HAPPY BLOGOVERSARY TO ME!

today, insanemonade is one year old!

after a year and some thought, this blog is going to become more than just fiction and (bad) poetry. those types of writing will still be part of the fabric of insanemonade, but i want to incorporate my other interests in here.

thank you for reading!

next

and another trip
home and mom
and sick
final and paper
and christmas

If I could just check off one thing on my to do list, I'd feel better.

poor post

sinus

headache

infection

fever

I think that speaks for itself.

sleep less

semester insomnia flashes bright
above the day
neon lists of things to accomplish
in hours days and minutes
behind the eyelids
no relief
just a few more days
but miles to go
before i sleep

I think I know just about every nook and cranny of my bedroom ceiling.

today

a million miles a minute
easier to navigate
faster
effectively
without the ADD of
email

I'm trying to put limits on how much I'm on email. I am realizing how much of a distraction it is to me daily.

on top of

The to the top of La Sagrada Familia. My legs just tremble. Amazing views, but insecure in my own stance. I don't let them stop me. Every picture they shake a little more, a little harder. The spiral staircase down was definitely the most unsettling part. Shaking legs and curves don't seem like a good combination. The process of this curch is beautiful. They expect it to be completely by the time I'm 50. Cheesy as this sounds, that'll be a good year to return (except that I don't like crowds...).

pics from the trip

dispatches from the joint

This is not my writing, but I wanted to share it. A relative of mine writes a satire newspaper for the prison in which he is incarcerated. Pretty funny stuff, for the most part.

Dear Mr. Convict:
We got shook down again on D-Line and I got picked for the piss test because I forgot to sand the resin marks off my fingers. Anyway, the problem is I passed, even though I had smoked weed two days before. So my question is, do you think I could get my money back from that guard for selling me fake weed? I was suspicious when someone said they smelled pizza, and I asked teh guard about it, but he said that's what hydro smells like. What do you think?
Duped on D-Line

Dear Duped,
In tough economic times like these you have to really watch out for the scam artists and oregano.

on top of

Perched on top of a cathedral, looking at the prosaic side of thos inspiring arches. Bricks and slopes and bird shit and a little spidery friend. The sea shimmers. It feels whole.

Just a bit from the journal.

Reimagining Citizenship

This a paper from my Global Flows class. I think this is the final version, but I've lost my thumb drive (ARGH!). It may be a close to final iteration.

The world’s nations have become increasingly connected and interconnected through international trade, histories of colonialism, and technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones. A change in how the global community defines citizenship is necessary to secure equality for all peoples. “Reality is becoming cosmopolitan,”[1] and the ways in which we group ourselves need to match that reality. The globalization of the planet is in danger of being a new form of Western (specifically, American) imperialism, destroying traditional societies through the export of its culture. To achieve the ideal of a non-hierarchical world society, we must define citizenship without borders and create a global community of People rather than of Americans, Chinese, Kenyans, Brazilians, etc. How do the world’s nations integrate into a global civilization without forsaking the diversity of peoples? This paper prescribes a twofold approach in changing the understanding of citizenship. We must divorce “[t]he accident of where one was born”[2] from one’s primary identification of citizenship. In other words, citizenship should be landless. Additionally, the value judgments placed on qualitative citizenships[3] such as race and gender need to be eliminated. These steps are dependent upon one another. As Martha Nussbaum notes, borders are arbitrary, and our commitment to them as a defining aspect of our identity makes accepting other differences harder to achieve.[4] By ending our dependence on national borders for citizenship, the global community can work toward flattening the hierarchy of privileges and create a non-homogenized yet unified population. Diversity will be the central value in the new, landless definition of citizenship. Conversely, working toward valuing difference will enable the world to end its addiction to national borders. Both processes are created by and inextricable from each other, which is the essence of the new form of citizenship.

