Saint Cornelius, You are right in detecting my crossing the river somehow without giving any clues. I am aware of the concentration on Gambian issues, and I have placed upon my unhonourable self the task to have to say something about the last elections and what I think went wrong...so dipped in those thoughts that everything else had to be placed on hold. Perhaps I have become schizophrenic -like Mauricio. Yes, and the continued carnage in Iraq - a most tragic case of imperial power projection. So much for Auntie Ingrid Nyamko. Cheers, momodou ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cornelius Edward Hamelberg" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 7:16 PM Subject: Re: Sabuni and FGM > Momodou ( or St. Sidibeh if you prefer) > > Please permit me to respond to the first two paragraphs of your epistle > plus the first sentence of your third paragraph, ending with the words " > no tangible results" > > I'll attend to the serious matters of your other verses later - just for > the record. > > About first names , I was only joking. Everyone says Saddam, Yahya, the > Honourable this and the Honourable that until you are tempted to say that > honourable Mo Fo..YOU KNOW THE KIND I MEAN...Mo.. > > In one of his last interviews as head of State in South Africa F. W. de > Klerk was asked how he felt , being the last White man that will ever be > president of South Africa. Mr. de Klerk said that now that Apartheid had > been dismantled - by law, colour was consequently of little consequence > in the New South Africa and the possibility still existed that he ( or > his) could be coming back...( and I though to myself, maybe he is thinking > of swimming back North..but in Sweden we live in another situation: > > http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/DEMOCRACY_TABLE_2007_v3.pdf > > If you overemphasise the blackness of Nyamko you are also signify the > otherness, the whiteness of the others - whereas this is not so so > significant. I think that she actually wants the Trade portfolio followed > by the post of prime minister. If she will deserve that in the near future > remains to be seen. What would Baffour Ankomah not say! At such a time - > he'd have to say, the country was ripe for that kind of change. > > When it was suggested many years ago that Colin Powell might possibly be > the very next president of the United States, David Frost asked him in > that interview " Sir, How would you like to be remembered "? - as if he > was going to be assassinated by the KKK shortly after taking the oath of > office/ swearing in , or any other time shortly thereafter... > > When I first read the news about the termination of funds to "the > Anti-racism Campaign office" in which a relative of Nyamko was active - I > thought that this was to kill at source, any rumours - that might arise - > that could be promoted by her political enemies in the near future..about > any kind of ne-po-ti-sm. And as to the effectiveness - how effective has > it been? We are to suppose that, in time, a similar type of organisation > will eventually replace it - and that someone in that organisation could > win the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King prize that Hon. Joe Frans created. > > About first names, well I say Joe, but not George, or Fredrick , and > Mauricio would be friendly, Mr. Rojas would be formal, like Sheik > Momodou - but thanks for the social analysis, it sounded Dickensian in a > post-colonial and assimilated kinda way. Going a little further back ( > Sweden has changed so much that it's no longer the same country that I > came to in 1971- and as the saying goes you can't take a dip in the same > river twice - but I'm talking about significant changes, so that Tage > Erlander would have difficulties estimating the number of years that have > elapsed since he was last here, and even recently there was a time when > even in the telephone directories people's professions were part of their > social identities and so in "Swedish For Foreigners" our textbook said " > There is Engineer Svensson. In the evenings he plays in an orchestra." I > used to se him on my way to Tempo -old blue eyes, the guy with the neatly > trimmed moustache, Ingenj顤 Svensson. > > So far for first names.. > > There's nothing diversionary about Swedish issues or EU issues like the > Pope's visit and Turkey's entry into membership of the resurrected old > Roman Empire could be side issues that you deign to look at and indulge > in or forever hold your peace about that and other matters which most > directly affect your welfare and wellbeing in this country where we live > ( I'm still not sure if you are in Sweden or the Gambia)... > > Later Ali-G -ator > On the banks of the river Gambia... > > Ok? > >> >> From: Momodou S Sidibeh <[log in to unmask]> >> Date: 2006/11/29 on PM 02:59:22 CET >> To: [log in to unmask] >> 