Kite Runner movie fiasco

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6992751.stm

In a country and culture where honor is held in such high regard that lives are lost in keeping it safe, the directors of Kite Runner- a movie based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini- put the lives and honor of one of the young actors and his family in an extremely precarious position.

A little background is necessary before I delve in to the legal and humanitarian issues of it all. The book, for those who have not read it, contains the witnessing of a rape by the protagonist of the book of his servant and friend, by a psycopath. Keeping in mind that Afghanistan has been wrestling with Talebanisation for the past forty odd years, and has only recently been half emptied (read: bombed) of its civilian population in an American quest for 'democracy and modernity' (American style), topics such as sex are still largely taboo. And rape is...well...it is a sexual activity despite the lack of consent. Therefore to write about it with fictional characters is one thing, to picturize it on a child, that too an Afghan child, we can only start to imagine the repercussions.

To make matters worse, the father, Ahmed Jaan, of the young actor, Ahmed Khan Mahmizada, on whom the rape scene is filmed, claims he was never told about the scene, and once picturized was assured by the director that it would be cut from the movie. Ahmed Khan also claims he was unaware of the rape scene when he agreed to be a part of the movie. The producer, Rebecca Yeldham, denies the director promised Ahmed Jaan that the scene would not be filmed or would be cut from the final reel. She also claims that the scene has been filmed in a non-gratuitous and discreet manner, while also maintaining the so-called integrity of the book and making it clear that the incident is clearly sexual.

That brings us the legal problems first. Despite not having a filming background, I do know that everytime a film is made for commercial purposes, a release form has to be signed by those being filmed with knowledge of how the film will be used and what they will be portraying in the movie. If the person being filmed refuses to give their consent, the movie-makers cannot legally release the movie.

Although the BBC news article does not mention release forms, it does raise a lot of questions, for instance, did the actors and their parents know exactly what was going to be filmed? If they did not, and assuming they signed release forms, are those legally enforceable? Also, since the scene is being shot on a minor, his parent's consent is mandatory. In the Yoo Ess of Ay these details would be stringently enforced. In Afghanistan, who cares? take advantage of naivety and ignorance. After all, what's a little rape scene on a 10 year old when he is already undergoing the hardships of living in a country being bombarded by the noble super powers. They can deal with it.

But imagine the hue and cry if this took place here. People would be up in arms about the exploitation of a minor. Oh and if the producers were muslims/arabs/brown/not your typical blue-white-and-blonde American, there would be some more culture bashing.

And what can the Afghan family do? hope that the bbc news article enraged enough people to protest about this? Wait for the movie to come out, only to become outcasts in their community? sue the deep pockets?

While this story will probably fizzle away for us soon, the incidents will and have impacted a child and his family, and is not merely a story for them, but bitter reality. They have yet again been taken advantage of, and their voices will again go unheard unless we join our voices with theirs and make it one voice so loud that it cannot be ignored.

The bbc article gives more details, and I am sure you will find more travesties of justice when you read it. This is a very superfluous view of the issue. Feel free to leave comments, disagreements and corrections

Threads in D.C- don't go there!!!

For anyone who will listen. The lady in Threads on U-street poked me in my eye so badly it had two red spots in it for a week. And she didn't even apologize. The place is dirty, expensive and the workers are unprofessional and rude. So if you need threading done, might as well do it yourself, or you will be left with one eye to give her an evil eye with.

Innocent people are dying in ICE custody

Over the past couple of months, the media has reported four deaths among undocumented workers being held in various detention centers all over the country. The most recent was the death of a pregnant woman at the El Paso Detention Center in Texas. For more on this unfortunate story go to: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Detention_Death.html
It seems as if only White American lives are valuable. While we get to see pictures of hostages taken in Iraq or Afghanistan over and over again until we know their lives and stories and future plans and when they last pee'd, how come we do not get to hear about the lives of people in THIS country who are being held in the most inhumane conditions. While they are promised the due process of law they are being denied even basic medical treatment.

Another incident occured when a man was refused his asthma medication despite repeated appeals by his family to get through to him. He died within half an hour. ICE apologized. But his pictures were not flashed on CNN and FOX. His family wasn't shown and his dreams were not heard. Why?

The hostages that were taken by desperate people in war torn countries were adults who went there with full knowledge of the dangerous situations in those countries. This does not justify or condone any act to harm them ofcourse. But just as a comparison, on the other hand, we have people trying to escape the oppression and problems they face in their countries and are looking for a safe haven, who come here, and are imprisoned sometimes for years in awful conditions. What an irony. Americans should be treated like kings and queens wherever they go, but that same privilege does not apply to others landing on their stolen shores. America can bomb poor innocent people anywhere in the world without being condemned and called terrorists, and one act of robbery can make an entire immigrant race 'murderers', 'rapists' and 'thieves'. What great 'justice', and what more can be expected by the upholders of justice and democracy all over the world.

These immigrants don't have faces in the media. They don't have names. They are numbers. Illegal aliens. The "three million" illegal aliens in our midst that our leaders do not know what to do with. As if it is a vermin for them to erase. And that is exactly how they are being dealt with.

The Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Michael Chertoff, George Bush, everyone needs to understand that being white does not entitle anyone to special privileges. (It condemns them to a life of fake tanning and skin cancer). While the lives of American hostages are precious, the lives of immigrants in this country, whether they are brown, white or blue, are equally precious and need to be safeguarded with the same eagerness.

Operation Endgame

Department of Homeland Security is busy trying to implement a ten year plan, called Operation Endgame, to apprehend and deport all undocumented aliens by 2012. In essence, they have every right to deport undocumented aliens, however not at the cost of denying due process rights (read: human rights) to them and their children. People from immigrant communities (men, women, children, old people) are being rounded up, and this isn't just the South Americans. We're talking all 'foreign looking' people here.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is the agency set up to implement immigration law, is raiding workplaces, homes, even stopping people on streets to check their immigration status. In such a mass movement of arresting and deporting people, human rights are bound to be trampled upon, and they already have been. Does this mean if I have fair skin and light hair I will not be bothered by ICE? Granted the system always had a (very slight) bias against non-whites. But it has not been this blatant since the Civil Rights Movement and Brown v. Board of Education. Discrimination in any form is unacceptable, but when it is flaunted under the banner of law, even the law seems repulsive, and this undermines the whole system of justice.

Discrimination against people of color cannot be tolerated. Programs by ICE such as the 287(g) program which gives local and state police the power to stop people and check their immigration status are a way for people to make (more) judgments based on skin color. It is time everyone, irrespective of nationality, religion and race got together to protest these travesties of justice.

The first step is to gain knowledge about what is going on with the law- whether it is directly 'related' to you or not.At the end of the day, we are all co-existing and interdependent. By distancing ourselves from 'others' we are allowing the justice system to deteriorate, and who knows when that is going to come and bite us.

The second step is to spread knowledge and make our voices heard so anti-immigration groups and so-called nativists know that we are also loud and know our ish.
Only by helping others can we help ourselves.

Visit the FIRM website (http://fairimmigration.org) for more information.

Canada lifts ban on "Singh" and "Kaur"...

They're moving on to "Mohammad" and "Khan"...

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7008020055
and
http://www.theobserver.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=633080&catname=Editorial&classif=

For the past many many many years Canada has been artistically implementing a lovely form of racial discrimination- by asking thousands of Sikh applicants to change their last names since Singh and Kaur are too "common". An interesting way to keep brown people away. I guess Canada finally caught up with the bhangra takeover, because the law has been rescinded. Let the punjabi domination begin!

Pakistan feels the Big Love...

I'm honored...

http://www.pal-c.org/U.S.HailsReinstatementofTopPakistaniJudge.html

Pakistan and Musharraf's legal turmoil

While security forces knocked militants dead in Islambad, the Supreme Court of Pakistan reinstated the now-canonized Saint Justice Chaudhry Iftikhar to his job. A piece of good news for our troubled land of the pure. Yet, as America threatens to weed out Bin Laden from the North, Pakistani liberals crib about the exceeding militarization of the country, and right wing idiots yell distorted slogans of their so-called jihad at Musharraf's 'modernist' government, those of us on the fringes wonder- who will wipe Mushy's tears now? Will he have to make peace with the Islamic faction, or the club-hopping-sexy-lady-politician types? (yes, we have a few of those). Is there a middle road in this quagmire?

Legally, strictly legally with no bottles of smuggled alcohol involved, Musharraf could not have been anything but 'content' with the Supreme Court's decision to reinstate Saint Iftikhar. To be otherwise would have been political suicide for him. Without outrightly overturning our tattered constitution, Musharraf could not have maligned the Court decision. And who really wants more anti-government rallies by those upholders of the Rule of Law?

On the other hand, the government was literally forced to open the notorious "red mosque" this week. By painting it lemon yellow they supposedly averted a crisis. Afterall only 20 odd people died in the most recent bomb blast in the red mosque vicinity. Why pander to these so called "Islamic" whacko's? Do they even know the essence of the religion? Who gives them a right to enforce their brand of Islam? I certainly haven't. Apparently the government took the liberty of doing that on my behalf through its mealy mouthed rhetoric. To oppose them would again be political suicide. But I frankly believe that is one suicide which would be justified.

Let me make my predictions- Pakistan will be bombed by its savior (make a wild guess who that might be)with a few random bombs being dropped outside of the 'bin laden territory' by 'mistake' - the North West Frontier Province will increasingly become disillusioned with the idea of being part of Pakistan and will start their independence movement, Balochi's being neglected especially after our government realized the recent flooding and its victims were not an international media attention grabber, will start waging war outside of Baluchistan, Punjabi's will keep eating tikka boti's at food street and pretending that the world revolves within the confines of punjab, while Sindhi's...well those Sindhi's never identified with Pakistan anyways, right Lahore? Phew! Where does that leave us? No where I'm afraid. And we wanted Kashmir??

Oh well, just food for thought. Good night and sweet dreams.