Another one bites the dust

Another essay falls before the might of my academic endeavours!! Just handed in my first assignment of the semester. The task was based around an imaginary scenario in North Africa. We had to imagine that there were upcoming negotiations on reform of the constitution, and each student had to give advice to one of the various delegations to the conference. I had to write a policy brief advising the nationalist and conservative party of Morocco, Istiqlal. The other participants included the EU, the socialists, the hardcore Islamists, the more moderate Islamists, and last but not least, the top dog and key holder of political power, the defender of the faith, and personal owner of 60% of all the shares on Morocco's stock exchange, ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for his majesty the king, Mohamed VI!!! (known as M6 to his buddies).

King Mohamed VI

It seems to me that the king would only agree to democratisation to the extent that it makes his rule look more legitimate. Although there is an elected parliament in Morocco, most of the power rests outside this system. The government's decision-making powers are constrained by the fact that many other members of parliament are indirectly appointed, and the key ministries are given to confidants of the king who may not even be a member of a political party. Indeed, the current prime minister, Driss Jettou, isn't in any party. So I reckon that M6 would like to throw in some superficial reforms to make it look like he is liberalising, without actually devolving meaningful power outside of the palace.

The increasing popularity of the Islamist movements are putting pressure on the more established political actors in Morocco, so I'm confident that my nationalist/conservative colleagues can do a deal with the king to gain some power and marginalise the Islamists.

Great to get one assignment out of the way. As usual, I was up all night last night putting on the finishing touches. I didn't get to bed till after 0600. And the next deadline is just three days away!! But it's all under control. I've done plenty of groundwork for this next one during the week. Roll on Monday...

Cab Calloway chooses music over the Harlem Globetrotters

This YouTube thing is addictive. Just found a very short clip of the great basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talking about music legend Cab Calloway. It seems that Calloway was actually a pro basketball player after playing bball in high school. In the 1920s, he was selected to play with the Harlem Globetrotters, but decided instead to tour with his band. He also played baseball against Dizzy Gillespie - the great jazz trumpeter.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won a national championship in college and then went on to win 6 NBA championships for two teams, and played professionally for 20 YEARS!!!
He also was one of the pilots in the film Airplane, and fought against Bruce Lee in Game of Death. He was born as Lew Alcindor, but changed his name because of his conversion to Islam. Advice from fellow students from Muslim countries led to his avoiding the US Black Muslim movement, the Nation of Islam, whose ranks had once included Malcolm X. In this interview, Abdul-Jabbar talks about what he calls the "totalitarian" version of Islam that underpinned the September the 11th attacks.
20-July-2007: I've just noticed that YouTube have removed this video due to an alleged violation of its terms of use. Not sure what that's about...

Randy Newman

One all-time classic piece of music is the 1972 Randy Newman album, Sail Away. Newman is a songwriter who’s had big success with soundtracks to films such as Toy Story, but he started off as a guy with a piano, singing songs he had written. The music was beautiful, and the lyrics were acerbic.

The title track of Sail Away is about a slave trader recruiting in the African jungle, trying to convince the potential slaves how wonderful life would be in America:

Ain’t no lion or tiger, ain’t no mamba snake,
Just a sweet watermelon and a buckwheat cake
Everybody is as happy as a man can be
Climb aboard little wog, sail away with me

He similarly satirises a racist point of view on the song ‘Rednecks’, from his concept album Good Old Boys, by singing a song from the point of view of a white supremacist from the deep South:

We talk real funny down here,
We drink too much, we laugh too loud,
We’re too dumb to make it in no northern town –
We’re keeping the niggers down

Going back to Sail Away, there’s some great songs on there. The music is very melodic – sometimes it’s Randy and his piano, sometimes there’s a band, and sometimes there’s an orchestra in the background. Newman has been covered a lot, and included here is ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ (covered by Tom Jones) and ‘Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear’ (covered by the Muppets). As an atheist, one song I particularly like is the slow, mournful ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’, in which some of His distraught subjects appeal to God for answers. God replies:

I recoil in horror at the foulness of thee –
From the squalor and the filth and the misery,
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me,
That’s why I love mankind
…
I burn down your cities – how blind you must be,
I take from you your children and you say ‘how blessed are we’,
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me,
That’s why I love mankind