anarchobamanaugulationmania

A long (and long-overdue) post-inaugural / new year’s “revolution” blog.

“What the cynics fail to understand is that
the ground has shifted beneath them…”

— Barack Obama

Part Zero:

For a laugh, here’s my (Omamaphoria-induced) contribution to your expanding list of Obama-related neologisms:

anarcho-bamist: an anarchist who is impressed / inspired by Obama.

anarch-Obama (or anarchObama / anarcho-bama): an articulate, intelligent, earnest, elected democrat, concerned with their own legitimacy.

inaugulation: inaugural inoculation (against cynicism).


Part One:

Today i woke up from a dream and reality was more exciting. Guantanamo Bay, a place i’ve visited in nightmares, is going to close. Obama called the prison “a stain on America’s reputation” — it seems incredible, to me, that the new president of the United States might actually see with his own eyes what Sunera Thobani received death threats less than eight years ago for pointing out: that “American foreign policy is soaked in blood.” Guantanamo is only the first of innumerable stains Obama will have to wash out, but it is a beginning about which any conscious human being can breathe a sigh of relief.

Many people, including my dad, expressed worry — shortly after his coup in 2001 — that Bush would look for a way to hold on to power at the end of his term(s). But of course today such fears seem surreal: clearly Bush himself never wanted to be president, and barely ever was. (He wanted the perks, not the job.) He couldn’t get in that helicopter fast enough. Who on earth wasn’t relieved to see him leave? Part imperial autocrat, part obnoxious frat boy, part wanna-be hillbilly, Bush II was truly all bad. Scholars and scalpers alike will struggle to articulate the scale of his failures. We can expect to hear more phrases like: The most criminally incompetent statesman of the modern era. The worst orator in the public realm in a generation. Etc. A war criminal. An asshole. A clown.

His accomplishments are an astounding inversion of achievement. He embodies the words: just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse…

Almost any mammal who sought to proceed him would have looked promising. Almost. Sarah Palin seems to have been sprung from the same zoo, and — while i don’t condone the incarceration of animals for human entertainment — it’s good to know she’s back there. For now. I imagine her bizarreness will attract more tourists to Alaska than an entire chorus line of dancing bears. However, we are all indebted to her for catalyzing the long-overdue recognition of Tina Fey’s comedic genius.

Speaking of the power of laughter to make dark days more bearable: as i sat, paralyzed with horror during Israel’s mass-murdering kick-off for 2009, John Stewart summed the situation up with a bit of brilliant wit beyond even his usual high standards: demonstrating the “range” of perspectives presented in the US media by American politicians, Stewart concluded (on the January 5th show, if you want to look it up) that the Gaza strip is “the Möbius strip of issues: there’s only one side!” I hadn’t laughed that hard yet this year.

But seriously…


Part Two:

I maintain: the idea of legitimate government is something everyone, but anarchists in particular, should be very interested in (with ever-vigilant skepticism, but nevertheless). This is a propitious moment for people who share basic concerns for human rights and justice (in all domains: social, economic, ecological, etc.). All of us living in this context, anarchists, liberals, even the spectral conservatives, have a relationship with the idea of democracy, and as Edward Said says of Orientalism: it is certainly much “more than a mere collection of lies.” To me, as an anarchist, recognizing the power and complexity of ideas is a first step to harnessing their power to motivate change.

Here’s an excerpt from an essay i handed in on Monday, lamenting the way “lazy-minded fools” (to abuse my favorite Jimi Hendrix lyrics) drove Murray Bookchin to give up on anarchism:

Bookchin tried to warn us: Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism. I wish i could have told him, before he died, that i heard his warning: we are social beings! Life is of the social; “true individuality… depends on a social context.” (Beihl: 16) Perhaps he should have said “before” rather than “or”. Either way, i feel remorseful knowing in his last years he “felt alone and misunderstood, a man out of his time”. (17) It’s too late to hug Bookchin, but not too late to heed him. As Stephen Collis describes Phyllis Webb’s poetics as one of “response” (one of public engagement, despite being flooded with the tensions between public and private) and as Webb herself speaks of the “future” as “tact” (Collis: 15) — it is clear: we are concerned with each other. We share, create, withdraw, re-create, etc. We like spirals, which are both cyclical and linear, and it is their both-ness that makes them flexible. Makes them bouncy. Exciting. Useful. Fun.

Anyway, i will be returning to the idea of [engagement with] democracy, and its purported thorniness for (some) anarchists, again. Hopefully i won’t share Bookchin’s fate of having my faith eroded by decades of cruel personal attacks.

Moving on…


Part Three:

Recently i’ve been reminded of one of my favorite lines from one of the great movies of my childhood: Winston Zeddemore (the first African-American Ghostbuster) in his job interview, saying “If it has a steady paycheque in it, I’ll believe anything you say.” Believing things is easy. Reconciling beliefs and reality, even to the extent that we can change reality, is not. And getting a job isn’t easy these days either. As indicated by the recent headline from The Onion —“Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job” — many people are ready to take whatever employment they can get.

So how about that inauguration? Quite a show. Of course the first thing that must be said is about the first things that were said, and who said them. The invitation of homophobic, anti-choice zealot / bestselling author Rick Warren to give the invocation has been rightly described as “an utter nightmare and a total insult to the LGBT community.” Some people, caught in the dazzling headlights of Obama’s inspiring oratory, might be tempted to rationalize the decision in terms of Obama’s aim to ameliorate the intense polarization of American political culture, but veteran gay Democrat Barney Frank (interviewed in last week’s New Yorker) would like to disabuse us of any such illusions. He explains that the invitation was a wrong turn attributable to the fact that “Obama tends to overestimate his ability to get people to change their opinions, and underestimates the importance of confronting ideological differences.”

In an editorial published after Warren’s invitation was announced, New York Times writer Frank Rich opines: “It’s bizarre that Obama, of all people, would allow himself to be on the wrong side of this history.” He goes on to quote historian — and Obama campaigner — Timothy McCarthy who does us all the favour of putting things plainly, saying: after such a poor start, it is time for Obama “to start acting on the promises he made to the LGBT community during his campaign so that he doesn’t go down in history as another Bill Clinton, a sweet-talking swindler who would throw us under the bus for the sake of political expediency.”

