h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Zapatista Organisation - A682085
Author: the autist formerly known as flinch - U183016

I thought this was a really good entry on life in the communities in rebellion in Southern Mexico. It's not exahstive, but i liked it because it is a personal account, not a dry piece of news or history. The writer seems to be no longer with us here at h2g2, so i purloined the entry and tidied it up a bit for review.

I thought it would be nice to have this in the edited guide, because of the current situation in the region.

This looks very interesting on a quick skim. I notice there are a number of terms you need to explain - EZLN, liberation theology, etc etc

The page formatting problem is easily solved if you replace all the tags with per house style.

Hope to get back to this later.

Bels

"1996 to 19993.." - wow, that's a long time! Or possibly it's a typo

As Bels said, you should really explain terms like EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation). Also, I don't think that Mexico is mentioned until quite late in the article.

I have no idea who Zapata was - footnote please!

You may also have problems with the first-person bits.

Gif

Right. Points taken. I'll just point out again that i didn't write this, the researcher who did a couple of years ago seems to have gone awol. I liked the article BECAUSE it was first person, and shows a very direct and detailed snapshot of the Zapatista experience. It's not authoritive on the movement, their history, or their practices and beliefs - but it is a clear snapshot of one person's experience at one point of the project.

Because of this i was a little reluctant to make any changes to the origonal other than a little formatting.

Have you seen A521443 ? Perhaps you should join forces with Subcom. Deidzoeb.

Yeah, the reason i didn't submit this earlier was that i wanted to link to Subcom's (or another broadly explanatory) article on the background of the movement. I was thinking of writing articles on the Zapatista civil movement (EZLN); the history of their military wing (FZLN); and on Marcos himself; in order to link into them. But i've just not gotten round to it.

My own biggest problem with this article it probibly the title - i think "Zapatista Organisation - A Personal Account" would be better.

Just wondering if anything's happening with this...

Rather than modifying what is someone elses first hand account, i am currently ptting together a contiguos entry explaining those things which are not here defined. A list of any points that you feel need ironing out would be helpful in this - as soon as i'm on top of this project i link to it so you can see if it's working.

Any suggestions are welcome.

HI I was wondering what's going on with this because it's a great entry and are you still working on it?

I like the entry. And wouldn't want to change the first person stance, which i feel is it's strength. Do you think that perhaps a brief introduction explaining that it's a personal account by an eye witness would be relevent.

Ah..what follows is what I posted in the wrong place

"Hello..I've never really peer-reviewed before, so I hope I'm not offensive in my critiquing..

The Zapatista movement as a topic is intense from every angle, and I think an article on it deserves to be fleshed out and made to reflect its humanity and complexity. Their self-government model is important, but perhaps that should be a segment rather than the thrust of the article. Maybe there could be sections that involve the history, the ejido system, some discussion on Zapata and Villa, the strong female involvement, the person Marcos and the idea of the 'subcomandante,' corporate vs. humanitarian responses to the issue, the issue as being a 'cause' to people like dude from Rage Against the Machine...there is *such* a story here, and I do agree that it comes off as a term paper analysis or something..

My favorite site currently is madre.org, and perhaps that would be a valuable resource on the issue from the human rights perspective, especially as it relates to the women and children of the region and international humanitarian interest"

I thought about not saying anything, since there is a more general Zapatista article. But upon reading it, I agree that perhaps you should combine forces, because I think that one needs more fleshing out as well (and it's not in peer review yet). In any case, most westerners are so far removed from anything regarding the situation in Chiapas other than the media-driven impression that they are violent extremists and most definitely in the wrong so an article on this site *really* needs lots of background and a lot of 'human touch.'

Hey, autist -- any response to these latest comments?


Mikey

I'm just clearing the slate a little with some other entries that i've had in the pipeline for some time, and then i'm going to set about a 'proper' Zapatista entry.

This entry were looking at here however should stand or fall as it is. It's strength lies in it being a one person eye witness account. Any subject like this is always going to be subject to arguement - this or that fact is wrong or distorted, ideals lived upto on one occasion aren't on others, practice in one case alters in another, yet which is 'true' which do you record, which is important, which is representative, which is the paradgm?

Here we have just one persons experience, unpoluted. It doesn't claim to be a vision of the whole movement, the whole period, or the whole region. Just one persons account and interpretation of the events they experienced. That is why i think it is strong.

Give me a month and i'll get the first of my Zapatista pieces together.

My feeling is that while this is an excellent entry, it is not really an Edited Guide type of entry (for all the reasons listed above, not much point in repeating them here). What do other people think? This entry has really been in PR long enough that I feel like we need to lean one way or another with it.

Autist, if you're planning on working on some more objective pieces on the Zapatistas, that's great, but it shouldn't really affect what happens to this entry in PR. I'll look forward to seeing them, though -- or have I already missed them?

I agree with you, Mikey.

Suggest that it be moved back to entry. Hopefully the Autist will finish editing it in the future.

Share and Enjoy!

If that's a move, Gordon, I'll second it.

Thanks!

S&E