Uneven Development: Listening to the 'South', Listening to Vancouver

JR ArtNet is a renowned French photographer that is known for his intimate portraits. His latest exhibition, “Women are Heroes” is an unconventionally displayed in some of the world’s biggest slums in Kenya, Brazil, India and Cambodia. These are slums where women are economically marginalized, often unemployed while raising 3 or more children. JR displays portraits of local women with the goal of voicing their struggle, not only to an international audience but also within these slums. His entire website is in French, however go take a look at his gallery and other videos: http://www.womenareheroes-paris.net/

The question that keeps getting brought up in class is how do we let the subaltern speak if all that is recognized is Western discourse and academia? I think that art and music are valuable universal modes of expression, breaking barriers such as culture, gender, class or race. The premise of the entire campaign is in the video on this page: http://www.womenareheroes-paris.net/fr/guide-interactif/ if you want to take a look.

This specific video is in Africa’s second biggest slum, Kibera, located just outside of Nairobi, Kenya. Overcrowding is prevalent in Kibera, where 1 million people inhabit a 2.5 square kilometer area. NGO’s and International Agencies have deemed overcrowding as the biggest “problem” of Kibera. Because of the high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDs (approximately 50%), young women are often widowed and left as the primary caregiver of 4 or more children. The interview of the women at the start of the video is a widow in Kibera.
JR’s exhibition is more than just a struggle for gender equality in developing countries. These pictures are meant to demonstrate that despite much suffering, these women are still full of life, putting a face (literally) to the subaltern. One of the last post’s was about Palestinian youth’s struggle with the political climate, this video on the other hand focuses on vitality in the midst of what Western views call an oppressed life. Often developing countries are homogenized as being dismal places, “Women are Heroes” alternatively individualizes women by portraying their animated emotions. Here is the full interview with the women at the start:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8390w_interview-women-in-kibera_creation?from=rss

Some Current Events:

Until recently, the Kenyan government refused to acknowledge the EXISTENCE of Kibera. One couldn’t even find it on a map of Nairobi (a notable example of political influences on geography). However, in the last couple weeks the government, backed by the United Nations, has developed apartment buildings on the border of Kibera (conveniently placed so that Kibera is not visible from the city of Nairobi anymore). A “slum upgrading” program has been initiated, moving families into these apartments. In all this, what has been ignored is the voices of the residents actually living in the slum. Here is an article from BBC that I think has an ethnocentric perspective, however is useful: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8258417.stm

Based on recent happenings in Kibera, it seems to me as though the subaltern within Kenya is not being heard. JR’s campaign may not directly articulate opinions to lobby the Kenyan government; however it serves to empower women who have otherwise been silenced and under-appreciated.

I spent this last summer working in Kibera so I definitely have an emotional attachment to this area, meaning my experiences and understanding of Kibera has constructed my opinion of the video and news story. Given this, I would love to hear critical comments on JR’s exhibition as well as the slum upgrades.

True Stories: Death of a Nation is a documentary that profiles Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Marcel Theroux investigates first-hand the political, economic, and social issues that surround the troubled nation.  The issues that are examined include the Russian oligarchs and “gangster capitalism”, the HIV epidemic taking place in the country, the extreme gap between rich and poor, the rise of the right-wing in the political arena, and the conditions that produce a “third world” mortality rate.

In my opinion, this documentary is one of the clearest and most explicit portrayals of development.  The economic and political holes that have been left following the collapse of communism are enormous, these holes have only since expanded and left a poverty stricken, hopeless Russian population.   The neo-liberal hyper shift from a communist state to a capitalist system has had many serious negative ramifications on society.  Even following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West has since shared a continued “us versus them” mentality in relation to the former communist state.  As a result, the problems embedded in today’s Russia are often unknown or overlooked.  In addition, the small number of Russian oligarchs control vast regions of the economic landscape and carry considerable political weight as well.  The gap between rich and poor only widens.

