The Pear-Shaped Pete

disussion question #5

this question is something i've been thinking a lot about for the past two years.

i was confronted by two people about the feasibility and importance of buying local products, not only food and other resource based goods, but all consumer goods.  i was shocked by the sense of entitlement from both.  both voiced the opinion that it didn't really matter what happened in other countries during production as long as they were given availability of whatever their hearts might desire here in our markets.

as my focus increasingly turns to food security issues i am struck by how much the canadian grocery stores rely on imported food.  currently at my store, which is a speciality food store serving mainly chefs so i recognize our bias based on a demand for exotic produce, and given that it is early april in ottawa we have local apples, carrots, hot peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, maple syrup, and seed sprouts.  95 percent of what customers come in looking for is produced at this time of year in two main regions: south america and california.

the quality and quantity of food available to canadians in astounding.  more so in january, february and march. and yet customers become indignant and self righteous if raspberries aren't available or they have to pay $8.80 per kilo of chilean green grapes.  given the costs of fuel i bite my tongue daily when questioned about prices.  quite frankly i am sure the situation is so bad in chilean vineyards that i don't want to know the details (be sure however i'm not buying). and that doesn't even address the historical processes behind pinochet's conversion of campesino small-holdings into industrial plantations for fruit.

more recently, when last summer's toy recalls became almost a national crisis for parents in canada i was very disappointed by the lack of personal responsibility on the part of anyone i spoke with (having a four year old and so being part of the world of parenting i had many discussions about toy safety).  the toys sold in canada are cheap because we demand for them to be so.  parents are generally unwilling to invest in one or two quality toys (all from europe because canada has no toy manufacturing left) because of price, but will spend a comparable amount on imported garbage.  never once in all the media reports i read and heard did one person raise the point that generally canadians are willing to remain ignorant of manufacturing conditions abroad as long as they can continue to buy. although racism, classism and sexism raises their ugly heads when it is canadian children who have been given unsafe toys by their parents.

our society is based on a system in which we must have human slave labour, whether it be domestically or internationally.  and for the majority of consumers who don't really seem to want to think about their consumer choices the labouring poor are invisible.

as to canadian women as consumers in canada, i suppose there could be an expectation that they would feel a sense of solidarity with the primarily female workforce producing the cheap goods we buy.  however as western liberal feminism (which i feel is still the status quo feminism in canada) seems to have failed in every other regard when in comes to recognizing and addressing their own internalized privilege, i can't imagine that fair trade will be implemented on a grand scale anywhere. 

as discussion of olympic boycott is mentioned daily now in the media, i wonder how much of western hysteria regarding china (which in my store amounts to a refusal to buy chinese garlic) is ultimately a demonstration of the shallowness western liberal thought.  a drop of protest is shown when active violence reaches our media. however, not one discussion reaches a deeper investigation of society and self to see that much of what westerners expect, and feel entitled to receive, is a product of our system of production based on what i have lately decided is a culture of hatred and violence.  the reality manifesting as constant low-level violence for women, indigenous people and the poor.

globe trotting vegetables

on the shelves at the bank street herb and spice:

de california:
lettuce, kale, mustard greens, celery, collard greens, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choi, swiss chard

de florida:
spinach, green onions

i´m not even talking about cucumbers and tomatoes and peppers and eggplant.  i want local veggies in february.

how much money is leaving our community to go into the pocket of some organic food distributor and then into some industrial farmer in the south??  surely some of these things could be grown in a hot house here, or stored properly from the late autumn harvest.  i´m fed up with the monopoly on organic food distribution.  is buying from them any better than buying industrial vegetables at loblaws??  do people feel any connection to the farmers here?? 

the winter squashes were from cali too.  there is a reason why the pioneers called them "winter" squash as opposed to the summer squash of zucchini and patty pan.

