Thoughts on Mandela

I’ve had a really hard time coming to terms with what I feel about the passing of Madiba. I’m not even sure I feel entitled to call him Madiba, as I feel that I haven’t been as committed to the fight for equity, justice and human rights as I should be. I feel farther removed than an African or a person of any colour, race, sexual orientation or tribe that has been systematically oppressed for many generations, or even one generation. One generation is enough. And I am not a South African, so the name Madiba, is not something that has historical or cultural resonance for me. In English, our names for great heroes and sages are antiquated and have been replaced by words like doctor, PhD candidate, nobel laureate, president and prime minister. None of those come close to encompassing a proper title for Nelson Mandela. Madiba, although I don’t really understand the cultural significance, seems to symbolize a deep level of respect and appreciation.—a fondness and affection and an almost parental connection. I’m not sure that this is a true understanding of the word, or just what it has come to envelop through my own distant understanding and associations of the word used by others. In my own mind, I understand it to be a word with a similar connotation as Mahatma. Great Soul. And I think that way of thinking about Nelson Mandela is the most appropriate and accurate way to describe my sentiments.

Nelson Mandela has been one of my heroes, probably since the end of my university years. I wasn’t very aware of what was going on in the world until then and when I started learning more about some of the roots of inequality in the world through a Canadian culture/history class and an African History class that I took, I started becoming more and more aware of the significance of leaders like Mandela.

I read Mandela’s biography when I was an English teacher in Japan. Back when I taught in 25 different elementary schools. As hectic as it seems, I had a lot of time between classes and sometimes on weekdays, too. Since I was an impermanent staff member, and a 'Gaijin' who may speak nothing but English, most of the teachers didn't know what to do with me and it was hard to establish relationships while they ran in and out of the staff room with arms full of lesson materials. Occasionally a brave teacher would sit down beside me while I poked at my bento lunch and start a typical conversation: "Sugoi! You like Japanese food!?" or "Sugoi, You use chopstick!"

I primarily spent my time alone in the staff rooms studying Japanese and reading. Those two years in Japan helped me to learn a lot. I read personal accounts of victims of the Khmer Rouge, and the Vietnam war, I read about atrocities committed in Congo and Japan’s assault on Nanking during WWII, I read Aung San Suu Kyii’s biography and I read A Long Walk to Freedom. I also passed the 2 Level of the JLPT.

And that was only the beginning of my search for knowledge about the world. It’s still continuing now much to the dismay of many of my career-focused mentors, parents, and probably rationally minded friends. I haven’t yet been satisfied by the status quo and have always admired people like Mandela throughout history who had the determination, courage and stubbornness to stand up for the greater good, equality, equity, justice, freedom, in the face of extreme and intense opposition.

In Nigeria, people are talking about how great Mandela was. They are also talking about how much a British businessman wants to pay for the site where Mandela is now buried. They talk about how much money he will make. They talk about how Nigerian leaders would never be celebrated like Mandela. How the name Mandela would open doors for any of his relatives. How names like Obasanjo could get you stoned in the street. They use Mandela’s name to beg taxi drivers for honesty and fairness in their fares and will use it again to beg forgiveness from the same taxi drivers when they pay them less than they asked for. They claim they would prefer to become the Mandela of women since they can’t make it to be as great as the real Mandela. They nickname the girl that they have called over to the table Winnie 1, and laugh.

For me, it is overwhelming to look at the pictures that come up when you google “World Mourns Nelson Mandela”. It brings me to tears to see the world united about a man who, I think, would have been happy to see a world unified for what he stood for. Of course, it is not. Inside and outside of south Africa, the struggles that he fought to overcome still continue in different places and for different reasons.

In Nigera people say that the world will never see another person like Mandela. He’s the only one that will ever be as good as he was, as great as he was.

I don’t believe that. I can't.

