not to command or obey

after many days of walking i met a bird that spoke to me from the branches of a naked tree.

'the only thing worth doing in this life is living' the bird said. the sky was grey. many clouds moved overhead. lives heard and unheard were swimming through the dirt beneath my feet and under the tree.

without a sound the bird spread its wings and was gone, another movement in the movement of things.

a glowing screen, three windows

i'm at the library. i really like this place. it such a good day when i can walk to the library, look around, read a few things, then find a comfortable, out of the way chair, and sink into a book. a lot of people use this place. i don't know of another place like this, where you can just sit, if you like. for hours. without buying something. i've heard some stories of library employees waking individuals up who have fallen asleep in a chair. i don't know if this is true. if it is, it's a ridiculous thing and to be criticized. other than that potentiality, i really like the library. except that i have heard that some folks have been harrasssed outside in the library park; people being told they can't hang out there. of course, a family having a picnic in the library park is not told this but a couple of people with backpacks and who might look like they don't own a house and two cars become undesirables (actually, it's probably not this broad--houseless, homeless, folks are the people who have been deliberately targeted in the past). but these criticisms are not inherently a part of libraries. instead, they relate to specific situations--a particular library, particular employees. i can't think of much else that is present in a state-level society, that comes out of the state, that i really like that much. it actually does embrace a level of sharing, a respect of differences, is not focused on capitalism. and embraces concepts that involve ideas like learning, growing, sharing perspectives.

p.s. not that libraries need come out of the state. they can be quite independent of such things, and sometimes are.

bula vinaka and adam smith

check out the following fictional conversation. it's really good! jen pointed it out to me today at the library in a magazine. the magazine, called yes!, is ad-free. one of the reasons i like the magazine adbusters is that it, too, is free of advertisements (although the library doesn't carry it). usagi yojimbo and the teenage mutant ninja turtles are also ad-free comicbooks! just thought i'd mention that.

Economics of Life in Balance
by Regina Gregory

For several years I studied the economics of decolonization in the Pacific Islands. I came to the conclusion that what is really needed is the decolonization of economics itself.

Pacific Islands culture (and indeed most indigenous cultures) is based on values that simply do not fit the neoclassical model of "economic rationality," based on materialism and individualistic self-interest as the main motivating forces. This culture—in particular its communal land tenure and lack of individualistic go-getting spirit—is often referred to as an impediment to economic "development." The thinking seems to be that since the realities of Pacific societies do not fit the development model, the societies should be changed. But of course the reverse is true: the model must be changed to suit the society.

I call the more appropriate model "Pononomics," from the Hawaiian word pono, meaning goodness, righteousness, balance. Apart from being more culturally appropriate, it is more ecologically sustainable as well.

An imaginary conversation between Adam Smith and "Bula Vinaka," a typical islander, illustrates the difference:

Smith: The magic of the marketplace is this: Each person, acting in his own self-interest, maximizes total welfare. The butcher provides you with a pork chop, not because he likes you, but because he wants your money. And you give him money because you want the pork chop. Both of you are better off—otherwise you would not have made the trade. This is replicated throughout the economy, and everyone is better off.

Vinaka: Each person acting in his own self-interest is stingy behavior. In our culture, when somebody has extra, they give it away. We even give away whole pigs, not just pork chops. The way to maximize welfare is to redistribute things, so that goods and money flow like water to where they are most needed.

Smith: Another magic of the marketplace is that supply and demand are always perfectly balanced. If there is a shortage, the price will go up. Higher prices encourage producers to produce more, and so the shortage is alleviated. For instance, when the price of coconuts goes up, you produce more, right?

Vinaka: No, when the price of coconuts goes up, I produce less. Last year I had to cut 70 coconuts to pay my children's school fees. Now the price of coconuts has gone up, and I only have to cut 50! Somebody else can cut the others, and pay for their children's school, too.

Smith: But the magic of the market allows you to accumulate great wealth. It converts land and natural resources—which are in themselves worthless—into valuable goods.

