‘Controversial’
And another thing, as long as we’re talking about things I don’t like (we are talking about that aren’t we?) – I don’t like this business of the BBC always calling Taslima Nasreen ‘controversial.’ It’s a sly way of disavowing her, of hinting that she’s not quite the thing. It’s like calling evolution ‘controversial’ – it is, of course, but it has no business being; it’s ‘controversial’ only with people who think the universe should be and therefore must be the way they want it to be as opposed to the way it is. Similarly with Nasreen: she’s ‘controversial’ only with people who like to pick fights, especially with women, especially with women who think women should have one or two rights. The BBC refers to Salman Rushdie the same way, presumably for the same toadying reasons; they shouldn’t.
Taslima Nasrin, (B&W news) sums it up succinctly to Andrew Buncombe in Delhi. Women are oppressed in the East in the West, in the South, and in the North. Women are oppressed, inside, and outside home. Whether a woman is a believer or a non-believer, she is oppressed. Beautiful or ugly, oppressed. Crippled or not, rich or poor, literate or illiterate, oppressed. Covered or naked, she is oppressed. Dumb or not, cowardly or courageous, she is always oppressed.”
Women are oppressed. Period!
Re: Malaysia: Thanks for the link, Mirax.
Abdullah said people should avoid the protest because “street demonstrations are not the way.”
In democratic societies protests albeit, ‘are the way’ to go about it – to voice opinions, – that is if the Gov’t of said country is not listening to its people.
Abdullah also says,
“We’re not a nation where the people cannot voice their grievances, but it has to be done in the proper way,”
Does Abdullah, (I mull over, to reflect) not have any superior substitute suggestions to give to the people of his nation vis-à-vis how they should go about attaining their rights bearing in mind that he is after all the one dishing out all the advice.
There’s another example of a related misuse of the term ‘controversial’ here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7110758.stm
“The Oxford Union has voted to allow the British National Party (BNP) leader and a controversial historian to speak at a free speech event on Monday.”
That gives the impression that Irving is a legitimate historian and that legitimate historians disagree among themselves as to the validity of Irving’s conclusions. This is, of course, not the case.
Yes, using the label “controversial” brings to ones consciousness the fact that the person somehow does not fit the ordinary bill. It is a person that the media tells one to be wary of…who is likely to cause trouble. It is person that the journalists remind one not to associate with… keep ones distance. The media can be manipulative when it wants to be with language and it can be very derogatory and detrimental.
Thanks, Rowan. I saw a piece in the Indy burbling about the Irving-Griffin shindig yesterday; I could have predicted every word of it without bothering to read it. It never once mentioned the fact that Irving falsified the evidence in his books – so everything it said was based on a very incomplete picture. Maddening.
there is a very good article in the Acorn blog, regarding Taslima Nasrin’s predicament in India and the opportunity she now presents India : stop the descent into the cesspit of intolerance.
http://acorn.nationalinterest.in/
What is interesting is the writer’s opinion about the role played by the Satanic Verses frenzy in 1989 – the fanatics’ successs in shutting down debate, banning books and issuing death-threats on the ‘enemies of religion’has spiralled into a competition of intolerance amongst faith groups which needs to be decisively challenged. But of course anyone who knows anything about Indian politicos knows that they WILL miss this chance to set things right, just like the craven communist state government of West Bengal that sent Taslima packing to appease the muslim goons.
Uttar Pradesh’s Pink Gang : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7068875.stm
The above story made my day – those women rock and look damn good in their pink sarees as well! The area of India they come from is truly beknighted but what a wonderful response from the women. No retreat into atavistic religion or corrupt politics or slinking back into the home, just devoting themselves to the simple business of erm, ‘thrashing’ the blokes into behaving well!
There is appalling misogyny in Indian culture but there is also a strain (small one) that respects kickass, strong females. Thank the great Kali for that!
Go “gulabi gang” (pink gang) Go! Go! Go! Go get them all!