So Rick Warren’s presence was, to recycle Obama’s reference to Guantanamo, a “stain” on the inauguration. Warren seemed to steer wide of language that would point back to the ideological sewer he calls home, and in doing so he reminded me of our famously evasive renegade Prime Minister — whose outrageous arrogance catalyzed December’s constitutional crisis (a tragicomic/farcical echo of the abovementioned fears that Bush would cling to power) and set an abysmal new precedent for unaccountable oligarchy in Canada. That whole melodrama certainly deserves a long post of its own, but it will have to wait for the time being…

Returning to our creepy crypto-fascist preacher, i do think one aspect of Warren’s invocation merits further attention. Warren spoke of hope for “civility even when we differ.” It has already been pointed out that Warren’s attacks on queer communities are a “strange model of civility” but the idea of civility is a difficult one, worth thinking about. Sure, sometimes it gets cynically used as a means of silencing justified outrage, but i think it has a lot of potential power. It is a key ingredient of pluralism — something i’ve become more and more interested in recently, especially since reading this fantastic piece from Claudia Ruitenberg (a brilliant UBC prof i was lucky enough to take a course with last semester). Of course the challenges of pluralism are very familiar to anarchists, for example in the recent debates about “diversity of tactics.” Civility and pluralism, along with democracy and engagement, are “unpopular” themes i intend to explore in the coming months.

One more thing about the power of the spectacle, i have to say: Aretha Franklin brought a tear to my eye with her rendition of My Country Tis of Thee — when she sang “Let freedom ring!” you know she really meant it. At such moments, i relish the freedom to let go for a moment and just give myself over emotionally to a musician and i luxuriate in the euphoric glimpse of a vague but shared idealism. It’s a life-sustaining feeling. I also couldn’t help but be reminded of that scene from School of Rock where Dewey Finn says “Everybody wants to party with Aretha!”


Part Four:

I wanted to say something about the Gaza rally i attended at the Vancouver Art Gallery recently. It was raining cruelly, yet there were certainly hundreds of umbrellas gathered together for the event. The part i saw however, didn’t go very well. There were many three-word-chants, of course, and shouts of “Shame!” at the usual intervals, right on cue. But things unraveled during a bumbling speech from Vancouver-Kingsway’s new NDP MP Don Davies (who by all accounts is a very nice, earnest, political activist). He implicitly invoked the most irritating of logical fallacies: the fallacy of the golden mean, which is a real pet peeve of mine, and the crowd reacted harshly. Davies’ mind-boggling blunder was to utter a condemnation of Hamas’ rocket-fire in the same breath as speaking of Israel’s completely incommensurable mass-slaughter of Palestinians. That’s the kind of “both sides” crap we expect to hear in the American media (it’s what makes John Stewart’s “Möbius strip” analysis so friggin’ hilarious), but it was beyond distasteful — just shockingly stupid really — to hear it from a Canadian MP at a rally against Israel’s war crimes.

Davies’ moment of ineptitude as a speaker, however, provoked a revelation of something that also disturbed me (in my perpetual naiveté): as he backtracked and stammered, suddenly we were hearing a different voice (i couldn’t see anything but umbrellas — i assume someone grabbed the microphone from him). This voice declared that “we” (ostensibly the damp, heterogeneous crowd) “do not support a two-state solution” to the conflict; according to the angry voice, “we” support a “one-state solution” (a “free Palestine” — well, who wouldn’t want that?).

I was actually surprised to hear this position expressed seriously. I had thought that there was a consensus that, in the foreseeable future, the only plausible means to end the violence is a two-state solution; but what i heard at that rally made me wonder if polarization has intensified too much for that idea to remain viable. A grim thought. I found this interesting article from the L.A. Times that suggests, if the two-state solution is dead, the only hope is for a one-state “solution” (if you’re thinking a “free Palestine” guess again): democratizing Israel.

Honestly, a two-state solution sounds a lot easier than that, but i could be wrong. In any case, i hope Mr. Davies is taking notes from Obama (who, so far, seems to have a real knack for evoking the complexities of a situation without reducing them to formulas that abandon all perspective), and i wish him better luck (and encourage him to prepare more carefully) in future public appearances, and in Ottawa.


Part Five:

I think that everyone who gives a shit about politics (human rights, social, economic & ecological justice, etc.) has some serious work to do. That much was also true during the Bush presidency of course, in a very different way. Today, in addition to forging new working relationships to overturn injustices and accelerate progress (our perennial concerns), we have to ask ourselves, with renewed willingness to confront inconsistencies between belief and reality: how — in what ways, to what extents, and by what means — shall we engage with the existing political structures?

Of course, we must continue to aggressively challenge the legitimacy of the power structures with/in/under/against/through which we struggle, but the second stage in this spiraling process of anarchistic critique is to vigorously champion their/our moments of success. Doing so will help us propel and steer them forward: towards the goals of justice (and ultimately, an anarchist hopes, their radical transformation / obsolescence — perhaps not too far over the utopian horizon).

On that note, let me state for the record that i’m decidedly not interested in pursuing serious conversations with people who object to incremental progress. You can go ahead and call me an “incrementalist” anarchist; i would rather be an anarchist “without adjectives” but i‘ll welcome adjectives that get hurled as insults if they in fact describe me fairly. Voltairine de Cleyre was right that “Little dreams are folly” but I don’t have much patience left for people who think change is only possible, or good, if it all happens at once.

Let’s say goodbye to Guantanamo Bay, and raise a glass to progress, then get back to arguing about what to do next. It is a very exciting time to be alive.

Happy new year.

PS: one of my resolutions is not to neglect this blog for months at a time, so i’ll be back soon; there are several things of a more personal nature i plan to write about so:
Hasta pronto companer@s...

Art & Anti-Colonialism: Launch!

It's here!

West Coast Line 55

"Art & Anti-Colonialism:
The 2004/5 Cedar Table Series
Anti-Colonial Art Contest"





Vancouver Launch event:
(there will be another event at SFU, TBA)


Friday April 4th 2008
7:30pm
Spartacus Books
319 West Hastings
Vancouver, Coast Salish Territory
FREE !

Featuring readings and reflections from the contributors.