The concept of “subaltern” can be seen in how the Russian government treats some of its people.  The people laden with poverty have lost their voice in their own democratic country.  This becomes a challenging notion that can be applied to other parts of the world, even in our own backyard. Moreover, the example of the Meskhetian Turks being denied Russian citizenship despite the “country’s dwindling population” is interesting because it plainly shows the apparent gap between government and its people.

Keep in mind that there have been changes within the country politically and economically recently, but these changes sometimes are overshadowed by the fact that some of the population has “lost the will to survive”.

The primary concern of the documentary is to understand the issue of the slow death of the Russian population.  The documentary shows this by laying out the trickle-down effect from politics to economics, and how these realms directly affect the condition of the Russian people.

This is only part 1 of 6, one can get the other 5 parts in www.youtube.com

I really enjoyed this documentary, and I hope everyone else does too!

This video summarizes a workshop that was given for Palestinian youth at IBDAA (a grassroots cultural center located in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp in the West Bank). IBDAA is a local activist group that focuses on raising awareness and maintaining Palestinian culture within the camp.  They began as a dance troupe that toured Palestinian children performing the traditional Debka dance and now function as a community or cultural center.

In this video Palestinian Youth are brainstorming as to their own identities. What are the things that define them? Do they have hope? What is their hope? The subtitles in the video demonstrate some of the words the youth use to describe themselves, as well as their hopes and dreams. The most obvious trend is that of “ending the sadness”, advocating for the oppressed, having the freedom of movement, and most importantly being free.

What is interesting about this video is how the youth’s identity seems to be extremely (but not completely) caught up in their political struggle. It is fascinating to see the way they express this through their hopes and dreams.

Are Palestinians Subaltern? Yes, I believe they are.  They are an ethnic minority that have been removed from their property and remain as institutionalized second-rate citizens in a country that has pushed them behind walls.  Can they speak? In contrast to some of what has been discussed in class they seem to speak very well for themselves. Not only the youth on this video who express their desire for freedom, but also those who made the video and the IBDAA Cultural Center, who put on the workshop.  IBDAA, and the Palestinians as a whole, seem to have made their struggle very public to the world, with symbolic gestures as well as through the media.  Although the Palestinians speak very well in this video it could be debated that they have come to the center in order to be heard. As you see parts of the workshop, and the video are done in English to be heard by the center.  They also use a language of the west in their speech, dreams of studying political sciences and becoming a lawyer are common aspirations in youth of our own culture. Their discussions of freedom are easy for us to comprehend, as it is a value of our own country and constitution. What is not discussed in this video is the importance of the land to their heritage and forefathers.  The cultural and religious identities that are also a part of their desire for freedom and the ‘right to return’ are not mentioned here, as they may be more foreign concepts for us at the center.  More importantly, little is being done to solve the crises of the Palestinians.  It is clear that the Palestinians are speaking, but as their situation worsens, one has to wonder: is anyone listening?

It is also interesting to note that the students define themselves as ‘Palestinian’ on what seems to be a national scale. This notion of their nationality has become a part of their identity. There is little evidence that there was any sense of belonging to a wider country among Palestinians case before the British mandate in Palestine and the Palestinians interaction with colonialism. This change of scale in their view of their own identity could be seen as an example of how the colonized begin to see themselves through the lens of the colonizer.

On a personal note, I spent some time in the Dheisheh camp and with some members of IBDAA last summer and was impressed by their work. If anyone is interested in more information, take a look at their website www.ibdaa194.org.

The video i’ve chosen is not embeddable but can be found in full here:

please watch it in a new window and return here to post comments.

By Marcus Bleasdale and produced by Media Storm, which is sponsored by the washingtonpost.com

Transcript (new window)

My summary

Journalist Marcus Bleasdale has spent many years in the DRC documenting the tragedies of a country with vast natural resources and incredible potential for economic development. Yet it is a country plagued by invading warlords and internal and collaborative corruption of the government, the military and the natural resource extractors.

