Words on Water
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
I just saw a great documentary by Sanjay Kak, called Words on Water (2003). It focuses on longstanding resistance to the construction of giant dams in India’s Narmada Valley. The footage is captivating, including a scene in which Arundhati Roy is arrested and taken to jail in an SUV owned by a dam construction company. In another scene, James Wolfensohn (during his tenure as president of the World Bank) talks through a chain-link fence to a crowd of protesters. I found the activists very inspiring, although I know there are other ways of viewing this conflict. There must be a way to safeguard against abuses of power, and I think it starts with this kind of organized community action.
Credits: Image of a scene in Words on Water from magiclanternfoundation.org.



The Municipal Art Society of New York has sponsored an exhibition titled “Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York” at the Urban Center in Manhattan. It focuses on Jacobs’s life, work, and enduring influence on civic activism. The accompanying website contains pictures, multimedia, and a great deal of information from the exhibition.
The
Muhammad Yunus details his experience developing practical solutions to extreme poverty in Bangladesh and throughout the world. A very inspiring book.