Civilization and citizenship have evolved dramatically over the last century in the face of changing global realities. World War I led to the formation of the League of Nations, the first Western attempt at a global order not based on conquering other peoples. In order to achieve membership in the League however, nations had to meet civilization requirements defined by Western states, and because of this prerequisite, the League was, in Edward Keene’s words, “an organization of civilized nations, working collectively for all the world’s people.”[5] Global citizenship was predicated on being born in the West or in a country that adhered to the ideals of the West. The Nazi Party caused a change this arbitrary requirement. They took the West’s ostensibly racist view of civilization to the extreme, which caused the other European nations to reevaluate their criteria for separating the civilized from the uncivilized. Genocide by Westerners outside of Europe was perfectly reasonable but within Europe was barbaric. Civilization has no room for barbarism, and so the West redefined it in order to exclude Germany. In forming the United Nations after World War II, “the discriminatory way in which the concept of civilization had previously been employed,”[6] was abandoned. Empires became gauche and were subsequently dismantled. Civilization, though still based on Western criteria, lost its reliance on a specific set of borders, and previously colonized people were given higher levels of participation in the global order through the United Nations. In other words, they became citizens of the world. From this history, we can see that citizenship has the potential to evolve, which allows us the opportunity to imagine it beyond national borders and create a non-hierarchical global continuum made up of diverse peoples, equal in humanity and in legal standing.[7]

Citizenship denotes a sense of responsibility from the individual to the group (currently the nation) and from the group to the individual. For example, the citizen’s responsibility is to pay taxes and follow the rules set by the group; the group’s responsibility is to guarantee the rights of the individual. Citizenship, currently, is tied to land. De-territorializing[8] it creates an opportunity to broaden, deepen and diversify an individual’s conception of belonging by erasing categories such as National and Foreigner that require a border to be valid. She or he will also have a deep-seeded connection to diverse peoples rather than one set of people. Following Nussbaum, “primary allegiance [will be given] to the community of human beings in the entire world,”[9] rather than only to the ones living on a narrowly defined piece of land. The result of such an allegiance would be a world without superpowers or developing nations, without a hierarchy of belonging; a world citizenry deeply connected to the successes and failures, the fullness and the hunger, throughout the various sectors of the planet. September 11th is defined as an American tragedy. A global citizenship would extend “ties of obligation and commitment”[10] beyond current national borders, and an event such as this one would be felt as a world tragedy.

Divorcing our ideas of citizenship from the land will entail a paradigm shift. The world is addicted to what Ulrich Beck calls a “basic pattern of nation state thinking” [11] and will need to create a way of thinking that does not include “territoriality, sovereignty, jurisdictions and demarcation.”[12] Our current mode of defining citizenship through borders creates unnecessary dichotomies: National and Foreigner, Native and Immigrant, West and Non-West. The borderless mode of citizenship can eliminate these distinctions and the hierarchical way they are applied to categorize certain groups as subhuman and undeserving of rights and privileges. For instance, fear of Mexican immigrants living undocumented in the United States led to the murders of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul, in June of 2009, by members of a border patrol group called the Minutemen.[13] Organizations such as these use the border as the legitimizing factor for their rhetoric and action. Like the Nazi Party, they take a worldview to the extreme which highlights the urgent need to redefine what a citizen is. Erasing the border gives people such as the Floreses equal rights to exist on any land as a person born there. While not a panacea for xenophobic racism, a fence-free existence delegitimizes bigoted groups such as the Minutemen.

Local allegiances, though, are not necessarily negative entities and should not be sacrificed on the altar of the global ideal. In fact, it is better if they remain a foundational part of the individual’s life, because the goal is not simply harmony, but harmony in diversity. Ulrich Beck sees the diversity of cosmopolitan Europe as fundamental in the creation of the European Union, an example of a cross-border entity. This diversity is a source of what is essentially European. What makes Europe Europe flows across state borders. In conceptualizing the European Union, he urges people to “expand the concept of ‘public’ beyond its fixation on the nation state and open it up to a cosmopolitan understanding that realistically accommodates the dynamics from which the trans-boundary forms of the European public sphere are developing”[14]. The EU is not a replacement for Nationality but an enhancement of the individual nations on the international level. A Polish European is as much Polish as she is European. Poland’s voice is augmented through the EU bullhorn, because it is joined with other national voices. Beck also observes “co-national forms of identity, ways of life, means of production and types of interaction that pass right through the walls of states.”[15] The European Union politically provides space and support for these interactions without subverting the cultural identifications of its citizens. While keenly aware of the significance of using Europe as the example of a more global citizenry, the European Union provides a clear model of extending citizenship beyond a specific country. The use of this example in no way intends to promote the export of the European model, since a Global Citizenry would entail the voices, perspectives, creativity and endorsement of all peoples in its creation and evolution.

