Asakiyume mita

It's been quite a while since I posted twice in one day, but one of my friends in Leticia sent me these, and they were too good not to share.

"Pra não dizer que não falei das flores" is the name of a Brazilian song. It means "So it can't be said that I didn't speak of flowers." It's also known as "Caminhando" (Walking). I came across it originally as part of a medley of songs sung by Chico César, a Brazilian reggae singer. (The whole medley is just wonderful and I listen to it all the time.)

When he segued over to "Pra não dizer que não falei das flores," my heart was grabbed by the lyrics:

Caminhando e cantando e seguindo a canção
Somos todos iguais, braços dados ou não
Nas escolas, nas ruas, campos, construções
Aprendendo e ensinando uma nova lição

(Walking and singing and continuing the song
We are all equal, arms linked or not
In the schools, the streets, fields, buildings
Learning and teaching a new lesson)

Especially that last part: learning and teaching a new lesson.

Then it got to the chorus, and he just pointed to the audience, and they sang the whole things without him. They'd done that earlier with his song "Mama Africa," but only after he'd sung it through once. Here he just turned it over to the audience, and they belted it out. (If you start here, you can hear that.)

It was clear they knew it *so well.*

So I got curious about the song. And it turns out it has an amazing story behind it. Wikipedia tells me that it was composed by Geraldo Vandré, who sang it at the Festival Internacional da Canção in 1968, where it was "the most applauded song of the night"--but only came in second place, because the army felt it was too critical of the government (at that time Brazil was under a military dictatorship). The next day, playing the song was banned, and all recordings of Vandré's performance at the festival were destroyed. Vandré himself had to go into exile.

Geraldo Vandré, as drawn by Jeferson Nepomuceno


Wikipedia says (though it's marked as "citation needed"), "'Walking' is regarded by many as the true Brazilian national hymn" and that it is "sung emotionally and in a spontaneous way by a large number of people."

That chorus, by the way:

Vem, vamos embora, que esperar não é saber
Quem sabe faz a hora, não espera acontecer

(Come, let’s go, for waiting is not knowing
The one who knows makes the time and doesn’t wait for it to happen)

(Here's a 1968 recording of the audience joining in with Vandré singing--I've set it to where the audience joins in.)

It really does seem to have anthemic stature. Here's a link to the whole song, sung by Vandré (not live).

Here's an image that's used on Youtube for a remix of a version of the song as sung by Simone, a well-known Brazilian singer who was--so Wikipedia tells me--the first to record it after censorship was lifted.



I think it's a cool image... and/but also, as someone who writes about a country that honors Abstractions, it's interesting to me that Order and Progress are what made it to the national flag ... they seem ominously predictive of the struggles Brazil has had. ... Not that "Liberty and Justice for all" as a slogan guarantees that anything like that will be what the population actually gets, but...

... okay, gonna just drift off now.

I was talking to my neighbor on her front lawn, and an unknown-to-us guy, White guy in his 50s, maybe, or maybe 60s, short silvery hair and sunglasses on, drives up. He rolls down the window and...

Him: Hey, hey, I need to ask you something.

Us: .... Yes?

Him: My daughter is thinking of moving into this neighborhood, is looking to move into this neighborhood, but I need to know: are there a lot of Trump supporters here?

Us: .... There are ... some. You'll see a few signs if you drive around.

(I would guess my neighborhood is 80% anti-Trump or neutral and 20% pro-Trump.)

Him: But it's mainly anti-Trump, right? She's coming from Texas and doesn't want to live with a whole bunch of Trump supporters.

(I can't speak for my neighbor, but at this point I was feeling very uncomfortable about this guy.)

Us: Well, yes, there are probably more anti-Trump people than pro-Trump people, but you'll find both.

Him: Okay, thanks. *Drives off with a vroom along a quiet residential road.*

Me: That felt fake. I don't think that guy was really asking for his daughter.

Her: He drove off like a Trump supporter.

