CHARLIE ALICE RAYA

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/1, shaping, 15 October, day of the phone calls

Next Alice spoke with a politician from Bath in England, and after some inconsequential back and forth, the politician said something that was hard to swallow. ‘The public is critical — or worse just not interested. You see, it’s not like my government has to do anything to block this town, it’s the people who find all sorts of reasons to reject basically everything that has a connection to the project — in some cases only to reject.’
‘But why?’
‘Why? Do you think they need a reason to be against something? You are suggesting that something is wrong with their way of life. You are suggesting that their belief in our economic system is misplaced, that even our traditions should progress into the here and now. It doesn’t matter whether you have a point. What matters is how they feel about being wrong. They want to feel good about themselves, not a fault. They want to be the ones who know better. They want to tell you that they are the ones who face the reality of life, and that you are just an illusionist. Because if you were right, they would have suffered needlessly. ’
Alice twitched the corner of her mouth, frowning.
‘Besides, who are you?’ the politician continued. ‘Make yourself into a hero — and you might have a better chance to get a stage. But you say you don’t want to be a hero. You say: “People, you’re on your own. I’m not your hero.” And they say: “Then you don’t get to tell us what to do.” And you say: “I’m not telling you what to do, I just want to explore.” And they walk away — because that explore thing is uncool. Scientific types, no matter who they are, they are uncool. And if you don’t have answers, well, what are you good for? They can tell you all you need to know. Only trouble for me, the people get impatient about you and your project. They want you gone. And as a servant of the people, I respect that. You see, people want populists.’
Alice grimaced. ‘I don’t want to make the project about myself. The world already has too many people who have all the answers. I want this project to be about people, for people, done by people, not by me. Our project is developed by several hundred people not by some self-righteous leader, their minions and their financiers.’
The politician smiled. ‘It’s your choice.’
Next, a caller from Seattle, US, said bitterly: ‘Do you have any idea how much business the Hub destroys? We’ve lost sixty percent of our customers, and the Hub’s ridiculous business rules make it impossible for us to grow our business on the Hub. This is discrimination!’
Alice laughed and the caller glared.
‘You’re right,’ Alice said. ‘We discriminate against rubbish products and exploitation.’
‘You don’t know what you are talking about,’ the caller retorted. ‘We produce responsibly and our products have the highest standards. And then your new highFly company. It will ruin us with their modular phones, tablets, watches, laptops and what not. Don’t you get the first thing about economics? A customer needs incentives to keep buying the next generation products, not buy a phone that is usable for the rest of their lives. And absolutely not a phone which is tailored to the customer’s needs and wishes and can be extended or reduced if required. You always give the customers products that are imperfect so that they keep hoping that the next one is the better one, and then the next, and the next. You are killing us all!’
‘Actually, you are doing the killing yourself,’ Alice replied with a friendly smile to counter the caller’s aggressive tone. ‘It’s your choice to produce rubbish and to mislead and exploit your customers—’
‘-that’s what business is about! That’s what pays for our homes, wives and children, their education and our pensions.’
‘Don’t go there,’ Any whispered via the coms. ‘He only has one wife and no intention of educating her.’
Alice chuckled.
‘You can laugh all you want! We are a good company. We look after our community.’
‘Hm,’ Alice said, pointing a finger at the screen next to her where Any had opened a background file on the caller’s business dealings. ‘It says here that you turned a small park into a parking space, that you gave a hundred dollars to a kindergarten and that your average hourly wage is three dollars.’
‘That’s only in countries where three dollars are a fortune!’
‘There is not a single country on planet Earth where three dollars are a fortune. Three dollars is an obvious indication of systemic exploitation by companies who think of humans as an inconvenient asset they have to put up with until humans can be replaced by robots.’
‘You don’t know how the world works.’
‘Last time I looked it wasn’t working. At best it’s stumbling drunkenly and blindly while still puffing out its chest and pretending that everything is alright. Just like you pretend that products which have an average durability of a year and consist of a minimum of eighty percent of plastic are high quality.’
‘We will bring the Hub down!’
‘What for?’
‘You’d better watch your tongue! America is the land of freedom. We won’t tolerate freaks like you!’
‘Which freedom? The freedom to produce rubbish, to pollute air, water and soil, the freedom to be racists, to exploit, to rob native Americans, to wage wars? I don’t call that freedom. I call that crimes against humanity and the planet, crimes which curtail vast potentials and destroy the basis of life on our planet.’

