Mindful of a huge swerve in the arguments yet,
I'll put it simply and it's insufficient as such, but 'true'. It was
Sianed Jones who organised the Kosovo refugee lorries benefit and as we
work closely together it would have been ludicrously churlish to turn
away from taking part. So I'm not trying to be pious at all but yes
I played and MC'd and DJ'd and performed my ass off for the day.
Paradoxically i'd say that the most good that came out of the event was
a bonding of communities here in Lowestoft. People got excited by each other.
It seems crazy that it took such an event to bring peoples together. But
that did seem extremely worth doing in this context. I know that a
gathering and mobilising of local artists etcetera, was the force behind
Sianed's action.
(She did a superb job or bringing it all together btw). There was
considerable power, almost a paradigm shift in local cultural politics, to
have crusties and romanies and so forth be celebrated on centre stage.
Ironic that those who often busk outside WH Smiths had everybody up dancing
(top hats, cattle horns, dreadlocks and wheelchairs).
fyi - to my knowledge the 'stuff' goes directly to the aid agencies and they
decide what to do with it. I don't see how else it could be done (unless
everybody went individually with their coat or whatever). I also share
Lawrence's concern about whether much gets to anybody who needs it and how
such needs are defined and who does that defining. But what happened in
Kosovo (and is still unravelling throughout the Balkan states) is much more
than just about the force majeur offered by NATO; utterly reprehensible and
illconsidered and destructive though that may be. (ok ok it was carefully
planned; wreck the infrastructure then go in and secure the contracts to
rebuild and the commerce that results from that rebuilding - Germany,
Japan ?)
The charity industry is indeed a curious beast. But putting it bluntly
again if there's somebody (whomever they might be) that has use for an old
jumper of mine then good luck to them. They can have it. I feel this as
much for people forced into homelessness in Lowestoft or London or
Cambridge as for those directly refugeed by war. But I do have more time
for the aid agencies than for NATO as an agency. NATO would not deal with
their mess, they would abandon it and move on. It is the links between such
caring and such abandon, as Lawrence, points out that need examining.
but I don't reckon that simply refusing to do anything has much going for
it either. Damned if one does and damned if one doesn't perhaps. In the
end, someone being warm is preferable to someone dying from hypothermier
imho
Of course where this diversion can feed back into its tributary is through the
issue of identity and the politics of community and yes, niche communities.
Niche communities do tend to gravitate unto themselves and feel protective
of and proud from their niches. Lawrence is quite right in that. But that's
what I was suggesting this e-community is too. The obvious all-too-frequent
demonstrations that there are sub-niche's here argues for bases in
formation to do with 'habit' and 'taste' and that seems intimately
connected with marketing
for me.
And isn't it here among these rushes that the dodgy 'I' comes whiffling.
Isn't that what's being asked about again and again
love and love
cris
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