9th edition, 28 March 2014 – Pike & Hurricane

The Never Ending Story

Meike Fernbach — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:38:47 +0000

The other day I was listening to the radio. It was the usual news report, telling me that Russia was still invading the Ukraine and Ulli Hoeness, a big time football manager in Germany was still under arrest for tax fraud. But then I heard the mention of a new study on the violent abuse of women in Europe. Apparently numbers show that every third woman in Europe is a victim of violent abuse!

My first reaction to this of course was to lock the door and hide under the covers. But I know one has to be careful with these kinds of surveys, because they usually don’t tell you where they get their numbers from. Looking on the internet you find thousands of statistics on this issue. Each one produces different numbers and in the end you don’t know which source to trust. However, this survey that was discussed on the radio, had been conducted by the FRA (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights). As the name implies, it is an agency of the European Union, which has connected their research with a study undertaken by the WHO in 2013, and seems to be a legitimate source. Naturally this information interested (and scared) me to some extent, so I checked the internet for an elaboration on this survey on all the reputable sites I could find and discovered an article about it on the online-magazine of “The Guardian”. What I found there did not ease my worries in any way.

42.000 women in all 28 EU member states had been interviewed and 33% (every third woman) reported having experienced some form of physical and/or sexual abuse since the age of 15. Every 20^th woman reported having been raped at least once in her life. The numbers showed that Denmark has the highest rate of violence with 52%, followed by Finland with 47%, and Sweden with 46%. Even Germany is slightly above average, with a rate of 35% of women reporting that they have experienced violent abuse.

But doesn’t it sound strange, that some of the richest countries in Europe show the highest numbers of violence and sexual abuse? What about Bulgaria, one of the countries with the highest amount of sex trafficking? Isn’t it odd, that this country shows lesser numbers of violence or sexual abuse than a country like Sweden?

It makes me wonder how trustworthy even a survey by the FRA can be. Not because they give us false numbers, but because there is no way of determining how high the hidden figures are. Many women are embarrassed or ashamed to talk about the abuses they have suffered. And many of the victims in poor countries probably would never take part in this kind of study. If they, for example, have an abusive husband, what are the chances of them being allowed to give an interview to a complete stranger? How many of them would be brave enough to do it secretly?

Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Germany are all rich and developed countries with relatively high gender equality. Women are educated and know the facts and dangers about physical and sexual abuse. It is an openly condemned issue in society, which makes it easier for victims to find the courage to report cases of abuse. Of course this does not apply to all women, and there are cases of unreported abuse here as well, but it is very likely that these cases are much more rare than in a place like Bulgaria or Romania; countries with fragmented social insurance and educational systems which may not have the means, nor the capabilities, to educate women about abuse and its consequences. In addition, there is the question of law. How do you define violence and abuse? How severe does the abuse have to be in order for the police to investigate? The criteria differs from one country to another, which makes it difficult to conceptualize statistics based on police reports or convictions.

Taking into account all these difficulties must be addressed when conducting a survey makes me wonder how to handle this information as a reader? Do I label this kind of study as untrustworthy and ignore the compelling numbers, because the true extent to this issue is not transparent enough? Or do I trust the numbers presented by the researchers completely and in the future choose spend my holidays in Romania, rather than in Sweden? How do I assess this information that is presented to me so definitely?

My suggestion is to compromise. Be aware of the barriers researchers come across when studying this field, but in no way ignore the issue at hand. The number of women who are, or have been, a victim to violence or abuse are tremendous and it is incredibly important to have this in mind and create awareness. It is a problem that has been present for centuries and will, without a doubt, have to be dealt with for years to come. It is not a solution to shut one’s eyes in the face of this issue, just because it is difficult to measure, on the contrary, it has to be openly addressed and denounced as unacceptable. However, in my opinion, we should not cling to printed numbers, but look beyond the black and white and create awareness where it is needed the most.

Photo credits:

Picture 1: West Midlands Police, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Picture 2: Jeffrey, licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

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Mahraganat: How a New Musical Genre Emerged in Egypt

Michael Schätzlein — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 13:26:10 +0000

A few years ago, no one would have imagined that Salam City, a poor suburb in the periphery of Cairo, could become the heart of a music scene that would come to influence the whole of Egypt. The town, which was erected after a 1992 earthquake, now houses artists that, although hardly known outside of Egypt, have succeeded in establishing a new musical genre that is played all over Cairo and is slowly spreading to other parts of Egypt. This new genre, which is called Mahraganat- “festival” in Arabic, combines heavily audiotuned lyrics written in the local slang with traditional Egypt shaabi music and influences from hip-hop and electronic music and hit the scene in 2009, just a year before the revolution began.

