Noda lifts ban on weapons exports

Bad News for Article 9 supporters: "Japan PM lifts ban on arms exports":

Noda’s decision, long sought by the Japanese industry, is likely to draw strong protests from many quarters at home that want no departure from the pacifist tradition that has defined Tokyo’s international orientation since the end of the World War II.

Some Asian countries including China, which bore the brunt of Japanese aggression during World War II, are certain to respond warily.

Battle of Okinawa Update: Latest Okinawan citizen rally against delivery of EIS

(Latest rally against the delivery of EIS to Okinawa. Photos: Masami Mel Kawamura)

Update from Kinay Oshiro at Okinawa Outreach on FB:

URGENT. The environmental report was delivered to the prefecture, at 4 in the morning. Another mistreat of Okinawa by Japan.

Lee Myung Bak administration's March of Folly continues in S. Korea: Four Rivers & Jeju Island

29 civil society representatives and peace activists including Gangjeong villagers and Father Moon, a Catholic priest, were arrested on Dec. 26, 2011 for obstructing the entrance to the naval base site, located on residential and farm property forcibly seized by the state from the villagers

In her 1984 book, The March of Folly, historian Barbara Tuchman charted how governments have acted against their own best interests from Troy to the Vietnam War. It would be interesting to see her perspective on the Lee Myung Bak administration's massive destruction of what's left of South Korea's natural environment, from rivers to wetlands to the most beautiful coastline on Jeju Island.

S. Korea ranked the second worst nation in environmental degradation in proportion to natural resources, just behind Singapore, in a 2010 study based on seven indicators: natural forest loss, habitat conversion, fisheries and other marine captures, fertilizer use, water pollution, carbon emissions from land use, and species threat. The professor leading the study noted that, “The environmental crises currently gripping the planet are the corollary of excessive human consumption of natural resources. There is considerable and mounting evidence that elevated degradation and loss of habitats and species are compromising ecosystems that sustain the quality of life for billions of people worldwide.”

Lee may be compared to former Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, a former construction company executive remembered for his 1970's-era construction boondoggles. Lee, also a former construction company executive, never met a river or coastline that didn't need to be dredged, demolished and paved over, by means of transfer of public funds into private construction company coffers. His "Four Rivers" project will cost S. Korean citizens nearly $33 billion and will, if completed, destroy what's little left of habitat for critically endangered wildlife dependent on shallow rivers and wetlands. His Jeju Island military base plan would, if completed, destroy a soft coral habitat; the Korean peninsula's only natural dolphin habitat; and an indigenous farming (tangerine groves) village.

To achieve his policies, which are not supported by the majority of citizens who want a clean natural environment and democratic society, Lee has relied upon violent tactics reminiscent of South Korea's military dictatorship era, routinely using state power to violate private property rights, democratic process, and individual freedom of expression.

SoonYawl Park, a research fellow at Seoul National University, provides a recent analysis, "Korea's rivers take brunt of 'shoveling' politics," at Asia Times (originally published at The Asia-Pacific Journal):

The Four Rivers project is far from its original goal of developing the regional economy and the rivers into a nature-friendly zone. Instead, it has produced environmental degradation and cultural and ecological destruction, while channeling super profits to the big construction companies.

Security analyst Matt Hoey charts the latest at Jeju Island in this commentary for The Hankyoreh: "Is S.Korean navy finally backed into a corner on the Jeju Base project?"'.

Okinawa Update: Blocking the van delivering the EIA of the Tokyo-D.C. proposal to destroy Oura Bay & Henoko to make way for another U.S. military base

Kinay Oshiro via Okinawa Outreach on FB:

Blocking the van delivering the Japanese Defense Ministry's Environmental Impact Assessment of the Tokyo-D.C. proposal to destroy Oura Bay and Henoko to make way for a U.S. military base.. Director Shiroma is convincing the driver to go back.

Noda administration sends EIS by mail to Okinawa despite widespread public outcry

Kyodo via Mainichi: "Gov't sends environment report on Futenma base relocation by mail":

The report, the sources said, is expected to conclude there would be no problem with noise caused by a U.S. plan to deploy the MV22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft in Okinawa in 2012.

Tokyo attempts to subvert Okinawan democratic process by submission of US military base EIS before the New Year

(Democracy activists in Okinawa stage sit-in. Photo: Henokohama Tsushin blog
Okinawan sociologist Dr. Masami Mel Kawamura explains the latest citizen action in Okinawa:

Okinawan people stage a sit-in protest in the Okinawa Prefecture Office building today to block the Japanese government's submission of Environment Impact Statement (EIS) for a new US military base in Henoko....

