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M.I.A. Goes to War
The Tamil Tigers have not helped their cause by using terrorist tactics—over 200 suicide bombings and political assassinations, including, in the early '90s, a Prime Minister of India and a President of Sri Lanka. That’s allowed the Sri Lanka government to portray themselves as a state battling rogue terrorists willing to use methods not allowed by the Geneva Conventions and thus sanctioning the government to use any means necessary. Sound familiar? M.I.A. says it’s the Bush administration’s strategy in its war on terror (or war of terror) that has dictated how other countries have approached their conflicts. She told me, “If America is gonna be the leader in fighting terrorism they hold a responsibility to do it well. ‘Cuz they set the world’s precedents on how you fight terrorism. And they have to be careful about what they give a ticket to. That’s the problem—America went in and said we’re fighting terrorism and then blitzed Iraq and that basically gave all these governments around the world the green light to just go and say you’re fighting terrorism and you get paid by America and you could do what the fuck you want. But you can’t say we’re fighting terrorism, we’re fighting Al Qaeda, and then wipe out the whole of Iraq. Or, we’re lookin’ for bin Laden so we just kill a million people. But that’s what’s happening in Sri Lanka.”
“Look, I’ve been shot at so I’m quite comfortable with gunshot sounds. If you have a problem with it, go and talk to the people who were shooting at me.”
The war had a direct impact on M.I.A. becoming a recording artist, though in a bit of a roundabout way. “My thing isn’t about fame or money,” she says, “it’s about, I wanted to bring attention to a situation that you weren’t allowed to talk about. I tried to do it by making a documentary in Sri Lanka and I got banned because you’re not allowed to make documentaries about anything unless it’s pro-government. I would’ve gone to jail for being a terrorist for making a film. And that made me think about art and being an artist. I was like, that’s really fucked up that it’s life or death to make a movie in Sri Lanka in the new millennium. And when I started dealing with it I decided to became a musician because music is powerful and it’s instant and you can get a message out.”
It makes sense that M.I.A.’s career launched from a desire to spread a political message about the downtrodden in her home country because her musical persona has been subversive truth-teller and stark realist, as if she were Joni Mitchell minus an acoustic guitar, plus a big sound system. Her identity politics-laden lyrics expose Westerners to new thoughts, to the perspective of the outsider, the immigrant, just as her sounds also broaden your palette. She’s lived in Sri Lanka, London, Brooklyn, and LA, and spent lots of time traveling, so she brings the sound of the world into the studio, making her the most interesting rapper to emerge in years. No wait, singer. No, rapper. Well, she’s an amalgam, somewhere in between rapper and singer, rhyming with more melody than most rappers but singing with more percussiveness than most singers, ultimately demanding her own space, as with everything she does.
M.I.A. also has a history as a visual artist—her first show was in Portobello, London, and Jude Law was among the early buyers of her work—so it fits that her work has messages and they’re often difficult to uncover. Her monster hit “Paper Planes,” which was featured in Pineapple Express and Slumdog Millionaire, propelling it up the charts, is one of my favorite songs in recent memory even though I don’t completely understand what it’s really about. “It’s about immigration and immigrants,” M.I.A. says, “and how we are seen to be really scary because we can take people’s jobs. People think it’s about robbin’ banks or something or it’s about terrorism, but it’s not. It’s about immigrants coming over and us being really scary to people.”
Okay, but why the sound of gunshots in the chorus? “If you’re an immigrant you left somewhere and most of the time you fled a war. Gun sounds are a part of our culture as an everyday thing. If you’ve been exposed to gunfights and violence and bombs and war then I can use those sounds backing my thoughts, ya know? Look, I’ve been shot at so I’m quite comfortable with gunshot sounds. If you have a problem with it, go and talk to the people who were shooting at me.”
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
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Touré is a columnist for The Daily Beast. He's also an NBC contributor and the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, Soul City, and The Portable Promised Land. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, was CNN's first pop culture correspondent, and was the host of MTV2's Spoke N Heard. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New York Times.
