[-empyre-] the mouth of Duck river

[pau delgado]

Hi Johannes, I'm happy that you took my comments about the Syrian/Uruguayan
experience. I am not saying they 'abused hospitality'. I am just saying
that behind the media images we see everyday there must be some invisible
layers I might not be able to grasp. I just say it is not that simple to
understand narratives in one single way. If the Syrian families in Uruguay
said they rather go back to Syria than stay there, then the urgency to
leave their countries is relative to many other conditions. Just think is
important to also highlight that. Otherwise I believe everything remains in
a simple analysis of the "good guys"  the "bad guys", just switching roles
depending on how pro or anti imperialism you identify yourself
On 19 Feb 2016 15:42, "Johannes Birringer" <Johannes.Birringer at brunel.ac.uk>
wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> dear all
>
> I enjoyed Ana's brief comment on languages
> and broken english,; as I remember - not too long ago
> during a month-long discussion I helped to moderate
> we asked anyone, who wanted to, to post in the language
> they are comfortable with.
>
> Pau Delgado's posts -  I hope to reply soon.....
>
>
> More hands-on, Ana, today I would like to ask why we are not
> more angry, bitter, and loud, screaming at our governments, the political
> regimes that sell war and lead war, trade weapons or reap
> benefits from the so-called refugee crisis (or the ongoing
> movements of people), instability, the economic disparities? why are there
> no organized protests, huge demonstrations against war, as they often
> happened
> or used to happen (Vietnam War, first Iraq invasion, second
> Iraq invasion, as examples, or the protests that the Mothers
> of the Disappeared staged, etc)? The war was taken to Syria
> and the fractured destabilization of the region benefits
> capital, the regimes of the former west that call themselves
> democratic; not much resistances here, shamefully.
> And poetic gestures? downloadable apps?  Today not sure.
> (al jazeera called Ai Wei Wei a poser; "portrait of the artist as a dead
> boy";
> the photo was posed for an Indian magazine)
>
>
>
> The workshop we had yesterday was guided by Maria Kastrinou
> (anthropologist)  “’Either we'll survive the sea or we'll die:’ From Syria
> to War”- and
> Royona Mitra  (dancer/researcher): “Choreographing the Politics of Touch”.
> After Royona's very evocative explorations of what she called
> "Touch-un-ability" (her interpretation of cultural codes in India and a
> caste system
> she grew up in, extended to issues of touching/contact and sexual violence
> against woman), we then heard Maria describe her fieldwork on
> the Greek island of Lesbos, a hotspot - and about the "processing" (EU
> border/refuge management and control) of Syrian migrants there, the touching
> and fingerprinting (guards wearing gloves) that goes on, etc.  The
> degradations.
>
> Just to leave you with one strong impression:  what I learnt from Maria
> Kastrinou's numerous conversations with Syrians on Lesbos
> was their desire to be treated as equals. They request to keep their
> dignity, and appeal to the codes of hospitality that have always existed in
> Syrian culture. So when they travel (to flee the war) they see their
> coming to Greece and EU or elsewhere as a temporary, not permanent scenario,
> they wish to be seen not as intruders or beggars. Maria told us the Syrian
> she spoke to offered her gifts, and spoke about how they value reciprocal
> relations of the istikbal and haram.
>
> They construct themselves as guests.
>
> The workshop discussion delved into this fundamental idea, that refugees
> are guests; (an idea that stands against all kinds of other ideological
> projections
> that necropolitics, states, and capitalist managers, and also charities
> and help NGOs,  will invoke). Pau might answer that (42 invited guests, to
> a country
> as huge as Uruguay, abused the hospitality?).
>
> regards
> Johannes Birringer
>
>
> ps.
> I still tend to think "Kinopolitics" refers to Cinema/Kino.  Moving images?
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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