Offending Images (extract)

Brad Butler
Published in Museum of Non Participation edition of the Daily Jang, August 2009

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Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria and the French ministry have, unbeknown to each other, found consensus. Islamic fundamentalist groups have begun to refer to satellite dishes [antennes paraboliques in French] as antennes para dia boliques [devils' dishes] because these dishes allow Algerian residents to view the outside world. Yet in France the same satellite dishes are now the symbol of immigrants - an alien cultural presence, threatening the integrity of French national identity. Replicating the pun of the Algerian fundamentalists these dishes are also referred to as antenne paradiabolique,­ signifiers of trouble [or evil], by the French. In the words of a French Ministry of Social Affairs report: "We risk those with satellite receivers being manipulated by foreign powers, all the more so in that the number of dishes is constantly growing, particularly in the banlieues. In addition, the various channels are broadcast in Arabic, which could undermine years of literacy classes and other efforts at Gallicising these people. Moreover the religious content of certain programmes will probably increase the Islamisation of the banlieues."

Every morning in Karachi we read the local newspapers. This became a pattern. The front pages of the international and local news told us how our day might go. In these troubled times news headlines had direct impact on our sense of freedom around the city. The distance we were prepared to go from home. Most articles were lucid, intelligent, balanced and current, but as the days and opinion cycled past so our interest in these articles waned. After all even a cursory look at a map would raise an eyebrow as to the complexity of Pakistan's neighbours. This is a country where so many [geo] political points converge that their tides are directly played out in people's everyday lives. The pace of daily change piled thoughts on top of one another. When we put this to a learned friend active in Pakistan he laughed and told us that: "To understand Pakistan you must first understand that you cannot rationalise the non rational."

Experiences of cities like Karachi are played out globally through inexhaustible layers of mediation. If we had time, we could interrogate every representation; every word and every image. But we do not have time, instead we are all constantly in the process of making ideological decisions to curtail such discussions, in the interests of getting things done. To put it in a nutshell, we all have the feeling that we are being colonised but we don't exactly know who by. The enemy is not easily identifiable and one can venture to suggest that this feeling now exists globally.

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