M.I.A., fashion victim - Sepia Mutiny

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May 5, 2005

M.I.A., fashion victim

M.I.A. is now officially overexposed, but this Pitchfork interview is fascinating (via Chapati Mystery). A musician with something real to say: she’s making some PR flack very happy right now. She’s the anti-Anna Kournikova, with a story that’s more substantial than her stage presence.

She highlights the perils of highlights:

I have brown bits in my hair, and my Mom was practically on her knees screaming, “Nooo! You have to dye your hair before you leave the house or I’ll kill myself!” I’d be like, “What are you freaking out about?” and she’d explain the Tamil Tiger girls have been in the jungle for so long that their hair goes brown, and if you walk out like this, you’re going to get shot because people will think you’re a Tamil Tiger girl…”

Why bikes are banned in LTTE-controlled areas of Sri Lanka:

Bicycles are banned, gasoline’s banned, there’s no motor transportation… because they think you can use the inner bicycle tubes to make landmines. They banned rubber bands, so the Tigers apparently used inner tubes to make rubber bands. So they banned the whole bicycle! And that, to a Sri Lankan, is the main mode of transport…

Her dad is a Dylan fan, and terrorist is too crude a label:

When I watch President Bush on the telly going, we need to fight the axis of evil and kill these terrorists by all means necessary, I just go, “Shit, poor Dad.” In the 70s all he wanted to do was be a revolutionary like Bob Dylan. He had idealistic views about changing the world for the better and fighting for people who don’t have a voice— the same thing that Bob Dylan wanted to do. Now, he’s like this straight-up, evil terrorist; a gunned masked man with a semi-automatic ready to take down and behead people. It’s not like that; it’s really not. It’s so much more complex. They’ve made a cartoon character out of a terrorist…

Sri Lankans really just want to be Jamaican:

The main area where Sri Lankans moved into in London is called Tooting, which was also a real big ragga section ‘cause there was loads of Jamaicans there, too. So all the Sri Lankan kids that came over that were slightly a bit on the edge soon adapted ragga culture. If you go to Tooting now, you can still find that— you wouldn’t be able to tell a Sri Lankan from a Jamaican. It’s really weird— Sri Lankans find coming to England and talking with a Jamaican patois accent is easier than learning the Queen’s English…

I’ve got to track me down some Bishi. Is she weirder than Anjali?

… the [producer] that came through first was Mackey. He was DJing at some party and I went up to him and said, “Hi, I’m Maya and I’ve done this song and you might think it’s weird, but I know you can’t say it’s really weird because I’ve seen you at some other club and you put on this girl called Bishi, who’s an Asian wonderwoman who sang classical music over jungle and that shit is weird even for me, so if you get that, you fucking will get this, trust me!”…

On how personal her music is:

… the thing that I was finding difficult was making an album that sounded like a sketchbook. As an artist, most of the work that I rate is in my sketchbook. The way people always view making an album in the music industry is so sterile— I wanted to make a really sketchy, mad thing come together…

When you come from England, people feel so shortchanged all the time. They always talk about getting charged so much money for something that people really haven’t put their heart and soul into. I always feel like I do it the other way. My mom is exactly the same way. She’s a seamstress and she puts her heart and soul into [something], and takes four days and do this amazing thing and then she’ll just charge however much it cost her in gas to drive to that person and deliver it…

On performing while drunk, and the buzz in America:

On October 31, I did Hollertronix in Philadelphia… I thought, “I sound so terrible and I’m so not confident on stage right now”, ‘cause I was really drunk and totally out of breath, everything was wrong, and yet they were still freaking out! That’s when I went back to XL in London and said, “Something weird is happening in America— you need to really look at it…”

… [The British] don’t have an arena [for] the tempo of my songs. There are no clubs that play reggaeton, baile funk, dancehall all in the same room. They just don’t dance there. They stare! Or they get really pissed, rock out to a guitar band, and then come home. How do you get British people in a room and make them dance to bloody reggaeton? That’s like a 10-year program to me.

Your parents never think you’ve hit it big until you’re in India-West:

… the Tamil paper gave me like two pages and they said, [thick East Indian accent] “This girl, we have not heard her, but they are all talking about her…” So my Mom read that in Tamil and was like, “Awww, you make music, huh?”

