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Re: human rights vs. societies rights
Eve Pinsker (U56728@UICVM.BITNET)
Thu, 8 Dec 1994 12:35:39 CST
RE Luis Medina's latest post -- how did you know there was mold growing under
my garbage can? Well, actually, it's not mold I've been having trouble with
but some kind of bugs that started out in my oatmeal and are turning into
beetles or moths, we're not sure which, and they've migrated from my apt. into
my landlord's --anyway,I'm having my own problems w. exponential growth, which
I think my apt. was good evidence for; although the main thing that seems to
procreate around here is pieces of paper on the floor, don't ask me how they
do that. I don't see any bugs in my apt. any more --
I cleaned up my kitchen -- but my landpeople (who live below me)
are still seeing moths. My theory on population containment was that if I
didn't kill spiders, and took away the bugs' food, the spiders would eat all
the bugs and die but my landlord is into getting insecticide and bombing every-
thing (in my apt., not in his, landlady is pregnant). Any practical
suggested on regulating my ecosystem appreciated. I'm just glad I don't seem to
have anything around that eats paper.
I am not having any kids. I do not want the whole planet to look like the room
where my computer is; I am presently trying to uncover the carpet so my land-
lord can bomb it. But I would appreciate seeing the math on the
14-15 billion human population extrapolation.
More seriously, in response to my earlier comments about "mixing it up"
and cultural exchange -- no, I'm not denying that a lot of that (but not all)
occurred in contexts that included violence. And yes, people can certainly
learn from those they consider inferior, though they may notcconsciouslyacknow-
ledge that. Cf. the info on indigenous food sources Europeans got from Native
Americans, which we so recently celebrated on Thanksgiving. Like I said, I
don't deny violence was involved. But I still maintain, not always -- markets
and trade, for example, flourish much better in peaceful contexts and have long
given people the opportunity, not just to trade goods, but to trade stories and
songs and images of the way things could be -- did people forget the earlier
discussions of alterity? I'm not talking corporations and NAFTA here, but
patterns of contact and cultural diffusion/appropriation that go back much
earlier. And yes, sometimes people traded genes, too, and it wasn't always
rape. Sometimes, certainly, but not always. I do field research in a
highly miscegenated area -- Micronesia -- where the "other" tends to be
eroticized rather than avoided. And I'm not talking just about the
male perspective -- you should hear some of the things local women say re men
from other islands or other countries. Doesn't excuse the past brutalities of
pirates, etc., but it's an equally biased view of cross-cultural gender
relations to reduce everything to rape or even economic coercion.
I better go back to picking stuff up off the floor. Eve Pinsker
If you never hear from me again, the insecticide got me.
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