#as well as making them more interesting looking (and not just stereotypically “tribal”) by integrating hag raven imagery

[heliosynchronisity]

TES still microwaves my brain constantly just haven't had a "main" char to focus on rn other than my current Yazara play thru. But while hanging around Markarth I've been thinking about making a Forsworn character. I'd really like to explore that part of the lore more and perhaps use it as an opportunity to rewrite and redesign the reachmen to be well.. less... ya know. Because I find them suuuper interesting and a part of elder scrolls and esp skyrim lore that could be so unique and interesting if actually given some time and thought.

My main thoughts abt what i'd do with them are;

Have their culture and appearance focus more on their connection to hagravens, folk magic and old pre-imperial gods.

Perhaps they wear primarily leather and animal hide because of bosmeri influence? (during the merethic era)

ehh thats all i got so far

im thinking for the oc i have in mind, maybe the daughter of a hagraven or witch who's invested in the politics of the reachmen issue. Also thought maybe could make a good LDB character, but idk if i wanna have two LDB as i would have to juggle different timelines. i feel like she would make a good adopted daughter of my ldb tho so maybe could do smth with that?

edit: for the record i havent read up on ESO's interpretation of reachmen yet, just going off what ive read/seen in skyrim. it'll be taken into account lol

[iobjectfa20]

A buffalo horn belt entitled Winyan Wánakikśin (Women Defenders of Others) created by Oglala Lakota artists Kevin Pourier and Valerie Pourier in 2018. The belt was made to honor the achievements of Native American women and was inspired by the power and influence of women during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. It features the faces of eight notable Native American figures (listed from left to right): Susie Silook (Yupik/Inupiaq), Tipiziwin Tolman (Wichiyena Dahkota/Hunkpapa Lakota), Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee Nation), Wanda Batchelor (Washoe), Jodi Archambalt (Hunkpapa/Oglala Lakota), Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne/Hodulgee Muscogee), and Bobbi Jean Three Legs (Hunkpapa Lakota). The item is composed of animal hide, metal, stone, mother-of-pearl, malachite, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and sandstone. It is on display at the National Museum of the American Indian.

How & Why I Chose This Piece:

When I was researching objects for this exhibit, I wanted to find something that challenged Western narratives and teachings of history. I was looking for objects in the National Museum of the American Indian and came across Winyan Wánakikśin (Women Defenders of Others) which was being featured as part of the American Women’s History Initiative to display more accurate and inclusive representations of American women and their stories. I was initially drawn to this piece due to its use of patterns and intricate design and was curious about their significance as well as the materials that were used. However, the more I looked at this object, the more interested I was in the women on the belt. I did not recognize any of the women featured but after doing a little research into who they were, I realized that they were actually really important figures that have contributed so much to Indigenous communities. This made me think about my own Eurocentric biases and Westernized education and how this has limited my knowledge of U.S. history. Therefore, I chose this piece because I personally wanted to learn more about these women as well as different Indigenous art forms and practices, and, although in a very small way, begin to challenge what has been presented to me as the dominant narrative. This object was initially created as a way to honor the strength and accomplishments of Native American women but I wanted to focus on the process of making the belt and the viewers understanding, or lack of understanding, of who these women are and what the various patterns and designs represent, as a means of reframing it in the context of global resistance. I argue that this object visually exposes viewers to beautiful and powerful indigenous art, practices, and stories of women that destabilize colonial narratives and establish a community of global resistance against the erasure of Indigenous communities and the oppression of women. In terms of theoretical frameworks, I wanted to apply ideas from both Dipesh Chakrabarty’s “Provincializing Europe” and Frantz Fanon’s “On Violence”. In regards to Charkrabarty I focused on how, in making this object and using buffalo horn, Kevin and Valerie Pourier challenge Eurocentric biases by remaining in touch with their ancestral traditions. Looking at this piece according to Fanon’s ideas on decolonization and violence, I saw a lot of theoretical violence taking place through the work of the women featured. I specifically viewed a three-pronged structure of violence that included the creation and messages of art, teaching Native languages, and participation in legal or social advocacy. I love that although this object seems simple, it is actually really valuable in raising awareness about multiple forms of resistance and challenging viewers’ perceptions and understandings of historical narratives.

Winyan Wánakikśin as a Form of Global Resistance:

In 2016, protests over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) began receiving national recognition and participation from Native communities and allies who viewed the project, which involved constructing an oil line near Standing Rock Sioux reservation land, as a violation of environmental, health, and human rights. The DAPL project disregarded the status of the Standing Rock Sioux as a sovereign nation with protected land rights and endangered tribal members due to the high probability of an oil leak occurring in the pipeline, which would have had a detrimental impact on water and other valuable resources for the tribe. Many Native American women held an integral role in resisting this destruction of Native land by spurring grassroots movements, leading marches, and pursuing legal action. In creating Winyan Wánakikśin, Kevin and Valerie Pourier wanted to expand the limited scope of art inspired by the protests at Standing Rock, predominantly depicting men, and instead honor the courage and power of the women involved. Their final product moves the focus beyond just Standing Rock though, incorporating Native American women who are promoting changes both locally and globally through art, law, language, and other means. In this manner, the Pouriers intend their art to be a reflection of the strength and achievements of all women.

Although it does have value solely as a commemorative piece, the belt’s physical composition using traditional materials, and the significance of specific symbolic imagery depicted on its surface visually exposes viewers to beautiful and powerful indigenous art, practices, and stories of women that destabilize colonial narratives and establish a community of global resistance against the erasure of Indigenous communities and the oppression of women.

The buffalo horns Kevin and Valerie Pourier used to make Winyan Wánakikśin are particularly important in defining it as a piece of resistance. The belt is composed of nine segments carved from this material which are then inlaid with crushed lapis lazuli, turquoise, sandstone and other elements for color. By incorporating buffalo horns into this piece, the artists pay homage to their Lakota ancestors who viewed this specific animal as an essential part of their ceremonies and livelihood. This practice is part of a larger movement of repurposing within Indigenous art as a means of honoring the entire life of an animal. The idea and application of using all parts of the animal challenges Eurocentric biases that position Native American cultural practices as underdeveloped or inferior. I think this enhances the appeal of the object by showing a sustainability which counteracts the excessive and wasteful habits typically seen in Western culture.    

The construction of this belt also reflects a contemporary persistence of practicing ancestral art forms through the act of polishing the buffalo horn. This performance once again speaks to the value placed on the buffalo in Lakota culture as Kevin Pourier explains that “the black, the shininess of the horn...[is important because] for the Lakota people, the buffalo spirit lives in [the] horn cap.” Due to it’s value, the carving and polishing processes take time and great care. In fact, I was surprised to learn that it took over two weeks for the Pouriers to finish the polishing process and more than six months in total to finalize the entire piece. Despite the immense amount of time spent on a seemingly simple and insignificant element, this attention to the polish actually has a large impact on engagement with the object, giving it a full glossy effect that immediately draws viewers’ attention and encourages them to think about the significance of the materials used, the patterns incorporated, and the women featured on the belt. Through this continued connection with ancestral practices, this work of art begins to offer a way of preserving traditional art forms that are an essential part of many Indigenous communities.

The symbolic imagery of the belt further contributes to a multimodal approach in resisting the erasure of Indigenous cultures and the oppression of women. The portraits of the eight women are done in black and grey, causing the colorful patterns and designs surrounding them to stand out. These vibrant backgrounds are unique for each individual and help to characterize their personal values as well as their impact on the world. I think it’s worth noting that the belt does not include any written identification about who these women are, suggesting that they should be recognized and known by their faces and symbols alone. In this manner, the object’s unapologetic and proud portrayals of these women demand attention and recognition for them, thus becoming another way in which Winyan Wánakikśin destabilizes the ‘typical’, i.e. Eurocentric, canonization of history.

Furthermore, the imagery depicted on the belt contributes to a sort of theoretical violence as a means of resisting the erasure of Indigenous cultures and the oppression of women. I see these eight women as symbols of resistance who employ violence through three critical components: art, language, and law. Roxanne Swentzell and Susie Silook are artists who challenge stereotypes about Native Americans and promote the preservation of ancestral techniques through their work. Looking at the panels on the belt, we can see that Swentzell’s portrait is superimposed over a traditional design used in Pueblo pottery. This depiction emphasizes Swentzell’s connection to Pueblo culture and her sculptures, which provide social commentary on issues relating to Native American rights. Through her work with clay, Swentzell specifically seeks to object the commodification of Native Americans. In Silook’s panel, the artist stands next to a whale diving into light blue water. This symbol references her radical artwork protesting violence against women, using ivory and whalebone as her medium. Although there is a predominant sense of globality in the work of both artists, Silook uses an ancestral practice of carving ivory dolls, a tradition in her culture which is typically performed by men, to resist oppression on a local scale as well. Her carvings are defiant not only by embodying a role typically perceived as being for men but also in portraying women in these pieces rather than traditional animal imagery. I think the art of these women share similarities to Frantz Fanon’s ideas for decolonization. Fanon argues that “the ‘thing’ colonized becomes a man through the very process of liberation” which involves using violence to “remov[e]...heterogeneity...[and] unify...on the grounds of nation”. Applying this to Swentzell and Silook’s work, we can see that the social awareness and criticism within their art attacks these colonial structures and narratives, humanizing and uplifting the identities of Indigenous peoples, especially women.  

