An Unusual Manual for Everyday Life

Not what you might expect of Gilles Deleuze's and Félix Guattari's Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1983), but i was surprised in re-reading the introduction by Michel Foucault to find the list below that he coyly offers as a list of principles to guide everyday life that he suggests can be found in the book.

As some of you know, i'm a bit of a theory geek and i've been munching my way through french poststructuralism (as well as a variety of other theoretical lands) for some time. I've long had a suspicion that Foucault and others provide indispensable theory for the practice (or praxis) of popular education. Now, this may seem a bit far-fetched to some, but i would suggest that the forces that gave rise to the practice and theory of popular education are the same as those that gave rise to much of twentieth century critical theory (postcolonialism is one name for these forces). And while popular education has been developing in the contexts of grassroots struggles, critical theory has been pretty much the exclusive domain of the academy. I'm determined to bring the worlds of popular education and the worlds of critical theory into closer dialogue with each other. Something tells me this is both an important and an urgent task. One name i give to this relationship (or encounter) is trickster pedagogy, something i've been working on for some time and about which i plan to write more soon. Meanwhile, i continue to work on understanding Foucault and Deleuze and Guattari and many others. (Incidentally, here's an interesting explanation of a D&G concept, lines of flight, from Josh Lerner who used it as inspiration to name his website.)

It is unusual to find in Foucault's work something as concrete as this list of principles i refer to. And they may not seem what you are used to as concrete. But I suggest they are and as a popular educator i feel they provide challenging advice about how to act as well as be in the work. (It helps to understand what Foucault means by "Truth" with a capital "T", but i think you can get the gist of it regardless). Here's what Foucault writes:

This art of living counter to all forms of fascism [which is what Foucault is saying Anti-Oedipus is all about -c], whether already present or impending, carries with it a certain number of essential principles which I would summarize as follows if I were to make this great book into a manual or guide to everyday life:

• Free political action from all unitary and totalizing paranoia
• Develop action, thought, and desires by proliferation, juxtaposition, and disjunction, and not by subdivision and pyramidal hierarchization
• Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which Western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an access to reality. Prefer what is positive and multiple, difference over uniformity, flows over unities, mobile arrangements over systems. Believe that what is productive is not sedentary but nomadic.
• Do not think hat one has to be sad in order to be militant, even though the thing one is fighting is abominable. It is the connection of desire to reality (and not its retreat into the forms of representation) that possesses revolutionary force.
• Do not use thought to ground a political practice in Truth, nor political action to discredit, as mere speculation, a line of thought. Use political practice as an intensifier of thought, and analysis as a multiplier of the forms and domains for the intervention of political action.
• Do not demand of politics that it restore the “rights” of the individual, as philosophy has defined them. The individual is the product of power. What is needed is to “de-individualize” by means of multiplication and displacement, diverse combinations. The group must not be the organic bond united hierarchized individuals, but a constant generator of de-individualization.
• Do not become enamored of power.

And just in case you're disappointed with this list here's another - the four rules of Dinotopia:

1. give more, take less
2. do one thing at a time
3. dance every day
4. exercise imagination

Duncan Williamson 1928-2007

I've just learned that one of the world's greatest storytellers has died. Duncan had a stroke a few days ago and had been paralyzed and unable to speak. And i've just received word that he passed away last night. Condolences to all, friends and family alike. Duncan will be missed. Though his stories will live on. In 1998 he visited Toronto along with David Campbell and they performed at the annual Toronto Festival of Storytelling. I was lucky to have been his chauffeur while here and got to spend many hours chatting and listening while we drive around Toronto and the region. My friend Nicole Bauberger and i did an interview with him as well as recorded numerous stories and songs which Duncan was pleased to share with us. I'll see if i can find that interview and add it to this blog. Here's Duncan profile page on the Scottish Storytelling Centre's website. My heart is saddened this day.

Here's a piece written in the Scottish daily Newspaper The Herald: http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/features/display.var.1820355.0.0.php

Migrations Across a Fall Sky

Walking along a tree-lined path this morning i heard the familiar sound of geese honking. It was early, just after sunrise, the sky was as grey as it looks in the photos above and i suppose i was barely awake. I looked up and saw through the mostly bare branches of the trees the chevrons of Canada geese flying south. I don;t know how to describe the feeling it evoked in me except to call it joy. Chevrons of birds have always made me feel that way. Perhaps it reminds me of the ancient rhythms of winged migrations. I stood on the beach this morning underneath the grey ceiling of clouds (photo above) and watched chevron after chevron of geese making their annual southward journey.

Notes from CAW Workplace Training Workshop

I'm sitting here in the CAW Port Elgin Family Education Centre on a beautiful Fall evening after a having facilitated a session on "dealing with conflict in the classroom". The workplace training program is a remarkable accomplishment. As he CAW writes:

In 1996 Big Three bargaining our union successfully bargained training time for every member in the workplace during working hours. In 1999, eight more hours were added expanding the workplace training program to 24 hours over the life of the agreement. The courses are designed to give our members an opportunity to learn more about their union, review developments in the industry and deal with workplaces issues ranging from building respect to ergonomics and stress.

Every couple of years there's a Workplaces Trainers Conference - there's over 125 trainers, i believe. This is the second time i've been privileged to offer a workshop at this event. Today's workshop was overflowing with stories of people's experience of conflict in the workplace. So much so that i didn't need to do all the pieces i'd designed. You can download the original design here (a 46K PDF). In reflecting on the workplaces trainers' experience we were able to create a pretty damn good list of helpful advice and techniques for dealing with conflict in the classroom. We began the workshop by listing one expectation of the workshop from each participant. You can see those expectations here (a 20K PDF). And here's what we created in our discussion of advice, techniques, what works (of course, not everything works in every situation all the time - also, some of this might seem a bit mysterious as i comes from discussions we had which would take more time than i have to convey):

• Keep open mind
• If someone comes looking for a conflict, don’t give in
• Don’t let them rattle you – it helps to know that we’ve all had the same experiences
• Many different ways to earn respect
• agreeing with someone
• Admit that you don’t know, commit to go and learn and then move on
• You can earn respect from the rest of the class when you do challenge a disrupter
• Always have a script – develop formulas that you can apply
• Take time to sit down informal and shoot the shit with people who are potentially disruptive
• Give participants an “out”
• Throw it back to the class
• Ask a person to leave
• If you think you’re going to have a bad class, then you probably will. Be positive.
• Talk with participants, not AT
• Let co-facilitator know how you feel – rely on your co-facilitator
• “You’re entitled to your own opinion”
• Be authoritative, not authoritarian
• Stay away from Tangent City
• You can be strong like an oak or strong like grass
• Give a potentially disruptive participant something to do (e.g. prepare the handouts, help set up the room, be one of the small group discussion leaders)
• Involve participants in the process – get them to “own” the process (e.g. by starting session with getting them to suggest guidelines for behaviour that will help them)
• Have water available at all times
• When confronted with someone who says, “It’s boring,” you can respond with, “It can’t be boring. It’s a class based on participation including your participation.”
• When confronted with, “This is another union brainwashing session,” you can respond with, “If I can brainwash you in eight hours either I’m really incredibly powerful or you’re kind of susceptible.”
• “I” messages
• “You” messages, i.e. when people say “You guys….” You can respond with, “We’re all “you” guys.”
• Respect with co-workers
• Relying on co-facilitator, e.g. “back comments”
• SELF-CARE

Good Thoughts for Oliver Schroer

Just listening to CBC this morning as i prepare a workshop for CAW workplace trainers i learned that Oliver has had to go back into hospital for further treatment for the leukemia he has been living with for the past while. Apparently, there are problems with a scheduled bone marrow transplant. Oliver is a local (i.e. Toronto) and national wonder of the fiddle. His most recent album, Camino, is a magical collection of pieces he composed and recorded along the Camino de Santiago in France and Spain. I'll be listening to it and thinking good thoughts for Oliver as i drive up to Port Elgin this morning.

