Juche – a simple name for a nasty idea. Kim Il Sungism

Jodie Foster, Pregnant Man, Iran, Prince Philip, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, American Idol, Obama, China, Beyonce, Rolling Stones. (sorry for the deception but please read below)

Normally I wouldn’t bother to cover this but since it’s on the list I felt I needed to “dis” it as much as I could. I even took the time to get Buzzes top searches for the week to punch it up a bit. I even checked every category Energy Tough Love has to publicize this human indignity. The list of “Religions” that I used to start this meditation on the relationship between Religion and the Environment placed Juche well down on the list but with 18 million adherents that still alot of folks. I had never heard of it before and I even asked a couple of people if they had heard of it. Imagine my suprise when I typed it into a search engine and up popped this Prick who claimed he was god:

www.dictatorofthemonth.com

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During his lifetime he forced millions of people in North Korea to worship him. Can you imagine anything more degrading or disgusting then a man who points a loaded gun at your head and demands that you treat him like a god. You must pray to him. Oh most Divine Leader. Makes me want to puke. But then he is followed by this buffoon:

www.beconfused.com

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Now they are “worshiping” something no better than a trained monkey. If they had an ENVIRONMENTAL group in North Korea, I wish them the best of luck but I ain’t gonna publish it. I ain’t even gona type it into a search engine. If anybody ever deserved to get a nuke shoved up his poop shoot. This would be it.

Chinese Traditonal Religion Operates An Environmental Group? How do I write about this and avoid racism?

If you go back and look at the original list of the WORLD’S RELIGIONS there are roughly 1.5 billion people that fall into 2 pretty blurry categories. Easiest to deal with are th 1.1 billion,

Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion

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Because I write about them everyday when I am not writing directly about Energy Issues, I am not going to do a post here.. The Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and most of the other environmental nonprofits are of this group. Much harder to discuss though are religions like those of mainland China.

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Chinese traditional religion: 394 million

Chinese Traditional Religion causes clouds in westerner’s minds. I mean it would be so easy to get all New Earthy here with cliches and stuff. Or make rude references to the television program Kung FU and  being like a “grasshopper” or make fun of Shanghai Knights and Jackie Chan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_folk_religion

Western views

The absence of a proper name for this religion, associated with the absence of any canonical literature, have for a long time caused Chinese folk religion to be viewed by Westerners as a popularized version of an “authentic” religion, in the same way that the cult of the saints is viewed. Both in China and outside, adherents often describe themselves, or are described by others, as followers of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, or a mix among these.

http://www.blurtit.com/q738169.html

Blurtit expands on this definition:

“Worship of animals, the sun, moon, earth, the heavens and stars has been a tradition of this religion. Various devotions in celebration of legends, festivals, folk gods and goddesses has been part of the Chinese culture for centuries. Mythical figures, “saints,” immortals, and demigods are part of the Chinese tradition.”

The real problem for many of the world’s religions from a Jewish/Christian/Islam perspective is that they lack a Messianic Character (Christ); they are largely oral and interpretive in nature; and they are not monetheistic. This is true of a post already put up that dealt with Hinduism, but even more true of Jainism and some others.

Yet many of these religions directly address the environment as being much more important than the current leaders of the food chain, and caution against the over use of resources such as energy.

I rarely ever get lucky, but on this topic I did. a guy named Austin Arensberg put together this enormous list of groups, mostly local NGOs, working on environmental issues in China and sharing a traditional perspective.


A partial list includes:

Green Earth Volunteers

http://www.virtualfoundation.org/about/consortium/greenearth.html

Green Watershed
http://www.greenwatershed.org

Green River
http://www.green-river.org/


Nu River Project
http://www.nujiang.ngo.cn

China Rivers Network
http://www.chinarivers.ngo.cn

Wild China
http://www.wildchina.com

Han Hai Sha: Volunteer Website Dedicated to Desertification in China
http://www.desert.org.cn

China Green Foundation

Green Camel
http://www.greencamel.ngo.cn/

Perspectives plateau

www.plateauperspectives.org
Contact: Marc Foggin
Phone: +86 0 976 889 2104
Email: marc_foggin@hotmail.com

Green Khampa
Contact: Mr. Ding Xiaotao
Phone: +(86) (0) 836 283 9119
gzdingxiaotao@vip.sina.com

Friends of Grasslands
Contact: Mr. DA Lintai
Phone: +(86) (0) 471 4312480
steppecl@eyou.com

Green Campbell – Lanzhou Grasslands Research Institute

Gansu Grassland Ecological Research Institute
Contact: Dr. Liang Tiangang
Phone: + (86) (0) 0931 8662047, Fax: 86 0931 8497314
ggeri@public.lz.gs.cn
Address: P.O. Box 61, 730020, Lanzhou, Gansu Province

Snowland Great Rivers Environmental Protection Association
www.snowland-great-rivers.org
Contact: Gara Sandrup Rokai
Phone: + (86) (0) 971 6116 843, 0976 882 9088
Fax: 0976-8829099
uyohata@sina.com ,

okphone2001@yahoo.com

Upper Yangtze Conservation Development Organisation
China Vetiver Network

China Biodiversity Conservation Foundation
Fujian Bird-watching Society
Fujian Fire Bird?
HongKong Bird-Watching Society
Xiamen Bird-Watching Society
Shenzhen Bird-Watching Society
Wetland of the Dongting Lake?

