Via: croatian sound art
same by me!
htc
http://konsumerziehung.de/
Am 31.12.2005 um 13:22 schrieb Ravikant:
> Thanks and same to you!
>
> cheers
> ravikant
>
>
> On Saturday 31 Dec 2005 11:15 am, gurminder singh wrote:
>> Friends,
>>
>> May 2006 Bring You
>> Peace, Joy And Happiness!
>>
>> Gurminder Singh
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
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Via: Ravikant
Thanks and same to you!
cheers
ravikant
On Saturday 31 Dec 2005 11:15 am, gurminder singh wrote:
> Friends,
>
> May 2006 Bring You
> Peace, Joy And Happiness!
>
> Gurminder Singh
Via: Ravi Sundaram
NYTIMES, December 31, 2005
In Worker's Death, View of China's Harsh Justice
By JIM YARDLEY
YUJIAGOU,
China
- From the prison cell where he contemplated an executioner's bullet,
a migrant worker named Wang Binyu gave an anguished account of his
wasted life. Unexpectedly, it rippled across China like a primal scream.
For three weeks, the brutal murders Mr. Wang committed after failing
to collect unpaid wages were weighed on the Internet and in Chinese
newspapers against the brutal treatment he had endured as a migrant
worker. Public opinion shouted for mercy; lawyers debated the
fairness of his death sentence. Others saw the case as a bloody
symptom of the harsh inequities of Chinese life.
But then, in late September, the furor disappeared as suddenly as it
had begun. Online discussion was censored and news media coverage was
almost completely banned. Mr. Wang's final appeal was rushed to
court. His father, never notified, learned about the hearing only by
accident. His chosen defense lawyer was forbidden from participating.
"All of you are on the same side," Mr. Wang, 28, shouted during the
hearing, his father said in an interview here in the family's home
village in northern Gansu Province. "If you want to kill me, just kill me."
On Oct. 19, they did. Mr. Wang was executed so quickly, and quietly,
that it took weeks for the word to fully trickle out that he was dead.
China executes more people every year than the rest of the world
combined. By some estimates, the number of executions is more than
10,000 a year. The government's relentless death penalty machine has
long been its harshest tool for maintaining political control and
curbing crime and corruption.
But it has now become a glaring uncertainty about China's commitment
to the rule of law. There is widespread suspicion, even within the
government, that too many innocent people are sentenced to death.
This year, a raft of cases came to light in which wrongful
convictions had led to death sentences, or, in one well-publicized
case, the execution of an innocent man.
Reforming capital punishment has become a priority within the
Communist Party-controlled legal system, partly because of
international pressure to reduce abuses. Within the party-run
legislative system, there is a broader debate about how to improve
criminal law.
But achieving those reforms is hardly certain. Hard-liners are loath
to restrict the power of the police and the courts to take a tough
line. Death penalty reforms announced by the People's Supreme Court -
and broadly trumpeted in the state news media - are mostly just a
return to the status quo of 1980.
The case of Wang Binyu lacked the moral clarity of an innocent man
wrongly convicted. He killed four people in a rampage after a final
dispute over wages. But his saga of abuse and disdain from his bosses
resonated deeply with a public disgusted with corruption and
inequality and resentful of a legal system perceived as favoring the
wealthy and well connected.
"Wang was forced to fight against those who exploit and tread on the
poor," one person wrote at a Chinese Web site. "Why is the law always
tough on the poor?"
Mr. Wang's case also illustrates how a system built for convictions
has few safeguards or protections for a defendant facing death.
Officials in the High Court of Ningxia Autonomous Region, the area in
western China where the case was heard, refused several requests for
interviews. But Wu Shaozhi, the Beijing lawyer who tried to represent
Mr. Wang, said the Ningxia courts obviously wanted fast results.
Before the appeal, the Wang family signed power of attorney to Mr.
Wu. But Mr. Wu said court officials had initially lied, telling him
the appeal was over. Then they refused to let him enter the case.
Instead, Mr. Wang was represented by a lawyer approved by the court.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wu noted, the same judges who heard the appeal also
concurrently handled a mandatory final review of the case. It meant
that judges were reviewing their own ruling - a practice that legal
experts said is not uncommon and provided little real check and
balance on the use of the death penalty.
"An unjust procedure will undoubtedly lead to unjust results," Mr. Wu said.
