{w} REDEMPTION

Vol.III, Issue II

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thewarehouse magazine.com

Redemption Song

Technology has catapulted to the forefront of our lives.

We have PDAs to connect to people and to freeze frame moments. We have (reasonably) affordable air travel, allowing us to speed around the world for a dinner, a weekend, or a lifetime. There are even scientists out there diligently working to clone the best (and worst) of us. Human ingenuity is, in one word, impressive.

Yet, when Mother Nature flexes her muscles, our toys appear rather infantile and our bodies frighteningly frail.

At a time when humans control so much, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and droughts provide a sober reminder of who’s really in charge.

The cover photo and accompanying spread are about Mother Nature and how her Redemption Song can be equally impressive.

Cover by Edouard Plante-Frechette

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the {rebel} report: emancipation REBEL 2.12 {contributor}

This issue’s {rebel} report looks at people and places dedicated to notions of freedom.

Aa Bb Cc Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign aims to promote ss human rights that can help redre poverty, such as rights to health, housing and education.

Bill C-300 requires Canadianheadquartered mining, oil and gas companies to adhere to the same human rights and environmental standards in developing countries as required in Canada.

Children’s Development Khazana is a bank run for and by street kids across Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

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Dd Doctors without Borders is dedicated to providing medical assistance to people in need in war-torn and underdeveloped countries.

Ee Educated Children are Africa’s Future is the title of an article by Mia Farrow about the importance of education in the rehabilitation of a Ugandan child soldier.

10 Hh 100

Googol, one digit followed by one hundred zeros, and the inspiration for the name of the Internet’s most popular search engine (unless of course you prefer to Bing!).

Jj Jane Goodall, the world’s autho rity on chimpanzees, has devoted her life to animal welfare.

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Harmony through Hockey, founded by rehabilitated neo-Nazi and real life story behind the main character of American History X, Frank Meeink, is dedicated to teaching children racial harmony through teamwork and tolerance.

Kk Kielburger brothers, Craig and Marc, founded Free the Children, the world’s largest organization of children helping children through education and development programs.

Ff For She is a women-only taxi service that makes commuting safer for women in India.

Ii International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission champions human rights for gay, lesbian and HIV-infected people across the world.

Ll Love

Oo

Mm Me to We, with socially conscious and environmentally friendly clothes, books, music and experiences, this organization offers 'better choices for a better world’.

No Exit, the title of a play by French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.

Pp Qq Pope Benedict XVI tweets for the first time on 28 June 2011: "Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”

Quiet Revolution - a period in Quebec's history marked by major social change including the birth of the welfare state, unionization and nationalization of electric companies.

Vive le Quebec…libre!

Ss Soldier of Love - Lay down your arms, and surrender to me. This song featured on the 1999 benefit CD entitled No Boundaries, released in support of Kosovar refugees shows that words can be as powerful as arms, and vulnerability as difficult as staying guarded.

One Laptop per Child Canada is a division of a global organization committed to supplying ps underprivileged children with lapto l to encourage ‘collaborative, joyfu and self-empowered learning.’

Rr Reporters without Borders, founded in 1985 to promote freedom of the press.

Uu

The Children of War Centres is a World Vision project to facilitate the rehabilitation of child soldiers.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is a set of basic standards of human rights ‘founded on respect for the dignity and worth of each individual, regardless of race, gender, language, religion, opinions, origins, wealth, birth status or ability and therefore apply to every human being everywhere’. three

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Vv Ww Xx Vanderzon, Michelle - this sixteen year old has traveled the world to raise awareness and funds to help support poverty and disaster action.

WaterAid is an international organization dedicated to improving access to clean water, hygiene and sanitation in the world’s poorest locations.

Malcolm X, African-American revolutionary, changed his surname from Little to X in rejection of 'slave names' and the absence of an African name to take its place.

Yy

zz

Yoga - a combination of physical postures and meditation aimed at attaining a greater understanding of the self. Om!

Zimbabwean’s 'give a voice to the voiceless' campaign will provide an interactive forum where citizens can share stories about Zimbabwe's political and economic situation.

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IN THIS ISSUE

FLASHPOINT

12 The Scramble for Libya 15 Democracy on the Agenda 19 The Fascinating Heads of Revolution 23 Zuka Redemption Song

POPPING CULTURE

26 Craig Kielburger on Activism, Education & Affluenza 31 Who Wants To Live Forever?

ERGONOMICS

38 Nature Brings a Reckoning 42 Progression What's It To You? 45 Wonderful World Of Musical Beds

UNDERCURRENTS 48 Trade 53 Free Yourself From The Conventional

{a} WAREHOUSE 01 The {rebel} report 08 Founder's Note 10 New Writers six

Photograph by Edouard Plante-Frechette

{a} warehouse

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NOTE FOUNDER'S

{warehouse citizens}: Redemption Song is our latest instalment of the {warehouse} magazine. It is quite a fitting theme as it serves as the backdrop on which we built this issue, but also signals our own internal renewal.

Danielle Saudino (author), Mohammad Miraly, Geoffrey Lansdell, Rodney Ramsey (comedian) and Hala Nasr (poet). This team will aid in our march towards progressive and compelling journalism.

First, www.thewarehousemagazine.com is undergoing a series of facelifts. They’re aimed at providing our readers – {warehouse citizens} – a better experience with the magazine. Please log on regularly and witness our transformation.

And we’ve saved the best for last. Our most significant change is the launch of the Fortified Project.

And more than simply browsing our site, we invite you to stalk us. Yes, that’s right…we want you to stalk us! Why? At the {warehouse}, we see our pages as a platform for dialogue that’s as much your canvas as it is ours. Stalk us at every turn – website, Facebook, Twitter – and let us know what you’ve found (the good, the bad and the ugly) and what you’d like to see. We’ll listen.

Next, on the heels of our new look is new blood! Our writing room ranks have been bolstered by the likes of Murray Dobbin (journalist), Gerald Perreira (activist),

The Fortified Project is a vehicle for the promotion of progressive causes. Each issue will feature an organization that does great work in our community. In this issue, praise goes to the people at Apathy is Boring for their dedication to encouraging youth action in democracy. Flip through these pages to see what they’re up to and pick up our next issue to learn about other committed organisations.

The greatest strength of the {warehouse}’s Redemption Song is our growing openness to our community. We want our magazine to become your magazine. If you have a story you’d like to share or an organization you’d like to salute, well, you know what to do.

Enjoy,

Kondwani Mwase {the stock boy}

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Lalibela, Ethiopia

Photograph by Marcel Mueller

Photo taken of ancient religious scriptures.

This ancient language, comparable to latin, is the ancestor to Amharic and a pillar to the Ethiopian culture. Although sometimes contested, it is widely accepted that Ethiopia stands as the only country in Africa that was not colonized by Europe.

Bob Marley is one of the world's most famous Rastas...a movement with its roots in Ethiopia. Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafari, the title of Haile Selassie I, composed of Amharic Ras (as in the head/leader) and Haile Selassie's pre-reign given name, Tafari.

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WRITERS NEW

Danielle Saudino

Danielle was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island where she remembers playing with half-wild raccoons in the woods behind her house, and sitting on a large rock by the ocean. When she grew a little older she traveled by bus to every continental state in the US, a varied journey filled with odd and wonderful people. From 2004-2008 Danielle attended Carnegie Mellon University and graduated with a Bachelor of Humanities and Arts in Creative Writing, Fine Art, and Psychology. Danielle still sits on rocks and watches the ocean.

HALA NASR

I write in a world that is constantly evolving, where nothing is static, where nothing is beyond questioning. The goal is to challenge the truths which are systematically entrenched in our beings; the products of a distorted reality that would have us sidelined in our own lives. I feel liberated by the beauty that could be humanity, the potential that lies beyond the conventional. My burning passion for achieving justice, equality and peace in the world is that, and peace in the world is empowering me to break. Fighting for a revolution of the mind, I choose to be on the frontline. I am Hala and I write for freedom.

