Archive for April 2016
Leila’s Project: Mashrou3 Leila
A group of performers, created a decade ago, has been touring the Arab World.
It had toured Jordan 3 times with good audience.
This time around, the Jordan Kingdom has banned the performance on the most ludicrous and flimsy excuses that the performance goes contrary to social norms.
It is a fact that radical Islamists are sweeping Jordan communities and enforcing their own standards.
Andrew Bossone shared مشروع ليلى Mashrou’ Leila’s photo.
“We also have been unofficially informed that we will never be allowed to play again anywhere in Jordan due to our political and religious beliefs and endorsement of gender equality and sexual freedom.
We deeply regret having to cancel this event in this country that we have made our own.
Jordan is the home of some of the most supportive, beautiful, and kind people we have had the pleasure of working with and playing for.
Jordan is also the only place where we get to perform for our Palestinian audience, who organize elaborate bus trips to come from Palestine to see us play.
Jordan is the birthplace of our lead singer’s mother, a formative part of his identity and writing, and a place we have always considered our second home.
We denounce the systemic prosecution of voices of political dissent.
We denounce the systemic prosecution of advocates of sexual and religious freedom.
We denounce the censorship of artists anywhere in the world.
We apologize for having thus far failed at creating a cultural environment that allows our children to speak their minds. We believe whole-heartedly that we have only ever acted with the intention of making our world a more equal, and just place, even if “only through song.”
We pledge to our audience that we will continue to place the integrity of our art as our foremost priority, and to never succumb to the pressure to compromise our message, or to waive our freedom to speak. We promise to continue to write out of love, and with the desire to spread love.
We will fight, as we have always done, for our right to freely play our music and speak our mind.
We urge our fellow musicians and artists across the world to continue to produce work that challenges any unfair status quo, despite the difficulties confronted.
We respectfully ask the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to reconsider its stance towards our message, and our art, and urge the Kingdom to choose fighting alongside us, not against us, during this ongoing battle for a culture of freedom against the regressive powers of thought control and cultural coercion.
We strongly hope the authorities will make the right decision
We strongly hope the authorities will make the right decision, so that we can see you in a few days.” See More
مشروع ليلى Mashrou’ LeilaLike Page
For the English translation please scroll down.
يؤسفنا إبلاغكم أننا لن نستطيع عرض حفلة “ابن الليل” التي كانت ستعقد يوم الجمعة 29 نيسان 2016 في المدرج الروماني …في عمان.
لقد تلقينا خبر سحب رخصة العرض لحفلتنا.
التبرير الخطي الذي وصلنا من وزارة السياحة والآثار ينص على أن القرار جاء بسبب تعارض الحفلة مع “أصالة” الموقع، رغم انه سبق لنا أن أحيينا ثلاث حفلات في الموقع نفسه سابقاً وخضعنا لنفس آلية طلب الترخيص من السلطات المختصّة.
أما على أرض الواقع، خارج النصوص الرسمية، فإنّ الأمر أكثر تعقيداً.
لقد تم إبلاغنا بشكل غير مباشر بأن السبب وراء هذا التغير المفاجئ قبل ايام معدودة فقط من يوم الحفل جاء عقب اعتراض جهات معيّنة لا يمكن الإفصاح عن هويتها في هذا الوقت لتفادي دعوى قضائية موضوعها التشهير او الافتراء.
حسب ما نمي الينا، فإنّ تلك الجهات قد قامت بالضغط على بعض الشخصيات السياسية، وقامت بإطلاق سلسلة من الاحداث التى أدت الى سحب الرخصة المعطاة لنا.
لقد تم أيضا إبلاغنا بشكل غير رسمي بأنه لن يكون من المسموح لنا بأن نقدم عروضنا في أي مكان في الأردن بسبب معتقداتنا السياسية والدينية وإقرارنا بالمساواة الجنسية والحريّة الجنسية.