Mahraganat, also known as electro shaabi, can be understood as music created by the poor for the poor. Its listeners are mostly young working class people with low prospects for the future and the quality of music is not very high, since the technical possibilities are quite restricted due to a lack of funding. It started off on a local level, with online video platforms, like Youtube, being one of the primary ways of distribution. Artists would sing about the life in their neighbourhood, which made them quite popular with the people living there. Although Mahraganat has grown, spread and evolved over the years, it still retains its focus on the artists’ respective neighbourhoods and remains the music of the streets.

In the turmoil of the demonstrations that would lead to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s government and the ensuing chaos, it was easier for the artists to promote their music by giving concerts in spaces formerly reserved for bigger artists as there was nobody to hinder them from doing so. In a way, the Arab Spring paved the way for this anti-traditional kind of music.

It is also the Arab Spring that provided the main incentive for an evolution of the genre. With thousands occupying Tahrir Square in Cairo from January 2011 onward, it was inevitable for the artists and their music to be politicised. Their focus had shifted toward political expression and nowadays, the music also tackles social issues like the ever present sexual harassment of women in Egypt, drugs and violence, breaking with the taboo issues in Egypt’s traditional society. Other than most other genres, Mahraganat music dares to speak up openly, which is why it is considered too vulgar to be played on public radio stations and is viewed with contempt by most middle- and upper-class people.

The most famous amongst the Mahraganat artists, Sadat, is often credited with being the first musician of the genre, has become a hero of the young people of Salam City. He is a former aluminium factory worker who was able to overcome problems, like his social status, and is now a successful musician known all over Egypt, for example, his wedding party was attended by about 20,000 people. Sadat also inspires others to do as he has and despite his success, he stays true to his neighbourhood of Salam City where he continues to live and perform free concerts. Just like other artists, he still relies on performances as a primary source of income, as the Mahraganat scene is mainly directed via genre websites that provide the music for free.

Mahraganat, however, is not an isolated case. Various other music genres have emerged in the past few years in the Islamic world. Slowly, traditional Islamic society is opening up for what can be called a Westernisation of music. Muslim punk, also called Taqwacore, was popularised following the publishing of Michael Knight’s novel The Taqwacores in 2003. Taqwacore, although still tightly bonded to Islam, takes a more radical approach to religious themes than Mahraganat, which is also why religious authorities are feeling challenged by the ideas of Taqwacore. The scene witnessed a major crackdown in 2012, when Indonesian police forcibly shaved the heads of concert-goers in an effort to “rehabilitate” them into Indonesia’s predominantly Muslim society.

But not all of the new genres are critical of Islam. Muslim hip-hop, which developed during the 1990s, spawned a new sub-genre called “jihadi rap” following the events of 9/11 and the wars in Afganistan and Iraq. Artists of this genre rally against the USA and its allies, promote self-sacrifice and seek to inspire young Muslims to join the Jihadist movements. The USA quickly became aware of this and launched campaigns using hip-hop as a means of cultural understanding, with rap artists touring the Islamic world, like the national ping-pong team did in China back in the times of ping-pong diplomacy.

Following the politicisation of the music and media coverage on the Arab Spring, Mahraganat also became known outside of Egypt with various artists of the genre enabled to perform abroad. A circumstance which also inspired cooperation with the London-based urban music radio station Rinse FM, which tries to support Mahraganat music by giving artists opportunities to collaborate with UK electronic music artists and to learn not only about technical subjects such as mastering, but also about how they can sell their music better in order to expand. Sadat is one of them.

By Michael Schätzlein

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Ron Rothbart, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Picture 2: Ramy Raoof, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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Like Apples and Spinach

Céline Sonnenberg — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:07:19 +0000

I care about Human Rights. A lot. I have been to Anti Homophobia demonstrations, I do not back off from discussions about abortions, racism and feminism. If someone had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said I feel like I am pretty well informed about social justice questions.

And then Jared Leto won an Oscar for portraying a trans woman suffering from AIDS in the blockbuster “Dallas Buyer’s Club”. Like many other people I saw this as a giant step towards equality and thought it was a great sign of Hollywood to honor such a controversial role. Just like the director of the film it did not even occur to me that an actual trans woman instead of a male actor could have played that role. And while I think his answer to the question, why he did not cast a trans actress for the movie, sounds a bit rude (“Is there any transgender actor? To my knowledge — I don’t know one. I didn’t even think about it. There’s like five, or three, or what — two? I never thought of that. I’m not aiming for the real thing. I’m aiming for an experienced actor who wants to portray the thing.”), I will admit that I have never really thought about this issue.

