BETA

The  well known singer M.I.A., who has carved a niche in the young music scene, for her ‘eclectic range of hip-hop, dance hall and electronic music’ as much as for her vibrant coloured attire, has released her latest album Kala revealing, according to David Dye ‘her unique political perspectives.’

Few may be aware of M.I.A’s background.  Young M.I.A. is none other than the daughter of the well known Tamil activist A R Arulpragasam better known as Arular after whom an earlier album of M.I.A. was named. This young lady achieved fame by being banned from travelling to the United States purely because of her father’s political views!

Tamils of the Diaspora should be aware that this young lady has stuck to her political ideals that she learnt from her father.

The USA that banned M.I.A. is in the midst of its four yearly ‘jamboree’ that the two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans hold, to select their president. Few persons, including some Americans I have met, are aware that their president is not directly elected as in most other countries. No. The US president is elected by an ‘Electoral College’ which in turn is directly elected by the people. It is this ‘College’ that elects the president. There is very little serious political consideration involved in the process. Often, the outcome depends on the amount of money a candidate has at his disposal. This pays for intense media publicity; posters; flags; bands and tinsel and the like – one long carnival! The tax deductible money for all this, comes from the many firms and business around the country, who in turn expect ‘favours’ if their candidate were to be elected.

Martin Kettle writing in the Guardian says ‘the dynamics of its (America’s) domestic politics are increasingly discordant with those of other developed democracies. US party politics has become so polarised that the country’s ability to solve its own domestic problems, much less those of the world, has been hugely compromised.’

This is the country that has made itself the ‘Policeman of the World’, assisted by tame groups like Tony Blair’s Britain, or Howard’s Australia along with tamer stooges like Musharaff’s Pakistan.

This is the country that has dared to proscribe the freedom fighters of Eelam and have provided weapons to the ‘terrorist’ government of Sri Lanka through Israel. They conveniently forget, that the Eelam freedom fighters are only doing what George Washington, their first president did when he sought to break away from the Britain of George III.

Martin Kettle concludes, ‘while other democratic traditions have tended to become more pragmatic and consensual, those of the U.S. have gone in the other direction.’