I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed (desk)!

The summer left. It sunk it the deep colours and unexpected rains of Autumn. Its ok, all is well. Its natural to change. In case you haven't noticed, all is in absolute movement around us. We are changing, trying to find static things to hold on to will do nothing but damage. We must be dynamic, dynamic and kind, kind to others.

Patriotism is an Act of Violence!

Here is the debate, what are the things we have caused and can be accounted for and what are the things we have not and are can therefore not feel responsible?

Nationality is as accidental as eye colour. We did not consciously choose them. We cannot yet say they are our fault or responsibility.

Another example is the current war in Iraq. People do not currently feel their actions or lack of them are part of the reason for this ongoing massacre, even though our life style might be part of the reason. Nonetheless we hear countless amounts of people feeling proud of this or that Empire’s achievements regardless of the destruction it brought to others. Maybe your ancestors were very active in it. I do not know. But I have seen people very willing to ascribe the achievements of certain historical periods upon themselves; and of course, we have a selective memory on what events really took place, and which ones we are ‘proud of’.

To me, to belong to a nation is a violent act as it starts the mindset of division we live under. The concept of otherness is one of the first steps towards violence. It justifies hurting other people, we thus create: the enemy. The argument of tribalism is far too removed from our current black tie politics. Thus I look at nationality as it currently stands.

But nationality is not the only division we accept; there is also race, religion and gender, just to name a few. We have not learnt yet to accept and acknowledge our humanity first? But no, we insist on wearing flags as drapery and as a poor excuse for selfhood, for an identity. Who are you? An English man? A Hungarian woman? A Congolese child? Or are you not David first? Are you not yourself first? An autonomous individual perhaps? A thinking-feeling-breathing being. I believe that before you subscribe to your assigned political identity you might want to have a look at the aspects of yourself that you are actually responsible for.

Nationality as such, for millions of human beings, is a very new thing. It may come as a shock for the English for example, who have a relatively old nation, to hear that there are over 30 new countries created after the 1990s. How would you feel if you were an old man from current Croatia but who grew up on former Yugoslavia before its dissolution in 1991? Who is he? A Croatian? A Yugoslav? A man. A human. With rights and an identity, regardless of politically designed boarders. We owed it to ourselves to have an independent outlook on political maps and divisions. Maybe you can see how to be a patriot is a difficult matter, a very confusing matter indeed, for millions of human beings. There are other examples of this, the artificially created nations and their manufactured culture, such as America the land of hamburgers from Hamburg and Israel who now wants to claim hummus as its very own. Humus comes from Hum, a city in Syria.

Please don’t think that with this article I am trying to undermine the feeling of community that belonging to a culture brings. I believe nationality and culture to be different to a great extent, and saying that, I do believe we can and should feel pride and joy about other people’s achievements. But in our world, to speak about the achievement of a nation has usually imperialistic or colonialist (or underdog) connotations. Culture is a very relative thing which usually means variety on our outlook on life. Whereas nationality usually brings political connotations as it is derived from boarders, not from common goals.

Speaking from a mixed background I perhaps have a more flexible outlook on this. I come from a nation where ‘our’ biggest achievement for a while was to qualify for a football cup. Perhaps you remember us, Ecuador. The whole country celebrated together as if, we did it together. I do agree that the sharing is all very nice, but looking at it objectively, it was all a bit artificial and there was nothing of substance to really cheer about. We all went back to our lives, judged by our passports. My other half belongs to a recently dissolved ex-Soviet Union country. The day I was born, Belarus, where I was born, gained independence from the Soviet Union. Shall this inflame my chest with a feeling of passionate patriotism and belonging? No. Why? Because some political figures that do not remotely care about me or the people (Belarus is still a nation under a dictator, look it up) signed a paper? No. To identify me, my personhood, my mind, my body, my experiences with a nation, is simplistic, is separatist. It would be a lazy outlook that we have designed to classify fellow human beings and to put them in boxes. We enjoy the classifying and standardising of everything, after all, this is a confusing world, is it not? And getting to know something is way too hard, is it not?

