Meanwhile in Gaza

I just wrote another blog about the politics of Québec.  Less than a week before our provincial elections, I'm humbly trying to contribute to the betterment of a society that I truly consider to have much potential (there are so many resources laying around here!!).  I'm hoping to bring up not one, but several coherent - and inspiring - perspectives, that would account for the complexities of our situation, all the while offering both rational and emotional grounds. (Trying to be integral?)  I am calling for an urgent move that brings us beyond the politics of fear, hate, and war.

I am dreaming of autonomy and intelligent self-management, while... in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian children are being tortured, every single day and unabashedly.  We might be in denial once again, because a nation is being occupied and the world ''community'' (always a good word to ponder) says absolutely nothing.  Well some people are speaking up and denouncing the violent apartheid system that's taking place in Israel.  Palestinian villages have been displaced.  Houses were demolished or taken over, and the people that lived on those lands - up until 1948 - are now waiting inside shrinking territories.
The Wall is built and it keeps eating up Palestinian gardens: Israeli settlements are spilling over.  The army is everywhere: check points and fences sprout like aggressive weeds, and military planes fly intermittently over the heads of these people effectively reminding them: : we got you.

Sorry to bring this onto you. It's just that it needs to be talked about.

Last night my roommates and I watched a documentary, called ''Le rire contre les larmes'' (Laughter against Tears), which followed a French troupe of Clowns Without Borders during their mission in Gaza.
(The following video is a different one... but :D )

My roommate M. was in Palestine last Spring, and she feels very strongly about the Israeli occupation. She told us that there is currently a boycott against Cirque du Soleil to protest against against their going to Tel Aviv. ''You can't put the people of Israel and their government in the same boat, '' I said, trying to defuse her anger.  (I thought of my dear Jewish and Israeli friends, and I didn't like M. pointing her finger at them!) And so a passionate debate ensued, and M. refreshed our memory about the history of the past 60 years and the fact that it is getting worst everyday.  I studied this shit in college and I know it is real: a whole nation, a whole culture is being slowly exterminated.  Genocide. We exchanged points of view to try and lay out the fullest picture, only to settle on the eternal conclusion that it is and will eternally be complex.  Of course, the youth of Israel is also victim of the situation.  Personally, I dare hoping that the mandatory draft is debated, and that few are those who go through it without realizing what is at stake.  Yet it takes superhuman powers to muster the courage and defy one's culture, to stand against the draft and face years of imprisonment. Everyone's fucked. We agreed on that. So M. said, ''I just can't deal with people who go on denying what is happening.'' And I wish I could do something.  I wish I could do something for indigenous people everywhere, in Québec, Brazil, Tibet, Kurdistan, Palestine, etc.  I wish I could learn some good tricks on the diabolo, and muster the courage to join Clowns Without Borders.  I wish I could tell everyone: ''We are with you.  We don't know how to go about it, but with all our hearts we see your humanness, your resilience, and your beauty.''

You can visit Clowns Without Borders' website, by clicking here.  You know this is deep healing work. One way to call for the end Apartheid in Israel is to join the Boycott and Divestment Campaign.  Learn more about this international movement here, or on the BDS website,  here.


As always, I welcome any respectful comment and questions about this post... We all feel passionately about those things that we identify with; let us all learn to notice this phenomenon so as to engage in functional debates in which we may all learn and broaden our horizons and our capacity to love.

À une semaine des élections

La balle est dans les airs!
(manif du 22 juillet)

Je me sens un peu prise entre deux langues, but what's new?

Nous sommes à quelques jours des élections.
Selon les médias- ceux qui ont le jeu des ficelles dans ce théâtre de marionnettes qu'est la scène d'information populaire- ce sera le Parti Québécois qui prendrait le pouvoir...

Je ne comprends pas très bien.

Ici dans ma bulle, sur le plateau Mont-Royal, il est plus qu'évident que le peuple a soif d'une politique tellement plus intègre, et radicale.  On vote Québec Solidaire parce que c'est le parti qui valide nos besoins et nos demandes:

On ne peut plus se permettre de nier la crise écologique et de persister dans la voie obsolète et pernicieuse d'une industrialisation gavé au pétrole et autres ressources non-renouvelables.  On à mal au coeur de savoir que nos terres agricoles se font de plus en plus ''dézoner'' dans l'étalement de la banlieue.  On veut parler du futur, prendre les moyens de bâtir les réseaux et les structures qui pourront faciliter l'évolution de la nation.

