My time in Guatemala is drawing to a close for now, and in a couple of weeks I´ll be checking out the music scene I´ve been hearing so much about in Austin, Texas. Eight months in central America has me near desperate for some original sounds! Cover bands and latino music aren´t bad per se, but there´s certainly not the broad scope of musical deliciousness that I had become accustomed to as a result of living in Fremantle, Western Oz. Seriously folks, the music scene in Australia is banging! I´ve had the pleasure of listening to world class musicians in all genres that I like in Freo - funk, reggae, metal, glitch hop, afro vibes, psytrance, blues n roots, jazz, you name it, someone is throwing it down like nobodies business. Having previously being exposed to so many styles of music on a weekly basis, I took it for granted that the rest of the world was also hitting all these musical highs too. Nope. Most people in Guatemala have limited access to internet and pretty much rely on travellers to hear any new sounds...most travelling musicians don´t have room in their backpack for a drumkit or a set of decks and so all music styles are shared acapella or with a beaten up guitar. Cover music as a result all ends up sounding fairly folky. Yawn.
After emailing a few hostels in Austin to enquire about the possibilities of exchanging my painting services for accommodation it´s been brought to my attention that there are´labor laws´ in the states declaring that this kind of exchange is illegal.
I´m sorry. What??
Oh I forgot...it´s the states. Like Australia there are all these beauracratic laws governing what is and isn´t allowed to be traded in exchange for life on planet Earth. Namely, the only thing permissable to trade with is money. To have money you need to be fulfilling a position that perpetuates the current capitalist economy.
See what they did there? Sneaky little monkeys.
So I´ll make friends with other freegan pranksters through couchsurfing or something instead. Because that whole capitalist system that´s currently squeezing the guts out of the planet and all the people yoked to the system really does need to stop. We all know this. If you are disagreeing with this statement I implore you to take a look around the globe, buddy. Maybe your backyard looks good but since we´re all in this together it´s probably worth enquiring into the state of affairs further abroad. If you still disagree with the statement then let´s meet for coffee because I am extremely interested to hear your point of view.
The global inequalities don´t stop until we make other solutions. And I don´t know about you kids but I´m not waiting for the upper echelons of society to come forth with solutions because a few things are becoming more and more clear to me...
1) Governments do not have the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants as their priority. Governments have the wellbeing of corporations as their priority.
2) Governments do not want there to be other solutions to co-creating a harmonious existence for all beings on planet Earth. If they did that then the corporations feeding them wouldn´t be benefiting.
3) Irrespective of what laws there are dictating what is and isn´t allowed on planet Earth, I know that bartering is not a crime. I know this because I still have a few brain cells knocking around in my skull and it doesn´t take rocket science IQ levels to figure out that a lot of the laws these days are not intended for the wellbeing of Earth´s inhabitants.
4) Just because I like bartering doesn´t mean that what I am offering is worth any less than any other being on the planet. I´m a nice person, I have mad skills in a wide range of areas, I have been employing these mad skills in various barters throughout the year and I refuse to agree with the notion that the only acceptable currency for trading with is money. Even if I didn´t have mad skills, it´s a massive contribution just being a nice person. Ever run into a human who just made you feel good for no reason other than they were good vibes? I have met loads of people like this. They make the world a better place just by being them. Actually it´s likely that everyone would make the world a better place just by being themselves if they had more time to be themselves and not feel like they had to work all the time. Just saying.
I probably sound like I have a problem with authority, because I do. I have not been given any evidence to suggest that the ´authorities´ on this planet are making the game fun and enjoyable for everyone and so I don´t want to play as I´ve said before.
That doesn´t mean there aren´t other games to play, it just means that any other games I choose to play are not authorised. So I probably won´t be writing about them until after they´ve been played for obvious reasons.
Since I´ve last written a blog post, life has been a blur of paint jobs, poi practice, tattoo designs, kids book illustrations, existential conversations and most recently fire twirling. I have two, possibly three fire-poi gigs this week, with my first one happening tonight! I´m excited!!
Latest works...
A detail from a visionary piece I´m planning to paint in a parallel universe
Fred the Goblin bedhead at The Terrace Hostel, Antigua
Also I painted a big wall strip in a friend´s cafe but my camera phone got pilfered a couple of weeks ago and I have no evidence to show for now.