revolutionary politics

"las elecciones no han terminado" is painted on many walls in xoxo. this is not the work of grafiteros.  there murals were paid for by the PRD, the partido revolucionario democratico, after the state elections in august.  usually they also say something about a planned mega march that happened back in august or they renounce the general electoral fraud.  their bright yellow colour envokes the ongoing protests and political action taken by the federal PRD, led by their presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

many walls in oaxaca continue to shout declarations of political and revolutionary victory over the government of Ulises Ruiz.  the posters - this winter very professionally designed and painted - for the November 25th march are the colour red; one is of a raised clenched fist.  graffitti on one wall in the centre reads: "el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido".

perhaps this alone, is what a casual visitor to oaxaca sees.  and certainly, for hte foreign tourists who have begun to flock to oaxaca, much in the same way they were attracted to chiapas, the revolutionary spirit in the state seems strong.

Mexico has spent 71 years under a one party state (for all intensive purposes), 34 years under a much despised dictator, and who knows who many years under a unified aztec bureaucracy.  democracy is honestly not something that comes naturally in this coutnry.  and, as a solution to the constant concentration of power, real and complete revolution has not been particularly successful either.

las sunday in las lomas de san nazareno our neighbours put up a tianguis.  the individual puestos were marked out with rocks and women brought tables and umbrellas to sell their goods.  sparkly stars, poinsettias, garlands and carol-playing lights predominated. although there were a few grocery items, atole to warm up shoppers in the morning, and memelas and tacos when mid morning hunger struck.  no one was there to shop but rather to gather.

on the road in front three or four men were building speed bumps into the dirt road leading into the neighbourhood.  here people do not petition the government for things - much less something as trivial as a tope to slow traffic.

so the community has a street meeting and decicdes to build topes, and how to organize the tianguis market, or where the taxis can stop and wait for passengers.  One street bought a gate to close off traffic - most do not own cars - when there were more problems with theft and vagrancy.  a couple of days ago i saw one of our street leaders talking with a sheherd explaining where exactly his animals are unwanted.

maybe this is why only 30% of elegible oaxacans voted in the august elections, and why, i think, APPO has very little dedicated popular support.  politics in mexico are corrupt and when underhanded dealings are exposed no one seems to care.  people do not place their faith in the political process.

voting in mexico has been explained to me as a choice of who will do the least.  generally people don't seem to trust their elected representatives to change anything or to do what they are asked to do.  the mysterious political activities that go on in state and federal houses of government are disregarded in favour of the community organization.  a person's neighbours whose names, faces, and family history are known are trusted to get something done.  and here, as in most places, small organizations form the strongest opposition to politicians.  political parties are too big to be trusted and APPO is too diverse to be trusted to offer an alternative.

on the highway to arrazola, and thus on the way to las lomas, there is a bar.  this area is full of construction businesses:  supply stores, equiptment rentals, tablaroca (concrete brick) makers, and the contractors and labourers.   the bar that we pass daily is call "el sindicato' - the union - and i have never seen it open. this is not a union prepared to drop everything to shut down the oaxacan economy, although collectively or individually it's members may have participated in the barricades last summer. 

is in such a place as this, with the people who presumably congregate, where the heart of oaxacan political strength lies. the PRD will continue to scream electoral fraud until the next elections (during which campaign they will presumeably remind voters of the corruption), APPO will continue to poster the streets and hold occasional marches until it loses all remaining cohesion, seccion 22 and 59 will continue to squabble over rights to schools, missing money, unfufilled promises, and which section holds the moral authority, and the PRI will continue to blithely assume political dominancy.

none of this ultimately matters.  it is my community organization to which i must ultimately answer in most things and to which i must go if i want change.

unwanted men

i am back to trying to wrap my head around life here.  i know that i should just let go and it will all make sense, but, like meditating, the more you think about it the less likely i seem to be able to do it.  and so far i have not managed to just intuit.

some interconnected themes:

1. we went to mari and andres' house for lunch the other day.  mari made a tres leches cake.  we arrived to watch andres and mari finish decorating the cake.  they discussed the colour of the icing: whether it was pink enough, green enough, not pink enough, not green enough, whether there was enough marmelada de fresa in between the layers, enough leche. 

