World Refugee Day- and the roots of a metaphor

"We understand now for the first time the myths of our ancient ancestors. This is because in an electric age we live mythically"-Marshall McLuhan

Moses come down from the mountain

root metaphors”: 1) the metaphor of "ascent," 2) the metaphor of "fecundity," and 3) the metaphor of "migration to a good land."

The Ascent of Humankind

The spiritual and ecological motifs arise out of three root metaphors that form the foundational assumptions and beliefs for the motifs. two of these metaphors - the metaphors of ascent and fecundity - seem to depend on a primary experience in human history- the "experience of the overwhelming mountain.

The third metaphor, of migration to a good land, is not so universal.

Since Ms. Jolie had recently been to Ecuador where apparently there are now as many as 2 million Columbian refugees living there this post made it onto the middle of the world page. Oh yeah and her Mom was Canadian now that is pretty cool too. Thanks for the update, CNN.

What they don't teach you in Geography class about the lines on the maps is the most important thing about borderlines in the world today they are invisible. The lines between individuals and and nation states, the line that divides the north (the core region) where most of the landmass is from the south where most of the people are and the invisible lines between the global reach of increasingly global corporations and the nation state .

The "bounding line":

"The end of linear writing is indeed the end of the book . . . "—Jacques Derrrida

"Nature knits up her kinds in a network, not in a chain; but men can follow only by chains because their language can't handle several things at once."—Albrecht von Haller

Since adding this post about a CNN documentary about refugees with Angelina Jolie I also watched a documentary on the history of the Congo and Belgium's Prince Leopold. He once owned the entire Congo region. That's right owned it not colonized or ruled it, but owned the entire region!

In the documentary they said that Leopold killed nearly ten million Congolese people in the late 1800's and early 1900's in a brutal attempt to extract profit from the area. Including many horrific acts where much the same as Ms. Jolie portrayed people's limbs are hacked off as a form of terror.

In discussing refugees in Africa Ms. Jolie does mention that post-colonial Africa with its desperate conflicts are at least in part an attempt to undue the legacy of colonialism. And I might add all of these portrayals are palpably graphic examples of what that legacy was and how it lives on.

The lineal and spatial logic of refugeeism

And the lines keep getting longer

'all roads lead to Rome"

Well I listened to about an hour of the CNN interview with UN ambassador Angelina Jolie and lets face it she is as charming as she is pretty and also a good choice for a UN goodwill ambassador as she walks the walk and talks the talk. Since we all help make this a possibility let's hope that one day the lines of conflict don't all converge, so we don't all have to get in those lines one day.

"Tuesday is World Refugee Day. Angelina Jolie was interested in discussing the plight of refugees, so we sat down to talk about what she has seen and learned in refugee camps around the world. She had no movie to promote, no product she was pitching. In fact, I have no idea what her next movie is and we did not discuss any upcoming films. There were no ground rules. I was free to ask whatever I wanted.

A lot of celebrities have causes and show up to talk about them when cameras are around, but the truth is that Angelina Jolie knows what she is talking about when the subject is refugees. To use a cliche, she doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk. She has traveled to some 20 countries over the years as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and she says she donates one-third of her income to charitable causes." -Anderson Cooper, CNN