Vinaka: Land is not worthless. It's priceless. It's where the spirits of our ancestors live. It's what we pass on to our children. We don't own it, we care for it. The "owners" of land are the spiritual rights vested in people, not the people themselves. When we say vanua, which is a piece of land, it means the land and people together.

Smith: But our system is so much more efficient. One man working all day can make, say, 14 pins. Now, by working together, each man doing a separate task (one man cutting wire, one man putting pinheads on), 14,000 pins could be produced each day.

Vinaka: Who needs 14,000 pins? For me, division of labor goes like this: Alone, it takes all day to make 14 pins. Working together, we can make 14 pins in about 20 minutes. Then we can all go home and relax! Or go catch some fish for dinner. When you have mass production you take too much, you eat up the earth and make the species extinct, like the sandalwood and the whales. You fill up our lagoons with trash from McDonald's.

Smith: But cleaning up that trash makes jobs, so everyone is wealthier. Every single transaction contributes to the gross national product, or wealth, and creates jobs. Aren't you worried about unemployment?

Vinaka: We are not particularly eager to work hard all day every day. We are content to earn what is needed for basic necessities. You need a concept of enoughness. You need to value freedom and leisure. People don't want jobs, they want food and a roof. And if you can grow your own food and build your own roof, you don't need a job.

It's a pity that your "education" has educated our children away from knowing how to live. It is unfortunate that your economics defines our happy life—which has survived thousands of years—as a state of unemployment.

As the rest of the world begins confronting the hazards of overdevelopment, you may find that the indigenous cultures of the world, like the Pacific Islanders, know something about how to live.

Regina Gregory is an ecological/political economist living in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Current projects include www.ecotippingpoints.org and the Hawai'i independence movement.

mlk

I am getting ready this morning to participate in observing Martin Luther King Day; there is a speaker and other activities scheduled, although the planned march has been cancelled due to cold weather. As I’m wondering about the day, I can’t help but think about Dr. King’s various messages and how he might see the world today. And I am upset, although not surprised, by the sanitized version of Dr. King’s voice. Somehow the voice of Dr. King has been appropriated, has been co-opted. He is held in reverence as one who was able to make a difference, in stark opposition to the rest of us who must be content to let the great ones make changes. That, I fear, is often the implied message communicated through ‘official’ representation of Dr. King. Dr. King himself was the first to say that nothing he did or was able to accomplish was possible without the dedication and work of all those around him who, today, are rarely remembered or celebrated. Equally disturbing is the fact that, as far as ‘official’ celebration and observation go, the complexity of Dr. King’s messages has largely been ignored and hidden. He was radically against war, poverty, imperialism, and the structures of hierarchy and inequality that allow these to occur. It is these messages that are absent from public and mainstream representation of Dr. King and discussion of his ideas.

As an example, here are some excerpts from a Passion Sunday sermon delivered by Dr. King at the National Cathedral (Episcopal) in Washington, D.C. on March 31st, 1968. It was the last time he would give a Sunday sermon.

“I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.”

“I want to say one other challenge that we face is simply that we must find an alternative to war and bloodshed. Anyone who feels, and there are still a lot of people who feel that way, that war can solve the social problems facing [human]kind is sleeping through a revolution….The world must hear this. I pray god that America will hear this before it is too late because today we’re fighting a war.

I am convinced that it is one of the most unjust wars that has ever been fought in the history of the world. Our involvement in the war in Vietnam has torn up the Geneva accord. It has strengthened the military-industrial complex; it has strengthened the forces of reaction in our nation; it has put us against the self-determination of a vast majority of the Vietnamese people, and put us in the position of protecting a corrupt regime that is stacked against the poor.

It has played havoc with our domestic destinies. This day we are spending five hundred thousand dollars to kill every Vietcong soldier—every time we kill one we spend about five hundred thousand dollars while we spend only fifty-three dollars a year for every person characterized as poverty-stricken in the so-called poverty-program; which is not even a good skirmish against poverty.

