Saturday, May 19, 2007

Twenty Three

I must say this birthday was markedly different from any I’ve had before. I began the day excited, just like wow I’m 23. Watched the Spurs beat the Suns, who I surprisingly rooted for because they were the lesser of two evils. GO UTAH! Played a little basketball, seriously one game up to 7 and I was already tired.


It’s just that this birthday I wasn’t with the people from home, my family and my friends. I’m not one to celebrate a birthday; to me it more or less feels the same as any other day.

My friends here threw me an excellent surprise as we dressed up and had a nice dinner at a tapas restaurant. Then we proceeded to Minus 5 an ice bar. I must admit it’s a novel experience and since it was free not half bad. We ended the night playing pool and listening to music and that’s all I can really ask for. Thank you to the friends I’ve made here in New Zealand, it was great to know I was appreciated, and better to share your company. HOLLA

Friday, May 11, 2007

Read This If You're White

My man simba takin his time once again to drop his knowledge upon us. Simba and Miles, first off let me mention that I miss stayin up and talkin about everything from Politics and Art.
Much of my education has been intellectualizing many of the issues brought up above and I basically bounce from an idealistically optimistic youn man who feels he can change the world to a pessimistic cynic who recognizes the systematic forces of white-supremacist-capitalist-hetero-sexist-patriarchy and more isms to be added.
I must admit during times of balanced thought I lean closer to the weight of the system being to great. In many ways the course of the world seems set, but let us not stop imagining actions or events that can change the course.
When I was in South Africa Simba provided me with the name of the father of the Black Conciousness movement Steve Biko, to this days his thoughts bounce around inside my head. I'd like to make a suggestion to those who find themselves in a similar subject posistion to myself that I have pulled from the thoughts of Biko.
Biko explains racism as a White Man's problem, but yet the problem places the burden upon those that it adversely effects. This type of set-up rings true for nearly all things. We live in a society that not only denies racism, but denies that they benefit from a system that has provided them with a privilege they have done nothing to earn. The only way to combat something like racism is raising a conciousness. Biko focused on Black people, attempting to create a positive representation of BLACK. I have realized that I have the attention of white conservatives, because of my ability to articulate myself on there level, therefore I have the ability to attack the system of racism, (i'd actually like to call it White supremacist- as it correctly points to the problem without hiding where the problem lies) by challenging those peoples views and giving them a framework for understanding privilege. I recognize that this idea has been one of the greatest lenses I have learned to look at the world with and know the power of it if you can give people that lens. It has the ability to raise conciousness. It has the ability to move the conversation of racism from the individuals where people argue that Tiger Woods and Denzel Washington are proof that racism doesn't exist, to looking at the systems of oppression that effect people collectively.
Only then can you point out to a person arguing that racism doesn't exist the historic legacy of country-clubs to deny access to blacks and women. Only then can you point out the stereotypical roles that black actors are forced to play time and time again.
In doing this you are challenging the system at the level where real change needs to occur.
One Love
I recently went through a bout of being down. The emotional high I experienced in Fiji was immediately dampered by a stark look at myself here in New Zealand. I came here to run basketball camps. I've done some coaching, mostly at affluent schools, but realize when I won this scholarship this is not what I envisioned. What I envisioned was what I experienced in Cape Town, no scratch that what I experienced in Khaylitsha, a township banished to the outskirts of the city. A place close enough to have people come into the city and work if their labor was needed, but far enough for those in the city to be ignored.

Well it was on a visit with Hoops4Hope that I realized that basketball was a legitimate way to visit these places and offer something I love to people who have basically been ignored, been pushed to the side, been stripped of oppurtunity. I realize that basketball is a way to offer people something more than what they had before. The previous sentence sounds simplistically stupid, I know I've read it four times already, but recognize that I know basketball isn't going to change the systematic oppression a population faces, yet it can be a channel that can be utilized to build confidence and maybe even community. So I repeat, that basketball way is a way to offer people something more than they had before. I know sport can provide confidence for an individual who rarely recieves compliments and provide a sense of community that has otherwise been mangled by alcohol and violence. However, Rotary did not send me to South Africa, I don't have the oppurtunity to work in Soweto, instead I am in Ponsonby, New Market and Papakura. I recognize that there is work to be done, there is always work to be done, but I also recognize my ability, and that I can put myself in positions that most cannot.

