Re: [-empyre-] Fwd: ayo should go byo

[Lloyd Sharp <lsharp@bigpond.net.au>]

> my people, because i have many bloods in me, i am a total mongrel, but the
> people i am proud of is the MAPUCHE people, has a MAJOR cycle of 60 THOUSAND
> YEARS and for people with this time of TIME SCALE, 200 years is nothing but a
> blink of an eye ...
>
> white people want us to forget but we can't ...
>
> it is our land and we are happy to share it in a caring way with all 
> but nobody
> can be happy to take a deal that humiliates and alienates the 
> custodians of the
> land, because my people DO NOT OWN THE LAND, MY PEOPLE ARE THE PEOPLE OF THE
> LAND, MY PEOPLE ARE THERE TO CARE FOR THE LAND AND TO PROMOTE BALANCE IN THE


It gets hard to differentiate race, culture, religion, 
socio-economics and all the other issues that seem to get compressed 
in this type of discussion...
Also to try and  talk about the wider 'art' implications as though 
separate from the the everyday 'life' issues is difficult.

I suspect that is why there has not been a great deal of contribution 
to this months talkfest...
also the 'bite back' seems to be a little more vicious and guilt generating...

2 things that I find interesting about it so far...

The question about whether the net is colourless...
Obviously people who access it are not, and there are many complex 
issues raised such as:
is [American] English now the default language? and does this bring 
with it any racial issues?
can you afford to connect? and does this bring with it  any racial issues?

and whether satire and humor is appropriate applied to an issue such 
as race in the context of art and everyday life...
I like and find very amusing the sites that have been discussed so 
far, however I can also see the difficulty for some in dealing with 
them on a personal level. I cannot tell if this experience has 
altered or somehow reflects my beliefs or behaviour in relation to 
race issues... does that matter to anyone else?
I find the way the responses have affected the artists more 
interesting than the number or qualities of the responses themselves.

Obviously responses to the use of the word 'nigger' can vary 
dramatically from amusement to outrage, [aside from the other 
content]. I think it is perfectly valid to use this type of work as a 
mechanism for both comment and thoughtful provocation. However you 
can also expect a heartfelt response from some, just as you can from 
burning either a cross or an American flag on the lawns in front of 
the white house - or doing it online where there are going to be a 
lot of US citizens with strong connections to both iconic 
representations.

An interesting [to me] comparison is the 'deck of cards' the USA has 
circulated with the faces of iraqi identities.
Is this really amusing? or racist? or functionally useful? or 
pointless? or unsuspecting provoking art?

on a related issue...
for those interested there is a great conference coming up in South 
Africa in Jan next year

http://idlelo.uwc.ac.za/

First announcement
 Dates: Jan 12-16, 2004
 Venue: The University of the Western Cape
Cape Town, South Africa
The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA), the 
African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources (AVOIR) project at 
the University of the Western Cape in collaboration with the United 
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) invite you to 
participate in this seminal event.

The conference will address the challenges and opportunities of the 
creation and use of free / open source software and open content and 
their development potential for Africa. The conference has both 
strategic and practical objectives, bringing together participants 
from government, education, business and civil society together with 
the developer community. The purpose of this conference is to:

* Review progress on implementation of open source and open content in Africa
* Create opportunities for peer-to-peer networking and learning among 
Africans participating in open source and open content initiatives
* Lay the groundwork for collaborative creation of open source 
software in Africa
* Expose Open Source companies and products to a variety of participants

The conference will operate through a number of plenary sessions 
given by world leaders in the area of open source and open content, 
parallel sessions with contributed papers and posters addressing 
specific themes, breakaway sessions for for networking, a mini trade 
fair, and a hackathon that will run in parallel with the conference 
beginning two days before the conference starts.