Presbyterian Church's Selective Divestment from Israel

Today I received an email from a Palestinian-American friend of mine that had some powerful lines in it. He was responding to the softness of PCUSA's selective divestment from Israel. He wrote,

"People have to be reminded of what Will Madisha, president of COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) said about apartheid in South Africa being a "Sunday picnic" compared to what Palestinians are enduring. PCUSA have shown spinelessness and lack of moral leadership in failing to pursue unequivocal full-blown divestment and they should not be praised for that.

...And by the way, I want to be able to go see where my mother was born and grew up in Jaffa, Palestine without being asked stupid questions by some Zionists. I am not even saying anything about claiming my mother's property at this point."

Here are some excerpts from the latest Jewish Voice for Peace statement regarding PCUSA's decision:

In 2004 the Presbyterians voted to begin a process of phased corporate engagement, including investigating selective divestment, from companies that profit from the occupation. Yesterday they reaffirmed that vote. They did not rescind it, as has been reported. Nor was the 2004 vote a decision to embark on a divestment program, as was reported back then. It was a decision to investigate the various ways the PCUSA could use economic pressure to help bring about a just peace in Israel-Palestine.

Clearly, the Church has no intention of backing down from making a powerful moral judgment about the occupation. Despite overwhelming pressure to rescind their vote, the Presbyterian GA reaffirmed their policy of using economic pressure to help bring an end to Israel's occupation in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a policy that JVP has long supported both in other groups and with our own shareholder activism with Caterpillar. The PCUSA voted overwhelmingly to continue the same process of corporate engagement they started in 2004. This means, as in 2004, the process could still end in a vote for divestment in 2008, and, just like in 2004, that is a measure of last resort. They also reaffirmed their opposition to the portions of the wall being built on pre-1967 territory, and their commitment to ending the occupation not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in East Jerusalem. It's difficult to imagine why many organizations that work overtime to block critics of the occupation are crowing about this as a success. But perhaps the truth just hurts too much.

Wisdom from Burundi

My good friend Kevin Rubottom has done humanitarian work throughout the world and is currently in Burundi. His latest update had some quotes that I thought I would post.

“The needs of the poor take priority over the wants of the rich, the freedom of the dominated over the liberty of the powerful, the participation of the marginalized groups over the preservation of an order that excludes them.”

“Freedom is never given by oppressors; it must be demanded by the oppressed”

Another Organic Victory

I remember the first time I visited my friend Thaddeus' organic farm I asked him to list the reasons why consumers should choose organic over "conventional" produce. Expecting him to talk about the environmental effects or higher quality fruits and vegetables, I was surprised when he began by saying that it's better for the workers that grow and harvest our food. This is a topic that is rarely discussed, but considering that the National Cancer Institute attributes over 10,000 deaths a year to pesticides, it's no wonder that the workers in the fields that are spraying and being sprayed with poison are at a very high risk of health problems.

A couple weeks ago the organic movement and labor rights activists won another victory. The EPA ordered the phasing out of a pesticide that is widely used in American cherry orchards. "EPA officials say the pesticide hurts the environment and can trigger nausea, diarrhea and headaches among orchard workers. Farmworkers are celebrating the ban as a victory, but say they are frustrated that it will take four years to implement."

To hear the story on NPR or learn more about Thad's farm, check out the links on the home page of Conscious Lifestyle.

Beat boxing

Don't worry. This won't be a "Dude, last night I went to the Roots concert and Rahzel did that 'If your mother only knew' song and it was sick" post. Beat boxing is like graff; we all appreciate it when it's really good, but get bored or annoyed when it's not.With that said, here are two links that are sicki, and obviously from the Bay. So grow some dreds, go stupid, and ghost-ride your whip to the Kid Beyond show at Slim's 7/13.

kid beyond
the vowel movement

Update: Letter to Fr. Leahy

Thanks to everyone for your nice emails in support of my letter to Fr. Leahy. Unfortunately, he hasn't had the time to respond. Perhaps he lost my contact information. Nonetheless, my insiders have confirmed that he is, indeed, having a bitchin' summer.

Amma, The Hugging Saint

Yesterday my mom, Valenti, and I went to see Amma, the hugging saint. Amma is an incredible being. She's a spiritual leader, humanitarian, and known for giving one hell-of-a hug. Amma has given over 24 million hugs, each one conveying the feeling of unconditional love. Little did we know that Amma's US headquarters are right here in San Ramon. The night was filled with Indian food, singing, story telling, and some teaching. Amma's message seemed to focus on compassion and the immanence of God (Divine Consciousness).

"Love is our true essence. Love has no limitations of caste, religion, race or nationality. We are all beads strung together on the same thread of love."

"This is the moment to awaken the love and compassion within us. This is the time to pray with our hearts and work with our hands. Let us lend a helping hand to those who are grieving and thus light lamps of kindness and compassion."

"The Divine exists in everything, sentient and insentient. Perceiving this underlying unity in all things is not only the essence of spirituality but also the means to end all suffering."

"Yeah...You like that, don't you?"

Tonight, my dear friend Christina called me to brainstorm for an article that she's writing for The Other Journal. It is a critique of myopic Christian perspectives on pornography. We talked about charity vs. justice, individual vs. systemic, and our frustrations with churches that focus on individuals' disordered affections rather than our disordered culture, which is the result of the popular endorsement of misogyny.

After our conversation I went to my buddy Jason's to watch some of Dane Cook's comedy. One routine in particular was so telling. In Cook's bit on oral sex he recited a litany of unmentionable violations that he chose to perform on his girlfriend. He joked about biting and punching and finally proclaimed what I see as the mantra of male domination: "Yeah...You like that, don't you?"

"Yeah...You like that, don't you?" is the question which males have made rhetorical by allowing women only one acceptable answer: "Yes," even when the truthful response is, "No. I don't like that and you have no right to do it." It is the symptom of a diseased culture in which men - both polite and pathological - make sure that women are always 10 steps behind them.

"Yeah...You like that, don't you?" is what men (consciously or unconsciously) think when women struggle for ordination, but are rejected; when women work the same jobs as men, but only earn $0.73 for every man's dollar; when women try to explain that male domination transcends the pornography industry and poisons the bedroom, the boardroom, and foreign policy, as well as popular theology.

I wonder how different things would be if there was room for an honest discussion of what women don't like; a candid diagnosis of what has made our society sick; and a recession of patriarchs that sat down and shut up until they were in a position to follow...Oh, if only we were slow to speak and quick to listen.

Uprising of the downtrodden upperclass. Are you down, or what?

In the eyes of leftist revolutionaries there is a subset of the petit bourgeoisie that stumble (not far) behind the corporate sell-outs on the path towards personal and political damnation. The elitist intelligentsia gets so lost in artistic and academic superfluity, obscure and largely unread publications, and aesthetic anomalies, that constructive change is perceived as incalculably distant from their wood panelled laboratories of thought.

Amia Srinivasan's satirical "Revolution! Students at Yale, History is Calling You: The Time is Yours!..." revives the leftist critique of action-less academics, but does so in the form of a hilarious call for uprising. I loved it and you will, too.

"My oxymoronic capacity for self-aggrandizing francophilia is perhaps only rivaled by my sensitivity to the Byronic plight of those marginalized refugees of heteronormativity. I take pride in my own ability to synthetically subsume my gifted exterior in the greater cause of an apotheosis of otherization. That is, true sorrow for the foreign folk. Double-skinny splenda soy latte. Rocks."