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April 28, 2007
Dear Sirs:
As so many of us have enjoyed your rock-n-roll music and face paint over the years, it's hard to properly put into words what you have meant to the human race, individually and as a well-oiled rocking machine.
I will leave the majority of praise and adulation for another more private letter. Today I would like to call your attention to a suggestion you have reiterated in various forms and at various decibel levels since 1988. In one of your rock-n-roll songs you inform your listeners that we must "fight... for the right... to paaaarr-ty!" There has been some confusion about this statement among your faithful.
It is unclear whether a) you are making the claim that we as people have partying rights, and as such you call us to struggle to defend them, or b) you are advocating that laws be passed granting such rights. I will address both cases.
As for the former, "Right to Party" does not appear in a clear, concise manner in any formal legal declaration of rights of which I am aware. There are, however, several ambiguous passages where you may be able to make a case in favor of said right.
1) The U.S. Declaration of Independence* advocates the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is arguable that partying rights fall into the third category. If you can successfully prove that "the party" is a necessary vehicle for pursuing happiness, you may have found your loophole.
2) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted and approved by the United Nations in 1948, makes reference to a "Right to Leisure." The decision in State of New Hampshire vs. Rollins, 1979, defines leisure as "free time" and clarifies there are no laws or rights concerning leisure suits specifically. Therefore, all you'd have to do is successfully argue that "free time" signifies time spent by one's own choosing, and "to party" is an activity one is free to choose.
3) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also guarantees the right of all people to belong to a social or political organization. This could be easily rephrased as "Right to a Party," and from there it's a slam dunk.
That said, if these laws and statutes do not provide sufficient legal precedent to defend the Right to Party, perhaps it will be necessary to "fight," as you so eloquently state often throughout your song.
As you know, "fighting" in the legal sense does not involve fists or firearms. It requires, first and foremost, people power. A large mass of concerned and committed citizens must be mobilized for an effort of this magnitude. Though "fighting for our right to paaaarr-ty" might be an issue with wide popular support already, some level of preparation and education on the issue will no doubt be necessary.
Gentlemen, as a party lover myself, I know how it feels to be steadfast in one's determination to party. I encourage you to take this effort beyond the concert stage, beyond the re-released Greatest Hits Album. Join me in taking this fight to the streets.
And when we win, we will party long and hard, and we will have the law to protect us as we do so.
*I had originally written "The U.S. Constitution." A friend gently pointed out the error and commented that it would be kind of difficult to justify the death penalty in a country whose constitution guaranteed the right to life.
April 23, 2007
On Saturday Raldy walked in on me blasting reggaetón on the radio. In many circles, having someone catch you listening to reggaetón is worse than getting caught in a compromising position with a farm animal.
Raldy was very professional about it all. Still, I felt I owed him an explanation. "Raldy," I said. "This is not what it looks like."
I went on to say that I was doing homework. My pop culture homework. My thinking was, if one wants to be an organizer in the Dominican Republic, one must know at least a little reggaetón.
Reggaetón is by far and away the most popular genre of music in the country now among young people. Originating mainly in Puerto Rico, it melds the driving beats and rapid-fire rhymes of hip hop with the instrumental flair and Spanish lyrics of the Caribbean Hispanophone tradition. Also, I suppose Jamaican reggae fits in there somewhere.
Inspiration for the hottest reggaetón favorites comes overwhelmingly from fine jewelry, nine-millimeter handguns, women's chests and women's backsides. Suffice to say, all the kids love it.
Reggaetón is one of the Dominican cultural gems I've been all too happy to remain oblivious to. But after several conversations with several different people, I'm starting to crank up the radio.
As organizers, it's our job to have our finger on the proverbial FM dial of the population we interact with. How are we supposed to talk to people if we have no idea where they're coming from, what occupies their thoughts, what worries them, what makes them happy?
Raldy agreed. He said, "I've been asked, You mean to say you work with teenagers and you don't listen to reggaetón? Which planet did you say you were from again?"
