Hear That Holy Sound
You see what is in you if you look for it. Traveling the world for the last 12 years I have felt it. Each day is the best day these days…at the age of 70.
World Watching And Politics
Hanging In Bangkok
Doug’s 45th birthday is today but he is in Chiang Mai and I am wishing I were with him to celebrate his 45th. I sing Happy Birthday when he calls in the morning. “Oh quit it!” he says. π
As for me, people seem to be looking curiously at my clothes I acquired in the islands. At least I think it’s my clothes they are looking at. lol Thais are usually curious about my wild curly hair…natural as it is.
This week in Bangkok, my VX50 Guesthouse only had a room on the 3rd floor so I moved to the Imm Fusion Hotel a bit up the road on Sukhumvit near the On Nut Skytrain exit. It’s fine and has an elevator. Doug will join me for a few days here before we take off for the States. So I’ll just cool out and meet up with a couple people who live here who I met through Facebook and one I met and hung out with in Chiang Mai. And Jiraporn…my friend who teaches fisheries at Kasetsart University. And of course my Yellow Shirt friend. Oh and I can’t forget Leila from Australia who I traveled with in Lao and Thailand and then met up with again in Las Vegas several years ago.
Anxious to get Jiraporn’s take on the weird current political machinations occurring in Thailand with anti-government (but mostly anti-corruption) protesters clogging up the intersections and trying to “ShutDown Bangkok” in a bid to force the Thaksin regime out of power. Good luck with that, I say. Bangkok is a big place. But people are losing patience with seven huge 8 lane intersections closed. It is a party atmosphere. A huge stage is set up at each one with music groups playing to keep the attention of protesters in between video speeches by the leaders. Vendors abound along the “walking” streets selling everything they usually sell including Shut Down Bangkok and The People Of The King T-shirts adorned with the Thai character for the 9th Dynasty King.
The boys’ dad is still living in Pattaya Thailand. Here he is with his Bingo Bango Bongo Golf Club buddies in Pattaya. 2nd from the end on the right. We meet in Bangkok one weekend to talk taxes and kids.
Back To Bangkok
Well, the media had hyped the violence over the poll on Feb 2 which Yingluk introduced in an attempt to mollify people and stop the protests. These were at my On Nut skytrain headed downtown.
So Bangkok hotels are pretty empty…including my VXTheFifty guesthouse. But I was welcomed back by the proprietors and the maids as an old friend.
There have been some shootings in isolated areas with, I think, about 6 people killed but of course the media hypes it up and travellers are avoiding Bangkok. Well, good for me but bad for business and the people who live and work here. Thailand is really taking big losses again as they did in 2010 when I was here when the upcountry pro-government “Reds” were demonstrating. Over 90 people were killed in that mess so guess Thailand isn’t doing so bad this go-around. So far anyway.
The protesters led by Suthep, an old politico with an agenda of his own, tried to interrupt the voters from voting so of course the opposition was accused of being against democracy. Only 45% of the people showed up at the polls with many giving a “No Vote.” But the poll stations were disorganized and many didn’t have poll takers so they weren’t even open. Now the anti-government Democrats will take it to the courts to have the poll annulled claiming that it was unlawful in the first place.
Sutep promises he will keep leading the protests until Yingluck steps down. On top of all that twitter was abuzz with the fact that when Yingluck voted in a high profile photo shoot she stuck the ballots in the wrong box. Nobody typically said anything at the time. Only in Thailand.
Impressions…Thai Politics
Meanwhile I try to track Thai politics so I know which intersection and skytrain exit to avoid. My Yellow Shirt friend feeds me information. My Thai friend who is a professor of fisheries at Kasetsart University issues warnings. I scour Twitter and read the ThaiVisa alerts on my local phone.
The middle class has finally risen. People from Bangkok and the rubber workers in the south continue with hundreds of thousands of whistling anti-government demonstrators scattered throughout the city. The whistles are deafening and remind me of the unceasing cicadas in the spring in Oaxaca. The Reds, supporting the ruling party with Thaksin’s sister as the puppet Prime Minister, have been instructed (I assume by the exiled Thaksin who is holed up in Dubai) to remain cooped up in the stadium to avoid clashes.
