Legal rights of Indian women.

Women who go missing

A few years ago I had put a post up about human trafficking in India/Nepal. This week an acquaintance of mine was in danger. I won't go into the details except say that she is safe now. 

I worry about women and men who disappear and have no one to speak for them. In Britain many women go back to their parents home country and are forced into marriage or cured of their sexuality. The lucky ones manage find legal representation but there are so many who don't. The Southhall Black Sisters have led several campaigns against women of British origin or immigrants being taken back forcefully only to be forcefully married or had fgm performed on them. 

There are so many people out there who have no one to talk to about what they are going through and it is frightening that their deaths/lives will go unnoticed. 

Bring Christina Fronthes back home

 I regret to tell you that Christina Fonthes - a dear friend and organiser of Rainbow Noir has been held against her will in The Congo - she was on a family holiday with her mother who has decided to have Christina 'cured' of her sexuality.

Christina has managed to escape from her aunt's house and is currently hiding out with a friend. She has access to internet and has been communicating with us via email. The next available flight is 2nd September - 5 days away! Chris needs help and protection from the British Embassy in Congo but her mother has reported her missing and therefore we need to get in contact with both the UK Home Office and UK embassy in Congo to let them know that she is in danger and that her mother is lying/the one endangering her life!!

PLEASE SHARE THIS ON ALL YOUR NETWORKS. CALL, EMAIL, TWEET the British embassy on behalf of Christina - the more we call, the more attention it will bring to her case and hopefully they will act quicker in getting Christina to a safe place.

HER MOTHER HAS HER PASSPORT AND TRAVELING DOCUMENTS!

CHRISTINA'S LIFE IS IN DANGER. PLEASE DO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.

If you need more information PM me.

UK EMBASSY: 0871 050 5840
public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

DETAILS OF THE EMBASSY IN CONGO ARE HEREhttps://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-kinshasa

MOST RECENT UPDATE:

It has been confirmed that Christina was arrested after leaving the embassy and released back to her family where she is currently trying to negotiate her journey home. Christina's life is still in very real danger and we need to continue to raise the profile of this case on as many media channels as we can. We have no more information at this current time.

We are currently putting together a press release and a list of contacts to send it to.

If you want to help - If you have any contacts at high profile newspapers, media channels etc please forward their details to us.
See Rainbow Noir Twitter for updates. @RainbowNoirMCR

Use the hashtag  #ChrisFonthes and spread the word.

Good news Christina is coming home. Thank you for all your support. However there are many men and women around the world who are not safe  

Asia as a method- my review

I have just begun reading Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization by Kuan-Hsing Chen. This books seems to take into account my issues with post colonialism and how identity based academic discourse can be limiting if not ridiculous. My issue with the discipline has been that it is stuck in an era and discourse which continue to privilege the west even whilst deconstructing it. 

The book provides a refreshing outlook on Asian cultural studies. Britain and diasporic communities in the UK do face problems related to race however their language is not the language of the community back home. I find it hard to explain this position to in both white and non white circles as the language of Asia as living the shadow of the former empire is still very alive. 

This is an informative lecture by Viren Murthy which explains the position much better than I can  "Post colonialism, Marxism and the Problem of Pan-Asianism", by Prof. Viren Murthy

Will keep you posted about this book that promises to be a good read. 

Another Northern adventure

Those of you who know me know how much I love travelling through small towns in the north west.

I was at Warrington last week and here are the pictures.

Outside the local hospital

That beautiful etching was made by a the talented artist Cathy Ferns titled Fleur

A shot of the museum

 Sat and ate my lunch here and in true northern style the elderly couple who sat next to me offered me biscuits. 

 Last of the fuschia 

Outside the town hall 

The statues on the top of the gate are of Nike the Greek goddess of victory not shoes

White man’s bait

Recently at a gathering of several transgender groups accusations were made by each group that the other was racist. All this right in front of me. It was amusing as I sat silently listening to shoddy political arguments. Either way I know where the argument was going – you don’t talk about trans people of colour – you are racist you talk about trans people of colour you are an interfering white supremacist racist.

