Month: October 2007
Something Smells Fishy: Resisting Coastal Invasion in India
It's no coincidence that filmmakers use the documentary medium to uncover noisome social ills. Out of all the genres of cinema, documentaries shoulder the burden to highlight dilemmas and enable change. Resisting Coastal Invasion, the new movie by veteran Indian director KP Sasi and Visual Search Productions swims smoothly within this current.
Michael Servetus: To Kill a Man Does Not Defend an Idea
At a time when there is increasing sectarian violence in Iraq, when the Baha'i are banned in Iran, when questions of belief are increasingly part of political debate, it is useful to mark the milestones on the long road to freedom of conscience. October 27, 1553 was such a milestone, for October 27th was the day Michael Servetus was burned at the stake on a hill outside the walls of the Republic of Geneva. His crimes were heresy and blasphemy.Servetus
21st Century Colonialism: New Zealand Government Not Fit to Sit on UN Human Rights Council
On September 14th of this year, the New Zealand government and three other governments (Canada, USA and Australia) shared the dubious distinction as the only states to vote against the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The announcement came at the end of a shocking week where Maori sovereignty campaigners, environmentalists, and other activists had been arrested in a major series of Police raids throughout the country, under the post-9/11 Suppression of Terrorism Act.
As the World Burns: Liberating Responses to Global Warming
Tuesday, October 23rd, 7pm at Burlington College
95 North Ave, Burlington, Vermont
Join us as we take a fresh look at the limits of the current global warming debate and how to move beyond them. Topics will include the human costs of the expanding biofuels industry, the limits of "market-based" solutions to global warming, tools for redefining the "good life," and ways to create a culture of hope.
Panelists will critique Al Gore’s limited approach to citizen/corporate action and discuss experiences on the ground in Latin America’s biofuels craze.
Brian Tokar is a long time Vermont author and activist, and a faculty member at the Institute for Social Ecology, based in Plainfield.