Uprise, redux

This fabulous lady and friend from Positive Force is always seeing brilliant things and this week she says them brilliantly about the Occupy movement, among other things:

http://www.broadsnark.com/things-you-might-have-missed-75/

My two favorite articles she links to are this one, about non-violent tactics:

http://wagingnonviolence.org/2011/10/what-diversity-of-tactics-really-means-for-occupy-wall-street/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+WagingNonviolence+%28Waging+Nonviolence%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

And this one, about white liberals and the need to communicate with "the other 99%":

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/10/24-1

I went up to Boston for the weekend to visit friends and spent some time at their Occupy movement. It was much more engaging, colorful, and well organized than ours in DC seems to be, with all kinds of community services, like mini libraries and sign collections, speakers (Noam Chomsky!) and singers, and a general air of action. I won't enter in to the massive discussion and debate about these movements that others are expressing more eloquently (see above). I think on a base level all that matters is that the left is stirring, and it is stirring in line with the global movement for horizontal organizing which is badass (and also filled with its own issues, of course). The temptation to hope that it might achieve real change is almost terrifying. Don't want to have my hopes dashed, I suppose. And here in DC it's hard to participate and work a 9-5 job at the same time. I am trying this new idea out of seeing them as fun. Revolution should always be part celebration.

Onwards

Arise, Arise, Uprise....

Let's go, America, it's good to see.

 Read here:

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/3/700_arrested_on_brooklyn_bridge_as

http://www.occupytogether.org/

http://october2011.org/

And you know, read up on your history, because the world has always been filled with badass movements and inspiring folks, and sometimes they even won (especially in South America, especially if we learn to modify our vision of "winning" and think about it more as building. But this time I would really like us to win, at least a little bit, here at home).

Venndiagrams of dissent, redux

There is something about the giant UN organizations that feels a little un-revolutionary. There is something about fancy conferences that feels strange. On the other hand, for the ministers of health, and environmental health, and the specialists in vector control, and our focal points in each member country, it must be much more useful, and practical, and help to build networks and relationships so that we can make the fighting-for-healthier-communities-and-environments struggle less fractured and more thoughtful. I like to think so anyhow, but maybe everyone is bored at every level, eating their fancy treats in their fancy suits.

It isn't that I think the bureaucratic and formal world of action has nothing to offer. I would have stayed a dirty punk activist if I thought it was enough for me. But so much of punk activism, or whatever you want to call it, seems to get bogged down in middle class whiteness and in old, over used tactics, in splits and cliches, in reputations and coolness, and I think I just don't have it in me right now to get too worked up on the home front. Not that I don't try- I work for a ton of DCs local groups, punk groups, labor groups, immigrant groups, all the groups, in solidarity and in support and it's awesome and occasionally inspiring and definitely less lonely and isolating. But working on "global issues", on the whole epic fight for a more just world, is central to my understanding of how to keep going.

It's hard to see just how to wage that fight though. Since it's impossible to just get up, walk out your front door, and "fight" for "justice" all at once and everywhere, you have to choose your way, I suppose. And I think I have come to dabble- in international health, with PAHO/WHO, in local organizing, in Latin American solidarity, and I hope that I am doing it in all these tiny ways but sometimes, often, it feels like I'm doing nothing at all. Which is the trick, I guess. So many people would like to make the world change for the better and it's hard to see how. We pick our little paths but ultimately we seem to be lacking in power and dynamic organization. Not that we never win, or see inspiring visions of success, but that it's rare and special and to be coveted. And even if, in the meantime, I live the world I want to see in my own life, that is also hard, and sometimes you just need to bake cookies and nap.It's hard when all the headlines are yelling.

I have been listening to new songs for this effort. New songs and new ideas. Sometimes you need to feel in some way, anyway, like you are going forward.

The UN does not make me feel young or powerful or fiery, and sitting behind my computer all day makes me tired. Even the most fascinating of position papers lacks a certain spirit. Is it a product of this age that I am starting to feel you can't possibly be innovative if you aren't in constant communication with your collaborators all over the world? The disarray of the big things we have been taught are well thought through is alarming. I need a job where I just coordinate the world. Perhaps it would spin better if we talked it through.


Related links/projects/people:
Global
http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/
http://rio20.net/en/
http://www.habitants.org/who_we_are/who_we_are
Democracynow.org

Local
http://october2011.org/statement
http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/ending/log/

About saving the world....

"Develop new models to interpret the world-in-crisis: the only world we know"
Guillermo Gómez Peña

So many people have written so much more eloquently about climate change and global crises than I can that it is somewhat daunting to even try. That said, it seems some days as if it is the only topic worth talking about. More and more I see that sentiment reflected in the work of those around me- from Will Potter's latest book, to the upcoming Tar Sands Action here in DC, to the headlines coming out one after the other on water scarcity, food crisis, fracking, incarceration of environmentalists, natural disasters, heat waves, droughts, floods, famines.