(copies of the issue will be for sale @ $10
and we will be accepting donations towards a permanent installation
of Anti-Colonial Art Contest grand prize winning mask/sculpture "Teen BC")

This issue of West Coast Line, 3 years in the making, commemorates
the events of the second Cedar Table Series at Simon Fraser University.
It contains full transcripts from all the events and
reproductions of the winning pieces from the Anti-Colonial Art Contest.

Contributors include:

ryan andrew murphy (guest editor)
annie ross
Peter Jacobs
William Ignace (a.k.a. Wolverine)
Arnie Jack
Rick Ouellet
HOCK E AYE VI Edgar Heap of Birds
Sharene Razack
Sunera Thobani
Leonard George
Merit Ichin
Pascuala Patishtán
Michael Stevenson
Nate Woodbury
Susan Cormier
A.S. Matta
Valentine Gomez
Marlee Ouellet
Scott Stonechild
Adriana Contreras
m.d. caroline lefebvre
Noemi Kozikowsa
Erika Fuchs
Nadine Chambers
Barbara Charlie
Sandy Scofield
Lisa Sterling
Erma Robinson
Tania Willard
Gwaai Edenshaw
Mary Aski-Piyesiwiskwew Longman
Lucie Idlout
Sarah Caufield
Margaret "Grandma" Harris
Theresa Neel
Jerry Zaslove
Roy Miki
Rita Wong

Finding Meaning Saves Lives

This morning i learned of an attack that was made — in a national newspaper — against a former classmate of mine. Robert Fulford of the National Post (unofficial soapbox for Canadian cynicism) wrote a piece called “Lex Luthor hearts Superman: Your tax dollars at work” in which he basically accuses Jes Battis of stealing money — by being awarded a research grant for his work on homoeroticism in popular culture. Jes responded to the attack with more humour and patience than i could have mustered.

Many issues were brought up in the exchange, but for me i was reminded of the article i read some time ago in the Georgia Straight called “Finding meaning in life key to curing addiction”.

Lately i’ve been reading Victor Frankl’s classic Man’s Search for Meaning and when i read Jes Battis’ response to the attack against him i remembered one of Frankl’s lines about life in Auschwitz. Speaking of the psychological torments of the camps and his fellow prisoners’ inevitable contemplation of suicide, he says: “...once lost, the will to live seldom returned.”

New pathways to meaning:

Counter-hegemonic readings of (supremely accessible) iconic cultural texts — such as Battis’ queer reading of young Superman and Lex Luthor — can help to provide an ontological foundation for discursive spaces in which to safely begin the collaborative work of psychological healing (from homophobia, for example).

This is not intellectual wanking. This is completely practical, vital, real-world stuff.

I see this in action every day in my work as a youth counsellor. In fact, one of the strengths i feel i bring to my work is the willingness and ability to help young people see and appreciate the philosophical profundity of the self-healing work they’re doing — and to assure them that there are intellectual and cultural communities in which they would be welcome. Often i have to do a lot of explaining (decoding jargon, paraphrasing, etc.) but the experience has been mutually rewarding and has even occasionally led to therapeutic breakthroughs for the young people i work with.

Incidentally, reading about Jes this morning reminded me of my pivotal experience in early adolescence (about which i have written, in an article published in Adbusters a few years ago), of discovering the historical tradition of anarchism — knowing that generations of people had built a movement based on ideas similar to my own profoundly changed my perception of reality, at a crucial time when despair and alienation were a serious threat to my well-being. As the protagonist of the film Year of the Dog put it (upon discovering veganism) “It’s nice to have a word that describes you. I’ve never had that before.”

The sense of belonging, the meaning of community, obviously saves lives — it is a salient level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. And Jes Battis’ significant contributions to the creation of community should be applauded. The fact that so many of the National Post’s readers so eagerly attack him makes me very sad because it strikes me as an example of what people who have no sense of connection to the whole of humanity act like, in the agony of alienation. Again, i think of Victor Frankl.

So many of the comments seem to reverberate with a despairing, fanatical economic adversarialism — as if giving someone money always means stealing it from someone else. I see this reductio ad absurdum as the tragic kernel of prevailing statist (socialist and capitalist) economic theories... A sketch of an anarcho-synergistic economic model is something i might dare to attempt some day. (I’ve heard Michael Albert has interesting ideas along these lines).

Ultimately, i was driven to write this post because both the NP article and many of the comments posted below Battis’ response to it ignorantly and arrogantly dismiss his work and attack him personally — and i felt attacked alongside him. So i wanted to raise my blog’s voice in protest, to assert that i am part of the intellectual community against which these attacks are being made, and to emphasize that we are a community which, beyond being legitimate, actually makes important contributions to society. Even saves lives, and helps to make them worth living.

R.I.P. Demonoid?

Today the ugly rumors were confirmed: Demonoid.com (reportedly one of the world's most popular BitTorrent tracker sites) has been shut down, but only for Canadians.

The group responsible for locking us out of our own collective media library is the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA); but these dinosaurs are enjoying what will inevitably prove to be a short-lived victory. Whether or not Demonoid itself is able to reopen to Canadian file sharers, as one poster recently put it: "We are in an era where the old rules of rights management cannot survive. Pandora's Box is open, the cat is out of the bag, you cannot go back without causing more damage, if you can go back at all. Adapt or die."

In my opinion, such confidence is securely founded on two things.

First, I am certain of the justness of file sharing, which, as another poster pointed out, is in fact the only means of accessing much "obscure" (ie: unprofitable) media: "People don't go to demonoid for Britteny Spears. They go for Jazz and Classical recordings that have not been available for purchase in the US for 20 years. They go for medical textbooks. I got a full Principa Mathmatica there for cripe's sake. It's where Americans get 30 year old BBC productions. I'd been wanting to see The Sweeny for years. I'd have paid for it given the chance. The copyright Nazis don't give a shit about 90% of what's there and 90% of the people using Demonoid don't give a shit about any of the stuff the copyright Nazis give a shit about.")

