Saying Bye-Bye to "Hi"

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The U.S. State Department has launched Hi, a glossy, Arabic-language magazine intended to "build bridges of communication" between Arabs and the United States. Described by its editors as a non-political, lifestyle magazine, "Hi" features happy talk about topics such as sand-surfing, Internet dating, rock climbing and yoga. Elliott Cola and Chris Toensing point out, however, that "Hi's process of presenting its content as non-political involves a significant amount of repression and revision." For example, its stories on collaborations between Western and Middle Eastern musicians have omitted mention of the political messages included in many of those musicians' song lyrics. Likewise, its version of a poem by Palestinian-American Suheir Hammad actually rewrote Hammad's poem, deleting more than half of it to eliminate its forthright anti-racist, feminist politics.