And welcome back to Think Tank. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Global Connections. We're talking today about an update on the decline of U.S. relations with China, Carl Baker, who has been around Pacific Forum and other global organizations for years and years, and is a fantastic Think Tank kind of observer on all of this. Carl, welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks for having me back, Jerry. So we met in June, seems like a long time ago, and we talked about the obvious deterioration of U.S.-China relations with Trump and Xi Jinping, and now it's a couple months later, and that deterioration has not stopped. What benchmarks do you see to kind of examine the direction of that decline? Well, of course, the three big speeches that we had by Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Advisor O'Brien and then FBI Chief Christopher Wray have all painted a very bleak picture about national security concerns from China. And so I think that that's the benchmark, is that it's becoming very much a consensus that there is a problem with national security, that our national security is being challenged by China. But what's bothersome for me is that it's hard for me to see where the national security concerns are coming from, because, for example, today, we just had a proclamation by Donald Trump that as of September 20, we are no longer allowed to do any business with TikTok and WeChat from China, and he's citing national security concerns. But the security concerns are about personal information that might be aggregated by the Chinese that they could use against American citizens. But if you're not traveling to China, I fail to see how that's really a imminent national security concern to the level that we've heard from these three individuals. Well, let me throw a theory at you and see what you think. You know, this all started at the beginning of his term where he started bashing China and he started a trade war with China, which is a pretty destructive and threatening. And he didn't achieve anything, even his phase one agreement, if you can call that an agreement. There's no hope of a phase two, now it looks like to me. Those were not particularly constructive things. You know, between the race aspect of it and the trade aspect of it and the name calling aspect, this all seemed like a way to play to his base and bash the Chinese, find a scapegoat, if you will, a shiny object to hand them, rather than advance American foreign policy. What do you think about that theory? Well, I think that that is certainly a component of it. But it's broader than that, I think, Jay. I think that it really is a societal problem right now. And I think the Americans feel threatened by Chinese technology. They feel threatened by the expansion of Chinese military capability. And the one area that some Americans at least feel threatened by is the movement by the Chinese to assume leadership of international organizations. Now, of course, this is a particular problem with the Trump administration because in some ways we are busy abdicating our role in those international organizations. I think those are, if you want to talk about three areas where I see some level of consensus in the United States beyond just what the Trump administration has done in terms of the economy and in terms of responses to the military activity in South China Sea. I think that those are the three areas that I see. And again, there's some level of consensus with both Democrat and Republican constituencies in Washington that this is becoming a problem and that the United States needs to act in response to what they see our Chinese provocation. But is there really a security threat? I mean, for example, yesterday Senator Blumenthaler got up and said that they had been, his committee, Armed Forces Committee had been taken to a dark room in the basement of the Capitol building and sworn not to reveal any of the proceedings. And then they were told by the intelligence agencies that Russia was undermining our election at a rate much more profound than in 2016. Using all their old weapons for the internet research agency and the like and even hacking into our election devices. And now to me, that is clearly, you know, it clearly goes to the security of the United States, goes to our elections are the fundamental governmental structure that we rely on for the country. And Trump hasn't done anything about that. He ignores it. And in fact, he classified this so they had to be sworn to secrecy. But now they're really hampered because they can't do anything about it. Where according to Blumenthal, it was a fantastic existential threat. Now that to me is a paramount security concern, much greater concern than TikTok. How does our government establish this kind of policy? Isn't it wrong way car again here? Well, yeah, I mean, I think that's what I was trying to say early. And I think you see the same thing that okay, if there is a national security concern, what is the national security concern?  And I think you're right. Cyber security is a problem. And what Russia is doing with the elections does create a national security concern. And what Russia has been doing in Europe, I think, is a national security concern. And the arms control breakdown between the United States and Russia, that is a national security concern. But what China is doing, I think, is really trying to establish itself in Asia, which is understandable why they feel threatened by the United States in the South China Sea. Now, have they done excessive land claims? Yes, certainly. Have they done things that need to be dealt with? Yes. But the United States has to have some level of cooperation from other people in the region if they're going to be successful in contesting what China is doing in those areas, just like with the economy. If you're going to sanction and you're going to put tariffs on China, you have to have support from the rest of the world. And Europe isn't working with the United States. And the United States isn't working with Europe on developing a collaborative approach. Just like in Southeast Asia, the Southeast Asian countries are not encouraging the United States to take belligerent action. In fact, several of the Southeast Asian countries are saying, hey, United States, please understand that we have our own problems with China and we'll deal with them in our own way. But don't think that we're on board with you trying to be overly aggressive in the South China Sea and that we're going to come along with you because we're not. Yeah. Well, you and I have shared the Jerome Cohn, the latest blog, in which he includes a number of commentaries by various people, a number of Chinese in the United States and elsewhere about their reaction to what is going on between the US and China. And one that sticks with me is the blog that said that the Southeast Asia and all that, they're standing by. They're waiting in the wings. They don't want to offend the United States and they have too much at stake to offend China. So they're kind of just watching, waiting for some resolution of it and hoping that China and the US