Gaza

I know that I have said to my friends that I was too heartsick to be bothered with what is going on in the Gaza strip. It has been so long that these two sides, the Jews and the Arabs and the Christians screwing each other. And us as an outsider viewing what is going on inside as if we understand. I have had numerous e-mails spewing Anti-Semitic messages, without realizing that Jewish children are also getting killed. This is not about religion, this is about politics, about another polity making itself extremely felt on another polity. No doubt that both these sides have felt enmity towards each other for hundreds of years, but this does not mean that they have never lived side by side. The scale in which we are seeing right now are extremely severe, toxic weapons are being thrown to civilian homes, children maimed and burned, crushed under the rubble of stupidity in part of the Americans and the Israelis. For what? For who? Muslims must begin to understand especially Islamic fundamentalists that what is going on is not a protest against the Muslim religion, far from it. Those who are suffering are ALL, and not just the Muslims, Muslims MUST begin to realize and UNDERSTAND, to be inside other people's shoes, to unlearn our religio-centric tendencies. We as humans cannot at this time start to look at one another on the basis of what we believe in, not on the basis of our colour, creed or gender, this is a time where we should serve the most basic of our existence, that of peace, NOT chaos. I have, for a while been very sad and upset with the way things were going within Islamic fundamentalism and the issues that they like to deal with, but this is a time where Islam must show its banner as PEACE and not WAR. We cannot fight fire with fire, it is foolish, it has been said over and over again (and why the hell do people not listen?) stop and extinguish the fire. The solution could be simple, the solution could be easy, but it seems that the harder more painful path is much more comforting when we wallow in our own sadness. Right now is not the time for individualism, it is a time for community work and community peace efforts. For America, as always as has many critics have said, what they are allowing would only exacerbate the condition. Why are you allowing human beings to be extinguished just like that? For a country that speaks of peace, of freedom and human liberty, it is allowing oppression, pain, suffering and slavery in others. It seems as if at this point, the 'freedom' and 'wealth' that some Americans are experiencing is at the expense of the pain and suffering of others. There should be more transparency, people should be given all the information they have at their expense and not just one side of the conversation. I think it is appropriate that I should say as the first word of the Quran, 'Iqra', Read. Speak. Our voices should be loud enough so that everyone could hear.

The Shuffler Game

Note: I suspect the reason why some of the songs could match the questions and reflect who you are because, duh, it is your playlist.

Anyway, I know I'm always serious so for my friends who read my blog and get bored to moffing tears, I'm playing the Shuffler Game as evidenced by Ayop and Kartina's blog:-

You put your playlist songs on shuffle on winamp, windows media player bla3 and write down the answers no matter how funny.

1) Are you male or female?

I Know Where I've Been - Queen Latifah (I don't get that, sounds like I've been around :P)

2) Describe Yourself!

Across the Universe - Fiona Apple (what like just because I like anthropology and sociology so now I traverse the universe lah ah?)

3)What do people feel when they're around you?

Lollipop - Mika (I hope they're not asking me to do it...)

4) Describe your current relationship.

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - Daft Punk (Woohoo!!!)

5)Where would you like to be right now?

I Heard Love is Blind - Amy Winehouse (eh?)

6) How Do You Feel About Love?

Keda enyei einak - Amr Diab (apparently it means 'Just Like This, Eye to Eye, I guess equal I suppose?)

7) What's Your Life Like?

Sweet Love - Anita Baker (Wow, I must be lucky)

8) What would you ask for if you had one wish?

I Need You - Lee Ann Rimes (Aduh, wtf? why does this sound like Kartina's list???)

9) Say Something Wise:

Hotel California - NOFX (Wow, how wise am I?)

10) If Someone Says' Is this okay? you say...?)

Akhir Cerita Cinta - Flenn Fredly (Abis! Jiwang! Awut)

11) How would you desrcibe yourself?

Cinta Mati - Ahmad Dhani feat. Agnes Monica (KAR!!! THERE'S SOMETHING WRONG HERE!!!)

12) What do you like in a guy/girl?

So Simple - Stacie Orrico (very appropriate)

13) How Do You feel Today?