獻ne: Re: Sabuni and FGM >> >> C. Edward Hamelberg >> >> Keeping the discussion rolling on these matters is no easy task for me at >> present, draining from my tissues the energy required to continually >> justify >> why the talk must go on, barring recognition that these "Sweden" issues >> are >> perhaps a stimulating diversion. But I do not find much disagreement >> anywhere. Except, well in re: the matter of me being in first name terms >> with Nyamko Sabuni and Mauricio Rojas. Swedish tradition has done away >> with >> such mystification of identities as is supplied by useless titles: Mr., >> Mrs., Sir, Dr, Your Highness, Chief, Alhaji, and so on..., perhaps not >> quite >> tolerable for the post-colonial mind still soaked in the science of >> social >> stratification? The prime minister is just Fredrik Reinfeldt, not Your >> Excellency Fredrik Reinfeldt. The idea of being on first name terms is to >> remain down to earth without invading the other's integrity. Just listen >> to >> yourself say: His Excellency, Dr. Alhaji Yaya A.J.J Jammeh, and then >> imagine >> the cruelty he represents. What a waste? >> >> So Nyamko Sabuni can be called Nyamko, even on tv! Your attempt to >> write-off >> Mauricio I hope, was purely for practical reasons. The man is no longer >> politically interesting, I agree. But let us at least recognise the two >> have >> shared the podium on very significant issues in the past: language skills >> testing for Swedish wannabes, deportation of "hardened" criminals >> (irrespective of social links to the country, such as children and >> spouses); >> reformation of public funding of private religious oriented schools, and >> the >> implementation of more aggressive control mechanisms to "smoke" out >> social >> welfare crooks, and so on. Thus, your writing off one, while lauding the >> other as a "saint who treads where angels fear" deliberately bends the >> rules >> of logical inference. In a country where even the BertIan double (Bert >> Karlsson and Ian Wachmeister) recognise that immigrants and people of >> immigrant ancestry receive stiffer sentences than ethnic Swedes for >> similar(!) crimes, to call for the deportation of "grova kriminella" >> (severe >> criminals) even if that should mean their leaving behind children and >> spouses, is simple, callous cruelty. If all that is just the cake, let us >> look att the icing that crowned it! >> One of the very first "ministerial" assignments she executed without >> delay >> was to stifle funding for the Anti-racism Campaign office on the grounds >> that its work brought no tangible results! When about a month ago, >> Veckans >> Aff酺er (Sweden's version of Business Week, so to speak), the most >> bourgeois >> of the right-wing press asked her for comments on the immigrant brain >> drain, >> she said she had no time! [Hundreds of well educated immigrants remain >> unemployed and/or underemployed for years in Sweden only to find suitable >> lucrative positions as soon as they arrive in Britain or Canada. Nyamko >> finally commented on the issue last night]! All of this, plus more >> discursive soup served by a very eloquent black lady minister. >> >> Let us recapitulate on what Sweden means to me, and hopefully us. Rampant >> discrimination and racism, certainly. Night clubs that refuse blacks and >> dark-haired immigrants are plenty, and employers will tell you all sorts >> of >> lies for not offering you a job. These days if you are called Abdirizak >> Mohammad, or Ali Baba, or Abdurahman Omar, your chance of becoming >> gainfully >> employed might lie in altering your name to Magnus Lindkvist or Ingrid >> Johansson or some other blue and blond name. Forces of cultural >> alienation >> are sending a lot of immigrants, both young men and women to plastic >> surgeons. Persian and Arab youth alter their facial features, nose and >> chin, >> so as to look more caucasian! Others, having lost their souls in >> tentative >> integration into a society that eventually rejects even those with good >> grades, take to violent crime. (Have you read "Snabba Cash"?). >> But their is as well, a noble history of genuine solidarity and >> progressive >> politics. Sweden offered the most help to the ANC and liberation >> movements >> on the African continent. It still pours millions in aid to Ethiopia, >> Tanzania, Mozambique, and Vietnam, significantly subsidising the budgets >> of >> these countries. That Nelson Mandela's first trip outside Africa after >> his >> release from prison in 1990 was to Stockholm was not simply incidental. >> Swedes risked their lives running underground support systems that helped >> sustain the families of victims, killed or jailed, of the apartheid >> regime. >> My friend it is in these complexes of contexts we must place and weigh >> Nyamko Sabunis performance as minister. Perhaps she is no Uncle Tom, but >> she >> is an Auntie Igrid