What ideas, projects, processes, experiences, interactions, etc., did you find useful and inspiring?

There is so much that I found useful, nurturing, intriguing, inspiring at the conference.  To begin, the pre-conference exchanges over email, then face-to-face introductions were useful for breaking the ice and chipping to the core of our discussion, for evolving focus. I found the informality of the group contributed to my willingness and ability to be open, and daring.  I said personal things about myself and my life that I might not have said in a more formal, less anonymous setting.  That informality extended to the physical space at Shikshantar which exuded a community spirit, especially from the entire Abhivyakti team and Pioneers —a spirit that immediately enveloped Kaari and me, and drew Kaari directly to Avni and into creative projects.  She’s now telling everyone we meet about the multiple, creative, productive uses of manure (whether they want to hear it or not) and the global benefits of recycling. I’m so proud. My familial and Kiswahili connection to Isaak also helped to melt the ice.

 Staying with a learning society family—the Bhandari’s--was also educational and inspiring.   I got some history of Udaipur, NGOs, India, religions, international relations, women’s issues and projects in India. I also visited Seva Mandir, albeit briefly.  I could not get enough of the discussions with the Bhandari’s. Unfortunately, I got sick and could not have all the discussions for which I longed.  Being with Maria was also inspiring.  Being sick together bonded us! And with Anita, we shared very special moments, especially our morning conversations (that made us late for sessions) which we plan to continue in South Africa, Ghana, and of course Nashik.  I have not yet be able to convince her to visit me in the US.

I found group activities—large and small—also useful and inspiring. Introductions helped me to connect names with emails, as well as hear some names for the first time.  It helped me to see our diversity, and our sameness, and it made me curious to know more.  The stalls, I thought, were very helpful in learning about what we are doing in our little corners of the world.  I got strong support for the work that I do by some, and interesting and welcomed challenges from others. I had great exchanges with Kothari, Vilas, Sudhir especially. And I had remarkable life interactions with Anita and Nitin, Raj and Coumba, Vidhi, Sudhir, Khan, Viveck and his family, Smriti and Sugandhi. 

Raj, Coumba and I spent the better part of one evening talking about schools and prisons in the US.  It all began with a question that Raj asked about the ages of the students that I teach. It talked about discipline and violence in schools, in addition to age. I was surprised and happy that Coumba knew so much about the prison industrial complex in the US that targets non-white school-age children for incarcerated cheap labor. This sister-warrior has visited some, and interacted directly with the criminalized. (Note criminalized and not criminals)I deeply respect her bravery. This may sound bizarre, but the prison industrial complex is a reality, and here is how it plays out. More and more schools are being built and run like prisons, especially in non-white areas in the US.  Mississippi is a case in point. Many of the prison population (juveniles) are school age children—mostly African American, Native American and Hispanic American. Many are first detained before age 18.  Many are likely to be re-arrested and convicted later, only to become labor for prisons that produce goods and services for multinational corporations while behind bars, with consent and oversite of the US federal and state governments. These multinationals have included TransWorld Airlines, Microsoft, Honda, US Technologies.  The clincher is that prison labor is free (to cheap) labor, demands no health/life insurance, threatens no unionizing and vacation time for workers.  Elected government officials who pass legislation in favor of prison labor, business intervention, and who push for the prison industrial complex argue that prison labor output is necessary to make US  labor productivity competitive with that of Korea, Taiwan, and China. They argue that current WTO policies put more pressure on US labor markets, and prison labor is a salvation for more efficient production.  Is there a racist and classist conspiracy between schools, government, and business? Is there a total disregard for youth and human rights? Some of us know that there is. Reality and stats tell us that (10 years ago) 1 in 3 black men between the ages of 20-29 were in prison, on parole or probation; that although African Americans are 12% of the general population, we are 51% of the prison population and are 7 times more likely to be in prison than white men; Native American men are 10 times more likely to be in prison, and Hispanic Americans are the fastest growing prison population. Immigrant youth are also increasingly targeted.  Some held by Immigration and Naturalization Services are under the age of 10. So exactly what are schools-prisons producing in the US?  One answer is disenfranchised citizens (in this liberal democratic state) as one loses the right to vote for life once convicted of a felony.  Many African American men were denied the right to vote in Florida in the presidential election 2000 on suspicion that they were felons!  The land of the free and the home of the brave……….I’m going to be hysterical if I don’t stop writing.

