Oh noes, is this another one of those posts where I lazily delegate my opinion-having duties by posting someone else's words?

on second thought

Maybe we should focus on the present.

today is a positive day

I haven't really felt compelled to write in a long time, so of course the time I do decide to is the one time that I don't really need to say anything, because who needs an explanation right now? We all see it, we all know, and the whole world is so stoked for once. There are some dictator supporting hypocrites jumping on the bandwagon that will have to answer for their flip-flopping and the struggle is still far from over, but we have hope now. That is to say not some bullshit speeches from politicians trying to posture their way into our hearts without any substance but the real thing; and with the anger directed in all the right places for once because our leaders have always been complicit. Besides all that I'm more than happy that Tunisia was the spark because let's face it; before that point most people had forgotten they existed and now they're our heroes. Of course, I'm also ecstatic that everyone hates the Saudi royals as they totally should.

As for what this means to me (because this really is all about but me and MY feelings,) look at how the last decade started out and what followed that and then how this one started. In 2001 as far as politics go my world was pretty miserable but I was still watching an uprising in Argentina. Being the total nerd and news junkie I was I'd read about the massacres and torture perpetrated on behalf of US installed dictators in South and Central America and for me this was an amazing scene. It was obvious to me that one day the pendulum would have to swing back in the Arab world, I just didn't know it would be this soon. And o hai there the left, I missed your relevance.

The last decade also ended with some of the ugliest sectarianism yet, unless you're Iraqi in which it's just more of the same old stuff but apparently we should be happy because there was a 6% decrease from the previous year. In that light seeing the scenes and solidarity in the last month have been even more emotional; after revisiting manufactured phot-ops of the past decade it's even moreso. I'm not going to lie, as amazing as everything is right now it's really bittersweet thinking what could have been in Iraq if the last 30 years hadn't happened. Had chemical weapons not been sold, had the first war not happened and the US stood by when the first intifada was crushed (according to some because they feared the next gov would be pro-Iran), countless people killed and scattered, then starved untill another million died and still were bombed through the 1990s till 2003 when, well, you know. Feeding dictators then starving people is really not the best of combinations. I don't often say it but looking at Gaza these days reminds me so much of what Iraq went through in the 90s on a lot of levels besides the basic loss of life and deprivation and it worries me, a lot.

Also if this age does anything I really hope it kills some of the idiotic patriotic chauvinism among Arabs and cheap shots about ethnicities and nationalities that I have to look at on a daily basis. If you have a blog and you do this, I'm sorry what the fuck are you thinking? Just stop.

Let me hope that this all continues through to my birthday: March seems to always be an atrocious month for MENA and so much shit is associated with that time of year (stupid wars, Halabja, stupid political movements that shall not be named) and it'd be nice for that to change. Since money is power I hope one day we'll see that change come to the Gulf as well. After all this, I can definitely dream.

The invasion of 2003 and the dismantling of the Iraqi state and its institutions dealt a severe blow to Iraqi Christians. The political regime the US installed atop the rubble of the state it dismantled complicated already existing tensions among various groups. The most significant factor is the discursive transformation of ethnic and religious identities into political ones and institutionalizing them as such by constructing a quota-based political system in which sect and ethnicity are the only circulating currency. It forced most Iraqis to fall back to their primordial identities. Thus Christians became Christians first and foremost, as did other groups. When we were filming the documentary About Baghdad in July of 2003, I met a bookseller at the famous al-Mutanabbi Street in old Baghdad. He spoke admiringly of Gramsci and Marx, but then asked us if we would visit and film the headquarters of their new “Christian Chaldean Party.” I expressed my surprise that a Marxist-sounding intellectual would found such a blatantly ethno-sectarian party. “What can we do? That’s the only way to get into the new system and be represented. There is no other way,” he said. More viscerally, the dismantling of the police and army and the institutionalization of militia culture left the great majority of Iraqis defenseless. In the mayhem and chaos that followed and led to the civil war, Christians, without a militia of their own or a party representing them, were even more vulnerable targets for kidnapping and murder. The lack of security and safety and the chaos unleashed the violence of various terrorist groups that targeted churches and priests. Thousands of Christians were displaced within Baghdad and many thousands sought refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially during and after the civil war and the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad’s neighborhoods. Christians, including clergymen, are still being attacked and murdered in Mosul and elsewhere, prompting demonstrations in Baghdad and Mosul demanding justice and an inquiry.

