Location check/backyard gardens/CANADIANS

From: Diane Hodges (dhodges@ceo.cudenver.edu)
Date: Wed May 02 2001 - 22:46:52 PDT


Michael writes
>The other thing I wanted to say was that the people in southern
>Labrador might have had minimal incomes, but not living in the city
>allowed them to hunt, fish, get wood, gather berries, shell fish, and
>many other things so that the little bit of money that they did have
>went a long way. Land cost $100, and they cut all the wood, each
>helping the other. When I wanted to build a boat, there were others
>helping me. And when they built a boat or a house or a shed, I was
>there to help, and others too. So in all the poverty, there was a
>sense of solidarity, and the people had functioning families...
>Again, these people drew on their power to act to shape their
>situation...

YES!! it is always amazing to me, how "privilege" entitles one to
"solitude" or isolation from the grittier social realities that exist.
i appreciate, very much, yr experiences in Labrador - one of the
mysterious Canadian communities, surely - mythical by the dominance of
this middle class assumption -
argh.
how exquisite to communicate with an other Canadian,
diversity - aware!!

when Americans discuss "democracy" and "socialism" i am always slapped,
really, by how these neighbours, the Empire,
can't "identify" their co-border/complicit traders as socialist before
democratic;
not to say the Cdn system works, but that its' difference remains obscure
to Americans ////

oiy. how luscious. to say "AMERICANS" and know what it means to a Cdn
west-coaster,... what a treat. (BTW do you surf? like, ocean waves?)

truly, and as i have insisted for Nth years!!!! -

 the backyards of people engage entirely different politics, histories,
and so cultures, perspectives, and so on.

the potential for any "universal" conception of "learning" surely must
        account for different relations with such objects / identifcatory
processes as

politics,
property,
class,
culture
and so on.

btw, i am not a single mother - i'm just yr garden-variety radical queer -

but my sister is, and many of my (single women) vancouver friends had
children, and there is such a substantial difference in the struggle to
survive!!
yoiks.
if we cannot include people who are disadvantaged, well, it ain't
universal,
and to me,
people learn mostly in dramatic and adversarial contexts.

the "controlled" ideal is pleasurable, yes, but in terms of applicability?
jiminy. that's my quandary with "design/control" anything...

East Vancouver was identified (and summarily condemned)
as a 3rd world health zone by the World Health Organization a few years
ago - and what do folks do? ignore the assessment.
So much for learning.
Expansion? not in the 20th century. is there hope? depends on the dominant
ideology.

dr di,
the cynic
(thanks again Michael)
.
>
"My doctor says i wouldn't have so many nosebleeds if i would just keep my
finger out of there. "
Ralph Wiggums.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 01 2001 - 01:01:04 PDT