This corruption runs on fear and shame. operates by manipulating children (over 30,000 child recruits) as a weapon of destruction and using rape to instill humiliation and silence.  It is fueled by the money illegally drafted from resource extraction. Mining workers are not told an accurate price of the resources and get only a small percentage of its true value.

This wealth extraction results in a ineffectual social structure (lack of education and basic health care) which in turn makes the pillaging easier and the impunity for pillagers greater.

Bleasdale concludes that despite the enormity of the problem, which he admits is a very daunting one, there is hope for change in education for the people of Congo and being aware of resource extraction.

My analysis

This video primarily represents the Congo through the eyes of the Bleasdale but also combines interviews and real life scenarios of the victims.  This makes this complex story more accessible in the mere 11:31 time frame.

The subaltern are given a voice but it is mediated through a respected international journalist – something unaddressed in the video but necessary to keep in mind. This particular video seems to have a high respect for the first person story but realizes that the multitude of horror stories from the Congo would not be useful or effective. Rather than repeating itself the video progresses naturally through the causes and effects in order to provide an overall picture rather than an in-depth analysis of one issue.

The video identifies the natural resources that would normally be of extreme value to the people of the country have become a curse. Natural resources that are allowed to be exploited by the complacency of the International Community.

During a time when most major news outlets are regurgitating press releases about the war in Iraq / Afghanistan this journalist used his contacts to give a microphone and a face to an abandoned nation.

This video is postcolonial, albeit not overtly, but it shares the two major tenets with postcolonial theory advanced by Mbembe in the interview with Esprit Magazine

1 Firstly, it exposes both the european moral philosophy from its practical, political and symbolic the violence inherent in a particular concept of reason, and the gulf separating outcomes.
2 – postcolonial thinking stresses humanity−in−the−making, the humanity that will emerge once the colonial figures of the inhuman and of racial difference have been swept away

1 – by linking the political situation to the economic and development one by arguing that it is the damaged social structure – not something endemic about the population, or that it is simply tribal warfare this video advances a more contemporary outlook on the geo-political situation in the DRC

2- By focusing on what can be done, particularly in education Bleasdale emphases that a more educated population will be more questioning and critical of the government, which will lead to better governance and social structure. Rather than assuming more chapter 7 UN troops or divestment or assasination of key dictators Bleasdale is arguing for the longer struggle that will ultimately question the motives of the foreign mining operations.

The Rape of a Nation succeeds in its purpose of briefly illustrating the difficult and complicated geo-political and socio-economic issues in the DRC.

However while the video does mention gold and diamonds it doesn’t mention oil revenues – which are becoming a much bigger part of the problem in the DRC. See these resources on how the government is siphoning money illegally from the people of Congo.

Further reading/watching:

Another important point that he brings up is that the democratic elections did not stop violence and were not beneficial for the people of Congo. This may be true of many developing nations – see this short newsweek article on how risk of violence more than doubles in the year after an election in a developing nation.
Al Jazeera People and Power video (how the DRC government siphons money from the peoples resources)

for a much longer video interview + slideshow of Marcus Bleasdale’s video and photography – from talk and Q&A at UC Santa Barbara in 2008. 
notably: The ethics and difficulty of selling this story to news outlets such as Time and Newsweek (4:01) and questioning the ability of the media to effect change (27:07)

Proof of DRC’s presidents son’s corruption leaked by global witness.

Alert Net profile of the conflict in Congo

I am posting this video to get us going, and as an example of the sort of videos I am asking you to look for. I found this video through the organization Rights Action, which is based in Canada and builds alliances in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico for community development and human rights.

This video focuses on the resistance of a community to a form of development, a Goldcorp mine.  In 2007 UBC received $5 million from Goldcorp (based in Vancouver) for the new earth sciences building.

this post on lifehacker describes the five most popular sites, all good places to look for potential videos to post here

We will be posting short videos about development (and related issues) made in/by/with peoples of the majority world (“global South” – though it is also in the heart of Vancouver, and in the far North).  We will also be posting short videos made by our class about how uneven development shapes our communities in greater Vancouver. Enjoy!