China is wary enough about its death penalty system that it has long
designated its number of executions as a state secret. A hint at the
number came last year when a high-level delegate to the National
People's Congress publicly estimated that it was "nearly 10,000." In
2004, Amnesty International documented at least 3,400 executions -
out of 3,797 worldwide that year - but cautioned that China's number
was probably far higher. Outside scholars have put the annual number
as high as 15,000.
In late October, the People's Supreme Court announced that it would
reverse a decision from the early 1980's that ceded the final review
on many death penalty cases to provincial high courts. Legal analysts
say Deng Xiaoping, then the paramount leader, ordered the move out of
anger that courts were moving too slowly to crack down on crime. The
shift meant that provincial courts could often operate without any oversight.
Under the new policy, the People's Supreme Court will reclaim
responsibility for reviewing all capital cases. The state news media
have estimated that executions could drop by as much as 30 percent -
an estimate that could not be proved but that implied deep flaws
within the current system.
"They feel that mistakes were made in so many cases," said Yi Yanyou,
an associate professor at Tsinghua University Law School, in
explaining the motive for the change. Mr. Yi said the new changes
would be meaningful, but did not represent reform, because they
merely re-established central control. One idea for a change that he
offered was to require unanimous consent among judicial panels making
final reviews.
He Weifang, a liberal constitutional scholar at Beijing University,
said the new changes should improve the review process, but argued
that only deeper constitutional reform, to establish a more
independent judiciary, could remove the political pressures that can
seep into many high-profile death cases.
Out in the arid hills of southern Gansu where farmers scratch a
living from soil that seems as fertile as chalk, Mr. Wang's family is
unaware of such legal debates. At age 15, Mr. Wang left home for
migrant work after a childhood marred by poverty and tragedy. When he
was a young child, his mother died after an infection from a botched
sterilization. Family planning officials had ordered the procedure
after she gave birth to Mr. Wang's younger brother. The family sued,
without success.
Mr. Wang worked at a succession of migrant jobs until he took a job
three years ago wrapping steel pipes in the power plant of a factory
in Ningxia. His younger brother, Binyin, who also worked at the
factory, described the bosses as brutal men who beat Binyu and later
mocked him when he became sick with ulcers.
The bosses also withheld Binyu's salary for two years, a problem
common to migrant workers. This spring, his father called to say he
urgently needed surgery for a leg fracture. The brothers decided to
quit and return home. But first they needed to collect more than
$1,000 in unpaid wages.
For weeks, Wang Binyu approached the bosses to collect the money. At
one point, Wu Hua, a foreman, promised to pay the brothers if they
would work a few more weeks. They did so, but still were not paid.
"Once, my brother went to the bosses and began crying and begging
them to pay him," Wang Binyin said.
Finally this May, the factory boss, Chen Jiwei, relented and paid the
2004 salary, but only after making large deductions for fees and
boarding expenses. He then refused to pay the 2005 wages until next year.
Frustrated, Wang Binyu sought help from the local labor bureau, but
was told it had no jurisdiction. He went to the courts, but was told
a legal case would take months. He then returned to the labor bureau,
where a senior official agreed to intervene and persuaded a boss, Wu
Xinguo, to pay the back wages within five days. It seemed like a victory.
But after leaving the labor bureau, Wu Xinguo barred the brothers
from their dormitory. Later that night, locked out of their room, the
brothers began beating on Wu Xinguo's door to demand payment. Wu Hua,
the foreman, and others soon arrived and tried to run off the Wang
brothers. The group began pushing and slapping Wang Binyu until a
fight broke out. Wang Binyu, who was carrying a fruit knife, exploded
in a rage that would end with four people dead and one injured.
Wang Binyin said he tried to pull his older brother away. He recalls
saying: "You can't do this. We still have an old father at home. What
am I going to do?" When the rampage ended, Wang Binyu tossed his
knife in the Yellow River and turned himself in at a local police
station. As it turned out, the two top bosses - Mr. Chen and Wu
Xinguo - escaped harm.
Mr. Wang's initial trial, on June 29, ended with a death sentence.
His family was not notified of the trial date and did not attend. He
seemed destined to be one of the thousands of people executed each
year with little public notice. But on Sept. 4, the New China News
Agency, the government's news service, published a jailhouse
interview with Mr. Wang that was astonishing for its content and for
the mere fact that it was printed.
