Links via Diigo (weekly)

• Contra Sufism

  I have reservations about the article's conclusions, but it's right to situate Sufism (especially in Pakistan) within the context of power relations.

  tags: sufism, islam, pakistan

• LEAP Learning English Advancement Program

  Looking for something to do this summer? Volunteer to help Palestinian refugees in Lebanon learn English so that they can enter high school. Apply quickly, deadline is May 7.

  tags: palestine, lebanon, activism

• Jewish Voice for Peace

  It's not too late, stand with students at UC Berkeley and support divestment from apartheid Israel!

  tags: israel, bds, palestine

• For Freedom (1979) - Iranian Movies on Vimeo

  This documentary contains incredible footage from the 1978-79 revolution in Iran, from the Rex Cinema fire to the referendum that established the Islamic Republic. In Persian with English subtitles.

  tags: iran

• Faiz on Iqbal

  "For Faiz, Iqbal was neither a reactionary ('The mullah or the orthodox religious preacher is the subject of some of the bitterest satirical verse written by Iqbal''), nor a socialist ('He frequently confused the materialist and capitalist points of view')." Yet, somewhere in between, he remains one of our greatest writers and thinkers.

  tags: literature, pakistan, india, urdu

• LEBANON: Some Arab writers lament roles as cultural ambassadors | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times

  On the pigeonholing of Arab literature: "If anyone ever comes up and tells me my work is 'responsible,' I will punch him in the face," joked Moroccan-Dutch author Abdel-Kader Benali while discussing whether Arab writers have a duty to serve as cultural ambassadors.

  tags: arabic, literature, arabs

• Swans Commentary: The Collapse Of Jared Diamond, by Louis Proyect - lproy60

  Louis Proyect reviews the book "Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire," and documents the collapse of Professor Jared Diamond based on flawed, pro-corporate, defender-of-Empire analyses.

  tags: environment, book review

• Stop Telling Muslim Women How to Dress « Muslim Reverie

  "A lot of people need to calm down about this subject. Whether it's among non-Muslims, Muslims, or fascist Islamophobes in Europe and North America, there seems to be a growing obsession with Muslim women and the way they dress."

  tags: islam, feminism

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. <ul class='diigo-linkroll'><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=235763" rel="nofollow">Contra Sufism</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>I have reservations about the article's conclusions, but it's right to situate Sufism (especially in Pakistan) within the context of power relations.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/sufism">sufism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/islam">islam</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/pakistan">pakistan</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.leapsummerprogram.org/LEAP/Home.html" rel="nofollow">LEAP Learning English Advancement Program</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Looking for something to do this summer? Volunteer to help Palestinian refugees in Lebanon learn English so that they can enter high school. Apply quickly, deadline is May 7.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/lebanon">lebanon</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/activism">activism</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.standwithstudents.org" rel="nofollow">Jewish Voice for Peace</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>It's not too late, stand with students at UC Berkeley and support divestment from apartheid Israel!</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/israel">israel</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/bds">bds</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://vimeo.com/groups/sin/videos/8985414" rel="nofollow">For Freedom (1979) - Iranian Movies on Vimeo</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>This documentary contains incredible footage from the 1978-79 revolution in Iran, from the Rex Cinema fire to the referendum that established the Islamic Republic. In Persian with English subtitles.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/iran">iran</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=235254" rel="nofollow">Faiz on Iqbal</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"For Faiz, Iqbal was neither a reactionary ('The mullah or the orthodox religious preacher is the subject of some of the bitterest satirical verse written by Iqbal''), nor a socialist ('He frequently confused the materialist and capitalist points of view')." Yet, somewhere in between, he remains one of our greatest writers and thinkers.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/literature">literature</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/pakistan">pakistan</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/india">india</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/urdu">urdu</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/04/lebanon-beirut39-celebrates-young-arab-writers-young-arab-writers-celebrate-themselves.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BabylonBeyond+%28Babylon+%26+Beyond+Blog%29" rel="nofollow">LEBANON: Some Arab writers lament roles as cultural ambassadors | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>On the pigeonholing of Arab literature: "If anyone ever comes up and tells me my work is 'responsible,' I will punch him in the face," joked Moroccan-Dutch author Abdel-Kader Benali while discussing whether Arab writers have a duty to serve as cultural ambassadors.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/arabic">arabic</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/literature">literature</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/arabs">arabs</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.swans.com/library/art16/lproy60.html" rel="nofollow">Swans Commentary: The Collapse Of Jared Diamond, by Louis Proyect - lproy60</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Louis Proyect reviews the book "Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability, and the Aftermath of Empire," and documents the collapse of Professor Jared Diamond based on flawed, pro-corporate, defender-of-Empire analyses.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/environment">environment</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"book review"">book review</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://muslimreverie.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/stop-telling-muslim-women-how-to-dress" rel="nofollow">Stop Telling Muslim Women How to Dress « Muslim Reverie</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"A lot of people need to calm down about this subject. Whether it's among non-Muslims, Muslims, or fascist Islamophobes in Europe and North America, there seems to be a growing obsession with Muslim women and the way they dress."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/islam">islam</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/feminism">feminism</a></p></ul><br />Posted from <a href="http://www.diigo.com">Diigo</a>. The rest of my <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks">favorite links</a> are here.

