Sunday, November 20, 2011
Reel Injun | Documentary Film
Reel Injun | Documentary Film | Independent Lens | PBS
Kemosabe? Loincloths, fringed pants, and feather headdresses? Heap big stereotypes. Reel Injun is an entertaining trip through the evolution of North American Native people ("The Indians") as portrayed in famous Hollywood movies, from the silent era to today.
Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond takes a look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema. Traveling through the heartland of America, and into the Canadian North, Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding — and misunderstanding — of Natives.
Reel Injun traces the evolution of cinema's depiction of Native people from the silent film era to today, with clips from hundreds of classic and recent Hollywood movies, and candid interviews with celebrated Native and non-Native film celebrities, activists, film critics, and historians.
reelinjun's Channel - YouTube
Saturday, November 19, 2011
mooncake
LONDON — Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he is worried about the growing number of monks and nuns setting themselves on fire in southwest China, in an interview broadcast Saturday.
The Dalai Lama told the BBC that those setting themselves alight were courageous, but questioned how effective self-immolation was as a form of protest against Chinese rule.
"The question is how much effect" the self-immolations have, the 76-year-old asked British broadcaster.
"That's the question. There is courage -- very strong courage. But how much effect? Courage alone is no substitute. You must utilise your wisdom."
Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have set themselves alight in ethnically Tibetan parts of Sichuan province since the self-immolation of a young monk in March at Kirti monastery sparked a government crackdown.
Activists say that at least five monks and two nuns have died and that Chinese police have at times responded by beating the burning protesters and their colleagues rather than providing assistance.
Asked whether the self-immolations could make life worse for people in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said: "Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.
"Nobody knows how many people killed and tortured -- I mean death through torture. Nobody knows.
"But a lot of people suffer. But how much effect? The Chinese respond harder."
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, founded a government in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala after being offered refuge there.
He remains revered in China's Tibetan areas but is vilified as a "separatist" by China's communist authorities. (AFP)
DHARAMSHALA — Expressing her support and solidarity with the Tibetan people, a prominent Chinese research scholar living in Sydney has strongly criticized the Chinese government's repressive policies on Tibet for the last six decades.
In an article, Dr Chen Hongxin, a research scholar of Chinese contemporary politics, described the recent self-immolations by Tibetans since March as a way of protest against the Chinese government's wrong policy on Tibetans and their religious belief.
“At least six Tibetans have died as a result of self-immolation, and they have called for religious freedom, the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom in Tibet.”
Dr Chen also wrote about critical questions that people might raise, why “happy and prosperous Tibetans” are ending their lives through self-immolations. Why the Tibetan monks who respect life and practice Buddhism for millenia by renouncing ill-feelings, are now burning themselves to death one after another?
“The answers underlying these questions lies in the truth of past 60 years which will bring tears in the eyes of the international community. In fact, through successive generations, the Tibetans have not only etched their history, but also exposed the Chinese government's propaganda through peaceful protests,” she wrote.
The article contained criticism of China's draconian measures towards the Tibetan monastic community. “Despite reconstruction of Tibetan monasteries in 1980s, the authorities imposed restrictions on the admission of Tibetans into monasteries, made “patriotic education”, which involves denouncing His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a compulsory subject for monks to study.
Dr Chen further wrote about her impression of Mr Xi Jinping's visit to Lhasa this year. “During his visit to Lhasa, the future Chinese president, Xi Jinping, not only did not meet Tibetans, but did not even visit a monastery. On the contrary, he met with officials from the police, army, political and judicial authorities. This act has exposed the Chinese government's intention of brutal and repressive policy on Tibet.” (tibet.net)
(mooncake)
Friday, November 18, 2011
Little Boxes
Little Boxes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Little Boxes" is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, which became a hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963.
The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes. It refers to suburban tract housing as "little boxes" of different colors "all made out of ticky-tacky", and which "all look just the same." "Ticky-tacky" is a reference to the shoddy material used in the construction of housing of that time.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
see also > what next: If I Had A Hammer
TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide
AHIMSA and the Metta Center for Nonviolence present a free public forum, TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide.