SOIE

Moi c’est Soie, tissu doux et sensuel et je recherche Coton, tissu confortable et pratique pour tisser une relation à long terme et proliférer une progéniture ensemble parce que honnêtement, la vie à deux c’est franchement meilleur (merci la pub du lait)!

Jeune professionnelle, début trentaine, propriétaire d’un condo sur le Plateau et je vis seule! Comme animal de compagnie, j’ai deux plantes. Comme un chat, mes plantes demandent à être nourris une fois par semaine et flatter que très rarement!

Comme plusieurs femmes de mon âge, je suis à la recherche de l’âme sœur et je me suis inscrite sur un site de rencontre. Soie trouvera-t-elle son Coton dans la jungle de l’internet ?

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COMMUNITY THE

CONTRIBUTORS KONDWANI MWASE {the stock boy} founder/publisher KEVIN WILSON {the monk} web development Mohsen Al Attar {the pacer} managing partner LISA CHAN {chinadoll} creative lead CASEY WATSON {the art monkey}

lead artistic editor

Danielle Saudino {the jeweller} editor

THE WRITING ROOM HEADLINE WRITERS Murray Dobbin Gerald Perreira Reuben Cox SPECIAL FEATURES Sandro Lisi {the culinary contributor} food Hala Nasr lifestyles Jessica Holloway {the black sheep} fashion Geoffrey Lansdell sports culture Nathan Wilson music Rodney Ramsay a comic’s relief Soie relationships Valerian Mazataud photography Marcel Mueller photography

OUR AMBASSADORS Erin Hogg {the girl} PR & communications - intern Nathalie Gagnon-Joseph fortified project coordinator - intern Anastasia Schneider | Claudia Zambrana | Djami Diallo | Faisal Al-Asaad | Fatou Wurie | Flavie Halais | Helene Elsberg | Kevin Pacheco | Laurence Miall | Maghen Quadrini | Meaghan Philpott | Michaela Di Cesare | Mika Watkins | Mohammad Miraly | Natascia Lypny | Thea Gregory | Zodwa Nyoni

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The Scramble for libya Faisal Al-asaad {guest speaker}

Years of service

1961-2011

“Berlin of 1884 was affected through the sword and the bullet.

But the night of the sword and the bullet was followed by the morning of the chalk and the blackboard.”

– Ngugi wa Thiong’o – In 1884, European imperial powers held a conference. This was no ordinary conference but one that decided the fate of a continent. Like children with too much cake, they gathered around a map of Africa and sliced it up between themselves. Partition preceded wars of conquest, resulting in the colonisation of virtually every corner of Africa. Europe had its cake, and it most certainly ate it too.

photograph by Joe Marinaro

Over a century later and witness another scramble unfolding. The smoke in Libya has yet to clear yet vultures are already picking at the carcass. Five months of NATO bombing has opened the nation to a flock of foreign companies rushing for their piece of the proverbial pie. Italy, Libya’s old colonial overseer, is leading the charge with the British, French and Americans not far behind.

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Of course, not all are elated. The director of the Russia-Libya business council laments: “We have lost Libya completely…our companies will lose everything there because NATO will prevent them from doing business.” So is to be the fate of German, Chinese and Brazilian companies also. “We

don't have a problem with Western countries like the Italians, French and UK companies. But we may have some political issues with Russia, China and Brazil” declared the manager of a rebelaffiliated oil company. Poor dissident pariahs, if only they had the good sense to back the humanitarian aid-cumbarrage from the outset.

Bomb our country, massacre our people, and we repay you with contracts and access to resources, in the name of the people. It would seem the National Transitional Council had hired their own mercenaries: Euro-American armies paid to spill black blood in exchange for black gold.

A question for those seeking to remould the narrative into one of national liberation: what of Iraq? A tyrant’s alleged possession of weapons of yada-yada prompts an international body – not the UN – to launch an invasion, topple the despot, and install a band of collaborationist defectors as the new ‘representative’ government, which coincidentally extols foreign control over the country’s wealth. What of Afghanistan? One militia group – the

Photograph by Edouard Plante-Frechette

flashpoint

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d n a , e l p o e p r u o e r ac s as m , ry t Bomb our coun to s s e c ac d n a ts ac r t n o c h we repay you wit . e l p o e p e h t f o e m a n e h t in … s e resourc fourteen

Northern Alliance – provided air support (and ground troops) in overthrowing the existing governmental authority in exchange for reconstruction contracts to their saviours.

Are there other parallels? Both countries are now shattered and ailing from corruption, inequality, lack of security, and their continued subjugation to foreign militaries.

Lucky for Libyans, ‘this time’ the EuroAmerican bombardiers got it right and only thousands (as opposed to hundreds of thousands) of civilians were killed. Lucky for Libyans, ‘this time’ the Euro-American powers only wish to liberate them.

To shift focus, as many do, towards the desires of the Benghazi rebels is to miss the point. Certainly this group genuinely wished to change their country. The question is what kind of change, and in whose interest. Will decisions be made by the NTC? If so, who are they and what mandate do they hold? By NATO? By the UN? Little airtime was given to neutral Libyan citizens in the media, let alone anyone regarded as pro-Gaddafi (the African Union, for instance, which has refused to recognise the NTC).

Instead, the world’s attention has been focused almost entirely on the NTC and their band of merry rebels.

Stirring and sensationalistic reports about their courage and integrity flowed like honey, except when they, um, assassinated their own commander.

Oh, and when they carried out massacres against African migrants and Black Libyans (one third of the

population) for being ‘mercenaries’, a term that means little more than being Black. As David Kirkpatrick of The New York Times declared: “the rebels feel no loyalty to the truth in shaping their propaganda, claiming nonexistent battlefield victories, asserting they were still fighting in a key city days after it fell to Gaddafi forces, and making vastly inflated claims of his barbaric behavior.”

Freedom fighters indeed.

Regardless, Gaddafi has been toppled and the bombing continues. So what next? The latest report is that the UN already has a plan set out detailing “[roles for] military observers, the UN, police, and NATO.” There is nothing surprising about this revelation: the UN and NATO have a penchant for extending missions in perpetuity for there is much loot to be had. What is surprising, however, is that the mantras of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ still have resonance and can be used to justify yet another military campaign by Euro-American saviours against nonEuropean savages. How quickly we forget.

In Libya, the night of the sword and the bullet is far from over. Like Iraq and Afghanistan, there will be more bloodshed as resistance to foreign imperialism consolidates.

EuroAmericans fail to understand that Third World peoples are no longer fodder for their imperial machinations. The morning of the chalk and the blackboard will eventually come. Today’s struggle is over who will be wielding it and whose history will be written. {w}

DEMOCRACY ON THE AGENDA? Murray Dobbin {contributor}

Photographs Courtesy of New Democratic Party of Canada

Jack Layton [1950 – 2011] While the {warehouse} magazine does not officially endorse any political party, we have no qualms about commending notables in the Parliamentary gulag. Jack Layton was something like a phenomenon. His legacy, one of inclusive and collaborative politics, is inspiring because it demonstrates that compassion towards, well, everyone still has traction (someone should remind Stevie). Jack's passing is a severe blow to not only NDP supporters but to Canadians of all political persuasions. If you think that the little guy can’t win or that right-wing loonies are the only game in town, then you don’t know Jack!

This article was originally published online in July 2011.

One of the dozens of post-election bloggers searching for an explanation for the NDP election surge – the orange wave – suggested that we needed to go out of the country to explain why suddenly hundreds of thousands of Canadians actually voted their values for the first time.

