Rant

Sharky fish dinner at 1 am. It is another night for sleeping without clothing or covers. Maybe a sheet. Three glasses of wine - well, one manzanilla and two rosados, are enough to make me adequately drunk. Just right; any more would be bad.

A big band jazz orchestra is practicing upstairs in the wrecky building on Calle Castellar. Listen here, this is enough reason to stay in Spain forever... I practice my siguiriyas, fearing heat stroke, and then Esther tells me they are having a show at 7. I am surprised that they are practicing there in the first place because they sound like they will be performing in a grand theatre. I am exhausted, am forced out of the house by loud bad music from a neighbor. I arrive really late. The second floor loft has ancient, tiny single paned windows, all dusty and some broken. The band takes up half the space and the rest is crowded standing room only. It is free. People of cualquier sort are there: one proper older English couple, but most are young, most are Spanish. Most are average looking, a few have dreadlocks and weird piercings. Dios bendiga a the rich guy who owns the  buildings at Calle Castellar number 46 all the way to 52. He has some enchufment going on, but he loves art, creativity, music obviously. The police turn a blind eye, or something like that. I don't know. Anyways this place exists. People have free concerts all the time in little tiny bars, where they make their money by selling drinks.

Amanda tells me to join her and her colleagues. Diane, also from the deep south, and Jose, from Sevilla. Four North American girls, all attempting to speak Spanish. Jose can actually speak pretty good English but it is his country so we generally speak Spanish, but sometimes the girls lapse into English among themselves. These are a bunch of very smart, very cool American girls. I have the most fascinating conversation with Diane, who explains one of the most major things in my world: the reactionary, negative stuff that comes from the States, comes from the rural areas (no secret). But she understands the poverty there. People talk about poverty in large American cities, but rural poverty in the south is just as bad, she says, and the people are less educated even. They used to have agriculture, but agri-business has taken away their livelihood.

Hear me now. This is the biggest subject on my mind, as far as anything outside of myself, and concerning the world in general. This is the evil of our times. The fault lies with those of us (me included) who choose cheaper food, provided by larger monopolies, who supported and encouraged types of farming that have destroyed the soil, and taken work away from people who need it. My friend Shanee just posted something on facebook the other day, from the periodical "foreign affairs" (I think that's what it's called), discussing this among other subjects. It's not controversial. Even the major decision makers in mainstrea institutions around the world are understanding that the methods employed in the commerce of agribusiness has wreaked havoc. Since I don't believe in socialism politically, and only as a philosophy (I don't believe in revolution by violence), the only way out is that we stop supporting what is causing the problem. That takes intelligence and foresight and a lot of discipline and some going without. That is what it takes to work within the capitalist system we have.

I don't believe we have the same kind of rural poverty in Canada. We have the aboriginal people who have problems, but widespread rural poverty across boundaries, I don't know of. Anyways, Diane's understanding made complete sense. Everybody knows that the conservative, frightening kinds of stuff that comes out of the States, comes largely from the more rural states. Both Amanda and Diane have inside understanding of the deep south and Diane describes it as a very messed up place, but concedes that out of this kind of ambiance, comes great art - such as the music that exists there - Sacred Harp that my friend Caroline is so taken by, being one example. In other words Diane's understanding is multidimensional. I've often criticised and looked down on the stupidity of the horrible attitudes that come out of the conservative parts of the States and looked down on the people that hold those attitudes. It was a revelation to me why. Poverty drives a lot of negative behaviour and probably attitude as well. This is a kind of poverty and in an area of the States that is virtually ignored. As she explained, they call it the "fly-over" area. You have to fly over it to get from one important place to the other. I am not sure of how to excuse this, but her take was that poverty is also a part of the racism there. It is often the poor whites who look down on the blacks. They have so little that they can at least put down someone else. Probably the bigger problem is that they lack education.

This is where my own thinking kicks in. The price of corn (or canola, I forget) is now tied to the price of oil (which will only rise) because Americans are using it as fuel - biofuel. This is one of the reasons (admittedly only one) for the spike in prices of grain, and the current cause (or catalyst) of a lot of trouble in the world including the middle east at the moment. I am not trying to say that middle class Americans who drive are to blame for the crisis around the world, but essentially there is some responsibility... What it comes down to is that some people want to drive cars, with biofuel, and the result is that a large number of other people around the world are pushed closer to starvation. I think there are two solutions: one is what my socialist friends propose: laws and government have to fix this. That is only going to happen when there is bloodshed. The other option is that the rest of us try to have a bit of conscience (as well as being informed and thinking a little bit, and not putting up with stuff that seems great in our own lives but actually sucks). We are the "market". We decide what rises and falls, essentially. Everyone through their own choice. We have screwed ourselves out of value added production, trades and crafts that provide a decent living and above all dignity, pride and satisfaction in our work, because WE have supported monopolies and transnationals that have undermined these and provided us with CHEAPER products. It is our fault (the opposite of what my socialist friends would say, though I thank them for making me aware of this problem in the first place), and now we are the ones without work (okay you guys in Canada are not yet, but I am in a part of the western world in deep trouble and the rest is close to it).

My strong opinion on the state of affairs in the world is that each and every person should stop buying "more" and cheaper. Should sacrifice a little, and should attempt to buy artesan made things, organic food, products with integrity. My socialist friends say that the "poor" can't afford this. I agree with my socialist friend that the poor should not be poor; they should be paid better, but while this is the situation we are in, we all need to do something about it. In my parents' day, there was poverty. I don't know if it was thought of as poverty. It was simply hardship. I think a lot of the "poor" now just expect more (I am not saying they shouldn't - that is a different question). What I am talking about here is expediency, and the method for change, and in my opinion it is personal responsibility. All of us, even the ones who feel too poor, need to try to support business that is small, local, quality, ethical, and most of all for those who are poor because it is them that these businesses can give work to, if they don't go under. It is the poor who end up with no choice but to work at some shithole (that includes a white-collar worker in a dead, inhuman office with dividers, as well as some kid working at Staples).

My dad's family could only afford one pair of shoes per year per person. My dad could not afford bus fair to go to the library. But the shoes that were available in his youth were undoubtedly of better quality and probably worth a higher percentage of the yearly earnings of his family. The person who made those shoes probably had a higher quality of work life and life in general, than the factory worker that makes the crap available in shoe stores these days. Also, back then one would have been able to choose to be a shoemaker, if he wanted, and do a job that had dignity, in which one could be proud of one's work. Since these jobs have been extinguished, the other choices are being a clerk at Staples, as a stereotypical example. I could work at a small, privately owned stationers shop for a boss I knew personally, but I believe I might have to slit my throat if the only choice available to me were Staples (or any of its kind, in the various different areas of retail or manufacturing. The same goes for work in fields of supposedly "higher" skill).

I am not perfect. I may still buy stuff at Staples. But I am aware, and I make an effort. If we all were at least aware of the bullshit we are supporting with where we put our money, and willing to do what we all can, it would make a difference.

Jose used to build buildings. He has a fair bit of technical knowledge and is thinking of becoming qualified as an engineer. He hasn't worked for a while. He paid for the first round of drinks tonight, and I felt bad. He told me he went to work in England, doing something more in a service industry. He told me the chicas treated him badly. Like an "immigrant". He wanted to tell them he had more training and education than them, and has previously made more money than they ever would. But that is what it has come to in Spain now. Nobody knows where to go next. As far as I'm concerned it is not on in the same direction as before. Some say that the problem is fiat money but I'm convinced it is deeper than that. That may be one of the mechanisms by which this bullshit has come to dominate the world, but what is basically happening is not simply that too much money has been printed.