Links via Diigo (weekly)

• ei: Sabreena da Witch: the first lady of Palestinian R&B

  "While "honor killing" remains a serious problem that continues to plague women in her hometown of Lydd and in other Palestinian communities in Israel, Alzinaty has become an outspoken advocate against the crime. She tirelessly challenges her own community on issues of gender, while at the same time works to diffuse the misconception that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East" and a safe haven for women of any background.
  
  "I was fired from my work for speaking Arabic in Israel. Democracy, it is not. If you just live there for two days you will know that if you're not Jewish, you're a nobody. I'm always treated like a Palestinian and they remind me of that every day. There is not even the illusion of democracy there.""

  tags: hip-hop, palestine, gender, women, feminism

• Venezuelan daily interviews Pakistani Marxist

  Correo del Orinoco is a national daily newspaper in Venezuela run by left wing PSUV leader Vanessa Davies. The paper has a print run of 100,000 copies. In its edition on April 14 it published a full page interview with Pakistani Marxist Lal Khan.

  tags: marxism, pakistan, latin america

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. <ul class='diigo-linkroll'><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11192.shtml" rel="nofollow">ei: Sabreena da Witch: the first lady of Palestinian R&B</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"While "honor killing" remains a serious problem that continues to plague women in her hometown of Lydd and in other Palestinian communities in Israel, Alzinaty has become an outspoken advocate against the crime. She tirelessly challenges her own community on issues of gender, while at the same time works to diffuse the misconception that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East" and a safe haven for women of any background.<br /><br />"I was fired from my work for speaking Arabic in Israel. Democracy, it is not. If you just live there for two days you will know that if you're not Jewish, you're a nobody. I'm always treated like a Palestinian and they remind me of that every day. There is not even the illusion of democracy there.""</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/hip-hop">hip-hop</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/gender">gender</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/women">women</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/feminism">feminism</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.marxist.com/venezuelan-daily-interviews-pakistani-marxist.htm" rel="nofollow">Venezuelan daily interviews Pakistani Marxist</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Correo del Orinoco is a national daily newspaper in Venezuela run by left wing PSUV leader Vanessa Davies. The paper has a print run of 100,000 copies. In its edition on April 14 it published a full page interview with Pakistani Marxist Lal Khan.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/marxism">marxism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/pakistan">pakistan</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"latin america"">latin america</a></p></ul><br />Posted from <a href="http://www.diigo.com">Diigo</a>. The rest of my <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks">favorite links</a> are here.