In the 1950’s, it was estimated that Iraq’s Christians were 6% of the population. The tumultuous years of dictatorship, wars and sanctions drove many abroad, bringing their percentage down to 3% (750,000) on the eve of the 2003 invasion. Now their numbers have dwindled even further. It was not my choice to be born into an Iraqi Christian family, but even as a secular atheist, I must say that it is sad to have to contemplate the notion of a day when Iraqi Christians could become a relic of the past in Iraq. Throughout the 20th century no church was ever attacked in Baghdad. It was inconceivable that members of a congregation would be held hostage and executed on a Sunday while praying or celebrating. The Iraqi regime called its operation to storm the Sayyidat al-Najat church and “save” the hostages “Tahrir” (liberation). I couldn’t help but think of the notion of “lethal liberation” carried out in 2003 and still ongoing.

The Night Bus or How to make a sappy war movie

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the US just isn't any good at making Serious Movies anymore. They can make movies about explosions, badasses and bromantic comedies but for anything else I'm going to have to go elsewhere. I haven't even touched the ever growing pile of low-grossing war/terrorism movies that Hollywood has put out over the last decade. Their lack of success never really suprised me much: most of the decent movies about Vietnam didn't come out till well after that war was over. It's not just a lack of interest; it's just really difficult for anyone to look at something so big while we're in the middle of it. Besides, while something is actually happening we really should have other things to worry about than how fast we can turn it into art, like, say, stopping wars.

Whenever I do catch these kind of movies they're usually pretty heavy-handed about having some message of "look, we are all the same" or there is some kind of narrative of the Rebellious White Guy that runs against the grain of his commander/company/organization and works with the brownies to help them do whatever it is that they want to do (stop me if you've heard this one in half the movies you saw last year.)


Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with understanding or cooperation and this cliche has produced movies I truly like (see District 9,) but when it runs against historical accuracy it's worth pointing out. And worth asking why we can't ever make a movie about shitty things that happened without fictionally trying to redeem some of the involved parties? What's wrong with showing what divisions exist in this world that can be pretty impossible?


That's kind of a long intro to explain why I get wary of movies that try to tell us that we're all the same when really we're not. If you know what it's like to see something done really beautifully, intelligently and with political relevance after seeing it done absolutely horribly 10,000 times then you can appreciate where I am at right now. The Night Bus by Iranian director Kiumars Poorahmad, who I'd never heard of before, is about (you guessed it) the Iran-Iraq war and takes on a lot of the same themes while managing to avoid annoying the hell out of me.
Obviously, the political context is different; American movies are often apologetic and trying to make it seem like they're there to help. Most often the narration will execute this by finding the one Good Brown Guy that Rebellious White Guy can work with and they're on their way to saving everyone else (a certain Turkish movie about the Iraq war that shall never be named on this blog again has the exact same premise and failed spectacularly because of it.) The Night Bus succeeds not because its politics are different but because it doesn't force its entire plot to revolve around this stupid premise. It shows the shitty things happening and it's from that that we are supposed to figure out that war is bad and that we fight for stupid people. When the Good Iraqis and Good Iranians can find common ground, it doesn't undo all the shittyness that that happened to them or derail the rest of the story to find a resolution that will let good things happen to good people. The war goes on, much like it did in real life.


Truth be told, there were definitely a couple of points in the film that I noticed that I could have dissected here, but in the end they were overwhelmed by the beauty, storytelling and stellar acting. Or maybe I am just letting them slide because I am consistently wowed by Iranian movies these days, but this is definitely of the the better ones that I have seen so far. Highly recommended.

