May 2013
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“My husband has expressedly forbidden me from going to that area at all...”
– DutchNews.nl - Police, locals deny claim part of The Hague is a ‘Sharia triangle’
This made me laugh out loud, cackling like a hyena. The quote is taken from a story about “the Muslim SCARE!” and how their “backwards” ways are “taking over good...
Videla is dead
Jorge Rafael Videla Dies: Former Argentine Dictator Dead In Prison
OBITUARIO CON HURRAS de Mario Benedetti.
“Los canallas viven mucho, pero a veces se mueren”.
Vamos a festejarlo
Vengan todos
Los inocentes
los damnificados
los que gritan de noche
los que sueñan de día
los que sufren el cuerpo
los que alojan fantasmas
los que pisan descalzos
los que blasfeman y...
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“Yahoo has a problem: it has no idea what it’s doing, or how it’s...”
– Rumor Alert: Yahoo Is Buying Tumblr for a Billion?
I don’t think I ever wished for a rumor to be untrue so badly. Imagine if suddenly all of Tumblr resembled Yahoo Answers. Or Yahoo’s rabid racist, bigoted comments. Or Yahoo’s awful forums full of spam. You get the idea…
...
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“According to a release from the universities of Bamberg and Bonn, a study by...”
– Capitalism might be making us evil- MSN Money
From a study released today. Read the rest at the link, it’s really worth it.
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“The G4S security guard in charge of restraining an Angolan man who died as he...”
– G4S guard in dead deportee case shared racist jokes | UK news | The Guardian
Remember everything I’ve been documenting about the multimillionaire business of G4S in the administration of detention and deportation of undocumented people in Europe? The above quote comes from a court proceeding...
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“I have a personal interest in this story because Jason Richwine was awarded a...”
– In Defense of Jason Richwine | National Review Online
Remember when last week the guy behind the Heritage Foundation report against immigration reform in the US was found to be a proponent of eugenics? For those who might not be familiar, The Heritage Foundation released a report claiming that the...
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“I understood she is convinced that she [Ed: Anne Sinclair] and her husband [Ed:...”
– Anne Sinclair : DSK était son “caniche” selon Marcela Iacub - L’Internaute Actualite
(Translation from French mine because I haven’t seen this covered in English even though I googled extensively trying to find an already translated quote)
This is not new but since I...
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The death toll in Bangladesh IS a feminist issue
A couple of weeks ago I extensively ranted about how neoliberal feminism has kind of become the default/ the neutral*. Some people were offended by my statements (I won’t bore you with an account of that as the offenses were mostly taken to Twitter). A week or so later and unrelated to my attempt at analysis of neoliberal feminism, I was told I had to “separate” issues of race, poverty, etc from...
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“The mislabeled salads — a curried chicken salad and a vegan curried...”
– AP: Whole Foods mixes up chicken, vegan salads
When I wrote about the food scandals in Europe involving food producers who substituted beef for horse or other animals, I got at least half a dozen comments from vegetarians/ vegans (which I promptly deleted because I really, really dislike food...
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“In 2011, the Netherlands shifted away from its longstanding policy of allowing...”
– Language Distance: The Reason Immigrants Have Trouble Assimilating - Olga Khazan - The Atlantic
Here’s how media normalizes racism: take a statement created and spread by racist politicians (first Pim Fortuijn, then Rita Verdonk, now Geert Wilders if you want the genealogy of this myth) and...
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“If you read Nathaniel Rich’s half-skeptical orbit around Y Combinator—one...”
– Want VC Cash From This Guy? Don’t Talk Like a Foreigner
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been reading the newly resurrected Valleywag blog and today, while reading this awful article, I realized this is the culture in which Lean In was created. I mean, Lean In does not exist isolated...
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@redlightvoices @sunili inequality of women viz each other is certainly a human rights issue but not IMO a “feminist” issue.
— Sarah Joseph (@profsarahj) May 7, 2013
Today in “THIS IS WHY WE CANNOT HAVE NICE THINGS”.
The conversation (I hesitate to use this word to define an exchange that has made me feel despondent) continued when I was informed that inequality among...
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On being the unloved
I guess one shared human experience is the desire to be loved. Surely there must be exceptions and I am not implying every person ever has desired this (I am wary of universal axioms) but it does seem that humans, throughout history, have sought associations and forms of organization that hinted at this shared need: we form communities, familial ties (either by blood or affinity or sometimes...
“I’m an American citizen … I’m allowed to stand on American...”
