Today, February 12, 2021, is the first day of the lunar new year of the ox. Many thanks to our friend Mr Patrick Tsun Ip Chow for sharing his photo with us! The photo has won many prestigious international awards, including the Photographic Society of America (PSA) gold award sponsored by the Federation of Indian Society. May we all be blessed with serenity and peace within and without in these challenging times!
World Social Forum 2021: Global U co-organized activities
On Jan 23-31, 2021, the virtual World Social Forum was convened. Please visit Global U website for activity details, readers, and the video-recorded sessions in multiple languages: https://our-global-u.org/
Here’s links to the videoed sessions:
Jan 22: Global U video for the Opening Ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Jan 26: PP21: Renewing our pledge and rebuilding the alliance of hope
Co-organized with ACFOD and CCRD-CS, Lingnan University:
https://youtu.be/mX7ZXk9N0iE
Jan 27: Traditional Medicines and Indigenous Ways
Co-organized with CCRD-CS, Lingnan University:
Original voices (in Spanish, English and Chinese): https://youtu.be/6zUAN6VUUh8
English interpreting: https://youtu.be/F_F9cjpidfo
[There were two screenings of the documentary film The Fever with English subtitles and Spanish subtitles before and after the webinar. An agora on Traditional Medicines and Indigenous Ways was held on Jan 31.]
Jan 28: A dialogue among activists of social movements about the WSF
Co-organized with Forum Connect and CCRD-CS, Lingnan University:
Original voices (in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English): https://youtu.be/MmIySlGl528
English interpreting: https://youtu.be/5FQdEk65C5E
JAN 29: Zapatista Visions, Voices and Practices
Co-organized with Earth University and CCRD-CS, Lingnan University:
Original voices (in Spanish): https://youtu.be/mUi6c3YPBMo
English interpreting: https://youtu.be/zDg2PyT-TZM
[A collection of the speeches and related articles will be published in Spanish, English and Chinese, with Professor Gustavo Esteva as the chief editor.]
The Seventh South South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS7)
All the sessions of SSFS7 on July 8-17, 2020 have been edited and will soon be all uploaded on to https://our-global-u.org/
SSFS8, scheduled for June 18-30, 2021, will take up some of the Global U themes at WSF2021, such as Traditional Medicines and Indigenous Ways, and Zapatista Visions, Voices and Practices.
South South Dialogue on Sustainability (SSDS)
In Oct-Dec, 2020, a 10-lecture series by Professor Michael Hudson was video-recorded in English, and subtitling in English and Chinese is being undertaken. They are scheduled to be made public in a few weeks. Professor Hudson is working on a book based on the ten lectures, tentatively titled Cold War 2.0: The Geopolitical Economics of Financial Capitalism versus Industrial Capitalism. This book is scheduled to be produced later this year in English and in Chinese.
In Oct-Dec, 2020, the first 10-lecture series on “Venezuela in Struggles” was conducted on zoom webinar and live-streamed in Putonghua (audience: between 1836 and 6014). The Spanish and English sessions are being edited and will soon be made public. The second 10-lecture series starting on Jan 10, 2021 (audience: 4692) will continue till April 2021.
Please see https://our-global-u.org/
SSDS Putonghua Series
A series of lectures were conducted in Putonghua and live-streamed in China:
Professor Dai Jinhua’s series of “Movies that Capture Worlds of Otherness”:
29 Sept 2020: “The frame, the afar and the near” (audience: 8,706)
Oct 26, 2020: “The eye of inquiry” (audience: 11,000)
Professor Wen Tiejun’s lecture series on political economy in China.
Sept 17, 2020: “A story of two circulations”. (Audience: 57,000) Professor Huang Ping’s lecture series on neo-liberalism:
Oct 6, 2020: “The past life of neoliberalism: a historical retrospect of the privatization and marketization promoted by Reagan and Thatcher” (Audience: 7,252)
Nov 10, 2020: “The current life of Neoliberalism: Washington consensus and its impact”. (Audience: 7,555) Mr Lu Qiyuan’s lecture on “Economic changes in the post-Trump era”.
Nov 7, 2020. (Audience: 32,000)
Jan 2, 2021: Book launch of Globalization and Competition of Nations: A Comparative Study of Seven Emerging Countries (authored by Wen Tiejun, Lau Kin Chi, Erebus Wong, Sit Tsui). (Audience: 31,000)
Jan 2-6, 2021: “Rural Reconstruction Actions in the New Era 2020” seminar series
Total: 9 sessions (Audience: between 7,631 and 31,000)
International Dialogue on Democracy Transformation and Feminism in Asia
Following the PWAG sessions at SSFS7 on July 14-15, 2020, members of PWAG Asia proceeded to start a discussion in Asia on democracy transformation and feminism, and co-organized with Global U the seminars:
Nov 21, 2020:
Indigenous Women as Knowledge Keepers
Exchange on Youth, Democracy and Feminism
Nov 28, 2020:
Intergenerational Dialogue on Transformation and Feminism in Asia
Global University for Sustainability Book Series with Palgrave Macmillan
Global U has signed an agreement with Palgrave Macmillan to publish an English book series that aims to draw on the expertise of the Global U community by offering succinct analyses of global crises in their various expressions, as well as focusing on transformative visions and praxis for sustainability, and highlighting on-the-ground community experiences for the common.
The three main categories of publications included in the series are:
- Crises and Alternatives (history of political economy; issues of sustainability; nuclear disasters and people’s actions; a focus on China but not only on China).
- Life and Thought (biographies/autobiographies of eminent activist thinkers from around the world, especially from Asia, Africa and Latin America, connecting their personal trajectory to their thought and their times).
- On the Ground (analysis and interpretation of local community experiences in efforts for sustainability for humanity and for the planet).
The Series Editors are Professor Lau Kin Chi and Professor Sit Tsui. Each volume of the series will go through a peer review process as stipulated by Palgrave Macmillan.
The first volume of the series is Professor Wen Tiejun’s Ten Crises: The Political Economy of China’s Development (1949-2020), scheduled to be published in May 2021.
