Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jerry Mander: Answertext will be available soon.

by Jerry Mander

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jesper Green: Don’t watch the next three minutes. I don’t have an answer.

by Jesper Green

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jodie Evans: Well, I guess this is the same as any abusive relationship that becomes home, that it's where we think it's the only place that we know. We get caught up in the patterns of is. As Jason, who's young and from Philadelphia, hasn't obviously been given many outs or opportunities, but if you only have had, you know, negative treatment, if you've only been disregarded, disrespected, treated like, less than an animal and not given any hope, there's no place or capacity for you to reach out of that into creating the possibility of something else. And if because he can ask this question, come to the place of understanding what he's living in, move through the processes of grief, and out of the place of victimhood not, not the space of not knowing that he's had an effect of something but that he's in a victim of it to a place of powerfulness, a place of being able to understand his own feelings and then a place of being active in some form to shift that. He would still find himself in a country where he's an unwanted child but not be able, not be used as a pawn for the power of that country and he would quit to love and defend and began to understand it and change. It's a very difficult thing to change and I can also [audio ends].

by Jodie Evans

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

John Gage: How do you think of yourself? Do you use words that put you in categories, black, American, black-American? Does the juxtaposition of categorical statements truly capture who you are? Why you say, do I a black-American feel that I should defend my country when my country does so little for me? The deep reasons for this stem from the foundations of human psychology, of tribe, of family, of belonging. Do you belong to these categories? You are in -- at the very base from your earliest years as a child, all of us have a feeling of identification with something, with our family, with our tribe, with our city, with the football team, the baseball team, the country we are part of, the military that’s analog to an athletic team for that country, we bear these symbols of identification proudly. When the contradictions arise that that belonging that you believe in fact is not real, does not yield any particular benefit to you, in fact, you are systematically excluded in this supposed membership from the benefits others that partake in the same groupings benefit from, this contradiction should you are implying alter how you feel about this grouping you have placed yourself in. I think you have to start thinking about this in a different way. You have to look inside you and say, from my life and my family and the environment in which I work, what am I doing that is creating something that benefits myself, my family and those around me, is there a reason that I am excluded from the same benefits of those around me in my larger general society? And if you find no reason, then those excluding you are those that must be changed. And then, the question of change in human behavior arises and this leads [audio ends].

by John Gage

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jonathan Granoff: Jason, I can't speak as a black American, but I can say that it's important to note that this cancer of racism was at the founding of America, and it was right in the crucible of debate in 1787 when it was - America was created. And the issue of slavery was not resolved, and black people were treated as three-fifths of a person, and they're not treated a whole people all across America or the whole world today. Racism is a terrible cancer. But one could say that there's - and, women couldn't even vote. There's been a, hopefully there's a – there’s been the possibility of continued progress to greater social justice and freedom and dignity within the United States, and that possibility of progress might be worth defending and fighting for. But it would be arrogant for me to think that I can understand the suffering that Jason who asked this question has experienced because of his race. It would be arrogant of me to think that I could understand what it felt like when he was a child and he realized that he lived in a society in which many people judge others by the color of their skin, not the character of their person. It would be arrogant for me to think that I could understand that. And it might be difficult for Jason to understand my children - my wife comes from an Armenian heritage, and Armenians suffered greatly at the hands of the Turks, at one period in history. Or my family, my side of the family which is Jewish, and Jason I don't know if you'd understand the legacy of the holocaust and anti-Semitism for thousands of years. Dehumanization is the issue, for Jason, for me, for my children, for all of us. To treat others based on their identities and their religions and their races diminishes everybody. This is a cancer. It's a cancer of the spirit, it's a cancer of society.

by Jonathan Granoff

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jonathan Meese: This question is too personal for me to answer.