can work things out. So I think it sounds like what's happening is this is becoming a mono-e-mono bilateral issue between the two countries and everybody else is standing to see what happens. Yeah. And I think that's why perceptions matter. And so if we're in a competition with China for international leadership, well, the worst thing we can do is to continue to walk away from international organizations. And that's really what we're doing. So if our interests are human rights and we're not going to pursue human rights through international organizations, then what are we doing? I mean, China has developed its own approach to international organizations and it supports governments. It doesn't try to change governments. It's not in the business of creating an empire. In the Cohen piece that you're talking about, several people acknowledge that. That China is a lot of things, but what it's not is a country that's trying to dominate the world. China is perfectly willing to work with other countries and let dictators be dictators. And it's not out there to dominate the world. It's there to ensure that its interests are protected and protect the interests of other states and support those people that are friendly to China. Yeah, I'm sure. And one great ironic thing is that China is on the human rights organization within the United Nations. And so they're heroes for human rights there and realize at the same time they're doing terrible things on human rights. And frankly, I think the U.S. and the Trump is declining on human rights. I mean, there's recently a book about the caste system and that's an expansion of the term as it used to exist as it does exist in India, where the U.S. has institutionalized a caste system on race. So we don't look so good either. And meanwhile, at the U.N., they're kind of taking a leadership role on the issue. That is so ironic. Yeah. And we're sort of, as I said previously, and we're sort of abdicating, right? The United States is sort of abdicating that role to China. So where are we in health? Where are we in world trade organization? Where are we in the U.N.? What are we doing? We're sort of saying, well, we don't want to be a part of that. We're going to walk away from these treaties. We aren't going to be a part of the Paris Accord. We're going to withdraw from WHO in the middle of a pandemic. And China saying, okay, thank you. There have been several commentaries by people who have said China couldn't ask for more than a second term from Trump because it's sort of a free grab of world leadership that the United States is basically giving away. And so, yes, you're right. It is a competition between the U.S. and China. And the rest of the world is watching. And the rest of the world is watching the United States basically allow China to take control of these organizations and control their control the way they run. It's very chilling when you say that China would like to see Trump reelected. So let's see. That means China would like to see Trump reelected. And so would Russia. And both of those countries have the ability to interfere with our national elections, which is also chilling. But it doesn't seem to me that China is actively doing that. Is there any evidence that China is sort of rolling out some kind of initiative to interfere with our elections? No, I don't think it is. I don't think we have seen that. I don't think we've seen the active role that the Russians have played. And again, see, I think that that's really inconsistent with what China has done in the rest of the world. They aren't really interested in trying to influence American society as much as they are interested in having countries that support China's interests. And so I don't see them as trying to undermine the society. Certainly, they're trying to get trade secrets. They're certainly in the business of stealing technology. And they're certainly in the business of trying to get people in the United States to support China's interests. But I don't see them, again, I don't see them as trying to create the empire. And that's really what it would suggest if they're trying to undermine the society, that they want to dominate the world, whatever that really means today. They're happy enough to see the way it's going. We talked about the State Department. Under Trump, it's like there is no State Department. There's no policy. There's no plan. That was clear in these various commentaries. There seems to be no foreign policy plan. But if there was a plan, Carl and Sherry Conn talked about this, and it could be a plan. It could be a plan. With a real State Department, we would have a plan and we would deal in a much, much more strategic way with all this. But what would that plan look like in your thought? Well, see, I think, actually, we have a bipartisan agreement on development. And it's trying to work with private enterprises to support developmental goals. And so they call the Build Act. And this Build Act is really the format for a true global economic policy. It's easy to say we walked away from the trade agreements. But really, this Build Act really represents a much broader approach to economic integration with the rest of the world. And so while we don't have just the trade piece, but you also have trade and development and foreign assistance all working together. And so when you have somebody building infrastructure like China and Japan have done, you have the ability to actually create enterprises to use that infrastructure. And the Build Act really is a policy that is the format for that. But of course, we haven't followed through with it. We haven't done anything with it because that we've been distracted with other things. But that really is the basis, I think, for a strong foreign policy. It's not driven by the military. It's driven by economic concerns and economic cooperation that gives the United States some leverage over these countries that China is trying to develop this infrastructure in. Because what these countries really need is the capacity to actually use that infrastructure once it's put into place. And no one has really thought about how you do that. And with all the private capital available in the U.S. markets, of course, it's a great opportunity to really develop a true economic approach to foreign policy and move it away from the military. Sounds like a kinder, gentler, one-belt, one-road approach where we could meet them on a competitive basis. We're competing with them, but we're also taking advantage of what they're doing. Instead of seeing it as competition for us, we should be seeing it as an opportunity for us to actually leverage what they've done to our benefit. And like I said, the pieces are in place. And to his credit, Assistant Secretary of State Stillwell has actually talked a little bit about that in some forums. That he has talked about how that development program would actually help. But of course, it's talk. There's not enough money being put against it or any real serious manpower being put against it. And query whether we can be confident that anything will happen. But looking at the day-to-day and the shiny objects and