It was very strange

I was waiting at a park that I had gradually intuited was the place a protest against family separation had been moved to. It was about ten minutes before the protest was scheduled to begin, and not all that much was happening. There was a banner, though, with an Audre Lorde quote ("Your silence will not protect you"), and a few people hanging around, including about five very buff cyclists, clustered together on their bikes.

A woman, slightly older than me, came up to me. "Is this where the protest is?" I said I thought so and made some joke about wandering around the original location in confusion.

She nodded, moved off, and then came back, remarking that it was too bad the cyclists were in the way.

"Maybe they're here for the protest," I said.

"No, they gather here every Thursday. I told them they should leave."

She said it without rancor, as if it was normal to tell people to leave a public park.

"Oh I don't know--I think they're good. They swell the crowd," I said, trying to make light of the whole thing.

"It's a problem every Thursday," she said.

Then a friend of mine showed up, and my attention went to my friend--but next to me, I heard the woman trying her anti-cyclist gambit on another person.

"I'm a cyclist," the new person said.

"But you don't understand; this is a problem every Thursday," the anti-cyclist insisted.

Annnd.... then the the leader of the cyclist group, I guess having figured that his gang were all there, announced the route they'd be riding, and off they went. They honestly could not have been more innocuous. They weren't riding around terrorizing people. They were meeting up in a public park--and then they left! The one woman's animus was so strange!

There were some good speakers at the demonstration, and some people with very good signs. I was somewhat depressed by the turnout--it was hundreds and I'd thought there might be thousands, but maybe this just means I'm out of touch. ... Anyway, onward and upward, keep trying, etc.

For 16 years Irom Sharmila tried to use the moral suasion of a hunger strike to gain the repeal of a law that granted the military impunity in her state of Manipur, India. It didn't work: she was reduced to the role of icon and symbol, going through the same motions year after year, without accomplishing her goal, while meanwhile her life slipped away.

Then last year, she did a remarkable thing: she ended her fast and declared she was going to enter politics to try to accomplish her goal that way. There are segments of the population who haven't been happy about that--they preferred her as an inspiring icon on a shelf; they don't want her "dirtied" by politics. But that hasn't deterred her. She's formed her own political party, People's Resurgence and Justice Alliance, and among the other candidates on the slate are Najima Bibi, the first Muslim woman to run for office in Manipur. Najima Bibi is an advocate for women's rights and the founder of a home for destitute women. Erendro Leichombam, another candidate, has worked for the United Nations Development Programme.

Erendro Leichombam, Irom Sharmila, and Najima Bibi, PRJA candidates

Source: Hindustan Times

Writing for firstpost.com, Amukhomba Ngangbam says,

The party's poll plank is based on three pillars - incorruptibility, people's voice and hope for change. The party's campaign style is different from the conventional big rallies, fanfare and flags. It's a door-to-door campaign, where party members visit houses and spend 10-15 minutes talking to available family members about Manipur's issues, the family's problems and the party's objectives.

Unlike other parties, which distribute cash during election campaigns, Sharmila's team seeks donations from the people.

Amukhomba Ngangbam, "Manipur Election 2017: On last day of campaigning, Irom Sharmila goes door-to-door in Thoubal," firstpost.com, 6 March 2017.

To get from place to place, Sharmila has been bicycling:


Source: Hindustan Times

For a campaign symbol, they have been handing out whistles, with the idea that people can be whistleblowers.


Photo: Oinam Anand, for Indian Express

Manipur has layers of colonization and marginalization and corruption and political and other violence stewing in the pot, and what seems like a good idea to an outsider can be recognized as a disaster by someone in the know locally, and same in reverse with bad ideas, so I have no intention of commenting on PRJA's platform and what will work out best for Manipur.

However, I think candidates talking one on one with people is an excellent thing, and I am very happy for Sharmila in a personal way, as I think being in the world, meeting people, and trying to accomplish things with others is also an excellent thing.

The first round of elections is tomorrow! Whatever happens, I wish all the best for Sharmila as she takes on new tasks and challenges.

