People in the United States may have just recently started noticing music artist M.I.A. for her hit single "Paper Planes". However, the country of Sri Lanka has put all their hopes on this one revolutionary. M.I.A., who's real name is Mathangi Arulpragasam, is the daughter of a activist and militant father named Arul Prgasam. Arul became famous for forming the group, Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students. EROS main goal was to analyze Tamil issues and recruited Sri Lankan Muslims to help them be trained in military and guerrilla warfare.
M.I.A. has praised her fathers efforts to fix the rival politics between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the right-wing United National Party. The two parties have put Sri Lanka into a country that is now considered to be universally suffering. Both parties have been known to violate human rights and be politically corrupt. This long lasting suffering has put a serious depression onto the citizens of the small island country.
M.I.A. has done her best at representing her country and raising awareness through her music. She has just recently landed on the mainstream with a few hits from her latest album, Kala. Her song Paper Planes talks about her problems in getting a visa to work in the United States due to the fact she was from a country currently in war. The song pokes fun of the United States border control for them seeing her as a terrorist. Some lyrics read "all i wanna do is ....(gun shots), and take your money". The gun shots represent how the border saw her and that she would be stealing American jobs.
M.I.A. first became popular in Sri Lanka and through her spray paint stencil pictures that displayed images of the Tamil rebellion movement in Sri Lanka. She also created a film about the life of a 19 year old girl living in Sri Lanka, but failed to get it filmed anywhere outside of the country. However, the people of Sri Lanka started to take notice of this artist who was obviously involved in the politics and human rights of the country she was raised in.
When she came to the United States and started doing festival tours, M.I.A. spoke publicly about the trouble that Sri Lanka was facing. At the 2007 Coachella festival in California, M.I.A. announced to the crowd that "There will be more bridges built between the United States and developing countries." The crowd applauded with much enthusiasm. She also proclaimed that since nobody will listen to the starving African kids who cry for help from developed countries, that she would starve along with them until some body's voice was heard.
The people of Sri Lanka praise her. She has given 60% of all her record sales earning to providing aid to Sri Lanka. At her concerts, during her song 20 dollar, she puts out a donation barrel and it all goes to help Sri Lanka kids. Her music, now becoming popular, is finally hitting more people and teaching them of the troubles that Sri Lanka and other developing African countries are going through. Sri Lanka has praised M.I.A. and her family for years, and hopefully for years to come.
http://www.lankatimes.com/fullstory.php?id=12748
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23399805/mias_unexpected_smash