Learning societies must challenge political systems that socializes youth into criminality rather than empowering them to be free thinkers and world citizens. I am afraid for the youth, especially the male youth of color, though females are caught in the quagmire as well in increasing numbers.  The system prevents them from birth from learning to be free and exercising the right to be free.  Where do we find liberation?  I have gone on about this longer than I planned, but one must let the passion lead them in these matters.   If you would like more info, you may want to check-- http://www.ranknfile-ue.org/policy_pi.html   www.prisonactivist.org    globalexchange.org and an article “Criminalized:  Youth and Race in the US.”

I believe that Claude’s idea’s about Multiversity may offer some answers to the questions that I have raised. Our discussion with the youth about Multiversity spoke to their dynamism, the range of possibilities, our mission, the sweetness of freedom. Thanks to Claude, Munir, Coumba, Raj, and Anita for taking the initiative.

Freedom is a word and feeling that kept rearing itself in our discussions.   I found particularly inspiring and intriguing a discussion we, as a small group, had on intimacy and freedom, as we related these to power and affiliation.  This conversation emerged from questions of “where are we?” and “why are we here?”  Sungandhi shared with us an exercise in which she had participated that involved perception, self-confidence, empowerment, sometimes struggle. Outcomes were very different for different individuals depending on how they saw themselves and their power vis-à-vis the power of others in different situations. For me, this exchange challenged me a great deal to think about and feel both power and freedom.  It forced me to think about and feel power and freedom as internal and not external forces--and as a member of our group so succinctly put it to think about and feel  “Freedom (as) what we give ourselves.”  The Heart of the Soul leads me to this as well.

I was also very inspired by Oshi, the young son of one of the master sculptors at the Artist Colony.  Oshi attached to me on our arrival and was my personal guide throughout the colony showing me the paintings, the sculptures, the clayworks, other activities and games.  He knew I could not speak Hindi, but proceeded non-stop to speak to me in Hindi anyway, calling me Lisa G, Auntie G.  I learned a lot from Oshi.  He humbled me and made me quite happy.  He also gave me flowers and introduced me to his mother.

That children are undoubtedly a blessing, that they are not a ball and chain, that they are loved and respected, that their tiny voices matter was such a comfort and relief for me throughout the conference.  That is truly an acknowledgement of other ways of knowing.

Some unfulfilled, puzzles, frustrations, wishes.......

I left Udaipur desiring to know more about India, and desiring for a better sense of Udaipur.  Manish and the other Shikshantar staff tried their best to make travel around Udaipur happen for me before the conference, but I was sick and not physically up to the task, though I tried. I will on my own and with conversations with many of you  satisfy this desire. I also plan to return to India, with Kaari. I further wished for more exposure to performance  culture—it’s the dancer in me speaking. For example, after we got a taste of some traditional music on the last day of the conference (which was absolutely incredible) I wished that we had had a chance to enjoy more, along with some background history of the music and the generations of musicians.  I do realize that we had run out of conferenct time. This could be a mind-blowing learning experience for us next time. I also felt some frustration (though not most of the time) that some conversations did not flow naturally.  I felt some self-imposed stifling of opinions at times, and maybe that’s about learning too. I also hope that we can systematically expand our conversations to include other countries and groups.  I feel that this is happening—that the space is there, we just need to create. I would have also liked to talk more about learning societies in their relational environments—that is vis-à-vis other learning societies, organizations, states, governments, international institutions, the global economy. I did have some of these conversations one-to-one and they were refreshing, frustrating, and inspirational, especially the ones with Sudhir, and Coumba and Raj. Sudhir and I also organized a session with this focus and it was quite dynamic.

What new questions do you have about learning societies which you would like to explore in more detail in the future?