نحن نعتذر بشدة من الجميع لإضطرارنا إلى إلغاء الحفل في هذا البلد الذي نعتبره بلدنا.
فالاردن وطن لأجمل وأكرم المؤيدين للفرقة، والذين عملنا معهم ولأجلهم.
الاردن أيضاً هو البلد الوحيد الذي يجمع بين الفرقة وجمهورها في فلسطين، الذي ينظم رحلات برية ليحضر حفلاتنا في عمان.
والأردن مسقط رأس أم المغني الرئيسي في الفرقة، ومكون أساسي من هويته وكتاباته، ووطن تعلمنا أن نعشقه كأنه وطننا الثاني.
نستنكر الملاحقة المنهجية ضد أصوات الإعتراض السياسي.
نستنكر الملاحقة المنهجية لمؤيدي الحريات الجنسية والدينية.
نستنكر الرقابة على الفنانين في أي مكان في العالم.
نعتذر لجمهورنا لأننا فشلنا حتى الآن في خلق بيئة ثقافية تسمح لنا ولأطفالنا بالتعبيرعن ارائنا.
نؤمن بكل اخلاص اننا طوال مسيرتنا الفنية والمهنية لم نتصرف إلا من منطلق الإيمان والعمل تجاه عالم أكثر إنصافاً، ومساواة، وديمقراطية، ولو عبر الوسائل البسيطة المتاحة لنا “من خلال الأغنية”.
نتعهد لجمهورنا اننا سنواصل وضع نزاهة فننا في المقام الأول من اولوياتنا، واننا لن نخضع إطلاقاً لأي ضغوطات لتغيير رسالتنا أو التنازل عن حريتنا في التعبير عنها.
نتعهد أن نثابر على الكتابة بدافع الحب، وبدافع نشر الحب. سوف نحارب، كما حاربنا سابقاً، في سبيل حقنا لعرض موسيقانا وأفكارنا بحرية.
نحن نحث زملاءنا الفنانين أن يواصلوا إنتاجهم وتحدي الأفكار السائدة والإضطهاد الذي نعيشه جميعاً، رغم التحديات الناتجة عن قلة الإنصاف بحق حرية الفن.
نحن نطلب بكل احترام من المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية اعادة النظر في موقفها إزاء رسالتنا وفننا، ونحث المملكة على ان تحارب إلى جانبنا وليس ضدنا في هذا النضال الجاري من اجل الحرية الثقافية ضد قوى السيطرة الفكرية والعسف الثقافي.
نأمل ان تغير السلطات المعنية قرارها، كي نراكم بعد كم يوم.
Bernie Sanders is Not a Radical: He Has Mass Support for Healthcare and Tax Positions
Posted on: April 29, 2016
Bernie Sanders is Not a Radical, He Has Mass Support for Healthcare & Tax Positions
“Bernie Sanders is an extremely interesting phenomenon. He’s a decent, honest person… But he’s considered radical and extremist, [and] he’s basically a mainstream New Deal Democrat.” – Noam Chomsky
During an event Tuesday night, Noam Chomsky was asked about Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and said he considered him more of a “New Deal Democrat” than a radical extremist, as some have portrayed him.
Chomsky said Sanders’ positions on taxes and healthcare are supported by a majority of the American public, and have been for a long time.
He added that Sanders has “mobilized a large number of young people who are saying, ‘Look, we’re not going to consent anymore.’
If that turns into a continuing, organized, mobilized force, that could change the country—maybe not for this election, but in the longer term.”
Chomsky is a world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author and institute professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he’s taught for more than half a century.
He spoke at the Brooklyn Public Library at an event hosted by Live from the NYPL.
The event also featured Greece’s former finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. He discusses his role in the country’s financial crisis in his new book, “And the Weak Suffer What They Must?: Europe’s Crisis and America’s Economic Future.”
Varoufakis will be a guest Thursday on Democracy Now!
TRANSCRIPT
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, Bernie Sanders is an extremely interesting phenomenon. He’s a decent, honest person. That’s pretty unusual in the political system.
