Exhibition: “re:new tohoku” at Asia House

Exhibition: “re:new tohoku” at Asia House.

We’ve been hard at work putting this exhibition together for the past 3 months… The last day of the expo in London is tomorrow.  Proud to have been a part of it, though I am certain that we could have done so much more…

This well-written blog post by the HaikuGirl is quite an honor.  Thanks!!!

A Sacred COW

The last time I felt a similar sense of belonging and being a part of something really HUGE was when I watched for the first time the Future of Money video around a year ago.

It seems obvious to me that young people everywhere are not happy with what they see is the state of our world.  They understand this state in a way that very few people previously understood.  Part of this is the ubiquity of the internet.  Part of it is their sense that they can trust each other via social media much more than they can many of the companies, politicians, and organizations that surround them in their real-life communities.

But another part of their newfound understanding is due to the tenuous state of our world.  Environmentally, it seems that we are on the brink of ecological catastrophe.  Economically, it seems that there is no end to the greed that motivates the few to punish and persecute the many.  Militarily, it seems that the mighty continue to fuel instability in the lands of the less mighty in order to continue to maintain control of energy resources.  Politically, it seems that we can only elect people who are willing to pander to the corporate elite and continue the fiscal pyramid scheme that Wall Street propagates.  Socially, it seems that the gates of the Gentlemen’s Clubs are closed permanently as the wealthy get older and the older live longer and healthier lives.

Cover via Amazon

The OWS and 99% movements, Arab Spring, and indigenous peasant movements of Latin America are only some of the signs that people are not happy with the direction of global corporate rule.  Naomi Klein‘s The Shock Doctrine and David Korten‘s When Corporations Rule the World

are but two of many voices of dissent that are reverberating throughout the socially connected world.

Coalition of the Willing

When G.W. Bush used the term “Coalition of the Willing”, he referred, of course, to the countries who supported, militarily or verbally, the 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent military presence in post-invasion Iraq. The irony is that many of the nations in the coalition had their political arms twisted, included countries that do not have standing armies, and was eventually the butt of the joke that its acronym, COW, refers to the situation that the United States is being milked as a “cash cow”.

ExPrime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair shaking hands with President of the United States, George W. Bush, after they conclude a joint news conference at the Camp David (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But now, a new Coalition of the Willing is beginning to emerge that is truly a coalition of people who are willing to plan and act with the future at stake.  This new COW is, firstly, a collaborative animated film and web-based event – an online war against global warming in a ‘post Copenhagen’ world.

The film is a collaborative effort of 24 artists from around the world.  This is, in itself, a feat that probably could not have happened a mere decade ago.  If it could, it would have taken years to create.  I have no idea how long it took these artists to collaborate on the 15-minute film, but I assume it has been created over a period of a few months – or even weeks.  Full details on the 24 collaborators can be found on the COW Website.

The film is an incredible inspiration!

Related articles

• July EyeCandy – USA AAA – A Sacred Cow? (medicalfinanceblog.wordpress.com)
• The euro is nothing more than a sacred cow. It is time to take it to the abattoir (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
• what does a goats mik have that a cows don’t (greenanswers.com)
• The Shock Doctrine By Naomi Klein (strangerinapicture.us)
• Infamous Abu Ghraib guard has no regrets (rt.com)
• A Day of Infamy and Shame (lewrockwell.com)

The History of English in 10 Minutes, by The Open University

Profoundly entertaining! I’ve only included the link for the first video of 10, but you can view them all or find the individual links on YouTube. Enjoy (and learn)!

What would you do as the new President of the United States?

The question was asked to Henry Rollins, the outspoken American singer-songwriter, spoken word artist, writer, comedian, publisher, actor, and radio DJ. He was the former frontman of hardcore punk band, Black Flag, and the lead of his own Rollins Band.

In addition to his prolific career as a musician, artist, actor, and dj, Rollins has also become quite well-known for his political activism. He has campaigned for various political causes in the United States, including promoting LGBT rights, World Hunger Relief, and an end to war in particular, and tours overseas with the United Service Organizations to entertain American troops.

On October 1, 2011, just over one month ago, Rollins published a book, Occupants. The book is about Rollins’ extensive travels around the world, to places such as Afghanistan, Mali, South Africa, Iraq, Thailand, Burma, Northern Ireland, and Saudi Arabia, sharing his photographs and observations about the suffering, anger, and resilience of the people throughout the world.