My questions are not really new.  They are constant, and we probed some of them in Udaipur.  I would like greater understanding (as I mentioned earlier) as to learning societies in their relational environments—that is vis-à-vis other learning societies, organizations, states, governments, international institutions, the global economy. Yes, small is beautiful and I do appreciate this.  I also appreciate that learning societies exist in a larger environment from which it is next to impossible to de-link. Learning societies exist as entities within states, as  partners to other learning societies and organizations, bound by governmental laws and regulations, as parts of “civil society”—be it pro-liberatory or not, “dependent" on funders (not all of which are altruistic donors)….It gets quite slippery here. I would like to probe these issues with regard to learning societies juxtaposed against issues of self-reliance, autonomy, agenda setting, sustainability, and whether or not learning societies are NGOs.  I had the beginnings of very interesting and insightful conversations about this with Anita, Nitin, Raj, Vilas, Sudhir, and since 1998 this is an ongoing conversation with Manish and Vidhi. Actually, we met through this question.  Have we come full circle? I would like to make comparisons on these matters to countries in Africa where I am interrogating the same questions.  These questions are not only for intellectualizing, but also, and more importantly, for the day-to-day forward movement of learning societies making a difference in our lives.

I also wonder how a global learning society would exist together, for instance, in Udaipur, where some of us non-citizens would need permission from the state through the office of immigration to stay for some time.  How would these very practical and very real matters be worked out?

What do you see as the challenges or tensions to unfolding learning societies in your own communities now? What do you see as potential opportunities for nurturing learning societies in your own work, life, communities, etc.?

The main challenge is countering the bankrupt dominant logic which undermines indigenous knowledge systems and epistemologies. How do we maintain that which is us, that which fuels us, that which defines us?  The sessions on indigenous knowledge systems and listening to elders was very useful for me in thinking about this question. The enemy is quite formidable, especially when capitalism, consumerism, prisonism, neo-liberalism (which is really conservatism), the American Dream-ism (which is really a nightmare for most) is so rampant and is being shoved down our throats in schools, churches, TVs, by our neighbors and friends, adverts, etc.  The pressure is tremendous and for some insurmountable. As I am back in the beautiful swamps of Louisiana, tourism for development is one of the most recent carriers of the dominant viral logic pushing casinoism.  Casinos drain the life-line out of the poor who use their last penny for a miniscule chance to strike it big, provide little employment under less than enviable conditions, make the already wealthy owners wealthier, and contribute to an increase in alcohol and drug consumption and violence.  Yet casinos have become family, church, mosque, temple, neighborhood bar and gathering place, restaurant, celebration centers, daily conversation.  It’s sickening and sickeningly contagious. Casinos even provide transport for the elderly to cash in their pensions and savings playing their luck knowing full well that these folks have less than a snowball’s chance in hell at hitting it big.

Potential opportunities for reversing this?  I don’t know.  I truly wish I had something more tangible to suggest, something concrete to offer. Venting and getting this out is good and it is awareness creating and mobilizing as well.  Coming back to this after Udaipur makes me know that I have much to learn about ways to nurture the community of my birth to come back to itself. Yet, I think of Aimee Cesaire’s Discourse on Colonialism where he depicts capitalism as the carnivore so destructive that eventually it eats up itself. In my life and in my work I will continue to question, to learn, to teach, to make partnerships.

What are some new actions you would like to take to help unfold learning societies?

I don’t know that these are new actions, as much as they are more directed actions with more clearly defined purposes. Something Khan said to me comes to back me—“clarity of vision, action, and love” will steer one on the right course.   I am going to hold tight to those words.    For me this means, going back inside to the memories and the axiology of my ancestors and pulling out that which is good, centered, and balanced.  It is difficult for me to not want others to see the world as I do, and I have to wrestle with this constantly. I will face this as honestly as I can  as I work to live and not live to work, in peace and “graceful simplicity” (I think Luis Camacho coined this) where leisure and love are as important, and are inseparable from work.

I definitely believe that we should learn together again.