Why I shared a horrific photo of a drowned Syrian child
I thought long and hard before I retweeted the photo. It shows a lifeless toddler, lying face down on a popular Turkish beach, one of eleven Syrians who have almost certainly died as they tried to reach safety in Europe by boarding a smuggler’s boat. Instead they ended up as the latest victims of Europe’s paltry response in the face of a growing crisis.
What struck me the most were his little sneakers, certainly lovingly put on by his parents that morning as they dressed him for their dangerous journey. One of my favorite moments of the morning is dressing my kids and helping them put on their shoes.
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"Much loved" and realism, colonialism, and pornography in Moroccan cinema
A wave of contentious reactions have dominated the Moroccan media landscape following the release of Nabil Ayouch's new filmMuch Loved, a fictional story about three Moroccan prostitutes in Marrakech. The reactions to the film are based on several extracts and a trailer that emerged online, some of which contained sexually explicit scenes. The excerpts were released just before the film’s screening at the Quinzaine des Realisateurs in Cannes. The reaction culminated with the Moroccan Ministry of Communications' illegal censorship of the film. The reactions to the film raised questions in Moroccan Francophone press, as well as among some European critics, about how viewers could be so angry at a film they have not yet seen in its entirety.
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How American "jazz diplomacy" made an impact on Middle Eastern music
During the heydays of the Cold War, when The United States’ image in the world was badly damaged, Adam Clayton Powell, the US representative for Harlem, went to the State Department with a rather revolutionary idea. In order to change the perception of the US abroad, the world needed to get to know the “real America”, not the America of racial segregation, the cultural wasteland, or the military giant, but the land of cultural freedom and modernity, the swinging America. Powell suggested that if they sent jazz musicians to the regions that were at risk of falling under Sovjet influence, these “Jazz Ambassadors” could create goodwill and change the people’s perception of America through their music.
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