Not only that, it has put us in a position of appearing to the world as an arrogant nation. And here we are ten thousand miles from home fighting for the so-called freedom of the Vietnamese people when we have not even put our own house in order. And we force young black men and young white men to fight and kill in brutal solidarity. Yet when they come back home that can’t hardly live on the same block together.”

“We have alienated ourselves from other nations so we end up morally and politically isolated in the world.”

“It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

The above is just a small sample of Dr. King's writings and speeches concerning these issues. The reason I bring this up is that I remember attending last year a public reading of grade school and junior high essays about Martin Luther King. The essays were positive and encouraging; however, I could not help but notice how uncontroversial and unchallenging they were. Instead of questioning the present, as Dr. King tirelessly did, the essays mostly praised his vision of equality, as if all had been realized. Absent were his views on war and poverty. Missing were his observations on imperialism and the military-industrial complex. This is not to criticize the children who wrote the essays; they were simply reflecting what they had learned and some actually did reach a little into the issues at hand through the lens of Dr. King's voice, as well as recognizing to some degree that his vision of equality is still far from realized. It is, though, a condemnation of the censoring and political sanitization of Dr. King's messages and his life of committed critical awareness and persistent challenging of hierarchical powers and social injustice. To remove these aspects of Dr. King’s vision and action is to render any potential understanding of both Dr. King as an individual and the reality of his convictions incomplete. Even more distressing is the possibility of these incomplete messages being used in ways Dr. King would have found repellent; that is, to service the maintenance of the status quo—to keep things as they are, with no questions asked. If alive today, Dr. King would not allow his voice to be quieted; he would speak out against the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq, the continual repression of gay rights, the U.S.’s role in the occupation of Palestine, the racism and fear surrounding immigration, corporate globalization and neo-liberal trade, the oppression that hierarchy and capitalism demand, and many other issues. To curtail his voice, to conceal those parts of his message that challenge the current powers-that-be, that challenge the state, is a disservice to Dr. King and a telltale indictment of those structures that wish to expurgate his vision.

So, I hope that Martin Luther King is remembered today as an individual who never stopped questioning the world around him. Who never let fear or hopelessness stop him from demanding a better world—one in which racism, fear and hatred, poverty, and war have no legitimacy. And I hope his critical examination and commitment will be applied to the challenges of hierarchy and imperialism we face in the present day.

california, minesota, osugi, and a documentary

I got up this morning just before the sun was rising. It’s a pretty cold morning—the thermometer on a bank building that is visible from our apartment reads -1 F. I went outside to see a thin layer of snow that had fallen in the night; a fragment of the moon was visible through the branches of a tree. What a beautiful morning and a beautiful way to begin a day.

I was in California, visiting my sister, for a couple of weeks at the end of December and the beginning of January. My immediate family was all there and we had great times hanging out together. We played a lot of games, made and ate some delicious food, and managed to stay up till midnight on the new year. I fell in love with Sam, a dog that my sister and her husband sort of adopted from a friend who wasn’t able to really be there for her. She is a cool, cool dog. We took a lot of walks together and with a bunch of the family, too. In a dream last night I saw Sam and she licked my face.

Then I was in Minnesota for a little while, at Jen’s folks’ place. We ate some of Patti's delicious sweet chili and I took a walk I won't forget that took me down a muddy two-track with frozen puddles to a stand of bare trees. Jen's folks had a graduation party for her. There were many people in their house—a few old friends from Fargo, Jen’s brother and a couple of his friends, and a bunch of Jen’s relatives and some friends of the family.

During all this time two babies were born to friends! Wow! It’s amazing and I don’t even know what else to say. I hope for lots of love and happiness in their lives.

So, I don’t know what I’m writing this for....just a bit of an update, I guess. It’s good to be back home now. I’ve started helping out with lunches at a downtown shelter again and that has been good. One of the guys who works there definitely has some different ways of looking at the world than I do. In some ways, it reminds me of ways that I once thought about some things. It’s not the kind of thing that changes the way I see this person, because I think I can see where some of it comes from, but some of it does kind of sadden me. I’ve been walking around a lot, as opposed to riding a bike. This is partially because there is plentiful snow here but also because I am really liking the pace of walking.

