Mixtape Logics: Listening to Empire and Resistance
What might it mean to listen to culture, instead of simply critique it? Could our thinking become as dynamic, inventive, and entrenched in the culture in which it is produced as, say – a mixtape?
This panel proposes that “listening,” as a critical act, might produce a different way of thinking about empire and resistance in the 21st century. And it takes the figure of the mixtape – an item as beloved as it is differently understood by the various subcultures that circulate them – as a unique cultural object that listens: Created from that which it critiques, at once both of and not of the culture upon which it reflects.
But here’s the key change: Individual presenters will each curate brief (20 minute) mixtapes of their own, intercut with commentary and reflection on what kind of work the mixtape aims to do, what alternative economies of knowledge it seeks to represent, and, most specifically, how that mix engages the ways in which we think about empire and resistance in the 21st century.
A wide range of approaches is encouraged: perspectives that vary across a range of genres, periods, locations, bodies, sexualities, genders, and moments.
Prospective panelists should include a brief abstract (250 words) that focuses on how the mixtape they have produced engages issues of listening, empire, and resistance, along with contact information. Submissions should be sent to mdcarril@usc.edu by Dec. 31st, and notifications will be sent out by January 7th.
David Shields, the Judge for the inaugural Fish Short Memoir Contest famously said - It's all in the art, you get no credit for living. Isn't that the case? It is often said that everyone has a novel in them, even if it is only one. Not true. But everyone must have a memoir. Not an autobiography. Too many rules. Too much adherence to fact, to structure, to convention. A memoir gives licence - to interpret, to create, to fabricate, to make sense of a life, or part of that life. Go for it! Write a piece of your life, send it to Fish. Who knows, it might be published. David Shields might look at it and think that this life, this piece of writing, has something that needs to be said. Needs to be heard. Might be the start of something.
The Fish Short Memoir Contest is a new venture. A chance to get your memoir published in the 2012 Fish Anthology. The Anthology will be launched during the West Cork Literary Festival, Bantry in July 2012.
David Shields, author of "Reality Hunger" (will be selecting 10 memoirs to be published in the 2012 anthology.
The Fish Short Memoir Contest welcomes memoirs written in English, with a maximum of 4,000 words.
Publication in the Fish Anthology has been a stepping stone for many writers into successful writing careers. For a sample of these authors click Alumni.
To view our catalogue of anthologies click Fish Books.
Please note: If you would like to refine your Memoir writing skills, you might like to take advantage of the MEMOIR WRITING COURSE we offer.
No entry form is needed. Entry is mostly on-line, or by post if required.
You may enter as many times as you wish.
The competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
There is no restriction on theme or style.
Maximum number of words is 4,000.
The winning memoirs must be available for the anthology and, therefore, must not have been published previously.
Fish holds publishing rights for one year after publication. Copyright then reverts to the author.
Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email.
The judges' verdict is final.
No correspondence will be entered into once work has been submitted.
Memoirs cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered. Judging at all stages is anonymous. Names or addresses must not appear on the stories, but on a separate sheet if entering by post, or in the appropriate place if entering online.
The memoir competition is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.
Overall winners of the Fish Short Memoir Prize may enter again, but will not be eligible for the first prize
A writer who has had two memoirs in Fish Anthologies from the Short Memoir Prize, may not enter for three years. They may enter other Fish Prizes in that time. (This is designed to give opportunities to emerging writers)
You can enter online or by post. The cheaper option is to enter online.
Online Entries
To Enter online, simply submit your story(ies) through our online entry system on our website. Please do not send stories as email attachments.
MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS NOT ON THE STORY. IT IS IMPORTANT THAT ALL SHORT-LISTING AND JUDGING IS DONE ANONYMOUSLY. YOUR STORY IS AUTOMATICALLY LINKED TO YOUR AUTHOR NAME IN THE SYSTEM.
If you have any difficulty submitting your story, post your problem at Feedback and Support.
Post to: Fish Memoir Prize, Durrus, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland.
Print on one side of the page only in reasonable sized type. The Fish Prize is judged anonymously, so please do not put your name or any contact details on any of the story pages. Include all contact details on a separate sheet. Receipt of entry will be by email. Stories will not be returned.
Cost €17 or equivalent in the currency of your country. Subsequent entries have a reduced fee of €12. Do not sent postal orders (outside Ireland), or cheques made out in Euros if you are outside the Euro zone.
Cost of postal critique €42, or entry and critique €59.
Casa Ana in Las Alpujarras, southern Spain, regularly offers Writers Retreats: here you’ll find a room of your own, inspiring surroundings, good food and the company of other writers.
Casa Ana is a 400-year old house in the Alpujarras mountains of Andalucia. Once an important family home with a wine press, olive oil store, barns and stables, Casa Ana has been transformed into a stylish and comfortable rural retreat with south-facing terraces, a garden and spectacular river gorge views.