Through all of this I was silent knowing I was invisible bait. Neither group was wrong but neither was right. Should we address issues of intersectionality – yes. Should white people get involved- yes. However throwing the race card in to prove you are not a racist I find a way to self justify one’s own discomfort with the issue.

That I was invisible during this argument proved to me I was to be spoken of in abstract terms and if I did speak I would be told off for not being authentic enough. the accusation was that there were no ethnic sounding names being called out at an event. I did try and point out that some of us have western sounding names..... I was unheard...... as I usually am. I found it insulting that we people of colour are not accepted unless we fulfil a certain stereotype. Only white people are allowed to experiment with other people's culture the rest of us must sit around being petrified in time. 

Being a transgender person of colour might have its own issues however to assume that no one in the community has thought of these issues and started their own group reeks of ignorance.

I am not anti inclusion but forced inclusion and representation is worse than not being represented at all. People of colour don’t exist to be used as political  bait neither do we exist to reassure white people of non racist they are. If your group does not have trans people of colour ask yourself if you have done something to prevent them from coming in or do they have their own groups? 

HOAX by Ravi Thornton at MancsterCon

I spent the weekend at Mancstercon listening to Ravi Thornton talking about her work.

Hoax tells the story of Ravi Thornton’s brother Roabbi - or Rob as he was called, who was affected by schizophrenia. The title is borrowed from a poem titled HOAX written by her brother. In her words it attempts to capture her brother’s landscapes of struggle through illness the an ultimate release. HOAX attempts to bring about empathy about mental health issues. 

Described as A social enterprise that aims to inspire empathy and understanding around social issues through collaborative cross media storytelling. The graphic novel sees Collaboration with artists such as Bryan Talbot, Rian Hughes, Hannah Merry, Mark Stafford to name a few. Keen to champion the work of newcomers Ravi has got them to collaborate with well-known artists. HOAX also sees academic inputs from Professor Mark Green. 

  

HOAX  is a cross media project which involves using a single narrative and using it in many forms such as drama, dance or film.  A  dramatised  version of and been shown at the Royal Exchange at Manchester. 

From my limited knowledge about comic books I have never seen comics portray mental illness positively and certainly not through a survivors point of view. Mental illness is almost always ugly and tied up with the idea of criminality. Schizopherina even amongst mental health is seen as ‘a complete breakdown of the individual’. There is a sense of unease about acknowledging personal suffering through an easy diagnosis which labels an individual but does very little in proving comfort.

Ravi’s work tells an important story from her brother’s point of view addressing his experience of the world as opposed to an easy idea of what mental illness is. It delves into what would be too messy a narrative to tell clinically.

In a world where popular media provides non representative narratives her work provides an alternative way of looking at issues we have only seen through stigmatising eyes.

If you want to find out more about Ravi Thornton's work or Mancstercon here are some helpful links -

To buy the graphic novel click here. Money from the sales will help support mental health charities SANE and Manchester Mind.

This is a link to the songs HOAX My Lonely Heart composed and performed by Minute Taker

MancsterCon is a voluntarily run organisation dedicated to bringing together the best of the independent sequential art scene in the North West. 

Because ...... Manchester

Truer words were never spoken...... Still very true though Manchester is still a city with a strong moral conscience. This image is taken from Sally Heathcote, Suffragette a graphic novel by Mary Talbot, Kate Charlesworth and Bryan Talbot. 

Summer Sunflowers

These beauties looked so lovely in the sun I had to take a picture. 

These lovely flowers were so bright and cheerful they needed a picture to be taken of then. Standing about 5 feet tall the gentleman who takes care of the garden is very fond of them I am told. 

Rachel Dwyer on Bollywood and the world.

From the video description - Rachel Dwyer is a Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and author of One Hundred Bollywood Films, Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema, and Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Modern India.

This video analyses Bollywood and its creation of national history. What I find interesting in this talk is how revolutionary material is sublimated and is a product of the zeitgiest. Unlike Rachel I am not fond of Bollywood films my critiques of the art form comes from the lack of representation and also the content which I find offensive. 

However Rachel sums up the nationalistic preoccupation's Indians have which is reflected in cinema.