[Mb-civic] Arundhati Roy ~ Tell us another world is possible

[Barbara Siomos]

At the World Social Forum in Brazil, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy was
asked to speak on "How to confront Empire?"

Just as her novel "The God of Small Things" gabbed millions of readers
the world over, so her speech drew a growing crowd, as she asked: "Does
'Empire' mean the U.S. Government (and its European satellites), the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade
Organization, and multinational corporations? Or is it something more
than that? In many countries, Empire has sprouted...some dangerous
byproducts----nationalism, religious bigotry, fascism and, of course
terrorism. Al these march arm in arm with the project of corporate
globalization."

"It is a myth, " she said, "that the free market breaks down national
barriers. The free market does not threaten national sovereignty, it
undermines democracy."

What can we do in the face of such force?

We can, she said, "come up with a million ways of becoming a collective
pain in the ass."

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to
it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our
music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our
sheer relentlessness----and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories
that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe."

"The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they
are selling----their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their
weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and
they be few. They need us more than we need them."

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day,
I can hear her breathing."

Quote rom Ode Magazine: "It made all of us here at "Ode" extremely proud
to print these words of wisdom from Roy, right after we returned from
the Forum in Brazil.