"Denuclearization" - A Graphic to Focus the Mind

ICAN logo

I've recommended an important article in the New York Review of Books.

I featured the logo of the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in my post. The post (and the article it recommended) was not about ICAN and the nuclear ban treaty -- at least not directly. But I used the image for three reasons.


Ad hominem

First: I have a strong objection to the image that did accompany the NYRB article. Oh, I think the graphic is very artistic, with its portrait of a deathly pale Kim Jong-un flanked by skulls. But I object to the use of it in connection with this article -- which is, after all, about multiple nuclear weapons states. The suggestion of death is appropriate to any discussion of nuclear weapons, but it is false to focus on the deadliness of a person instead of the deadliness of the nuclear weapons, themselves, and the nuclear weapons architecture and the roles people play in it.

Kim Jong-un by Siegried Woldhek in the New York Review of Books

This is especially true at a moment when people in the US -- that is, many of the very people who make up the readership of NYRB -- are struggling to develop a fact-based understanding of Korea, its northern and southern parts, and the role of the US in negotiations about conflict and nuclear weapons there. That's why I wrote A Checklist for Critically Reading (and Writing) About North Korea and Can You Judge a Nuclear Confrontation by Its Cover?

(By the way: you could fault me for the many times I have used pejorative images of Donald Trump to suggest the danger he poses as the commander of US nuclear weapons. More to come on this subject . . . . )


"Denuclearization"

Second, one of the essential points of the NYRB article is that the term "denuclearization" is being used by both Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump, but the two mean different things when they use it.

Kim means, in essence, "we want a situation in which we're not threatened by your nuclear weapons and you're not threatened by ours."

Trump means "we want a situation in which you give up your nuclear weapons capability and we keep ours."

Anyone who is familiar with US nuclear doctrine to date understands why Trump thinks his version is the way things work.

Anyone who is familiar with the history of Korea understands why Kim is committed to his version.

And what results is a discourse. People get to dig into the issue, learn about it, try to understand it, and discuss it with others.

So: back to that graphic. I believe that the ICAN logo -- the image of a nuclear weapon being broken -- is an image that helps us focus on the core discourse: denuclearization.


A Proprietary Image?

It's debatable whether the logo of ICAN is fair game for the Korea Spring and denuclearization. ICAN is not a party to the talks, and the talks are not connected to the central project of ICAN, the nuclear ban treaty -- directly.

And yet . . . .

The discourse on denuclearization is impossible to separate from the discourse on the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which has now become impossible to separate from the discourse on the global nuclear ban treaty.

Just as "Nature abhors a vacuum," people innately sense and reject inequity. The longstanding de facto architecture of nuclear weapons -- "some've got 'em and others don't get to have 'em" -- withers a little more each time another person comes to see it and think about it and understand it and talk about it.

And right now the Trump-Kim Summit is shining a bright light on the discourse of denuclearization and that inequity.


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The Marukis' Antiwar Paintings: A Lesson in Collaboration

Toshi and Iri Maruki

Yesterday I began profiling a list of films about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Today I'm continuing with thoughts on one of those films: Hellfire - Journey from Hiroshima (Michael Camerini, 1986).

Hellfire - Journey from Hiroshima is a beautiful portrait, above all, of collaboration. In it, we meet the husband-and-wife team, Iri Maruki (1901-1995) and Toshi Maruki (1912-2000). I have long been an admirer of their Hiroshima panels, and of Toshi Maruki's book for children, Hiroshima no Pika (The Flash of Hiroshima). But I wasn't expecting to be as moved as I was by the story of how these two artists work together.

One of the reasons I loved Hellfire - Journey from Hiroshima is that it features long sequences of Iri and Toshi Maruki sharing a studio, working to complete their wall-sized artworks. Iri works standing, tracing figures onto the paper spread across the floor, using a brush with a long extension handle. Iri kneels, adding ink washes with a broad sweep.

The Marukis were trained in different styles -- traditional, expressionist, water-based ink vs. modern, realist, oil -- and in the film we get to see some of the ways they learned to synthesize their gifts and complement each other, and to do so without working at cross-purposes. We learn in the film that their shared vision sustained the Marukis, and that they concluded that, "If two people are alike, even oil and water will mix." What makes the film particularly interesting, however, is that in it the Marukis also tell us, very candidly, that they had to do a lot of hard experimentation, painting and re-painting over each other's work, before they found the right blend. Their successful collaboration came about despite a fair dose of "selfishness . . . stubbornness . . . dissatisfaction . . . ."