It is hard to argue that anything very dramatic happened during the election to explain the NDP’s incredible leap from perpetual third party status to the Official Opposition. Sure, Layton did a reasonably good job and the campaign was smarter than the past two. But the English language debate was hardly an obvious victory for Layton – no knock out punches, no big mistakes by any of the other leaders.

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Most importantly, little had been done by extra- parliamentary groups in the past five years of Harper government to create the kind of on-the-ground political opposition that would explain a surge in NDP support. Labour, enviro groups, social justice organizations, women’s groups - all are in the doldrums, suffering from a crisis of confidence and a lack of any big ideas with which to challenge the right.

So what could explain the NDP’s 103 seats and the fact that it finished second in another 112? Perhaps suggested the blogger it might have been the Arab Spring. It may sound a bit far fetched – after all, we are hardly a dictatorship, we don’t get shot for demonstrating or end up on jail for criticizing the government. We have democracy, right?

And the infectious desire for democracy was supposedly contained within the Arab world.

Exactly how Canadians feel about their own democracy is not easy to determine. Most politicians and political parties make the assumption that people care most about bread and butter issues: Medicare, the economy, taxes, tuition fees, the stuff that adds up to our quality of life. Or the hotbutton issues like crime and “big government” that serve Harper so well. And when the Liberals and NDP talk about it – the endless violations of democracy committed by Harper – they appeared to have little impact. Harper seemingly got away with all of it.

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What did Canadians see when they were glued to their TVs watching the live streaming on Al Jazeera of the amazing events from Tahrir Square in Cairo? They could have hardly have missed the character of this uprising - this outpouring of frustration and joy, of kindness and determination, of compassion, hope and community. As I said in a commentary at the time, the rebellion in Egypt was more Rousseau than it was Mohammed or Marx.

Rousseau believed that morality was not a societal construct, but rather innate, an outgrowth of our instinctive resistance to passively witnessing suffering and injustice, out of which comes the emotions of compassion and empathy. This suggests that our desire for community and even equity is part of our make-up and can either be suppressed or encouraged by the kinds of institutions we create.

The Egyptian uprising (regardless of its eventual outcome) is one of those phenomena that cannot be predicted but speaks to that innate nature of our resistance to injustice and desire for community. It smashed stereotypes embedded in the consciousness of the West over decades.

That stereotype of poor, desperate, ignorant, grasping Third World people is a convenient construct for the US and Canada for they form part of the foundation of our justification of keeping vicious dictatorships in power.

Exactly how Canadians feel about their own democracy is not easy to determine.

Canadians are prepared to demand more of their government.

Perhaps the NDP surge was similarly a sudden and unpredictable expression of innate progressiveness. While many commentators have suggested that over the past twenty years Canadians have become more conservative, there is scant evidence of this. In depth surveys suggest our values have changed very little over the past thirty years. But many Canadians have been convinced that their expectations of what is possible from government are too high. The right has succeeded in demonizing government.

The right, through ownership of the media and think tanks, and the recruitment of academics, has managed to frame many of the critical issues – the deficit, economic policy, taxes, and public investment – from their perspective. They have perfected the use of language to induce people to support policies that are against their own personal and community interests.

But perhaps it just takes a combination of disparate factors to see people’s expectations match their values. Part of it was the trust factor – people trusted Jack Layton. But it was

photo: D'Arcy Norman

also people watching other people – in far worse situations – demand what seemed impossible: democracy in a dictatorship. If Egyptians could risk violence to demand social justice and democracy, why can’t Canadians – in a different context, no risk and with far more national resources – demand the same? And when the polls showed that Quebecers were shifting massively towards the NDP, the sense that citizens could increase their expectations of what was possible expanded even further.

In the end, of course, Stephen Harper’s strategy of vote suppression (making politics distasteful), playing to his Christian base and spending millions on attack ads won the day. He barely increased his vote – from 39% to 41% – but again took advantage of our perverse voting system to achieve a majority. There is no point in sugar-coating the implications. But the surge for the NDP and its progressive policies is something to build on – a demonstration that millions of Canadians are prepared to demand more of their government. {w} seventeen

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The Fascinating Head{s} of Revolution Mohsen al Attar {contributor} Revolutions are much like volcanic eruptions: we do not know what triggers them, what to expect of them, or even what to do about them. Yet this mystique is precisely what makes a revolution a formidable force, for the indeterminacy terrifies established power.

Hosni Mubarak for instance, one of the foremost dictators of the 20th century, is now rotting in a makeshift hospital prison. Thirty years of elite impunity bloodied by three weeks of popular solidarity. His long and guiltless rule silenced by the unforgiving clang of a closing cell: climax followed by nothingness.

But what impact, if any, has his routing had on the state of Egypt? *** Demands and demonstrations persist – a fortnightly affair – while the ominously named Supreme Military Council shucks and jives: business as usual.

New political party applications prosper – 148 at last count – while conventional parties exhibit their finely tuned campaigning skills, heavy in rhetoric, weak in substance, having learned well from their Canadian and American counterparts.

Military tribunals judge in secrecy – 30 min convictions – consistently dealing out 5-10 year sentences to activists

for ‘disturbing the peace’: counterrevolution by stealth.

Spas and slums, wealth and poverty, remain frozen in time, unfazed by the thawing power of the so-called Arab spring: the rich do not give up their loot easily.

And religion – ever the hot button of the hapless – seasoning our revolutionary stew with sectarianism (Muslims in the red corner and Christians in the blue), fanaticism (the Salafis’ pursuit of heavenly love through earthly hate), and bang-for-your-buck prophecies (a vote in favour of the Brotherhood brings the fortunate ballotter closer to heaven, a vote against and you try your luck down below…no really).

Post-Mubarak Egypt looks eerily similar to Mubarak’s Egypt thus begging the question: was it all in vain?

The answer? Of course not. *** In Greek mythology, the hydra was a multi-headed serpent. The characteristic most dangerous about the beast was its ability to regenerate two heads for every one severed. Partial success amounted to vulnerability and plausible defeat. In this instance, the analogy rings relevant.

Ghosting Mubarak all these years was nineteen

a cabal of pretenders to power, patiently awaiting a revolutionary moment to seize the throne. On the heels of his fall, these pretenders pounced into place, blossoming multiple little big men to take over from the newly departed. What first seemed like a battle against one, quickly morphed into a battle against many.

Yet with cunning and teamwork – while one decapitates, the other cauterises – even a hydra can be defeated. Solidarity then, of the variety that was exhibited in Tahrir Square, is key to revolutionary struggle. Add to this the fact that Mubarak was no mythical creature, merely a petty dictator as common and banal as the opportunistic politicians who are following in his stead, and the potential for permanent victory is perfectly within reach. twenty

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We are thus led to two more relevant questions: to who do the sprouting heads belong and what strategy must the Egyptian revolutionary movement adopt to defeat them? *** Answering the first question requires little effort. More than anything, a popular revolution of the type witnessed in Egypt is a scream for change, amplified through a nation-strong bullhorn. Mass expressions of discontent are frequently tied to widening levels of inequality (an absence of economic rights) and frightening levels of military savagery (the abuse of political rights).

In the case of Egypt, the bulk of national wealth – roughly 60% – is controlled by 1% of the population. In a nation of 85 million, where 40% live on less than

$2 a day and where hunger, illiteracy, and homelessness are staples, the concentration is both nauseating and infuriating to the mass of dispossessed.

Of course, these acrimonious feelings are not shared by the wealthy elite who are loath to see any efforts towards redistribution, having ‘suffered’ such attempts during the Nasserite era. Head #1.

As for the military – euphemistically termed ‘security forces’ – they have run rampant on citizens, inflicting unnamed torture, disappearances, and fraudulent imprisonment for decades. Not only are their scores to settle but the barbarity of their behaviour is unlikely to earn them any reconciliation commissions.

Preserving their hold on power is essential to avoiding an earthly day of

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7 Photographs by Valerian Mazataud

6 reckoning. Head #2.

