Sisters´ visit and feeling inquieta

My sisters Mem and Hannah left Mexico 10 days ago now.



The trip was magnificent. Luck was on our side so we saw some stand-out cultural gems and we coincided with surreal Easter festivities.

We were also really fortunate to spend some great time with my friends here in Mexico. On their last night, I threw a party at my house. Being a thursday night I thought it would be a pretty chilled affair, but heaps of people turned up and it rocked on until 2am. We also visited my friend Melina in her small community high up in the mountains of Oaxaca, which was very special.

Sure, we had the usual travel things with a bit of tummy upsets and sick stuff for my sisters at some points ("Moctezuma´s revenge" as they say here), lots of movement and plans and such, as trips normally involve!



I have to say, in all the excitement and emotion that their trip provoked in me, I am left feeling afterwards in a little dip of energy. I feel that myself and Hannah and Mem are such headstrong, bold, complex women, that 2 weeks seemed like a short amount of time to be with them after such a long stretch without constant contact (besides my trip in December). I get sad when I think about our relationship at distances and the fact that we live in 3 different cities and know less about each other than when we used to live in the same house, share the same room, eat dinner together.
I wish I could grab all the fun moments we had in these two short weeks together in Mexico and keep them inside me:
Watching crazy fireworks being ignited off the heads of dancing women in Oaxaca; laughing with my sisters and mates on the boats in Xochimilco; even getting through car-sickness on a very windy road through the mountains. All of this. I don´t want these memories to just dissipate..



I have been feeling a little inquieta these days: Restless. It is almost May and I feel like the year is rolling along without me having changed my routine much. I promised myself last year that I would exercise more, do more creative things, stretch myself beyond purely work related things. In a sense, it has happened to some extent. I have started making earrings at times, learnt a bit of meditation and so on, as well as getting out of the city, which has always been an important part of my life. I am supposedly joining a basketball team, however with this bloody Influenza outbreak all sports activities are off!

I suppose in the end it is not my routine or work schedule or extra-curricular activities that are making me feel restless and in a bit of a funk. I think having my sisters here and then seeing them get on a plane and go back to Australia kind of gave me a gulp in my throat and made me realize how long I have been away from home, how far far away I am.

I could keep constructing great things in my life here in Mexico, and I am still learning a lot. There is my salsa to keep developing, my friendships here, my knowledge of mexican cooking could be enriched further, you name it. But there is also a whole life in Australia that is being put on stand by!
I miss the beach, I miss my dog Rudi, triple J on the radio, cricket on the TV, and the tranquility of Oz.
And I miss my parents, a lot!

I am cooped up in the house today with this flu alert going on and feeling a bit down, a bit alone, a bit deflated and out of motivation to be honest.

Oh well, here is a famous and spectacular song by Celia Cruz to lift the spirits:

"Life is a Carnaval, you´ve got to live it, and there are only bad moments, that all pass by"
"Everything can be overcome by singing"



If there were a hispanic salsa singing version of nina simone, celia cruz would be it. what a booming voice!!

going backwards

Restricting a woman´s right to leave the house, and denying a woman´s right to refuse sex with her husband.

How on earth do these things make any sense?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/afghan-leader-accused-of-bid-to-legalise-rape-1658049.html

I don´t know anything about how to better the situation in Afghanistan. I don´t know whether anyone has the answer, even if they say they do.

All I know is that if I were an Afhgani woman I would need to have an iron will just to wake up every day and live such an oppressive lifestyle. Especially if I were an Aghani woman who had in her living memory the experience of having left the house, of having studied, of having lived life.

One of the best novels I have read in a long time is precisely about the hell that women in Afghanistan have gone through:


I can´t believe this proposed law in Afghanistan, and I can´t believe the Afghani president is backing it.


Read it.

International Women´s Day

I dedicate this blog entry to one of the bravest women I know.



Claudia Hernandez.

