Taegukgi, Film, Civil War and the Human Mind
Tae Guk Gi is an epic Korean War movie that I believe is one of the greatest war movies ever. It tells the story of two brothers who are sent off to the Korean War. The older brother takes the riskiest missions available in the vain hope that he will be able to send his younger brother home. The war destroys their family and their country. This film is one of the goriest war movies I have seen and a large portion of it is devoted to battle scenes. This begs the question, how much violence in a war movie is too much and how much is too little.
Nota Bene: If you want an in-depth review of the plot, the following site is pretty good: Click Here
A war movie is a war movie because it concerns war. Despite the obvious redundancy of that comment, there is little doubt that battle should be the main thrust of the film, but we must concern ourselves with two aspects of the depictions of battle scenes: 1. Their length vis-à-vis the film’s length and 2. Their depth, meaning the goriness and proximity to a true battle scene. I firmly believe that both elements must be adhered to to the point of the audience thinking it may be slightly too much. If there is any hope of conveying the horrors of war to a popcorn munching audience, the audience must at the very least be made to feel uncomfortable. If the battle scenes are too ‘light’ then the audience may come across with a sugar coated version of the front lines. At the same time, overly gruesome scenes can turn an audience off the more human aspects of war – broken minds, broken families and broken lives.
The next thing that this film does, which I believe is very important, is its presentation of the war for what it was: a terrible civil war backed by foreign powers. Fighting on home soil is something that all North Americans and some Europeans are out of touch with. I have always maintained that it is entirely different to send your armies off to a foreign land as opposed to having the mortars and bullets landing near your childhood home. In civil war, it is the civilians who suffer the most. Families are torn apart, homes are destroyed and friends turn on each other. This film is probably the first one that really shows a civil war.
After watching it for a second time, there is an important scene at the beginning, which foreshadows all that is to come. The soon-to-be wife of one of the brothers shows a bag of barley, which she obtained at a communist rally. She states that it is impossible to get good food and that “she would kill for food like this”. That’s what civil war is. Rarely is it about political ideology or great injustice, more often than not, people switch sides, turn on neighbors and commit unthinkable crimes for food and land. Ideologies and racial tension are the symptoms of resource shortages, not the other way around. A closer look at Rwanda, Sudan, and other conflicts often demonstrate how a few evil people take advantage of a weakened country to manipulate it to their ends.
Another main reason that this film remains so powerful is due to its two main characters. The film revolves around their love and hate for each other. The human mind cannot conceptualize large-scale events very well. We cannot imagine the size of the planet, the atmosphere, the universe, war or genocide. Of course, when we are told for the first time that six million Jews were gazed by the Nazis, we sit back and realize what evil humanity is capable of. However, try and imagine six million unique faces, their families, their fear and innocence and we simply draw a blank. Just as computers have technical limitations, so too does the human brain. We have a limited capacity to imagine and place unique items. Numerous studies confirm this truth; notably, the vast majority of the population can only place six musical tones in order, above six tones, we begin to mess them up and cannot properly arrange them.
This of course does not apply to the musically inclined, but it does apply to most people. On the same note, the majority of the population has difficulty seeing large events on their full scale. For that reason, a story that follows the plight of one person or a single family is much more powerful than a documentary about the entire conflict. On a personal level, I was much more deeply touched when I visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam than when I visited the concentration camps in Germany. This film conveys to the full extent the sacrifices that one family member makes to the other in the context of a large conflict and the consequent destruction of his humanity.
One last point that is worthy to be retained from this film is how far we, and the Koreans, have come. In a little of fifty years, South Korea has become a top technological and economic power. The atrocities of this war are unthinkable to today’s youth and we should be thankful for our ignorance. War is perhaps the worst aspect of humanity’s power and must be avoided. Appeasement is not the solution, but education, communication and cooperation is. Communist China has become an international powerhouse out of its own will, full-blow war was not needed to destroy Soviet Russia, India slowly developed its own potential, South Korea is exactly the same geographic dimensions as before the war and the few African countries that are doing okay are the ones which were not privy to colonialism or foreign aid. Political change can only be brought about from the inside and foreign intervention has never worked. For that reason, the Iraq war cannot and will not be brought to a promising conclusion anytime soon. The people of the country are the ones with the keys to success and no foreign power, no matter their might, can overcome that.
This film remains very important because it demonstrates the particular atrocities of a civil war from the perspective of the people who lived it, not the foreign saviors or criminals.