– Reese Witherspoon
I never liked her and I find her “America’s sweetheart” schtick quite annoying, especially when paired with tales of her awful attitude towards production assistants whom apparently she regularly terrorizes on set (because you see, she is a DIVA!). But this...
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Sephora I love you but today I hate you →
Consider this a public service announcement for everyone living in The Netherlands: Sephora is closing down operations. At the link, a list of closing dates for each store.
I must confess, I am a Sephora fiend. Over the years since I first started using their products (which I used to buy during trips to France until they opened in The Netherlands), they have consistently delivered high quality...
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“The Italian government has ordered an investigation into slurs on rightwing...”
– Italy to investigate racist remarks against first black minister | World news | guardian.co.uk
You know, Europe, “the continent of human rights” and similar assorted empty rhetoric, once again showing its bare ass. More from the article:
Cecile Kyenge, an eye doctor and Congo-born...
April 2013
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Perplexing moment of the day/week/year, etc
Here’s what I don’t understand about the internet at large: someone who self identifies with a woman’s name leaves a pretty insulting comment on my critique of neoliberalism and white supremacy (I say “self identifies” because I cannot discount this being some dude trying to troll). The comment in question is an insulting tirade calling my analysis “self serving”. If anything yes, my “stuff” tends...
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“Primary schools are structurally refusing to accept children with an ethnic...”
– DutchNews.nl - Primary schools reject minority pupils over test score fears: Trouw
More than once I’ve been told by Dutch people that “I must have made up” the concepts of institutional and institutionalized racism. They claim such a thing does not exist in The Netherlands...
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“Bangladesh is a lot poorer than the United States, and there are very good...”
– Matt Yglesias peddling the lawless, libertarian capitalism @ Slate
In my previous post about this very same piece of trite, I failed to make a note about the poignant use of the word “choice” while promoting this lawless, asinine de-regulated form of capitalism. I cannot think of a...
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“I think that’s wrong. Bangladesh may or may not need tougher workplace...”
– Different Places Have Different Safety Rules and That’s OK says Matthew Yglesias at Slate.
This is NOT satire. I repeat, in case you thought this was a joke made in poor taste, this is NOT satire. This is simply Yglesias peddling the logic of capitalism in response to the factory (sweatshop...
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Mocking European woman centered witchcraft...
I laughed out loud at the comments left on this Jezebel story about a group of women who got together to experiment on safe use of psychedelic drugs (which they administered vaginally because they wanted to try and document the effects). What made me laugh about the comments was the overall derision and contempt the commentariat had for these women: WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?! ARE THEY GROWN UPS?!...
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“The result of this constitution of neoliberal feminism as “the neutral” or the...”
– Tiger Beatdown › Choice, neoliberal, libertarian feminism and intersectionality bullies
I wrote about (what else?) feminism of choices and neoliberalism.
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After Butler, on wishful thinking and situating...
I once told a friend that I disagreed with a film critique he had written because it was focused on what he wished the movie had said instead of what the movie actually said. We can only critique what is, I pointed out, not what we wish it said. Critique, I insisted (at least in regards to art or media) can only highlight a presence, a critique by absence, I insisted, would be mere wishful...
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Frontex signs cooperation with Azerbaijan;...
I suppose by now anyone who has read anything I write knows about the lethal history of the European Border control agency Frontex. Today, this announcement was made: Frontex, Azerbaijani border service sign working arrangement. From the press release:
The Working Arrangement’s chief components include the development of activities in the field of information exchange and risk analyses,...
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“What I have tried to do is to use the stories as my explanatory devise, so at...”
– Interview with Sara Ahmed - University of Gothenburg, Sweden
I really like this statement about how institutions would rather focus on toolkits and techniques rather than descriptions of the problem (the problem being white supremacy and lack of diversity/ representation). Mostly because this...
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US Centrism and inhabiting a non space in...
I live in cracks and nooks. I exist nowhere and everywhere. My feminism is a territory cast aside from the big island that is Feminism, at least, the feminism that everyone has been discussing regarding #femfuture.
There is this US territory, not coded as such but as “online feminism” (presented as neutral, deterritorialized, homogenous) but this construction is not online feminism, it is American...
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“There is a possibility that Spanish dogs and cats have been used in the...”
– DutchNews.nl - Spanish pets could be in meatballs
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a pretty detailed post recounting the safety issues around food in Europe so this new allegation does not shock me in the least. Of course it disgusts me but at this stage, I have zero confidence in corporate food...
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“In his day job, Adan works in a restaurant, but the money he makes acting the...”
