M.I.A. has no consistent political program and it's foolish to expect one of her. Instead she feels the honorable compulsion to make art out of her contradictions. The obscure particulars of those contradictions compel anyone moved by her music to give them some thought, if only for an ignorant moment—to recognize and somehow account for them. In these perilous, escapist days, that alone is quite a lot.
I see no evidence she ever ID'd her dad as a Tamil Tiger, in fact she doesn't even seem to think much of his role in the much less violent and more politically inclined EROS. That said, I'd never thought I'd see an artist subvert so much again in my lifetime, and people have debated about whether such a horrific genocide could have been prevented had ppl like these writers stopped having to carp on about the ills of the Tigers as though there was an equivalence.
It seems to me alot of ppl fed the Sinhalese propaganda machine even when M.I.A's activism was exposing and educating ppl more and more - because they saw no difference, the killing en masse of 1000s of Tamils on a beach resulted.
Her art is now more important than ever before.
andyShep 06/12/2009 7:14:00 AM
What contradictions? Where she glorifies terrorism in her videos is obvious to anyone with any knowledge of the ltte. Please explain exactly where the hell she decries terrorism?
I think Inigo Montoya of the princess bride would admonish your understanding of the word contradictions.. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
I think You know she supports terrorism in her songs.. you just don't have the balls to say something negative about a popular artist. Your just not the type of critic who writes something other than what the uninformed public wants you to write, so it's ok to fudge a little bit if you can avoid saying something that makes waves.
Shannon Karl 12/13/2008 10:45:00 AM
The dilemma is, if you call the state-terrorists a 'government', then you have to call those who fight them 'freedom fighters'. Else, you call both 'terrorists'. You can't have it both ways.
sav 08/19/2008 5:52:00 AM
How helpful of you to try to explain the intricacies of politically correct appreciation of MIA to �Western whites�.
How's this for an analogy for more clarity? One of the 12 to 24 children fathered (according to Wikipedia) by *America's* most hated terrorist makes music with catchy dance tunes because she "feels the honorable compulsion to make art out of her contradictions". She uses imagery that are as subtle as� a cyanide capsule around the neck of a 12-year old Sri Lankan who was born a decade after the war started (Have you seen the Sunshowers video? What do you think the girls in the video are doing in the jungle? It has all the imagery of female *child* soldiers training/going on patrol and the lion (a symbol of Sri Lanka) and the tiger (a symbol of the LTTE) fighting; her lyrics talk of guns, bombs in a manner explicit enough to make anyone who grew up in a war-torn nation shudder).
I have a feeling MTV would be a lot more reluctant to put that video on endless rotation in the US. Nor would anyone think of using the music in a trailer for a summer comedy no matter how catchy the sound of 4 gunshots in quick succession.
Oh, but wait. Surely that analogy would not be apt. That would be a more black and white issue � then we would not be talking about terrorists who were the cause of a war that resulted in the deaths of more than 70,000 mostly brown-skinned people who, I�m sure, were more connected to �world poverty in a way few Western whites can grasp.�
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Your analysis is astonishingly cursory, predictably condescending, and in the end incredibly hurtful. The point is not whether she supports the LTTE but that she uses the terrorism issue as a marketing tool, as a way to prove her "street cred". Even if there is subtlety, multiplicity to her lyrics and music (and I admit there could be) it is completely lost to anyone who doesn�t know what�s happening in Sri Lanka and doesn�t care to find out. All you hear are the gunshot beats choreographed to pretty colors.
But I realize how promoting faux-terrorist rap is way more hip/real than still being into gangsta rap so kudos to you.
Beerine Muir 08/07/2008 11:17:00 PM
Thanks, "Dean"! I didn't know whether to call MIA a terrorist or freedom fighter. I guess I'd better call her neither, or you will have my "Chair" hand me a pink slip.
