La Francophonie – Let’s Celebrate Colonialism!

“La Francophonie” is supposedly the day where we celebrate the diversity and expanse of the French language. Now while I have nothing against the French language, I find this day a completely insensitive & rude slap in the face for the people who suffered from three hundred years of French oppression and colonialism.

Some of the most horrific and shameful atrocities and violations of human rights took place under the imperialism of Western powers such as France, England, Portugal and Belgium. To celebrate the internationalism of the French language is to celebrate the fact that France was so successful in colonising those “barbarians” all those years ago. After all, take a look at the maps below – there quite clearly is a strong correlation between areas that were colonised and areas that speak French now [source: Wikipedia].

Map of French colonised areas:

Map of French-speaking areas:

To pretend anything else – that French spread because it’s such a great language or so easy to speak is ridiculous! French spread because the French had guns, soldiers and ships. It’s a similar story with Spanish in South America and English around the rest of the world.

Unfortunately, what is happening now is that rather than embracing their true heritages, ex-colonialist countries are adopting French as their official languages; teaching classes only in French in public “out-reach” schools and changing their cultures to adapt to the ex-oppressor’s culture.

In countries such as Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, Togo, Niger, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon and Guinea, French is the only official language. On this note I applaud Vietnam as an example of a country which has taken the next step towards true independence – by changing its official language to Vietnamese. To get anywhere in life in terms of society & careers in the afore-mentioned countries, you have to be able to speak and write in French. As a result, tribal and minority cultures are finding that they must either change their ways (“progress”) or live in isolation.

I say this mainly from a Colombian perspective – I’ve been to Latin America recently, and I’ve seen what’s happening to local villages. In Peru and Ecuador, for example, descendents from the Inca are finding that the government-funded public schooling systems teach only in Spanish. As a result, old languages, and with them old ways and ideas are dying.

The same is the case in Africa, where the French language is being adopted as the way to modernise; the way forward (and in the process leaving the rest behind). This is why I’m saddened when we celebrate “la Francophonie” instead of the true languages, cultures heritages of the very people who need to be recognised the most in this world.

Juan de Francisco

MANIFESTATION

EN SOLIDARITE AVEC LA JEUNESSE ALTERMONDIALISTE DANNEOISE.

MANIF. LE 9 MARS ENTRE 18 ET 21 HEURES DE RIVE A L’AMBASSADE DANNEOISE.

DEPUIS LE 1ER MARS 2007 LES JEUNES DE COPENHAGUE SONT DANS LES RUES DE LA CAPITALE... ILS PROTESTENT CONTRE LEUR GOUVERNMENT CONSERVATEUR QUI EST ENTRAIN DE FAIRE EVACUER UNE MAISON DE CULTURE ET D’ACCEUIL DES JEUNES. L’OCCUPATION DE CE BATIMENT A ETE REALISE PAR LES MOUVEMENTS DE JEUNES DES ANNEES 70.
LA MAISON A ETE VENDU PAR LE GOUVERNEMENT A UN GROUP CHRETIEN.
IL Y A DEJA EU DES MANIFESTATIONS DE SOLIDARITE AVEC CETTE CAUSE EN FRANCE ET EN ALLEMAGNE. NOTRE OBJECTIF:

MANIFESTER NOTRE RAGE DEVANT LES AMBASSADEURS DANNOIS A GENEVE. SIGNE: SIU-CIS: SINDICATS DES ETUDIANTS

RIOTER’S BLOCK

CONFEDERATION INTERNATIONALISTE DES ETUDIANTS (CIE)
CONFEDERATION OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS (CIS) www.riotersblock.blogspot.com - www.brwg420am13.skyblog.com
www.freeweb.com /hakanah …………………………………………………………………….. …….. …………. …….. …………….. 420
This is a piece of my laptop a strong tool in the struggle
We need to change the negative elements of our academic system at school, we need to modify rules and regulations that repress student self expression. I am not saying this is an obligation I am simply saying it is necessary in the struggle for self and collective emancipation. The struggle is not over, it has just begun, we need to firstly concentrate on our academic studies and secondly work on our ...[continues at above link]

Warning: some Israelis found this article offensive. If you cant take a bit of criticism without flipping out then don't read the article.

I thought id include a little map for your entertainment.