Politics in Thailand is inscrutable to the outsider but also to most Thais themselves. Speculation abounds in the alternative press and on twitter. Mainstream press of course is all government controlled. But by the end of December it certainly looks like Thailand is headed for more violence or at the least a silent coup to get the ruling regime out. The poor countryside Reds from the rural north who are the majority argue…but the ruling party was elected! Well, an election with votes and a leadership bought off by the wealthy Thaksin does not a democracy make. I’m convinced by looking at both Mexico and Thailand…and the lack of effort by governments to upgrade the education systems…that the oligarchies do not want people to be educated or informed. They may revolt…as many people have around the world where consciousnesses have been raised and information made accessible by social media.
Wondered around in the Silom district at the Saladaeng skytrain exit. I forgot how much I liked the area. Stopped to buy a whistle on a side soi from an anti-government seller for my friend. An article had just been written in the NYT comparing the situation of Thailand to the Ukraine. As if that wasn’t insulting enough, the US Ambassador to Thailand had just issued a statement…that sounded like a warning…to the people of Thailand to please avoid violence and settle their issues through democratic means. Patronizing for sure! The seller, sitting on the street in the middle of mounds of whistles on red white and blue ribbons, head bands, wrist bands all around her on the sidewalk… looked up at me and admonished this American angrily. “We liked Obama! What he doing?! Why he do this to us?! He make problems all the world!” These anti-government demonstrators are no dummies. What could I say? Except “I know, I know.”
Later, back at the guesthouse I have an interesting conversation at the hip cafe next door with a 40ish German businessman who has an up-close view of things. Says the King should appoint a care government made up of neutral parties like a rep from the UN and people completely outside the system and give them time to write a new constitution to allow election, instead of appointment of ministers, and initiate reforms. Then hold an election in a year or two. The election scheduled for Feb 2 will just restore the ruling party and the country will have all the same corrupt politicians and judges and just have the same problem all over again. I said I felt sorry for Thailand. He retorted “I don’t!” The meaning, I assume, is that they do this to themselves and don’t learn. Only in Thailand. Even Mexico, with all it’s corruption, isn’t this convoluted.
Police Fear Violence
it has been raining and humid outside so am watching the Blue Sky Channel showing 4 different groups of protesters in Bangkok today. Comments on the ThaiVisa blog are interesting as usual. Of course I don’t have a clue what any the speakers are saying, singing, yelling and chanting.
A so-called million man march is being planned for tomorrow. This has a long complicated history but the bottom line is that exiled PM Thaksin has manipulated several groups to support his return to Thailand and others are dead set against not only his return, but his proxy government led by his sister that is currently in power.
At the Democracy Monument protest site, are a group of anti-Thaksin academics, representatives of labour unions from state enterprises, members of the Silom business community, political activists among others talking in front of thousands of cheering protesters with whistles and red, white and blue headbands.
The group on stage also includes leaders of the “People’s Army to Overthrow the Thaksin Regime” and the “Network of People and Students for Thailand’s Reform,” who have been holding separate rallies in Bangkok to voice their opposition to the government-backed controversial amnesty bill and the so-called Thaksin regime. The Student group is the most radical of course.
Meanwhile, pro-government red-shirt leaders have called on supporters to gather at Rajamangala Stadium today to discuss how to deal with what is expected to be a massive gathering of anti-government protesters tomorrow. The protesters are expected to split into 12 groups around Bangkok. The Chiang Mai 51 group has readied 150 buses to bring red-shirt protesters to Bangkok. So you can imagine what the traffic situation is going to be.
The police are worried that the red-shirt supporters will conflict with the anti-government anti-Thaksin supporters. 40 teams of rapid-response police officers have been set up to deal with the situation.
Toward the end of the day a grey-haired stately woman took the stage and voiced a plea to Thaksin to LEAVE US ALONE! LEAVE US ALONE! Then she said she was advised not to use rude language. So she swished her flag in the air with a “… OFF!”
I’m just going to sit in my guesthouse room with the TV and my computer for the day.
World Watching
I don’t have to talk about Snowden and Egypt, Syria and all the other countries struggling for self-determination. It’s all over the web. But I have a special place in my heart for Turkey…and my friends there.
On the first day of Ramaden, Istanbul Turkey broke fast with a mile long table along Istikal Street near Taksim Square. The water cannon trucks were menacingly standing at the end of the street.
Is The Party Over In Turkey?
Policemen are using real bullets now and one man was shot and killed in Ankara. This in addition to at least 3 others killed by beatings or tear gas. And scores hospitalized. Caught on tape, it’s on YouTube.
Erdogan wants to meet with the protestors. Now we will see how wound up the gordian knot is.