(Full board is included in the 2nd prize week's stay at this stunning retreat)
What happened to all those "Somali pirate" movies that were announced when Somali pirate stories were seemingly all the rage 2 years ago, in what I thought would likely be the beginning of a deluge of pirate movies, all fashioned after the recent stories the media fell in love with, but failed to properly vet.
I expected that, by now, we'd have seen at least 1 of them realized; but, unless I'm just missing something, nada.
Let's see... there was Samuel L Jackson's production company (Uppity Films) securing the life rights of Andrew Mwangura, a negotiator between pirates and the owners of vessels hijacked off the coast of Africa, with Jackson, naturally, set to play the starring role; then there was Columbia Pictures' acquisition of the life story rights of Richard Phillips - the captain of one of the ships captured by Somalis Maersk Alabama) and later rescued by the U.S. Navy - with the aim to develop a feature film based on that story, and Tom Hanks attached to star; and then there was the adaptation of author Elmore Leonard's 44th, titled Djibouti - a fictitious tale centering on the pairing of a young, white female award-winning documentary filmmaker and "a studly 6-foot-6-inch black African leading man who, at 72, has lost none of his appeal to pretty young women," as they set sail into the Indian Ocean to make a movie that presents a sympathetic view of the African pirates operating on the east coast of the continent. Morgan Freeman and Sandra Bullock were reportedly being sought to star.
There were likely others I'm forgetting right now.
Anyway... my main concern with all those Hollywood productions is that their research teams paint for the audience the full picture of the so-called piracy of the Somalis, giving equal weight to all sides of the story, rather than focus on the ostensible heroics of one, while surpressing the harsh, incriminating truths about the other. One of my recommendations was that they start by reading this article by Johann Hari of The Independent in the UK: You Are Being Lied To About Pirates. I'd encourage you all to read it as well, if you haven't already. These dominating narrow portrayals of Africans as either the starving, helpless, hapless victims, or as post-colonial *savages,* have grown trite and tiresome, while failing to delve into the full complexities beneath the 2-dimensional surfaces we are often bombarded with.
So then... this morning, while taking a closer look at yesterday's Sundance 2012 Shorts Program lineup announcement, I found this film that immediately peeked my interest.
Titled Fishing Without Nets, the film's description says that it tells a story of pirates in Somalia, but does what other films on the subject don't seem all that interested in doing, and that is telling the story from the perspective of the pirates themselves.
Directed by 24-year-old LA-based filmmaker Cutter Hodierne, who's past experience, since high school, includes music/concert videos (most recently working with rock group U2), commercials and several shorts.
Fishing Without Nets is not a documentary by the way... it's a narrative short film; and from the looks of the teaser trailer below, he's definitely got my attention. I'd like to see the rest of this, and hopefully will when it makes its debut at Sundance next month.
I'd love to chat with him about how he was able to get this thing made! Nothing about this looks simple nor cheap.
Newt Gingrich attacked the character of poor and black youth, but he’s wrong.
More than two weeks after Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrichblasted poor kids for having “no habits of working and…nobody around them who works,” the controversy his remarks ignited has yet to die down. Gingrich’s criticism of poor kids has inspired discussions on “The Daily Show” and “The View” as well as a Forbes magazine article, an NPR piece about the Forbes article and countless blog posts. The outcry over Gingrich’s sweeping generalizations about poor and African-American children (he mentioned black youth unemployment in a follow-up to his rant about impoverished youth) marks the perfect time to highlight the things black kids have going for them. Yep, black kids are actually doing some things right. They’re much less likely to abuse drugs than youth from other ethnic groups. And in the Big Apple, the country’s largest city, black teens have the top high school graduation rates among immigrant youth. Nationally, African-American young people boast impressive rates of civic engagement, turning out in greater numbers than their peers from other racial backgrounds at the polls.
Top Immigrant Graduation Rate: In November, the New York Times analyzed high school graduation rates of immigrant students in New York City from 2005 to 2009. Teens from Jamaica and Guyana topped the list of immigrants who earned a high school diploma with a 96 percent graduation rate. These Caribbean teens edged out the Chinese, long regarded as the model minority in the United States, to accomplish this achievement. So, evidently some black kids have the discipline and work ethic to succeed in school.
Low Drug Use: A new study released by the Archives of General Psychiatry last month found that African-American and Asian-American youth have remarkably low rates of drug and alcohol abuse. Just 5 percent of black teens and 3.5 percent of Asian-American teens have substance-use disorders. Given that the study was conducted over a period of two years and examined the drug use habits of 72,561 teens, this is a significant finding. It certainly raises questions about why young black men in New York are disproportionately targeted for stop and frisks resulting in arrests for marijuana possession when police are much more likely to find drugs on non-black kids.
High Civic Engagement: Young African Americans care about their country. A whopping 58 percent of blacks between the ages of 18 and 30 turned out at the polls in the 2008 election, according to a report released in November by Tufts University’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. That’s a higher percentage than any other racial group in the same age range. It’s easy to argue that these young blacks simply cast a ballot to usher in the first black U.S. president. However, the 2004 election saw a spike in young black voters as well. That year, 1.6 million more young blacks voted than in 2000, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found. Apparently, young blacks truly value their right to vote.