Come Rain or Come Shine - Billie Holiday (Nice.)

14) What is Your Life Purpose?

I'd Rather Dance With You - Kings of Convenience (I don't know why but this list makes me sound like I'm a Romantic or something...)

15)What is your motto?

Fantasy (remix) - Mariah Carey (woohoo! I sound like a bimbo)

16) What do your friends think of you?

I Say a Little Prayer for You - Dionne Warwick (Aww, I love you guys too)

17) What do you think of your parents?

Love Is No Big Truth - Kings of Convenience (wow, that's perfect timing)

18) What Do You think About very often?

Seribu Tahun - Imran Ajmain (mataiii tayaaa jiwang!!!)

19) What is 2+2?

Love is a Losing Game - Amy Winehouse (??)

20) What do you think of your bestfriend(s)?

The Sweetest Love - Robin Thicke (;))

21) What do you think of the person you like?

D.A.N.C.E - Justice (jadinya Kakana mau ia menari?)

22) What is your life story?

Loving You Is Easy (cos your beautiful) - Minnie Riperton (I knew it)

23) What do you want to be when you grow up?

King Without a Crown - Matisyahu (Jesus!)

24) What do you think of when you see the person you like?

Rasa Cinta - Bunglon (aduh mas, bener dong)

25) What will you dance to at your wedding?

Larut - Dewa (banar kali...jiwang kali aku ani)

26) What will they play at your funeral?

Everlong (Acoustic) - Foo Fighters (That's very appropriate)

27) What is your hobby/interest?

Feedback - Janet Jackson (Banar! HAHAHAHAH)

28) What is your biggest fear?

Ironic - Alanis Morisette (wow, isn't that ironic?)

29) What is your biggest fear?

Kissing a Fool - Michael Buble (See, I said it, semuanya ngam2)

An extension of yesterday's commentary; I am Woman

I feel a little bogged down remembering the issues I dealt with and read yesterday. There are times when I feel like I am trapped in this vaccuum where I do not wish to be and yet society forces me to be in. For one thing, I realized that the representation of women as sexual beings will never end, the only way in which such things could be stopped is by portraying the male species as equally as erotic manifestations. Women are so ingrained into their psyche as these 'weak', 'less-intelligent' and whatever crap they can bulldoze up to make it seem as if men are the 'protectors' and 'maintainers' of women. Who the fuck 'maintained' and 'protected' them when they were young? You want to quote biology? The mother wolf protects her cubs from harm, the hen is close to her nest and her chicks, if women are not strong how do you explain the countless human beings that grace this earth protected and maintained by women? Too much of the mass media invades our cultural and social space, too much invades into the ideas of biology and science, too much of it is easily deconstructed with even a small amount of evidence to break the whole thing apart. And yet, again and again and again, we remain true to such said misconceptions of our reality as women. History has been graced with only the presence of men and not women, and yet we know such history has been selective, the access of religion and education has been denied to women these past few centuries leaving us 'weak' in mind and body and not in our spirit. I am angry, yes I am, very much. The man walks this earth not knowing and not understanding the presence of Woman. They represented our images with fake ones, dealt with our hair, our skin, our faces and our bodies just so that they can feel masculine and REAL. To remember a quote from Amistad, men have survived and became great through their manipulation and exploitation of women, by disallowing us from everything and keeping us within the fringes and therefore their power will never end or be threatened. Islam on the one hand had said that whatever property that a woman owns is hers to own and to distribute, and yet, there are several cases one can quote from memory concerning the family's wish for the woman's decision on her property be overturned, changed, for a million and one reasons. Where is the justice? It does not exist, and I ask my sisters, when will the change be? When will the change come? The change has to come now, the fight must continue, and I will until the last of my dying breath, at least hope, that I could open just some eyes.

Reviewing Tagged versus Facebook

I thought that Tagged should know how dumb they are. :)

This is my review of Tagged. It is clearly a dating site which allows people to keep their privacy to the utmost degree, what the problem is http://www.tagged.com/mypage.html?uid=5403358017 , its sad if you could browse through the photos, I was playing Meet Me and I noticed how dumb men and women could be. This by the way was not displayed as banned content but mine was and you want to know what I put in?

'Don't leave any women behind'

a quote from Abigail Adams, and my dream was quashing the patriarch. Tell me Tagged, what is so offensive of my said content? You allow sexist images and stereotypes of women and yet you do not allow any commentary that are a least bit REAL. Therefore I am withdrawing from Tagged.com, and for all you girls out there, if you have any respect for yourselves, just delete your Tagged profile.

On a second note, Facebooks attempt to ban breastfeeding women whilst allowing half naked women in their profile pictures I find really distasteful. Sure you say, why should women flaunt themselves breastfeeding on facebook, but the world has already too many problems with allowing the patriarch from stopping women from breastfeeding, for more information read Milk, Money and Madness by Naomi Baumslag et al. It is not strange to look at a child being fed using a bottle and yet what is natural is considered offensive content, more exposure should be given to breastfeeding, it is not that these women are 'attention seekers' rather they are trying to create a culture of breastfeeding that allows such images to be NATURAL, and REAL. Breasts become sexual tools rather than its original purpose, and I find it disgusting and distasteful that people find breastfeeding offensive instead.

Yours sincerely,
Liyana Tassim

The payment gap in gender

Before I start I would like to thank David Santos, never realized there were people out there who liked what I was saying, and I would like to thank everybody else too who has commented in my blog and gave their own two cents', three cents', worth. I would like to refer to a recent article that I was reading, in fact about several, one is this http://entertainment.sg.msn.com/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1832836 and the other one is this http://amananta.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/the-latest-false-woman-dividing-dichotomy/ , which I thought was a very well-written commentary. I never realized or knew that women were still lagging on payment behind men even up to the entertainment industry, and this I thought, was offensive. It meant that the strides of womanhood was still limited, and ofcourse the value of women's work is globally considered as being second to that of men's work. But this as the lady of 'Screaming the Void' adds, is a result of the dichotomy between women themselves and I cannot help but agree with her. This is definitely true wherever the sphere of existence rules us, it has been with us since the dawn of time and that was what I found so deeply disturbing. But on a tackling note of historians and historiography we could apply the deconstruction of history itself, the most, history was recorded during the Renaissance, which in more ways than one, could have been a selective process resulting from Christianity and their commitment to putting males ahead. History is selective it pulls together what it wants to depict and nothing could be more true than the history that we live with up until today. The world is viewed through the eyes of men and not women, the women have remained silent and they have remained locked behind doors unable to commit themselves to a better situation. Feminism has its points when it claims that women are being divided into different spheres in order for us to be divided and not united. There are several implications of class that constitute themselves within the 'act' of gender. When I say 'act' I mean to say that gender itself has become an act and not merely a term we use as a description. No longer is gender deconstructed but rather, gender is constructed continously and repeatedly through the way we view the world from our social interactions and (an easy scapegoat) the media. Women are being continously bombarded and disfigured to fit the preconceptions of what womenhood should be through male eyes.

Stiglitz and Matisyahu

A very weird converging point, one a nobel prize winning economist and the other an interfaith reggae singer, I assume though that Stiglitz is a Jew through his name I could be wrong, and if that was true then both of them have some common ground. Anyway, back to my point, I was reading Stiglitz's 'Making Globalization Work', the problem is clear, and the IMF is a jerkwad, of course tra lala, Washington Consensus bla3, but the thing is this, why is it necessary to push developing countries into a course that have marked and shaped industrialized societies? Local businesses and local handmade products are a beacon for trading with the outside world but they have no value amongst the Louis Vuitton and Prada bags. Both are handmade, what is the difference then? Both too could produce quality, but how is it one could cost 50$ (which less than a third would probably reach the maker, the raw material supplier and most pocketed by the seller) and the other, $5000? We live in a world of supply and demand, but it is missing a lot of things in between, the idea of man needing all of these things, these useless useless things that surround us daily in our lives. Consumerism is not deep down in your heart, its not as many economic anthropologists have argued, necessity (read Sahlins' classic), they are made up of the most useless, asinine things that man could think of, and yet living in this world I myself cannot help that they have been so ingrained to me that I find them indispensable (like the fact that I go out to lunch every single day and dinner too). Man is made up of different components of culture society, they are definitely shaped by it and there is no doubt of it, it grounds deep down to the way we see biology and science itself. A friend of mine was quite surprised that doing anthropology I understood some biological 'stuff' that was supposed to be her domain, she was surprised to know that the colour of water was subjective for example, through the eyes of culture that sees it and not through the actuality in itself. Like Philosophy, it seems that we return to the beginning of the question that we have posed, and not out of it.