According to OccupyGezi one of the the demonstrators says this:
“As Bulent Arinc announced that PM Erdogan will be accepting the representatives from Gezi ParkΔ± protests on Wednesday, those “representatives” declared they haven’t received any invitation or make any attempts to request a meeting from the PM Erdogan. One of them, Ahmet Mumtaz Taylan tweeted: “I have no ideas about the group that will meet our PM. I saw it on the news after my friends informed me.”
It isn’t going to be pretty from here on out.
In Oaxaca in 2006 it was not only undercover police but young “students” (called Porros) who were hired by the government to carry out all kinds of violence to give the police an excuse to come down with the “hard hand.” During a peaceful demonstration in the Plaza Of The Three Cultures in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City in 1968…10 days before the Olympics…scores of students, and by-standers were slaughtered. A 2001 investigation revealed documents showing that the snipers were members of the Presidential Guard, who were instructed to fire on the military forces in order to provoke them.
I’ve been waiting for this.
Undercover Police Shooting Molotov Cocktails...with hidden guns
Fake Fight
According to one poster on Facebook:
“The Turkish government turns nasty(er)!
Government is staging a fake fight between the protestors and the police this morning. If you see images of people throwing molotov bombs you should know that those people are not part of the protest and are put there by our corrupt government.How do we know?
-Well, the press has covered NONE of the protests going on for 14 days. This is being live streamed on all channels.
-More than a thousand police has been “fighting” with these 12 guys for over 3 hours
-Police is pretending to use the water canons but the pressure is so low that the actorsrebels dont even get pushed back one step.The real protestors did not fall for this dumb trick for one second! They are staying calm and strong because that is how smart and united my people are!”
Meanwhile the police are moving in on Taksim Square. So apparently the meeting between Erdogan and the protestors is off. Instead Erdogan is busy arresting an estimated 70+ lawyers who have supported the resistance.
Then this happened.
Chapuling In Turkey-We Are All Turks Now
Updated and amended daily since May 29, 2013
I was in Turkey for a month in February staying mainly with locals. My couchsurfing friends there have been criticizing the Prime Minister, Tayyip Erdogan, who has been dismantling the democracy that Ataturk built nearly a 100 years ago. The last democracy in the middle east. The people revere Ataturk. This is of monumental significance for Turkey and for the world because Turkey is a pivotal point between East and West.
I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for 10 days now watching my friends in Turkey post videos and photos on Facebook and twitter. There has been a total blackout of all internal Turkish media so the people have been desperate to get the word out. Subsequently there have been supporting demonstrations all over the world. And the NYT published a crowdsourced full-page ad with the lead: What Is Happening In Turkey?
The Prime Minister wanted to raze Gezi Park in Taksim Square in Istanbul, cutting down ancient trees, to build a shopping mall with the contract going to his son-in-law. After the police routed the demonstrators with tear gas, some kind of yellow gas shot at the people with “water guns”, water shot out of big tanks (TOMAS) and beatings, the resistance turned against the “bulldozer” of a Prime Minister who has become authoritarian…imprisoning army generals and over 200 journalists, controlling the media and all manner of social mandates.
It didn’t really just start with Gezi Park in the minds of the people though. On May 1, Erdogan tried to curtail a traditional day of celebration for children instituted by Ataturk. He stopped public transportation when he saw so many people turning out as a statement of support for Ataturk’s democracy and by implication a judgment on his. And a mandate against public display of affection a couple weeks before Gezi Park resulted in young people turning to public spaces to hold kiss-ins. And his packing important posts with Islamists has been alarming. This has been slowly building and people see their beloved democracy…a beacon of democracy in the Middle East…slipping slowly away.
GΓΆrdΓΌm – Bir Gezi ParkΔ± DireniΕi Belgesel Filmi / Documentary Film from R H on Vimeo.
Erdogan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of 27 March 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a ten-month prison term for reciting a poem during a public address in the province of Siirt in 1997. Before his conviction, the fundamentalist Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court on the grounds of threatening the laicistic order in Turkey. ErdoΔan became a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his party colleagues. With the conviction, ErdoΔan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections.
He served less than 4 months of the 10 month conviction from 24 March 1999 to 27 July 1999 for reciting the poem, which, under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code was regarded as an incitement to commit an offense and incitement to religious or racial hatred. It included verses translated as “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers”. The aforementioned verses, however, are not in the original version of the poem according to Wiki.
ErdoΔan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly supported political movement in Turkey and the first single party government. And Turkey has done well economically. However, since then his democratic “reforms” have moved Turkey closer to an authoritarian state.
