9 ms·

A native Arabic speaker here, I must say that I admire the courage and innovation of the graffiti artists and activists who chose this medium to protest and con

A native Arabic speaker here, I must say that I admire the courage and innovation of the graffiti artists and activists who chose this medium to protest and convey their message, which needless to say, that I don't necessarily endorse or share the creators' point of view. I have to admit that I haven't seen the show yet not even a single shot and I could say too that I have a very thick skin when it comes to "cultural insensitivities" in TV drama or real life. So, I don't have any problem with media, cinema or drama depicting characters from our region, the Middle East, or ones that share the same cultural background even in very negative and unflattering light. However, I must say that it's really alarming that not even a single person of the whole crew of the show has a 3rd grade proficiency level of the Arabic language to be able to read and grasp a two word phrase, esp. when the show prides itself on offering their audience deep insight into the characters, their mindsets, their psychological profile that they portray on screen, or that is what I at least was able to collect from the scattered and random reviews that I came across online recently. EDIT: For clarification and more input.

mlvljr 11y ago
Same has happened with writings in Russian language for decades -- Hollywood folks seem to not care at all :)
TeMPOraL 11y ago
Hi 'gotchange! Since you speak (and read) Arabic, could you tell what's in the top left corner of that picture[0]? Seems like hashtag-something, but it wasn't mentioned in the article. [0] - http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/16Homeland2-web/16Homeland2-web-superJumbo.jpg http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/1...
- gotchange 11y ago
  This is most likely "جاسوس" which translates primarily to "spy" or "agent" depending on context.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    So it's most definitely a part of the joke. Thanks! :).
- chris_wot 11y ago
  Dammit, why is the reply to this showing as dead?!?
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Probably autokilled because of spam filter false positive. Fixed now, though.
- sanid 11y ago
  "#gasewsew (a reference to the Egyptian Abla Fahita puppet on spying)" thats the caption one of the artists provided on her blog (last photo) [0] [0] http://www.hebaamin.com/arabian-street-artists-bomb-homeland-why-we-hacked-an-award-winning-series/ http://www.hebaamin.com/arabian-street-artists-bomb-homeland...
gopowerranger 11y ago
They DID have someone there. In fact, they hired three guys just for that! And trusted them to do their job properly.
oh_sigh 11y ago
It's courageous to graffiti anti-establishment messages under despotic regimes....it's not courageous to hide a message in a western TV show that you were hired to do work for.
- gotchange 11y ago
  If you want to debate this from an ethical standpoint, you could argue that the artists might have breached the producers' trust when they bombed the location with opposing and negative messages about the show. In an ideal scenario, these artists are encouraged to return the compensation they received if any because they should not benefit financially from their political opponents esp. when the contract was on a bona fide basis but I don't know really the details of the transaction or incident as a whole to be able to give sound advice or assessment of the situation here. As with your argument that anti-authoritarian messages are best suited to despotic regimes, from what I was able to gather about this show, I found that it's very controversial and some people believe that the producers constantly push and glamorize a mass-surveillance state and a clueless, extensive, and all-out Bush's style "War on Terrorism", I guess the artists with their act were in the ballpark of opposing and protesting tyrannical regimes as you put it when they attacked one of the propaganda channels of America's Neo-Conservatives with their political message according to at least the prevailing analysis by the proponents of this stunt.
  - oh_sigh 11y ago
    Yes, they breached trust, but it was not courageous, because there is basically zero chance of any kind of negative consequence for the individual, and any possible negative consequence would be extremely minimal. My point about the courageousness of doing something like that under a despotic regime was not to say that is the only way to be courageous - my main point was that, if your bacon isn't on the line, it probably isn't courageous. For an example within the american system, even though I don't quite agree with all his choices, what Snowden did was courageous, because he had to literally flee the country for what he did.

mlvljr 11y ago

Same has happened with writings in Russian language for decades -- Hollywood folks seem to not care at all :)

TeMPOraL 11y ago

Hi 'gotchange! Since you speak (and read) Arabic, could you tell what's in the top left corner of that picture[0]? Seems like hashtag-something, but it wasn't mentioned in the article. [0] - http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/16Homeland2-web/16Homeland2-web-superJumbo.jpg http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/16/world/middleeast/1...

gotchange 11y ago
This is most likely "جاسوس" which translates primarily to "spy" or "agent" depending on context.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  So it's most definitely a part of the joke. Thanks! :).
chris_wot 11y ago
Dammit, why is the reply to this showing as dead?!?
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Probably autokilled because of spam filter false positive. Fixed now, though.
sanid 11y ago
"#gasewsew (a reference to the Egyptian Abla Fahita puppet on spying)" thats the caption one of the artists provided on her blog (last photo) [0] [0] http://www.hebaamin.com/arabian-street-artists-bomb-homeland-why-we-hacked-an-award-winning-series/ http://www.hebaamin.com/arabian-street-artists-bomb-homeland...

gopowerranger 11y ago

They DID have someone there. In fact, they hired three guys just for that! And trusted them to do their job properly.

oh_sigh 11y ago

It's courageous to graffiti anti-establishment messages under despotic regimes....it's not courageous to hide a message in a western TV show that you were hired to do work for.

gotchange 11y ago
If you want to debate this from an ethical standpoint, you could argue that the artists might have breached the producers' trust when they bombed the location with opposing and negative messages about the show. In an ideal scenario, these artists are encouraged to return the compensation they received if any because they should not benefit financially from their political opponents esp. when the contract was on a bona fide basis but I don't know really the details of the transaction or incident as a whole to be able to give sound advice or assessment of the situation here. As with your argument that anti-authoritarian messages are best suited to despotic regimes, from what I was able to gather about this show, I found that it's very controversial and some people believe that the producers constantly push and glamorize a mass-surveillance state and a clueless, extensive, and all-out Bush's style "War on Terrorism", I guess the artists with their act were in the ballpark of opposing and protesting tyrannical regimes as you put it when they attacked one of the propaganda channels of America's Neo-Conservatives with their political message according to at least the prevailing analysis by the proponents of this stunt.
- oh_sigh 11y ago
  Yes, they breached trust, but it was not courageous, because there is basically zero chance of any kind of negative consequence for the individual, and any possible negative consequence would be extremely minimal. My point about the courageousness of doing something like that under a despotic regime was not to say that is the only way to be courageous - my main point was that, if your bacon isn't on the line, it probably isn't courageous. For an example within the american system, even though I don't quite agree with all his choices, what Snowden did was courageous, because he had to literally flee the country for what he did.