Virunga

After another day of middling success in staying ahead of all of my homework, I decided to treat myself and watch a movie.  Since the last one I watched was the assembly cut of Alien 3, I feel obligated to watch something that was firmly grounded in reality, and hopefully didn't make me feel like taking a shower after watching it.  This is by no means a bad thing.  In fact I rather enjoyed it. And the fact that it is even coherent considering the almost literal production hell that it went though.  While thematically, Virunga and Alien 3 couldn't be more different, the behind the scenes of Alien 3 and the forefront of Virunga are actually pretty close.  They both examine the power struggle of corporations and passionate individuals trying to make something they love out of a historically valuable resource.  Virunga is a national park located in one of the most disputed and violent territories in recent history.  It is a place of epiphanic beauty.  It is also a place of staggeringly valuable natural resources.  The beauty and capital dichotomy is personified in this place.  The wildlife on the surface is slaughtered for the smallest piece, as long as it has a large price tag.  Ivory and the hands of gorillas, brutally hacked away.  And below the surface, oil and ore, looking to be extracted with similar prescription.  And in the middle, a fatherless man trying to give what he lost to abandoned gorillas.  A reporter trying to unearth the corruption in SOCO's business activites, firsthand witnesses the lack of respect that this company has for the people living there.  And a sworn defender of the park, who must put his life on the line and be first on the scene to the brutal mistreatment of the land and creatures he protects.  I don't think that linking the latest news on what is going on there is ruining the story, and it is good to know that the appropriate side is winning at the moment.  The Congo, as history has demonstrated, is a turbulent place.  I hope that his success, albeit small, will be indicative of what is to come for such a valuable and beautiful place.


Link to an update of SOCO and Virunga:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCYQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwwf.panda.org%2F%3F223211%2FOil-company-Soco-not-to-drill-in-Virunga-World-Heritage-Site&ei=gQ4LVb3bL8TkoASq44LACw&usg=AFQjCNFe5_CdQtlyrZFdewADJsI4SqpF_w&sig2=gXt2RIB0FFukXl1vC7hRIg

#RapAgainstRape

To cap off my globe-trotting exploration of music with a message, I would like to show you a recently posted Indian video that uses rapping to spread their message.  It's has a strong feminist voice, a voice that is desperately needed to be heard, especially in India. After reading about rape and objectification through the rapists perspective in Disgrace, it's enlightening to gain even more understanding about how this issue effects people though the victims.  It's a call to action which they are angry as well as thoughtful about, and they should be.  And the use of hashtags and social media is making their efforts a two pronged attack, using not only rapping but the catalyst of things like Twitter to help their message spread.  I hope the best for these, "BomBaebs," and may this effort prove fruitful.

 

South African Music: The Muffinz

Continuing the notion of music as a means of delivering a message that can transcend borders and cultures, a South African band, The Muffinz, is another example of delivering a version of the world as they see it. In their song, "The Ghetto," they describe a corrupt and unjust system that mistreats the poor and exploited in their society.  They even go so far to use other words for ghetto in different languages to highlight the commonality of this system of exploitation of the underprivileged and overlooked.  Which after watching movies like District 9 and Tsosti, as well as looking through the recent news, we can gather near systemic and deep rooted turbulence that exists in such a geographically gorgeous and rich place.  And even with the handing over of power and territory back to its original people that we read about in Disgrace, it is still a messy business.  While Pussy Riot expresses their emotions with percussive and tonal rage through punk rock, The Muffinz use a more smooth approach.  The message of injustice is still there, just expressed in a different way, demonstrating the flexibility of music and human expression about similar topics.

Russian Rebellion in Music: Pussy Riot

Music is an especially fertile medium for expressing emotions.  And in the last century, a lot of rebellious music has been able to permeate its way into the culture of America.  Anti-war Vietnam music comes to mind.  In modern Russia, there is a lot of controversy over the validity and sentiment towards Putins influence and policies.  One band that has recently been brought to international fame over their music, message, stunts and prosecution is Pussy Riot. 

