{{ NUMOL BITES }}

firesandwords:

Third World Protest as US Spectator Sport

zuky:

I’m not a fan of the US cultural habit of turning political turmoil in faraway lands into a gawkworthy spectator sport. I came to this realization in the aftermath of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, as it gradually dawned on me that sheltered, largely clueless people who had no stake in what was happening had little business pushing their intrusive, hungry gaze into such multi-faceted, multi-context, volatile, dangerous matters.

The most disturbing aspect of this habit is, in my opinion, the undercurrent of bloodlust, which of course underlies all US “news reporting”, best summarized by the cliche “if it bleeds, it leads”. In the 1989 protests in China, organizers explicitly stated amongst themselves that the world’s eyes were watching and those eyes wanted blood. Protesters knew that if the demonstrations simply ended peacefully, the previously enthralled Western media would be disappointed. They knew that they had to push matters to the point of violence in order to make a lasting point. The Western gaze got what it wanted. As usual, it wasn’t Westerners who paid the price.

I’m not making any particular statement about uprisings in Tunisia or Egypt or Yemen or Lebanon or Xinjiang or Tibet or Myanmar or Thailand or Kenya or South Africa or Indonesia. And I’m definitely not saying that people should not be paying attention to important world events. As I often make clear in all my writings, I vehemently believe that US Americans need to pay much, much more attention to political events throughout the Third World — but not just when there’s a media melee to gawk at and cheer on, in the manner of kids rushing toward a crowd standing on cafeteria tables shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

been thinkin’ about this a lot lately. thanks! it’s unfortunate that most americans, and even most radical americans don’t, as a whole, focus on or legitimize day-to-day organizing and struggles until such efforts aggregate into a generalized social revolt such as in egypt and tunisia. this idea that we mostly only do solidarity actions or share news stories with our friends when people start smashing shit is kinda problematic and representative, as the previous poster put well, of the same shit the media perpetuates. 

not that i don’t love me a riot. or find the images of rocks being thrown at riot lines(only to bounce off their armor) or images of the burning cop cars, the vehicles of those who violently suppress every revolutionary movement and protect oppressors- and images of people smashing everything in sight; whether in toronto, in greece, egypt or any other place. these images share some universal sentiments and i think we can find a point of commonality and collective strength among them.

however, it is really important that the similarity of the images that we (definitely myself included) fetishize- doesn’t oversimplify the complexities of the situation. i didn’t know anything about what was going on in egypt before 2 weeks ago.  i’m not saying that we shouldn’t watch videos of people tearing shit down in egypt. but we should be focusing just as much attention on how the actions are being organized, what people want, what the background is for the revolt, and realizing that (i’m speaking to my own experience here) sitting in front of a computer screen, safe in my house with heat and plenty of food and a new petite-bourgeoise job on the way, i am extremely detached from the conditions which caused this revolt and the affects it’s having on people on the streets and am viewing the situation from a point of serious privilege. especially when my privileged lifestyle funds the regime in egypt, who is the second largest recipient of u.s. aid next to israel

(via woc-resist)

{ Great thread to follow on Egypt… }

xicanagrrrl:

I was hella confused about what was going on there, having only gotten snippets of things through tumblr and the Al Jazeera stream before it went down…

But this thread cleared things up

It took about an hour to read through but was totally worth it… it starts last Tuesday with the beginning of protests and has been updated several times a day since then, and is still being updated. 

EDIT: REBLOG THIS please.

(Source: rosas--sylvestres, via abagond)

{ Anderson Cooper live from Cairo on CNN now }