Alright Daily Beast readers. I do not think Ms. Arulpragasam is aware that there are actual Sri Lankans reading the beast, and yet again, she is WRONG. She is lying on a public forum, and this sob story about having been shot is complete Bull. She lived in the UK for most of her life, before living in Brooklyn, NY. The LTTE, which she tries to label as a bunch of Kumbaya singing peacenicks is actually the very first guerilla terrorist group to use suicide bombers so effectively. She fails to see how the entire country has been set up with bunkers and baracks for check points. She also fails to mention how post 9/11, the LTTE TOO has been rightly listed as a TERRORIST GROUP.
There are no concentration camps in Sri Lanka, and what goes on is NOTHING like Nazi Germany. Only the hard line terrorists now occupy the northern fight zones, they have been evacuated of all civilians. There is no ethnic cleansing going on. She is a liar!
Also - I find in interesting that MIA is allowed to write her pieces and sing her little songs, after all, could an Al Qaida sympathizer ever do anything in its defense in this country? I don't think so! The LTTE is Sri Lanka's Al Qaida. It's time the world understood this
pretty sure she said she was shot at?? also the article mentioned that they used terrorist tactics.... what's up with the hate man
shot or shot at? whats the difference. i know for a fact that M.I.A had to flee sri lanka with her family for fear of their lives b'cuz her father belonged to an anti-government group, and he was labeled a terrorist. M.I.A talks from first hand experience...she has lived it, and she represents the tamil struggle in sri lanka. anyone who is against her, what she represents or what she is trying to do is a HATER and doesn't want the world to see the atrocities which are being committed in sr lanka.
Thanks M.I.A for bringing out the GENOCIDE of tamils in Lanka. Daiyl about 50 to 1000 civilians are killed by the armed forces. A local doctor has commented that Lanka government is pursuing a 2 pronged genocide. Kill by shells and kill by denying medical facility. Tamils living in the government control go 'disappear' at an alarming rate. The civilians surrendered to the army are put in camps with men 'disappearing' and women being abused. There are no international monitors. Lanka has driven out all aid agencies by killing their members. French 'Action Against Hunger' pulled out of lanka after army killed 17 aid workers in a day (google it). See the HRW reports. www.tamilnet.com see the plight of civilians in youtube. here is a very short history http://www.MegaShare.com/580525
pls stop posting lies about MIA.
She is not support any group. She is simply asking SL-State to STOP KILLING the innocent Tamil (ethnic-minority) civilians.
Readers, don't be fooled by the Sinhala people (the pro-SL govt ppl) writing lies about MIA. (Sinhala is the ethnic-Majority in SL)
true story is at www.tamilnation.org
what is happening in Sri Lanka is a civil war that has destroyed thousands of lives...though the Tamil Tigers have used terrorist tactics, it is the only way they have to have their voice heard against a corrupt government that wants to destroy the Tamil culture and its people...the Tigers may use suicide bombers, etc. but the government has used its powers to quiet any dissent (i.e. have you arrested and never seen from again) and ruined many more lives of people that want nothing more than control of their own land and a culture to be proud of!
M.I.A. good on ya for using your voice for peace!
As Tamils we should be so proud of this young girl. i was directed from one racisit sinhala srilankan website hate campaign agaist MIA to this blog. therefore dont be surprised to see many anti tamil comment and anti MIA Comment.
there are thousands of people were abducted and killed by srilankan forces in the last few months alone.
and as we speak there are large number of males and females are taken by police and army and many womens are raped and killed by the security forces sinhala newspaper reporting it.
Artillery-fired cluster shells, aerial bombing on safety zone, 39 civilians killed
here is typical killing that happens in srilanka.
[TamilNet, Saturday, 31 January 2009, 17:44 GMT]
For the first time within the safety zone, Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers Saturday attacked Moongkilaa'ru and Chuthanthirapuram. Relentless artillery fire also continued throughout the day on civilian targets. 39 civilians were killed and 128 wounded in the indiscriminate attacks. Artillery-fired cluster munitions were used in the attacks by the SLA against civilians targets
today in london UK over 100,000 protested against the killing of tamils in srilanka. and no media reported, because these media sytamatically aiding the genocide.(not even a word in BBC)
but MIA as a single person at least making it aware to the world. and we tamils salute her. we love you girl, god bless you.
Tiny Island????? Check your facts. 20 million people live there.
Wow M.I.A forgot to mention all the ransoms that LTTE has gotten from tamil civilians through blackmailing and threats..