I enjoy as much privilege as anyone. I am white-male-hetero-sexual-english speaking-catholic and tall. I mean what more could I possibly ask for. I fall out of bed and know that I'm not going to be made fun of for the way I speak, not going to be touched in a manner I don't want to be, not going to be feared by the people I walk by. Its with this privilege that I still struggle to understand daily, that I recognize my whole life I've lived very selfishly. I rarely care for persons more than I care for myself. I've been focused entirely on improving my lot. Some would applaud saying I am driven and I would not disagree. However, I am now beginning to realize the people I may have ignored, because I wasn't sure I had enough to help. The friends I ignored when they attempted to share something with me that they had rarely shared before, but I was so busy thinking of myself that I didn't even hear them. I saw this scholarship as finally my chance to legitimize the motto I have lived much of my life by, "I will help people once I have a means to help them. I can choose to help people now and offer them peanuts or I can further myself and offer them steak." I only now realize the fallaciousness of this argument. You can't choose to help people later. You either help them then or you don't. Choosing not to help in certain instances hasn't allowed me to focus more on myself and gain more personally. It's only made me selfish. I could help others and still further myself. It may not be easy, but you can do whatever you want. That doesn't mean you can dunk if you are 5'2", it means that you can play basketball and go to school. I played basketball in college and went to school. I don't even think its really an achievement, but people always ask, how did you find time? Well easy I played basketball from 4:00 to 7:00 and then had the other 21 hours to do everything else. My studies didn't suffer because I had a three hour a day time commitment. Just like they wouldn't have suffered if I listened to my friend just a little bit closer instead of listening to the song playing in the background.

My chance to help people is now. My chance to help people will hopefully be later as well. I even hope I am a better position with more resources at my disposal when I help people in my future, but I know now that it is my time to do what I can do. The time is now. As D-Hubb said, "Stop bein a spectator, get in the game." I may not be in South Africa, but I can do work here. I can also look for oppurtunities in the future to do more work. Helping is both now and later, just make sure you're doing something now because your kidding yourself if you say oh I'll do it later. HOLLA

Economics of Tourism

Nothing is more disheartening than going to a place where there entire culture has been commodified. When traveling in Fiji, I experienced the luxuries of the Sofitel Hotel only to realize it was the most boring, least intellectually stimulating place to be on earth. Everything from the "Bula" (hello) to the smile is intended to make you feel relaxed, to hide the plight of this employee, who only can access this place as an employee. Imagine being a child in Nadi, Victoria Falls, or Montego Bay and seeing nothing but poverty surrounding you except foreigners on a leisurely vacation. How preverse a picture is that for a child? Not to mention when you compound that image of class privilege, with race (who's really travelling).

I get sick to my stomach going to cultural villages, because its the saddest form of interaction ever. People go thinking there gaining a knowledge of a culture when really they're paying money to see people sing and dance (shuck and jive). I'm not criticizing or belittling peoples art and culture, but arguing that the socio-economic position of these people leave them very little option to support themselves. Its not like people chose to sing and dance for you, its that they are in such a dire need for money to pay for basic human needs that they slang anything they got. We just happen to pay for a little song and dance and feel good about ourselves because were getting a glimpse at authentic ______ (fill in the blank) culture. HOLLA and IM OUT

Friday, May 4, 2007

The F- the I- the J- the I- Its FIJI (hold up)

Ok real spit yo boi needed something to really wake me up and I think I found it in Fiji. I attended a Rotary Conference that was suprisingly alright, but it my trip really didnt begin till the day after the conference ended.

Well first I met my main man from Pomona College, Tremor class of '02, rotary ambassadorial scholar of '04 who spent the year of the scholarship and the last 3 years at the University of South Pacific doin really big thangs- like water projects to provide fresh clean water to different villages. PS- shot out to the next generation of Pomona College graduates '07, I know you guys are going to hit the real world real hard, best of luck and congratulations.

So after spending the conference at resort (which I really find problematic- people say they've been to fiji and never left the premises of the Sofitel Resort if you feel me on this or disagree wit me leave a comment and we can converse) I went to perhaps one of the wealthiest families in Fiji's home to traveling to Yusama Village a place more reflective of the "real" fiji. The word real is poor diction on my part as it brings into play all kinds of notions of authenticity that I really want to avoid. The drawing out that I would like to stress is that I din not find myself in a place entirely set up to cater to my every whim on the basis of my money or more identifiably my skin. In Yusama I was welcomed into a home, offered fruit and introduced to a beautiful two year old baby. It was an experience that I fail to capture in words, but leaves you in solitude as you are paralyzed by the realization of the privileges you've taken for granted, while simultaneously warmed by the ability of people to interact.

I was honored after my trip to Yusama to visit a 26 acre sugar cane farm, where I was greeted with the warmest hug, I've recieved since leaving my mothers arms at the airport. They cut me a piece of sugar cane, and invited me back to work the harvest, an invitation I hope I can take up, as I'm unsure if I'll be able to even last one day. I'm attempting to finish this post after the fact, and realizing that I cannot capture the feelings being removed somewhat from it. The memory is with me, but not in the manner in which I can convey with words. So I shall publish...