A model of open borders on a world scale can be seen through the medium of the Internet. Time and space have shrunk considerably in interactions there. A person in India can be in contact with someone in Brazil instantly and easily through email, chat, blogs, Facebook, and other online tools. The virtual world has its own language, customs, conversations and actions. The state system is outdated in comparison with “plugged-in” citizens, and as international connections increase, people are likely to see themselves as citizens of a broader world order, even without a governing global structure. A recent example is the protests after the Iranian election. Through Twitter.com, updates and mobile phone video uploaded to YouTube.com, people outside of Iran were able to remain connected with on-the-ground actions, coordinate solidarity protests and pressure their own governments not to accept the contested election. Mainstream media even used these “alternative” information sources in their reporting on the events in Iran.[16] People, globally, felt the injustice of the allegedly stolen election regardless of their technical nationality. While these connections and actions occurred prior to the Internet, this tool has increased the number of people with access to information beyond the mainstream, national sources, and the interactions and connections such as we see online show that a landless citizenship is already forming.

In order to achieve a broader, more inclusive global citizenry, another process must be started in tandem with the de-territorializing of citizenship: ending the value judgments made on differing cultures and ways of life. The history of superiority on the global stage is long and unresolved. Even when we attempt to create a global order to secure peace, our internalized and externalized prejudices are exposed. The idea of Civilization was and is still based upon Western ideas that are uncritically given as “universal.” Martha Nussbaum calls this myopia “the unexamined feeling that one’s own current preferences and ways are neutral and natural.”[17] The goal of the global citizenship presented in this paper is one of both diversity and harmony. Creating a habit of valuing difference is the process by which we reach for the ideal, and it requires extreme self-examination by the individual, the group, the region, and the globe.

While this habit is the ideal, it is a process rather than an achievable goal. Analogously, in Tadashi Suzuki’s theatre training technique, the actor always performs for her “god of perfection”, trying to reach a flawless state in her work. It is unachievable. However, in the Suzuki method, art and beauty are found in struggling toward perfection, not attaining it.[18] A concrete example outside of the theatre world can be found in the mainstream American feminist movement and the differing opinions on how the sex industry fits into feminist philosophy. One group terms themselves “sex positive” and see sex work as potentially liberating for women, because it can be chosen profession that allows women to define the context in which they are objectified by men. The “sex neutral”[19] feminists see sex work as inseparable from patriarchal oppression, and rather than liberating women, it gives men exactly what they want from women, a sex class on call to do their bidding. The differences between these groups are seemingly unsolvable and discussions can and do reach the realm of fights, especially on a World Wide Web that affords people a modicum of anonymity. However, when a sex positive and a sex neutral feminist sit and discuss their views of the issue respectfully and passionately, the result is challenging, thought provoking and beautiful. No agreement is reached, and neither mind is changed, but there tends to be a greater understanding of each side, which can only help a Western women’s movement that at times seems unnecessarily fractured. Returning to the global scale, though we cannot achieve pure tolerance and celebration of diversity, as Nussbaum suggests, “we should not allow difference of nationality or class or ethnic membership or even gender to erect barriers between us and our fellow human beings,”[20] and should increase how much we value difference through self-examination on the individual and group level.