I dedicate this to a week that was so inspiring. I accompanied Claudia on a trip organized by Amnesty International to Chicago. After 3 years without justice and as a survivor of everything that happened in San Salvador Atenco.

I can´t begin to congratulate you enough Claudia for everything you are overcoming, living, by inspiring others and struggling for justice.

Eres una gran mujer, eres una luz para mi.

Sundays in the Zocalo: Life in Sepia

There are days when

Cuenta que en Oaxaca, se toma mezcal con cafe

Mezcal is drunk with coffee when in Oaxaca, count on that.... Lila Downs

I just came back from a short trip to Oaxaca. A city, a state which has been a long theme of inspiration for me during my time in Mexico. This was my 5th visit to Oaxaca.
Oaxaca, for me, is so much: it is art (a disproportionate amount of incredible Mexican artists are from Oaxaca), indigenous diversity, pain, beauty and conflict; not to mention the extraordinary cuisine of this state.

Here is a photo from the Sierra Juarez mountains taken from last year on the Day of the Dead in Mexico - in the very region where Mexico´s first indigenous president, Benito Juarez, was born;




During 2006, Oaxaca lived through a low-intensity war or social conflict, in which over 200 people were arbitrarily detained with charges and many more were detained for shorter periods, as well as dozens of people tortured and during this period 26 deaths including that of a foreign journalist:



And now, this week, I was privileged to be in a public press forum in Oaxaca this week called "Mexico in the eyes of the United Nations", as this week mexico was examined in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
We debated about the aspects of international law mechanisms and their relevance for social struggles such as those in Oaxaca.
We showed the video of the Mexican Ministry of the Interior speaking about the advances in indigenous rights and poverty erradication in Mexico before the Human Rights Council.
On witnessing the lies that his own government was making towards the international community , one older indigenous man even got to talking with tears in his eyes.

I drank a few mezcals (like tequila, but more complex and stronger) with one of the most amazing social activists I have met. Before the social conflict of 2006 she was doing her own thing as a mother of a family and completing a masters. then came June 2006 and she was shocked by what was happening. Something has to be done, she said. the next day she put out an announcement convoking lawyers from everywhere. The next day over 60 lawyers arrived in response to her announcement. A committee of lawyers was formed, and then kept reducing in size, as there were ones who were in it for personal and political gain. After more than 2 years, this social activist now has a small juridical and activist committee basically made up of 3 women. thanks to these 3 women, some 109 prisoners from the political conflict have been freed from prison. And all of this without negotiating with authorities, but rather using stictly legal recourses to obtain unconditional liberty for these prisoners.






Being an international lawyer it is sometimes so hard to insist on the importance of utilizing such intangible mechanisms as UN treaty bodies and other such instruments. However, I am convinced that it is due to the international attention lent to Oaxaca and the many international observation missions during and after the conflict of 2006that some of the human rights defenders in the region are now better supported, visibilised and backed up.
That´s not to say the situation is still not very grave in Oaxaca.

But its great to see the city alive again, art and beauty radiating as always.

And I give you a song, by Lila Downs from Oaxaca: More than anything else, this video shows you Oaxaca!
It´s waiting for you, my dear sisters!

2 years. A humble collage.

I have come to the end of 2 years overseas. It is time for a hiatus.

I originally wanted to do a photo slideshow with music for this post, however all of the programs and websites I found were very annoying... so I have pasted a few photos here to commemorate 2 years of adventures.

I think I have learnt a lot during this time: I can't even begin to compile all my experiences.
Some things I hope I have learnt, and I believe have affected me, have been: the power and importance of compassion, and community.

More to come.

































"Solo le pido a Dios,
Que el dolor no me sea indiferente
Que la reseca muerte no me encuentre
Vacía y sola sin haber hecho lo suficiente"


- Mercedes Sosa

Maddy speaking spanish

hehehe, For a sample of me speaking another tongue, listen to this link of a radio interview:

http://www.emedios.com.mx/tools/detallenota/muestra_detalle_nota_radio_tv.asp?id_noticia=7771031