The Democratic Republic of Congo's President, Joseph Kabila, has just perpetrated a massive hoax in order to retain power. Bowing in principle to the Western-driven demands the our famous but nebulous "international community," Kabila has held just held elections, which he would like the world to believe he has won. The overall tally, 49 percent for the "winner," and 32 percent for the first runner up, had a ring to it that at first glance, at least for the uninitiated, sounded both plausible and competitive, which in such matters usually go hand in hand. The results proclaimed the Congo to be the latest African country to have traveled far away from the bad old past of continental elections, which authoritarian rulers once routinely "won" with upwards of 95 percent of the vote.
More here Related video: 'Congo elections: Why is our revolution not being televised?'
With war raging for nearly 15 years through the interior of Congo and with a corrupt elite at its head, many Congolese emigrated. They are now everywhere but Belgium, the former colonizer, hosts since a long time a large community.
While protests have been violent in Congo and many people were killed, there is very little information about what’s going on in Congo. The Congolese diaspora is also protesting. There have been protests in Brussels, London, Paris and elsewhere.The Congolese Belgians protested last Friday in the streets of Brussels. At least they want the Belgian government to give a sign: to condemn the electoral forgery and to reject the election’s results. The Belgian government has long been Congo’s best ally and as economical and political interest have to be protected the Belgian political elite tends to be very mild towards Congolese leaders. Certainly since China started to be an economical competitor in the region, Belgium not only stopped to be critical towards the government, it supports Kabila. The Congo politics in Belgium have traditionally been dominated by the French-speaking political elite. They were friends with Mobutu and now court Kabila. Only one Belgian foreign minister, Karel De Gucht, officially condemned the corrupt Kabila regime. He was a Flemish minister, known to be outspoken. A few years ago in a bar in Kinshasa there was a picture of him on the wall with below a sign stating ‘Here speaks the truth’. In 2007 Congolese Belgians already expressed their sympathy for the Flemish honest political style in contrast to the French-speaking smoothness (perceived as treacherous).One year and half ago the N-VA won the parliamentary elections, they came out to be the largest party. The N-VA is a new right wing Flemish nationalist party, compared to the US they are more like Republicans than Democrats (they want less government). In the democratic system in Belgium the winning parties always have to make a coalition government representing the parliamentary majority (it is not the winner takes it all principal as in the US or France). In the past Christian-Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals formed different governments in different configuration and coalitions having one of the 3 political families always in opposition while the other two are governing (for each political family there are 2 parties, one supporting Flemish interests, the other French-speaking interests). This time though the biggest party was the new N-VA, for which there is no French speaking equivalent. But after more than a year of negotiating, N-VA couldn’t find the needed political allies to form a majority. So eventually the loosing parties, i.e. Christian-Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals formed a government together leaving the winning party in opposition together with the far right and green parties. The leader of N-VA, Bart De Wever is known to be outspoken, clear, honest, intelligent, hard working and undiplomatic. The N-VA represents the hard working no-nonsense Flemish stereotype. But its stubborn position for more Flemish control and power annoys the French-speaking minority in Belgium (who have proportionally more say on the Belgian political scene). The French-speaking media in Belgium like to portray Bart De Wever as an arrogant far right politician, but he clearly states he’s not. He just wants Flanders to be more under control of its own destiny and he wants French speaking Belgians who settle in Flanders to learn and speak the Dutch language. He therefore is a natural enemy of the French-speaking political elite, who are traditionally friends with the Congolese political elite. Besides many people believe he wants to abolish the Belgian state and aspires for an independent Flemish republic. But just as many people think that this is propaganda to bring N-VA in discredit. As a result the Congolese protester chose the Flemish flag and the person of Bart De Wever as key symbols in their protest against the Belgian political establishment. There are three reasons why the Congolese community found solidarity with the Flemish cause. While N-VA won the elections, the political leaders in Belgium stayed more or less the same. N-VA stayed on the side without direct power (For some it is N-VA’s fault, as they didn’t want to make any compromise). Second the Flemish politicians, and certainly N-VA, are known to be outspoken and Flemish politicians often were critical towards the Belgian Congo-policy. N-VA is therefore their ally against Kabila. Third is the following principal: ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’. We could hear Friday Congolese Belgians screaming that next time they will vote for N-VA. This shocks many French-speaking people, but also many Flemish people who see in N-VA a threat for Belgian unity and in the Flemish nationalistic signs a reflection of racism and fascism. Journalists and politicians in Belgium are completely confused about this spontaneous reaction from the Congolese community. Video (Dutch)NB: Most protests in Brussels resulted into rioting. Why is that? While there were young thugs who mixed into the protest, I think that the police force has a very different reaction confronted with crowds of screaming Africans than with white people. Additionally Congolese are rather ‘loud’ and you may think they have a fight while they are just having a friendly conversation. I believe that this intercultural misunderstanding has quickened the chance for clashes.Furthermore I know the police reacts totally out of proportion. One anecdote about someone I know may be illustrative. He is from Angolan descent and had nothing to do with the protest. He just works at a theater in the neighborhood where the protesters passed. Because he heard some noise in the streets he took a look at the door (as so many people did). But he is black and immediately the police took him out of the theater’s door gate, dragged him in the street, kicked him and handcuffed him. His (white) colleagues, seeing what went on, ran after him and explained to the police officers that he is an employee of the theater, that he is of Angolan origin, that he has nothing to do with the protest. The police men didn’t listen, asked them to mind their own business and just ignored the colleagues. Once they had him under control and that he didn’t move anymore they let their dogs loose to attack and bite him while he was handcuffed on the floor. Eventually they took him away. He spend 12 hours in jail, bleeding and sour all over his body, they finally released him so that he could be hospitalized. His colleagues were under shock, the theater filed a complaint against the police force.