In 1948, Palestine was invaded. The Palestinians were not consulted and their territory annexed to Western invaders. Somehow this was not enough to appease the guilt of the West, having looked on as the Nazis killed millions of Jews (I’m looking at you Walker Bush). See that little black patch? Well that’s what the Palestinians got after the UN was done with them. ‘Thank you international community for standing up for the rights of a sovereign nation.’ But the Religious Fundamentalists of Israel were still not done and along with losing their country the Palestinians were driven out, in what can only be fairly qualified of ethnic cleansing. In the last map you just might notice little black smudges. That’s what’s left over today. Soon that too will have disappeared and the great country robbery will have been completed under your very own (uncaring) eyes.

Bravo!

if you think you know the coolest site ever, you'll definitely reconsider after you look at this one. promise me you'll write it down, and remember it forever, on every sunday...heres why:

on the seventh day of the week, at approximately afternoonish time, secrets are posted on this site. but theres more to it than that. they are sent in on postcards that people have created. anyone can create. and everyone has a secret. so this site is obviously made for all.

i could rant on for pages about how i love the site, and how you should really love it too and everyone we know should love it as well. but i wont. because you'll see for yourself that you wont need convincing...

post secret is a community based project that helps people lessen the weight that their secrets take in their lives. people don’t want to share them because they are too difficult to tell to another person. but on the site, you can tell the world.

some of the secrets are mundane, and others are more grave, but it doesn’t matter. a secret is a secret, no matter what it is about. and it always feels better once they are shared.

the only way to know is to try it yourself, so check it out... and i promise it’ll be worth it.

www.postsecret.blogspot.com

Anarchism

Anarchism is a very misunderstood concept. Upon hearing the term many would immediately associate the words ‘chaos’ and ‘disorder’ with it, thinking they are the same thing. This is an entirely false perception.

Anarchism is a philosophy aimed at abolishing capitalism and the State, as well as all forms of illegitimate authority and domination (such as hierarchy), with the end goal of creating a simpler form of society where laws and law-makers are absent and where the individual is free to make his or her own decisions at his or her own expense.

Why challenge authority? Simply because anarchists firmly believe that humanity is at its very best when living free of authority, and where people are co-operating with each other and deciding things for themselves, instead of being told what to do and how to do it.

Anarchists aim to build a decentralised society based largely on the community, where people give what they can in return for what they need. This is also emphasized through solidarity and mutual aid, where people look out for one another and help each other achieve individual or collective goals, instead of competing against each other.

Many also believe that anarchy mean lack of organization, which again, is a mistaken assumption. In fact, it should be emphasized that the success of anarchy is dependant on a structured and functional society, where people are willing to help and look out for one another. The only difference is that instead of being organized in the typical hierarchical manner (top down) society is organized from bottom up.

Anarchists oppose the State (i.e. large centralised governments such as in the United States) and capitalism for a number of reasons. For one, life would be in theory much simpler.

For example, all necessary and what some would call ‘unpleasant’ work such as disposal of garbage or growing food would be divided among all members of the community, leaving everyone with more time to pursue their interests and passions. Capitalism would be replaced with ‘solidarity economics’, meaning life would no longer consist simply of pursuing wealth and maximizing profit. There would no longer be any war between nations competing for resources since those resources would be shared out equally. Laws would be replaced with social customs and most crime as we know it would disappear. This is because most crime seen today (such as theft, arson and a lot of murder cases) is crime that stems from one individual or group of individuals wanting something that belongs to another.

These are just some of the features of the type of society anarchists seek to promote.

By challenging the current workings and relationships within our society and culture, as well as by providing alternatives to the current world we are living in, anarchists all over the world are working for a change that aims to stop the exploitation of the weak by the strong / poor by the rich as well as create a more sustainable society.

There is a long history behind anarchism and it should be noted that it is pretty near impossible to sum up the aims of the anarchist movement into such few words, and therefore, I urge you to check out www.anarchistfaq.org for a much more comprehensive look at the subject.

As stated before, anarchy is not a synonym to “chaos” and “disorder”. It simply implies a society organised and functioning without a government, where people are free to decide things for themselves, as long as those decisions do not harm or inhibit other people’s freedom to do so (unless of course a rational justification can be given). Whether or not you think this system would result in chaos is your opinion. However, what cannot be denied is that Anarchism is a growing movement throughout the world, and is attracting more and more people to its cause everyday.

If you think that the world would be a better place without government, capitalism and private property, then you too are an anarchist.