the news and all the media, all the media I look at anyway, you have the closing down of the consulate in Houston, is it? And now in response, the closing down of the American consulate in Chengdu, these are not happy things. And they are sort of slaps in the face, if you will, and they raise the temperature. And it's not just between governments or between Xi Jinping and Trump playing with each other. It has an effect beyond that, doesn't it? Has an effect to the man in the street who thinks, as I would, that these countries are in contention. And the next step could be much more controversial. Yeah. And that's why the rest of the world, as you say, it is watching. And they're seeing this. And nobody really wants to get in between it because they see this as sort of a fight to the end between the two superpowers, between the two large powers. But I think one thing we have to understand is that China is a big place. And you can't really compete with China if you're going to try to make America first. Because if you try to focus on the mercantilist approach that China has done, you're going to lose because it's not a fair fight. They've got a few more people and they have an economy now that can actually sustain itself. So you have to think about how do you really compete on the global level is through cooperation, through collaboration with these other countries on key issues like climate change, like arms control, like health, like development assistance, all those things. There has to be a collaborative effort. And if you're going to try to compete between the United States, which has a large economy, has a big military, but what it doesn't have is it doesn't have a strong economic policy for global integration. And that's what's missing, I think.  And of course, the military and other things go with that. Once you start doing that, it's a much, much more effective approach rather than trying to sanction everybody. And think that because you have the largest economy in terms of GDP, that you can get away with that. And the fact is, is that it just isn't sustainable. Well, this is confrontational behavior we see. Usually it starts with Trump, as it did in the closing of the consulates. This is a concern you. I mean, we have three, four months left. Even if he loses, we have three, four months left. And gee, he could do a lot of things like that to raise the temperature. Is this concern you in terms of raising the level of confrontation, maybe even to violence, violence in the South China Sea, violence in some theater in the world? Well, I think that China has certainly taken the approach to say Trump is crazy. I mean, they're basically characterizing the Trump administration as people who are irresponsible. And so I think that that's in some ways a good indication that they recognize that the Trump administration is that they might be able to wait out the Trump administration. And so, and I think that's what the way the rest of the world sees it, is that, you know, certainly it puts a lot of pressure on the election in November. But I think that most of the world sees that if we can get past November, then we can re-look at things. And even China has sort of characterized this as pre-election posturing by the administration, even giving the administration if, for some reason, the Trump administration wins the election, you know, that they're leaving the door open to rethink how we do things after the November election. So I think that's a bit encouraging that at least the Chinese recognize that this is largely posturing by an American political party. Then to throw COVID into the soup here, although Trump has criticized them and used comments like that the Chinese flew and all this. Fact is that the researchers in China, in Wuhan, gave to the world the genome for the virus very quickly. And, you know, I don't think people realize that all these researchers working on vaccine or therapeutics, they have the genome for the virus and that's their way ahead for that. That saved them a lot of time. Furthermore, let me add that I understand that China, even now, through those same laboratories in Wuhan and elsewhere in that part of China, are developing, in fact, have developed a vaccine because it's like every country for itself these days and the level of cooperation developing a vaccine is not what it should be. And China has done that itself. And China is not burdened by the FDA and the phase three trial obligations to be sure of efficacy and safety. So they're actually distributing a vaccine now. Maybe it's kind of a phase three trial without calling it a trial. And if they succeed, Carl, if they succeed in a vaccine that actually cuts down the demographic demography on further cases with further infection of coronavirus, they're going to look like a hero for the world, for the world everywhere. People are going to see them as advanced on the biochemical and medical research end of things. Does that enter into any of this in terms of the relationship? Well, I think it does. But I want to just give a little bit of a corrective there is that while China is developing its own vaccine, it's also in collaboration with the German company developing a vaccine. And so there's news this week that in fact that they are entering phase three trials, that it's a German company and I can't remember the name of the company right now, but it's a German-Chinese collaboration. So certainly China is heavily engaged with the rest of the world in developing a vaccine and is heavily engaged in doing the research to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. And so I think that, yes, it does enter in. And again, if you look at how the rest of the world is viewing this, I think that they see China as being a serious actor, as being an actor that is actually interested, again, in finding a collaborative approach. And this is all part of the Chinese narrative, that win-win cooperation and all this stuff that they always talk about. I think the rest of the world sees. The United States, of course, says, oh, that's just the Chinese trying to trick people. But I think that the rest of the world doesn't quite see it that way. If you look at the news coming again from the rest of Asia, from Europe, they see China as someone who has taken an interest in these international organization, in these international collaborative efforts, specifically right now on the pandemic. And so, yeah, they might cheat a little bit on how they approach their research and how they do their trials. But they also understand that there is a international norm for scientific discovery. And they're following that. They're not just arbitrarily saying, we're going to provide a vaccine to everybody. They're actually, I think, collaborating better. And they're working through the WHO. They're not walking away from the WHO. So they're collaborating with individual companies. They're collaborating with the WHO. And so I think that in the end, they're looking like a better actor in this sense than the United States. Oh, I totally agree. Well, so up to this point, Carl, we've had so many Chinese researchers and academicians all through our colleges and universities, all through our research companies and facilities in this country. They have made great contributions, not only to the global effort in medicine in general, and all kinds of science, but also to the United States initiatives. And so I really wonder how this contention is affecting them.  