I attended a Tsunami memorial event today that was more about empowerment for communities and women. The lady who founded Upasana was there – they were strongly behind the event . The Tsunami occurred just over 5 years ago.
She is quite an amazing lady and is acting as a strong force in the community. She understands the commnity and what it needs. She is providing activism by doing things that raise the consciusness of what is done, how it is done and the meaning of the work. See my previous post on Upasana.
The event was full of children with various moods evident on their faces. Some may well have lost fathers in the Tsunami but it was hard to tell what their stories were on an individual level. They are none the less quite beautiful children.
One of the things that was odd to me was the strong presence of westerners at the event. It is not that they should be absent but they were in a prominent role. This is not a western story. This is a story about the people in a region who experienced a horrible event – some died; some survived. This got me thinking about the ways in which Westerners come into regions feeling that they have something that they must give – yet it is quite unclear whether that has any meaning for the people here. This was their story but it got lost in this odd presence.
On the way over here, I was reading a book which my daughter gave me about Medecine Sans Frontier. They appear to try and go into an area with sensitivity to what is needed by all versus trying to impose a set of ideals on a people. In some respects, Westerners here appear to be tolerated. We have our way of doing things and believe it is better.
It also reminded me of a presentation in California in December by Dr. Alberta Bandura. He spoke of a program that he was involved in bringing forms of social education to various countries. One of the things that hos project insisted upon was that the stories, methods of telling the stories, who told the stories, the content - all be driven by those who lived in the country - not the group from the West whose role was to offer technical assistance. They also helped to develop the assessment measures. He gave an example in Tanzania where the community determined that the issue that needed social change was around HIV. They wanted to increase comdom use. It was their story, their priority, their dialogue, their work. This is an important difference over what I saw today of Westerners having a role in stories that were not thiers.
Today’s event also got me thinking about the degree to which groups hold on to trauma – it starts to define who they are. Thus, these families who have rebuilt houses and towns; found ways to survive without family members are seen as victims of a horrible event. Does that define them? Should a past event come to define any of us or should we see that as a part of our past and not our present? For many here, life goes on because it has to.
I also had a fascinating discussion about corruption which is very much a part of the Indian culture. This was in the context of how Monsanto and others are altering the ways in which farming is being done here (see previous post on farming). This spiritual person was offering the thought that activism will ultimately fail because these forces against which one is fighting are stronger. They suggested that in fighting then you incorporate their energy and you become defined by the enemy you fight. The enemy is so much a part of your thoughts, actions , emotions that their power invades who you are. They go on to suggest that, if you have these negative forces in a society, that is a reflection of the general consciousness of that society. It is that consciousness that must change before the negative forces will change. Reminds me of the argument that countries get the governments that they deserve.
Martin Luther King and Gandhi might have seen it differently. Instead of taking on a direct battle, my sense is that they changed the consciusness of a nation through what they said and how they behaved - non violence and creating a different presence. But again, it was the people who owned the story who drove the story.
This is the kind of light discussions that go on here. All to say that while I don't think today's blog answers anything - it certainly is indicative of the kinds of thuoghts, discussions and ideas that are being talked about here. Perhaps you change the world not by who you fight but rather by what you do, how you think and what ideas you express that alter consciusness at a personal, group or collective level.
There is quite a collection of people that move through. It is a mini United Nations. Tonight we had people from Canada (us), England, France, Spain and an expat French women who lives in India most of the year. People from the European Community are having harder times with visas – retaliation. They can only stay 3 months and then must leave for at least 2 months. So far, Canadians are not affected and we can still get 6 month visas.
On a less heavy note, wood here is a dangerous building material because of termites. So there is naturally adaptation. Fence posts are often made of granite:
There are other solutions as well. How about this fence which is made of cactus:
This is a society that works but not one that we Westerners understand. Regrettably, there is a growing evidence of Western influence here. The gossip pages in the daily newspapers show more and more Western dress, sexuality and stories about Western and Indian stars in the same way that we seem to believe that they should be idolized in the West. Pity!