I do understand that belonging to a nation such as England, with its proud history, which I do appreciate in terms of inventions for example, can become overwhelmingly appealing for someone. Its might really want to make you go out and run and shout in the streets: Im English goddammit! Well done me! I made the Victorian era myself! Woooo! Rather than, is what am I doing with my life of any consequence? We only have to have to look upon Rhodesia, named after Cecil Rhodes, one man, one name to see the strangeness of the act. I would feel very weird indeed to be proud of my children being from the country Cecil Rhodes ‘invented’ so to speak. I would feel proud of the daily smile on my children faces, not on them belonging to this random territory.

Yet to subscribe to a nationality, to this principle of division is to me, to ignore the long history of humanity, our migration, our sharing, our eclectic cultural heritage, it doesn’t matter where you are or who you are, you have a little bit of everyone in you. Time to act like it. Time to feel proud of the work you do every day for whatever piece of land you happen to be standing on, rather than reminiscence on a past you might not even understand properly. It’s time to acknowledge your humanity first, our similarities. The sense of community will naturally follow when we actually interact and respect each other. A community is formed of people you have shared interests with, not interests bestowed upon you by politicians and individual interests.

One day I want to hear a story that goes like:

“Once upon a time there was a planet where people feared each other, they built walls to hide from each other, but still looked upon others to make their life decisions. Once upon a time there was a planet where people had everything they needed but they denied it from each other, because they felt different from each other. Once upon a time, there was such a planet, were everyone was waiting to be saved by another, instead of saving themselves and one another. Once upon a time there was a thing called patriotism which kept them away from one another. Believe it or not, that is how people lived in this so called planet. Once upon a time.... but not anymore.”

Good bye

By: Eliza Veretilo

My kid's crippled wings...

I believe in transcendence. I feel transcendence. I am a witness of the unbreakable human spirit rising from the ashes into greatness, into eternity. That's what I understand by transcendence and I believe in it. I believe in actions done where there was no hope left, and from them, real changes, real miracles happening.
I believe in happiness defeating despair. I believe that we are able to create our own happiness and I believe in meaning. I believe in the infinite capacity of human beings and I believe in our inherent goodness. I look at the horrible and chaotic world around us and I still believe. Why? How? I see ignorance as our enemy, when we ignore, when we know better but don't act better, that's where our downfall lays, and a pretty deep downfall too.

For a month or so I've been working at a Center for young offenders, delinquents and problem kids. The interesting thing about these misfits is that instead of being completely impossible to rule and complete mavericks and different... they are not. They are just like each other kid, except with less to loose. They are not original heroes, they are children who have fallen through the gaps of a system, a system designed so that some inevitably loose. Here are the losers, craving they last stance to worthiness: street credibility. They are victims and also perpetrators of their situation. They were told they can have no dreams and they believe it thus they don't try. The spit out what the media feeds in. Yet they have so much energy...

Give them a life-line and watch them grab it. Give them some light, an exit, help them make sense, and they take it. They are a good thermometer to measure what works and what doesn't, because these traumatized souls require you to explain why they need to do this or other exercise... and if you have a reason, they will do it. Thus I still believe in transcendence, because I see their broken creativity try to be and to float on a murky sea where they live. Transcendence doesn't deny struggle. I work with a group of four girls, I'm gonna try to re-establish their brain connections. They need colours, shapes, music, they need something that grabs their attention but doesn't break them. They are too young to decide the rest of their lives, I am too young to decide the rest of my life too, but they are not too old to patch up the gaps, to re-find their kindness, their softness, their intelligence, and with that at hand, we can do anything.

The somnambulists

The day... the amazing synchronicity, mainly. I can see them clearer. Maybe.

Here is a story, or the recalling of a dream...