He's made it hard for them to travel and immigrate and lead the lives they were hoping to lead before.  And the result is we lose all that talent that has been so instrumental. I mean, you and I can see that there are so many people with Chinese names, with Mandarin names, sprinkled throughout the country in there, all achievers it seems like, and they're all from China, and now they're at risk. So that's going to have or already has had an effect on the ability of this country to do research and academic discovery. What do you think? Yeah, no, I agree completely.  And what we're doing is we're trying to turn our back on those people. And I think that some people feel very bad about it. And like you say, there are Chinese who are leading experts in so many areas in the United States and certainly in the hard sciences.  And so, yeah, I think I think we really need to need to step back and think about what we're doing for the long term national security interests of the United States, which is to have a dynamic economy that's based on research, based on science, based on developing new ideas. Instead of this mindset of we're going to come back and we're going to mine coal and we're going to build iron products in the Midwest. It's just so 19th century and we can't do that. It's an information age and we need to think about it as an information age. And when we do that, then we can think about how we really need to approach China and how we need to think about integrating our American economy into a world economy that benefits everybody, not just the United States in a very narrow closed sort of economy. And I think that that's the hope that we get in next year. That once we're past this pandemic and once we're past this sort of silly competition between China and the US, you know, maybe this flushing out from the virus that will come to realize that their time is not on our side anymore, that we really need to start thinking about collaborating and developing our new economy and moving beyond this mindset that the nation state is the only reasonable political actor in the international system that we really do need international organizations to advance the areas that need to be advanced in terms of the information age. You know, about a month ago, Carl, Trump announced that he wanted to resume nuclear testing. I'm not sure that he actually did anything about that. I haven't heard more about it, but I've heard reaction to it. And in fact, this week, one of the individuals thing, retired general, came on the media and he'd written a book about nuclear testing in the United States. And the notion of the book was that the president, whether it's Trump, but especially if it's Trump, should not have a one person discretion to launch a nuclear attack and we don't live in those times anymore. We don't need that kind of immediate response sort of thing that we thought in the 50s, maybe we needed. And this book, I think it'd be pretty popular, but what troubled me about it is that it still seems to be out there in play that this president could actually press the button and that nuclear has gone beyond deterrence. It's going to first strike thinking. And that is the ultimate possibility when you have two nations, both of which have the bomb and which are getting angry at each other at some levels and may get angry or still. How does that play in all of this? Do you think that Congress will ever limit, should it limit, can it limit politically? The notion of having one person controls the football? Well, certainly, I think they should. I mean, this was an issue during the latest nuclear crisis with North Korea. And it came up. Really, how much power does, how much authority does one individual have? And you're right, it's all based on the idea that if the Soviet Union launched a missile, you had to launch yours in 20 seconds or you'd be destroyed. Well, those days are gone. I mean, it's a time to rethink that, but as you say, it's a very difficult issue. So to give you the short answer, no, I don't think it's possible to deal with that today, but it certainly is something that we need to deal with in the immediate future. And it's out of sight, out of mind because nobody really wants to think about it. There's a small cadre of people that think about nuclear war. And it's probably the most dismal, horrible thing that you could possibly have for an occupation because you're really thinking about the destruction of the earth as we know it. But it needs to be a public conversation about how do we deal with that. And it goes beyond just a conversation within the United States. We really need to have a global conversation about this. What are the impacts of a nuclear weapon? If you think about the panic that has been created when we had the nuclear reactor in Japan, how much panic there was when people were buying salt in Portland because they were worried about contamination. Imagine what would happen if there was actually a nuclear weapon that was detonated, of how much panic that would create. So again, maybe we've learned something from this pandemic that things really don't recognize borders. And so that whole arms control approach needs to be rethought. And certainly part of that should be how do we de-glamorize nuclear weapons? How do we get nuclear weapons out of the mindset that this is the ultimate guarantor of peace? I mean, how perverse that we have a weapon that basically ends the world as we know it as the ultimate weapon of peace because that's all we can think of. That's the best we can do. It's rather disheartening when you think about well, you know, when I was a kid, I'm sure you remember too that there were all these protests and demonstrations. Let's end nuclear weapons. Remember the peace sign, right? The peace sign there in the 50s and the 60s. And they never got what they wanted. They never really outlawed nuclear weapons. And non-proliferation agreements really, they're not effective right now. Trump has pulled out. So we're stepping backward on this rather than forward. But here it takes us to the last question I want to ask you, Carl. And that is, you know, knock wood. Soon enough, Joe Biden will be president or at least he'll win the election. Hopefully that'll stick. It's going to be, he's going to have to roll back some of these some of these moves that Trump has made in dealing with China. And it's complex. It's not all right and wrong. It's nuanced in both sides. What do you think he'll be able to do that in a reasonable period of time? What is your advice to him? Because he can save it, I think, but how and when and how long and what kind of expertise is he going to need around him to do it? Yeah, I mean, that's a that's a big question. And it's a big task. And the short answer is, no, I don't think I don't think he's going to be