After the
New York Times named M.I.A.'s native Sri Lanka one of "
31 Places to Go in 2010," the performer took to her Twitter to protest the paper's decision to support the tourism industry of a national government that killed somewhere in the neighborhood of 100,000 of its own people in a civil war that lasted nearly 30 years. In
one tweet, she wrote "HERE IS THE LUSH COASTLINE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT," linking to a gruesome photo of a recently murdered family. In
another, she said "FUCK NEW YORK TIMES! DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?" with another photo of dead bodies.
I will likely get some shit for this, but if M.I.A. is even halfway justified in her outrage—as I suspect she is—then I recognize that it shouldn't necessarily be solely her responsibility to voice it. But if she's going to continue fighting this fight—and I hope she does—then I really, really wish she would ditch the all-caps thing, and, in situations like this one, perhaps the Twitter thing altogether, in favor of a forum where she can share complete, properly punctuated thoughts, lest she come off like a petulant teenager protesting her curfew.