i painted nisaa's arm into a crocodile with LJT's face paints.  then the two of them painted my arm blue and white with splotches of grey and yellow.  washing it off with cold water inthe service sink was not so easy, my arm looked stained with bruises until i thought to use laundry soap.

while we ate pollo con salsa verde andres mentioned that he wouuldn't let men visit their house.  i think i must have blinked in response.  but he said 'perdon, pero soy muy grosero y no les doy entrada en mi casa'.  suddenly the birthday party last march makes complete sense.  at the time all that i could think was that either san martin had no men living in it and all the male population were working up north, or, that andres had quite a collection of mujeres and they all seemed to get along peacefully.

mari explained to me that sometimes men went visiting drunk out of their minds and ended up upsetting their hosts with incoherent ranting, loud threats and sometimes violence.  after speaking with adelina and chema one night about the whole thing it appears that andres and mari are not in the minority here; adelina agreed wholeheartedly and chema understood the reasoning but was put out just thinking about it.

2. in the centre the municipio plans to shut down two north/south streets to pedestrian traffic only.  much like north of the centre.  i presume this is to attract tourists to the area south of the centre which doesn't even appear in most travel guides despite the really interesting and beautiful stuff down here too (plus it's proximity to the Periferico and the Central).  the two streets in question are  Armenta y Lopez and Bustamante.

it isn't a popular decision here in the centre.   everywhere there are "no al cierre de los calles" signs especially in the markets. the signs are significantly absent on the two streets in question.  property values are goign to go up and pedestrian traffic will flow with lots of rich gringos to spread the money around. 

this of course will ruin the reasons why i like living down here.  there are actual families here, with little papelerias and tortillerias. neighbours sell tamales out of their front door on sunday mornings.  soon these will dissapear for overpriced artisan shoppes, gourmet oaxacan restaurants and art galleries.  gone will be the mothers running their children to kinder in the morning, instead we will have the SUV strollers seen north of the centre.

and here i thought i supported the road closures.  more pedestrian traffic in my mind is always a good thing.  the centre is over-congested and loud; if it isn't the urbanos barrelling down the street breathing out their toxic fumes it is bumper to bumper traffic in the evenings.  i want some moto taxis here in the centre.  that i can call to come pick us up and drop us at benito juarez.  or be able to walk along armenta y lopez to parque san fransisco eating fresh sandia.  i want the urbanos to stay out on the periferico and niños héroes where they belong.  i want people to admit that most people in the centre don't drive and the markets already uses mostly human powered transportation to get stuff into the puestos.   and it isn't like mina and aldama are being closed.

oh like i know anything about urban planning.  but it does seem that the business people here prefer the traffic to people walking on the streets.

comunication - limeddh

all translation stupidities mine:

Today,  November 2 a year of resistance is marked. In order to celebrate a year of this struggle, APPO called for a political-cultural event in the neighbourhood of Cinco Señores in Oaxaca city, where within the framework of a traditional Día de los Muertos celebration, an offering would be made to remember the killed, the imprisoned and the disappeared during the conflict last year.   As well numerous artistic groups  would participate through the course of the day.

As it had been announced widely; at 6:00am a group of people waited for the sand trucks to arrive to create the altar which would close the intersection. Around 7:00am several police trucks arrived with  convoys of numerous state and municipal police trucks, as well as police motorcycles. They burst into the demonstration showing disregard for the saftey of the demonstrators.

With excessive use of the force they stopped an indetermine number of people prevented anyone from participating in these events. Also, the neighbors of colonies bordering Cinco Señores denounced the entry of police into their particular properties to search for anyone who might have sought protection within.

As of right now it is reported that two persons are injured in the Hospital Civil, around 43 people transferred to la Secretaría de protección Ciudadana in Santa Maria Coyotepec, who according to the testimony of the detainees, were beaten while in custody.  Those detained have been released, but there are rumours of two presumed missing.

comunicacion - limeddh

Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos
(LIMEDDH-Filial Oaxaca).
COMUNICADO DE PRENSA
Oaxaca de Juárez, Oax., 2 de noviembre de 2007
16:00 hrs.

