The Better Angels of our Nature:
Why Violence has Declined
Steven Pinkerton
Viking 2011

This book by Steven Pinker (The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate) is truly a tome. I’ve been reduced to actually having to buy a copy – I’m racking up library fines as I write,  there’s a long waiting list for this through the library! Not a simple book to get throught. And content wise, it’s up there with Power’s “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide),   Elkins “Imperial Reckoning” and Bradley’s “Imperial Cruise”. Seminal works, not readable in a single sitting – and worth more than one read.

An examination of violence in history, sometimes graphic (Warning – this book can cause nightmares…) showing how “people” are getting more peaceful. Not from any religious sensibility - in fact, religion comes off pretty bad in this history, but from a kind of cognitive evolution out of societies (all earth’s societies…) “moral retardation”. In researching options for buying a copy I ran across a small number of reviews who strongly disliked this work, pointing out that Pinker comes from a very “Western” viewpoint of violence and ignores many types of violence (such as economic or environmental) that perhaps should be included in the equation.

Anyway, I’ve come nowhere close to finishing this book. I did skim the chapter on genocide – which has some very interesting insights.  I will revisit this review once I get my copy of the book (on order) – and find enough time to read it!

Recently I realized that I should pull together what I could from a ad hoc grass roots group I worked with in 2006-2009 called the Portland Genocide Awareness Coalition. the group did a week of events for Genocide Awareness for several years, and put together and sponsored a number of other events throughout that time. By the magic of the Wayback machine, Gmail archives, and Google Video (now transfered to YouTube!) I’ve manged to find a number of things – here they are:

• Videos of various speakers and events. I videotaped these in conjunction with the Oregon Peace Institute for cable access, and uploaded them to the Internet. You can watch them here:

Judith Armatta

Robert Landauer

Nicholas Kristof

Chanrithy Him

What is Genocide?

Kristof – Q & A

Judith Armatta

Dr. Boyer / Darfur

Marie Clarke Brill

Sudan Update – Clarke Brill

Darfur Aid Worker

Ruth Messenger

Edmo – Government Man

Edmo – Hard Things

• 2007 Resource CD -Outdated – but some files are still available online as pdfs:
  • Toolkit
  • Hosting an Ally-Raiser
  • Select Bibliography on Sudan, Darfur, and Genocide
  • Groups and Websites to Know About
  • Portland Mayor Tom Potter’s Declaration of 2007 Genocide Awareness Week
  • Genocide Books and Videos

• Logos. Each year the group used a different logo for posters and PR. They were truly the work of group consensus -

The logo for the 2008 series of events – Arm and fist with 7 rubber advocacy bracelets with names of “genocides” – ending with Darfur. There were various interpretations of the image – from saying Darfur was the most current “genocide”  to the question – how many bracelets will ending genocide take? The image was done by Justin Shear. I don’t remember who did the other logos.

Just ran across a video by Guy Kawasaki on presentations. Haven’t heard about Kawasaki in years! He was one of the originals behind Macintosh in the 1980′s. Not quite up to Edward Tufte’s work, but a short and pithy guide to power-point style presentations. From before 2006 – but still very relevant.
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A guy I was interviewing in Lumpkin, Georgia, told be about “Old Town”, just down the road. Since w Lumpkin seemed like the end of the road, I was a little skeptical. But I took a break from Occupy Interviews and Immigration Detention Centers, and headed south. I found Westville, literally just outside of town. 70 degrees and blue sky, a perfect idylic afternoon. A “made up” town, made up of 1850s buildings moved to a forested rural area. The guides provided plenty of arcane history and local gossip. All I was missing was a glass of Sweet Georgia Peach!

I just wandered through the rather extensive “village”, snapping a few pictures. Here’s some of them. I’ve also included a very short video of a cotton gin in action!