Language as a form of violence is also brought to our attention through the portrait of Tipiziwin Tolman, a language preservationist on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. While language has been historically used as a tool for colonization, threatening or wiping out many Indigenous oral traditions, Tolman demonstrates it can also be used as a weapon against the colonizer. In learning and teaching others about her own native Lakota language, Tolman begins a process of liberation in which she rejects limited, colonial understandings and uses for language.

Finally, Mary Kathryn Nagle, Wanda Batchelor, Jodi Archambault, Suzan Harjo, and Bobbi Jean Three legs embody various elements of legal and social justice advocacy that challenge oppressive structures. Although these women have all done valuable work in demanding reparations, reclaiming land rights and resources, and ultimately speaking out for women’s rights, I want to connect this type of violence back to the DAPL protests that inspired this piece of art. In the final segment of the belt, Bobbi Jean Three Legs stands against the backdrop of a traditional Dakota floral design, her fist raised in a sign of support and solidarity. This gesture is in reference to her role organizing and leading a 2,000 mile relay run from North Dakota to Washington, D.C. to deliver a petition against DAPL. I think the beautiful and powerful imagery on the belt itself in combination with the activist’s impactful story challenges the patriarchy by asserting that women, especially Indigenous women, have agency and are influential in making changes worldwide.

The belt’s buckle further emphasizes this message by showing a picture of the earth being supported by hands of different colors. Through this part, the individual panels that represent the diverse practices and values of each of these women are linked together, establishing a community of global resistance. Ultimately, Winyan Wánakikśin is much more than an object celebrating and memorializing the accomplishments of women. It visually engages and challenges viewers to reconsider their understanding of history through the materials and stories of the women depicted on its surface.

- Kaelan H.

[mariolucario493]

STUFF I WANT IN A BANJO-KAZOOIE REMAKE (IF THERE IS ONE)

So as you are probably aware, Banjo and Kazooie have finally made it into Super Smash Bros. This is a huge accomplishment, as they have been absent from Nintendo for years. But this begs the question - will we be getting a proper new Banjo title in the near future? I certainly hope so, but before that, it would be nice to see the original games re-released on current consoles.

Now the question is how they would do this. Would they just re-release the original games with slightly updated graphics like they did on XBLA? That seems like the safer option. But maybe they’ll go the interesting route and remake the whole games from scratch. Given that we live in a time where everyone seems to be capitalizing on 90′s nostalgia, the latter seems like a possibility. But I’m not here to complain about Disney’s live-action remakes. Besides, with video games, remakes seem to be quite faithful to the originals. We’ve gotten DS/3DS remakes of Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and maybe some others I can’t think of. Pokemon has remade generations before as well. And of course, the remake of Link’s Awakening looks promising. Even Rare has gotten in on it before - remember Conker: Live and Reloaded? True, a lot of the original developers left Rare to form Playtonic, but maybe the two companies could joint develop it - as long as Microsoft gives everyone complete creative control, of course.

So let’s say they do go this route and completely remake the original two games. It shouldn’t just be the same game but in HD. There are some things I’d like them to improve upon from the N64.

First of all, they definitely should keep the changes they did with XBLA - that is, making notes permanently collectible. No one wants to get PTSD from Rusty Bucket Bay. Admittedly, this might make finding the last few notes more difficult, but it’s probably still better than dying with 99 notes. Or what if the notes do not reset if you die, but they do reset if you leave the level? That way, if you’re having trouble finding the last note, you can just reset. Maybe there could also be a special reward for finding all 900. Yes, there is that last door that requires 882 notes and doubles your health, but maybe something else. There’s already a reward for getting all 100 Jiggies in Mumbo teaching you about some of the Stop n’ Swop items.

