Author: Eden Bloom

This was originally published in The Michigan Citizen, March 5, 2013


This is the final column in our series discussing the Environmental Justice Principles drafted and adopted by delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held Oct. 24-27, 1991. EJ principle 17 requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to ensure the health of the natural world for present and future generations. (www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html).

We come to the close of our commentary on the environmental justice principles as we approach the close of the 10-day timeframe to appeal Governor Snyder’s financial emergency declaration and the announcement of an emergency manager. While it is challenging to rally behind the ideals of ‘personal choice’ and ‘conscious decisions’ that EJ principle 17 embodies when confronted with the long-threatened reality of emergency management, it does present an opportunity to consider how we may be able to ‘challenge and re-prioritize our lifestyles’, our own thoughts and deeds, in the face of this political and economic shift.

Lottie Spady closed her recent column by asking, “what does it look like to choose in our own best interest?” Making personal choices to consume less, while a privileged option, seems and may be beneficent. But currently, the lines between truth and marketing are often intentionally blurred. Whether we are considering products on a shelf or a strategic framework for urban development, deception and misinformation have become acceptable terms of engagement in a free market economy.

To make informed, conscious decisions we have to become vigilant in deconstruction and analysis. Frankly, we have to cut through many, often imperceptible, levels of bullshit and distortion to determine what’s going down around us and to determine if we’re acting in our own best-interest, in the interest of the greater good or in the slippery degrees of otherwise. Case in point being the State Financial Advisory Board’s findings on Detroit’s economic status. While the Governor and those who would benefit the most from emergency management endorse the FAB’s findings, existing and hopeful candidates in the November election have suggested the State books are cooked and that Detroit is not as destitute as we are led to believe.

I hesitate comparing Detroit’s financial status to packaged food, but as I look at the spin and distortion I am reminded of how deceptive and manipulative food marketing and labeling can be. It took me years to teach myself to stop reading the bold letters, NEW, IMPROVED, HEALTHY, NATURAL on the front of packages and to start looking at the actual ingredients and nutritional content listed in small print on the back. Many cite the deregulating trends of the 80s, but somewhere along the way, companies began taking liberties with facts to promote products and influence spending. They began to market to what their research determined to be our wants, rather than our needs.

This approach, justified by profit increase, served to reinforce the already powerful mantra that ‘what is best for the company’, as a job provider and revenue generator, ‘is also best for the people’. If it is profitable then, without regard for the health and well-being of individuals or society, it is framed as not only as ethical, but also as the best and/or only option. The goal in this, as far as I’m able to discern, is to move profitable products, ideas and ‘isms’ into the realm of indoctrinated assumptions that promote the ‘best and only’ into ‘the way it is’. It both infers and blatantly states that to do otherwise would be counter-productive, obstructionist, insane and even pestilent. The disconnect between the marketed information on the front of the package and the reality relegated to the back mirrors the discrepancies and contradictions found in the supposed options, personal and consumer lifestyle choices, given across the board.

The players in the economic and political coup d’état unfolding around and between us make use of these marketing and culture shaping strategies to great benefit. The notion of being progressive, for example has shifted from a term used to denote ‘forward-thinking” leftist to a generalized dedication to ideological progress across the spectrum. How is it that many who self-identify as progressives can support, through irony, apology, or silence, economic and political efforts that are antithetical to meaningful or substantial benefit for all Detroiters?

In a recent Huffington Post article economist William Black called out progressives who often unwittingly support austerity measures. He cites college-level indoctrination into the neoliberal economic mythology, “that austerity is the answer and that mass unemployment and prolonged recessions are small prices to be paid (by others) to achieve the holy grail of a balanced budget.” (http://tinyurl.com/afnpqea) Austerity economics promote polices that meet the demands of crisis by taking the most from those with the least and that place emphasis on abstract market-based concerns, like balancing budgets, over root issues like public education, safety, and poverty reduction.