The film also describes another aspect of the Marukis' collaboration that I found instructive: their annual rhythm of devoting three seasons of the year to their respective art, and one season of the year (e.g. winter) to work together on a collaborative project.

from the Marukis' Hiroshima panels

The Marukis spent decades creating and promoting their panels documenting the terrors of war - Hiroshima, the Rape of Nanking, the Holocaust, and the atrocities on Okinawa. They did a lot of thinking about war and other types of violence, like the violence we do to our environment. "At a deep level, the violence we do in war and the violence we do in peace are the same," they say in the film.

Near the end of the film, speaking about their series of Hell panels, Toshi says that she and Iri came to understand that hell is not just a place for the great evildoers of history, like Hitler, but includes a very wide circle of people indeed. Ultimately, she concludes:

We are in hell
because we have been unable
to prevent war.

If all life on earth perishes
in a nuclear war,
no one will be saved;
we will all be responsible.

This brief film and the example of the Marukis is a powerful tool for all of us seeking inspiration for our collaboration with like-minded people to become able to prevent war, and to make sure life on earth doesn't perish in a nuclear war.


The story of the Marukis is also told in a book by one of the film's producers, the scholar John Dower: Hiroshima Murals: The Art of Iri Maruki and Toshi Maruki.

An animated video version of Hiroshima no Pika is available for viewing on Kanopy.


See also: more films and resources about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.


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Can You Judge a Nuclear Confrontation by Its Cover?

I want to write in more detail about the article I talked about in yesterday's post -- When Writing About North Korea Is a "Downer" -- but I realized that first I should say something about the cover of the issue of The New Yorker in which it appeared.

I wrote two days ago about how important images are -- North Korea: Who Am I To Look At You?. The article from the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars that I referenced there directed our attention to how caricatures may cross the line from commentary on an individual to ethnic stereotype. Consider this example:

"Let's see -- my old man said the top button is to launch and the
bottom button is to cancel -- or is it the other way around?"
Kim Jong Il caricatured by Don Wright, Palm Beach Post
c. 1994

Commenting on the cartoon, scholar Robert Perkinson says, "[T]he cartoon not only ridicules North Korea's likely new president Kim Jong Il by exaggerating both his lack of expertise and his perceived menace to the West, but also employs anti-Asian racial stereotypes." (Introduction to "Notes from the Field: The Korean Nuclear Crisis.)

Having been alerted by Perkinson, I notice several things about this cartoon:

* Kim's feet don't reach the ground. (They barely reach beyond the edge of his chair.) This suggests:

- the physical fact that Kim Jung Il was relatively short (5' 3")
- short stature as a metaphor for youth, in turn a metaphor for inexperience and/or lack of expertise
- infantilization of Asians as a racial stereotype

* Kim has big glasses and barely visible eyes, i.e. the representation is in no way realistic. Does this reflect:

- reliance upon a long-standing and innocent cartooning convention?
- reliance upon a long-standing and anti-Asian racist cartooning convention?

* Kim can't keep straight the simplest instructions concerning this mechanism. Is this:

- a dig at his inexperience and/or lack of expertise?
- an anti-Asian racist stereotype, suggesting Asians are too simple to understand machines?

I know, it's hard work; we've been looking at images like this for so long without thinking about these questions.

The New Yorker cover for September 18, 2017 is interesting.

The New Yorker, September 18, 2017

It is by Eric Drooker and is entitled "Warhead."

What I noticed about this image is that it puts Kim Jong Un on a par with Donald Trump. After months of graphics that made use of what had become a true cultural meme -- Trump's orange mop of hair -- we were now seeing an image saying to us, in effect, "There's another leader that you know just by looking at his hair!" (and, possibly, "Compare to Trump - similar? different? . . . . ")

Using the up/down/level scoring approach that I talked about in yesterday's post, I would give this a "level." If all it were suggesting was "Kim is scary" (i.e. the message implied by the image's title, "Warhead"), then I would rate it "down." But in my opinion the image makes people think.