It was the LTTE who started this bloody war to begin with.It's really sad to see what this country had come to as a result of it.Now she is going around promoting the terrorist group.
Uhm okay, to the first comment on this article. If you are not living in that country, have no clue about what is going on, and someone decides to spill the truth, and you get mad, it's obviously because you don't wanna open your mind to see that there is things as horrible as MIA is saying occuring in the world at this moment. And just because you don't believe it, doesn't mean it isn't happening. So please, if you can't have an open mind about such a deadly situation, just shut your fucking mouth and let the people who wanna stop this, do it. Because frankly, you're mouth is not needed during a time of such despair. While so many lives are being tortured and killed, you wanna run your mouth about someone who is actually trying to do some good, jus because you're not the one in the video making a difference, don't hate and get the fuck outta here cause noone needs your bullshit.
I find it interesting tha M>I>A> thinks you need to be from a specific country to say something about the plight of it's people. If that were the case, then she shouldn't have anything to say about anywhere in the world except where she is from.In case she hasn't realized it, the world is ONE PLACE.
Her attitude reflects the entire problem. Thank you, M.I.A.
Xelene, it's not a matter of Maya being right or wrong. Her stated goal is to expose a conflict that's become a genocide. Does the labeling of the Tamil Tigers a terrorist organization justify the genocide of Tamil people? Or did they use terrorist tactics in response to state-sponsored terrorism against them? These are big questions that have no right or wrong. What I appreciate about this article and Maya in particular is her courage to use her spotlight to raise these issues. She is the voice of millions and millions of immigrants all over the world and History will remember her. Oh and the Bono line is priceless...
one man terrorist another man's freedom fighter. in the name of war on terror, the atrocites commited by some countries against the people is unbelivable.Sri Lanka will be the # 1 for state terrorisam. I admire M.I.A for standing up for Tamils as she is the only Tamil who has the access to western media. I would like to THANK her for stepping up to the plate and doing the right thing at the right time for the people who have been sffering for long time under the brutal regimes.
Another 40 civilians killed on Sunday Feb 1st. Also SriLanka has issued the following warning (google for this AP news):
Sri Lanka's hardline government warned Sunday that Western ambassadors, news agencies and INGOs of "dire consequences" if they attempt to give the LTTE a second breath of life. "They will be chased away (if they try) to give a second wind to the LTTE terrorists at a time the security forces, at heavy cost, are dealing them the final death blow," Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa told The Sunday Island
sri lankan government use terrisiam.thay say one and do one.my maya m.i.a.she is a angal.good hart no hate-no no no she hat only againt bad peopel lik srilank bad people and others.whoever say she is a terrist thay are wrong.thay rial terrist
I am assuming that you all know MIA personally. Let me tell you this - when she claims that there is an ethnic cleanse in Sri Lanka - she is lying! A bunch of rebels, which have USED TERROR TACTICS, are trying to claim a part of the island of Sri Lanka (which in whole is only slightly larger than the state of West Virginia) as the homeland for all the Tamil people on the planet. To this end, they have bombed, maimed, brutalized and tortured many a Sinhalese villager, and use terror tactics to recruit their own cadres. They also pioneered the use of female suicide bombers, and child soldiers have their own brigade. Children as old as 7 are given AK47 and T56 rilfes to shoot.
I do not know if any of you are Lankans, or if you have ever visited the country, or if you have lived there. I do not know if you know the history of the island. I do acknowledge that there were very distasteful crimes committed against the Tamil people at various times in the country's past. You may or may not know that Tamil invaders from India RUINED our ancient cities and pillaged villages and tried to conquer all of Sri Lanka. What I do know, is that you have to look at both sides.
I am quite sure that you would not go to Israel and defend hamas, or be in the US and defend Al Qaida. MIA would like us believe that she fled the country all by her self and swam all the way to Britain, she says she wants to feel the pain, why is she doing this in the relative comfort of the developed world? She has clearly not suffered the way every citizen in Sri Lanka is suffering right now. The war is torture on EVERYONE.
And let me make this point clear as well. I am a Sri Lankan, born to a Sinhala family, and raised as a Buddhist. I have encountered and interacted with Tamils and Muslims and Burghers, and the vast majority do NOT view all Tamils as LTTE terrorists. I cannot stress this point enough.
