • Abdus Salam, a Pakistani Nobel laureate;
  • the ‘qadri,’ the guard who recently killed Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, for being outspoken against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

The video, released in October 2011, includes handwritten signs that offer further controversial references, as well as predicting the kind of physical or political retribution the band may expect to suffer as a result of the video’s dissemination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aalu_Anday

In graduate school, social science empiricism, which to my mind involved “proving the obvious by the most laborious processes possible,” seemed to me unspeakably boring, but I’ve come to appreciate “run the numbers anyway — they might come up a little differently than expected”.

And, in general, taking second looks.

I often repeat from the NASA Observation Group of the 1990s (thank you, Office of Naval Research, for the short gig), “If you look at a picture and think you have seen it, look again.”

Pakistan is suffering.

Web search “Pakistan Assassination” and find this near the top today:

“ISLAMABAD, April 16 (APP): Prime Minister Justice ® Mir Hazar Khan Khoso on Tuesday expressed shock and grief on the death of brother, nephew and son of PML-N President of Balochistan chapter Sanaullah Zehri whose convoy was attacked en-route to Khuzdar.”

http://app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=231675&Itemid=2

Or web search “Pakistan bombing” and find this at the top of the reference:

“At least 17 people have been killed and many injured in Pakistan after a suicide bomb attack in Peshawar.

The Awami National Party (ANP), which governed the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, had called the political rally ahead of next month’s elections.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has repeatedly targeted the ANP, said it had carried out the attack.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22172219

Pakistanis know who is destroying their freedom — or keeping it from them.

They know who is killing them.

Trust musicians to do better than Abraham before God and actually question the Great Authority, the programmed wisdom, the defeating and soul deadening lesson.

Hint: watch for the signs.

And remember: 865,310 YouTube impressions.

Multiply that figure by the relationships influenced.

The video was published two years ago.

It makes me wonder where we are today.

From Human Rights UN — On Women (in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Syria)

01 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Pakistan, Politics, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Syria

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While the event hosting these speakers —  “Profiles in Courage: Human Rights Defenders in the Struggle to End Violence Against Women” — took place in New York City early last month, the testimony tells of atmospheres in which women live (meaning in which everyone lives) in several of our world’s muddied and persistently dimmed quarters. Continue reading →

FTAC – Solstice Season

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Religion

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Referenced HuffPost piece: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-greenberg-phd/christmas-gifts-in-a-jewish-home_b_2362999.html

“S.” is a Pakistani civil servant who corresponds with some western writers, at least two Jewish ones.

In the above referenced piece, Judith Greenberg writes, “One of my new friends, S., a reader from Pakistan, teaches me over and again about the gift of writing. She responds to my blogs with thoughts about her own experiences with writing, also full of heart.”

The use of italics and an initial are mine, and S., so far as I know, is a he (this by way of a profile picture elsewhere).

Hi, S.,

It’s good to see you reading The Huffington Post.

Welcome to America!

I wrote a song a long time ago titled “Solstice Season”.

The truth is in Christian-majority America, everyone celebrates or experiences Christmas: the atmosphere of it is pervasive; however, it’s the Christians who go to Mass on the 25th, and the rest of us have a cheerful day — or try to wherever life has placed us — as it’s just about impossible to go on with anything mundane.

For going out, there are always a few Chinese restaurants open for business as usual — and for them, the traffic may be a gift.

For other enterprises, the staffing is sketchy but paid well for the holiday time. For example, around here, the groceries stores are closed but convenience stores may fill in in a pinch.

Hanuka, the not-quite-coinciding Jewish holiday, may have evolved into the present cheerful children’s gift-giving holiday in relation to Christian practices; however: the Hanuka menorah has an ancient past:

JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists have uncovered one of the earliest depictions of a menorah, the seven-branched candelabra that has come to symbolize Judaism, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Friday. The menorah was engraved in stone around 2,000 years ago and found in a synagogue recently discovered by the Sea of Galilee.
Pottery, coins and tools found at the site indicate the synagogue dates to the period of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem, where the actual menorah was kept, said archaeologist Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/11/archaeologists-find-early_n_283333.html

The Jewish holiday and tradition — and Maccabee story — are completely culturally and historically authentic. It’s the manner of the celebration that may be responsive to the Christian flavor of the season.

