Massive Attack: Gaza/Palestinians/Syria

I know, I'm not up to date at all. Catching up on items that I saved and didn't post about because I spent 7 weeks or so following the awful events in Gaza and not doing much else.

The great band Massive Attack however did do something.

First, when they headlined at the Longitude Festival late July, they sent messages to their audience about Gaza. 

For more, read this article in The Independent.

Second, also in late July (28), two members of Massive Attack, Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall, toured the Al Naqab Center at Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon. The center offers remedial classes, a meeting place for active youth and other social activities, primarily  for Palestinians recently arrived from Syria. On the 29th, they staged a concert to benefit the Al Naqab Center, organized by the Hoping Foundation. The money also went to fund building a new public library in a camp in the north of Lebanon and to supporting the ambulance service in Gaza. Read more here, also from The Independent.

Massive Attack at Burj al-Barajneh, wearing kufiya scarves. 

Robert Del Naja is in front, Grant Marshall in back

Here's a short AFP report on the concert in Lebanon, and here is some amateur footage.

Finally, here's a post I did back in 2010 on Massive Attack and Palestine.

The (separation/apartheid) Wall: 10 Years On (+ Pink Floyd)

Invaluable resource from Haggai Matar at +972. Check it out here. 

And check out Pink Floyd, reunited to raise money for Palestinian children, playing 

"Another Brick in the Wall." Hoping Foundation fundraiser, July 11, 2011.

For the whole concert -- with better audio -- go here.

More on Tilda Swinton and her Palestine scarf in Vogue

I posted on this a few days ago. Since then I came across a nice piece on the subject by Emily Lawrence in Electronic Intifada, who meditates on whether Tilda's act is just a bit of provocative fashion, or real solidarity. This has been a long-standing issue in my kufiya posts on hawgblawg. She concludes: 'how better to convey a political message to a fashion-conscious audience than through the medium of clothing? Swinton is voicing her support for the Palestinian cause without ever having to speak. Such is the power of fashion.'

What I found most interesting is that the scarf in question was designed by Bella Freud for The Hoping Foundation (Freud is its co-founder), which raises money in the UK to fund projects to aid Palestinian refugee children. As I noted in an earlier post, is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; an outspoken critic of Israel and; the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Freud and Hoping Foundation co-chair Karma Nabulsi are ever devising high-profile events to raise funds for Palestinian children, such as this event, where Italian fashion house Missoni designed a limited-edition shoulder bag to sell for Hoping projects.

@bellafreud (twitpic)

Alas, it seems the scarf is no longer for sale at Hoping.

Bella Freud & Hoping Foundation & Hideous Kinky

I've been meaning to do a longer post on the Hoping Foundation's recent (July) charity event that raised 430,000 pounds sterling for Palestinian children. Among those who performed were: David Gilmour and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Nick Cave, Tom Jones, and Kate Moss (yes, she sang back-up and played tambourine). And maybe I will in future still do that post.

But then I came across this photo (source here) of Kate Moss and Hoping Foundation co-founder Bella Freud at the event.

I guess if I lived in the UK I might know that (a) Bella is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund; (b) she is a well-known fashion designer; (c) she has been an outspoken critic of Israel and (d) she is the elder sister of Esther Freud, author of the autobiographical novel Hideous Kinky (made into a fairly decent movie, starring Kate Winslet).

Having seen the movie (but not yet having read the book), here's what I like about what I learned about Bella Freud. Hippy mom who is way into Sufism drags her daughters off to Morocco in search of spirituality and exoticism. The elder daughter, who survives this difficult ordeal, which includes a nearly-fatal bout of streptococcus, returns to the UK and...grows up to become a successful fashion designer with a political conscience.

So let's not overdo it with making fun of the "Orientalism" of all those hippy treksters and seekers after spirituality who descended on Morocco in the sixties and seventies.