"I want to die," Mr. Wang said. "When I am dead, nobody can exploit
me anymore. Right?"
Of his crime, Mr. Wang said, "I just could not take it any longer. I
had taken enough from them." But, he later added, "I should not have
killed the other people. I did not mean to let it happen."
Finally, he offered a lament for his fellow migrant workers. "My life
is a small thing," he said. "I hope that society will pay attention
and respect us."
Chinese journalists say the authors of the article picked the case
because they thought it dovetailed with a campaign by Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao to help peasants. Newspapers, assuming the interview
signaled official approval, jumped on the story.
Interviews with legal scholars followed, with some arguing that the
system should be nimble enough to give Mr. Wang a more lenient
sentence. Internet discussion boards were filled with indignation.
But the coverage was put to a sudden stop. Internet search engines
were ordered to censor Wang Binyu's name, and newspapers were told to
drop the story before the appeal was heard in late September. Most
likely, the public outrage had alarmed central government officials
who did not want to see a death sentence so openly questioned. From
his jail cell, Wang Binyu told his younger brother that he thought
local officials were eager to execute him, because a reversal of the
death sentence could harm their careers.
The appeal was held in secret. Mr. Wang's father, Wang Liding,
happened to bring his son a pair of shoes a day earlier. Otherwise,
he would not have known. At one point, the father said that he
shouted out during the proceeding because prosecutors said his son's
wages had been fully paid. The elder Mr. Wang was briefly removed
after the outburst.
Now, the family has still not collected the unpaid wages owed the
dead son. Donations have helped them build a new room on their
crumbling house. The father has wrapped the green booklet certifying
his son's cremation in folded paper. It is his last record of his son.
In October, before the execution, court officials in Ningxia called
the father with what he thought was good news. He was told he could
come collect his son's unpaid salary. He traveled for more than a day
to Ningxia from Gansu. But when he arrived, he found that the lure of
wages had been a lie. Officials wanted him to sign his son's execution warrant.
Illiterate, the father could only smudge the paper with his thumb.
"It was wrong of him to kill people," the father said. "But there was
a cause."
Via: Ravi Sundaram
The continuing saga of the scandal of the US
media. Our own media in India is probably worse,
where the links between money, power and staged
media events is more than ever before. What is
common to the pre-war US media and its current
Indian counterpart is a certain smugness and
triumphalism. Some day the main new here will be
the scandal of the media industry itself.
Ravi
Via: Geert Lovink
http://www.welcometothescene.com/
NYU student Brian Sandro has a secret: he and his friends pirate
hunderds of millions of dollars of illicit Hollywood movies in their
spare time. They are revered, reviled, hunted, and admired. No one
knows who they are --at least, not as far as they know.
FAQ:
Q. Who are you guys?
A. We're Jun Group Entertainment, the first company to provide
top-notch, free, legal entertainment to file traders.
Q. Why are you making the show?
A. We ask ourselves the same thing nearly daily! Probably it's because
we really enjoy it. For one thing, we've always thought 'the scene' was
a fascinating place, and it's about time someone made a dramatic series
depicting this exciting underground.
The Scene is only the first of several planned shows. Keep an eye out
for them!
Q. Can my company sponsor the show?
A. Absolutely! Please write to us, at wts@junentertainment.com.
Q: How many people watch The Scene?
A: Each episode of The Scene has been downloaded hundreds of thousands
of times in over 70 countries around the world!
Q: What is "The Scene" in real life?
A: The Scene is the piracy underground where 99% of pirated movies,
songs, video games, etc start out. There, thousands of pirates upload,
download, and trade files (often illegally) using FTP sites. From
there, the files make their way onto the peer-to-peer networks, that so
many know and love.
You can find more information on wikipedia.
Q. How long does it take for a new episode to come out?
A. New episodes are released about every 3 weeks.
Q. Is Brian Sandro a real person?
A. As it says at the end of the episodes, The Scene is a work of
fiction. Fiction, as in, we make this stuff up. But just because
there's no real person called Tony Soprano doesn't mean that there's no
such thing as the Mafia.
Q: What software do you use to record The Scene?
A: We use a program called Camtasia
(http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp) to record the
chats. The actor is filmed separately.
Q: Who plays Brian?
