Chapters 1 & 2 (Catch-up!)
I guess I wanted to at least cite some things I appreciated in Chapter 1…
I liked what Farmer describes as the “exoticization” of suffering, and how it ‘others’ the victims of structural violence. (p. 40)
He goes on to talk about liberation theology, and I thought his description of it as dealing with suffering and meaning was interesting, so I poked around on Wikipedia to see what I found. That kind of led to my understanding that liberation theology is trying to emulate Jesus’ role as liberator and establisher of justice, and that some of the people who are involved with liberation theology are more involved in Christian socialism, which lead me to social gospel… who knew all this cool stuff was out there? I love Wiki.
Anyhow… the depictions of the suffering in the Guantanamo Bay stories are really terrifying. This made me reflect a lot on the way media distorts news—“55 percent [of those polled] said [immigration for Haitians] should be more difficult. After a decade during which less than 0.5 percent of Haitian applicants were granted asylum, one wonders how much more difficult it could be.” (p68) I was impressed when Farmer later followed up with the comparisons with Cuba. I feel blessed to have recently made a friend in www.democracynow.org , which has lots of multimedia downloads and news feeds of news that I imagine is at least a little bit more balanced… Anyhow, I guess one of the issues really relevant to welcoming more refugees and people immigrating from averse conditions is what the author quotes one lawyer saying: “We need to make it cost-effective [for the US Government].” I was left wondering that if we had more open doors, would the racism and deprivation and human-rights violations just take place increasingly inside US Borders… Farmer promises to present ‘possible ideas for solutions’ in the book, so I really hope that includes ways that our political and economic structures all over the world can grow to fulfill the needs of those who have been most neglected in the world. Anyway, for now I’m just left thinking “Down with the media!” (except wikimedia…)
3 Comments:
Okay, Sean and Emily, I am so impressed with your engagement with the text and with the outside work you're doing to try to make sense of everything and to try to understand the meaning of this in your own lives. I'm going to do my best to stay out of the way and let you two keep the dialogue going. (It's hard, though, because there's so much I want to say.) Just keep going as you are. I'm so pleased.
What's the website of YOUR blog, Suzanne? :)
I don't have a blog. I did for a little while. I named it "Dissenting Adults," but people seemed to think it was a pornographic site and I deleted it! :) (That was NOT what I had in mind.)
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