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| Embarrassingly, I think I must have been all of these people at some point except for the last one. Damn my instinct for politeness. |
Enjoyed the comic? good!
"Now let's get serious" as my high school civics teacher used to say (She also said "Don't scratch the chairs" but I digress)... Click the 'Read More' to continue.
Two years ago, when the world was going Soccer World Cup crazy as Timbuktu earned a basket for shooting a hole-in-one past the umpire (Okay, I'm not exactly sure what happens in Soccer except that they wear shorts); I chanced upon this interview of the rapper Knaan. Now this video created a germ of a thought in my head, which settled down in a nice corner of my Temporal Lobe, got lost, ran into a few rowdy WB Cells high on cerebral fluid, was pressured into drinking, became a hobo and finally resulted in the above comic.
Two years ago, when the world was going Soccer World Cup crazy as Timbuktu earned a basket for shooting a hole-in-one past the umpire (Okay, I'm not exactly sure what happens in Soccer except that they wear shorts); I chanced upon this interview of the rapper Knaan. Now this video created a germ of a thought in my head, which settled down in a nice corner of my Temporal Lobe, got lost, ran into a few rowdy WB Cells high on cerebral fluid, was pressured into drinking, became a hobo and finally resulted in the above comic.
But the phrase that started it all, was Knaan talking about a teenage Somali Pirate that had been captured and brought to the US for trial:
AMY GOODMAN: Did you follow the young man who was brought here?
K’NAAN: Yes, yeah. I mean, it was just a sad thing to witness, you know. You can — as a Somali, you’re watching the cultural nuances of his arrival, you know. And, like, he’s smiling, you know what I mean? And a lot of people thought, “What is he smiling about?” in America. But he’s Somali, and he knows that it’s not — the world is watching, and it’s not polite for him to just be gloomy, even though he understands he faces major issues. He’s a teenager. That’s the best he can do, is smile and, you know.
Somehow, the image of a miserable Somali kid smiling just because someone was taking his picture stuck with me after all those years. I knew what he was talking about because it's an Indian habit too, that act of reverence for the camera. I don't know where I'm going with this or even how it's related to the comic, but if something sticks with you for so long and still maintains it's poignancy, it's probably worth sharing.
So there you go world. If you're confused, that's probably because I am too.
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