news & notes

12/13 October 2024

Welcome to my new overview website which is still under construction and has some gaps. I’ll add more content and offers over the next weeks and months.

The offers will be particularly interesting since they include inspiration sessions, imagination workshops, story & narrative sessions, challenges, readings, and if necessary stand-up. You can also invite me to podcasts and other interviews, and I am happy to contribute articles on various topics. If you’re already curious, please, get in touch: contact@charlie-alice-raya.org

Presently, I’m usually offline until 14:14 (I like fancy numbers) or later. But I will check emails around 18:18, at the latest. If you need to get in touch with me earlier, please, don’t call since I’ll be writing. But you can send a text to: 0049 171 93 88 610, and I’ll get in touch within the hour. Thank you.

The highlights on this website are, so far:

• Published and upcoming books

• Overview of all Charlie Alice Raya websites

• My offers for readings, discussions, talks, inspiration sessions, challenges and stand-up

• Highlight quotes from the easy town books

• About Charlie Alice Raya

• Gender & breastless

• The first video tests where I read bits from The end of all wars and We need trust

Today’s notes

Ever since I read the highly recommendable book ‘We will not be saved’ by Nemonte Nenquimo, I’ve made some efforts to change my relationship to insects. Until then, insects were something to flick away, though I haven’t killed any deliberately in years. But when I read that Nemonte Nenquimo used to keep pet lightning bugs inside her mosquito net, something in my mind stirred.

I remember being a team leader in a tent camp for teenagers, in my religious time, and being so tired at night that I didn’t freak out about the small spiders in my sleeping bag. But the thought that it could be OK and safe to share space with insects every night was novel, and it made me curious.

The next times, I travelled to my magical lake, I paid the butterflies, bees and bugs a lot more attention. I remember rescuing a big greenish bug from the lake, watching dung beetles, seeing a bark beetle for the first time, even though I have photographed bark for years, and back home saving a butterfly from our staircase. Each of these encounters gradually made me lose my resistance and aversion towards insects. Instead I began to observe them, and I was reminded that in order to connect, we need curiosity and we need to see the other, be it an insect or a person.

With some insects, fear is a factor and when I had a cake in the old town of Waren, I made another discovery. Instead of pushing the wasps away, I watched, filmed and photographed them. They where not a bit bothered by my curiosity and by now, I feel completely relaxed in their presence. I did a video of a wasp which I’ll upload when I’ll take some time for the other videos, too.

Today, was a bit different. The weather was so nice that I took a longer noon break and sat in my park, reading some of the bits I wanted to edit later. And then a dragonfly landed on my pages. Now, I don’t know about you, but I have a high respect for these creatures, and I can’t say I felt terribly at ease, even less so when it returned several times and eventually settled on my trousers.

I’ll be honest, I was tempted to get up and run. But I didn’t. Instead I took pictures (I didn’t think of using the video) and witnessed how the dragonfly came back with a freshly caught fly.

I still have a lot of respect for dragonflies, but again I experienced how curiosity enabled me to overcome fear and how wonderful it is to take that moment to actually look at these amazing creatures.

It also helped to read up on dragonflies and to learn that they can’t sting and only bite when very distressed. Plus, the bite is apparently not dangerous for humans. Mind you, that fly looked pretty beaten.

Charlie Alice Raya, 12 October 2024

The end of all wars

planet one, the roots of war

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