I found this video of Oliver's score to this fellow making noodles. It's called Bazoku Noodles.

Rainforest Wonder

Alas, but i was supposed to be on a boat with J'net on our way to visit a remote native community she visits once every couple of weeks for her work. But the boat was too full and i was the expendable one. As i watched the boat surge off down the inlet i saw this wonder, which seemed a fitting consolation. The rainbow was actually a perfect arc across the entire sky and with the sun coming out for the first time in days, it felt like the world itself calling out, "look, see how wondrous is this land."

The Old Woman and the Pot

There was once an old woman who, one day, was feeling very sorry for herself. Her husband had recently died and she was also thinking of her many children, of whom two had also died. She thought about what a terrible thing it was to outlive your children. Many of her children still lived and she knew that she had lived a good, if hard, life. But her self-pity was strong and she felt doubly bad for this indulgence. She decided to go to the market and, there, perhaps lose herself in the bustle and noise of the crowd. Once in the market her spirits did begin to lift when she noticed a pot-seller's table and remembered that she needed a new pot. On the front of the table was a nice, shiny new pot the exact shape and size that she needed.

She asked the price and the potseller said, "For that pot, four kopeks."

Yes, thought the woman. It is a lovely new pot and too expensive. She looked over the table and, to one side, saw another pot, a little smaller but still good for her purposes. It looked old but it would do.

"For that pot, five kopeks," said the potseller.

The woman was surprised and said, "But I don't understand. How could that pot be more expensive than this nice new one? I don't mean to embarrass you but, that pot looks used."

"Ah!" said the potseller and he lifted his hand and struck the old pot hard with his finger. The pot sent a musical note into the market air that stopped all those around who heard it until the sound dissipated into the morning air. "You see, we who make pots know that you do not judge a pot by the way that it looks but by the note that it sings."

"Oh, yes," said the old woman, smiling. "I knew that. I just forgot it for a moment."

A Collection of Social Justice Mailing Lists

I've always been an avid reader of newsletters, magazines, journals and, of course, books. And the internet has multiplied beyond imagining the amount of text and image that can fill one's reading hours. Here's a few of the lists about social justice activism and popular education to which i am subscribed:

Social justice events, news and resources in Toronto:

• Centre for the Study of Education and Work at OISE
• This is an excellent source of information about labour education and scholarship.

• Rise Up! News and Events
• Compiled and published by long-time activist and educator Anna Willats, this is a very comprehensive listing of social justice and advocacy events in Toronto. To post an event, subscribe, or unsubscribe, just send a plain text message to awillats@sympatico.ca

• Toronto Social Forum
• Started by activists who were inspired by the Porto Alegre initiated World Social Forums, this list shares information and resources about social justice activism with a strong international focus.
  

• Incoming: The Newsletter of the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy
• an excellent source of information about events, resources and jobs in the literacy community of Toronto

• Centre for Social Justice
• A Toronto-based research centre, their list promotes events and resources mostly in Toronto including campaigns with which they are associated.
  

• Ontario Council for International Cooperation e-bulletins
• OCIC is an umbrella group of NGOs working in international development. Their e-bulletin is an excellent source of information about member-related events, resources, jobs and more.

• Planning Action
• A group of activist planners, they've got a great list about planning related happenings, debates and more.
  

• Clay and Paper Theatre
• Clay and Paper is a Toronto-based puppet theatre troupe. They annually put on shows in Dufferin Grove Park and other spots around Toronto.
  

Beyond Toronto

• The Popular Education News
• An excellent newsletter, written and published by Larry Olds (long-time adult educator from Minneapolis) that features events and resources abut popular education - mostly in the US and Canada.
  

• COCo - The Centre for Community Organizing
  
• A Montreal-based non-profit that does training and community organizing.
  

• Voices Rising: The on-line magazine of The International Council for Adult Education
• Some useful info about international adult education.
  

• People and Planet Friendly:
• Canada's Gateway to environment, sustainability and conservation
  

• View from the Hill: Newsletter of the Highlander Research and Education Center
• Highlander has been doing social justice rabble rousing and education for over 70 years in Appalachia. A wonderful source of experience, resources and inspiration.
  

• COMM-ORG: The on-line conference on community organizing and development
• This is a terrific resource for community organizers - events, debates, papers, curricula and much more.
  

A New Season

I've been absorbed. Or perhaps i've been away on a cosmic jaunt. It sure feels that way when i notice that my last post to this blog was in July. It's been a wonderful summer and, as richly packed as it was, it also feels like i've merely blinked and months have passed. The autumnal equinox is behind us and we are well into the fall season of school and work and life. As some of you know, i am now married - having proposed to a beloved friend of 20 years, J'net August (now J'net Cavanagh), we did two wedding ceremonies this past summer, one in Port Alberni, BC and one on the Toronto Islands. Everything went wonderfully well and there are numerous good memories that have been shared widely amongst family and friends. However, little has changed in my day-to-day life as J'net and i continue to live on opposite sides of the country until next year. Alas. Such a modern relationship. I also have two step-children now as well and, having taken care of one of them this summer for two weeks and with all the frenzy (joyous though it was) of two weddings and with all the August preparatory work for teaching this Fall and, finally, getting started teaching, i am only now catching up to myself and attending to numerous deferred tasks - like blogging.

Kafka and Son - not to be missed!

I went to see Kafka and Son at the Toronto Fringe this afternoon and, having seen it in its original run well over a year ago, i was once again deeply moved by this gripping play. Alon Nashman’s performance makes me wonder about other one-person shows that have moved me and in which i've wondered whether i'm witnessing acting or channeling. I learned about Kafka's letter to his father through this play and, having struggled through most of Kafka's work over 20 years, i wish that i had known of this letter then. Though i'm not wure i wouldn't have gone for the easy psychological (Adlerian and reductionist) interpretation: tyrannical father leads to son who has to overcompensate, producing work that appears to be that of a genius but is really just a boy crying for his father's love and approval. Alon's acting out the words of the letter gives us a Kafka of remarkable complexity - humour, pathos, anger, regret, longing, humiliation - and the play pushes the story beyond the obvious psychological reductionism to the question of whether or not Kafka would have been the iconic Kafka we know without the father he describes. Kafka's work is not therapy writ large as some might have it. He was a participant in the discourses of his time which included surrealism, the relatively new practice of psychoanalysis, existentialism, Marxism and more. He also lived at a time when the 20th Century was young and still trying to sort out the shape of power (personal and political). He wrote the letter after World War I and i imagine that had a rather profound influence on him (he followed the letter with some of his most famous work: The Trial, The Castle, Amerika). His story The Metamorphosis remains one of the most influential tales i read as a teenager (written, interestingly, just prior to World War I).

Are we called into the life we live or are we pushed? Is it possible that Kafka “created” his father; did he need such a relationship to give us the works of genius that are still so frighteningly apt in our less-than-enlightened age of war, “terror”, baby-faced tyrants, shadowy economic hit men and persistently invisible machineries of power? I feel strongly that popular educators and social change activists need to include Kafka in their reading. We need to understand power better. I think there might be a tendency to apply Kafka to interpreting the formerly communist bloc countries while ignoring the relevance to Anglo-American culture except to misuse the adjective kafkaesque. When we wonder about media complicity in the run-up to Bush's war in Iraq and "against terror", when we wonder about Guantanamo and how the US would arrest one of their own soldiers (former US Army Muslim Chaplain James Yee for 76 days in solitary), when we wonder about the health care system in the US (as shown through Michael Moore's new film Sicko) and about those forces perpetually trying to privatize Canadian health care - some of the answer (or perhaps it's better to say, some of the questions) are to be found in Kafka's work.

If you're in Toronto you still have a few opportunities to see Kafka and Son - you can see the listings here. And the play goes on tour next week to Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton. It is a remarkable and memorable piece of theatre. Don't miss it!

Why? Why? Why? - A popular education reflection tool

I was recently asked by the Climate Crisis Coalition about an exercise i've been using for many years to do critical reflection. It's an old favourite of mine and its simplicity belies the profound effects it can have on people. I call it Why? Why? Why? and it consists of simply posing a simple question and pounding it with a series of "Why's". You can download an activity description here:

• Why? Why? Why? Activity Description (Word-50K)
• Why? Why? Why? Activity Description (PDF-47K)

And there's a sample form here: Why? Why? Why? Sample Form (Word-22K)

I like to call this exercise "popular education for our inner two-year-old" - something all parents will understand. I like to use this exercise to start an event as it gives people the chance to consider why they are involved in the work they do and, presumably, why they are participating in the event they are a part of.

If you use it please let me know how it goes and i'm happy to share more tips about how to use it.

This year's talk about Human Rights Education and Advocacy

Each year for the past three i've been invited to give a talk (along with Chrysogone Zougmore Secretary General of the Mouvement Burkinabé des Droits de l'Homme et des Peuples in Burkina Faso) on the relationship between human rights education and advocacy. I called this year's talk The Warp and the Weft and you can download a version of it here: http://www.web.net/~story/RC/warpandweft-2007handout.doc

Invisible Theatre to the power of 10

The Yes Men are up to their antics once again. This CBC story reports the latest (thanks, Matt). The Yes Men are merry pranksters who monkey-wrench corporate conference events by posing as official representatives of various corporate interests. This documentary chronicles some of their pranks. It's interesting to compare their work to invisible theatre, one of the methods of Theatre of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal (if you can read Portuguese check out Boal's organization in Rio: CTO-Rio and there's an english page here about international exchanges). Invisible Theatre is an interventionist form of theatre in which a group of actors stage and perform scenes that expose various forms of injustice. The goal is to provoke dialogue about oppression and, hopefully, contribute to resisting oppression if not promoting justice. The actors never reveal that it is theatre and so people who have witnessed/participated in the event would never know that they had been part of something that had been planned. The ethics of doing this are, to say the least, fuzzy - worth debating. Since first doing Theatre of the Oppressed in the mid 80s i have seen a consistently enthusiastic response on the part activists and educators that usually sounds like, "That's so cool. Let's DO IT!" This enthusiasm can eclipse the need for careful preparation including discussion of the why's and wherefore's of doing it. The Yes Men eventually expose what they have been doing so it's not exactly invisible theatre but it does share some elements in common up to the point they reveal themselves or get exposed. The curious thing is why people are suckered by them when they are presenting incredibly outlandish things as in one presentation where they advocate for slavery. But, having come across Confessions of an Economic Hit Man i can see that believing the Yes Men is actually not as hard as believeing the extent to which the forces of U.S. capitalist democracy are willing to go in manipulating other countries economies for the benefit of the U.S.

John Perkins on "The Secret History of the American Empire

This episode of Democracy Now features an interview with John Perkins who wrote Confessions of an Economic Hitman. It's an illuminating, if discouraging, interview. It makes me wonder what chance the forces for social justice have when capitalism can function as Perkins describes:

We work many different ways, but perhaps the most common one is that we will identify a third world country that has resources our corporations covet, such as oil, and then we arrange a huge loan to that country from the World Bank or one of its sister organizations. The money never actually goes to the country. It goes instead to US corporations, who build big infrastructure projects -- power grids, industrial parks, harbors, highways -- things that benefit a few very rich people but do not reach the poor at all. The poor aren’t connected to the power grids. They don’t have the skills to get jobs in industrial parks. But they and the whole country are left holding this huge debt, and it’s such a big bet that the country can't possibly repay it. So at some point in time, we economic hit men go back to the country and say, “Look, you know, you owe us a lot of money. You can't pay your debt, so you’ve got to give us a pound of flesh.”

Here's the Democracy Now interview with Perkins from November 2004.

A few things worth checking out

Culture Collective
A source of on-line videos, that Jacob of the Living Folklore says is "a place to cultivate dreams - a collection of stories and voices to inspire hope and to create a meaningful dialogue across cultures and generations." There's a blog, too.

International Summer Institute Lifelong Learning
Faculty of Education, University of Malta 18-19 September 2007 with Professors Peter Jarvis, Margaret Ledwith, Peter Mayo and Kenneth Wain. Click here for a PDF flyer describing the event.

The Popular Education News #49 - June-July 2007
Produced and distributed by Larry Olds from Minnesota this issue features reports from the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed conference that happened a few weeks ago.

Highlander’s 75th Anniversary Celebration Educational Institutes
On Friday, August 31, in celebration of its 75th Anniversary, Highlander will conduct day-long, single-topic trainings on the core methodologies that have been the backbone of Highlander’s ability to impact communities for the last 75 years. Choose from one of five core methodologies and spend an entire day with Highlander Staff and other nationally known leaders in their field. Topics of study include: Popular Education, Participatory Research, Cultural Organizing, Multilingual Capacity Building and Communications for Change.

