tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-211045852024-03-13T22:09:44.159+00:00Hag of BearaLeast likely to say, "Nobody knows I think this but..."Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-74010595733692566092009-05-11T00:10:00.003+01:002009-05-11T00:19:24.158+01:00Its Getting Crowded at the Altar.My, it’s getting awfully crowded at the altar of gay marriage advocacy. We now have four LGB organisations jockeying to take the lead on same sex partnership rights. It would seem that <a href="http://www.nlgf.ie/">NLGF</a> is no longer content to wrestle only with the financial ups and downs of GCN but they too have entered the fray as the champions of same sex marriage. That makes three by my reckoning. <a href="http://www.marriagequality.ie/">MarriagEquality</a> from whose website one would be forgiven for thinking that Ireland is the 51st state of the USA, (Mary Harney would be pleased- “closer to Boston than Berlin”),<a href="http://www.lgbtnoise.ie/about.html"> LGBT Noise</a> whose idea of youth rebellion is to be just like dear old mum and dad, and then of course there is <a href="http://www.glen.ie/">GLEN </a>with their particular approach to same sex partnerships borne of their grace and favour relationship with Fianna Fail. <br /><br />Meanwhile, in the real world, queers are contending with homophobia, harassment, poverty, bullying in schools, isolation in rural areas, abandonment by their families, denigration from pulpits and St Peter’s Square, victims of hate crimes and bigotry, queers are members of ethnic minorities, are senior citizens, have disabilities, have children and are afraid to come out of the closet. But they’ll obviously have to wait in line for attention because the money and the kudos is in the gay marriage industry. <br /><br />And that’s really what this is all about, another LGB organisation wanting some of the power and action and of course the limelight. Gay marriage is sexy, working to support elderly gays in rural areas who have no support networks or challenging Catholic schools who discriminate against lesbian and gay teachers just doesn’t pull in the dosh or the guaranteed divadom that wedding bells do. Arrogance and egotism are the driving forces, neo-liberalism and we- know- what’s- best- for- you, the modus operandi. The result is an absence of listening, the desertion of the most vulnerable in our communities and the demonization of those with a dissenting view.<br /><br />In pursuit of the cause of gay marriage, I have heard its public advocates undermine single parent families in order to extol the virtues of two parent same sex families (LGBT Noise). I have squirmed as privileged, middle class, white women compare themselves to the victims of white supremacy and of South African apartheid, demeaning the experience and abusing the language of those generations whose very lives have been on the line in the fight for black civil rights (MarriagEquality & KAL). I have watched as the experience of lesbian and gay families have been reduced to a bargaining chip to exalt the positions of a few gay men with aspirations to power (GLEN) and now the NLGF steps up to the plate in an effort to give itself meaning and a slice of the pie.<br /><br />Civil marriage should be available to lesbian and gay couples, but so also should a range of options to formalise our intimate relationships as same sex and heterosexual couples because the right to have choices is a much more fundamental and democratic principle in need of recognition and protecting. I have a problem with the hypocrisy that underlies a lot of what passes for campaigning on the issue, whether it is the irony of ardent advocates of gay marriage who have exploited the absence of same sex partnership rights in their past relationships to ensure that their material gains outweighed any natural justice or, who pontificate about coming out after having sat closeted in public positions for many years, while others did the dangerous work of making it safe to be out and proud, or those who are so intent to sanitise being queer that they eschew any meaningful political connection with their own community.<br /><br />No one seems to mention that since the passing of civil partnerships in the UK, including the North, there is no appetite for civil marriage. In fact the only people fetishizing marriage are the extreme right and the gay marriage movement. Strange bedfellows indeed. In fact, they both appear to draw their inspiration from the same school of dogmatism.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-24444733875832085012009-03-20T11:53:00.007+00:002009-03-20T12:05:11.892+00:00White is the New Black!<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px; text-align:right'>M - Th 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220592&title=the-new-white-face-of-crime'>The New White Face of Crime</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none' href='http://www.comedycentral.com'>comedycentral.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220592' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/index.jhtml'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/important_things/index.jhtml'>Important Things w/ Demetri Martin</a></td><td style='padding:3px;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-4186468082248858362009-03-01T16:38:00.010+00:002009-03-01T17:26:52.585+00:00Thinking about Icons<a href="http://www.gcn.ie/">GCN</a>’s recent uninspiring or should that be uninspired list of queer icons got me thinking about the kind of people who have fulfilled that role in my own life:<br /><br />I take my queer icons seriously. Maybe because coming out in 1980 meant you had to take yourself seriously because by God every homophobe within a 10 mile radius took the presence of a queer seriously. So seriously, they sent you death threats. And in a place like The North, where 1 in every 10 was much more likely to have access to guns than a homosexual orientation, you took the threats seriously.<br /><br />I lost count of the death threats a long time ago, the ones that linger in memory are the more creative ones: opening up the community centre one morning to find that the early morning Brit Patrol had left a rather graphic depiction of what I needed to make me straight spray-painted on the wall, the postcard from Alicante signed with the pseudonym used by loyalist paramilitaries, sent to my mother’s address where I no longer lived, telling her that I was HIV positive and should be erased ( I still have that postcard), or the phone call at 3am in the morning to my family home to communicate the intention that a better job would be done on me than on Bernadette Devlin ( who had just survived an assassination attempt. <br /><br />So having queer icons to respect, to emulate and gain strength from was a lifeline that kept me afloat. I was reminded this week of one of the earliest people who threw me such a lifeline because she has just paid a flying visit to Dublin. I first saw Peggy Shaw and her partner and co-performer, Lois Weaver in 1984 in the Old Museum Arts Centre situated near the junction of what was the nocturnal wasteland of Belfast City Centre and the entrance to the Lower Falls Road. <a href="http://www.splitbritches.com/pages/peggy.html">Split Britches</a> blew me away. I had never seen two mature, challenging, elegant, articulate dykes stand on a stage in the full power of their butch and femme personae to critique with style, intelligence and such incredible sexiness the society and culture we lived in that denigrated queers and women who refused to conform. None but the brave came to Belfast in those days and these two women were heroic. Split Britches were the first activist-performers I had ever encountered and my world stretched and luxuriated in the possibilities that their very existence presented. <br /><br />In the years since, I have been privileged to meet, hear, see and be mentored by a panoply of diverse women and men who taught me to question accepted views, take courage in who and what I am, to understand the importance of celebrating the perverse and to revel in the unorthodox. People who demonstrate the art of the possible by using the experience of discrimination to envision change. They are my icons, not all of them queer, but who gave this queer faith- the strugglers, the dissenters, the architects of challenge and change, trade unionists, poets, musicians, journalists, inner city community activists and even an Irish President; those who speak, write and sing out, naming shame and calling it oppression, the questioners of authority who call out hypocrisy and refuse bigotry a hearing. Women and men who stand for the weak and the vulnerable, embracing those of us perceived as different and dangerous. <br /><br />My icons have to inspire me, to teach me, to include me, to lift my spirit and keep me hopeful. And there aren’t too many of those chatting on couches on RTE daytime television.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-72421472061793840342009-02-21T22:40:00.002+00:002009-02-21T22:47:25.097+00:00Happy DanceYou cant see me do this- but right now, I'm doing the "happy dance" ( wiggling hips, waving hands in the air, big shit-eating grin on my face) cos my pal <a href="http://www.mamanpoulet.com/">MP</a> just won<br /><br /> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Best Blogger in Ireland</span><br /><br />Chachacha!Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-9371449665221395262009-02-21T21:54:00.010+00:002009-02-21T23:10:43.678+00:00We need more than a march<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgID_pKhnzRzwsTVldkNAdUTFbvLkX-SH2cSmtxhmwwX4lcwum7C2F5mkRafcu7Xwd-sM1jqg5z9zeCK_yGSOU4gwRtmcYUfsXtP8ggp_53-AjjDnmjbW7HlfoXACt4F-AdEX-tAA/s1600-h/0002165c10dr.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgID_pKhnzRzwsTVldkNAdUTFbvLkX-SH2cSmtxhmwwX4lcwum7C2F5mkRafcu7Xwd-sM1jqg5z9zeCK_yGSOU4gwRtmcYUfsXtP8ggp_53-AjjDnmjbW7HlfoXACt4F-AdEX-tAA/s200/0002165c10dr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305378012596260658" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.ictu.ie/">Well, we were out in our tens of thousands. </a>Gardai figures say 100,000 plus but if ever an occasion bursting with potential was wasted, it was today. Where was the creativity, the spontaneity, the surge to build a movement, the taking back of lost territory and forging a new kind of people’s politics.<br /><br />Marching bands from the Fire Brigade and Prison Officers Unions along with the community salsa band were all placed in the first quarter of the march. Where were the loudhailers spitting chants and slogans? We marched like sheep quietly, obediently shepherded by well-organised and extremely pleasant and accommodating stewards, sans anger and passion. Where was the maximising of the energy that got us out on the street, giving it voice and sensation in all its myriad possibilities?<br /><br />Where were the major NGO and voluntary sector organisations to-day, apart from the half dozen small groupings who will always turn out reliably? Where were those NGOs swollen by philanthropic funds and an over-familiarity with government, the gatekeepers to representation, the professionalised class of liberals who have sucked the life-blood from what was once a vibrant, organic, model of people’s democracy and participation? Did they need to bring in consultants to tell them where they should be? Were they not interested because it was outside of their 35 hour a week paid contracts?<br /><br />At the end rally only a few thousand were lucky enough to even hear the <a href="http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=3507">ICTU President</a> (one of my favourite activists) and <a href="http://www.ictu.ie/about/staff.html">General Secretary</a> speak because march stewards blocked off the street where the platform was located from the remaining 90,000 or more still finishing the route. Loudspeakers were non -existent outside of the cordoned off street and by the time the key figures had spoken and the rally dispersed, marchers were still flooding into nearby streets. I had expected to hear speeches not just telling us what the problem is- we all know that by know- but outlining actions and activities to take this enormous physical manifestation of protest further. Instead, we were instructed to put our placards in the appointed skips to prevent littering and consciously or not the inference was, that we wouldn’t be needing them again. Then we were thanked for coming. Sin e. We were marched to the top of the hill and abandoned. It felt like political coitus interruptus. <br /><br />We, the people, the workers, the unemployed, the vulnerable in our inestimable diversity, were lined up, walked through the streets almost mutely and sent on our way home at the end. Goddamn it! The Celtic Tiger and its sanitised, single issue-focused culture requiring genuflection at the altar of professional expertise and polite dialogue has diminished and suppressed our instincts for innovative thinking and action. We need to do something beyond worshipping at the church of masochism where the talk is all about taking a hit and hairshirts and start singing, performing, demonstrating and producing the rainbow of possibilities that collective, organic change can bring. We need agitprop, we need localised action groups, we need a palpable and consistent sensation of our priorities that lingers longer than the hour and half it took to walk through the city centre.<br /><br /> We need a leadership that recognises that all of that and more must be encouraged, accommodated and promoted. That means an opposition leadership of more than one entity or power bloc, not just the trade union movement or political opposition parties- the times and our survival demand it. Yes, the trade union movement have put forward <a href="http://www.ictu.ie/publications/fulllist/there_is_a_better_fairer_waydoc/">a 10 point plan of alternative economic recovery</a> and we want the government to take cognisance of it, but we need more than a single one-off march and a few days of strike action. <br /><br /> We need a leadership to embolden the unemployed, the redundant, the anxious, the embattled but still employed, whole communities, families, churches, discriminated groups, jugglers and strugglers to act, to agitate, to create, to imagine alternatives, to envision the change and make it happen. <br /><br /> We got here because we failed to adequately challenge a corrupt government party, inept, self-interested coalition parties and their cronies in high finance and venture capital. No more. We have to use every means possible to resurrect first principles of social justice. There must be no more following the unimaginative, the sterile march-to-the -top –of- the hill- and –then-hurtle- down- again politics, no matter who calls upon us to do so.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-84376737158425239212009-02-20T13:19:00.004+00:002009-02-20T14:00:41.666+00:00Name them and Nail them!Hello? Hello? <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0220/breaking43.htm">Earth to Mc Evaddy</a>... can you hear us inside that bubble of supreme disconnect with reality..your leaking gas out yer ass. <br /><br />I have no doubt that Mc Evaddy’s Golden Circle pals sent him out to see if we would swallow anymore guff, painting them as national heroes who unselfishly shouldered the weight of carrying the Anglo-Irish Bank, no doubt until their pals in Fianna Fail bludgeoned the country into paying up and shutting up to bail them out. <br /><br />Like the rest of the country,I’m incandescent with rage at the extent to which we are being treated like cannon-fodder for the big guns of capitalism. However, I honestly do not know why we are putting so much energy into demanding that Anglo- Irish’s Golden Shower of Bastards are named unless we are prepared to also put as much and more energy into ensuring that we nail them and their accomplices in Fianna Fail. They need to do hard time for grievous bodily harm to the country and its people.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-48352745500631023332009-02-18T23:24:00.001+00:002009-02-18T23:28:23.051+00:00Back to the Future<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FLoZ8HlGH44&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FLoZ8HlGH44&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Definitely time for a new version of this ( preferably without Mick Hucknall), just substitute <span style="font-style:italic;">Reaganomics</span> with Cowenomics.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-25876511662714300032009-02-18T22:35:00.003+00:002009-02-18T22:54:58.841+00:00I'm Still Waiting<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7obG5hBBQXBp2sIrHOGlScKdRO0-Yyx-IQiZ14ohsP_GS9pnnyKvAbATm4AcHFLQSuBi4n9HIh6mfbMPFCQGtrchyasXMlt-6L3sBA_q7Ls9AK0o-zRMaWRti5wNOBKrZ_AAVg/s1600-h/supremes.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 160px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7obG5hBBQXBp2sIrHOGlScKdRO0-Yyx-IQiZ14ohsP_GS9pnnyKvAbATm4AcHFLQSuBi4n9HIh6mfbMPFCQGtrchyasXMlt-6L3sBA_q7Ls9AK0o-zRMaWRti5wNOBKrZ_AAVg/s200/supremes.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304273975174856786" /></a><br /><br />Well, its been 2weeks since I sent the following email to GLEN:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Dear GLEN<br /><br />Is there any possibility at all that you will provide information about current issues which have impacted on the LGB community in which GLEN is directly involved:<br /><br />1. Perhaps some clarification on why the Chairman of GLEN continues to sit on the Board of the Equality Authority, despite the resignation of the CEO and half of the board, what is the rationale for this?<br /><br />2. Information as to how many lesbians have recently resigned from the board of GLEN and the reasons for those resignations. Given that gender balance in GLEN was never a model of good practice, these resignations raise serious questions as to whether or not it has any chance of ever being so. <br /><br />3. What response has GLEN made to the proposed Adoption Bill on overseas adoptions which makes no accommodation for same sex couples?<br /></span><br /><br />Like the song goes- I'm still waitingHag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-27614575060276331022009-02-12T09:52:00.003+00:002009-02-12T11:21:55.949+00:00Same Horse, Different CourseIn Britain, a prominent member of the ruling elite is caught using a racist slur against a minority and he is packed off to <a href="http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090212/tuk-harry-sent-for-diversity-training-dba1618.html">diversity training.