by Jonathan Meese

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jonathan Stack: In a way it's because the inner child in you has been hurt as a child that you would even -- that you sort of internalize that oppression. On the other hand, I don’t know that America treats you as an unwanted child. I think they fear your empowered manhood. They are more afraid of what you could become because it's the fear of black men in America, why is that, because if you put your leg, if you put your foot down on the throat of somebody, you are afraid to let go of it, because you figure -- if you take the foot off, they are going to be pissed and are going to come up and fuck with you. So, the fact that you still love your country and are willing to defend it is because it's still -- it's so internalized in you that there is a sense of -- you still want to be -- it still provides for you this sense of some greater community that gives you a feeling of connectedness. I don't think they are mutually contradictory ideas in there. I think that the learning to love yourself and love your country and love beyond your country are all within the realm of possibilities. You shouldn't stop loving America. You should start making, A, loving yourself more, and B, working with others to make America a nation worthy of your love. That's what all of our responsibilities are. Personally, I can't imagine America without African American community. I don't see it as an unwanted child. I see it as a kind of deepest blessing to have that contribution to our society. It means that the possibility and potential for America is very much existing within the African American community and all oppressed communities, because just by their being oppressed means there once again lies this possibility for what [audio ends].

by Jonathan Stack

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

José Manuel Prieto: This is a difficult question to answer (question 23), Why do we [continue to love and defend a country that treats us like an unwanted child]?

by José Manuel Prieto

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Jwan M. Aziz: Gesen, i think you are telling the truth, so me, you and all people should activate the social justice to ensure the fundemental rights for the human being and to replace love by hate . I guess that millions of the people in many countries feel the same thing you feel,so we should work together to achieve the social justice everywhere for all people and to be lovely and to posulate peace for al people.

by Jwan M. Aziz

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Kailash Satyarthi: Well, when you talk of your country, let me tell you that country does not mean the governments or some ethnical groups. Country means all the resources of level in the country, natural resources and human resources as well. For me, my country does not mean my government, country means my own parents, my own children, my own brothers and sisters, my family members, my friends and my well wishers and those who are responsible for my development, growth, my education, this is my country. And, these are the one who are really helping me out. But, I know that there are people who don’t like it and in many cases due to some ethnical or color or religion or caste or creed bias they discriminate you and other people. But, being a good country man, you have to raise your voice, you have to find people in other ethnical groups also. For instance, if you say that you are black, you can definitely find your good friends and good well wishers and supporters who will join your pain and your sufferings and who will raise voice against it in the white community. So, it's always there. So, in a state of being demoralized or frustrated, it is better to find allies and friends in all ethnical groups and all cross sections of society to raise voice against any kind of discrimination, exclusion and injustice and instead of blaming the entire country. But, definitely, you have to raise the voice and you have to find friends to raise the voice against that kind of human suffering which is really the racial discrimination and apartheid in many cases.

by Kailash Satyarthi

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Kigge Hvid: Hi Jason, 27. I don’t know. Actually I don’t know. This is a very, very probably -- this is a very personal question, I think. It’s also an overall question, of course, but also a personal. I am not a black American. I don’t know how and why you stay on loving and defending your country if it treats you really unjust. I think basically it must be about finding out how to level. Does your country give you so much good that even though you are on some levels treated badly that you still get something from your society that you need? Actually living in New York in these days, my advice to you would be that if you really, really feel that you’re not welcome in the States, move because you live in a part of the world where you are actually free to go where you want. So do that. It’s not my – I know, of course, about the racial problems in the States and all over the world. I also know about your history of racial issues. But actually, I think you should not accept it; and if you can’t live with it, move. Go somewhere else. Find someone else to play with. Do that. Do not accept it. If you are pressed, don’t accept it because you are able to not doing that because you live somewhere where you can move.

by Kigge Hvid

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Kurt Weidemann: The fact that today people can easier and more often get to know other people, other continents, other languages, other ways of life will help us to be more tolerant in regard of others. The fact that the black Americans came to the US as slaves makes it certainly more difficult for them to know how to treat others. Indians used to live there and they have been killed and the whites do not have any right to consider these people as less important or not equal to them. Their attitude towards ethics, believe, moral is often stronger then with white people.

