Name: Anne
Originally this blog was about my student exchange to Montreal and North America (and later, south and cental america). This was the 'chaos land' of the title. However, once overseas I soon realised that Australia (and especially Sydney) was the real chaos land, -I would monitor Australian news with increasing feelings of trepidation, in reaction to all the huge and worrying political changes Australia is going through, eg industrial relations laws. So this blog is dedicated to trying to understand the chaos of this world, to find its beauty, and to direct its energy to something good and life affirming.
2024 Network!!
Adam's Blog
Adrian's philosophies
Ashaa's blog
Beehive Collective
Corporate Watch UK blog
GRASPe McGill
Ideas for Action
Indymedia
Inge on the Peace Walk
John Quiggin
Lara in Mexico
My other blog (1)
My other blog (2)
My photos from Detroit
My photos from this trip
My Website
Netting from Ubon
patty's blog
Paul Spencers music
Riot Folk records
Sydney Uni Clean Energy
the point, however, is
Veinte tres
today
November 2006
July 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
visited *loading* times
I have started a new blog here!!
israel and zionism
I think the most difficult thing about Israel, and the way that Zionism has been shaped and owned by the Jewish Diaspora, is that most Jews have incorporated some of their personal identity in Israel.
This means that they personally identify with the state itself, and see it as a metaphor and a symbol for beautiful things such as their collective dreams and aspirations of safety and wholeness. Many see it as a completion of the struggle their ancestors have experienced for millenia. This means that a criticism of Israel can only be taken personally- that oneself is inadequate.
More worrying, perhaps, is the way that the millitary nature of Israel is accepted as part of that identity. The military actions of Israel are given the benefit of the doubt so often by Israel's supporters that this practice can only erode personal moral judgement. The actions of the Israelli Army are justified so routinely, on principle, that any action that can be justified as neccessary to secure the homeland becomes permissible.
The practice of apologetics, that has become the standard method of defending Israel against ALL criticism, is inherently reactionary, and closes off the part of the mind that encourages doubt.
Yet when this faith extends to the indefensible daily abuse and dehumanisation of the checkpoints for Palestinians, and the current Israeli invasion of Lebanon -acts that would be judged to be disproportionate uses of force, and unacceptable in other circumstances- become comprehensible, and oneself is seen as capable of carrying out these acts.
In short, this amounts to an erosion of character- the same sharp and critical thinking character that I admire so much in Jewish culture.
Anyway... those are my thoughts today about all this.... perhaps soon i will talk about zionism and currents within it, if i have enough time in between writing this thesis...
heyas
i guess this blogspace is outdated since i am no longer in mexico, the US or canada... maybe i should go somewhere else...
Since the concept of God (as constructed in the discourse of this historical period) is unfamiliar to me at this moment, I suspect i may be in a state of moral degeneration, since I can't speak the language of the holy people- I just get impatient with it.
My family bases much of its understanding of what is 'good' on the specific imagery and the language of Catholicism. So when I start to feel alienated from their words and their prayers, I fear that I also lose the basis on which my ethical system was previously constructed.
The problem is that the mystery of some of the very 'holy' people in my life (such as my mum) has seemed to have gone, and it is easier for me to dismiss them. I respect their incredible commitment to other people- their commitment to love humanity and their families (with so much loyalty and unconditional acceptance), but I also feel that their worldviews are very limited and domestic, and even myopic. (here i am judging them and not reciprocating the acceptance)...
I feel that the worldviews of Christians in public life are being aggressively pushed, but they actually are extremely different to MY worldview, so there is a massive epistemological mismatch, which makes me think "What do they mean when they say god" etc... since you are claiming that your religion is this religion that excludes people on that basis, does that mean I am excluded??? How do you have the right to say what you say?
Anyway, another contrast was reflected today when I left a protest at Villawood refugee detention centre to go to the Good Friday ceremonies, (half an hour late). St Patricks church at Guildford was spilling out with people standing boredly outside with their arms folded, talking to friends (while the ceremony was going on), whilst a woman with a wavering voice sang old, seemingly outdated songs. I wore a T-shirt that said 'fight refugee detention' which i hope challenged some people. But I just didn't feel like the ceremonies were that important in my life. The Passion's imagery of death and impending resurrection is something that I sometimes find to be symbolic and seemingly passive, and difficult to relate to an active approach to life and to politics. Anyway...
So in summary(!) are many conflicts of worldviews in my mind, on the question "How should one/we live?". ...........
When I work it all out, I'll tell you.
i start with a vignette of something indicative of sydney in this era: I am sitting on the 428 bus from Newtown to the city this evening when a couple in the row ahead of me start debating each other whether the slogan is "Think Locally, Act Globally" or "Think Globally, Act Locally". The man concludes that the latter is true. my eyes light up at this conversation- a little flicker of social respeonsibility here on the bus!! I am intrigued (I think they are talking about progressive social change). Then the woman says "Yes- you focus on Global things, make sure the company direction doesn't mess up everything on the local level- Actually, HSBC is doing an ad campaign on local distinctiveness and how to market specifically to the local" oh- THATS what they were talking about!!