El día de hoy 2 de noviembre se cumple un año de la resistencia que enfrentó el pueblo de Oaxaca hacia la Policía Federal Preventiva, que pretendía ingresar a las instalaciones de Ciudad Universitaria para desalojar la Radio de la Universidad Autónoma "Benito Juárez" de Oaxaca. Los miles de oaxaqueños, simpatizantes o no con el movimiento social, lograron replegar a los cuerpos policiacos utilizando piedras, palos, pero ante todo, organización y solidaridad.

Para celebrar un año de este acontecimiento, la Asamblea Popular de los Pueblos de Oaxaca convocó a un evento político-cultural en el crucero de Cinco Señores de la ciudad de Oaxaca, en donde, en el marco de la celebración tradicional de día de muertos, desde las 6:00 horas se realizaría una ofrenda consistente en un tapete de arena para recordar a los asesinados, presos y desaparecidos durante el conflicto del año 2006, así como la participación de numerosos grupos artísticos en el transcurso del día.

Como se había anunciado ampliamente, a las 6:00 horas, un grupo de personas esperaban los camiones de arena para la realización del tapete, cerrando uno de los cuatro accesos de este crucero. Alrededor de las 7:00 horas, arribaron a este lugar varios camiones tipo bunker de la Unidad Policial de Operaciones Especiales, convoyes de numerosas camionetas de la policía estatal y municipal, así como cuerpos parapoliciacos a bordo de motocicletas. Ellos irrumpieron la manifestación con estos automóviles de forma irresponsable, con el peligro de arrollar a los manifestantes; en ese instante con uso excesivo de la fuerza, detuvieron a un número indeterminado de personas y se instaló un operativo en ese lugar en el que estuvieron revisando las pertenencias a transeúntes y deteniendo a los "sospechosos" de participar en estos eventos. Asimismo, los vecinos de colonias aledañas a este sitio han denunciado la incursión de cuerpos policiacos a los domicilios particulares para buscar a los participantes se pudieron haber resguardado.

Hasta el momento, se han reportado dos heridos en el Hospital Civil, alrededor de 43 personas detenidas y trasladadas a los cuarteles de la Secretaría de protección Ciudadana en Santa María Coyotepec, quienes según denuncia de los propios detenidos, fueron golpeados en estas instalaciones. Los detenidos ya fueron liberados, pero se habla de dos presuntos desaparecidos.

Estas acciones represivas por parte del Gobierno del Estado son una mala señal en la solución de fondo del conflicto social generado precisamente por el autoritarismo que ha caracterizado a este gobierno. Intentar acallar las protestas de la ciudadanía mediante la fuerza policiaca y el terror no refleja más que la incapacidad política para dirigir la vida de un estado sumido en la pobreza y la desesperación que busca formas democráticas de participación.

La vida democrática en una sociedad sólo son posibles mediante el diálogo constructivo y la corresponsabilidad social. Pero una vez más queda demostrado que el llamado de Ulises Ruiz Ortiz para emprender las reformas del estado son sólo una simulación, porque estas acciones propias de una política fascista nos demuestran que las puertas para la democracia están cerradas.

La represión a esta manifestación resulta ser de una enorme torpeza política, primero porque es una tradición de los mexicanos en esta fecha 2 de noviembre realizar ofrendas para recordar a quienes han fallecido; segundo, porque el movimiento social intentaba conmemorar pacíficamente el hecho de haber resistido estoicamente una agresión de la Policía Federal Preventiva a un espacio universitario; y por último, porque se trataba de una manifestación artística anunciada con anticipación. La represión de esta manifestación de un pueblo que durante más de una año ha resistido los embates de la violación a sus derechos humanos, resulta en una acción vergonzosa para un gobierno que se repite a sí mismo que "en Oaxaca no pasa nada", cuando todos sabemos que las consecuencias de las estrategias del estado de intimidación y el terrorismo provocarán enfrenamientos que serán aun más difíciles de controlar. Lo menos que el gobierno podría haber hecho es respetar la celebración que se habría anunciado con anticipación, en aras de la búsqueda de la reconciliación.