Egypt is spinning out of control. But it's not only the fault of the ruling military junta -- the protesters in the street deserve plenty of blame, too.
BY STEVEN A. COOK|DECEMBER 19, 2011
CAIRO — Tahrir Square smells like piss. It is no surprise. After all, people had been living there in a tent camp for weeks. Yet the stench is also fitting for Egypt's current impasse. Egyptians -- soldiers, police, activists, soccer hooligans called "ultras," and others -- have abused this ostensibly hallowed ground at various moments since Hosni Mubarak's unexpected fall almost a year ago.
The latest affront to the revolutionary promise of Tahrir came this past weekend, just to the south of the square on Qasr al-Aini Street, where Egypt's parliament and cabinet buildings sit. There, military police and protesters engaged in a pitched battle using rocks, glass, metal, truncheons, and Molotov cocktails. At one point, an Egyptian soldier standing on the roof of the cabinet building literally appeared to urinate on the protesters below. (The symbolism was lost on no one.)
The proximate cause of Cairo's current spasm of violence was the military police's ill-advised effort to clear a relatively small number of protesters from in front of the cabinet building. The clashes, however, have revealed a deeper, more profound problem afflicting Egypt. The country has retreated from the moment of empowerment and national dignity that the uprising symbolized and is now grappling with a squalid politics and the normalization of violence.
What is perhaps most disturbing is that the weekend's battle, which left 10 dead and hundreds injured, didn't seem to have a point. The young toughs who descended on Qasr al-Aini Street after news spread of the Army's efforts to clear the area seemed less concerned with principle than combat. Having cut their teeth and paid for it with the loss of 45 lives in late November clashes with the police and military, these kids seemed to be looking for payback. Qasr al-Aini Street bellowed with chants of "Death to the field marshal" -- a reference to Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) head Gen. Mohamed Hussein Tantawi -- rather than the significantly more inspiring "Freedom! Freedom!" that echoed through the concrete canyon of Tahrir during the January uprising.
How did Egyptians get to this warped, demented, bizarro version of Tahrir Square? It is easy to blame the SCAF, as so many have, but the generals have also had a lot of help. Each of Egypt's primary political actors -- the military, revolutionary groups, Islamists, and liberals -- have contributed mightily to the country's current political impasse and economic collapse through a combination of incompetence, narcissism, and treachery. This has left a society on the edge, one in which minor traffic accidents become near riots, soldiers beat women with reckless abandon, and protesters burn the building containing some of Egypt's historical and cultural treasures.
The military command, which handled the 18-day uprising so well, has compensated for its lack of political acumen with brutality. The combination of both suggests a military command adrift with no real grasp of the political dynamics of the society they lay claim to protect and lead. It is not clear to whom, exactly, Egypt's generals were listening in February when they drew up plans for handing power over to civilian rule, but they have presided over a transition that has sown confusion and heightened tension -- all in the name, ironically, of stability.
The sorry state of Egypt's transition reveals a central problem with the generals' administration of the country. They come up with ideas with the help of a domestic intelligence apparatus that is more brutal than shrewd, toss them out into the public square, gauge how people react, and adjust accordingly. This is terribly destabilizing because rather than doing what is right, they try to situate everything they do in that sweet spot of public opinion. When the fortunes of the revolutionary groups were high, the SCAF responded to their demands. Now, the officers are dialed into that mythical, great "silent majority" that they believe is opposed to the protests.
In a Dec. 19 press conference, Maj. Gen. Adel Emara sought to reinforce that point when he argued that the people on Qasr al-Aini Street did not represent the uprising that toppled Mubarak and that the protesters, not the military, had instigated the violence. Emara was correct on the first point but clearly departed from the facts on the second. The officers seem to be convinced that they have the pulse of the Egyptian people, but the problem is that if this majority is actually silent, how can the officers know what these people are thinking? Indeed, they don't know.
