Asia, Culture of Peace, Demilitarization

KOREAN BELOW THE ENGLISH

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 26, 2019

I’ve never heard of or even seen fantasized a society or a government that wasn’t deeply flawed. I know neither North nor South Korea is an exception. But the primary impediment to peace in Korea appears to be the United States: its government, its media, its billionaires, its people, and even the arm of the U.S. called the United Nations.

From the VC “masters of the universe” on Sand Hill Road and Y Combinator to the social media FAANG monopolists to the adolescent male libertarian bros with their internet startups — all share the fundamentalist faith in electricity.  

 

Rarely did they question how their burgeoning digital economy disruptions were based largely on fossil and over-age nuclear powered electric utilities.  Lately, many are seeing the solution to climate change and the foreseeable future of blackouts as installing solar panels on their buildings. 

 

As Pacific Gas & Electric, reeling in bankruptcy due to fires it caused, prepares for another round of deliberate outages in California’s North Bay17 counties, Southern California Edison is planning more such precautionary blackouts in its service area.

 

Silicon Valley’s self-proclaimed entrepreneurial innovators came late to climate change and the global shift to renewable energy and materials, now driving 21st century circular economies. We noted this omission in our TV coverage of the first “cleantech“ investors‘ conference in San Francisco in 2014. 

 

An example from Georgia of something Charlottesville, Va., does not have.

James W. Loewen’s wonderful book Lies Across America has been published in a revised 20th anniversary edition, containing a chapter called “Public History After Charlottesville.” In this usage, “Charlottesville” is an event, not a place. Specifically, it’s a fascist rally that happened here in 2017.

Loewen chronicles the dramatic surge immediately after and ever since that event in the reworking of the public landscape by governments around the United States. Statues have been toppling like bowling pins. New monuments have been going up. Markers have been sprouting all over the place to explain existing monuments and what’s wrong with them.

Loewen documents a major shift in public attitudes about the U.S. Civil War, which he credits not only to “Charlottesville,” but also to a mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., in 2015, and to Black Lives Matter. I would add also some credit to the work of people like James Loewen.

DTLA FILM FESTIVAL Film Reviews

By Ed Rampell

The 11th annual DTLA Film Festival is now underway. According to the Festival’s website: “Our programming reflects downtown L.A.’s vibrant new urbanism, the unique ethnic and cultural diversity of its neighborhoods, its burgeoning independent film community, its singular blend of late 19th and 20th century architecture, and the seminal role it played in the early days of American cinema (epitomized by the world’s largest group of vintage movie palaces located in the Broadway Theater District).”

DTLAFF is screening features, shorts, documentaries etc., at two primary locations: Regal L.A. LIVE 1000 West Olympic Blvd., L.A., CA 90015 while the Dome Series is at the Wisdome Immersive Art Park in DTLA’s Arts District, 1147 Palmetto St., L.A. or the Vortex Dome Theater at L.A. Center Studios. Panels, parties, etc., are being presented at various Downtown L.A. locations. For info on the DTLA Film Festival see: https://www.dtlaff.com/.

INDIRECT ACTIONS

A Futuristic Film Form for a Traditional Struggle

Saturday, October 26, 11am-12noon, Washington Gladden Social Justice Park, northeast corner of E. Broad St. and Cleveland Ave.

The 200th birthday of the Rev. Dr. James Preston Poindexter, Columbus abolitionist and civil rights leader, will be celebrated on Saturday, October 26, from 11am to 12noon in the new Washington Gladden Social Justice Park on E. Broad St. at Cleveland Ave. The event is free and open to the public.

The celebration, which will be held on his actual birthday, will include speakers, music, and light refreshments. In case of inclement weather, the event will be held next door in First Congregational Church, 444 E. Broad St.

Rev. Poindexter, who died in 1907, was an exceptional religious, political, and social justice leader in Columbus during the 19th century. He was an abolitionist, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and a lifelong advocate for civil and voting rights for African-Americans. He was pastor of the Anti-Slavery Baptist Church, and later, Second Baptist Church, and was a member of Columbus City Council and the Columbus Board of Education.