created by Aman and Sadiqeh

Soon

we will be

broken

pieces of machinery

emptied spaces

tied together with

frayed string

long sighs looking

outward

to the sea

waves crashed back

against our backs

and knees

we fell forward

we fall downward

water lap lap laps

waves smack smack smack

this time next day i stand in

the same place

the same mental space

the same hands reach and grasp with crooked fingers

we can be put back together

we can put ourselves together

one piece from me

two from you

shared bodies

one body

he sang where i end and you begin

the same

A few months back Sadiqeh and I went and saw the documentary Waiting for Superman. We were both brought to tears by the stories of the children and their parents in the movie. I will admit, that the personal stories did such a number on me, that aside from my annoyance at the director for not naming whiteness and the systemic oppression of poor people and poor people of color, I was swept into the film.

Like my admittance with The Fighter, I am now taking back my love for this documentary. That’s part of the fun of this blog for me, and being in school, learning, re-learning, continued examination and analysis, etc. And being accountable. Public accountability is not easy, even if when there really are only a few consistent readers. But the point is, it’s not about me, it’s about this movie.

My good friend Rebecca, sleuth that she is, and could probably outdo Greg Palast, recently saw the film. She got it on DVD, so she was able to see the special features as well. She told me though, that as soon as the film started, she suspected something was up. She reacted to the director in the same way I did – though, I did not tell her this or say it to anyone because unlike Rebecca, I still get caught up in being called paranoid or being told I am too suspicious. Anyway, what Rebecca saw was that the director, Davis Guggenheim, is experiencing some of that classic white guilt because he can send his kid to a private school. So, to make up for the guilt, but never name it of course, he made this movie. And as Rebecca did her research, she learned about all the corporations and funding the movie, including the likes of Bill Gates. Rebecca shared this great article (The Ultimate Superpower: Supersized Dollars Drive Waiting for Superman Agenda by Barbara Miner) that examines the money funding the film – Paramount Vantage, Participant Media, and Walden – and the money funding certain schools, like hedge funds. Miner even names the various politicians and CEOs invested in charter schools the film praises.

Additionally, Rebecca shared a link to a documentary The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman (Guggenheim also directed The Inconvenient Truth). I posted the trailer below. I think it’s fascinating to note the production quality of this film versus Guggenheim’s. It appears that there are no major studios backing this production.

Yes, currently, I am sharing what someone else shared with me. This is how information is dispersed. Do with it what you will. This whole thing is proof of our need to really examine information we are given. To dig deep. To question. Isn’t that what education is supposedly about? And great, we can tear apart the systems that strangle life out of education, including the film industry. (This is why I miss teaching).

Dominic Cooper is playing Uday Hussein, the son of Saddam Hussein in Lee Tamahori’s The Devil’s Double. Cooper is also playing Latif Yahia, the man whose memoir the film is based on and who served as Uday Hussein’s double. So Cooper is playing not one, but two Arab men. Is he Arab? I could not find any evidence indicating that he is anything other than English. I guess there is a shortage of Arabs in the world, especially Iraqis, considering the US has been killing them since well, 1990ish.

The most recent episode of Nurse Jackie, “Play Me”, featured two minor characters: street vendors who had gotten into a fight over money. The two men yelled loudly at each other, one with burns on his face and the other with a his fewer through his cheek. My sister and I realized we heard Farsi phrases and listened more intently. And then we heard it. Two languages. These men – and I cannot find them credited, so forgive my not giving their names – were yelling at each other in two different languages. We the viewer are then left to assume the men are Desi, as Sam (Arjun Gupta) communicates with them in their apparent one language. Way to go Showtime and Nurse Jackie producers. You managed to cast two Middle Eastern men, one Iranian and hey! I don’t even know where the other guy is from. But according to the IMdB credits of the show, one of the daughters is listed as “Armenian teen”. So is Sam Armenian? Does he know Armenian? Is this just another random Middle Eastern person who happened to be in the same episode because I am really not used to us getting so much screen time as a general region of people!

By having men of two different ethnicities, speaking two different languages, play characters who are in communication this show is just perpetuating stereotypes that we are all the same. Even if just us Middle Easterners pick up on this serious mistake, that doesn’t matter. It’s old. It’s tired. Next time get Jake Gyllenhaal in there. He plays Iranians like nobody else. And at least he’s hot. Right.

Dear France,

Way to be racist.

with warm regards and khafeh nashid Inshallah,

Aman

Sadiqeh just pointed out that considering my last few posts were “depressing” and I have remained silent, folks may think I am dead.

But my last posts were about Radiohead, so clearly I am busy listening to Radiohead!

directed by Garth Jennings.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT NOWWWWWW.