Published by THE INFOSHOP NEPAL RADICAL BOOKS & LIBRARY JUNE 2021 with RIS RECORDS BODY & DATA LADIES MOUNTAIN LEAGUE Editor S Rai Designer Bahula Maila Website: https://infoshopnepalorg.wordpress.com/ Email: [email protected] COPYLEFT: It’s really nice to acknowledge those who led us to treasures. I’d like to credit Sampreety, Shubha, or my brother for example. Please use any content from this zine, and if it is one of the links, a quote, a book, music or an idea you THE INFOSHOP NEPAL SELF DEFENSE ISSUE 3 2021 Page 2 of 43 SELF DEFENSE ISSUE 3 2021 THE INFOSHOP NEPAL with RIS RECORDS BODY & DATA LADIES MOUNTAIN LEAGUE Website: https://infoshopnepalorg.wordpress.com/ Email: [email protected] Page 3 of 43 The Revolution is Love 5 Number One 6 Riz 9 Dana & Eran 15 Shubha 19 Mil 25 The Love for an Instrument 35 The Love of Cycling 36 Fuelling our Fire 41 Page 4 of 43 THE REVOLUTION IS LOVE This issue contains experiences and thoughts of people I love - dear friends as well as people I’ve known since I was born, their lives as Asian/ Middle Eastern people of colour who resist. We don’t often get represented by worldwide underground publications, neither are we usually the ones publishing. Many of us may not even be visible on social media, aren’t in exhibitions, workshops, demos, gigs, or in physical spaces where you are. We may be putting food on the table, having to forge partnerships with mainstream entities in order to just survive and pay bills, struggling not to get co- opted, but needing to get paid. Some of us are switching jobs every few months and reinventing ourselves, taking courses in mid-life to add another certificate to get work, trying to keep up with global standards of education as opposed to indigenous, fighting with the mainstream - in Nepal’s case - Brahmin mindsets, sexism, rules of employment, appearance, sensibility and humiliation each day just to be able to stay afloat, make a life, and raise kids in a hostile system. The common factor in these pages are that some of us experience resistance differently - our skin and our surroundings don’t always correlate with the people who, for example usually dominate anarchist or punk history. We do not follow word for word how things have been done in the West because even if we appreciate it, we aren’t from there. For people in Nepal for example, there’s no rights nor justice when the shit hits the fan - you’ll just disappear at the hands of the government. Most of us can’t be as charitable and dish out funds like others can, or barely manage our lives here, but we resist by forming beautiful friendships, creating safe groups or spaces, and making a zine or two to appreciate the wisdom of those we love. Then there are sisters and brothers who left Asia, resisting in other lands. We write our own history, as we do in the following pages. It seems nowadays if you aren’t busy posting stuff online all the time looking like you’re ‘doing something’ - apparently nobody believes you’re doing anything at all. The truth however is that we are here amongst you, even if you can’t see us. As somebody said with that kick ass song written before I was born… ‘the revolution will not be televised’. - S Rai Page 5 of 43 1. NUMBER ONE I talked with a good friend of mine whom I met in 2011 who is an artist and an out trans woman. Age is a professional secret. Growing up/race/gender/personal politics Growing as a person with a Chinese background in Singapore comes with its own set of privileges as the Chinese are the dominant ethnic group there taking up a majority of seats in the government and making all the major decisions that affect all the other ethnic groups. Despite white supremacy existing there as it does everywhere else, where we see many international businesses being directed by white folks, this of course sets the tone of what one can expect out of one's life being a non-white person. That said, it is essential to recognise the privilege of being Chinese there and steps should be taken on an individual, community, national and regional level to dismantle structures of oppression if that is one’s agenda. Easier said than done of course and digging into geopolitics is like opening a massive can of worms. And regarding gender, Singapore being a very straight jacket, ‘business is priority and progress means money’ sort of place, it is definitely not an easy place to be if one isn't hetero-cis normative. Trans people were (and probably still are) completely invisibilized and I definitely didn't meet any trans sisters in the 90s-2000s that were not doing sex work - nothing wrong with sex work of course but there is systemically something wrong when that is the only option one has in life due to one's gender. Neocolonialism in art/music/subculture We only need to look as far as who directs the art institutions and festivals in Southeast Asia (I will limit the scope here otherwise the can of worms is too big and messy) to see that white supremacy is alive and well. And sometimes, what can be difficult is recognising white supremacy in play when the person in question is not white. But white supremacy and Page 6 of 43 patriarchy does exist in many forms and also within many of us, it is a lifelong struggle of disentanglement isn't it? First of all, people need to realise that the Eurocentric point of view isn't the only one around and isn't always the right one. It is just one way of perceiving a very complex situation. Secondly to stop taking up space that isn't theirs, and I don't mean 'give up' space because those spaces were never theirs, it was just taken and assumed to be theirs. Thirdly, to step down and step out of positions of power where they really have no role besides being a continued form of a colonising power. These steps also go out to all the cis-men and women who uphold the patriarchy by the way, they too have lots of blood on their hands. “FIRST OF ALL, PEOPLE NEED TO REALISE THAT THE EUROCENTRIC POINT OF VIEW ISN'T THE ONLY ONE AROUND…” Once a feminist magazine came to interview us, the interviewer was white and the photographer wasn't. Everything went cordially covering themes of feminist issues in music and race. A few weeks later, we met the photographer again by chance and spoke briefly with her about the interview. She told us that after she and the interviewer left our place, the interviewer expressed to her with great surprise that she never thought the photographer would experience racism as she isn't black. Thus we are presented once again with yet another binary, in which a white person's understanding of racism is limited only to black and white, but the daily racist experiences of brown folks of Asian descent are invisibilized. Where you live/how you feel as an ethnic/gender minority I currently live in Berlin, it is awful here on both counts. Despite the reputation as an open, liberal and progressive city that Berlin has, and in comparison to many other places it does live up to that reputation, but Page 7 of 43 that is just one very small part of the society here and it is still a very Eurocentric bubble. The main difference psychologically and socially that you feel better about being more woman than man Psychologically I definitely feel more at ease with myself though socially it is pretty awful to be a trans woman hahahahaha Toxic masculinity is everywhere (even in anarchist or underground scenes). Would it help vast populations of men who wish to control their own compulsive violent, masculine, or sex-obsessed behaviour, if they took hormone therapy? That is a wonderful experiment and one that could have some positive outcomes! I definitely do think it is quite helpful for cis people to take the hormones of the opposite gender for a short period of time, maybe 6-12 months, as I can tell you from experience it really helps one understand very intimately the inner workings of the different shades of the gender spectrum. Preoccupations of your mind lately How to continue surviving in conditions that are leading to our extinction. Tracks you blast out to make you want to rock the world or feel better I would put all tracks from Angkanang Kunchai actually hahaha but OK, I'll just put one from her. 1. Lam Sarawan - Angkanang Kunchai 2. Không Bao Giờ Quên Anh - Thanh Tuyền 3. Mother Jhan Who Cures People - Bobadin Page 8 of 43 2. RIZ From South Asia but grew up in Hong Kong; lived on a diet of Western hardcore/punk as well as mum and dad’s Desi music; been in bands for over two decades and continues to see limited representation of Asians in a scene purporting to celebrate misfits; created the forum Unite Asia, a monster site that acts as an encyclopaedia of all current bands and releases from our side of the world, put together by someone from our side of the world. Hi Riz, when and where were you born? What’s up! Though I’ve lived in Hong Kong my whole life, I was actually born in Karachi, Pakistan back in 1976.