A friend wrote a comment on my last post, reminding me and others about the health crisis in Africa concerning AIDS. There’s lots of work to be done on numerous, enormous issues. It’s important work, and more people need to be doing it.
I’m working based on the idea that the most effective way to help the oppressed is to challenge the oppressive system. There’s a reason why people in Africa aren’t being supported, and it’s not because enough Americans aren’t calling their senators. It’s rooted in a system of dominance and oppression, an ideology of “power over” and individualism, and a reliance on the exploitation of other people and the earth. I’m dedicated to challenging this system by creating and promoting an alternative. This doesn’t negate the importance of putting energy into healing current problems — I’m just doing different work.
“But wait!”, I say to myself! “It’s not different work!” It’s all interconnected, focused on healing and changing towards a more compassionate and wholistic experience of the World and of Life. And this is the level where I need to be directing my focus in order to feel fully engaged in making this change.
Rev Kate Adamson 
I think the problem is that the “power over” has already started a fire, and to destroy that power, which is the only power able to put out the fire, would be irresponsible.
I know, making the entity that was the disease become the cure is problematic, and it validates an oppressive structure. This arguement, however, is one from privledge. A person that needs medicine, or clean water, as far as I can percieve, would rather live than challenge an oppressive structure. “Give me liberty, or give me death?” “Live free or die?” If people in New Hampshire want to make that choice for themselves, that’s great. But we (by which I mean the U.S.) eliminated the choice of freedom for most Africans a long time ago. Freedom to get sick and die really isn’t freedom. And while we represent an oppressive system, I am enough of a patriot to ask our government to wield some influence on the behalf of Africa. Medicine from the U.S. is a lot less oppressive than untreated AIDS.
Dang. Maybe I should have spent less time making fun of sociology majors (and less time making out with them, as well) and more time learning sociology! I think I like this stuff.
Drew
less time making out with me? uhm.. er.. them? (those dang sociology majors)My assertion is that both efforts are important. One without the other ultimately fails.
It is interconnected. And you make the connections explicit for those not in the know, with your speaking tours and what not. It’s hard to quantify radical empathy and change, when quality is so lacking in general.
you weren’t the only sociology major š (I’ve developed a habit that continues to this day!)
of course, the problem with challenging an oppressive system is not just that it is being challenged, but the method of it as well. after several decades of people/groups going outside of the system and failing, the current popular track is to work with the system. (of course, i’m presuming democratic system – not just an american version but democracy as an internatonal idea).
when the structures fail within this sytem, and the suppposed checks and balances are more like a patchwork instead of a systemic whole, i’m not really sure how simply challenging an oppressive system will actually work. i agree that work on all fronts is important, but it becomes an issue of what is most urgent, quandrant one.
sorry, the dev talk got to me. (sociology? seems more like development studies to me…) š
It’s a systematic issue, to some degree. What is the best angle for challenging an existing power structure, especially one as powerful as this one, so large it cannot be named? I struggle with this. To toil within that structure, to become cozy with it, to know its fallacies? Or to come at it from far outside? Which is most effective? I don’t know. Keep after it, in the way that you do.
By the way, was the Drew in the first comment surnamed Ludwig? ‘Cause if he was, he should come see my blog. It’s James from Wittenberg, remember me?
Does anyone on this godforsaken posting have a concrete example of a leader or a policy or an African country that they’re talking about? Please raise your hands if you’ve actually studied the history of AIDS, Africa, and colonization. America was one of the few countries that DIDN’t try to carve out the African continent in the early twentieth century. AIDS, as a disease, was first contracted IN Africa before spreading to America and everywhere else. And boat-loads of antiretroviral drugs won’t do SHIT to save people when the president of South Africa doesn’t even believe HIV causes AIDS. I know it’s a knee-jerk reaction to assume that if there’s a fucked up part of the world, America probably did the fucking … but read up, kids. All the great experiments at changing Africa for the better have failed and I’d like someone on this enlightened tizzy of “system” bashing to explain (with footnotes) where our culpability lies, what African “systems” you know of, and who exactly started them. I’m sorry, but between my experience there, and all my Peace Corps friend testimonials, I’ve decided that no one in Africa is better off when a gaggle of first-world white kids jabber about “the system” without daring to connect it to specifics. Don’t get me wrong … they’re out there (the specifics), but it’s not enough to be anti-IMF or anti-World Bank anymore.
You’re right, Aravail. You seem to agree with Kate’s assertion that power dynamics, the powerful asserting their will on the weaker, are a cause of the problem as it stands right now. Perhaps it’s not America that’s done the fucking, but fucking has been done nonetheless, as you stated so clearly. The president of South Africa’s belief that HIV doesn’t cause AIDS proves Kate’s claim that dominant views can cause oppressive practices: the powerful’s assertion over the weak, the sovereign and the subject. This seems to my white-bred perspective as a problem rooted in system, because political power is being used to perpetuate innacurate facts, which leads to innacurate practices. Of course, seeing a flaw in a system is no big thing, it’s nothing new, there’s been a lot written about this sort of thing. Then again, this isn’t entirely a discussion about faulty systems, power used to perpetuate ignorant beliefs. Your experiences in Africa, they tell a different story than words on a page or a computer screen. I’m interested in what those are; I’m eager to learn from you. That’s why I was so surprised that you chose to criticize me and others, inform us of your own qualifications to render judgments upon us, and only hint at what you actually know, withholding it from us. That’s a suspect use of the facts. I believe you have the goods, that you can help us learn something here. I want that. I want to know more than I do. Are you willing to teach us?