Incidentally, I also believe that the reason so much media remains unavailable except through file sharing is because of the dinosaur corporate business models that have not kept up with emerging technologies. Thus, we (media users/consumers) are punished doubly: first by having to work our asses off (for example) to digitize media that hasn't been/won't be remastered and/or re-released by it's original producers (instead of simply buying a digital copy of it, like so many of us would clearly be happy to do), and then we're accused of stealing it! Many media artworks (eg: movies available only in VHS; old/obscure publications [of particular interest to me is the library of millions of digital comic books created by readers who scan the often hard-to-find originals, a specialty of Demonoid]; as well as independent/obscure recordings) owe their entire contemporary (digital) existence and/or circulation to dedicated file-sharing fans - but instead of being thanked for enriching and maintaining our collective cultural heritage, we're threatened by bureaucrats and business giants who have no legitimate claim to the artworks we've rescued from oblivion.

The second pillar of my confidence in the inevitable vindication of file sharing is the conviction that media artists themselves will not tolerate the restrictions that the big business copyright-dinosaur lobby is pushing for. Already, a swarm of Canadian musicians have created an antidote to the CRIA, they call it the Canadian Music Creators Coalition. Through spokesperson Steven Paige (of the Barenaked Ladies), they say:

"We, as Canadian music creators, have identified three simple principles that should guide copyright reform and cultural policy.
- ...we do not want to ...coerce fans into conforming to a rigid digital market artificially constructed by the major labels.
- ... Laws should protect artists and consumers, not restrictive technologies [ie: DRM technologies]
- Third, we strongly believe that cultural policy should support actual Canadian artists. We call on the Canadian government to firmly commit to programs that support Canadian music talent. The government should make a long-term commitment to grow support mechanisms such as the Canada Music Fund and FACTOR, invest in music training and education, create limited tax shelters for copyright royalties, protect artists from inequalities in bargaining power and make collecting societies more transparent."

As for Demonoid itself, when i visited the site moments ago it simply said: "The latest changes to the site are giving us some problems - We'll be back soon"

Too good to be true? I certainly hope my favorite community-conduit to completely otherwise unavailable media reopens, or that another one, of equal quality, emerges to fill the crater left by CRIA's assault.

**EDIT [Nov 6]: Well, this has been a highly rewarding learning experience. There is always hope: Praise The Proxy Saviour!

**EDIT [Nov 10]: And sometimes hopes are dashed... The latest from Demonoid:
"The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding."
...La lucha sigue. ¡Venceremos!

some things can't be explained...

(line from Dusan Makavejev's "Sweet Movie")

Too busy, as usual... Even less clarity, even less certainty, even more stress, even less sleep. We (Sara and i) went blackberry picking last weekend - inspired, for my part, by Steve Collis' reading at Under the Volcano two weeks ago (on the heels of our trip to Nova Scotia for my dad's 60th). But i wouldn't usually bother to post such quaint reflections to this blog... not that they're unworthy of commemoration, of course. But, rather, i was moved to update this page because:

I recently received word that there's been a paramilitary attack against the Zapatista municipality of Olga Isabel; the very municipality i visited (with an MSN delegation of human rights observers) in September of 2002. The courage, dignity and humour of the people who hosted our group for that week spurred me on to increased activism upon my return to Vancouver. In particular they prompted me to align myself with indigenous resistance in Canada, and to learn more about my own history... both of which are crucial elements of work i've done since. Here's a link to the details of the recent attacks against them.

And speaking of resistance at home, the recent actions of the Quebec police deserve more outrage than they have elicited.

Oh, and i might be looking for a new job again - just maybe - for a couple of reasons that have basically nothing to do with my current job, which i love in every way except one: the schedule is slowly killing me just as it prevents me from taking so much as a single evening or weekend course... So if you happen to hear about a decent job with regular hours, don't hesitate to let me know... Thanks.

Restore funding for Aboriginal Languages

Greetings cyber-citizens!
As usual, it's been a while... Well, here's a letter i sent this morning to one of the few conspicuously legitimate elected representatives on this continent. I'll post any replies and follow-up... Once again, click here if you want to get a word in also.

Hello Mr Siksay,
first, thanks and congratulations for all of your good work keeping human rights on the federal agenda.
i'm writing to ask you if you have yet received any response from Bev Oda to your January letter calling for the reinstatement of the 160 million dollars of funding for Aboriginal Languages: Has the Minister responded (favourably)? If not, will you be raising the issue again? It has been brought to my attention by friends and colleagues from coastal First Nations that now is an appropriate time to increase pressure for this funding, with the AFN's National Day of Action approaching.
please let me know if there have been any developments in this area recently, and as a voter who is passionate about the revitalization of First Nations languages, thank you for your work on this important issue - as you know, it is an extremely time-sensitive one.
sincerely,
ryan andrew murphy

Cordón Blog / al cumpleaños

In the final hours of my 28th year, i contemplate my paltry blog and feel vaguely obligated to make a new post. The long pauses between postings speak volumes about unresolved conflicts:

As i divide my time between the banal interrogation of falsely modest personal demons, my "careers" (paid work plus largely unpaid creative and intellectual work), the ongoing recalculation of viable & sustainable degrees of involvement in activist/solidarity work and attending to my individual and relational well-being, it seems the same kinds of questions come up in all spheres:

What am i doing? (What is the nature of the projects i'm engaged in?)
Why am i doing it? (What is the purpose: for whom and/or what parts of myself am i doing it?)

What is this blog for/about?

Its inconsistencies, the shifts in style and content are a surprisingly accurate reflection of the tensions in my mind between different needs, desires, goals, visions, whatever. Between different ideas of who i am (and/or who i wish to become / again).

Thinking of Bridget Jones' Diary (to me, a film - though i'm sure the usual caveats about transmediation apply; maybe if i finish all these, i'll get around to reading the original) as well as having seen it done by friends in their admirable blogs, it occurred to me to infuse this entry with some data that might serve as a representative sample of my year:

Bachelor's Degrees earned: 1
Grad school applications rejected: 1
Concerts attended: lots
Concerts performed: 0
Songs included in compilations: 1
Poems published: 1
Visits with my Grandad in Florida: 1
Old friends rediscovered: several
Funerals attended: 1
Weddings attended: 2
Car accidents: 1
Collage parties thrown: 2
Lobsters eaten: 2.5
Brief bilingual speeches at protests outside the Mexican consulate: 1
Tattoos: 1
New languages studied: 1
Episodes of Star Trek TNG watched: all

Happy Birthday to me!
And to all of the blogosphere: yeehaw!

Colonial Art...

