[Reader-list] Myths, Mangoes and ordered houses - re: 10 myths about pakistan

[taraprakash]

I have heard some songs on sada-e-huriyat. If you have a short wave radio 
you might try finding the station on your radio. The songs are about 
unfurling the Islamic flag on Red Fort, about destruction of Hindus (mostly 
referrred to as "monkey worshippers) You will like them, I did too. They are 
funny even if their message is destruction. I never heard such out of tune 
songs on the radio.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "yasir ~يا سر" <yasir.media at gmail.com>
To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 7:24 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Myths,Mangoes and ordered houses - re: 10 myths 
about pakistan


> Dear Taha
>
> No I have not looked at many posters, however on a trip to an afghan 
> refugee
> camp on the border when the bombing in afghanistan was on, i did buy the
> songs of the taliban which were sung without music.   the voice/s were
> melodious and there was a chorus in some songs - they sounded like slowly
> sung chants.
>
> in the bus there  the bus driver put it on a tape, which i learned later 
> was
> a cassette designed as a magazine updating people on what was going on in
> the afghanistan fight, with a new edition released every so often. in the
> bus people listened for a while but soon were bad mouthing him. it turned
> out that the conductor, a young guy was the one who wanted to blast it. he
> had to shut up then, but he didnt give up...
>
> as for posters, i probably only know only ones that relate to 'broader
> issues'.
> see abro:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/abro/sets/72157604267486790/
>
> I think someone has looked briefly at a history of wallchalkings as
> political statements in karachi - I think in Language and Politics in
> Pakistan by Tariq Rehman
>
>
> best
>
> yasir
>
>
> 2009/1/19 Taha Mehmood <2tahamehmood at googlemail.com>
>
>> Dear Yasir (Dear All )
>>
>> Thank you for pointing out the role of wall chalkings in mobilization of
>> people for 'jehad'.  I think chalkings or writings on the wall are an
>> important indicator of the socio-political mood of a space. In this 
>> regard,
>> I want to stretch this idea of chalk writing as a form of mass
>> communication, to posters, wall posters and how they are able to hold a
>> muted conversation with a multitude.
>>
>> For instance, the article pasted below talks about posters as a graphic
>> form of protest.
>>
>> An excerpt-
>>
>> Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda 
>> and
>> commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
>> Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de 
>> Toulouse-Lautrec.
>> In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda 
>> posters
>> in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
>> counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest 
>> posters,
>> in psychedelic colors.
>>
>> It would be interesting to know what sort of posters are in vogue in
>> Pakistan today. I would like to believe that almost all of them would 
>> have a
>> local flavor but certainly there must be some which relate to broader
>> issues.
>>
>> May I suggest you to please share with us, if you can, your own 
>> reflections
>> about how were posters related to Islamic jihad designed or framed.etc 
>> Were
>> they similar or different to say posters distributed at sufi shrines,
>> especially in terms of iconography and here I am, of course, 
>> specifically
>> referring to Yusuf Saeed's monumental work on posters and  syncretic
>> cultures.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Taha
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44847-2005Jun4.html
>>
>> Graphic Forms of Protest
>>
>>  By Linda Hales
>> Washington Post Staff Writer
>> Saturday, June 4, 2005; Page C01
>>
>>  A graphic printed on a T-shirt demands, "Curb Your God."
>>
>> A poster for designer jeans shows one pant leg knotted, as if the wearer
>> were an amputee. The words War Wear have been appended to the brand's 
>> label:
>> Rifle.
>>
>>
>> Another poster mimics Apple Computer's colorful advertising campaign for
>> the iPod. Except this one is about "iRaq" and the logo is a bomb, not an
>> apple. The black figure silhouetted against a hot pink background is not
>> dancing to iTunes but is a hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib, balancing on 
>> a
>> box with hands attached to a white cord.
>>
>> These are three of more than 400 provocative, emotionally charged 
>> graphics
>> in "The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics"
>> (Rockport). The book of posters, buttons, illustrations and other 
>> graphics
>> was compiled by Milton Glaser, dean of American graphic designers, with
>> Mirko Ilic, a noted illustrator and art director. An exhibition of 100
>> designs opened yesterday at New York's School of Visual Arts, where 
>> Glaser
>> and Ilic teach.
>>
>> In an age dominated by moving images, these freeze-frame visuals hold 
>> their
>> own. They represent the activist strain of graphic design. Like 
>> contemporary
>> advertising, it thrives on shock, wit and instant recognition. But as
>> playwright Tony Kushner writes in the book's foreword, there must also be
>> "some galling truth . . . imprisoned beneath the surface of public
>> discourse" that causes a designer to fire a signal flare.
>>