By John Shehy

You can contact John at smash.geneva@mail.com

“WHITE NOISE”

Having a bias is part of being human. In moments of anger, angst or intense fear, when our opinions are challenged, biases can emerge more violently than they are intended, or indeed felt, and can make us say things that we regret. But supporting the fight against one injustice, should not require another to arm it. That is to say, if one man is torturing another, the third man ought not to resort to killing the torturer in order to save the victim. My words will of course be turned against me, and without further explanation, it would be justified. So, let me state, I am not supporting injustice. But I do believe that an eye for an eye turns the whole world blind.

On the news each day more corpses, bombardment, famine, suffering, poverty. But which of these have we not seen or heard of before? How is it then, that despite people’s concern, sympathy and good will, revolutionary spirit and brilliant ideologies, we are still facing the same problems that our ancestors were confronted with in 1917, 1848, 1789…? It is partly apathy, but not only. It would be wrong to think that our world survives as it is because of pure ignorance on the part of the fortunate minority.

But if they do care, if they do react – if people feel the pain of their fellow humans, why has society not evolved to a more just state? In order to answer this question, it is best to begin at the micro-level of our school. Privileged (and spoilt) as we are, there are many who may not care very much about that which does not affect them directly. However, there are people who do – people who feel the need to act when learning about the bombing of Somalia, or the flooding in Malaysia. Yet, they can only go so far. The power of the people is in fact so greatly removed that there is hardly anything that can be done. What can you and I, sitting at our desks and writing, do except perhaps raise awareness? We may protest, but in the end, the will of “the leaders” will not bend – George Bush, for example, strode in and invaded Iraq despite hundreds of demonstrations, millions of people across the world protesting against it. The sad fact of the matter is that we can shout as loud as we like, come together, as few as we are, and revolt and still be suppressed.

However, change can be initiated, and in the long run, prove fruitful. If we begin, in our own small communities (school, home etc.) to spark the ideas against injustice, we may eventually all be able to rise. Just because we do not qualify as adults, does not mean that we are indifferent to the ways of the world. Begin now, and things will change in the future. But static belief, conformism and apathy should be eschewed, or they will define what we become in the future – inhuman.

Therefore, though it is frustrating, horrifying, sickening, to recognize our current incapacity, know that voicing your concern on world matters is a first step. The world can change, and numbers matter. So, when in doubt, remember that together our united voice can shake the foundations of society, but divided – each individual’s call becomes indistinguishable white noise.

– R.A.P

We need articles urgently.
email to riotersblock @ gmail.com

So this is Christmas?

We're going to start work on a large post-traumatic editon of Rioters Block. Submissions can be up to 1000 words long.

On cherche des traducteur(trices) pour traduire des textes de 500-600 mots de l'anglais au francais. Envoyez un mail a riotersblock(AT)gmail.com .

12th and 13th T’n’P Night

The Text and Performance Evening of November 30th should have come with a couple of warnings:

For the 12th graders – “Warning – Shakespeare will be butchered”
For the 13th graders – “Warning – Enormous breasts”

But in all seriousness, I’ve been to many theatre evenings at Chat, and this one deserves a special mention. IT WAS INCREDIBLY HILARIOUS!! The 12th graders were brilliant, holding true to the words: “Shakespeare like you’ve never seen before!” They faced a tough challenge when they decided to perform a complicated 16th century play in a way that we could all understand and they did a remarkable job. I challenge anyone to find a more innovative and creative way to summarize the conflict between Desdemona & Othello than their succinct Jerry Springer scene, or to find a more tear-jerking song to show us the love between the two. By drawing on contemporary inspiration, the 12th graders turned Othello into something we could all enjoy and laugh at. Teachers, parents and students couldn’t stop laughing throughout the performance. And the TnP crew didn’t stop there. They pushed the envelope in every possible aspect, likening the scene where Othello is imbued by his enemies to a comic That 70’s Show scene, with their comparison of some of the most important facts and truths of life to a nine iron golf club. They did it pretty damn well too.

