Still no choices
On November 18, 2002, I took a photo of some graffiti reading “no choices” that had stood un-removed for weeks on a government-owned building less than a block from my apartment. This graffiti was in the dead-center of downtown, and I planned to see how long it took the government to remove it.
Well, it’s now almost April and the graffiti still stands, despite the fact that in the four months since I originally noted it:
1. the building with the graffiti on it caught fire
2. the building next door has been completely rebuilt
3. The vacant lot across the street has been turned into a heavily used parking lot.
4. The sidewalks on both sides of the street in front of the graffiti have been rebuilt.
5. The street in front of the graffiti has been torn out and replaced.
previously there was for the doubts
afterwards you have ugly memories
god, here in the u.s., i feel like we have no choices. the protests are ignored, bush just keeps doing what ever he (cheney?) wants, and people are dying so far away from us. sometimes i wonder if bush is so determined to ignore the protesters, do we just have to bide our time until the next election?
i'm in the home run with my thesis, and in between editing poems, i check the interent for war updates-- presented here like election coverage. other news, domestic or international, has gone underground. being in the midwest right now seems particularly isolating. [submitted on 22 Mar 03]
Jeremy, let me tell you that the building where the graffiti stands it's not city owned. It belongs to Edesur, one of the two privatized electricity companies. In fact, the building holds a big electricity transformer.
BTW, the whole beautification (?) of the area, I mean the rebuilding of streets and sidewalks, has only one explanation: elections are very close. And, once again, we have no choices!
-- I hate the so narrow sidewalks of the "microcentro". And they get worse during the peak hours!!! [submitted on 24 Mar 03]
Some of my happiest memories come from times my options were severely limited. Always I have had the choice to be content or to be unhappy.
If we examine the way we Westerners have used our freedoms, (to amass stuff, to express our opinions, to keep guns, etc.), we might understand the problem other cultures have had with us. Some people value freedom FROM worries about health care, educational expenses, the guns our neighbors have, etc. We might all learn from seeing ourselves as others see us. [submitted on 27 Mar 03]
1. your weblog is very interesting.
2. i find your views of argentine quite similar to what i could see there, and also your points of view on american media and war. i think positions don't depend on being argentinean or american (or whatever) but on how we regard life. is true united states is full of stupid fascists, but also argentine, where people still vote for menem or rico.
3. i'm always arguing whether we (argentines) are to blame by our constant crisis and how US help us to continue in crisis (and increase it).
i think our and your political class are partners in a business, where we have no control and almost now power. they can still follow their policies with millons of people protesting agains them around the world.
4. anyway i'm an argentine living abroad (rotterdam) but always reading argentinean newspapers. there's a site you can check with very good news about the world from reporters from latin america : argenpress.info they are more independant than corporate media in argentine.
5. i have a feeling of no choise in argentine when all the efforts to send the corrupt polititians or militars to jail always end in "sobreseimiento" or "prescription" or the suprem court releases the of any charges. like menem, cavallo, barrionuevo, the senators (when chacho alvarez resignev from vice precidence) [submitted on 08 Apr 03]