Questions and Notes- Sarah

Art allows me to demilitarize my imagination - Nisha


Criticism
-I am always in a space of criticism- it sticks to me, to my eyes to my ears. Self-criticism is the worst, and has led over the years to an extreme self-doubt.
-THis self-doubt is strangely connected with a twisted self-valorization of being educated enough to know that I am guilty. Guilty of what? Of participating in savage neoliberalism.
-Behind self-criticism, I can rationally justify non-action. I am tired of being rational, yet I cannot find the way to my heart. I do not feel anything while passing the beggar, on St-Catherine or in the streets of Bangalore. I do not feel anything but the sadness of not feeling. I am guilty of that, and very angry.

"My humanity is feeling we are all voices of the same poverty." Jorge LUis Borges

Learning how to feel comfortable in your discomfort is a place of creativity. -Rachael Van Fossen

Self hatred is the opposite of faith.

" I have commited the worst crime against humanity : I have allowed myself to be unhappy." Jorge LUis Borges.

Being politically correct is the biggest fleau of our Canadian minds- everything is not relative and rare are the things on which I truly do not have an opinion, a stance, whether that opinion be judgemental, informed or emotionally felt. Only if I express my opinion can I truly engage in dialogue, and only in dialogue is there a place for transformation and knowledge. I must engage myself.

Now what is my community?
-How do I extend myself to realities that I don't know. The reality of HOchelaga Maisonneuve, let alone the reality of Parc-Extension immigrants is foreign to me- how do I connect? I reject the idea of global citizenship- bullshit. I have to find a way to connect somewhere in my heart before I can pretend to be concerned by the whole wild world.
-Being white and educated give me an access to a multitude of realities in which I know the rules of performance. My identity is truly mobile and multiple - now how can I connect with a community? Should I create them with people sharing same urgencies and needs? What are my urgencies? Why do we always wait for urgency to act?
-What part does the artist take in a community? Is the artist a facilitator or a subjective and responsive voice?
-Dialogues start with introspection. Now how much of that introspection is free from our conditionned self? WHere is the end of introspection?


Human rights
- There is a vicious circle around human rights that I cannot clearly articulate as of yet.
Human rights are a Western concept that are rooted in the notion of ownership and individualism. When you own something, you are not a part of it anymore.
- Some privileges are given to "developping countries" ( What does it mean to be developped? Is there such a thing? Is the concept rooted in a belief in evolution?) if they meet UN charter of Human Rights objectives. Now in order to obtain these privileges on a national scope, the countries can only industrialize their economies to meet the demands of the savage neoliberalist economy. The achievement of human rights depends on money. Neoliberalism does not care for Human Rights. What are the alternative of economical models?

- India has embraced the western idea of rights- everything is reduced to rights. ( G. Cootney)

-Global economy does not proove to have a "trickle down" effect - the poor are getting poorer. But worst, they are loosing the ability to be critical of the systems of the neo-liberal economy. This is made possible through publicity, the main weapon of our economical system. I also am a victim of it.

- The "developping countries" have received knowledge as a pre-fabricated "package". How can we rethink knowledge? Is there anything such as essential knowledge? Is knowledge not always fabricated? Is there a worth in going back to ancestral and cultural ways of knowing- is that more reflective of our identity than our hybrid modern state?