From: "Jaclyn Rosebrook-Collignon" <jaclynr-AT-free.fr>
Subject: Re: The Real World and Other Obscenities
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 13:16:35 +0200


Hello all,
Just a couple of comments for those who are interested in other things than
petty name calling and giving themselves mental hard ons by deftly spewing
facile and faux milleresque "fucks" and "cunts", reminiscent of
hyperhormonal years gone silly (i.e.: teenage angst).  I love the occasional
cunt and cock myself but I don't really see the point here on this list
serve.  Most of our e-mail signatures do not indicate the number of degrees
we have or our "research interests", or if we're academics at all.  This is
supposed to be a discussion group on post-colonial issues, not a "creative
rhetoric" forum.  All of us, I hope, live somewhere in the "Real World" no
matter how obscene it seems to be at times. And this "fuck cunting" and
"self-righteous phonies" shit makes me want to go out back to the playground
and give someone a swift kick in the groin area.  You see all this "doodly
squatting" does serve its purpose well - rousing "gut" reactions and
vengeance.  But I'm not just about gut reaction and telling people that they
don't get laid enough and that's why they're bitter about life; in fact,
I'm very cautious of gut reactions.

That said ... I would like to react to Salil's earlier comments:

" i have not gone about with a design to solicit opinions of people who
think like me, or
unlike me. and an overwhelmingly large number of these people have had a
uniform rection to the tragedy; except one person not one of them has linked
it with a grand them like just retribution for US policy in the middle east,
and many have shown the intelligence and awareness to ask if i knew anyone
in the towers, and i'm neither a banker nor an american, but they could
guess that it was an attack on the WORLD trade centre; people from an
astonishingly large number of nations were affected. a bangladeshi
restaurant-owner i know in my part of london tells me of his lost nephew.
for all these people, this is NOT an abstract, political point-scoring
attack on "America". not one of them would agree with mary beard's statement
that "everyone thinks, privately or publicly, that america had it coming."
mind you, i have *no problem* with ms beard thinking this way. (i may think
poorly of her, but that's irrelevant). my problem is with her assertion --
assumption -- that "everyone knows" or "everyone believes, privately or
publicly". who are these "everyones", in cambridge or elsewhere? not in
north london, which is far more heterogenous a community than hi-tech and
educationally-elite cambridge, which still has a problem attracting students
from different classes or ethnic groups (unlike the derided (in britain)
privately-funded american universities)."

I DO seek out diverse opinions, I have no plan to solicit like minds.  Why
else would I waste my time reading these posts.  I have a baker, a post
office, a library, a school etc... where I come in contact with people from
many walks of life.  And although like everyone, I enjoy meeting people of
like opinions, I thrive on "real" diversity - culture, opinion and the like.
And just for the record, I don't have any hired help around the house...

However,  the key point that Salil made concerning the uniformity of
American reactions to the WTC tragedy was that they were all living in
America.  I would never claim (or hope) as Mary Beard did, that "everyone
knows" that there is a lot of blood on America's hands. That is perhaps her
true error.   In fact, I would claim that not nearly enough "real" people in
America ARE aware of what's being done in their nation's name.  And those
who have an inkling of it, refuse to believe it or try their hardest to
convince themselves otherwise. ( like the German population under Hitler,
since many of you are fond of this historical reference)  For some reason,
people (esp. Americans) want to believe that their nations are basically
"good" and "kind", making the right choices for them.  How can we ignore
this relationship when it clearly occurs between the colonizer and the
colonized - an even more "violent" dynamic.

One last thing about the nationalities and social classes of those murdered
at the WTC.  The day the attacks occurred, my "gut" reaction was: "my god,
there are people from all over the world working there."   and "oh shit,
it's 9 AM all the "hourly" (read, low paid) workers are already there!" But
in the media was there even an inkling of the diversity that those towers
contained during the week that followed the attack.  NO  It took at least a
week before we started getting any mention in the popular media of the
nations who had casualties.  Obviously, the media or the government or
whatever cosmic wheel spins the news into propaganda, decided that for the
first week this would be an attack on AMERICA; and later, we'll let the rest
of the world in on the suffering party.  And this is the attitude and gut
reaction that I resent when talking with "real" Americans who are painfully
uninformed, naive, arrogant and lacking the gumption to think for
themselves.  In a country where the opinions of news commentators and media
gurus of the likes of Dr Laura, Rush Limbaugh or even Oprah are taken for
scripture; I think this is a "real world" problem.

And as Salil said, "this is NOT an abstract, political point-scoring attack
on "America". I wholeheartedly agree, this is a REAL aggression whose
causes, effects and repercussions have to be thought about and analyzed.
America must "fess up" and address the injustices in the world that they
perpetrate. ( Islam MUST do the same - I am not proposing one sided
flagellation.)  There were no points "scored" at the WTC, only real world
sports lovers talk like that, not academics.  The WTC attack sent an
"obscene" message that not many want to hear. "We're so fed up with your
fucking shit, we have nothing left to lose, we are full of self-hatred,
vengeance and bile that we don't give a flying fuck what happens to us
because we're already DEAD... that's why we're taking as many innocent &
living along with us as we can... praise allah".  Because even atheists like
me call out to "my" god (the god of my parents and my nation) when I'm
furious, confused and desperate.

My best,
Jaclyn

"Security is a false god, begin making sacrifices to it and you are lost."
Paul Bowles





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