Get it here(English,Arabic & Farsi subs.)
(I looked around the internet for a dvd but I can't seem to find one, if you know where I can get one drop me a note.)

WTF

this is telling (in which I try to be positive)

Remember the Israelis that thought they'd send a message to Turkey by sending their own boat to Cyprus? Well, Bibi is telling them not to, but look at why:

Israeli government officials persuaded the activists to cancel the voyage, because they were worried that the media attention would remind international media of the Gaza flotilla when most of the world’s attention had shifted to other issues like the British Petroleum spill and the World Cup.

“The publicity we already received did its part in reminding the world [that the Turks are occupiers],” one of the organizers of the flotilla said. “Personally it’s depressing for me that we didn’t get to go. But the government officials we spoke to were professionals, and they told us that doing it now was not right for the state, so we listened to them.”

Apparently paying attention to one occupation reminds you of others, who knew? At least Bibi is honest about his intentions, which is more than I can say for the people who cry about every other humanitarian problem in the world if you mention Palestine, and then conveniently forget about it. When they do it with issues that have been close to my heart for some time to provide cover for people who have been on my shitlist for a long time, it's personal. But it works both ways, if they want to play that game, good: it's the perfect oppourtunity to raise the issue of Palestine (and our own indigenous peoples for us North Americans) so go ahead and bring it.

If you read the American academics they really freak out when Armenian genocide is raised in US politics cause NATO is still a big deal. So long as there are troops in Iraq and Afghanistan Turkey still matters, not to mention that now that Turkey is no longer buying Israeli arms it opens up a big market for US manufacturers, which I guess is just another reason for me to be stoked for any signs of deterioration of that relationship. Despite my dislike of the Turkish state I still think the deterioration of relations with Israel is good however it happens, but I'm never going to see all these issues as mutually exclusive. I'm only glad that the Armenian Genocide is already recognized in Canada so I won't ever have to see Harper play that card, and playing is the right word.(link lifted from JSF, definitely one of my favourites of the many Jewish anti-Zionist blogs around.)

pride parody posters

I probably should stop slagging FB cause if I used it I probably would have seen these a lot sooner. Either way, simple & effective, but I guess you don't have to do a lot to undermine such a badly chosen slogan. Allright, that's enough procrastinating.

intersections-a link dump

There are about fifty thousand sites whose main purpose are sharing links but every once in a while I have thoughts that aren't expressible in two lines and that I don't necessarily want to share with all my cousins and everyone I went to elementary school with, so until something better comes my way I'll be around here. But feel free to send other site suggestions my way if you have any.

Bekhsoos has a statement from queer Arab groups condemning the US Social Forum for unfortunately hosting an LGBT Workshop conducted by what's essentially an Israeli propaganda group. How that happened is anyone's guess. I do remember in 2006, and I'm sure many of you have since, hearing quite a few times how great Israel is to the gays and the womens, and apparently that is enough to suspend the basic human rights-like breathing-of those other uncivilized peoples. Sometimes this came from people I thought I knew and would have expected to know better, but we shouldn't assume that lefties will know their shit when it comes to I/P. It's been a recurring theme this year and especially this month, more on this when I have time, even though I'm sure I can't have a lot to say that hasn't already been said at this point.

EDIT: Of course right after I type that a nice, long article about Arab-Palestinian organizing at USSF and in the left in general pops up. I like the conclusion, too.
If we want to achieve and benefit from genuine solidarity, then not only must we speak about Palestine to everyone, everywhere, as Edward Said advocated, but we must also speak to our own Arab and Palestinian communities about everyone else.
Solidarity, it is a two way street.

An Armenian perspective on Israel-Turkey. I've been especially curious about the Pali-Armenian perspective since this whole thing started. Pro-Israel groups recently exploiting crimes that they've been enabling since their existence is pretty disgusting, but I'm also concerned that the romanticisation of all things Turkey lately will result in some people taking Turkish state propaganda at face value along with the stigmatization of people they were historically at odds with. Turkish nationalists like to complain that it's Armenians keeping them out of the EU which is stupid, the majority of EU member states don't recognize the genocide themselves, so why would that be their biggest beef with Turkey? I hope people will remember that there were a lot of Kurds on the flotilla and that lots of Palestinians ARE Armenian.