Maybe there are two of them in the world, you know. But he’s considered radical and extremist, which is a pretty interesting characterization, because he’s basically a mainstream New Deal Democrat. His positions would not have surprised President Eisenhower, who said, in fact, that anyone who does not accept New Deal programs doesn’t belong in the American political system. That’s now considered very radical.
The other interesting aspect of Sanders’s positions is that they’re quite strongly supported by the general public, and have been for a long time.
That’s true on taxes. It’s true on healthcare.
So, take, say, healthcare. His proposal for a national healthcare system, meaning the kind of system that just about every other developed country has, at half the per capita cost of the United States and comparable or better outcomes, that’s considered very radical.
But it’s been the position of the majority of the American population for a long time. So, you go back, say, to the Reagan—right now, for example, latest polls, about 60 percent of the population favor it. When Obama put through the Affordable Care Act, there was, you recall, a public option. But that was dropped.
It was dropped even though it was supported by about almost two-thirds of the population.
You go back earlier to the Reagan years, about 70 percent of the population thought that national healthcare should be in the Constitution, because it’s such an obvious right.
And, in fact, about 40 percent of the population thought it was in the Constitution, again, because it’s such an obvious right. The same is true on tax policy and others.
So we have this phenomenon where someone is taking positions that would have been considered pretty mainstream during the Eisenhower years, that are supported by a large part, often a considerable majority, of the population, but he’s dismissed as radical and extremist.
That’s an indication of how the spectrum has shifted to the right during the neoliberal period, so far to the right that the contemporary Democrats are pretty much what used to be called moderate Republicans. And the Republicans are just off the spectrum.
They’re not a legitimate parliamentary party anymore. And Sanders has—the significant part of—he has pressed the mainstream Democrats a little bit towards the progressive side.
You see that in Clinton’s statements. But he has mobilized a large number of young people, these young people who are saying, “Look, we’re not going to consent anymore.” And if that turns into a continuing, organized, mobilized—mobilized force, that could change the country—maybe not for this election, but in the longer term.
“Around the rest of the world, Mr. Sanders represents a point on the political spectrum that is mildly left of centre.
His “wacky” ideas of free education, free healthcare, regulating banks and corporations and so on are all actually staple ideas of many of the happiest and most prosperous countries in the world.
Don’t believe me? Take a look at the happiest countries in the world index for 2016.”
How to read an academic paper?
Posted on: April 29, 2016
How to read an academic paper?
It is beyond me why juries on thesis, Masters or Ph.D, insist on producing voluminous books.
Probably, to initiate the candidate to learn Job’s patience for writing?
Or to give the illusion that what is produced is worth years of wasting time and energy on a book that barely anybody will ever read to refers to it?
Any one who went through this headache knows that half the time spent on a PhD program was reserved for writing the thesis. No wonder, most of these graduates gave up on writing anything afterward and refused to teach or pursue an academic life.
I suggest that professional writers who pressured their publishers to edit short books be included in such juries in order to lighten the book from redundant paragraphs.
What kills me is when you are forbidden to use the first personal in order to give an objective tone to the research. As if personal experiences are Not valid or our world views are not mainly generated from the few personal experiences we faced and tackled.
Young Palestinians enjoying an indoor party, Jerusalem, early 1940’s
Looking at these 2 pictures, I realized how homogeneous were the styles in cloths and hairdos in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
The borders were opened, even as France had mandated power over Syria and Lebanon, and the British over Palestine and Jordan.
Lebanese spent more time in Haifa than in Tripoli, Saida or Tyr.
Palestinians and Lebanese knew Damascus better than their urban cities.
We actually were One people until the colonial powers decided that we belong to created “Independent” States
And they facilitated the creation of Israel by splitting and dividing this One people.
British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library added 2 new photos.Like Page
Young Palestinians enjoying an indoor party, Jerusalem, early 1940’s
Adonis Diaries 