The ban on lipstick for flight attendants and a 10:00 p.m. ban on alcohol and no display of public affection…all of this is completely contrary to the lifestyle of young secular Turks who are objecting to Erdogan’s attempt to reorganize social structures and his authoritarian style of governing which is bringing religion into the public sector threatening secularism. They feel that he is a megalomaniac looking for a legacy. And they’ve had enough.
However, this article appeared in The Guardian entitled Why the Turkish protests matter to the west. This isn’t just about lipstick β if Turkey can’t reconcile secularism, Islam and democracy, there will be global repercussions
Education is in peril, she says with the lions share of the education budget going to mosques and muslim schools. Freedom of speech and the press has been curtailed. Corruption is rampant. And people are judged on the basis of their piousness. For example women are told to stay at home and have children.
The writer says: As a member of the opposition, what I want is not for the west to intervene in our internal affairs, but for it to stop shielding a government with such little regard for the values of freedom.
Who else will be able to reconcile Islam, secularism and democracy once Turkey fails? What are the global consequences of this failure?
I urge those in the west who believe that Turkey and the globe benefit from a democracy whose fabric is interwoven with religion to look again at what that fabric looks like today β our society’s rights shredded in the name of yet another intolerant majority.
Bear in mind how valuable a secular Turkey is for the world. Do not forfeit the last secularists in the Middle East to the purge that is taking place in the name of democracy, as if a lower level of rights is somehow “good enough” for our region, when you would never accept such restrictions in yours…
This is what I posted on FB:
The U.S. picked out Erdogan when he was a nobody, and even met with him in the States in the 90’s, to run for Prime Minister as a model of moderate Islam and to make Turkey a pivotal point in the struggle between west and east. The U.S. now needs to take him by the collar and explain that democracy doesn’t stop at the ballot box. And take their own advice as well. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen US bashing which is just as well because it would take the focus off Erdogan where it needs to be. Turks are smarter than the average joe around the world. 3 generations raised by Ataturk have seen to that.
The police are on a rampage…beating people at random who aren’t even demonstrating. Someone estimated that there was twice as much tear gas released in Turkey in the last week than all of Europe in 2012. Several thousand have been hospitalized, three have died and nearly a dozen lost an eye. The protestors set up a medical unit in a mosque to treat people. Now Erdogan is telling people that the protestors “attacked the mosque and entered with shoes and beers.” Inciting hatred…the very thing he was imprisoned for years ago.
I’ve never seen so much creativity and humor as I have seen in the videos and graffiti in response. And I lived through the demonstrations against the Viet Nam war. Oaxaca in 2006 could have learned something from the Turks. Instead of just sitting on the sidewalk and knitting, the teachers, during the strike, could have gone out at night to clean up the streets as the Turks are doing with thousands and thousands of tear gas canisters included. They could have tried to use their time striking by walking around informing people…with humor or not…as the Turks are doing. Instead they just alienated the general public who were trying to get to work and lost their support.
When I was in Turkey there was a subterranean heaviness in the people. But they are not afraid now and their hearts are free. Estimates of several million people have turned out in cities all over Turkey…young people, old people, students, unions…even bitter football rivals walking together in solidarity. And political factions from left to right. The Kurds are worried though that all this will interrupt the peace process that Erdogan has been working on. “It’s not good for us Kurds if Erdogan resigns,” said BDP member Erhan Calahan, who has joined the protests. “Our government is in the midst of a peace process. If it changes now, the country could face some turbulent times.” So as usual things are complicated.
Taksim yesterday:
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=165718356934210
The police have pulled back from Taksim Square because of all the international media cameras.
Meanwhile the demonstrations and police brutality continue in Ankara (the capitol) Adana, Antalya, Antakya, Izmir and 70+ other cities across Turkey. There is still a blackout on Turkish media.
Antakya Turkey
Antakya is in the south of Turkey…30 miles from the Syria border. I flew here yesterday from Istanbul and Friday I will take a 3 hour bus back north to Adana north of here where I will stay with another Couchsurfing host.
The guy sitting next to me on the plane to Antakya was a Canadian working for the American Emergency Services Organization. He was going to Antakya for a meeting concerning the Syrian refugees at the border. Perhaps with the UN. Today I saw the proverbial white SUV with UN written in bright blue on the side. I asked him how many refugee camps there were along the border. He said “not camps.” Just solid people on both sides. This doesn’t bode well.
So I am ensconsed on the third floor of a little hotel with windows opening to the city center along the Orontes River about 14 miles from the Mediterranean coast. Click on the photos to enlarge.
