On The Offensive

"Since the situation has become disproportionate, I have no choice but to remove the video L'Attente.  The goal was never to offend anyone but to denounce the war and to humanize an Afghan that we demonize.  Nowhere was there mention of the Taliban, [a] group I do not support."  Montreal rapper Manu Militari

Disingenuous at the very least, but far more likely a deliberate and not very bright attempt to bring attention to his artistic output.  In point of fact, though the man raps on a Taliban fighter whose engagement has a direct purpose to "free" his land from unwanted occupation, these misplaced sympathies misdirect people to sympathy for a rapaciously brutal tyranny.  The Taliban imposed an unbearable burden of their version of strict Sharia law on Afghanistan and its people.

Men, women and children lived lives of desperate oppression under the Taliban.  Men were beaten and incarcerated if they made an effort to bypass the strict dress codes and other edicts issued by the brutish mullahs.  And women were lashed and suffered dreadfully if they failed to observe the dress and social codes that made them virtual prisoners.  Hospitals that treated women exclusively were not supplied with needed pharmaceuticals or surgical equipment.

Women surgeons were forced to wear full burqas while in the operating theatre; women were operated upon without anaesthetic.   Women who were widowed could not appear in public to earn their meagre upkeep.  Girls were forbidden from attending school.  All females, irrespective of age or social standing, were to be fully garbed at all times in totally confining, black burqas.  Music and dance were forbidden.

And this rapper feels compassion for, he claims, the ordinary Afghan who wants nothing other than to be able to live in peace without the intervention of foreign forces on land that has been invaded and temporarily occupied all too often.  It's clear he knows nothing about what he writes.  His video accompanying his album shows Taliban fighters.

The words accompanying the video speak of Manu Militari's naive misunderstanding of the entire situation: "I expect the one who should have stayed home.  I'm ready....  I want to free my land.  This is not about religion.  So, why turn off your TVs, I've never hijacked airplanes", utter claptrap that he uses to portray himself as a humanist and clever artist, when he is clearly neither.  Not about religion?

The video demonstrates Taliban detonating a bomb, an IED they've buried in the road as a foreign troop convoy approaches.  Survivors of the explosion are shot at.  A gunman comes across a Canadian soldier on the road, and takes aim with his rifle at the soldier's head.  And this is what he characterizes as a "disproportionate" response, the anger and dismay that this has occasioned?

This rapper received over $100,000 from a group, MusicAction, that is funded by the Canadian Heritage department.  What a colossal waste of money.