As an African-American woman, I'm get really tired of the racism, the every day 'soft' racism that exists and largely gets ignored. Kat's "Alexis Petridis LIES about Diana Ross and her chart history" rightly calls out the White Brit critic who lied about Diana Ross' single career in the UK, insisting that it screeched to halt after 1986 when Diana had the number one hit with "Eaten Alive." As Kat documents, after "Chain Reaction," Diana went on to have -- from 1992 to this year -- 18 more top 40 UK singles -- including hitting number 2 with two different recordings.
Just to comparison shop, Paul McCartney, in the same period, had 14 top 40 UK hits on the singles chart. Like Diana, Paul emerges on the charts first in 1964 -- Paul with the Beatles, Diana with the Supremes. The two are contemporaries. Paul had to team with Rihanna and Kanye for one of those hits (meaning if Cliff Richards had replaced Paul on that song, it still would have been a hit) and with Kanye solo on another (ibid). Another? A Christmas song -- one where he's a vocalist . . . along with Bono, Chris Martin, Dido, Robbie Williams, Joss Stone and many, many others.
So grasp that. On the UK single charts, Diana, in the period for 1992 to present, has outperformed rock legend and UK homegrown boy Paul McCartney but the Brit Priss wants to claim Diana's singles career ended in 1986. It's stupidity.
Kat's bothered
by a review THE GUARDIAN gave Diana's album and, as Kat demonstrates,
the pompous and overpraised critic didn't even get Diana's post-1986
chart history in his own country correct More to the point, Diana's
often gotten bad reviews upon release. The Brit priss Kat calls out
calls out the lyrics. Truth for those who don't know, if you're
presented with a new album and you're being paid to review it, the
quickest way to do the review is to focus on the lyrics. You can read
them on the sheet and don't have to actually experience the album.
That's for all artists.
Diana? She's like Bob
Dylan at this point. Everyone's invested in her that listens to her and
they all know the album she should make. They just know it. And when
she releases a new album (or he when Bob releases one), they're
listening with one ear towards what's been released and one ear towards
what they wished she'd record.
But the specific
point I want to make here is the Brit priss doesn't like the lyrics and
laments that they're not the same quality as the ones on 1980's diana.
When that album came out? There were reviews savaging it for . . . the
lyrics. In fact, Nile and Bernard were never praised for their lyrics
in real time -- not for their work with Diana ("Upside Down," "I'm
Coming Out," "My Old Piano," etc), not for their work in their band
Chic, not for their work with Debbie Harry, not for their work with
Sister Sledge, not for . . .
No one wishes Diana would go into the studio with Valerie Simpson
again more than me (Valerie and her late husband Nick Ashford produced
many great albums with Diana and their work together is among the best
of Diana's career -- including the hits "Ain't No Mountain High Enough,"
"The Boss," "No One Gets The Prize," "Surrender," "Remember Me," "Reach
Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand)," "It's My House," "Ain't Nothing But A
Maybe," etc. But that's not where Diana is right now. She's produced
an album during the pandemic that's attempting to get your dancing and
smiling and to highlight some of the pleasures that we can find at a
very crazy time in this world.
It's a great album. Elaine and I are on treadmills working out as I dictate the snapshot and Diana's THANK YOU is what we've got blasting right now.
I get it and you may too. There's a revolution that's taken place in the music world in recent years. A number of 'classic' performers -- White men who were given top placing on ranked lists -- now have to compete because we don't embrace the racism that rewarded them.
It's the racism that keeps Diana's accomplishments from being recognized. It's the racism that would like to hold down Beyonce. They claim it's about authorship. But it's not. Singer-songwriters? True ones, people like Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, etc? Musical geniuses. They tap into the human spirit and create songs that move us.
But let's not confuse their art with the sound rhymes that a pedestrian poser, like James Taylor -- talking about the White man, not the lead singer of Kool & The Gang -- serves up. Yet for years, that hack has made various lists while real artists didn't get on those lists.
