Introduction
Terrorism and extremism are the most pouted issues in our current age, and no one in the world is safe from its enormity. While people in the Western world enjoy a higher sense of independence, they quickly have found that since 9/11, their freedom has been bounded by governmental agencies. Leaving aside all controversial stories for the reasons of this cut on independence, it nonetheless is a serious breach of one’s rights.
A similar and much more drastic sense of governmental control is seen in third-world countries. Sri Lanka, located in Asia, has some of its area torn by internal fighting between the government and the Tamil Tigers. Aptly, the music video selected for this assignment is from a controversial and politically motivated music artist called MIA. The song is called Sunshowers and is considered one of the best songs from MIA’s first album. The number of views of this song video on YouTube is more than 3.5 million to date while the song peaked on the Canadian charts at 32 number and the UK Singles chart at 93 number.
The reason I chose this video is because of its success in the international arena while also having a very powerful political message. The lyrics of the songs mention organizations like ‘Colgate’ ‘Reebok’, ‘Palestinian Liberation Organization’, and contains a hidden reference to MIA’s political connections through her father’s organization. The song’s lyrics also contain wordings about MIA’s personal life and the death of her brother.
MIA’s biography
MIA was born in England when her parents had run away from Sri Lanka due to political turmoil. However, very soon her family went back to Sri Lanka where they lived in hiding due to her father’s political connections. Her later school life was completed in England where she and her family moved to as refugees. Seeing political upheaval closely left MIA interested in resolving the crisis her home country was involved in between the Tamil Tigers and the government.
MIA’s music
MIA’s music is very much politically motivated due to her experiences and her family’s history. Through various channels such as Twitter and MySpace alongside her music, MIA has made it abundantly clear that her experiences in the Sri Lankan civil war led to disastrous violations of human rights abuses through which the hatred of the victims about the government has led to such injustice. She has called the Sri-Lankan government’s action a planned attack on the Tamil people to wipe them off the face of the earth just like other governments have tried to do in other countries.
Her concept is that the proclaimed terrorist Tamil Tiger group is correct in rebelling against the government. She has also publicly shown support to the rebels and has tried to provide aid for them. This concept in my opinion is also correct, however, the execution of the concept is flawed. From an aspect rebelling against tyranny seems to be the only option for the helpless victims. Just like the Palestinians are fighting for their land, Kashmiris are fighting for theirs, and Taliban and Iraqis are fighting for their land, Tamils are doing the same. Without equal fighting status, the only things the victims can do are to be desperate. Some conduct suicide attacks in desperation, while others throw rocks at the opponents since that is all they can do. To mark their grudges and make their voices heard in the international forum, people resort to these actions since nothing else works. Being powerless, the government or the powerful looks at them suspiciously and would not even consider negotiating. In these desperate times, these people want to live their own life without intrusion from external forces. However, facing the facts these people fight for their freedom and yet the international media calls them terrorists when in reality the people in power are the real terrorists.
“Sunshowers” song message
The music in the song “Sunshowers” has an underlying concept of discontent over governmental control in Sri Lanka. Throughout the song, MIA shows that force has to be fought off or face tyranny. The basic concept of being a minority and a powerless group is covered beautifully in the song and tries to knock some sense in the people who listen to it.
MIA talks very strongly about a certain stereotype people have created and based on that stereotype target innocent people. Her reference to a person who was found to have connections with Muslims was shot dead without proper investigation just based on the stereotype people have created about Muslims and terrorists. Furthermore, the stereotype of belonging to the Tamil group has also vast implications as they are also considered terrorists by the Sri-Lankan government.
One would agree with the message of the song that globalization is an integral part of every world so much so that now we have one universal world where other’s problems are our problems as well. Take the example of the global recession. If outsourced factories of big brands like Nike, Reebok, etc. close down due to recession in the third world countries, people in these countries would lose everything even though these people consider that they are being exploited by the brands.
However, in MIA’s song, the message portrayed is much more oriented towards the plight of her people due to political issues rather than social issues. The whole reference about Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), bombings, shootings, and suicide all refer to the routine lives which the western world does not understand. Thus MIA, like other artists all over the world, uses the entertainment platform to educate the audience about their problems which they cannot through any other means. Her message to the world is to stop the war and lay down the arms.
Conclusion
The message promoted by MIA may be looked at from an external point of view as being fanatical or even extremist to some. While MIA’s intentions are good to stop violence, her encouraging wordings and support for the Tamils and PLO may shun her from the popular media channels. This did happen to this song when MIA was asked to remove the wordings of “Never give up like PLO,” however, MIA refused, and thus ‘Sunshowers’ was taken off air from TV channels like MTV. This goes on to show that being in the limelight can attract a lot of critical attention which may or may not be good. For example, connotation in the lyrics about violence with foul language may additionally be rejected from the reach of children for whom MIA is an idol. Yet not to forget that MIA’s ultimate message is to save her people and she has her right to do what she can for them.