It's strange to me, in a somewhat unsettling way, that I never felt particularly drawn to the environmental movement before. What that says about the fractured nature of the left, disconnected political frameworks, or the discourse of the mainstream aside, I have found that today to be a part of the environmental movement is simply to be a part of the movement that seeks to avoid the end of the world as we know it- or conversely to avoid the end of nature, and embrace the end of capitalist driven, unequal, exploitation based economics and politics and rebuild the world right, as they say. My dear friend Carlos in Mexico once told me that in his vision of the Mayan end of the world prophecies for 2012, the destruction of earth is exactly what we are already living in the escalation of- climate change, violence, oppression, hunger, thirst- the end of the world through bad practices of human civilization. The encouraging part of his narrative was the thought that the end of everything in Mexico (a statement he made to me two years ago before the shit really started to go to hell over there) there would open a space for rebuilding, recreating, and finding a better world.

Of course in all these years we have never found the answer to utopia. My dad likes to remind me that things have always been bad, from the stone ages on pretty much, humans have faced oppression and have labored against the elements. The world has seen revolutions of all sorts, has seen countries and communities start again and again and yet we seem to have learned few answers. Since encountering the Latin American models of revolution- learning as you walk, inventing collectively as you go, the DIY political model- I have believed them to be the best. Yet in practice a strong and long lasting deeply radical space has not been able to hold much sway.

In environmentalism the argument so often seems to be about saving the world, now. One can argue tactics and methods, but I would argue primarily that the environment will not be saved, nor will the human world which we both construct and live in be changed for the better, unless these movements also address the deeper forces which guide climate change and responses to climate change- which avoid an end world in which the rich live in private walled cities on hilltops while the poor drown in the floods and quakes of our changed planet. You can call this vision hyperbole only if you can deny the fact that it is already happening, on a geography as vast as the regions of our planet which allows us distance from trauma. I have no suggestions as to how we can win this battle or how to answer the host of questions that comes with taking responsibility for our future if we win. But at this point I feel it would be hard to say that the environmental movement can be viewed as separate from all of the world's struggles- the indigenous, the poor, the marginalized; racism, classism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia, capitalism, exploitation- there is no longer a way to tackle issues in isolation.

That is the ideal, of course. In practice it seems quite daunting. Where to start? And what to do in the meantime, all the lifetimes that might pass before this new thing might come into being? Being a consistent and constant part of the struggle is central. But there is also the day to day. I try to combine daily life with professional life with long term life with short term life... it seems hard to live so many things at once, but we do it all the time, no matter how much or how little critical thought we put into it. So then.

At PAHO I am now working on Sustainable Development and Environmental Health. My boss in particular focuses on pesticides in the Americas (we recently eradicated all DDT in Central America and Mexico, while promoting alternatives for vector control for Malaria!) and on environmental risks to health. It's pretty fascinating- basically it focuses on the ways in which humans impact environmental health and how the changing environment affects our health- from creating new regions for vectors like mosquitoes carrying Malaria to travel due to rising temperatures, to the health effects of displacement and migration due to food shortages, water scarcity, and other forms of environmental change, to increased levels of natural disasters. PAHO advocates for the creation of assessments and plans to deal with current and future climate change impacts- something we will all need to be preparing for, if only mentally right now on this East Coast oasis of ours. Urban centers will have particular challenges to face- but perhaps that post is for another day.

End ramble.

Favorite Things in DC

Kayaks

Canals

Swamps

Summer

Bike rides in Rock creek Park

Cherries and rowhouses

Kite days/apocalypses

The Library of Congress


All of the Smithsonian museums

Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park

Positive Force shows at St Stephens

Union Station and the buses to NYC

My cold and empty tidal basin

The archives

Yup!

Home

District of Columbia

The Washington DC flag is often presented with some additional information:


in order to protest the fact that the city has no power over its own governance, despite paying taxes like the rest of America. Though many campaigns of varying merit levels have been launched, the republican controlled congress is showing no signs of turning over any power. In fact, one of their first acts was to strip our rather powerless house representative of any symbolic voting rights. Many people here advocate for DC to become the 51st state- an idea I had never heard mentioned outside of the city. It makes perfect sense though. It certainly has been oft mentioned that this once majority black city (now down to less than 50% according to the latest census), filled with immigrants, ambassadors and delegates from all over the world, sporting some of the highest crime rates and an intense racial and financial segregation across the city, that this, our nation's capital, is governed by a bunch of white men in congress that we haven't even elected, and have no power to control. This feels like a quiet betrayal and outrage no matter where one lives these days, given the political state of things across the country.