My friend Jerry sent this letter to the Sun (and me) yesterday. Enjoy.

..............................................
Steven Hume’s complaint (Vancouver Sun, 22 Feb 2007, pg. A.17) about “political correctness” in regard to what he terms “censoring art from our past” trivializes the issues by labeling the First Nations complaint with the catch-all term “political correctness”. By innuendo he insinuates that the First Nations’ concerns about the Southwell Mural entitled “Courage” in the legislature building are similar to Fascist and dictatorial regimes that destroyed paintings, burned and censored literature, banned and exiled authors, intellectuals and dissidents, and in the recent past destroyed statues, or pillaged libraries and archives. He refers to the “degenerate art” exhibitions as displays of artists who “offended” the German sensibility. He refers to the Taliban’s destruction of religious icons. His comparisons are cheap and historically false. The paintings from the “degenerate art” exhibits were confiscated, housed and held for ransom - that is stolen. Books were burned. Artists and authors were persecuted, imprisoned or murdered, and many were herded into reservations otherwise known as concentration camps. Political opponents likewise. The logic that the First Nations’ concern has any relationship to these events is guilt by association. It would be far more fitting of him to explain to readers why a people whose land has been confiscated, whose children were incarcerated in residential schools, whose households were turned into subsistence economies, and whose culture and languages were rendered obsolete might be “offended” by the art work in an official building representing them as subservient in a land where they are citizens. While stupidities have been committed in the name of ‘political correctness’ this concern about the painting goes much deeper. A more correct analogy would be if Jewish survivors of the holocaust were asked to accept as an official representation of their legacies and their lives the very stereotypes that were pervasive in the society that decimated their culture and their families because of phobias against Jews and non-Aryans. Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, the sick and crippled were the “natives” of the time. Yes teach the next generation and this one too about the causes, and find ways to do that. Keep the painting as illustration of a historical perspective. Consult many about how to do that. Don’t trust all art historians. Don’t trust all journalists. Don’t trivialize the issue by meaningless comparisons. By the way, Paul Klee is not a cubist.

Jerry Zaslove
Professor Emeritus
Simon Fraser University

happy holidays blogworld!

"Goodness makes the badness go away
Goodness makes me happy every day
Badness cannot start
if there's goodness in your heart
Goodness makes the badness go away"
- The Smurfs

Feliz Cumpleaños

Happy Birthday to Cam and Silvio Rodríguez.






Vamos a Andar, amigos...

I need a new cave

Been away from the blogosphere for a while - busy back in "reality" with writing, work, etc. but two urgent items were brought to my attention this evening, so here they are... If you're reading this i hope you have a minute to take some action (write to the bad guys / donate to the good guys / tell others)...

First, i heard about the Massacre in Chiapas...

Then (moments later) i learned that Bear Mountain Resort CEO Len Barrie meant it when he said "if we want to blow up a cave and put up a hotel we will" (whether or not it has traditionally been used for Native ceremonies and burials).

According to Cheryl Bryce of the Songhees First Nation, the Bear Mountain developers (led by Barrie and fellow former-NHL player Mike Vernon) blew up just such a cave today.

In an email, Justine Batten (Director of the Archaeology Branch of the BC "Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts") explained to Bryce that blowing things up is the best way to understand and protect them: "... the Heritage Conservation Act does not protect sacred sites that contain no physical evidence of use or habitation. Before we know whether this cave does fall within the protection of the Act an impact assessment needs to be completed and this can only be done safely by removing the roof of the cave. This work will recommence on the site."

If you have questions about this method of "assessment" (reminiscent of witch trials: the destruction of the cave enables us to determine whether or not it was sacred), feel free to contact Ms. Batten (Telephone: 250 952-4305 / Fax: 250 952-4188 / email: justine.batten@gov.bc.ca). Just be prepared to hear something along the lines of: "...the Provincial position is: Given the existence of the Douglas treaty, aboriginal rights and title were surrendered under the terms of that treaty..."

How am i supposed to sleep with all that noise??

Viva Vitus!

Last night, on my first excursion to this year's VIFF, i was lucky enough to catch Vitus. I can't remember the last time i had that much fun watching a movie - it was even more euphorically adventurous than any of the high-quality superhero films of recent years, perhaps at least partly because the "hero" of this one is seven years old for the first act of the film, and twelve for the second. Here's the trailer (which naturally doesn't quite do justice to the film, but gives a fair sense of it). Apparently, as i discovered during a perfunctory web search, the film exhibits many parallels to the legend of St. Vitus, who (according to some sources) is the patron saint of children...

Toes get stubbed on borders

Celebrations are in order, as a good friend has at last gained "residency" in Canada - after having resided here for many years. Life's a lot less stressful when you don't have to worry about getting deported. The timing is a little ironic, as she turns her sights southward to her family... and the ongoing electoral crisis in Mexico.

The CEPR (a group of American economists) has been analysing the 'partial recount' data released by the Mexican electoral authority; they found "a significant reduction" of votes for Felipe Calderón (whom the electoral authorities have nonetheless declared president-elect), and correspondingly significant gains for populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka: "AMLO"). Their most recent update contains even more dramatic numbers; note in particular at the bottom of the page where they estimate that "it would take about 200 hours" to decipher the data. Clearly, no official effort will be made to determine the actual outcome. Obrador will announce his next move at the "Democratic National Convention" this weekend.

If you can read Spanish (or have a good bilingual dictionary, a verb conjugator, and a little patience), you might enjoy Marcos' insightful response to ("friends" and) critics of the "other campaign" (who have claimed that the EZLN and allied groups do, or should, support Obrador). Essentially: the election was a fraud, but even if it had been legitimate (and the 'leftist' candidate had won), little would have changed for those who are concerned with building alternatives to the state.

As i witness the unfolding electoral spectacle (and contemplate its consequences), i can't help but wearily recall the perennial debates around whether or not a principled engagement with electoral politics can be consistent with anarchism. It's a pretty boring and sophomoric discussion for the most part, in my humble opinion. Much of it boils down to false dilemmas ("to act" rather than "to elect" - can't we do both?) and posturing. While i agree with virtually every word of Jaggi Singh's analysis, i am nevertheless convinced that we can choose the lesser evil and refuse to co-operate with it. Or as Jaggi himself has said: we can walk and chew gum at the same time. Anarchists sympathetic to the Parti Populaire des Putes (People's Prostitutes' Party) could show their support by voting for them as well as supporting sex trade workers by direct action (like Copwatch).