The three-round parliamentary elections -- a marathon process that began in November and will not end until January 2012 -- represents another source of friction. The officers may have felt vindicated by the large and mostly trouble-free first round, but when they woke up to the fact that Egyptians seem to want to invest the parliament with a strong popular mandate, they had second thoughts about the wisdom of their "silent majority." That's why Maj. Gen. Mukhtar al-Mulla told a group of foreign journalists on Dec. 7 that despite the strong turnout, the parliament will not actually be able to "impose anything" on the Egyptian state.
It's unclear how the military will justify this position, but watch out. Such statements put it on a collision course with the Muslim Brotherhood, which has dominated the parliamentary elections. Whatever happened on Qasr al-Aini Street and Tahrir over the weekend will ultimately pale in significance to the coming struggle between the military and the Brothers, who believe that they, not the military, enjoy a popular mandate.
The revolutionaries have much to answer for as well. With all the creativity and energy that went into bringing Mubarak down and is currently going into plans to transform Egyptian society, there has also been much narcissism and revolutionary navel-gazing. The instigators of Mubarak's fall have seemed to be more focused on burnishing their revolutionary cred on Twitter and Facebook -- which are not accessible to the vast majority of Egyptians -- than doing the hard work of political organizing. For months, the revolutionaries have largely spurned the political process that began after Mubarak's ouster. After they were trounced in the March 19 constitutional referendum, many tuned out and began searching for ways to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was January 25.
But they have largely failed to do so. The 17 "Fridays of …" over the spring and summer reflected political goals less than a "I protest, therefore I am" sensibility. It culminated with a two-week sit-in at Tahrir Square that -- because it brought Cairo to a halt and deteriorated into a carnival of self-congratulation rather than a serious political statement -- did much damage to the revolutionaries in the eyes of sympathetic Egyptians. All through the spring and summer, while the revolutionaries were imagining themselves as a permanent revolution against the military, the hated felool ("remnants" of the old regime), or anyone who dared disagree with them, the Muslim Brothers were hard at work, taking advantage of the greatest political opportunity they have had since a schoolteacher named Hassan al-Banna founded the group in December 1928.
If the revolutionaries and their supporters are now stunned that the Islamists -- both the Brotherhood and the Salafists -- are set to dominate post-uprising Egypt, they must take a hard look at what they have done, or not done, over the last 11 months. Indeed, their ability to read Egyptian public sentiment is as bad as that of the military, and a good deal more myopic.
The Muslim Brothers are just about the only ones who have played post-Mubarak Egypt well. Although they did not instigate the uprising, they understood how events were unfolding and helped hasten the demise of a regime they reviled. Additionally, unlike the revolutionaries, the Brothers shrewdly put themselves in a position to prevail. It is not the revolutionaries who scare the military -- it is the Brotherhood, which is capable of displacing the officers as the source of authority and legitimacy in the political system.
Now that the Brothers are poised to dominate parliament, what will be their approach to politics? So far, they have adopted a pragmatic path in an effort to persuade Egyptians and the international community that they can be good stewards of Egypt. For example, the Brothers have reached out to business leaders in Egypt and abroad to solicit their advice on managing the economy and have evinced a decidedly moderate public posture on questions related to minority rights, women, and tourism.This makes sense, given the organization's worldview and historical political strategy, which has always been that time is on its side.
But one should not expect the Muslim Brotherhood to wait forever. Huge protests on July 8 and Nov. 18 demonstrated its political power, while at the same time heightening tensions and polarizing the public. It is hard to believe that with Egypt now within their grasp, the Brothers will settle to lead from behind and pass up the chance to realize their historical goal of ruling the country. If the Islamists cannot resist the temptation to rule and govern, they are heading for a mighty showdown with the SCAF.
The optimistic view is that Egyptians are deep in the throes of a wrenching national debate that will take many years to work out, but is nevertheless healthy. It is, however, becoming increasingly difficult to make that case. To be sure, Egypt is a cacophony of ideas, projects, initiatives, and manifestos. Yet there is no moral leadership to give the best of ideas national political meaning and content. Egypt's would-be wise men have tried -- but pro-democracy stalwart Mohamed ElBaradei could not do it during the uprising, and Essam Sharaf was not strong enough politically to withstand the competing demands of the revolutionaries, officers, and Islamists as prime minister. It remains to be seen whether other Egyptian leaders such Amr Moussa, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, or Khairat El Shater can be that person, but they are all divisive personalities who may do more to undermine social cohesion than repair it.
The result of all this is Tahrir's Frankenstein monster where there is no leadership, no moral force, no common cause, and no sense of decency. Egyptians are in trouble, and there is not much anyone can do to help them. After these spasms of violence you often hear from Egyptians, "This is not Egypt." It is time for them to prove it.
At least two people were killed Monday in fresh clashes between Egypt’s military and protesters demanding an end to military rule.
More than a dozen people have died in four days of violence now and more than hundreds have been injured.
One shocking image from the clashes this weekend stands out. It shows a woman wearing an Islamic robe being dragged, semi-clothed and unconscious, by soldiers.
Video footage shows her being beaten too.
Anchor Marco Werman talks to New York-based journalist Mona Eltahawy who was recently attacked while covering the unrest in Egypt.
