Wednesday 23 January 2013

Free Palestine Stickers

Source(google.com.pk)
Free Palestine Stickers Biography

Something about all these 'Free [insert global south occupied place here]' slogans totally freaks me out! What's with all these hippie granola soccer moms smacking 'free tibet' stickers on their subaru outback bumpers and hipsters sewing 'free palestine' patches onto their ironic purple american apparel hoodies. First of all, last I checked hipsters by definition are not politically engaged! Perhaps the palestine patches are preferable to the hipsters-wearing-keffiyehs phenomenon, a fad which I'm fairly certain has in and of itself caused Yasser Arafat to turn over in the grave and throw down the olive branch. Yet even if we could put aside the problems associated with wearing someone else's national symbol for style and decorating your wardrobe with political slogans just for kicks, I would still have questions!
Free Palestine! Free Tibet! Free Hawaii! What does it mean?! Are these phrases meditating on a far-off ideal or are they advocating for some action? Is it a command to the reader like "Hey you! 'Free Tibet'! Now!"? Who would be doing this freeing? I mean, let's face it, American operations to free other people don't have a great track record! Operation Enduring Freedom anyone? The same people who buy 'Free Tibet' stickers to decorate their hip and sustainable nalgene water bottles would probably be totally freaked out by a support-our-troops-ribbon clad pick-up truck sporting 'Free Iran' stickers. The American government invaded Iraq in the name of freedom, and yet now we hear cries of 'Free Iraq', meaning to free Iraq from the violent American colonial occupiers. To hell with good intentions (I don't really think the government had many good intentions in the case of invading Iraq, but i do love Ivan Illich so wanted to throw that phrase in)!
So, perhaps while carefully applying the new 'Free Palestine' sticker to the prius, we can also be thoughtful about whose indigenous struggle we are talking about. What does freedom really look like? Who gets to define freedom? Who should decide how to create freedom? And once you've thought through all of that and thought about how to best take action and actually do something, what is the need for the sticker? To raise awareness for change? Then you might as well be more specific than just "Free Palestine". How about "Zionism is racism", or "Obama stop funding Israeli war crimes" or a simple "Fuck you colonial occupiers"? Seriously! The Free [insert global south occupied place here] slogans are just a little too granola for me. If your purpose is just for image or to be stylin, I bet the Kardashians can provide ample information on how to be stylish without exploiting free-the-third-world slogans in the name of fashion. If that doesn't do it for you, perhaps you would like one of these t-shirts?
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers
Free Palestine Stickers

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