to me! and even if she deserves a honeymoon on account >> of >> her historic appointment, I am sure she will be colliding with many >> activists, including me. I know that I am travelling to an entirely >> different destination. The question is whether you are just taking a >> different bus to the same destination as Nyamko. Tell me, please. >> >> I am holding on to Ginny's position on female genital cutting. As she >> rightly opined, some Africans have already gone underground, secretly >> taking >> their daughters to their home countries where they are cut, and then >> brought >> back to Scandinavia. It is a horrifying practice to all of us, i.e those >> convinced that they know better, and we should work to abolish it. Yet, I >> cannot think of any country where education and information have been >> more >> effectively used as instruments of social engineering, as a way of >> altering >> attitudes, as a consistently proven method of implememting even socially >> unpopular reforms. It has been the cornerstone of social democratic >> politics >> for decades since the pre war years. >> Subjecting African girls to examination to determine the state of their >> genitalia is not just an abominablel invasion of their privacy. Even if >> Nyamko says her suggestion was to provoke debate, that such a suggestion >> came from her is a reflection of the general climate of antagonistic >> cultural encounter immigrants experience here. Because female genetical >> cutting is demonised, its practitioners are equated, perhaps not >> explicitly, >> as savages whose brutal impulses towards their own wives and daughters >> must >> be aggressively checked. Why, a trip to the gynaecologist must be taken >> as a >> most ordinary and compassionate samaritan act. Behold, even Cornelius >> Hamelberg thinks FGC has its historical roots buried in the primordial >> cruelty of men bent on depriving women of their divine right to a life >> endowed with sexual bliss. But don't we know better? Are there no >> medicinal >> roots to FGC, even if ill informed? And like the circumcision of males, >> is >> that of girls not largely a crucial aspect of initiation rites into >> womanhood? But besides, whence does all this anti-FGC hail? >> >> Anti-FGC militantism is hardly older than the rise of feminist activism >> in >> the West. It is this political project of gender liberation that has >> largely >> defined FGC as an incredible act of widespread cruelty. Yet as genuine as >> the concerns of westerners are, the brutality of the application of >> "rusty >> knives" on female flesh in the African bush, is hardly more severe than >> the >> tortuous lives of women in societies steeped in violent misogyny. Sex >> reassignment surgery - never mind the clinically decent name, nothing >> brutish here you see - is in many instances, more horrifying than many >> forms >> of FGC including infibulation. Male to female surgery involves cutting >> off >> the testicles completely, apart from other complicated procedures >> required >> for making a man sexually female. There are "clit" clinics in L.A where >> women go to be operated upon to alter the look of their genitals. If you >> can >> imagine an old grandmother using crude knives in the African bush to >> slice >> open the breasts of young girls and stuff them with different kinds of >> silicon implants you would come closer to understanding why words, >> professional training, money, clinical environments are all brought to >> bear >> to create a mental projection defined by a dominat culture that sees one >> practice as "barbaric" and the other as qualified aesthetic surgery. It >> is >> all about the exercise of power. >> >> Unless their is genuine respect for other people inspite of their >> traditional practices, attempts to alter attitudes may prove more painful >> than necessary. That is a message we need to convey to Nyamko Sabuni. >> >> Cheers, >> sidibeh >> >> 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中 >> To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L >> Web interface >> at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html >> >> To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: >> http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l >> To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: >> [log in to unmask] >> 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中 >> > > 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中 > To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L > Web interface > at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l > To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: > [log in to unmask] > 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中 > 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中 To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] 中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中中