The 13th graders deserve no less praise. It’s hard to decide where to begin, they were all terrific. Honestly, you readers should get as many autographs as you can, because judging from their performance at the evening; quite a few of them definitely have talent for the big screen. Who knows? In a couple of year’s time the next James Bond could be Matt Tembo, and the Bond girl could easily be played by either Maxime Bouchard or Arnau Muntaner! ALL of the 13th grade’s Transformations – their IB performances – were amazing, but their final piece, Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Lost was the crème de la crème. You really got the impression they put their heart into it. Who’d have thought that an absolutely hilarious scene involving M Duchene & Mme Bouvier clamouring over rioting students could have been infused into this play? ALL of their performances were top-notch, but I think the guys (who played the girls) deserve a special mention – from Arnau’s (disturbingly) perfect portrayal of a stereotypical slut to Maxime’s insanely funny acting to Yaniv’s crazy character – armed with jugs that could knock out a rhino at twenty paces. That woman could accomplish anything.

I think that most people agree with me when I say: “WE WANT MORE!”
Activista

La Chat Animal Rights Group

Animal Rights Group. This phrase seems to provoke more laughter than anything else among the seemingly apathetic students of La Châtaigneraie. This is not to say that nobody cares about the group, but they are amazingly outnumbered by people who could not care less, and even people who are against the group. The sign-up sheet, which had already collected a few names on it, was removed for no reason last Friday morning. Also, as the person who started the group, I am openly mocked as I walk through the school hallways, and one of my classmates began wearing a very obvious fur hat the day after I announced the group, and others repeatedly point out the hat to me and laugh.
This attitude provokes, other than anger, two questions. Do students know about the horrible conditions animals are kept in, and not care? Or do they simply not know?
Do they realise that when they sit down in front of a traditional chicken dinner, that these animals were kept in cramped conditions, up to 7 chickens in an 18-inch (45 cm) cage, after having their upper beaks painfully cut off with scalding knives, and that in these cages, the chicken’s talons grow around the metal bars underneath them so that they cannot move at all, until they are slaughtered at the age of 7-8 weeks, while chickens in normal conditions live that many years?
Do La Chât’s students understand that when they slip on a fur coat, that these animals were either trapped in steel-jawed traps in the wild (the animals caught which were not needed for fur coats were, of course, thrown out), or raised on fur farms, which, despite the name which indicates this is not a place where the animals run about freely, but are kept in wire cages, usually outside despite the temperature, and with little or no veterinary care, until they are beaten with clubs or drowned (as to not harm the fur), and then skinned; because they are not “meat” animals, the corpses of the hundreds of animals this is done to (It takes the pelts of 60 mink to make a small fur coat) are simply discarded.
Would knowing information such as this cause students to stop mocking people who are against these treatments, and maybe even join the group? Or do La Chât’s students conform with all assumptions: that they are apathetic?

To learn more about animal rights and animal cruelty, try http://www.peta2.com/, or check out one of the many books in the MMC, under the number 179.3.
To contact the Animal Rights Group of La Châtaigneraie, email us at lachatanimalrightsgroup@hotmail.com.

