Matt and Steven leave tomorrow to join Ted in Dubai. Good luck and safe travels (and return) to all of you!

A note about the color: Since the scenery will be a lot of tans and light browns, I’ve chosen a contrasting pale green as the color for captions throughout the project (there won’t be much other green in the images to visually compete). On the maps, I’m using a color that is intended to evoke old parchment. I use a muted blue for boxed map info, again because there won’t be much blue on the maps to compete (since Afghanistan is a landlocked country), so the boxes will stand out.

Bright, saturated colors would seem both inappropriate for the seriousness of the content, and too intense and overwhelming for the line that Ted is using (thinner and looser than he usually uses in his editorial cartoons). So I’m using a palette that is soft and earthy.

-Stephanie

On Monday, a small group went inside the BP command center in New Orleans to confront those responsible for the spill.

http://mobilebroadcastnews.com/MBN/blog/Gulf-Oil-Spill-Unified-Command-Center-Protest?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MobileBroadcastNews+(Mobile+Broadcast+News)

This protest was symbolic; a small number of people couldn’t really disrupt the activities of BP.

Imagine, though, if they had a few hundred angry and determined people. Then they could have shut that place down.

Small numbers + confrontation = symbolic (with potential for effectiveness)

* * *

Hundreds or thousands of people will hold hands on beaches worldwide this weekend, protesting the catastrophe in the Gulf and demanding an end to offshore drilling.

http://www.handsacrossthesand.com/

This might be personally cathartic for some, but how will this stop the atrocities? Will the oil companies and governments of the world care about what people want, and respond accordingly? They have demonstrated time and again that they do not, and will not.

Large numbers – confrontation = symbolic (without potential for effectiveness)

* * *

On Sunday in Oakland, CA, hundreds of people blockaded an Israeli ship to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza. The union workers at the docks refused to cross the picket line, and commerce was disrupted.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/protestors-block-unloading-of-israeli-cargo-ship-in-oakland.html

Large numbers + confrontation = effective action!

This is why it’s important to confront the actual centers of power. Location, location, location.

* * *

How will the people overthrow those in power, and put a stop to exploitation and ecocide?

Large numbers + organization + a plan + confrontation = revolution