DECEMBER 19TH, 2011–In what appears to be a massive and carefully orchestrated DDoS attack, a dozen Egyptian government websites have been taken down. Sites ranging from the Presidential website to the bureau for Tourism have been hit.
The hacktivist group Anonymous has taken credit for the attack on at least one Brazilian Operations page. The hackers claim the attacks are in response to the brutal treatment of protesters in the country. The hashtags #Egypt #Solidarity #Anonymous #CabinCr3w were used repeatedly on twitter as the event was being reported live, followed by the familiar phrase, “Tango Down.” The phrase was used by hackers before after defacing the CIA’s website.
Footage was released yesterday that showed images of Egyptian military police firing lethal ammunition into crowds of people. Some officers chased down a woman, beating her repeatedly in the middle of the street.
Other images were released yesterday showing “Made in the USA” on teargas canisters. Several U.S. companies have received licenses from the State Department authorizing the sale of munitions to the Egyptian military. The State Department recently acknowledged that shipments of teargas had been sent to Egypt within the last two weeks. Many individuals on the Internet are calling for similar DDoS attacks against the U.S. Government. Whether or not that will happen, only Anonymous knows.
The Protesters in Egypt are demanding that the military regime that took control of the government after they ousted President Mubark, hand the state over to the people so they can begin democratic elections. The General’s involved have refused to do so now, but said they would likely agree sometime in 2012. As of today, 14 protesters had been either shot or beaten to death. Hundreds of others were reported to have been wounded.
The website menasolidaritynetwork.com/ asked yesterday for an act of solidarity on behalf of protesters around the world.
Ground was broken last year for a South Carolina monument commemorating the former slave of a Bermuda sea captain accused of organising the largest slave revolt in American history — but uncertainty continues to cloud the true legacy of Denmark Vesey.
The memorial, designed by celebrated American sculptor Ed Dwight, will stand in Charleston’s Hampton Park.
Denmark Vesey was hanged in 1822 after being convicted of plotting an uprising supposedly intended to burn Charleston to the ground [an artist's impression of the accused insurrectionist used on the cover of a 2000 biography appears here].
But historians remain divided as to whether he indeed attempted to mobilise armed resistance against slavery in South Carolina or demonstrated another kind of heroism altogether — going to the gallows rather than testify against fellow blacks during a trial perhaps based on scare-mongering by an office-seeking Charleston politician.
Few historians today, given the climate of racial fear which swept Charleston, South Carolina during the summer of 1822, would argue with any degree of certainty there actually was a “conspiracy” designed to emulate the wholesale insurrection which took place in Haiti a generation earlier, resulting in the deaths of 100,000 blacks and 24,000 of the 40,000 white colonists.
In fact, some scholar argue the real “conspiracy” was not Denmark Vesey’s supposedly suppressed slave revolt but rather a secret plan by an ambitious white politician to kill blacks, resulting in the largest number of executions ever carried out by a civilian court in the United States.
Denmark Vesey is thought to have been born in 1767, in either Africa or on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas.
As a boy of 14 he was taken to Cap Francais, in St. Domingue — as Haiti was then known — by the captain of a Bermuda slave ship, Joseph Vesey.
Named Telemaque at the time [after Telemachus, son of the Trojan War hero Odysseus], he was sold there as part of a cargo of 390 blacks destined for the island’s sugar plantations. Declared “unsound and subject to epileptic fits,” the boy was returned for credit on the slaver’s next visit to Cap Francais.
For 18 years he was kept by Captain Vesey as a personal servant and is thought to have spent considerable time in Bermuda during this period, learning to read and write. Short Documentary On Denmark Vesey’s Alleged Plot
In 1783, tiring of the sea, Joseph Vesey settled not in his native Bermuda but rather in Charleston and established a prosperous business as a slave broker and ship chandler.
Denmark Vesey was taught the carpentry trade, permitted to earn sums of money for his own use.
He bought lottery tickets in 1800 and won $1,500 in a draw, purchasing his freedom for a $600 share of the lottery prize.
For 22 years, Denmark Vesey practiced his trade as a free man in Charleston, acquiring property valued at $8,000.
Though he was free, his several wives and children remained slaves. He joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church where the seeds of his supposed rebellion were allegedly sown.
In 1820 or 1821, according to evidence presented at his trial, he began to plot the insurrection. He is said to have recruited a secret army of as many as 9,000 slaves who, on his signal, were to march on the city and destroy it.
Slave blacksmiths were ordered to forge pikes and bayonets. Stable boys, draymen and carters were responsible for making horses available, and boatmen were assigned to ferry slave companies from nearby plantations.
The US Arsenal on Charleston Neck was to be seized, and the Guardhouse attacked. The Governor was to be summarily executed.
When a sufficient supply of arms was in the hands of the insurgents, the city was to be put to the torch and white Charlestonians, to the last man, woman and child, were to be slaughtered.