able to do that in the span of four years. Because there's a there's a growing consensus in the United States with the among both Democrats and Republicans that we need to deal with China. And I think that's the that's the part that we need to get passed. And that's going to take a while. Because what we really need to think about is how do we deal with the world? And what is what is our place in the world? Trump Trump has has in his in his destruction of so many institutions has really moved us past the point of going back to to the old liberal idea of, you know, rising tide rises all boats or yeah, you know, I mean, so I think we're I think we're past that and we need to really think about what do we really want from global governance? What do we really want from from our global footprint? And how do we deal with these global issues? And it can't be the United States's way or the highway, which is what both Democrats and Republicans have had that we're to the point now where China has become a reasonable player at the global level, and we need to recognize that and we need to think about how do we develop a collaborative framework? And so that Biden has to has to move in that direction. I think that that's where we need to go. We need to roll back some of the excesses of the Trump administration. But then I think we need to think about where do we go from there and where we go from there is is a much more collaborative approach at the global level where we we actually have friends and allies that work with us to to sort of tamp down some of the excesses that we see from Xi Jinping and and other other people of his ilk in other governments. You know, from a policy wonk like yourself, a foreign policy wonk like yourself, that sounds like the most challenging, interesting, and promising experience that the United States can have to repair a relationship that's been damaged to repair it in such a way that it benefits all the parties and the rest of the world as well. What a great time that would be, don't you think, from an intellectual foreign policy point of view? Yeah, and I think I think you would stimulate a lot of the people who have left the government to come back and and really contribute to that. Because like I said, you know, I mean, if you look at if you look at Trump's aberration as as the opportunity to rebuild with with some of the old chivalrous out of the way, just because that's what Trump did is he kicked everything out of the way that we really have a much more clean slate than we would have had had we had more continuity in in the American approach to to to global governance and to to global engagement. And so I think I think there's there's the opportunity at but it's going to take a lot of perseverance on the part of the Americans because because the Americans have to lose the mindset that only the Americans can be the global leaders. There has to be a collaboration that can't be it can't be okay we're back in the saddle now come follow us. I think those days are gone and we need we need to recognize that and and Americans aren't going to take that very easily both Democrats and Republicans because we still want to be number one we still have the biggest economy so we still need to be in charge and we need to decide when we can when we can put sanctions on people and when we can put tariffs on people and that that whole mindset has got to shift and so that's I think the big challenge for for for the Biden administration when they come into come into office assuming they win the election in November that that's that's where they need to start from that that yes we're going to pull back some of the excesses but then we need to think about building but not not bringing back the old ideas but building new. I hope you and I can regroup from time to time Carl and take a look at that and see how it's working and and have discussions like this it's been very valuable thank you so much Carl Baker. Okay thanks Jay.


Two people find themselves on a train platform. Only one has a ticket. Destination? Heaven, it reads. One way. Got your ticket? The ticket holder asks her platform companion. He reaches into his pockets, only to return him to hand it. Doesn't look like it. Where's the train headed?  Sorry, she says. This one's mine.


Hey smart Christians welcome back. I was sent a video to take a look at by one of the viewers Marshall K. Johnson who wanted me to take a look at this particular person. I think his name is Henry Thomas. I'm not sure of his name but I guess he's got a lot of videos on tiktok and he is speaking about egalitarianism and complimentarianism. In other words kind of woman fulfilled the role of the office of a pastor is that okay biblically now his contention is that a woman can and that all of us who believe that she cannot that one we have fallen victim to this white colonized way of thinking how that creeps it I don't know but also that we don't understand our greek and that we don't understand church history and what the bible actually intended so let's look at the video first and then let's kind of take a look at what he stated to see if it's true or false I'm telling you ahead of time he's wrong another person who don't know how to exegete scripture when you reach a bible let me help you out maybe you you're not familiar with the greek well verse one of verse 10 that he said if anyone to where man in there is the generic word for man that phrases anyone it's gender neutral if anyone let's do a couple things first of all when he says that speaking about exegeting scriptures to exegete means to pull out what it says I'm just giving kind of a rough definition but whatever it says we take out of it from what we're reading we're not going to put anything into it unless obviously if we've got the backdrop of other scriptures to add to it and so if there's some scriptures that we can look at either prior to this scripture being written or after or surrounding to kind of add to this to give us the idea in this case about women preaching well then we should go ahead and do so now the problem is though we don't have any scriptures where we can even we can even think that that's even a possibility where we can draw from and there's other passages somewhere that tell us that women are to be leading men women are to be teaching and preaching and pastoring shepherding men we don't see that concept anywhere and so this would be at the outset of what he's just stated what he's doing is classic exegety reading into a passage his own beliefs his own views but then he talks about in the very beginning in this passage in 1 Timothy 3 let's go there and look at it he says that this particular passage he says that this particular passage there is no there's a gender neutral when it says if anyone now on his point this Greek word right here tease he's correct it is gender neutral even though it's masculine which doesn't mean anything because the word is feminine masculine or neutral or neuter doesn't mean anything in terms of relating to a person's gender for example in Hebrew the word Abba that's a feminine term that's a feminine noun but it only refers to