Redesigning the Popular Education Class

As some of you know, i've been teaching a popular education class at the Faculty of Environmental Studies for the past several years. In 2001 and 2002 i co-taught it with Matt Adams of the Catalyst Centre. I then co-taught (in the Winter semestre of 2003) the new second part (focusing on practice) with Christine McKenzie who was a new member of Catalyst at that time (and, like myself a graduate of FES). And i've taught it solo for the past few years. And this coming Fall i'll co-teach it with Deborah Barndt who's been on faculty at FES since 1993 thereabouts. So, it's time to redesign the course. Here's the syllabus from this past season. And for those of you interested in the individual session designs you can download a Word document here (it's 451K) with 11 of the 12 sessions. It's a very popular course that has always attempted to give a critical survey of the field of popular education (broadly interpreted). You can get a sense of this from the syllabus and session designs.

Now, Deb and i are talking about reorienting the course. It will still be survey-like. But we're going to feature three frames of reference: contemporary Latin American popular education, postcolonialism and aboriginal ways of knowing. We're still sorting what the texts will be and, thus far, have agreed to the following:

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
• Colonialism/Postcolonialism by Ania Loomba
• Popular Education and Social Change in Latin America by Liam Kane
• Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision edited by Marie Battiste

And we're looking at choosing one of the following:

• We Real Cool:Black Men and Masculinity by bell hooks
• Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination by Robin D.G. Kelley

Tough choices. And i'd love to add more. There will be a selection of readings as well, albeit less than in the past since we'll be concentrating on a few texts for a change. Opinions on this course, our text choices and how you think popular education should be taught are most welcome.

Popular Education Bookshelf - 3 - Public Health

Popular Education and Public Health

This post is partly a sharing of some resources and partly a request. I've learned over the years that participatory research has made quite an impact on the health field. I'd like to learn more, especially where people are using popular education for public health work. I'm told that Nina Wallerstein at University of New Mexico is a leader in this field. And there's Denise Gastaldo who's edited a book of poems by immigrant women in Toronto (there's a PDF here). Then there's Women's Health in Women's Hands who have some good resources on-line such as Building Inclusive Communities Tips Tool (a PDF); Healthy Options for Women (a PDF and also available in French, Somali and Swahili) and others (see the resources page).

The Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition has some great resources as well. Check out Healthy Food, Healthy Community (a PDF) as well as others on their publications page.

i recall meeting Ron Labonté many years ago and have heard his name for years associated with a storytelling process and health education - they call it story/dialogue and you can find out more about it here.

There's an Australian site that has some interesting pieces on it here. And, specifically, they use a storyboard process that uses graphic images for health promotion - there's a PDF (12.8M) here.

And here's an interesting article from Asian Labour Update: Popular Education and the wWorker's Health and Safety Movement. It looks like they're doing something similar to the mapping work that Dorothy Wigmore has developed.

If you know of good popular health education resources, please let me know about them.

Work, Dignity and Social Change" Interactive Video Workshop

Check out this excellent video on the Unemployed Workers’ Movements of Argentina:

Work, Dignity and Social Change

I've been meaning to blog this for some time, but thought i would wait til i'd had a chance to watch it all again and share some choice quotes. Alas: tempus fugit. One of the participants of the popular education class that i teach at the Faculty of Environmental Studies (thanks, Gaby) shared some of this video as her class presentation and then used it as the basis for her contribution to our collective class project in which you'll find an activity description for using this video. I highly recommend this video as it has remarkably articulate interviews with people about their struggles that include using popular education. One of the things that i like about these interviews is that they address both the complexities and contradictions of community organizing (e.g. whether to take state money or not) and popular education (e.g. what happens when you try and do popular education to people?). It's worth the watch! The website also includes facilitators' guides and other handouts.

Popular Education Bookshelf - 2 - Participatory Evaluation

Popular Education and Participatory Evaluation

"Participatory" is a tricky keyword. And, though many people tend to think of popular education and participatory education as synonymous, this is a mistake. I would say that popular education always includes using so-called participatory methods and has, what you could call a participatory ethic. But participatory approaches are not necessarily popular education. The big difference, i would say, has to do with the radical critique of power that is a central feature of popular education. And, while there are certainly naive interpretations of popular education that ignore its radical elements, i think this is an unavoidable tendency and a necessary struggle. But "participatory" is a trickier matter. It is the sort of term that can mean all things to all people. But, when it comes to participatory research, participatory action research, participatory rural appraisal and participatory evaluation i think it important both to critique and to affirm the interconnections with popular education. But more on this will have to wait for a future post. Meanwhile, having recently been asked for resources on participatory evaluation i dug up some research i'd done some time ago. There are a handful of manuals on participatory evaluation that are well-worth working with. Though you can't depend on the manuals themselves to advocate for a popular education ethic and politic, there is a strong affinity. The approaches in these manuals are very adaptable to popular education contexts. Here they are:

• This one is from Health Canada (i've been quite surprised how much work has been done in the health sector on participatory research and participatory evaluation): Guide to Project Evaluation: A Participatory Approach
• Of all the UN agencies, the FAO has been remarkably consistent for many decades in developing and promoting participatory approaches: FAO's Community Toolbox
• Another UN approach: UNDP Manual
• And for another Canadian model, here's an IDRC publication: Knowledge Shared

Popular Education Bookshelf - 1 - Human Rights

Popular Education Human Rights Training Manuals

I know of three excellent sources of human rights education material: Equitas, the Human Rights Resource Center of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and The Council of Europe. Each if these organizations has numerous manuals and education resources and in each case you've gotta dig down into their websites to find things. And the Council of Europe website is a baffling maze. Within these manuals you'll find hundreds of education activities on human rights, of course, but they also include numerous group activities, energizers, games and more. All of this is easily adaptable to other educational contexts. So, here are links directly to a variety of manuals.

EQUITAS:

1. The International Human Rights Training Program 2006 - This is the manual of the annual training program Equitas has done for many years. It's a three-week course and this manual has been designed strongly based on a Freirian education model and with a very good participatory ethic. I've been a facilitator at this event and can vouch for the effectiveness of Equitas' pedagogy. On this page you'll find PDFs of both the facilitator and participant manuals in english and french. This page will no doubt be updated with the 2007 manual once this year's event (in June) has happened.
2. Training for Human Rights Trainers Book 1 (pdf) and Book 2 (pdf): both of these are excellent train-the-trainer resources and are also available in Russian on this page. In December in Nairobi, i facilitated a version of this program.
   
3. Equitas Manuals: Equitas has a good practice of developing and publishing manuals for the many types of trainings and consultations they do. This page has a wide variety of manuals.
   