On another note I would like to commend Matisyahu for his efforts on religion. At some point of my life, I thought that it could be the answer for all the social ills that were going around me, but now, disoriented and broken hearted from the ravages of what 'religion' and humanity bring, I want to break free of it. Other than that, Matisyahu, you rock ;)

Kinship and Love

At times, sociologists ignore the root of the matter, I know its all about looking at the big picture, but sometimes, these kinds of topics are fit for psychologists to interpret. For a long time now, what humanity does is never a cause for concern, people just seemed to look at things as if they are there and take it for granted, they never realize how important it is and how much it could shape the whole of society together. There have been two proponents that argued how society was shaped, the first is of course Radcliffe-Browne with his structuralist functionalism, everything happens because they're meant to be, and the second which at times I wonder if he's right, by Malinowski's psychological functionalism. Marxists think that the world is controlled by money and the economy, both are actually arguing about the same thing, and we could go back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. The basic needs of man will inturn lead to higher things, and when man becomes base, they take into action their basic desires.

How about Love?
:)

Sometimes people say that their lust is love, but its not true, I dont know what the flying fuck I'm talking about

This one's an old one, I should say it too - Haruki Murakami's After Dark

Not as good as his other works, there I said it.

I just remembered what I wanted to say - review of Orhan Pamuk's My name is Red

While my labours are not entirely fruitless I managed to get around to finishing this book, despite its label, Nobel Prize Winner, you could have lied to me! Okay, you want my honest opinion? This book, sucks, not entirely but somewhat about half the book is bad while the other half is not that bad. Probably, the cause is the LOST in Translation part, it was tedious and long with winding stories that none other reminded me of the translation of the One Thousand and One Nights, stories within stories, the problem was...it did not fascinate me. It had a tendency to repeat itself without any magic accompanying it. Answer me this, why is it that Pramoedya Ananta Toer is a Nobel Prize laureate but this guy wins the whole thing? Let me describe and ruin it for you, the image that was depicted of women for example, in the case of Shekure is too...fantastic. Although the erotica was good but I could say better of Haruki Murakami's works (more after this I'm going to review one of them as well). I disliked Shekure, for every reason in the book that Mary Daly and Shulamith Firestone could think of. For one thing, she's a dreamer, okay that doesn't sound so bad, no, she's a dreamer who wants to be gilded like a princess because of her looks. That is a character I find repulsive. If Pamuk could crack a pretty woman's head and show me what's in it, none of them bear any of the sensitivities that Pamuk displays, they are imaginary depictions of what women are. This is one of the more disconcerting things that I find about the Nobel Prize, they portray what the masses think and what it ought to be. The only people I like amongst that list is Pearl S. Buck, Wole Soyinka and Toni Morisson. The year they decided to nominate Orhan Pamuk was a bad year I think! Sure, at least he tries to connect the West and the East, but the writing...is fit for I don't know, a book called Tokaido that I read a few years back. It wasn't engaging, it didn't rack my soul like Ben Okri, it didn't leave me dazzled like Naguib Mahfouz and it didn't make me laugh like V.S. Naipaul. The characters were shallow, I cannot see inside them, why is that? They show me themselves but not inside their hearts, is that what it's supposed to be, another style of writing? I suppose the only person who could write whodunit novels is and always will be Agatha Christie, any takers on that one? I disliked Black, the only character I found engaging was oddly enough Shekure's dead father, Enishte Effendi. Spare me the book, just chuck it in the bin.

I've got two questions

I've got two simple questions, and shit I forgot about what the fuck I was gonna say.