My original point was that maybe there is something else we ought to do besides planting flowers. I know it seems imperialistic to want to rush in and help, but right now, people are asking for help, we could easily give it, and we do not. Things would be a lot simpler if America did not have the means or the power, but we do, so it must be used responsibly. It is hard, yes–I’ve grown plenty frustrated working in Amerian cities, so I imaging a whole other continent would be that much more difficult. We may not succeed, but we cannot ignore it.
For starters, British and Dutch imperialism has, at best, only amped up the terms with which existing African nations were slaughtering each other wholesale. Wars between Zulus and Xhosas, the ethnic purging in Somalia, the dictatorship in Nigeria (whose only commodity of note is … anyone? … yes, oil) — each of these conflicts were raging in full force before superpowers grafted their first-world edifice onto the continent. Read Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” for a cursory parable about the tension between British imperialism in Nigeria and the already-messed-up culture there. The Brits brought guns and wanted oil and territory — the Nigerians wanted female circumcision and tribal authority. Take your pick. America has always sent boat-loads of … well … everything to Africa: food, medicine, teachers, farmers, etc. Bread for the World was dedicated to the dissemination of development knowledge (“teach me to fish, I’ll eat for a lifetime”). Even the conditionalities so loathed by the anti-IMF crowd weren’t that absurd for countries like South Africa which already had a capitalist scaffold to tap resources the locals weren’t too interested in anyway. But whether it was by limited military engagement (e.g. Somalia), weak protest to Apartheid (a string of boycotts), or outright colonialism — the present problems in Africa (AIDS, development challenges) were not caused by American meddling. We didn’t create the warlords in Somalia — at most, we elevated the existing conflict from knives and darts to bullets and grenades. We didn’t create Apartheid, the British did — at most, we kept buying diamonds from South Africa. I think America’s problem is wanting to help, feeling an obligation to help, but not knowing exactly how. Clinton’s raid in Somalia and belated insurgency in Rwanda were honest attempts to halt CIVIL war. And Bush’s promise to send AIDS drugs to Africa, again, won’t accomplish anything when the mysitical faith-healers have more sway. To any old-cabal theorists out there (Drew?) — this is not a problem of misinformation. No one in the West, and certainly not America, propagated the belief that if you fuck a three-year-old virgin girl, you’ll be cured of AIDS. Yet that was the testimonial that trapsed in and out of the community center I volunteered at when I was there. Even African celebrities and politicians won’t let go of superstition. This isn’t the result of any “system” — except the one that existed before any white people got there.
The other day I was cruising around the Net, and read a blurb on Richard Meyer’s (AKA Richard Hell) site that I liked, regarding “Lost In Translation.” He said he thought sending the character to downtown Detroit without her credit cards might be more to the point, than this wistful portrait of a rich kid adrift in Tokyo. And amen TS to a respectful debate. It is so easy to spew on the Internet. It seems so often to be a flash point for anger. I wonder why that is. You guys all went to school together, right?
of course there’s more to be done besides planting flowers. And there’s more to be done besides calling our senators telling them to give money to Africa. There’s more to be done than buying organic, there’s more to be done than voting for the president, and there’s more to be done than protesting in the streets.
it’s the question I struggle with — that so many people struggle with. How much should I do? How much am I responsible for? I don’t have a perfect answer.What I see is that it’s systemic. It’s not America, it’s not even capitalism. These problems are part of an ideology, a way of understanding an individual’s relationship with everything else. The dominant ideology in our World is one of competition, and I see that ideology as central to the problems we’re talking about. And so I’m choosing to live my life rooted in a dramatically different ideology, and illuminating the possibility for others to embrace this ideology as well. I’m helping to develop different systems, different ways of communicating, different ways of interacting. Collaboration instead of competition. “Power with” instead of “power over.”
Part II
Tickledspirit — your parents met on a Nigerian Peace Corps stint, didn’t they? Maybe you can fill in that story better than I can.
All I can say to the rest of y’all is that we have a hard enough time reigning in America’s REAL imperialist abuses. I sometimes get the feeling that Bush saw the movie “Three Kings” and was determined to make it a happy ending. Imagine over fifteen Iraq wars on the same continent for the purpose of deposing dictators, halting civil war, and remaking lopsided economies. Anyone up for that challenge? The engagements in Somalia, Rwanda, etc … were to allow the existing American support system to work better. For a while, we were sending gobs of resources … which were intercepted by tribal warlords. Our engagements were to remove the warlords to allow those resources to get to people who needed them. Africa cannot be treated as a country — it’s so much bigger and more complex than any of us realize and its worst problems are largely its own. Our choice is not between IMF or no-IMF … it’s between reform at home or reform abroad. Bush’s promise to send anti-retrovirals is great — but it’ll never happen because it was more beneficial for him to say it than do it. Don’t think about writing a check, and don’t look for the system. There are dozens of systems there right now and the ones we built actually aren’t the worst this time. Lobby for debt forgiveness or join the Peace Corps, I guess. What Africa needs is able, trustworthy people that don’t want to stick around. Build a well, hand out medicine, TEACH them without a Christian overlay, and we’ll be better off.
Aravail, I appreciate your informed analysis. Were you in the Peace Corps?
No, I wasn’t in the Corps … I studied at the University of Cape Town in 1999 and traveled the better part of South Africa staying in cities, villages, huts, and townships. My best friend from the adventure IS in the Peace Corps, stationed in Uganda — she writes often about that corner of the continent. While there, I had the pleasure of being lambasted as the token imperialist American in my anthropology classes (most of the mud was hurled by legacy-born Afrikaaner kids, but we got to learn from each other at least …). People mock the Peace Corps, but they have one of the most rigorous acceptance processes for government work out there. Last I heard, their problem isn’t funding as much as finding ample workers — despite their back-rung ranking on the national agenda, they still keep their standards. And that’s amazing.