The latest Newsweek carries a report on how xenophobia is thriving among the Alps. Peaceful Switzerland is not so peaceful, it seems, and there is trouble brewing under that pristine exterior. What’s triggered this off is a contentious election campaign poster put up by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP). The poster features three white sheep on a background of the Swiss flag — with one black sheep being kicked out. The symbolism is unmistakable.

The party claims that the poster merely promotes its plan to deport foreigners convicted of crimes. But many are not convinced and are questioning the deeper racist imagery and messaging. According to Newsweek:

The black-sheep campaign has drawn condemnation from the United Nations’ special rapporteur on racism, who says it “provokes racial and religious hatred” and should be withdrawn to restore “the image of Switzerland as a country respectful of human rights.”

The Swiss People’s Party (the Schweizerische Volkspartei or SVP) has the largest number of seats in the Swiss parliament and is a member of the country’s coalition government. This makes anything they condone or endorse a matter to be taken seriously. This Independent article questions whether Switzerland has become Europe’s heart of darkness and emphasizes SVP’s role in this.

The party has launched a campaign to raise the 100,000 signatures necessary to force a referendum to reintroduce into the penal code a measure to allow judges to deport foreigners who commit serious crimes once they have served their jail sentence.

But far more dramatically, it has announced its intention to lay before parliament a law allowing the entire family of a criminal under the age of 18 to be deported as soon as sentence is passed.

It will be the first such law in Europe since the Nazi practice of Sippenhaft – kin liability – whereby relatives of criminals were held responsible for their crimes and punished equally.

The party has also launched a campaign for a referendum to ban the building of Muslim minarets, which has raised hackles.

Traditionally, Switzerland has been known for its stable political structure. But according to political expert Wof Linder, the run-up to the parliamentary elections on October 21 have been more aggressive than ever before and decidedly “un-Swiss”.

The tone has become harsher, but also rougher. I’m thinking here of the People’s Party, which has overstepped over the mark with its posters where the [white] sheep throw the black sheep out of Switzerland.

But it’s a similar story with the [centre-left] Social Democrats as one of their posters shows a plane crashing into a nuclear power plant. These are examples of things which have really overstepped the mark compared with the usual political style.

The SVP’s hard-line, anti-immigrant tactics garnered 26.2 per cent of the vote four years ago and latest polls show that it may achieve the same this time around. But the issues symbolized by a black sheep on a poster are much larger than one election campaign. They’re about identity, fear and belonging. As the Independent points out:

What is at stake here in Switzerland is not merely a dislike of foreigners or a distrust of Islam but something far more fundamental. It is a clash that goes to the heart of an identity crisis which is there throughout Europe and the US. It is about how we live in a world that has changed radically since the end of the Cold War with the growth of a globalised economy, increased immigration flows, the rise of Islam as an international force and the terrorism of 9/11. Switzerland only illustrates it more graphically than elsewhere.

Marcel Marceau, the maestro of mime died last week. He was 84. The IHT has a report here and here is the NY Times report. Salon has an extensive article about Marceau — the man and the mine — in their Brilliant Careers section.

Best known for creating the character Bip with his white face, striped shirt and carnation-topped hat, Marceau conveyed more through his silences than others could hope to in words. Traveling the world to spread his L’art du Silence (The Art of Silence), Marceau drew on human experiences and emotions and his shows relied on universal notions rather than regional particularities. According to IHT:

Marceau, who could be quite chatty in interviews, once said of his pantomime: “Mostly I think of human situations for my work, not local mannerisms. There is no French way of laughing and no American way of crying. My subjects try to reveal the fundamental essences of humanity.”

In this he had much in common with his greatest inspiration, Charlie Chaplin. A holocaust survivor whose father died in Auschwitz, Marceau’s silences were informed with all that the human heart can hold, suffer and bear. From the Times obituary:

Like the characters of Chaplin and Dickens, Bip was a small figure in an enormous world that was simultaneously wonderful and terrifying. Made by society to feel inferior, Bip is driven to rebellion. He reflects the radical views of his creator, as well as his ultimate optimism. “We know that the fighting spirit of man is everlasting,” Marceau explained. “Death is absurd, but humanity has to be eternal.”

Marceau is largely credited with reviving the mime form. He was appointed a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Officer of the Ordre Nationale du Mérite, and a Commander of Arts and Letters of the French Republic. He won the Deburau Prize for Death Before Dawn, and two Emmy Awards for his television productions.

But he leaves behind an uncertain legacy. As he himself once pointed out: if the man and the art form were one, when the man died, the art form would die with him. One can only hope that this will not be the case.

