Our June 9, 2008 post which was titled 'M.I.A: Diaspora in Action' spoke about M.I.A's politics and analysed some articles that appeared on the web about this. Now M.I.A is back under scrutiny with the release of DeLon's video version of her song 'Paper Planes'. Her excessive usage of LTTE and pro-violence symbols and her vagueness of lyrics really make her easy bait to criticism. Is M.I.A really trying to bring out her experience as part of the diaspora, struggling to establish her identity and to explain to the world the suffering of her peoples, is she a shrewd business woman making the 'cause' work for her or is she really an LTTE sympathiser looking at the conflict in Sri Lanka with a biased frame of mind?
As for DeLon, we hope that he can also provide us with a critical and satirical rendition of one of the many songs sung by our local Sri Lankan artistes glorifying the soldier and the use of violence in safeguarding the nation and its territorial integrity. In his video 'We Strugglin' he says 'I'm a king, a Lion, a Sinhalese', seemingly quite patriotic but really a very Sinhala-Nationalist sentiment. His concluding words on his version of 'Paper Planes' say that 'Sri Lanka wants Peace', but the sentiments he expresses through his own songs are not quite going to help the peace factor.
What do you think?
To watch DeLon's video version of 'Paper Planes' visit http://srilankantube.com/item/72YJRHBK94YN1B8C and for his video 'We Strugglin' visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJWS5K0HKVw