Links via Diigo (weekly)

• ei: Play shows that for Gaza women, everything is not fine

  It is not commonplace for women to take center stage in Gaza, but 36-year-old Abu Seif tackles head on the thorny issue of their discrimination in the well-received play staged in Gaza City.

  tags: gaza, palestine, women, theater, sexism

• Texas in Africa: it's all about them

  In the 21st century, the West can continue colonizing Africa via international debt, proxy wars, and stupid celebrities who love shedding crocodile tears for the "poor, oppressed African". Don't forget to check out the Mother Jones articles linked in the post.

  tags: africa, imperialism, capitalism, colonialism, race

• ei: Sinan Antoon: "I think of myself as a global citizen"

  "SA: Well, I try to be aware of the privileges I have. I don't live under dictatorship and thus, in theory, I can say and write whatever I want to, but we know that there are other institutions and powers here that also constrain what can be published. Here it's corporate hegemony. The role of the writer is to write well and to write beautifully, but also to be responsible and write what is relevant to his or her society and the world. I don't think my position has changed that much. I think of myself as a global citizen; wherever I happen to be I will try to be critical and maintain a distance, a critical distance, but to go back to writing well. Mahmoud Darwish, my favorite poet, said that "every beautiful poem is an act of resistance." So it's no use having the right politics, but not satisfying the aesthetic challenge."

  tags: literature, poetry, iraq

• Sydney Levy and Yaman Salahi, "Why Are American Jewish Groups So Intent on Defending Illegal Israeli Settlements and Other Human Rights Violations?"

  Response to right-wing/Zionist attacks over the Berkeley divestment resolution.

  tags: israel, palestine, activism

• Black pupils 'are routinely marked down by teachers' | Education | The Observer

  "Black children are being systematically marked down by their teachers who are unconsciously stereotyping them, it has been revealed ... The study concludes that black pupils perform consistently better in external exams than in teacher assessment. The opposite is true for Indian and Chinese children, who tend to be "over-assessed" by teachers. It also finds that white children from very poor neighbourhoods were under-assessed when compared with their better-off peers."

  tags: race, education

• The Life of Nagi Daifullah, an Arab Labor Leader | Arab American Union Members Council

  "Twenty-nine years after his death at the hands of a local sheriff, labor organizer and farm worker Nagi Daifullah is being again memorialized by fellow Yemeni and Latino workers. Nagi was a farm worker who came from Yemen looking for a better life and arrived to the inhospitable grape fields in California's central valley where he rose to become a respected labor leader."

  tags: arab america, arabs, labor

• The Rules of the Game: A Fuller Thought on J. Hopper and Vampire Weekend - a grammar

  Never heard of the band in question, but this is a really well-written critique of middle-class white folks calling other middle-class white folks "bourgeois."

  tags: whiteness, race, class

• Collateral Murder

  U.S. military opens fire on civilians, killing 12 including two children and two Reuters employees. (Warning: contains very disturbing video). This is daily reality under occupation. The U.S. needs to get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan TODAY.