I'm confirmed in my judgement by comparing it with an earlier New Yorker cover depicting Kim:

The New Yorker, January 18, 2016

It is by Anita Kunz and is entitled "New Toys."

Here the questions raised by the Don Wright cartoon come to mind. It seems perfectly legitimate to provide commentary that suggests that a leader lacks the maturity to handle his or her country's military and weapons responsibly. However, I believe it also involves an anti-Asian racial stereotype when an Asian leader is shown as a baby playing with his toys. (Why isn't he shown side-by-side with his US counterpart, also depicted as a child?)

So: between January, 2016, and September, 2017, the story the public has gotten from The New Yorker has progressed from "down" to "level."

At least, if you can judge a nuclear confrontation by its cover . . . .


More:

The US and North Korea: Suspense, Discomfort, Regret

"Denuclearization" - A Graphic to Focus the Mind


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North Korea: Who Am I To Look At You?

Many people in the US are looking at North Korea, thinking, "We don't really know enough . . . I want more information."

That's important.

. . . but/and . . .

I'm beginning to realize it's even more important that we ask, "Who am I? How is that I get to do the observing? Do I imagine North Korea is obliged to prove something to me?"

These questions go to the head of what I have described as A Checklist for Critically Reading (and Writing) About North Korea.


Standing

I attended a screening of a film at the Berkeley Art Museum Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) two days ago: The Thoughts That Once We Had by Thom Andersen.

Thoughts is a film about film. I'm guessing most people who see it think of it as being about the art of film (" . . . directors from Griffith to Godard"). But it's really about philosophy and phenomenology. Which means it's also about politics.

There's a substantial section of the film that is about war: the siege of Stalingrad, Hiroshima, Vietnam -- and North Korea.

I was so startled by the appearance of this extremely topical North Korea section that I barely had time to grab my pen and scribble down the narration as best I could: " . . . North Korea 1950-1953 . . . The US Air Force destroyed every town and city in North Korea . . . 600,000 tons of bombs . . . 2 million civilians . . . no repentance . . . not even acknowledgement . . . . "

I thought: "Serendipitous. Important context for what's happening right now. What if we routinely got reminders of this information? What if it just popped up at random times, as it seemed to do for me in this film?"

This snippet of film gives important context for our standing as observers of North Korea.

Do we need to know where we stand?


Pictures and Words

I have set out to look at a recent article about North Korea ("Letter from Pyongyang: On the Brink," by Evan Osnos in The New Yorker, September 18, 2017; online: "The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea") and try to understand how it impacts understanding about North Korea, and about the US-North Korea situation.

One of the first things that occurred to me is that the impact of a few images is likely to swamp the impact of thousands of words. There are several photographs by Max Pinckers accompanying "Letter from Pyongyang: On the Brink," and I think it's worth considering them even before the article's text.

(Perhaps I'm just starting here for convenience. And yet . . . . Consider the way generations of people have read The New Yorker: first flipping through the entire issue looking at the cartoons (and, now, other images), and then putting the magazine out on the coffee table (yes, or . . . ), and only later (possibly) reading an article or two.)

Among Pinckers' photographs, I found the one below particularly full of information:

North Korean schoolchildren photographed by Max Pinckers for The New Yorker

The image was displayed as a 2-page spread in the print edition. I wondered: what happens when someone looks at this image? How might it impact their understanding about North Korea, and about the US-North Korea situation?

The overall effect of the image seemed to me to be scary.

I tried to break it down. Some of the things I noticed in myself as I looked at the photograph:

Lighting/mood: glare, garish ... weird pink partition glass ... amber color

Composition: regimented ... is it a language lab?

Costume: uniforms ... red kerchiefs covering shoulders

Faces: overall feeling is troubling

I realized that the ephemeral aspects of the image had as much impact on me as the actual content. In other words, the feeling of the picture as much as the substance.

I went back and looked at each of the faces in turn: what do I see there? Looking left to right, front to back, at the six children's faces, I sensed: leery/looking askance; sheepish/guilty; imploring; dull/affectless; content/unconcerned; trying to be alert.

People would be justified in thinking they can tell something from the expressions on these children's faces: faces communicate -- across cultures, pretty consistently. And yet: do these six expressions really signify something? Beyond, that is, what these six individuals were feeling on that particular day, in that particular situation? (How different is this than any other group of schoolkids of this age?)

The caption in the print edition reads, "Students at the Pyongyang Orphans' Secondary School, which is housed in a new brick-and-steel complex. In a class of ten-and-eleven-year-olds, one boy asked, 'Why is America trying to provoke a war with us?'" [More on that question in a separate blog post.])

You can read the photographer's own take on this image here: "A Photographer’s Search for Cracks in North Korea’s Propaganda Machine."

When I got done with these observations, I wondered: does a photograph such as this get us closer to the truth?

Of course, this is just one picture.

Still, considering the stakes -- not to mention the history -- what obligation do we have to give everyone concerned the best possible shot at approaching the truth?


The Power to Look

We aren't going to stop looking at North Korea, nor should we. But will we slow down, even for a moment, and do our looking with a level of intentionality and self-awareness appropriate to the subject?

I have recently been watching a series of programs filmed by Louis Malle, Phantom India. From the very outset, Malle says that he and his team realized they were in an inequitable position vis-a-vis the people they were filming: they came to India, looked at people, took their images, and went do what they wished with them. It was as if, he says, they were thieves.

We are in a moment when many images and many words will be taken from North Korea and consumed by people in the US. Much of this will happen in the context of inequities from the past that will not be immediately reversed (if, indeed, they ever are), and we need to take in more, not less, information.  However, at a minimum, let us to commit to a process wherein we slow down and think as we are doing it.


More:

Can You Judge a Nuclear Confrontation by Its Cover?

When Writing About North Korea Is a "Downer"

The US and North Korea: Suspense, Discomfort, Regret


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By Any Means Necessary: Using a Graphic Novel to Get More People Talking About Drones

I'm digging into Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance by Pratap Chatterjee and Khalil.

(Shoutout to Eastwind Books of Berkeley for featuring the book and inviting the authors to a public event in February.)

I've decided to read a chapter a day and share some some comments.

Get a copy and read along with me!


Chapter One

Aha! Putting two and two together. The author Pratap Chatterjee is (at the time the book begins) with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism -- the prime source of information on what's really happening with drone warfare -- especially civilian victims of drone attacks.

Main takeaway for me from Chapter One: the number of outlets of all different types that need to work together to get the word out to the general population about the carefully crafted hidden nature of modern warfare!

(Very "meta"! Verax itself is a demonstration of that fact!)

Bonus reading: search for content on mainstream media response to the problem of drones


Chapter Two

Remember when everyone was up in arms about the NSA?

Main takeaway for me from Chapter Two: I've been paying attention to how out of hand surveillance and information technology are getting ... in theory ... but I (and all of us) need to start to deal with it seriously as part of our daily routine. Starting right now ....

Bonus reading: another tale of scientists who did work for the government and then expected the government to be grateful for their warnings: Unfinished Business in Chicago (Nuclear disarmament, that is)

Chapter Three

True, true, true . . .

Main takeaway for me from Chapter Three: I flashed back to CODEPINK's 2012 "Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control" in Washington, DC. That's where I saw Shazad Akbar speak, and it was after that that I came home determined to Make Drone Killing 100% VISIBLE!

Bonus reading: There was a period in 2014 when it seemed as if members of Congress might succeed in getting the US government to come clean with the facts on drone killing.


Chapter Four

It's all about software? That makes it hard for most ordinary citizens to get interested in. (And that's exactly the way the government likes it . . . . )

Main takeaway for me from Chapter Four: I know a little bit about tech . . . AND . . . every day I crawl a little further away from it, because it is so "boring." We need to do anything we can to get people to care about how technology is being used.

Bonus reading: Give science fiction a chance . . . These classics are painfully relevant today ("science fact"): 1984 . . . I, Robot . . . Ender's Game . . . Hunger Games . . . .


Chapter Five

Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200. Go directly to watch CITIZENFOUR.


Chapter Six

Well this was supposed to be a paced read of a chapter a day but it's now getting into the breaking of the Snowden revelations (per CITIZENFOUR) and pretty un-put-downable . . . .

(Oh, and a line spoken by Snowden in CITIZENFOUR that made me feel sheepish about my book recommendations two chapters back: "It's not science fiction. It's happening right now . . . . ")


Chapter Seven

Reading this chapter (and watching CITIZENFOUR) brought back memories of when the Snowden story first broke. At that time, it felt to me as if he was living what Jesus experienced -- the risk, the fear . . . . (I called him "The 365-Day Man.") We're coming up on Holy Week this year and I think it is worth reflecting on what it means in today's world to go up against Empire.

By the way, I thought Khalil's illustrations in this chapter were a great example of how comics can be used to convey the spatial and temporal relationships between a complicated combination of events.

About to break the Snowden story . . . in Verax . . . .

Chapter Eight

As someone who has spent a lot of time in hotel rooms in Hong Kong, the main feeling I had reading this chapter (and watching CITIZENFOUR) was, "The world is so small. You think you're a world away from them catching up with you, but when they decide to, they can pounce on you in an instant . . . . "

I also thought: "Hong Kong isn't home but at least I can imagine hiding out in Hong Kong. What I can't image is . . . where do you go from there?"


Chapter Nine

How well I remember Edward Snowden's arrival in Russia:

Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena

Do you remember the story about Snowden's lawyer and the Dostoevsky novel? I wrote "Edward J. Snowden's lawyer didn't give Snowden a copy of Crime and Punishment to help him better understand himself. He gave it to him so he could try to understand where he came from." (See Reflecting on America's Split Personality (Moscow Airport Summer Reads). )

That was in 2013. In a way, it was the gift that kept on giving. Here I am on Crime and Punishment again, in 2016: Crime Without Remorse: A USA Specialty.


To be continued . . . .


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#Nuclearban Memes from World Stamps

#Oman
"stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate #nuclearweapons in light
of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences."
Thank you #Oman     #nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

Postage stamps are a kind of pre-Internet-era meme (social media graphic) through which countries have told people what they value.

When I noticed there are so many countries working to bring about a global ban on nuclear weapons -- #nuclearban -- I started to make memes related to each country. That allowed me to select an image I found emblematic of a given country, attach the #nuclearban hashtag and a description of that country's support, and tweet it out to the world. (See 133 Is a Lot of #Nuclearban-Supporting Countries.)

But I also wanted to domore to suggest the values that each supporter country brings to the #nuclearban effort. So I decided to select some of their own postage stamp designs -- to let them tell the story, themselves!

Below is a growing selection of country postage stamps I have shared, together with the Twitter message I used with each one.

Most stamps shown are for supporter countries. I've also shared some stamps from countries that are not yet supporters . . . but should be!)

Please share these on social media . . .and create your own!

#Algeria
#nuclearban ... because our planet is filled with precious living things!
Thank you #Algeria for your support!
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Bangladesh
This world and all its life: too beautiful to destroy.
Thank you #Bangladesh for supporting #nuclearban at the @UN!
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Brazil
This world and all its life: too beautiful to destroy.
Thank you #Brazil and 100+ more for supporting #nuclearban!
joescarry.blogspot.com/2017/04/133-is-lot-of-nuclearban-supporting.html
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#CaboVerde
"stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate #nuclearweapons
in light oftheir unacceptable humanitarian consequences."
Thank you #CaboVerde!    #nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Dominica
This world and all its life: too beautiful to destroy.
Thank you #Dominica & 100+ more for supporting #nuclearban!
joescarry.blogspot.com/2017/04/133-is-lot-of-nuclearban-supporting.html
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#France
Les armes nucléaires: que fera la #France?    #nuclearban
@jmc_nonukes @adecroissance @ICAN_France
@ScienceMarchFR @greenpeacefr @cicr_fr
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Guinea-Bissau
#nuclearban ...
led by those confronting the unacceptable
humanitarian consequences of #nuclearweapons
#GuineaBissau @ICRC @nuclearban @UN
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Malta
#nuclearban... with our #children in mind!
Thank you #Malta for your leadership!
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Mexico
THANK YOU #Mexico & 100+ other countries
 steering us toward a world free of #nuclearweapons!
#nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Monaco
 Time to get rid of this beast once and for all.
#nuclearban #Monaco
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Mongolia
Thank you #Mongolia.
FOR #life
AGAINST #nuclearweapons
#nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Namibia
#WednesdayWisdom
"In the best interest of the child."
#nuclearban #Namibia
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#NewZealand
I love people who tell you exactly where they stand.
Thank you #NewZealand.
#nuclearban - at the @UN - Thursday
nuclearban.org
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Oman
"stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate #nuclearweapons in light
of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences."
Thank you #Oman     #nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Seychelles
This world and all its life: too beautiful to destroy.
Thank you #Seychelles and 100+ more for supporting #nuclearban!
#WorldSeaTurtleDay
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#SriLanka
"stigmatize, prohibit, and eliminate #nuclearweapons in light
of their unacceptable humanitarian consequences."
Thank you #SriLanka!      #nuclearban 
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Tanzania
#nuclearban ...with our #children in mind!
Thank you #Tanzania for your support!
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Ukraine
RADIATION: invisible killer ....
#Europe #Ukraine #Chernobyl #nuclearban
http://joescarry.blogspot.com/2017/05/where-will-europe-stand-on-nuclearban.html
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

#Vietnam
Maybe it's time for us to start listening for a change . . . .#nuclearban
(Please share this message on Twitter.)

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Kids' Art Says "NO WAR!"

Children have a crystal clear idea of the world we need. (One without war, that is.) They can even draw us adults a picture.

V @auroandre12:
"To save the world... My little bro Andrea has created a monster eats-war!"
(Please retweet this!)

I love the image above, shared on Twitter by @auroandre12 with the message "My little bro Andrea wants to save the world... My little bro Andrea has created a monster eats-war! #NoHate #NoWar." "My monster that eats war" is depicted eating paura (fear), guerra (war), armi (guns), egoismo (selfishness), odio (hate), razzismo (racism), and cattiveria (wickedness). Andrea is 7 years old.

Maybe we need to hear less from politicians and more from 7-year-olds.


Related posts:


What value might be obtained by having a really high quality "channel" on social media that people can tune in to for news and ideas about war abolition?

(See #NOwar - Permanently Trending on Twitter? YES! )






AK Songstress connects to the antiwar legacy of world music -- "in the era of legends like Bob Marley, he was always advocating for peace, unity, love and tolerance."

(See Product of Ghana: #NOwar / Pro Peace Music)












I don't think Alanna and I ever talked about what it must be like to be trying to escape a shower of sparks and hot ash. But she seemed to know that the sparks and hot ash are too important a part of the picture to be left out.

(See The Children Are Waiting )

Who Ya Gonna Call? (Saints for All Times)

The icons of St. Gregory of Nyssa church in San Francisco raise all kinds of questions about sainthood -- ours, the people the icons depict . . . everybody's.

Five of ninety saints celebrated in icons on the walls of St. Gregory
of Nyssa church in San Francisco. (Artist: Mark Dukes)

Yesterday was the annual USA "celebration of us!" -- the Fourth of July.  It is a day when I usually find myself pondering what it will take for this country to recognize how far it still has to go . . . . 

I was grateful that, on this particular Fourth of July, I had some profound material for reflection fresh in my mind. The previous day I had attended worship at St. Gregory of Nyssa church in San Francisco. There is a lot to say about worship at St. Gregory's, but the place to start is the icons.

St. Gregory of Nyssa's walls are adorned with stunning images of ninety saints, created by the artist Mark Dukes. They are joined in a dance, and these icons invite us to meditate deeply on so many lives lived in the pursuit of good for the many.

What is particularly marvelous about this group of ninety saints is that they were selected for portrayal by the people of the St. Gregory of Nyssa community: "We celebrate those whose lives show God at work, building a deep character to match the godlike image which stamps them as God's own from the start."

The image above shows several of those icons -- the saints Bartolomé de las Casas, Miriam, Origen, Malcolm X, Queen Elizabeth I, and Iqbal Mashi.

You can see more on the St. Gregory's website and this Flickr page.  And you can read about the ninety saints selected by the St. Gregory's community here.

The array of saints on the walls of St. Gregory of Nyssa raise a fascinating question for all communities of faith: who would you select to memorialize and celebrate on the walls of your church? Even if you are not fortunate enough to have the services of someone like Mark Dukes available to you, how might you share your selections with others?


MORE SAINTS . . .

Filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu
Musician Ravi Shankar
Scientist Rachel Carson
Liberator Harriet Tubman
Author Harriet Beecher Stowe 
Whistleblower Chelsea Manning
Whistleblower Edward Snowden
Political leader Chief Seattle
Choreographer Lin Hwai-min

Related posts

Perhaps what makes a book good for a discussion group is that it combines startling candor, brevity, and the courage to leap again and again into the middle of mysterious questions.

(See Finding Accidental Saints in Berkeley)












To be sitting in Berkeley and seeing in front of my eyes the spreading of this idea that started in Texas and was nurtured in Philadelphia and got agitated in Chicago felt like a real Pentecost moment.


(See Decolonize Lutheranism -- A Northern California Installment)






Ravi Shankar is a great example of someone bringing a special point of view to pierce the bubble of "normalcy" in which a vast number of people live, and to agitate for tectonic change.

(See Thanks, Ravi)

How Is the US Implicated in Argentina's "Years of Lead"?

Carlos Alonso, from the series "Manos Anónimas"

I have been mediating on the terrifying images created by artists in Argentina, relating to the period of state repression and terror 40 years ago, known as the "Years of Lead (Años de Plomo)" or "dirty war (guerra sucia)."

The images can be viewed on the website of La Voz.

Luis Felipe “Yuyo” Noé,
La Memoria (Memory)

I have a clear memory of learning about the abuses in Argentina by reading books available in the early '80s like Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number by Jacobo Timerman (1981) and The Return of Eva Perón and the Killings in Trinidad by V. S. Naipaul (1980).

At the time, I found the situation described to be fascinating and deplorable, and scary. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't look deep enough to see the connection with my own country and society. I certainly never imagined "that kind of thing" could happen here.

Fast forward to the years after 9/11. "The dark side" -- Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, torture and police shootings and drone assassinations, mass surveillance and mass incarceration -- has come to define the US.

How did this happen?

The second half of the 20th century saw massive human rights violations in countries throughout Central America and South America, committed principally by governments and government-sanctioned paramilitaries. The United States government encouraged and enabled this through arms shipments, training, and other forms of support.

In the case of Argentina, it is said that the US government, in the person of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, "green lighted" the abuses of the '70s.

Everyone should form a picture of Argentina's "Years of Lead," and explore for themselves how the US contributed to that awful time.

Juan Delfini, En Cautiverio (In Captivity)
Drawing published in “Los Swat, el hospital y la muerte” by Víctor Lavagno (1990).
(See LA Times, "Torture Called Specialty at Argentine Hospital")

Related posts


It is perhaps the signal achievement of the film "Beneath the Blindfold" that it portrays four different survivors, each of whose experience of torture was distinct from that of any of the others, and each of whom has an otherwise unique personality, and yet each makes clear that they share a long-lasting trauma. One leaves the film with a deeply-felt sense of the lasting trauma caused by torture of any kind.

(See The Revelations of "Beneath the Blindfold" )



Can there be any doubt that Obama and his administration, who think it is their right to wage war in secret, kill anyone they want to, and destroy whole societies, took their cues from Kissinger and Nixon and their "Imperial (and criminal) Presidency"?

(See No Statute of Limitations for War Crimes (Henry Kissinger in Chicago) )











Perhaps, like me, you will read a sentence like, "In 2001, many people came to her neighbourhood looking for a new home, fleeing from the Naya River where the paramilitaries had massacred and displaced the Afro-Colombian communities," and wonder what it refers to.

(See COLOMBIA: Where did the violence come from?)




Millions of people have learned what force-feeding is really about by watching this video of Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) voluntarily undergoing force-feeding using the methods employed at Guantanamo.

(See GUANTANAMO: "Is that who we are?" )





In a composition suggestive of a yin-yang symbol, a woman in a burka (but wearing audacious red glitter platform heels) is surrounded by genie-ish tableaus of the many male obsessions/pastimes that some of us rail about frequently -- sexualized pop singers, professional sports -- as well as some that we probably should rail about more (such as patriarchy in religion and political violence).

(See VIOLENCE: " . . . and the women must live with the consequences . . . " )