Hymn for the Weekend, or Bowie Does It Right

So I finally watched that Coldplay/Beyonce video that apparently everyone but me is talking about, Hymn for the Weekend. I won't bother linking to it. Apparently, some people are complaining that Beyonce is appropriating Indian culture, and others say a Black woman can't engage in cultural appropriation.

So fine, here's my two cents (Canadian, so their value is negligible). Beyonce might be Black, but she is still a representative and beneficiary of America's cultural colonialism - so of course she can and does engage in cultural appropriation in this video. But that's not what people should be worried about.

Rasul Guliyev Accuses Azerbaijan Government of Pilfering Billions

Former Speaker of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan Rasul Guliyev has written an interesting analysis (translated by yours truly) of the current state of Azerbaijan in the context of the Arab Spring.

I don't always agree with Rasul - for example, I think any discussion of per capita budget numbers is pointless without taking into account how the budget is actually distributed: even the most generous per capita numbers lose their significance when the majority of funds ends up in the pockets of a small elite. But despite our disagreements, Rasul's works are always thought-provoking, and very educational. Every time I work with him, I feel like I should be getting a college credit just from all the research I have to do!

You can read the article here.

An interview with Bi Women

Bi Women is a quarterly journal published by the Boston Bisexual Women's Network. A few months back, Editor Robyn Ochs interviewed me for the Bi Women Around the World column.

You can read my interview - and, in fact, the entire issue - here.

Read an excerpt from Against the Tide by Rasul Bayram

Rasul Bayram's book Against the Tide, translated by yours truly, has been doing respectable business on Amazon. You can now read a four-page excerpt on Rasul's official site.

Here's to Perfection

Perfection comes in many forms. Shouldn't something perfectly awful be celebrated as much as something perfectly beautiful? Absence of talent can be just as monumental as its presence! So here's to the Mona Lisa of What the Fuck:



Once the initial spasms of laughter subsided, it occurred to me how closely the song echoes patriotic praise of Israel. In the mythologies of both Israel and Saudi Arabia, "no office were in desert no park were in desert no roads were in desert no cars were in desert" until the respective country turned things around. It's always interesting to see the similarities in the ideologies of sworn enemies.

Favorite line, because it's both poignant and hilarious: "students were zero now they are the million, hospitals were zero now they are the hundred"

Against the Tide by Rasul Bayram, translated by Polina Skibinskaya

Xlibris Book Publishing Company has published Against the Tide by Rasul Bayram, translated from Russian by yours truly. The book follows two dynasties - a Lebanese Muslim family and a family of European Jews - through the creation of Israel after World War II and the escalating tensions in the Middle East. The story of two families, whose paths cross through several generations, is a crash course in proxy wars, identity politics, religious nationalism, and the transnational human toll of the Middle East conflict.
When it comes to politics, Rasul and I don't always see eye to eye. But while I don't share his respect for Reagan , I can't help but relate to the relationship at the heart of the book. The story of the two families trapped on the opposite sides of the conflict asks the simple, but necessary question: when superpowers collide, who pays the price?

Happy Draw Muhammad Day!

Today, May 20th, is the first annual International Draw Muhammad Day. Here's to freedom from fear!

I must not draw Mohammed by Plantu, Le Monde

For those of you who, like me, can't even draw a stick figure, here is a wonderful archive of Muhammad images by people who can:

Mohammed Image Archive

Emma Rosenthal Tells It Like It Is

Over the years, I've had many conversations with Jews and Gentiles, Zionists and anti-Semites, family members and strangers, trying to explain the -Zionist Jew phenomenon . The suggestion of our mere existence is often met with more disbelief than that of the Sasquatch.

But we do, indeed, exist. (The jury is still out on the Sasquatch - he might want to consider starting a blog.) Our existence is inconvenient, both to the anti-Semites who want to pretend all Jews think and act alike, and to the Zionists who want to do the same. What's more, our ranks seem to be growing. The more the Israeli government and Zionist organizations all over the world push to stifle criticism of their deplorable ideology and murderous actions, the more people push back.

Writer, teacher and human rights activist Emma Rosenthal formulates the reasons she is not a Zionist better than I ever could. She says:

I am not a Zionist because I believe in universal human rights and do not believe that the establishment of one more elite leadership based on nationalism, will bring about a more just world. I believe with all my being that an injustice to one is an injustice to all, that when one is oppressed, with each drop of blood that is shed, with each aspiration that is quashed, each of us is diminished in our capacities, each of us becomes more unsafe.

Read the rest of her excellent article Open Letter: Re: jewbitch ur a mental case? at Emma's Room.

Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Refugees in Canada

Canada is one of the few countries that recognize the danger gay, lesbian and transgender people of the world face on a daily basis. Long before the Canadian government legalized gay marriage, it began allowing Canadian citizens to sponsor their foreign same-sex partners for immigration the same way married and unmarried straight Canadians can sponsor their spouses living in other countries.