  tags: iraq

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. <ul class='diigo-linkroll'><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11196.shtml" rel="nofollow">ei: Play shows that for Gaza women, everything is not fine</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>It is not commonplace for women to take center stage in Gaza, but 36-year-old Abu Seif tackles head on the thorny issue of their discrimination in the well-received play staged in Gaza City.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/gaza">gaza</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/women">women</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/theater">theater</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/sexism">sexism</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://texasinafrica.blogspot.com/2010/04/its-all-about-them.html" rel="nofollow">Texas in Africa: it's all about them</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>In the 21st century, the West can continue colonizing Africa via international debt, proxy wars, and stupid celebrities who love shedding crocodile tears for the "poor, oppressed African". Don't forget to check out the Mother Jones articles linked in the post.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/africa">africa</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/imperialism">imperialism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/capitalism">capitalism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/colonialism">colonialism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/race">race</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11177.shtml" rel="nofollow">ei: Sinan Antoon: "I think of myself as a global citizen"</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"SA: Well, I try to be aware of the privileges I have. I don't live under dictatorship and thus, in theory, I can say and write whatever I want to, but we know that there are other institutions and powers here that also constrain what can be published. Here it's corporate hegemony. The role of the writer is to write well and to write beautifully, but also to be responsible and write what is relevant to his or her society and the world. I don't think my position has changed that much. I think of myself as a global citizen; wherever I happen to be I will try to be critical and maintain a distance, a critical distance, but to go back to writing well. Mahmoud Darwish, my favorite poet, said that "every beautiful poem is an act of resistance." So it's no use having the right politics, but not satisfying the aesthetic challenge."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/literature">literature</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/poetry">poetry</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/iraq">iraq</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/ls100410.html" rel="nofollow">Sydney Levy and Yaman Salahi, "Why Are American Jewish Groups So Intent on Defending Illegal Israeli Settlements and Other Human Rights Violations?"</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Response to right-wing/Zionist attacks over the Berkeley divestment resolution.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/israel">israel</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/activism">activism</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/apr/04/sats-marking-race-stereotypes" rel="nofollow">Black pupils 'are routinely marked down by teachers' | Education | The Observer</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"Black children are being systematically marked down by their teachers who are unconsciously stereotyping them, it has been revealed ... The study concludes that black pupils perform consistently better in external exams than in teacher assessment. The opposite is true for Indian and Chinese children, who tend to be "over-assessed" by teachers. It also finds that white children from very poor neighbourhoods were under-assessed when compared with their better-off peers."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/race">race</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/education">education</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.aaumc.org/drupal/node/20" rel="nofollow">The Life of Nagi Daifullah, an Arab Labor Leader | Arab American Union Members Council</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"Twenty-nine years after his death at the hands of a local sheriff, labor organizer and farm worker Nagi Daifullah is being again memorialized by fellow Yemeni and Latino workers. Nagi was a farm worker who came from Yemen looking for a better life and arrived to the inhospitable grape fields in California's central valley where he rose to become a respected labor leader."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"arab america"">arab america</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/arabs">arabs</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/labor">labor</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://agrammar.tumblr.com/post/359990238/the-rules-of-the-game-a-fuller-thought-on-j-hopper" rel="nofollow">The Rules of the Game: A Fuller Thought on J. Hopper and Vampire Weekend - a grammar</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Never heard of the band in question, but this is a really well-written critique of middle-class white folks calling other middle-class white folks "bourgeois."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/whiteness">whiteness</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/race">race</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/class">class</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://collateralmurder.com" rel="nofollow">Collateral Murder</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>U.S. military opens fire on civilians, killing 12 including two children and two Reuters employees. (Warning: contains very disturbing video). This is daily reality under occupation. The U.S. needs to get the hell out of Iraq and Afghanistan TODAY.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/iraq">iraq</a></p></ul><br />Posted from <a href="http://www.diigo.com">Diigo</a>. The rest of my <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks">favorite links</a> are here.

Links via Diigo (weekly)

• AAUP: Graduate Education Is the Dubai of Higher Learning

  "Given the current situation, the graduate student could not be further from Detroit. If we must think of a city as a metaphor for graduate education today, it should be Dubai rather than Detroit. Dubai implies the global network of financial interests that now swarm around the university, the extreme irregularities in labor practices and the stark inequities in wages that characterize contemporary higher education. Dubai is a frontier for the “new economy,” as unstable for workers as it is profitable for financiers."

  tags: education, capitalism, grad school

• WNYC - News - Interpreting Health: Cultural Barriers at New York City Hospitals

  "On Christmas Eve, a 31-year-old woman from Yemen, wearing a traditional black robe decorated with red embroidery, walked into Attieh’s office for help with a Medicaid application. Halima (who did not want to use her real name because she didn’t want her community to know about her struggles), has eight children. The first five were born in her village in Yemen, where it’s traditional for women to give birth in their homes while kneeling on a special mat placed on the ground.
  
  “My father’s father, he cut the umbilical cord and cleaned everything, he took care of everything,” Halima tells Attieh, in Arabic.
  
