<nettime> A Borderhack 2.0 report

[Quim Gil <icaria36@yahoo.co.uk>]

Sorry for the unperfect English...

This report is also available here:
http://metamute.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=35&forum=5&6

You may find a Spanish translation made by Hector
Guzman at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/desdeamericaconamor/message/33



TRYING TO HACK THE SUBLIMINAL BORDERS
http://borderhack.org

"Borderhack" is an appealing word that generally draws
diffuse but strong concepts in networking minds.
"Tijuana" is another non-marketed appealing symbol,
refering to the essence of the city existing thanks
and despite a border, a frontier. And then we have the
Wall, the visualization of the border itself, a
combination of rotten metals and impersonal concrete
columns, surveilled by border patrols, stadium lights,
TV cameras and all the sensors your senses can't
sense. 

Then comes reality, beyond symbolisms. 

TIJUANA - BERLIN 
Local and foreign activists use to compare the
US-Mexican border to the former Capitalist-Communist
Iron Courtain, and specifically the Tijuana and the
Berlin walls. The idea is suggestive and the calendar
suggests more than a coincidence: after the Berlin
Wall fall another wall was buildt in Tijuana. That's
true. 

After few days wandering around, seeing and listening
to people, the symbolic comparisson loses its strenght
though. I didn't live the golden years of the Iron
Courtain but I would say that the pretended to be
1st-3rd World Iron Courtain is more shameful for the
citizens of the supposedly victorious and wealthy
Capitalist world. Shameful because of the lack of
simetry. A simetry that the Iron Courtain had at the
very end: 

- In Berlin the wall was a border for both sides. In
Tijuana the border only exists from south to north.
Nobody stops anybody crossing from north to south. 

- In Berlin the wall separated a former common society
that remembered its common past. In Tijuana-San Diego
there has been never such commonality. Most Mexicans
and Gringos -even sharing the same side of the border-
have different languages, colours of skin,
backgrounds, behaviours. 

- In Berlin both sides thought they were right, they
were winning. In Tijuana-San Diego just one side
thinks that is winning, just one side thinks that is
losing. 

- In Berlin the wall was buildt to avoid political
contamination and military risks, they said. And this
was mainly its real function. In Tijuana-San Diego the
wall was buildt to avoid narcotraffic and illegal
penetrations to the US territory, they said. But
everyone agrees that this is not its actual function.
Narco mafias have deep roots, interests and allies
everywhere. And the border is more receptive to
southern illegal workers when there is a demand of low
cost work in the northern side. (Which is the real
function of the militarized border is a question too
complex to my comprehension. Any enlightment will be
welcomed). 

- In Berlin the wall was ideologic and separated
everything, in Tijuana-San Diego the wall is pragmatic
and only stops non desired human beings trying to
cross from south to north. The economy of the whole
area is common, Mexican workers (with or without
papers) are as essential in both sides of the border
as US investments (visible or covered). 

Here relies the most shameful essence of the
Tijuana-San Diego border. Money and products cross the
border constantly, as well as citizens of the "first
world", including the Mexican elite (a Mexican gets or
not a passport and a visa depending of economical
factors as declared properties, salaries and savings
and even the most anonymous person can find the way to
cross the border through the main gate putting $2000
in the hands of the appropriate person). 

So in fact the border exists ONLY for those people
without money trying to reach the United States, the
Land of Freedom. People that come from regions with
resources that were once sustainable, resources
currently exploited mainly by US based corporations.
People that come from regions driven by politics and
politicians designed and educated mainly in the US.
But of course this is just a geopolitical
coincidence... 


WHICH BORDERS MIGHT HACK THE BORDERHACK 

Put in this touchable context beyond symbolism, the
Borderhack acquires the condition of gateway between
borders with multiple shades. As a pure event of art,
activism and technology located in a very cool place
next to a real border it could be heavily critisized:
middle class young citizens camping for a long weekend
next to a beach and discussing about issues that are
perceived as non essential by those people who are
suffering the border on a daily basis. A highly
symbolic event that loses its untangible wonder when
is happening, showing mistakes of an amateur
organization, lacking the presence of more
participants, being unable to offer qualitative
teamworking and practical deliveries (as a project
manager would say). 