But feeling helpless is not a useful state of being, and certainly DC residents are some of the most active, vocal, interested and motivated I have met. This, conversely, allows me to be active and to find community, support, and motivation everywhere I go. I have never experienced this level of openness or kindness from strangers anywhere in the United States. I suppose I should be grateful for the segregation, if it means I can be surrounded by folks like these, and not politicians and other climbers. Through Positive Force I have been organizing a day laborer support project and an anti-militarization, anti-violence, SOA Watch/Radio CPR collaboration concert, in addition to our usual fundraisers, protests, and community projects. I have also been working for the Latin American Youth Center supporting their ESL after school classes.

This week I attended two protest-action events. One was against the granting of a visa to war criminal General Molina, who will be running for president in the upcoming elections despite his bloody history. Anyone who has been watching the news on current events in Guatemala knows that the last thing this country needs is the continuation of decades of bloody persecution and suffering for farmers and activists. The second event was to save the DC safety net from budget cuts which would/will decimate services for DC's homeless, disabled, and disadvantaged, further widening the gap between the "haves and the have nots" of DC, and of course, the country at large. I was pleasantly surprised to find that both events had a major turnout of a diversity of strong, caring folks who were organized and respectful- each event featured speakers and informative materials as well as a place to express rage directly at the powers that be. Our city council chair even came out to be an asshole personally for the crowd. The council has vowed to block the Mayor's attempt to raise tax rates on the super rich, and will instead be cutting social services. Ah, the America of today.

That being said- rise up, collaborate, coordinate, and onwards! And solidarity to those in Mexico and beyond who are organizing for a more peaceful and just world.

m

Photos

Finally have some pictures up on my Flickr. Sort of a mess of 2006-now, will get around to sorting them and adding the rest at some point. Cheers


m

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mm-petrie/

On Water

World Water Day is coming up on March 22nd and we at PAHO are preparing our little discourse on the subject. This year the theme is "Water for Cities: The Urban Challenge". We will be focusing more on water as a human right, as declared by the United Nations (in a proposal initiated by Bolivia) last year. Water is often discussed as related to the Millennium Development goals: number seven promises a 50% improvement in access to water and sanitation. Yet as many experts have begun to point out, if we take the human right to water and sanitation seriously, then those coverage rates must be at 100%. And PAHO is often quick to point out that "access" and "improved sources"- an MDG term- are not great ways to assess the real conditions people face. Access to an "improved source", such as a faucet or well, which accesses water that is contaminated, polluted, and disease ridden should not qualify as progress toward an MDG. Yet it does- exactly because the MDG is concerned with levels of coverage, but not water quality levels. WHO and PAHO have long been one of the only institutions concerned with ensuring quality standards, amidst and avalanche of NGO's expanding coverage and building systems. Water quality is crucial because it protects health. Yet unbelievably, the water-health connection is still somehow not a political priority.


Water impacts health in a number of ways- from water borne diseases to sanitation to the ability to practice good hygiene. Yet these issues are more and more often eclipsed or ignored within the more pressing discourses on water scarcity, conservation, resource management, and environmental health. These issues are all important, but they are all inter connected. PAHO's health focus is particularly important because it incorporates a human rights focus. We pay particular attention to the way in which the most marginalized and vulnerable groups - the indigenous and the isolated rural communities, urban slum communities, and women - access water. Without water there can be no health, and without health there can be no well being and limited economic productivity. I won't bore you with stats, but they are quite stunning, and the impact of water borne illness on human well being and global GDP is quite high. Lack of access compromised communities in a multitude of ways.


Of course lack of access is not a logistical issue. It is a political one. The communities that do not receive services are those neglected or deliberately targeted by governments. In areas where there is simply no money for systems, you must wonder where the priorities are, where the money is going instead, and what role private interests are playing to keep it that way. Control over water resources is fast becoming a crucial issue across the globe, especially as climate change and water scarcity contribute to further instability in water resources. In the United States private companies bottle public (and often contaminated) water and sell it back to us. In Bolivia it famously led to a "water war" for public control over water. Riots over food and water security are becoming more and more common. As Naomi Klein recently wrote- environmental justice and economic justice have become intrinsically tied. One could add that all forms of social justice are now tied- which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Where once we could pursue our own causes, now we must commit to the sea-change, as it were. As Naomi writes, there is no change now that can be made and leave the status-quo untouched. The Middle East may serve as our guiding beacon here. And if for once there is the possibility for change, we better have a plan for the future, but that's another story.