Ante estos hechos, la Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos comunicamos que:

  Responsabilizamos a Ulises Ruiz Ortiz por las agresiones realizadas a los participantes de la movilización social, así como de las agresiones que puedan sufrir en lo subsecuente, puesto que en este momento continúan siendo amenazados por cuerpos policiacos en las manifestaciones pacíficas que se están llevando a cabo.

        Condenamos la utilización facciosa que por enésima vez el gobierno hace del sistema de procuración de justicia para criminalizar la protesta social.

          Exigimos el respeto a  lo dispuesto por la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos y los Pactos y Convenciones Internacionales sobre Derechos Humanos, ratificados por México.


ATENTAMENTE 

¡Una llama encendida por los derechos de los pueblos!

 LIMEDDH-filial Oaxaca 

AREA DE ENLACE - COMUNICACION
Una llama encendida por los Derechos de los pueblos!
Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos

La Limeddh es filial de la Federación Internacional de Derechos Humanos,
la Organización Mundial contra la Tortura (OMCT) y está asociada a
Trabajar Juntos por los Derechos Humanos.

Todos ellos con estatuto consultivo ante la ONU (Resolución 1296 del ECOSOC)

Av. Azcapotzalco No. 275.
Col. Clavería. C. P. 02090,
México D.F.
Tel. 53 99  05 92.
Fax: 53 99 13 36.

enlace.limeddh@gmail.com
www.espora.org/limeddh

from the unapologetic mexican

THREE QUOTES from a nytimes.com article on the Califas Wildfires. They occur in this order, not right next to one another:

"Some people have speculated, including on the Web, that immigrants might have set some of the fires, as has occurred with campfires lighted in fields."

Yes. And Some People are reputable. And exist. And thus we quote them. Others, however, do not. For even on The Web, it is too far to link from here. And anyway, Some Straw People might catch a spark and burn down in a hot wind, were we to expose them to the heat of public scrutiny.

"Two men, one in San Diego County and the other in Los Angeles, who were arrested on arson charges, accused of setting small fires this week, are believed to be deportable, a federal immigration official said."

Two men believed by Some People (who love commas and run-on sentences) to be "deportable" have been accused by Some (Other) People of setting fires this very week. Says a "federal immigration official" who also shall remain nameless. Oh, and by the way, guess what other huge, devastating fires happened this week? Coincidence?

'It is a shame what happened,' said a man who gave just his first name, Miguelito. 'But we think there will be jobs to clean or build.'

It's a shame, says "Dried Grass Hombre" Miguelito freshly plucked from Contextville and placed lonely but purposeful, at the end of the last graf—but who cares. I'll have work, and lives lost and horizon-to-horizon char are worth my Illegal Job. That's just the way of us ILLEGULZ. See what we do to your country?

Oh, come on. You didn't think there was a way to spin a hardworking people who just want to make a living into dangerous demons? You (to borrow a word from History's Worst President) "misunderestimate" today's Press.

--------------

nez, nez, nezua.  i really feel struck dumb by this latest example of the NYtimes' propaganda machine.  speechless.  utterly speechless.

the revolution will not be funded

There's something fundamentally flawed in trying to achieve mass social change through a model that says this small number of people [nonprofit staffers] is responsible for changing society fundamentally.  History has shown us that masses of people are required to make mass significant change.  So, delegating that to a small group of people for whom social change is a career really limits our ability to actually effect and perpetuate change.  In the meantime, it creates a group of people for whom social change is a career, and along with it comes individual self-interest, opportunism, and career building - really limiting their accountability to larger political visions and to larger communities.

. . .

Scott-Heron challenged us to understand that we've all  become isolated by watching television and so don't get together to create social movements, and that we're not going to see revolutionary change that way.  It is important for us to recognize that the revolution will not be funded by the Ford Foundation. 