Maybe an example from the US will illustrate my point. Say you're working in an urban area and a boy, his voice cracking and his fists balled up in desperation and rage, says to you: "Man, they capped Snoop!" If your first thought has anything to do with Charles Shultz, you might not be able to emphathize with what this boy is going through.
This reflection goes beyond reggaetón, clearly. To understand the urban Dominican reality, one must also understand baseball, el carro público, apagones (blackouts), the unattainable paradise of Nueva York and the spectre of Joaquín Balaguer.
We've got to start somewhere, so I invite you to study with me. For this lesson you must put yo' hands in the air, and commence to wave them as if you just didn't care. Dark glasses and gold chains are also a plus.
Dale Don Dale
Don Omar
Ella es mi gata en celo
Quiere buscar rebuleo del bueno
Quiere fingir que no le gusta el blin-blineo
Y cuando canto hasta abajo con mi perreo
Por ahi anda su novio en un fantasmeo
Me esta, que esta noche va haber un tiroteo
Dile que yo ando con mis gatos en el patrulleo
(Y al que se lamba, jura'o me lo llevo!)
Dale
Dale, Don, dale
Pa' que se muevan las yales
Pa' activar los anormales
Y al que se resbale
Boster dale, daleee
Dale, Don, dale
Pa' que se muevan la yale
Pa' activar los anormales
Y al que se resbale
(Looney Tunes, dale!)
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Go for it, Don, give it to 'em
Don Omar
She's my jealous cat
She wants to look for the rebuleo of the good one
She wants to pretend she doesn't like the bling-bling
And when I sing on down with my perreo
Somewhere her boyfriend's walking around in dreamland
Tonight there's going to be a firefight
Tell him I'm with my cats on patrol
(And he who sucks up, I swear I'll take him out!)
Go on
Go for it, Don, give it to 'em
So they move their yales
And activate the abnormal ones
And to the one who slips up,
Boster, give it to 'em
Go for it, Don, give it to 'em
So they move their yales
And activate the abnormal ones
And to the one who slips up,
(Give it to 'em, Looney Tunes!) |
You can tell by the shoddy translation that I have to be further steeped in today's street slang. But I'm working on it. So the next time you hear Don Omar pulsing from my room at ear-damaging levels, bear with me. I'm studying.
April 14, 2007
Dear Mouse,
We need to talk. I don't mean to frighten you with my formality, but I feel it has come to this. We had an agreement here. It is a contract that you have proved your inability to maintain.
Here it is in writing, if you need your memory refreshed. I'm citing the sublessee agreement we discussed, signed and notarized upon your arrival in May 2006:
This document details the accords agreed upon by Mouse, hereafter to be referred to as SUBLESSEE, and Tim, hereafter to be referred to as LESSEE.
Whereas, SUBLESSEE transits only the first floor only at night, and never on any occasion transits the second floor;
Whereas, SUBLESSEE maintains evidence of his/her presence out of the sight of LESSEE at all times;
Whereas, SUBLESSEE makes certain that LESSEE is completely unaware of SUBLESSEE's existence on the premises;
Therefore, LESSEE agrees to allow SUBLESSEE's presence on the premises, refraining from setting out traps with tasty treats in them, setting out tasty treats with poison in them, and/or calling the exterminator.
I encourage you to reflect on your actions of this afternoon in light of this document. Upon said reflection, I am sure you will conclude as I did, that when you scampered down the hallway, scurried under my chair and then hid behind the couch, you committed a direct, flagrant violation of the agreement.
I believe a court of law would support my attempting to poison you, given your inability to uphold the written contract.
If you do not rectify your behavior immediately, I will be forced to take action as I see fit. Please consider this your final notification.
Cordially,
Tim
April 9, 2007
Here in the South (maybe it's the third world, maybe it's just the first time around) we've got a crick in our necks from always looking North. We gobble up the North's music, its movies and its canned food. We suck in our gut to wiggle into its jeans. We ingest its English and its warmed-over fast food.