And the 'defense' was 'authorship.' He wrote his own songs. He wrote his own bad songs, America, Mona (his love for the dead pig he shot) and all the other crap where he pretends to be something he's not -- a limo driver, a truck driver, a person with actual feelings.
Now while he was being ranked highly, gender kept his then-wife from being ranked at all. Carly Simon was the talent of that marriage. She is a singer who could have had a huge career in the big band era because she can actually sing. More to the point, she's one of America's great songwriters -- and she has multiple inductions and multiple awards (including Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe) to prove how amazing she is as a songwriter.
There are talented White men. John Lennon immediately springs to mind. I think Chase Rice is one of the strongest male performers making music today. Robbie Williams is someone my husband and I have many, many albums by. The late George Michael is another (though we have less because he released far fewer albums than Robbie). Sadly, the music 'canon' includes countless White men who are not talented at all.
So to promote skin color, not art, the music rankings were based on 'authorship' which didn't mean melody and didn't mean dance-ability. It meant did some aging boy in a man's body write bad lyrics that we could pretend aspired to the poetry of Robert Lowell.
And that's how the list was made.
And if you were Smokey Robinson -- a great songwriter -- you got left out because (a) you weren't White and (b) you wrote songs people actually liked and could dance to.
And that's what C.I.'s noting on the reaction to Nile Rogers and Bernard Edwards' work -- with Chic and with the various artists that they worked with.
They wrote "We Are Family," an anthem to this day. Many people have forgotten the group (Sister Sledge) but the song remains which is how we know it's amazing.
But Niles and Bernard are African-American men.
The Guardian's reaction to Diana's album that C.I.'s talking about -- rush to the lyrics and judge it by that? It's racism and that's what she's pointing out and that's why she's highlighting the critical reaction to Niles and Bernard.
I'm really tired of the every day racism that we have to put up with in this world.
Cedric and I have listened to Diana's Thank You non-stop -- we bought it for streaming -- since yesterday and we love it. And the failure to accept this as a dance album because it's a dance album goes to the racism that says anything that African-Americans are more talented in (like dance) must be racism.
And even the dance issue, I've read a few reviews of Thank You by other White critics, oh my goodness. Does every White critic do that overbite 'dance'? I thought that was a stereotype of White men but apparently not. Because it is a dance album. Some of them are some dance and ballad.
White guy critics, do you know how to dance? Do you not grasp that there's a form of dancing known as slow dancing?
Are White guy music critics just a bunch of nerds who never pressed their bodies against someone they desired? Is that why they look down on dancing so much?
I don't know.
But Diana's released an amazing album and the words fit the music. They may or may not thrill you if you try to read them as poetry. But they are meant to be sung.
If you're not aware of how far we've come, grasp this: Rolling Stone put Lauryn Hill's The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in their top ten albums of the 500 best albums of all time back in 2020. We did that. We forced that. By refusing to accept racism and demanding music be judged on its own merit and not skin color, we made that happen. The year it came out? In 1998, Rolling Stone gave its critics awards to . . . the Beastie Boys -- whose Jerry Lewis shtick had already aged poorly -- for Hello Nasty -- not an album anyone really listens to anymore but, hey, they were White guys and in 1998, that mattered more to Rolling Stone than actual music accomplishment.
Friday, November 5, 2021. Still not final results in the Iraq election
as protesters take to Baghdad over the vote, the climate crisis is
already impacting Iraq and much more.
It happened. Diana Ross'
THANK YOU was released this morning and, like I said last week, we'd
have Diana's first studio album in 15 years before we had the final
official results in Iraq's October 10th election.