Of course, as the actions of the latter have been bankrolled by their American sponsors – to the tune of $2 billion a year – and as the sponsors would like to maintain their influence, the status quo has much appeal. Better to stick with the devil you know. Head #3.

An economic oligarchy, a repressive military, and a manipulative empire: easy finds perhaps but formidable foes rendering an answer to the second question more complex (but no less pressing). *** Surely trite but it bears mentioning that a revolution happens both on the ground – the demise of an existing order – and in souls and hearts – the awakening

1. Tahrir Square, young Egyptian updates news about the revolution

4. Protesters at the gate of the Ministry of Communications garded by army

2. Tahrir Square entrance guarded

by Egyptian soldiers

5. An anti-Mubarak protester throws a rock towards Mubarak supporters during an intense stone fight in Tahrir

3. A Mubarak supporter captured by dissidents and jostled between those trying to beat him and those trying to protect him

of consciousness. More than mere transformation then, a revolution is also a path to ethical purification: a renewal of thought, of mind, and of society. A community that sheds the shackles of oppression and injustice now holds history by the horns; it need only decide in which direction to point the raging bull. And this, more than anything else, is key for the survival and success of a revolutionary movement.

What Egyptians must understand is that the genius of revolution lies in two things: its decisiveness and its equity. To survive the onslaught of the multiplying hydra, past struggles – from San Domingo to Havana, Petrograd to Boston – have shown us that revolutionaries must be swift in their execution of a plan to ensure a free and dignified life for all.

6. Celebration after news of Mubarak's resignation 7. A protester in a tree in Tahrir

Any hesitation and the power vacuum is capitalised upon and momentum usurped by reactionaries and counterrevolutionary forces of the worst kind (as happened in three of the four examples above).

Like a volcano, a revolution changes the landscape. But this change may – or may not – be permanent for tyranny, sadly, is easily defended. Before the dust settles, revolutionaries must move to establish a concrete plan that will provide for basic needs of their communities: poverty, illiteracy, and vulnerability must be taken to task.

Spontaneity may be necessary to knock the hydra down but justice is crucial to defeating the monstrosity for good.

A luta continua. {w} twenty-one

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Photo by Éric St-Pierre

Zuka Redemption Song

Gerald Perreira {contributor}

Bob Marley's Redemption Song is the anthem of Caribbean Africans. It is a story of true freedom and a promise that it will one day come.

Born violently out of Western Europe’s genocidal wars against the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the Caribbean was and is a colonial construct. One big plantation denoted by many races with one race, the Africans, having no choice in their arrival.

In 2011, Caribbean Africans remain in a position similar to that of the captured African of yesteryear: unable to negotiate anything on our own terms. If we do like Cuba, the single exception, then we subject ourselves to the full wrath of empire.

Notice how the liberation of Africans, no matter where it occurs, sends the West into a frenzy. Witness the US and Europe's attack on Libya to see how Africans, with a single currency based on their gold reserve and a single continental defence force, meets decapitation.

Yet, if we do like client states, we accept our continued subservience. Western ideologies have so deeply penetrated the affairs of Caribbean countries that even after decades of so-called independence, chains still bind us, and the old slave masters continue to humiliate us. Europeanised Negro elites

act as conduits of Western ideas and interests in the region, preventing us from achieving true freedom.

But what does redemption mean for Caribbean Africans? We are not calling for Western notions of 'freedom' and 'democracy' for we, the descendants of former slaves, know too well that these notions amount to freedom and democracy for a few.

Our journey towards true emancipation can only be achieved when we are permanently freed from any further imposition of Europe's image of us, on us.

We must reclaim that which has been lost – our culture and traditions. But rediscovering our past is not enough; it must be redeemed. We must reposition ourselves and consciously act from this relocation. This is Afrocentricity in a nutshell.

In ‘The Falsification of African Consciousness,’ Amos Wilson reminds us that when our 'African culture and tradition becomes a part of us, we are going to have an intellectual explosion such as this world has never before witnessed. When we rediscover ourselves, our creativity is released. One of the reasons European history is written the way it is, is to restrict our creativity to music, dance, games and things that do twenty-three

emancipate

yourself from mental slavery

– none but

ourselves

can free our minds

not directly challenge Europeans. When we re-internalize our culture we are going to gain our genius again.'

According to Dr. Wade Nobles, the challenge 'is to rescue and reconstruct the best of Ancient African culture and use it as a paradigm for the renewed, modern African culture and community.'

Our redemption also lies in our ability to recover from historical trauma and dislocation. Bob Marley urges us to 'emancipate yourself from mental slavery – none but ourselves can free our minds.’

True freedom continues to allude us because of our conceptual incarceration.

‘If you hold onto the tail of a drowning cow, you will drown.’ This is the redemption song that is being played.

The Caribbean is at the heart of diasporic African Consciousness: from the Maroons, Marcus Garvey and the Rastafarians to today's rebel youth. There are pockets of twenty-four

resistance throughout the region – ‘kilombos’ or liberated zones – where the liberal-democratic deception is rejected.

Kilombo was a term used by the slaves to describe an organised group of Africans who resisted the exploitation and violence of the slave system.

Today, the zones being liberated are not only geographical: they are psychological, cultural and intellectual, with one facilitating the other. As we say in the Caribbean: 'everything is everything.'

Like their ancestors the Maroons, many Africans have been forced into the backlands, armed to defend themselves against the neo-colonial state security apparatus. Organised ghetto youth, whether fighting in Haiti to support Aristide, or in Jamaica or in Guyana, are portrayed as gangs of marauding criminals. This vulgar representation provides cover for the systematic assassination of Black youth, gunned

down in the streets with impunity by the state.

But even under pain of death they will not be deterred for Caribbean Africans know that these are serious times. We must not miss our redemptive moment and this concerns every one of us. Fanon warns: 'Everybody will have to be compromised in the fight for the common good. No one has clean hands; there are no innocents and no onlookers. We all have dirty hands; we are all soiling them in the swamps of our country and in the terrifying emptiness of our brains. Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor'.

The day of our redemption is coming 'and none of dem can stop de tide.' However, too many of our people remain onlookers, passively waiting. 'It don't wuk so.' Each and every African is an integral part of our redemption song. What’s your part?

Zuka (Arise)! {w}

Photograph by Edouard Plante-Frechette

popping culture

twenty-five

At the age of twelve, Craig Kielburger had an epiphany while looking for comics in the newspaper. On that fateful day, Craig was sidetracked by the tragic tale of a Pakistani boy, Iqbal Masih, forced into bonded labour at the age of four and dead by the age of twelve; Craig’s age.

Unlike most children, Craig didn’t simply turn the page but instead launched a children’s rights movement that evolved into Free the Children, an international aid organization now active in 45 countries. In 2008, to help the organization’s projects, Craig and his brother Marc created Me to We, an innovative social enterprise that donates half its profits to Free the Children.

Craig Kielburger on Activism, Education & Affluenza

twenty-six

An interview with Geoffrey Lansdell {contributor}

the {warehouse}...sat down with Craig in Free the Children’s Montreal office.

GL: How do we address the problem that private enterprise is inevitably attracted to cheap child labour?

CK: Well, it’s a lot more than just cheap child labour. It’s the environmental implications — also looking at adult wage issues, because often kids are working when their families don’t earn enough, whether it be in agriculture or factories. So I think we need to create alternatives. We need to differentiate products not only on price point, or style, but also on the working environmental conditions. That’s why we set up Me to We, because I think the typical charity vastly undersells our potential for change. The average person can maybe give 5-10% of their money to charity and maybe donate 5-10% of their time. So the challenge is, how do you look at that 90-95% that most charities aren’t going after, and how can you change those consumptive patterns to influence a positive change in the world? We try to look at all the products that people buy anyway, and how we can make those in an ethically and socially responsible way while funding a charity at the same time.

