Q:did you like the presentation on Somali culture
A: I still don't really understand Somali history at all, but I think there's still a lot to learn about as far as what it means to have muslim culture within secular capitalism- I think there's sort of a condescending undertone when analyzing Islam- like it's some kind of game that people play that must be humored- there's this idea that overtly phallogocentric societies are backwards and inferior, while whomever makes the analysis is somehow free from any "incorrect" propogation of their own culture
what is left unsaid is exactly the same sort of assumed inevitability that allows such conflicts as ethnic war and indifference toward the waging of nationalistic struggle from within the context of enormous consequences after colonial violence.
Q: Do you like cultural trainings
A: yes, although frustrating as well, due to these perceptions that are difficult to deconstruct. I think these exercises are extremely important but volatile because they can have the effect of informing and consequentially engaging people in the struggle of cultural pluralism- which can be an agent of great influence as a tool of analysis against the inevitability of capitalism, but they can also have the effect of alienating the audience from these "other people" by allowing the exploration of "their" history to remain vague and impossible to understand- such as the history of Somalia. What this does is perpetuates a "distance" that can't be reduced.
In the words of Richard Leppert, Paraphrasing theodor Adorno: "Shit is caused" (as opposed to "shit happens")
ciao.
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2 comments:
i liked this short exercise; but this sentence is extremely unclear (maybe a typo/wording problem?):
"what is left unsaid is exactly the same sort of assumed inevitability that allows such conflicts as ethnic war and indifference toward the waging of nationalistic struggle from within the context of enormous consequences after colonial violence."
shit is caused. indeed.
i'm lazy.
well, it's that I'm going to a training for work, a training with at least a partial emphasis on Somalian culture, yet I come away from this without much more than this condescending "difference", or just a hyper-enunciation/abstraction of "humanity" or some such thing. And that there's no expectation from this sort of interaction, at least as far as it is another thing that exists which one feels obligated to participate in and perhaps take a few nuggets of inspiration from- yet another example of everything being transformed to bits of itself, tiny homogenous bits, cultural snacks (and of course delivered across tables each with a convenient pile of sweets in its center, to loll in one's mouth while wondering how much longer we've got to learn about how "confusing" the history of Somalia is- I don't get it, why aren't they a country anymore? What's wrong with them, anyway? Yeah, they're pretty nice but they kind of like to get all dressed up, and it you're REAL lucky, you get a glimpse of supernatural orange beard- beware these sorcerers, for their power is apparent. (eats another thing that was covered in some sort of wrapper) I already saw this episode.
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