Background and analysis of Tokyo's latest attempt to move forward on this costly project rejected almost unanimously (99% ) by Okinawan citizens at Okinawa Outreach: "Okinawa Defense Bureau to submit EIS":

Amid Okinawa’s strong opposition, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (OBD) [Okinawan arm of the Japanese Defense Ministry] will submit its Environment Impact Statement (EIS) for the planned US base in Henoko/Oura Bay on December 26 to show Washington that the construction plan is on the right track as promised, according to the Ryukyu Shimpo .

By having the ODB submitting its EIS just before the New Year's season, the Japanese government can rob the Okinawa prefectural government of precious time for preparation of "Governor's Comments" on the EIS while distracting the media's attention to the base construction issues. According to the EIA law and ordinance, Governor's Comments for the airport plan should be issued within 45 days after the submission of EIS while for the reclamation plan they should be issued within 90 days.

The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly and municipal assemblies on the islands have adopted resolutions protesting against the submission of the EIS.

On the Street, citizens' groups stage protest rallies everyday against the ODB's submission of EIS and the Japanese government's handling of the base construction issues. Citizens also held rally on December 19 in front of the US Consulate in Urasoe City, criticizing the US government for "interfering" in domestic affairs.

Christmas Tidings of Peace & Goodwill at Henoko Outdoor Gallery in northern Okinawa

(Photo: Henokohama Tsushin blog

Share Your Christmas with Tohoku, Japan

Via Kim Hughes on FB, Shareyourchristmas.org:

Share Your Christmas this Christmas with a child in Tohoku, Japan

The idea of Share Your Christmas is simple. Children (and adults) choose a present from the many received on Christmas Day and send it, wrapped or re-wrapped to Tohoku, where it will be passed on to a child (or adult) in need.

The powerful earthquake and tsunami of nine months ago on left many thousands of children (and adults) without families and friends and their homes. Children of all ages lost all their toys, their most beloved possessions.

Over 360,000 children in Fukushima Prefecture, where three nuclear reactors melted down after the tsunami, are living in especially stressful conditions. They are not allowed to play outside, where the earth and air is poisoned with radiation; they have to wear geiger counters to keep a constant check on radiation levels.

But Fukushima is not the only area where children are suffering. Up and down the northeastern coast are hundreds of small communities where people lost just about everything.

To unconditionally share or pass on a gift is a small thing in many ways, but for the children of Tohoku, abandoned by their government and much of mainstream Japan also, it will mean so much. Connection. Comfort. Love. Someone somewhere cares, is thinking about them, if offering a small piece of their heart from somewhere far away.

How Share your Christmas began

A resident of Tokyo received a request from his niece in Baltimore, asking for a computer for Christmas. After long and all-due consideration he agreed, but on the promise she donated one of her gifts from under her family tree to a child in Tohoku.

At dinner that evening, her agreement became the basis of an urgent campaign. Since Japan is not a Christian country as such, it will not matter that gifts only arrive after Christmas Day itself. We then anticipate several weeks of intense activity, making sure gifts reach boys and girls - and adults too - of the correct age.

We invite those sharing their gifts to write messages, and will encourage recipients to reply. In this way we hope Share your Christmas will translate into Share your Lives, with many friendships being forged for the future.

Find out where to send at the above link...

Peace on Earth, Good Will to Everyone

Suzy Bogguss & Chet Atkins: "I heard the bells on Christmas Day" circa 1992

I heard the belIs on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play.
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of Peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how as the day had come
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of Peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair, I bowed my head:
'There is no peace on earth,' I said,
'For hate is strong and mocks the song,
Of Peace on earth, good will to men.'
Then pealed the beIls more loud and deep;
'God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With Peace on earth, good will to men'.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written as a prayer following the critical wounding of his son who joined the Union Army against the poet's wishes, during the American Civil War

Velcrow Ripper charts "humanity's immune response to a planet in crisis" in Fierce Light & Evolve Love

Velcrow Ripper  has been charting psychological resilience and nonviolent faith-based social change movements since the start of the millennium, as if anticipating the Occupy Movement, which he has been filming from its start. This year, the Canadian filmmaker has been sending out major soul force along with Naomi Klein and the millions of others who support the Occupy Movement.

Here's a recent interview from his latest website, Occupy Love
.

ALIVE MIND: Occupy Love is the third film of the “Fierce Love Project.” It comes after Sacred Scared (Special Jury Prize of the Toronto Film Festival), an uplifting pilgrimage through war-torn places around the world, followed by Fierce Light, a film about bringing together spirituality, and activism. Is there a logical progression to these films? How would you relate Fierce Light to Sacred Scared and Occupy Love?

