Wednesday, January 24, 2007
OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTIVISM
An email currently puking its way around a Sydney university:
Hi there.
You may have heard that Google intends to take high resolution photos of Sydney on Australia Day as part of its Google Earth project.
We think it’s a great opportunity for a bit of activism.
We’ll be chalking up the word “Sorry” in a bunch of places that are clearly visible from Google’s plane. Given our record on Aboriginal human rights, Iraq, Kyoto, East Timor’s Oil, &c. we have plenty to apologise for.
The author is correct: on these issues, they should be apologising like crazy.
Saying “Sorry” recalls the popular campaign for reconciliation, and will have strong resonances with an outpouring of emotion from progressive folk that followed the last US election. It’s a great opportunity for us to express our solidarity locally with the Aboriginal people here and internationally with US citizens who have also been coopted into representing their administration’s agenda of colonialism and environmental destruction. Like them, we understand that in a globalised world our policies make a difference to the lives of people everywhere.
Unlike the US movement, however, this needn’t be solely about regret.
After all, it’s an election year.
So saying sorry is also a promise - it says we don’t want to be sorry about our country anymore.
They were for sorry before they were against sorry. Via Larvatus Prodeo, which helpfully advises: “For spaces where chalk won’t adhere or won’t show up with enough contrast, remember that sheets and towels can be used to shape the letters of SORRY just as well.”