I consider voting to be another form of harm reduction: injecting heroin is inherently harmful, but at least one can use a clean needle (and a safe injection site); states are inherently harmful, but at least citizens can exert an influence on the state (unlike a corporation, unless you buy shares) - to hopefully make it slightly less harmful. It may not seem like a worthwhile difference to some (especially to people of privilege), but to people on the margins it can matter a whole lot where the lines get drawn...

Anyway, here in the land where elections are lost "fair and square", an almost-amusing group of the usual, hard-core loonies (who warn of "secularists attempting to eliminate Christian morality") has recently complained to the provisional Canadian government about the continued funding of Out on Screen, the group whose hard work brings us the delights of Vancouver's Queer Film Festival (and whose Out in Schools project is especially impressive, i think).

As usual, click here to find your MP and, if you have a minute, remind them that not all of their constituents are anti-choice, homophobic neanderthals (it's probably easy to 'forget'). You could even warn them that some of their constituents might be anarchists - who actually vote!

The Hunsdale of Notre Dame: A True Story

Once upon a time, while i was quixotically studying French amidst a throng of anglophone revelers at l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (a dismal experience, but with some highlights, including a brief detour to the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair), i met a friendly, charismatic young man named Shawn. Years later, having begun my degree in Linguistics and Women's Studies at SFU, i bumped into him again. Naturally, this coincidence gave rise to a measure of mirth for both Shawn and i, and we forged a rapport characterized by good-humoured greetings in the hall and on the street.

I had been organizing events with the SFU Linguistics Student Union - an activity in which i was aided considerably by the exemplary work of Hattie Aitken, the SFSS student union organizer at that time. The following spring i decided to become even more involved in student union activities, and i won (by acclamation - meaning no one ran against me, a process which i believe should be replaced by a "yes/no" vote for unopposed candidates) a position on the board of the student society. My acquaintance Shawn also ran for and won a position in the election. That fall, he enrolled in a Women's Studies course that i was taking. Thus, inevitably, we ended up spending a lot of time together.

By that point, i had already developed a degree of frustration with this young man's penchant for sophistry, but that's a common vice in academia, so i didn't allow myself to become seriously upset with him. Rather, i would usually try to laugh off his refusals to genuinely engage with the serious and complex issues we faced in class and at work: He's just one of those incorrigibly playful and free-spirited 'artists', i would tell myself...

As a side note, having spent the last few weeks carefully dissecting (and savouring) Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", i have a renewed contempt for poseur artists (and a renewed appreciation of Joyce, about which i will write at a later time).

Eventually there was no denying that his unwillingness to take things seriously had myriad negative consequences, including two that i find inexcusable: other people consistently ended up doing work that Shawn neglected, and valuable class-time was regularly spent entertaining his specious and frivolous arguments - which he dependably interjected to demonstrate his ignorance of the course texts (not to mention the problem of men taking up lots of space in a Women's Studies class). In fact, the only mitigating factor in the crescendo of my irritation with this colleague of mine was his frequent absence from both meetings and classes.

Towards the end of the term i served with him, i began to notice a strange and troubling pattern in his voting: an unprincipled fidelity to the positions of the Canadian Federation of Students. This kind of behaviour always baffles my poor, naive little mind at first. Why would anyone ignore facts pertaining to specific issues and simply advocate allegiance to a particular party? But upon reflection, there's no mystery to it: Shawn Hunsdale is a polititian, in the most common, vulgar sense of the word.

Many months have passed. I've completed my undergraduate studies, and my brief career in student politics is over (though i continue to work on projects initiated during that period, including an upcoming issue of West Coast Line which will document the series of anti-colonial events i co-organized). But Hunsdale continues to haunt me. A couple of weeks ago i joined a long list of former student society board members in signing a letter condemning recent actions of the current SFSS board (of which Hunsdale is now president).

The most egregious offense of the Hunsdale board is their recent firing of Hattie Aitken - the very one whose expertise and organizational skills inspired my initial confidence in the SFSS, which prompted me to get active on campus.

A former colleague of mine, who enjoys a reputation for diligence and attention to detail, has posted information and comments concerning these events on his blog, including the letter to which i attached my name. The Georgia Straight even ran an article on the "controversy" last week, and another one this week about the political fallout (quoting yet another former colleague, who is now engaged in the optimistic enterprise of impeaching Hunsdale and the others responsible for Hattie's dismissal).

In principle, i believe Hattie should be reinstated with compensation and an apology (because i am convinced of her innocence, and of Hunsdale's ulterior motives, as described in the Straight articles); however, if i were her, i can't imagine i'd be eager to return to a work environment where i had been so badly mistreated. I sure as hell wouldn't work with that guy again. On the other hand, in her decades of service to SFU students, Hattie has seen many dozens of board members come and go... both good and bad.

Meanwhile i still can't speak French worth a damn, but i did enjoy the film Bon Cop Bad Cop, even though i probably only got half the jokes.

Grand Men . . .

R.I.P Murray Bookchin, 1921-2006.

I read some of his history of the Spanish Anarchists while i was living in Barcelona in 1998. I think i'll pick it up again to toast his memory tonight.

The toxic load really got me down at work this week. After involuntarily sleeping for 14 hours, i took a day off to get diagnosed with prepatellar bursitis and watch Leonard Bernstein's first "Unanswered Question" lecture. That, along with Ibuprofen, made me feel a little better.

In a particularly serendipitous turn of events, i finally got around to sending Noam Chomsky a copy of my book (of poems about him and Jack Spicer) a few weeks ago. His thank-you note arrived on Saturday afternoon, moments before i had to head out the door to work. I had been in a pretty foul mood - having missed a booklaunch, a concert, and a tea party in the preceding 12 hours due to my stress-induced coma, but somehow a few words of thanks from Chomper seemed to outweigh all the bad stuff. I climbed on the bus feeling safe and protected in a happy little golden bubble of satisfaction. Remarkably, no one threw an egg at me.