</a><br /><br />In Ireland a prominent member of the ruling elite uses a <a href="http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2005/05/19/story626825454.asp">racist slur against a minority and we make him Minister of Integration.</a>Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-53071030842175851872009-02-07T19:55:00.003+00:002009-02-07T20:21:00.389+00:00J'accuse<span style="font-style:italic;">“This is not good governance and the situation must be addressed urgently. The chair of the Equality Authority should resign immediately, having signally failed to protect the interests of her own organisation and presided over the resignation of the chief executive and now up to half the board. I publicly call upon her today to do so. In addition, the tattered remnants of the serving board should also pack up their kit and salvage what little dignity they have left. Like the ancient Israelites, they are being commanded to make bricks without straw. We are not living in the middle kingdom of ancient Egypt. We are in a 21st century European democracy and they should land this task, which has been deliberately made impossible, back in the lap of the Government. The fraudulence of the Government’s pretended commitment to human rights should be publicly exposed.”</span> <span style="font-weight:bold;">Seanad debate 5/2/09 </span> <br /><br /><a href="http://www.senatordavidnorris.ie/">Senator David Norris</a> yet again has risen to defend human rights and equality with all the gusto, conviction and eloquence we have come to expect of him. We should thank whatever god we pray to for his unfailing consistency in this respect, for the same cannot be said of some of our other LGB spokespeople. Norris was unequivocal in his condemnation of the Chair of the Equality Authority Board, <a href="http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PR07000768">Angela Kerins</a> for her role as henchwoman in ensuring that the hatchet fell where it would do most damage. He has challenged remaining Board members of the EA to do the decent thing and resign rather than collude with the destruction of the Authority. <br /><br />His undiluted disgust at their continuing to remain on the Board was refreshing to this blogger’s ears. Because no one else appears ready to name the hypocrisy that allows members of NGO organisations to provide cover for the destruction of one of, if not THE most important rights agency in Ireland. <a href="http://www.finfacts.ie/irishfinancenews/article_1015513.shtml">Niall Crowley</a> was effectively pushed from his position as CEO, because anyone who knows the man and the depth of his commitment to equality, knows that it was untenable for him to remain in that position while everything he believed in and had laboured to achieve was being systematically demolished by the government and its plants on the EA board. <br /><br />Some Board members have already resigned in support of Crowley and in protest at the disproportionate level of cuts incurred by the EA and the Minister’s outright refusal to consider any alternatives. Nevertheless, there are those who remain to give credibility to the pathetic husk of what is left of the agency.<br /><br />While <a href="http://www.glen.ie/">GLEN</a> participates in the <a href="http://eracampaign.org/weblog/">Equality & Rights Alliance</a> established to fight the cuts and attacks on rights and equality bodies, Chair of the GLEN board, Kieran Rose continues to sit on the board of the EA overseeing the implementation of the cuts on the Authority. Rose claims he is on the EA as an individual. He is deliberately splitting hairs. The EA’s track record in promoting lesbian and gay equality is outstanding. Niall Crowley made LGB rights a priority from the moment he took up his post, by appointing a specific officer on sexual orientation issues and making LGB equality the subject of the very first report produced by the Authority. Kieran Rose as an individual gay man and as head of a national gay organisation has much to be thankful for in Crowley’s stewardship of the EA, but he repays him and the EA by actively colluding with a government that has made it impossible for the Equality Authority to ever be able to support and promote LGB rights to the same extent again.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-85678629917907269092009-02-03T21:14:00.005+00:002009-02-03T21:51:35.753+00:00Save us the trouble of pretending to care.Ok- I give up, I cant find it! I dont want to play hunt the response anymore, its too frustrating. I'm tired of this game because there's no point looking for something that isnt there, thats just silly. There is no public response from LGB organisations on the new <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0124/1232474679478.html">Adoption Bill</a>. The Bill makes no reference to and no accommodation for overseas adoptions by same sex couples. So, can we also stop playing that other game where our self-appointed LGB spokespeople pretend to be interested in children's rights and same sex couples. It would save so much time and save so many people from having raised expectations of LGB organisations who have no interest in same sex couples and children unless it's politically convenient for them.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-36688043496477415092009-01-21T23:33:00.004+00:002009-01-29T19:44:09.352+00:00Viva Cuba<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://celebritydeath.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/che-guevara.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 373px;" src="http://celebritydeath.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/che-guevara.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />It is pretty cool to wake up on my birthday, the first working day of a new US Presidency and to know that the guy in the White House is someone I did my little bit to help put there. In fact, to-day had all the ingredients for a day of feeling smug and it was tempting. However, not actually possible when reality is leaving teeth marks in your ass. <br /><br />Because here in the political boglands, no one seems to be in charge. The economy is on a one -way bungee jump on a fraying elastic, the dole offices are the only workplaces recruiting for staff, cutbacks are slicing through essential services, government politicians are stuttering and spluttering and when they eventually do make a response its total bilge, our equality and rights agencies are fast disappearing, only banks and bankers have been given parachutes, the weather is enough to induce mass suicide and the only thing we have going for us, is that we are not at war with anyone, yet. (Although it would be tempting to declare it on Israel, after all they say war’s good for the economy and they have it coming and we're a long way away from each other.)<br /><br />So, next year I’m going to Cuba. I’m going to spend my 50th birthday there. Anyone who wants to come and celebrate with me is most welcome. I don’t know how I’m going to afford it, but … ( Scarlet O’Hara moment coming up) so help me, if I have to beg, steal, borrow, hijack, abduct and hold to ransom the first born child of every overpaid politician in the cabinet, I will find the wherewithal to party in Havana by next January.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-43008360792983513382009-01-20T01:26:00.001+00:002009-01-20T01:27:51.356+00:00Countdown to the end of a Presidency and a new career as a Standup<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxkpm7bH7j4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxkpm7bH7j4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-76616831201671981692009-01-19T01:52:00.003+00:002009-01-19T02:03:49.884+00:00A BlessingUnfortunately, the blessing invoked by Bishop Gene Robinson was not televised at the WE ARE ONE Concert in Washington DC to celebrate Barack Obama's inauguration today. A broadcasting decision that will undoubtedly stoke further controversy in the days to come. But before the Bishop's prayer gets lost in the arguments that will follow, I thought I'd post it because it is beautiful in its simplicity and truth. <br /><br /><br />By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire<br /><br /> Opening Inaugural Event<br /> Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC<br /> January 18, 2009<br /><br /> Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.<br /><br /> O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…<br /><br /> Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.<br /><br /> Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.<br /><br /> Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.<br /><br /> Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.<br /><br /> Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.<br /><br /> Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.<br /><br /> Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.<br /><br /> And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.<br /><br /> Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.<br /><br /> Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.