Environmental Injustice Case Study Sarnia, Ontario, July 2021
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
EfeCengizThe 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?
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Sara.Till1) "It's a community that's all too aware that declaring a crisis doesn't actually mean anything significant will change...Within the last 12 months, there have been multiple "crisis" states declared in Indigenous communities across the country, including even the entire territory of Nunavut—where 84 percent of the population are Inuit."
2) " "What do you find 20 years ago? The same conversations we are having now about suicide. The same conversations we are having now about the lack of mental health. The same conversations that we are having around socio economic development," Tait told VICE."
3) "One of the reasons Canada conveniently forgets the multiple recommendations and reports around youth suicide and mental health is that when it comes to Indigenous peoples they are considered "the other" "
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Sara.TillThe author is Adriana Petryna, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her work as at the University, Dr. Petryna has written several books and articles focusing on the effects of cultural and political forces on science and medicine. Other interests include social studies of science and technology, globalization of health, medical anthropology, and anthropological methods
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Sara.TillThis chapter from the work "Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: an anthropological perspective" seems to most frequently appear on websites for various Universities and Colleges. Moreover, the work as a whole seems to have been cited several times by subsequent reports further defining patient narration and medical relations.
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Sara.TillDr. Ticktin states in her introduction the report came about through both her personal experience with humanitarian efforts & sexual violence treatment and through supplemental studies. Her bibliography reflects this, and includes multiple studies/reports from humanitarian organizations. Additionally, she utilized multiple independent media sources discussing sexual violence in conflicts, the targeting of female populations, and humanitarian efforts within this realm. The bibliography also includes a multitude of research articles from various human rights journals and publications pertaining to female rights during conflicts.
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Sara.TillThe NPR article appears to be a compilation of interviews (performed by the author and other media sources) with pertinent individuals (public health officials, economics experts) and research from agency reports (US Accountability Office, Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti).