Diary notes: July 5, 2009

June ended on a most sorry note. Yes, I loved MJs music too -- grew up with it; learned to dance on it; fell 'in crush' on it; was initiated into the first music video with it -- aah, there are just too many firsts and personal milestones intertwined with MJ's music genius for all existing generations to keep a count of. Even my pre-teen sons debuted their public dancing on Thriller last year! And I truly mean it when I say -- may he rest in peace, finally.
It's been a unique week in which I've seen Toronto deal with the annoying strike of city workers that has mainly crippled city's garage disposal system besides closing down a number of other facilities. Never have the garbage carriers' service been so appreciated. And thank God I live in an apartment building where down the shoot it al goes and then it becomes the management's headache!
In the papers many interesting editorials followed Sarkozy's remarks on banning the burqa. Some lucid, some totally uninformed and shot from the hip. PAsting two of my articles published today and last week, which revolved around the issues in the news.
Will be back next with tips on survival for new immigrants..keep watching this space!

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http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/magazine/the-man-in-the-mirror

Man in the mirror


The king is dead; long live the king’s music. While the pall of gloom that had engulfed the world at the shocking news of Michael Jackson’s death has abated, his work, life and idiosyncrasies continue being extolled, hashed and critiqued. And since his death has become those rare, ‘Where were you’ moments — like Princess Diana’s death and 9/11— I can’t help but include him in my comment.


Michael Jackson was never ‘just another great singer’; he was and will be remembered by each one of us who grew up with his music as the defining factor of our lives. I remember exactly what phase of my childhood I was at when, ‘Don’t stop till you get enough,’ came out and who my first crush was when Thriller — the album — came into my life in the form of the first ‘LP’ I was ever to posses sent in 1983 by my brother from Fresno. ‘Beat it’ became an anthem and music attained a level of spirituality.


That’s what Michael Jackson has been to all of us whose ages hover in between 35 and 50 years. Remembering his songs is the same as reliving our own lives. The shadow cast on his own genius by his phases of lunacy will never take away the pleasure of his work. And with that kind of mega stardom, how can one expect to escape from insanity? Success of that kind — spreading from the vast expanse of North America to the shanties of Lyari town to the jungles of Africa to the remotest regions of Russia and China and far beyond — becomes a disease which can consume the strongest of minds. It is amazing that none of it has cast an iota of doubt over the un-surpassed greatness of his work. His antics might have disgusted the world many times, but his music and dance form never failed to mesmerise. An analyst at The Star wrote very correctly; Michael has been imitated but never duplicated.


Everything that can be said about Michael Jackson has been said many times over in the past week, yet newsbytes and articles keep pouring in and heartfelt accounts keep appearing on websites. In the moments after his death many prominent websites reported a crash — Twitter; AOL messenger and Wikipedia included — as everyone wanted to be a part of his life or rather, death.


In some parts of the world though, his death was rather timely, as it instantly shifted media focus from many uncomfortable flashpoints. The highest relief was for the Iranian government where post election protests hogged international news and kept world attention focused and mounting. After Neda-Agha Soltan became Iran’s movement icon following her gruesome death, the international press vigilance had gotten even more intense with reporters streaming incendiary reports from the streets of Iran and the crowds rising to an even higher crescendo. But by Thursday evening following Michael Jackson’s death, all news channels had stopped every other news except the life and times of MJ. It seems that a little break of media focus was just what Iran needed. Now the regime has come down hard on all

international reporters banning them from reporting from the streets and relegating them to their closed newsrooms only.


Someone at a dinner actually voiced the suspicion that Michael Jackson’s death was a rumour allegedly instigated by Iran to remove world attention just as Clinton had waged the four-day bombing campaign on Iraq — operation Desert Fox — supposedly to take the focus away from his scandal with Monica Lewinsky! But let’s just put that down to a heartbroken fan’s misplaced hope in the face of denial at Michael Jackson’s death.


The other ‘affectee’ of media diversion has definitely been Mr Sarkozy, the alternately sober and drunk President of the Republic of France who just two days earlier had gone public with the bizarre statement that “the Islamic burqa is not welcome in France.” It quite baffles one as to what ignited this need in him to come out and brand the burqa as a symbol of “subservience that suppresses women's identities and turns them into prisoners behind a screen." It is impossible that his model wife would contemplate wearing it so why rake coals unnecessarily at a time when easing tensions with the Muslim world is more the order of the day for western governments? I am undecided though whether he has benefited from the media diversion or has lost out the attention which he hoped to gain by picking on Muslim women’s bone of contention. The dress might be ugly to look at and cumbersome to wear in summer, but to disallow anyone the right to wear what they please is perhaps a daft discriminatory act. Heck, some of the ungainly women exposing skin with their bulging tummies jutting out and falling out of their tank tops and low rise pants is offensive to look at, can we ban them too Mr President?


France must be thriving beyond belief, unaffected by the recession and other ensuing problems for its President to submit this legislation proposal on a priority basis to the lawmakers. Or perhaps a couple of pre-speech lethal cocktails are to blame (in case anyone doesn’t remember, Mr Sarkozy’s G8 debacle, it is still a prominent watch on YouTube with a star rating of 4.5 out of five — just click and watch). Discrimination comes in all kinds of garbs and the French President should realise that ethnic assimilation will not take place by forcing indigenous cultures to shed their traditions.



Acceptance and tolerance is the first step towards any kind of liberation. Incidentally, it is MJ’s song that comes to mind at this point. And again I am amazed at how profound all aspects of his work were — despite the sorry state he left this world in. He sings about making a difference in the lives of others;


I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have
Been any clearer
If you wanna make the world
A better place
Take a look at yourself and
Then make a change.


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From the masjid to the mall

The downside of ‘being Muslim on western land’ lost its edge when Obama-mania broke loose. Now it’s probably going to turn into, ‘Ooh, you’re Muslim, how nice!’ Jokes apart, while Obama has tried to take the western bite out of Muslim persecution which was unleashed after the Twin Towers debacle, there are still multiple identity issues besetting Muslims all over the globe.


While some emanate from societal bullying and prejudiced laws, many have been created by their own complexes (inferior/superior) and complexities resulting from diverse cultures.


Addressing all these issues, Natasha Bakht, an assistant professor of law at the University of Ottawa, has come out with a book or rather a compilation of articles which document the travails of ‘being Muslim in Canada.’ Titled Belonging and Banishment, in it some 11 experts, related mostly to the realm of print and publication, have expostulated on the ‘Canadian take’ on immigration.

(To read the rest of the article go to http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/in-paper-magazine/books-and-authors/from-the-masjid-to-the-mall)