While homosexuality is represented in mainstream media (not saying that the representation is always done politically correct or in good way) and women, gay and racial rights and issues are openly discussed, I have gone through the past 21 years of my life without actually thinking about transgender people and their struggle.

I wanted to change this, I wanted to understand this complex topic better and I wanted to understand it on a more personal level.

Being the internet addict that I am, I decided to look for answers there and soon found the blogger, Kylie a 24 year old freelance artist and animator at Hallmark eCards from Los Angeles. Her comic strips about her transition were very relatable and after watching a few of her vlogs, I decided to ask her some questions and she was so kind to help me out:

While the age of recognisng oneself as transgender and the start of transitions vary, many transpeople, including Kylie take until they are around 20. “I didn’t know I was a trans woman until after college. Before that I thought I was a gay guy. Labeling myself gay always felt off to me, but then I just thought I was trying to come to terms with being gay. Long story short, after some therapy sessions and soul searching, I realized I am a woman all along!”

As I am telling her about my experience and my sentiment that transrights are often neglected, Kylie agrees and talks about the problems she has with including transgender people in the umbrella term LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans). “The letters “T” and “B” of “LGBT” are often neglected. It’s like, America is picking the carrots and peas out of their salad. Also, putting “transgender” in a group with gay, lesbian, and bisexual makes the general public subconsciously think that it’s a sexual orientation, it’s not, it’s a gender identity. It’s like grouping apples together with spinach, kale and bean sprouts. Yeah, apples are good for you like spinach, but it ain’t a veggie!”

However Kylie is amazed by the trans actress Laverne Cox, who is portraying a trans woman in the series “Orange Is The New Black”, which airs on Netflix. Her outspokenness about trans rights, her intelligence and fierceness have really impressed the young woman. “She is a role model! There is definitely not enough trans representation in mainstream media, but I think Orange Is The New Black is doing a good job at representing a positive trans character in TV land. I can´t wait for the second season!”

I also asked Kylie which tips she would give to someone, who is dealing with a trans person for the first time. “Just be polite and genuine.” she tells me. “Address them with their preferred pronouns and name. Don’t ask or discuss any body part. Except, if you’re going to compliment on their pretty eyes, then go ahead in full force!”

The transition process trans people have to undergo is often extremely lengthy and challenging both physically and mentally. But for Kylie one of the hardest parts about the transition, is another one. “Picking a freaking name! I can be super indecisive when it comes to certain things, and picking a girl name is one of those.” Which is why her current name Kylie might not be up to date anymore, when this article goes online. “And also, voice! I’m so bad at making my voice sound more feminine. Also, sometimes when I meet new people and introduce myself, I’ll have to come out, because I still look and sound like a dude, but I have a female name, so I’ll have to explain to them; and that gets tiring.”

I imagine sharing an experience as personal as her transition with a lot of people must be hard. “Seeing other trans people vlogging about their transition gave me a lot of information and encouragement, and I want to do the same thing for other trans brothers and sisters in transition. I also just want to put myself out there, because I honestly believe if the world saw trans people as often as they see the Moon rising and setting, everyone would’ve just gone, oh yeah, transgender people are people; the Moon rises and falls.” Kaylie tells me and I think that this is a wonderful conclusion to this story. Transgender should be discussed as openly as other human rights and while I, again, come from a very privileged position and live in a country, where the rights of homosexuals and women are openly discussed, I really feel like we can improve in providing information about transgender. I really found the informative, yet very funny and personal vlogs and comics of Kylie helpful and hope this personal insight might get more people closer to this often-neglected topic.

By Céline Sonnenberg

Image Credit:

Picture 1-3: Kylie Wu

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BDS: The Weapon of the Day in the Israeli-Palestine Conflict

Rodrigo de Souza — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:39:50 +0000

BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, aimed towards Israel, is not a new movement. It first started in 2005 and was created by Palestinian activists. However, in the last few months it has really started to gain some momentum. Its goal is to put economic pressure on Israel until, according to the movement’s website, “it complies with international law and Palestinian rights”. The BDS movement has a lot of similarities with the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AMM) in South Africa. The AMM started with international boycotts in an attempt to end the South African system of apartheid where a minority white population had the political and social control over the majority black population.