Personal responsibility
There are a lot of things wrong with the world. Big, scary things, hugely outside the control of any one individual. Solving them seems near impossible to anyone save an imaginary superhero. One such problem is poverty, a regular killer. In the time it has taken you to read the above sentences, one child has died as a direct cause of poverty. Since this time yesterday 29,000 have died and 1 billion live below the poverty line. This problem appears insurmountable, impossible to solve. Who could possibly tackle such a problem to save millions of lives every year?
Another problem is war. War is conducted by men with guns, thousands upon thousands of them, filled with rage, or worse, cold calculating precision. They fight for freedom, democracy or riches, often confusing each of these for the other. What could one person do to solve all this? Who could possibly combat this problem which crosses the boarders of all countries? It appears to be part of society and has been since its existence. How could we stop this?
These issues are important, and upon learning all these facts, chances are you made a decision regarding what you could and could not do. You probably decided these problems were too big to be handled alone. You probably decided to give up and continue living your life. Most likely, you bought goods this past week, went to school or work, rode in a car. This would place you in the luckier half of the world— you don't need to do anything as you are not directly affected by war or poverty. Yet to remain passive when recognizing the harsh realities that taint our world would be to ignore the fundament of human civilization: personal responsibility. Indeed, the harmonious functioning of a civilized society is reliant on the basic principle of personal responsibility which states that we are responsible for our actions. This means that if people know they are partaking in an act that deserves punishment, they must receive the latter. It is thus essential that all actions detrimental to society receive consequences.
This raises the question of where personal responsibility begins and ends. For example, remember those five children that died while you where reading this? Well as it turns out they all died in a hut in rural India. The reason is they could not receive care for their malnourishment because their father was not able to obtain grain as he had spent the last of the money a year ago, buying genetically modified grain from a large agro-pharmaceutical corporation. The farmer was not able to re-use the grain because the corporation had failed to tell him that it was modified to stop the practice of reusing grain. Since, subsistence farmers such as this man could not pay off their debts and they eventually ran out of food. Now take the child that died during that last paragraph. He was a charming little boy from South America that lived too close to a coal mine owned by a large mining company. The mine produced so much dust that he died from tuberculosis caused by the noxious air. Remember that item you bought? That Brand Name™ chocolate bar? Guess what, the financial conglomerate that owns the chocolate bar company also owns the mining company and the agro-pharmaceutical corporation. As it turns out, this conglomerate uses the chocolate bar revenue to pioneer aggressive business practices in Peru and Bangladesh and throughout the world. But surely your bar only cost you a couple of francs…
Now picture a generic white collar worker. He goes to work in an office building in Sydney every day. His job is to push a pen from one edge of the paper to the other. He has friends, a wife, kids, and a car. In his sub-urban garden sits his dog, which he walks every week on Saturdays. He doesn't really care what he is doing. He studied accounting and continues in his career path because it is expected of him. Does it matter whether he is calculating the benefits made by that conglomerate of which we spoke earlier? Does it really matter whether the deficit he recorded last week forced the Board of Directors to call in special favors from men high in the US government to send a peace keeping force to protect American interests from rebellions sweatshop workers in some developing country? And anyway, what would the white-collar worker do? It is all so big, so distant, so disconnected. The important thing to remember at this point is that all these events are not independent of each other and that if even one of the cogs in the system were to stop, perhaps the ten or so kids that died when you were reading this article could have been saved.
If the white-collar worker and the co-workers at his office went on strike, if you decided to have an apple, or better still, a Max Havelaar banana instead of that chocolate bar, if the miners, the factory workers, the sweatshop slaves, were all to grind the machines to a halt, were all to work together in concerted effort, then the negative effects of these corporations could very well be stopped along with the machines and tools they used to chain us with. So why don't we? Because we don't want to take responsibility for our actions. We are cowards that don't want accept that we are every bit as responsible for poverty, death and destruction as the big corporations and governments we criticize. In many ways we are the big corporations and governments, and now we must face the fact that our actions are the cause of death and misery.
-By RzBz

Rioter's Block And Student Union Meeting called for Thursday Lunchtime (P6) outside MMC

ARTICLE FOR RIOTER’S BLOCK

Written on the 16^th of November 2006

– MINORITIES –

There will always be a distinct minority which will disagree, which will have different desires from the masses and hence will instigate the momentum for change. Whether this change is intrinsically good or bad is another question, but there will at least be movement in the society, preventing evolution from reaching a standstill.

If we accept this, then it holds true that any society should nurture variety of opinion, to allow diversity of perspective and impede any possibility of monotony of thought from manifesting itself in the minds of the people. This is the killer of all intelligence and originality of thought and should be dutifully and diligently avoided.

Taken then, the accusation that so often is flung in the direction of this paper and its authors, that because the world is not a socialist or ideal one and is not ‘likely to change’, they claim that thinking as we do, differently, is futile and will serve no purpose.

Indeed? The segregation in America was wrong by all standards in the 1960’s, but that does not imply that the oppressed should not have risen in protest, that they should simply have accepted things as they were. Martin Luther King Jr., by that judgement, was a fool. This is not, by far, the singular example, but it proves the point. Minorities are not wrong simply because they are minorities. And acceptance of any state of repression, even when the future looks bleak, is defeatist.

Therefore, it is wrong to say that people should not think in terms of a better, more idealistic world. At least there are some, if not many, who may initiate some change. A stone dropped in a pond may sink to the bottom, but it sends ripples across the entire surface of the still water. You may accept the world as it is, but do not look down on those who cannot and do not. And when you are reaping the benefits of the revolutionaries’ tactics and methods, perhaps you will not condemn them so vehemently as you do now.