* * *

When the “European Invasion” displaced the indigenous of the continent, the settlers could not imagine, I’m sure, developing an American culture separate from the European one, but that is what has happened in every area of expression even as the Christian tradition asserts itself at this time of year (and at Easter).  “American Transcendentalism” and the unconscious and seldom self-conscious relationship with the earth itself, something in the air and shared with the indigenous love of the land, may comprise the larger part of the American spirit.

To really head off on this topic, I need my full typing skill, but I think there is in every human a primitive love of being alive with the land and with nature.

As in Rome, as before Constantine, as it has been always on this continent, EVERYONE knows the shortest day of the year, the bitter cold weather to come, the longer days to come too, and poor or rich, by way of donations or presents, from home to the homeless shelters, the country gets cozy and enjoys itself.

Perhaps all is not not quite as bright as I paint it — there’s tragedy too revolving around the “Hellidays”, an immense period of review, a difficult time for the dysfunctional within families that have been somewhat artificially forced to gather for a meal, a most depressing time for those on the outs with society, and an unsafe period for those with problems plus alcohol and drugs and fast cars and such (and those unlucky to be in their path) — but all that too is America at this time of year.

Celebrate the differences, my friend: take it all in.  We’re all here on an hospitable “blue marble” floating in a universe that for as far out as man can see is overwhelmingly inorganic .

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The linguistic genius of babies: what does it mean for grown-ups?

29 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Psychology, Referral

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The linguistic genius of babies: what does it mean for grown-ups?.

via The linguistic genius of babies: what does it mean for grown-ups?.

I hope the authors at Teflresearch produce more pieces on primary language uptake.  Were I to channel and narrow this blog toward greater and more rigorous academic publishing, I would want to arrange around the interest in learning the culture-driven development of metonymy, social grammar, attitudes, and behaviors — all of that to help lift ourselves out of some trouble with one another.

FTAC – A Great Mission

26 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology

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The fairy tale I’ve played up in relation to contemporary conflict has been “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which gets at the essential components involving corruption, power, and speech. http://deoxy.org/emperors.htm Those who follow my themes will recognize in it the “malignant narcissist” and the related and fearful pandering and toadying involves as well as the innocent bravery of the child who says what is plain.

I’ve remarked this to “M” with reference to development: with age (plus Facebook and blogging), I’ve become both more aware of geospatial variables in improving qualities of living anywhere as well as culture-wide variables that either abet or impede the creation of more survivable societies.

In tactics, that comes down to looking over a neighborhood, town, or region plus population, assessing its suffering and asking what can be ameliorated, improved, or introduced toward a greater and benign general good.

In the values components, integrity counts as may a benign will to include more people in more good things, and then added emphasis on apportioned responsibility, so that neglect or willful blindness are not allowed to remain contributors to greater sorrows.

Regarding the life of the mind in literature: the discussion is more important than the illustration that promotes it, but it’s the illustration in the head — play, poem, story, legend, myth, instruction, song, painting, dance — that transmits cultures across generations.

Uncontacted peoples and those “contacted” but remaining within state protection essentially live with less challenged (uncontacted) or softly defended (because they are welcome to leave when they are ready) language.

A primitive Amazonian tribe of fewer than 150 souls (reference: linguist Daniel Everett) may go many generations — even for something like forever — left alone in the modern world. Nations involving millions or tens of millions or hundreds of millions haven’t so cozy an option — and there we are back with a geospatial or area-wide approach to change (in the direction of a higher level of integration of many systems, both by way of physical infrastructure and of the underlying structure of the mind that finds expression through art and language).

FTAC – A Note on Losing Friends Over “Politics”

16 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philology

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A friend of mine lost an old friend today over the surfacing of anti-Semitic expression and obsession.

