16:08 - 03/27/2009
Protestations
I had a disconcerting dream not long ago. I seemed to be a healer, charged with some of the most difficult patients in the ward to heal. They were terribly deformed by circumstances which were shrouded in their past. It seemed as though I had already been able to release one of the four that had been waiting from my care, so that they could at least move forward with their lives. The next two both seemed to have injuries consistent with severe burns. Hypergranulated scar tissue and severe adhesions limiting any sort of movement. Their appearance making it difficult for them to even step outside the walls of the hospital.
Only, it wasn't really a hospital. There were two extraordinary columns through which one entered the facility. When I read the Old Testament as a child, those columns were how I envisioned part of the inner sanctum of the Temple being described - I think they were even given names by the writers of the tome. At the same time, it recalled, to my sleeping mind, the imagery of the Tarot workbook I had used as a meditation a couple of years ago. The picture of the High Priestess, limned as Persephone, entering the underworld also passing by those two self-same columns. Pomegranates seemed to play a role, although that makes no sense to me in waking. Cognitive dissonance if the two images from different faith systems bothered me, but they only enhanced the message in the dream for me at a deeper level. Might be because I'm reading an analysis of tantric practices - the mystical, not the deformed western version - that is an exploration of the feminine in creation. Hmmmmmm.
Anyway I had just said good-bye to the second patient assigned to me. Deep tissue massage and hydrotherapy had been enough to help that person return to society, although I wasn't happy with the outcome - felt it should have produced better, more effective results. I took the third patient in my arms. The skin on their body was so contracted that it literally pulled them back into a backbend that they could not move from. I massaged the adhesions until they released, but the result was disconcerting in that the person whipped forward in to a contracted position that had their head to their knees without being able to move. Their body wrapped around my legs as I continued to work on the damaged tissue on their back, along the spine. Even though I knew the work I did was painful for them, they thanked me for "easing the incredible pain/strain" that the other position had caused in/on their heart. I think I cried. We worked together to release the remaining adhesions and they went off happily on their life's journey. I was still saddened, because the skin on their body was still that blistered shiny layer that is the sign of a severe, but healed, burn. I couldn't do anything to fix that. The patient, though, was very content with their appearance and that is what counts after all. I could feel the fourth person waiting beside me, as I waved goodbye to the last patient when they danced happily back through those two pillars. I was afraid to look at this last person, knowing that they were the most severely injured of them all. Dread took me and I woke up not wanting to look. Oh my.
Protest has seemed to be the theme manifesting in my life the past couple of weeks. Not mine, but still a lot of drama. The march I wrote about in my last post to you was just the most physical. Since then, some vigourous discussion in the Facebook pages of some of the participants/witnesses/observers. Expression is better than repression, though, in this case. At least there seems to be some honesty in saying what the writers are thinking or feeling. Admitting one has a problem is the first step to dealing with it, say the pundits.
A couple of weeks ago, when the last US president was speaking in our city, discussion erupted about protests on the self-same Facebook newsfeed, although different accounts and ages being represented. One friend joking about bringing an extra pairs of shoes and eliciting a much stronger response from others than I would have expected. I threw in my own comments urging less physicality. I thought this protest technique, already used successfully by female activists in very repressive regimes/circumstances, was much more apropos of the moment. I was thinking later of maybe extending that action by asking either Victoria's Secret or La Senza to donate their out-of-season undies to the cause in Burma. Maybe a cargo plane could carpet bomb those incredibly superstitious generals with their wares in the new capital city of Naypyidaw. If some frilly panties is all it takes to bring down that regime, it would be the best bloodless coup in history. So I think anyway. Could work. Hmmm.
At the same time discussion with another friend about the anniversary date for the Tibetan uprisings/invasion by China and news stories meant I actually tried to post a comment on one of the chatboards of one of our major news agencies. It took a long time before my comment was acknowledged as uploaded - about 12 hours. Then....nothing. No response from moderators as to why. Couldn't have been because of lack of exposition, because one was really limited by the number of characters one could type in the space alloted. Couldn't be, either, because of lack of clarity or accuracy - given some of the other comments being posted. I had included links to UN committee reports with respect to Canada and it's treatment of indigenous people. Our federal government still hasn't ratified the international instrument specific to aboriginal people, but it has ratifed and complied with two other pieces of pertinent legislation, which is what I was citing. I actually was concerned that what I wrote was too dry and legalistic. Maybe that was the problem though. I was feeling fairly deflated about the rejection, until another poster in the follow-up story noted that there seemed to be some invasive censorship going on from outside the newsroom's control. Their comment was that CSIS knew and was watching the reprobates. Whatever. What really discouraged me in the end was the news about South Africa's refusal to let the Dalai Lama attend a peace conference in their country. Sigh.
Anyway, for what it's worth - here is what I tried to say:
There are international agreements that have been created to protect the rights of indigenous cultures, wherever they are found. These include the UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Some countries, like Canada and Australia, have already apologized to those first nations people whose cultures and autonomy they abused or ignored in past centuries. They have set up action plans to rectify these errors in consultation with first nations based on these international protocols. The protocols require political entities to try to meet the expectations of the original residents - not the other way around. There is always room for improvement, of course, so both countries are required to respond to UN enquiries about progress, as they are made. There is no shame for a country to admit that poor judgement may have been used by previous governments in the past. China is no different than any other country in the world and would gain a great deal of respect from the rest of the global community for taking the same small steps to bring about reconciliation. This issue isn't about one geographic areas' needs as opposed to another, it is about equity of treatment wherever an indigenous population has been harmed.
For therapy I've been listening to youtube excerpts from the original Woodstock - oh yeah that last astrological Saturn/Uranus opposition at work - while remembering the training from Amnesty Internationl when I first actively got involved there. We were told that to survive as an advocate for non-violent prisoners of conscience, one had to think in the long term view. The analogy that was offered was about the abolition of slavery. How first, those advocates had been laughed at, then, as they became more effective/vocal, they were vigorously threatened or harassed,sometimes jailed, for their troubles. (Sort of like women advocating for their right to vote in the same era, but that's another post). It took nearly 100 years before there was any real progress. Even though slavery still exists in a multitude of forms, it is at least not acceptable to the majority of the world and those who still practice it are pressured by their peers, legislation and international bodies to stop. One slow step at a time.
Maude Barlow - the Canadian environmentalist/health care advocate - once noted that one has to see oneself operating like the tide "move forward a bit, retreat a bit, move forward a little further the next time". Maude Barlow also being the resource I cited when sending some research links to the young man I had talked with on the bus when he was on his way to that conference on military strategy. He was concerned about the issue of strategic management of one of our fundamental natural resources - water and it's security. Another area of protest that cropped up in many discussions the past two weeks. Hmmmmm. Water on the brain.
Discussion with a couple of co-workers about the book I've been reading about the ineffectiveness of torture has been another source of protest/research too. Sending bits of information off to each person as requested. Then there's all the protests about the financial crisis globally. I think I like the suggestion best that each taxpayer be given the bailout money many countries are giving to the criminals - oops financial institutions - that created the crisis, instead. That has been done to some degree in Australia resulting in the government complaint that - gasp - recipients are behaving irresponsibly by paying down their debts. Then there's the condom/HIV issue... I think cognitive dissonance has finally had it's way with me. Talk with you later dear diary.
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