We are working on water and human rights by promoting the creation of national policies and institutions which treat water as a human right. PAHO can bring together key figures and make a plan, and we are in the first steps of this process, but still it is exciting. Exciting as one piece is what is, as outlined above, a massive struggle. Last week we went to a congressional hearing on the right to water. It was quite fascinating and yet there were less than 50 people in the room, including witnesses and representatives and their staff. To me water has become one of the must urgent and central concerns, a part of the web which will dictate the most pressing issues of our time. To most it is still a passing thought, a distant concern. That will not be the case for long.

Almost Half of Bolivia has been Declared a Natural Disaster Area

read here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1134227.stm

look here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12594585



We could get into the politics of natural disasters and the intersection of climate change, environmental policy, poverty, and politics of exploitation and exclusion... but I'm at work, so perhaps now is not the time. Of course a multitude of massively interesting political developments have also been going on in Bolivia (and the entire Latin American region!) as per usual, so please check out my links or drop me a line to learn more. Or add more in the comments section!

Also interesting- they filmed this while I was in Cocha and the Chapare, and while I spent more time than is probably wise looking for friends-as-extras and streets-I'd-walked-down, I think the movie came out alright. It is perhaps a little to vague regarding what actually happened in the water wars, which could have really highlighted what a powerful fight and victory that moment was, but it avoiding being preachy, so I'll take it.

New home

I have been meaning to write a real post for the last six months... in short, I have been working for the Pan American Health Organization in DC on issues related to water, sanitation, and human rights, which has been extremely fascinating and has its inspirational moments, and also its long interminable hours at the computer screen moments. I have been writing a great deal. I have also been working on an initiative promoting healthy tourism initiatives which has forced me to reconsider some generally cynical attitudes I may have been harboring. In general I have thought long and hard about giant fancy UN work (WHO is a UN agency) vs. local NGOs vs. movements, but as usual my conclusions are rambling and probably contradictory. So is life, I suppose.

For now I am content to be inspired by the folks all across the Middle East and here at home, for once, in WI and the other states, as at last we get just a few folks upset enough about the awful things happening to our country to do something about it. Anything at all. I also do community organizing and arts stuff with these folks. Come visit! And cheers, all!

xo
m

home:

Colombia

My mother and I decided to to defy the state department warnings and take the advice of all my dear Colombian friends, met years ago in Buenos Aires, who have always insisted that I visit their homeland. Colombia is a contentious word filled with connotations- violence, drugs, gorgeous women, a natural wonder, a jewel, Cartagena, romancing the stone, poverty, afro-colombian, Medellin, Cali, Bogota, oppression, human rights violations, police, dancing... Pretty much your standard mess of ideas associated with a place that holds hundreds of years of history and culture and a host of ecological climates and populations.


The problem with visiting Colombia is not the violence, per say, but a misunderstanding of what's happening there. To over simplify and be as short as possible- Uribe and the current government have managed to decrease levels of violence in the armed uprising of revolutionary forces, or the FARC, and other narco "terrorist" groups. It should be noted, however, that these groups began as social movement based efforts to fight the drug money funded inequalities in Colombia. These groups later developed tactics which prayed on the Colombian people, as hostages and victims, to achieve their aims. The government sent in police and paramilitaries to deal with these groups and, ostensibly, to deal with the drug producers themselves. Yet it is widely noted that these counter attacks by the government largely target social activists and organizers. The Colombian population has thus suffered years of internal violence at the hands of pretty much everyone. The government is responsible for a high level of human rights violations. Communities continue to face threats from drug producers, FARC forces, the police, and the paramilitaries. Communities of peace rely on the presence of outsiders to deter full assaults. The US has consistently supported and funded this oppressive government as a part of the "war on drugs", publicly viewed by most as a failure, a waste of money, and a high level political strategy which ignores root causes of drug production and suffers from political corruption on the national and international level.


And yet most of the country moves on normally, as must all countries and people, in the end. Colombia is host to a number of beautiful cities, regions and parks which make popular tourist destinations. I was hesitant about what our presence as tourists might "mean", in terms of implications of support for what's happening there. In the end though, my old friends and my mother convinced me. So much of tourism is how you chose to approach, understand, and interact with the place you end up. Doing it in a positive manner must be possible.


Of course a few weeks before we arrived, flooding had begun in earnest. Much of the country was underwater, as were huge parts of Venezuela, Pakistan, and Australia. But we won't get into what we know that means. There were any moments in which my mother and I could only look at each other- dogs sniffing us for explosives on our way into the hotel? Our bus driving passing over 100 ropes pulled across the road by children begging for money? But those moments were not always bad. How about, an iguana just fell twenty feet out of a tree and is sitting on our patio? Or, a secret turquoise cove flanked by a giant inflatable snowman? A beach at night full of families and accordion players and rum? Treasures, certainly.