M.I.A.

The song of the day is Borders by English singer, songwriter, director, and rapper M.I.A. (Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam).

Maya was born in London but was raised in Sri Lanka during a fierce civil war that lasted 25 years. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans left the country to escape the violence. Maya’s English birth certificate enabled her and her mother to return to England as refugees. Maya learned English quickly, completed primary and high school, and eventually earned a degree in fine art, film, and video in June 2000 from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.

Maya points out that the West’s film and music industries have long promoted a vision of life in the West that is very attractive to people trapped in difficult places around the world. Many of those people have decided, “Okay, yeah, I want the dream.” In a recent interview, Maya asked, “If the West is so deliberate in promoting its brands and is using art and culture to inspire people’s dreams, how can the West then turn people away?”