It´s going to be weird living in a ´western´country again. There are some things I´ll miss about Guatemala. Bustling markets exploding with people, fruit and second hand clothes. Friendly people everywhere who make eye contact and say hello whether they know your face or not. Beautiful weather all the time. Not wearing shoes anywhere. Ladies wearing traditional dresses. Everyone being a lot shorter than me (it´s like being on the scene of a hobbit re-take). Jostling on the chicken bus and trying to squeeze half an arse cheek on a seat that already has four people on it.
There are also a list of things that I will not miss about Guatemala but which make for fond storytelling so it was worth it:
Bed Bugs (twice)
Stomach Bacteria and the ensuing toilet hugging antics (numerous times)
Arduous bus rides that take a few hours longer than advertised
Street dogs roaming in packs at night and launching attacks.
Being ripped the fuck off because I´m not from here.
Maize tortillas and refried beans, get the fuck out of my life forever.
People walking slower than I thought physically possible. Getting stuck in a people jam. It´s worse than a traffic jam because it´s more personal...everyone´s all up in your space and stepping on your toes and elbowing you in the jugular etc.
But these are all petty things that don´t really matter. The main gripe I have is not specifically about Guatemala, and is more a side-effect of living in a developing country...
Technology in all areas of society is clearly ten or more years behind what is available in a western country. Cars are hilarious yet also scary because a lot of them don´t look roadworthy. Architecture and town infrastructure is frightening considering the number of earthquakes and avalanches that go down in these mountains. School is a privelege for wealthy families and as a result most people in the markets and artesanal areas of industry are really bad at maths and many can´t write. An example of the bad maths I´m talking about - it´s often cheaper to buy smaller batches of something than it is to buy bulk (at a tienda you can buy more grams worth of Doritos if you buy it in small bags rather than a big bag. Wtf.)
In my opinion, the main technological handicap which I touched on at the start of this blog entry is by far access to the internet. The internet is slower than the walking pace of the people here and it´s a luxury service afforded by travellers with wifi gadgets and people who can afford a computer or can spare some quetzales to access an internet cafe. The computers in these cafes are mostly shitty old beasts that are just as likely to eat your words as save them.This lack of access to the information super-highway that is the internet has made a massive difference in the availability of consciousness expanding concepts for the people who live here. It goes further than I can talk about but it´s like the whole of life operates on dial-up rather than broadband, if you can imagine the ramifications of this. There are of course benefits to taking everything super slow but it also means that the people in this country are getting taking advantage of big time in a lot of ways. It´s kind of like a direct analogy to the information available to western society compared to the ruling elite I suppose. A deliberate withholding of freedom of information. Again if you don´t agree with me here I encourage you to see what´s going down in the world of Julian Assanges, Bradley Manning and others as a consequence for making information available to the general public. I take this opportunity to high five these brave and sovereign humans. And also to acknowledge that in countries that are still developing this freedom of information is even more stunted as a result of information availability.
I could go on and on about the awesomeness of the internet. If you are curious about anything you can pretty much learn about it right then and there on the interwebs. Three days ago Lauren and I hand-made our own fire-poi with a complicated inferno rope-knotting technique that we learned from youtube. We were knotting these fire poi in the park and hoards of Guatemalans were crowding around trying to see what we were doing because they had never seen anything like that before. All I have to do if I´m curious is access my worldwide network of friends and immediately get the information I need. Imagine if you hadn´t been exposed to that question-response feedback system in your life. You´d probably get less and less curious and then eventually just accept that the options available to you in life are what everyone else around you is doing. Which is what appears to have happened in Guatemala.
This is not a slur against the beautiful people of Guatemala, or the innate intelligence which is an equal asset expressed in different manifestations in all beings. It´s an observation of the increasingly obvious inequalities that are built into the capitalist game on Earth. Capitalism runs on a win-lose level of consciousness. For someone to gain, someone has to lose, whether that´s the kids at the sweatshop making cheap clothes, the planet being pillaged for every imaginable resource, or the animals and plants being farmed inhumanely to speed up production of products to consume. The beings who don´t have a voice are getting pillaged the hardest. Who has a global voice these days? The people with the technology to project this voice globally. Who are the beings who don´t have a voice that is recognised by corporations? That would be the planet, all the animals and plants, and all the people in developing countries for whom the technology does not exist to interact globally with others to share their story of what´s going on. The internet is a very powerful means of sharing information.
