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April 11th, 2008


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Iranian bloggers write letters to Christ 

a small portrait of this author Hamid Tehrani · 20:35
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It may seem surreal, but several Muslim bloggers have written letters to Jesus Christ in their blogs complaining about Western insults against Muslims, and particularly Dutch MP Geert Wilders‘ anti-Islamic film, Fitna. Meanwhile, young Islamist Basij paramilitaries demonstrated in front of the Netherlands embassy in Tehran condemning Wilders' film.

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Kosoof, a leading Iranian photoblogger, has published several photos from this demonstration. One of the slogans in the photo above means “If carrying no veil means civilization, then animals are the most civilized.”

Goldokhtar, a female religious student, starts her letter to Jesus by writing “Hello Mr. Jesus Christ”. She continues [Fa]:

“Do you know what I am thinking? When and where did all these these Fitnas start? A few years ago these anti-Islamic films began to be produced. Before the Islamic Revolution, nobody paid attention to Islam and its saints… After the Islamic Revolution other revolutions took off… Then they did not know what to do, and they started doing childish things to hurt Islam's image in the world.”

The blogger adds that several films such as Not without My Daughter and 300 should be countered with films by Muslims.

Mehdi writes [Fa]:

“Christ, I am a Muslim who likes you. Don't be sad about insults to your brother Muhammad, the Prophet. We all know these people are not your followers. They are not the ones who carry the cross, but launch crusades and kill people.”

The blogger questions whether the growing number of cinematic attacks on Muslims are coordinated.

Pangare writes to Jesus [Fa]: “Help us to resist these insults… I know you support us and you can read my heart.”

In addition to these Islamists, several other bloggers have shared their feelings and ideas on the film.

Arsham Parsi, a leading activist for homosexual rights in Iran, says [Fa]: “There are rational ways to express an opinion on something or challenge ideas. I watched this film, and I protest against it too.”

Paroo Zadan writes :

“I watched it and I found it ridiculous. How many Muslims are extremists? I think Muslims should first produce films to counter Fitna's impact, and then try to think what makes people see us like this. Filtering and threatening just strengthens the film. Instead of jihads to kill people, our religious leaders should make jihads to make known to others the good side of Islam.”

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India: Tibet, the Olympic Torch and the Dalai Lama 

a small portrait of this author Kamla Bhatt · 14:02
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In this week's roundup of virtual India we look at Tibet in India. Next week the Olympic torch arrives in India. First, Indian footballer Bhaichung Bhutia pulled out, and now Supercop Kiran Bedi has pulled out. However, well-known Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar will be carrying the Olympic torch writes enga. area and adds:

“Sachin actually volunteered himself to carry the torch.Sachin called Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi and expressed his wish to join the other sportsmen who are selected to participate in the Olympic torch relay.”

Tendulkar's decision to carry the Olympic torch was greeted with mixed reactions. Kartikeya of Desicritics writes:

“A great sportsman like Tendulkar should know better than to carry the Olympic torch when others like Kiran Bedi have refused to do so. We can blame the politics of it all, but the simple point is, that it is our Government, and it is our character which is revealed. We ought not to sacrifice it at the altar of “interest”.

While quite a few well-known Indian celebrities have pulled away from participating in the Olympic torch rally it looks like the Left Parties in India have remained consistent in their stand in supporting China or the People's Republic of China (PRC). Jokes From Indian Left writes in his post titled Hypocrisy of the Indian Left Parties:

“Concerned that Tibetan protesters may succeed, CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury called upon the government on Wednesday to see that there were no disruptions. Mr Yethury, It so sounds like you are more worried that Fire may get Hurt when a person attempts self-immolation bids.”

Prem Panickar underscores the dichotomy in Comrade Prakash Karat's stand vis-a-vis China and the USA. Karat is a well-known communist leader  and is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Panickar writes:

“The Prakash Karats of this world, who spout reams about “national sovereignty’ when it comes to discussing the India-US civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, seem to be totally a-okay with this—a Chinese team on India soil to take over security responsibilities of a public event that should be the internal concern of India’s police and security apparatus alone…”

Well-known travel writer Pico Iyer's new book about the Dalai Lama is a timely one and has once again drawn the world's attention to Tibet. Iyer's new book: The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama has received some wonderful reviews and Abhi of Sepia Mutiny writes:

“Instead of treating him merely as a figure to be awed, Iyer describes him as “Forrest Gumpish,” simple yet revolutionary. He is a religious leader who is actively attempting to weaken the dogma of his own religion.”