And speaking of Stop n’ Swop, let’s talk about that. The limited technology of the time meant they weren’t able to implement the idea of transferring items from one game to another during the N64 era. Now they did manage to do that for the XBLA re-releases, but there were still a few flaws that I saw. In the N64 version of Banjo-Tooie, you had to essentially find the Stop n’ Swop items again. In the XBLA version, if you got them in BK, you would have them in BT from the start of the game. But the problem is that the secret areas were still there, just empty. If you had no idea what was supposed to be there, you’d be confused as to why these secret caves exist. So I think they should combine the two ideas. By that I mean, have the secret areas in BT empty normally, but have the secret items show up there once you get them in BK. Maybe include a sign in the secret areas that gives a hint like “Return to the Sandcastle and enter the following code.” If both games were bundled together, it would make the transfer of data even easier. Though the issue there was that the N64 version of BT only had the Ice Key and three of the six eggs. The developers would have to come up with places to hide the last three eggs in BT. But I think they could do that.

It would also be cool if there was a multiplayer mode. Banjo-Tooie had multiplayer minigames, but maybe they could add some to Banjo-Kazooie as well. Specifically, I’d like to see a multiplayer version of Grunty’s Furnace Fun. It would either be a race to the end or just competing for points.

One thing Yooka-Laylee was missing was world maps. Pretty much every 3D game nowadays has a way to bring up an overhead map of the area. But a combination of no maps and everything looking the same made Yooka-Laylee’s worlds difficult to navigate. So yes, there needs to be a map of each world. And that map should highlight certain areas such as the start area, Mumbo’s hut, all the Bottles/Jamjars locations (once you find them, of course), warp pads, etc. And there could also be an option to place beacons. You know, where you put a dot on the map and a light appears in the sky to guide you there. Admittedly, this would be difficult to implement in more cavernous levels like Clanker’s Cavern or Glitter Gulch Mine, so the beacon idea might not be possible. Also, for some maze-like sub areas like Targitzan’s Temple, maybe the map should not be accessible until you complete everything in the area. That way, you can still feel like you’re exploring.

One thing Yooka-Laylee actually did right (once it was patched, of course) was fixing the auto-scrolling text. Pretty much every game has the text pause until you press a button to advance it, but not BK or BT for some reason. You could still hold down the button to make the text scroll faster, but tap it to advance to the next sentence.

And now let’s talk about the toughest thing that I’d like to see changed for this hypothetical remake - that being the comedy. As timeless as these games are, I will admit that there are a few moments that clearly stand out as being a product of the 90′s. Certain jokes might not be acceptable today. Now I love all the fourth wall jokes and subtle adult innuendos, and they should definitely keep those. What I am concerned about is a couple of the characters that are obvious stereotypes. Take for example, Rubee, the snake charmer in Gobi’s Valley. Despite only being part of one Jiggy mission, this character seems to suffer from the same Indian stereotypes that Apu from The Simpsons suffered from.  With his overly large turban and strange way of speaking, he seems like he could use an update. Now how would they do that? My idea? Make him an animal. Perhaps an elephant, like Taj from Diddy Kong Racing. This could also fit his role as a snake charmer, as he could play his trunk like a flute.

There’s also Jolly Roger and Merry Maggie, who seem to be cheap shot at gay stereotypes. Jolly speaks in a very camp voice and makes those hand gestures. Maggie is implied to be a transvestite; and if I remember correctly, Kazooie reacts with disgust when she sees her. Again, we might have to change them up a little. I’m not sure how we would do that, but definitely start by making them more than just one-dimensional stereotypes.

But perhaps the most awkwardly stereotypical character in the Banjo games is Humba Wumba. Native American stereotypes seem to be one of the most controversial out there. The problem with Humba is that she is a much more important character than Jolly or Rubee. She appears in every level of the second game, and her transformations are essential for getting many of the Jiggies. Mumbo also seems to be based on the stereotypical tribal African witch doctor, but again, he is at least non-human enough for that to be acceptable. Humba, on the other hand, is definitely human. And she wears that stereotypical buckskin outfit and feather headdress, and she speaks in broken English Tonto-style, and her theme music includes that war cry that isn’t even a real thing. Now I personally am as white as white can be (at least I think I am, but I’m not about to sent a DNA sample to one of those ancestry sites so they can sell it to the government), so I’m not exactly the best person to talk to about how to write a Native American character. On top of that, Humba seems to just be there for sex appeal. Yes, I’ll admit, I had a few fantasies about her giant polygonal tits growing up. She’s definitely at least more attractive then the fairies in Ocarina of Time. Now for all its faults, Nuts and Bolts did redesign Humba to be a little less of a stereotype. In that game, she wears a more contemporary outfit and has a more realistic figure. It’s not perfect, but it’s a good start. Theoretically, Humba could work if they were more tongue-in-cheek about how insensitive she is. Like have Kazooie make a snarky remark about how the 90′s were a simpler time. If there ever is a completely new Banjo game, they could cut her out altogether; but in the event of a re-release, she is an integral part of Banjo-Tooie.