The world of the somnambulists. Half asleep. Eyes always squinting as if because of the light. Half way between truth and lies. Ahhh but they wont turn around, since they prefer the ground. Crawl and howl! Twice she fell through the gap. When the dream feels this real, its hard to wake up.. He was walking around, yes, in circles, and then he told her a poem. First he asked for permission and dipped his feet into a small pond. A puddle of grey-ish tones. She claimed not to have much time left. Hurry. He started. You do rock me like a ship in the open sea. She could feel all the feelings but she couldn't see the sea. She had to go, like a wave. She was being called from another world. The call from another world. He wrapped his thoughts in a towel and mounted them onto a horse. Off we go. She woke up in a sweat and yes, there was an injured bird in her bed. Its feathers red. Dark red blood on bright red feathers, the bird also had some blue feathers. She turned around and curled up. Blanket in hand. She tried to ignore the bird, the elephant in the room and the day ahead. The bird suddenly started to make a sound. She recognized the first eerie, then familiar sound... children screaming in a playground.... She was then back in school running around with all the little children, scattered around like lost butterflies. The sleepers are expert escapists, specially when it comes to escaping their own selves.
She was her, she was her teacher, she was a man with a beard all dressed in grey, all at the same time. They all tried to fit into a small box. So small. She woke up out of discomfort. The bird was by then gone and the day was thus born. She got her legs out of the covers and slid her feet into a pair of sleepers., to avoid cold meetings with the floor.
The only problem with the world of the somnambulists is that it assumes that anybody, at all, is awake.

dreaming state.

Saving the world through a mustard seed.

It's 2012. The world is pretty mad. Political instability, economic crises, war going on even though we have been talking about peace and the brotherhood on man for a while. Technology is on a role, each new gadgets does something even more incredible and therefore you do even less. And then there is world hunger and world obesity going on at the same time. There is no Berlin wall falling or Chinese Revolution or the discovery of new lands happening, but anyway you see it, these are crazy times.
I am sure not to be the only one to have had this thought of changing the world, of saving the world! I have heard it so many times its almost a cliche actually. But what can we actually do?
I found a way, a something that gives me hope because it is so ethical and sustainable that looks like a way of saving the world.
Perhaps you have heard of organic farming, perhaps you think its something far removed and practiced by hippies or something. Its more than that. Organic farming is a way of fixing so many of the issues that make our world so crazy.
Organic farms are first of all, completely ecological and don't use oil based pesticides which are a big source of pollution (the fact that they don't use these pesticides is what makes them organic). They work with the ecosystem and allow natural environments to be what they are meant to be. The land stays fertile and your food is healthier. Because this farms are focused on local action and the people who work in them are mainly volunteers, this farms create a real sense of community. You know you grows the food you eat! Therefore you have more communication and become more involved with the area where you live, which means that if the council wants to build a bridge for example, on top of a beautiful garden, you know what's happening and can take action. Imagine if that happened around the whole world!
One of the reasons why there is a famine in Africa is because much of the water that can be used for growing crops is redirected for growing palm oil and roses and different things that Africa exports to Europe (mainly). The idea is that the money made by selling the exported goods aids the economy. The problem? People don't have land and water to grow the food they need to survive! Its a terrible situation that could be fixed with thinking locally. The big businesses are taking it all, we need to reclaim it back and food is definitely a good place to start. Caring about organic food means that you will add more vegetables into your diet and less crap, which also targets the obesity problem, by eating healthier and having a relation with what you eat. My claim isn't that you should go work in an organic farm, but if you have time, perhaps its not such a bad idea. Also, money has a voice now a days, if you choose to buy local organic produce rather than mass produced 'who knows what it's in it' imported stuff, you will be doing a bit both for your health, and for the world.

This is a great organic farm in the edge of London, check it out: http://www.organiclea.org.uk/

Art as an explanation to everything...