Read the rest of the post and also discover what novelist Pankaj Mishra has to say about Iyer's book.

I wrote a post summing up the various interviews and review of Pico Iyer, Dalai Lama and Tibet:

“What runs as a red skein in the various reviews and interviews with Iyer about Dalai Lama is the non-violent way in which the Tibetan leader seeks to resolve a long-standing issue over the autonomy of Tibet with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  It is close to 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet and settled in India.”

What about the Tibetans, who live in India? What do they think of their homeland and going back there? Outside of Tibet, the most number of Tibetans live in India. They live in different parts of India in states like Himachal Pradesh (where Dharamsala is located) to Uttaranchal, Karnataka and New Delhi. What goes through the minds of the young Tibetans, who live in India? Mayank Sufi Austen talks to a young Tibetan who went back to Lhasa and says;

“I was a foreigner in my homeland. I didn't know Chinese and it was everywhere. In restaurants, menus would be written in Chinese and I would ask stewards what was what. I would pass by the city's only theater that screened Hollywood films, dubbed only in Chinese. It was difficult to make out things. I was lost.”

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Uzbekistan: Yusuf Juma, a Martyr Poet 

a small portrait of this author Tolkun · 11:53
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Today, in Uzbekistan, where free voices are being severely silenced, practically no one dares not even to promote, but just to express anti-governmental ideas. But this is not the case of dissident poet Yusuf Juma, as his poems are full of passion and concern about his country and martyr nation, interlaced with the calls for democracy and rule of law.

Yusuf Juma (Jumaev) was born in 1958 in Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. He started writing poems from his early ages at high school. His poetry was mainly focused on the vital problems of his community, like dismantling the aerodrome, which had been host for planes that sprayed fields with pesticides that harmed people’s health. Already at that time, Juma was pressurized by the Soviet government, and when it collapsed, Juma openly criticized the new authortires too, because former soviet-communist officials — apparatchiks — still remained in power. (more…)

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Peru: Understanding the Emo Youth in Lima 

a small portrait of this author Juan Arellano · 04:23
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Similar to the recent post about the incidents of attacks on emo youth in Mexico, there has also been much written about these youth in Peru. There was a recent controversy in Lima and some Peruvian bloggers provide their thoughts on these often misunderstood youth, as defined by Wikipedia. The local media has played a part in devoting more airtime at trying to understand, but more often, and to make fun of these youth.

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Photo by Amy Wong and used under a Creative Commons license.

About a month ago, on the local television program Close Enemies, there was a program dedicated to emos, which ridiculed and treated them poorly. The blog Descarga Directa [es] published a video, which showed part of the program, on his post “Emos on the television: Noooo!! [es]” However, what had added to the controversy was the discovery that part of the program was made with emos especially created for the occasion. This is what El Blog de Cayo [es] said on his post “False Panelists… False Emos [es]“:

Hace unos días, Beto Ortiz y Aldo Miyashiro presentaron un panel de emos en su programa nocturno … Pese a que este es un blog abiertamente anti-emo, nos parece que Beto Ortiz y sus compinches son definitivamente más asquerosos e impresentables. En su programa, presentaron algunos emos reales, asiduos de las galerías Brasil, vendedores de ropa y pines para pastrulitas de la PUCP que se sienten abiertamente diferentes. Sin embargo, también presentaron pastrulitas de la PUCP que no eran EMO, pero que se vestían y supuestamente “actuaban” como tales. Estos falsos emo no solo no eran emo, sino que también eran miembros del taller de teatro de Aldo Miyashiro.

A few days ago, Beto Ortiz and Aldo Miyashiro presented a panel of emos on their nightly program…Even though this blog is openly anti-emo, we believe that Beto Ortiz and his pals are definitely more disgusting and unpresentable. In his program, they presented some real emos, regular visitors to the Brasil galleries, clothes vendors and hipster girls from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) that openly feel different. However, they also presented some hipster girls from the PUCP that were not EMO, but they dressed and supposedly “acted” like ones. These false emos not only were not emos, but they were members of Aldo Miyashiro's theater troupe.