Known as Antioch in ancient times, the city has historical significance for Christianity, as it was the place where the followers of Jesus Christ were called Christians for the first time. It had an important role as one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire and Byzantium, and was a key location of the early years of Christianity, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, the rise of Islam, and the Crusades because of it’s massive walls.
According to wikipedia, both Turkish and Arabic are still widely spoken in Antakya, although written Arabic is rarely used. A mixed community of faiths and denominations co-exist peacefully here. Although almost all the inhabitants are Muslim, a substantial proportion adhere to the Alevi and the Arab Nusayri traditions, in ‘Harbiye’ there is a place to honour the Nusayri saint HΔ±zΔ±r. Numerous tombs of Muslim saints, both Sunni and Alevi, are located throughout the city. Several small Christian communities are active in the city, with the largest church being St. Peter and St. Paul on Hurriyet Caddesi. With its long history of spiritual and religious movements, Antakya is a place of pilgrimage for Christians. It also has a reputation in Turkey as a place for spells, fortune telling, miracles and spirits, the wiki writer says.
But I have to tell this story. In the breakfast room this morning I saw a guy who had a “California” sweat shirt. But he looked maybe Turkish. I felt silly asking this but I asked if he was from the U.S. Yes, he said, but I’m Syrian. He has been going to a large refugee camp 30 miles away on the border to volunteer. No toilets in this camp…one of three along the border inside Turkey. The UN is giving food but this guy says he went to several markets here in Atakya and he saw “with my very own eyes” sacks of grain with “UN” marked on them being sold on the black market.
His brother, a medical doctor has traveled from CA to this camp 3 times to volunteer with Doctor’s Without Borders. He spent 20,000 of his own money for milk for one week for the children and to build 12 toilets for men and 12 for women. He and his brother have collected money and clothes and blankets through a Syrian-American org. They sometimes don’t even have shoes or anything else because they fled so quickly.
His father is very sick in Syria. His sister is 6 months pregnant. He cannot reach them because it is so dangerous. He has been told by everyone he dare not go…even with a bullet proof vest and that he likely will be kidnapped by the opposition who hates Americans. Who is the opposition I asked. Various Al Queda groups, he said.
“Syria doesn’t care about the people. Turkey doesn’t care about the people” he said. Turkey has forbidden any more camps along the border and they won’t allow any pictures from visitors or the press. So now the camps are beginning to multiply along the border on the Syrian side. For every person who goes back 1000 will flee. So people aren’t seeing the misery. It’s just an impossible situation. And this is only one of the wars going on in the world.
I have to go back to the US to school he said. I am doing what I can.
My friend Dilek, however, says that Turkish TV reports have indicted massive problems in the camps…predictably so considering the environment. And the guy I talked to had a very hoarse voice. He said it was from yelling at a bunch of drunk Syrians the other night who were raising hell in the camps. It’s the women and children and old people he was concerned about the most. They are always the most affected victims.
Another Turkish friend wants to know, if the opposition is Al Queda…and Al Queda is our enemy…why is the U.S. supporting them against Asad. But things are never as they seem.
Update 2/28/2013: This morning in the breakfast room I met another Syrian. His brother works in the hotel, he says. I imagine the hotel is putting up these Syrians. He said he came here from Lebanon but cannot go to Syria. Two brothers in Syria are “kaput” in a bloodbath of 200 people. “Kaput?” Odd word to use? He showed me an interview on his iPhone he gave to Aljazeera. Then he showed me a photo of the head of Hesbollah. Said Hesbollah was behind the opposition. They are not good he says. He wanted to know why Obama wasn’t helping. I told him we never know what our government is doing or not doing.
Update 05/19/2013 Last weekend there were two car bombings in Reyhanli, near Antakya on the Syrian border, in which 50 people were killed. Nearly 20 people were arrested. The bombs were most likely planted by pro-Assad forces in retaliation for Turkish support of the Syrian rebels. Criticism of Prime Minister Erdegon’s response to the bombing, fearing Turkey is being dragged into the Syrian conflict, criticism of Turkey’s lack of intelligence and criticism of PM Erdogan’s relationship with the U.S. has sparked anti-government demonstrations this week in several cities across Turkey on a day that is supposed to be celebrating Ataturk’s tribute to children. My Turkish friends are posting slogans all over Facebook.
