Category: World

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Theatre guru Augusto Boal

I’m motivated about theatre after todays experience is Second Life, both because of it being a Theatre par excellence AND because our host Kim had such an exciting deep perspective about drama and education. Learning about Boal was a find, though it is more a case of finding something lost. I think I owned a copy of Theatre of the Oppressed at one time, having a brush with Paulo Friere in the early seventies. He spoke here just as we were setting up a school.

The motivation is not just an external thing, it has been on my mind as I prepare to train others in Psychodrama this year. Theatre is an essential component of Psychodrama – it is as much theatre as therapy, it is therapy because it is theatre… but we must go further than that. Psychodrama is not only “clinical Psychodrama” it includes applications on the world, good theatre can transform the world.

I don’t like the line he has below, though the last thing I really want is a debate, I love the spirit of all this,

“it is a rehearsal for the revolution”

The reason I don’t like that in therapy is more obvious. It is possible in surplus reality to scream, shout, and annihilate whole planets, to do what you will. This only works if people are stable enough to see this as NOT a rehearsal.

So what is it?

Transformation, making things possible in the world.

So, when it comes to Sociodrama, that too might be a way of transformation, making things possible in the world.

Theatre guru Augusto Boal: “As workshop leader, I am merely an instrument”
February 2008 –

“I always fiercely opposed our government, but that is over now. Gilberto Gil is an excellent Minister of Culture. The Minister of Justice recently announced that cultural centres will be established in two hundred Brazilian cities. That is fantastic, because I know this is not an empty promise. It feels like a reward for our years of work.”

Augusto Boal
Augusto Boal
Augusto Boal (Rio de Janeiro, 1931) wrote his first book, Teatro del oprimido (Theatre of the Oppressed), in 1975. His philosophy has attracted followers under that name throughout the world. “The audience holds a general rehearsal for what happens in daily life. Key concepts are human development and freedom. The theatre shows us new roles. In essence, these roles are ready and waiting for the time when the viewer actually needs them. The theatre itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.”

powerofculture.nl

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Emperor Obama

I have found myself increasingly angry, when I hear people still support him now after his blatant illegal bombings, his murders, because that is what illegal wars are, even when executed by drones.

I am angry, but sad because we have the same quest for world domination (he calls it leadership), disguised by the same rhetoric about “war on terror”. The really sad thing is how the bombing in Pakistan (terrorism in its own right) is fueling the anti-American sentiment. This is a war that America can’t win. But there will be many more deaths.

Weirdly it looks as if the European nations will be forced to make at least token support for American expansion. Will this stir up an anti-war movement in Europe?

Stopping American aggression, terror, murder NOW is so important. What is the state of the international anti-imperialism movement. Sadly Taliban, Al Qaeda, Hamas are in the forefront. Do they need our support? I can’t find that in me, though I am able to see how their plight calls for a fight.

Is there effective opposition to American imperialism anywhere? Will it come from within the USA? In Europe? In New Zealand who has troops in Afghanistan, and a new right wing government?

There is plenty of good information & opposition, from familiar sources, can an anti-imperialism movement come out of this?

Tom Hayden on Obama’s Wars
Warning of a quagmire, with a good grasp of the gloomy facts.

The ISO, on the case for getting out of Afganistan

Pulse media has an intelligent post on Obama’s murders and illegal orders. There is an exchange in the comments worth reading as well. This is where I got the Emperor Obama title for this post.

pulsemedia.org

This is the empire we’re dealing with. On Obama’s brief watch it has already murdered Pakistani civilians. In this context, I think we should talk about the idiocy rather than the audacity of hope.

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Cameron Riley interviews Richard Moore

Just listened to Cameron Riley interview Richard Moore. Excellent podcast. A credible analysis of the geo-politics and a credible practical way forward – rare. I am now checking out “dynamic facilitation” dialogue. I love the way he speaks about doing dialogues as an experiment. Reminds me of Moreno’s sociometric experiments. These are not experiments ON people. This is people experimenting together, well that is what I make of it.

The state of the art for community dialogues has a way to go I think. I can see a sort of combination of Imago, NVC, Sociometry working to facilitate such a process. Couple and small group dialogues are hard enough, dialogues for social issues may be simpler. I like the way he proposes that a small group with diverse opinions, if they find a solution, it is likely it will be broadly accepted.

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Socialist Aotearoa

Socialist Aotearoa

If you’ve changed your lightbulbs recently or decided to get yourself one of those reusable green bags from Foodtown then good on you, but you may want to consider that although New Zealand has one of the highest carbon footprints per person in the entire world, the vast majority of our greenhouse gases are created by massive companies like Fonterra, Comalco / Rio Tinto, Solid Energy and Genesis Energy who have more influence over the New Zealand climate protection policy than you can shake a lightbulb at. So should we be concerned that these mega-polluting giants are the ones who get to tell Helen Clarke, Kevin Rudd and the rest of us whats good for the climate? We certainly think so and would like to invite everyone else who agrees to join us this Wednesday for the final day of the conference.

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Afghanistan – not a good war – gathering some info.

I am figuring out why the hell we, New Zealand is in Afghanistan. Why it seems almost secret that we are there. Why Obama wants to escalate the war. Some links in no particular order.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hallinan.php?articleid=13242

By any measure, a military “victory” in Afghanistan is simply not possible. The only viable alternative is to begin direct negotiations with the Taliban, and to draw in regional powers with a stake in the outcome: Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, China, and India.

But to do so will require abandoning our “story” about the Afghan conflict as a “good war.” In this new millennium, there are no good wars.

Look at this link if you have a good stomach for atrocity.

Phil Goff 2005 on why we are there – he calls it Peace keeping – sounds like double talk to me. The news today about civilian deaths.

Wikipedia summary

I was hoping to find more from the Greens. Its all a bit stale, and the upshot is that our involment is a token. there is this. And Keith Lock’s original opposition to the war in 2001. And his comments on rebellion of the New Zealand SAS make interesting reading! Here, and here.

Ok, it may be that New Zealand can keep out of the worst of it, but it is there alonside an invader. The are complicit even if the SAS has rebelled. I wonder what the deeper story is – who rebelled, what do they say now?

Scoop has a recent Govt press release.

Amnesty notes torture by US

Gwynne Dyer: Afghanistan – A war won and lost London Journalist via the New Zealand Herald – also last years, but has some analysis.

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A bit more than a “Holiday Update”

Miranda July, edgy, provocative, loving & full of integrity:

Holiday Update

hello,

for those of you who are american, you now have a holiday. there may be times during this holiday where you feel a) not as happy as you had planned on feeling, b) like ripping someone’s head off, or c) fat.

this is because it is a holiday celebrating genocide.

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