While punk rock is not to everyone's taste, I personally have never been very sentimental towards it, I do see the appropriateness in its use in this case.  It is loud, violent, powerful, and doesn't give a damn.  Just like the stance that these women have taken against Putin's government.  And just the fact that I am talking about them, their message, and they have been all over American television, even shows like the latest season of House of Cards, is a testament to the ability for music to transcend borders. 

Modern Russian Arist: Annouchka Brochet

Since Russia has been on the minds of the world, and less significantly the minds of my group mates and myself, I decided to do a little investigating into the realm of Russian contemporary art.  One of the most striking examples that I came across was the work of Annouchka Brochet.  Her work is oil on canvas, and is literally dripping with sensuality and passion, without being glorifying.  They are usually of women's faces, and more recently of female celebrity's lips.  An interesting subject matter do deal with, since the modern celebrity's face is, with only some stretch of the imagination, painted over as lavishly as these canvases.  And to focus on the lips, the source of much expression, artifice and especially make-up, is an inspired idea. 

http://www.erartagalleries.com/art/item/cameron-diaz.html

Progress in the Fight Against Boko Haram

It looks like Boko Haram is being pushed out of Nigeria.  Northern areas in the Borno state have been deemed clear.  Territory has also been reclaimed in Chad and Niger from Boko Haram.  This is good news.  If Boko Haram was bad enough on their own, they have formed an alliance with ISIL.  While this update on the Nigerian front has yet to be confirmed as of today, countries like France have committed troops to help Nigeria in the fight against these insurgents.  We can only hope that this momentum will gather strength. 


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/03/nigeria-final-onslaught-launched-boko-haram-150317175256149.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/03/chad-niger-armies-retake-towns-boko-haram-150309134351274.html

Apartheid Death Squad Leader is Planned to be Release After Apoligizing

In an interesting correlation between David Lurie and the recent history of South Africa, a former police death squad leader by the name of Eugene de Kock, is going to be released early from his more than 200 year sentence. This is done after his efforts to seek out and apologize to the families that were affected by his atrocities. While this is very similar to the story of David Lurie and his eventual apology from the Isaacs, one must consider the sincerity of this apology.  And even if it is wholly sincere, where is the line for forgiveness? Does the murder and torture of many people constitue a uncleanable slate? Either way, it looks that his release is imminent, and one must wonder what is life like for a man so saturated with disgrace.  Will he be able to live with himself and grow in the way Lurie does in the story? One can only hope.


https://news.vice.com/article/south-africa-to-release-apartheid-death-squad-leader-known-as-prime-evil

Confusion Over the Murder of Boris Nemtsov

While there is someone who came out and confessed that they committed the murder of political leader Boris Nemtsov in front of the Kremlin, the knee jerk reaction to it was to place blame on the current man of the hour, Vladimir Putin.  While I, and certainly the press, have no real bearing on who did it until the investigation is completed, it is striking how people immediately look to Putin for the murder. Even a man who confessed is under dispute to whether his confession was forced or not (see article below).  Who did it is important, paramount in fact, but just the simple reaction of the press and of the people in and outside of Russia, one of the most powerful countries in the world, this gut reaction is very strange, and is indicative of an image that Putin has either manifested for himself, or others have placed upon him.  And does Putin benefit from this image?  Has the reaction to this event been a litmus test for how his power and image is perforating throughout the world?  And what is the real truth?


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31829723

Progress in the Ukraine

With the fighting slowing down and the ceasefire seeming to have positive effects on the Ukraine, we are still left with the question to answer, what now?  After all of this conflict, what is the country to do to either unite or separate, into whatever solution leads to the most success for the region?  I don't know the answer, but either way, there will be some portion of the population that will feel almost like the colonized individuals we have read about in multiple stories for class.  While the disparity is not a severe as it was for the Africans, the tension between the ideologies will still be fresh.  How long will it take before one group starts blaming the other for problems again, or one group feels like its being occupied by another in their country, or mistreatment and bigotry rises up again.  Hopefully the transition will be much more fluid and successful that my somewhat dour look on life is, but sadly, as highlighted in not only these stories but human history, this is almost never the case. 