– The ‘Somali pirates’ who are not what they seem - Channel 4 News
Wherein an investigative journalist from the UK uncovers that “Somali pirates” interviewed by, among others, Time Magazine, are actually men from Nairobi pretending to be pirates.
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Shock: feminist claims feminism is about women... →
Oh look! Something new that has never happened before in the history of feminism! White radscum mocking me and some of my theories/ ideas around WoC to advance their trans* misogynist rhetoric.
Because, you know, when a WoC resists the appropriation of ideas thought out and theorized to explain her life and the lives of women like her, the best way to respond is with racist mockery of said...
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“What we are witnessing is raw economic warfare by the rich against the poor. So...”
– Communism, welfare state – what’s the next big idea? | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
This is a great read and, while it focuses on budget cuts currently afflicting the UK, the ideas discussed by Monbiot can be pretty much applied across the Western world, swept by...
March 2013
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“I used to hate my name. Not the name per se, but the way it was used against me,...”
– Let’s Talk About Names: Flavia
Today I’m part of the “Let’s talk about names” roundtable, talking about names, State violence and the Nomen Nescio (N.N) of Europe.
“Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world’s largest retailer...”
– Wal-Mart may get customers to deliver packages to online buyers | Reuters
Mind blowing headline of the day. Also, I don’t think Walmart really knows what “sharing economy” means (i.e. look at their track record dealing with benefits, unions, minimun wage, sexist hiring and...
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“A new musical stage show inspired by the atrocities carried out by Norwegian...”
– A new musical stage show inspired by Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik to open in the U.K. | TIME.com
Such bad taste in a publicity stunt. They say Breivik won’t be mentioned by name in the musical and yet, they are telling audiences how the whole thing is inspired in the massacre and...
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“The internet loves Jon Hamm’s penis. Women, I am told, heterosexual women, that...”
– Tiger Beatdown › Enough with Jon Hamm’s penis already!
Wherein I try to insert some historical context involving race, compulsory heterosexuality and the history of women’s sexuality in regards to… Jon Hamm’s penis.
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“Our community has largely been defined by not-poor straight white men over the...”
– Dear Fellow Geeks: WTF? - Making the World Suck Less
Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit, on racism and sexism in online, geek communities.
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On being outspoken
I guess the reason I have taken this situation with Adria Richards kind of personally is because I have been and I am, the outspoken one who has had to deal with consequences for saying something. A professor at one of the top Dutch universities in The Netherlands did not allow me to refute racist remarks made during a panel because I have “a reputation for being unreasonable”. So, it...
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“Let me get this out of the way: I don’t like Adria Richards. I think I have good...”
– Adria Richards, PyCon, and How We All Lost | Amanda Blum
Notice how almost all the comments, even those in favor of Adria Richards, many of them (as the one I am quoting here), from White women defending Richards are all about disciplining the uppity Black woman.
They don’t like her tone....
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“I’ve had to start differentiating between feminism – good honest feminism in all...”
– There’s no point in online feminism if it’s an exclusive, Mean Girls club
Yes, yes New Stateman, “good honest feminism” = all White feminism from the 70’s and 80s. I’m going to take your word for it, also considering I am part of this Online Wimmin Mob that tried to get you...
hagofhags said:You’re gonna be at my school!? Different building, but still. I saw they have a public EU human rights thing on on Friday, but nothing for tomorrow. Is it for a class they’re taking? Also, cool!
It’s for the Business Management School! I’ll be in the building right behind Holland Spoor. The professor of one of the courses, who teaches International and Foreign...
I'm at your School of Applied Sciences, lecturing...
Heh, chuckling to myself as I finish my lecture for tomorrow. I’ll be talking to a group of 50+ students at The Hague’s High School of Applied Sciences on Europe’s immigration policies. You know, introducing innocent (mostly White) youngsters to the wonders of Eurocentrism…
While the European Union project started in the late 40‘s/ early 50s as a post World War II antidote...
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Mediamatic, cultural appropriation and Dutch...
You know, in a country where vast sectors of the population will aggressively defend the yearly use of Black face as a national heritage and a cause of pride, I find it difficult to resist stuff like this.
“Slum Carnival”, “Freezing Favelas”, “White trash liquor factory”, photos of makeshift plastic tents… this little “art”project has all the...
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“You know what, though? Saying these things is not helpful; in fact, it’s not...”
– I Am Not Your Wife, Sister or Daughter. I Am A Person. | The Belle Jar
This is a great piece, written by Anne Thériault on the often used trope of “wife, sister or daughter” when talking about rape. You should read it at the link. 