<br /><br /> Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.<br /><br /> Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.<br /><br /> Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.<br /><br /> Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.<br /><br /> And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.<br /><br /> AMEN.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-61689717819064885412009-01-14T20:01:00.001+00:002009-01-14T20:16:27.053+00:00The Order of Superior EntitlementBack in the early 90s, as Northern Orangemen flexed their marching muscles determined to stride down Garvaghy Road, one often heard argument supporting their invasion of a Catholic housing estate was their self-proclaimed ‘entitlement to walk the Queen’s highway’. Quaint and anachronistic though the phrase, “the Queen’s highway” is, it was in the assertion of entitlement that the Orange Order demonstrated their belief that they were superior to their Catholic neighbours. <br /><br />Of late, there has been no shortage in Ireland of arrogant, self- obsessed egotists promoting their over-riding indulgences. Despite their numbers, entitlement proclaimers are universally identifiable by an unfailing belief in their own superiority, breath-taking arrogance, contempt for the lower orders, in particular those who would question them and are unshakeable in their self- righteousness. <br /><br />An example is one, Mr Rody Molloy, profligate extraordinaire of Fas who <a href="http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rodys-rationale-molloys-explanations-for-expenses-during-pat-kenny-interview-1551831.html">declared on the Pat Kenny show that he was entitled to fly first class anywhere in the world</a> by virtue of the fact that he was Rody Molloy and CEO of Fas. RTE listeners took a deep intake of breath. Unfettered access to first class air travel and other expensive perks were, Mr Molloy felt, his due. His irascibility at Kenny’s questioning of his expenses, proved the extent to which Molloy felt that his own sense of inflated status should exempt him from any calling to account. <br /><br />For outstanding <a href="http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/marian-finucane-podcast-4-october/11817487">chutzpah</a> (Real Player required), it would have to be Mr Sean Fitzpatrick, who felt entitled as a captain of finance and industry and board director with Anglo-Irish Bank, <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/1218/breaking89.html?via=mr">to provide himself with an 87 million euro loan from said bank without any need to divulge his activity to the bank’s shareholders</a>. His fellow board members appear to have agreed with him, dazzled no doubt by his overpowering aura of superiority.<br /><br />More recently, when Beverly Flynn, fleecer of the public purse, claimed that she too was ‘entitled’ to an independent TD’s allowance in addition to her allowance as an FF TD, her pronouncement was made in a <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article5439768.ece">well- that’s- all- there- is- to- it- so –there tone</a>. Entitlement it would seem requires no further explanation or clarification. Entitlement presumes that those who have it, declare it and flaunt it are beyond the reach of such mundanities as ethics or fiscal restraints. <br /><br />But entitlement in the hands of true masters can excuse more than lining one’s own pockets or screwing the taxpayer, it can even justify the slaughter of innocents. The entitlement to defend one’s self as pronounced by Israel would appear to be the only reply it needs to defend the destruction of the Gaza Strip and the extermination of any of its population who get in the way. And unfortunately, they do tend to get in the way, given that there are so many of them and they are kind of, well, penned in. <br /><br />Belief in one’s own superiority is essential to the understanding of entitlement. Those who are superior to others have entitlements, those who are vulnerable, dispossessed and discriminated against have rights but in the entitled world, entitlements trump rights, trump ethics, trump international laws, trump truth, trump life, trump everything.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-4844842881594117682009-01-07T16:19:00.000+00:002009-01-07T16:22:33.521+00:00The Smell of Things to ComeFearful anticipation has a smell all of its own. It smells like breath held a beat too long, the scent of anxious eyes and a body steeled to run. I know you are thinking those things do not smell but they do. It is the smell immediately before sweat breaks, the odour emitted before undiluted fear reigns. It is most marked in the agitated moments, sometimes the hours, before terror consumes all.<br /><br /> In a crowded street where the heave of human activity fills every available space and where there are more people than possible escape routes; on a darkened road, where every movement is a potential threat, in unlit homes barricaded against armed invaders while the rumble of heavy engines draw nearer, its’ smell is most pervasive.<br /><br />In Gaza, its’ acrid smell will have taken up residence between the bombed out buildings on rubbled streets. It will be piled up in the sewage-ridden gutters and seeping into the corners of rooms where huddled children watch the skies, waiting. It is the stench of powerlessness, of living with terror, of knowing the inevitability of sudden, indiscriminate, violent death. By now, it is clinging to the clothes of the people, blanketed over the roof of Shifa Hospital, wafting down its blood-strewn corridors. It is wrapped around the hills of Beit Hanoun and Gaza City, pungent and unrelenting.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-26716394609867625752009-01-06T12:29:00.001+00:002009-01-06T12:29:57.029+00:00Grit TV on Invasion of Gaza<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/gdEl5M4RjJYL" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="240" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-55512241754110649252009-01-04T12:03:00.001+00:002009-01-04T12:07:09.161+00:00Singing out the Year<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TWiXy55OHyY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TWiXy55OHyY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br />Wuhoo I just learned to embed a video- there'll be no stopping me now- tomorrow I take Manhattan!Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-35194359452076154042009-01-03T14:14:00.000+00:002009-01-03T14:19:48.305+00:00Dodging the DebateNot for the first time, I’ve noticed how there are certain subjects on which it is nigh on impossible to engage in reasonable debate. The most pressing subject at the moment is the Israeli attacks on Gaza. Yet, anyone exhibiting support or concern for Palestinians in that tiny strip of land is immediately assailed by the kind of accusations and justifications that defy logic, morality and compassion.<br /><br />In these retorts, the deaths of 16 Israelis from Hamas rocket attacks in the last year is more than justification for a sustained air offensive against an area the size of the Isle of Wight and home to 1.5million people, the deaths of 400 of their number and 2000 injured (at the time of writing). Proportionate and appropriate are unheard of definers. Only Israel’s “right to defend itself” is of importance, the military might of the Israeli Defence Forces, the range of unchallenging political support it receives from Western governments, the highly questionable legitimacy of its territorial claims and its flagrant contravention of international covenants and agreements are neither here nor there, for it is made clear by those who defend its actions that no amount of Palestinian lives will ever equate to one Israeli life. In the face of such irrationality there really is nowhere to go. It’s not even as if those of us who are concerned about Israel’s actions have actively sought out discussion with holders of Israel’s might is right views, unfortunately, it is quite the contrary. Anyone expressing any sympathy or the least care for the plight of Palestinans is homed in on like a heat seeking missile by Zionist apologists and excoriated in whatever media comes to hand. <br /><br />The assault has a detectable pattern-: response is swift and immediate, for many it is wholly unexpected and thus having been taken by surprise, many are unaware of just how vicious the exchange is going to be. It contains not only Zionist arguments as to why excessive military action is required against the ‘terrorists’ but will accuse the original correspondent of naivety, stupidity, collusion, collaboration and general bleeding heart liberalism- the aim of which is to make the attack personal and thus avoid any engagement in political reasoning for such is not the protagonist’s forte. It is a highly successful strategy and has silenced numerous individuals. It also has a disconcerting similarity to Israel’s strategy against Palestine.