Turn it up and go give love a chance Go out and take somebody by the hand Put on your shoes and find out where you stand Go take the lead and teach the world to dance
Don't look back, don't take a second glance While life is busy making other plans Jump off the edge and find out where you land Go take the lead and teach the world to dance
So much better if the world just danced (we'd be better) So much better if the world just danced (we'd be better) So much better if the world just danced (we'd be better) Yeah, we'd be better if the world just danced (we'd be better)
-- "If The World Just Danced," written by Diana
Ross, Aliandro Prawl, Andre Pinckney, Scott M. Carter, Wadge, Vanessa
Wood and Jaquetta Singleton, first appears on Diana's THANK YOU
Kat's bothered
by a review THE GUARDIAN gave Diana's album and, as Kat demonstrates,
the pompous and overpraised critic didn't even get Diana's post-1986
chart history in his own country correct More to the point, Diana's
often gotten bad reviews upon release. The Brit priss Kat calls out
calls out the lyrics. Truth for those who don't know, if you're
presented with a new album and you're being paid to review it, the
quickest way to do the review is to focus on the lyrics. You can read
them on the sheet and don't have to actually experience the album.
That's for all artists.
Diana? She's like Bob
Dylan at this point. Everyone's invested in her that listens to her and
they all know the album she should make. They just know it. And when
she releases a new album (or he when Bob releases one), they're
listening with one ear towards what's been released and one ear towards
what they wished she'd record.
But the specific
point I want to make here is the Brit priss doesn't like the lyrics and
laments that they're not the same quality as the ones on 1980's diana.
When that album came out? There were reviews savaging it for . . . the
lyrics. In fact, Nile and Bernard were never praised for their lyrics
in real time -- not for their work with Diana ("Upside Down," "I'm
Coming Out," "My Old Piano," etc), not for their work in their band
Chic, not for their work with Debbie Harry, not for their work with
Sister Sledge, not for . . .
No one wishes Diana would go into the studio with Valerie Simpson
again more than me (Valerie and her late husband Nick Ashford produced
many great albums with Diana and their work together is among the best
of Diana's career -- including the hits "Ain't No Mountain High Enough,"
"The Boss," "No One Gets The Prize," "Surrender," "Remember Me," "Reach
Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand)," "It's My House," "Ain't Nothing But A
Maybe," etc. But that's not where Diana is right now. She's produced
an album during the pandemic that's attempting to get your dancing and
smiling and to highlight some of the pleasures that we can find at a
very crazy time in this world.
It's a great album. Elaine and I are on treadmills working out as I dictate the snapshot and Diana's THANK YOU is what we've got blasting right now.
And,
as noted, there is still no final tally for Iraq's elections. I've
said it repeatedly, no one asked the electoral commission to promise
when the results would be final so the commission's decision to
announce, ahead of the election, that all votes would be tabulated
within 24 hours was a huge, huge mistake.
There was already an element of distrust going into the elections, making empty promises only made things worse.
Al Sharq Strategic Research did a webinar on the election. They will be posting it to their YOUTUBE channel shortly. In the meantime, we'll note these Tweets:
'In the region, we have regional actors & context actors. For good & bad, Iraq was an actor. However it has become a context country for power rivalries amongst other players since the invasion. This isn't changing anytime soon.' Says
'In the aftermath of #Baghdad Summit, it's important for the international community to support the establishment of structures that would ensure the continuation regional dialogue, regardless of whether #Kadhimi will serve for a second term as a PM.'
Several big stories came out of Iraq’s sixth election since the 2003 US-led invasion. The first is low voter turnout which officially at 36 per cent of eligible voters is the lowest recorded in the country’s post-2003 electoral history.is
the lowest recorded in the country’s post-2003 electoral history. With
many Iraqis disillusioned with a political system which entrenches a
corrupt political elite at their expense, this was expected, reflecting a
trajectory of fewer Iraqis voting in each election.
More surprising is the relative success of Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement, which increased its seat tally from 54 in 2018 to 73 according to preliminary results while
its main rival from the previous election Fateh – which represents the
Popular Mobilization Forces – saw a decrease from 48 to only 16.
This
result suggests Sadrists have increased in popularity while Fateh’s
support has declined, but the vote total reveals a different story.
