Corporate Government's Ugly Face Links #Jeju Island, South Korea And Maine

Photo by Ellen Davidson of Father Mun surrounded by police outside the navy base construction site on Jeju Island

A news dispatch from South Korea by Mainer Dud Hendrick of Veterans for Peace came via email. It's inspiring and also ominous. 

I was particularly struck by the efforts of corporation Samsung to collectively punish a village fighting to preserve natural resources and their traditional fisheries from destruction by militarization. It reminded me of the Trans Pacific Trade treaty (TPP) which, if adopted, would allow corporations to punish anyone interfering with their "right" to profit.

Photo by Dud Hendrick

Friends, 

Unbelievably, we're on our last day here in Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island, Korea.  It has been an emotional five days, as we have been given a crash course on the crime being perpetrated on this coastal community.  The completion of the base is nearly a fait accompli--the government is projecting that it will be completed in the coming year.  Having been here in April of 2013 and remembering the status of the base then has made this visit all the more disturbing--at the same time it has been uplifting.    

Photo of VFP delegation, provided by Dud Hendrick (front row, on right)

The protest has been continuing virtually non-stop for over 8 years, testimony to the depth of the passions the base has ignited.  During my first visit it was already clear that it would take a miraculous turn of events to stop the project.  Then I was impressed by the resolute dedication of the protesters; a conglomeration of Gangjeong villagers at the helm along with other Jeju islanders, mainland Koreans, and international activists. The resolve now goes way beyond "impressive."  One observation is that the leadership, a diverse array of characters,  seems to have remained stable.  Many of those who played critical roles in 2013 and prior---even going back to 2008--continue to do so. The rank and file come and go, but many, particularly the young, have stayed for years.   

Others, like a few in our 13-person delegation have returned several times--the most notable being Bruce Gagnon who you might say has been adopted by the village and Ann Wright, the famed peace activist and former U.S. Army colonel and foreign service diplomat who resigned her position in opposition to the Iraq war.  Bruce is deserving of the village's high regard that he is accorded--having visited five times and being, probably, the single person whose work has most brought Gangjeong to the world's attention. (My note: you can read Bruce's report back here.) 

An ironic twist--Samsung, the primary contractor on the project is attempting impose a hefty fine on the village of Gangjeong in penalty for all the delays caused by the protests.

 During our visit we have been honored to have received briefings from some of the prominent leaders who have provided the inspiration behind this enduring resistance:

Photo by Dud Hendrick of Ann Wright of Veterans for Peace with Father Mun Jeong Hyeon of  the Catholic Church Solidarity to Make Peace on Jeju Island

Father Mun Jeong Hyeon, the iconic leader of the protest, was awarded the 2012 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.  The founder of Catholic Priests' Organization for Justice in opposition to South Korean dictatorships, he conducts the daily mass at the naval base gate and is generally the point person in protest from dawn 'til dusk.  He has been a leading voice against the U.S. military presence in Korea for decades. 

Father Mun contributed his $50,000 Gwangju (cash) Prize to the anti-naval base campaign.  He is a strong proponent of reunification between North and South Korea and sees the U.S. as the primary obstacle preventing that dream, embraced by many Koreans, from becoming reality.

You can read more on how to support the struggle to save Jeju Island from U.S. Navy destroyers and other warships here on the website Save Jeju Now. 

The base is intended for warships such as the Zumwalt built in Maine at Bath Iron Works by General Dynamics; here, the Kennebec River ecosystem is disturbed by dredging so that the highly profitable ships can be moved out to sea and then to Jeju Island where a soft coral reef has been entombed in concrete to make a port for them.

How many public housing units could we have built with the money we spent on this thing?
Posted by Asher Platts on Thursday, December 10, 2015

Asher Platts, Managing Director of the Green Shadow Cabinet, posted this recent video of a $4 billion weapon of mass destruction moving through Portland's Casco Bay with the comment, "How many public housing units could we have built with the money we spent on this thing?"

Jeju Islanders recently heard bad news that the government also has plans to build an airport on their island, in an area considered sacred to agriculture. As reported by Sunny on the Save Jeju Island website: "This revelation came as a huge shocker for the Jeju Islanders, who had no say in the decision-making process."

South Korea's right-wing government, a close ally of the U.S., recently tried unsuccessfully to ban all demonstrations in order to suppress a growing mobilization of farmers, labor unions, and students on the mainland. Some responded to the government's ban on masks at demonstrations by making up as clowns and marching anyway on December 5 in Seoul.


What connects all this news is the theme of governments who represent corporate profits rather than their people. Democracy is a sham under such a system, and the police enforce corporate agendas rather than serving the public. Politicians in Maine like to call such arrangements "public-private partnerships" but fascism is more concise and accurate, and I know we must resist while we are still able. As Bruce Gagnon puts it, "Rattle your chains!"

