RSSEast Village Chimurenga
Sunday August 28
St. Mark’s Place is packed solid with traffic, hardly moving, which is all the more frustrating since we’ve been driving for three hours, hungry, from upstate New York, where Gabe had been at a swords-and-sorcery day camp. The sight of familiar faces from our old East Village neighborhood leading their children clad in kimonos down the street tells us that the blockage up ahead is caused by the fact that a whole block is closed off for the annual Japan festival. (Come to think of it, we’d gotten an email a day or two earlier from Gabe’s samurai swords teacher that he’d be performing…) Later, walking around, I realize that the crush is all the greater because the Japan festival intersects, at Avenue A, with the “Howl” festival, an annual tribute to the late Beat poet Allen Ginsburg, complete with portly bearded lookalikes clad in vaguely “Buddhist” garb reading poems out loud in a kind of high-brow version of Elvis impersonators. (A shave, a white leather pants suit and a pair of Black Flys, and some of these guys could easily have done Fat Elvis.)
Right now, however, I’m stuck, not moving, as my car radio plays the incantations of a Trinidadian DJ pronouncing on matters of religion over a lively jump-up soca beat (reminding us that Labor Day, and with it the great Brooklyn West Indian carnival, the biggest annual street parade in the U.S. is just days away). “Salaam Aleikum to all my Muslim friends,” the DJ shouts. “And to my Jewish friends, Shalom Aleichem. Peace be upon you, Christians and others. Remember, there are many routes to the same place, and in the end what we’re all about is to treat your neighbor as yourself.”
I look up at my neighbor, a guy who I guess is from Africa, driving a yellow cab. Just as he’s about to edge forward, a large black Hummer pulls in front of him, jumping ahead in the line which is hardly moving. He looks at me with an exasperated shrug. I smile back, and we start chatting. After a few comments on the traffic, I tell him I’m from South Africa, thinking this is a better starting point than the more invasive “Where are you from?”
“South Africa?!” he chortles, “Hey, I’m from Zimbabwe.”
Summoning up one of the only bits of Shona I know (I speak few languages, but I can sloganize in a lot more), I answer: “Pamberi Ne Chimurenga!”
Forward with the struggle, it means, an old slogan from the liberation war that ended white minority rule. But I know its back in popular use now among a Zimbabwean population being slowly strangled by the tyrant Mugabe — only three weeks ago, I’d gone to hear the legendary Thomas Mapfumo perform in Prospect Park, and he’d made clear the implications of the Chimurenga spirit for today.
The cab driver’s face lit up.
“That’s right, baby!” he yelled, grinning, flashing me a V for victory as a traffic cop finally waved us through onto First Avenue.
The Latest
Glancing Headers
Waxing Brazilian on Euro 2008
The lesson for South Africa is clear. Our talent pool is so piss-poor that Brazilian coaches won't help -- we need to learn from the Europeans and import Brazilian players!Could Die Laughing
Whatever Became of that Nice Mr. Blair...
The problem with a global conversation between Muslims and Christians refereed by Tony Blair? Two words: Tony Blair.The Whole World's Africa
Stop South Africa's Pogroms!
Violence against immigrants in South Africa may be a product of poverty, but my friend Ray Hartley argues, the only answer is to make them full and equal citizens99c Blogging
Hamas as 'Willie Horton'
By insisting that he never advocated talking to Hamas, Obama digs himself a hole -- anyone who seeks peace in the Middle East will have to talk to HamasHear! Hear!
Bush's 'Peace' Effort Imperils Peace
Daniel Levy explains why the farcical negotiations between Olmert and Abbas actually undermine the prospects for Mideast peaceFeatured Analysis
About That 'New' Middle East...
Could there be a more perfect image of the catastrophic self-inflicted rout suffered by U.S. Middle East policy under President George W. Bush? This week, the President will party with Israel's leaders celebrating their country's 60th anniversary -- and champion a phony peace process whose explici...A Skeptical Read
Beheading Barack
First, he couldn't be President because he's Muslim. Now, we're told, he can't be President because he's not Muslim enough!Shameless Cronyism
Sound Advice for the Next President
To grasp the challenge facing U.S. foreign policy, read Helena Cobban's new book Engage!A Wondering Jew
Israel is 60, Zionism is Dead, What Now?
Israel at 60 is an intractable historical fact. It has one of the world's strongest armies, without peer in the Middle East, and its 200 or so nuclear warheads give it the last word in any military showdown with any of its neighbors. Palestinian militants may be able to make life in certain parts...The 51st State
A Teachable Moment in Basra
It should come as no surprise that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's disastrous offensive against the Mahdi Army of Moqtada Sadr in Basra has had the exact opposite effect of that intended -- strengthening rather than weakening Sadr, and making clear that he, and the Iranians, have far greater in...Futures Market
Will Russia Partition Kosovo?
Why my tea-leaf reading suggests that Moscow has a nasty surprise in store for Washington in the BalkansGuest Columns
Iraq and U.S. Faith in Violence
Guest Column: Alastair Crooke warns of a dangerous fantasy that persists in Western capitals in which the West faces an "onslaught" from "radical Islam." The problem is that this intersects all too tragically with a the persistent belief in Washington and elsewhere that by applying its overwhel...Cuisine
Yummy yummy Umami
Why a leftover lamb bone turned a bean stew into an ecstatic eventHousekeeping
'Lost' Entries on Rootless Cosmopolitan
Previous entries that now register as "not available" are ones that got left behind in a server migration. We're working on retrieving themUnholy War
U.S. Pours Gasoline on Gaza Fires
Once upon a time, Israelis and Palestinians looked to the U.S. to intervene at moments of heightened confrontation to mediate between the two sides and contain the damage. The Bush Administration, however, has proved entirely incapable of playing this role, because its own interventions are hidebou...Annals of Globalization
Honey, I Shrank the Superpower
In a snide reference to Bill Clinton's 1992 promise to "build a bridge into the 21st century," Barack Obama recently quipped that what Hillary Clinton really offers is a bridge back into the 20th century. Yet, a bridge back into the last century may be what all the major candidates are offering when...New York Moments
The Debka Made ‘Em Do ItFrom Tony's Archive
A Playground Lesson for Bush
How a spontaneous alliance of jocks, do-gooders and lesser bullies against the biggest bully at the school changed the balance of power at Milnerton PrimaryRebellion Into Money
The Rebel Grace of Patti Smith
One Response to “East Village Chimurenga”
Nice to ‘run’ in to this story on the web. East Village resident here and I miss August traffic already.
John
Leave a Reply