Mouse of Pueblo Vruto [es] on his post “Emo Enemies [es]” provides basically the same opinion, but reflects on what this means for local television:

Tal como muchos lo notaron oportunamente, los “Enemigos Íntimos” dedicaron un programa no para conocer a los Emo (que personalmente no me caen bien) sino para burlarse de ellos. Pero, al estilo de la señora Bozzo, resultó que recurrieron al montaje y al engaño. ¿Tan desesperado estaba Aldo Miyashiro por que encajen sus chistes? El montaje de falsos casos es una práctica muy arraigada en la producción televisiva, como que la mímesis y sus tensiones con la realidad son su razón de ser. El asunto es que Ortiz y Miyashiro no necesitaban de falsos panelistas para hacer lo suyo. De nuevo tenemos que preguntarnos cual es el verdadero problema de nuestra producción nacional: ¿economía o falta de creatividad?

Just as many have noted, the people from “Close Enemies” dedicated a program, not to get to know the emos (who personally I am not fond of), but to make fun of them. In the style of Mrs. Bozzo, it turned out that they resorted to a sketch and to foolery. Is Aldo Miyashiro so desperate to insert his jokes? The sketch of false cases is a practice very deep-rooted in the television production, just as the MIMESIS and her tensions with the reality for her reason of being. The issue is that Ortiz and Miyashiro did not need false panelists to do what they wanted. Now we have to ask ourselves what is our real problem on national production, economic or the lack of creativity?

In spite of everything, emos are not very common in Lima, and it may be more of a question of fashion than of actually being emo. Marco of Andando Sin Caminos [es] wonders whether these youth are just “poseurs”, and writes about them and references some explanative videos:

Lo cierto, es que yo no conocía de esta extraña especie viviente, sino hasta que fui un día al Centro Cultural España, que se encuentra ubicado en Lima, y me detuve a observar el parque de enfrente. Me llamó la atención, en primer lugar ver a tanto “chibolo” vestido de forma extraña, entre una mezcla de ropa negra punk, mezclados con un rosado chillón, y con peinado de personaje de anime japonés. A simple vista, se les nota indefensos, por lo delgados que son, y por lo niños en su aspecto. Y al parecer si son indefensos, porque un amigo me cuenta, que ha visto a muchos de ellos ser golpeados por su apariencia, por pandilleros y por punks que circulan cerca del Centro Cultural España.

It is true that I was not familiar with such a strange living species until I went to the Spanish Cultural Center, which is located in Lima and I stopped to observe a park located in front of the center. It attracted my attention, in the first place, to see so many youth dressed in a strange manner, somewhere between black punk clothing, mixed with a bright pink, and with a haircut of a character of Japanese anime. Upon first glance, they appeared to be defenseless for how skinny they are and for looking childlike. And they are defenseless because a friend told me that he had seen many of them beaten by gangs and by punks that hang out around the Spanish Cultural Center for their appearance.

Julio César of Explorando en Mi [es] writes about his experiences with the emo youth:

En todas las calles de lima podemos ver a jóvenes que pintan sus ojos de negro (en algunos casos rozados y se ponen gotas de agua para parecer estar llorando) usan zapatitos de cuadros, pantalones y polos pegados. Pero 5 de cada 10 no saben por que se visten así y asta saben que se visten como emos pero no saben que es emo y eso yo lo eh verificado personalmente en varios lugares. … Se que hay muchos punk que desearían golpear a cualquier emo que este caminando por la calle, si quieres hazlo, pero recuerda que tu también tienes problemas y que también eres hijo del rock al igual que ellos y que también te desfogas al escuchar tus canciones, entendamos y respetemos su forma de pensar. Y esto es todo lo que tengo que decir de los emos.

In all of the streets of Lima, we can see teenagers who paint their put on black eyeliner (in some cases pink and they put water drops in their eyes to look like they have been crying), use square shoes, pants and tight polo shirts. But 5 out of every 10 do not know why they dress that way, and they know they dress like emos, but they don't know what emo is and that is something I have personally verified in several places… I know that there are many punks, who would like to hit any emo that they see walking down the street, you can if you want, but remember that you also have probems and that like them, you are also the son of rock, who vent when you listen to your songs, we understand and respect your way of thinking. This is everything that I have to say about the emos.

Other posts related to this topic include the post New Waves and Youth in Conflict [es] written by Dego in his blog Nadie Lee Lo Que Escribo [es], which is not specifically about emos, but places the rest of the groups (punks, metalheads, etc.) in context and attempts to explain about some of the conflict among them.

Translated by Eduardo Ávila

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Prison Break, Moroccan Style 

a small portrait of this author Lydia Beyoud · 04:17
lingua → fr · mg

On Tuesday morning, 9 inmates and suspected terrorists escaped from a Moroccan jail. Moroccan bloggers used every pun and reference from the American television show, Prison Break, to describe their shock and disbelief. (more…)

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