The revolt’s final phases included the seizing of ships in the harbour and an exodus of freed slaves from burning Charleston to Haiti, which had become the first black-ruled country in the Western hemisphere in 1804.
While these charges were laid against Vesey and others accused of conspiring with him, nobody knows the truth. Johns Hopkins University history professor Michael Johnson has argued that Charleston’s politically ambitious mayor James Hamilton Jr. dreamed up the alleged plot — compelling slaves he and his supporters coached to testify to the supposed details — to discredit his rival, Governor Thomas Bennett Jr. and advance his own career.
Indeed, Hamilton became a member of the US Congress in December, 1822, capitalising on the notoriety he gained bringing Denmark Vesey and his alleged co-conspirators to trial just months earlier.
Prof. Johnson has said this interpretation of Denmark Vesey’s story illustrates a different kind of heroism: the heroism of Vesey and the other 44 men who pleaded not guilty and refused to testify falsely against fellow slaves–men who made the terrible choice to face execution for telling the truth rather than send others to the gallows on the basis of a lie.
Indeed, the overwhelming majority of the men arrested refused to testify falsely, despite extensive torture. The Story Of Denmark Vesey’s Charleston Church
Prof. Johnson concluded: “It is time to pay attention to the not guilty pleas of almost all the men who went to the gallows,” to honor them for “their refusal to name names in order to save themselves.”
The arrest, trial and execution of Vesey and other alleged conspirators took place in an atmosphere of near hysteria, despite, or perhaps because of, a virtual news blackout imposed for a fortnight by city authorities.
Blacks then clearly outnumbered whites in the city. The census of 1820 had counted 11,654 whites, 12,652 slaves, and 1,475 free blacks. When South Carolina’s plantation blacks were factored in, the black majority was overwhelming.
In all, 131 blacks and four whites were arrested and put on trial. As Prof. Johnson has pointed out, 27 white Charlestonians testified in court in support of 15 black defendants, resisting the hysteria sweeping the city. Bermudian Captain Joseph Vesey would himself testify that Denmark Vesey had always been loyal and intelligent and did not provide any incriminating evidence against his former slave.
Ultimately, though, 35 blacks were hanged. None of their bodies — including Denmark Vesey’s — appear to have been released to their families for Christian burial.
Denmark Vesey’s Charleston Footprints
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 110 Calhoun Street. In 1791, the Free African Society, composed of slaves and free blacks, was organised in Charleston. In 1818 several congregations became of part of the Richard Allen movement – the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1818 a modest house of worship was erected at Reid and Hanover where Denmark Vesey was a Class Leader.
In 1818, 1820 and 1821 the City closed the church prosecuting its leaders for meeting without white supervision. In 1822, after the hangings of Vesey and other church members, the church building was razed. The structure was rebuilt and worship services continued until 1834 when the few independent black churches were outlawed. After 1834 many of these churches continued to worship underground. In 1865 as the Civil War drew to a close, the congregation was named the Emanuel AME Church and a house of worship at 110 Calhoun St. was built. Every craftsman who worked on it was of African descent. The architect, was Robert Vesey, the son of Denmark Vesey. The church structure, damaged in an 1886 earthquake, was rebuilt in 1892 and is the oldest AME church in the South.
Denmark Vesey House, 56 Bull Street. At the time of Vesey’s execution his home was listed at 20 Bull St. In 1976, 56 Bull Street was listed as a US National Historic Landmark and is commonly referred to as the Denmark Vesey House.
Portrait of Denmark Vesey in Gaillard Auditorium, 77 Calhoun Street. As no physical description of Vesey is known to exist, any picture of him is an artist’s conception. This portrait by Dorothy B. Wright shows him from the back addressing his followers. The portrait, hung in 1976 — more than 150 years after Vesey’s public hanging — prompted criticism, and the theft of the painting. After Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said the city would commission a replacement if the painting remained missing, it was returned and more securely mounted.
Hanging Tree and Grave. Denmark Vesey and five others were allegedly hanged on North Line Street between King and Meeting. It is also claimed they were hanged from the Ashley Avenue Oak Tree. The locations of the graves of the 35 hanged in the aftermath of the Vesey Conspiracy remain unknown. “Denmark Vesey: Spirit of Freedom Monument” Hampton Park, 30 Mary Murray Drive. A statue of Vesey originally planned in 1996 for the historic district was held up until a compromise was made to erect the statue in Hampton Park — away from the general tourist district. Sculptor Ed Dwight has created a prototype of a bronze statue of Vesey and the other ringleaders, Peter Poyas and Gullah Jack, standing atop a five-foot granite pedestal on a plaza. Ground was broken for the memorial in 2010 but fund raising efforts continue.
The Romans founded London as a centre of trade and business in about AD 50 - or so archaeologists have long believed.
Skulls believed to belong to Iceni tribesmen, loyal to Boudica [Credit: London Evening Standard]
But new evidence suggests the capital has a more chilling history, built as a military base by slaves who were then slaughtered. Hundreds of skulls discovered along the course of the "lost" river Walbrook suggest London may have been built by forced labour.