But the thing is that even when managing projects is
part of my job, the feeling that the Borderhack2.0
("Delete the Border") has been a successful and useful
experience is still sticked in my skin (, brain and
heart). 

- To delete borders you need to detect and know them
first. After three days sharing a space, the
assistants knew better the borders that must be
detected and known apart from the physical wall that
divides Tijuana and San Diego. Languages, prejudices,
cultural behaviours, backgrounds and routines... may
act as iron courtains specially when as an actor you
don't realize them. 

- The fact of seeing the border materialized in front
of you has an impact that no article, no picture and
no video can transmit. All we learnt ways to deal with
borders just by seeing how people approaching the wall
from both sides interacted with it and with their
separated neighbours. Wise and well spoken men trying
to come back to the US where they have been working
ilegally for years, sending money to their families in
Mexico. Desperated nomades scaping from elsewhere and
looking to the impossible destiny in silence for
hours. Local visitors taking pictures of themselves
with the wall behind as in front of a monument. Shaved
and perfumed US tourists having a look to the dusty
and smelly Thirld World through the fence (while being
seen from the other side as evolved monkeys closed in
a luxury zoo). Divided families chatting and having a
transnational picnic under a gap of the wall on Sunday
morning. Pochos (Mexicans born in the US) crossing the
border well dressed and driving good cars to attend
the toros bullfighting on Sunday afternoon. And so on.


- I guess it's also a useful experience for many US
citizens to attend an event like the Borderhack,
crossing the border not to consume (real estate, cheap
food, alcohol, hemp) but to produce (ideas, projects,
strategies), not to give example but to learn, not to
realize that many Mexicans doesn't speak English but
to realize that the Mexicans in Baja California are
generally more bilingual than the Gringos in the US
California. Actually some of the best comments heard
about the event itself were made by English speaking
citizens coming from San Diego, without any militance
in activism, that knew about the Borderhack by chance
and just came to have a look. 

- I guess it's been useful for these Mexican people
living nearby, most of them with a personal story
deeply related to the border, as well as the emigrants
wandering around, waiting for the appropriate moment
to attempt once more to cross the border and reach the
rich world. Useful because they saw that some young
middle class people from both sides and able to cross
the border were consciouss of those not so young and
not so middle class that are not able to cross the
border at all. Some of the emigrants left the beach
and the waiting next to the wall and attended
passively the performances and talks, filling their
curiousity with words and images they were not
familiar with. Some got free food during the weekend
(another type of "food for thought", as said in the
empty world of consultancy). All this makes a small
change, but a change at least. 

- And I guess the Mexican organizers and attendants
got a different perspective of their situation in this
complex map after the event. There are lots of
internal borders to deal with when you are a young
Tijuanense with interests that go beyond work, leisure
and family. Tijuana is a quite destructured city
(supposed to grow two acres a day) where institutional
powers and traditional values rule in combination with
self organized suburbs and mafia gangs. For them being
the hosts of a countercultural event makes a huge
difference. They have to deal with the very
conservative institutions, press and police that look
at them as suspicious foreigners (no matter which part
of the border are the powers from). They have to
explain and sometimes convince parents, relatives and
friends that an event like this is not devilish nor a
waste of time. They have to deal with all the
stereotypes that work against them since they are not
assembling appareils in maquiladoras, they are not
serving tequilas in happy hours, they are not selling
fake indigenous pottery, no tacos and tortas with
chile offered here. 

All these factors are generating a new vector (still
weak, tender but promissing) pointing from south to
north and from the bottom to the top. If the
organizers, the friendly organizations and the active
participants from both sides are perseverant enough
they will hopefully find a hole in this border of
vectors pointing north to south and top to bottom that
"protects" our (pretended to be) wealthy and safe
world. 

Quim Gil - http://metamute.com

=====
Desde América, con amor
http://metamute.com/forum/viewtopic.php?topic=40&forum=1&3

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