LGBT Laws in Russia

While I am not sure if everyone is aware of this, but in Russia there is a law that prohibits what is referred to as, "homosexual propaganda."  This was passed in June of last year, and has sparked controversy ever since.  Life in Russia for LGBT individuals has been bad for a while, but the passing of this bill has almost endorsed this horrible treatment, and has gotten even worse.  We have seen this confusion about how to treat those that are different from the accepted norm specifically in the the story, "Witchcraft."  Mma-Mabele got treated with misunderstanding and look what her experience was like and became.  While this example in the book is different than the way things are playing out in Russia, there is still something we can learn from the story and help us to empathize as well as sympathize with those that are different. 

Suicides and Unemployment

I saw this heartbreaking article today while looking through the news that stated that 45,000 people from 63 countries, kill themselves due to unemployment over a year.  There was a few quotes that I wanted to pull out that help to characterize the sort of people who may do this and why that I found really interesting. 

"Employment is tied to identity.  When people lose a sense of identity and purpose it becomes problematic for them. For someone who is particularly vulnerable or at risk, if you add on a loss of sense of purpose, the risk goes up."

"Men are notoriously bad at help-seeking, and their lack of self-care and accepting and taking support from others can cost them their lives."

These quotes sound an awful lot like a character in All Things Fall, Okonkwo.  Whom we all now take the same action as these people, and it for similar reasons.  Is there more we can learn from All Things Fall, and apply it today with this knowledge?


https://news.vice.com/article/unemployment-is-killing-45000-people-each-year

Natan Dubovitsky’s “Without Sky”

After looking into the concept of "non linear war" in modern Russia, I have been trying to find the short story that Vladislav Surkov wrote under the pseudonym Natan Dubovitsky.  While a complete English translation is still too elusive for me to find, I have found critical analysis of the story itself.  It is called, "Without Sky," and it describes the way the world is with non linear war through the eyes of a young man.  It is an interesting read, and uses storytelling to describe a genuinely novel strategy, that has proven effective over the past decade for Surkov.

http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue582/cc_without_sky.html

Strategy in Russa

With the recent creation of our group project, we were assigned to look into Russian literature.  Our group decided to focus our attention on Vladimir Nabokov's novel, The Defense. This book focuses on a character obsessed with the game of chess.  Chess, as we all know, is based in complex strategy and tactics to defeat the enemy.  Politics and battle are arenas where strategy is crucial as well, and another Vladimir, Putin this time, is shaking things up. Executing the new concept of "non-linear warfare," is proving to be successful in Russian politics.  This strategy is defined by its shape-shifting nature, and leaves the opponent confused and unsure of what the enemy is really up to.  Will this strategy retain it's momentum?  Or will it come to the same end as the Luzhin defense.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/05/05/how-putin-is-reinventing-warfare/

Boko Haram & Nigeria Today

Since we are just getting into the story in All Things Fall where Western Christians start settling in the area, I was curious about the state of Nigeria today when it comes to western influence.  If you have been at all current about the news in Nigeria, then you will know about a terrorist group called Boko Haram.  This name translates rather bluntly to, "Western education is forbidden."  This group at the moment controls two states in Northeast Nigeria.  Even though these events are current, the history between Nigeria and opposition to British colonialism runs deep.

https://news.vice.com/topic/nigeria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Nigeria

Palms Today

Being shamefully and overwhelmingly undereducated about Africa and its culture, I felt that I needed some socialization to the things that are being referred to often in the story.  One of these examples is palms.  From what can be easily understood from the story, this resource is very important to the everyday life in the tribe, next to yams.  So when a link to the palm oil debate came up on the African news section on the Guardian specifically palm oil.  While browsing through the African news section of the Guardian, I came across a link that stated The Palm Oil Debate. 

The knowledge that I gained from this is that I am more closely tied with Africa and this staple than I originally thought.  And it is not only important in the book, but still, if not more important now since a larger amount of people are dependent and gain from this resource.


Link the The Story of Palm Oil: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/ng-interactive/2014/nov/10/palm-oil-rainforest-cupboard-interactive