Very moved by all the photos and reports I'm seeing from all over the United States and the world, and I'm very, very grateful to family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers who are out there. Thank you, everyone.

Irom Sharmila, whose hunger strike has just entered its sixteenth year, is kept in isolation. If reporters want to talk to her, they must go through a bureaucratic rigamarole. International reporters must request permission to see her a month in advance. It's not surprising that not many do. Then, too, neither English or Hindi is her native tongue, so she speaks slowly in both--reporters can be impatient or condescending.

In an effort to share her thoughts and feelings directly with the world, she has sent out this video. (Note: She speaks very quietly, so you'll have to have volume up very high on whatever device you view this on.)



It's long, but if you listen to even a bit of it, you can get a sense of who she is, how she feels, what is important to her. The complete transcript is in the first comment on the video, but these words in particular moved me:

Laws which are meant to serve us, a democratic people, turn against us ... Why should our people remain contented just seeing me as a symbol of resistance? ... I just want to gain success, which is so rightful, with the intervention of the public, and I am really in need of their joining hands ...

The present Indian government is so hardly [i.e., concertedly, with effort] trying to be permanent membership of the UN Security Council, but just ahead of placing this title--I mean for membership--the Indian government need to show the real democracy by repealing this draconian law [the Armed Services Special Protection Act] ... I really am tired of this way of life, really tired, so please intervene ... Without the support of the masses how can I be fruitful in my demands? ...

While we’re living in this world what we really need to do is try in our ways to connect with each other ... We are every source of peace and every source of changes.

Please share widely.

I wonder what the charge can be :-(

The rearrest was quite forcible and distressing; I saw video.

I know there are ten thousand distressing things out there--police brutality, beheadings, landslides, fevers.

This is one of those ten thousand.

I guess a person just . . . keeps trying. While we're alive, we can keep trying. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.

A Manipur court ruled that Irom Sharmila's hunger strike in protest of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is not attempted suicide, and that therefore it's illegal to hold her on that charge--and, according to news sources, she has been released. (Story in the Guardian here.)

Imprisoning her on suicide charges was always wrongheaded, but this release doesn't address she's actually protesting, which is a law that grants the military impunity in its actions in "disturbed areas." What about the AFSPA? It's being reported that Sharmila has said she'll continue her fast, that she wants Modi to repeal the law--she's putting her faith in him.

A Times of India story said that the court ruled that "the state government may take up appropriate measure for her health and safety, such as nose feeding in case she decides to continue with her fast," which doesn't match my idea of an unconditional release--unless Sharmila herself asks for that assistance, which she may well--after all, she has permitted this feeding from the start.

I want Sharmila to succeed in her cause, but I want her to survive, too. It takes intensity and single-mindedness to maintain a protest for so long. Sometimes there are flurries of journalistic coverage, but there are long days and weeks with no signs of support, with only hospital staff for company. Through all that, for years and years, she's been steadfast. But does that single-mindedness keep you from seeing other possible approaches? Do you see only the one path? Does the path end up taking precedence over the cause? Or is that a treacherous question? Honestly, I don't know. She's a remarkable person. I think. . . I will trust her judgment and not second-guess her.

My time management skills are getting worse as I get older.

I have a writing goal and a nonwriting goal for the week. The writing goal is to finish this thing about bridges that I'm writing. It's short! I should finish it.

( The nonwriting goal is to find out more about ISIS. )

I was saying on Twitter that I eat molasses in, among other things, peanut butter sandwiches. It was part of my attempt to broaden the things I paired with peanut butter. My two older kids suffered through mainly just peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches in their school lunches, but by the time the third was in high school, I was trying to vary the routine a little more. Here are things I combined with peanut butter:

--apple slices
--dried coconut
--chocolate chips
--banana slices
--molasses
--honey
--brown sugar
--chocolate syrup
--golden syrup (i.e. syrup from cane sugar)
--dried cranberries

ETA: also raisins! And in comments littlemoremasks has some suggestions for nonsweet combos.

What stuff have you tried?