I believe that there are individuals today and that will go on into the future who will face circumstances as dire, perhaps even more harsh than Mandela’s, who by some divine providence will be spared from death and will be raised to the forefront of the collective consciousness. There is always a struggle that will touch the heart of the human population, because it is fundamentally unjust. It may take decades for a critical mass of people to understand why or how it is unjust, but that is why there will also always be someone who will refuse to be broken in the face of that injustice. That is something that I truly believe. That is something that Malala Yousafzi, who was shot for going to school, or Nabila Rehman, another Pakistani girl who’s grandmother was killed in a drone strike, a Palestinian who is resisting Israeli apartheid or a Bangladeshi child who’s parents were crushed in a garment factory, could be credited with many years into the future. It could be a First Nations person from Elsipogtog nation or any other nationaffected by extractive industries in Canada. It could be an Inuit person who fights for action against climate change. It could be an Egyptian, a Turk, a Ukrainian, a Honduran, a Cambodian, or a multinational person. It could be Julian Assange or Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden. It could be anyone of us who are staring in the face of a future we don’t want. A future that is leading up to a denial of everything we have grown up to believe in. Especially when we hold Mandela as one of our international icons. There are huge and powerful forces now that loom over the future of humanity, that want it bought and sold, no matter how much radiation or toxic sludge it will be covered in. There are many people around the world that are standing up against these powers, that are protesting despite state secrets bills being arbitrarily passed, despite muzzles being put on the gatekeepers of their industries. They are standing up despite pepper spray and unprecedented police violence. They are standing up even though everyday that a new bill or agreement is passed into law, there is less hope for a better future. A critical mass is realizing this and a critical mass is standing up.

I fear that it might be too late, but I hope it is not. Now that Madiba has left us, we will see our next great soul rise up from the masses and stand as a beacon of hope and strength for the masses when our battle comes to a head. Although this time, with so much interconnection and connectedness, I feel that we can all be the great soul, collectively. In fact, we need to be, in order to continue at all.

I'm thankful to Madiba for such a clear and great example of how to be in the world. I am happy that I have been able to share the planet with such a great man for 28 years. I would like to talk to other people from varying age groups and social classes about their ideas regarding Mandela. I'd like to know the feelings that people had when he was in court with the Apartheid government, when he was called an international terrorist, when he was in jail for 27 years, when he was released and accepted the nobel prize with the Apartheid leader at the time, when he was president. I know that he had and has opposition. The only reason that he is so widely celebrated today is because he endured a particular struggle that transformed to serve him. He was persecuted by his predecessors for challenging the status quo, as many of us are today. If he hadn't lived as long, say, died when he was in his 50s, there wouldn't have been near as much of an outpouring of grief. That is something to remember.

But, I guess the take away message is that it's never a waste of time to fight for a better future. . .

Cycle of Poverty

If you are a poor woman from Nepal, from a poor community with a poor family who is struggling to make ends meet. . .
probably you have no access to education
probably your family will be expected to pay a dowry to the family of the man who marries you
probably you feel desperate and hopeless

If a recruiter comes to your village offering you a job in India, where you can work as someone's house girl, learn to read and write, make enough money to send home to your parents and pay for your dowry. . .
probably your family will have to pay the recruiter a relatively large sum to secure the position for you 
probably you will feel hopeful and cling to that hope
probably your family will see it as a way to give their child a better future

probably the recruiter is lying

If you go with that recruiter and they do get you across the border into India or another country. . .
probably you will be sold for a relatively large sum to someone else
probably you will have your documents taken away
probably you will not be given paid work
probably you will suffer abuse emotionally, physically, spiritually, sexually
likely you will be working in a brothel
likely you will be beaten or physically abused
likely you will never see your family again
maybe you will escape

If you get rescued by an NGO that is working to stop human trafficking. . .
probably the NGO will recieve a large sum of money from donors (like the European Union) to help you
probably you will be given a safe place to stay
probably you will be repatriated to Nepal
probably you will be treated well, though perhaps patronizingly by workers there
probably you will be "rehabilitated" to go back into society although, because of the cultural emphasis on virginal wives and stigma attached to sex, your prospects for marriage are not very good nor are your chances of procuring your livelihood
probably you will be returned to your village and your family who may or may not accept you
probably you will not receive any education, training or instruction that will help you make a better life for yourself back in the place you began

Since the same conditions are still in place in your village, it is likely that the same process will happen again.

All along the cycle, money is changing hands and good paying jobs are created for everyone but the exploited person.  The jobs and the money is there because of the exploited person and yet, they don't see any of it.
There is a market for this, clearly, and where there is a market there are people who are equally desperate or else evil, who are taking advantage of it.  Even in NGOs, the focus, often times is only to rescue girls without looking at the bigger picture; "why are these people so poor, desperate and hopeless in the first place?" No steps are taken to remedy those problems.

