Below, there is some more writing that adds to that piece. First, here are some remarks about the Waging Nonviolence post -
That post revolves around a monument which is dedicated to women in a campaign against nuclear cruise missiles at a military base in the UK (at the Greenham Common, in Berkshire). I’ve provided some background and context — while highlighting a history of wider campaigns.
The nuclear issues foregrounded in the title actually are just part of the post; feminism, anti-militarism, and ecology all are raised in there as well.
There also is a little writing about me. One of the editors suggested that I should write about my personal experiences at the monument site. I mainly wrote myself in there like that to convey what it is like to see the monument. Basically, I’ve communicated what it’s like to see it without a grasp of the inside references there. It’s more likely that the monument would resonate with people from the UK, but there must be a lot of people over there who don’t know anything about the Greenham Common networks and peace camp.
The text on that sign is a generic message over there in the UK.
(The “SSP Air” text is unique though, of course — since the surveillance extends well beyond that airport.)
During a recent visit to the UK, I was surprised by the overt messages about CCTV cameras (which often are mentioned on signs, and over radio systems). Over here in Southern Ontario, the cameras aren’t highlighted so openly; so there also aren’t as many messages about why such government surveillance supposedly is justified.
Of course, over-inflated rhetoric about terrorist threats is pervasive throughout the pro-surveillance messages in the UK. (For instance, when I was in a museum in London, at least one radio announcement suggested that I should look for abandoned baby strollers; presumably I was supposed to be worried about a bomb that might have been left in one of those strollers — which, I assume, is why I was told to inform the guards if and when I saw one of those strollers. Otherwise, why were strollers mentioned over the radio broadcasting system?)
(I basically visited London and Cardiff when I was in the UK. Since those are capital cities, I’m sure that they’re somewhat unique. Yet, the UK also seems to be a cohesive bubble — so I expect that surveillance systems are consistent across the British isles.)
(”Why bother doing something when you can just say you did it? That seems to be the cynical sentiment driving a lucrative growth industry: corporate green washing.” …)
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Greenwash basically consists of claims about how products (e.g. food in grocery stores) and operations (e.g. airports) either are ecologically benign, or ecologically beneficial. Either way, greenwash is one way of encouraging us to accept or actively support ecological degradation (which has included various forms of pollution).
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Here are some blog posts about carbon & energy greenwash -
“I stopped buying sweatshop clothes, and eventually decided to wear only clothes I make myself.
This decision has taught me a number odd and interesting things about clothes and how we think about them.” “The most surprising thing I’ve learned has to do with t-shirts. Of all the garments I have made and worn, from winter coats to blue jeans, bathing suits to party dresses, people remain most impressed with my ability to make a t-shirt.”
“T-shirts are not difficult to make, even for a beginner. They are made of four pieces and trim, usually out of knit cotton or cotton blended with synthetic. Knit cotton is perhaps the most forgiving fabric on the planet. If you have a basic sense of form and a healthy sense of adventure, you can cut freehand. Otherwise, you can use a standard pattern or an old shirt cut apart at the seams, and create variations. One advantage to t-shirt structure is that you can easily guess what effect any change in the pattern will have on the finished garment. If you want a boxier look, you cut the body wider. If you want the sleeves shorter—you get the idea. At this point I can make two-three t-shirts an hour, if I cut them simultaneously and don’t have to change my sewing machine’s thread color. You can make a t-shirt with very little knowledge of the body, of patternmaking, of sewing. It is a forgiving form made of forgiving materials. Many of the people who make t-shirts are doing so in degraded conditions for very little, if any, pay.”
“Here is something particular about t-shirts that makes making them seem impossible, whereas jeans and dresses do not have this special quality.
Jeremy Seabrook (in Victims of Development - p. 166) –
“We are … subject to multiple dispossessions, precisely in the private lives to which we believe we have retreated, the shelter from a public realm which becomes increasingly incomprehensible and threatening beyond our control.”
“Individuals are supposed to take responsibility, not only for their own actions, but also for socially induced evils, like poverty and unemployment, and even for all the tribulations that life itself brings: it is now regarded as the duty of the individual to take care of sickness, loss, old age and infirmity, which have become other people’s business opportunities.”
“Individuals, especially women, have absorbed, secretly, privately, unspeakable burdens of social shame, disgrace and sorrow.”
“SocProf” at the Global Sociology Blog -
“Colonial Dumping”
“Nice New International Division of Labor we got here: we produce garbage and we send it to poor countries” …
(… “On December 25th let`s toast the beginning of yet another re-invention of Christmas, this time with an emphasis on savoring the joys of being part of a community with an emphasis on an emerging ecological peace on earth.” …)
