YELLE - Comme Un Enfant (official music video) (by Yelle) —It’s so… so pink! (Thank you, Robin E.!)
A chart to remember 2011 by. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2011 proved a banner year for passing abortion restrictions into law in the United States. These restrictions included everything from attacking insurance coverage to requiring women to go through ultrasounds and waiting periods.
Read the Guttmacher Institute’s review of 2011’s state reproductive health policies.
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Van Halen
—She's the Woman
Van Halen, “She’s The Woman,” from “The Zero Demos a.k.a. The Gene Simmons Tapes,” 1976.
Nerdery ahoy! This New Yorker post mentions a “new” Van Halen song maybe quoting an old Yes song. You can hear that this, a 1976 recording of “She’s A Woman,” does not include any quotes from “Roundabout.” But this video of Thursday’s Cafe Wha? show captures Eddie quoting Yes at about 8:50. You can hear the original riff at 6:16 in this live video. And why, yes, I am kind of embarrassed I went to all this trouble, but hey I can sleep easy now.
An Incomplete List of the Best Protest Slogans and Revolutionary Catchphrases of 2011.
- الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام/Asha’ab yurīd isqāt anizām
“The people want the fall of the regime” and it’s variations (The people want the fall of the Makhzen (ruling elite in Morocco), or the Field Marshal) is probably the most classic and well-known of all the chants. Its simplicity and versatility and its place in 2011’s incredible politics make it the shoo-in for first place on this list
- We are the 99%
This has been an inescapable slogan, and has resonated very powerfully with people’s experiences of economic injustice around the world, becoming a rallying cry and a point of unification for Occupiers.
- ارحل/Irhal!
The command, Leave!, is directed at despots, from Ali Abdullah Saleh to Field Marshal Tantawi. Another versatile protest chant that has been heard in revolutionary music, painted on faces and walls and shouted in the streets countless times over thecourse of 2011.
- يمكنك ان تدهس الورود، لكنك لا تستطيع ان تؤخر الربيع
“You can trample the roses but you cannot delay the spring” hardly has the ubiquity of “Asha’ab yurīd isqāt anizzām,” but happens to be one of my personal favorites.
- Strike like an Egyptian.
An expression of admiration and solidarity, playing on “Walk like an Egyptian,” acknowledging the incredible influence of the North African revolutions.
- The people are too big to fail.
The play on the famous phrase said about banks captures perfectly the intentions of the Occupiers and the potency of the Occupy movement.
- كن مع الثورة/Kun ma’ athawra
A beautiful sentiment: be with the revolution. Based on the saying “Be with Allah.”
- We are the power!
One of the more popular ones heard in recent Russian protests against Putin’s governance and rigged parliamentary elections.
- هو يمشي مش هنمشي/”Huwa yimshī mish hanimshī.”
This very catchy phrase, in Egyptian dialect, means “he will leave and we will not!”
Extras: Watch the teaser clip of director Stephen Savona’s documentary “Tahrir,” featuring footage of Egyptian protest chants. And watch Egyptian singer Ramy Essam perform his song “Irhal,” featuring a number of popular chants.
(Thanks to @ArabRevRap for input on this post!)
Any slogans in particular that you felt were amazing or influential in global protests this year?
Parakeets ate the lower right corner
Picture of the Day. Santiago, Chile. Santa Claus is arrested during a student protest in Chile demanding reform to the public education system.
Photo Credit: Ivan Alvarado/Reuters. Via.
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After a year in which we saw a number of high-profile gay-rights victories, including the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and the legislative enactment of same-sex marriage in New York, it’s hard to imagine that more big news is on the immediate horizon. But it is. Two highly significant court rulings in gay-rights cases pending in federal appellate courts are expected soon. Moreover, President Barack Obama’s self-described “evolution” on same sex-marriage appears likely to end with a strategically timed (if low-key) pre-election announcement of his support for marriage equality.
- Richard Socarides on Obama, the courts, and gay marriage: http://nyr.kr/tIzPVF
Galaxy, December 1953
Occupy Hand signals, Adam Koford
Today, December 17th, is the anniversary of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid. Perhaps one of the most powerful and ultimately catalyzing instances of individual protest, Bouazizi (whose real first name is Tarek) self-immolated to protest his mistreatment at the hands of the government and the inability to make a living for himself - a pain and frustration that resonated with Tunisians, and then citizens of nations across North Africa and the Middle East. He later died on January 4th, but the protests and demonstrations that were set in motion across the region have continued to this day - so far leaving three dictators downed in their wake.
Above (clockwise from the top): demonstrators in Tunisia hold a large poster of Bouazizi (Salah Habibi/AP); graffiti in Tunisia by an unknown artist shows Bouazizi’s face and his last name in tribute to his martyr status; his cousin Walid Bouazizi mourns at his grave in Garaat Benour cemetery in Sidi Bouzid in January (Fred Dufour/AFP); Manoubia Bouazizi holds a photograph of her son (Maxpp/Zumapress).
![thepoliticalnotebook:
Outspoken Russian journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov was gunned down “in a hail of bullets” late Thursday night outside his office in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The 46 year old was a prominent journalist and newsman and was the founder of Dagestan’s weekly newspaper Chernovik, known for its willingness to criticize officials and its work to uncover police abuse in the counterterrorism efforts in nearby Chechnya. Kamalov was known for his criticisms of and investigations into Dagestan’s Interior Ministry. In 2009, his name was on a circulated “assassination list.” His death is a huge blow to freedom of speech and the press, and the willingness of activists and journalists to speak out in Russia.
Chernovik’s editor, Biyakai Magomedov, who witnessed the murder, said “They deliberately killed him in front of the newspaper’s office to scare the staff.”
Author Yulia Latynina told Ekho Moskvy radio “Just as Politkovskaya’s death meant the loss of information about Chechnya, Kamalov’s death will mean that to a large extent we will stop to understand what’s going on in Dagestan. People will simply be scared to write anything.”
Read the stories at the AFP, Boston Globe and the Guardian.
[Photo: Sergei Rasulov/AP File]](http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwaz58h9PE1qchhhqo1_500.jpg)
Outspoken Russian journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov was gunned down “in a hail of bullets” late Thursday night outside his office in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The 46 year old was a prominent journalist and newsman and was the founder of Dagestan’s weekly newspaper Chernovik, known for its willingness to criticize officials and its work to uncover police abuse in the counterterrorism efforts in nearby Chechnya. Kamalov was known for his criticisms of and investigations into Dagestan’s Interior Ministry. In 2009, his name was on a circulated “assassination list.” His death is a huge blow to freedom of speech and the press, and the willingness of activists and journalists to speak out in Russia.
Chernovik’s editor, Biyakai Magomedov, who witnessed the murder, said “They deliberately killed him in front of the newspaper’s office to scare the staff.”
Author Yulia Latynina told Ekho Moskvy radio “Just as Politkovskaya’s death meant the loss of information about Chechnya, Kamalov’s death will mean that to a large extent we will stop to understand what’s going on in Dagestan. People will simply be scared to write anything.”
Read the stories at the AFP, Boston Globe and the Guardian.
Playing off the flash mob concept, in which strangers organize online, arrange to meet at a specific time and place, and then perform an unexpected public act, MedMob members gather, meditate for an hour, join in a “sound bath” of chanting, then disperse.