Mime has long been a lesser cousin of the arts world in western culture, probably because there are so many cheap hucksters looking to make a quick buck with plastered faces and exaggerated gestures. True mime involves restraint and creativity — a fact that many are not aware of. In Asian cultures, mime enjoys more respect and prominence with Kathakali in India and Noh in Japan heavily depending on mime (in combination with music or dance) to convey elaborate stories or messages. In western societies, there are some who are trying to infuse fresh life into the form but popular perceptions often range from skepticism to ridicule. This slightly older article in New Statesman talks about where mime stands today and here is a brief history of mime as an art form in western cultures.

Some time back, genital mutilation in Egypt came into sharp focus when a thirteen-year-old girl died on the operation table. Now, the tides may be shifting slowly, but undeniably. According to this NYT article:

But now, quite suddenly, forces opposing genital cutting in Egypt are pressing back as never before. More than a century after the first efforts to curb this custom, the movement has broken through one of the main barriers to change: It is no longer considered taboo to discuss it in public. That shift seems to have coincided with a small but growing acceptance of talking about human sexuality on television and radio.

For the first time, opponents said, television news shows and newspapers have aggressively reported details of botched operations. This summer two young girls died, and it was front-page news in Al Masry al Yom, an independent and popular daily. Activists highlighted the deaths with public demonstrations, which generated even more coverage.

At the forefront of this movement is anthropologist Marie Assaad who has been fighting the barbaric practice for around 50 years. In the beginning, she started off with outright condemnation but realizing that this was not working, she employed more strategic moves. She got Islamic scholars and health care workers to endorse her views and dispel illusions. She also managed to garner support from other powerful women in the country.

I think there’s much to be learned from her strategy when it comes to overthrowing age-old, ingrained customs and patterns of behaviour. Give people arguments they can relate to. Win supporters in different key groups, especially the ones most likely to oppose you. And be tenacious.

Even as recently as 2005, a government health survey showed that 96 percent of the thousands of married, divorced or widowed women interviewed said they had undergone genital mutilation. The battle is far from over, or even close to the finishing line. But at least, it has started in earnest.

An earlier post about this is here.

If you’ve been wanting to visit Brussels, here’s a worthy excuse. Interestingly titled “Dynamic Cities Need Women”, this international forum in December will apparently draw over 700 participants from all over the world “to discuss best practices and innovative policies and their impact on gender development and equal access to services in urban areas in order to make cities and metropolises liveable for all.”

The core of the conference is a series of workshops on gender-related issues in different regions in the world as well as a host of topics like technology, health, basic education, urban safety and sustainable development in the context of gender.

According to the website:

The main objectives of this international Forum are to promote a gender-sensitive approach and to present and discuss the best practices to empower women as citizens and decision-makers.

The initiative is jointly spearheaded by the Government of the Brussels Capital Region and the Metropolis Women International Network and it will end with a declaration to take gender mainstreaming into account during future decision-making.

Incidentally, Belgium was elected as a member of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women this year in recognition of its commitment to the promotion and fulfillment of women’s rights.

Tomorrow, it will be six years since terrorists crashed two planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The New York Times blog has information about the 9/11 Commemoration with a list of events at the different places. Also, here is a photo essay of the event.

As frightening as 9/11 was, its aftermath has been even more terrifying. The event spawned countless conspiracy theories and ostensibly led to Bush’s “War on Terror” which has devastated Iraq. Both forces have unleashed a tidal wave of fear and insecurity in most of the world. People, communities

and governments have all come under suspicion. The lies, deceit and horror continue to haunt.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq has lasted till date and the civilian death toll stands at 650,000 people according to a Lancet survey. Over 4.2 million Iraqis, more than 16% of the Iraqi population, have lost their homes and become refugees since 2003. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that 2.2 million Iraqis have been displaced to neighboring countries, and 2 million were displaced internally, with nearly 100,000 Iraqis fleeing to Syria and Jordan each month. Among them was Riverbend, who is famous for her blog on wartime Iraq, Baghdad Burning, and for her subsequent book by the same name.

On the eve of 9/11, it’s interesting to see what people are talking about. I visited some of the more prominent sites and this is what I found.

This article at Counter Currents raises questions about a conspiracy theory.

If correct – IF – the immediate reaction is like a cosmic big bang. It would have taken considerable effort by a number of people with expertise and access to the buildings to rig them so that they could be intentionally collapsed when the two jets hit the towers. Tough questions flood in: Who could have engineered all this? Could foreign agents accomplish such complex actions – and if they did, why not take credit for it? If Americans did it, why would they intentionally inflict inevitable mass death and devastation? Worse, they seemingly knew about the plan to fly the jets into the towers.

