I've generally avoided dabbling in the rapidly proliferating world of blog carnivals, but this week a couple posts of mine, one on immigration and the one below, found homes at the Carnival of the Liberals and the Carnival of Socialism, respectively. Obviously, the ideological labels are not stringently enforced.
If you read this blog, you've already read my entries, but there's other good stuff so go check it out.
Artist Paul Madonna draws a weekly comic for the San Francisco Chronicle called All Over Coffee. It's one of the few things in the paper worth checking out. Normally he draws cityscapes adorned with excerpts of an unseen conversation. Today's comic in particular caught my eye.
The message itself is very powerful and made even more so by the fact that this actual graffiti can be found in the Mission in SF.
When I first saw it, my reaction was dismissive, thinking it was feel-good nonsense. But reflecting on it made me appreciate it more, and how indeed existence alone inspires hope. Whose existence gives you hope?
I think about the Palestinian refugees today on the 58th anniversary of the Nakba, still clinging to their house keys. About the Iraqis surviving and fighting the occupation and appropriation of their resources. About mothers, fathers and children; brothers and sisters; lovers and friends. About political prisoners. Hungry kids in West Oakland; sick kids in Hunters Point. The homeless guy always sitting at the bus stop. About immigrants. About everyone struggling, wherever they are, whose faces I will never see, hands I will never shake, and names I will never learn, for a life with dignity and justice.
Their existence gives me hope. And it's real - not just feel-good nonsense.
I'll be giving a talk based on my thesis work (race and gender in the US anarchist movement) this evening (Tuesday), if you'd care to join me. New College in SF, kiddies.
5 PM: Food
5:30 PM: Talk Talk
6 PM: You tell me how stupid I am (aka discussion)
Don't act like you haven't seen that video.
Anyway, on the domestic news front, my partner and I got a kitten from the shelter for her birthday this weekend. She's four months old, a former feral, and very cute. We've decided to name her Lucy, after Lucy Parsons (fitting for May Day, no?) and the Aesop Rock song "No Regrets," about a girl named Lucy. [download] [lyrics]
She's still in isolation in our bathroom. And while I'm fiddling with my camera, here are a couple shots from May Day. The first is the early cacerolazo march reaching the main rallying point. The second is of someone burning one of the RCP's red flags that they were selling and trying to create a "Red Flag Contingent."
In unrelated news, the Zapatistas have proclaimed a red alert after the police killed at least one protester, a 14-year-old, in Mexico City.
Today I got emails from MoveOn and ColorofChange about the Save Darfur's "Rally to Stop Genocide" on April 30th. I've also started seeing fliers around town for the coinciding San Francisco rally.
I understand the part about the rally, but not about the genocide.
Why are people calling what is happening in Darfur a genocide? And who is calling it a genocide? It is a tricky question, as I don't want to come off as supportive of the Sudanese government, nor as attempting to diminish the horrific tragedy that is occurring. But it's not a genocide.
True, the Sudanese government is arming a militia that is carrying out human rights violations. True, rebels - with their own backers - are fighting and also carrying out human rights violations. And in the middle of it all, hundreds of thousands of civilians have died or been killed and millions are now refugees. But does the immense human catastrophe mean it's a genocide?
Most people say no. Some quotes:
I don’t think that we should be using the word ‘genocide’ to describe this conflict. Not at all. This can be a semantic discussion, but nevertheless, there is no systematic target – targeting one ethnic group or another one. It doesn’t mean either that the situation in Sudan isn’t extremely serious by itself.
Dr Mercedes Taty, Médecins sans Frontières deputy emergency director
Our teams have not seen evidence of the deliberate intention to kill people of a specific group.
Médecins sans Frontières - France President Dr Jean-Hervé Bradol
I cannot call the killing a genocide even though there have been massive violations of international humanitarian law.
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General
We are not in the situation of genocide there. But it is clear there is widespread, silent and slow, killing going on, and village burning on a fairly large scale.