Center for Biodiversity and Indigenous Knowledge
(http://www.cbik.org/)
Siberian Tiger Park
Wuhan Baiji Dolphin Conservation Foundation
China Wildlife Conservation Association
Nature and Culture Conservation Club

Green Dalian
Friends of Nature


And a 2006 Worldwatch Institute article makes this point:


http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3870

In this 2006 article by Lila Buckley, titled:

Maturing Environmental Movement Takes Uniquely Chinese Approach

“While many of their issues are familiar to activists around the world, environmentalists in China recognize that they must forge their own path. Speaking at the NGO Forum, Mei Yue, media director for Greenpeace China, explained how her organization tries to take advantage of environmental principles embedded in Chinese culture and philosophy. “Thinking locally in China involves traditional ideas of humanity in harmony with nature,” she said, noting that environmentalists need to stress more broadly the notion that this harmony is out of balance. “Then we can come up with uniquely Chinese understandings of new terms like ‘ecology’ and ‘sustainable development’ in order to solve our problems,” Mei explained.”

Unfortunately hindsight paints a less than hopeful Picture. The main point of the article is that Chinese Environmentalist are ready to dig in and fight. This last year brought global warming to China producing the first Heavey snowstorms during their New Year and ruining everyone’s holidays. The drought continued in the west and their deserts expanded and they drove the price of oil up over a 100$$$ per barrel.

And as usual the pretty pictures too:

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Dan Piraro Likes Me! (Think: heh mikey, he likes it)

Like in the old Commercials. Anyway Dan periodically gives me permission to post his elegant visual social commentaries (other wise know as editorial cartoons) here at Energy Tough Love. So I try to return the favor and Publish ‘stuff” he thinks is important. To that end: 

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Hey, friends of Bizarro,

I’m part of a very cool comedy show in New York City in a couple of weeks. Come out if you can make it, it’s for a good cause and will be funny funny and more funny.

 

See below or go here:?http://woodstockfas.org/newsletter/mar2008.html


Your kooky pal,

Dan


P.S. Want off my small, private, never-to-be-shared list? Hit “reply” then put “unsubscribe” in the subject line.

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Louis CK was the star of HBO‘s series “Lucky Louie” and numerous HBO and Comedy Central specials lck ?
Janeane Garofalo has been a standup comedian since 1985 & has appeared in umpteen movies & shows. jg ?
Dave Attell has a scheduling conflict but hopes to make it. We’ll know for sure very soon. dave ?
Gary Gulman appeared on NBC‘s Last Comic Standing and recently his own Comedy Central special. gary ?
Will Franken shows “manic brilliance” according to The Daily News, and the Times accuses him of possessing an “erudite wit.” will ?
Dan Piraro creator of the cartoon “Bizarro” and a standup comedian in his own right will emcee. dan ?

We’re seriously jazzed that Janeane Garofalo has joined the lineup for our KOMEDY FOR KARMA fundraiser.

Tickets are selling quickly: order yours now or regret it for the rest of your life.

WHEN: Monday, March 24th at 8pm sharp (doors 7:30)

WHERE: Gotham Comedy Club – 208 W 23rd b/w 7th & 8th Aves.

$50 General Admission

$100 VIP Reserved Seating

$60 General Admission at the door the day of the event

>BUY TICKETS HERE<

The ticket price is partially tax-deductible.

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Mark your calendars

The farm visiting season begins April 5th and lasts through October.

Visit our “Visit” Page for some Visitorific info!

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Join us on Facebook!

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UPDATE ON OLIVIA
olivia

Thanks for all the kind notes about Olivia, the ailing goat we reported on in the last newsletter. The great news is that she has really made a turn for the better!

Diagnosed with lymphoma last spring, this 13-year-old became too weak to stand when the cold weather hit in January. Her friends and sponsors came over to say goodbye as the day we had all been dreading seemed to be upon us.

After bringing her into our house (that’s right, co-founders Jenny & Doug, Olivia, a blind chicken, 3 dogs and 3 cats are all living happily under one roof) and beginning a new regimen of treatments, Olivia is back to her old self again! A cancer-fighting herbal remedy, a daily tray of wheatgrass (a suggestion of juicing enthusiast Kris Carr of Crazy Sexy Cancer fame), and lots of love and care are helping our old girl get back on track.

Now she’s up and walking around with a voracious appetite for anything you put in front of her. She spends hours outside (with her coat on) visiting her friends around the farm but it’s still too cold for her old bones to sleep out in the barn overnight.

Olivia is a perfect example of why we so desperately need our Animal Hospice Center (a temperature-controlled environment for sick animals). Please help us meet our goal of raising the last $60K by May of this year.

Our friend, talented artist J.T. Yost is helping us meet that goal by donating half the profits of the sale of his incredible Olivia print which he made for our last art benefit. Check out his website for pet portraits here: You’ll find Olivia’s image amongst many other very cool prints.

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IKNOW I KNOW I should resize the damn thing but you get the idea…Its a comedy show to raise money for an animal sanctuary…so go already. Also if you click on the link for Woodstock you can see the whole thing if you must. I mean look at the talent, geez.

AND if you like to see his new spiffy blog and get a schedule of his events (he has been gigging alot lately) and his latest witticisms (yes he actually has deep thoughts:<) 

You crazy kids,

Just posted a new blog about my comedy shows in Californy and our kooky Elvis impersonator re-wedding in Las Vegas last week. Hope you likey. Lots of pics and a short video! Wow!

Dan

P.S. As always, I never sell or share my private email list. If you want off, though, hit “reply” and put “unsubscribe” in the subject line. (sniff)

If you don’t want to read my blog, don’t go here:

http://bizarrocomic.blogspot.com/

 

 

<After all that genuflecting  here is the latest Bizarro “fair usage” from the great man…

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Thanks Dan….