The Writing is peace in Arabic (Salaam/Salam السلام) and Hebrew (Shalom שלום)

BDS pressure comes with the boycotting of products that are produced on Palestinian land occupied by Israel or of companies that somehow support Israel in their occupation. Disinvestments would seek the withdrawal of pension funds and investment portfolios’ money from Israeli ventures involved in constructing settlements. Finally, sanctions would come from diplomatic and economic forums of which Israel is a party, such as military alliances and labor unions. According to the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), who organises the whole strategy behind this movement, these different tactics would eventually put so much economic and political pressure towards Israel that it would reconsider its position and attitude regarding Palestine and seek a peace agreement.

Unfortunately, if someone mentions movements like BDS or other campaigns that openly criticise Israel, he or she can be accused of anti-Semitism, which discourages such serious discussions. But countries should be condemned when they occupy land that doesn’t belong to them, divert water supply from communities or restrict the free movement of a whole population. The peculiarity with Israel is that it wants to be recognised as a Jewish state, intrinsically linking religion and a sovereign state. In doing so, any attack on Israel’s actions as a country is soon viewed as an attack against the Jewish religion. Applying the same principle, criticism of the United States’ action would be minimised for fear that it would be seen as anti-Christian (although the US has a separation between religion and State, it has a strong Christian identity). Therefore, the situation described above, gives Israel the perfect defensive tool but doesn’t change the fact that as a State it has to answer for its actions.

That being said, for those who condemn the BDS movement, anti-Semitism is the preferred weapon. These opponents claim the real objective of the movement is the destruction of the state of Israel and that the goals defined by the movement, some like the end of colonisation of occupied Palestinian land or the return of Palestine’s refugees, would make Israel completely unviable as a country. Furthermore, opponents to the movement point out that even Palestinian Authority’s President Mahmoud Abbas rejects the BDS movement stating, “it is not in the Palestinians’ favour.” The president would be in favour of boycotting products from occupied land but not Israel, since he recognises Israel as a country.

On the supporting side of the movement, the main argument is the comparison of BDS with the Anti-Apartheid Movement against the white minority in South Africa. Supporters make the correlation between both movements and try to remind society that the AAM movement also received the same kind of criticism when it started yet it was ultimately responsible for the end of the oppression of the black majority in the African country. Supporters see both movements as peaceful protests against what they believe to be injustices. They also believe that attacking Israel economically is more efficient and just than launching rockets.

However, the main reason why BDS supporters believe it is a legitimate tool is that it has already had some remarkable victories, which are even recognised by Israel. According to Yair Lapid, Israel’s Finance Minister, Israel is starting to feel the consequences of the movement in its economy. Furthermore, as the movement gains popularity, it could reach a tipping point where Israel’s business owners may start pressuring for a peace agreement between both states. Even US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Israel would suffer if its leaders failed to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Indeed, the BDS movement is hurting Israel’s economy. PGGM, a large Dutch pension fund, has liquidated its holdings in five Israeli banks. Denmark’s largest bank, Danske Bank, has blacklisted Israeli Bank Hapoalim, because it finances the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank. The boycott of Israeli products has also been effective. Agrexco, Israel’s former largest exporter of agricultural produce, entered liquidation after its products were boycotted in European supermarkets. Even some western brands were targeted, like the sports brand New Balance for its sponsor of the Jerusalem Marathon. A full list of alleged achievements of the BDS movement can be found here.

It’s not the first time that Israel has suffered pressure from the outside world. In the 1960’s, a French arms ban against Israel led the country to develop its own military industrial complex which is one of the most modern and active in the world today. Arab countries have been boycotting Israel for decades without much success. However, this time there seems to be a difference. The BDS movement is growing stronger and is gaining mainstream success in Europe, one of Israel’s biggest economic partners. Additionally, in the prime time of the Internet and social media, movements just need a small spark to go viral and turn into a world youth fever against Israel, which at the same time can bring the dangers of the anti-Semitism sentiments. Whatever the destiny of the BDS movement, whether it is just another cry out against Israel or a tide turner like the AMM in South Africa, it is already serving its purpose, shining light onto the unsolved Israeli-Palestine conflict.

By Rodrigo de Souza

Image Credit:

