the speaker john ross an adopted zapatista journalist gave an interesting and thoughtful insight into the plight of the people and indigenous cultures the movement espouses its defence of.
an old timer and hardened political activists but sincerity shone out in his everyword the details of the speech and other interesting facts are to be be found in his book the war against oblivion, im just reading at the moment.
his talk at the "news from nowhere" liverpool bookshop was cosy and informal and bit like listening to a cowboy off a western set "exciting tragic and humorous that is how the struggle is in the real world".
the wisdom of his words reflecting the faith credo of the people of Mayan extraction who believe we descended from corn, this being the area maize was first cultivated on the planet 10,000 years ago.fascinating stuff.
the man oozed history and life, the ability to listen is as important as the one to talk and fire questions at people,right or wrong,respect for this dude was profound despite his hoarse voice ill health, diabetes i think, and bad eyesight and hearing difficulties he delivered a most eloquent portrayal of the movement so far right up the beginning of autonomy and the formation of a zapatista university to defend the cultural heritage and languages of the people as global capital roams the world in search of profit.
he realayed there was a lot to be learned from pure simple methods of living,selling coffee "zapatista style" and solidarity with their ancient culture is growing as more and more of recognise this a part of humanities disappearing worlds the changes are not always for the better, but change is inevitable with this spirit he welcomed us to meet him again at the g8 summit.
with honorary zapatistas like john ross ross on their side the voice of indigenous people, seperated by technology,language and oceans and continents will be heard loud and clear.viva zapatas.
an old timer and hardened political activists but sincerity shone out in his everyword the details of the speech and other interesting facts are to be be found in his book the war against oblivion, im just reading at the moment.
his talk at the "news from nowhere" liverpool bookshop was cosy and informal and bit like listening to a cowboy off a western set "exciting tragic and humorous that is how the struggle is in the real world".
the wisdom of his words reflecting the faith credo of the people of Mayan extraction who believe we descended from corn, this being the area maize was first cultivated on the planet 10,000 years ago.fascinating stuff.
the man oozed history and life, the ability to listen is as important as the one to talk and fire questions at people,right or wrong,respect for this dude was profound despite his hoarse voice ill health, diabetes i think, and bad eyesight and hearing difficulties he delivered a most eloquent portrayal of the movement so far right up the beginning of autonomy and the formation of a zapatista university to defend the cultural heritage and languages of the people as global capital roams the world in search of profit.
he realayed there was a lot to be learned from pure simple methods of living,selling coffee "zapatista style" and solidarity with their ancient culture is growing as more and more of recognise this a part of humanities disappearing worlds the changes are not always for the better, but change is inevitable with this spirit he welcomed us to meet him again at the g8 summit.
with honorary zapatistas like john ross ross on their side the voice of indigenous people, seperated by technology,language and oceans and continents will be heard loud and clear.viva zapatas.
Comments
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blah blah.. what about some support?
02.06.2005 00:16
but blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah inspiring blah blah.
blah
inspiring!
02.06.2005 08:27
By the way, there are plans for zapatista-grown organic coffee to be available to buy in Liverpool (Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh and other places already have distribution going on)
nfn
And its applicability to Britain is?
03.06.2005 17:38
We are not an agrarian monocultural society but a highly diverse industrialised one. I'm sure there are things we can learn from the Zapatistas (and all kinds of other people) but the likelihood of most of it being applicable here is slim.
Great t-shirts, though.
Zorro
Ya Basta
05.06.2005 16:21
Mick
Up the Zapatistas - eliminate the boring cynics
10.06.2005 10:05
I too was at the meeting and I thought John Ross was great. And I think the zapatistas are an inspiration ( I don't give a dam what the boring dead end - mind numbing lefties think) It bugs me when i read comments by people like 'Blah' ( he really is a blah) and Zorro - who are they. Are they cops - sent to spread apathy - are they cyncial twisted dopeheads who spend all the day just slagging people off. I've been involved in politcs for over 20 years - and when I hear views like that they are always from people who do fuck all - apart from saying ' you should do this' or 'you should do that' while they sit on their sweaty arses doin nothing.
great meeting, great write up John - shame their wasn't more there - but if more people heard more stories about people at the bottom of the barrel fighting back maybe they would be inspired to fight back.
Dazza