THE ARTICLES:
"Anger Over a Film Fuels Anti-American Attacks in Libya and Egypt"
by David D. Kirkpatrick
September 11, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/world/middleeast/anger-over-film-fuels-anti-american-attacks-in-libya-and-egypt.html
"Turmoil Over Contentious Video Spreads"
by Nasser Arrabyee, Alan Cowell, and Rick Gladstone
September 13, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/14/world/middleeast/mideast-turmoil-spreads-to-us-embassy-in-yemen.html
"Google Has No Plans to Rethink Video Status"
by Claire Cain Miller
September 14, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/
THE GIST:
In response to a 14-minute video trailer for the amateur American-made film "Innocence of Muslims," which depicts the prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, homosexual, and a child molester, anti-American riots have spread throughout the Middle East. Protestors attacked the American embassy in Libya, killing the American Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on the 11th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in New York. Visual depictions of Muhammad are forbidden according to Islam. In Yemen, protesters stormed the American embassy, destroyed its computers, burned cars, and torched an American flag. 5 Yemenis were killed in the process by Yemeni security forces. Protests in Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia were met with tear gas from police. In Iran, a group of about 500 gathered outside the Swiss embassy, which handles American affairs in Iran, chanting "Death to America!" In Afghanistan, President Obama was burned in effigy. Google has decided not remove the YouTube video, despite a request from the White House to consider doing so. Google has determined that the video does not violate its rules against hate speech. 72 hours of video content are uploaded to YouTube every minute. The company only reviews the content that is flagged by users or if it receives a government request to remove videos that break national laws. As an American company operating in over 100 countries, YouTube values freedom of expression and speech, but must comply with the laws of the countries in which it operates. On Friday, YouTube released a statement about the video saying, “We’ve restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia as well as in Libya and Egypt given the very sensitive situations in these two countries." The film was made in California, and its cast has reported being duped about its content while filming, as many offensive lines were dubbed afterward in post-production. The filmmaker has been questioned by police but not arrested.
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| Protestors burn an American flag in Libya |
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| Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens |
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| Protestors storm the American Embassy in Yemen |
THE POEM:
Risky Business
three days worth of
voices make me
more schizophrenic
by the minute
voices that are shrill
voices that say kill
voices that launch careers
voices that breed fear
voices that teach
voices that preach
voices that poke fun
voices that call for guns
voices that make you want to bump 'n grind
voices that make you want to lay down and resign
voices that react
voices that dish out the facts
voices that pray
voices that slay
voices that shoot
voices that loot
voices that make you laugh
voices that call out the riff raff
voices that desecrate
voices that celebrate
voices along the spectrum
of human expression
make me a bipolar
kind of Tube
I tell you to call me, maybe, one minute
I tell you to leave me, definitely, the next
undo the locks of my engine
and you'll find freedom of speech
unlock freedom of speech
and you'll find the chemical elements
to manufacture freedom of fists
in Libya I spark binary tears
in Yemen my wires kneel down to pray
in Cairo my code crumbles in the fire
in California I vow to stay
I force a man into hiding
nations into fighting
I burn cars and an effigy
you can manipulate me
it's not MeTube after all
You want to riot
I'll be the lube
I prefer the sneezing pandas
and babies' first steps
to the madness
I've made go viral
I inhale and ask myself
is this real life
as a man chanting Death To America
approaches with a knife
all because one of my voices
made Muhammad speak
made him look mean
made him look weak
it wasn't right
it wasn't well-done
it wasn't art
it wasn't meant to poke fun
it was incendiary
and now I am full of smoke
I spread my hate speech flames
to counties you don't want to stoke
license to hate
you have license to say
you pledge your allegiance
to the KKK
here in my hometown you have
license to detest
you can hurl insults and sharp words
you can segregate yourself
into neighborhoods by race or wealth
but here in my hometown
there is a line drawn
not in the sand
where it can wash away
not in the ground
which can shift with the plates
not in the water
which will evaporate
it is in the DNA of our souls
the contract we sign at birth
the words that we speak
must reside in the air
or in bodies of peaceful protest
they cannot load guns
or slingshots or bows
they cannot bind bodies to fences
because the code says so
the voices are innumerable
their opinions are divisive
and my mind doesn't feel
beautiful
this very minute
three days worth of smiles
are entering my body
the very next
three days worth of gunshots
will deafen my ears
here in my hometown
they can handle my madness
but I am not everyone's
cup of tea
I am a hundred cultures
at the same time
and it is
risky business
I am sorry for certain parts of myself
but mostly I am not
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