On a la rage, c'est vrai.  On n'en peu plus de l'hypocrisie, de la manipulation, et de la peur.  On s'indigne devant l'opacité des milieux financiers et administratifs.  On s'efforce de dénoncer la corruption et le manque flagrant d'éthique des instances au pouvoir.



Je n'aime pas porter accusations ni m'entendre qualifier d'autres humains de malveillants.  Mais il ne faut pas fermer les yeux non plus: le système néolibéral est un véritable merdier.  C'est une fausse à mensonges, un manège de violences cachées...

 C'est difficile de vivre en sachant et en comprenant l'étendu de la violence commise par l'élite.  Je ne veux pas paraître révoltée comme une adolescente, mais je le suis.
J'apprends à célébrer la lumière, la créativité, et l'interconnectivité.  J'aspire à partager des moments de joie et de communion avec de plus en plus de citoyens, de la campagne à la métropole.  Je crois à l'autonomisation (empowerment) par l'art et l'éducation populaire.  Je prends refuge avec le Buddha, le Dharma, et la Sangha.  Je sais qu'il n'y a rien que le présent; l'existence est une série de carrefours où se pose, avec chaque respiration, une nouvelle question.  Nous avons toujours le choix.

Alors pourquoi choisir le PQ?
Parce qu'on ne veut plus des Libéraux et qu'on croit que le vote stratégique est la seule solution?
Parce qu'on a peur de ''perdre notre vote'' si on suit vraiment notre conscience-coeur?
Parce qu'on entretient de vieilles rancunes, parce qu'on a peur de regarder de l'avant et de rêver à un avenir meilleur?
Parce qu'on a peur de l'espoir inhérent en chacun de nous?
Qu'est-ce qu'ils ont a offrir, le PQ?  (Péquistes, je vous invite à me répondre!)

Il portait jadis l'étendard d'un projet de souveraineté-association.  Aujourd'hui, c'est Option Nationale qui prend la relève.  Le PQ m'apparaît comme un parti sclérosé, réactionnaire et tout aussi avide de pouvoir que le parti Libéral.

En fait, parlons-en!  Comme il est bon de sentir le renouveau de la question ''nationale'' au Québec!  (Ou est-ce seulement dans une partie du milieu francophone Montréalais?)
Je sais pertinemment que le débat est plutôt embryonnaire pour l'instant.  Je sais très bien qu'il attise les passions.
Or les Québécois n'ont pas envie de se chicaner.  On n'a pas envie de se chicaner avec nos proches.  On préfère être confortables, au chaud,  et la programmation télévisée de la prochaine saison semble fort intéressante.

Le fait est qu'il reste beaucoup de place au développement de meilleures habitudes démocratiques au Québec.  Nous avons de très bonnes bases - don't get me wrong.  Le printemps érable aura re-réveillé la fibre politique et militante québécoise.
Parce qu'il est impossible de considérer l'expérience québécoise sans admettre les dynamiques de pouvoir qui y jouent.
De ce fait, nous sommes fondamentalement politiques, quoique nous sommes aussi prisonniers d'une mentalité dualiste et antagoniste.  Et nous pourrions peut-être apprendre l'art de la négociation, de l'écoute, et de la communication non-violente ?  Peut-être alors serions nous capable de discuter des projets de sociétés autours d'une bonne table, avec les membres de notre famille et autres gens qui ont des opinions différentes?  Peut-êter pourrions nous identifier les besoins qui nous unissent, et travailler ensembles à la réalisation des étapes servant à y répondre le mieux possible.

Un duo de pancartes qui m'a fait verser une larme de joie

Au risque de me répéter: Il serait grand temps de transcender notre mentalité de victime.  Il serait grand temps de faire le recensement de nos forces et de nos valeurs.

J'anticipe l'élection du 4 septembre avec un brin de doute, pour ne pas dire de dégoût.  J'ai l'impression que plusieurs citoyens auront vécu une mini révolution grâce à tout ce qui s'est profilé dans les derniers six mois, et que nous pourrons dénoter une petite part de changement.  Or j'ai bien peur de voir le status quo l'emporter à nouveau.

amor transitioni

I thought I was better at handling the emotional toll of leaving places and people I love.  After all, I've had at least fifteen years of practice, being on the road, moving to the USA, traveling back and forth between homes.
I thought that understanding the principles of non-attachment, of right timing, and of transcendental Love would help.   And it certainly does.  But the phenomenon of transition is not something to be grappled with rationally.
It's physical.  Therefore it is bound to being emotional.
As a friend noted, the plane takes only 8 hours to fly between San Francisco and Montreal; but my soul-body needs a bit more.