a man a father a male and so in this case the word tease does only does refer to anyone a certain one somebody the problem is he's not carrying out his rules throughout the rest of the scripture who said if Paul meant for that to be male man he could have used to wear andross he didn't use anthropoceda because any male or female but he said if anyone that's interesting so now he says that if if he wanted to mean a male a man he would have used the word andross but in this case he didn't well let's just keep reading verse 2 therefore an overseer must be above reproach the husband of one wife now we'll come back and deal with that in just a second however the word that he speaks of andross is there look over to the right it's a Greek word andra which is the word it means either husband or man this word is never ever ever used to describe or to refer to a woman or just the entirety of human being in other words of mankind okay tease could be a word that's used for anyone whosoever even the word cosmos which is the word world that could refer to all of of humankind or as he said the word anthropoceda that also could refer to mankind but andra no never as a matter of fact this word that is brought up when jesus is speaking with the woman at the well she says i don't have a husband she uses the the phrase echo andra which is not i have a husband however jesus turns around and and emphasizes husband a man he says andra first so it's clear without question you won't find any greek student scholar teacher whomever that will tell you that this word is ever used to refer to men and women or a woman and when we look at the phrase again notice what's also there the word is mias gunakas andras which is one wife husband now the word wife is from the word uh gynae which which is obviously where we get the word gynaecology but in this case it's the gynaecos which is a wife one wife husband meaning and this word is only ever used in reference to women plus you don't know the real correct meaning behind husband one wife and wife of one husband that phrase that paul you which is an idiom you don't know the meaning behind it read it in its correct context not in your complementary view that disappears the scripture he he attempts to make the case that this is an idiom well no it's not it's not really an idiom it's not in an idiom especially in the sense that we don't get the meaning from it if you take it as an idiom or someone says it is you know what i'll even grant you that but it's clear if it's an idiom what it means although i say it's not an idiom but it's clear that if it is it's clear that the reference is one woman for this man that's the qualification but then something else is there as well if we drop down the verse four says he must manage his own household well with all dignity keeping his children uh submissive for if someone does not know how to manage his own household how will he take care of the church of god now keeping things in context as well who is supposed to be the head of the house this part isn't debatable either and he didn't i don't think he makes this this issue as well uh the husband is the head of the wife that part of clear paul makes that part jesus is the head of the husband um he's the head of the church but the man is the head of the wife and so he's using this exact same analogy in terms of running the church and so it cannot be if you use this analogy that it also applies to a woman because in this regard the woman cannot be over the man now let's look at some other scriptures also that i think that he fails to to bring into into account properly let's go to 1st timothy 2 8 where it says that i desire in every place that men men should and by the way the word for men is andras that men males should pray lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling likewise also that the women and there's distinction ghanakas uh women should adorn themselves respectable apparel with modesty and self-control not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly tire look what he says but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works let a woman and the word that's used here is a word guy named let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness here that word that word submissiveness i do not permit a woman what word is used there uh ghanaki woman to teach or exercise authority over a man there's word andro and so what's clear here what's clear here is the distinction between male and female let's finish something up real quick it says rather she is remain silent now the four adam was formed first then eve now well we won't go too far into verse 13 and 14 um but for adam was formed first then eve and adam was not deceived but the woman was deceived so that seems to be in tracking and going along with the whole point of her being in submission well what happened at the fault at the fault the woman was placed under the male headship in other words she was placed in a submissive role because of her role for how long until he changes it until god determines that it will be different and he's but he did say this though that uh from that point on that she would strive but she would go after that she would contend for basically his role and we see that happening now unfortunately we have men such as this brother here who is helping women to go against the roles that god has put out it's not an issue of who's superior who's better who's smarter no it's an issue of order how god has ordained these things not that that the best she doesn't have the ability to speak well or to teach or to learn that's not it at all that's never the case as a matter of fact there are men who are very knowledgeable who know how to teach who know how to speak but also are disqualified from being a pastor but in this passage one portion that tends to get highlighted to the detriment of the other portion in verse 12 he says i do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man now i'm not sure how he handles this but oftentimes they'll say that a woman can can can um teach or lead or what have you uh if she's got some sort of spiritual covering and that's why you'll see some people eat back to put a head covering over the women look at the first part look at what comes before then he says i do not permit a woman to teach and there's two things here to teach over a man let alone dealing with the whole part of exercising authority where someone will say well she's not exercising authority well in this regard if she's a pastor she is but she can even teach over a man those are two separate things and so that part is clear this this is not this is not really debatable unless someone just wants to adhere to their own standards unless you feel like you've got some sort of new revelation now paul also addresses this again in first crimson's 14 in verse 34 he says the um as in all churches of the same verse 34 the women should keep silent what's the word for women uh gonike switch is women should keep silent in the churches for they are not permitted to speak but should be in this order again submission as the law also says in other words that this was something that was also required prior to the cross as well so if there's anything that they desire to learn who's the they being the same women let them ask their husbands their word andros at home for a sample for a for a woman to speak and it's the word gonike here in greek uh gonike for a woman to speak in church and in this case the point isn't that she couldn't open her mouth and say anything she couldn't pray she couldn't praise god she couldn't worship no the point was um in this case how things were out of order that she was not allowed to to do those things that she was not allowed to lead to to give guidance and so forth which is what paul says i do not permit a woman to teach or to take authority over man and so paul has also given out the guidelines for who can have these these roles now in the first century church were there women who were servants or deacons well or deaconesses not in the sense of someone having an office having authority there's always been people who've been servants such as phoebe but was phoebe in an official role where she had headship or or leadership or authority over men where she would know that's not the case now it is not the same to say that a woman cannot share the gospel with a male that is not what that's saying it's to teach or to have authority over and so now in this regard you have to have women to be able to say this is what the word of the lord says in terms of leading someone to christ but in as far as the church is concerned she cannot teach over a man in the church that person is not part of the church yet and she cannot have authority over that man uh who is also who is now part of the church and so someone like a phoebe or a priscilla doing just that um saying what the word says that's not taking authority over a man and that in that case is also serving a woman can serve can she have a role where she is officially over a male paul is clear and explicit on that and what you did you just forced and i know people can get in the feeling i said this but it's the truth you just forced Caucasian complementarian theology that was invented by them to keep women subjugated yeah because it goes against historically the bible and historically how we women got to be subjugated in the christian church anyways first timothy don't say that you ain't read it matter of fact you haven't read the original greek because no way to read the original text and come away from that because clearly paul says in verse 11 and likewise the women he didn't say wise he said women there's no pronoun that said there in that text it's likewise women meaning that whatever the men's are the women and you don't know law either because you couldn't know law because if you knew law you'll understand that the law has a lot of point places that was written in the masculine so he brings up verse 11 he says it doesn't say and he's correct the pronoun there is not there and the word this use here is this word gnaikis again now this word could be wives or this word could be women it doesn't matter but he says likewise wives or women must be dignified not slanderous but sober minded faithful and all things verse 12 let the deacons each be the husband of one wife and there's that term again so me ask gnaikis andres which is also again we're talking about a wife of a one wife to the husband one woman to the man how are you going to look at it and it's clear he's speaking about reading the greek he's not doing a very good job of it because it's clear that we're contrasting a deacon this office of a deacon and he says likewise women and then he reverts back to just as they're supposed to be this way you're supposed to be a certain way and it's clear that he's contrasting males deacons with women and we know so because verse 12 he says let the deacon each be the husband of one wife well that makes absolutely no sense if the women are also able to fulfill this role of a deacon and so this person i don't know why he's doing what he's doing but it's clear he's not using scripture properly you do not find certain find greeks gallers who's going to back him up with what he's saying he is clearly wrong and i think what he's doing is he's taking advantage of the fact that people may or may not know the the words uh the greek like he thinks he does which he doesn't and because of that he has failed and he is misleading people so brother jason thank you for sending the video i hope this helps anyone out there that's looking to understand or to address something that he might bring up in that regard but it's clear that they cannot fulfill that role hey man


Welcome everyone. This is such an exciting group to come together. We are here because each of us knows that now is the time to reclaim our energy system, to end the fossil fuel era and to power up climate solutions. Today we're going to talk about the power up mobilisation on the 3rd and 4th of November, why it's happening, what it's going to look like around the world and then most importantly the next steps of how you can be a powerful part of it. I'm Bridget, I'm proud to work for 350.org, I'm director of movement support and I'm going to be holding the space for us today. First of all I really want to know who you are, where are you joining us from? So jump in the Zoom chat, tell us your name, where your base, any group you're affiliated to and if you can't find the chat function have a little look under the three circles that say more. And we're going to kick off today, a wonderful part of us being here together is we're going to have a visual facilitator who's going to draw live during the webinar the vision that's coming together from across the world. She is the super skilled Ira Mayatens and she's a member of the visual harvesting collective. And I want to know that you can get involved too at the end of this call, I know you're going to stick around to the end, we're going to have a special action moment together so prepare for that and you might need a pen and paper because you'll need it later so grab that. Can I check if Iris is able to share your screen and be able to start seeing the beginning of the drawing that you're going to do for us as our vision comes together? Hi, you should see me, I've got the now is the time right up as the beginning screen and I can also put myself bigger and smaller but I'm going to put myself really small for the rest of the call and you'll just see me build up the drawing as we go. So yes, everything that I hear and all the big takeaways I'll be drawing and you can pin my screen whenever you want to really kind of focus in on what I'm doing. Lovely, lovely, thank you so much, so happy to have you here. So this call, it's going to go in for about an hour. We'll have powerful climate and social justice leaders speaking from around the world about why they're partnering to power up and then we'll have a moment for your participation at the end, all the resources you need for power up are already on the website, Global Power Up and a recording of this call we shared with you afterwards. It is great to see hundreds of people joining this call, I'm really stoked and on our action map we already