Picture 1 & 2: BDS Movement

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Confidence and Consumerism

Dennis Arndt — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:22:01 +0000

It was after a particularly depressing lecture towards the end of last year, that I found myself along with a handful of people from my course, remaining in class while everyone else was leaving the room. We were just gazing, staring holes into the wall and, for what felt like an eternity, no one was talking nor moving at all. Finally someone broke the silence and we exchanged thoughts on how weird it felt to gradually unravel all the misery that had been hidden from us for years, while simultaneously continuing to live a lifestyle that, at least partially, contributed to all the inequality we despise so much. We felt so small. I felt so small.
However, we began to brainstorm on what we could do and eventually came up with a project we saw fit. The idea was to live on 1€ a day – a number corresponding to what is today recognized as the international poverty threshold, and donate the money we would “save” over the span of a month, to charity. The project was supposed to be open source – everyone could join. We started to draft the outlines and ran through possible scenarios – imagined how we might mobilize and inspire not only people from the area but also from our home countries to get a universal message out into the world. We began to talk with others about our plans and were surprised by the amount of interest on the one hand, and the amount of criticism on the other.
After all, it seemed, things were not as easy as we had initially assumed, and that this purely well-intentioned project, might echo some severely negative consequences if framed, let alone conducted, with only a minimal amount of imprecision. We kept pushing our deadlines, met again and again, and discussed our agenda. What is this about? Solidarity? Awareness? Experiencing? Sharing, learning, inspiring, teaching, preaching, practicing – the list of possible motives was endless. We needed a focus, yet most of us had different ideas of what exactly we were trying to say. Why was it so hard to materialise good intentions?

Overwhelming enthusiasm faded into bitter realisation.
At one point, our group of four split, as we realised that the deviation in terms of the message we tried to convey were just too grave to compromise. Then it was Christmas. Our initial plan had been to have everything set by now, so we could talk about it with friends and family at home and in between. Instead, we had nothing and were back to ground zero. All this big talk about how we could make the world a better place suddenly seemed like a childish fantasy of a different era. I felt ridiculous.

After New Years, being back in Sweden, life slowly picked up its pace again after I had lived in this timeless bubble you generate when heading home and seeing all the familiar faces over Christmas. It was a couple of days later, I was sitting in our kitchen and writing a paper on Enemy Images for uni, when my flatmate suddenly walked in and casually asked: “so when do we start with the project?” It was in this moment that I realised how important this thing still was. After all these considerations, a submission not only felt like a personal failure, but a loss in terms of the bigger picture of doing the right thing.
We decided to do it alone. No other people, no outlines, no website, no donations. No complications, no nothing. Why not just do it ‘for ourselves’, and see what happens? Instead of getting lost in the process of planning every minute detail, we focused on just doing it. Excluding rent from our considerations was obvious, but also synonymous with the limitations and phoniness of the project. We quickly came to realise that we were no ‘Weltverbesserer’, but just a group of spoiled daydreamers – a bunch of idealists with a sweet vision of how we thought the world should work.

Things got rolling on the 1st February and the magic word was “dumpster diving”. Every day, we would have a short tour from supermarket to supermarket, searching for thrown food, and then recycling it, if you so chose to. When we had a particularly good day we would invite friends over and share an evening of cards over urban game. The social exclusion we had initially assumed to encounter shifted into social inclusion, while the amount of surplus food became at times unbearable. The feeling when you find 20 kg of perfect bananas or 30 packs of mushrooms in a single bin of a single supermarket, in one city, in one country is equally triumphant as it is depressing. We would always leave food for others, yet tried to reduce the gross of what would eventually find its way into the relentless maw of the waste combustion. Days passed and rather than getting harder, things got easier as we worked on our timing and developed new ways of using the occasionally odd food we would find – in fact, we started eating healthier than ever before.

Fast forward: 1st March. On a personal level, I would say, that this project brought us all closer together than we had already been before. But most importantly, we all learned something. My personal epiphany has a social component: money doesn’t make you happy, and the best things in life are free. However, I enjoy sharing with friends – while I, honestly, wouldn’t need money to provide for myself, it was the pleasure of inviting your friends for a kebab or your missus for a coffee, that made me yearn for the end of the month. We ended up spending 100 KR each and shared a meal virtually every evening of the month. But further than that, we raised awareness for the madness of global food distribution, made some people reconsider their lifestyle and inspired others to tag along when roaming from dumpster-to-dumpster. Friends discovered the merits of the niche, and began their own tours to reap the fruits of the Western surplus system. We came to ask ourselves “how do you define ‘making the world a better place’?” Isn’t inspiring a single person already a success?

I hope that, on top of just uttering the usual criticism of consumer society, I was able to make a point in favour of confidence. Believe in yourself, and don’t let setbacks or changing circumstances blur your vision or even get you off the track all together. It sounds corny, but it’s true: the journey is its own reward, and insights you might acquire in the process of planning a project might be as much of an achievement as its actual realisation. If you have an idea, get it out there. Here is a rule this whole thing revealed to me: no matter, whether we talk about planning a project, consumerism, or life in general – there is always an alternative.

By Dennis Arndt

Image Credit:

Picture 1: Zoriah, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Picture 2: Wei Tchou, licensed under CC BY 2.0

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