Dominic Perring, director of the Centre for Applied Archaeology at University College London, says the skulls could be those of Queen Boudica's rebel Iceni tribesmen who were brought to London to build a new military base.
In an essay published in this month's British Archaeology magazine, Mr Perring argues that some of the skulls had been de-fleshed, which suggests the slaves may have been executed after building work was finished.
Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, said: "At a time when we're all wondering and worrying about the future of the City of London it's interesting to reflect on its foundation, which seems to have been very bloody indeed.
"The team has been looking at the evidence accumulated from decades of new excavation, and they offer a more convincing, and chilling, alternative to what has long been believed."
Mr Perring added: "The timbers were prepared using 'native' British woodworking techniques, unlike the Roman carpentry used everywhere else. Might this have been the work of forced labour? Several hundred late Iron Age or early Roman skulls, from a population that must have numbered in thousands, have been found in and around the Walbrook and were predominantly of young males. London's civic centre was ignored in the rebuilding, and no new temples or basilicas were erected. This suggests London lacked independent legal status and remained under direct military control.
"It was singled out for attention in the period after the revolt because of its military importance, as both the site of an earlier fort and the principal port that supplied the army. This was the commanding centre from which Roman power in Britain was exercised."
One of the great vocal artists of our time has died. I saw Cesária Évora play once, many years ago, and she really was the "barefoot diva." Her voice filled the auditorium, and it seemed to pierce through the roof to fill the skies above.
The queen of "morna" music was a heavy cigarette smoker and drinker (as you can see in the video above). She retired in September in ill health, apologizing to her fans. She underwent open-heart surgery in 2008, and survived multiple strokes; her death today was related to those health problems. Two days of national mourning have been declared in her home country.
The song embedded above, "Sodade," is probably her most famous, and her first global hit. The lyrics are worth a read if you don't understand Portuguese.
Cape Verdian Star Cesaria Evora, one of the most famous international world music acts, died today at Baptista de Sousa hospital in Mindelo in the island of Sao Vicente (Cape Verde). She died of high blood pressure complications.
The Cape Verdian government has declared two days of mourning for the death of the international star and flags are flying at half-staff at all official buildings in the archipelago and international delegations abroad.
Nicknamed the ‘barefoot’ diva for her habit of performing without shoes, Cesaria Evora was perhaps the best-known practitioner of morna, songs of sadness, sorrow and yearning.
Cesaria Evora (her friends called her Cize) was born on August 27th, 1941 in Mindelo, Cape Verde. At the age of 16 she started to sing at bars and ships, always standing and wearing down her legs. Mindelo has a large bay and ships arrived frequently bringing all kinds of goods, creating a lively atmosphere.
After Cape Verde gained its independence from Portugal, things didn’t go so well. There were less ships arriving to the ports and the once green archipelago suffered a severe drought that forced many of the island’s inhabitants to emigrate to mainland Africa, Portugal, the United States and France. Cesaria stayed in her hometown until 1985, when Bana, a musician friend, and a Cape Verde women’s association encouraged her to travel to Lisbon (Portugal) to showcase her talent.
Cesaria Evora with one of her bands
In 1988, a Cape Verdian producer living in France, José Da Silva, offered her to travel to Paris to record an album. She was 47 at the time and had nothing to lose, she had never been to Paris before, and so she agreed to go. In Paris, Cesaria’s performances of Cape Verdian styles such as morna and coladeira gained a large following among the immigrant community. After the release of her fourth album, Miss Perfumado, she received great reviews and became popular with French, Belgian and German audiences and later with other international audiences. She recorded in Creole and Spanish. Worldwide tours followed.
Cesaria normally toured with fellow Cape Verdian singer Bau and his band: Jacinto Pereira (cavaquinho), José Paris (bass), Luis Ramos (guitars), Nando Andrade (piano), Totinho (saxophones and percussion), and Bau (guitars, cavaquinho, violin).
Cesaria Evora - Photo by Joe Wuerfel
In recent times, things improved in Cape Verde. Cesaria returned to the island, bringing with her a blue Ford that she owned in Paris. The lady with the bare feet, as she was also known, had difficulty walking so she used a driver.
Her album Cafe Atlantico sold more than 300.000 copies in France. In 2004, Voz d’Amor won the Grammy for best contemporary world music recording. That same year, Club Sodade: Cesaria Evora came out. It was the first-ever remix collection from the enduring Grammy winning artist.
For her 2009 album, Nha Sentimento, Cesaria and her crew found a collaborator and an admirer in Fathy Salama, a former conductor of the Cairo Orchestra who arranged the three mornas on the album.
Cesaria Evora survived a stroke in April of 2008. In May 2010 she was urgently admitted to a Paris hospital, due to a cardiac problem.
On September 23rd 2011, Cesaria Evora‘s management company and record label Lusafrica announced that the renowned singer from Cape Verde would be retiring.
Her funeral is scheduled for Tuesday, December 20th in the afternoon.