While the Sadrists outperformed their rival in seat count, the two sides
received a similar number of votes. In fact, according to preliminary
numbers, Fateh and allies received more votes than the Sadrists but
secured less seats, with Fateh receiving an estimated 670,000 votes
while the Sadrists received 650,000.
This discrepancy highlights a key aspect of the new 2019 electoral law. As a recent Chatham House Iraq Initiative paper highlights,
the newly adopted single non-transferable vote (SNTV) – a
first-past-the-post (FPTP) system conducted within multi-seat
constituencies – was intended to create a more transparent electoral
process by removing the need for complex seat allocation algorithms and
forging a closer link between voters and the elected.
Four years ago, the stream running through Iraq’s al-Hamra village
dried up. Now, “all the trees have died”, said Abdullah Kamel who used
to farm citrus fruit in the village in Saladin governorate north of
Baghdad.
The farmers subsequently tried digging wells but found the
groundwater was too salty and not suitable for farming. “It killed the
trees and all our crops,” said Kamel.
Pulling a pomegranate from a nearby tree, he cracked it open on the
dusty earth. Pale, crumbly seeds fell out. “The seeds are not edible,”
he said.
The lands around al-Hamra, which used to be fields and orchards, have
become like a desert within the space of a few years, said Kamel, with
the streambed reduced to a dry ditch.
“I had to leave farming,” he added. “I started looking for another job and it’s all because [of] the lack of water.”
In Iraq, a prolonged drought has dried up lakes and brought
rivers to such low levels that the Iraqi government says the country can
farm just about half the land it normally would. The United Nations
Environmental Program says Iraq is the fifth-most vulnerable country in
the world to the effects of climate change. NPR's Ruth Sherlock traveled
to a rural province there to hear how farming communities are
surviving.
RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE: In Iraq's Diyala province, an hour
northeast of the capital, Baghdad, much of the farmland looks abandoned.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS CRUNCHING GRASS)
SHERLOCK: We walk over dry grass to meet a group of farmers that stand beside a cultivated patch of ground near a home-dug well.
HAMEED ALI MATAR: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: Before, this land was known as the food basket of
Baghdad. Farmer Hameed Ali Matar says now it's like a desert. I ask him
what he would normally grow at this time of year.
MATAR: (Through interpreter) Normally, in the previous years when
you came here, you can see it's all green - different kinds of corn and
cucumbers - everything is green here. Well, this year is totally
different.
SHERLOCK: He says what he grows now isn't even enough to feed his family of 10.
MATAR: (Through interpreter) We never buy anything. We have everything, like milk, yogurt, bread. But now, we buy 90%.
SHERLOCK: Matar is one of thousands of Iraqi farmers struggling
to cope in a prolonged drought. There's been less rainfall for several
years now. But this year, they say, is the worst they can remember. In a
call with NPR, Hamid al-Nayif, the spokesman for the Ministry of
Agriculture, lays out the scale of the problem.
HAMID AL-NAYIF: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: He says, last year, the country cultivated 16 million
dunams - or 160,000 hectares - of land. This year, they expect to grow
on only a third of that land, maybe half if there's rain.
AL-NAYIF: (Speaking Arabic).
SHERLOCK: The lack of rainfall is the big problem. It's led
Turkey and Iran to draw more from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and
that means there's less water when these rivers flow into Iraq. There
are local reasons for the water shortages, too, like inefficient
irrigation systems and cracked pipes. But the Agriculture Ministry and
climate experts working with them all tell NPR, climate change is
exacerbating the crisis, with Iraq experiencing longer, drier and hotter
summers and less annual rainfall. In Diyala province, in mid-October,
the temperature is still almost a hundred degrees Fahrenheit.
We're here on what's a relatively cool day in Iraq, but it is
still so hot. The air is thick with the heat. The sun is beating down.