A: Brian is played by NYC-based actor Joe Testa.
Q: Where can I find the 'theme song' from the episodes?
A: The theme song is "Catch Me" by Maylynne, available at our download
page (http://www.welcometothescene.com/download.php).
Q: Where can I get more of Maylynne's music?
A: For now, you can't. We're working on it.
Q: Where can I find other music from the artists in the episodes?
A: All the music is available, for free, at our download page
(http://www.welcometothescene.com/download.shtml).
Q: How long has this series been going on?
A: Episode 1 came out in mid-December, 2004.
Q: How can I contact you guys?
A: Business inquiries may be addressed to wts@junentertainment.com,
Comments, questions, and feedback about the show can be sent to
brian.sandro@gmail.com -- we'll reply, we promise -- or catch us on IRC
at irc.chatchannel.org #TheScene (which you can get to at
http://www.welcometothescene.com/chat.shtml).
Q: Do you guys have anything to do with any other company?
A: Jun Group is a privately held company in South Norwalk, CT. We do
marketing work for a number of clients, but The Scene is our own baby.
Q: You guys are fakes! The Scene is just some sort of anti-piracy
propaganda!
A: The cops haven't caught Brian yet, have they?
Via: "sebastian Rodrigues"
Hi!
I now wonder what is the place of the boy with tied legs that Zainab
described and attempted to photograph. Is that practice to be legitimized or
no? Even if it may be good for the mother I am not sure it the same for the
little boy - her son. I have experienced along with my brother being tied to
a coconut tree as children as disciplinary exercise by my grand mother. In
her upbringing in the Prtuguese colony of Goa it was perfect thing to do.
Yet we resented it and did not forget about it for a long time. In fact when
she died it took couple of weeks for tears to roll down from my eyes. I
experinced certain lind of cold feelings at her death. And I came up in the
situation of economic, social as well as political maginalized background. I
understand what the situation of that boy, his emotions, his psyche will be
going through at this act of violence. Irrespective of relativeness of
Human rights this violence is condemnable as any other at macro scale. Only
in this situation the boy had no means to articulate to express his feelings
whils his legs are tied. Yet if leaves to grow up then he will express it
his own way.
My parents too came from the thinking that legitimizes administration of
violence. But everytime I faced it I accumulated that much hatred against
them. The social and political system around justifies the violent acts in
almost classes, castes against children. It is high time that this needs to
be punctured someway.
Cheers!
Seby.
>From: anant m
>To: solomon benjamin ,Prem Chandavarkar
>
>CC: reader-list@sarai.net, bhuvana
>,urbanstudygroup@sarai.net,bhuvana r raman
>, schari@lse.ac.uk
>Subject: [Urbanstudy] Re: Problematizing Definitions, exploitation and
>'toil'
>Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2005 03:11:20 +0000 (GMT)
>
>to take solly and prem's ( and in a tangential way,
>chari's work) further,
>i think in recent times, proxying for the subaltern
>has become a hazardous business ( re. prem's remark
>about how proxying involves some of the myths
>constructed through portraiture). i can think of many
>instances in hyderabad but perhaps the most dramatic
>crisis of both proxying and portraiture was seen in
>zahira sheikh's spat with Teesta setalwad and CJP last
>year. zahira, for those who may not be familiar with
>the case, was the girl from a small town near baroda
>who became very important not only to teesta but to
>secular NRIs world over because of her claim that she
>was eyewitness to the ghastly burning down of best
>bakery. (not insiginifcantly, zahira's brother had a
>hindu wife and one of the looters that night was a
>muslim and all of them are small town poor). when
>zahira recanted and accused teesta and cjp of having
>capitalized on her testimony to advance their own
>interests, it was a traumatic event for all of the
>metropolitan secularists spread all over the world.
>anil dharker was the most eloquent in vocalizing the
>confusion: "Who, or what, is Zahira Sheikh?" he wrote
>in his column. "Is she victim, heroine or mercenary?
>It's a tangled story, so she could be all of these at
>different times, or some of these at the same time...
>But if her case is confusing, it's only because
>everything that happened in Gujarat in February-March
>2002 is topsy-turvy."