Timely piece at Salon, via Mondoweiss by a journalist that tried to expose the ADL's role in Armenian genocide denial and lost his job over it.

Friedman. I really hate to link to that but it's useful as an example of two camps neocons seem to be falling in these days. Friedman here doesn't opt to play up Turkey's shitty human rights record but instead romanticizes the oldschool Kemalist pro-Israel Turkey that he loves: the only thing wrong with Turkey apparently is that they've taken to defending Iran lately and have a religious president. With people like him and Robert Gates that seem to be looking to engage rather than push away Turkey, it suggests they believe there is still something to salvage. It's hard to know how things will play out but some kind of normalization is something I still don't totally rule out if a UN inquiry happens. Anyways, remember when Friedman wrote that stupid book about the environment and tried to make himself over as a hippie? I DO.

In the dumbest pseudo-scandal related to Israel-Palestine in this country yet Canadian MP Libby Davies is being pressured to resign over some incredibly bland statements that are historically accurate. But Libby Davies is also one of 3 MPs that went to Gaza after it was bombed and that's considered Palestinians human beings which is problematic in this country's current state of bizarro-politics. Anyways, people are concerned the NDP (her quasi-socialist party) won't adequately defend her and there's a campaign to pressure them to. On one level it's really fascinating how much time and energy my government puts into suppressing all things Palestine lately, honestly if someone told me 5 years ago that politicians would be this worried about a bunch of student activists I would have thought they were nuts. How things change.

Istanbul Calling: decent journalist's analysis blog based in Turkey.

WOMAN

Ever since I watched the World Cup concert it has embedded this song in my head and I am taking all of you down with me.

some scattered thoughts on Turkey, Israel, the Kurds...I think that's everyone

My feelings about the Turkey-Israel schism are complicated, to say the least. Readers of this blog should by now be aware that I am not much of a fan of the Turkish state, especially Kemalism and its disturbing attitude to ethnic minorities, repressive laws that jail anyone who has an alternative view to official state accounts of Turkish history, harassment of scholars of the Armenian genocide abroad, and most lately their role in devastating Iraqi agriculture and now its water supply, too. For all these reasons it never surprised me much that Turkey and Israel were such close allies throughout the 20th century.

Despite a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians among its people, the Turkish state had closer ties to Israel than any Arab state (though Egypt was pretty close.) Despite all the hype about Erdogan among Arabs in the past year, this relationship has only changed in any substantive way in the past two weeks with talks of cancelling defense agreements and water and energy deals with talks of keeping relations between the two countries to "a minimum," whatever that means. Meanwhile a free trade zone with Lebanon, Syria and Jordan was set up and the US is blaming the EU's longtime shutting Turkey out for this supposedly new east-oriented foreign policy.

I don't have a lot of love for Kurdish politicians either, who killed off thousands of their own people in a civil war in Northern Iraq in the 1990s, repress political dissidents, seized territory from Christian and other ethnic minority villages and that's not even getting into the whole PKK mess. Regardless, anyone with any principles whatsoever needs to recognize that the treatment of Kurds in Turkey has been atrocious and hasn't changed significantly enough under the AKP. With all that said there are some differences between the significance of raising the Palestinian issue and the Kurdish one.