>> Glaser calls the collection an international survey of "nontraditional
>> dissenting opinion." The designer, who is best known for the "I H NY" 
>> logo,
>> says that lately he has been focused on the importance of expressing
>> dissent. The essence of his view is captured on a button he designed, 
>> which
>> declares "DISSENT *Protects **Democracy*."
>>
>> "Once you say that dissent protects democracy, people get the idea right
>> away," Glaser said by phone this week. "When you have dissenting opinion, 
>> it
>> comes out of some idea that fairness or appropriateness has been 
>> violated."
>>
>> Work on the book began with a global call for submissions. Glaser and 
>> Ilic
>> received more than a thousand richly varied examples. Most of those 
>> selected
>> were created after 2000 and address politics, racism, corporate power,
>> pollution, religion, media, animal rights and food. Three sections are
>> devoted to war and strife -- in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq and 
>> between
>> Israel and Palestinians. Concepts of peace and equality get as much 
>> space.
>>
>> Images dominate all but 12 of the book's 240 pages. Minimal text includes
>> an interview with Glaser. Ilic is represented by cover art for the
>> alternative magazine World War 3 Illustrated showing a ferocious hound in
>> camouflage fatigues preparing to devour a bone labeled Iraq. The caption
>> does not indicate whether the artist was illustrating a story or drawing 
>> his
>> own conclusions. The Bosnian-born New Yorker has described himself as an
>> "individual anarchist" willing to "poke fun at any power, because all of
>> them are corrupt."
>>
>> Emotions run high, whatever the topic, but techniques and symbols run the
>> gamut. The iRaq poster by Copper Greene relies on parody. The T-shirt
>> designer, Daniel Young, needed only typography to express concern that
>> so-called divine directives are sparking violence and intolerance. The 
>> jeans
>> were designed by Slovenian artist Tomato Kosir as a commentary on
>> consumerism and war. The Coca-Cola logo appears in many guises. 
>> Fingerprints
>> are popular images. So is raw meat.
>>
>> Samantha Hoover, assistant director of communications for the School of
>> Visual Arts, says creative people tend to be liberal. But the book was 
>> not
>> intended to be one-sided. Palestinian and Israeli points of view were
>> included, Glaser points out. Communism is skewered. So is President Bush. 
>> A
>> design team from Slovenia played off the American Dairy Association's 
>> "Got
>> Milk?" campaign for a "Got Oil?" poster on which Bush sports a mustache 
>> of
>> oil. The poster shows how astonishingly global advertising has become.
>>
>> Posters have a distinguished history as vehicles of protest, propaganda 
>> and
>> commerce, from 15th-century broadsheets supporting the Protestant
>> Reformation to 19th-century theater billboards by Henri de 
>> Toulouse-Lautrec.
>> In the 20th century, politics and art merged in powerful propaganda 
>> posters
>> in Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Communist China. The American
>> counterculture of the late 1960s inspired a renaissance of protest 
>> posters,
>> in psychedelic colors. These days, Hoover senses renewed interest in 
>> public
>> affairs.
>>
>> "Since 9/11, with the Iraqi war and all that's happening, twenty- and
>> thirtysomethings are paying attention to current affairs in a different
>> way," she says.
>>
>> Some issues are constant. In 1969, Dan Reisinger conveyed a message about
>> Jewish emigration from the former Soviet Union by using the hammer and
>> sickle as the "G" in "Let My People Go." More than 20 years later, he 
>> drew a
>> poster warning of a resurgence of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. A 
>> recent
>> poster by Turkish designer Bulent Erkmen for an Israeli client sought to
>> address the sharing of power in Jerusalem. The word "equal" is presented 
>> as
>> a page from a dictionary. All attempts at definition have been struck
>> through with a red line.
>>
>> Chaz Maviyane-Davies produced gripping posters relating the United 
>> Nations
>> Articles on Human Rights to an African audience. For Article 4, a figure
>> wears free-flowing dreadlocks made of chains above the words, "No one 
>> should
>> be subjected to slavery or servitude."
>>
>> Malaysian designer Theresa Tsang created three posters that protest the
>> abuse of women. What appears to be the imprint of a lipstick kiss is an
>> amalgam of photos of knuckles, glass shards and men beating women.
>>
>> Design can transform even grim topics. In Serbia, the Thea Line cosmetics
>> company commissioned an antiwar poster using its product. The designer, 
>> Igor
>> Avzner, turned lipstick tubes into a cartridge belt, which is worn by a
>> fashion model. The message reads, "Make Up, Not War."
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 9:30 AM, yasir ~يا سر 
>> <yasir.media at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 4:45 AM, Rahul Asthana <rahul_capri at yahoo.com
>>> >wrote:
>>>
>>> > There are/were jihadi donation boxes in all the major cities of
>>> Pakistan.
>>>
>>> Those, along with wall chalkings for 'jihadi camp training' were cleaned
>>> up
>>> by Musharraf in around 2002. so anything since then is underground and 
>>> not
>>> tolerated.
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>>
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