profile of Sri Lankan-origin pop star M.I.A. in the NYT – I had no idea she literally was in labor onstage during the 2009 Grammys!
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aziz
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johnpi
Famous rapper and Tamil Tiger daughter MIA is very angry at the New York Times for listing Sri Lanka as the top destination to go on vacation in 2010.
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aziz
Color me unsurprised. But the fact remains that Colombo was a delightful city, Sri Lanka utterly gorgeous, and the people of Colombo among the warmest and hospitable I’ve ever met. I was entranced by Sri Lanka and I think it’s a great place to go.
Tamils have grievances but portraying Sri Lanka as some kind of North Korean analogue isnt going to help their cause any.
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cbarwa
Tamils have grievances
Considering the history of riots targeting them long before the current war started, that is one hell of a euphemism!
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aziz
I am trying not to take sides here. Frankly I was glad the war was over; I posted a lot on the war here at TI mostly critical of terror attacks on civilians, and I also wasnt happy about the postwar treatment by the govt. Check out the talk islam archives:
http://talkislam.info/tag/sri-lanka/
my point is that treating Sri Lanka like its a tyranny is just wrong. And most of the people I met in Colombo were just weary of the whole thing.
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cbarwa
Yes I know Aziz, I didn’t mean to imply you were taking sides but I think it is a bit meliorist just to say that Tamil’s had ‘grievances’ I mean that just makes them sound like some disgruntled constituents upset about a Wind farm in their backyard or sthg! There were real substantive issues at stake
my point is that treating Sri Lanka like its a tyranny is just wrong.
Yes, but lets not forget it isn’t a pleasant place for many Tamils to live in, through little fault of their own.
And most of the people I met in Colombo were just weary of the whole thing.
I worked on a consultancy for the Sri Lankan govt several years ago (on a rural credit programme) and I found it a beautiful place as well, didn’t have any problems with Sri Lankans either but then most obsessively wanted to find out whether I was Tamil or not and looked visibly relieved when they discovered that I was not. Can’t help wondering what my experience would have been like if I was.
You need to ask yourself, how many of the people in Colombo that you met were Tamils and how many were Sinhalese. I think that could colour perceptions quite a bit.
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Lawrence of Arabia
One of the Village Voice blogs had a rather prompt rejoinder to what was a VERY flimsy piece by the NYTimes on M.I.A., linked below by johnpi. As the VV blogger points out, the Voice had done this piece 4 years ago and had done it a whole lot better.
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johnpi
To many Americans, the Oscar-nominated Maya Arulpragasam, known as M.I.A., is the very pregnant rapper who gyrated across the stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards, but some in Sri Lanka who know the Tamil singer’s work say she is an apologist for the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels fighting in the country’s long-running civil war.
Sri Lankans who have seen her videos say they interpret some parts as showing support for the Tigers, or at the very least glorifying their cause. But for those not familiar with the conflict, they might come across as generic third-world scenes.
“I kind of want to leave it ambiguous for my fans,” she said in the PBS interview, referring to the lyrics of her song “Paper Planes,” which was nominated for record of the year at the Grammys but did not win.
“Paper Planes,” which compares international drug dealing with selling records, drew a reaction from DeLon, a Sinhalese rapper based in Los Angeles, who made a video remix in which he interspersed images of people being blown up by Tamil Tiger bombs and subtitles about M.I.A. being a terrorist.
M.I.A. responded that she did not support terrorism.
So far, this is the only person in the conflict who I identify with and have been moved by.
mirelle is discussing. 
cbarwa and 
aziz are discussing. 
mirelle 11:15 am on May 28, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Her “Born Free” video is unsettling–also NSFW due to shocking imagery. A friend of mine, however, is angry at M.I.A. for taking riffs from the Clash for “Paper Planes.”
mirelle 11:19 am on May 28, 2010 Permalink | Log in to Reply
M.I.A. was not happy about the article; she tweeted the phone number of the writer, Lynn Hirschberg: “CALL ME IF YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT THE N Y T TRUTH ISSUE, ill b taking calls all day [expletive].” Hirschberg kind of expected it and told CNN that M.I.A. is an agent provocateur.