Post-9/11, why have the government and official investigations not come to the same controlled demolition conclusion? This might be explained if the government was involved.

And this one ponders why post 9/11, Europe has suffered from far more terrorists attacks than the United States.

In response, Europeans for the most part are looking inward to explain why Islamic extremists have made the Continent a favored target, while the United States has been spared - despite its leadership and the anger it has stirred waging wars in two Muslim countries.

In that setting, questions about how minority populations of Muslims are integrated into the mainstream are coming to the fore, along with basic questions about Islam itself. Less attention is being focused on finger pointing at the United States, analysts say.

But no matter what came after, nothing can take away the importance of the loss of those who suffered on 9/11. Those who lost children, siblings, friends. The suddenly orphaned. The unexpectedly widowed. The men and women who frequent graveyards and remember, and on remembering, cry. And the ones they cry for. RIP.

UPDATE: It was brought to my notice that my linking to one of the articles above is tantamount to endorsing it. I would like to clarify that it is not. I am merely pointing to the lead article on Counter Currents in order to provide information and not because I subscribe to the views expressed in it.

Slow down my beating heart
Man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the skies
He lives on a star that’s dying in the night
And follows in the trail
The scatter of light

~ In a Little While, U2

The latest New Yorker cover story is about a truly “global musician”– Manu Chao. Chao’s latest album “La Radiolina” has 22 tracks in five different languages. Including English which he gleaned from music and crime novels while growing up. For those familiar with his style, this is nothing surprising. Considered the pioneer of Latin alternative music, Chao sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Portuguese, English and the Senegalian language Wolof. Here is the New York Times review of La Radiolina and you can listen to samples here.

Elaborating on Chao’s multiculturalism, The New Yorker article informs us that:

Chao maintains apartments in Paris and Barcelona, and spends part of each year in Fortaleza, a town in northern Brazil, where his eight-year-old son lives. He is completing an album of songs in Portañol (a hybrid of Spanish and Portuguese) and collaborating on another, with patients in a psychiatric hospital in Buenos Aires.

Fascinating. I haven’t heard Chao yet but I will run out and get myself the CD soon.

This does make me wonder about something else though. Foreign travel has always been something of a privilege, a badge to be worn proudly. With words like “global citizenship” and “multiculturalism” becoming common parlance, it’s become almost a mark of something more — superior sensibilities and an evolved sense of humanity.

But being “global” doesn’t always come cheap. Maintaining apartments in multiple countries comes at a price. As does jetting around the world — even on cheaper flights. Vast numbers of people, especially in developing countries, may not be able to invest so much in developing a multicultural identity. Or their money may be better spent elsewhere.

But world travel has become more than a practical or even recreational need. It has become something of a coveted title. To some people, the stamped passport is probably as important as a doctoral degree. What does this mean for those who can’t or don’t “achieve international exposure” for whatever reason? Will they increasingly become something of a lower caste in this new kind of elitism? Or will they find other ways to engage with the world? There are other issues involved as well. Immigration has wider economic, social and cultural impact. Air travel is increasingly being looked at as an environmental hazard.

Not for one moment am I espousing that we should chain ourselves to our chairs. That we shouldn’t stand awe-struck before the Pyramids or gape at the Niagara. Taste the desert thirst in deepest Sahara. Sit at a Parisian cafe, moon over Italian sculptures, gaze into the waters at Venice. Drink Turkish coffee or cavort with kangaroos down under. All I’m saying is that as we move forward — and around — at dizzying speed, we shouldn’t forget some of the larger issues. Even if they slow us down just a little bit.

Meanwhile, here are some tips on greener travel.

This article in New Statesman talks in detail about China’s efforts to “civilize” Tibet. As part of this “civilizing mission”, China is using economic growth as the primary method of infiltration into this quiet land where matters of the spirit have long taken precedence over those of the wallet.

Traditional Tibetans may be as devoutly Buddhist as ever, but modern China worships Mammon. More than half a century after the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and 48 years after the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India, China’s Communist rulers are hoping that an economic boom will help them consolidate control over the recalcitrant region. Last year, 2.5 million tourists and business people - some westerners, but most Han Chinese - visited Lhasa. Now the new railway from Beijing has reached the Tibetan capital, the number is expected to increase by 80 per cent this year alone.

