mia the tiger’s daughter uxeta labrit
We’ve read a lot about Maya Arulsalpragam, M.I.A. (Missing In Action). The title of her first record, Arular, honours her father’s nickname. Her father is the leader of the Tamil Freedom Tigers from the north of Sri Lanka. Arul Pagasam, Arulur. Maya Arusalpragam’s life is full of nicknames and hidden realities. Her father has been in hiding for decades, and her family has always lived under threat. This has caused her family to take special security measures. When she was small, they told her that her father was dead, and that the man who made the odd nocturnal visit was her uncle. That uncle was Arular. That said, they couldn’t put up with that type of lifestyle for long and she has lived in London as a refugee since childhood. The imagery and iconography she uses on her record and in her video are her own. And in today’s global anti-terrorist world, she certainly cuts a striking figure that’s not backing down. She’s had her handful of trouble with the imagery and lyrics she’s come up with. It’s clear that the daughter of a guerrilla bomb expert is going to attract more attention than a Hollywood actor and the Official Left when she says stuff like “Terrorism is a method, but the American Government has lumped all the independence groups, revolutionists and freedom fighters in to the same sack, as if they were the same thing as terrorists, and their fight against terrorism in the world causes more damage than the one they’re supposed to be fighting.” MIA is believable. She takes stock of her life and her lyrics go way beyond the clichés- You can sense the tigress hidden in the beautiful body clothed in the latest fashions. It’s hard for us to put aside the fact that marketing revolution really helps to shift units, but doubts aside, there’s one thing that can’t be denied this tigress: anybody who listens to her music and doesn’t want to move is either not alive or doesn’t deserve to be.
