For Brains that Never Stop

It's often hard for me to tell my brain to stop thinking about structural oppression and injustice, feminism, racism, income inequality, the heterosexual assumption, media misrepresentation, war, hate, social constructs, homelessness, development, international aid and relief, inaccessibility of  and other social justice issues.  When should these things in everyday life be pointed out - and when should they be accepted, however grudgingly?  For instance, the often-cited example of spending $5 on a coffee when so much of the world lives on much less than that every day. Messages sent in music, advertising and popular television? I don't know the answer - but I do know that I'm not prepared to remain ignorant to these issues and the host of other injustices I have yet to even begin to understand. 

The reason I stop thinking is because not to stop thinking would change everything.  Being able to 'stop thinking' further perpetuates all that I think about in so many ways.  I understand why many people just don't think about these things - and don't like it when others point them out - allowing yourself to go there is messy.  What can I live with accepting, and where do I draw the line?  When do you settle? 

Society is constructed by all of us - by everyone who buys in and everyone who doesn't. As much as being one person is overwhelming and hard and I continually question what it actually does - it is what I can do, right now in this moment. And I hereby resolve to be that one person.  To spend less money on Starbucks and use it to give someone else the basics. To reduce my carbon footprint. To challenge and question, to listen and learn. To not eat meat for a number of reasons (half the world's harvest is fed to farm animals; 800 million people go hungry.) Yes, that means cows and pigs - which we then kill to eat - are better fed than humans. (Check out www.eatlessmeat.org for more).  Even a 50% reduction in meat consumption by 2020 could mean 3.6 million fewer starving children.  To not eat junk food - which is related to income inequality, food insecurity, obesity and Western excess. And poor health. To never use plastic bags.

Some people don't look: "Today what might be unpleasant or personally demanding, but is not actually seen, is often ignored" (Chambers, Rural poverty unperceived). I am choosing to look, and not to blink. And move the line further from where it is now,  and to accept less of what is going on, and to challenge our politicians and world  leaders to do the same.  We have reached a point where many movie stars and other celebrities (Stephen Spielberg is personally boycotting Bejing because of the Chinese government's complicity in Darfur and refusal to recognize its domestic human rights violations) are doing more to fix this stuff than so called "world leaders".  Darfur is going to be our Holocaust - if future generations are less racist than this one anyways - and instead of leaders who stepped up, our legacy will be leaders who stepped down, or turned their heads, or said our military was busy. There are more ways than guns to make a difference. Stephen Spielberg figured that out ahead of the rest of the world.

Some of these things are easier than others, and all of them are easier said than done. My life won't change overnight; Rome wasn't built in a day. But I am one person. And I am one person with the power to make choices every day to make things better, to buy into systems of inequality - or not. And making one more choice to do one less thing that makes this world a better place is what I can - and will - do.

Do What I Say...and what I do

Senator Barack Obama travelled to Africa in recent months on a trip that mixed business, as well as a chance for him to return to his hometown with his wife, daughters and sisters.  The Passionate Eye (a CBC program) aired a documentary about his trip.  There is a brief synopsis at http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeyesunday/feature_230308b.html. 

This is just a very quick entry to highlight that he is one leader who leads with words and with actions; one example being that he was tested for HIV/AIDS with his wife, publicly, in Kenya. In a country where 6.7% of the population has AIDS and there are 1 million children orphaned by AIDS, the importance of testing cannot be understated. Too many people, too many children have gotten sick, and testing is a major means of fighting back. As Obama said, “knowing my HIV status puts me in charge of my health.”  It also puts people in a position to seek treatment, and to slow the spread.  “If a US senator and his wife can get tested, than everyone in this crowd can.”   Countless Kenyans were interviewed, all who said the value of Obama’s action was significant: one person said “if Obama got tested, I want to get tested too”.  An aid worker said “Obama taking test here is such an encouragement to the population, especially the men, who don’t often come for tests.” 

Visiting a microlending project, he said “What’s missing is not good or a powerful work ethic, but what’s missing is access to capital.” For a leader of a developed nation to say this is for the West to acknowledge what is needed isn’t know-how, but money to facilitate projects.  As well, he paralleled this to needs in America, something else that is unprecedented. 

In a Darfurian refugee camp on the Sudan/Chad border, Obama said “I’m just visiting the camp to find out how people are doing”.  He listened to people at the camp, as well as the leaders, all of whom were men. After meeting with them, he said “I believe very strongly that women’s rights have to be protected. I think it’s very important than even when the UN force is put in place that women are protected from violence in the ways that have happened in the past.” 

All of these show that Obama has thought about the issues that are facing Africa, and that he wants to understand them. It isn't just about what's politically salient and if its Black History Month or World Water Day or another celebrity has said we need to do something about Africa. Obama has a solid head on his shoulders, but also a heart for people.  This is the kind of leader I want as a role model for society. One who listens, one with compassion, and one who leads with actions and words. And being the impressive orator he is, if his actions are even half as good as his speaking, he’s still miles ahead of all the others.

Hannah Arendt

I've spent a lot of time thinking about the first things I wanted to say here. I thought about explaining the title, I thought about being upfront about my biases, I thought about discussing my inspiration to write a blog. But none of that captured the way I see this blog. Although I will write about some of those things.

This blog isn't about me or my ideas really at all. It is about challenging myself to not be too busy to accept things that make me angry, or frustrated o disheartened. I'm not talking about things like when my tea I ordered black has milk, but things that affect the world - climate change, politics, discrimination, disrespect and judgment.

A couple of things have led me to this decision, the most profound of which I will share here. A professor was giving a brief presentation about Rwanda. This was not the first time I had heard about the absolute destruction - both of people's lives, families and towns - that occurred, but it is the first time I heard about the global context in which the conflict occurred. Although he didn't go into details, the gist was that we were so busy paying attention to other things - some of which were completely worthy - multi-racial elections in South Africa, professional baseball players' strike, the Tanya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan incident, OJ Simpson - that warnings of the genocide went unheeded. This was of course compounded by other factors such as a general lack of media attention in the area; however, the world was too busy to read what little was being said. And then, we were too busy to react fast enough with enough to stop the killing. And 800,000 Tutsis paid with their lives. It didn't stop there; in many ways, the conflict still rages today.

Darfur and Rwanda have been compared endlessly. Yet we are still too busy. And the killing continues. Darfur is just one case where the world - whoever that is - is accepting the unacceptable. The killing going on in Darfur needs to be stop, and that is just one example of continued inaction in situations that are obviously wrong. HIV/AIDS is killing people globally. Poverty in Canada is a reality, as is hunger. On climate change, we are making painstakingly slow progress. Malaria - a preventable disease - still kills people when $10 can "Spread the Net". Ethnocentricity, discrimination, racism, homophobia, sexism, intolerance, disrespect, exclusion. There are still landmines, sweatshops, populations without access to safe drinking water. This includes numerous Aboriginal communities here in Canada.

Pick one cause, any cause. Don't be too busy for it. Read about it, talk about it, think about it, take small steps - or big steps - in your life to stop it. Don't underestimate what your thoughts, actions and words can do. Call a politician - municipal, regional, provincial, federal, global - tell them what you think. Add a recycling bin to your workplace. Be conscious of your language. Write a letter. Tell the media. Don't be too busy. That is what this blog is about.

Hannah Arendt, a Holocaust refugee turned political philosopher said "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil." For the most part, those people were just simply too busy to learn about the issue and without knowing any better, became bystanders, or in some cases even participants - all because they didn't fully understand what was going on.

Don't be too busy.