GL: While your organization does deal in some short-term aid, you seem to prioritize long-term infrastructural development and childhood education. Yet, one of the offshoots of a hypercapitalist society is billionaire-philanthropists throwing money at short-term solutions, whether it’s vaccinations or food aid. What do you think of the irony that capitalism creates problems for the developing world, and then capitalists go in and try to solve them?

CK: I agree with you that we live in such a capitalist system that it is easy for people to fall through the cracks. And that’s the reality for 4.2 billion of our fellow human beings, which is a stunning number.

Not many journalists will take the time to have the type of conversation we’re having right now, and further complicating it is that it’s incredibly difficult to get a message about high-impact interventions twenty-seven

stand up for children’s rights.

On November 30 take the

www.freethechildren.com/vow twenty-eight

out. We’re a tiny player in the global scheme of things, but we are proud of the fact that when we work with a community, it takes about five years on average for us to put ourselves out of business. So we do community development through clean-water health alternative income and micro-credit to support each other in a way that when we exit, the community owns and operates the project themselves. It’s building schools but it’s also education for drought-resistant crops and HIV Aids and a full education — looking at agricultural development through those schools is critical, but also water for irrigation systems, because we primarily work in rural areas; looking at sanitation systems and health — both health prevention and laterstage intervention. And then small businesses owned and operated by the community to sustain the ongoing operational costs, to allow people to own it themselves, operate it themselves, and that’s what I think we need more of. Less of the short-term food aid, which we see so many groups doing right now in East Africa, which is necessary of course, but it has been twenty years of food droughts. As opposed to looking at agricultural development or asking questions about why the largest landowner in Africa is the Chinese government.

GL: Shifting gears slightly, what is affluenza?

CK: The person who first coined it was Marian Wright Edelman, who said “Affluenza and lack of moral purpose are more dangerous viruses than influenza for millions of America’s and the world’s children.” And I think it’s true that we live in an age where a lot of education is designed to prepare us simply for the workforce, not for the world, and not to be a compassionate global citizen, to question, and to become involved in looking at political and social change, and helping to make this world a better place. I think the purpose of education should be an active global citizen more than anything else. And so often that’s left out of the curriculum. {w} twenty-nine

thirty

Who wants to live forever?

MOHAMMAD MIRALY {contributor}

We seek redemption when we’re nearing the end, when we’re facing our own mortality, when we know there’s no escape and judgment is on hand. But what if we never faced mortality, if we lived forever? No death would mean no day of reckoning. But, as Duncan MacLeod showed so often in Highlander, the need to atone for one’s sins is a constant human sentiment.

Even immortals seek redemption.

thirty-one

We may all be vulnerable to eternal guilt as our lives extend to previously unimagined lengths. Modern science has been steadily conquering obstacles to human mortality and, in the last century alone, has increased life expectancy by almost thirty years. Theoretician Aubrey de Grey believes medical technology will improve so fast that a lifespan of 1000 years is realizable. Futurist Ray Kurzweil argues that humans will be unable to keep pace with technological advancement, and we will eventually augment our bodies with cybernetics, thereby becoming transhuman.

But the quest for long life is not new. The conquest of disease and the end of aging have been mans' eternal obsessions, exemplified by Alexander’s quest for the Water of Life, Arthur’s quest for the Holy Grail, and even the oldest piece of western literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The quest for immortality derives from the fear of inevitability: death. This is suggested in Darren Aronofsky’s 2006 film, The Fountain, in which the protagonist eventually chooses to die – after centuries of questing – when he finally overcomes this fear.

Put another way, perhaps we can say that fear of death makes us mortal.

Indeed, Jorge Luis Borges, that great renovator of fiction, wrote that ‘except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death.’ In a sense it is the ignorance – or acceptance – of death

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that makes one immortal. According to astrologer Linda Goodman, constantly thinking about death centres our lives on death-consciousness but, with a stronger belief in life, we can create a reality for ourselves in which we never die. Queen Sophie-Ann makes this point in True Blood: ‘She’s convinced herself she’s immortal and so she is.’

The story of the quest for physical immortality is one of constant failure.

Immortality then is not a physical prize but a spiritual one. Is not the aim of the spiritual quest to live forever in – or through – the Divine Oneness? In this model, the quest for immortality on earth becomes a physical allegory of a spiritual reality. Thus, when the quest is driven by the physical ego, it is doomed to fail.

Worse, obsession leads to destruction or madness.

Freddie Mercury, in the theme song for the 1986 movie Highlander, hauntingly asked: ‘who wants to live forever?’

Perhaps very few, if they had to live with the guilt of lifetimes of misdeeds. The knowledge of impending death gives us something to live for; if we were never to die, would we ever really live? And living life with enthusiasm – having something to live for and die for – is the true source of creative beauty. If Bob Marley hadn’t known he was dying of cancer, would he have felt the need for a ‘Redemption Song’? {w}

the fear of death makes us mortal. thirty-three

the {w} diaries In Fall 2011, the {warehouse} magazine is launching the {w} diaries, a series devoted to giving you the behind the scenes glimpse into the minds of some extraordinary people.

We’ve got dancers, body builders, singers, activists and even some twisted comedians. Find out what makes them tick and what ticks them off.

What’s on your mind?

www.thewarehousemagazine.com

thirty-four

Photograph by Craig Cloutier

the {w} diaries Shades of Multi-Culturalism Andrew Johan Yeung {guest speaker}

“You are a product of your environment…” – W. Clement Stone's words spur a flurry of introspective queries: What am I? Who am I? What will I become?

When I look at myself now, I see a law student toiling through a substantial workload in hope of a better future. The growing shadow of my less-than triple-A state of finances darkens my view of that better tomorrow. When I look to the past, I see a musician - trained as a child in classical piano - penning lyrical verses that critique society through hip-hop and rap. I am a hybrid, a Chinese kid born in Hong Kong and raised in New Zealand.

I am part of a generation unlike any history has ever witnessed. I am the byproduct of modern technology and communications. The true beginning of multi-Culturalism on a global scale.

If one traveled back to 1950s Hong Kong and asked a typical youth to explain African American urban culture, the answer would be brief. Today, influences of African American culture on contemporary Hong Kong youths range from hi-top kicks and baggy jeans to music and the arts. On a deeper level, African American culture has influenced the thoughts and minds of Chinese students, mobilising protests and political movements to integrate traditional Oriental concepts of freedom with ideas

borne out of the cotton fields of Mississippi and Alabama. Ideas flourish, and it provides us with a sense of togetherness.

An interconnected identity as people of Earth, not just citizens of particular states.

my best friend's knowledge of Chinese culture is limited to sweet and sour pork and my old man attempting to have an English conversation with him in thick Hong Kong accent.

This sense of “togetherness” can ultimately redeem us, but we must consider the pace and process by which it occurs. Cultural hegemony, as proliferated by the late sociologist Antonio Gramsci, is an idea which describes how societal values can be manipulated to reflect an overarching prevailing culture.

Such hegemony must exist in our contemporary world. I believe in the unity and stability it can provide for societies en masse. That being said, cultural hegemony should not reduce minority cultures to de-contextualised symbols, festivals and cuisines.

I continue to experience this disconnect as I pursue a contemporary sociopolitical education. Students studying politics at a University level have shockingly limited understanding of political spheres outside the “Western” realm. The typical student would struggle to name the President of China. This is particularly ironic because China has an immense influence in New Zealand. In addition, a western-centric view overlooks the historical presence of Chinese people in this country.

I have lived in New Zealand since I was three years old. My entire life has been influenced by Kiwi culture which has roots in 19th century British Colonialism. My education was based on Eurocentric models, and the content was concentrated on Western perspectives and ideas.

