Abused and broken up for the last 100 years, the land was reclaimed by the students and community of Berkeley and surrounding areas on Earth Day 2012.
Now it is a highly militarized zone, reminiscent of peoples park in the 1960s
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday, May 7, 2012
Connecting the dots
This post is something of a last chapter, or at least the mark of the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. This year, and this semester have been quite a ride. We have been through Argentina, deep into the uncharted realms of the Pampa, of distant stares, and hands worn deep with lines of work and wisdom. While we were there, my heart clung to the Patagonian mountains that border this mysterious marsh land. Even when we travelled to Russia, I stayed with these radiant creatures. They seemed to fit well with the mysterious personalities of our Russian unit just as well as they did with the Argentine gauchos. These mountains, that capture all the moisture of the Pacific and keep the Pampa so dry, also captured a lot my attention- my eyes and work are drawn towards familiar horizons. I see strength and movement in the towering peaks, a movement that is so slow that it is barely perceptible. But the inhabitants there are deeply shaped by this movement, whether or not they know it. It shows its face in Maté circles around small, long fires, and in the stares of the older folk. You can see a special kind of mountain wisdom that exists in very few places.
We talked in class about how people are shaped by the land, especially people who have been there for many generations. Harris said that is what we lack here, and probably why our music sucks so bad these days (or something to that effect) and I think he has a lot of truth in that statement.
Human culture is shaped by the environment, but this takes time- hundreds if not thousands of years- to happen. Like the carving of a spoon, the finest details that bring out the life of the artist (the mountains in this case) come out in the last, and longest stretch of time. The thing that draws me back to places like Patagonia and Bolivia, and to new places like Nepal and India- is these details of culture. Details that are so reflective and so a part of that place. Its the geographer in me coming alive.
On the other side of the coin, as a geographer, I cant ignore how deeply humans have shaped their landscape, even in remote places like Patagonia. The tiny Gaucho shacks, a few of which are still standing, that they stayed in while out on the roam with their flock, are markers in the vast landscape. Now, as the world grows smaller and smaller thanks to things like Twitter, Coke, Facebook, and all things under the flag of globalization, there are new markers that threaten the landscape. There are billboards that dot the patagonia in favor, or opposing the proposed dams on the Baker and Pasucua rivers. If the plan goes through, the landscape will be forever altered, in a horrible, unrecoverable way. It would be a social, cultural, and democratic heresy.
The people of Aysen are fighting back, both inside and outside the democratic process. This parallels much of what is happening in my life. With the Gill Tract occupation, the May Day strike, and everything else, the world feels like it is being fueled and radically changed by words like radical, autonomous action.
Autonomous action in a lot of way describes my relationship to this class. I always draw inspiration from the amazing characters and voices we have heard, from Atahualpa to Svetlana and songs of Old Russia, all of these characters embody a sense of independence. Whether that is independence from capitalism (in the case of the red guard, etc.) or independence from the control of the Yankee (Atahualpa), the characters have always seem to run from the creeping prison of cooperate culture. As am I.
In the name of autonomy, of strength and independence, the characteristics that so inspired me from the class (in both form and content) I offer un gran salud a Tony, y sus gauchos.
with these themes as my guide, I plunge into a year of unknown adventures, challenges, and travels in South America. Talk to me at the Fiesta for more....
We talked in class about how people are shaped by the land, especially people who have been there for many generations. Harris said that is what we lack here, and probably why our music sucks so bad these days (or something to that effect) and I think he has a lot of truth in that statement.
Human culture is shaped by the environment, but this takes time- hundreds if not thousands of years- to happen. Like the carving of a spoon, the finest details that bring out the life of the artist (the mountains in this case) come out in the last, and longest stretch of time. The thing that draws me back to places like Patagonia and Bolivia, and to new places like Nepal and India- is these details of culture. Details that are so reflective and so a part of that place. Its the geographer in me coming alive.