Death Row and executions in the great state of Texas. Werner Herzog becomes a neutral observer, and a sad story slowly unfolds through his interviewees.  One of the best movies I’ve seen this year. A very fair treatment of a very difficult subject – A man on death row, a week from his execution, and the circumstances surrounding his crime – the murder of three people. A calm look into the lives of all involved, from the surviving relatives, to the prison chaplain .

Herzog

The first Herzog movie I saw was Aguirre, the Wrath of God. I’ve seen several of his older shorts at various film events over the years. I don’t remember seeing Herzog’s work on the big screen again till “Incident at Lock Ness”,  which kind of defies … everything. I was somewhat confused till I realized that the movie of a spoof of a spoof. It was brilliant and very quirky. I’m afraid I hadn’t seen much of Herzog’s later work till “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” came out, which was technically interesting, and the images of Chauvet Cave in 3D are breathtaking, but the writing kind of … sucked. So when I heard of the subject matter of Into the Abyss – I wasn’t sure what to think. A number of reviews spoke very well of the film, saying the Herzog took a neutral roll, and let his interviews speak for themselves.

Some times on May Day I join the masses in the streets. Other times I escape the city, and wind up doing things like watching Tall Ships sail on the Columbia. Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain were visiting Rainier Oregon. I “missed” their mock canon battle, but enjoyed a sunny, quiet day watching the ships. For more info on these Tall Ships and where they’re doing tours, check out their website the HistoricalSeaport
Below are some videos and a collection of still images of the Tall Ships.

If you click on any of the following images you can see it full size:

I’m starting a new category of videos I run across on the internet (and some I see locally) that I feel are “must sees”. Where I can embed them directly in the post, I will do so. Else I will link to either an online version, or to a place  you can find out more about the video.

A Must-See edgy  video from an advertising campaign from United Colors of Benetton
inviting the leaders and citizens of the world to combat the “culture of hatred” and creating the UNHATE Foundation.

I have to admit, I never heard of United Color before, but and surprised and happy to see their advertising campaign and Foundation. This is the kind of stuff I can really get into!

Take a look at United Color’s Press Release for UNHATE Advertising Campaign

I found this video and followed the links from Videography Magazine’s post on Laurent Chanez, director of UNHATE Video

Came across an article from Digital Content Producer today that looks real helpful. Haven’t had a chance to review it – but I think it gives a straight forward recipe for editing footage from DLRs, including my T2i. Hope to play with this soon –

I learned about the World Memory Project from a video report by Athena Jones on  CNN . I was intrigued, to put it lightly. One of the existential themes  in my life as been “genocide”. Another theme is media and stories. (Trans-media – is what they call it now… ). And a third theme is my belief that the more we move from seeing different peoples as  The Other instead of individuals we understand and respect, even if we barely agree with them.

So it instantly struck me that these themes thread through the World Memory Project, in addition to the healing it brings to the inter-generational trauma affecting victims and survivors of the Holocaust.  I also realized this approach could help other survivors, from modern day genocides, from refugees forced from their ancestral lands, and for Native American Indians. These are all areas I have been working with. I am going to take a careful look at the World Memory Project for ideas on how to structure some of this work.

World Memory Project

Their website is http://www.worldmemoryproject.org/.  Click back later for more – I will report on this program once I have looked in depth at it. (Not this morninng! 11/26)

My Existential Brush With Genocide

Growing up 20 years after the end of WWII (it seemed as ancient as the civil war to me then – ) there were occasional signs: the horrible pictures and the  articles about “Jewish Nazi Hunters”.  But when my mother told me the numbers tattoed on the Church’s custodian / workman where from a concentration camp it  became real.

Later, in my first years at college, news of the Cambodian Genocide affected me hard. I felt helpless, there was nothing to be done. I didn’t yet understand the U.S.’s role in this, and did not understand why we didn’t try to help. That made the situation seem even more hopeless.

Later, after the Siletz tribe was “Restored”, I began reflecting on the genocide of the Native American Indian.  That has become a consuming passion – as I work on a documentary exploring this attempted genocide, the effects on the 7 generations in my family, and the hope for future generations.