Wise words

No catch-up post today, just a great quote from the novel I'm reading - 'A Dry White Season' by Andre Brink, which is awesome:

"There are only two kinds of madness one should guard against, Ben. One is the belief that we can do everything. The other is the belief that we can do nothing."

-- Prof Phil Bruwer

It's not exactly original or revolutionary, but it touched me because it's so true, and it says it so well and so clearly. A motto for activists everywhere. Amen to that.

Guantanamo - The American Way

Hmm, I feel a political rant coming on (and a rather lengthy one at that - sorry). But it’s not going to be about Lebanon – right now, I feel like anything I could say about that whole mess would be both obvious and fruitless. Instead, I’m going to dredge up a subject I intended to blog about when it was in the news but never got round to, and which I’ve felt strongly about for years – Guantanamo Bay. A while back, it received a flurry of public attention and calls for closure, the US administration managed to ride it out until the media lost interest, and now it’s been left to continue its human rights violations in peace. Back to business as usual in the gulags. And this is why I felt it was still worth blogging about now – because the country that preaches and moralises, interferes and invades, assassinates and bombs in the name of freedom and democracy cannot be allowed to get away with this.

The trigger for the most recent scandal around Guantanamo was, of course, the first successful suicides. To me, it wasn’t just the fact that the suicides took place, and the regime it implied, that was totally unacceptable. Even more sickening was the US reaction to it. The first thing to come out of the US camp was that the suicides were “not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.” The fact that they refused to make public the details of the men’s suicide notes cast some doubt on their evidence for this, but there we go. The second thing to come out of the US camp was that the suicides were “a great PR move”. A great PR move?! Let’s just think through the implications of this for a moment.

Firstly, a great PR move for whom? Obviously not for the individuals involved, because they are now dead. The clear implication is that the suicides were good PR for Them – the mysterious and threatening Muslim terrorist entity that wants to kill us all. I find this insinuation absolutely outrageous. These people have not been convicted, or even bloody charged, with any crime; in fact, one of them was due to be released shortly, although he didn’t know it – a fact the Americans conveniently chose to ignore when painting him as a dangerous Islamic extremist. Innocent until proven guilty goes out the window, and it’s simply stated as fact that the suicides of men who’d been kept indefinitely in conditions which contravene human rights law and have been ruled tantamount to torture were ‘not acts of desperation, but of war’.

To me, the ‘great PR move’ comment actually translates as: “This was a terrible PR move for us, and we’re going to try and cover it up by turning the situation around and portraying the victims as perpetrators. Hell, ‘suicide’ sounds a bit like ‘suicide bomber’ – it shouldn’t be too hard to pull off.” The most appalling thing was that these unsubstantiated accusations pretty much substituted for any expression of regret, condolence or recognition that, one way or another, American policies in Guantanamo had led to the deaths of quite possibly innocent people. These people, apparently, were terrorists, and therefore their lives had no value - their deaths did not require regret. Camp Commander Rear Admiral Harris (responsible for the ‘asymmetric warfare’ comment) came out with this little gem in the days following the suicides: “They are smart, they are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, either ours or their own.” No regard for life? Maybe I’m missing something, but to me, the only people who this whole episode exposed as having a flagrant disregard for life and human dignity are the Americans.

A world in your ear

So, in beginning my long catch-up, as any sensible person would do I'm going to start at the end - with WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance), a world music festival I went to last weekend with my brother. It's freshest in my mind and the thing I'm most enthusiastic about on my list of Things I Need To Blog About, and plus it means I get to make a very satisfyingly naff pun in the title. Also, it is Awesome. There is music you can dance to and people who will not judge you for your crazy/exuberant/downright bad dancing. There is tasty, tasty food from all corners of the culinary world. There are small children everywhere you turn bopping about on their parents' shoulders or running around with funky facepaint on. And there is international solidarity, which is always nice.

Everyone in the world should go to WOMAD, and that includes all of you. It's a plan that can't fail to rock - apart from the logistical problems of getting six billion people into the site at Rivermead, but I'm sure we'll avoid crossing that bridge when we inevitably don't come to it. Sorry, I appear to be rambling.

Anyway. The real purpose of blogging about WOMAD is to big up the exciting, er, world of world music which it's led me to discover. As me and my brother were discussing in the car on the way home, it seems strange that 'world music' is seen as a marginalised, minority-interest genre when it covers about 95% of the music humanity produces. Hell, when you look at it like that (and when you start to see the ridiculously huge diversity within it) it seems mad that it's even a genre at all. Stuff I saw last weekend under the banner of 'world music' ranged from soul to funk to jazz to ska to hip hop to reggae to drumming to folk to salsa to classical and beyond. The fact that all this is lumped together into a genre which collectively gets about as much shelf space in record stores as the 'A' section of Rock&Pop demonstrates its chronic marginalisation.

So. Rant over, time for recommendations. You should all listen to some world music, even if you think it's not your thing. One of my best friends from uni came to a day of WOMAD on a spare ticket; she thought it wasn't her thing too, and ended up going away with a t-shirt and the conclusion 'best day ever'. If I know you well it's likely that I'll be bestowing a compilation CD on you in the near future featuring lots of lovely world music; in the meantime, here's my pick of Bands You Really Should Check Out.

1. Emmanuel Jal - this guy was a child soldier in Sudan and now raps in four different languages about his experiences and the need for peace. If you thought condemnation of war and danceability didn't exactly go together, now's the time for a rethink.

2. Salsa Celtica - It's Scottish! And Latino! At the same time! Listen to 'Esperanza' on their MySpace, or there will forever be a little tiny hole in your life.

3. Mahotella Queens - these three ladies from South Africa are 60-odd year old grandmas who've been playing together for 40 years, through resistance and freedom, and still dance about like mad things on stage and make music that compels you to do the same. [This link isn't to their best album or anything, but it's the only one I could find that would actually let you check out their music.]

4. Salif Keita - He's dead famous in some circles, y'know. Also royalty. At least, he was until he decided that making music (a lower-caste thing) was more important to him. A mighty dude indeed.

5. Ivo Papasov and His Wedding Band - quite, quite mad.

Of course, there are gazillions more, but I could never remember them all now (I saw 43 bands last weekend, all awesome) and this blog entry is quite long enough as it is. If you manage to get all the way to the end of it, check out at least one of the above bands, and leave a comment to prove it, I will be a very happy lady.

Long time no blog

Oh my God! I can't believe I haven't updated since May! I am officially rubbish. In fairness, I did start to write a mammoth blog entry just after my exams, as an update on all that had happened since I'd last blogged, but because there was so much I couldn't do it all in one sitting and then I forgot to save it and it all got lost... boo.

Anyway, this is really just a marker point to confirm that I'm still alive and avoid the ridiculously long absence getting any longer. (Do you now begin to understand why I felt that naming this blog 'Constant Reading' would be tantamount to false advertising?) After so long away it's hard to know where to start - there's lots of political rants I wanted to have that never happened, about things like the Guantanamo suicides and the Lebanese mess, but they'll have to wait for another day. Maybe some time I'll also entertain you with the trials and tribulations of looking after hyperactive Scouse kids for a week with Campus Children's Holidays. But for now I think something a bit shorter and less... content-ful is required.

Nope, sorry, can't think of anything. At least now I'm in line for Most Disappointing Comeback Ever. I guess I'll just have to make up for it by trying to post lots over the next week or so and catch up on all that's happened. But judging by my past record, I wouldn't hold your breath.