All posts by newsandnoise

“Todd Akin could be a person in power and that scares us” – an interview with Bria and Chrissy

This week the Republican Missouri US Senate candidate Todd Akin made comments about rape and abortion that many consider bizarre and offensive. He said that the “female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” in the case of what he called ‘legitimate rape’, in other words: she won’t get pregnant (Global Post) unless she wants to. Of course he had to apologize, but he also expressed that he still believes that the rapist has to be punished and not the unborn child. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants him to abandon his campaign for a Missouri Senate, which Akin is not planning to do (The Guardian). Meanwhile of course, most media will not let go of this story. Popular media in particular erupted and many musical comments can be found on the internet. Like the song Legitimate Rape of the duo Bria and Chrissy. Not long ago they started to use humor and political comments in their songs. I asked them some questions about that by email.

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Mitt Romney hounded by dog-on-the-car-roof story

Recently actor and director Clint Eastwood said that he endorses the Republican presidential candidate, because “the country needs a boost“. But looking at his recent tour to Europe and Israel, Mitt Romney probably needs a boost himself. The song called The Mutt Romney Blues won’t make it any easier on him. It comes from the album Election Special of musician and protest singer Ry Cooder, which will be released end of this month.

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“In France I found my Tunisian identity”- an interview with Emel Mathlouthi

Antwerp – It looks like Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, had a successful transition to democracy. Ben Ali has fled the country and the moderate Islamist party Ennahda won the elections in October 2011. They allegedly take Turkey as an example; a secular democracy governed by a party with an Islamic identity. Lately, however, there have been tensions between Islamicists and secular liberals and the economy is still very fragile. In April the government puts a ban on demonstrations which generated new protests (New York Times). This weekend at the Sfinks Festival in Boechout, Belgium, I spoke to the Tunesian singer-songwriter Emel Mathlouthi, currently living in France, about Tunisia and her music.

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Solidarity with Pussy Riot

Three members of the Russian female punk group Pussy Riot – see also an earlier post on News and Noise – are on trial on hooliganism charges. For transparency, the court will broadcast the hearing on the 30th of July live on the internet (Times Live).  At a closed hearing a motion is approved by state prosecutors to keep the girls in pretrial detention until Jan. 12, 2013. This is more than nine months after they were arrested (The Moscow Times). Experts, artists and musicians are openly showing their support for the band members.

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Going back to Graceland

Today, July 18, South Africa is celebrating Nelson Mandela’s 94th birthday. President Zuma praised him with the following words, from the moment Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela strode out of prison on the 11th of February 1990, we knew that South Africa would be a different place” (BBC News). This event coincides with the tour Paul Simon and his South African colleagues are making in Europe.

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