Turkish Anti-Government Demonstration
Occupy Wall Street Transforming Consciousness
Meltdown: The Men Who Crashed The World
This is a 4 part documentary of the worldwide financial crisis and the inside story that will keep you on the edge of your seat. After watching part 1 click under Meltdown: (part 2) A Global Financial Tsunami, (part 3) Paying The Price and (part 4) After The Fall.
The men who crashed the world – Meltdown – Al Jazeera English.
And if that is not enough there is the earlier film called “Inside Job.”
In short, a comment on Facebook: America’s wealthiest one percent owns 40% of the country’s total wealth. (The bottom 80% owns just 7% — no typo) — America’s wealthiest one percent owns 51% of all of the country’s stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. (The bottom 50% owns just one-half of one percent.) — America’s wealthiest one percent takes in 24% of all the income generated each year. — Between 1923 and 1929, the concentration of wealth at the top of the country’s economic ladder was at the highest point in US history. Then came the Crash and the Depression. For decades afterward, the middle class was dealt into the game at a much greater level. As recently as 1976, America’s wealthiest one percent took in only 9% of the country’s income (again, the current figure is 24%). Time Magazine, hardly an outfit full of liberal kooks, says that the concentration of wealth has again reached 1929 levels. Something is wrong here. To quote a great man: “But if a man doesnβt have a job or an income, he has neither life nor liberty nor the possibility for the pursuit of happiness. He merely exists. We are coming to ask America to be true to the huge promissory note that it signed years ago. And we are coming to engage in dramatic nonviolent action, to call attention to the gulf between promise and fulfillment; to make the invisible visible.”
In response we now have Occupy Wall Street sit-ins all over the U.S. and the world by young people who cannot find jobs in their chosen fields and, in the U.S., are saddled with education loans up the ying yang that they cannot repay. Jobs have been lost. Homes lost.
Statement published by Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Together
I have been glued to the Occupy Wall Street Livestreams worldwide where I am watching “a learning tribe that is trying to BE what it wants the world to grow into.”
What you don’t see going on in the occupations and is so difficult to communicate to the media, mainly because they don’t get it, is the TRANSFORMATION that is going on in the working groups and in the General Assemblies and in the personal interactions. It looks from the outside so diffuse because each individual is connecting into it from where they are personally in their growth and circumstances.
Comment I saw this morning to a controversial CNN YouTube video: F**k the media. Each and every one of them. They’re out there with one objective and that’s to create division between us. Everyone PLEASE stop with thisο»Ώ Hippie, Teabagger, Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal name calling classification bullshit! Don’t you fucking get it? None of it matters! All that those monickers do is provide ammo to the shit starters. Were all are in the same boat on this one and we all need to stick together as AMERICANS if were going to get anything done.” Right on! ”
A friend who is participating in Occupy Seattle says: I am trusting the nonviolence to win out.
It’s a process. Not a linear one…but an organic one. They don’t know yet how the movement will change anything. But they for sure know that nothing will change without a change of consciousness of each individual. IMO it will change when there is a critical mass of people that have changed. One by one. Each in his/her own way.
I have been hanging out with a group of young current and former Couchsurfers and volunteers here in Oaxaca (when I am not glued to the Livestreams) who are participating in the same process. Occupy Wall Street is just one manifestation of where these young folks, world-wide, are taking us. With their clear-eyed insight they are edging me out of my old paradigm…out of old categories. We spent all day saturday at a sustainability fair with representatives from 80 communities all over Mexico.
What amazes me the most is the lack of cynicism and the hope and trust they have. They are losing hope of being able to pursue their careers they studied for, so they are looking for other ways to plug into the transformative process. The exchange with them is exhilarating…and yes…they are changing me too.
Some of these young people have just come off a year traveling to 4 countries to live in and study local sustainable projects in India, Tanzania, New Zealand and now Oaxaca. They underwent life-changing experiences (and in one case a near breakdown) as they came to understand that you cannot go into a country to “show them how to do it.” That old liberal do-good paradigm is dying.
But you can empower local people in their own efforts and learn from them new ways like the one in indigenous communities here in Oaxaca called “Uses Y Costumbres” which is a consensus process they use to govern themselves and the Zapatista movement in Chiapas.
The director of the year-long program is here in Oaxaca. Here is an interview with him. He turns Paulo Friere’s educational pedagogy, that has become orthodox in US educational reform movements since the 70’s, on it’s head.
A high school and college friend on Facebook recently told me I have too much time on my hands! hahahahahaha. Can’t think of a better way to spend my retirement than encouraging and affirming all these young people!
Laughingnomad 