Power to the small massive: Asian Dub Foundation @ WOMAD Singapore

Friday, 24 Aug 2007

Reviewed by Kirat Kaur

They came, they sang, they played, they rocked! After years of relying on their music as an outlet for anger against oppression and as inspiration to work for social change, it was the most wonderful experience to finally see them perform live. Their 1 hour 20 minute set consisted of some new tracks from their upcoming album as well as a good mix of songs from their previous albums. My favourite was Fortress Europe – that song just lends itself so well to a live performance. It was angsty, angry and resistance-fuelled. My least favourite was the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan track, Taa Deem. It was cool that they wanted to pay tribute to him; after all, it’s his 10th year death anniversary. But to be honest, the performance straddled the line between music and noise a bit too closely for me. I think the recorded track works well because you can clearly hear the beautiful fusion of qawwali, rock, punk, etc, whereas there was too much feedback and audience cheering in the live session to get a full sense of the composition.

I liked that they picked a lot of songs with socio-political messages to perform – besides Fortress Europe, they also sang Rise to the Challenge, Kill Racism and a new track about those getting left behind and trampled on in India’s impending rise to superpower status, before ending the night with Rebel Warrior. Musically, I realized that it’s really in the live performance that their unique and label-defying style comes through. Simply seeing the DJ booth, tabla, electric guitar and dhol on one stage complemented by smooth vocals with a dose of hardhitting lyrics was a phenomenon in itself. Without having to deconstruct their sound, listening to their performance of Riddim I Like proved their musical credentials like nothing else could.

Even while ADF’s musical style is a constant reminder that South Asians don’t all play the sitar and sing in ululating aahs (and smell like curry and live in ashrams and…), they continue to push the envelope all on musical fronts in their explorations of hybridity. I particularly enjoyed the way in which the tabla and dhol were pretty much the percussionist backbones of their music. Having now taken a few dhol classes myself, it was exciting to see how the traditional beats blended with the other instruments and how new beats were created to work in the context of their sound.

Throughout the concert they kept up a lively engagement of the audience. For example, during portions of songs where the music stopped to allow for Hindu spiritual incantations, they would raise their arms into the air, point their faces to the sky and assume a position of spiritual reverence, encouraging the audience to do the same. It was funny because I think it was meant to be at least partly in jest – a subtle parody of religious dogma and unthinking compliance, but I’m not sure if most of the audience ‘got’ that.

In fact, I’m not sure if most of the audience ‘got’ ADF at all. This is the only thing that tempered the experience of the performance for me. As with criticisms of other such music festivals, the crowd was made up mostly (and this is of course a gross assumption based solely on physical appearance, accents, snatches of overheard conversations, my limited social network and the steep $58 ticket price) of Western expatriates, kids of Western expatriates, university students and middle class 20/30/40somethings. Since I currently fit into the last category, I implicate myself and interrogate my own social position in my critique of the audience as well.

The beauty of music, and of all art for that matter, is in its ability to elicit enjoyment at many different levels and from many different perspectives. There are no laws against enjoying music on a purely superficial level. Political music, however, wants to do more than simply elicit pleasure. It wants to ask questions, raise awareness, it wants to criticize, educate, surface alternatives and explore other possibilities, and it wants to move people and inspire them to action. The depressing thing is I’m not sure if ADF accomplished that on Friday night. It was clear that most of the people around me did not know ADF’s music – most didn’t seem to recognize the song titles when they were announced and weren’t mouthing the song lyrics. Worse, there was an obvious disconnect between what the band what trying to say and what the audience understood. For instance, when a band member said “We want something from you… We want your oil! Sound familiar?”, I turned and saw “huh?” looks on the faces of the group of people standing next to me. And when introducing the song about India’s poor, they started talking about how some people are saying that India is going to be the next world superpower, and people actually starting cheering. The band looked disgusted and one band member groaned, “No, no, no. That’s not necessarily a good thing. We want equal power for everyone!” Towards the end when they were about to start singing Fortress Europe and said, “This song is for all immigrants, refugees and asylum-seekers everywhere”, the cynic in me began to wonder how many of the people who cheered were really Singaporeans who mutter under their breath about losing jobs to foreign talent and who chose to blind themselves to the Bangladeshi workers shuttled in on lorries at the end of the night for clean-up.

All in all, though, it was a good evening and I’m glad I finally got to see ADF perform live. One can only hope that for the members of the audience at WOMAD who had never before been exposed to ADF’s music, that their ADF concert experience would at least propel them to dig deeper into and find out more about the band and hopefully, their broader political message. In the meantime, watching the Asian Dub Foundation perform might just have restored a little bit of my own commitment to fighting injustice and reinvigorated the spirit of resistance that I thought I was coming close to losing.