School taught me history that was not my own. It othered my traditional Chinese identity. I came to realise that this was a system that left its children blind to the wider world. To cite a stark example,

Continuation of systematic ignorance is detrimental to any contemporary multicultural society. It blinds us to the changes taking place in an increasingly globalised world. It fails to properly prepare my generation for the world beyond the shores of “the West”. Lack understanding is the root of countless historical conflicts. If history truly exists so we can learn from the past, we must act fast. New Zealand culture is a product of its environment, so we must look outward to understand ourselves. {w} thirty-five

Artwork by Guy Masavi

DSK

Dominique Strauss Kahn,

former head of the International Monetary Fund Profile: Aging married white male seeks multiple women to leer at and/or sexually assault. An appreciation for discretion is required. Consent optional. Enjoys long walks by the beach, acting ('theez dayz I like to pretend to be un socialiste'), and exploiting wom‌um‌Third World countries.

Character references: please contact first and third wives. thirty-six

Photograph by Edouard Plante-Frechette

ergonomics

thirty-seven

Nature brings the reckoning Natascia Lypny {guest speaker}

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There can be little doubt that mother nature has an enduring influence on humanity (though it would be more accurate to say that nature and humanity are one but that’s a little too new agey for most). Yet, we have developed the dangerous habits of ignoring her and, increasingly, trying to control her. Interestingly, governments adopt a similar strategy with regard to many domestic concerns – unemployment, homelessness, inequality – pushing them aside while also concealing their effects through inadequate means.

Take the American and Japanese governments who knowingly installed weak defences in areas susceptible to natural disasters and have long dismissed significant social and economic problems. Nature, as she does, has provided an inescapable wake-up call on both fronts.

Hurricane Betsy in 1965 prompted the US to develop the Mississippi River levee system to help protect the region from flooding. The strength of its design was tested – unsatisfactorily – in 1998 by Hurricane Georges. By August 2005, the levees were only 60% to 90% complete, and poorly completed at that, when Hurricane Katrina flooded more than 80% of New Orleans. “A storm that most of us have long feared,” said mayor Ray Nagin.

Six years after Katrina, New Orleans has yet to recover. New Orleanians accounted for the overwhelming majority of the 1,500-plus Louisiana deaths. Of course, the worst hit victims were the elderly, sick and poor who couldn’t leave or had nowhere to go.

Of those who returned, thousands have yet to find permanent homes, leaving one in twenty-five homeless. More still have stayed away, discouraged by slow reconstruction and widespread chaos.

It bears mentioning that prior to Katrina, New Orleans was plagued by crime rates several times the national average. A quarter of its population lived below the poverty line, including over 6,000 homeless. The continued inequality and absence of governmental compassion thus comes as little surprise.

The Fukushima I nuclear power plant’s missed inspections and unreported problems had been passed over by the Japanese government in much the same way. In 2008, the International Atomic Energy Agency acknowledged the dangerous combination of Japan’s frequent seismic activity and Fukushima I’s substandard safety provisions (three other facilities had failed to withstand earthquakes in 2005 and 2007). On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami that, ultimately, led to a catastrophe at the plant.

The sum of the earthquake’s consequences remains unknown, as Japan continues to deal with the literal and figurative aftershocks of the disaster. We are certain that over 15,000 Japanese died, that Fukushima I is spewing more radioactive toxins than Chernobyl did, that the area within a 20-kilometre radius of the plant is uninhabitable, and that the simultaneous failure of several other nuclear facilities resulted in a loss of electricity in more than 4 million homes, many of which remain in the dark.

Still healing from the devastation caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs, Japan invested in its first nuclear power plant in 1954.

Recurring industrial accidents caused a growing malaise toward nuclear power in the 1990s. Despite this, the government insisted on making one third of its earthquake-zone-residing population dependent on this volatile thirty-nine

energy source.

Have these violent disasters served as wake-up calls for a Japanese government committed to a dangerous power source and an American government contemptuous of social inequality? The verdict is mixed.

New Orleans’ response has been a structural and social renewal of the city: “Disaster offers a unique opportunity to rethink the planning and politics of our metro-regional areas,” said Frederic Schwartz, the architect responsible for New Orleans’ reconstruction. “It is a chance to redefine our cities and to reassert values of social justice and environmental care, of community building and especially of helping poor with programs for quality, affordable, and sustainable housing.”

Japan may have learned as well, since suggesting that their energy strategy needs to be rethought. This is welcomed. As declared by the World Future Council, “the human community, acting for itself and as trustees for future generations, must exercise a far higher level of care globally in dealing with technologies capable of causing mass annihilation, and should phase out, abolish and replace such technologies with alternatives that do not threaten present and future generations.”

Whether mother nature has instigated lasting change remains to be seen. If these grandiose statements fail to produce significant change, she will likely offer a torrent of judgment once again. {w}

forty

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Progression, what’s it to you?

Hala Nasr {guest speaker}

We are bombarded with advertisements showcasing the latest in fashion, trends, and drugs.

Health insurance is like a pair of Jimmy Choos: exclusive. With an average price tag of $400, the designer shoes fall into the not-going-to-happen category for everyday people. The American health system is not much different.

The commodification of the health sector is the product of a backward perception of progress. The US, and much of the West, defines progress in healthcare in terms of technological and physiological advances – a kind of medical pomp & circumstance.

In 2010, for instance, 13 million cosmetic procedures were performed on American soil. While claiming to have made the impossible possible – from changing skin colour to grafting breasts and butts – a great proportion of Americans are still paralysed by poor access to healthcare. forty-two

We are bombarded with advertisements showcasing the latest in fashion, trends, and drugs encouraging the worship of stick-thin models, with characters (saviours) like Dr Troy on Nip/Tuck intervening to correct Mother Nature’s slip-ups. This ‘glitz and glam’ perception of medicine blinds us to the reality of healthcare for those who aren’t in the limelight.

Statistics on access to healthcare show that working people, minorities and other marginalised groups bear the brunt of regressive health policies.

American insurance companies – the only game in town – routinely exclude those with ongoing health problems, low socioeconomic backgrounds, bad ‘credit,’ etc. This is no surprise when profit is the aim of the game.

With the heavy price tag for cosmetic

surgery, fixation on a Barbie image, and the $200,000 debt that medical students graduate with, why wouldn’t American doctors aspire to the big bucks? General practice is not nearly as glamourous, nor does it pay as well as Botox injections.

Yet, most people would agree that health is a right to which all are entitled irrespective of class. What to do? Look elsewhere.

Across the Straits of Florida, in Cuba, we find a progressive model of healthcare where emphasis is placed not on profit but people.

On the shores of Havana, the medical professional becomes a health professional – dramatically re-defining their roles within the community.

‘Health for all’ is the motto of the health professional, ensuring their craft is less

about self-interest and more about social responsibility.

This view emerged in 1965, only a few years after the revolution, when some 500 community health clinics were opened across Cuba to improve access to medical care.

The Cuban model unites individual health and communal well-being. It champions an inclusive view of health, moving beyond the physiological to the mental, spiritual and social aspects of people’s lives. This translates into a dynamic interplay between conventional biomedicine (immunisation and surgery), alternative medicines (homeopathy, acupuncture, etc.), and spiritual medicine (use of Afro-Cuban deities).

The results are staggering: Cuba has achieved developed-world health outcomes with a developing-world budget (it consistently ranked in the top quarter of the UN Human Development Index).

“Universal

healthcare,

universally”

distinguishes the Cuban model from other primary care models. Yet, Cuban health professionals are not only caregivers to Cubans, but to the world’s poor as well.

From Latin America to Africa to the Pacific islands, roughly 29,000 Cuban doctors tend to the needs of the poor.

Medical internationalism has produced dramatic health improvements in the targeted regions, with Kiribati alone reporting decreases of 80% in child mortality. To Cuba, health knows no borders.