Islamophobia And Anti-Immigrant Rants Cover Up Real Fear: Not Being Able To Compete

The false dichotomy that says "we" are not "them" has been getting a lot of play via the demagogue with bad hair whom the corporate media have made the front runner for the Republican Party presidential nomination. It feeds into that other false dichotomy: that there is any fundamental difference between the two corporate parties, the only ones that are allowed to field candidates, the ones that fund the endless wars on terror and also fund terrorist groups like ISIL who keep the wars churning. The parties that can't agree to limit their carbon emissions or even to count the emissions of their sacred Pentagon. The parties that fund mass surveillance of me and thee in the name of "security."

I loved this eloquent rant by British veteran Chris Herbert who lost a leg in Iraq, explaining why it is stupid when people assume he must hate all Muslims:

Getting frustrated by some people expecting racism from me, because I got blown up. Here it is:Yes. A Muslim man blew...
Posted by Chris Herbert on Tuesday, December 8, 2015

I also loved this article in the mainstream regional magazine Down East about an amazing Muslim immigrant in Maine, ZamZam Mohamud. A refugee from war in Somalia, Mohamud settled in Lewiston, an aging mill town that has been revived by decades of receiving immigrants. 

Our governor is from the old Lewiston and is now infamous for his hate speech aimed at immigrants. As usual, he and other Know Nothings trot out the old trope about not being able to afford to take care of "our own." As in, who needs more welfare recipients? And who want the crime rate to soar due to all those unemployed young men? 

These same arguments were used against accepting Catholic immigrants in the 19th century, and against accepting Jewish immigrants in the 20th century.

Facts on the ground in Lewiston show just the opposite. From Jesse Ellison reporting in Down East:

Crime was beginning to decline in Lewiston as its Somalis were first arriving. The state’s second largest city now ranks 26th for crime, well below Bangor, Ogunquit, and Ellsworth, to name a few. Juvenile crime rates — important predictors of future crime statistics — are also on the decline, despite a sizable increase in the number of juveniles. Few will go so far as to credit the city’s new arrivals for its falling crime rate, but many police officials and city administrators have expressed, if delicately, that it’s at least impressive the swelling immigrant population hasn’t caused crime to go up.

ZamZam Mohamud has already served on the Lewiston school board, raised two daughters and sent them to college, served as a translator for the hospital, and formed any number of community groups that bring together, for example, police and Somali immigrants, for dialogue. Clearly she is a highly gifted person, exceptional rather than typical. Or is she?

I have long believed that claiming to fear crime and welfare loafers as the rationale for opposing immigration is false. (Less so the claim of fearing Islam as a cult of violence. More on that in a minute.) What white, working class people really fear -- and they should -- is competing against the self-selected group of people resourceful and determined enough to make it out of their war-torn country. Very often such people are educated already, though they likely won't be able to work in their field. Nearly always they highly value education for their children, and will make any number of sacrifices to see them through college and graduate school. They will start small businesses. They will take the jobs that actual welfare loafers won't do. They will outcompete the drug addicts and alcoholics currently driving up the mortality rate among white people aged 45-54 with only a high school diploma. 

From Olga Kazan reporting in The Nation:

The reasons for the increased death rate are not the usual things that kill Americans, like diabetes and heart disease. Rather, it’s suicide, alcohol and drug poisonings, and alcohol-related liver disease. 

The least-educated are worst off: All-cause mortality among middle-aged Americans with a high-school degree or less increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2013, but there was little change in mortality for people with some college. The death rate for the college-educated fell slightly.

Let in Syrian immigrants, and in a generation they may produce another Steve Jobs.

This mural by the artist Banksy depicting Apple's founder as a refugee popped up in a French refugee camp.

Islamophobia though -- what's that all about?

Reference the fear of Catholic immigrants whose Popery was alleged to be a conspiracy to bring down the established WASP order, or of Jewish immigrants, presumed communists.

The masses are easily manipulated by propaganda that says to fear and hate the unfamiliar. Many Israelis, for example (whose government applies the same kind of religious test for immigration as is advocated by the demagogue) say they have never talked with an Arab. Never. Keeping "them" out is a great way to make sure that groups of differing faiths never come together as ZamZam Mohamud would have them do.

What happens when people reach across the divide of religious-based phobias and listen to others tell their stories? Healing occurs. Friendships blossom. And love wins.

For evidence to support my claim, I suggest you watch (or re-watch, as I did this week) Alice Rothchild's documentary Voices Across the Divide. As an American Jew who had visited Israel many times but never met an Arab, Rothchild set out to interview Palestinians of the diaspora about their families' experiences of al-Nakba, the ethnic cleansing that began in 1948 and continues today. Some of those interviewed were Arab Christians, but most were Muslim. By the time you finish watching this powerful film, I think you will feel deeply, as I do, that there is no "them" -- there is only "us."

Image of Palestinian kids in a refugee camp in Rafah from the study guide for  Voices Across the Divide.