VELCROW RIPPER: Indeed there is - the films are about about the “Heart of the Times” of this unique period in human history, from the millennium to 2012. It is a time of enormous crisis, and enormous possibility. The overall theme is, how can the global crises that we are facing lead to the evolution of humanity?

Scared Sacred takes us on a journey to ground zero’s of the world – places like New York City during 9.11, Afghanistan, Hiroshima, Bosnia, Cambodia, Israel and Palestine. In each of those places, I discovered some of the most remarkable individuals I have ever met. I found that there were two things that the survivors all had in common, that helped them get through the crises they faced with their spirits transformed, not crushed: having a source of meaning, which was different for each of them, and taking action.

This lead to the second film, Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action, which explores the relationship between spirituality, and activism. There has long been an artificial divide between these two important aspects of human society, and this film explores the power that is released when the two come together.

In Occupy Love I ask the question: how is the economic and ecological crises we are facing a great love story? I have gone beyond the word “spiritual” to the deeper, and more universal word, “Love.” The last lines of “Fierce Light” are, “Another world is here, right now: listen.” On the sound track you can hear the rumblings of a volcano, the sleeping woman – who is now wide awake.

Occupy Love explores this awakening, this revelation of our shared heart, and our shared oppression, and the process of working together to transform the bankrupt system of today into a world that works for all life. The Occupy movement, and the related movements that are erupting around the world, from the Arab Spring, to the European Summer, are all a part of this awakening.

I recently showed Fierce Light at Occupy London and people were really struck by how the movie predicted the arising of Occupy. The films truly have their finger on the pulse of the times. In fact, Fierce Light was a little ahead of it’s time...

ALIVE MIND Commenting on the protest that spurred in Quebec City in 2004 against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, you are asking “What would I do if I did not have a camera in my hands? Would I want to pick up a rock and throw it right back at these dehumanized Plexiglass faces?” What stance do you adopt when you shoot in the midst of demonstrations? Does being an engaged filmmaker mean taking a step back from neutrality in those situations?

VELCROW RIPPER I don’t believe in neutrality. That comment, which was a rhetorical question, was answered by the film: I would do what Carly Stasko does at that moment – she dances.

My response to repression, violence and corporate dominance is to be as contrasting to that as possible – liberated, non-violent, and creative. That is the way to transform violence, not by speaking it’s language back at it...

ALIVE MIND On Sept 17, 2011, at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of Occupy Wall Street, you’ve asked a giant FDR dime, “How could the global crisis we are facing become a love story?’ You made a short-film out of it, entitled Summer of Change: Occupy Wall Street.

Have you been personally involved in the movement since then? What are your future plans?

VELCROW RIPPER I have fallen in love with the Occupy Movement. I was at Occupy Wall Street since day one, travelled to Occupy Oakland for their epic general strike and just returned from Spain, where I was filming with the Indignados, Egypt, where I was covering Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Revolution, and Occupy London. I was looking at the roots of the movement, tracing it back from the European summer, to the Arab Spring, and looking at where the movement has evolved. The film is now called “Occupy Love.” The original project, Evolve Love, may come out after, or will be integrated into this movie.

Two years ago I asked writer Naomi Klein, “How could the crisis we are facing on the planet become a love story?” And she laughed, and said that her and I do the opposite – she points out how bad things are and I look for the love. Last week I saw her at an action and she gave me a big hug and said, “History has re-arranged itself to prove your thesis.”

The Occupy Movement, and the much bigger, and deeper global spirit of transformation from which it arises, is the love story I have been looking for, all my life. In Fierce Light I reference Paul Hawken, who in his book Blessed Unrest, talks about a global movement of movements that is emerging all over the world, what he calls “humanity's immune response to a planet in crisis," the largest movement in history. And the remarkable thing about that movement is that it is self organizing, and it didn’t even know that it existed. The Arab Spring, The European Summer, and now the Occupy Movement, is that movement standing up, looking around, and discovering itself.

And right now, this is the greatest love story on earth. This movement is rooted in interdependence, and is the opposite of the selfish, lifeless, dog eat dog-eat-dog world promoted through the vast capital of the corporations. We need to do everything we can to nurture this evolving movement, our ever-evolving global society, and keep it moving always in the direction of love, in the direction of life. Love is the movement. We are the 100%

Read the interview and see videos (including Summer of Change: Occupy Wall Street at Occupy Love: Global Revolution of the Heart.