Once we realize that the revolution will not be funded, then we have to figure out how we're going to make it happen with the resources, skills, and abilities that we do have.  Otherwise, it's either in control of state-sponsored funding, or funded by interests that are contrary to ours.

. . .

It is definitely challenging.  There's  many more raise-the-rent parties, many more strains on existing community resources, and it's challenging to be trying to resource a movement for social change from the very people who are suffering the most economically and socially right now.  However, when we do it that way, everyone is far more invested and feels far more ownership that when we do it the way we've been doing it [through foundations].

. . .

Also, let's think about the process by which we do social-change work.  It should be integrated in our daily lives.  Each of us should do a little bit every day, instead of one person having to do it all and get paid for it.  Basically, the notion is that people who are part of social movements, who need social movements, who want social movements, [should] invest in them any way they can with time and energy and resources and money and collective efforts that get things done without having to rely on Rockefeller.

INCITE!'s Andrea J. Ritchie in make/shift issue no. 2

For Sharon. Thank you.

 

towards a politics of hope

francis moore lappé wrote diet for a small planet. one thing she says (regarding the fallacies of economic dogmas) is "the market does not respond to individual preferences; it responds to money. I thought that the preference of most individuals is to eat when they are hungry. Yet more than half a billion people living in market economies are not eating"

i could go on and on and on about the global supermarket, how most of our food comes from california rather from farmers in our region. how one family controls the majority of food in this country. which is to say that one corporation controls what almost the entire country eats. what gives them the right to decide who can eat what, where, at what price??

i do truely believe that being hungry means making choices that no human being should ever have to make. and thus, hunger equals anguish. that hunger means grief; watching people you love grow sick and die. that being hungry means living in a state of constant humiliation and dehumanization. and that ultimately being hungry means living in fear.

perhaps there are a number of rather critical points to keep in mind.

underwhat circumstances could the market work to reduce hunger??
could it respond to HUMAN preference.??
the market tends to be blind to the human and resources costs of over consumption.
the problem unfortunately seems to be the increasing gap between those who can live by their wealth and those who cannot live by their work.
western markets lead to a concentration of economic power that directly contributes to hunger and makes true democracy impossible.
nowhere are markets free.
we should work for all politics that reduce rather than reinforce the concentration of income and wealth.

thank you, daniel, for turning a blind eye to me pirating our conversations.

unions, and borders, and trains... oh my!!

i realize that i have not been writing here all that much, this week i seemed to catch the plague which seriously knocked me out for a few days.  illness combined with a recent addiction to a certain website that will go unnamed, suffice to say that i´m not entirely sure why my current friends won´t return emails, but one´s from primary school will find me and write on my wall.  weird.

after a rough start this morning (late night / early morning / rain) i went off to confirm my suspicions that anarchists are not going to cross picket lines for mere prisonner solidarity meetings.  so i did an hour of picketing duty (since i am not priviledged to belong to a union) up on carleton´s campus with deah.  the morale seems low up there, with a lot of people crossing, rumours of scabs, hostile students, et cetera. 

i guess all strikes have these problems, but coupled with the rain, it seemed really sad up there.  so many of the union´s members were dismissive of what is being attempted by the strike.  people forget, or don´t know, what it means to not be unionized.  one woman talked to me of her powerlessness when faced with employers; who is she, she argued, to demand a certain pay level, benefits, job security?? 

all things that union members are lucky to have, and the rest of us who don´t should remember what unionizing can accomplish.  what is the old labour slogan??  Unions: the people who brought you the weekend.  enough said.

then this afternoon on to OCISO to talk about immigration options, borders, legalities, strategies, conflict, racism, fascism . . . OPEN THE FREAKING BORDERS ALREADY!!  i am so tired of this bullshit.  people living in sanctuary, people who are stateless, refugees, divided families, illegals, dead migrants, and generally fear driven policy.  it frustrates me soooo much. 

on another, lighter, note.  i received this foto in my inbox today.  it´s from railroad days at the museum of science and tech.  and yes, that is molly driving the shay locomotive.