So I've been a bit emotional these past few days.
I'm back in the heat, back in my lovely apartment, back at my lovely work, and loving riding my bike around marvelous Montreal city.  I even got to manifest my dream of swimming in the river!  I'm back in my life...
so how come I'm feeling so ... lost ?
I don't get it,  because I felt so clear and grounded last week.
What happened to this energy and clarity I thought I had gathered?  What happened to the ''I'm ready to step into more of who I am deeply inside, spiritually and to share of my passion and of my unique vision with the world'' ?  My vacation allowed me to listen to some parts of me I'd left aside a bit.  I (re)discovered the important of con-centration.
I was so excited about getting back home and integrating these things I re-membered.

Guess what?  It's not that easy!
I'm a bit impatient, I'll admit.  I thought I'd get back in my apartment and start pouring out ''the book''.  I felt it so strongly while I sat in the Asian Art Museum; it was so clear!

Now I feel a bit overwhelmed.  Perhaps it's the white page, that first paragraph, that narrowing down the theme, the point, that putting expansive impressions into words...
Writing a book is no simple process.

I'm going to be patient with myself.  I may still let fear tickle me at times, I might still get tempted by the voice of the little demon on my shoulder:  ''What if I'm just not good enough?  What if I'm just fooling myself?''
But I'm happy to say that I've grown to know mySelf enough to know that it's not really in ''my'' power.  Though my ego would like to know and have control on when and how, I cannot decide how what wants to emerge is going to emerge...
I can only acknowledge: there is something so deep and so full within me...
And that alone is a blessing.


 

politics and the phenomenology of paradox

Sitting in my former school, the California Institute for Integral Studies. Soaking in. Reading and meditating on the different objects of my attraction.  On the one hand, mysticism and the taste for a free, unconditioned experience of Life.  On the other hand, visions and fears concerning the condition of matter, humankind, society, and Mother Earth.
I've been reading Mircea Eliade on Yoga.  I've also been seeking those with explicit inclinations towards consciousness studies... taking full advantage of this special Bay Area spirit.  It's clear to me, a region produced by the frontier mentality had to be permeated by idealism.  This place was born out of the necessity and capacity to see further, to open up paths into the unknown, to envision riches and dig for it.  The gold rush is of the past, but furher riches are being unearthed here. 
We've colonized land to the very edge of the new continent, and so came facing the unchartered territories of the mind, aided by the wisdom of Indigenous (behind) and Asian (ahead) cultures... This to me is one of the greatest gifts of San Francisco.

I am re-membering the pieces of my own journey.
I am considering the nature of time, and space.
I miss Montreal and the nation of my ancestors.  And in the material plane I wonder, I feel, that I can contribute something of what I've been learning...

Back in Quebec, the elections have been officially announced by the prime sinister - uh, minister.  Given what has sprung out of the "Printemps Erable", Charest might be right on one point: these could be the most important elections in the history of the province.  Or not.

It's 2012.  How many are able to dare and be visionaries?  How many would agree with my intuition; that we too are of a certain frontier mentality?  We are made up of pioneers (though we were first enslaved to the Catholic Church, and since then, to our fears and victim mentality.), ingeneers (for we had to keep ourselves warm and sufficiently fed) and hard-working families.  We were multicultural from the start, all immigrants on indigenous territory.  We have wide spaces and tons of ressources; water, minerals, wood.  We have circumstances, which point to warmer climates and future population growth.

We have so much potential.  If we acknowledge it.
If we can truthfully consider the power structure and the dynamics that are making up our society.  If we can keep talking amongst neighbours to revitalize the connections we have with one another; if we can let this be a strength that helps us out of fear and stagnation.  If we can imagine what is possible through emancipation and cooperation.

I cannot deny my vocation for political philosophy.  I also cannot deny my understanding that there is an Ultimate reality, beyond the illusion of separation and the fear of ego death.
I wonder how to honor both.
I am sitting at the California Institute of Integral Studies.