>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-919329,prtpage-1.cms
>Actually there is enough evidence to argue that the
>confusion was largely of metropolitan secularism to
>which, Zahira was meaningful only as "victim,
>heroine or mercenary." If she defies the place
>allotted her, the most charitable explanation we could
>come up with was that the poor girl must have gone
>crazy (some indeed suggested this possibility). But
>what if we were to take her seriously ? What if her
>initial claim that she was eyewitness to the incident,
> her subsequent recanting and her accusation against
>Teesta (and CJP) were all a way of negotiating a
>security for her life and livelihood to which the
>Hindu right and the secular middle class were equally
>a threat ?
>
>Zahira's claim that she was eyewitness to the incident
>was challenged from day one by her sister in law,
>according to news reports of that time. But, we
>refused to take the sister in law seriously at that
>time because it would undermine our crusade for our
>secularism. And then, when zahira accused teesta (and
>CJP) of capitalizing on her evidence, we pretended
>that she was talking about CJP receiving slush funds
>and thus again refused to take it seriously. there
>were other ways of reading zahira even at that time:
>what if she meant that you guys are globe trotting
>because i am obliging you by playing the role of the
>victim. so why should i be undertaking these
>hazardous bus and train journeys and be uncertain
>about what will happen to my life after this is all
>over. such an assumption would have require us to
>engage with her very differently. but instead we got
>righteously indignant. the cjp kept telling her that
>she has to fight this "for her own sake and for her
>brethren."
>
>dharker moves unerringly:
>"Zahira stayed in Mumbai happily for a year, moving
>freely, even making three unescorted trips to
>Vadodara. But just before she was to testify in court,
>came her volte face, turning her erstwhile friends
>into sudden foes and her erstwhile foes into
>protective friends. Her new "friends" now give her
>"protection" of the kind chief ministers give their
>captive MLAs before the head-count to prove their
>majority.
>"What compelling reason made her do a complete
>flip-flop, so much so that she has earned the wrath of
>her community and her neighbours in Vadodara have
>burnt her effigy? We don't have to be rocket
>scientists to figure out who are the potential
>beneficiaries of her changed testimony. But her
>advisors have probably miscalculated: How much
>credibility does Zahira have now? And they have
>overlooked the brave workers at the Bakery who have
>already testified, given eye-witness accounts of the
>horrific happenings and identified a considerable
>number of the accused. "
>
>But it is the conclusion that Dharker arrives at that
>is the most significant: "You cannot expect NGOs to
>do the job every time. In any case, isn't the delivery
>of justice an essential duty of any government? Even
>with a Congress-led government in Delhi, there has
>been no change in the attitude of either the home or
>the law ministry, no sense of urgency in pursuing the
>cases.
>
>In this vacuum, do we then need an autonomous
>organisation, which is well-funded and dynamically
>led, which can suo moto take up cases anywhere in
>India? It will need to be flexible in its approach,
>taking the initiative when it can, cooperating with
>NGOs when it can't. It will need access to an
>independent investigative agency (like a new, improved
>CBI). And it will need the clout to stop state
>agencies from interfering in its cases. Sounds like a
>lot? It probably is. But who will deny that we need
>something like this?
>
>Dharker doesnt tell us to whom or what will such an
>autonomous organization be accountable. One can only
>hazard a guess. To middleclass righteousnes or to use
>the more appropriate sanskrit expression: janagraha!
>So what does this tell us about the city ? I think it
>tells us much, if we can carefully trace the ways in
>which this entire drama played out between baroda,
>gandhinagar, bombay, london and new york and how the
>past was invoked and the renewed vigor with which
>gandhiji was being claimed by the secular metropolis.
>to me the most moving image in it was yasmin,
>zahira's muslim sister in law trying to clean the
>bakery and establish a tenuous claim on it while
>explaining the family politics to a visiting
>journalist. but perhaps that should be another thread.
>
>anant
>
>
>--- solomon benjamin wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> > Spurred by this interesting discussion, I join
> > reflecting on two recent events. First, in the
> > recent
> > past, encountering (After Santos) a world famous NGO
> > in India's most famous metro! Second, a meet with
> > the
> > author and a quick read of a very interesting
> > chapter
> > "Can the Subaltern Accumulate Capital" Chapter 5 in
> > 'Fraterrnal capital' by Sharad Chari (Permanant
> > Black
> > 2004). Both of these link to what Anant and Prem
> > focus
> > on, and particulary, the point of "Proxy" and
> > 'Portrait'. From Chari, the difference between
> > 'toil'
> > and 'exploitation'.
