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the politricks of dancing :: "Shocked by the island's nearly 41 sessions a day, dub poet/philosopher Mutabaruka says that intellectuals should study the session effect on society. 'Jamaican people a dance, dance and dance. That is not a good sign, if a country a dance so much something wrong, rasta,' he said on radio in response to an Observer article. … He noted that Jamaica was following the lead of Brazil which 'finds every reason to hold a party'. 'In Brazil, if they lose a football match they keep a party, if they win a match,they keep a bigger party,' he said concluding that an 'anthropological study' should be conducted." :: lololol, esp since i can only imagine muta's voice thru the parodic lens of twins-of-twins
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once again, the #1 song in jamaica is an anti-gay anthem :: sigh :: (thx, CP)
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"If you want to know why I cannot bring myself to call the base of the Republican party Christians, and instead use the term Christianist, a new poll helps explain why:
A new poll released Thursday (Sept. 11) finds that nearly six in 10 white Southern evangelicals believe torture is justified, but their views can shift when they consider the Christian principle of the golden rule.
The poll, commissioned by Faith in Public Life and Mercer University, found that 57 percent of respondents said torture can be often or sometimes justified to gain important information from suspected terrorists. Thirty-eight percent said it was never or rarely justified.
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interpreting a new survey of global public opinion, andrew sullivan bemoans that "America's peers in the fight against torture, in terms of public opinion are Azerbaijan, Egypt, Russia, and Iran. This is what America now is: a country with the moral values of countries that routinely torture and abuse prisoners, like Egypt and Iran. Even the Chinese, living in a neo-fascist market state, oppose torture in all circumstances by 66 percent, compared to Americans where only 53 percent do! More horrifying: a higher percentage of Americans – 13 percent – believe that torture should generally be allowed than in any other country save China, Turkey and Nigeria. And in the last two years, as the American president celebrates and authorizes the torture of people who have not been allowed a fair trail, support for torturing terror suspects has increased from 36 percent to 44 percent."
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100 per hour?!
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john brown offers up a palin parody of his own :: irreverent as hell, if a tad disturbing despite my sympathies; some real gems tho :: "aiight, look, i'm a leftist / i mean, look at where your homey, bush, left us / but at first you impressed us / even diddy left breathless / you was lookin precious, talking reckless" … "so i heard you from alaska / what you into NASCAR? / ever been with a rap star?" … "aw man, you look good in that bronze tan / too bad you a fraud scam / think we're all part of god's plan? / tell them kids in the coffins" :: i maintain, dude shoulda won that show, where u @ shamrock?
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pretty hilarious parody of (what's the opposite of inshallah?) our next president :: a few lines fall flat, but oh man how some land :: e.g., "I know that many times, in my life, while living it, someone would come up and, because of I had good readiness, in terms of how I was wired, when they asked that—whatever they asked—I would just not blink, because, knowing that, if I did blink, or even wink, that is weakness, therefore you can’t, you just don’t. You could, but no—you aren’t. … In summary: Because my candidate, unlike your winking/blinking Vice-Presidential candidate, who, though, yes, he did run as the running mate when the one asking him to run did ask him to run, which that I admire, one thing he did not do, with his bare hands or otherwise, is, did he ever kill a moose?"
videyoga ::
La Sama’alla ?? ??? ???? is kinda god forbid, not as used or catchy as inchalla tho
thanks, rachel !
it’s interesting to me that something like “god willing” would have such a common expression in arabic but something like “god forbid” (a much more common expression in english, i’d say) doesn’t seem to have an equivalent. perhaps that says something…
Assassin – is telling gay people to run away better than threatening to find and kill them? I dunno, but somehow it’s not as scary to me as Mavado’s “Dem a Fag” on the Self Defense Riddim.
These songs aside, there is SO MUCH gay style goin on/being integrated into Dancehall (Ravers Clavers, I’m looking at you guys in particular)
compare
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NKNoMGS8ZY&feature=related
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F4yMxMfGZY
Wow, they’re practically vogueing in that first one. (And is that Elephant Man employing a Ricky Blaze chant? That’d be interesting. To my knowledge, stuff doesn’t typically travel that way. YouTube diaspora boomerang!)
[ok, now watching the second one…]
Ah, I see that you were pointing out the vogue style. Unmistakable, for sure.
I’m pretty curious about the current cultural politics in JA (and the JA diaspora, but there I’d expect a little more, er, deviation from the norm — not to get all Foucaultian) around what gets marked (often aptly) as “gay” style. As I mentioned back here,
And there’s no question that part of the perception in JA — not among the “tight pants bwoy” who, presumably (and I can’t say for sure since I haven’t asked), don’t think of their style as queer — is that this effete affect is an imported, yankee, babylonian ting.
From what I can glean via YouTube, there’s some interesting friction a gwaan right now between Jamaican (/JA-American) youth who have embraced rockstar/nerdcore (racial?) crossdressing and those who reject it as battyboy bizness. Take, for example, the video you and Kevin embedded recently —
The top comment currently is by some dude (calling himself “MrJama1ca” no less!) who says/threatens —
& I love how the guy dancing (and the owner of the YouTube channel posting this video), 225MILO, replies —
I think it’s pretty clear who wins that one.
Interestingly, a quick search shows that there’s been some anxiety around this fashion turn in JA dance circles for a little while now, judging by this piece in the Gleaner from last summer.
those comments remind me o the gay riotz in mexico. the haterz cant fight it tho, gays are sneakin up on yall. even mbalax videos of late seem to be more female gazey, / swagger