HUMAN RIGHTS RESOURCE CENTER: There are numerous manuals on this site though they could do with some reorganization. You'll find nine of them (as html pages) here and there's an overview page here which will lead you to yet more resources. Most of these have been developed with primary and secondary school students in mind but all of them are adaptable to adult education situations as well. The Human Rights Education Handbook (#5 below) in particular is an excellent training manual for facilitating both human rights and many other educational processes. Here are direct links to nine of their education manuals:

1. Human Rights Here and Now
2. Economic & Social Justice and as pdf (446K)
   
3. Raising Children withg Roots, Rights & Responsibilities and as pdf (669K)
   
4. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights
5. The Human Rights Education Handbook and as pdf (852K)
   
6. Lifting the Spirits: Human Rights & Freedom of Religion or Belief and as pdf (1,874K)
   
7. The Beyond September 11 Project and as pdf (221K)
   
8. The Activist Handbook on Indigenous Peoples Human Rights (working draft)
   
9. Sustainable Economics Curriculum

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE: I learned of these materials from a Catalyst Centre intern who came to work with us from the Czech Republic. Once again, these manuals contain numerous activities that, though developed for human rights work, are very adaptable to other education contexts. From a quick glance at their website i can see that there are an awful lot of resources here in multiple languages (it looks like the Council of Europe has a lot of money). But their website is byzantine - i found my way to these resources three different ways from Sunday. Here is an index page for something called Learning and Living Democracy - but the links to some of the youth manuals don't seem to be working anymore. And Compass has a number of links to manuals in multiple languages. Here's a link to a couple of their manuals:

1. COMPASS: A Manual on Human Rights Education with Young People and as pdf
   
2. Education Pack: ideas, resources, methods and activities for informal intercultural education with young people and adults and as pdf

Popular Education Bookshelf - 0

For some time now I've been trying to figure out a way both to frame and to share the many resources available (electronically and otherwise) for practicing, studying and otherwise using popular education. This blog is, in fact, one solution to this challenge. And, while i've shared some links to good resources i've wanted to be more systematic about it for some time. This is a tricky task, as popular education is something of a moving target. Which is part of its pedagogical/political appeal as a strategy of resisting unjust uses of power or, in a word, oppression. As such a strategy popular education is a dynamic interweaving of theory and practice or, in a word, praxis. Unfortunately there is a tendency to reduce popular education to a mere bag of tricks for better facilitating meetings and doing education work that is more fun and easy. This is a naive interpretation that, though useful at times, is often dangerously misleading.

The english word "popular" is, no doubt, partly to blame for this. In english the word "popular", in the first instance, means well and widely liked or appreciated. But in spanish, from which we adopt the phrase popular education, the word is more closely associated with its root meaning going back to the Latin populis meaning "the people." I, as well as many educators, have chosen to stick with the term popular education, despite its contradiction in english, as an act of solidarity with the context that created the term, i.e. latin american resistance to colonial, elitist and authoritarian education that had as one of its central objectives the maintenance of the massive inequality between rich and poor. (Paulo Freire, one of the most significant practitioner/philosophers of popular education, is one of the most notable personalities in this history of radical resistance to oppression.)

It has been a challenge to sustain a critical awareness of the radical (and even revolutionary) disposition of popular education as we have applied and developed it in Canada and the US during the past 30 years. And, while there are numerous reasons for this that are worth exploring, i want to call attention to one for the moment. And that is the tendency to interpret (and reduce) popular education to better group process. "Better", of course, means many things to many people but here i'm referring to things such as friendlier, more cooperative (even non-conflictual), democratic, anti-authoritarian, fun, engaging, participatory and more. And, while i believe that popular education does support such better group process, this is merely the tip of a very large and subversive iceberg. Popular education has no monopoly on better group process and a search of the literature will quickly find many very useful resources from the fields of sociology, cognitive psychology, conflict resolution studies, corporate (i.e. private sector) human resources training, leadership studies, community development and more. And i'm a firm believer in 'stealing' what's useful. I recommend excluding nothing from popular education practice without examining it first for potential adaptation and application. After all, all these fields that i mention have long-since been 'stealing' and adapting to suit their own purposes.

But, as i've said, popular education is more than mere techniques and bags of tricks, as desirable and necessary as these things are for educators, activists, trainers and others. Popular education is about changing the political, social, economic, cultural, personal, familial (and so on) worlds such that they are more just, more equitable, more peaceful (though peace does not mean eliminating conflict), more compassionate, more kind and even more competitive (if by competitive we eschew war in favour of that competition that is perhaps better termed contest and which is a necessary and vital form of engagement for play and growth and even intimacy).

Popular education is a praxis, a tricky and contested term. Its meaning starts with its greek root meaning, simply, practice. But the word comes to us across time and space having passed through the hands of numerous philosophers from Aristotle to Hegel to Marx and, finally, for our purposes, Freire. Popular education claims (as well as advocates) to unite theory and practice in a dynamic relationship: theory informing practice and practice informing theory. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (chapter 3) Freire argues that theory (he refers to "the word") without action is mere "verbalism" which is "idle chatter" and "alienated and alienating 'blah.'" He adds that action without reflection is "activism", "action for action's sake" and which "negates true praxis and makes dialogue impossible." (While i agree wholeheartedly with Freire's critique here, i prefer the term activistism to name what Freire means by activism.)

So, praxis, in Freire-speak can be summed up as action-reflection-action which is a cycle that goes on and on. I quite like the following definition from the Pakistan-based Sindh Education Foundation:

Praxis is a complex activity by which individuals create culture and society, and become critically conscious human beings. Praxis comprises a cycle of action-reflection-action which is central to liberatory education. Characteristics of praxis include self-determination (as opposed to coercion), intentionality (as opposed to reaction), creativity (as opposed to homogeneity), and rationality (as opposed to chance).

I have two critiques of this definition and one thing to add. My first critique is to bring Marx's take on praxis to bear on the notion of "individual": Marx's point about praxis is that it is social classes that are the actors in praxis and not individuals. My second critique has to do with the supremacy we grant rationality as a value and ethic but i'll save this for another day. More importantly for now, i think it is important to add something to what we mean by praxis. And this, perhaps, leads to a compromise between Marx's notion of social classes and the above definition's use of "individual." Along with action-reflection-action that changes the world i would add the process of critical self-reflection or, more accurately, a process of ethical self-transformation. While this might be implicit in some uses of the term praxis, i believe it central enough to require being made explicit. And my use of the term "self" does not refer to the individual (that supposed stand-alone, fragmented, separated-from-all idea) but rather the individual-in-relation (as in Martin Buber's notion of the I/Thou) or, to go back to the pre-17th Century definition of individual (see Raymond Williams' Keywords) which meant "indivisible."

Thus, popular education praxis is the activity of critically conscious, social actors (individuals, groups, social classes in relation with and amongst each other) that seeks to resist injustice, oppression, violence and tyranny and bring into existence a world with more love, more justice, more compassion or, as Grace Paley says in her poem The Responsibility of the Poet:

It is the poet's responsibility to speak truth to power as the
Quakers say
It is the poet's responsibility to learn the truth from the
powerless
It is the responsibility of the poet to say many times: there is no
freedom without justice and this means economic
justice and love justice

So, all this to say, that when i am sharing resources, some of those so-called techniques that we can fill our bags of tricks with or toolkits as some call it or skill-sets to use some contemporary jargon, there is an indispensable context of history, politics, theory and praxis the ignoring of and exclusion of which will lead at best to a contradictory practice of popular education and, at worst, hypocrisy and co-optation - popular education, with all its revolutionary potential would become its opposite and cease to be a force for liberation.