It was also kind of surprising back in 1998-2000 to see an E-rated game this violent. And I’m not talking about the goofy slapstick either. Both Clanker in Clanker’s Cavern and Lord Woo Fak Fak in Jolly Roger’s Lagoon visibly bleed. How many times do you see blood in an E-rated game? Yeah, they might have to change that. For Clanker, since he’s mostly mechanical, you could replace the bloody parts of his body with rust. And as for Fak Fak, you could just change the color of the blood like you did with Ganondorf. Which would actually be realistic, since red light doesn’t travel that far in water, so red things such as blood often appear greenish-yellow when you’re hundreds of feet below the water’s surface. Of course, Kazooie should still stay red no matter what.

There’s a few other things that might be seen as insensitive, like the child abuse that Boggy’s kids face, or the lady with the watermelons at the end of BK. But as much as some of those jokes seem mean-spirited, I actually think it would be better to keep most of them. I don’t see a game as goofy as Banjo-Kazooie beginning with a serious disclaimer about stereotypes like they put at the start of all those Looney Tunes compilation DVD’s, but the developers should definitely tread lightly if they want to keep the spirit of the original games without offending anyone. We may end up with an E10 or even a T rating, but it would be worth it. But this is Tumblr, after all, and being offended is like a national pastime here.

Just a few months ago, a new Banjo game seemed like a pipe dream. But with what we saw at E3, we might just get it. Either way, the kids of today deserve a chance to experience what we grew up with. But what else would you like to see in a Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie remake or a new game altogether?

[l-in-c-future]

Book Reading: Lawless 

It is written by an exceptional legal professional of interesting background how she overcome and learnt from many challenges in seeking to help her clients and oppressed peoples in Afghanistan over more than 8 years of time.

When I first came across her speeches, she used music and dancing rythms as analogy to express how flexibility and creativity was needed to work things around in different situations at a very difficult country. It turned out that when I read her book, her DJ hobbies of able to choose and decide a list of right playsongs to suit different atomspheres helped her creativity and flexibility when she handled cases at various types of formal and informal parts of the judicial and arbitration system in a country where the concept of rule of law is still at embryo stage constrained by a very conservative social-political-religious culture.

It is so interesting that Ms Motley herself is not a typical stereotyped sort of people that the developing world-mind you-part of the developing world that carries heavy pre-conceptualised perceptions on outsiders, especially the West, in particulary USA.

She started her own story in the prologue that she is an American African lady grew up not really in one of the decent likeable areas (Milwaukee-Wisconsin) in USA. While crimes were common for young people as she witnessed, she suggested that even growing up in that sort of areas might already meant a negative social connotations about her background in her own country. And she was frank and honest about it-she never wants her kids to grow up and being sucked in the same bad environment. (It turned out later in her book that despite she worked very hard to provide for her family to move out and ABOVE, her husband felt sort to become a random teenage gun robbery shootings victim when he took their kids back for unversity classmates re-union catch-up. Shocking enough, Ms Motley discovered that the culprit was one of her distant relative on the trail date hearing. The kid didn’t really seem understood the consequences of his actions nor showing any much sense of regrets of what he did.)

For good or bad, the tough environment Ms Motley grew up has been preparing her for the great adventures with the right characters of toughness, boldness, courage and other live surving and professional skills that become essential pillars for later stage of her life. Probably if she wasn’t grow up in such environment and survived through while excelled in her professional career, this book would have never existed because she probably couldn’t handle the tough and challenging environment of building legal capacity of a dangerous country. Adding to Ms Motley’s interesting unusual background is that she was a Mrs Winconsin.  Here is a lady who had battled with where she grew up and became a beauty pageon contest successful candidate for Mrs USA represented her state. A lady one can immediately associates with both musculine sides of characteristic toughness and professional assertion but also fully polished by the congentiality, elegance and beauty of the feminine aspects of a woman. 

Through her descriptions of how she handled and brought sucesses to the cases in the book, these nice marriage of hard and soft attributes truly made a difference-differences of life and death, successes and failures that changed the future of her clients. People who saw her as their life-jackets.

I like that frank, open, easy to read English style in the book. Ms Motley doesn’t pretend that she is a ‘typical superior’ arrogance filled ‘Western experts’ that people perceived towards the Western experts. 

