Sí, por favor. El mundo ha cambiado desde 2021, y te invitamos a proponer una actividad que refleje tus realidades y prioridades actuales.

Desintegración

 El miércoles llega una nota con una dirección en el reverso.

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Querida y maravillosa persona:

Sé que estás muy cerca. Puedes sentirlo, ¿verdad?: cómo las cosas necesitan cambiar y cómo necesitas centrarte.

Esta es una carta para decirte que lo hagas. Elige tu sanación. Elige estar bien. Mejor que bien. Elige estar plenx, ser feliz. Llora a lágrima viva solo por tí y por nadie más. Elige cerrar la puerta ante el mundo y decirle «Vuelvo en 5 minutos». O en cinco días. O en cinco años.

O nunca.

Elige no hacerte cargo de todo. Elige no asumir nada. Porque nada de eso es tuyo. Nunca lo fue. Te dijeron desde que naciste que eran tuyos. Los problemas de tu familia. Los problemas de tus amantes. Los problemas de tus vecinxs. Los problemas del mundo. Ese susurro constante de que esos problemas te pertenecen. Que son tuyos. Tuyos para cargarlos, tuyos para llevarlos sobre los hombros. Tuyos para solucionarlos. 

Eso fue una mentira.
Un engaño 
         Un engaño de larga duración.
                                             Una estafa.

Los problemas del universo no son tuyos.

Los únicos problemas que son tuyos son los tuyos. Todxs lxs demás pueden irse de paseo. 

Permítete dejarlo todo y adentrarte en la selva. Hazte amigx de una ninfa vestida de margaritas, crea una biblioteca pequeña en las raíces de un árbol. Baila desnudx y aúlla a la luz de la luna. Conversa con Oshun en el lecho del río. 

            O simplemente tómate una taza de té cuando necesites un momento para respirar.

Permítete desaparecer en la niebla y reaparecer tres países más allá como unx misteriosx chocolaterx con un pasado dudoso y afición por capas espectaculares y cigarros puros.

            O deja de responder a las llamadas del trabajo durante los fines de semana.

Permítete nadar hasta una isla desierta con unx amante y vestirte solo con las cáscaras de los cocos que usaron para hacer el ron de coco que beben al atardecer. 

            O di que no cuando no tengas la capacidad de crear un espacio de contención para alguien.

Las opciones para sostenerte a ti mismx son infinitas. 

Hagas lo que hagas, debes saber que el mundo siempre seguirá girando. Por eso es bello y por eso duele.. No importa a quién o qué elijas por encima de tí mismx y de tu alma, el mundo siempre seguirá girando. 

Por lo tanto, elígete a tí mismx. 

Por la mañana, con la primera luz, elígete a tí mismx. Cuando sea la hora del almuerzo, o te den ganas de llorar durante las horas de trabajo, elígete a tí mismx.  Por la noche, cuando estés calentando las sobras porque no tuviste tiempo de volver a cocinar, elígete a vos mismx. Cuando la ansiedad te despierte y la existencia esté en silencio a las 3:45 am.

Elígete a tí mismx.

Cariños,
tu ninfa de la selva con capa espectacular.

“Now might be a good time to rethink what a revolution can look like. Perhaps it doesn’t look like a march of angry, abled bodies in the streets. Perhaps it looks something more like the world standing still because all the bodies in it are exhausted—because care has to be prioritized before it’s too late.” 
- Johanna Hedva (https://getwellsoon.labr.io/)

Hospitals are institutions, living sites of capitalism, and what gets played out when somebody is supposed to be resting is a microcosm of the larger system itself. 

Institutions are set out to separate us from our care systems – we find ourselves isolated in structures that are rigidly hierarchical, and it often feels as if care is something done to us rather than given/taken as part of a conversation. Institutional care, because of its integration into capitalist demand, is silo-ed: one person is treating your leg and only your leg, another is treating your blood pressure, etc. 

Photographer Mariam Mekiwi had to have surgery last month and documented the process. Her portraits of sanitized environments – neon white lights, rows after rows of repetitive structures – in a washed-out color palette reflect a place that was drained of life and movement. This was one of the ways Mariam kept her own spirit alive. It was a form of protest from within the confines of an institution she had to engage with.

The photos form a portrait of something incredibly vulnerable, because watching someone live through their own body’s breakdown is always a sacred reminder of our own fragility. It is also a reminder of the fragility of these care systems, which can be denied to us for a variety of reasons – from not having money to not being in a body that’s considered valuable enough, one that’s maybe too feminine, too queer or too brown.  

Care experienced as disembodied and solitary, that is subject to revocation at any moment, doesn’t help us thrive. And it is very different from how human beings actually behave when they take care of each other. How different would our world look like if we committed to dismantling the current capitalist structures around our health? What would it look like if we radically reimagined it?

Dearest Feminist community,

I am pleased to share with you one of my remarkable dates as feminist with disability. It was May 30, 2014 when we (the Nationwide Organization of Visually-Impaired Empowered Ladies NOVEL) participated in the Philippine Fashion Week Holiday 2014 for our white cane advocacy campaign.  Two ladies who are blind walked down the catwalk to promote the white cane as one of the symbols of gender equality, empowerment, full inclusion and equal participation of women and girls with visual impairment in society. 

Their walk in front of the crowd were extremely a nerve-wracking experience for me, as the proponent of our project with the Runway Productions (I enduringly waited for a year for its approval), knowing that they were not models, they were the crowned Ms. Philippines Vision and 1st Runner Up of 2013 Ms. Philippines on Wheels, Signs and Vision by Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, Inc. (House with No Steps). Also, they fell on their orientation and practiced the evening before the event and they didn’t have practice with professional models. Before the show started, I talked to them via mobile phone to boost their confidence and to pray together for God’s guidance. When they exited the catwalk, I breathed deeply while my tears were flowing. I was feeling euphoric because we did it despite the challenges we’ve been through! Our message to the world that women and girls with visual impairment can walk with dignity, freedom and independence on an equal basis with others, with the use of our assistive device - white canes was successfully delivered! We trended in social media and we were featured by television networks. 

My life as a feminist with disability started as a means to mend my broken spirit and to see a different path towards finding my life’s purpose after I became victim-survivor to a vicious acid attack in 2007  while I was waiting for a ride going home from office. My eyes were severely damaged, to the point that I became a woman with low vision.

I never knew how joyful and purposeful my life could be again until I met women leaders in the gender and disability movement who influenced me to keep going. Their words of encouragement attracted me and became the sweetest music to my ears. My broken heart leaped like a hummingbird in flight every time I think of them and feminism which stimulated me to partake in making difference for our invisible sisters with disabilities and to those who continue to experience discrimination. To date, I am consumed by the desire to be with the movement. I cannot hide my excitement whenever I submit project proposals to different stakeholders for our sisters with disabilities' empowerment, development and advancement; and to make representations in local, national and international conversations to amplify our voices even at my expense.

Unexpectedly, I was selected as our country’s female representative in the 2012 World Blind Union (WBU) General Assembly in Thailand even though I was a newcomer in the disability movement.  In the same year, I was elected as the only woman officer of the Philippine Blind Union (PBU) in its assembly. I was inspired to reach out, gather and empower our sisters with visual impairment on their rights and to know their intersecting issues. In 2013, we officially launched the Nationwide Organization of Visually-Impaired Empowered Ladies (NOVEL) to support the empowerment of our sisters with disabilities, build coalitions with cross-disability and women’s movements and promote gender and disability-inclusive development.

My participation as co-focal person of women with disabilities in our 2016 CEDAW Shadow Report submission convened by Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau (WLB) with the marginalized groups of women, opened many doors such as working with various women’s organizations and attending the 2017 Inclusion Days International in Berlin, Germany together with 3 Filipino women leaders with disabilities to share our good practices, mainly our engagement with the women’s movement in our country. 

My journey as feminist with disability has been an emotional roller coaster for me. It gave me  happiness and a sense of worth when I participated in promoting for our sisters with disabilities full inclusion, equal and effective participation in society, yet I felt frustrated and upset when I gave my all but I received negative remarks. Nevertheless, I feel that way because I am in love with the movement.    
I see my future working in solidarity with the movement to ensure that our sisters with and without disabilities can equally and fully enjoy and participate in society. 
 

Love lots, 
Gina Rose P. Balanlay
Feminist with disability
Philippines 

AWID es parte de un impresionante ecosistema de movimientos feministas que trabajan para alcanzar la justicia de género y la justicia social en todo el mundo. Al acercarse nuestro 40° aniversario estamos celebrando todo lo que hemos construido a lo largo de estos últimos cuarenta años. Como organización global de apoyo a los movimientos feministas, sabemos que nuestro camino hacia adelante es trabajar con feminismos apasionados, reconociendo tanto la multiplicidad de los feminismos como el valor de un impulso por la justicia apasionado y sin reservas. El estado del planeta y de los movimientos feministas requiere conversaciones y acciones valientes. Esperamos con ansia trabajar junto con nuestrxs afiliadxs, asociadxs y donantes para crear los mundos en los que creemos,celebrar los logros y expresar la verdad ante el poder, al servicio de los movimientos feministas a nivel global.

El Calendario Feminista 2023 es un regalo para los movimientos. Presenta las obras de arte de algunxs de nuestrxs maravillosxs afiliadxs de AWID.

Úsalo. Imprímelo. Compártelo.

التعبير عن الرغبة وغ

وغيرها من الممارسات السياسيّة الأيديولوجيّة المجسَّدة

المضيفة: نحن نميل إلى الاعتقاد أنّ التعبير عن الرغبة يقتصر على العلاقة الحميمة داخل غرفة النوم وعلى علاقاتنا الشخصيّة. ولكن هل يمكننا أيضًا اعتبار هذا النوع من التعبير كبُنية، أو ممارسة أيديولوجيّة توجّه عملنا، وما نحن عليه، وكيف سنكون في هذا العالم؟

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