Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism [1], No Logo [2], Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate [3]and the documentary film The Take [4] speaks at Cleveland State University's Levin College Forum Series.
A video of Klein discussing her book and her work is available at pdxjustice.org [5].
After a listen, I wrote this quote from early in the talk: "Richard Baker said "We couldn't clean out the New Orleans projects, but god did. That's what he saw. He saw an act of cleansing. Back to the source of so many great great floods and ruptures - judeo christian mythology - hey, let's have a great flood and I'll grab a few of my friends and get on a boat and to hell with all of you. I think that that's Dick Cheney's climate change plan. We don't like the world, we can shock it, burn it, wipe it clean - then we can start over. People didn't like where they live, lets start over, go somewhere that's blank. Smallpox epidemic, we couldn't clean out the natives, but god did."
So I have seen with my own eyes how similar Cleveland and New Orleans look - how Cleveland has effected this neighborhood cleansing (not a climate change, natural disaster instant hurricane cleansing) and I am disappointed that I will not be here to hear Klein's take on the slow cancerous disaster that is providing numerous opportunities for Cleveland and Cuyahoga County politics to privatize our local government, co-opt foundations and educational institutions and social service agenices, nonprofits, even our parking meters.
What would she think of the taxpayers of the county giving a billion dollars to MMPI for example? What would she think of the corporate tax free zones and massive taxpayer subsidies doled out to developers in our city? What would she think about the foreclosure crisis and it's cleansing of neighborhoods in our city?
How can Clevelanders respond in a positive way to the disaster of the depression and resist the privatization of our democracy on a local level? What examples can you think of in Cleveland of this disaster response of privatization of the public sphere the hijacking of civic and civil discourse and public participation?
I beg you to watch the video, read the book, and attend the event with your questions for Klein.
Later in the talk, she suggests that we be calm and prepared to face disaster, but also that we must rise up and demand accountability - reverse the post disaster privatization of our public realm. I want to know how to do this as I, like so many with whom I've spoken, feel the panic, the unsettling fear that has come along with and is part and parcel of this not sudden, but creeping disease of poverty that is cleaning out the city - the class warfare that is so evident in local programs that have been created to "deal" with our crumbling infrastructure and rising poverty. Many days I feel we are being attacked on so many fronts that my head is swimming, and I, like so many others, want to crawl under a rock. But this, I know, is not an effective response. How, in the face of what she refers to as a "reversal of the new deal", do we rise up together to change this undemocratic cancer that is killing our own lives, our children's futures and our planet?
Room 326 is to small - this event should be held at Playhouse Square or better yet at Public Auditorium, because there are so many out of work here who should attend and now are available to attend to hear her premise and argument. Two hours is not long enough.
Learn more about Naomi Klein at her website: NaomiKlein.org [6].
The Levin College Forum [7]
The Center for Civic Education [8]
Missed a forum? You can always view past forums here. [9]