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-87030985241201443792008-11-09T17:32:00.004+00:002008-11-09T17:39:27.355+00:00Obama’s People: An Ohio community working for Change.I don’t ever recall getting up for any man at 4.30am but that’s what happened on election day, 4th November when I reported for my last day of volunteer duty in Ohio at the Cuyahoga Falls, Akron, Obama campaign office. Six cups of coffee later, I was hitting the ‘turf’ maps and lists, prioritising the most numerous ‘knocks’ and assigning them to our best and most thorough volunteer canvassers. Each local area had been “cut into turf”- a number of streets and apartment blocks to be canvassed. The number and location of houses or knocks were indicated on each turf map or ‘packet’ identifying the targets for each canvasser- to get out and knock on those doors, find out who had voted early, gauge who was voting Obama, who McCain and who was as yet undecided. Each piece of turf was hit 3 times during the week running up to the election. The last run on the eve of the election we placed “doorhangers” on every door to remind people to vote and telling them where their polling station was situated. On election day we began at 5.30am, all the turfs had to be revisited to get the vote out. The commitment of volunteers was incredible, many of them went out 4 and 5 times that day taking new ‘packs’ with them of areas and addresses to be knocked. The weather was glorious having gone from the previous week’s low, snowing 30s to a balmy 70F degrees. I spent the day assigning packs to volunteers, explaining what had to be done and how best to get it done, taking back the finished packs and eliminating householders who had already voted and then re-sending them out again a few hours later to hit those householders who had yet to vote. We continued until 7pm in the evening as the polls did not close until 7.30pm in Ohio and once a voter was in line by 7.30pm they could still vote.<br /><br />Meanwhile we had a runner from the Red Team who had the responsibility of visiting all the local polling stations on an hourly cycle to call in any problems that might be occurring to the neighbourhood office and keeping the central command office in Akron appraised of the turnout. At 5pm when she reported that there were no lines at the polling stations and the turnout was slow, we went into hyper mode, those turfs too big to revisit in the remaining time, we set about phoning to remind them to vote, telling them there were no queues and they should avail of the opportunity to cast their vote while it was so. It was nail-biting. We began to feel that perhaps we had not done enough, if no lines were in place at 7pm. But there were other more positive factors at work which had brought about the absence of long lines; a successful push to get people to early vote had seen daily queues at the early voting centre in Akron, added to the fact that the official in charge of the state of Ohio’s voting centres had scrupulously ensured that machines worked and that the actual act of voting was as hassle free as possible. Nevertheless, doubt lingered and the tension grew among all of us volunteers in the neighbourhood office. By 6.30pm, we were barely able to stand with exhaustion but adrenalin kicked in and we kept pushing the turf out to be canvassed and it was. With nothing to do but wait, we cleaned up our storefront office, put out the trash, took down the Obama posters, cleaned up the reams and reams of paper, threw out the extra campaign literature, cleared away the stale takeaway food we had been eating most of the day as we worked, but all the time the nerves were jangling, the fears were rising and the doubts kept nagging.<br /><br />I spent a week campaigning in Akron, Ohio. I tramped several miles a day canvassing, hours on phones rounding up volunteers or ringing voters, setting up the co-ordination of turfs and canvassers and talking with the incredible range of people who showed up every day to volunteer in snow and sunshine to get the vote out for Obama.<br /><br />There were Willie and John, two tireless Vietnam Vets in their late 60s and early 70s, white middle class Democrat women, Monica and Chris, (the former had allowed her home to be used as a staging location for canvassers earlier in the week until the storefront venue became available), high school kids whose Principles of Democracy class teacher suggested they give a number of hours to a campaign as a means of obtaining class credits. Most of the class volunteered to work for Obama, hence I met Caleb and his dad, Goth junior and senior as I came to think of them, in their black clothes and long hair, tramping streets and knocking on doors together and doing much more hours of volunteering than required to get Goth junior his class credits. <br /><br />Debanuj, born in India, returned to his family home of Akron after 8years in New York where he had been an activist in radical queer politics. Everyday of the campaign he minced down the streets of Chayogua Falls encouraging white voters to elect Obama while eyeing up the talent amongst the new volunteers. Pat, a middle-aged, funny, bouncy, dyke who set the bar for all other canvassers, with 100 knocks a day, everyday and in all weather conditions. Mary, a healthcare worker and trade unionist, Mike who took 2 weeks vacation time from his job as a trucker to canvass for Obama, Ken the indefatigable CPA who went out every day after work and 5 times on election day, Nyesha, beautiful and glamorous who left her Jag parked illegally out front and ran in urging me to sign her up as a volunteer. I signed her up immediately- the girl had style. Surat, the quiet, thoughtful academic from Sri Lanka who canvassed every evening and expounded his deeply considered views of education in the USA over a curry one night after we had closed up shop. <br /><br />Then there was Jen. Jen appeared in the office on election eve about 5pm. Small, wiry and red-haired she leaned on heavy crutches and begged, “ put me to work, I cant stand sitting at home watching on my TV, I HAVE to do something or I will go crazy.” I set her to ringing and confirming with volunteers their shifts for election day. Jen arrived again early on November 4th and made 187 calls to volunteers and voters. As her voice began to croak I took a smoke break with her. Just 14 months ago she had been returning from work on Route 8 and been hit head on by a drunk 17 year old driver. It took 12 hrs before Jen was cut out of her car. She spent the next 3 weeks in a coma, 6 months in a nursing home and is still receiving physiotherapy. Her legs remain twisted and one will never regain full power, but for Jen an independent activist, it was the inability to do as much as she wanted for the campaign that was proving her greatest test of endurance. It was with Jen that I shared the tension of the last few hours of doubt about polling figures and later sat speechless and tearful as we watched Ohio come in as a blue state for the first time in 8 years. As I left her to her ride home, she confessed that if Obama had not won she had made plans to move to Canada permanently, she doesn’t have to do that now.<br /><br />White volunteers were clear that those they canvassed who identified as Democrat but resisted voting for Obama did so because of their racism, a racism which they challenged on doorsteps by addressing every other possible concern and then leaving the obvious reason, the resistance to the candidate’s colour, without a place to hide. On encountering Mc Cain supporters they said a simple thank you and wished them a good day with the kind of sincerity that only Americans seem capable of in greeting one another. The canvassers of colour took their own courage for granted, knocking on a constituency so white that it is known in Akron as Caucasian Falls, taking insults and enquiries with unflappable composure. Of course we had our battle stories each day; the Mc Cain supporter who ranted for a canvasser to “get that n****r’s shit of my porch”, the numerous tales of women who whispered that they intended to vote Obama but their husbands were voting Mc Cain and so unfortunately they could not take in the campaign’s literature, but we could be assured of their vote, the 80 year old white lady who yelled at one seasoned and startled activist, “ I haven’t lived all these years NOT to vote for a Black President – so who the hell do you think I’m going to vote for if not Obama?!” Each evening, I crawled into my pyjamas, exhausted but not wearied. These encounters, the fellowship and solidarity buoyed me anew every day of that final hard week of pounding pavements and porches.<br /><br />Obama may have been these people’s inspiration, but they were also mine. Their dedication, their belief in a better America, their conviction that only through forging an alliance with one another and mobilising from neighbourhood level could the seemingly insurmountable be tackled. The way to create real change was apparent every day that I worked with them. I have never seen a bunch of such diverse and differently abled people prepared to put their shoulders to a wheel with such good natured and unsinkable spirit. They supported and encouraged one another, affirmed and respected whatever input each could make. They refused to give into the unthinkable even as the Republicans ratcheted up more bile and negativity against their candidate and their beliefs. They are the America that spoke out on election day and whose spokesman reflected all of their trials and their triumph so eloquently on the night of November 4th. <br /><br />Something has been built in America, more far-reaching than any skyscraper, a movement of the forgotten, the invisible, the betrayed, an alliance of those who hoped against interminable odds, a force of people who kept faith with values and principles too long deserted by their politicians. Activists and housewives, senior citizens and high school kids, working mums and middle class professionals, academics and war veterans, care workers and CPAs, college students and ghetto kids united in a belief that in order to change what needed to be changed, they had to start where they stood. It was their demonstrable ability to care, to co-operate and to listen and reach out to one another that brought a man who told them, “ Yes We Can” to a moment of history where the most important thing that he must do for them now, as their President, is to keep listening and keep faith with them.