Today my dad shared a great quote with me: "The right to swing my fist ends where the other [person]'s nose begins." It is attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. I like it as a concise corrective to one of my perennial pet peeves: infantile libertarianism. Yes, Dorothy, there are other people to consider.

It's a little frustrating (to an obsessive citation-monger like me) that - like Freud's famous remark on the Irish - there is no identifiable source for Holmes' gem. However, i'm working to develop appreciation for the uses of such phrases, independent of their dubious authenticity. I can usually resolve the whole wrestling match in my mind by invoking that great scene from Smoke Signals, where Thomas is asked "What do you want, truth or lies?" and he replies "I want both." I found this interesting article on the film today, which reminded me of Ward Churchill's piece from several years ago.

Speaking of Churchill (and footnotes), is anyone else out there feeling the same mix of emotions about the conclusions drawn by the Boulder research misconduct inquiry? What i mean is: i'm deeply troubled by the prospect of specious, cynical dismissals of all of Churchill's work on the basis of its purported flaws, and by the highly suspicious timing of the investigation itself. Ward insists, in his response to the committee, that no serious scholar's work "could withstand the type of scrutiny to which [his] has been subjected".

I'm inclined to believe him, and it seems likely that he is currently facing termination because of the backlash against his statement about September 11th. However (especially after my recent experience as a juror), i couldn't help empathizing with the committee members during their press conference. I've been ambivalent about some of his ideas for a long time, but i have insisted and will continue to insist that - like the authors of The Rebel Sell, elsewhere on the left - Churchill asks difficult and very important questions that deserve to be taken seriously (whether or not "we" like their implications, and certainly whether or not he has always footnoted scrupulously - which is argumentum ad hominem). Simply put, we ought to honour his call for all lefties to operate "on a basis of mutual respect" - which i think might best be accomplished by embracing what has come to be called "diversity of tactics" rather than interminable and self-defeating factionalism (the absurdities of which were hilariously demonstrated in the second half of my favorite scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian - the first half can, i think, be read as both feminist and pro-trans, but i tend to read generously).

Okay, i've got a hike to Berg Lake (and subsequent trip to Worsley, AB) to prepare for.

A Diabolical Turn

There must be some physicists who can back me up on this one: heat makes time flow more slowly.... I experienced it the past three days at work.

My mind's been busy this week (in moments when a cool breeze has disrupted meditation on what lobster death must feel like)...

The Vampire government continues to demonstrate spectacularly deadly short-sightedness on both the foriegn and domestic fronts. Fresh from applauding the PM's outrageous statement on Israel's bombardment of civilians (and now UN observers) in Lebanon (and his cynical encore photo-op), the conservatives have now announced they'll sit back and record the death-throws of Insite before they'll consider renewing the successful program's funding. Click here for an *easy* way to tell Harper that his contemptuous indifference is disgusting.

On a more positive note: as i settled into my new "youth counsellor" duties this week, i was momentarilly relieved when i read about the intuitive approach to recovery outlined in this article (from the straight).

Also, the Tyee posted their Canadian Books story, including a slimmed-down version of my statement. Here's the original:

On Joy Kogawa’s Obasan
by ryan andrew murphy

Canada is full of great writers. Canada is also full of crap. Many of Canada’s best writers know this, but few have indicted Canada as artfully as Joy Kogawa.

While Kogawa may shrink from the credit I wish to give her, I like to think her character Aunt Emily would not. Every page of Obasan is brilliant; however, Emily’s dialogue in particular stands out from the tapestry of memories and dreams. Early in the text, Emily cautions her niece (the protagonist), “You are your history. If you cut it off you’re an amputee.”

If Emily is right, then Canada is a land of amputees; the self-congratulatory exaltation of “multiculturalism” only masks a powerful and long-standing prescription for quiet homogeneity.

Emily, like Kogawa, is Canadian and demands to be recognized as such. But unlike many “Canadians”, especially “white” Canadians (from where?), she refuses to amputate her history, despite all it’s pain and horror, because that would let other Canadians – the ones who bore responsibility for (and inherit the spoils of) the Japanese internment, for example – off far too easily.

Emily even writes a manuscript attempting to “find the right mix [of words]” to “make familiar, make knowable, the treacherous yellow peril that lived in the minds of the racially prejudiced... Like Cupid, she aimed for the heart. But the heart was not there.”

Does the praise that Obasan has won suggest that Kogawa has found the words her character sought, and that, after all, there is a “heart” in this country?

I think it is several generations too soon for anyone to indulge in the luxury of imagining that we live in a vindicated Canada. But if such a vision is deemed worth pursuing, Kogawa’s book may be our best compass.

I had considered flogging the metaphor some more (mentioning that one needs more than a compass to find one's way), but i was already well over the 150-word limit. They seemed to like it anyway, which is nice. Thanks dad, for attending the symposium on my behalf (and getting my prizes signed by the authors)!

On the heels of last week's serendipitous theme of good people, this week seems to have brought visions of bad things happening to them... The first time i heard of Mike Frastacky was this evening, when i read that he'd been killed. Made me think of Rachel Corrie; not because of the circumstances of their deaths, but because of the choices they had made.

Similarly (but of much greater importance - because we can do something to help him), the first time i ever heard of Dr. Gazi Walid Falah was this afternoon, when i learned that he'd been arrested by the Israeli police earlier this month, in a Kafkaesque manner reminiscent of the "Secret Trial Five" in Canada. This news naturally brought the Cuban Five to mind, but it also made me think again of the Portnoy Family (in Newfoundland) for whom i wrote this letter of support two months ago:

Dear Honourable Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Monte Solberg.

