Re: <eyebeam><blast> localization carnival

[zonezero <zonezero@mail.internet.com.mx>]

Carlos Basualdo wrote on 3/1/98 11:20 AM

"A couple of things:Caros Luiz and Ricardo,
1. Why is it that it seems so difficult for you--at least in the context
of what you've written--to think of Brazil in relation to any other
country/culture that is not the US? In both your texts the US appears
recurrently as that which it is always already counterposed to Brazil,
defining its identity. And this even if you both define Brazilian
identity as, fundamentally, an open process of non-identification... It
smells of some sort of dialectical argument..."

Well said Carlos, I find this sort of argument derived from a pre-global
notion of the world. It's mainly a bipolar approach, between the rich
vs. poor.  We are in Mexico going through much the same process of
redefining much of what this nation is about.  History however
important  it is not to be forgotten, can also become a yoke, when not
recontextualized into a more contemporary reality. A case in point, is
what is happening with Chiapas in Mexico.  I summarise:  The Government
finds itself in a loosing battle for the public mind as they proceed to
renege on past signed agreements with the indian communities. Now they
have created an artificial xenophobic environment expelling all
foreigners, who  are accused for meddling in Mexican politics. So all
the foreing observers who are at present in Chiapas or a French priest
of lived in Chiapas for the last 37 years, are expelled from the country
for having dared to accuse the government for being the culprits of
recent massacres in the town of Acteal in Chiapas. The argument suggest
that our Constitution states clearly that no foreigner can intervene in
Mexican politics. Such an article is obviously as a result of all the
terrible experiences under imperialism and colonialism that this country
had in the past. So the defensive attitude is justified by all means. 
The tragedy however is that the present persecution of foreigners in
Mexico who participate in politics in Chiapas , coincides at the exact
same time, Mexico is being defined in it's economic planning ( like if
all that was not politics) by the IMF.( International Monetary Fund) not
precisely a Mexican institution.  Or if you will, by the huge
investments that Nestle from Switzerland in going to make for cacao
plantations, where? precisely in the State of Chiapas.  So some
foreigners are less foreigners than others, I surmise.  So what does
this have to do with the internet ? everything. The Mexican Government
is acting like if any of you out there could not intervene in Mexican
politics, within Mexico, through this sort of banishment of people from
the territory ( they forgot the internet).  This new reality, suggest
what Carlos brings up, that these past  "enemies" or us vs. them
attitudes, are going to be a whole lot different in the near future, as
the internet's penetration makes itself present at an ever increasing
speed. 

>2. And, related to that: why is it that the open process of
>non-identification that you call cannibalism, tropicalism, etc is
>reinscribed--in both your discourses--as a national(istic) trend? It is
>quite puzzling to see this reassertion of national (romantic) values
>happening in the net...

old habits are hard to shed. 

Best regards
Pedro Meyer



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