Cuban health professionals possess an understanding of medicine that textbooks cannot teach. Doctors say the experience of treating those impoverished and debilitated by poor health triggers a sense of purpose that cannot be replicated by a handsome paycheque.

Cuban commitment to global health precipitated the establishment of an international school of medicine.

Students are awarded full scholarships with only one condition: an expectation

to give back to their communities upon graduation. Growing at tremendous rates, 10,000 diverse students from 33 countries (50% being women) now study at the school – a truly progressive model for developing a health workforce.

Defining progress in terms of a moneyed elite does little for the health of a community. Beyond the Jimmy Choos, the silicone, the suction, the pouting faces and the dollar signs that are cultivated in the Hollywood gulag is a viable alternative: a healthcare system concerned with primary care initiatives and universal healthcare, globally.

With the looming danger of privatisation, now is the time to-refashion our thinking.

Healthcare should never be trivialised by economic ideologies. We must unleash a communal view of progress that places health at the forefront of the health sector.

For this to happen, we need to ask ourselves who we take to be more progressive: Dr. McDreamy or Dr. Guevara? {w}

Statistics on access to healthcare show that working people, minorities and other marginalised groups bear the brunt of regressive health policies.

forty-three

forty-four

wonderful world of musical beds Lola Vertigo {contributor} I stumble home in the rain, blind drunk, sending defamatory text messages to an ex. I might be considered tragic. I choose to view this as opportunity.

I behave myself for a month. But no partying, no sex, thirty days of yoga and meditation and I start feeling antsy. Do I get off the wagon?

Instead of getting off, I smash it to bits.

My goal: to prove the doubters wrong by engaging in multiple fun and fulfilling relationships. Simultaneously. Read on before you judge.

John. Yoga brings balance to my life.

This time, however, it brings a little something more. After a year and a half of perving over the ripped, sweaty instructor at my studio, I decide to stalk him on facebook and set the ball rolling.

We’re sitting on the floor of his apartment, talking. Hanging plants, assorted crystals, posters of Hindu gods, swirling paintings of energy and chakras in bright technicolour. We’ve just eaten a vegan meal and smoked a joint. He’s telling me that he can see energy radiating everywhere; he can actually see it vibrating between us.

Any delusion of a relationship has now jumped out the window and plummeted to a quick death but, hey, he has the

body of Adonis and summer is the time for lovers.

Jeremy. Fast-forward a week. I’m at a friend’s barbecue. His roommate, who I met a month ago, is sweet and smart and a sensational chef. But I’ve been warned off: apparently I’m trouble and he’s carrying fresh baggage. It doesn’t change the outcome. Immersed in conversation, I suddenly realise that everyone else has left. I walk home grinning. The following occasion, I don’t walk home at all.

Wagon-schmagon. Finally content with being single in a healthy way – happiness may be found within but other people are my avenue to pleasure – my decision to date, yet avoid commitment, seems to be working out.

Anthony. I am at a high-end restaurant in Westmount, being indulged by the restaurant manager. Wine, olives, oysters, and other epicurean delights flow unceasingly. My glass magically maintains its level all evening. Friends pass through. More drinks are had.

When he finishes his shift we head to St Henri for extra indulgence. Deciding that biking intoxicated from Notre Dame to Mont Royal at 3 am is not only unappealing but inadvisable. I sleep over.

forty-five

Various words could be used to describe me: promiscuous, easy, or even slutty. I choose liberated.

To many, the idea of juggling multiple partners and experiencing joy rather than jealousy is both foreign and foolish.

Yet joy is at the heart of polyamory, though I think most poly people would scoff at the term juggling. What I should say is seeing, loving, enjoying multiple people at the same time. Well, not the same time necessarily. Although it could be.

The way I see it, love isn’t a zero sum game. When a second child is born, a mother doesn’t love the first any less.

When making new friends, we needn’t drop existing ones. Just because I’m sleeping with someone doesn’t mean I forty-six

stop being turned on by others or that I no longer love the first if I make love to the next. Most of the time it has nothing to do with them at all. It’s just chemistry.

In a society where divorce and adultery reign supreme, it’s becoming evident to me that monogamy is a social construct that makes sense if you’re a strict Catholic (maybe), but it doesn’t fit for many of us condom-using city folk.

Before you torch the wagon with me, a word of caution. Navigating the road of open relationships imposes one obligation: honesty.

People get upset about betrayal (that’s why it’s called cheating). If you’re honest with your partners, you can sidestep jealousy.

Jealousy is an emotion, like any other, and can be overcome if you see it for what it is: a vice. Why is it that rage and anger are expected to be controlled, but jealousy is allowed to run rampant?

Other people don’t make you jealous.

You make you jealous. If you take responsibility for your emotions and observe them as they come, then jealousy is unlikely to overwhelm you.

I’m not saying this is a sure-fire recipe for polyamorous pleasure. I’m sure there are people out there who have no desire to be involved with more than one person at a time. But if you are playing the poly game, best to play with a full hand of honesty. What’s in the other is up to you. And them! {w}

Photograph by Edouard Plante-Frechette

undercurrents

forty-seven

Trade REUBEN COX {contributor}

They made good time, and by sunset had come within half a day of the village. The canoes were lighter coming back, and flew over the water even against the current. For most of them, it had been the first trip to the city and the desire to bring their prizes and stories home lent them strength and speed.

And they had great success. Many villages had not survived the last few years, but they had listened well to the pale-faced doctors, were careful when dealing with outsiders, and learned what they could trade (and what they could get for it).

forty-eight

Medicine drove the very first trip. The doctors had distributed some and left more, but it was soon gone. Six had been sick, three of them children, so it was decided that some of the young men would go downriver and ask for more. They were quite surprised when it was given freely, and did well trading the fruits and meat they had brought, or so they thought.

Now they made many times more from each trip. Tools, alcohol, radios, all these and more had made their way up the river. Two young men had elected to remain in the city a year ago, but they had not been seen again and no-one else ever spoke about staying.

To deliberately leave another two behind had been a hard thing. The discussions took a week, and came close to splitting the village. The mother of one of the girls had been particularly hysterical, until her husband took a hand to her. In the end, there was agreement. For the good of the village, it had to be done. The village needed the money the sale would bring, and besides, which man would want the girls after they had been with the tree cutters?

The tree cutters were working closer to the village in recent months. On some days the faint buzz of chainsaws carried up the river. They were hard men, dangerous, accustomed to taking what they wanted. One of the girls had sworn he had taken her just like that, but in doing so had condemned herself.

The tree cutters caused trouble whenever they came to the village, but there had been little they could do to stop them. They were too many to risk a fight, and their axes and machetes were of better quality.

The canoes would have to pass the camp tomorrow, endure the stares and shouts. But the villagers knew that their

cargo meant that the threat from the tree cutters was much diminished. The next time they bothered the village they would get a very different reception.

No more of their food, or their women.

The lead canoe signalled a landing spot. It was time to eat, sing and rest.

Tomorrow they would be heroes.

As the last canoe edged into the riverbank, the cargo shifted and the covering slipped aside. Metal and polished wood gleamed in the moonlight. Chatting and laughing, they carried their greatest prizes ashore, to be inspected and passed around in the firelight.

The future of the village seemed bright indeed. *** “There’s nothing new here.”

She hectors me across the table, one leg dangling, the other pulled up against her chest. Outside the window the scenery whips past as the carriage bumps and sways.

“Economics has always been the engine of societal change. Nations and cultures rise and fall on the strength of commerce and industry; armed conflict is only ever an extension of that. So spare me your protectionism, your interventionism, your... your fucking nationalism, ok?”

Her hand sweeps across the space between us to emphasise the point.

“The spread of industrialisation changed the world, sure. But so did the slave trade and the age of sail.

Before that it was the silk routes, and before that it was the Roman Empire.

So why are you so worried about it now?