This blog post is the first of many "Bookshelf" entries, each of which will feature links (and perhaps annotations or even reviews though i make no promises) of resources that i think good for popular education praxis.

And because i love Grace Paley so much i'll give her the last word with the continuation of The Responsibility of the Poet:

It is the responsibility of the poet to sing this in all the
original
and traditional tunes of singing and telling poems
It is the responsibility of the poet to listen to gossip and pass it
on in the way story tellers decant the story of life
There is no freedom without fear and bravery. There is no
freedom unless
earth and air and water continue and children
also continue
It is the responsibility of the poet to be a woman to keep an eye on
this world and cry out like Cassandra, but be
listened to this time.

Georgia in Toronto: Darbazi

Over ten years ago a Georgian choir got started in Toronto. Called Darbazi, i had a few friends in the choir and saw a few of their first performances. It's been a while and i've heard occasional word of their performances and travels. I'm reminded of them now, not surprisingly, due to my recent travels. The Darbazi History page has a nice account of their origins as well as a couple of their trips to Georgia - lotsa nice photos as well. They also have a recordings page that has six mp3's on it - worth listening to:

From the CD:

• GURULI MAQRULI - This wedding song from the province of Guria features the intricate Gurian yodeling technique krimanchuli: "We are the bridal party! We are bright, and we are beautiful! Open the door to the wine cellar!"
• KEBADI - An example of Georgian Orthodox lithurgy from Guria. "From the rising of the sun..."
• AZAMAT - A dance song from the province of Abkhaseti. On this recording you will hear chonguri, two panduri and bani panduri.

From an recording for the CBC Amateur Choir Competition:

• TSMINDAO GHMERTO - Georgian Orthodox hymn from the province of Kartli. "Holy God, Holy Almighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy upon us."
• ADILOI - A horse riding song from the province of Imereti. "I am sitting on my black horse, well-seated in the saddle. I kicked the dust off my boots and rode to Tbilisi."

From an amateur minidisc recording of a 2003 Darbazi concert:

• IMERULI SATRPIALO - A love song from Imereti. "... woman, love of my heart, why don't you return my love? You set me on fire, my murderer, my close neighbour. Woman, I'll come to you, embrace you. The country's eyes are on you, Kristina with the beautiful eyes. Hear my prayer for you."

The Istanbul i didn't get to see

As i flew back to Canada from Georgia, my co-worker from Kazakhstan (and very skilled facilitator named Tanya) flew home to Almaty through Istanbul - a circuitous route, but she got to spend the day in that most ancient of cities. Ahhh... perhaps someday i'll get to see Istanbul firsthand. Meanwhile Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul is on my reading list. This photo is one of the images Tanya sent me from her day there - the beach along the Sea of Marmara. (Thanks, Tanya!)

So, just what the heck was i doing in Georgia?

Now that i'm home i actually have time to think about the week i've just spent in Georgia. I came home to a week of catching up which has slowed down my blogging. So it goes.

The meeting, Combating Violence Against Women in the South Caucasus, was organized and facilitated by Equitas-International Centre for Human Rights Education, a human rights education organization based in Montreal who do an annual human rights training program (IHRTP) and who have excellent human rights educational materials. My role was primarily to support the lead facilitator, a highly skilled woman (Tanya) from Almaty, Kazakhstan (and alumnus of the IHRTP) and the Equitas programme officer. It was a rare opportunity for me simply to observe facilitation in action. And Tanya was great.

Now, for the most part, i remain quite ignorant about the region i was just visiting - the southern Caucasus, in this case referring to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. The meeting in Tbilisi involved representatives from a number of women's and human rights organizations who convened to share stories, explore common ground (for possible collaboration/coalition), and meet with and learn from the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women (so they could take better advantage of the support that the UN provides).

The groups included: from Georgia: Georgia Young Lawyers Association (GYLA, the local host of the meetings, their english site here), Anti-Violence Network of Georgia, Sakhli, Women's club "Peoni", Women's Center, Union of Azerbaijani Women of Georgia, Women Information Centre, People's Harmonious Development Society, Saphari. From Armenia: NGO Center - Civil Society Development Organization, Women's Rights Center, Hope and Help, Ajakits, Armenian Charitas, Society Without Violence. And from Azerbaijan: Yuva Center, Baku Association of Azerbaijan Women, Clear World HR GO.

Given how little i know of the region it was hard for me to imagine what these womens groups had to contend with on a daily basis. One of the common issues frequently referred to was trafficking - not something we hear a lot about in Canada (though there was an interesting TV drama about it last year - i can't remember if it was CBC or CTV, but i found it compelling). Working in multiple languages (with Russian-English translation) and dealing with the post-Soviet realities of these relatively new states. One fascinating consequence of this post-Soviet time is that the commonality of russian language is lessening. Anyone over 30 speaks russian, but this is not the case for the under-30, many of whom are learning english. And the presence of english is everywhere in Tbilisi.

I was very impressed to meet Professor Yakin Ertürk, a Turkish sociologist at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Professor Ertürk told me of her recent report on the standard of due diligence in which she articulates a notion of "cultural negotiation" that i found quite compelling. In her report she writes:

At the community and family level, the human rights discourse needs to be complemented by an approach based on “cultural negotiation”. Such an approach complements the empowerment approach discussed above, in that it allows the root causes of violence to be confronted and raises awareness of the oppressive nature of certain practices pursued in the name of culture. This requires, (a) drawing on positive elements within culture to demystify the oppressive elements of culture-based discourses; (b) demonstrating that culture is not an immutable and homogenous entity; and (c) identifying and contesting the legitimacy of those who monopolize the right to speak on behalf of culture and religion. In this context, hegemonic interpretations of culture must be challenged by uncovering the power dynamics that underlie these. The process of cultural negotiation through campaigns, information and media can become an important counter-discourse for the transformation of discriminatory values, institutions and power structures.

We only had the briefest of conversations about this over dinner - but i am anxious to learn more about this notion which seems to hold much promise for our so so complicated post-colonial world where we seem to swing back and forth from western hegemony (as the new global common sense) to the cultural relativism of live-and-let-live which all too easily leads to fatal inaction.

The entire week spent in Tbilisi has left a strong impression on me and it has also left me with many thoughts to ponder.

Another Tbilisi Chruch

I thought Quebec had a lot of churches. Quebec's got nothing on Tbilisi. This is the church on the mountain overlooking the city centre. A nice walk in the early morning.

Early Morning in Tbilisi

Just went out for an early morning walk about Tbilisi - quiet streets, kids walking to school and everyone seems to stop and cross themselves when they pass a church, even if the church is a kilometre away. The image above is a synagogue. beyond it you can see the mountain with a walled-in church which is hidden by the buildings on the left. See the next post for the mountain church.