Essentially, both the Israeli and Turkish governments do not give a crap if a bunch of random people in the US or the UK don't like them. Protests of such governments should be directed not only at their actions but also at our own governments' consent and material support for such regimes and at changing those policies, otherwise our protests are little more than useless performance art. There isn't an equivalence between the attitudes of Western governments towards Israeli vs Syrian, Iranian or even Turkish policies. Israel has only been rewarded with a deepening of ties with Western countries in recent years, as Naomi Klein so succinctly explained:

The world has tried what used to be called "constructive engagement." It has failed utterly. Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against Lebanon and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive measures—quite the opposite. The weapons and $3 billion in annual aid that the US sends to Israel is only the beginning. Throughout this key period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies. For instance, in 2007 Israel became the first non–Latin American country to sign a free-trade deal with Mercosur. In the first nine months of 2008, Israeli exports to Canada went up 45 percent. A new trade deal with the European Union is set to double Israel's exports of processed food. And on December 8, European ministers "upgraded" the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a reward long sought by Jerusalem.*

It is in this context that Israeli leaders started their latest war: confident they would face no meaningful costs. It is remarkable that over seven days of wartime trading, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's flagship index actually went up 10.7 percent.

A trade agreement was also signed between Quebec and Israel in 2008, and of course just last month Israel was admitted into the OECD with Turkey's support. Conditions for the billions of US aid dollars still have yet to be placed on Israel with respect to the situation in Gaza, Jerusalem, or the expansion of settlements. Turkey, on the other hand, still isn't any closer to getting into the EU. When people tell me Israel is singled out, basically I agree: they're singled out for preferential treatment. As far as activism goes, to act as if they're the only government in the world that gets targeted is absurd, Tibetan activists single out China, activists for Ken Saro-Wiwa singled out Nigeria and Shell and Iraq activists and the Brussells tribunal singled out the USA. That's what activists do. Getting away for something for sixty-plus years doesn't entitle you to immunity (sorry, Polanski) and time is up.

As far as Israel criticizing Turkey for the Kurds goes, I don't know why they'd want to go there considering that they provided the weapons that killed them. As for the Armenians, the Israeli record there isn't great either. American companies are going on trial for selling chemical weapons to Saddam, and I am all for everyone else being held accountable. If they do go there, it wouldn't be anything new. The Kurds have long been used as pawns by Iran, Syria and the US in regional disputes only to be abandoned when they were dealt the severest of repurcussions.

We could talk about Turkey and Iran forever but I hope people reading all this make distinctions between governments and their peoples and also know that there were Kurds among the flotilla activists, including one of the dead. At the same time, it was unfortunately really predictable that it had to be the death of foreign activists and not Palestinians that would spark global outrage and any kind of a policy change(how lasting that change will be is still yet to be seen.) I hope that most people are smart enough to realize that ultimately this isn't about Turkey, it's about the Palestinians, and not fall into the trap of defending anyone that doesn't deserve it.

oh Turkey, you never change

even after all this:

Turkey sees no impact on Israel drone delivery
ANKARA
Tue Jun 1, 2010 5:26am EDT
June 1 (Reuters) - Turkey's Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Tuesday a diplomatic crisis with Israel after the Jewish state stormed a Turkish-backed aid convoy will not affect the planned delivery of Israel-made Heron drones to Turkey.

Israel's long-time Muslim ally Turkey has recalled its envoy to Israel and cancelled joint military exercises after Israeli marines raided an aid flotilla bound for Gaza on Monday.

Earlier this year, the two countries, which have a close military alliance, wrapped up the purchase of 10 Heron drones in a deal worth $180 million.

My point being, we all need to clean up our own houses.

Toronto-sometimes Canada-roundup and PSA

It's not that I don't find US politics interesting, it's that their northern neighbours have a lot of our own shit to deal with and nobody really cares. Canadians, unfortunately, tend not to notice either unless Canada gets some attention on a global scale, which is probably why we will be talking about defunding of reproductive health and STFU-gate and protest zones, but not other things. Here's some other stuff that's been happening:

1. June 24 has been declared an action about Canada's record on Indigenous Rights, just in time for the G8/20 summit. Australia and New Zealand have both changed their positions on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, making the US and Canada the only two countries left that have opposed it. If you need more inspiration to be pissed off I recommend clicking the Canada tag on Int Cry, other good resources here, here and here. (Feel free to send other suggestions my way.)
In related news, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for the genocidal residential schools finally starts up in June.