Thanks for those, mirax!
My pleasure, Ophelia. I knew that Marie Therese would have been especially chuffed by the gulabi girls. For the sake of men ( there are a number of those that I love to bits), we’d better hope MT and the gulabis don’t ever meet up!
Gulab means roses btw. So sweet and feminine….. (evil smirk).
Marie-Therese is ferocious!
:- )
you bet!
For MT, from one of my favourite poems:
the wrong of unshapely things is a wrong too great to be told;
i hunger to build them anew and sit on a green knoll apart,
with the earth and the sky and the water, remade like a casket of gold
for my dreams of your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
Terima Kasih. (Nani?) Merci Beaucoup, Thank you; Go raibh mile maith agat, Mirax,- you bet I like W.B. Yeats. You finished the beautiful tearful poem, so I will start it.
All things uncomely and and broken, all things worn out and old,
The cry of a child by the roadway, the creak of a lumbering cart,
The heavy steps of the ploughman, splashing the wintry mould,
Are wronging your image that blossoms a rose in the deeps of my heart.
I found an interpretation of the poem on: A Brief History of Western Culture. by Michael Peverett Section 4. 1870-1945
“The rose in European poetry since the troubadours is a symbol that has drifted a long way from its floral source”
“As it might be: someone who feels their belief (opinion, philosophy, etc) slighted and collapsing continues to assert: somewhere, there is a happy land…
‘Salley Gardens’ is a poem of his as well, it was put to music. I love playing and singing this sad/haunting lament on the guitar. It is one of my party pieces.
“The rose in European poetry since the troubadours is a symbol that has drifted a long way from its floral source”
Tráthnóna maith agat. Good evening.
“somewhere, there is a happy land”
Believe it or not, I’m a sucker for that. Tir na n-Og etc.
“Somewhere, there is a happy land”
Like Valhalla Temple and Tír Na nÓg where all homo -sapiens can live ceaselessly and unendingly in sweet synchronization. Somewhere there is a happy land – where women and children do not have to agonize about looking over their shoulders to see if the big bad wolves (Red Riding Hood) are going to kill them. Somewhere there is a happy land, which has a big sign up on its rose petal gates, which pompously and unflinchingly says, ” No Misogynist’s Allowed Here.” Somewhere there is a land where fundamentalists cannot spread its evil and its invective. Somewhere there is a land of unadulterated limpidness, transparency, spotlessness, and comprehensiveness and completeness. Somewhere there is a happy land where children women and men smile the livelong day. Somewhere there is a happy land where religion has not an infinitesimal chance of taking root. Somewhere there is a land where Religious fanatics cannot brainwash and frighten the minds of its inhabitants. Somewhere there is a land where everyone, where women, children and men are treated on an equal footing, Somewhere there is a land with happy butterflies, happy cows, happy horses, happy, happy everything. This other world is a place where sickness, death, stoning of children/women, Honour killings child/adult sexual abuse and subordination/capitulation and maltreatment/controlling/overpowering /discrimination of women does not exist. It is a place of eternal youth and beauty. Here, music, strength, life and all pleasurable pursuits come together in a single place. Here happiness lasts forever, no one wants for food or drink. It is the Celtic equivalent of the Greek Elysium or the Valhalla of the Norse.
The Tuatha Dé Danann gave Ireland the name Ériu – that is the origin of the modern name, Éire
Oops, sorry OB, last post is not the correct one. :-(!
It’s also Isaiah’s wolf dwelling with lamb, and leopard lying down with kid, ‘and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them…They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.’
I love that last line. If only it were true.
Mind you, I don’t think I would like unadulterated limpidness, transparency, spotlessness, and comprehensiveness and completeness. But I’m perverse.
“They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.”
And this too, OB, if only it were true
to round it off.
“And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.” Isaiah 11:6-9.”
But passionate about the dispossessed,- which puts you a cut above the other.