this one goes out to everyone occupying spaces and places and voicing their desire for a fair shot at life.i had a dream about an exchange programme where little palestinian kiddos would go live with isreali families for the summer and israeli kiddos spent summer with palestinian families. within a few generations we'd start to see a peaceful shift between the two. idealistic utopian dream? perhaps.
what about the 1% and the 99% of the occupy movements? suit: take a single mother's spot for a couple of months... take on her jobs. take care of her kids, her sick mother and pay her bills. woman, put on a power tie, get used to that smartphone, and spend those big bucks responsibly. spend your evenings alone in an empty apartment or constantly entertaining clients and making sure your grass is as green as envy. let's see how you both feel in a month. i know, i know. far flung dream?
the reality is, to our fearful egos, poverty and joblessness are a hop and skip away from homelessness and homelessness is a stone's throw from death. there is no way we will give up what we got to see how other people feel. because we're afraid we'll die!
so what can we do? in any power struggle, you self-preserve when you stop feeding the machine. choose the mom and pop shops. stop buying oil one day each week. then two days, then three. how about giving up blackberries and iphones? home phones for a while? do we need so much electricity? and water? if the average african uses 10 litres of water a day, surely we north americans can do with less than 400. every day there are lineups at starbucks, at the apple store. shopping malls are full in the middle of the day. the supermarket even has self checkout. how about visiting a proper market vegetable stand? you know, the one with the owners working the cash?
sure we can cause an economic collapse. isn't that the goal?
it' about time, because this misery ain't new. right, marvin?
marvin gaye - inner city blues (makes me wanna holler):
maybe what we didn't do in the 70s was make our revolution a bit more fun. perhaps revolve with a little rump shake?
sly & robbie - inner city blues (makes me wanna holler):
and then:
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