From Gulf to Gulf

[Celso Alvarez Cáccamo]

You're very welcome, Gabriella, but there's no need to be sarcastic -- for 
one thing, you didn't need to be enlightened.  I said "particularly US 
scholars" because we were talking about a tragedy in the USA. You may 
direct your logical anger somewhere else.

I just tried to say that those speeches by African-American leaders were 
really powerful, and hence conveniently backgrounded by CNN. And I wasn't 
just talking about the material *conditions*, but about what "our" position 
is and what to do about it, like class privileges. It is easy to be 
academically critical with a 100,000 $ yearly salary in the USA (or 80,000, 
or whatever -- anything higher than the 11,000 $ average for lower classes 
in New Orleans) or with a 30,000 euro salary in Spain, and with many more 
privileges that this encompasses. I think we should demand to have our 
salaries lowered.

I don't need to defend my privileged position. If others do, it's their 
choice. To me, the logical, ultimate consequence of critical analysis is 
class suicide. Or class euthanasia, if you wish. I doubt intellectual 
classes are willing to do this, so we look for all sorts of excuses.

Sorry for again thinking aloud.

-celso

Celso Alvarez Cáccamo
lxalvarz at udc.es


At 13:10 02-09-2005 -0400, GABRIELLA MODAN wrote:
>Thanks, Celso, for informing us of the material conditions in our own 
>country. I'm sure we all (and, as you say, "particularly the US scholars") 
>now feel very englightened.
>
>Galey Modan
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Celso Alvarez Cáccamo <lxalvarz at UDC.ES>
>Date: Friday, September 2, 2005 11:46 am
>Subject: From Gulf to Gulf
>
> > (I apologize for cross-posting)
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I have just listened in CNN International to four full, forceful
> > speeches
> > on the hurricane Katrina crisis by four USA Afro-American
> > representatives
> > talking to the Black Caucus. In my opinion, all the speakers
> > indirectly
> > brought to fore the deepest political crisis that the USA regime
> > and the
> > USA as a country have experienced in recent years, a much greater
> > crisis
> > than 9/11, which "united" the country in tragedy. In powerful and
> > transparent ways, class and race (poverty, slavery, and the empire
> > of the
> > market) in the USA have been linked, and sometimes nuanced with
> > elements of
> > a religious ideology (a representative quoting the Bible to his
> > "fellow
> > Christian" president Bush) that clearly parallel the convergence
> > of state,
> > politics and religion in so-called fundamentalist Muslim countries
> > that the
> > USA army is supposed to be fighting.
> >
> > In such a terrible situation as the one that thousands of people
> > are
> > experiencing now in the USA, I believe it is not time for refined
> > exercises
> > of discourse analysis (at least, I would be unable to do them)
> > that, for
> > the sake of academic "rigor" and self-complacency (which too often
> > are one
> > and the same issue) would obscure the fundamental issues at stake
> > in this
> > crisis. The simple issue is that the bodies and minds of poor
> > people always
> > DIE in greater quantities and SUFFER more than other economic
> > classes under
> > critical circumstances. If you have an opportunity, do search for
> > and
> > listen to these speeches, for example. I doubt that CNN will make
> > them
> > available on line.
> >
> > And to the international academic community (particularly the US
> > scholars)
> > I can only suggest, with all due respect and humbleness, to
> > consider anew
> > or review the role that the material bases of society, and
> > particularly
> > objects such as "class", "class relations", "poverty", or the
> > like, play in
> > the models (?) that inform (?) their respective forms of discourse
> > analyses.
> > Please understand me: I am not trying to raise an unfruitful
> > "academic"
> > controversy in which I myself would not be able to defend my own,
> > unelaborated position, if I indeed have one. Simply put, realizing
> > that one
> > is alive to be able to continue to do academic work just because
> > one had
> > the MATERIAL means, for example, to flee from an upcoming disaster
> > (or to
> > survive an earthquake, or to escape bombings) is not a matter of
> > academic
> > controversies, but of ethics.
> >
> > Cordially,
> >
> > Celso Alvarez Cáccamo
> > lxalvarz at udc.es
> >