Historically, Tibet has been an independent nation and since China invaded it 50 years ago, the Dalai Lama has been leading the people in non-violent resistance but China has continually notched up horrific levels of human rights violation in Tibet. The outlook has never been very hopeful because China does not really show signs of letting go. From this slightly old report on the subject:

Pessimists think it is impossible for China to change its policies toward Tibet because China needs Tibet as an armed camp for military security. They also think China needs Tibet’s vast territory and natural resources for its economic prosperity, and that China must save face in the global arena by not admitting that past policies were misguided and inhumane.

China seems to have changed tack in the last few years though and insidious colonization is taking the place of outright brutality. According to the News Statesman article:

…these days the Chinese attitude tends to be more patronising than brutal. It is official policy to tolerate ethnic minorities and their religions, provided they are loyal to the party and the state. “The government pays full respect to ethnic customs,” says Mr He. “Tibetan culture is an exotic flower among Chinese cultures. It has existed for more than 2,000 years. But we will help them remove bad or backward habits, and lead them to a more civilised life.” As part of its civilising mission, and to integrate Tibetans into the modern economy, the government has resettled 25,000 nomadic and farming families into “new socialist villages”. The plan is to settle 80 per cent of rural Tibetans in the next five years.

Tibetans have feared and protested against cultural genocide for years now and there were protests against the new railway as soon as it was announced last year. This article last year talked about the multiple ways in which the Golmud-Lhasa railway linking Tibet to several Chinese cities would affect the region.

The Golmud-Lhasa railway is expected to strengthen the iron grip that China has over Tibet and increase the militarization of the region. It would allow the rapid deployment of Chinese troops and facilitate the deployment of missiles, including nuclear weapons. The environment in Tibet will also suffer. The railway will be also facilitate the exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources, which are already plundered without any concern for the ecological impact and without collective benefit for Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama expressed that it was “politically motivated to bring about demographic change”. Their worst fears appear to be coming true. The engine of cultural obliteration is chugging fast. Whether it will succeed in overrunning a people who have held onto their beliefs despite all odds for so long remains a question. We can only pray that it will be answered in one way rather than the other.

For more information on the Free Tibet Campaign, visit their site. The Save Tibet website also offers information and updates on the situation.

A vast sprawl of 2711 stone slabs near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin marks Germany’s tribute to victims of the Holocaust. The slabs are nameless, faceless, relentlessly grey and built on undulating ground to produce a disorienting effect on visitors. When this memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe was built in 2005, many criticized Germany for having taken so long to honour its victims. There were other controversies as well — the lack of religious symbolism, inadequate representation of all the victims, whether to use anti-graffiti agent or not and even, the fact that the anti-graffiti agent came from the same company that had once supplied poison gas to Nazi troops.

According to this site, which also has pictures of the memorial, at the opening ceremony on May 10, 2005, Paul Spiegel, the head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, sharply criticized the new Holocaust memorial, saying that it was too abstract and that it failed to confront the issue of German guilt.

In his speech, Spiegel said that the Memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe honors the victims of Nazism, but the Memorial does not refer directly to the perpetrators. According to Spiegel, viewers are not confronted with questions of guilt and responsibility. Spiegel complained that the Memorial leaves an “incomplete message” and merely shows the Jews “as a nation of victims poured into 2,711 concrete pillars.” Spiegel said that the Monument fails to ask the question “Why?”

This personal perspective on the memorial has some interesting things to say, however:

The field of stele first appeared small and insignificant and I did not see how this city block of rectangular concrete slabs could possibly impress me. But as I entered the memorial my perception began to change. At first, the stele were barely inches in height, but as I continued to walk the concrete paths between the slabs, suddenly the ground plunged down and the steles were soon well over my head ­ a fact I could not know or see from where I first stood when I looked over the site. As I continued to walk paths without any forethought as to where I would end up, the ground rose and fell in a random undulation, and the stele towered above me and cut off my vision of the horizon and the sounds of life in the city.

Facing up to history is always tough for nations. It was only a few months ago that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologized for the Japanese Army’s use of “comfort women” as sexual slaves in World War II very grudgingly and after being pushed to the wall multiple times on this issue. Earlier, he had spent a considerable amount of time denying that the estimated 400,000 women were kidnapped or forcibly coerced in any way. Experts say that the comfort women program “was the largest, most methodical and most deadly mass rape of women in recorded history”. More information on this here.

Our history is checkered with examples of human cruelty, depravity and barbarism. Acknowledging this is always hard, sometimes horrifying. But we cannot — must not — ignore, cover up or stop remembering. We must remember often and retell the horror again and again. Only in this lies the faint hope that such acts may not be repeated.