whoopee we're all gonna die

and it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for
don't ask me i don't give a damn, next stop is afghanistan
and it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die

(adapted from the wise words of country joe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo#

two conversations

a few weeks ago we went to a movie screening at the hamilton disability pride film festival. i'd heard about it by chance, and almost missed a brilliant film! 'king gimp' tells the story of artist dan keplinger, who has cerebral palsy. the film is an honest documentary of 13+ years of dan's life. though the background music can get a little over powering, the movie is largely shot in an unsentimental matter-of-fact style. in fact dan quite effectually punctures one of the more emo scenes with some bitingly dark humour. dan managed to make it through school, and decided to go on to college to study art. in spite of rejection from some teachers, he makes it through, graduating to a standing ovation. more than just a record of daniel's struggle, the film also effectively speaks of how we can individually make a difference to the lives of others.

around the same time, i was reading 'growing up severely autistic-they call me gabriel' by kate rankin. written about her autistic son, this book gave me a kick-in-the-balls perspective on what it means to be the parent of a severely autistic child. again written with little sentimentality, it is a journal of life with gabriel and the sheer amounts of work it takes to bring up an autistic child, even with physical and financial support from the government. how do parents without that support cope?

all of which brings me to two conversations i had. the first was with a care-giver for an autistic child at the RDA. she mentioned that the child had never been visited by her parents after they gave her up to full time care, which was a few years ago. it quite upset me then, and still does, but after reading this book i think i can understand why some parents would be unable to cope. taking care of an autistic child has a social cost in addition to the already high financial and emotional costs. while some autisic children have special talents to 'make up' for their disability, most (like the rest of us) do not, and are stuck in an internal world that often doesn't make sense to the external one. like many autistic children in aotearoa NZ, gabriel eventually had to move to full time care in an institution set up for the purpose.

the second conversation(s) was with a lady from mumbai visiting family in hamilton, who was paralysed waist down after a gymnastic accident. JA was delighted at the chance to ride (with help) and only got off each day with the greatest reluctance. while she resolutely refused to complain, we spoke of how her sister had to carry her up three flights of stairs back home because the building they lived in didn't have a lift and how difficult it was for her to get around in her wheelchair- apparently even hospitals do not necessarily have disability access. she was working from home, as any trips outside were emotionally and physically fraught. in spite of all this, JA's spirit seemed unbeatable. she was always glad to ride, even when it was in the most extreme cold she had known. she was always ready for a trot and managed to push us, horse and sidewalkers, to do more and do better. i have had the most exercise in the weeks she was here. back in mumbai though, she will be confined to her third floor flat again.

while most of us are (rightly) horrified at the persecution of the disabled that the nazi party unleashed, i sometimes wonder if it is really very different now. we have tucked the disabled away out of sight. our lifestyles make little provision for their needs, and government policy often ignores them. even the human rights organisations seem to have forgotten them, rarely speaking out for disability rights! one of the senior teachers at a special needs school i have just joined pointed out two boys to me, and said that with their behavioural problems, they would have been in jail if they weren't in school. makes one wonder-how many disabled people actually are locked away in jails, institutions or homes? out of sight and out of mind?

watch some clips of 'king gimp' here, and read the first few pages of 'they call me gabriel' here.

"do protests make a difference?"

I am very interested in studies of effective resistance, especially when they apply to India. Seemed like quite a godsend, then, to stumble upon a PhD thesis by Katrin Uba titled "“Do Protests Make a Difference?: The impact of anti-privatisation mobilisation in India and Peru”. While the study is quite specific to the protests by public sector trade unions to the privatisation drives starting in 1991, I dug in with the goal (i admit) of finding generalisations I could use.

Katrin's primary questions in the research are:

1) Which strategies or protest characteristics are most effective in order for a group to achieve its goals?

2) In which social and political environments do protests make a difference?

3) Which mechanisms can be used to explain the success and failure of protest mobilisation?

The (general) answers seem to be:

1) Protests are more likely to get public opinion on their side if they are moderate, and not looking to “overthrow a regime”.

2) Protests that are large or more economically disruptive are more likely to succeed.

3) Direct/threatening protests are more effective than those that try to use persuasive tactics, such as ‘influential people’ inside or close to the system.

4) General public opinion is powerful when elections are near/involved, but not necessarily so otherwise.

5) Protests work better in democratic setups, and are less likely to be met with violence.

A coupla caveats:

1) The “protest” Katrin studies are not single acts of protests, but sustained struggles/movements.

2) In this specific, postponement of privatisation is seen as ‘success’, even though the rhetoric of abandonment of privatisation is the ‘ultimate’ goal. I connect this to what Che’ says in Guerrilla Warfare-only pick battles you can win. Maybe re-defining goals will help win more battles!

All in all a very engaging (as research papers go) read, strongly recommended. Katrin has some fascinating bits of data right through, including, for example, a table of the strategies used by Indian and Peruvian protesters, in percentages!