I am assuming that you all know MIA personally. Let me tell you this - when she claims that there is an ethnic cleanse in Sri Lanka - she is lying! A bunch of rebels, which have USED TERROR TACTICS, are trying to claim a part of the island of Sri Lanka (which in whole is only slightly larger than the state of West Virginia) as the homeland for all the Tamil people on the planet. To this end, they have bombed, maimed, brutalized and tortured many a Sinhalese villager, and use terror tactics to recruit their own cadres. They also pioneered the use of female suicide bombers, and child soldiers have their own brigade. Children as old as 7 are given AK47 and T56 rilfes to shoot.
I do not know if any of you are Lankans, or if you have ever visited the country, or if you have lived there. I do not know if you know the history of the island. I do acknowledge that there were very distasteful crimes committed against the Tamil people at various times in the country's past. You may or may not know that Tamil invaders from India RUINED our ancient cities and pillaged villages and tried to conquer all of Sri Lanka. What I do know, is that you have to look at both sides.
I am quite sure that you would not go to Israel and defend hamas, or be in the US and defend Al Qaida. MIA would like us believe that she fled the country all by her self and swam all the way to Britain, she says she wants to feel the pain, why is she doing this in the relative comfort of the developed world? She has clearly not suffered the way every citizen in Sri Lanka is suffering right now. The war is torture on EVERYONE.
And let me make this point clear as well. I am a Sri Lankan, born to a Sinhala family, and raised as a Buddhist. I have encountered and interacted with Tamils and Muslims and Burghers, and the vast majority do NOT view all Tamils as LTTE terrorists. I cannot stress this point enough.
the BEAST IS DELETING MY COMMENTS and ANY comment made that is no PRO LTTE/MIA
the BEAST IS DELETING MY COMMENTS and ANY comment made that is no PRO LTTE/MIA
MIA was labeled a terrorist because she is a terrorist. She represents the LTTE(Liberation Tamil Tigers Ealam) which is a terrorist organization as Xelene has clearly pointed out. Her dad was a leader of the LTTE . What the world doesn't know is that the LTTE forces people to give money to fund their organization . Only the innocent Tamil people know about this. My dad works in Saudi Arabia and knew a Sri Lankan Tamil family who said that they were forced to give money to the LTTE . This is just another story. So I suggest that if you don't know your facts about what MIA actually represents, please DO NOT comment on it. The war in Sri Lanka is against the LTTE not against the innocent Tamil people. I'm not suprised that the Sri Lankan army almost shot her !! What will u do? Invite her for dinner?. The LTTE brain washes their members to explode bombs and kill innocent people. Are these acts of freedom fighters. The world needs to wake up and realize that MIA is representing TERRORISM!!
Um, MIA, you might want to study history, even maybe twenty years ago and see that Bono has been vocal about the problems in his own country before you were BORN. How about just googling "Sunday Bloody Sunday"? Hello? I guess we should forgive you for being young, ignorant and so competitive that you need to attack someone doing good to try to make you look like she is somehow doing "better" good. But I doubt anyone believes that you aren't trying to sell records. What a tangled web we weave...
MIA is a lousy singer and a horrible MC. But she is pretty and has style. and its nice that she's bringing some attention to this conflict.
im sure both sides are wrong... political struggles are about power, not right and wrong. humans need to dominate each other, and play king of the mountain.
p.s. bono may be a schmuck, but he has a professional singing voice. his politics put him above bon jovi.
why are there so many haters in the world? the only thing she is trying to do some good for a minority group getting abstructed by a majoirty government. If you do not fully understand the situation, how does that give you the right to call it obscure? A person who may not be from Sri Lanka may understand the situation more than ones who ARE from there, so that should not be an issue because judging from most of these comments, everyone is falling for the lies of the media and are simply falling for what's on the plate. If you honestly cared, or wanted to check on both sides you would read about both sides. So don't go on blaming an artist who actually tried to do something and is succeeding and take that jealousy and put it towards her comments. Cause i'm sure, most people do not have the courage to do what she is doing, or have even tried.
If Bono is somehow a fraud for his caring about groups of people he is not a part of, does that mean the rest of us non-Sri Lankans can go ahead and not care about her people and this conflict? Because I already carry too much white liberal guilt.
Thank you.
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