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-2581497073420999812008-10-06T00:14:00.005+01:002008-10-21T23:35:23.045+01:00Back in the Saddle- so to speak<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Well, its been a while since this blog was active and I've been spurred on to relaunch it by my upcoming trip to the US ( of which more later). Its not that I've been sitting on my ass for the last two years, more like I've been a little sidetracked by the vagaries of life. However, sidetracks and detours apart, I have been pondering some of the double standards and hypocrisies closer to home and lamenting the critical condition of political movements and initiatives which have been thoroughly sanitised of all radical debate and analysis by the self-serving objectives of neo-liberalism.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Take for example, the LGB rights movement here at home. It's had a thorough laundering, been bleached and given a good starch and press until it is suitable to wear at even the most exclusive dinner parties. Queer has become quaint, dykes are dilettantes and gay pride has become gay posturing. The ultimate example is the lemming like rush to gay marriage, led by an LGB cabal, most notable for their uniformity- middle class, privileged and about as au fait with struggle as a wet lettuce. Now, nuptials are being self-righteously served up for breakfast, dinner and supper, no matter what our dietary needs. The assumption, nay the dictat is that we will all eat the same thing and like it. LGB equality is populated by divas enamoured by the spotlight and mother superior-types positioning themselves as the voice of LGB equality, talking at us and for us. We need many voices and many views. We need options that allow us all to make choices without fear of discrimination. So I'm advocating that we adopt that long, and honourable response of our forefathers and mothers from Wolfe Tone to Bernadette Devlin- dissent. Here's mine:<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Wedded to a Single Option and Forsaking All Others: A Critique of the Current Drive for Same Sex Marriage</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.irishleftreview.org/2008/04/29/wedded-single-option-forsaking-critique-current-drive-sex-marriage/"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Originally published, Irish Left Review April 29 2008)</span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">… “just because an institution or a practice is rooted in tradition does not make it right.”<br /><br />This statement appears in the position paper of <a href="http://www.marraigeequality.ie/">MarriagEquality</a>, the campaign to extend civil marriage to same sex couples. It is a statement with which I wholeheartedly concur; tradition and practice are not an infallible or a desirable means of according rights. However, it articulates a fundamental contradiction at the heart of that campaign and the position it has taken. The statement is made as a counter argument to those opposing same sex marriage, who use it to justify why marriage should continue to be an institution preserved for opposite sex couples. Taking the logic of MarriagEquality’s own statement, simply because certain rights are based in the tradition and practice of the institution of marriage does not make that institution right. Nevertheless, despite having made the above statement MarriagEquality are happy to endorse the institution of marriage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House</span><br /><br />Herein lies a conundrum, for MarriagEquality is a campaign fronted by self-professed feminists who are now leading the charge towards an institution that has been the target of feminist ire and opprobrium for centuries. So why strengthen patriarchy’s most potent institution for ensuring women’s conformity and cementing social privilege and inequality? In the absence of any feminist or progressive critique emanating from the campaign it is hard to find an answer.<br /><br />The uninterrogated pursuit of marriage to the exclusion of any other regularisation of family forms and partnerships has left the campaign open to allegations of ‘mé feinism’ as overheard recently in one discussion. Inevitably, it has led to a surge in the adoption of at best naïve and at worst reactionary politics and conservative values in the rush to support gay marriage. Perhaps, it is timely to remember the words of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde">Audre Lorde</a>, ‘the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house.’<br /><br />There is no better example of this than the resurrection of one of the most contemptible of patriarchal disparagements used to demean women who do not conform by none other than <a href="http://www.dublinpride.org/">Dublin Pride</a>. “Always the Bridesmaid Never the Bride” is the 2008 theme for this year’s events in Dublin. MarriagEquality may disclaim any direct involvement in the theme’s adoption but they are uniquely responsible within LGB activism for endorsing marriage as the only form of legitimacy. No doubt, at some point the choice of theme will be justified as a post-modernist jibe invoking the tools of sexism to send-up the institution of marriage. To be even minimally convincing, the plea of post- modern irony would require a modicum of radical critique forged from an informed awareness of inequality.<br /><br />However, this is Dublin Pride, whose idea of providing equality of access entails stranding wheelchair users on the edge of a steep, muddy embankment isolated from their friends and forced to reach their assigned ‘space’ through the terrain designated as the drag queens dressing area. When MarriagEquality eschews any critique of marriage preferring to present the institution as the panacea to all our rights deficits, then one can hardly expect Pride to do otherwise.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Poor Are Always With Us</span><br /><br />Marriage is being robustly promoted as the only explicit and exclusive means to full equality when it is actually an institution of privilege. Campaigners for gay marriage are silent on the fact that marriage as an institution rooted in tradition and practice bestows privileges to those within it. Those who are married are privileged over those who are not. The state through its agents and policies economically ensure, politically legislate for and socially enshrine that privilege. In order to be privileged there must be those over whom one has privilege. In the case of marriage, it is for instance, those for whom marriage is not a financially viable state - the poor. Couples in receipt of social welfare benefits are financially disadvantaged by marriage and so endeavour to maintain economic survival wherever possible by claiming as individuals. Otherwise, they are designated as cohabitants, their benefits means-tested and diminished accordingly. That is currently the situation in the straight world.<br /><br />By promoting marriage as the singular means of achieving equality for same sex couples the campaign not only intends to extend the rights and privileges of marriage to lesbian and gays but to extend the disadvantages of a welfare system to same sex couples which punishes cohabitation for those reliant on welfare benefits. The adverse consequences should the campaign’s demand be fulfilled are not unknown to its proponents. Much of this information is contained in the ICCL report <a href="http://iccl.ie/DB_Data/publications/EqualityForAllFamilies1.pdf">Equality for ALL Families </a>( 2006) which is drawn upon extensively in MarriagEquality’s own position paper. However, the alternative options and the complimentary requirements laid out in the ICCL report which would ensure or at the very least recognise the inequalities caused by privileging marriage over all other family forms are judiciously avoided in the MarriagEquality document. As it currently stands, it is a social and political initiative which would have difficulties complying with some basic poverty-proofing criteria.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You Are Not Out Till You’re Out!