Music

POSTED BY manish @ 5:22 AM

31 comments

1 · vinod on May 5, 2005 10:55 AM · Direct link

Its not like that; its really not. Its so much more complex. Theyve made a cartoon character out of a terrorist

heh... "terrorists are really like you & me, they're just misunderstood"

2 · timepass on May 5, 2005 12:08 PM · Direct link

very cool interview -- she's refreshingly honest. [a quality that's really lacking in the electronic music scene]

3 · MD on May 5, 2005 12:23 PM · Direct link

I dunno. She seems all over the place, a bit young, and a bit confused. Which is I suppose the point. She's fooling herself in important way, though:

From human rights watch:

"The LTTE was among the first armed opposition groups to use its cadres, including children, to carry out suicide bomb attacks. Since the 1980s, the LTTE has conducted some 200 such suicide bombings. Female soldiers, girls among them, were used for numerous such attacks, in part because they were less likely to undergo righorous searches at government checkpoints."

http://hrw.org/reports/2004/srilanka1104/2.htm

I might imagine she would say that the Sri Lankan authorities are making these things up to discredit the LTTE and her many cousins who are freedom fighters,as she puts it in this interview.....well, I hope that's what she is telling herself, because the other way 'round is just too much.

I don't think I'll buy any of her albums, but then I wouldn't have in any case.

4 · Ennis on May 5, 2005 12:57 PM · Direct link

At least she's not a federal judge:

On Sunday morning, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson told TV viewers nation-wide that the threat posed by liberal judges is "probably more serious than a few bearded terrorists who fly into buildings." When an incredulous George Stephanopoulos asked if Robertson really believed that these judges posed "the most serious threat America has faced in nearly 400 years of history, more serious than al Qaeda, more serious than Nazi Germany and Japan, more serious than the Civil War?," he responded, "George, I really believe that." [NY Daily News]

5 · whoa, tiger on May 5, 2005 12:58 PM · Direct link

i think the point is that the story of terrorism isn't as simplistic as some countries declare. or, if it is that simple then terrorists aren't misunderstood, they're just benign little sleeper cells that some people in some countries call the CIA...

funny how whenever the LTTE comes into the picture, human rights statistics about how many people die in bombings are thrown around but statistics about how many Tamils have died at the hands of the Sinhalese since mid-twentieth century are always "missing."

on both points, MIA's not the only one getting fooled.

6 · Manish Vij on May 5, 2005 1:03 PM · Direct link

... human rights statistics about how many people die in bombings are thrown around but statistics about how many Tamils have died at the hands of the Sinhalese since mid-twentieth century are always "missing."

Seriously, is it too hard to condemn both sides?

Some things are easy calls. Child suicide bombers, that's a softball. When someone asks whether you favor them, just say 'no.' You don't have to get into the nitty-gritty of regional politics. Do you favor teaching kids, who have limited ideas of cause and effect and are unable to make an informed decision about homicide and suicide, to blow themselves up? Just be a good human being and say no. Then get to the complex politics.

7 · MD on May 5, 2005 1:17 PM · Direct link

Thanks Manish, you made the point more clearly than I evidently did.

I'm not saying that there aren't human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan forces against the Tamils; they are documented on the HRW website, too. It's the purposeful use of children that gets me. I don't care how just the cause or nuanced the situation. They are children.

She seems to have this rarified notion of the Tamil Tigers, which is probably because of what she is hearing from her from her family. I believe she is being naive. I'm not saying that politically she doesn't have a point, but that some of the methodology deserves condemnation. There are those who support the Tamil cause while condemning these specific actions.

And Ennis, are you being serious about the Pat Robertson thing? How does that relate to this post? He is a fool, and only a fool would take him seriously (or a reporter who needs to scare up some quotes).

8 · Ananthan on May 5, 2005 1:43 PM · Direct link

I guess the argument is whether you're willing to dismiss the tigers entirely because you disagree with some of the (admittedly abhorrent) means they use

A lot of tamils see the tigers almost as saviours, they've been protectors of tamil rights and the goal of independence is supported by many... to dismiss them in full because of some of their tactics isnt possible

i'm not trying to absolve the tigers of their wrongs, they really do need reform, but the group is an integral part of the lives of most sri lankan tamils and supporting them isn't considered shameful

and MIA using their imagery etc could just be an expression of their influence on her life rather than simply a cheap marketing ploy as some have claimed

9 · cicatrix on May 5, 2005 1:43 PM · Direct link

As a Sri Lankan, I'd say MIA poses a bit of a conundrum. Most Americans know fuckall about Sri Lanka, so it's exciting to see someone step out from India's large shadow, it's eye-popping to see her on TV. I really do like her music, and think the accolades are well-deserved on that front.

But, I've also spent the past few months chasing after this bloody nitwit, trying to correct (or counter-balance, you pick) her comments to the press.

I wrote an article about her that's all sorts of personal and embarrassing (for me), if anyone cares to read it.

10 · whoa, tiger on May 5, 2005 1:54 PM · Direct link

Seriously, is it too hard to condemn both sides?

No, it's not, but rarely does that happen, correct?

It's a twisted situation and I'm not in support of using children, however, I think it's important to note that the Tamil-situation in Sri Lanka isn't like Palestinians in the West Bank--as you excerpted, even a rubber band is a big deal. So, imagine not cities but camps in which everyone is living together, Tigers and children, everything. And for a number of those camps, the whole circumstance is survival and it's not a choice.

Yes, children as suicide bombers are bad, a government that drives a people to such ends is bad (and in my eyes, sometimes worse as it's a gross misuse of power just to spite something the British started).

So, condemn both sides, but as mentioned, that rarely happens...

She seems to have this rarified notion of the Tamil Tigers, which is probably because of what she is hearing from her from her family.

Millions of Tamils disagree and not because their families are telling stories around the campfire... Just to be clear, I agree with what you say about methodology, I don't agree with unilateral condemnations based on reading a report and just watching the news...

It's a war in which terrible things happen. Sad that a group of people is killing its own future by using kids, worse that the same group thinks it's okay to kill a child and grotesque that the one group that can end this--the government--won't.

11 · Manish Vij on May 5, 2005 2:23 PM · Direct link

Ah, you're that Cicatrix. Excellent (and much-cited) essay, kudos.

12 · Tilo on May 5, 2005 2:36 PM · Direct link

Hey guys, can I use the opp. to ask you to check out Santosh Sivan's Terrorist?
http://www.santoshsivan.com/eng_mem3.htm
Must explain the point MIA is trying to make.........

13 · vurdlife on May 5, 2005 3:18 PM · Direct link

heh... "terrorists are really like you & me, they're just misunderstood"

sometimes. sometimes they are sick and evil.

Was George Washington a terrorist when he killed fellow American Tories who supported the British?

Was Thomas Jefferson a terrorist when he precipitated a violent coup and insurgency against legitimate governmental control? Or when he said, "The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" ?

Was Andrew Johnson a terrorist when he killed thousands of Native Americans and defied the Supreme Court?

Were all of them terrorists when they literally bought and sold other human beings and lived rich, comfortable lives off of slave labor?

Why do all of them have their faces on American money?

14 · MD on May 5, 2005 3:19 PM · Direct link

cicatrix, thank you. What a thoughtful and enlightening article.

Hmm, especially the end. It's odd: the older I get the less I feel I need someone who looks like me to stand for me in the popular culture. Oh, don't get me wrong. I needed it when I was younger and you make that point *so* beautifully. But, now, when I think of someone in the popular culture 'like me' it's not just a desi (I'm not saying you are saying that in your article, this is just a riff off your last point), but someone who has certain thoughts or ideas or experiences, like mine. But then that's the point of seeing desis in the public eye, isn't it? Hmm, where was I going with this?

As usual, I have talked myself into circles.

(Also, it is so sad to read Sepia Mutiny and hear how some people were treated when younger. Am I the only desi who never had a really negative or racist experience? Ok, not true, only two, years and years ago - a decade or more - one by some white guys driving buy and yelling 'go back home' and the other at a black fraternity party where I as told I was not a real American by a young black woman. Am I having them and just don't know? )

Sorry about being off topic. You can now go back to issues surrounding the LTTE.