The factors are different but the same general situation repeats itself anywhere there is poverty, desperation and hopelessness.  Those 3 things are increasingly prevelant in our society.  If we don't stand up against injustices and the horrible treatment of humans, no matter who they are or where they are from, we are setting the precedent that it's tolerable and thus we invite the same treatment onto ourselves.
We take the stability of our lives, social status, wealth, health and well being for granted.  Everything is constantly changing, faster and faster as time goes on.  In one moment everything could be turned completely upside down.

Field trip to Baljeet Nagar with NCDHR

The last couple of days I've been going to the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) office to learn more about their campaign and see if I could do anything useful for them and if it would be something I would like to be involved with for the duration of my stay in India.

I was connected to NCDHR through one of my contacts at the Indian Formation Research Society who I met at the Study Circle I went to in Assam. They are working for the rights of Dalits, members of the lowest caste, who are also referred to as the "untouchable" caste, in India. Dalits make up about 17% of the population of India which equates to almost 200 million people! Dalits are discriminated against and suffer huge violations of their basic human rights by upper castes and government systems/policies simply because of their birth into the Dalit caste. As a result, they often live in slums, are refused education, especially post-secondary education, are not given the privilege to choose their work and are confined to labour that is both ill-paying and considered to be demeaning by most of Indian society (street cleaners, devadasis (temple prostitutes), cobblers, leather workers, etc).

Dalits, especially women and children are also very vulnerable to violence from upper castes. Because the idea of caste is so deeply ingrained into many members of Indian society, when Dalits try to speak out against violations to their rights or injustice, they will often suffer more violence at the hands of the authorities or retribution from aggressors they complain about for not "accepting their fate as a Dalit", which they think is necessarily equated with discrimination and atrocities.

The NCDHR is trying to make practical changes to this horrific historic problem with a number of campaigns they are working on. Due to a seeming "lack of interest" and a visible lack of action (or rather, invisible action?) in addressing the problem from many national agencies, the NCDHR has been forced to take the issue to an International level.

Yesterday, as part of a training process at NCDHR (a number of students are interning here for a few weeks and I happened to come during their orientation), we took a field trip to Baljeet Nagar, just 10 minutes by cycle-rickshaw from the NCDHR office in Delhi. The settlement in Baljeet Nagar is located behind a large sports ground, Ramjas Park, and residential area. It was created 25 to 30 years ago when immigrants, primarily from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar, moved to Delhi in search of better opportunities. Since that time the number of jhuggis (shanties) erected has reached around 4000 and it is estimated that approximately 80% of the people living in Baljeet Nagar are Dalits. Although the settlement is technically illegal, the residents have been paying bribes for many years in order to stay on the land.

On March 23rd and 24th 2011, without doing any of the mandatory surveys and without any prior notice given to the residents as per the supreme court guidelines, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) arrived with 5 bulldozers at Baljeet Nagar and proceeded to illegally bulldoze around 600 jhuggis. 8 residents were informally arrested and detained for several hours. The residents had no opportunity to remove or salvage their belongings and many official documents, ration cards, voter ID cards and other belongings of the residents were stolen or lost in the rubble. The government has not yet offered any remuneration for the people who have lost their houses nor has any plan for the relocation of these residents been presented as yet.

From a publication at NCDHR:

Though the demolition received formal sanction from the Delhi Government and was scheduled by local authorities, just the day before the bulldozers razed their homes, residents of Baljeet Nagar were allegedly forced to pay huge amounts of money to the DDA and Delhi Police officials.

Since the demolition, the NCDHR has been involved in stopping further demolition of the Baljeet Nagar settlement and has thus far warded off further destruction. The situation is still not good though. People living in Baljeet Nagar have no water or toilet facilities, they are gravely under served in terms of health facilities. Women venturing into the nearby wooded area for their bathroom needs are in danger of sexual assault and violence.

We talked to the residents of Baljeet Nagar for about two hours about their experiences with the demolition and also the struggles that they face in their daily lives. Many people in Baljeet Nagar have to fight every day for things that so many people take for granted; a home, food, water, access to education, safety, and medicine. Yet, they are happy to talk to us, to share their stories. They have been through such injustice and cruelty in their lives and yet they are still fighting. They are passionate about their rights, they are not giving up. Children are running around smiling, playing and laughing; excited to see foreigners in their settlement and just being children. People are cooking, preparing food, washing clothes, talking, taking care of babies, living.
The residents offer us all samosas and soft drinks before we go as a sign of hospitality and appreciation for coming and hearing their stories.