“They”
And if I were still in the business of textual analysis (as opposed to textual commoditisation, which pays better), I would refer you to your hilariously unconscious othering and innate neo-colonialist attitude to ‘they’.
Because, however sympathetically you choose to objectify your fellow humans, you’re still objectifying them. Because that’s what they really are to you: objects. You’re no less a product of your upbringing, learned prejudices and tribe than I am, mate.
However hard you want not to be, you’re still just a tourist. Why? Because you have the option to walk away.
I'm rather encouraged by the amount of support he is receiving. I think Boris is an inferior version of Trump in every way imaginable (even the hair), but he has started a decent discussion.
Be hopeful. At some point we have to be able to tell the difference between, "kick that Muslim's teeth in" and "haha Mohammed, loved to **** letterboxes".
Hopefully that correction will happen soon.
Think you've totally missed the meaning of the word, B.
I'm talking about documentaries my beloved and I make. They is the pronoun which clearly stands in place of the noun "the subjects of our documentary."
You know that travelling rave film I linked? I would have used the term 'they' had I written 'they were a bugger to film cos they were all off their heads on K" or somesuch.
Read it again, B. The they only referred to the subjects in my film, not the other people in the shantytown in the Manila cemetery where we made the doc, not the rest of the Philippines, nor Asia or the 3rd world in general.
So I'm not objectifying my subjects. We're still in contact with the old man, Hamie's, grandson on facebook.
Here's the film if you have ten mins. As I said, they (the 5 or 6 subjects in the film) won us an award.
https://vimeo.com/35466653
I'm afraid this says rather more about you than I, B. It's you who would consider it as first world "us" and third world "them."
Likewise the film we made about our mates among the streetkids in Paharganj, New Delhi. Unfortunately, out of the maybe 15 who have been really close mates over the last 20 years, 6 of them have died on the streets, including about the best mate I'll ever have, Mukhesh.
However, we're still in contact with two or three of them by phone and facebook. We've just sent one of them, Monu, £30 so he can go on a pilgrimage to Rishikesh. Indeed, I took him to the mountains with me last year, to stay with an old mate there, and when we came back down, I got him his ID card, meaning that he could come to Kerala with me, as he could now check in to a hotel. Because of a train problem, and because he now had ID, I ended up sticking him on a plane with me on the way back, so he flew for the first time. Spent the whole 4 hrs looking out the window, amazed to see the clouds from above.
Another one of them, AJ, had an article written about him so he sent it to us on fb, and we've shared it and had a whip round for him. One of my mates in Goa - a Bengali Hindu Gooner called DJ who works down there, has also been helping him since we did that.
And another one of them, Manisha, is being sorted out by this Aussie academic we met who's helping her try and move to Aus.
But yeah, B, I'm really a neo-colonialist racist who's subconsciously othering some of the best mates I have and have had. I'll be taking a French mate out to see them in a few weeks, Ganpati willing, and we'll take a couple of them, Monu and Badal, wherever we choose to go - mountains and Goa, and hopefully Varanasi too, Ganpati willing.
So no, B, I am not objectifying my mates, I am using the 3rd person plural pronoun to refer to the subjects of that specific documentary and my mates among the Delhi street kids, many of whom were subjects of, and/or helped us to make, the Tales from Paharganj documentary. Indeed, a couple of them, also helped us on another doc where they came to Rajasthan and helped us translate.
I don't wish to be rude, B, but you Britisher goras are racially inferior to my mates among the Indian street kids.
"
However hard you want not to be, you’re still just a tourist. Why? Because you have the option to walk away. "
No, B. While we are all aware that at the end of the day, I go into my hotel where I'm not allowed to bring them when in Delhi while they stay on the street, when I took Monu up the mountains last year, my old mates there knew nothing of his background. They treated us as equals. All they made clear was you, Monu, can see that GG is an old and beloved mate of ours, so please treat us differently yo all the other natives here, just like we will treat you differently to all the other white and Punjabi tourists as you, like us, are clearly one of GG's mates.
Yes, we all know that I fly back to a welfare state while they stay on the street, but the times we are together we are just best mates who will at times put ourselves squarely in each other's hands.
I'm afraid it's simply a situation you are unable to comprehend because you haven't experienced anything like it so are trying to guess how it works.
Despite the fact that I will always have options denied them, true love and friendship means that when we are together, we are just mates, just equals. When you have watched some of the kids grow up over 20 years you have a relationship which isn't one any tourist would ever have.