Remember, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a seed a long time ago.” (Warren Buffet)

– R*A*P

---------------------------

Empty concepts, empty words, empty politics

Nationalism has always been a problem in Spain, but it has never reached today’s ridiculous extremes. President Zapatero has the whim to be remembered as the hero who saved Spain from Basque nationalist terrorism and for this reason he has invented a “process of peace” with the terrorist organisation ETA. There can be no process of peace when there is no war. And, as far as I know, there is no war going on in the Basque Country. This “peace” is among other things an insult to ETA’s innocent victims. Have their deaths been in vain? After decades of vehement anti-terrorism, the Spanish government now surrenders unconditionally to the wishes of a few fanatical empty heads – that is all it is reduced to in the end. Of the three million Basques, three thousand want independence. Three thousand. Zapatero faces opposition at home: what does he do? He attempts to legitimise his process of peace by presenting it to the European Union, conscious that sympathy for ETA is rather popular in Europe. But know this. One should understand and may sympathise with a “terrorist” who sacrifices his life for the cause of freedom and the end of oppressive occupation, but not with a coward murderer serving the ambitions of a few nationalist politicians. These ambitions are as stupid as they are varied. An example: Ibarretxe, head of the Basque Nationalist Party, has claimed that his ultimate dream is a World Cup final between Catalonia and the Basque Country (no, I didn’t make this up). Only ignorant fools can believe that heavy words like “oppression” can be applied to the situation in the Basque Country. However, whether Spain ends up divided into twenty different states is completely irrelevant. The country –or, should we say, group of countries– faces far more important social and economic problems that are deliberately hidden under this foolish and much publicised wave of nationalism. Spain is full of anachronisms, but the worst of them is nationalism. The Spanish right, worthy follower of Francoist values, now claims that the national political situation greatly resembles that of 1934, and that the country is on the verge of civil war due to the reckless policies of the “left”, which are destroying the unity of Spain. There is at least one important difference: the “left” of 1934 had a sense of social justice and revolutionary spirit that nowadays, I am ashamed to say, seem gone. This is not extraordinary considering that “left-wing” parties cease to be so under the appearance of “democracy” and parliamentarism. “Democracy’s” main success is putting the revolutionary spirit of the people in a state of hibernation. But if the numerous mistakes, corruption, incoherence and plain idiocy of this and all the other governments in the 30 years of Spanish “democracy” have not reawakened it, I really can’t see what can. People are led to believe that “democracy” is the only good system so that any other alternative must be bad. Conforming to “democracy” happens to be a moral obligation. Voting becomes necessary: it makes people think that they are participating, that they are taking the decisions. And there is nothing more satisfying for a voluntarily political ignorant person than a sense of self-importance. It reassures him in his ignorance. Solutions cannot possibly be found within the putrid “democratic” system. “Democracy”, “moderation”, “liberalism” and all those charming words are empty rhetoric, false and impractical. Action is required. And action can only be taken through that magic word – and one full of meaning: revolution. The main thing to avoid is “working against a system from within”. If we don’t want to end up becoming part of it!

A Zappatista

This is American Justice.
Thats a link by the way.

The Student Lounge

A place for and by the students

What the Students Want

The student lounge’s mission is to create an area on campus where all students feel welcome and can escape from the normal bustle, hustle and dreariness that reigns over the rest of the school. There are now so many students in our school that there are very few places where students can truly feel welcome and can relax. The lounge also allows us to find a place that does not come under the control which is imposed in other parts of the school. How do we know that this is what the students want? Because this is what they have been clamoring for, for years now, and this is what they have personally told senior Lounge activists.

What We Had

We used to have a whole large room dedicated to the students, 6 or 7 years ago. Due to the exponentially expanding student population, this then other leisure oriented areas of the school where rapidly eliminated, to the benefit of more classrooms. Most recently a group of students, dedicated and determined to cut through the red-tape to the core of the problem and fix it, occupied an unused area outside the MMC. This area was large enough and spacious enough to accommodate 20-25 students in relative comfort at its peak. What we, the Lounge activists, did was rehabilitate this space. We harmed to no one, taking away nothing from anyone, and giving hundred fold what this space offered to start off with. We used the materials available to create a closed off space, using boards and chairs, positioned to create a relaxed area. Of note is also the helpfulness and cooperation of the librarians. Came generous donations to the lounge in form of a kettle and a stereo and thus music and tea became unavoidable elements of the fledgling lounge. Arrived a carpet, bringing together this space that was still cold in appearance. The carpet gave this space a very nice finishing touch. How we were proud of our lounge. Our tireless efforts and commitment to create a space of peace and well being within the school finally truly paid off. Students started flowing in, giving this unused space its first breath of continuous activity since it was built, years ago. Thanks to our efforts the space was kept clean and ready… But then…