Ahhh, the secret is in the grape

This little fellow is titled, according to the plaque, "Tamada" which is a type of host who is responsible for, amongst other things, making a series of toasts when revellers are about to imbibe . Georgia, i have learned is extremely proud of its wines (which, sadly, i still haven't tried). Apparently, wine has been made in this region going back several thousand years (7000 according to some). And this statue is a copy of a 7th Century BC find in western Georgia. He is holding a ram's horn which i'm sure many of you will recognize as a most ancient wine cup. According to one city guide booklet i have, many historians believe the word "wine" originated in Georgia. I'm for believing it.

This reminds me of a chapter from Eduardo Galeano's Book of Embraces:

On his deathbed, a man of the vineyards spoke into Marcela's ear. Before dying, he revealed his secret:

'The grape,' he whispered, 'is made of wine.'

Marcela Pérez-Silva told me this, and I thought: If the grape is made of wine, then perhaps we are the words that tell who we are.

I found this text on the New Internationalist site where you can read more excerpts from Galeano.

"If I can't dance....

... then i don't want to be part of your revolution," said Emma Goldman. Now why do you think i think of something like that in this former Soviet republic? Hmmmm... Just got in from the local Irish pub - there was a "tap" for Guiness but they only had bottles, alas. Had a great day of meetings with the human rights advocates from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Most of the meeting is in russian with english translation for the sake of the UN Special Rapporteur and those of us from Canada. Amazing to hear all these languages spoken - how i crave being able to speak them as well.

Not sure what this statue is about though the sentiment is obvious.

St. George and the Dragon - eternally at odds

This is a statue of St. George and the Dragon in Freedom Square, not far from where i'm staying. Not surprisingly, St George is the patron saint of Georgia (as he is of Canada, Moscow and a fair number of other places). Last September i was asked by a friend at the local Waldorf school to assist with an annual celebration that centres around the story of St. George and thus had to re-familiarize myself with this ancient legend. I'm rather fond of dragons and, especially, of dragon stories. I'll have to look more deeply still into this old tale. Ad i'm closer to where this tale originated than ever before seeing as George was from what is present-day Turkey.

I found this wee Georgian tale on Wikipedia:

An example of folk tale about St. George: Once Jesus Christ, prophet Elijah and St. George were going through Georgia. When they became tired and hungry they stopped to dine. They saw a Georgian shepherd man and decided to ask him to feed them. First, Elijah went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep. After the shepherd asked his identity Elijah said that, he was the one who sent him rain to get him a good profit from farming. The shepherd became angry at him and told him that he was the one who also sent thunderstorms, which destroyed the farms of poor widows.

After Elijah, Jesus Christ himself went up to the shepherd and asked him for a sheep and told him that he was the god, the creator of everything. The shepherd became angry at Jesus and told him that he is the one who takes the souls away of young men and grants long lives to many dishonest people.

After Elijah and Christ's unsuccessful attempts, St. George went up to the shepherd, asked him for a sheep and told him that he is Saint George who the shepherd calls upon every time when he has troubles and St. George protect him from all the evil and saves him from troubles. After hearing St. George, the shepherd fell down on his knees and adored him and gave him everything. This folk tale shows the veneration of St. George in the Middle Ages provinces of Georgia and similar tales are told in the northern mountainous parts of the country.

Scenes, Sounds & Smells of Georgia

As i type this i can hear beautiful singing coming from the neighbourhood below my hotel balcony. A handful of voices (mostly male) singing what sounds like a folk melody. At first i wasn't sure if it was Georgian but then i could hear some of the characteristic polyphonic dissonances that are so captivating in the music of this part of the world. The evening is cool and as lovely as spring gets. I've just come in from a walk up to Freedom Square and along Rustaveli Avenue with my human rights colleagues. We crossed one street through an underpass in which a young woman was singing something truly angelic - her soprano voice was true and the melody was something plaintive and bittersweet. She was arm-in-arm with a much older woman who wore dark glasses and who was holding out a cup for change. I could not pass this without giving some money. It is a strange city of contrasts. Much of the russian signage has given way to english and a startling number of young people speak english. I'm told that the commonality of russian can no longer be depended on. This seems a bittersweet thing. We passed the national museum which is advertising a show called "The Russian Occupation 1921-1999" and is illustrated with the faces of sad-looking children. I don't know enough to know how reactionary this might be, but for all the soviet union's imperial rule, i can't believe it was all bad. Nor is any place such as Georgia all innocent (as implied by the images on the museum). After all, Stalin was Georgian. The bells have just rung midnight and it's time for me to rest. A couple of other images before i go: cab drivers smoking while driving their fares; being given sticks of gum as change; driving in from the airport along George Bush Street (oy).

Yet another way to eat bread and cheese

We went out for dinner last night and found a restaurant Ria (my Equitas colleague) had eaten at on a previous trip. The restaurant was on the cliffs over the river (the Mtkvari - get your tongue around that) looking up the mountain at an old church surrounded by yet older battlement walls. I was introduced to kachapuri - yet another way to eat bread and cheese - it's a kind of fried dough in which is sandwiched a sharp feta-like cheese. As addictive as pizza. And eating that left little room to add some of the seasonal stewed lamb dish (something quite georgian, i was given to understand). The lamb came in a soup of tarragon which is more tarragon than i've eaten in the last couple of years. We had a lovely walk back to our hotel, having been joined by the facilitator from Kazakhstan. We stumbled across a section of town called Shardeni made up of about four or five narrow streets, filled with cafes and bistros and art galleries. Very hip. Tables and comfy soft chairs crowded the street and many people were wrapped in blankets that we included with the chairs. On one street a baby grand piano sat unattended. The people were almost exclusively youngish (20s to early 30s) and clearly the urban hipster crowd. There is a lot of development going on to expand this section that runs adjacent to the river. It made this ancient country feel kind of young which, in a way, it is. The image above is of a charming cafe behind our hotel.

Almost hidden delights

One of the things i like about walking slowly is the opportunity to notice detail - the sound of a bird i've never heard before, a strange mechanical sound that, i swear, is the same one the TARDIS makes (okay you Dr. W. fans - you know who you are); and these tiles pictured here. I almost walked by them, despite my sauntering pace. I've seen wee tiles or lines of tiles in the oddest places - they almost always look as if they've been placed as an afterthought. But someone has cared enough to place them and that is lovely. They are an interesting mix of whimsy and reverence and care. Notice all the bunches of grapes in these tiles (as well as on the gate in the previous image if you pay close attention) - by all accounts georgian wine is excellent (i'll let you know how my research goes). All over the old town that i was walking around today you could see little touches of beauty and care that people add to their homes, many of which seem more collaged together than planned and built.