On the other side of the coin, as a geographer, I cant ignore how deeply humans have shaped their landscape, even in remote places like Patagonia. The tiny Gaucho shacks, a few of which are still standing, that they stayed in while out on the roam with their flock, are markers in the vast landscape. Now, as the world grows smaller and smaller thanks to things like Twitter, Coke, Facebook, and all things under the flag of globalization, there are new markers that threaten the landscape. There are billboards that dot the patagonia in favor, or opposing the proposed dams on the Baker and Pasucua rivers. If the plan goes through, the landscape will be forever altered, in a horrible, unrecoverable way. It would be a social, cultural, and democratic heresy.
The people of Aysen are fighting back, both inside and outside the democratic process. This parallels much of what is happening in my life. With the Gill Tract occupation, the May Day strike, and everything else, the world feels like it is being fueled and radically changed by words like radical, autonomous action.
Autonomous action in a lot of way describes my relationship to this class. I always draw inspiration from the amazing characters and voices we have heard, from Atahualpa to Svetlana and songs of Old Russia, all of these characters embody a sense of independence. Whether that is independence from capitalism (in the case of the red guard, etc.) or independence from the control of the Yankee (Atahualpa), the characters have always seem to run from the creeping prison of cooperate culture. As am I.
In the name of autonomy, of strength and independence, the characteristics that so inspired me from the class (in both form and content) I offer un gran salud a Tony, y sus gauchos.
with these themes as my guide, I plunge into a year of unknown adventures, challenges, and travels in South America. Talk to me at the Fiesta for more....
The Eucalyptus and I
The eucalyptus
tree is a non-native member of the ecology, but so is everything else if you go
back far enough.
It
was brought to California to be used and exploited as a resource. The idea was
to use it for lumber, for the thousands of railroad ties that were needed to
build a railroad across this wide continent. But the eucalyptus refused to be
used and exploited in this way, so in California it decided to grow with a
twisted grain instead of the straight grain they expected it to have.
This
meant the railroad ties would bend and warp after just a few years, making it
impossible for trains to pass. So they had to give up on trying to force the
eucalyptus to be something it wasn't- a railroad tie, and leave it as a
tree. So the eucalyptus (using Sir Bacon as its steward) tricked them. And
now it is a huge part of the CA landscape... you can't look in anyone direction
with out seeing a eucalyptus.
There
is a parallel between this story and the story of student occupations. We are
brought to the university to be shaped into resources, to be processed and
milled, and shipped out to be railroad ties for companies and corporations all
over the world. But some of us discover that, like the Eucalyptus, we have a
twisted grain inside of us, and no matter how hard they try to keep us straight,
we just can't lie flat like the other railroad ties. So we bend and warp, pulling
the railroad apart as we do, stopping business as usual. Declaring,
I will
not be made into a resource. I will not be exploited, used or employed in
anyway I don’t see fit.
I couldn't
even if tried.
Like
the eucalyptus, I am of a twisted grain.
by charlie
dubbe
Thursday, April 26, 2012
the farm
people chatting over a potluck dinner, the bandanas flapping in the wind. a few stragglers still planting starts, as the day winds down into evening.
16,000 starts at the Gill Tract. Here are a few
some of the 15 thousand starts that made it to the gill tract
Take back the tract
occupy the farm!
save the tract!
this is what a public education could and should look like.
open spaces, where the community and the students can learn and help each other.
spaces to grow food, not profits.
spaces to grow our worth, not commoditize our work.
spaces to make connections, not compete with each other.
save the tract!
this is what a public education could and should look like.
open spaces, where the community and the students can learn and help each other.
spaces to grow food, not profits.
spaces to grow our worth, not commoditize our work.
spaces to make connections, not compete with each other.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Songs and places
a window into a broken land.
the land has been stomped on, and broken like glass. watch how the people put it back together, piece by piece.
these photos are of friends and comrades in Aysen, fighting back against state repression and a centralized economy. This fight has not been a pretty one. People have been shot, blinded by buckshot, and beaten nearly to death. but as true patagonians, they never give up. in fact that word isn't even in their vocabulary. ni un paso atras. not one step back.
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