Visualizing an abstract symbol of global citizenship can help in the process to achieve the new definition, the way art can challenge ways of thinking. Martha Nussbaum, through the Stoics, envisions a life of concentric circles, with the individual at the center and the globe as the largest circle. She adds other concentric categories such as gender, race, and sexuality.[21] This visualization is a good foundation, but a few adjustments can enhance it to create a model for the new global citizenship. First, instead of circles, three-dimensional spheres are utilized. The benefit here is that the very shape relates to the shape of the world and will create a connection of the idea of “Citizenship” to our mental image of Earth. Concentric spheres are still utilized for the quantitative groups to which individuals belong, such as self, family, city, region, continent, hemisphere, and globe. The qualitative citizenships, or “multiple worlds”[22], intersect the “self sphere,” but reach through and beyond the concentric ones. All of the spheres, whether concentric or intersecting, are housed within the global one. The qualitative, intersecting spheres are categories such as gender, class, race, ethnicity, language, sexuality, and the myriad other classifications that create one human being. These groupings connect us to people outside of our physical location. For a simple example, a female-identified runner from the African Continent would be connected to other Africans through the sphere of Africa, to other runners from across the globe through the runner sphere, and to female-identified people through the female-identified sphere. We are all connected, which is why these citizenships are as vital as the concentric ones in achieving the new definition of citizenry. They already transcend our national boundaries and connect us to diverse humans while solidifying our basic humanity. Seeing broader categories of belonging will help us “not confine our thinking to our own sphere,”[23] and create the situation necessary to achieving a landless, diverse and equal citizenship that is not merely a technical lack of borders.

Contemporary globalization can be a different process of connecting nations than the imperial aspirations of previous civilizations. The traditional players of government and corporation (i.e. trade) are still part of connecting the disparate parts of the globe, but individual players now are at work in greater numbers through the use of the Internet. This interconnection is still in danger of repeating colonialism by exporting Western culture and norms onto non-Western peoples. The opportunity to create a global society with an interaction of cultures is present, but in order to achieve transnational equality, our ideas of citizenship must be radically changed. The transition is necessary but will not be a simple one. The scope of this paper focused on two abstract and interconnected ways citizenship could be changed and imagined but did not focus on the challenges of applying a new definition. Many questions need to be answered, such as: How does the world decide on and implement the processes to change the definition? How do laws change? Who is responsible for enforcement of laws? To whom are taxes paid? How do we integrate differing levels of social programs? Even once questions such as these have answers, the process will still likely be long and rough. Groups such as the Minutemen will be able to play on the fears of currently privileged people for support and recruitment. Countering such tactics will require at the very least a long view that includes education at all levels and a willingness to listen to and acknowledge such fears. Beyond extremist groups, we must also frankly deal with our histories of oppression and teach ourselves how we “other” people who are different. From that knowledge, we can develop personal and group strategies to stop the habits that separate people from one another. The concrete steps to solve these legal and ground level questions require much more thinking and input than this paragraph. The paper presented the first movement: reimagining who we consider our fellow citizens.

Citizenship is an evolving idea. The definition presented here does not seek to imagine the telos of the concept, since the ideas come from a single mind rather than a meeting of diverse peoples. However, based on this re-envisioning, if the world, and specifically the West, can redefine and teach citizenship as global category that connects each individual to every other person, no matter how different, future generations will have a foundation to create a world order that is more equitable than has been seen during this and previous globalizations. From a global citizenship, people will be responsible to each other, and cultures will celebrate difference rather than suppress it. Yes, this idea is utopian, but let us be wary of a world where we have stopped dreaming of and working toward a terrestrial paradise.

Works Cited
Agathangelou, A. M., & Ling, L. (2009). Othello's Journey. In Transforming World Politics: From Empire to Multiple Worlds (pp. 146-153). New York: Routledge.

Beck, U. (2007). Reinventing Europe - A Cosmopolitan Vision. In C. Rumford (Ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Europe (pp. 39-50). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Faster, T. (2008, 03 25). The evangelical pro-life guide to sexy feminism. Retrieved 11 07, 2009, from I Blame The Patriarchy: http://blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com/2008/03/25/the-evangelical-pro-life-guide-to-sexy-feminism/

Keene, E. (2002). Order in Contemporary World Politics: Global but Divided. In Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism, and Order in World Politics (pp. 120-144). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Maddow, R. (2009, 06 23). 'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Monday, June 22. Retrieved 11 07, 2009, from MSNBC: The Rachel Maddow Show: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31506579/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/

Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf

Suzuki, T. (1986). The Way of Acting: The Theatre Writings of Tadashi Suzuki. (J. R. Thomas, Trans.) New York: Theatre Communications Group, Inc.