2. 18 year old Alexander Manon died while being pursued by Police near York U. Cops say that he had a heart attack and died on his own, his family's lawyer is wondering then where the bruises and the pool of blood came from.

3. New book out about the Christian right in Canada.

4. Immigration raids, they happen here too.

5. Quebec has caught the French flu and for some bizarre (racist) reason the province is trying to pass a law barring anyone chooses to cover their face from accessing government services of any kind, including healthcare, just like Belgium has. Muslimah Media Watch pointed out that only 25 people in Montreal actually wear the niqaab, demonstrating that Quebec's politicians need to get outside more and stop watching so much French TV. Unfortunately much of the population is in support of the law but hearings have recently been postponed till August with reports that the bill is getting little positive feedback. It's still not too late to act and the No on 94 Coalition has suggestions of action and people to write. Australia recently defeated a bill proposing a similar ban in a vote of 26-3, hopefully that can be repeated here though the bill should just be found unconstitutional anyways.

6. Toronto Pride is (AFAIK) the most recent victim of the Conservative defunding spree. Last year a Minister was punished for giving funding to Toronto Pride. Last year also was the start of a serious campaign of pressure to get Toronto Pride to ban Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from marching or get defunded and an official motion that said as much was introduced to city council but was deferred. It's since been revealed that Pride told city council they would censor the group and have now followed through.
What's a queer Palestinian to do?

For those that haven't been keeping track this isn't an isolated incident but part of a string of attacks on various groups having anything to do with Palestinians, some explicitly political, others not. Last February funding was cancelled for UNWRA, a few weeks after Kairos, a Christan aid organization, lost funding for having Palestinian group Sabeel among many groups it was affiliated with, before that the board of government agency Rights and Democracy was stacked by conservative appointees and cancelled grants for three Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups. The Tory appointed board members' harrassment of R&D's president and his death by a heart attack all eventually culminated in other board members' resignation.

Universities hosting Israeli Apartheid Week and the student activists involved also became the targets and object of much of Canadian politicians' energy and time. Numerous politicians visited campuses to condemn the event and Ontario parliament passed a motion to condemn the lecture series-the federal government couldn't have passed one in time due to parliament having been suspended for Harper to avoid dealing with the fallout of an unrelated torture scandal.

Iraq round up

Iraq is probably the most underposted topic around these days. Couple that with my anticipating that some bloggers are going to be milking the Rima Fakih pseudo-controversy for all it's worth this week, I thought that some of y'all might want something (anything) else to read and I am here to help you out with that. Here are some stories you might have missed over the last month or so.

1. Parents of children with birth defects in Falluja are suing the British military, saying they knew about chemical weapons use. Apparently, US soldiers are also taking Iraqis to court.

2. Another Kurdish journalist was murdered, his body showing signs of torture, for criticizing the KRG. Apparently others demonstrating over his death have also been threatened.

3. HRW reported on "routine and systematic" detainee torture.

4. Iraqi parliamentarians' salaries, 40 times the national average, are exhausting state budgets.

5. Petition to stop the deportation of refugees from Lebanon. Refugees in Lebanon are of varying nationalities but I'm always happy to see stuff like this or this and post about it. Beirut is a city with about a billion problems but some awesome activists.

6. Amnesty called out the UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands for forcibly repatriating Iraqis to "extremely dangerous" areas in breach of UN guidelines.

7. Amnesty also calls on the Iraqi gov't to protect civilians from violence. April saw increases in civilian deaths.

8. Culture in Chaos: really interesting article on the state of Iraqi art these days.

9. Juan Cole speculates on what "withdrawal" will actually look like-I tend to read him-and US-based academics on this particular subject-with a skeptical eye but I thought I'd put this out there. Unfortunately I find a lot of US discourse about Iraq these days to basically be a referendum on whether you support Obama or not.

10. Girl sold into sex slavery and escaped only to be put behind bars when she returned home.

11. Tony Blair's ties to Gulf oil were revealed and literally nobody noticed.

12. Refugees International says the US still has a responsibility to support and work to reintegrate Iraq's displaced (via 1000 yard stare.)