She began her adventures on her own difficulty and predicaments-”I need to earn sufficient money to move my kids out of Milwakee but my humble public prosecutor job doesn’t provide me the money I need. I was already struggling to pay bills by having a second evening teaching jobs to supplement income but here my husband decided to take full time study. Wherever places and jobs that could offer me a ‘way out’ I would consider.” She did. And it was how the stories of the book began. She DID NOT start as many typical Western experts being sent to Afghanistan (or similar parts of the world) because she was at higher starting point.

That was one of the key reasons as she mentioned from time to time in the book she had to stay on to feed her families, especially when her husband was shot in USA, their entire family savings over years of her hard earned works in Afghanistan had been used up mostly. She was faced with scarry HUGE medical bills of her husband that kept her on the treadmill.  In this sense, the feelings is very down to earth. She is not some out of touch pretended experts like her peers who never really stepped outside the typical heavily guarded barracades of ALL Western organisations and complex sites without going out to explore and understand the day to day REAL LIVES of Afghanistan. Sadly, her passions and the genuine professional driving forces for being authentic and down to earth was not much appreciated by some of her employers and peers. In the course of distress and disappointments, she made a very bold and courageous decision to start her own legal pro-bono legal practice. She became the first woman officially practicing legal professions in Afghanistan simultaneously as the first female legal professional from a foreign country. 

Both being blessed as from non-White ethnical background and Ms Motley’s proactiveness in understanding how to maneuouvr around the primative and informative legal and judicial systems of Afghanstan, she is less being perceived as hostile or imperialistic by locals. (She didn’t give herself credits to these but the ways she mentioned in the books senior people all the ways up to President’s office, the Presidents and people within the judicial and tribal systems were willing to meet and listen to her, allowed her to work within and among them fully reflected the reality.) Her communication, negotiation and interpersonal skills (thks to being a Mrs Winsconsin) are valuable assets that enabled her to help her clients in many difficult situations.

As she described the harshness of the challenges she had to deal with and overcome in Afghanistan, she was realistic, pragmatic, flexibile while not giving up hope for future improvements there-though she never say it is a nice fairy tale of sunny days ahead always. In this sense, she is not really fallen into the typical traps of Western countries-too much over or under expectations of what to achieve, get out of and get to because of their fantasy of heroism. Ms Motley had used her creative, flexibility, boldness, passions and extraordinary courage to demonstrate what a ‘hero’ (at least to her clients who she had successfully helped them out-both Afghanistans and foreign clients) very down to earth be prepared to rolled up your sleeves and to sweat and toil constantly.

At the beginning of her journey, she was driven by the desperation to feed her own family but what makes her respectful is that after years of her successful career in Afghanistan, she DEFINTELY has earned very high profile international repuation and goodwill, money and well connections-both internationally and locally back in Afghanistan- that are not comparable to many of her peers. She could have walk herself out of the harsh environment as MANY other typical international high profile foreign experts would have done so already) and make herself ways to earn even more money easier. Yet she chooses to stay. The reasons are clear: she is truly committed to her own passion and the dedication to help the disstressed, oppressed, deseperated and hopeless people-whether they are Afghanistan local people or her other foreign clientele-that sooner or later, one way or the others, somebody will find themselves completely caught up in a lawless primative governance and society environment. 

She is humble enough to see merits and demerits of just applying a Western approach to make the changes in absence of local context. She is prepared to understand how to make out the best legally possible outcomes for her clients WITHOUT compromising her professional integrity (which she insisted that she WOULD NOT play bribe to achieve the ends and she would ALWAYS look at ways within the existing Afghanistan laws, including Islamic laws and legal means within the existing systems to work her clients’ cases out or if not-she failed with integrity or simply walked out decently). She never show she is on ‘upper hands’ to change a country. She sees both what she had learnt from what was and what is within the existing system while bringing the changes to the ecosystem and people’s hearts gradually-probably she might aware of or not aware of the power of transformations she did. 

Persistence.  The book tells how STRONG such persistence becomes pillars of resilience for Ms Motley to stay on her commissioned path without transgression.  How exactly you can feel the strength of a woman? Imagine you work and live ALONE in a foreign place where the ways of life is VERY different from a well organised civilised society.... She described somebody broke into her home turning everything messy (like a typical TV drama or movie) to send her ‘the message’ that “we are unhappy that you took a case that embarassed us or not letting us know (from the most senior level of the government linking to the current President’s office)” in the middle of the night. As a result, she had to stay inside (locked herself up) her car, drove away to a safer street to sleep over and work over the night inside her car until dawn came. In another ocassion, she described she happened to stay in a hotel being attacked by gunfires only that she could manage to be informed of at the last minute. She supposed to be there to relax and had a good bath and some drinks in her little oasis. She literally ran out of her bathroom, still wrapped up in her bathrope, water still dropping from the body when she hid behind some furniture hearing exchanges of gun fires outside the her hotel room at the outside corridor, seeing men running here and there from the windows. And she had to keep ALL these to herself not mentioning anything to worry her family. On the other hand, she was happy to be contacted by her family and connections all around the clock no matther how big or small the matters were. Amazingly, she did not seem to be bother by these mostly in between her lines.