What Happened

It was Friday morning, the third day, that Mrs. Berrada arrived questioning our legitimacy and our right to exist in this (our) space. Mr. Chinal rapidly arrived on the scene in a state of obvious excitation and questioned more forcefully. Attempting as we could do defend the student’s space and effort, we eventually caved in under the threat of police (!) intervention. Accused of squatting we were given the very clear and imperious command to clear out or else. It appears that these two school authorities, whose offices are both found in the Main building, believed we were disrupting the entire school by our noisy and unruly existence. However we had noted no complaints from any of the users of the building or the MMC. We were also likened to dictatorial revolutionaries, vanguards prepared to take over for our own ends, disregarding those of the Students. We were accused, entirely falsely, of having taken over this space for our own selfish wants. These accusations were not true as all were welcome and indeed al grades enjoyed this space equally since its habilitation. We were however compelled to clear up our things in order to avoid any further trouble to the users of this space, who were being amalgamated to activists and against whom we feared the anger of the administration might turn upon. Thus the carpet was rolled up, the electronics stowed away, and the Lounge returned to its old, cold and silent self, occupied but by a handful of the more resilient students. However we remain confident that the Lounge can and will return to its former glory and surpass it…

Hopes and Plans

A small group of Student activists met with Mr. Binge and discussed the future of this space. We were requested to talk to the 12^th Graders Council, still considered as the elected representatives, and asked to submit a plan. Only then could the Lounge be approved. The more dedicated elements of the group vowed to bring back the lounge no matter what, risking anything for the students. A few refused point blank and negotiations with the Council. As it stands the Student Union, representative of the demands of student activists and the interests of the Lounge, is not supportive of the 12^th Graders Council who have shown nothing but disrespect towards our initiatives and actions, who were taken in the interests of the students, and who harmed nobody, on the contrary providing a long overdue service to the school. We are however prepared to inform the Council of our plans, which are as follow:

- To rehabilitate the Student Lounge as soon as possible

- To include the following within it

- A stereo (available)

- A kettle (available)

- A couch and other seating arrangements (Pledged and available)

- Music CDs, on the condition of their respectful use (Pledged and available)

- MP3 connection for the stereo (pledged and available)

- More boards, so that the space is closed up better (pledged and available

- A computer (pledged)

These are our plans. This is our history. We have come too far to be dismissed. We have achieved too much to be ignored.

the Student Union.

Article inspired by “We The People” show on NDTV where the motion debated was “Are hospitals becoming hotels in India?”

Do the middle and upper classes represent the majority of the people of India? That would be a crafted statistic. One-third of the country’s population still live in abject poverty, barely surviving on less than a dollar a day. And yet, it is a ‘democratic’ society, where everyone has a voice. You would think therefore, that the government would address this issue, even if its only incentive was the fear of losing support of a large portion of the electorate. But it doesn’t work that way.

These millions of people, the real people, are not provided for by the government. They do not have social security, and though they are the ones who most need access to hospitals and medical care, they are denied it. Private hospitals are built like hotels and are subsidized (yes, subsidized) by the government. If you have the money, you have the service.

Thus we see the unequal distribution, the iron grip of the rich. The situation is in such dire straits that the poor have lost the will to act. And if they do not unite in action, they cannot express themselves with force.

But do not think that this is true only of India. One need not look further than America to observe this phenomenon in action, even in so-called ‘developed countries’. These societies were founded or have evolved into class obsessed systems and until this is obliterated, destroyed, revolutionized, a society cannot begin to consider itself democratic or civilized.

Not until the voice of every man and woman is heard. Not until the colour of your skin or the cost of your clothes is rendered insignificant in terms of your basic human rights. Not until your government bows to you, and not you to it, will the world begin a progressive step forward and initiate the negation of the backward process that began with imperialism.

This negation starts here, with us. If we respect each other, if we listen to what everyone has to say, we can set an example for others to follow.

So friends, let’s begin.

R*A*P

18-19 October 2006 – STANDING ALONE, IB Theatre arts monologue evenings.

The IB Theatre arts class in thirteenth grade exploded on to their solo scenes with a consistent level of high-quality performances all around. The adaptations of plays and transformations of novels were impressively diverse though typically female dominated the show remained equally dispersed throughout varied psychological and historical themes in contemporary theatre.

