Thought provoking quotes and images

“I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think this guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”

—	One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

The Tyranny of Rights

http://www.forumonpublicdomain.ca/sites/forumonpublicdomain.ca/files/The-Tyranny-of-Rights.pdf

An amazing FREE copy of Brewster Kneen's new book. Kneen is a Canadian activist and author, particularly with the food system and bio-technology. I have only so far got into the first chapter and already it is really interesting stuff.

"As for food, human beings are no different than any
other organism in requiring reliable nutrition to maintain
life. Yet humans, I dare say, are the only organisms to come
up with the idea of a right to food"

Although the idea is clearly regarding food and the distribution of and such, it does pose questions about other ways societies wield power and control over the people. Probably going to post more excerpts and opinions the further in I get into this book.





Re-blogged from:
http://acssa-uottawa.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/tyranny-of-rights-by-brewster-kneen.html

Conflicting image interpretations

I love this image. I don't know the photographer or the site I found it, I stumbled upon it on Tumblr (an excellent blog site for images by the way) and I found it really interesting. On first glance it may look like a typical African hunting scene. But looking closer: the countryside is clearly British-esque and the skulls and furs are those of consumer products such as Bugs Bunny, Hello Kitty and the Coca Cola polar bear. I have been developing ideas that this is about consumer culture, and society becoming aware of its presence and killing it off? But maybe there's something else there too. The woman is still 'guarded' by African men, and I have been toying with the idea of how consumer culture is so relevant in Africa despite the lack of clean water and food? We have all seen the images of children without nutrition but wearing a Nike/Adidas etc sports top. 

No, it's cool, it's not like your ancestors killed them all or anything.

I think we have all been on the night outs, the Halloween's of girls (and some boys) dressing in a Pocahontas-esque style. So what is the problem with this, and is it an exploitation of Native cultures? I'm on the opinion it is, as it is fair enough to say "it's just a bit of fun" but when does the fun stop and become offensive? If people maybe were more educated in the demise of these cultures it could possibly bring more awareness into the offensiveness of these 'costumes'. 

Please post if you have anymore images that are alike, or any opinions on the idea of Western cultures exploiting Native ones. It would be really interesting to develop this to see how else Native cultures areexploited!
Here's some more...

http://nativeappropriations.blogspot.co.uk/

This website offers some interesting ideas on how Native Americans in particular are represented in modern Western society!