15 · MD on May 5, 2005 3:31 PM · Direct link

vurdlife: regarding legitimate government control -

'taxation without representation' was a part of the illegitimacy of the government, in the eyes of our forefathers. I'm glad some of them are on our money. I've never learned to curtsey properly and would have trouble saying Ma'am.

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...." It's that consent of the governed part that is key, I think :) So some freedom fighters, say the Taliban or Osama, are not really interested in the consent of the governed, if you know what I mean...

Yes, yes, I know you are making a rhetorical point. Point well taken.

16 · Saurav on May 5, 2005 4:10 PM · Direct link

It's that consent of the governed part that is key, I think :) So some freedom fighters, say the Taliban or Osama, are not really interested in the consent of the governed, if you know what I mean...

Maybe vurdlife is making a rhetorical point, but I think he/she raises a totally legitimate question on how abused the t-word has been (see the Chapati Mystery post for a thorougher discussion). Since "terrorism" has been defined as politically justified violence by the weak and the term has since been expanded and corrupted to cover things like document fraud or showing up at a meeting (i.e. "lending material support"), we shouldn't overlook all the acts of violence that powerful institutions or groups perpetrate. Maybe they don't fit the definition of "terrorism" that they themselves came up with, but what they do is clearly wrong.

Don't dismiss the point about how slavery, racism, and xenophobia are thoroughly endemic to early American society and that that legacy continued forward by labeling it as simply a cute "rhetorical" point. Especially since I thought we all so fervently opposed the oppression of Brown people like Bhagat Singh Thind ;)

17 · Vish Subramanian on May 5, 2005 4:18 PM · Direct link

The LTTE is a totalitarian, brutal organisation that regularly assasinates any Sri Lankan Tamil who dares to crticise them. Of course, thousands of Indian soldiers and a Prime Minister were killed by them as well. Not to mention close ties to Tamil Nadu underworld, Veerappan, etc. They make the IRA seem like Gandhians.

In some conflicts, both sides may do terrible things. But despite what some may think, the weaker side does not have any automatic claim to the
moral high-ground.

I firmly believe (without any evidence) that money going to M.I.A has a strong likelihood of going to support the LTTE (as opposed to the Sri Lankan Tamil cause). Those who choose to knowingly patronize her shows have every right to do so, but should keep that in mind.

18 · DesiDancer on May 5, 2005 4:24 PM · Direct link

She could just be a young woman with a lot on her mind and some general concern about whether right and wrong can be so absolutely defined as society alleges, trying to work it all out through the medium of her choice...

19 · MD on May 5, 2005 4:40 PM · Direct link

Let's see - how many comments and how many mentions of the child soldiers? I brought that up first remember, so apparently I'm not the only one overlooking things in this comment thread. It's all been, why are you discussing that thing, let's talk about something else.

I wasn't cheapening any point Saurav, I was trying to be civil.

20 · Ennis on May 5, 2005 5:10 PM · Direct link

MD:
I am very serious about the Pat Robertson thing. What's worse, he said it without much prompting.

21 · cicatrix on May 5, 2005 7:58 PM · Direct link

Thanks Mannish (blushing) and MD.

Vish, I've had a really hard time convincing people that the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Tamil cause are mostly mutually exclusive entities. The idea of the latter is so owned by the former, most people refuse to even consider better alternatives.

Would you believe that most LTTE supporters say that the child conscription is Sinhalese government propaganda? Despite UN, UNESCO and Amnesty International evidence to the contrary. I've received emails from people saying things like the "LTTE are the saviours of our race!" It's frikkin weird.

MIA's political convictions are so fuzzy who knows where she will choose to send her money. If she sends anything at all.

22 · cicatrix on May 5, 2005 8:31 PM · Direct link

MD, I honestly didn't know I even had the need to see someone like me until MIA popped up.

I came here as a teen, and had to assimilate in a desi-sparse enviorenment. So I was more concerned about proving to Americans that I was like them. Seeing oneself in other people is all well and good, but I think I went too far trying to please, to fit in. With age and confidence, I'm like, "No. You understand me now, dammit."