More importantly, the Canadian refugee claims system has long offered protection to gay, lesbian and transgender people fleeing persecution and violence in their native countries. Just like refugees escaping war and political violence, LGBT people from countries who practice institutionalized homophobia can come to Canada as refugees and enjoy the legal protection and financial help of the Canadian government.

Read more at Associated Content.

If we stand with Muslims, will Muslims stand with us?

Lately, I've been counting my blessings that I don't live in Europe. From the relative safety and comfort of Canada, it looks like England and France are on the verge of what would probably amount to a civil war - and the rest of Europe is not far behind.

On the one hand, Islam is growing by leaps and bounds, carrying with it the threat of social conservatism. Islam is not exactly supportive of women's equality, gay rights, or freedom from religion; and progressive Muslims willing to fight for these ideals within their communities seem to be few and far between.

On the other hand, white supremacist movements and racist organizations are rising to prominence in ways they hadn't done in Europe in decades. Like its poster-boy BNP, this bunch isn't exactly socially progressive: in fact, while they hate Muslims for their skin color and non-adherence to Christianity, the racists and nationalists hold much the same opinion of women, gays, and freedom of thought as that held by Islam.

Each side strengthens the resolve of the other. The racist and nationalist threat doubtless drives many moderate Muslims to become more radicalized, and further radicalization of the Muslim community whips nationalists into even more of a frenzy. It's a destructive circle jerk of fear and hatred.

And to someone like me - a queer, atheist woman - both sides are equally terrifying.

I also happen to believe that self-criticism is the key to progress (or, in fact, survival). Of Jewish background, I tend to be more critical of Israel than my Muslim-born partner. Raised in the Soviet Union before its collapse, I am more suspicious of communism than many of my Western left-wing friends. And since I'm white, I consider it my responsibility to stand against white supremacists and unequivocally say NOT IN MY NAME.

And yet, I can't ignore the fact that the community currently under attack by the white supremacists and nationalists in Europe is not exactly on my side.

My guess is that many social progressives in Europe are facing the same dilemma. Right now, for those of us whose lives literally depend on feminism, gay rights, and freedom from religion, it's easier to figure out whose side we're NOT on than whose side we support. As both sides whip each other into further heights of frenzy, true social progressives are left standing on the sidelines, more confused than they've been since the early days of the Bolshevik revolution.

There's no question of social progressives supporting racism and nationalism. But what does that mean, in practical terms? What does that mean during clashes between white supremacists and Muslims? What in this batshit crazy world are we supposed to do?

If we stand with the European Muslims in the fight for their survival, will they stand with us in the fight for ours? Will they support progressive ideals? Will they support gay rights - including the rights of their own gay children? Will they support women's equality - including the equality of their own wives? Will they support freedom of religion - including the freedom to have no religion at all?

Is it right to expect them to?

The Racism of Cultural Relativism: Germany Cites Koran in Rejecting Divorce - New York Times

Throughout the Western world, cases of domestic violence against white women are met with vigilance. But thanks to cultural relativism that expects tolerance of intolerant customs, this might no longer be the case for non-white women.

In Germany, cultural relativism was once again exposed as the appallingly racist ideology that it is, when a white female judge refused to grant divorce to a battered woman whose husband threatened to kill her, on the basis that the woman is from Morocco.

Mark Landler writes in his New York Times article:

In a remarkable ruling that underlines the tension between Muslim customs and European laws, the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, said that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which she said it was common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote, sanctions such physical abuse.

[...]the greatest damage done by this episode is to other Muslim women suffering from domestic abuse. Many are already afraid of going to court against their spouses.

Western feminists have shown an appalling disregard for their third-world sisters. The fact that a female judge in Germany, a country with some of the most progressive laws in the world, has decided to withhold these rights from another woman on the basis of her country of birth, is only the most obvious example of apartheid to which too many Muslim women are subjected in the West.

When Ideologies Clash: It’s a Numbers Game - But What Are We Counting?

As the birth rates of many Western countries plummet, with those countries’ orthodox religious communities picking up the slack, the “numbers game” concept is gathering steam. Where even a couple of decades ago, this xenophobic demographics-based concept was the nearly exclusive domain of right-wing nationalists, more and more liberals seem to be jumping on the “numbers game” bandwagon.

The panic is certainly understandable: as Muslim communities expand throughout Europe and North America, their members are seen as carriers of an ideology that threatens the hard won progressive secular values of their host countries. Like a menacing clawed hand of the enemy army crawling across the map of Europe in old World War II movies, Islam can be seen as leeching into the Western culture, carrying with it the threat of misogyny, homophobia and intolerance, and pushing Christianity (which can be - and has been throughout history - no less virulent given half a chance) back into a dangerous position of relevance along the way. But does the “numbers game” attitude help to stave off the threat to secular values like women’s self-determination, sexual freedom and gay rights?

On the contrary: I suspect that it only compounds the problem.