In Santo Domingo it's up from a low hum to a dull roar. The pressure to get out, get ahead -- or to look like you're getting ahead, which is just as good. The pressure to look New York. We've got Hummers, a Gap and an Outback Steakhouse.
It's hard to believe, but sometimes even in Santo Domingo, if you've got a car with air conditioning, you can forget that the South also exists.
El sur también existe
Mario Benedetti
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The south also exists
Mario Benedetti
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Con su ritual de acero
sus grandes chimeneas
sus sabios clandestinos
su canto de sirenas
sus cielos de neón
sus ventas navideñas
su culto de dios padre
y de las charreteras
con sus llaves del reino
el norte es el que ordena
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With its ritual of steel
its great chimneys
its clandestine masterminds
its siren song
its neon skies
its christmas sales
its cult of god the father
and military stripes
with its keys to the kingdom
the north is the one that orders
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pero aquí abajo abajo
el hambre disponible
recurre al fruto amargo
de lo que otros deciden
mientras el tiempo pasa
y pasan los desfiles
y se hacen otras cosas
que el norte no prohíbe
con su esperanza dura
el sur también existe
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but here below below
the hunger on hand
resorts to the bitter fruit
of what others decide
as time passes
and the processions pass
and other things are done
that the north does not prohibit
with its hardened hope
the south also exists
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con sus predicadores
sus gases que envenenan
su escuela de chicago
sus dueños de la tierra
con sus trapos de lujo
y su pobre osamenta
sus defensas gastadas
sus gastos de defensa
con su gesta invasora
el norte es el que ordena
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with its preachers
its poison gases
its chicago school
its landowners
with their luxurious rags
and its poor skeleton
its spent defenses
and its defense spending
with its invasive deeds
the north is the one that orders
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pero aquí abajo abajo
cada uno en su escondite
hay hombres y mujeres
que saben a qué asirse
aprovechando el sol
y también los eclipses
apartando lo inútil
y usando lo que sirve
con su fe veterana
el sur también existe
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but here below below
each one in their hiding place
there are men and women
who know what to take hold of
taking advantage of the sun
and also the eclipses
sorting out the useless
and using what's useful
with its veteran faith
the south also exists
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con su corno francés
y su academia sueca
su salsa americana
y sus llaves inglesas
con todos sus misiles
y sus enciclopedias
su guerra de galaxias
y su saña opulenta
con todos sus laureles
el norte es el que ordena
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with its french horn
and its swiss academy
its american salsa
and its monkey wrenches
with all of its missiles
and its encyclopedias
its war of the worlds
and its opulent cruelty
on all of its laurels
the north is the one that orders
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pero aquí abajo abajo
cerca de las raíces
es donde la memoria
ningún recuerdo omite
y hay quienes desmueren
y hay quienes se desviven
y así entre todos logran
lo que era un imposible
que todo el mundo sepa
que el sur también existe |
but here below below
close to the roots
is where memory
does not omit a single recollection
and there are those who undie
and those who unlive, overwork
and among all of them they achieve
what was an imposibility
may the whole world know
that the south also exists |
April 4, 2007
Sometimes I feel a need to portray my time here, and Justicia Global's work, as an interminable string of magnificent successes.
I guess it's partly a strong passion for what we're doing, partly a desire to attract others to our work and partly a pressure to make this forum entertaining. I don't want to be posting things that depress and demobilize people. Yet is it disingenuous to report only success stories, leaving out the struggles and frustrations?
The question of "successes" came up directly as I read a book analyzing what some people are calling the "Non-Profit Industrial Complex." The following passage jumped out at me:
After being forced to frame everything we do as a 'success,' we become stuck in having to repeat the same strategies because we insisted to funders they were successful, even if they were not. Consequently, we become inflexible rather than fluid and ever changing in our strategies, which is what a movement for social transformation really requires.
In Justicia Global we don't have funders. Since the beginning, folks here have been very clear about maintaining a self-funded organization to avoid cooptation of time and agenda by outside interests. Still, this passage is very relevant for me as I think about organizing work.