</span><br /><br />Apart from the unwieldiness of the slogan, You Are Not Out Till You Are Out To Your TD which as a message lacks a certain ‘punch’, it has limited relevance to, or recognition of the risks its fulfilment would require for those whose lives are experienced in the absence of supportive networks. For instance, there are those who live in isolated rural areas, within hostile families and in communities where difference equates to a soft target. As has been said <a href="http://www.mamanpoulet.com/?p=383#comment-56368">elsewhere</a>, it is a slogan which implies that the blame lies with lesbians and gays. Without doubt, there are those campaigning for same sex marriage who made personal choices in the past not to come out no matter how urgent the need to confront homophobia and have had their own good reasons for doing so, unfortunately that sensibility has not translated to this element of the campaign. Ironically, for a campaign that is urging us all to be visible, there is no information or identification on its website as to who exactly comprises the campaign’s management board. Even the<a href="http://www.ionainstitute.ie/"> Iona Institute</a> provides names and bios of its board under the ‘who we are’ section of its website.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And They All Lived Happily Ever After</span><br /><br />There is an unfortunate Mills & Boon-like overture to the same sex marriage drive. It is a world where partnerships do not break down nor do they become a battleground. Gay marriage proponents are particularly coy on this aspect of long- term relationships. As activists for partnership rights we need to deal openly and effectively with rights in the event of partnerships breaking down. As well as filling the airwaves with love besotted same sex couples it would bring a necessary and pragmatic edge to the campaign to give an equal focus to the devastation wrought when long term partnerships are dissolved without benefit of any recognition of rights and contributions made by the individuals who entered into them. Partnership rights in the event of relationship breakdown, in terms of equal treatment and fair distribution of assets is as pressing a need as any to have one’s love affirmed in a civil ceremony.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ou Est Diversity?</span><br /><br />Since the reformation of <a href="http://www.glen.ie/">GLEN</a>, there has been a disconcertingly sanitised public representation of lesbian and gay people. Increasingly, we are uniformly presented like the participants in the old OXO television ads- commercials peopled by clean, white, able-bodied, middle class, Joes and Joans. There has been little effort made to present the diversity within the LGB populace. The inevitable consequence of ‘normalising’ LGB people to make them more palatable to a heteronormative society is to invisibilise the ‘other’. In doing so, it colludes with society’s message that ‘otherness’ is deviant and lends itself to the view that those too butch or too camp, too disabled or too ‘ethnic’ are just too ‘other’ for public consumption. Marital equality with heterosexuals is being sought at the expense of the positivity of difference. The drive for ‘normality’ through marriage as currently promoted relies on politics of assimilation that will have long-lasting impacts for the struggle for respect for difference.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Is There A Game Plan And If There Is - Is It A Secret?</span><br /><br />The recent leaking of the Heads of Civil Unions Bill, gave much food for thought for all activists and observers of the struggle for gay equality. Given how resistant were the signals coming from Fianna Fáil to anything but the most basic of recognitions, the content of the Heads of Bill and the extent of protections to be considered surprised many. Inevitably, campaigners for same sex marriage sounded like they had been caught off guard by the content. In responses to media questions and interviews there was a heavy reliance on the theme of love is love whether heterosexual or gay and substantive arguments were sadly lacking. In this respect, an important opportunity was lost in giving a reserved welcome to what was on offer and utilising the strength of what was included in the Heads of Bill to logically argue for what was absent, most notably the recognition of children within same sex families and the right to adoption.<br /><br />However, the campaign’s strategic weakness of narrowly focusing on marriage as the alpha and omega leaves no room for trading up. It raises the question that if a fuller or even full raft of partnership rights were available under Civil Unions to allow the government some wriggle room with more conservative elements within its ranks, would MarriagEquality refuse such an offer? Is the call for marriage, a tactic, a means to an end or the only end that the campaign is prepared to consider? Is what something is called more important than the substance of what it provides? These are important questions that need to be addressed and engaged with publicly within the LGB community.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Parents and Progeny</span><br /><br />At last the subject of children in lesbian and gay families has had consistent public airing in recent months. Although not the first initiative or organisation to do so, (eg: <a href="http://www.iccl.ie/">ICCL</a>, <a href="http://www.equality.ie/index.asp?locID=107&docID=88">Equality Authority</a>, <a href="http://www.sapphicireland.com/">Sapphic Ireland’s </a>submission to the<a href="http://www.constitution.ie/reports/10th-Report-Family.pdf"> All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution</a>) MarriagEquality is the first funded LGB entity to take this up as a central theme bringing much-needed further attention to a vital issue of equality. However, the issue is being argued almost exclusively from the position of ‘our’ rights as lesbians and gays to have children. In doing so, it is in danger of falling into the narrow parameters established by the Right who argue that children are best brought up by two opposite sex couples no matter what the calibre of that relationship.<br /><br />The case for recognising the rights of lesbian and gay families needs to be fought in tandem with the position that children’s rights are supreme over all other competing rights. This is not just about us, it is about those with no independent voice. We do not make better parents than anyone else, as equally we certainly do not make worse simply because of our sexual orientation, but it’s not about us alone, its about children and their rights. Such a stance would not only be refreshing but heaven forbid radical in a State where the level of children’s vulnerability is frightening at the best of times.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Choice for All</span><br /><br />Marriage is and should be an option for same sex couples and I and others have argued that publicly for quite a number of years now. However, if equality is to be truly championed then marriage must be promoted as one of a range of options and not as a three line whip. Whether consciously or not, the campaign has so far had an overwhelming air of exclusivity, a lack of public consultation with LGB people or discussion of other viable and equally legitimate options. The desire for marriage does not need to undermine the potential for other options nor should it be an obstacle to those options which would benefit and protect an entire range of other couples who require certain rights now in order to avert further inequalities and misery or those who do not and have never wanted marriage. The problem is, to date the campaign has been conducted with a worrying lack of respect for the importance of choice or the diversity of people’s lives and arrangements. In fact it states quite categorically that marriage is the sole option: “MarriageEquality believes that marriage is the only option for achieving equality for lesbians and gay men.”<br /><br />In a recent correspondence with MarriagEquality, one of its co-chairs stated that they ‘are about the RIGHT TO CHOOSE’ ( sic), but Grainne Healy’s recent article in GCN states exactly and dogmatically the opposite. In it she argues that marriage is the only vehicle for equality and that other forms of civil partnerships for gay and straight couples will be easier to develop from that basis, but she does not say how or why she thinks that can happen, nor does she commit MarriagEquality to pursuing that end. Surely, if marriage is reinforced as the traditional institution by which all are expected to regularise their partnerships it will be even harder to unseat it as the only available form of regularisation. Healy uses the ‘back of the bus’ analogy for equality, rationalising that any other form of partnership recognition only moves us at best to the middle of the bus. The article pre-supposes that we all want to be on the same bus and that it is the only form of transportation to a state of fairness and equal treatment.<br /><br />If we truly respect the right to choose then the challenge for progressive activists is to focus on winning the social and economic supports which reflect family and household diversity and the range of choices and arrangements that we enter into. To do that we need a broader vision of social justice, than the single-tracked confining of our lives into the narrow template of marriage.