#native informant

De “#Nègre de Maison” à “l’#Arabe de Service” ou la petite histoire de la complaisance des “#Répéteurs de la République”…

Avis aux “Répéteurs de la République“: Nous gagnerions plus de nous laisser voir tels que nous sommes, que d’essayer de paraitre ce nous ne sommes pas (François De Larochefoucauld). Source / Le Monde.

TAKE ONE the first time i was called a terrorist was in 5th grade i remember my mother telling me that she didnít want me to go to school because white people did not understand the difference between a hindu and a muslim to them we were all brown and that was enough evidence for the american flags that sprung up overnight like an allergic reaction this is the story of a generation: we who hit puberty the same time the planes hit those towers fumbling in the remains inheriting an endless war as a bed time story our bodies stolen from us by the headlines that taught us that we, man we, brown, we criminal

TAKE TWO one of grandmaís favorite stories sheíd tell us growing up was that when grandpa took her out for their first date she refused to eat a single bite because the cook was muslim after coming out i used to joke whether it would anger her more if i married a man or a muslim woman.

TAKE THREE there is a woman who looks like my grandmother weeping on a stage. she tells the story of her son shahawar matin siraj how the FBI paid native informants to spy on muslims after 9/11 to plant dissent and use it to justify the global war on terror. one of them targeted her son. over night he was abducted and taken to prison it has been over ten years. i want to call my grandmother tell her about him and the more than 1,000 brown men who looked just like me growing up that were kidnapped from the streets in 2001 and put in planes flying away from new york city to be detained or deported but i know that she will not believe me because she believes in america and will hear a muslim name and what could be more incriminating than that? it will not matter that we speak the same language, because our tongues are severed by a partition silent and painful, like a gaping wound mistaken as mouth

TAKE FOUR a group of white liberals dress a puppet in a suit and paint him ëbrowní call his college essay about growing up a minority ‘articulate’ give him a pat on the head every time he says something right like: racism is in the south / racism is in the past / racism is prejudice take photos of him for their view book tell him his religious garb is ethnic and beautiful. share him like an upworthy article. give him extra points for using creative english like: tell us how you were ìwoundedî by the slurs (while we send a drone to pakistan) tell us how ìviolentî it was for your classmates to mistake your identity (while we stop & frisk them in jackson heights) tell us how militantly you worked to get where you are today (while we send officers with guns to break in their homes convince the puppet to run for political office ghostwrite his speech about realizing the immigrant dream watch him deport thousands back to the middle east watch him send troops to follow them there watch him kill his own watch him not care. what does it feel like to be a model minority victim? what does it feel like to have a white man touch you (even though he is pulling all your strings)? what does it feel to be brown and beautiful for once in your goddamn life? do you ever look back to where you came from? do you ever look where they are taking you now? you brown, when convenient you brown, when resume you brown, when you want white, look white, do right, do white, ìwhat does it feel like to be a solution?î

The West’s Favorite Afghan

With his simplistic portraits of Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini reinforces racist stereotypes and aids imperialism.

By Emran Feroz

This is where the true danger of his stories comes in. Hosseini’s role (whether sought or appointed) as the spokesman for Afghan society gives readers a false sense of confidence that they’re learning about the “real Afghanistan.” Western readers (including those of Afghan heritage) have come to believe that they understand what Afghanistan is like because they have read his novels. What they do not realize is that Hosseini is not describing an objective reality. Yet because he is one of the few Afghan voices in Western outlets, his perspective gets mistaken for the unvarnished truth.

For the last few three decades, Afghanistan has been ravaged by war — mainly by foreign interests, from the US and USSR to China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and India. As such, its whole population is collectively traumatized.

Not entirely unrelated, it is exploited constantly by its own corrupt politicians, who prefer to build luxurious homes in Dubai instead of supporting the Afghan economy. In fact, their homes are often built with looted foreign assistance — a recurring outcome of so-called US aid programs. They have also gotten rich off the urban boom — a result of the expanded market produced by the International Security Assistance Force — and thus are a domestic constituency for continued occupation.

Within that economy, one business is doing quite well: poppy production. Since the NATO invasion, it has grown constantly — often accounting for as much as 50 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product — and has increased thirty-fold since 1979. The US has openly backed the drug business and the drug lords, a consistent pattern of US foreign and domestic policy for decades, from Southeast Asia to CIA drug running in poor neighborhoods in the US.

Meanwhile, the West has turned away from supporting domestic food production, especially fruits, for which Afghanistan was once famous. This malign neglect and encouragement of socially destructive commodity production is at the root of rural poverty in Afghanistan.

But Hosseini ignores such nuance. His tendency to overemphasize ethnicity and religion allows his readers to come up with easy answers, but unfortunately also contributes to racist stereotypes. Relying on Hosseini thus ends up reinforcing the prejudices of Western readers, offering them an Orientalized view of Afghan society. It also provides politicians with the material to justify Western military intervention in these societies in order to “liberate” men and women.

Furthermore, Hosseini’s equation of Pashtuns with Taliban sympathizers, militants, and extremists has had dangerous consequences for the way both the public and policymakers view the people of southern and eastern Afghanistan — the site of the majority of drone attacks in the country. Just last month, more than thirty people leaving the funeral of a tribal elder were killed in just such an aerial strike — a tragedy that, unlike the killing in March, attracted scant media attention. Indeed, there were around twenty drone strikes last month that killed more than one hundred people.

Channel.....    Big pay rise: Munira Mirza will get £127,784

City Hall sees number of staff on six-figure salaries soar from 16 to 28

Peter Dominiczak, City Hall Correspondent 7 Jul 2011

The number of people on six-figure salaries at City Hall has nearly doubled in just over three years, it emerged today.

Boris Johnson was asked to explain figures which show that 28 staff members in the Greater London Authority are earning more than £100,000, compared with 16 three years ago.

The Mayor this week approved salary increases for two aides. Cultural adviser Munira Mirza has become mayoral adviser on culture and youth and has seen her salary go from £82,200 to £127,784, an increase of more than 50 per cent.

And Richard Blakeway, adviser for housing, has seen his salary increase by a third, from £82,200 to £110,000. In the document announcing the pay rises, the reason given for Mr Blakeway's increase was "to ensure it is at a level commensurate with role and in line with other posts at that salary".

Sources close to the Mayor today pointed out that the salary increases reflect increased work loads and added responsibilities. They also said that the Mayor has streamlined the operation at City Hall, saving millions.

Last week it was revealed that the number of Transport for London staff earning more than £100,000 has risen by 50 per cent in a year. TfL's annual accounts showed the number of six-figure earners had gone from 251 to 379.

Ms Mirza, 33, is an Oxford graduate and has a PhD in sociology from the University of Kent. She became cultural adviser in 2008 and has been involved with the Cultural Olympiad.

In 2008 she married Dougie Smith, an ally of David Cameron, who in 2003 admitted that he ran a company called Fever Parties, which hosted orgies in Mayfair and country homes.

Assembly members today accused the Mayor, who earns £143,911, of breaking his "value for money promises".

Labour's John Biggs said: "Public sector workers across the country have had their pay frozen but the salaries of Boris's top advisers have rocketed."

Green Party Assembly member Darren Johnson said: "I'm amazed that we now have almost double the number of people on over £100,000 in City Hall since this Mayor came to office. I think in an age of austerity with rising living costs it shows very bad judgment."