I revived an old hobby last night. I got my hands all muddy with potting plants, and planting vegetables in the front garden. Apparently the water restrictions prohibit watering on other nights so I was lucky. I planted and separated alpine strawberries, lettuce, a passionfruit vine and rosemary. (My sister Claire and I travelled a long way in the arvo to get to the nursery). And today, I caught a train nice and early at 630 am to Newcastle, where I started my honours research into the closure of the BHP steelworks in 1998. what fun!!
oh and another thing- Paul Spencer has a magnificent song about student politics and its machinations here.
i got back to sydney on saturday morning, and since then it's kinda been up and down.
it was good to tell family about the trip, but then the photos soon got tiring, and quite a two-dimensional way of communicating information, telling over and over the stories that entertain people, but you sometimes walk away from that kind of engagement feeling hollow, like there are elements in the story that they will never quite get... anyway.
today mum and i visited my grandma in the nursing home in Surry Hills. Ma's deep wrinkles and uncomprehending eyes were kind of picturesque there, with the sun streaming through the window. The elderly Brigidine nun in the seat next to her talked to me a lot about her teddy bears and the photos on the mantlepiece.
then i went to the src and said hi to people. it was very joyful to connect with some people again, and i was quite elated to be there.
Then i went to a meeting in burwood. Walking down parramatta road in the glaring sun really hit home to me the worst parts of sydney. i walked past the car dealerships, and tried to nod to the workers there, but they avoided my gaze. oh well- a city that is unsociable... anyway.
when in burwood i had a long conversation about racism with mahesh. i also gave him a pamphlet that a friend Ryan gave me in San Francisco, "Men Unlearning Rape". i soon realised that i was being so matter of fact about such a full on and traumatic topic- He was the first male i gave the pamphlet to, and he got a little emotional, so i was a bit worried about the way that i was confronting him, seeing that the pamphlet sees all men to varying degrees implicated in the culture of rape.
(actually on another note i have been playing Ryan's music, from RiotFolk.org a lot- it is very empowering and extremely articulate and defiant. Also, he has a great piece about the divide between musicians and fans as a capitalist construct, which i agree with a lot- folk music is great in breaking down that divide more than other types of music)
Another thing that has been difficult for me has been readjusting to the disturbing Australia that we have become. I read through the Sydney Morning Herald today, and there are at least six articles that i am quite moved, disturbed or angered by, sometimes due to the blatant propaganda of the article, sometimes due to the implications i can see for the future. For example here is an article about Tasers, with a single line reference to NSW police's intentions to use them on demonstrators or rioters...which freaks me out. Also, the way that the Australian Wheat Board (AWB) / Oil for food/ Saddam Hussein scandal has rapidly been utilised as an argument against 'archaic single desk marketing boards'- SUCH IDEOLOGY me thinks!! Is this really a monopoly or just a collective bargaining tool??? not sure- but i remember that in the negotiations for the US Australia Free Trade Agreement, the US did NOT LIKE Australia's single desk agricultural boards, so i know it is part of a neoliberal agenda to dismantle them. how convenient it always is when a certain industry is not performing well (eg NSW railways, or Telstra) to call for neoliberal restructuring as 'progress' to deal with the problem!! And how convenient to use normative words such as 'archaic' to imply an inevitable sense of the march of 'progress' to unsuspecting readers!!
goodnight.
So when I was in Bogota, I met Jane at the hostel Platypus. We realised that we were both going to the World Social Forum in Caracas, so we decided to link up in Venezuela. so we met in Merida, a beautiful city in the Andes, full of adventurers (from the occidental countries).
For the next week, we would be trying to support eachother in Caracas- Neither of us had organised accomodation for the world social forum- and it was too late- all the hotels were booked out, so we were in the youth camp (without a tent). -what a crazy way to make friends!!
as we discovered, many people were willing to offer their hospitality or bit of tent, and most of them were boys who were overly affectionate (as i discovered walking in the dark camp when a random Colombian boy came out of the darkness wanting to kiss me) -
this ended up being the status quo for the week, and jane and I would laugh a lot when i would come back from walking in the city or the university, with another email, phone number or date, or story of some kiss that i randomly had!!! i just don't know how to deal with all the flirting! this is totally out of character i can assure you, as other people in australia who know me would attest to!!!
Hola!
I am in Bogota, Colombia. I have been here for four days now, and it is a very interesting introduction to Latin America. The people are gracious and the city is beautiful, lanes weaving among spanish villas with the backdrop of a mountainside covered in greenery.
This part of town is where there are many university students, so there are many very cute bars lit by candlelight, where young people listen (intensely sometimes) to eachother. I found an exhibition of kids' drawings entitled Ädios a los Trampas (goodbye to cheating), that gave a very sharp insight into kids' fears and dreams about the political situation here (I bought a book of the drawings). There is a lot of political graffiti here (many with anarchist symbols), -some along the main freeway saying things like ''la revolucion justifica", or "(in spanish) Uribe you bastard! or no los reforma viva il revolucion (this is all such BAD spanish)
ALSO, I saw graffiti in the north of the city saying "no ALCA"- ALCA is the spanish acronym for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Apparently Colombia is currently negotiating a bilateral deal with the US that some locals are freaking out about. One friend fears for the next few years, saying that Colombia will become a wasteland of the US. Anyway, thats about all from me just now...
A.
So I spent Christmas with the family of a friend, Amanda, from McGill, in rural Pennsylvania. It was great... her family is big like mine...
When we were driving back to Harrisburg bus depot, I had this short exchange with her dad on global warming:
me: "I just saw a frozen pond back there- could you skate on that?" (that would be so exciting).
him: "Yes- When I was a kid I lived 40 miles north of here- and the ponds were frozen September through March. Now you are lucky if you can skate for a week in December, through to February. It's global warming all right."
* Americans seem to worry about each other a lot- It is how they show that they care about eachother. Amanda was discouraged from driving me to Harrisburg because it would cut through a dangerous (crime-full) area, where she is not that sure of the road. DRIVING through a dangerous area??? I can't get over that- I can understand fear about WALKING though an area, but not DRIVING...