Rollins’ disappointments with American foreign policy don’t just end there. He is very well voiced in Patriotism, based in careful study and thought about American and world history.

And so when some politicians say when a hurricane comes through Texas New York’s tax dollars shouldn’t be diverted to Texas to help, because Texas is Texas, 10th amendment, I say “No! It’s the United States.” We’re a team, America. I want to help the people in Texas. They are my neighbors. Take my California tax dollars to help these people. I don’t want to see them flooded. I want to see them rescued and that’s where we stick up for each other.

That is what the founding fathers (who some people like to mention so often), that is what they were beating each other up over in un-air-conditioned rooms in sweltering Philadelphia – that we stick together through thick and thin. That, to me, is being patriotic. That is what paying taxes is all about. That is what you see in great American cities. You see people looking out for one another. When we lose that, we lose the whole ball of wax.

It’s pretty obvious that we’re already losing “the whole ball of wax” when the next Presidential election is likely to be between the increasingly unpopular President Obama and the only person left standing on the right, Mitt Romney. Obama has become not only disappointed many of his 2008 supporters who were swept enthusiastically into politics for the first time by his emotionally charged, dramatic, and dynamic campaign, but also angered many of them for his apparent pandering to the political, economic, and military elite in order to secure small advances out of the quagmire that Washington has become. Romney, on the other hand, is most well known for his handsomeness and whose primary strength as he seeks to be the Republican nominee is that he is not crazy, mean, stupid, or lazy. Kind of sad, that the “Supreme Leader of the Free World” in 2012 will be a choice between a guy who has been accused of betraying his commitment to the 99% and another guy who won mostly because he is not pathetic. For many, apathy is more interesting than the alternative.

Apathy, of course, is not the solution. We need to return to the thinking that we can each do our part to change the world. Self reliance and personal responsibility, of course, will enable us to gain control of the things we can change and make better. But it is quite interesting to consider what impact a different leadership would have.

So when the Big Think went to ask Henry Rollins what he would do if he were elected President of the United States, this is what he had to say:

Henry Rollins on Big Think

Hello world!

I’ve been adding some new blogs to my life, so adding a WordPress blog seems to be a natural progression of sorts.  One of my favorite quotes is from Ralph Waldo Emerson, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”  He said this in his 1841 essay, ‘Self-Reliance‘.  I’ve found this little statement to be hugely important in my life.

While Emerson says this as being, “adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines”, I find that foolish consistencies are a plague that inflicts us all.  We should seek adventure, challenge, and the unknown, so that we can rediscover ourselves and conquer the important things that always lie ahead.

Little gains can be made by a stubborn insistence on consistence.  Some things should be done consistently.  Brushing your teeth (and flossing) not only prevents tooth and gum decay, but engenders hygiene and good health.  But foolish consistencies lead to stagnation.  Emerson continues his passage with, “With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.”  Importantly, he speaks here not just of foolish consistencies, but all.  For consistency is ritual and the purpose of ritual is to stop thinking and just to repeat.  Imitate. Shadow.

Emerson continues with a slightly more difficult matter, “Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.— ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ —Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Emerson certainly did not intend to mean that every misunderstood person is great.  But he did mean, I believe, that it is important when seeking to be great to not be afraid of being misunderstood.  Being misunderstood, to be considered wrong, to find approval lacking, and to be shunted upon are the inevitable consequence of little minds seeking ritual over the adventure and challenge of seeking solutions to the thing we do not understand or know are not right and good.

My new-found efforts to write and to share are a part of my challenge and adventure.  I seek not approval or understanding, but believe that speaking and writing about the things that really matter are vital; I must force myself from speaking to shadows on the wall!

World War II: Internment of Japanese Americans – Alan Taylor – In Focus – The Atlantic

via theatlantic.com

This series of stunning photographs is a remarkable collection of images about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It is Part 10 of a weekly 20-part retrospective of World War II on the Atlantic online. It is, to me, significant in that it shares the same weight as Pearl Harbor in this 20-part retrospective. I don’t think that has ever happened before. Kudos to the Atlantic, In Focus, and Alan Taylor for giving it the recognition it deserves as a significant part of WWII and American history.