To write about art philosophically is to me, to match two seemingly different worlds that treat seemingly different things. But they are not so different; both art and philosophy exist to fulfil the same desire, the human desire for meaning. Art has been a major part of human history and development, art has been our way of saying ‘we existed’. Thus art has walked hand in hand with humans throughout our millennia of experience. No one can tell you more than a philosopher that truth doesn’t come naked, it comes in disguise. Humans have since forever tried to undress it and the only way to make sense or explain the unexplainable is art. The history of art is the history of symbols and the history of symbols is the history of human life itself.

For a while I thought that Western rationalisation of thought had killed philosophy as such. Western reductionism limits that scope in which we can speculate about human life, as if nothing could be a possibility unless it logically made sense and fitted under a microscope. Logic to an extent cuts the wings of human inquiry. At a public level, this seems fitting and very rational, but at a personal level, we believe in profound realities and that’s were art and other numinous aspects come in. Art fills in the infinite pain that we have, because of our lack of understanding, because of our helplessness in the universe. Art heals our burns like cool water, we look, hear and feel symbols that reach deep into our collective human conscious and unconscious and whatever experience. Art that touches your pain is incomparable. Art reminds us that we do understand, only that we understand with different eyes.

The reason why I think art is so important is because it keeps its status of enigmatic, even in our times dominated by science and technology. Artist are treated different, as carriers of the truth but not important enough to be fed. The job of art is to transform our experiences, sensations, feelings and thoughts into symbols, into music and into something that can last in the memory of humans. In Richard Dawkins words, we don’t just leave behind genetic material, but we also leave MEMEs, little bits of our creative self, in the shape of art, like things you don’t think are art, like the way you like to fold your tissue. Art goes beyond the objective, beyond the times, as if its symbols gave us a little more access to eternity. It is not a coincidence that Religions are charged with art, art is symbolic and symbols are signs and expressions of our millennia of accumulated human experience, the pain is no new, the doubt is not new, art is not new.

Feelings and sensitivity are given to us just by being born, same as reason. Artists use them and transmute these into symbols, colours, sounds, words. The job of an artist is continuous, like experience. We are constantly receiving something from the external world and that has to be transmitted. Everyone should do art, constantly, any type of art. It’s better than psychotherapy, it’s the coat of varnish that will truly help you visualise the mess that you have been turning your head into. Expressive, representative, free of worries, creative, personal, impossible, based on reality, that doesn’t need to make sense but ends up making more sense, neutral, angry, happy, passionate make art. 

Create and Connect

Sometimes, when I become too sociable and go out too much I loose touch with creating. You start talking and mingling and of course, and the best one: sharing with people. But this strange thing happens to me you see, that I start to drift into sharing with people so much that I neglect doing. Is this a general occurrence  That you become a bee that flies from flower to flower, rather than a working bee that collects the honey. This little metaphor tries to say that I have stopped creating... for the days I became sociable. All sorts of strange thoughts then start to creep in when you don't create. The fear of not knowing what to do next. What to follow work with. Why. How. Then you start to compare. Big mistake. The emptiness of the words as you tell people you write poems/songs/paint things when you haven't done any of those things in a while! Breathe. Collect yourself. Remember your mind needs recharging, it needs to take breaks.

Creating is a very similar process to so called mingling. You do it for the people, you share with them, ideally your honest thoughts and feelings. I do both out of love for them, out of curiosity about them, out of a need to learn about them. And thus they are not so dissimilar. But at the same time, time runs like sand, its time to get to work. Some artists become hermits in a way, they isolate from people and dedicate to their work. I work better that way, but people are part of the world, I work for people, can't obviate people, shouldn't avoid them.

Thus the issue becomes a matter of balance again, of course. How to create and connect? How to go out and see the humans in action and also create in the peace of solitude? How to come back to the point of creativity among the seas of activity?
Well I am certainly looking for the answers and will let you know if I have any luck.