I read a book that my sister gave me; I finished it on the trip to Minnesota. It is the autobiography of Osugi Sakae and it was a great experience reading it. Osugi Sakae was born in about 1885 (I think) in Japan during the Meiji period. He was the son of a military family and lived as a child in village settings (as opposed to Osaka or some other large city—from which there are more historical/autobiographical accounts). Somehow, even out of that background, he became an anarchist and is now known largely for his writing, translations, and public life. He translated many works into Japanese (including some of Peter Kropotkin’s stuff—a prominent Russian anarchist writer). Some of his autobiographical writings include prison memoirs, which I found really interesting. One of the parts of the book that I remember most is when he is talking about how he feels like a spring overflowing with the desire to learn. It just made me so excited!

Then I started a book my brother gave me—it’s about social ecology and written by Murray Bookchin. And I’m just about at the end of an Ursula K. LeGuin book titled City of Illusions. It’s the last book in a collection called Cities of Exile and Illusion that collects three of her early novels. I really, really like her books and short stories. In fact, a while back I read a short story called something like “Those That Walk Away From Omelas” and a recent article in the English Journal that discusses using the story in the classroom. I had written a short response about it and had thought about posting it here, along with a link to the story (I found it online). Maybe I’ll do that later.

Jen and I watched a short documentary last night that we checked out from the library. It’s called “In Whose Honor” and is about the use of Native symbols, mascots, and names in sports. It is fantastic. It’s really effective at communicating perceptions in a way that gets at what this issue is about; and it is a relief to see and hear from people who are supposedly being “honored”. I enthusiastically recommend the documentary to everyone. And this includes people who already have opinions about the issue and have never heard or listened to people who do want to see change and who don’t feel honored by these sorts of representations. The documentary does a great job at relating why people feel this way. So, check it out if you can.

Here are a couple of related links:

http://www.aimovement.org/ncrsm/index.html

http://aistm.org/1indexpage.htm

http://www.inwhosehonor.com/


Well, this is one long post. I know when I’ve read other blogs I sometimes don’t make it this far in a long post. So, congratulations on your endurance and fortitude. Or something. And I am wishing all a happy new year and one filled with love, meaning, understanding, and friendship.

fantastic letter

the following is a letter published in the rocky mountain chronicle in fort collins.

To everyone who applauded the massive anti-immigration raids, and to the hypocrite SUV drivers who display their racist bumper stickers and yet seem so comfortable watching me and other Mexicans remove the snow from their streets and driveways:


Sure, we come to this country escaping the misery, starvation and exploitation of a damaged and ransomed economy, but do you ever ask yourself what generates such conditions? Such a dysfunctional economy? Think it's just the "bad luck" of being a third-world country? Ever heard of globalization, "free trade" or H2A visas?

You want us to stop coming? Simple. Stop destroying our livelihoods.

You want to close the border? Go ahead, but do so fairly. Close it to both humans and goods, because if our resources can come up but my people can't, that just ain't right. Also close it to the most dangerous illegal entities: U.S. fast-food and retail corporations. If I can't be here working hard to make ends meet with dignity, but these companies, which don't face humiliation, incarceration or death, can easily enter my country, violate labor and environmental laws, fracture the economy and alienate my culture, then your concept of "illegal" is a little twisted.

While the Minuteman loads his guns out of hate and ignorance, I'll load up on love and teach English to my immigrant comrades, while educating and organizing my community, because illegal immigration ain't going to stop anytime soon.

In the meantime, I'll find hope and strength in the smiles of that sweet old lady or the young couple who, regardless of the language we speak, the color of our skin or where we come from, bring us hot tea and cookies at 3 a.m. as we endure 15+ hour shifts of shoveling snow.

Name withheld upon request
Fort Collins