This was the decade where nobody wanted to confront the difficult truths of climate change — that in fact, nobody knows if it can be stopped and if it can, then the biggest problem is population control. Meanwhile, I’m sorry for all you suckers who’ve never visited the Maldives. I’ve been there, and it’s beautiful.

I was browsing one of my favorite blogs by Sean Jacobs and came across this commercial. I found it disturbing and in need of no comment. Then, I started reading through the lists of comments that other youtube viewers had added. People obviously feel very emotional about the commercial, but most seem to think it is racist against white people. (I never quite understood being racist against white people . . .but I guess the forced brevity of the youtube comment doesn’t leave enough room for that much needed explanation).

Then I come across this comment:

British Muslim artist Sarah Maple has created some controversial pieces which question the boundaries in art, censorship and religion.

Maple states that the aim of her work is: “to give my audience food for thought. I believe comedy is a great tool to achieve this, which is why I choose to portray my conceptual ideas through a light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek approach”.

Is her art opening up taboo areas to alternative discourses? The sort of imagery she uses is bound to cause controversy however does it easily fall into a dominant critical discourse, such as the assertion that Islam is inherently oppressive? Does her being a woman brought up in Islam allow her to criticise Islam in a way that would be denied other artists?

Hello all, the Future shorts, short film festival will be playing at the ‘screen on the green’ in Islington on the 26th of Feb. The highly esteemed reading collective usually convening on a Thursday will be uprooted from its usual home at the IOE to attend what is billed as: “Future Shorts takes a look at love and sex in all its twisted forms in an all new selection of the world’s finest short films. Featuring Sundance 2009 winner ‘Lies’, Chen Kaige’s BAFTA and Golden Palm-winning ‘Zhanxiou Village’, something special from the legendary Abbas Kiarostami and much more.

There will be a reading provided by the dictator that will be discussed afterwards in the comfort of one of upper st fine drinking establishments. I will be procuring some tickets on Saturday but otherwise book early to avoid displacement.

A long-neglected focus in media studies has been the role sexuality and gender play in the constitution of media practices and representations. While queer studies and feminism have made inroads into film and cultural studies, gender, sexuality and ‘sexualness’ still remain remarkably absent in global media studies and even more so when we look at media in Asia and Africa. This absence is rather striking as arguably many of today’s most visible media practices involve ‘sex’ in one form or another: whether this has to do with the moral panics around new technology in India, the complex role women’s sexuality has in the Middle Eastern politics to the significant role online pornography has had in the evolution of the Internet globally.