EARTHLY NEEDS AND A NEW MODEL OF CITIZENSHIP
Last year in Detroit, after participating in the Bolivia "Rights of Mother Earth" conference through the internet, and after three days of participation in the "themes" discussed at the Mexican Social Forum, I had hoped to be able to get more people in the States to understand the possibilities that the communication technologies offer us in terms of a totally reinvented MODEL OF CITIZENSHIP. Alas, the EVENT in Detroit became so humongous after I had registered at the very beginning, that I rapidly gave up any hope of being able to participate as would have been necessary to achieve my intention --other than perhaps by way of a 15 mt epic poem that I read to about a dozen people in Hart Plaza, at noon, "God Bless America", which appeared in the program under some other "Mamadoc's" name, not mine. My reading was well received and said all that one can say in 15 mts. It clearly states the points I have been trying to make for the last two decades or more. You can see it at www.mama-doc.com in English and Spanish both. I am still trying to process all of the information I gathered in Detroit in order to be able to reach out more personally to the many good souls who attended and who are working to change the tide for humankind. Many pertinent texts are to be found in the www.institutosimoneweil.net in Spanish and English... Here you can read an 8 page text which is the founding block of the new model of citizenship I am advancing to make sure that globalization is set upside down and flows from the bottom up. It's title is "Study for a Declaration of Obligations towards Humankind"... the basic ideas behind Simone Weil's Need for Roots (1943). Wikepedia is a good source of basic information concerning her brief but passionate and inspiring life (1909-1943). In terms of migratory policy the Model of Citizenship I advance includes first and foremost a reclaiming by humanity --by all of humanity-- of people's ability to decide, through their family and extended family associations, where their own members are to settle down and live over time. Documentation of human beings should be through the family and their local or municipal governments instead of at the "national" level. An inter-municipal public area must be assigned for the safe transit of people who have been displaced and are seeking refuge, work, a home: a place to dwell for those who seek to find a new place, as they are being helped to find it with the help of all the communications technology available. The latter would complement the former’s way of documenting people so that the type of slavery being implemented today as a result of people being considered “illegal” will have less of a chance for prospering.This Model of Citizenship, meant to safeguard a person’s freedom and chances for well-being, is amply discussed in the Instituto Simone Weil, A.C.’s page linked above. There, you will find an outline with the basic elements for a Legitimate Democracy spelled out, including equal representation for men and women in all deliberative bodies as in the executive and judicial branches of govt. Following Simone Weil’s distinction between legitimate and illegitimate contradictions, I consider the illegitimate contradictions that undermine our present day multi-party system and advance proposals for the EMERGENCE OF A DIRECT, PLURAL AND COMMUNITARIAN ORIENTED TYPE OF DEMOCRACY FOR ALL –precisely what plenty of people in the world today are most eager for. I believe this is ultimately the intention of the World’s Social Forums. And, specifically, I advance the proposal that ethnicity –as plenty of ethnic groups are claiming—is nothing that a “nation-state” can appropriate. We are multi-cultural, pluri-national states as has been well observed elsewhere, particularly in South America, and seek to identify personally with one or more linguistic groups. Ethnicity should be seen as a primarily cultural identification whereas DNA considerations should be considered of very little interest or of no interest at all. This is why a population census should address the language and cultural issue first and foremost since it allows the population to recognize itself in ways that can help their ability communicate fully at the local and the global levels. One would hence be a citizen of a network of autonomous, free municipalities trading amongst themselves with biorregional considerations as part of the trade-agreements protecting farming and local communities. Cultural identities would be safeguarded and all communities free to cultivate their own patterns of self-expression and choices. The greatest bartering and trading agreements possible, across present day national frontiers, would ensue along with the safest possible travel and dwelling conditions for family members across the globe. More on all of this at the www sites.
FSM 2010, by: