People's Power Prevails (Nov. 16th)

    In today's class, we finished up the documentary we had been watching for a very long time. With Mr.Paterson breaking down the documentary, we have come a long way in accumulating and acquiring knowledge about corporations' fraud and corruption corporations, which are typically concealed from the public. In today's class, the first example brought up was electric cars. Nowadays, when watching Youtubers residing in the US, a substantial number of them own teslas. Not only do they make the car owners look good, but they also are an ideal option for transporting in an eco-friendly way. Hearing that such faultless cars were around for decades was absolutely shocking, because corporations taking away these solutions amid the escalation of climate change, is inhumane. When I did a quick search about the film Mr.Paterson mentioned: "Who Killed the Electric Car?", it seems like in the film they showcase the automobile that requires no gas, oil, muffler, seemingly, the world's first perfect car. Notwithstanding, due to excessive pressure by corporations that only think about their own profits succeeded in abolishing every single automobile. So basically, decades before Tesla came to prominence, there was already a better solution, and I wondered how today would have looked like if they were not banned back in the day. 

    Another example of companies going out of their range is the human rights violations Walmart and Gap (and probably many others) are conducting. They are both widely circulated companies across the world, yet 10 proactive and intelligent activists took the streets of London and significantly alleviated matters. Regarding the GAP controversy, 10 smart advocates were able to pressure GAP and eventually make the corporation change their system of abusing children's basic human rights, working in poor factories. I do not know who created this movement, and how old they were, but it inspired me because with a few smart, educated, passionate people large corporations will have no choice but to respond, and potentially, high schoolers like myself could do this as well. There have been countless examples in the past where the public's "common sense" prevailed over corporation's nonsense. "You can still race these countries. You can still have an effect.". These are words that were spoken in the interview towards the end. Although there were some complex issues being discussed in the film, reflecting back, the film has helped us realize and truly comprehend that as normal citizens, our responsibility is to create change that nourishes the earth for the better of this earth and our own future. Moreover, we should be calling for movement so our very own government is not something we fear, but rather one we can genuinely support. Although social norms have gotten better in Japan's homogenous society, these empowering examples are usually actions that take place abroad. Nonetheless, the message behind this documentary was much more influential than what I had expected when we first started to watch this documentary. The rock music concert that was held even during a time when rock music was said to be detrimental to communism was an accumulation of people's power, which truly moved me. 

    Towards the end of class, my group had a discussion about the dilemma of how deeply implemented corporations are in our life and that it is rather difficult to completely avoid them. Someone in my group said that even if we advocate and oppose one corporation, we may be wearing clothes of another corporation that is also violating workers' human rights. However, in my opinion, if we continue to make these excuses and justifications for ourselves, it will not get us anywhere and we have to start somewhere. I strongly believe that our objective should be to show corporations they are way too focused on one thing and should provide them an objective view. We also talked about corporations making an excuse of them "being around for 100 years, so they should be broken up". Recently this excuse is used way too many more times than it should be, in various social issues. Within even just the past decade, society has taken a 180 and any excuses that may have been justified in the past cannot be used anymore. The more I think about this documentary, it is just a projection of evil people violating basic human rights. Whether they are a poor subordinate of a corporation, or a woman, gap, indigenous, logically thinking it is inappropriate. I can imagine working to alleviate these issues every single day of the year being slightly draining, detrimental, and easily losing hope, but the positivity and humor in the activists that spoke at the very end of the documentary were so brightening and inspirational. Overall, it was an enjoyable and very thought-provoking documentary! 

notes:

"Wherever corporations put their foot down, they can be held accountable."

people who fight back (about basmati rice) actually succeeded. violate laws that can be proved wrong with common sense. I was taught that sometimes that is needed. 

violating what the executives said. social responsibility is a voluntary tactic to a certain market.

read Smedley's paper! connected to Iraq's missing billions