Sunday, October 30
2:30-6:30pm
Berkeley Society of Friends
2151 Vine St. in Berkeley
This special event launches the recent publication of Peace Movements Worldwide, a three-volume anthology with chapters covering insights and action from every continent with accounts of courageous and creative actions, ranging from the personal to the global.
more > TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide | Project Censored
Project Censored
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
WHAT NEXT - new blog
rc recently launched a NEW BLOG - a mash up of whats up, what it is, whats more, GlobaLove Think Tank, stuff from my inbox & more - what next RC'S NEWS & RANDOM blog
whats up is now called "nuclear blog" - i started whats up in March of 2011 for miscellaneous news and random postings which don't fall under the photo or art & studies themes of my other two blogs ... includes a number of newsfeeds and a videos page. launched on the day of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
After the first few posts it became basically a news blog about the ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe with related nuclear news and commentary - not so random anymore, and it became progressively more activist...
what next is now where the miscellaneous news and random postings will land, and whats up will remain dedicated to nuclear news
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Exposing the One Percent: Freeport McMoRan Exploits Workers and the Environment | Project Censored
As the Occupy Movement emerges across the US and around the world, a prime example of greed and exploitation is occurring with very little coverage in the global corporate media. Members of the global top one percent are killing striking workers and using raw military power to protect their billions of dollors of annual profits. And the highest levels of US Government encourage and protect the exploiters...
more > Exposing the One Percent: Freeport McMoRan Exploits Workers and the Environment | Project Censored
by Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro
Censored Notebook | Project Censored: Archive for the Category ‘Censored Notebook’
Project Censored
Monday, November 14, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
telling the truth about radiation
Japan Crowd Funding.mp4
A story telling the truth about radiation from Fukushima nuclear disaster. This video is to raise funds for our crowd funding campaign for 'In Transition 2'. If you want to see how Transition Initiatives are responding to the situation then please donate! The money will pay for a film maker to shoot a story about the importance of setting up local renewable energy companies.
Breaking the Information Monopoly | Nukespeak
How do we know whether to believe what government officials tell us about the danger of radiation after a nuclear accident like Fukushima? New technologies are making it possible for citizens to break the government’s information monopoly, so that citizens can double-check the “no danger” announcements that government officials tend to issue after nuclear accidents.
Nukespeak | Nuclear Language, Myths and Mindset
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
whats up nuclear blog
Saturday, November 12, 2011
endless war
Friday, November 11, 2011
Veterans Day
They go to fight for freedom,
but they are dying for conquest !!!
(War Is a Racket)
(the arms industry)
(permanent war economy)
(list of arms manufacturers)
(military industrial complex)
Truth?
Perhaps we can divide humankind into two categories with regards to truth, viz., those who use the upper case form of the word, i.e., Truth and those who utilize the lower case form, i.e., truth. Those who use the former belong to the religious camp while those who prefer the latter are more likely to be more flexible minds with a more scientific bent. Religionists and believers of all hues believe that truth exists in a pure metaphysical sense in some heavenly vault presided over by a heavenly banker called God.
Then there are other ways in which we use the word “truth,” viz., in the singular or in the plural number. Once again those who use the singular number are more likely to be religionists or believers, insofar as they assume that there is one homogeneous form of the truth – a Platonic Idea of the Truth somewhere out there. They readily equate that with God – the Ultimate Idea. In their metaphysical world, capital letters abound. Also, those who use the singular number are more likely to use the upper case form of the word, while those who use the plural number are more likely to be those of a scientific bent who see the world in a more plural sense.
In Western cultures we are called on to swear upon the Bible in court, which in itself is a naked declaration of a Christian take on what truth means. Leaving this aside, let’s say that such a swearing is a metaphorical action rather than any religious declaration per se. One could swear on a constitution of a country or on the UN Declaration of Human Rights for that matter. That sometimes our law courts get it wrong, and that historically innocent people have been executed, testifies to how hard it is to arrive at what the real truth of a situation actually is.
Then, there is the psychological nature of truth. In this respect we recall Polonius’ advice to his departing son Laertes to be true to himself. Those of us with an existentialist bent will call this our desire for authenticity. Freud and Jung and their followers, taking inspiration from Kant, have taught us that truth has a very personal shape and that we can see things more as we are than as such things are in themselves. Then the fictional, if eccentric, Dr House reminds us in a most timely and contemporary manner that we all lie for various personal purposes. Objectivity, it would seem, like truth is not as easily defined as we might at first superficially and naively think.
Labels:
authenticity,
Hamlet,
lies,
philosophy,
religion,
Shakespeare,
truth
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Asteroid 2005 YU55
Asteroid YU-55, also written as 2005 YU55, is a potentially hazardous asteroid approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) in diameter. It was discovered on 28 December 2005 by Robert S. McMillan at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak. On 8 November 2011 it passed 0.85 lunar distances (324,600 kilometers or 201,700 miles) from the Earth. This is the closest known approach by an asteroid with an absolute magnitude this bright since 2010 XC15 (H = 21.4) approached within 0.5 lunar distances in 1976. (read more) (video clip)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
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