JSalloum on Sat, 21 Apr 2001 20:59:10 +0200 (CEST) |
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[Nettime-bold] from Chiapas |
thought you'd appreciate this. j === From: Velcrow Ripper <scaredsacred@dojo.tao.ca> Reply-to: scaredsacred@tao.ca Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 15:16:04 -0500 (EST) hiya folks...sorry for the bulk mailing, but internet can be a bit tough down here sometimes...it{s velcrow here, with a few thoughts on the journey i am on in mexico. for the last two weeks i have been a member of the "Zapatista Caravan for peace, justice and dignity", travelling from the jungles of chiapas to the urban chaos of mexico city, with Marcos and 24 of the commandantes, in a bid for peace, and freedom for the indigenous people of chiapas, of mexico, and the world. And for all of us, as marcos says: todos somos indios del mundo. The caravan has been an incredibly moving experience...it{s an example of boldness and determination, in the face of impossible odds...a sense of hope and possibility...graffitti at UNAM (the university in mexico city which has been the cente of a radical stike, now over, for the last year) reads "YOU DONT HAVE TO ASK ANYONE TO BE FREE. The Zapatistas." The Zapatistas have created autonomous communities, called "Aguas Calientes" throughout chiapas, and the caravan was in one huge mobile autonomous zone, where Zapatismo was upheld above and beyond the laws of the state. when we arrived at UNAM the students had created another mobile "Aguas Calientes" for us in the heart of the campus, a tent city, with a kitchen, underground radio station, and events every day. In the course of the caravan we drove for hundreds and hundreds of miles past thousands and thousands of ordinary mexicans at the side of the road, clapping, waving, holding their hands to their hearts, crying, offering us food and drink, chanting "no estan solos"- youre not alone. The people were with us. often my eyes would mist over, at one sacred moment after another, such as the sight of an old indigenous woman, grinning from ear to ear, sunburst smile, catching my eyes, thanking us for coming down, a look that went straight to my heart,filled with hope, with faith, with a belief that somehow in this corrupt and selfish world, the audacity, the sincerity, the brilliance of the Zapatistas, and this crazy move, riding into the gaping jaws of the beast, armed only with words, would herald the beginning of a real change... > On the way we stopped at Nurio where a national indigenous council was held, gathering support, and expanding the concrete demands beyond the mayans of chiapas, to include all the indegnous of mexico...not content to have their demands met for their own county, the vision ofthe zapatistas extends throughout this cuontry...and in fact, beyond borders. Everyday the caravan swelled as new buses joined in, from a thousand in san cristobal to well over five thousand by the time we reached mexico city. one day we pulled into a small town,under the last vestiges of a blue blue sky. the roads were lined with supporters. as the zapatistas took the stage the sky clouded over, and the first drops of rain fell. by the time marcos spoke, the storm was boiling, ligthening flahsed, and as rained p oured down. the people laughed, danced, drank in the poetic words, which built in intensity as the storm itself peaked... they told us it had not rained in that town in six months. in fact the name of the town is "place of little rain". The streetst turned to rivers, and we splashed through, back to the buses. here{s a poem I wrote that was inspired by that day... ZAPATA VIVE! Empty sky Storm forms Lightening flashes Etch images Of truth Reveal the rot Challenge the chains Woven by generation After generation After generation Of Men People Eaters Planet Eaters Conciously unconcious The storm is boiling It will not be stopped With a mop and a bucket It will not be stopped By all the walls of dollars Erected by the fearful power brokers And their pets The bent and broken governments of the world It will not be stopped By the numbed and numbered Sucking soothers Of vacant experience Desperate oblivion It will not be stopped It will only grow As you and you and you Choose the pain and joy Of concioussness Choose to dance in the cold driving rain Drenched and trembling with awe Swept into a hundred streams Coursing into a thousand rivers Towards the ocean of collective awakening The floodwaters are rising Swan dive in Laughing and shouting or be submerged The floodwaters are rising Its a good thing. Velcrow Ripper, Mexico, Mar 15/2001 -- ---------------- www.scaredsacred.org ---------------- "Transformation is not in the future. Can never be in the future. It is only now, From moment to moment" -Krishnamurti >> _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold