Just been out and about and to and fro. Now back in NYC, before that I was in Boston, and now I am fielding an itch to get back to the Indian-Pakistani border this summer… or a return to Masr.
I hope to get back to posting regularly soon.
Hope everyone is well.
America = malai man pardaine.
I’ve been jet lagged every 2 weeks since the beginning of December. #nomore
London to Vegas. #VS043
Back to the US for the first time since last year.
#dislike
Kathmandu - Abu Dhabi - London
ivia The New York Times:
Raised in Pennsylvania, I grew up in the black church. My father was a religious leader in the community, and my sister is a pastor. I went to church every Sunday and sang in the choir. But for all that the church gave me — for all that it represented belonging, love and community — it also shut its doors to me as a gay person. That experience left me with the lifelong desire to explore the power of religion to transform lives or destroy them. I became interested in Uganda, an intensely religious country that attracts many American missionaries and much funding from United States faith-based organizations. The American evangelical movement in Africa does valuable work in helping the poor. But as you’ll see in this Op-Doc video, some of their efforts and money feed a dangerous ideology that seeks to demonize L.G.B.T. people and intensifies religious rhetoric until it results in violence. It is important for American congregations to hold their churches accountable for what their money does in Africa…
Damaging and frightening. Religious colonialism has really never ceased in Africa. It reminds me of what is happening in Nepal. Missionaries come here illegally— usually under the pretenses of a student visa— and take goods and supplies up into remote mountain villages where they gain converts by coercion. It’s appalling, considering the very unique and syncretic blend of Hinduism and Buddhism that has existed here for centuries.
Just. Stop.
Just finished re-reading Lila Abu-Lughod’s (essential) essay, ‘Dialects of Women’s Empowerment : The International Circuitry of the Arab Human Development Report’. Abu-Lughod posed 3 main questions about the report:
- Does it lend itself to appropriation?
- How does the paper’s “cosmopolitan or…
Worth the read. Insightful.
London-Doha-Kathmandu.
Hate hate hate “inshallah” and “ke garne” fatalism. Inshallah like when the pilot missed the runway at Heathrow last night and said we would land “inshallah”. “Ke garne” (which means “what to do?” in Nepali) from the bus driver on Friday about not crashing off a Himalayan hillside.
No no. Not it god wills or what to do. Land the damn plane and watch your driving.
The end.