It is certainly possible to create a number of win-win games where every being is honoured (including the planet) and it seems to me that all we have to do is get creative with it and only allow ourselves to be in situations that benefit not only ourselves but every other being involved.
Ok, time to go have the best day ever!! Wishing the same for you, and you´ll hear from me when I start busting some shapes in Texas :)
After emailing a few hostels in Austin to enquire about the possibilities of exchanging my painting services for accommodation it´s been brought to my attention that there are´labor laws´ in the states declaring that this kind of exchange is illegal.
I´m sorry. What??
Oh I forgot...it´s the states. Like Australia there are all these beauracratic laws governing what is and isn´t allowed to be traded in exchange for life on planet Earth. Namely, the only thing permissable to trade with is money. To have money you need to be fulfilling a position that perpetuates the current capitalist economy.
See what they did there? Sneaky little monkeys.
So I´ll make friends with other freegan pranksters through couchsurfing or something instead. Because that whole capitalist system that´s currently squeezing the guts out of the planet and all the people yoked to the system really does need to stop. We all know this. If you are disagreeing with this statement I implore you to take a look around the globe, buddy. Maybe your backyard looks good but since we´re all in this together it´s probably worth enquiring into the state of affairs further abroad. If you still disagree with the statement then let´s meet for coffee because I am extremely interested to hear your point of view.
The global inequalities don´t stop until we make other solutions. And I don´t know about you kids but I´m not waiting for the upper echelons of society to come forth with solutions because a few things are becoming more and more clear to me...
1) Governments do not have the wellbeing of the planet and its inhabitants as their priority. Governments have the wellbeing of corporations as their priority.
2) Governments do not want there to be other solutions to co-creating a harmonious existence for all beings on planet Earth. If they did that then the corporations feeding them wouldn´t be benefiting.
3) Irrespective of what laws there are dictating what is and isn´t allowed on planet Earth, I know that bartering is not a crime. I know this because I still have a few brain cells knocking around in my skull and it doesn´t take rocket science IQ levels to figure out that a lot of the laws these days are not intended for the wellbeing of Earth´s inhabitants.
4) Just because I like bartering doesn´t mean that what I am offering is worth any less than any other being on the planet. I´m a nice person, I have mad skills in a wide range of areas, I have been employing these mad skills in various barters throughout the year and I refuse to agree with the notion that the only acceptable currency for trading with is money. Even if I didn´t have mad skills, it´s a massive contribution just being a nice person. Ever run into a human who just made you feel good for no reason other than they were good vibes? I have met loads of people like this. They make the world a better place just by being them. Actually it´s likely that everyone would make the world a better place just by being themselves if they had more time to be themselves and not feel like they had to work all the time. Just saying.
I probably sound like I have a problem with authority, because I do. I have not been given any evidence to suggest that the ´authorities´ on this planet are making the game fun and enjoyable for everyone and so I don´t want to play as I´ve said before.
That doesn´t mean there aren´t other games to play, it just means that any other games I choose to play are not authorised. So I probably won´t be writing about them until after they´ve been played for obvious reasons.
Since I´ve last written a blog post, life has been a blur of paint jobs, poi practice, tattoo designs, kids book illustrations, existential conversations and most recently fire twirling. I have two, possibly three fire-poi gigs this week, with my first one happening tonight! I´m excited!!
Latest works...
Iximche, Banana Azul Hostel
A detail from a visionary piece I´m planning to paint in a parallel universe
Fred the Goblin bedhead at The Terrace Hostel, Antigua
Also I painted a big wall strip in a friend´s cafe but my camera phone got pilfered a couple of weeks ago and I have no evidence to show for now.
It´s going to be weird living in a ´western´country again. There are some things I´ll miss about Guatemala. Bustling markets exploding with people, fruit and second hand clothes. Friendly people everywhere who make eye contact and say hello whether they know your face or not. Beautiful weather all the time. Not wearing shoes anywhere. Ladies wearing traditional dresses. Everyone being a lot shorter than me (it´s like being on the scene of a hobbit re-take). Jostling on the chicken bus and trying to squeeze half an arse cheek on a seat that already has four people on it.
