2021.11.16

     Today's class was the final wrap-up of the documentary, "Corporation".

     The first topic was the social responsibility of the corporations and the effectiveness of protests. GAP, a worldwide popular fashion company was once known for its child labor and low-wage labor. Protesters questioned the employees in the cashier if the cloth is produced by the children. This was a highly creative and effective way to bring about a store dysfunction legally. I believe it can be utilized in protest against other shops and brands too. Moreover, Bolivia had got back its water supply business by continuous large-scale demonstration. There are several ways other than a demo to protest powerful corporations. For example, the democracy meeting took place in Arcata, California. In the meeting, people and the manager of the chain restaurant had a controversy on banning unhealthy chain restaurants. People had won and an ordinance banning new chain restaurant construction was finally passed. People can also use the judiciary and appeal to justice like the case against WR Grace, a Texas Bio Company, and how the patent of the Neem Tree and Basmati Rice was canceled. Through the case study, I once again noticed that we can not undermine people's power.

     Secondly, as the wrap-up of the documentary movie, we considered if people who watched would act or not. Michael Francis Moore claimed people would, and corporations said they would not.  I am predicting that a very small number of Japanese people would actually try to make any change, However, in my opinion, people literally MUST ACT. Considering the current situation that corporations are gaining connections to our daily lives, and social and environmental problems are getting even more desperate, I simply feel like "knowing is not enough(many people tend to get satisfied by only knowing)". I hope people would take up themselves to the next level.