Circle of Life
I just graduated from engineering and am looking into getting into sustainability. The best website and company I have ever seen in this regard is Interface’s, which is a leader in the field. Their website can be found here: http://www.interfacesustainability.com/
I also found a website that carries informaiton about many different people in the field ranging from peace groups to microbiologists: http://www.big-picture.tv/
There is no doubt in my mind that sustainablity and capitalism go hand-in-hand. Yes, you can make short-term gains by polluting. But it is in your interest to mimick nature by being efficient, versatile, recyclable and inclusive. You save money by not wasting resources, every piece of paper has value. All matter, ideas and time represents energy and energy is the purest form of wealth. I will build on this idea in my next article. I have to go watch the world cup.
Published on June 30, 2006Irak, News Media
Cool website which is in reality just a cartoon about media, irak and the usa. It is written by Anthony Lappé who started www.gnn.tv, a very cool news site that carries a lot of stuff you don’t see in mainstream media. Take if for what you will, but the articles often are very truthful and interesting.
The Comic strip is located at: http://smithmag.us/shootingwar/
Published on June 30, 2006The Tipping Point
I recently read the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. If was pretty cool and disciussed many things of interest. Most notably, this book seems to have fallen into a new category of non-fiction, which I like to call: Synthesization. Meaning, there are these non-fiction books which have been topping bestseller lists despite their serious content. They do not actually present much new “data”, but rather, they take many different studies and synthesize them into a coherent image that is applicable to real life. Such books, which I have recently read are: The Inginuity Gap, The Tipping Point, Collapse, The White Man’s Buden, and The Weather Makers.
They have very broad relevence to society and science. Below is a brief email I sent to the author of Malcolm Gladwell, if you are familiar with the topic. Tell me what you think.
Malcolm Gladwell,
I have just read your book The Tipping Point, and found it quite interesting. What came to mind when reading the section about the Salesmen, Maven and Connectors was the new website called Facebook.com. Much like mySpace and other personal sites it displays peoples lists of friends and shows the different networks that they are part of. But what is of most interest is that some people may have upwards of 300 people listed as friends but have few wallposts, which are comments that are posted by users but are visible to the entire community. It has been said that you judge your love by the amount of people that love you, not the amount of people you love.
This brings me back to the point that as you discussed in your book, Connectors have a knack at making connections with people, but more than that they have knack at making connections that people remember. So some of these people who list 300 friends, but have 50 comments are unlikly to be connectors despite their apparent popularity; whereas someone with 150 friends, but 150 comments may in fact be much more connected. In other words, these people have deeper connections because it is other people who feel a need to contact that one person and not that one person to continuously stay in contact with all his 150 friends.
Another side note that I would have liked to see some case studies about is poverty. As far as I know there have not been any places where a Tipping Point has been reached regarding poverty. Many IMF and World Bank economists claim to be able to start a poor economy on the road to growth by injected an initial supply of capital, framing some key laws and regulations and then letting the country take care of itself. This has never worked despite claims to the contrary. Post WWII Japan took off because of western technology, but the ideas and laws regarding industry were largely home-grown. This failed idea of applying western thought to poor contries is well outlined in the book The White Man’s Burden by William Easterly. So do you think it is possible to apply the theory of the Tipping Point on a large society wide scale, particularly in a society to which you are not native to? Meaning, can you make a third world society sustainable by identifying the Tipping Points of that society with the help of locals and research and then applying your findings to the country as a whole? Just a few thoughts.
Hope your work continues well and that there are more interesting books and articles to come.
Regards,
Jonathan Olivier BRUN
Published on June 26, 2006Fair Trade and Second Cup
Second Cup is Canada’s equivalant of Starbucks, though we also have them too. Second Cup’s coffee is not labeled as Fair-Trade and after reading an article about their CEO wanting to make them more friendly, I wrote to Second Cup about Fair Trade coffee. The following exchange occured between myself and Second Cup. Post your thoughts.
—–Original Message—–
From: Jonathan Brun [mailto:jbrun@adpmemorial.ca]
Sent: Sunday, June 18, 2006 3:29 PM
To: secondcupcustomercare@cara.com
Subject: Fair-Trade Coffee
Dear Second Cup,
As a once loyal customer, I came upon an article outlining the recent
acquisition of Second Cup by Cara and the new “friendlier” direction
that the CEO wishes to take Second Cup to. This tactic was desired
because it would allow Second Cup to differentiate itself from
Starbucks and other coffee chains. However, upon visiting a Second
Cup location, one thing that quickly became apparent is that Second
Cup does not seem to use fair-trade coffee. How can Second Cup claim
to be “friendly” when it does not even have the decency (which
Starbucks does – not to mention their health plan) to provide coffee
that came from a source who has sufficient revenue to live decently.
I will no longer visit second cup, or any Cara location until this
practice is changed.
Regards,
Jonathan Olivier BRUN
jbrun@adpmemorial.ca
514.712.0637
——–
On 19-Jun-06, at 1:40 PM, Campbell, Allison wrote:
Dear Jonathan Brun,
Thank you for your interest in Second Cup and our coffee sourcing practices.