Despite she fought for many legal injustice, she still takes the brunt of victim that easily happens to a successful briliant beautiful gorgeous excellent woman-her own marriage. She didn’t say why her husband and her separated but it isn’t hard to figure out see years of living apart had taken the toll. (Guy! What can you still blame if you just sit COMFORTABLY in USA while your wife fought day and night to bring the LOT of money to feed you and your kids’ in upper middle class lifestyle-the American dream? And that when the guy was wounded and needed HUGE medical bills, the woman was willing to postpone the divorce.) I felt like reading every cases she shared-she probably be an angel sent by heaven to help a difficult country and to her own family. I cannot explain any reason why such determination never shake in years in such dangerous environment and she seemed to be protected divinely. You ask any folk, they would walk out a hundred times, let alone a woman.

I am not going into the details of her cases here because many of her cases shared in the book had probably been long published as international and local media spotlights. However, the person you can read in between lines- that kind of honesty, frankliness and down to the earth that makes a supposed to be ‘typically boring’ full of jardons legal book of bring out justice (actually Ms Motley said it is hard to find justice in a highly injust society, what she strives to achieve is the sense of justness as the best practicable possible outcomes) becomes very interesting to read. I felt like I was reading an adventurous novel of someone’s exotic careers.

At the day when I wrote this book reading-the Trump admin has announced withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan to release the armies to be ready for other difficult parts of the world. Yet, the way for building the capacities of a nation towards a more open modern society in Afghanistan had just begun-and the road is still VERY LONG ahead.  Troops can be witdrawn but the supports and the better approaches to build up the capacities of a country are kids of many long battles. Battling in people’s mindsets and mentality. Battling in finding the right approaches and engagements by wise, tough, humable, flexible, creative and down to earth people like Ms Motley who has commitment to her own passion to pursue possibilities out of the apparently impossibles. 

To the West-if you leave a vaccum, the devil and rogues will find ways to fill the cracks.

“Justness for me entails a common-sense approach to the law. It is about pratical thinking rather than theoratical constructs. I try at all times to take a 360-degree view. The first question is always, “What is going to move this situation forward?” “I can also appreciate the adventures that fighting for justness has taken me on and I am excited about where it will push me to go.”

[redorblue]

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This book has been smiling at me from the bookshop for months, and I’m so glad that I finally took it home because it is amazing. It’s not only beautifully written, but also the most educational book I’ve read in a while. If you haven’t read it, please do, it’s worth every second, and I’ll definitely read something else by her once I’m done with my current tbr-pile. Only very mild spoilers this time, nothing that doesn’t show up on the cover. Yay me.

The synopsis introduces the book as a star-crossed lovers kind of story, but I don’t think that does it justice (I’m not that much into romance, so that assessment isn’t surprising). It is true that the romance brackets the narrative - after a short intro that chronologically belongs to the latter third of the book the story starts of by recounting how the protagonists Ifemelu and Obinze met and fell in love with each other at a high school party in Lagos, Nigeria. From that point it continues more or less chronologically - they go to university, Ifemelu gets a visa to finish her studies in the US, where she’ll stay for the next 15 years, while Obinze tries to build a life for himself in the UK - unsuccessfully, as it turns out, because in the end he’s forced to go back to Nigeria and start over again. Having lost contact long ago, they both try to find their own way, with new partners, new social circles and new plans about what to do with their lives, but when Ifemelu returns to Nigeria and they reconnect, it becomes clear that they were never really gone from each other’s minds.