> >
> > With this, I want to return to Zainab's peice. This
> > is
> > not just in the people she talks to, but their
> > location in metro context of intense contestation --
> > in economy, in good locations, and access to basic
> > services. Such contestations are shaped not just of
> > "urbanization" but rather big bucks of the World
> > bank,
> > and some of the largest private gloablly connected
> > capital. Located in this, are the Proxy and Potrait
> > --
> > a role now well funded within NGO circles who are
> > close partners to big capital from being
> > commentators
> > on the side lines. And their location bang in the
> > middle of such contestations is their ability to
> > paint
> > a picture of how people live and espicially work.
> > The
> > brochures set in the donor targeted glossy, potrait
> > a
> > "page 3 imaginary" of a future life style statement
> > /advertisment! No problem if the mills get shaped
> > into
> > malls, we have it all there. And paralleled is the
> > 'proxy' -- where one gains the ability to speak for
> > the masses.
> >
> > Here I point to not just to the NGOs promoting
> > INDIA's
> > new Lifestyle Statements, but also to those who
> > perhaps equally distanced from the hidden voices,
> > trudge a path of exploitation, and in doing so,
> > remove
> > contest of any substance.
> >
> > It's here that in Chari's chapter 3 & 5 (and the
> > book
> > is highly recommended!) that we find 'toil' (rather
> > than 'exploitation') as a useful way to unmask both
> > 'proxy and potraiture'. Chari traces in a
> > wonderfully
> > deatiled way the organization and dynamic of work
> > and
> > in doing so, reveals a politics that sharply
> > counters
> > that of those who choose to speak on behalf of the
> > masses and to hide away the complex locational
> > contests which they assist and reward from the
> > global
> > big bucks. And this is not just in India's most
> > famous metro. It's got a parallel in it's other
> > silicon valley (a read on the water privatization in
> > Bangalore in the recent issue of Down to Earth:
> >
>http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20051231&filename=anal&sec_id=7&sid=1#).
> > Here we have another globally aspiring NGO that is
> > responsible for 'structured civil society
> > participation'. I am sure Anant could pose similar
> > examples from what he has termed as a 'contractor's
> > city' now also on the global way.
> > With all this, Prems' list of useful questions find
> > a
> > distinctly important urban context.
> > Solly
> >
> >
> > --- Prem Chandavarkar wrote:
> >
> > > Let me - like Anant - stick my neck out in "the
> > > presence of a whole
> > > bunch of cultural studies folks".
> > >
> > > Was just reading Gayathri Spivak's essay "Can The
> > > Subaltern Speak".
> > > Spivak examines philosophical production, such as
> > > Foucault, Deleuze and
> > > the Subaltern Studies Group, who seek to unmask
> > the
> > > workings of power in
> > > order to reveal voices that are typically not
> > heard.
> > > While such
> > > analyses often start from a critique of
> > > essentialism, they tend to posit
> > > other essences through the construction of
> > > monolithic and anonymous
> > > presences such as "the workers' struggle" or "the
> > > history of the
> > > subaltern". And because these essences are
> > > monolithic and anonymous,
> > > they involve the erasure of individual identity.
> > > Therefore any attempts
> > > to speak for the subaltern eventually construct
> > > representations that
> > > erase their identity. It does not matter whether
> > > this comes from the
> > > activist philosopher or from the organic
> > > intellectual who has risen from
> > > the subaltern ranks. The organic intellectual
> > > destroys his/her status
> > > as a subaltern by attempting to represent the
> > > subaltern.
> > >
> > > Spivak draws a distinction between two forms of
> > > representation.
> > > 1. Proxy - the attempt to speak for, as in
> > politics
> > > 2. Portrait - the attempt to speak of, as in
> > > philosophy
> > > It is important to distinguish between these two
> > > forms. While proxy may
> > > appear to be more genuine since it demands
> > > engagement (speaking 'to' the
> > > subaltern, and not just speaking 'of'), it should
> > be
> > > realised that the
> > > myths and beliefs constructed through portraiture
> > > affect the basis on
> > > which choices of proxy are made.