In October of last year over one thousand people gathered at the Sacred Heart Parish in the small Newfoundland community of Marystown for a special prayer service in support of the Portnoy family - who have taken sanctuary in the church since early that month. The Portnoys, originally from Moldova, sought sanctuary in the church to avoid deportation to Israel.
As if the threat of deportation weren't sufficiently troubling, Angela Portnoy is pregnant and has been repeatedly denied safe passage to a hospital for medical attention. Thus, the immigration bureaucracy's apparent determination to destroy this family's well-being extends not only to the parents and their four living children (two of whom were born in Canada), but also to their children yet unborn.
I join the thousands of Canadians who have demanded a stay on the deportation order that continues to menace the Portnoys; I join them in demanding that Alexi Portnoy (who has already been deported) be allowed to return to Canada immediately, and that the entire family's immigration application be fast-tracked in recognition of the completely unwarranted suffering they have already endured due to the immigration bureaucracy's unconscionable blindness and callousness.
It is in your power, Honourable Minister, to exercise Ministerial Discretion to overrule this deportation order. I hereby add my voice to the chorus of Canadians urging you to do so.
I further join the many Canadians who are calling for an immediate moratorium on all activities of the Canadian Border Services Agency in light of the number of conspicuously incredible deportations performed by that agency in recent years. This agency should, in the interest of Canada's professed commitment to human rights (enshrined in our Charter as well as the UN Declaration), be publicly investigated for human rights abuses.
The Portnoy family, who have lived in Canada since 1996, are only one of many families who have been denied a life in Canada - after having already built one. Such abuse of power by unelected bureaucrats must be halted immediately.
I await a substantive response to these concerns.

Sincerely,

ryan andrew murphy
Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006

...Monte has yet to get back to me.

All in all, the heat and the heaviness of this week have fostered a (slightly crispy) black humour in my waking mind, and a straightforward Inferno in my sleeping mind (and the two have been overlapping more than usual lately). If it hadn't been for a couple of therapeutic visits to The Irish Heather, and a couple of well-timed mood-boosting news stories (like this one - which my mom passed on to me), i hate to think what might have become of me... I might've become just a little bit bitter or something.

peace out,
ry

I see good people . . .

This might sound crazy, but i'm actually feeling quite optimistic at the moment.

Sure Israel is on an insane killing spree, but i've been really encouraged by the ubiquitous outrage that the slaughter and destruction has elicited. The best part is: people are being moved beyond disgust - to resistance. Naturally, everyone i've talked to is especially furious about Harper's pathetic response: essentially applauding Israel's "twenty heads for an eye" approach to "defense".

The most crucial thing that needs to be understood, as i see it, is that the Israeli assault on Lebanon is terrorism pure and simple: terrorizing and holding an entire nation hostage (including - "the real story" according to the Canadian media - anyone who presently happens to be within the Lebanese borders), in response to a particular group's actions.

If you wanna add your voice to the chorus, one of the most under-appreciated activists in Vancouver has posted some helpful info on her blog. And the indomitable Libby Davies has of course posted an examplary statement on her site.

Besides that, there seem to be a lot of cool things coming up in the next little while, like "Selling Security" tomorrow, or the booklaunch for "Sociology for Changing the World" next week... or the Bedouin Soundclash show at the Malkin Bowl (ie: where we can sit outside and listen for free in the park).

I guess i'm probably also in a good mood because i'm one of the winners of the Tyee's "Canadian Novels" contest - they're going to publish my short statement on Obasan by Joy Kogawa.

In other good news, Guujaaw (aka: my buddy Gwaai's dad), is being honoured with the Buffett award for Indigenous Leadership today.

So maybe i'm just nuts, but somehow i can't shake the feeling that things are gonna be ok... eventually.

Head-in-the-Sand Holiday

Sara & ryan's long weekend film binge:
On Saturday we saw The Devil Wears Prada at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas. Place your bets now on whether or not Meryl Streep wins her third academy award for this movie. I've got $50 says she does.

Then we went to the Pacific Cinematheque to watch The Battle of Algiers (it was encouraging to see how many people agreed that watching a film about an anti-colonial revolution was a good way to spend Canada Day; of course we all should have been here).

The next day we picked up Sara's (first ever!) new bike and went out to Riverport in Richmond and saw Superman Returns (in Imax 3D, of course). I laughed, i cried, and i left the theatre beaming with absurd euphoria.

After the movie, as we were riding our bikes toward Steveston, thinking of visiting Finn Slough or maybe stopping in at the tea room of the London Heritage Farm, some exemplary human specimen threw an egg from a moving vehicle... After indicating my disapproval of such behaviour, i threw my yolk-soaked shirt on the road. Sara rinsed it with water from her bottle, bless her perversely inperturbable heart. We carried on riding into the late afternoon sun until i heard a fishy noise and noticed a rusty nail in my tire.
Whoosh! The following evening we rode to the Hollywood and saw The Notorious Bettie Page. We stayed for the double-feature and caught On a Clear Day, which i loved. It almost made me regret spending the weekend watching movies instead of swimming... Maybe i'll go swimming tomorrow.

I guarantee you that swimming will be more fun than Nacho Libre, which sets a new low for fart-joke films. It manages to be mostly boring despite all the action and absurdity; i recommend postponing the three funny moments in this movie until it airs on tv. I should have been even more disappointed, considering how much i actually like some of (writer) Mike White's other work.

The highlight of the weekend turned out not to be a movie after all; this afternoon i spent an hour wandering through the Haida exhibit at the VAG, with Jerry Zaslove. So i'm feeling pretty luxuriously overstimulated now.

Oh and: Happy Birthday Caelie! Sorry we missed the sing-along.

Hope in Hicksville

I have a new job! I'm a full-time youth counselor (starting in two weeks). I'll be working here. I'll keep my old job, but just part-time/on-call. I'm really stoked about moving in a new direction (more suited to my skills and temperament)... especially since i've been so frustrated lately by constant communication problems and conflicts at work. Nevertheless (and maybe it's just because i know i'm not 'trapped' there anymore, but) i actually do feel like things are starting to change, slowly, for the better - so i'm willing to stay involved with DEYAS for now. Maybe it'll actually start to honour the exemplary commitment of its founder.

Anyway, i wanted to announce to the world that HICKSVILLE by Dylan Horrocks is the single greatest comic book of all time. Period. I'm going to be standing on streetcorners downtown once a week from now on, handing out copies of it like The Watchtower.

Strawberries and teachers against the war

God it's hot today.

Cheers to anyone who made it to the Peace Forum march... or the West End Seniors' Network's "Strawberry Festival" (where i could be seen volunteering despite acute sleep deprivation).

In unrelated news, i recently reconnected with two of the amazing teachers whose hard work (and patience and creativity and determination, etc...) made it possible for me to graduate from high school.

If you're looking for a really easy way to tell Gord Campbell to start treating teachers with the respect they deserve, click this: http://www.bctf.ca/Fax/

Time for me to take my frothy Irish vitamins,
ry