We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Paris State of Emergency

Click here if you wish to access this short introduction and 19:24 video directly from Medialien (France). 

The video (English translation) shows mostly activists who are commenting on the current "State of Emergency" declared by the French President Francois Hollande after the November 13 attacks across Paris which was recently extended. The main effect has been a clamp down on activist demonstrations of all kinds starting with the COP21 conference on Climate Change held in Paris in December.
A look back on the first months of the state of emergency in Paris: activists in custody, protests shut down, warrantless house arrests, and the COP21 strangled by anti-terrorist measures.