latin american princesa {LAP}

Be warned, the following documentary is painful to watch and depressing. We think things are getting better in the world. I mean there has been progress in poverty reduction and minority rights. Every day wonderful people are out there fighting for a better world. But I don’t want this video to serve as discouragement. Rather it should serve as a warning that we can’t let down our guard.

Do we really want people to suffer so we can eat chocolate? Is it worth such a price? Can we allow international organizations to let their employees get away with abuse of domestic workers on our own soil? Diplomacy and cultural relativism aside-I know I argue a lot about understanding the context BUT-enslaving another human just isn’t justifiable. PERIOD.

After reading Ms. Crip Chick’s post on Changemakers as Celebrities I started to wonder:

Are heros like MLK, Justin Dart, Phoolan Devi and Che really responsible for bringing about change or do they bring exposure to change that is already in the works? Do they really transform our world or do we just transform them into the myths of change?

According to Roland Barthes a myth helps to make something “natural” or “normal”. So perhaps that means the MLK-myth helps to “naturalize” the changes of the civil rights movement into our society or culture? To make those changes seem “normal”?

From an interview on Open Source with a friend and contemporary of MLK:

[MLK] had grown up, Haynes remembers, with a “burning awareness that a cancer was eating at America. I think for any black, North or South — realizing there were strictures, there were limitations, that we’re still being kept out and separated — there was something grossly wrong with that separation, and these walls, these barriers needed to be broken down. I think a lot of young leaders, probably including myself, were waiting for God to appoint a Moses. The time was just right, and Martin was that man who was going to lead us to a promised land… It’s tragic when a body has a cancer and doesn’t know it… Dr. King made that diagnosis very clear to America.”

The savior metaphor can be placed socially and culturally into context by the fact that Dr. Haynes, like MLK is a reverend. Both men are spiritual leaders and this is their language. Such imagery is “natural” for him, but throughout the interview he clearly sees MLK as a man.

Dr. Haynes also explains that MLK himself recognized that he was but one actor in the movement and that many other leaders and individuals in the community also played a role. This does not take away from the importance of MLK’s work and sacrifice, but it does de-bunk the myth and exposes the extraordinary man beneath. Martin. Not Dr. King. Not Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Just Martin. A father, a husband, a friend, a leader, a student, a teacher, a preacher. There is no denying though the impact that Martin has had, nor the changes that came about due to his leadership.

Some walls, some barriers were broken down, not all, but some. People have tried to rebuild some. There are even new walls (or fences) under construction. I am not religious in the church sense. What I believe is that the human story is one of flux and change.

In our Western way of thinking, things are static and we try to “finish” a story. But in reality it never really ends. The civil rights struggle didn’t end with MLK. It won’t end with Obama. Life doesn’t end or stand still. We keep writing new stories. When we need a new “ending”, because enough change has occurred or because we happen to notice that change has occurred, we add to or revise the story. I hope we can develop new ways of thinking, new ways of narrating. Something more dynamic. Could this be the “change” that unites all of us who are taken by Obama’s message? He is criticized for being vague. But it is not up to him to define change. It is up to us all. The lack of definition empowers us.

The documentary Zeitgeist challenges the myth of Christianity and the War on Terror. The movie, although a bit too conspiracy theory for my taste, does challenge one to think. Which brings me back to the chicken-or-the-egg conundrum. Which came first? Does it really matter? Or is it the process that really matters? In trying to solve the conundrum, we are forced to confront unanswered questions. It is the discussion or dialogue that really brings about change.

We are on a journey together towards social justice, peace…the promised land. And no I don’t mean some mythical heaven. I mean a real world, full of humans beings who are struggling to learn to live together with their differences. Same Same But Different.

What do you think? Does the mythical changemaker come first or does the momentum for change create a mythical changemaker?

This event has been launched and promoted through Facebook. If you read Spanish see the event’s site: Un MILLION de VOCES contra las FARC. Or read Plan Colombia’s commentary in English, which includes the translation of an article from Colombia’s El Tiempo about the importance of dialogue and minimizing highly-charged nationalistic ideology. The goal is peace, after all.

The BBC will be airing secret footage of mentally and physically disabled children who are kept in cages in Europe. You can view the video of this gross violation of the European Convention on Human Rights online tonight at 2200 GMT. That these cages are in use is shocking enough, but what’s so stunning to me is that they have only been banned for a year! It’s only been ONE year since it was deemed wrong to lock up human beings like animals because they are allegedly “not normal”. Seems to me the people who think cages are OK are the ones who are “not normal”.