Younger, J. (2009, 06 13). 3 arrested in killings of dad, girl in Arivaca. Retrieved 10 29, 2009, from http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/296911



[1] Beck, U. (2007). Reinventing Europe - A Cosmopolitan Vision. In C. Rumford (Ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Europe (pp. 39-50). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[2] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf
[3] The term citizenship was chosen to denote a sense of responsibility despite the fact that it is generally used as a political identity.
[4] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf
[5] Keene, E. (2002). Order in Contemporary World Politics: Global but Divided. In Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism, and Order in World Politics (pp. 120-144). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] This term is borrowed from Edward Keene in Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics.
[9] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf
[10] Ibid.
[11] Beck, U. (2007). Reinventing Europe - A Cosmopolitan Vision. In C. Rumford (Ed.), Cosmopolitanism and Europe (pp. 39-50). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Younger, Jamar. “3 arrested in killings of dad, girl in Arivaca.”
[14] Beck, Ulrich. (2007) “Reinventing Europe – A Cosmopolitan Vision.” In Chris Rumford (ed), Cosmopolitanism and Europe, pp. 39-50. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[15] Ibid.
[16] The Rachel Maddow Show utilized YouTube.com video to show the protests in Iran, and in general uses the Internet as a source for the show.
[17] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf
[18] This analogy comes primarily from nine years of studying Tadashi Suzuki’s method as taught by Maria Porter which was supplemented by Suzuki’s book, The Way of Acting.
[19] This term is borrowed from Twisty Faster (aka Jill Psmith), the author of I Blame The Patriarchy. http://iblamethepatriarchy.blogspot.com/
[20] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf
[21] Ibid.
[22] Agathangelou, Anna M. and L.H.M. Ling. “Othello’s Journeys.” Transforming World Politics: From empire to multiple worlds. 2009.
[23] Nussbaum, M. (1994). Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/theory/Patriotism%20and%20Cosmopolitanism.pdf

analog blogging 2

Stories are simple. You just start at some point, place, action, character and start walking. Let your brain find the path open the world. Start somewhere.

The bird walked toward me as if I had something to tell it. I had the secret it wanted, needed. What it had been searching for all this time. It paused and looked again at me. Once the secret was known, what would it do? There was nothing else beyond that moment. A fulfilled purpose...is that what it really wanted? A clockwork ship ticked by, rolling its gears in the Meditterranean [sic]. Droplets of sea moisened the bird's feathers. I cleaned my glasses, though considering the scratched lenses, that was a useless exercise. The bird shook and preened a quick wing. Looked out across the mar and flew away. I knew no screts anyway.

~~~
A rain of oranges left us with leads to a rot of rinds.

jet lag

jet lag
lagging behind
now
caught up

I'm 4 espresso shots in and still about to fall asleep.

analog blogging, day one

I'm putting this out with all its blemishes.


What it says:

LEFT PAGE
The Slent Movie Treatment
watch the movie in silence and retell the story (ed. this is an upcoming blog feature!)

The crowd going to Barcelona was decidedly younger than the one heading to Germany.

The pilot is retiring & his family is on this flight. My seatmate (rowmate) is comforted by this, feel [sic] safer. I don't know. If there is a god/are gods t/s/he/m are the source of all irony, so I think it could go either way. So far, so good. Knock wood (does paper count?)

RIGHT PAGE
Train mistakes were made. Limited Spanish but kind ppl. Think I'm okay now, but probably should wait until I actually get to the hostel. I need coffee. ¡Necesito café!

Mountains & produce and
electric wire
Miró on aeroport walls

Practicing
Spanish
in
my
head.

Something about me or my face makes people ask me questions... well, for directions. I landed at 0830, it's 1030 now, and already 2 sets of people have come
inquiring.

still on holiday

i've been away on holiday
i'll write again another day

I kept a journal(ish) while I was away. Likely I will be reproducing that work here, because I've flown back to the States just in time for finals!