The air is dusty. Farmers say this is the first time they can remember
that the lake that they rely on to water these fields is dry.
Iraq’s President Barham Salih in a video address to the United Nations
Twenty-Sixth Global Climate Summit in Glasgow on Wednesday called on the
international community to work with Iraq to face the threats the
country faces from climate change and other environmental challenges.
“Over the past 40 years, Iraq has been swept by wars and conflicts so it
is classified as one of the most vulnerable nations in the world
because of climate change,” Salih said.
“Desertification affects 39% of our country and 54% of our agricultural
lands are degraded because of salination caused by reducing water flow
of the Tigris and Euphrates. Seven million Iraqis have already been
affected by drought, climate change and the risk of displacement.”
The president’s virtual remarks come after he canceled
his trip to Glasgow last minute. An informed source said the
president's decision to stay in Iraq is a result of the tensions and
ongoing negotiations to form a new government following last month's
elections.
Flying over southern Iraq at night, the sky
burns orange. Heaven and earth are illuminated by dozens of flaming
towers in the oilfields scattered across the desert. The towers – known
as flare stacks – burn off gases released during the production of crude
oil, the black gold that provides more than 90 per cent of the Iraqi
state’s revenues.
Iraq is the world’s second-worst offender when it comes to gas flaring, according to a recent World Bank report,
after Russia. Every year, the country’s flare stacks emit billions of
cubic metres of carbon dioxide, polluting the local environment and
making life miserable for people who live and work near the oilfields.
The scale of the gas flaring falls in line with Iraq’s significant
crude oil output. The country is the second-largest producer in the Opec
group, pumping 4.34 million barrels a day, according to an independent
analysis by Iraq Oil Report.
For decades Iraq has relied on oil to fund a bloated public sector at the expense of economic diversification. But as Iraq’s delegation, headed by President Barham Salih, arrives in Glasgow for Cop26,
the country faces enormous challenges in combating the effects of
climate change. A combination of years of conflict, poor governance and a
lack of awareness leaves it ill-equipped to implement the needed
reform. A rapidly growing population – the number of Iraqis is expected
to double to 80 million by 2050 – adds even more pressure.
“I can count on one hand the number of leaders that are even aware of
the urgency of the situation,” said Azzam Alwash, a member of Iraq’s
Cop26 delegation and founder of Nature Iraq, a non-governmental
organisation. “That is how bad the situation is, politically speaking.”
Gas flaring is just one factor contributing to the climate crisis. A
crippled electricity grid forces Iraqis to rely on power generators that
belch diesel fumes into the air. Low rainfall and damming on rivers
upstream in Turkey and Iran have caused water levels
to plummet. Plastic and sewage fill waterways because waste management
systems don’t work. This year, there have been widespread crop failures,
drought-induced migration and an increasing sense of panic among people
who rely on the land to survive.
“We see more migration
towards the cities that are already struggling with poor water and
power infrastructure,” said Maha Yassin, a researcher at the Planetary
Security Initiative of the Netherlands-based Clingendael Institute.
“This is creating social tensions, and maybe more internal conflicts.”
Iraq is making some efforts to mitigate the effects of the climate
crisis. The country has pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 2 per cent in
the public sector and 15 per cent in the private sector by 2030. The
pledge is made with a condition, though – that there is “stability and
financial support”, said Alwash. Despite the territorial defeat of the
Islamic State (IS), security in Iraq is still unstable: there are
frequent deadly attacks by IS insurgents and armed disputes between
tribes.
Leila Harris Tweets:
some heart wrenching and beautiful imagery of the devastation from rising temperatures, drought, and associated water and food insecurity in southern Iraq. Climate change effects being experienced now--leading to food and water insecurity, migration....
Monday, THE WASHINGTON POST's Louisa Loveluck Tweeted:
Ahead of COP26, UNICEF says that Iraq’s children and young people will bear brunt of country’s burgeoning climate crisis. “It represents an absolute injustice to the next generation.”