So yes, the romance is an integral part of the book and works like a guiding threat that keeps the story focused. It’s also very subtle: it was able to pull off this whole soulmate thing without making me cringe once (again, romance really isn’t my thing, I have very low kitsch tolerance and I hate long declarations of undying love. So if you’re looking for romantic candle light dinners, long love letters and rose-coloured glasses, trust me, this isn’t it). The love story isn’t presented through grand gestures and monologues, but rather through shared references, complimentary tastes, a continuous feeling of something missing in their lives, and also through frustrations and less than charitable thoughts about the other’s flaws. It doesn’t feel forced at any point: not during the giddiness of teenage first love or the events that lead to them losing contact with each other; not the way in which they pop up in the other’s thoughts every now and then, usually at a point when they long for home and for the simplicity of times long gone; and not during the rush that is their reconnecting in Nigeria and builds up until the final confrontation. The conflict doesn’t feel artificial, it’s not a storytelling device to create some drama, it’s all there in the characters, which makes this love story feel at the same time incidental and meant to be.

This book has a lot of great characters that represent a wide variety of experiences with being black (or sometimes white/mixed), with being male or female, upper class or not, immigrant or not, and the intersectionality of factors like race, gender and socio-economic background in different places: The US (Ifemelu), the UK (Obinze), and Nigeria (mostly Ifemelu). They are all well thought out and remarkable in their own way (I could write you at least a paragraph about every single named character), but my absolute favourite was the female and main protagonist Ifemelu. Surprising, I know, since protagonists are rarely anyone’s favourite. I’m neither a national of any of the countries mentioned above, nor black, so quite a few parts of her story were more educational and thought-provoking to me than anything else, but there were other parts that felt so very relatable, and probably represent a global experience. The feeling of never being quite sure what to do with one’s life, of overanalyzing relationships, of belonging and not belonging and nostalgia for a romanticized past, of always feeling as if there’s probably more out there - a different partner, a different job, different friends, a different city - those are things that most people have probably felt or done at some point in their lives.  Ifemelu certainly does, and it’s fascinating to see those questions being confronted by a thoughtful, observing character such as her. She’s not as proactive as one might think, looking at her biography - things rather seem to happen to her than the other way around - but her tendency to quietly (over)analyze and her insecurity about the choices she makes and the choices she just kind of slips into all feel so very real. The characters are all great, but I could write entire essays about Ifemelu.

So there’s the aspect of how she faces the world that speaks to me on a personal level. But what really made this book such an intriguing read was everything she had to say about race. I’ve never been to Nigeria or met anyone from there, I’ve never lived in the US or the UK, and I’m white, so the observations the characters make about race and its intersectionality with gender and class were very interesting from an intellectual point of view. I dare say being on tumblr for a while gives you at least a window into African American experiences and issues, and the basic vocabulary for talking about race, but it’s very (very very) US-centric. This book opens up a different perspective: that of an outsider who on the one hand is expected to relate to black Americans, be angry about the same things, demand the same things, behave similarly because of her skincolour - but on the other faces the same issues, the same feeling of separateness from the locals and cultural confusions that every immigrant faces.

One great example of this is this one scene when Ifemelu lets a white woman in the supermarket touch her afro because she doesn’t see any reason not to, while her (American black) boyfriend watches her, stunned and aghast that she would ever let anyone do something so humiliating to her. Or when she’s confused about what she calls “America’s race tribalisms” and how anyone in their right mind can lump together people from an entire continent, with a vast array of colourings and historical experiences, as latinx, simply because they speak Spanish and aren’t from Spain. The examples I cited don’t mean that this book isn’t acutely critical of racism and racial stereotypes - it is. It just criticizes them from a different perspective, namely that of a person from a country where black skin is the norm. It’s funny to see how Ifemelu unconsciously adopts some things the longer she lives in America, like how she begins to feel a kinship with fellow Africans, even though they may be from entirely different countries. At the start of her stay in America, when someone lumped her together with other Africans or started to tell them about this amazing safari they went on in Tanzania 20 years back, simply because Tanzania and Nigeria are both in Africa, she found this pretty weird, and also kind of offensive, but in the end she feels a bond, a kind of loyalty to other Africans with entirely different backgrounds. On the other hand, she makes an active effort not to become americanized completely, e.g. by maintaining her Nigerian accent, and turn into an “Americanah” - someone who moved back to Nigeria from America and only complains about how there are no decent panini or smoothies to be had. She can’t escape it completely, as she has to learn herself once she’s back, which is natural after 15 years abroad, but she certainly tries - which alienates her from yet another group, that of the returnees to Nigeria, in addition to American black people and those Nigerians who stayed.

This book is all about categories, and about belonging. It states clearly that race is one of those categories, and that a certain physical appearance brings with it certain disadvantages or privileges. But it makes equally clear that race can’t be the only tool with which to analyze society and classify people. There is way too much variety with regards to gender, financial means, country of origin etc. to define the one black (or by extension latinx, white, Asian etc.) experience.