Why Being a Librarian is a Radical Choice
Here is a little something I stumbled across this morning - worth a read . . .
It is from an article called: Why being a Librarian is a readical Choice
"Sharing is under siege.
It is the sworn enemy of the global market – which is why so much of international trade law is designed to criminalize sharing.
Forget Napster, and the crackdowns on pirated CDs and software.
In Cochabamba Bolivia, the uprising against Bechtel was sparked by the fact that under the contract, it became illegal to collect rainwater, since the company had bought all water rights.
In India, farmers are sued by Monsanto for engaging in the age old practice of saving their seeds and sharing them with their neighbours – they are supposed to buy them anew each year from Monsanto.
This is the essence of free trade: making sure that absolutely nothing – whether books or water or ideas – is offered for free.
The role of international trade law must be understood not only as taking down “barriers to trade” – as it claims – but as a legal process that systematically puts up new barriers — around knowledge, technology and the commons itself, through fiercely protective patent and trademark law.
There is absolutely nothing free about it.
Most of you probably didn’t think that helping people to share books was subversive when you decided to become librarians.
And it shouldn’t be: sharing, giving, saving and reusing are the most human of impulses and we are at our best and most human when we act on them. The desire to share, as you know, is immense.
Yet the fact is that you have chosen a profession that has become radical. "
It is from an article called: Why being a Librarian is a readical Choice
"Sharing is under siege.
It is the sworn enemy of the global market – which is why so much of international trade law is designed to criminalize sharing.
Forget Napster, and the crackdowns on pirated CDs and software.
In Cochabamba Bolivia, the uprising against Bechtel was sparked by the fact that under the contract, it became illegal to collect rainwater, since the company had bought all water rights.
In India, farmers are sued by Monsanto for engaging in the age old practice of saving their seeds and sharing them with their neighbours – they are supposed to buy them anew each year from Monsanto.
This is the essence of free trade: making sure that absolutely nothing – whether books or water or ideas – is offered for free.
The role of international trade law must be understood not only as taking down “barriers to trade” – as it claims – but as a legal process that systematically puts up new barriers — around knowledge, technology and the commons itself, through fiercely protective patent and trademark law.
There is absolutely nothing free about it.
Most of you probably didn’t think that helping people to share books was subversive when you decided to become librarians.
And it shouldn’t be: sharing, giving, saving and reusing are the most human of impulses and we are at our best and most human when we act on them. The desire to share, as you know, is immense.
Yet the fact is that you have chosen a profession that has become radical. "
How does this intersect with the Christian life?
Are we 'radicals sharers?'
Scott
PS: check out the article here
Are we 'radicals sharers?'
Scott
PS: check out the article here
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