A Cow in a Space Shuttle. Or, To an Udder World.

November. 

Cloudless and windless.
The quickest stars to shine,
The most enthused,
Appear above the mountains.

A lonely cow.

Takes the seat of opportunity,
Clasp the joystick of redemption, 
Flicks bitter buttons of bad times.

Seizing the bull by the horns,

As they say. 

Gas - check, 
Oxygen - check, 
Navigation - check, 
Gravity - check, 
Water - check, 
Pressure - check, 
Altimeter - check, 

Radar - check,
Comms - check, 
Grass - check, 

A thumb. A wink. 
'So long, world. 
I'm mooooving away.' 

Reflections on writing for/about charity, day 28

I'm almost half way through the fundraising period. Gofundme.com only allow 60 days to raise your funds. The £500 target looks like something akin to a mountaintop peeking over a distant horizon. In the meantime, I've been thinking about things like ideological reproduction, complicity and epistemic violence. Great words, but what does it all mean?

During the documentary film Black Gold I wondered whether it was appropriate or not for me to have a coffee. On one level it seemed to be a blatant disregard for the messages in this film (which explores the injustices of the coffee trade). My coffee is not Fair Trade, after all. Am I not the very beacon of hypocrisy as I tut at the cruelty of the coffee trade while my slow roast arabica blend quietly brews on the table before me? Yet to righteously disavow coffee for the duration of the film only to inevitably have a cup later on anyway seemed doubly hypocritical. The answer is that it really doesn't matter. Both options are shrouded in a symbolism that only serves to justify my complicity. Yet these unspoken gestures of righteousness have a pretty big presence in our ideological stance towards the Other. Whereas recently the subject has been taken to be formed through ideology and discourse, in a manner relatively autonomous from the Marxist economically-determined construction of the subject (Althusser, Foucault, etc., etc.,), the developments of Fair Trade and human rights show that the economic has entered the realm of the ideological. 25 years ago Spivak was trying to address a refusal to acknowledge this in the intellectual academy which instead relied on a "'nationalist' view of 'productivity'" (In Other Worlds, 167) and a "'culuralism' that disavows the economic" (168). Nowadays, we are (on some problematic level) only too aware of how things are produced, and 'ethical consumption' is all the rage. It seems barmy to exclude this knowledge from the identities we have. Yet, the 'ghostly presence of labour' in the commodity (Marx) still seems obscured, and the nature of the economic relationship with the third world still seems impenetrable to the consumer who finds their knowledge in outbursts from charities and the haphazard guesswork of economists on Newsnight seeking a solution to the Euro crisis. What we can alleviate, however, is peace of mind. Perhaps Fair Trade, charity, or foregoing a coffee while I watch Black Gold, can do this. 

So considering the amount of ethical consumption we engage in, acts which hope to alleviate some undesireable by-products caused by big industry for the world (ecology) or the third world (poverty), then something is evidently working. It may not work to save the world from global warming or the pull the third world towards the first, but it's getting us westerners moving, doing stuff. How do we translate these plighti (plural of plight, made up by me just now) into values that allow us to express them through consumption?

To donate, see http://fallinginpublic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/writing-for-charitychangecoffee.html

Reflections on writing for/about charity, day 26

"She would deny the workers their cappuccino!" Such was the reaction to Gayatri Spivak as she pointed out the connection between western consumer culture and 'third world' production. How can one escape this trap? By purchasing coffee off the Zapatistas? Does that not just slip into a form of enlightened do-goodery which sets itself apart from regular charity by being somehow less ignorant of the situation, finding another gap in the market of conscientious western liberals? Or does it actively participate in an alternative relation which evades exploitation? Does it express solidarity? 

'Solidarity', a keyword form the dissenter's dictionary, seems to be opposed to the word 'support', which is more at home in the handbook of Aid. The former suggests equivalence, shared visions and the dismantling of hierarchies; the latter dependency, distance, a token or a gesture. Solidarity evokes The Internationale, support evokes LiveAid. The sociologist Zygmunt Bauman says solidarity is "the recognition of other people's misery and suffering as one's own responsibility, and the alleviation and eventually the removal of misery as one's own task." Costas Douzinas says this implies that human rights are based on the always already existing pain and suffering of the Other. Our obligation is thus to make this suffering our own. 'Support' on the other hand seems to suggest the managing of such misery, but not a path out of it. This path out of it would involve the two parties finding common direction, making their hierarchal relationship obsolete, to envisage a globalised world in which economics no longer determines global relations of production. Do we cappuccino drinkers 'support' those who produce coffee when we give to charity or buy Fair Trade, or are we 'in solidarity' with them? Might solidarity risk denying ourselves our cappuccinos? Surely, to make suffering our own sounds inadvisable to he who prefers not to suffer, and risking the comforts of western culture in a gesture of solidarity to those who have been producing the things we consume sounds equally dangerous. Maybe this is why we prefer to support them.

...

Writing for Charity/Change/Coffee

This is an alternative to the Facebook page here which is presented in a fairly complicated way (such is Facebook's layout system).

I am asking for pledges for the gruelling struggle that is writing a thesis and I'm doing it on behalf of two causes, listed below, and you can donate to one or both. Think of it along the lines of a sponsored run, but swap running for writing. I am writing about charity and our relationship with those in distant lands whom we hope to help.


Oxfam charity: http://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Hutchings
Zapatista coffee: http://www.gofundme.com/otpss

In 1953 Ramón Rivero walked 80 miles to raise money for the Puerto Rican League Against Cancer. This became the first known charity walkathon in history and has since inspired sponsored fundraising in its many forms - climbing, fasting, running, cycling etc.

I am using my dissertation. Just like climbing, fasting, running, cycling a dissertation is a big struggle, and quite a mountain to climb. Indeed I am sacrificing my summer for this.

I am fundraising for two causes, listed below. Feel free to sponsor one or both, and please leave comments either way. If you don't want to pledge any cash, comments on your thoughts are still welcome.

So sponsor my dissertation and help change the world!

1. Oxfam.
A well known humanitarian international aid non-governmental organisation (NGO), that states that 'We stand against poverty. For humanity.'
For every pound they get, 36p goes to emergency response, 7p to fundraising costs, 10p to support and running costs, 40p to development work, and 7p for campaigning for change (http://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/how-we-spend-your-money).

Fund this here: http://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Hutchings

2. Zapatista coffee.
Trade with cooperatively run coffee farmers in a Mexican state called Chiapas which is autonomously run by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. The Zapatistas oppose economic globalisation, North American-style Free Trade, and the Mexican state's embrace of capitalism. The Zapatistas synthesise 'traditional Mayan practices with elements of libertarian socialism, anarchism and Marxism' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_Army_of_National_Liberation).
Your money goes into a pot which, at the end of the 60 days, will be used to purchase an equivalent amount of coffee from the Chiapas co-operative coffee producers.
Your money will go towards the income of the farmers in Zapatista communities, and towards 'the autonomous programs of education, health, and to other social structures.' According to this Wikipedia page, 'the coffee cooperatives operate as a driving force of the Zapatista movememt' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapatista_coffee_cooperatives).

Fund this here: http://www.gofundme.com/otpss


Thanks! Comments will help too, almost as much as cash.

Dissertation Challenge!

A few days ago I started a sponsored fundraiser. Where some may run marathons or climb mountains for charity, I decided to do my dissertation. I am hoping people will support this challenge and give me cash. The cash will go to a good cause, of which I have picked out two. The first is Oxfam, a very well known NGO that strives to end global poverty and injustice. The second is not an organisation of this sort, and lacks the promotional material to summarise in the way Oxfam allows. It 'supports' the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico, which fights (largely nonviolently) for a different mode of production and governance from the capitalist one endorsed by the Mexican State.

Where money can be raised quite simply and passed on to Oxfam, this is not the case for the Zapatistas. I cannot use JustGiving.com to support the Zapatistas as they are not a charity. So I tried to figure out a way of financially supporting them by other means, and realised that purchasing coffee from the co-operative coffee producers in Chiapas, the state run autonomously by the Zapatistas, would be the best means. To use a platform similar to JustGiving.com (instead of asking people to pay me direct) gives the two causes an equal presence on the internet, and a certain legitimacy- PayPal is used for both, for example.

Purchasing coffee gives a new emphasis on the support that differentiates it from the Oxfam cause. It brings up issues such as 'Trade or Aid?' and the nature of the involvement of NGOs. If both causes are working towards 'change', then do we advocate change from the bottom up or the top down? Do we trust the type of change that these two organisations are attempting to provide? Do we have adequate ideas about the organisations' respective histories and the histories of the lands in which they are operating?

Then there is the websites I am using to do this stuff. JustGiving.com is pretty simple to use, and has good connectivity to things like Facebook and Twitter, and it's easy to publish my page on there. I can also do JustTextGiving with Vodafone which asks people in my phone book for donations. It works like this...
It's simple: you share your JustTextGiving code, your sponsor sends a text message from their mobile phone, and you see their donation and message on your fundraising page.

I haven't done that (yet) so I can't report on how simple or effective (or irritating for people) it might turn out to be.

