informage

We are so conditioned (rightly) to shun pyramid schemes, that it's easy to forget we're all part of the biggest pyramid of all:

This week I fly from Cape Town back to the UK. As always, nothing is permanent, but it's a one-way ticket... next time I'm here I'll be visiting. I've been needing to snap myself out of a funk for sometime now, and a transcontinental shift might just do the trick. (I know, I know, it's really about me not where I am but it's worth a try and anyway it'll be great to spend unbounded time with family and old friends again).

It's appropriate in the week I leave this nation that has been my adopted home for the last five and a half years to point to a couple of good S'African blogs. Firstly Ian's Neverness has been subscribed in my newsreader for a while. He's a cool Capetonian who I unfortunately never engineered to meet, but I've enjoyed reading his writing on politics, free and open source software, Africanism and green stuff.

Ian posted a link to a blog called Red Star Coven, written by Walton - a S'African in Scotland. His latest post "I hate Afro-optimism" strikes a chord with me, partly because I myself have at times fallen into the trap of blind Afro-optimism in reaction to the obnoxious and racist voice of whiney pessimism that emanates from privileged whites here.

Ian's response is intelligent and impassioned, musing on the parallax of perception* between positivity and negativity, pessimism and optimism, that Walton's critique can be inverted into a positive appraisal by simple fact reversal. I spend a lot of time thinking in just this way. Great post Ian, thanks.

Having said that, I find myself tending towards Walton's perspective. I'm extremely impressed with what I've read of his blog thus far and will be reading it regularly.

* I've evidently been reading too much Zizek but to my credit I used to be in a band called Parallax, and we chose that name because like Zizek we regarded it as word with a significant and underused denotation - that where you stand shapes your point of view.

This superb cartoon says everything I've been wanting to say about this particular trend:

"We reserve the right to bomb niggers."

(David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister 1916-1922, from his 1932 diary as cited in V. G. Kiernan's "European Empires from Conquest to Collapse", Fontana 1982)

I thought myself beyond surprise at the more forthright utterances of our forebears, but this one floored me. Of course his use of the n-word would have elicited less disapproval at the time of writing than it does now—and referred to anyone with darker skin—but even putting the word itself aside this is a shocking declaration of the defining character of Western foreign policy towards the East and Africa, a character that continues to this day.

"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."

I've been reading Derrick Jensen's remarkable book 'Endgame'. His basic premise is that civilisation is inherently unsustainable and if allowed to continue will destroy most life on our planet. I've also recently watched Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' that brought home to me the very immediate threat that we'll do this with carbon dioxide. Jensen argues that our only sane collective response to this destructiveness is to begin the task, through whatever means necessary, of dismantling our civilisation immediately. This is an extreme position, and as such the book perhaps isn't for everyone.

Bluntly put: Endgame isn't for those who believe that because environmental scientists have been wrong before in their models and predictions, they surely must also be wrong this time. It isn't for those who pick holes in the overwhelming scientific consensus wherever they see even the smallest opportunity because it challenges their faith in civilisation (climate change deniers seem more and more like creationists in their rhetoric to me every day!)

It isn't for those who think that pumping far, far more CO2 into the atmosphere than 650,000 years' ice record shows as a maximum isn't a problem, that melting glaciers all over the world aren't a problem, that already rising sea levels aren't really a problem, that falling levels of certain pollutants revealing that for fifty years we've been cooling the earth as well as warming it and now we seem to just be doing the latter isn't worth worrying about (of course we can't predict the effects of this stuff with certainty, we can't even predict the weather accurately any more than about a week out, for me that's not the point)

Moreover, the book isn't for those who think that civilisation's relentless and brutal murder of all life that stands in its path, sentient or not, is either in any way ethical or in any way not insane.

In short: Endgame won't help you become sane if you aren't some of the way there already; it's directed at those who already think that there's some extremely serious problems around, more serious than anything humanity has ever encountered, and that we need to understand why and what needs to be done to rescue the planet and its lifeforms from likely, if not certain, extinction.

If you think differently: if you are clinging resolutely to the faith that all is basically well with the world, bar some tweaks and minor adjustments, then the book will probably come across as fringe lunacy and will be of little value. As Jensen himself dryly remarks: if you don't see the problem "good luck with your career in politics or business".

Once again I’m moved by a thoughtful critique of my posts to offer a follow-up, and once again I’m grateful for the generous time given in reading and responding to my writing - this time to Marcus. I’m going to try and address some of his points, this time just offering opinions in response. There’s a whole wealth of material out there discussing these things in more detail and with more in the way of hard evidence (see my politics links for some pointers).

David Cameron will today unveil radical plans to harness the power of the internet by reaching out to a blogging generation that is disaffected and disconnected from mainstream politics.

At the heart of the initiative, which is designed to make the Tories one of the most technologically progressive parties in Europe, is "webcameron" - a website for video blogs by their leader. Mr Cameron will provide regular clips with him speaking direct to camera, as well as written blogs and podcasts.

Tories unveil their secret weapon: 'webcameron', The Guardian, September 2006

The villagers have spent the last six decades dressing up in home-made US army uniforms, drilling with bamboo rifles and parading beneath the Stars and Stripes in the hope of enticing a delivery of cargo once again.

They have even hacked air strips out of the jungle and built crude wooden aircraft to tempt the speedy return of American generosity.

Culture clash in the South Seas, BBC News, May 2004

(format of juxtaposed quotes as commentary shamelessly lifted from Billmon)

Thanks to all who have commented thus far on my previous post, Blood Money. I deeply appreciate being read and responded to. I’d like to address in particular the points that a guy called Russ raises (thanks for taking the time Russ, and though we strongly disagree I’m happy to have got you thinking, and happy that you got me thinking further).

I’ve decided to write a follow-up post, as he raises issues that I didn’t really address. His underlying question - “what are you proposing as an alternative?” - is something that I intend to write about in more depth in the near future, although not specifically in relation to the African AIDS epidemic. Here I’ll address some of his other criticisms and questions and offer a couple more alternatives that we can all be campaigning for.

Despite being prepared for some shocks upon my return to the UK, nothing had prepared me for the crass and exploitative commercialism of this advertisement for the American Express Red card. I first saw this at Clapham Common tube station. I turned to my friends and asked them if they felt the same outrage I did, and realised that my exposure to the tragedy that is South Africa’s AIDS epidemic caused me to feel the pain in a way that they didn’t (I checked with some South African friends: I’m not alone).

Most offensive to me is the phrase “Has there ever been a better reason to shop?”, a somewhat surprising admission of the nature of this product and campaign (interestingly it was omitted from the other ads I spotted). The purpose is to tap into and profit from a particular market of “ethical consumers” on the back of the suffering and death of millions of Africans. Any actual benefit to those suffering will be marginal, and wholly outweighed by the profits AmEx and its board intend to receive.

More than six months after launch AmEx has donated some indeterminate sixth of $10 million to The Global Fund (see the pledges & contributions spreadsheet - the contributions of six companies including AmEx are lumped together), during which time two hundred thousand South Africans died of AIDS and AmEx made something like $1.8 billion in profits.

In contrast, The Gates Foundation has donated $500 million without recourse to a marketing campaign like this. I’m no big fan of the Gatesian approach to social change (see Slavoj Zizek’s Nobody has to be vile for a well-argued analysis), but at least the self-proclaimed “liberal communists” don’t make me queasy as did this ad and the details I went on to dig up.