There are also a list of things that I will not miss about Guatemala but which make for fond storytelling so it was worth it:
Bed Bugs (twice)
Stomach Bacteria and the ensuing toilet hugging antics (numerous times)
Arduous bus rides that take a few hours longer than advertised
Street dogs roaming in packs at night and launching attacks.
Being ripped the fuck off because I´m not from here.
Maize tortillas and refried beans, get the fuck out of my life forever.
People walking slower than I thought physically possible. Getting stuck in a people jam. It´s worse than a traffic jam because it´s more personal...everyone´s all up in your space and stepping on your toes and elbowing you in the jugular etc.
But these are all petty things that don´t really matter. The main gripe I have is not specifically about Guatemala, and is more a side-effect of living in a developing country...
Technology in all areas of society is clearly ten or more years behind what is available in a western country. Cars are hilarious yet also scary because a lot of them don´t look roadworthy. Architecture and town infrastructure is frightening considering the number of earthquakes and avalanches that go down in these mountains. School is a privelege for wealthy families and as a result most people in the markets and artesanal areas of industry are really bad at maths and many can´t write. An example of the bad maths I´m talking about - it´s often cheaper to buy smaller batches of something than it is to buy bulk (at a tienda you can buy more grams worth of Doritos if you buy it in small bags rather than a big bag. Wtf.)
In my opinion, the main technological handicap which I touched on at the start of this blog entry is by far access to the internet. The internet is slower than the walking pace of the people here and it´s a luxury service afforded by travellers with wifi gadgets and people who can afford a computer or can spare some quetzales to access an internet cafe. The computers in these cafes are mostly shitty old beasts that are just as likely to eat your words as save them.This lack of access to the information super-highway that is the internet has made a massive difference in the availability of consciousness expanding concepts for the people who live here. It goes further than I can talk about but it´s like the whole of life operates on dial-up rather than broadband, if you can imagine the ramifications of this. There are of course benefits to taking everything super slow but it also means that the people in this country are getting taking advantage of big time in a lot of ways. It´s kind of like a direct analogy to the information available to western society compared to the ruling elite I suppose. A deliberate withholding of freedom of information. Again if you don´t agree with me here I encourage you to see what´s going down in the world of Julian Assanges, Bradley Manning and others as a consequence for making information available to the general public. I take this opportunity to high five these brave and sovereign humans. And also to acknowledge that in countries that are still developing this freedom of information is even more stunted as a result of information availability.
I could go on and on about the awesomeness of the internet. If you are curious about anything you can pretty much learn about it right then and there on the interwebs. Three days ago Lauren and I hand-made our own fire-poi with a complicated inferno rope-knotting technique that we learned from youtube. We were knotting these fire poi in the park and hoards of Guatemalans were crowding around trying to see what we were doing because they had never seen anything like that before. All I have to do if I´m curious is access my worldwide network of friends and immediately get the information I need. Imagine if you hadn´t been exposed to that question-response feedback system in your life. You´d probably get less and less curious and then eventually just accept that the options available to you in life are what everyone else around you is doing. Which is what appears to have happened in Guatemala.
This is not a slur against the beautiful people of Guatemala, or the innate intelligence which is an equal asset expressed in different manifestations in all beings. It´s an observation of the increasingly obvious inequalities that are built into the capitalist game on Earth. Capitalism runs on a win-lose level of consciousness. For someone to gain, someone has to lose, whether that´s the kids at the sweatshop making cheap clothes, the planet being pillaged for every imaginable resource, or the animals and plants being farmed inhumanely to speed up production of products to consume. The beings who don´t have a voice are getting pillaged the hardest. Who has a global voice these days? The people with the technology to project this voice globally. Who are the beings who don´t have a voice that is recognised by corporations? That would be the planet, all the animals and plants, and all the people in developing countries for whom the technology does not exist to interact globally with others to share their story of what´s going on. The internet is a very powerful means of sharing information.
It is certainly possible to create a number of win-win games where every being is honoured (including the planet) and it seems to me that all we have to do is get creative with it and only allow ourselves to be in situations that benefit not only ourselves but every other being involved.
Ok, time to go have the best day ever!! Wishing the same for you, and you´ll hear from me when I start busting some shapes in Texas :)
No comments:
Post a Comment