Gordon Brown being stupendously evasive….

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/wdmuk

I know this may seem seem like it has little to do with developing my MA thesis ideas, but I was doing some reading on globalisation this morning in connection with events in Mexico, where my primary text is based, and decided to catch up on what has been happening in the UK recently in relation to Globalisation. When you think about it, I cant be suvccessful in my research if I dont keep up with recent developments, the more I am aware of how Globalisation effects the UK the moire I can relate my primary text to peoples lives here, and the more people can relate something to their own circumstances, the more they are likely, i think, to identify with and respond to it.

Whilst conducting this little web based research update I came across Gordon’s answer to the WDM. Ridiculously dissapointing but hardly surprising. He managed to spend the entirity of his answer avoiding actually answering the question, and instead of giving any concrete ideas of how the G20 summit might address world poevrty he instead made a vague, rambling statement suggesting that we cant go forward in addressing world issues without including the developing countries. Really? What an insight that is Mr Brown….

Privatisation as Colonisation

After finishing my previous post on how some of Marcos’ fiction can be read as a comment on and challenge to the invasion of privatisation and branding, I wondered if I could back my ideas up with something already written on the Zapatistas.

I read a great book this week called Zapatistas! Documents of the new Mexican revolution, published by Autonomedia and with an introduction by Harry Cleaver, and found that he included in his introduction to the Zapatista documents some interesting thoughts on privatisation.

‘The colonisation of the whole of society by business and the state has generalised both the alienating constraints of capitalism and the antagonism to them—throughout the globe.’ Page 12

Cleaver alludes here to the capitalist colonisation of public space, of the state allowing for corporations to privatise, advertise and control in all areas, leading to both a branding of the society we live in but also an attempted branding of the mind. He explains that this has led to increasing dissatisfaction and anger wherever these systems are implemented, basically, throughout the globe. This ties in very well with Naomi Klein’s work on the invasion of privatisation (No Logo and Shock Doctrine), and goes someway to explaining one of the reasons the Zapatista movement has become such a symbol worldwide: Whilst the individual struggles and situations may differe from community to community, from country to country, increasingly people are facing the same invasion of corporate capitalism wherever they live.

As I indicate above I feel that this invasion executed by corporations and allowed by State Government is certainly another form of colonisation.

‘… In the South ‘development’ has been the accepted framework ever since the defeat of overt colonialism.’ Page 15

Cleaver suggests here that overt colonialism has given way to development, suggesting that they are intrinsically the same process. I support this fully and say that colonialism has simply been given a new name, communities are now colonised by corporations and capitalism the same way that they have been colonised by invading troops.

Privatisation and Advertising in Marcos’ fiction

Happily the primary text I am thinking of using for my thesis has finally arrived and I have been able to spend a week sinking my teeth into it and adorning it with post it notes full of frantic scribbles. (I tragically find this enormous fun). I am about halfway through Zapatista Stories by Subcomandante Marcos now and have taken a breather to step back and see what I have deduced so far.

So, the first point I am going to explore is one that I came across early in the text, that of how Marcos discusses the lack of public space in Neoliberal societies through his fiction writing.

In Durito and Pegasus Marcos responds to Durito’s excitable wishes to go out into the world and ‘set to rights’ its many injustices by asking if he has ‘been reading a lot of newspapers lately. Take care they dont make you commit suicide.’ I saw this as a pretty clear reference to the biased tactics that the mass media employs to instill fear and direct it at certain groups. I think he is pointing out that whilst the media may encourage vague wishes to ‘better’ the world in its watchers/readers, it works to discourage any focused and purposeful attempts to push for ‘alternative’ social change. The fact that the mass media is no longer public is no secret, more and more people are turning to independent media sources such as indymedia to access non corporate controlled news.

In the same excerpt Durito introduces us to his ‘steed’, a tortoise called Pegasus. Marcos points out that Pegasus has ‘copyright reserved’ written on one side and ‘free advertising space’ on the other. This came across to me as firstly a direct comment on the lack of public space left in society interms of the spread of advertising. In No Logo Naomi Klein discusses how we cannot get away from advertising, it is no longer just on our tellys, radios and papers, but in our schools, on the back of bus tickets and in hospitals. I think by placing advertising on Pegasus Marcos is directly referring to this influx in advertising.

I also considered that this could be a comment on privatisation at the same time in that Pegasus is not a manafactured product, he is part of nature, and the privatisation and control of natural resources in Mexico (such as rice strains) is a process that has been hugely damaging to the indigenous populations. It almost seems he is creating a pun to show how proposterous it is to privatise/patent something which is a natural resource.

Students protesting against the privatisation of Mexico