I no longer consider it conspiracy theory or paranoid delusion; in Detroit and other contentious geographies across the globe, things as they appear to some are simply not as they are for others. In geographies where the majority live at or below the so-called poverty level, austerity economics and politics render hinterlands, in-between spaces, that exist as juxtapositions mixing objectivist dreams made flesh and unprecedented, justified yet demonized efforts at obstructionism. In these ‘spaces-between’ notions of progress, creativity and innovation can be used to promote agendas that stand in stark contrast to notions of equity, democracy or meaningful community resilience. After all, we all want Detroit to have less blight, to progress right?

An example rises in the recently rolled-out and frequently referenced billionaire’s commonwealth proposed for Belle Isle. Presented in the press as novel, yet undesirable, it sounds like a fantastical shot in the dark, but the plan is actually a rather overzealous local spin on so-called “progressive” development strategies being proposed globally. Specifically, a proposal for two ‘charter cities’ in Honduras has been gaining traction through political interventions, coup d’état, the removal of judges opposed to the project and the like. (http://tinyurl.com/d4kozft) Proposed on contested land occupied by indigenous peoples, the promotional video for these Honduran charter cities bears an eerie resemblance to the Belle Isle proposal. These charter cities are promoted domestically and abroad as an example of how progressive, creative, innovative and of course, business-friendly Honduras is. Just don’t pay attention to the dismissal of democracy or the displacement of the people who currently live there.

Again, the lines are blurred, progress is good, right? The two divergent yet interconnected and relative realities emerging around us, one deemed progressive and the other anti-progress seem similar to this scenario in Honduras. The dystopian, dehumanized and corrupt reality of disaster capitalism making way for what is presented as a mandatory homogenized development framework that calls out citizen voice or anything other than the company line as obstructionist. While choice and lifestyle change are foundational in any personal or cultural paradigm shift, for me EJ principle 17 introduces many contradictions that are important to consider as we move forward, as we truly progress.

As our principle encourages us to make conscious decisions and challenge ourselves, are we also willing to challenge our own indoctrinated assumptions around what is possible and what is acceptable when it comes to economics and politics? Sadly, I’ve shared with many Detroiters I consider ‘progressive’, you know, creative and innovative folk from all walks and talks, who remorse that gentrification is just the way it goes in urban spaces. They think it’s a shame we have to remove democratic representation to ‘save’ Detroit and believe unflinchingly that balancing the budget is part and parcel with saving the city in the first place.

I perceive that a gauge of progress in Detroit is directly related to our demand for democratic representation especially in the face of it’s threatened elimination, our strong stance against the displacement of peoples, foreclosures, cuts in services and security, and upon our ability to frankly address inequities and disparities through systemic transformation.

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From the archives, but I feel it is poignant to share here and now. In December of 2012 I was asked to do a year in review piece for the deeply missed Michigan Citizen. I think it was due to a tight deadline they agreed to run something more personal. I feel I should update this as this really shaped my last eight years here on the Eastside. Thanks for reading,

December 18, 2012

This is the latest in a series of columns discussing the Environmental Justice Principles drafted and adopted by delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held Oct. 24-27, 1991.

Dec. 18, 2012 – Peace. I write this 2012 ReView just days before the winter solstice, a day  important to me personally because it is also the day that I was born, here in Detroit, in 1969. Maybe it is the nature of the season to be more reflective, but for this column I’m inclined to write more directly from my lived-experience and I appreciate the indulgence. The winter solstice, December 21, 2012, has also been blasted into popular culture due to the date being the end of the Mayan long-count calendar, with spiritual and secular speculation based on recent political and social events abound. You, the readers, have the advantage here for this will be published after the supposed apocalypse. I sincerely hope it went well for you and yours. 

My personal interest, due to my birth, in 2012 phenomena has led me to a great deal of research, academic and experiential alike. This research along with a life-long interest in more sustainable, collective, communal yet autonomous/sovereign living and lifestyles has greatly informed the way that I’ve approached sharing in Detroit. I consider the 2012 phenomenon to be an ongoing non-time specific expression that is connected to and rooted in what I’ve begun to refer to as ‘emergent systems of governance’ These relationship-based hyper-localized, block-level models, techniques or ways that we can come together, appear to be fueling a paradigm shift, not only here in Detroit, but around the world.

