Below are excerpts from Playing with Fire that describe some of the problematics with the "solidarity" shown by the NGO that operated in the Sitapur District. What similarities and differences are observable between the groups in Egypt and India? Please add your comments and observations about the privileging and silencing of different voices here.
"A false opposition continues to circulate between the needs of survival and the demands of time, pitting individual survival against collective conscience. In such an opposition, there is presumably no time ‘left over' for political activity.”
-Alexander, 2005
In the very same organizational spaces where our efforts were praised endlessly, our voices were muffled in the presence of higher officials, and all the slogans and talk of equity and equality were pushed aside. When we deliberately tried to open our mouths in opposition to this, we were informed that the issues we wanted to raise were not meant to be discussed before the officers, even though in the villages, we had always learned to state our opinions openly and impartially and had taught others to do so. -Sangtin Writers, 2006
-Alexander, 2005
In the very same organizational spaces where our efforts were praised endlessly, our voices were muffled in the presence of higher officials, and all the slogans and talk of equity and equality were pushed aside. When we deliberately tried to open our mouths in opposition to this, we were informed that the issues we wanted to raise were not meant to be discussed before the officers, even though in the villages, we had always learned to state our opinions openly and impartially and had taught others to do so. -Sangtin Writers, 2006
“When we come to the concomitant question of the subaltern, the notion of what the work cannot say becomes important."
-Spivak, 1988
The basic issue here is that when, as workers who play the most critical role of giving strength to village women, we mustered the courage to articulate our concerns to our bosses, they did not wish to listen. -Sangtin Writers, 2006
-Spivak, 1988
The basic issue here is that when, as workers who play the most critical role of giving strength to village women, we mustered the courage to articulate our concerns to our bosses, they did not wish to listen. -Sangtin Writers, 2006
“Globalization colonizes women’s as well as men’s lives around the world, and we need an anti-imperialist, anticapitalist, and contextualized feminist project to expose and make visible the various, overlapping forms of subjugation of women’s lives.”
-Mohanty, 2003 NGOs enter our rural communities and talk about the equalities among men, women, and other social groups, and they also plan and organize countless trainings and workshops for these communities. However, the very people who excitedly talk about fairness and equality fail to bring themselves to the level of ordinary rural workers and the people who do the work of turning the goals of these organizations into reality. -Sangtin Writers, 2006 |