The night was opened by Elise’s terrific interpretation of “I stand before you naked” by Joyce Carol Oates. We are taken in to the psyche of a truly desperately bored, devious housewife who spends her lonely hours at home signing checks off to every type of charity possible in order to be able to sleep well at night with a clear conscience. The notion of death and the possibility of ending up in hell after a life of effortless comfort strikes this lonely housewife who surrenders a full dependence upon the obsessive work of her husband and stays at home alone making steps towards heaven via the husbands pay checks. In this case the amusing twist came with the wild imaginary community that lives inside her mind that she protects by the use of her husbands gun. This was successfully used as a prop and handled with much precision of motion and timing of gestures. The hilarious mental disturbance of this woman was magnificently represented by Elise’s tone, clarity of expression and the often explosive comical thoughts and actions of her character. The wife launders the husbands money by taking away his payment cheques. She makes a full reconsideration of her humanitarian vocation and leaves the crowd cheering and laughing…

-Amongst the dying claps and cheers you could start to hear the voice of the typical wasted teenager at a school play over enthusiastically cheering; “That was splendid! Simply outstanding!”. Clapping along well past the crowds cheers you could instantly recognise the voice as coming from the one and only Assaf Levin. He made a direct and spontaneous entrance into the spectator’s zone in order to heat up the atmosphere for a tour of Willy Wanker’s magic chocolate factory!

Assaf’s transformation of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate factory was much appreciated by the audience whose widespread popularity made this show a comic success by invoking, in many of us a return to the good old days of our childhood’s illustrated by the genial imagination of Roald Dahl. Crowd interaction was necessary and well employed considering the fact that it was a tour. Assaf managed to make me feel like a little proletarian English kid who found a penny and won a trip to the most extravagant and colourful chocolate factory in the world presented by one hell of an eccentric dude. Wonka creates a whole range of tripped out magic candy inventions that are often accompanied by physiological deformations. Then the guy tells us he’s got pipes flowing with chocolate yet that Wanker of a Willy won’t let my poor ass taste that shit, instead he recommends that I pass by the factory shop on the way out! So I reckon the show was highly ironic yet the character proved very charismatic on the whole. I found that Assaf’s strong control of stage attention took us all on a debatably psychedelic trip of Wonka’s mystery candy elaboration. There is an interesting critique of the side-effects induced by synthetic melting-pot candy produced by large candy companies: The adverse effects of child vice and gourmet speculation. Fantastic round of applause for Assaf!

-The next piece took me on the whole by pleasant surprise. Sophie brilliantly honoured a much loved absurd theatre classic with her sentimental and physical lover: her cello. The epic monologue was represented in its original French version and it took us through an entirely different approach to sexual instruments. It was executed with much elegance and sensuality whilst proving absurdly comic. For those who might remember back to the class of 05 Monologues, Nissa represented the same play also in its original French version and used much more mime than props. However, Sophie’s proved a great deal more extensive and was propped up by a great big cello which provided for much use of movement and touch that made her sexually incoherent attraction seem physically plausible. “Il faut que j’aprenne a jouer !» mais tant qu’ on puisse toucher on peut toujours aimer !! Thumbs up to Sophie for taking us through her private affair with a cello and letting us enjoy the absurdly humorous situation it created.

-Sacha impressively took the stage with the frustrated impatience of a young girl’s desire to get engaged with a man called Archie. Her dilemma comes through in her interior debate over whether she should and why she could not propose herself to this Archie type. She interpreted the role of Martha in Walter Ben Hare’s “A Leap year Leap”. Her expressions and movements were both very naturally represented with a great deal of elegance and humour. Sacha successfully satirised the much loved scene of a damsel in emotional distress over her potential fiancee. All her inner arguments as to her possibility of proposing and the level of their relationship are immediately nullified by a letter that arrives from Archie declaring his long omitted love for her and his proposal to marriage. Sacha successfully demonstrated the immediate elation felt by Martha upon reading Archie’ s romantic letter. I was stunned by the high level of naturally this performance was handled with. The quality was tops. Big up to Sacha for an amazing monologue

Due to format limitations the rest of the Wednesday and Thursday night performances will be reviewed in next weeks issue of Rioters Block. B*R*W*G*-

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Also Rioter's Block is having a meeting on Thursday at Lunchtime outside the MMC