In the last few years, I have been honored to witness this phenomenon happening across Detroit more regularly. People are coming together for a great many reasons and interests to share information, skills and food. Most importantly, in the last year, I’ve seen these gatherings, these actions, these learning circles, skill-shares, these exchanges begin to connect with and include leadership from block clubs, community groups and citizens who have traditionally been left out of decision making processes that directly impact them. To me this connection is vital for justice and balance to manifest and for the continuous displacement of peoples and the mining of resources and community assets to cease. 

The meetings I attend are more frequently becoming transformative ceremonies where we come together, establish guidelines to keep everyone in our circle safe, express our assumptions and declare our intentions. We develop agreed upon principles and values, and from this space, this circle, together decide on next steps, actions and strategies. To me it is still relatively abstract and I’m certain I only see particular aspects of it, but these meetings appear as a model of governance, one that I comprehend, based on my lived expereince as being resonate with governance models accessed by indigenous and agricultural-based communities who are less dependent upon the global market. Here are some examples, expressed as perceptions to remain flexible, from the past few months in Detroit:

The evening of Monday, December 10th, I stood with 400+ Detroiters outside the East Lake Baptist Church waiting in the freezing cold to get into the Hantz Woodlands public hearing called by the Detroit City Council. When I finally made it inside I was pleased to find the large church hall filled with energy. As I walked through the crowds before the hearing, I witnessed great amounts of information about this land grab and about other, even more insulting and incendiary, deals on the horizon. I heard a great deal about “what’s goin’ on” being passed from one Detroiter to another. What I saw in that moment, before the public hearing even bagan, was very much a massive learning circle, an information exchange, with Detroiters sharing their opinions and lived-experience. I perceive Learning Circles and Popular/Community Education as integral to governance. 

The public comments at the hearing were amazing, with almost every person who choose to speak at the mic sharing a different take on the deal in their own way. Some were prophetic and called on God and Spirit, some questioned the precedent the sale would make, some spoke their truth loudly and passionately while others were more reserved, and many rallied behind the concept that Detroiters can and should manage the land through a community land trust or other alternatives. Alternatives that will actually empower people where they are and as they are and respect the land itself. I perceive Public Comments and Community Voice as integral to governance.

In the weeks leading up to the public hearing, I was honored to assist in canvassing in the ‘footprint’ of the land grab. As our small and respectful crew of canvassers knocked on doors and passed out flyers at local stores we very quickly discovered that an insultingly small percentage of people living in the Hantz footprint were actually aware of the deal. Those who did know were not informed by Hantz or the Lower Eastside Action Plan (LEAP), who claim to be able to speak for this community, but rather through the media or their own non-LEAP aligned community groups. Those of us who canvassed were pleased to see many of the people whose doors we had knocked on at the Hantz public hearing. By respectfully and mindfully approaching the Detroiters most directly impacted by this deal, we managed to meet and support block-level community leaders who care deeply about their neighborhoods and the people who currently live there. I perceive respectful and organized Community Outreach and Canvassing as integral to governance. 

The Hantz Groups’ marketing campaign around this land grab was massive. It took Detroit’s urban agriculture and community gardening movement through the mud, included numerous revisions of front-loaded visions, and extreme proliferation through national and global media. All this served to spread a great deal of irrelevant information and hype around this supposedly beneficent project. While Hantz’ constant redefinition of the ‘farm’ and his double speak around the project made it easy to critique it for what it was, a land grab, it also caused the need for a counter-media campaign that was extremely successful in creating community discussion through the twitter hashtags #HantzOff, #LandGrab and #DetroitFuture and through facebook. By documenting and sharing the voices of people most directly impacted and offering real time streams of information, community-driven media sources became popular locally and globally for those looking for the latest about the deal. I perceive Community-driven media, social networking and the collection of oral histories as integral to governance. 