Walking about Tbilisi

Beside the hotel i'm staying in is a church originally built in the sixth century. What remains of the original after 12th, 17th and 20th century restorations i could not tell. My colleague that i'm working with this week can read the russian on the plaque but it lacks details. Inside it is very dark and simply loaded with icons and candle stands. There was one person inside lighting candles and praying, another visiting, as we were, and reading the inscriptions on what looked like grave stones set into the floor. It certainly felt like it could be the sixth century once inside. It seems that the georgian population is quite religiously observant. In the few minutes i stood outside of the church virtually everyone that i saw walk by would stop in front the arch that you see pictured here. They would pause for a good 30 seconds to a minute (perhaps reciting a prayer) and then they would cross themselves and carry on where they were headed. Walking around the old town we passed by at least five churches and in the courtyards of all but one i could see priests sitting on benches actively engaged in conversation with each other and lay folk. The iconography (paintings, statues, symbols carved into stone and more) is abundant and beautiful.

Tbilisi in the springtime

I arrived in Tiblisi in the middle of the night (3:00 am) and had a magical drive in from the very, very new airport (opened in February). I had tantalizing glimpses of medieval buildings, distant lights on the mountains surrounding the city. The hotel i'm staying in is on the edge of the old town which i'm about to go walking in. Above is a view from my balcony (it seems like balconies and spiral staircases are de rigueur here). The telecommunications tower you see in the image is lit up like a christmas tree at night, with different parts spinning like crazy tops. The hotel is right on the river whose name i've yet to learn. And it seems like many of the people here, not surprisingly, speak russian (which means that i can at least say please, thank-you and yes and no). My goal this week will be to learn a few complete sentences in russian, georgian, armenian and azerbaijani. Hmmm, too ambitious? It is a perfectly beautiful spring day here - spring seems about a week further along than in Toronto. Gotta go exploring now.

Ethics for Activists - 15

What Heaven & Hell Look Like
A man died and found himself before the gates of heaven. He was relieved. But curious. So he asked the gatekeeper, “Would it be possible to see Hell before entering Heaven?” “Sure,” said the gatekeeper and in a flash they stood before the gates of Hell. The gates opened and there before their eyes was an endless table. On it was piled the most amazing and abundant array of food, drink, dessert. Every imaginable delicacy was to be seen. As soon as the man thought of a food he noticed it somewhere on the table. And along both sides of the table were seated people as far as the eye could see. He turned to the gatekeeper asking, “This is Hell?” “Look again,” he was told. He did so and saw that each person had four-foot wooden spoons attached to their wrists and elbows. So no matter how hard they tried they could not bring the food to their mouths. “Ah, yes,” said the man. “This is Hell. I am ready to enter heaven.” In a flash he was once again before the gates of heaven. They opened and he was surprised to see an endless table heaped with the same abundance of wonderful food and drink. On each side of the table for as far as the eye could see were seated people with four-foot wooden spoons attached to their wrists and elbows. “This is Heaven?” asked the man of the gatekeeper. “Look again,” said the gatekeeper. And he did. Now he saw that all the people seated at one side of the table were using their four-foot spoons to feed everyone on the other side of the table. “Ah, now I see,” said the man. “This is heaven.”

I've just podcast this story as well, if you'd like to listen.

Pete Seeger for Nobel Peace Prize

I'm just sitting here in Terminal 1 at Pearson airport about to fly to the other side of the planet to work on a consultation between armenian, azerbaijani and georgian human rights workers and the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and a friend just e-mailed me the information about a campaign for Pete Seeger to be given the Nobel Peace prize. I've known Pete Seeger's music since i was a teen and i wonder about the choices i've made in my life and all the many and varied influences that have lead me to this place now where i work on human rights and social justice and peace and more. It's hard to credit any one influence as being definitive, of course. But i think that it is fair to say that the quality of my commitment to a more just and peaceful world is, in part, a consequence of Pete Seeger's influence. If the quality of my commitment (which is just a narrow and rationale way of talking about my soul) is a tapestry of colours then some of those colours are because of Pete. If the quality of my commitment were a musical score, then many of the fugues within it are those i learned from that merry minstrel.

If you're interested in signing the petition you can find it here.

(Thanks to Lorne for passing this on to me)

Another Freire Tale

Inspired by yesterday's reminiscences of Freire, i've asked my friend Clara if i could blog this story she sent me some years ago for one of my occasional 'zines. Clara and i were neighbours on the Plateau in Montreal for a number of years and together explored some of the shape and depth of popular education and Freirian praxis. I also had a wonderful room-mate, Heather, who was the CUSO education officer in Quebec and whom i assisted in organizing a number of popular education workshops over a few years. But the 80s turned into the 90s, Clara moved to back Spain, Heather moved back to Nova Scotia and i made that long trip down the 401 to Toronto.

Clara's father, José Maria Valverde, was one of Spain's great 20th Century poets. And when Paulo visited Spain he asked to meet with José Maria. Clara sent me the following:

Paulo Freire meets my Father (José Maria Valverde)

They are both dead now.

But before they left, the two frail-looking men met. “Teacher,” “philosopher,”
“liberation theology intellectual,” “communist,” “theoretician,” “writer” and
“wise man.” They both carried the same labels without letting them get to their
white-haired heads.

Paulo requested a meeting while visiting Barcelona and his entourage arranged for it. It was to be a breakfast meeting. The living room was packed with expectation: family members and admirers wishing to witness the meeting of the two Old Masters.

Freire walked in, wearing his sailor’s hat, quiet, timid. They smiled, shook hands and exchanged brief words in Spanish and “Portunhol.” They sat, each sinking their bony bodies into their armchairs and they grinned at each other like children, recognizing each other, not needing to utter any of the many sentences written in their long list of published books.

They were pleased, comfortable, sharing a few observations about the world, exchanging a couple of jokes, silences, complicity.

The entourage watched, some still expecting the “The Truth” would be uttered, some knowing that it already had.

Paulo left. He left me two things: his sailor hat and his words in a book: “To Clara, with so much clarity...”

Remembering Freire, Reinventing Freire

Just spent the afternoon at OISE at the Freire conference and it was quite good. I have a learned skepticism about conferences and thus set the bar rather low for what i expect. But i didn't need to deploy the lowered expectations. It was a lovely event. Not least because of the remarkable diversity of people from the various generations of activists who have encountered and/or worked with Freire and/or his ideas, to young people, folks from afar (across Canada and from beyond Canadian shores), women and men, literacy workers, trade unionists, health workers, artists, poets, students and more. And it was a roomful of stories - more than could be told. So here's one of my wee Freire stories:

It was sometime around 1999 or 2000 and i had just finished being interviewed by George Stoney for a film he was working on about Paulo Freire. Nita Freire was in town and she stopped by George's apartment. It was a briefcase or a shoebox, i can't recall, that Nita put on the table. Out poured dozens of photos of Paulo's life. The table was inches deep in images from across decades. Nita handled them gently as we sorted through them, making choices about what might work best in the film. She showed George and i and photo when she was a girl in school and a so-very-young Paulo was a new teacher. She told us so lovingly of their life together. As i sorted through the treasures i found a few copies of a bookmark shaped profile topped with a photo of a very young Paulo. In the photo he is very thin and his eyes have an intensity that made me wonder if he had some sense of the future that lay before him. And then there were his ears... Nita let me keep one of the bookmarks.