I've written from time to time about the wonders of our natural medicine workshops. People get super fired up about learning about medicinal plants. They see the direct social and economic benefits of coming together to make remedies for the flu, stomachaches, rheumatism and other common ailments. Then they make the connection to other bigger things they can accomplish if they work together.
Yet it's not always as easy as that. On Saturday I was at a workshop making a menthol rub with a group of folks. There I felt in a new way the weight of the individualistic culture that has saturated Dominican society.
It started on the drive up the mountains. Just off the road in a rural community we passed, I saw a van with the president's posters on it. There was a mass of people around the van – maybe a hundred folks pushing, crowding, smashing each other forward, trying to get at whatever it was they were giving out.
This political tradition in the DR has created la cultura del da'o – the giving-out culture. Whenever you talk to people about a community meeting, the first question you get back is usually, ¿Qué están dando? What are they giving out?
This is a way of essentially buying people's allegiance and votes. Conveniently, it also plays the role of killing people's creative will to provide for themselves. Through the system of irregular handouts, people have been conditioned to wait for the government to come and resolve their problems for them. (This is not an argument against welfare or in favor of neoliberalism. An explanation of why it is not is a topic for another post.)
We set up the dynamic of our workshops to be directly opposed to the traditional "community aid" strategy of backing up a van in a place and throwing goodies out at the people.
Our workshops force people to take responsibility for their own learning process. On Saturday participants brought pots and pans, spoons, water, firewood, and all of the ingredients to make the natural menthol. They prepared the plants, boiled the vaseline base and added the other ingredients. Many wrote down the recipe so they could teach others later.
Yet when it was time to divide up the final product, I was reminded of the scene I'd witnessed on the drive up. I found myself in the midst of a clamoring mass, hands outstretched to receive "what they're giving out."
Amidst this mass were a bunch of new people who hadn't participated in the workshop. I patiently explained that we'd be giving menthol to the people who'd been here the whole two hours and who had a commitment to passing on the recipe and the techniques. Besides, you had to have a container with a lid so the medicinal vapors wouldn't escape. For those who'd just arrived, they could be a part of the next workshop, and they could take menthol then.
It was like I hadn't said anything at all. The hands didn't retreat; the mass seemed to close even tighter.
Despite our energetic and empowering efforts, every workshop at this site has had less attendance than the one before it. At this past one, it was a struggle to get people to go get all of the ingredients. And several key participants who'd been so excited about these workshops last week were nowhere to be found. This is not the way to build an organization.
To top it off, everyone went off with their jars of menthol without agreeing on a date for the next workshop. Not one person thought the experience was valuable enough to say, "Hey, let's do this again sometime and learn something new!" So I didn't push it.
In light of all this, a line from Fran Blanca comes to mind. Fran is the guy carrying me across a stream in my April 26, 2006 post. He uses a farming metaphor to explain organizational work:
Me gusta arrancar mi hierba. ¿Por qué me gusta arrancar mi hierba? Tú sabes que hay quienes le gustan decosechar. Pero son haraganes en arrancar la hierba. Entonces, si a usted le gusta decosechar, tiene que gustarle sembrar. Y la parte primera para usted decosechar, que es muy bueno, tiene que fajarse. Y por eso digo que me gusta.
I like pulling weeds. Why do I like pulling weeds? You know there are people who like harvesting, but they're very lazy when it comes to weeding. If you like harvesting, you have to like planting also. And before you can harvest, which is great, you have to work hard. For that reason I say I like it.
So... weeding. If we define all of our work as a success, we'll never get around to pulling up "weeds." We'll spend all of our energy justifying going down the wrong path -- does this sound like anyone you know? -- instead of admitting our mistakes.
We must be prepared to ask ourselves tough questions in evaluating the process. We've now been through four natural medicine workshops with the same (dwindling) group. Is this strategy getting us closer to our objective of building an organization for social transformation? Are people learning what we want them to learn about community, working together and breaking those ugly patterns of individualism? If not, what are we as leaders doing or not doing to encourage this learning?
It's time to get down in the dirt with Fran Blanca and start weeding. |
