No Freedom for Donkey Satirists

Friends of two detained internet activists in Azerbaijan sang and wept in the street outside court yesterday after their appeal for release was dismissed. Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli were arrested for ‘hooliganism’ after allegedly being involved in a fight in a restaurant in the capital, Baku, but their friends believe they were targeted for their use of online media like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to build support for pro-democracy youth groups in this oil-rich but politically intolerant country. This satirical video, featuring a talking donkey, is the most celebrated example. There’s more on their activities in the OL! Movement blog, while their case has become an international issue partly due to their own networking skills and the mainstream media's post-Iran obsession with online culture, but also thanks to the tireless work of other bloggers, like the team at Global Voices Online.

I'm in Baku to cover the case for Al Jazeera, and people working in what remains of the independent media here in Azerbaijan have been telling me they are increasingly nervous about who the authorities might target next. This is a country where critical journalists have often been jailed, assaulted and even killed, where international broadcasters have been forced off the airwaves, and where television is relentlessly pro-government. Now anti-government bloggers have received what some of them perceive to be a warning not to step out of line too often.

It's a bit of an embarrassment for any country to be seen to be jailing someone for dressing up in a donkey costume. But Azerbaijan’s interior ministry insists that this is just a case of “simple hooliganism” which should not be politicised, and has warned foreign embassies in Baku to stop complaining about the arrests. The two young activists could receive prison sentences if they're ultimately convicted; there’s an innovative online ‘video petition’ for their release here.

Pop Patriots Sing for Victory

Can pop videos offer an insight into the political psychology of a nation? Here are some thoughts from my column in The Moscow Times:

On a cross-country train journey from Georgia’s Black Sea resort of Batumi last week, video monitors relayed a constant blare of Caucasian pop to distract passengers and their fractious infants from the humidity and tedium of the seven-hour trip to the capital, Tbilisi. But amid the videos’ chirpy choruses and dancing girls, there were also unsettling echoes of the conflicts which have consumed this nation.

Most Georgian music videos are resolutely low-budget affairs, as one would expect in a small, impoverished country. One particularly rudimentary clip screened on the train depicted three young lads prancing around clumsily in front of pink psychedelic curtains in what looked like their parents’ living room. Others inevitably featured a cast of scantily-clad disco-dollies and ludicrously-attired rappers; aspiring post-Soviet Eminems and 2Pacs comically imitating American hip-hop choreography.

But there were also patriotic clips with distinctly martial themes. One of them – made before last year’s war with Russia - showed a Georgian starlet in a tight-fitting uniform crooning for the troops at a military base, urging them onwards as army choppers swooped low over the stage. In another, corpses on a battlefield mouthed the lyrics as a rapper rhymed about winning back Abkhazia and South Ossetia while simultaneously offering the people of those disputed regions “love, friendship and unity”.

A video made in 2007 as part of an ill-fated Georgian campaign to peacefully oust the Moscow-backed South Ossetian leader, Eduard Kokoity, also appeared desperately naïve from a post-war perspective. The clip ends with footage of the South Ossetian strongman smiling and waving goodbye; tragically ironic in hindsight, because it was ethnic Georgians who were ultimately forced out of the enclave, while Kokoity consolidated his grip on power.

The most lavish Georgian productions of recent years have mostly been made for political purposes: President Mikheil Saakashvili’s election campaign video, ‘Misha is Cool’, or opposition hero Utsnobi’s clip depicting Saakashvili as a lascivious, brutal emperor. Neither of these was being shown on the Batumi-Tbilisi train; nor, unfortunately, was Anri Jokhadze’s ‘Happy Nation’, which hilariously lampoons some of the key players in Georgia’s current political stand-off between government and opposition. It may not be subtle, but in these uncertain, conflict-weary times, Jokhadze’s warped satire is an antidote to the delusional sermons of the pop propagandists.

Altered State - New Edition

A new, updated edition of my first book, Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy Culture and Acid House, is published today by Serpent's Tail. This is what the publishers' blurb says about it:

From its first publication in 1997, Altered State established itself as the definitive text on Ecstasy and dance culture. This new edition sees Matthew Collin cast a fresh eye on the heady events of the acid house ‘Summer of Love’ and the rave scene’s euphoric escalation into commercial excess as MDMA became a mass-market narcotic.

Altered State is the best-selling book on Ecstasy culture, using a cast of memorable characters to track the origins of the scene and its drug through psychedelic subcults, underground gay discos and the Balearic paradise of Ibiza, to the point where Tony Blair was using an Ecstasy anthem as an election campaign song.

Altered State critically examines the ideologies and myths of the scene, documenting the criminal underside to the blissed-out image, shedding new light on the social history of the most spectacular youth movement of the twentieth century.

Reviews:

‘Written with such wit, verve, empathy and profound intelligence. I can't recommend this marvellous piece of work enough’ Irvine Welsh

‘Altered State is not just timely; it was crying out to be written’ Independent