Actually, it's less do with appearance (but I still ran to my TV when that Bend it Like Beckham chick appeared on ER, Ash did Oprah, etc.) than the total lack of awareness about Sri Lanka. I mean, I had to explain to someone where the country was located just one month after the goddamn TSUNAMI for fuck's sake..

23 · DesiDancer on May 6, 2005 9:42 AM · Direct link

I mean, I had to explain to someone where the country was located just one month after the goddamn TSUNAMI for fuck's sake..

Sad as that is, much more can't be expected from the same people who can hardly find their own state on a map of the country...

24 · Saurav on May 6, 2005 3:48 PM · Direct link

I wasn't cheapening any point Saurav, I was trying to be civil.

Fair enough. I did feel you were being dismissive by labeling it "rhetorical", but my interest was more in trying to flesh out the actual point than what your intent was.

As for civility...well, it's overrated, if necessary and an overall good thing in the bigger scheme of things. I like the good ol' fashioned loud uncles, with their arms crossed, talking about $hit they don't know about :)

25 · Raju on May 6, 2005 4:15 PM · Direct link

I think you got to find a group of people who understand your desi/sri-lankan-ness early on in life, and then you won't need every other person to understand. i used to feel the same way about bhangra music...such great feeling in it, and no one knew about it. i wonder sometimes what it would be like to have the things i know are cool around all the time. what would it be like if a desi person doing something cool (or stupid) was on the tv every day?

26 · Manish Vij on May 6, 2005 4:27 PM · Direct link

what would it be like if a desi person doing something cool (or stupid) was on the tv every day?

It would be like living in Vancouver, London or Bombay :)

27 · PassingThru on August 11, 2005 2:07 AM · Direct link

Was I the only one who found Cicatrix's article very amusingly ironic considering the last para of her article and and then her linking in spite of the (phony or self-delusional?) comment "that's all sorts of personal and embarrassing (for me)"? Googling the "author/journalist"'s name only has links to this article... (Before anyone complains that I am picking on this author, please read her linked article. I am merely pointing the mirror at her...)

I wonder why the author's urge to write (about a musician!!) has prevented her from writing intelligent articles about the conflicts in Sri Lanka?

Yes, Tigers are terrorists but how many of you (or your parents or brothers, if you are too young) have condemned the Sri Lankan government's policies before Tigers or how many of you have encouraged trust-creating processes between the factions so that Sri Lankan Tamils don't have to support these terrorists?

28 · cicatrix on August 11, 2005 3:06 PM · Direct link

Sorry for that. Once again, hopefully with better coding:

PassingThru,

I'm blinded by this mirror you hold in front of me.

I wonder why the author's urge to write (about a musician!!) has prevented her from writing intelligent articles about the conflicts in Sri Lanka?

1. I am not a journalist. I never described myself as one.

2. the only urge I ever had was to provide a dissenting voice to MIA's depiction of the LTTE

3. I was asked by the music editor of that newspaper to write an essay because on my comments on the very message board I mention in the article.

4. the urge to write is a FAR simpler thing that getting it published. I could write until my fingers bleed, but no one would see it unless some publication accepted it.

5. publications don't accept opinion pieces from some young nobody.

It's so easy to criticize, isn't it? I don't see the irony in my comment, or essay. It felt embarrassing (and scary) to write about something that feels very private and personal to me....especially since I'd never written a damn thing before, as you so obsessively noticed, and whenever I'd talked about Sri Lanka and the war there people around me just fled. No one wanted to hear a 14, 15, 19 year old talk about gelignite and curfews and hiding under beds. (and again, I was really really sheltered in Sri Lanka.)

Where, exactly, is the irony? I love her music. I'm constantly shocked by how wonderful it feels to see a Sri Lankan woman on stage, on TV, in the media. My experiences upon moving to the US were similiar to hers in the UK - so that's another point of identification.

But I also think she paints a romanticized view of the LTTE which is hugely misguided, at best. Her website defies belief, as it claims close to half the country for Eelam. Not even the tigers have draw a boundary line like that! I run into American MIA-fans all time who say things like "Oh, your Sri Lankan? Man, which side are you? It's like the Hutus and Tutsis over there isn't it? Did you know MIA's dad was a freedom fighter?"