The malignant poison the ears of their subjects to align them, create dependence in them, and to use them, eventually, for their own limitless aggrandizement.  It’s a form well known and one becoming better known, understood, and resisted  worldwide.

Herewith my response to my friend:

* * *

In a secular society in which people mix freely for years and enjoy company, bigotry within people has a kind of latency. Subjects don’t come up; on occasion, someone makes an off-color remark or joke, and we politely gloss over it. When nationalism, European style, asserts itself in response to political discomfort and drift, then politicians may play on latent prejudice to develop social energy for themselves. The fascist/socialist impulse within a leader may find the Roma (gypsies) or Tutsis (Rwandans) handy for the projection of grandiose and violent delusions, which, if he garners support, he may make real.

Demographic and succession pressures within the monotheist evolution maintain tension between Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and through the mouths of malignant leaders, each may be made foil to the other. If Israel were gone, Jihad (as defined by the violently strident) would still have (and would hear repeatedly about) the “crusader west”.

In any case, as conflict makes the news, these things come out, and I hear the same complaint from Jewish acquaintance about losing old friends in relation to discussion of events of the day. My answer, eternally the response of good parents worldwide: “were they really YOUR friends?”

A common complaint that makes its way to my ears involves the social enforcement (or leverage) of in-group norms. I phrase it that way because with an independent Muslim friend telling the tale or an independent Jew moaning about practices on the Far Left, the pattern is the same: the group providing social integration — camaraderie, business, good vibes — to a member may lean on the same to go along with bad ideas and plans. Some leave confronted with that kind of enforced conformism and exploitation; some, perhaps because of how they’re built or where they live or the arrangement of their dependencies, stay to go along with crimes, some no more than disingenuous ranting and sophistry, some more recognizably criminal in scope and murderous intents.

This is tough territory. We enjoy friends for many reasons, and we forgive friends many differences in relation to ourselves, but we need also good friends and reliable friends and, post-adolescence, friends more inclined to involve us in good things.

It’s those friends who will be with us far down the many roads.

* * *

My friends on the Right, and this intuitively speaking, would place the evil within the neighbor.  All that’s needed is the Great Leader to bring that evil out in them.  I feel differently, as perhaps a writer (wannabe) should: I think we carry around a great many signals or “signal potential” in our minds, and in certain conditions, well known and commented on after WWII, a particularly manipulative personality — the Pharaoh reincarnate of the day — can develop this potential fascist language and related drive in the hearts of some listeners who may then grow the enterprise into an ugly piece of large political machinery.  To forestall, the targets of “malignant narcissists” may need some armoring among the target constituents sharing the same geopolitical space, i.e., apprehension of how they’re about to be used.  The social machinery capable of delivering that insight where it’s needed doesn’t yet exist.

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Old Talk – Still New: Muneeb Tahir’s Satire Along the Edge of the Arab Expansion in Pakistan

06 Tuesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Islamic Small Wars, Pakistan

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Pakistan encountered by way of an English-speaking liberal in Lahore differs quite from the Pakistan encountered by way of the network news.  Here from September 11, 2011 comes a reference-worthy excerpt from a satire about, perhaps, the deliberate deflection and quiet destruction of inherent landborne Pakistani character and culture out along the Wahabbi Front.

* * *

I was feeling a little murky after watching a TV program in which a televangelist and a lady with a “bindi” had quite a tussle. The bell rang and my friend was there with his “noorani chehra”, as luminous as ever, standing at the door. I invited him to come in. After a little chit chat he asked me whether I watched the TV program in which Sir Zaid (something) bashed an infidel Indian. I was shocked at first but gathered some courage to respectfully make corrections to the questions placed before me.

“Yaar, wasn’t she a Pakistani Hindu?” I said.

“What nonsense? Don’t you know Pakistan is an Islamic Caliphate with camels, oil wells and Palm trees? We don’t have monkeys and elephants in Pakistan, we have camels. She had a bindi. What does that imply?”

* * *

Read More from “Wherever My Camel Leads Me,” Minto Park, September 11, 2011.

Muneeb Tahir, the author, and I chat now and then via Skype, and I have found the experience so far enlightening, heartening, and hopeful.

