Strangers in the Night: CKUT Benefit An Evening of Performances, Presentations and Politics

When a stranger strolls into your home, uninvited and unannounced, you tend to react. When that very same stranger insists on asking lots of questions, rearranging belongings, and in effect, telling you what to do, that reaction might take on dark overtones.

The war correspondent walks into people's homes every day. He asks his questions, probes his surroundings and alters them constantly with his thoughts and words. How are we to receive him?

Never before have journalists been so targeted in the world. Last year alone there have been forty-seven outright killings of journalists. This is by no means a characteristic norm of journalism, but rather a direct result of the mainstream media's coverage on war. It is the stranger who blasts his way through your front door, that asks all the wrong questions (occasionally coming up with his very own answers) and it is the stranger who does so in full view of a cocked, loaded, and ready to fire foreign unit dressed in army uniforms.

In times of war the media takes on grand proportions. It is the means through which the world is informed, it is the lifeline of millions of working minds, and it is the creator of reality. To those who don't know any better, fact, reality, and entertainment are all wrapped up in a pleasant half-an-hour news package-with commercials.

Media, War & Occupation

On a chilly Sunday evening, April 9, a crowd of activists, artists and professionals gathered at La Sala Rossa, a hall awash in maroon walls and shadowy corners in Mile End. It was gradually filled with avid listeners, energetic fans and the occasional journalist who gathered to attend the annual CKUT Radio 2006 Funding Drive.

This year the theme was "Media, War and Occupation, from Afghanistan to Iraq" and the event featured talks by Jooneed Khan, an international affairs reporter at La Presse, and Sonali Kolakhtar, a women's rights activist, as well as performances by the Narcisyst of the Euphrates, an Iraqi hip-hop artist, and the soothing melodies of the Oud instrument, played by the Hassan al-Hadi band.

The Bad Guys

Jooneed Khan has witnessed the realities of war on a people under occupation first hand. He was in Baghdad in 1990 and again in 2003 where several times, both before and after the American invasion, he witnessed the plight of a citizenry that has been bombarded continuously for over a decade. He has spoken to families, taxi drivers and strangers, so reporting and collecting information from the locals, whom he stresses are an essential part of any real story.

A quiet looking, inquisitive man, he described how the mainstream media only entered Baghdad on the heels of the army. He explained that the notion of "embedded journalists" is a product of World War II, when reporters lived and travelled with the army. Now the select few, mainly corporate media correspondents, witness events through the lens of American war machines. One can only assume that they report accordingly.

"We are the bad guys now" he said, sadness filling his eyes. He told of the "completely staged"-and globally broadcast-fall of Saddam's statue as it occurred before his eyes. His story revealed that the crowd was airlifted into the square to pose for the millions of viewers around the world who would be mesmerized by the image of Iraqi's celebrating the onset of occupation and the symbolic fall of a towering tyrant.

"The U.S. has turned us into beggars."

Sonali Kolakhtar, a pleasant and sincere woman who has lived in the

United States for many years, delivered a passionate statement about the situation of women in Afghanistan, the role of the media and the absolute mess that Western interference has created there.

She described Afghanistan as being "used, abused and abandoned by the international community," a claim she backed up with facts of media coverage since the invasion and the distinct increase in drug production. "The people didn't want the Taliban, they didn't want Western occupation and they didn't want the Northern Alliance-the warlords who are in power now."

With clarity and conviction, Sonali spoke her mind to an attentive, highly enthusiastic Montreal crowd. Her voice occasionally rose along with her emotions, and her accusations fell upon the ears of a Canadian audience concerned about their country's role in Afghanistan-the importance of which was only enhanced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's choice of Kandahar as his first foreign trip.

She compared the roles of the American forces to those of the Canadian, who have announced that they shall be taking leadership of the operations in the battle-ridden territory. This is NATO's first

adventure outside the lands of its member countries and a real test of its raison d'être. Sonali, who is the host of Uprising Radio in Los Angeles, said "let's be very clear-the U.S. is in charge, the U.S. is

making policy; and Canada will follow."

Awareness, Responsibility and Reflection

The media's role in shaping reality is a great responsibility, but it is also a great tool. Sonali Kolakhtar explained to the crowd her notion of "silence as a propaganda tool," where she cites purposeful silences in the media as a way of sidelining certain issues. The plight of Afghani women is but an example.

The CKUT event eventually led to a night of conversation, music and a general sense of cultural awareness. The Narcisyt of Euphrates sang his heart out in a series of songs filled with Arabic words, religious references and nationalistic statements as the night was brought to a close with the oud and percussion band Hassan Al-Hadi. The mood quickly changed from the fact spewing speeches of experienced activists to the artistic expression of the young.