There are many other examples, pieces of the puzzle, that I’ve noted but do not have the space to discuss here. I am sure there are many more I’ve yet to see. Social system hackers like myself and others around the globe, study and research systems of movement and exchange, particularly of information and food, places where, and the ways that people gather, because many of us consider them to be where the magic happens.

As I comprehend it, and I strive to be flexible and as non-dogmatic as possible in this, it is through this coming together, healing and holding each other accountable that we can respectfully grow the greatest opportunity for the notion of a paradigm shift postulated by the 2012 phenomena. Fostering and supporting grassroots and community led expressions of these emergent methods and techniques flies directly in the face of neo-liberal, market-based economic policy and state-imposed austerity measures like right to work and emergency management. 2012 has been a year of emergence both locally and globally and though I cannot be certain of what is on the horizon, I am beginning to deeply posit emergent governance models and techniques as potential antidotes to emergency management and other forms of oppression. Respect and Gratitude.

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This was originally published in the Michigan Citizen, November 6, 2012

This is the third in a series of columns on the 15th Environmental Justice principle. Environmental Justice Principle 15 opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

As we tune into this week’s EJ principle, we’re considering our food system and its relationship to military occupation. To enter into this discussion, I have to express that I recognize the United States’ government and the majority of the US population as an occupying force in North America. The US’ very existence is dependent upon continuous military/police occupation of land, the repression of indigenous peoples and culture, and the perpetuation of social divisions based upon race, gender, class, etc.

My intention here, as we consider our food system in relationship to military occupation, is to respect and express solidarity with those who have struggled against this occupation for generations. With this in mind, it is vital to note that military occupation, trade and agriculture have intimate relationships that span centuries and that greatly inform the scale and scope of our current food system.

Historically, the standard operating procedures of imperialism and colonialism utilize occupying armies to enforce and defend the establishment of plantations. In the 17th century, chartered companies begin to emerge. Hired to colonize lands, and in many cases, granted monopolies over their jurisdiction by the state, these occupying companies/armies, through the cultivation of the land, are not only able to feed themselves, but also reign in local populations as workers and slaves, privatize land and other natural resources, and fund expansion of their efforts through unregulated trade. In our current geopolitical situation, the state-chartered companies of the 17th century are recast as massive global corporations, but their practices, procedures and sadly, the massive injustice they propagate, remain the same.

Whether it is Roman expansion across continents, the Dutch East India Company 400 years ago, or the current exploitation of lands, resources and people by Big Ag to supposedly “feed the world” while propagating patented seeds and biotechnology, it appears that these practices and procedures are extremely consistent. Through meditation I began to consider just how prolific these practices and procedures that deeply co-implicate military occupation, agriculture and trade, are. I began to consider them as being at play, not only at the global level, but on an inner-personal, even biological level.

This is quite a leap, but I reference a movie that frequented Detroit’s UHF channels in the 70s called “Fantastic Voyage”. This 1966 cold war influenced science fiction film finds a miniaturized submarine and crew injected into a human body on a mission to repair a blood clot. Looking at our personal relationship to food at this miniaturized, microscopic level, I began to consider agricultural and food system biotechnology in a very different light. If we could shrink ourselves to the point where we could witness how our bodies process the various toxic chemicals we subject them to daily, through our own choices and through our environment, what exactly would we see?

The wisdom, ‘you are what you eat’ has emerged from cultures across the globe and, given the scale and scope of our current food system and its direct ties to occupation, repression and exploitation, how does the food we put into our bodies impact our inner-geographies. I often consider that our consumption of highly processed and/or genetically modified foods, at some levels, opens doors for potential occupation of our internal landscape. I posit that, if we could all take a “Fantastic Voyage” within our own bodies we would bear witness to attempted occupation of our inner ‘land’ by pathological cells, repression of life giving systems by refined sugars and saturated fats, and the potential exploitation/extraction of resources through the creation of imbalances that lead to costly healthcare.

As we oppose military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms, it is also vital that we strive to oppose the occupation of our physical bodies and our internal landscapes.

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