Rafael Lozano-Hemmer on Tue, 1 May 2001 06:43:22 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> Fwd: URGENTE: POCHA NOSTRA CYBER-COMMUNIQUE #26 |
((Hi, here's the latest placa from Guillermo Gómez-Peña. -- Rafael)) From: NAFTAZTC@aol.com Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 10:11:00 EDT Subject: URGENTE: POCHA NOSTRA CYBER-COMMUNIQUE #26 POCHA NOSTRA CYBER-COMMUNIQUE #26 (Those of you interested in crossing the Digital Frontera w/out documents please circulate this placazo among other artists, thinkers & activists.) The imaginary effects of a Trans-American free trade zone: (First in a five-part series) In Quebec City, Canada, on April 20, the heads of 34 governments of North, South, Central America, and the Caribbean met in secret with hundreds of corporations to negotiate the terms for the creation of a Free Trade Agreement of the Americas(FTAA). Performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña, speculates about its possible repercussions for "All Things Considered." Gómez-Peña: Dear listeners, I ask you to close your eyes and imagine a fully globalized American continent unified by free trade, "global" media, and communication technologies. It's 2003, the year of the stalking fox according to the Mayan calendar.This Trans-American free trade zone is controlled by 50 macro-corporations with an executive board made up of faceless officers from the World Bank, the WTO, the Pan-Asian Community Šand of course, the US president. "Governments" function as representatives of the executive board, and politicians as local managers. The official currency is called Ameri-dollar, and the lingua franca is "fusion English," spiced with corporate Spanglish, Frangle and cyber-Esperanto. Corporate republics are popping up everywhere in the blink of an eye. Hong-Kong has relocated to Baja California to constitute the powerful Baja-Kong, the world's greatest producer of cyber-porn and tourist kitsch. The twin cities of San Diego and TJ/Taiwana have united to form The Mac/quiladora Republic of San Diejuana, the center of an intricate blackmarket spiderweb. The cities of Los Angeles and Tokyo now share a corporate government called Japangeles, which oversees all the financial operations of the Pacific Rim. The old city of San Francisco is now "Chilicon Valley" a Latino Bohemian "entertainment city" co-produced by Sony-Metreon and Dreamworks. Curiously the neighbouring Republik of Berkeley is the only Marxist-Leninist nation left on the globe. On the Northern East Coast, things aren't any simpler. The US-Canandian border is an ever fading memory. All the Caribbean micro-republics, including Nuyo Rico and Cuba York, have merged to form The Great Pan-Carib Nation, sponsored by Goya Products and Telemundo. They willingly accept refugees from Haiti and Miami. Florida and Cuba now share a corporate junta with the cryptic name of "Lenin, Mas Canosa Jr. & Associates." The motto on their flag reads: "Gambling, Tourism & Erotica will set us free." South of the San Diego-Brownsville canal, the geopolitical changes triggered by the FTAA sound like a Chicano sci-fi B-movie script. A saber: The nation/city of Mexico DF(Detritus Defecalis) is presently negotiating its independence from Fox Entertainment, a merger of "Jorge Bush, Vincent Fox & Associates." The Zona Autonomica Zapatista, a division of MARCOS' Oil is separated from the rest of old Mexico by the Tehuantepec Itsmus canal, which in 2002 replaced the quaint Panama Canal, remember?. As the old nation/states topple by their own weight, and get instantly re-shaped into hybrid corporate entities, we witness a logical resurgence of ultranationalist movements. Quebec, the Labrador Penninsula, Montana, Texas, the US Southwest, Yucatan, Puerto Rico and all the Indian Nations are understandably the first ones to secede; followed by Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama, which comprise a loose coalition of New African nationalist states. Their new Liberation Armies are in charge of expelling anyone who is unable to show proof of ethnic origin as far back as 10 generationsŠAtavic fights over matters of nano-sovreignty and bioregional identity resurface with an uncontrollable passion. These quarrels get complicated by obvious disagreements over the exact placement of the new borders. The balkanization of the Americas poses all kinds of challenges to our traditional notions of personal and national identity, community and language. For the moment, everyone seems to be agonizing over the following question: Which language should we use to communicate our mortal disagreements? The official "fusion English" as in this radio reportage, or our lingua mater? (phonetically) Simplement, Je ne sais pas, mom cher radioescucha. Any suggestions? # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net