Mess-o-potamia

There is an interesting article by Roger Cohen of the New York Times regarding the appointment of L. Paul Bremer as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

On 6th of May 2003, Bush was expected to announce that a grand assembly (similar to an Afghan loya jirga) was going to be convened in Iraq to fast-forward a home grown provisional government along with Bremer to run things. The convenor of the loya jirga was to be Zalmay Khalilzad (who is the US Ambassador to the UN).

Instead, Bush had announced that Bremer was going to run the country by himself. Both Powell and Rice were unaware of the change in tactics.

Powell has said:

 

 

“The plan was for Zal to go back. He was the one guy who knew this place better than anyone. I thought this was part of the deal with Bremer. But with no discussion, no debate, things changed. I was stunned”.

The article goes on to state that the insurgency by the Iraqis took hold after the appointment of Bremer - that the insurgency now had “a clear target: the guy in the Timberlands”.

Bremer then went on to disband the Iraqi army (creating a pool of insurgents), and when 9 billion was missing from funds to rebuild Iraq, he responded that people should not worry, as it was Iraqi and not US money.

If the plan to hold the loya jirga was followed, things might have been better for the Iraqis.

Singapore Working Group for ASEAN forum agrees on the need for a people’s centred approach

The forum and workshop organised by ThinkCentre, “The ASEAN Charter - What’s in it for you and me!” on 25 August at the Singapore Council of Women’s Organisation, Seminar Room, saw about 50 participants who were there to know more, debate, and discuss the proposed ASEAN charter that would be adopted by ASEAN in September, Singapore.

Chaired by Russell Heng, an activist with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) , the first presentation by Mr Ron Dudley of the Founder of the Disabled Peoples International, emphasized on the importance of promoting equality of opportunities and full participation for people with disabilities. He also urged ASEAN, including the Singapore government to sign and ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To date, only two ASEAN countries, Indonesia and Thailand have signed, though not ratified the convention.

Sinapan Samydorai, chair of the Singapore Working Group for ASEAN , gave a short history of ASEAN and the upcoming ASEAN charter that will be adopted. He explained that the current ASEAN and its charter lacked a people- centred mechanism in which the people living in ASEAN including the NGOs and CSOs are consulted. As a non legal body that has been in existence for 40 years, its shortcomings include having non-intervention, non- binding and non compliance features.

He also highlighted the abject poverty of people living in ASEAN in which over 40 million survive on less than US one dollar per day and 223 million on US 2 dollars per day. As ASEAN grows and move towards more economic growth, he stressed the increasing need for the human dignity of all people; social responsibility for the common good; and solidarity with the weak, poor and disabled.

Artistic Director of The Necessary Stage, Alvin Tan, gave a presentation of two projects - Mobile; and Boxing Day: The Tsunami Project; that the artistic company produced recently. These works explore contemporary intercultural Asian issues such as identity; narratives of individuals and communities; orientalism; and the exotic Asia paradigm. He emphasized that there is a need to include the ASEAN arts community in the charter and that intercultural arts can empower voices and the human rights agenda.

Jolovan Wham who is with TWC2 Migration Economics (HOME), spoke of the need to protect the rights of migrant workers. While he applauded the Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower’s efforts to address some of the migrant worker’s issues such as setting up helplines, they fall short of equality and protection. The working conditions of some of the the migrant workers are akin to slavery and are possible subject to abuse. He also highlighted the plight of illegal immigrant workers who are thrown in jail and charged for overstaying when they are merely the victims of human rights traffickers. His other suggestions include reducing culture shock courses for migrant workers to integrate or reintegrate their departure and destination countries.

Leong Sze Hian, who presented the business community perspective, contended that one way to understand the human rights situation in a country is by looking at its economic and social statistics. His figures highlighted the increasing wealth gap in Singapore and the dire poverty of the poor and aged. They include the startling figures of 1445 HDB or Housing Development Board flats (government housing) that were being repossessed - an average of 60 per month; the number of Singaporeans who earn less than 500 dollars a month - as many as 18,600 above the age of 55. For those above the age of 65, 49% of them work as cleaners, labourers and production operators.

The question and answer segment raised further questions on how the participants, including individuals and those who represents other NGOs in Singapore can further become part of the working group in Singapore (which is not officially recognized by the Singapore government) to help ensure that the people and civil society can be consulted and included in the dialogue with ASEAN.