(Week 4) Circulation. Circulation. Circulation.

Its difficult to force oneself to read things of horror. To drown in a black hole of information that is depressing and results in little change. It's hard to swallow your caffeine intake of choice as you begin your morning and to ponder the lives of those less fortunate, or event he extremes of those misfortunes. One could spend a life time raising awareness, and only reach a select few. The key to the door of awareness that opens into the room of change is circulation.

CIRCULATION.

Getting those things into the public sphere, the close to dead center the better. As it exists now, those issues are present, rarely retweeted or tagged, on the outer fringes waiting for increased circulation. Sometimes they enter the public sphere through fate. Earthquake in Haiti. Tsunami in Indonesia. Olympics in China. World Cup in South Africa. A series of events draws the attention of the public sphere to develop a base and awareness about these issues. Sometimes its via celebrity recognition, when Hollywood and Bollywood use their respective powers to go to places less talked about to raise awareness. Sometimes its done via literature, where novels of far away places are saturating bookstands. No

ne of those happen by personal choice.

I know a great deal about Sudan. About the upcoming vote for Southern Succession. About where the natural resources are allocated. About the western province of Darfur. About the black arab muslims fighting the black christian africans. About the civil war. About Al-Bashir and the ICC indignments. About many other conflicts that mirror this one, all over the continent of Africa.

I know about them because I choose to. I spent an entire year researching and raising awareness about Sudan. Mainly because I'm a nerd, and because those events create a story so compelling that it was rewarding academically and personally to do so. In 2005, I learned all about the power of narratives, in sharing one's story with another and another until the dialogue becomes entirely of the issue.

Since then, I have spent time learning of other plights, other flashpoints of interest all across the globe. My apartment is saturated with Economist magazines. I spent 4 years as captain of the Coyote Debate team... Narratives have immense power. While they might be constricted by the traditional notion of stating the facts. That ability to identify with another human being in another time and another place.... Its a beautifully profound thing.

I have a confession to make. I used to be a frequent poster, retweeter, public sphere opinionated person... I am not anymore. I avoid that interaction, because, sadly, I have little faith in it. I feel like such a hypocrite. Idealism lives in those with the power to take actions in their own hands... until they turn us all into consumer pigs with opinions and passions about things that we lack the willpower and self sacrifice to change. You fight the system, with all its uglyness until you can't but help to become a piece of it... we all become...yuppies :(