Emmapemma Wenjun Xu

I just finished watching a movie called This is What Democracy Looks Like. It is a documentary on 1999 Seattle Anti-WTO Protest. As we all know, WTO is an organization which promoting economic globalization. It does benefit corporations and governments. However, it hurts workers who can get job before, but are not competitive enough after foreign trade being operated. Approximately 50,000 people joined the protest. Among them, there are people coming from different job positions, ranging between different ages, and belonging to different ethnic groups. The protest was so serious that it blocked WTO representatives from reaching the conference and postponed the WTO conference. In order to dismissal the protesters, the police used OC spray and pepper gas on protesters who claim the protest being peaceful. 630 protesters were arrested and put into jail. People can’t help asking if this is so called democracy ofAmerica? Those people stood together and yielded at the same time to let their voice being heard and believed that they could change the situation if they unite each other.

 The protest did raise awareness among nations afterwards.TheUnited States government began working out measures to protect the working class later. However, it exposed a problem of democracy of the United States. If it is a democratic nation, how democratic it is after all? It allows freedom of speech, but voice of working class can only be heard through this kind of large protest. When the protest grew to be a threat, it decided to apply force on peasants. On government’s position, it has a global role to play, a range of classes’ benefits to take care of as well as a lot other complicated facts to consider. It hopes the public to be cooperated and peaceful. However, these can not be persuasive excuse to ignore working class and place force on them at all.  

I feel it is so ironic that a self-described democratic government, which criticizes others not being democratic enough, hurt its own people whom have already been hurt by its policy. Is democracy an ideology? I think it is.

I checked out the videos on Darfur genocide on youtube.com today. The feeling of mine right now is so hard to describe.

I don’t want to talk cause I have nothing to say about it but feeling helpless……Something I can do for them? something…

here is the link, please check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Darfur

There are two good movies in the library ( I watched them during the weekend and was impressed)

Shanghai Ghetto– a movie about life of Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the World War 2. Most of the stories are told by the survivors who spent their childhood in the far eastern land.

PS. It is so interesting to know about this part of history of my hometown where I lived 18 years.

Inside Iraq–The Untold Stories—It’s a documentary on life of Iraqis. The filmmaker didn’t add a lot of comments. He uses native Iraqis, American soldiers and image to tell the stories, which are never told by mass media. We know that the mass media nowadays is restricted by many powers, such as governments and sponsor companies. It is so obvious that objectivity is myth.  The mass begin to seek their own answers by themselves. Mike Shiley, the filmmaker, is one of them. I am so impressed that he dare to develop stories in Iraq during the war when no one close to him agree with him. The movie is worth watching.

I opened internet window as usual. On my main page, washingtonpost.com, the news about Darfur genocide caught my eye immediately.  These days, we talk a lot about terrorism in my P&C resolution class, the more facts I know about these trageties, the heavier my heart feels. I can’t help asking why. Thousands of whys because I am a bystander. However, everything has a reason. Genocide in Rwanda, Hamas suicide bombing, abortion clinic bombings, the happenings of all of them have reasons. Most of time, if we know the reasons, finding the resolutions will be easier. We need more bystanders stand up to help those who are suffering, to help them earn their rights and equalities because they deserve them. There is no reason to deprive those human rights, which you and me take for granted, from them.

 Here is a link on which there are several videos and many photos on refugees of Darfur.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/interactives/chad/

Hi folk, tomorrow is International  Day of Peace. Please  read the passage below. I wonder if we can do something together for that. Something fun…ursh…what the hell this week is…

 September 21st–International Day of Peace

Friday, September 21 is the International Day of Peace. On this day, millions of people worldwide will in some way recognize the need to continue working towards peace. It represents a wonderful opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date.

In 1981, on the 20th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly, a UN resolution declared that the International Day of Peace “will serve as a reminder to all peoples that our Organization, with all its limitations, is a living instrument in the service of peace and should serve all of us here within the Organization as a constantly pealing bell reminding us that our permanent commitment, above all interests or differences of any kind, is to peace.   May this Peace Day indeed be a day of peace.”

For creative ideas you can visit the International Day of Peace website www.cultureofpeace.org. We would like to encourage you to continue helping us collect more signatures for this petition by sending personal notes to people you know, inviting them to go to www.exchanges4peace.org and sign the petition in support of a global expansion of youth exchange programs.

Here is my discussion questions and answers for Sep 17th Peace & Conflict Resolution class. Some of you may feel interesting to read.

1)      Why does religion accept the existence of violence or even seem to support violence?

According to the facts from the past decade, religious terrorism is growing with a unbelievably high speed. It can almost be considered as a kind of power regarding the size of it. To be regarded as a power is the major purpose of the organizers of the religious terrorism. Some terrorist leaders do not consider their activities as terrorism but militant (Juergensmeyer, 9). This can explain their willingness to have equal power as main world militants. Usually, a religion’s action is decided by elites and leaders. If these people want to gain power through violence, terrorism will be practiced right after.

2)      Why is a divine mandate for destruction accepted with such certainty by some believers (Juergensmeyer, 7)?

In the answer of the first question, I mentioned that the decision makers are always elites and leaders who have large influence on mass. The influence will be even larger if the mass is under structural violence for a long time. The structural violence can be economics pressure, religion dignity and so on. Thus violence becomes the efficient way of them to gather global awareness. To some extent, they consider terrorism as a holy revolution which is justified.

3)      How do religions make the justification of violence easy?

According to Eller, there are three ways which can give the right to violence. First, which I think is the most important is that putting the violence under the name of God. If so, everything that is considered as wrong before can be accepted easily without guilty. Or will be committed with proud. Do not follow the order will be seen as against God. For example, “A Muslim is one who attains peace by submitting to the will of God (Eller, 164; Allah).  Second, categorizing “us” and “they”.  People can easily accept anything does not connect with themselves and commit violence on others who are categorized as alien. Usually, the “us” are the believers of the same religion and “they” are nonbelievers or believers of the other opposite religion. Third, building up violence accepted conditions which put the spiritual force as good force against the evil one.

4)      Religious violence in Middle East is most well known nowadays, westerners are always feeling hard to understand the thoughts of suicide bombers. What part in their religion supports their action?

Some part of their religion leads them to think their self-sacrifice is holy. The self-sacrifice of God in the person of Jesus is the best example many people imitate. The sacrifice is a way to protect the community from violence. It prove the believer not just evince a cause but prove the cause(Eller, 173) To die for their life’s belief.

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