• Q&A: ‘Everybody leaves the Forum happier, wiser and stronger’
  Interview with Roberto Savio, member of the International Committee of the World Social Forum
• CHALLENGES 2007-2008: Climate Change Gives Rise to New World Order
• Lessons from Rwanda: The United Nations and the Prevention of Genocide
  is an information and educational outreach programme run by the United Nations Department of Public Information.

Just when I was thinking I was headed toward an actual decision and would focus on technology and society for my future, I get double reminders about why immigration needs my attention.

Latina Viva posted a touching story about an illegal immigrant who saved the life of a young American boy and was immediately deported. The other night I found a great channel on youtube, an interactive documentary on the Prince Williams County, VA immigration debate.

Heartbreaking! And no I’m not just a bleeding heart liberal. I do know from experience what it feels like to feel unwanted, unwelcome, no matter how hard you try. “It’s a tough world”, people say. “Toughen up and don’t take everything so personal.” I’m tough when I need to be. But why should I be tough all the time? Why should anyone?

“Toughen up” is what people did in WWII as the Jews were dragged away. That’s what people do as Palestinians and Iraqis die everyday. That’s why Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur can happen despite all “our progress”.

“Toughen up” indeed. Seems a little less tough and a little more empathy is in order. Tough hasn’t worked in No Child Left Behind, Iraq, the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, the prison system…should I go on? I’m no peace-and-love-hippy kinda girl, but certainly empathy, understanding and respect will bring us further than tough.

From Al Jazeera:

US couple convicted of ’slavery’

[The victims] said that for years they were subjected to beatings with rolling pins and brooms, scalding with hot water and being forced to eat their own vomit and chilli peppers for “offences” such as sleeping late or eating food from the rubbish.

I want to throw up.

People like to complain about the poor and how ghetto they are, but problems exist at EVERY level of society. Some want to blame the poor or immigrants for all our problems. Let’s stop blaming and blaming and start coming up with real and viable solutions.

I just finished Cora Daniel’s Ghetto Nation. It is an absolute MUST read. She’s funny and insightful and doesn’t preach. This book presents a real person’s views, with real ideas.

Thanks to MiSS CRiP CHiCK!

key phrases: “cannot support separate but equal” and “enlightenment, equality and justice”

…could not bring myself to tell an entire group of people in our community they were less important, less worthy, less deserving to the rights and responsibilities of marriage than anyone else, simply because of their sexual orientation

What has happened here? It’s amazing and wonderful. An entire group of people have been humanized. Imagine that! People, ALL people, are humans, deserving dignity, respect and rights like all the rest of us. It is such a simple concept and yet, sadly, still not grasped by so many. Relish this one victory and fight for more!

Ah! Welcome home to me, to the land of the free…to be arrested, Tasered or better yet have one’s leg broken by police. No thankfully it hasn’t happened to me personally, but a friend just shared a few interesting tidbits, which haven’t all made it to the front page.

• Andrew Meyer, UF student arrested and Tasered for asking John Kerry questions.
• Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., President of the Hip Hop Caucus arrested and ankle broken when trying to get into a public hearing.
• She also told me about an incident on The Mall where cops were harassing a group of Ethiopians selling t-shirts for a demonstration and later apologized to her, the white girl, but continued intimidating the group of Ethiopians.

I like to try to think that most cops are nice people. They are humans too and sometimes mistakes are made. But Tasering someone for asking a question or breaking someone’s ankle for attending a public hearing are not mistakes. What is this mentally that drives some to such terror tactics? Isn’t it supposed to be a War on Terror, not a war on freedom of speech and democracy? Let’s start calling it for what it is a War of Terror on freedom, democracy and individual rights. Don’t let the lies continue.

Dr. Berhanu Nega recently spoke at the New School for Social Research in NYC on freedom, democracy and economic development in Ethiopia. The webcast of Dr. Nega’s speech and the question-answer session following can be seen online: The Free Nega Campaign web site.

He closes his informative and interesting speech with:

…the least the West can do, if it can’t support the struggle for democracy, is to avoid helping the enemies of democracy in Africa.

What Dr. Nega thinks we individual Americans can do to help:

Americans can work and put a lot of pressure on their own government to at least reflect what the United States supposedly stands for. As a person who has lived in this country for a long time, with lots of American friends, it always amazes me, this disconnect between the friends that I know and what the United States…I mean even for me it was shock when I went to Ethiopia and started to see what these foreign policy types were doing.