No. It's not like Ruwanda.
Freedom fighter?? Child conscription and suicide bombings, and most regular Tamil people fleeing the country since they hate the people supposedly 'representing' them as much as they could ever hate the goverment? freedom fighter?!?!!

Great that she's drawing attention to the country and it's problems. Seriously bad that she describes the problems in such glib terms.

Ergo, ambiguous feelings about her.

how many of you have encouraged trust-creating processes between the factions so that Sri Lankan Tamils don't have to support these terrorists?

Oh my god. Put the book down. Step out of the bubble. Climb down the tower.

Average middle-class people in Sri Lanka (at least well into the mid 90s) had little sense of "factions." They knew that both sides were shit, and that both sides were fighting for the leaders' thirst for powermongering and possibly, bank accounts....everything said is rhetoric. Everything done is to undermine the otherside's rhetoric. People get butchered in the crossfire.

Since moving to the US, my family has comprised 99% of the Sri Lankans I've met. I hear that there are hordes in DC and the Toronto area, but I don't live there. And I never even thought such hordes were possible until I took to the internet, chasing after MIA, and was informed of it.

So what exactly do you mean by "trust creating process between factions."?

What do you suggest I do?

That I, as a young woman who's spent half her life in the US, march over to SL and set up a non-profit? I would get laughed at, long and hard, and deserve it.

THE LTTE KILL DISSENTERS. You don't seem to understand that. If Norwegian peace-talk officials, and international pressure hasn't done much....what. the. fuck. should. I. do.

Tell. please. I like take all criticism constructively, so if you could lay out a specific course of action, I'd be delighted to consider it.

29 · cicatrix on August 11, 2005 3:11 PM · Direct link

I should add,

My family and family friends have comprised 99% of the Sri Lankans I've met.

30 · Abi on April 9, 2007 2:04 AM · Direct link

Clearly your ignorance has led to the use of the association between tigers and terrorists...see thats where MIA produces music of a whole new different league compared to everyone else...she nows exactly what kind of message she wants to portray....fools tend to live by the media...the media is so powerful yet so distorted and yet people still follow it religiously....the news headlines say tamil tigers are terrorists so thats what they are right? i guess you people (me included) have never been at the hands of state terrorism...its funny how the state gets away with it yet the tigers don't...not one of you have even given the slightest consideration to STATE TERROR and the oppression faced by tamils...the tamils have been silenced and systematically killed for years but their voices are not heard why??!! because of the state!...so who protects them? unless you all believe in genocide?...the LTTE...as a young person brought up here i never understood the need for violence just like many others...but understanding the suffering and pain of the tamils has made me understand their plight...just when the rest of the world will see is the question.

But MIAs message is so strong...we seem to live by the media...if it wasn't for me being have Sri Lankan tamil i wouldn't have done so muh research on the topic and seen it for myself in Sri lanka...but there are so many issues in this world we don't know about...so much complex politics and people suffering in silence

31 · Hiou on May 28, 2008 12:40 AM · Direct link

Wow... cicatrix... I love you.

not one of you have even given the slightest consideration to STATE TERROR

Wow. seriously. Have you read the other posts, or did you just decide to skip to the bottom and add you're two cents? That's why you have two eyes, and ten... well... the saying doesn't really work, but you get the point. We all get it: The Tigers' motive is just. Well slkhgnsl crap is that? All organizations' motives are originally just. Well, most. I mean, seriously? Of course their most basic, original goal was good and all, but their means of achieving.. well, sucks, to say the least. They're terrorists. Why? Because they attempt to force their opponents to give in by any means, even if it's killing civilians. They're not just fighting an oppressive whatever. They're killing innocents to get their point across. And literally brainwashing people to commit suicide in their cause. Srslyomg lyk I luv the LTTE and M.I.A, rite? look at me, I'm Abi, and i like to talk( /type, whatever) condescendingly even though i don't know what i'm talking about and don't use correct capitalization.

Gold star for you, cicatrix, though. =D

Comments closed.