We Say No

"Disdain betrays History and mutilates the world. The powerful opinion-makers treat us as though we do not exist, or as though we are silly shadows. The colonial inheritance obliges the so called Third World - populated by third-class people - to accept as its own memory of the victors who conquered it and to take on the lies of others and use them as its own reality. They reward our obedience, punish our intelligence, and discourage our creative energy. We are opinionated, yet we cannot offer our opinions. We have a right to the echo, not to the voice, and those who rule praise our talent to repeat parrot fashion. We say no: we refuse to accept this mediocrity as our destiny.

And within this framework, we say no to the neutrality of the human world. We say no to those who invite us to wash our hands of the crucifixions we witness daily. To the bored fascination of an art that is cold, indifferent, contemplative of its mirrored reflection, we prefer a warm art, one that celebrates the human adventure in the world and participates in this adventure, an art that is incurably enamored and pugnacious. Would beauty be so beautiful if it were not just? Would justice be just if it were not beautiful? We say no to the divorce of beauty and justice, because we say yes to the powerful and fertile embrace they share."

Eduardo Galeano, We Say No
Original Speech given in Chile, 1988

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I am currently flirting with the Global South as much as I can and still graduate on time. My major has been kind enough to let me play the system and study abroad with Furman in both Latin America and southern Africa. This blog mirrors my fight to find and join those who say No. My words are my weapon, I am "arming my voice," to advocate with those I have met; if I wanted to travel in the Global South and return neutral, I would have remained where I was and googled it. Quite simply, I am in love and could never imagine trading this for the suburbs.

If after experiencing what you've experienced and learning all you've learned, you return to your country and change nothing, you've violated the hospitality shown to you by everyone here. You have simply used us.
-African elder in Zimbabwe.






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