Sure, some people will lose out. Some will trade their identity for three meals forty-nine

a day. Societies and cultures come and go all the time; new economies pick up where old ones fail. In the long run, everyone wins.

into his numbed feet. He edged through the narrow gap of the half-open door - an immovable slab of rusted metal and swore quietly.

And isn’t that what’s most important; that overall, things get better? Don’t you want that?”

A chaos of white noise churned outside the empty windows. Snow heaped over the sills and piled in drifts across the floor. The buildings outside were almost invisible; grey skeletons dissolving in a sea of white. The heavy clouds were gravid with cold promise.

Not good travelling weather.

A sly smile plays across her lips.

“Wouldn’t you buy that?” *** The cold had seeped into the small room overnight, creeping over the ashes of the fire and permeating the rough weave of the sacks around him.

Waking, he felt the reassuring grip of the rifle through his gloves and the dull ache of knotted muscles in his back.

Out here, you slept on your goods or you risked losing them. The white mist of his breath puffed towards the smokeblackened ceiling as he lay there, listening.

He could hear the occasional footfall as the mule shifted in the next room, the quiet sighing of the wind. The light that filtered through the half open door was dull, grey. Not a good sign.

Rising, he flexed his protesting muscles and stomped some warmth fifty

But he didn’t have far to go. He’d made good time yesterday, leaving the hollow city. The fields that had taken over the old lots were bare; dark sod turned over for the winter. The air had been crisp and cold, the sky clear. He’d known the snow was coming, pushed hard to make it here; to this rusted hulk of vanished industry on the edge of the city.

Not that the city really had an edge any more. The fields stretched behind him, filling the empty and abandoned lots, slowly pushing back the ruins year by year. He remembered a woman on cable news, back when there had been cable news. All plastic, bright smiles and incomprehension. Urban farming, they’d called it back then. Now they just called it farming.

“The spread of industrialisation changed the world, sure. But so did the slave trade and the age of sail.”

The nucleus of the hollow city was still warm and bright and full of life. The city folk had been happy to see a last load of produce so late in the season, and he’d got good prices. The news was good too, in that there wasn’t any.

had settled on their curved horns. For a moment he stood astonished, before remembering his rifle. He fumbled it off his shoulder, struggling with the bolt in his heavy gloves, raising it and trying to choose a target.

He dragged the sacks through the narrow gap of the rusted door and loaded up the mule. Much lighter coming back, but then there was only so much tea, sugar and soap you could buy with a load of fruit and vegetables.

The pigs had fetched a good price, though. They could spare a couple, they’d decided, and it would be two less mouths to feed for the winter.

Hard tack, fresh nosebag, extra blanket, thick scarf. He slung the rifle over one shoulder and led the mule out into the snow. The buildings slipped past them and disappeared like pale ghosts. The snow covered the cracked and broken road, but he could still feel it beneath his feet. Half a day from home, maybe a day in this weather. He put his head down and set to walking hard, his world a bubble of whirling snow a hundred yards across.

The beasts stopped. Huge dark eyes regarded him impassively. Slowly he swung his rifle from one to another, trying to decide which would make the easier kill. He’d have to come back out to dress the carcass, have to get help, maybe make two trips. He stopped, thinking. His grip loosened and he lowered the rifle. From a dozen yards they regarded each other, breath steaming in the dancing snow. The largest one shook its head and huffed throatily, and took a step towards him.

They appeared so suddenly that he almost yelled. Looming into his world, a dozen massive shapes plodding across the road. Snow crusted their beards and backs and eyelashes, and

The mule whickered beside him, and the moment passed. Snorting and tossing their heads, the herd turned and continued across the road. He stood staring into the snow long after they had disappeared, until the cold crept into his boots and reminded him of the warm fire just a few hours away.

Shaking his head, he cleared the round from the chamber and re-slung his rifle.

He patted the mule, led it over the fading tracks and disappeared, smiling, into the gently falling snow. {w} fifty-one

LEH, LADAHK

Photograph by Marcel Mueller

Despite living in exile, the Tibetan Buddhists' trumpets reverberate beyond the city of Leh. They echo through the Himalayan mountains.

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THE WAREHOUSE PLAYLIST REDEMPTION SONG Bob Marley BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY The Verve MY GENERATION The Who WALK ON U2 TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS The Beatles BEG STEAL OR BORROW Ray Lamontagne

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free yourself from the conventional...

Nathan Wilson {contributor}

Whether in the form of a traditional heartfelt confessional, a flowing stream-ofconscious narrative or a free form canvas of clever wordplay, one of the most profound messages in art has been redemption. Here are a few tracks worth knowing about.

REDEMPTION SONG - Bob Marley "Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind" These lines were taken from a speech given by Marcus Garvey in 1937. "We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind..." A rare and personal ballad, notable for the absence of the reggae rhythms that made him famous, it has been called an "acoustic spiritual.�

A plea for an open mind wrapped in a deeply personal message: "These songs of freedom are all I've ever had."

At the time, Marley had been diagnosed with cancer and was said to have come to terms with his own mortality. His message of hope and uncompromised introspection has inspired people the world over.

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BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY The Verve A rejection of tradition is at the core of rock-n-roll. This late 90s hit spoke about the crude realities of the day-today grind, social conformity, and a will to change. "Cause it's a bittersweet symphony this life. Trying to make ends meet, try to find somebody then you die." Chris Martin of Coldplay declared this "one of the best songs ever written."

In liberating fashion, the video featured Verve vocalist Richard Ashcroft singing as he walked along Hoxton Street in a crowded shopping area of London.

He repeatedly bumps into passers-by and narrowly avoids being hit by a car as he refuses to change his stride or, metaphorically, conform. Ironically, a copyright infringement lawsuit followed just as fast as the song's success.

Though Ashcroft wrote the lyrics, the song belonged to Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. In their non-conformist zeal, the Verve appear to have sampled from the Andrew Oldham Orchestra recording of The Rolling Stones' 1965 song "The Last Time" and were quickly slapped down with some a conformityinducing lawsuit.

MY GENERATION - The Who Considered one of the most distilled expressions of youthful rebellion in rock history, this anthem would later set the tone for the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. Pete Townsend claimed the Queen Mother was allegedly responsible for the towing of his car, a 1935 Packard Hearse, which was said to be an eye sore on the streets of the Belgravia district of central London.

Noted for its uber-expensive residential properties just south of Buckingham Palace, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world, and an area where the Queen routinely frequented. As a result of the impound, Pete reportedly wrote the song while riding the train.

Lead singer Roger Daltrey delivered the vocal in a frustrated stutter, in part due to a poor vocal performance, but this happy accident was perfect framework for the delivery of lines like "Why don't you all fff... fade away!"

WALK ON - U2 Walk On was inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese political activist sentenced to house arrest in 1989 for protesting against the government (for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991). Her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national vote and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, been detained before the elections and remained under on-and-off house arrest in Burma for a period of almost 15 years until her release on 13 November 2010. Her movements continue to be monitored by the government, but she remains an influential leader among the Burmese people.

TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS The Beatles "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream" Through the experimentation of hypnotic tape loops, reversed guitars, propelling rhythms, and Lennon's request that his vocals sound like a hundred chanting Tibetan monks, this musical LSD trip brings to mind one word: transcendence.

Due to the complex (and random) way in which these manually fed tape loops were laid over the music, this one performance was caught and could never be repeated again. Originally underground, this would later inspire the sounds of a whole scene of beat makers and clubland artists such as the Chemical Brothers.

BEG STEAL OR BORROW Ray Lamontagne "Young man so full of big plans, and thinking about tomorrow. Young man you wanna make a stand, you beg, you steal, you borrow" We've heard these dreams before; they're as old as the blues, the perfect folk tales. But somehow this piece, its simplicity, its honesty, its road-traveling forward march, hypnotically chugging along like a long-slow boxcar train, is tailor-made for instant redemption classic. {w}

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