Skip to main content

Search

Notes on "Everyday Exposure"

-denial of environmental heath issues, blaming the sick
-box ticking ans cover up, red tape bureaucracy
-"sensing policy": embodied, place-based,relational, responsible

Safe Side Off the Fence

EfeCengiz

The documentary is missing because the documentary is as safe as the fence it mocks in its title.
In the beginning we are asked to bear witness to the construction and use of the most devastation weapon of indiscriminate death the world has ever seen, and all the harm the construction of such a tool, yet its construction and its use is justified near instantaneously by repeating the same old propaganda.
In continuation, we are asked to bear witness to the continuous production of similar weapons and the devastation caused by the mishandling of the waste that accumulated in their production, yet why such a production took place is not only left unquestioned, but simple hints of cold war propaganda is left in their places for safekeeping.
In the end, we are asked to bear witness to a sombre victory, same spectres of patriotism and nation-of-God watching over our shoulder, yet how the pitiful situation of being forced to celebrate even such a small victory is never explored.
To sum up, we are shown people, good people, who struggle against the symptoms of a disease, yet this disease itself never named, nor challenged. It could not have been challenged, as it would force a complete change in their discourse.

If we sincerely would like to critique how the bodies of these workers were made disposable; used, harmed, dislocated and discharged as deemed necessary; if we wish to explore this topic as the necropolitical issue it is, we cannot stop halfway through. This inability to stop chasing connections, relationalities wherever it fits our ideology, is not a call for “objectivism”, it’s a call to respect the term of Anthropocene with all its rhizomatic connections.

An investigation of nuclear waste, that does not factor the use of its product, the socio-political effects of said product, and the historical conditions that even led to the possibility of producing it in such ways and such quantities, are of no use for us.  It cannot penetrate the barrier of capitalist realism. If it could, at least a single mention of workers unions would have existed. Instead, it has confessionals by atomic weapons lawyers whose heart goes out to these workers.
An America that refuse to face up to the fact that it is what it is by the great necropolitical project it led for hundreds of years, I struggle to accumulate sympathy for, what I can easily accumulate is rage however, which this documentary is missing..
Wish the documentary would have at least attempted to say something radical, instead of praising these disposable bodies for being patriotic about it. There are lives who never had false fences built as idols for safety, the collective idols of old America, the patriotic nation under God were built upon their broken bodies, what would you ask of them?

pece_annotation_1476117255

Andreas_Rebmann

They also have a fantastic list of these on their website:

Alliance for Global Justice is an organization that seeks to achieve social change and economic justice by helping to build a stronger more unified grassroots movement.

Arts and Democracy builds the momentum of a growing movement that links arts and culture, participatory democracy, and social justice.

Cowbird is a community of storytellers and the beautiful platform that we partnered with to collect and display stories in our first year.

Coney Island Generational Gap is a youth group in Coney Island that organizes work programs, arts opportunities and media courses for more than one hundred youth in the neighborhood.

El Centro is a storefront immigrant day worker center in Port Richmond, Staten Island.

Housing is a Human Right is a creative storytelling project that aims to help connect diverse communities around housing, land, and the dignity of a place to call home.

Interoccupy.Net fosters communication across the Occupy movement.

Land of Opportunity is an ongoing trans-media documentary that captures the struggle to rebuild New Orleans, one of America’s most beloved and emblematic cities. We partnered with Land of Opportunity on Katrina/Sandy.

New York Public Library has been an essential provider of free books, information, ideas, and education for all New Yorkers for more than 100 years.

New York Writers Coalition provides free creative writing workshops throughout New York City for people from groups that have been historically deprived of voice in our society.

Occupy Sandy is a mutual aid network responding to the ongoing crisis in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Parsons: New School for Design has been a pioneer in art and design higher education since its founding in 1896.

Project Hope offered free and confidential supportive counseling and public education services to Hurricane Sandy disaster survivors in New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, and Westchester Counties in the immediate aftermath of the storm.

Research Action Design (RAD) uses community-led research, transformative media organizing, technology development, and collaborative design to build the power of grassroots social movements.

The Beacon School is a public magnet high school on the Upper West Side that offers an inquiry-based college preparatory program with technology and arts infused throughout the curriculum.

The Hudson School is a private school in Hoboken, New Jersey, that provides intellectually inquisitive students in grades 5-12 with a rigorous and relevant college-preparatory education.

The MIT Center for Civic Media works hand in hand with diverse communities to collaboratively create, design, deploy, and assess civic media tools and practices–including the text and phone technology that Sandy Storyline uses.

YANA (You Are Never Alone) is a worker training center and hurricane relief hub in Rockaway Park.

pece_annotation_1476632897

Andreas_Rebmann

"At this point, the burden of mental disorders after disasters has been well documented, and interest in the course of trajectory of psychological symptoms following disasters is growing."

"Persons who live in a community where a disaster hsa occured may differ in their degree of exposure in the event. They may be affected directly, being present at the disaster site, or indirectly, having loved ones present at the disaster site or seeing images of the disaster in the media."

"Ongoing stressors such as job loss, property damage, marital stress, physical health conditions related to the disaster, and displacement are often experienced by those affected by the disaster... Low levels of and reductions in social support are also associated iwth post-disaster psychological symptoms."

pece_annotation_1478461650

Andreas_Rebmann

Professor Adriana Petryna teaches Anthropology at UPenn. She focuses on science and technology, globalization and health, and medical anthropology. Her focuses are intertwined with DSTS Network at times, studying incidents of interest such as this article on Chernobyl, and at other times focuses on systemic health issues in socities. 

pece_annotation_1479088920

Andreas_Rebmann

Byron J. Good, the author of this book is currently a professor of Medical Anthropology at Harvard, with his research focusing on mental health services development in Asian societies, particularly in Indonesia. He has done collaborative work with the International Organization for Migration on developing mental health services in post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh, Indonesia. More broadly, he works on the theorization of subjectivity in contemporary societies.

pece_annotation_1473088103

Andreas_Rebmann

Entergy Corporation - Owner of Indian Point Plant, Disaster Accountability Project - Nonprofit disaster response 'auditing' organization, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Steven Peterson - Director of Emergency Management, Ulster County, NY, Dana Smith - Dutchess County comissioner of emergency response