Is it possible for a coffee to be fairly traded without the “Fair Trade”
trademark on its package? The answer is definitely “yes!” At Second Cup,
we define fairly traded coffee as paying premium prices for superior coffee
to co-operative mills and to farmers in coffee growing regions.
Our Second Cup sourcing philosophy is simple: we pay a premium price for
superior coffee beans. We understand that you cannot grow superior quality
coffee on an on-going basis unless you have sound practices that take care
of both your people and your land. Consequently, we are pleased to pay a
well-earned premium for the coffee we buy.
As we are focused on buying only the highest quality coffees, Second Cup has
spent years nurturing and developing long-term relationships with farmers,
co-operatives and processors in order to secure the world’s finest coffee.
The prices we pay are far above the current world market price and often
exceed the price offered by traditional non-profit organizations, coffee
companies and commercial roasters. Our specialty coffees are in a class of
their own and cannot be compared in any way, including sourcing practices,
to supermarket brands.
Second Cup buys only the best mountain grown Arabica coffee, and we purchase
the majority of our coffee from small farms. We work diligently to support
the best practices in procurement, and where possible, we commit to
multi-year contracts, up front, to ensure farmers a premium for producing
top quality beans for an extended period of time. Here are just a few
examples of our coffee partners around the world:
* Second Cup works with a number of “best practices
estates” such as La Minita in Costa Rica and Fazenda Vista Alegra in Brazil.
These farms promote quality conditions for their workers, including health
care, education, accommodation, and superior wages.
* Cafe Volcan Baru is one of the most respected farms in
Panama. In addition to paying premium wages to its workers, the family-run
business operates its own government-approved school, as well as health
programs for harvesters.
* Second Cup buys directly from cooperatives such as
Exportadora de Cafe Condor, which is primarily owned by 17,000 coffee
producers. Our relationship with this co-op ensures that the substantial
premium paid for exceptional quality is transferred to reward the producers.
While Second Cup pays a premium price for superior coffee, we understand
that trade can only go so far in helping improve lives in marginalized
communities. That’s why Second Cup has teamed up with Foster Parents Plan,
which is an expert in community improvement. Since 1996, Second Cup has
invested more than $800,000 directly into coffee growing communities through
Foster Parents Plan, and our efforts have supported everything from
essential vaccination and nutrition programs to improvements in health and
sanitation, agricultural training and school initiatives.
While Second Cup is the leader in specialty coffee in Canada, we recognize
that within both Canada and the world we are a very small player. However,
that has not stopped us from establishing some of the most progressive
approaches to sourcing and procuring the world’s finest coffee. Second Cup
offers one of several responsible options within the coffee industry. We are
very committed to our trading relationships and to advancing the well-being
of all those who grow and harvest our superior coffee beans. To us, it just
makes good sense. If you require additional information, please visit our
website at www.secondcup.com or stop by your nearest Second Cup cafe to pick
up one of our Solid Grounds brochures.
Best Regards,
Allison Campbell
Guest Services
Second Cup
——-
Hello,
I appreciate the quick and detailed response to my inquiry. Yes, of course it is possible to buy coffee at higher prices without going through the Fair Trade label and from what you have sent me, it seems like this is the case. I am not an expert on coffee sourcing or quality, but I do have some concerns remaining. Though I trust Second Cup as much as the next corporation, it is often difficult to take what certian companies say at face value.
For that reason, we have seen the emergence of various regulatory bodies set-up in different industries such as LEED for energy efficient buildings , Forest Stewardship council for forest management, Organic Foods Washington for Organic Foods, and Fair-Trade Coffee for fair trade. I am not one to say whether these organizations have the best practices and guidelines, though there is certainly always room for improvement. The important thing about these organizations is that they provide a clear certifiable guideline for both consumers and companies. There have been rival organizations that have been set-up by various companies to mimic these ones, but usually with less regulation – thus giving the consumer the illusion of proper sourcing, when it is not really there.
I have little choice but to trust what you have outlined above and hope that these practices continue. I would be very interested to see the actual prices that Second Cup pays for its coffee in contrast to other premium coffee sources. Is that available in the Investors Report of Cara? I assume Cara is publicly traded. Obviously you do not carry the same beans as Forgers, which would be rather innaproriate considering the price of a coffee at Second Cup. Again let me reiterate that I am very pleased with the practices outlined below and will probably visit Second Cup, but that you may want to consider the merits of a certification of some kind that is internationally recognizable, whether it is Fair-Trade or something else.
Regards,
Jonathan Olivier BRUN
jbrun@adpmemorial.ca
514.712.0637