</span>Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-5702347622410064402006-12-27T11:26:00.000+00:002006-12-27T12:34:13.006+00:00The not so little town of BethlehemBbbbbrrrrrr, its cold in Ramallah, icey rain trying to turn to snow. I made an executive decision to work from home today because there is no heating in my workplace and hasn't been now for almost two weeks. Yet another consequence of the political situation. The office is in a building occupied by some government ministries, who because of the moratorium on financial aid are unable to work, hence they also have no money for fuel and as we are all on a shared, central heating system- those of us who continue to work are forced to endure Arctic conditions. C'est la vie on the West Bank.<br /><br />Christmas was a mixture of memorable moments of hope, anger, uncertainty, generosity, beauty and of absences. Bethlehem was a revelation of pretty hilltop townships, Beit Sahour, accepted site of the angel's appearance to shepherds as they watched their flocks to inform them of the birth of the Jesus child. A kilometer futher up the hill, Bethlehem his birthplace, a town of 30, 000 people strung with lights and shining in its position nestled beneath Beit Jala perched atop it and all of this looking out on a landscape as old as time.<br /><br />But something is dreadfully wrong in Bethlehem as with all of the West Bank but perhaps more acutely felt at this time of celebration and commemoration for many. The Wall, that indelible scar of unmitigated inhumanity and oppression snakes its painful way around Bethelehem overshadowing everything. The once thriving businesses, restaurants, small hotels and homes close to the site of the wall stand boarded up and abandoned and yet their location would once have been highly prised, providing views and an experience of the whole area.<br /><br />Christmas lights, frosty nights and a sense of arrival notwithstanding, Bethlehem struggled under the weight of the burden of Israeli Ocupation this festive season. I watched the colourful, energetic parade of Palestine's youth scouts on Xmas eve as they displayed their musical and formation skills to the hundreds of onlookers in Manger Square in the build up to the arrival of the Patriarch in the mid afternoon. The Patriarch, better recognised outside Palestine as a catholic bishop was flanked by rows of altarboys, Franciscan brothers and priests- there's obviously no shortage of vocations in this part of the world. As we waited for his arrival outside the Church of the Nativity, three impressive figures dressed in ceremonial Ottoman costumes of brocade jackets and pantaloons, scimitars and fezs acted as his advance guard for the short walk to the Church portal. There was much stamping of feet amongst the long patient crowd to keep warm but then as the call to prayer came from the mosque opposite the church, I was informed that the ceremony would begin when the last cry had rung out. Pacing the rooftop of the Peace Centre that occupies almost one side of the square, heavily armed and flak jacketed sharpshooters kept their own watch. By the time the Patriarch drew parallel with the waiting crowd, he was all but drowned in a 3 deep ring of police locking arms around him in a security ring. I was struck by the fact that most of those who protected the leader of the Catholic Church in Palestine were Muslims.<br /><br />I had woken on Xmas eve and gone outside in bright winter sunshine to listen to the sound of singing coming from the Greek Orthodox church in Beit Sahour and to enjoy the panorama afforded by my hillside location and my host's generous invitation to spend another night with her family. The landscape had an entirely different beauty in the morning light but I found myself lamenting the absence of greenery, I have been missing green. As the singing subsided, another refrain resonated across the hills of Bethlehem, the mosque call to prayer and I marvelled at the symmetry and co-ordination that accommodates these two evocations of different religious ritual and tradition.<br /><br />Bethlehem works hard at respecting the religious and cultural traditions of its residents and is perhaps the most populated area by non- Muslims with up to 30% Christian. But the unity that so many invest in is threatened by the actions of some Christian churches who have sold of plots of land to the avaricious Israeli settlements that surround the area, facilitating the annexing of even more Palestinian territory to an Occupier who shows respect to no one.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-65906904419104194752006-12-18T18:50:00.000+00:002006-12-22T22:10:39.328+00:00I have just the thing sir!Does Tony Blair have a cosmetically disguised black eye? There was something distinctly asymmetrical about his right eye tonight during the live press conference with Olmert.<br /><br />During which both men swapped platitudes when not being overtly evasive or as Blair twice admitted "elliptical". Elliptical?...mmm.. I'll stick with evasive. Daisy Mc Andrew of the BBC was having none of it:<br /><br />"Mr. Blair the British Press has been dutifully following you on your whirlwind trip of the Middle East this last few days and its hard to see what, precisely if anything, has been acheived by this trip?"<br /><br />" Mr. Olmert, you referred THREE times to new initiatives on the Palestinian situation which Mr Blair discussed with you today wouldn't it be helpful to tell us what EVEN ONE of those might be?"<br /><br />Surgical Strike Daisy!<br /><br /><br />And all this activity and press hordes traipsing through an all ready overactive West Bank today to give public support and propping to Abbas' call for new elections. It would appear that Abbas is doing a Bertie.. when you dont get the result you like- call another election. Dontcha just love democracy? It comes in all sizes and shapes; "That one doesnt fit sir?, Here sir, let me get you this new style, faux-democracy, looks like the real thing, and with a few good spin cycles wears just like the real thing, but of course its totally synthetic."Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-39135332033576931002006-12-14T20:49:00.000+00:002006-12-14T20:54:14.211+00:00Lethal year for Palestinian children123 Palestinian children have been killed in 2006, more than double the 2005 figure, while 340 children (under 18 years old) remain in detention facilities.<br /><br />UNICEF said Wednesday in a report that 2006 has been one of the worst years for children. "Across the OPT, the conflict and closures, the withholding of resources and suspension in funding to the Palestinian Authority, as well as the strike by some public sector workers, have collectively blocked the fulfillment of children's rights."This year, says UNICEF, whether it is health care and education, protection from violence and abuse, or opportunities to play without fear - the rights of Palestinian children have been violated on an unprecedented scale.<br />The events of 2006 have impacted children in ways that will take years to unravel. Sonic booms, incursions and shelling created a context of extreme violence, stress and fear for children and their families, says the report."The summer, rather than being a time of recreation and play, turned out to be one without recreational opportunities as well as one with fear since it was among the most lethal summers ever, with 40 child deaths in July alone. "At this point in time, more than twice as many children died due to the conflict compared with 2005 - 70 per cent of these deaths were in Gaza."Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21104585.post-24761503130412762962006-11-28T10:17:00.000+00:002006-11-28T10:24:42.822+00:00Passing the timeI have finally sucuumbed to the Ramallah ‘flu’. Its my third day of being housebound while the West Bank weather puts on a display of glorious early winter sunshine and pleasant temperatures. Luckily, I found a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle at the weekend which was not a nightscape of New York pre-2001 or a photocopy of a picture of a photocopy of a boy and his St Bernard circa 1970s . In fact it’s a rather challenging , colourful print of the circus with lots of action comprised of enticing, time-consuming individual scenarios within the Big Top. (My life may have gotten just too exciting!)<br /><br />After weeks of evening time ennui and concerns about my rapidly disappearing ability to limit my television viewing to programmes with at least a teaspoon of acting and an outline plot, a veritable harvest of distractions have landed in my lap. First Al Jazeera went international- which means its inEnglish for mono-linguists like myself, then two great dvds arrived from a pal at home containing 4 hrs worth of the inimitable Helen Mirren in her final Prime Suspect, I got loaned a Raymond Chandler novel and then to top it all as from last night-Allah be praised- I’m now online at chez nous!<br /><br />Perhaps, once the fog in my head has lifted and the capacity to breathe through my nose has been restored, I may even be able to make sense of what is happening between Olmert and the Palestinian negotiators. But that's just a maybe.. like a lot of other things around here.Hag of Bearahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11763021209025263597noreply@blogger.com0