The Zapatista cause uses a 'crowdfunding' website which is simply a space for people to promote something that needs funding. I tried numerous sites but came up against a need to make a promotional video (which I don't have the time and resources to do) or having the money in dollars which might put people off. I have ended up with GoFundMe.com which unfortuately has a £5 limit for the smallest donation (compared to any price for JustGiving). JustGiving also use Gift Aid which, because of Taxation laws, adds extra to the donation, so a 50p donation is worth 63p.

To promote my GoFundMe page on Facebook would mean that I would have to use an 'App' that would receive certain details from Facebook. These are: My basic info, my email address, my photos, my videos, and photos shared with me. I have not (yet) consented to this, meaning that I have not promoted the Zapatista cause on Facebook in this way. With Twitter, on the other hand, a 'tweet' is simply done no problem, no info exchanged.

Twitter allows me to reach other people with similar interests, using the # system. On Facebook, I had to create a page to explain what I am doing. This page has numerous restrictions. It works with the 'Timeline' model and thus straddles the posts I make down the page, meaning that the important info that I want to convey is stuck in the (fairly hidden away) 'About' section, or gets pushed down the page as I update it. My sense is that it appears confusing and doesn't invite a huge amount of interaction apart from 'liking' the page itself. Thus, where I have had only one donation (excluding my own), I have seven 'likes.' I wanted to upload a 'cover photo' to this page to tell people to click on 'about' but was told that this would go against the Facebook rules of a cover photo, which cannot be primarily text-based or contain...

• Price or purchase information, such as "40% off" or "Download it at our website"
• Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section
• References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
• Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends"

One more concern is the way people's objections or support is expressed. Does a 'like' on my Facebook page express support for me, my dissertation, the Zapatistas, Oxfam, or all the above? Does the lack of a 'like' mean indifference or objection? Will people's problems with my project, if there are any, ever be heard? Thus far, only one comment has been received...

Viva Zapatista, all power to co-ops and communes!

So, with £35 in the bank for the coffee co-ops of Chiapas, Mexico, and £2 in the bank for Oxfam, the journey continues.

To support the coffee producers in Chiapas and by extension the Zapatista anti-capitalist struggle, go here: http://www.gofundme.com/otpss

To support Oxfam and their struggle against poverty and injustice; for food aid, irrigation and schools for the world's poor, go here: http://www.justgiving.com/Adam-Hutchings

For the Facebook page, see: http://www.facebook.com/DissertationChallenge

My twitter is @ad_hutchings

Thanks!

NUC: Thorncombe Village Shop, Dorset.

For the past few days and for a few more to come, I have been falling before the public of Dorset, on a Jammatology expedition with Chris Sav. As far as I can tell there is one café within a hundred miles and it doubles up as a village shop. Notes on this café can be found here, or on the Grounds for Discussion page.

All coming café reviews should make there way to this particular spot. Spawning from the cafés will be a mutating map that links up London by espresso shots so that no one might get lost again, just so long as it is only coffee that they seek. Jammatology also includes other endeavours, which can be found by pointing and clicking. For this is how discovery works in the internet age.

NUC: Double Shot, Covent Garden

On this drizzling, miserable day I followed the unknown backstreets near the Strand to this dark green café. Unknown to me, that is; it's not exactly a wilderness. Alighting at Charing Cross had I ventured into Victoria Embankment to stare at some statues of people I did not know. Back on the Strand I saw a café which I took note of for another day. Towards Covent Garden I went, shielded from the rain by a hat that makes me look like a hobo (so I am told). As I was peering into a restaurant, I turned to see Double Shot staring me down. The awning was enough to get me in, very nice awning indeed. I hadn't seen an awning all morning.

Inside, it's kind of plush. Dark wood and green like a Mini. Long vertical mirrors bounce the light around,  and people sit around small tables or on armchairs. I am one of the armchair bunch, sitting on one of three armchairs in front of a small table. Rows of Teapigs tea stare down at me from a shelf fixed high up on the wall a yonder. The flat white I got isn't as smooth as others that I have come across, it's rather fluffy but still quite effective. The man who served it to me excelled at indifference. I sit listening to boring music, wondering whether I should stop writing this and instead work on the dissertation like I had planned. I sense a quiet resistance from my clouded brain and watch the people instead.

It seems to be a place for shoppers and business types, for refuelling between two small fashion stores or for an 'informal' interview. One cannot deny how pleasant it is, very convivial indeed, loungey with a touch of gentleman-with-a-cigar class. A man joins me on the adjacent armchair and reads the evening standard. Twenty minutes go by and then a vase with some small red flowers gets positioned between us. Sure, we both ignore this innocent gesture, but the romantic tension has been raised and we both know it. A wonderful accordion song takes over the radio.