It's interesting that you write this; I look around me and the U.S. isn't the country I grew up in although the roots were there of course. Ignorance and religion and bigotry is rampant, as is fear of science; well more than half don't believe in evolution (we're second from the bottom of industrialized countries, just above Turkey); we're 17th in education and dropping, lower in quality of life; our health-care is the most expensive in the world and offers the least; 90 % of us believe in miracles; we're busting unions, creating enclaved neighborhoods that smack of old-time racism; and the top 1 % controls 90 % of the wealth. You can feel the anger on the streets, among the homeless, etc. It's hopeless; with China haunting our debt, we're not going to pull out. And we have fools like Palin and Weiner taking up our time. I won't even get on about education here, but even in liberal NYC 6000 teachers are being let go, and the average class size for even pre-schoolers starts at 30 up to 60. We're energy gluttons and have been busy continuing our attack on W. Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for what little resources/ecology is left.
If we could, we'd leave, but no one would have us; we're broke. We can't wait for the Fourth of July! - Alan On Thu, 16 Jun 2011, Ana Vald?s wrote: > That's one of the reasons I am moving back to South America. Once, in the > Seventies, when we were young and a bit naive, we believed in the Messianic > Revolutions. We fought against rogue generals and corrupt politicians and we > paid a heavy prize, prison, torture, death. > Many of us come to Europe, the continent of our ancestors (I have Spanish > and Italian grandfathers and grandmothers) and got asylum and a time to > recover. Our ancestors fled from an empoverished Europe who prosecuted the > poor and the rebelious. > Now in South America every people in the region choose a leftist or social > democrat alternative, not because they dream about utopia but because they > are tired of neoliberal experiments. > Europe is going again the way of authoritarism and control who chased away > my ancestors from here. > I am going back to Uruguay to find a space and a place to resist and create. > I hope many of you in the list can be part of future projects linking the > North and the South. Maybe we can make the global diaspora to a borderless > creative world :) > > Ana > > On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 1:01 PM, Simon Biggs <[email protected]> wrote: > It is something big; sweeping global social change arising from > economic > realignment. Post-crash Europe is going through a socio-economic > realignment > that recognises the emerging dominance of international trade > and cultural > exchange by countries such as China, India and Brazil. As part > of this > process countries that once sustained values founded on social > democratic > principles are having to adapt their economies (material and > cultural) to > the instrumentalist models that underpin the emergent economies > capacity to > out-perform their competitors. The Anglo-American model has been > under > pressure at the same time, leading to the progressive collapse > of the social > contracts that underpinned them. We are moving from the European > millennium > to the Asian. > > Best > > Simon > > > On 16/06/2011 10:55, "Andreas Broeckmann" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > the Slovenian government wants to cut the cultural budget by 38 mio > euros. > > > > (is this an accidental series, or are we > > observing the erosion of something big?) > > > > > > > > Delo - Slowenien > > Slowenien streicht Kulturetat zusammen > > > > Die slowenische Mitte-Links-Regierung hat am > > Mittwoch ihren Entwurf f?r den Haushaltsplan 2012 > > vorgelegt und will im Kulturetat 38 Millionen > > Euro streichen. Das ist viermal so viel wie bei > > anderen Ressorts, rechnet die linksliberale > > Tageszeitung Delo vor und vermisst Verst?ndnis > > f?r die gesellschaftliche Funktion der Kultur: > > "Normalerweise sind die Mitglieder des Nationalen > > Kulturrats eher zur?ckhaltend. Doch nun waren sie > > so getroffen, dass sie mit Vorw?rfen an die > > Regierung und Gegenargumenten wenig zur?ckhaltend > > waren. Der Haushalt bedeutet tiefe Einschnitte. > > Nun drohen auch dem Projekt Kulturhauptstadt > > Maribor 2012 gro?e Probleme. Aufgeschoben w?rden > > zudem Filmproduktionen, Investitionen in die Oper > > Ljubljana, die Kunstgalerie Maribor und so > > weiter. ... Eine sichtlich verarmte > > Kulturlandschaft provoziert die berechtigte > > Frage, ob unsere Regierung die grunds?tzliche > > Rolle der Kultur f?r die Entwicklung jedes > > einzelnen Menschen, des Volks und des Staats > > vergessen hat." (16.06.2011) > > > > http://www.delo.si/mnenja/komentarji/leta-nazadovanja.html > > (externer Link, slowenisch) > > > > ______________________________________________ > > SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe > > Info, archive and help: > > http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre > > > > > Simon Biggs > [email protected] > http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ > > [email protected] > http://www.elmcip.net/ > http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ > > > ______________________________________________ > SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe > Info, archive and help: > http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre > > > > > -- > http://anavaldes.wordpress.com > http://passagenwerk.wordpress.com > http://caravia.stumbleupon.com > http://www.crusading.se > Gondolgatan 2 l tr > 12832 Skarpn?ck > Sweden > tel +468-943288 > mobil 4670-3213370 > > > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your > eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long > to return. > ? Leonardo da Vinci > > == email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ webpage http://www.alansondheim.org music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/rb.txt == _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