> > >
> > > All this ties back to the point Anant made - when
> > > Zainab interacts with
> > > the woman and child some meaning is produced, but
> > > when she reports it to
> > > this discussion group the woman and child are
> > > excluded and we now are
> > > aware of two different languages operating, and
> > > immediately wonder which
> > > one is more authentic.
> > >
> > > So returning to the question "what constitutes
> > > culture?" - we must first
> > > ask if the question is worthwhile. To ask the
> > > question at all implies a
> > > belief that it is answerable, which in turn
> > involves
> > > an assumption that
> > > culture has already occurred in an observable
> > > fashion. This assumption
> > > immediately pushes culture into the past (it does
> > > not matter whether
> > > this is the immediate past of yesterday, or the
> > > remote past of history).
> > > And culture is most alive when it is in the
> > > present, when it is
> > > actually experienced.
> > >
> > > So rather than asking 'what is culture' it is more
> > > worthwhile to ask:
> > > 1. What is the basis on which claims to define
> > > culture operate,
> > > intersect and compete?
> > > 2. What are the politics, myths, beliefs,
> > > genealogies and spatial
> > > practices that underpin the construction of such
> > > claims?
> > > 3. What are the traces we leave in space that
> > > eventually accrue into
> > > memories and symbols?
> > > 4. What are the conversations and intersections
> > that
> > > take place between
> > > tacit experiences and explicit definitions of
> > > culture?
> > > 5. (Most important to us) What is the complicity
> > of
> > > the intellectual in
> > > all of these processes?
> > > 6. How can we individually use such critique to
> > > construct our own
> > > ideology and ethics?
> > >
> > > Prem
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > anant m wrote:
> > > > hm. i hope i am not making an ass of myself in
> > the
> > > > presence of a whole bunch of cultural studies
> > > folks.
> > > > i think it is better to think of a geneology of
> >
>=== message truncated ===
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Via: Prem Chandavarkar
This is getting very interesting. Some responses here (culled from
posts by V NR and Jamie Dow)
> Prem writes: "To me the relationship between theory and practice is more
> to do with critique rather than logical foundations." Honestly, I don't understand
> what practice is being talked about? The practice of theorizing, or the
> practice of culturologists, or cultural practices? Maybe cultural
> practices. There is no relationship between theory and practice, in the
> sense that practices are not embodiment of beliefs.
I should explain my background here, for it has definitely coloured what
I say. I am an architect who spends most of his time in architectural
practice. However, as a part and parcel of this I also need to theorise
about architecture - to reflect on the concept of architecture, how it
might carry meaning, etc. But I am also driven to practice architecture
- to actually construct buildings. In that sense, within my discipline
of architecture, the terms 'theory' and 'practice' have specific
differences and connotations that are widely accepted. From this
perspective, I wonder whether this difference is also applicable to
areas other than architecture.
>
> He writes:" Theory on the other hand moves from the specific to the
> general - one starts with a specific observation and pushes it towards
> the wider question of 'what does it
mean?'. If I do nothing but theory, my centre of gravity shifts towards
> the level of the general (the stereotype of the 'ivory tower academic')"
>
> This shows a naive understanding of what a theory is. The generalization
> "All ravens are black" is a mere generalization, but not of a theory.
I realise I have not made myself clear. Perhaps rather than saying
'theory' I should have said 'to theorise'. At moments in our life we
step back and attempt to integrate experiences into conceptual
frameworks. But at other times we spontaneously act, without conscious
reflection, driven by specific purposes, operating more on the basis of
tacit knowledge (a la Polanyi) - and this is what I refer to when I say
'practice' (and again, I should have said 'to practice').
The split between these two modes is not defined - the division is
fuzzy. But one could say that we live our lives through conversational
interaction between these two modes of being. I am interested in the
way we move between these two modes - wondering if this movement is a
worthwhile target of study.
>
> But - despite agreeing with everything you say - I don't see how that
helps
> clarify things here.
> The project is clearly one of inquiry (the immediate aim is
understanding,
> not *doing* anything, though that might follow later).
>
Given what I have said above, I wonder how we can keep 'inquiring' and
'doing' so separate.
>
> 4.3. "What are the traces we leave in space that eventually accrue into
> memories and symbols?"
>
> I don't get the import of the above question.
>
See my essay "Notes on the Aesthetics of Absorption" available at
http://www.architexturez.net/+/subject-listing/000098.shtml
Prem
Via: he tears consume
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