PLEASE let me know if you think my understanding is faulty, I am willing to be corrected. Post discussion, of course! [grin]

Go here for another summary of this paper.

people's histories

i've been thinking of writing a review/summary of howard zinn’s “a people’s history of the united states”, then realised the wikipedia wiki does a much better job than i could.

what i really like about the book is the perspective-that one need not swallow the ‘dominant’ reading of history (or anything), especially when it is primarily concerned with legitimising, romanticising and reinforcing systems and structures of power. dr. zinn, by his own admission, is not impartial, and looks at american history through the lenses of class conflict. a very fascinating, if often depressing read; though in a speech about the book, zinn says that rather than wasting anger on the past, the point of the book is to throw light on what is happening now, and to draw strength from other people's stories of resistance.

among other iconoclasms, the book tears at wars one still tends to see as "good"-the american war of independence, the american civil war and world war II. his critique of the motives behind these (and other) wars is a potent background for our critiques of wars today. a rather enlightening read, and strangely (for a history book) one that gives you hope for the future.

the most powerful thing i take away from this book, however, is an attitude; best summed in this quote, “Behind every fact presented to the world-by a teacher, a writer, anyone-is a judgment. The judgment that has been made is that this fact is important, and that other facts, omitted, are not important” (Zinn, 2001, p. 658). hmm. now that is worth a think.

here are some reader reviews/opinions of the book and some additional resources, including torrent downloads. (apologies, mr. zinn, what you are saying is way too important for HarperCollins to hold sole rights.)

here is a preview of "Voices of a people's history of the United States", a companion, of sorts, to the main book. this acts like a reference to the main book, and is organised parallel to the people's history.

heroes who will not fight

(the title is a bad remix of dean parker's "the heroes who did not fight")

it's ANZAC day and the TV is full of heroes. i woke up *bloody early to catch a programme about conscientious objectors, only to (finally) be told by dee that i had the AM and PM mixed up. which circumstance, of course led me to google it. 

the image of “pacifists” as cowards of some sort takes quite a beating when you look at history. according to an article by dean parker, there were 4 kinds of objectors: “Christians who took the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" at its word; socialists prepared to fight in a war against capitalism but not one between imperialists; Irish who, understandably, would fight for anyone provided it was against England; Waikato Maori, who found it ironic to be asked to fight for King and country as they had once fought for their own King and lost their country.” the punishment for objection was harsh- “As a consequence of their actions, 2600 conscientious objectors lost their civil rights, including being denied voting rights for 10 years and being barred from working for government or local bodies.” the trailers for the programme suggest some even died of the torture they were put through.

india has never forced people to join the military-there are enough people willing to sign up, often because there are few alternatives. if it ever does come to that, i pray i have the courage and strength to resist, whatever the personal cost may be.

creative resistance!

i love this article. this is the kind of creative, direct action i'd like to be part of. beautiful!
------------------------------------------------------

Standing beside two parked cars, two men in dark baseball hats wait for the signal.

It's broad daylight and nearly rush hour on Bloor. A woman in paint-stained jeans sprints ahead of the men, scanning the street. Another stations herself across the road, surveying the speeding cars for police. The thumbs-up sign is given.

The painting can begin.

Seconds later, a cardboard bike stencil is thrown on the road and the first of seven cans of hot pink paint is emptied on a stretch of Bloor St. W.

"Putting in a bike lane?" asks a teenage girl cycling by.

read the full story here.

murakami illustrated

http://www.blueblanket.net/Steph/Make/Visual/Perfect/index.html

haven't read much murakami, just the one(s) that kabir introduced to me. nice one here though!

participatory economics

http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

more hope!

green schools in a greying world

for a change, here's a story about hope, and not a soppy blind brain dead one either! CSE's work in India has been controversial, but they seem to be among the few organisations who are willing to stand up to both the government and private corporations. as the most hated organisation in india, they must be upto SOME good! lol. much thanks to kishna kumar for this article!

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/09/stories/2007010902810800.htm

the little magazine

http://www.littlemag.com/about/about.html

the best bits, i suppose, will be in the print version, but some rather nice stuff in the web version too! definitely worth a dekho.

Art and Fear

http://skazat.com/justin/currents.cgi/2004/7/26-artandfear.html

this is here becasue i want to read it. and i want to read david bayles and ted orland's "art and fear".

WHEN THE PRIME MINISTER VISITS SHILLONG

linking in to a poem ryan sent me. by a chap from sohra (kynpham sing nongkynrih). no, not all of us are terrorists, you know. we even have poets.

http://india.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?cwolk_id=27673#

reading live

http://poetry.about.com/od/livepoetry/ht/howgivereading.htm

'fraid i stole this handy link from andrew burke's blog. least i can do is link to his, i think. unless he asks me to take it off...http://hispirits.blogspot.com/

indian folk art

http://jigyasa0.tripod.com/folk.html

interesting-ish essay on indian folk art. i've never been a fan, myself...indian art has always been to 'flat' for me tastes. in "a passage to england", nirad c. chaudhuri talks of how the sunlight falls differently in the more northern climes, and how things look more "rounded" because of that. he compares that to india (specifically north india, i think) and how the sun overhead makes things look 'flat'. makes sense t me when i look at indian and english paintings, though i do not know if he had that in mind.

having said that, though, i love cave paintings, and the really raw manifestations of indian folk art-example the worli art. (http://www.craftsinindia.com/folk-art-paintings/warli-paintings/) is a sample.

mamma had a book of dalit poems, transalated from marathi, that had a fantastic piece on the cover. it was a face and hand, and the hand was squeezing out the sun. wish i could find that piece again. am so sick and bloody tired of indian art being so stuck up and gallery based. when will we have a banksy?