by Kurt Weidemann

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Lesego Rampolokeng: I don’t know why you continue to defend that country as a black person. I just think that unfortunate concept such as patriotism and such like "ha ha ha" lead people to defend the indefensible. Slaves defend their masters in very perverted human relations. Certain people celebrate their whole humiliation. Some people love the fact that pain gets visited upon them daily, and there is no telling what sickness that resides in the mind will push the human being to do. I just believe that first of all issues such as race came to the fore when there was a need for an excuse to visit the exploitation and oppression of one sect of humanity by another, economic, social and otherwise that then it became "essential" because race is so easily "identifiable". Race is this construct that forever remains. It’s there. Caste is not the first thing anybody sees when they see me. It’s the fact that I have got such a lot of melanin in me, and so they can then oppress me and humiliate me to the extent of the melanin I carry within my system. So, why people would continue to celebrate and defend systems that have been set in place on their own blood at the expense of their own lives is beyond me to say. I just think that what needs to be done is the wiping away of pretense, the wiping away of the falsity that is that race does not matter. Race was made to matter because it saved [pebbles] that set up slaves against…

by Lesego Rampolokeng

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Leung Ping-Kwan: I would like to rephrase the question to like, “When would it be necessary for us to reconsider whether the law is justifiable? Whether it's in good practice and so on... There may be times when we have doubts about a certain regulation about certain laws in practice but is it in line with the actual need of the people, and whether they are needs to reexamine the law. But I think as Bob Dylan says that if you want to live outside the law, you have to be honest. That is one saying, so it doesn’t mean that you justify yourself for breaking the law and take [inaudible] as being revolutionary or revolting to the regime, but rather how to considered the law, how to take about law when it has become, when has it become too rigid or restrictive to the real needs of the people, like laws or regulations on the [inaudible] of offense or on the individual human right and so on. Then when we get time, we need to reexamine the law and to see whether it is still feasible for this law to be in practice. And how to rate the doubts on the question, how to discuss it open forums, how to make a lot of people aware of that, that would give time to make it possible for people to reconsider and accepting the law.

by Leung Ping-Kwan

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Lijun Fang: I'm borned in China mainland in 1963. I'm 43 now. According to my own experience, if you asked the same question in certain place in the world, you might have been beheaded. In that case, you wouldn't have such a question any more.

by Lijun Fang

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Lillian Holt: Well this is the paradox of existence in some ways for me as an indigent Australian, as an average Australian, because I both love and defend my country. I love my country physically, mentally and spiritually. I belong there. My ancestors lived there for thousands and thousands of years, and yet --and I love it and I can defend it, but also I can be severely critical of it from time to time, because it is a rich and abundant nation but it's also a racist or racialized country in many ways. There's a [gang] of the soul called racism – the [gang] of the soul. We continue to be critical of it because that is about disconnectedness and it's about diminishment, because what diminishes me is that [inaudible] Australia also diminishes white people, but they actually don't understand the connectedness of it [audio glitch] and connect to the soul. As I said I will continue to be critical of my own country while loving it, loving it deeply because it's like family. I belong in Australia. But I will love and defend it and also be critical of it, just as I would my own family and community.

by Lillian Holt

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Livingstone Maluleke: Why a person in America being black and they continue to love and defend a country that treats him or her like and unwanted child. All this thing is all about color which is not very important, because in my understanding a country in which one is born is one’s original place and he belongs there irrespective of the negative treatment that may come from any other person. So, it is all about how one feels about the originality where he or she finds himself, and therefore one is a patriot to one’s country, I belong to where I come from. So, all this thing is all about where do I come from that made us the issue of color whether black or white or yellow is not an issue. Here it’s all about where do I come from? Where are my roots? If am an African, then it means I come from Africa. If I come from Asia, then I am an Asiatic and I have to be respected from my being an Asiatic. That’s all about it.

by Livingstone Maluleke

Sep 9, 2006 11:50:00 AM cite

Mae-Wan Ho:

by Mae-Wan Ho