  But when giving birth to her first American-born child at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, Halima found herself lying immobile on her back, hooked up to an IV, feeling helpless and exposed. She wanted to be in her customary position, on her knees. So she asked the nurses, but they refused. “This is our business, not yours,” Halima remembers them telling her.
  
  Not knowing hospital rules or her rights as a patient, Halima found childbirth in Brooklyn frightening and traumatic."

  tags: health care, immigration, arab america

• AUDIO: Checkpoint 303’s “Said Guevara” // FEN Magazine – Your destination for all things Arab, American and Art.

  Awesome track from Checkpoint 303 that juxtaposes snippets of Che Guevara's and Edward Said's speeches over a catchy beat.

  tags: music, hip-hop, palestine, iraq, latin america, brown power

• Gender in Judaism and Islam -- A Conference | The Middle East Center at Penn

  Podcast from a recent UPenn conference on gender in Judaism and Islam.

  tags: islam, judaism, gender, feminism, women

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. <ul class='diigo-linkroll'><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/adam.htm" rel="nofollow">AAUP: Graduate Education Is the Dubai of Higher Learning</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"Given the current situation, the graduate student could not be further from Detroit. If we must think of a city as a metaphor for graduate education today, it should be Dubai rather than Detroit. Dubai implies the global network of financial interests that now swarm around the university, the extreme irregularities in labor practices and the stark inequities in wages that characterize contemporary higher education. Dubai is a frontier for the “new economy,” as unstable for workers as it is profitable for financiers."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/education">education</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/capitalism">capitalism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"grad school"">grad school</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/152614" rel="nofollow">WNYC - News - Interpreting Health: Cultural Barriers at New York City Hospitals</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>"On Christmas Eve, a 31-year-old woman from Yemen, wearing a traditional black robe decorated with red embroidery, walked into Attieh’s office for help with a Medicaid application. Halima (who did not want to use her real name because she didn’t want her community to know about her struggles), has eight children. The first five were born in her village in Yemen, where it’s traditional for women to give birth in their homes while kneeling on a special mat placed on the ground.<br /><br />“My father’s father, he cut the umbilical cord and cleaned everything, he took care of everything,” Halima tells Attieh, in Arabic.<br /><br />But when giving birth to her first American-born child at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, Halima found herself lying immobile on her back, hooked up to an IV, feeling helpless and exposed. She wanted to be in her customary position, on her knees. So she asked the nurses, but they refused. “This is our business, not yours,” Halima remembers them telling her.<br /><br />Not knowing hospital rules or her rights as a patient, Halima found childbirth in Brooklyn frightening and traumatic."</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"health care"">health care</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/immigration">immigration</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"arab america"">arab america</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="http://www.fenmag.com/2010/03/29/audio-checkpoint-303s-said-guevara" rel="nofollow">AUDIO: Checkpoint 303’s “Said Guevara” // FEN Magazine – Your destination for all things Arab, American and Art.</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Awesome track from Checkpoint 303 that juxtaposes snippets of Che Guevara's and Edward Said's speeches over a catchy beat.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/music">music</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/hip-hop">hip-hop</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/palestine">palestine</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/iraq">iraq</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"latin america"">latin america</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/"brown power"">brown power</a></p><li><p class='diigo-link'><a href="https://www.sas.upenn.edu/mec/events/2010/march/gender-judaism-and-islam-conference" rel="nofollow">Gender in Judaism and Islam -- A Conference | The Middle East Center at Penn</a></p><p class='diigo-description'>Podcast from a recent UPenn conference on gender in Judaism and Islam.</p><p class='diigo-tags'><a href="http://www.diigo.com/cloud/brownfolks" style="color:#000 !important;text-decoration:none !important;">tags</a>: <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/islam">islam</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/judaism">judaism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/gender">gender</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/feminism">feminism</a>, <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks/women">women</a></p></ul><br />Posted from <a href="http://www.diigo.com">Diigo</a>. The rest of my <a href="http://www.diigo.com/user/brownfolks">favorite links</a> are here.