On Reflections & Cultural Hegemony

Hello,
These are a few comments on Reflections (WWagar, Pat Loy), Cultural Hegemony 
(Laura Toussaint and Adreas Gunder Frank) and Global Apartheid (Gert 
Kohler).
The concerns from Wagar are shared by many of us in the peripheric nations. 
We feel that we are plenty of reasons for change (ecological, economical, 
safety ones, social justice for all, peace among people, cultural ones, 
etc.), but the defenders of the stato-quo (or supporters of neoliberal 
globalization, or imperial capitalist hegemony if you want) often afirm that 
the antiglobalization movement does not have any "viable" alternative (a 
nasty, undefined and arbitrary adjective) to replace the mainstream 
hegemonic order, neither "appropriate support" (ideological, theoretical, 
practical, ..). At the same time, there are doubts that parties and ONGs 
oriented toward specific problems miss the global vision needed to provide 
solutions different from their specific concerns. It is very general to 
speak about a global revolution, or about a global party, because the 
practical questions remain open and unanswered (how may we build it, what 
methods should it apply for whatever reply given by mainstream defenders or 
elites, how do we measure its local and global succes, etc.) .
The main topic of the World Social Forum in Brazil, next january, will 
address those questions and expects to advance in the road of defining main 
practical actions to be taken at world wide level.
A recent published book by John Bunzl from England, "The Simultaneous Policy 
- An Insiders Guide to Save Humankind and the Earth" gives a proposal to 
build that practical road. I think he deserves to be read with attention, 
because he has the courage to treat the "how to get it", even if not yet 
tried. It is constructed around the idea of an organized and progressive 
movement for democratic and peaceful change, and as any change it would take 
the time we need to understand, accept, support and apply the idea. It does 
not promise a miracle, but is one among other feasible ways out of the 
destructive spiral in our relationships with nature and among humans. It 
contains hope, cultural respect and understands the potential value of well 
conceived utopias.

About the cultural hegemony, it is interesting to observe how Bush and 
Bin-Laden use the word "interests". That word is very important because it 
is used frequently by Bush-staff in his speeches to justify all their wars, 
denials to sign international agreements, etc. But, should not we demand 
from them to explain in detail what their "interests" mean?, and what 
happens when they deteriorate life quality, peace, nature and the welfare of 
other peoples of the world?
In an interview that was mentioned in this list, Bin Laden said that the 
US-gov idea of interests is like if you enter your home and find a burglar 
inside putting things in a bag, then  you tell him "hey, you are stealing my 
property" and the thief replies "no, I am just defending my interests".

IMO, the comparison with US defense of its interests is good, but the same 
may be said about Bin Laden, he is also defending his main interest, which 
would be to convert or combat all of us because we are infidels in relation 
to his main sacred interest, his version of Islam, and while doing it he 
despises the life and interests of the rest of the world, and perhaps of his 
own people too.

Several years ago I read an small translation into spanish of a persian poet 
of the XIII century called Rumi -or like that, please correct me if wrong-, 
who came from a region close to Afganistan, and acording to the book he 
created an islamic humanist movement called the Dancing-Sunites . I was 
impressed because he deals with many topics that reminded me of  the hippy 
movement, of psychoanalysis, natural evolution, and other ideas which became 
modern 6 or 7 centuries after him. I mention this, in spite of my small 
knowledge of islamic cultures, because perhaps it is possible that 
Christian, Oriental, Islamic, Budist, Jewist, Primitive and other religious 
or spiritual cultural expressions might develop an internal reflection on 
their particular humanist traditions of their past and present, as a 
previous step to gather later, in order to reorient and impulse another 
joint influence on world's people, governments, and ecological-economical 
practices in a way that favors life as the primary value. Catholic and 
christian churches had a very eurocentric, criminal and  fundamentalist 
period of several centuries, which affected "infidels" and primitive peoples 
all over the world colonized by occident, and it started to change that 
tendence only very recently. I wonder if we should press all religious 
leaders in that sense, as a way in which they might  contribute to the very 
needed world systemic change. Because if they have not realized that, then 
we should call their attention, no matter if we are not the best indicated 
persons to do it.

OK. No more. Thanks and be indulgent if this post diverted from the basic 
ideas of the mentioned WSN-letters. Emilio J. Chaves



Emilio José Chaves
Address: Edif. Los Héroes Apto. 604
               Av.Panamericana, Pasto (N)
               Colombia, S.A.
Tel.      +(92)7222889
email:    chavesej@hotmail.com


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