European Union fact-finding mission
Despite all this, the U.S. has labeled the situation as a "genocide." Since the U.S. really has no moral high ground to make such claims, should we believe them? Could it be that the U.S. government is playing politics with this matter?
Is it coincidence the U.S. made this claim right before the elections, when two months before Powell's "genocide" claim he said the situation in Darfur did not "meet the tests of the definition of genocide"? Or that the U.S. just happens to loath the Khartoum regime, which is also sitting on top of a lot of oil?
Regardless of their motives, the U.S. proclaimed "genocide" and several NGOs and other organizations have jumped on the bandwagon. While no one wants to see this tragedy continue, viewing the list of members on the SaveDarfur site raises a few eyebrows and begs the question if some groups aren't also using this for political ends.
Figuring prominently on the list are many pro-Israel, anti-Arab Jewish and Christian organizations. One can be sure they want to see peace in Darfur, but from their perspective, could it also be beneficial to their cause to spread the myth of Arabs committing genocide? If so, how much of a role does that play in their support of this effort? Does it not only make Arabs look bad but takes the world's eyes off of Israel? Would they be as vocal if it were Blacks supposedly committing genocide against Arabs?
One could rightfully point out that there are also many pro-Palestinian Muslim groups on the list. Why is that? I can't be sure, but my guess is that they are also concerned about the situation, especially because almost all involved are Muslim, and don't want to fall victim to the consistent, false charges that "Muslims don't condemn violence." Many Muslims, however, are upset about their endorsement of "genocide."
Regardless of the reasons, the tragedy and carnage must end - but I would suggest that it be accompanied by an accurate understanding of the situation and an awareness of those who would use it to further their own agendas.
The honeymoon is over, literally. I'll be posting some pics shortly and a write up of the trip.
In the meantime, the streets were on the move today with massive demonstrations across the country for immigrants' rights. More than 20,000 people marched in Oakland alone, where Anthony Soltero, the first fatality of last month's student walkouts was remembered.
More actions are happening later this month, leading up the the May Day's national immigrant general strike.
We're flying out in a few hours. Hope everyone has a good couple of months. Again, I may post up stuff I write during our travels, but maybe not. Be sure to come back in April, the blog is not going anywhere, just on a break.
A few of the stranger comments we've gotten when telling people we're going to Peru and Bolivia:
- "Stay out of the Indian areas where they don't like white people."
- "They don't like white people in Peru. All the white people there are lazy."
- "Be careful, you're going to uncharted territory. We don't need you showing up on a video with a gun pointing at your head."
So much work left to be done.
A week from today, I'll be leaving for Peru and Bolivia for almost two months, so this place will get even quieter. Originally, we were hoping to go to Libya, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon, but that didn't work out. Libya decided recently it wanted to imitate the U.S., which is currently rejecting all visa applications from Libya.
So instead, we'll be visiting some of the authoritarian socialists in South America, where you don't even need a visa if you're coming from Gringolandia. If you all have any contacts or suggestions for the area, please let me know.
I'll try to post every now and then, but I promise this won't become a travel blog. Ugh.
When I first started blogging, I became enthralled with reading blogs. commenting on them, learning all sorts of things from them, but now, my Bloglines aggregator is consistently hitting 2000 new items - at which point I delete them all and say to myself, "Next time, I won't get so far behind, I read blogs everyday." And as I write this, the notifier tells me there are 1999 new items.
I don't not read blogs because most of them are utter crap, since there are quite a few great ones, but because I just can't find the time. It's a struggle attending to my own blog, let alone dropping by to visit others. It's a shame, but it's just the way it is at the moment.
So, to make up for not reading blogs and not posting here enough, I want to link to blogs that have caught my interest that I wish I had the time to read:
On Saturday, April 15, I'll be giving a presentation based on my thesis work at the International Anarchist Academics and Activists Conference at Pitzer College.
Be sure to get in touch if you'll be there or in the area.
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