Taking Muneeb’s advice, I’ve been reading Alice Albinia’s Empires of the Indus: The Story of a River.

If he takes my advice, he may be reading (soon, I don’t know) Vine Deloria Jr.’s God is Red.

Embedded in both would seem the observation of cultural attachment and rightness with distinct landscapes and large regions.  We “Yankees” have come to love not only our moccasin slippers (and Pendleton whatnot, for example) but to have constructed a cultural and ecology sensitive environmental and social movement unprecedented by way of its ambitions and scale.  Most of us foreigners — well, comparatively few of us North American Native Americans — have our roots and wires tuned to our surrounding oceans, bays, rivers, fields, hills, and mountains.

We breath with the land on which we have established ourselves.

Should Pakistanis feel otherwise about the natural treasures bequeathed to them by God in the form of a varied landscape hosting many indigenous cultures — genuinely so — and evolving languages?

Muneeb has a great command of his cultural surrounds and the history of the land. One may expect some wonderful observations to come by way of his experience and voice — and he’s just getting started.

BCDN – BackChannels News Day

23 Tuesday Oct 2012

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I have shared a reading log through “delicious” for a while, but with this blog I’m inclined to try posting each day, or for every few days, a rolling list of articles, the kind of thing I had intended for the “Fast News Share (FNS) category.  This seems like it might be less disruptive to the blog as well as more pleasant for the reader stopping by in his own newsy meandering through the conflict arena and related subjects.  –jso

Possibly intended to assure or incite westerners in the MEMRI fashion, Quradhawi is telling a story about political and sectarian Islam without fully comprehending the post-WWII arrangements that today have Syria’s nuts — seriously as well as every possible pun intended — in a vice.

Posted by MEMRI, October 15, 2012.

In the post-WWII world, Syria has been Russia’s client and buffer for decades, and the mixed bag of a revolution in Syria has threatened to bring Russia and NATO into conflict.  Recognizing that, both have agreed to stand off while Russia fulfills its contractual obligations with the Assad regime (for economic and military support) and the United States, probably most unhappy with this state of affairs, fears Turkey tugging on its leash to drag into a war in which it has little interest.

Within Islam in the middle east, large rivalries defined as Shia vs.  Sunni and Arab vs. Turkish vs. Iranian (I’m not going to endorse the morally hideous regime there by linking it with “Persian”, even though that is what it wants) will keep blood flowing in Syria because there is no solution to the kinds of problems combatants (from the dictator to the shia to the sunni to the Turk, the Arab, and the Iranian) have in their heads.

War in Syria involves the power of language and promises expressed.

One — to be clear, everyone — would inherit their power by family or ethnic or sectarian assignation, not by building the same painstakingly on good business and good deeds all around.

Interfering with transformation: the locked down mind cultivated by multiple literary clerical bodies insulated from criticism through a haut posturing developed to reject  the same out of hand.

The video was sourced as a reblog via Counter-Jihad Report, then back to Creeping Sharia and forward to an AFP article in The Nation — “Russian Troops Kill 49 Militants in Massive Sweep”.

* * *

The assassination of Malala’s character – By ROB L. WAGNER – Monday, 22 October 2012

Well, the Malala Yousufzai backlash took all of … five minutes. The outpouring of shock and outrage over the Taleban’s attempted assassination of the teenager who advocated for girls education has been replaced with a campaign of character assassination and conspiracy theories.

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Farewell to Afghanistan, with sadness and affection

A Times correspondent ending a three-year assignment reflects on the fears and horrors, but also on the beauty and people that will make her miss Afghanistan.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
October 22, 2012, 5:04 p.m.
KABUL, Afghanistan — After years of comings and goings, almost everything about leaving Kabul is familiar: the ride through dusty dawn streets, skirting past old men on bicycles and boys in horse-drawn carts, the long airport trudge through four luggage screenings and pat-downs, the way the plane’s wingtips seem to almost scrape the jagged peaks surrounding the city.

Everything is the same — but the knowledge that this is the last time.

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