have a hundred actions registered from around the world. So we're going to move over to hear our speakers. Welcome speakers, can you say hi, give us a wave? Lovely, our first two speakers, they're going to talk to us about a first part of this call which is why we should reclaim fossil fuel profits and get control over the industry. So I'm really delighted to introduce our first speaker. Fabiana Ferreira Alves is a feminist and activist and a campaigns leader at ActionAid International. She's recently been playing a pivotal role in the launch of ActionAid's new global campaign, Fund Our Future. That's calling on banks to divest from fossil fuels and harmful agribusiness practices. So she's going to take us through some of the findings from that report. Fabiana, over to you. Thank you very much Brigitte and hello everyone. I'm going to share my screen, let's see if it works. Is everybody seeing it? I think it's all right. So I'm going to talk a little bit about the work we are doing at ActionAid that is super connected with the work that 350 is doing and we just launched it in September, the Fund Our Future campaign and it has all to do about how to do open campaigns and rooted campaigns, listen to movements, listen to people that are in the ground and then transform that in a campaign. So always having feedbacks and understanding what are the needs because the solutions to stop the climate crisis, they are in the ground, they exist, they're already there but because of years of colonization, years of a harmful way of looking at the economy and two people relations that was made invisible for everybody. So by talking to our campaign I'm going to talk a little bit about those solutions we can have. So our campaign Fund Our Future is thinking about moving billions out of climate crimes and into community led solutions. We do have a lot of on the ground projects looking at renewable energy that is led by women and agriculture. So we want the divestment from fossil fuels and industrial agriculture that is damaging lives and mobilized funding for community solutions. We want to empower people to stand against financing for harm for our business and fossil fuels and towards those real solutions. We have done this campaign started in September. It is a global campaign. We are supporting youth leadership. We did a report Vanessa Nakate also this amazing woman youth leader talking about climate. She supported us in the report. We went to Kenya because we had a lot of climate meetings in Kenya and we supported also together with other NGOs to do the people climate assembly, a parallel event so that we were talking about how to stop the climate crisis by bringing solutions in the ground that are led by the people that are already doing it. Looking at agriculture, looking at renewables, asking for stopping the fossil fuels industry. And in the report we launched in September, we had some important discoveries. So the industry in the global salt reached an estimate of 3.2 trillion in the seven years since the Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted. Bank financing provided to the largest industrial agriculture companies operating the global salt amounted to 370 billion over the same period. And banks have provided an annual average of 20 times more financing to fossil fuels and agriculture activities in the global salt than global north governments have provided as climate finance to countries on the front lines of the climate crisis. So we are asking for banks actually to stop the divest to stop the investments on fossil fuels and harmful industrial agribusiness. And we are thinking and asking governments all over the world for solutions and for support and subsidies for renewable energy and agriculture. So we are looking for alternative futures for a change in the way the finance system is orchestrated right now. A little bit about the launch we did in night off. So we launched the climate justice campaign and the flagship report of the people's climate assembly as I already said. So just for you to take a look on how it went. And in this campaign we want to show the harm but also the solutions inside the communities right. So we are in 2023 and 2024 we are looking at the strategies for median campaigns work looking at those harms. We want to expose the harms that are being made but also show the solutions from fossil fuels and industrial business. Those are the countries that we are focusing. But we are a federation formed and we are in more than 70 territories. Those are some of the banks that we are thinking about targeting next year. Those are one of the banks that are investing the most in fossil fuels and our business in the world especially in the global south because our report is looking to the global south. So for 2024 we are looking and we want to expect to have more allies and the people also by our side to look at this the narrative that we are building, support us, look at how those investments are happening and try to stop those investments and create a collaborative work with the movement so we can bring a new world, a new future for the future generations. So thank you very much and it was a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for being so shocking, so much money flowing from banks to fossil fuels in the majority world. I'm really shocked by that and I'm going to pass over to the next section of our call where we're going to be looking at really why now is the time for a renewable energy revolution. We know that our governments need to have a plan to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. We know in November that fossil fuel companies will have the audacity to release the latest round of their obscene record-breaking profits. While people are struggling with climate impacts, struggling with skyrocketing energy and food prices and we know that governments need to take control of these profits that fossil fuel companies are making through all the financial mechanisms that they can through ending fossil fuel subsidies, through stopping direct investments, through windfall taxes, these are some of the bare minimums that can help to power down the fossil fuel industry and help us to power up for the renewable energy that we need. Our next section is going to be looking at why now is the time not just to mobilise against fossil fuels but why we also need to mobilise for renewables on the 3rd and 4th of November at power up. I'm going to kick us off and I'm grateful to David Jones from Ember from which I learn a lot about this. Every climate and energy model shows that the absolute fastest way to cut fossil fuel use is to build renewable electricity and we need to triple global renewables by 2030 to get us on track for those 15 degrees of warming that will keep us on a liveable planet. Solar and wind at the moment already produced about 12% of the world's electricity last year and within the decade by 2030 that needs to look like 40% of our global electricity needs coming from solar and wind and that's possible and if we do that along with better energy efficiency it means that we can cut global fossil fuel use by two-thirds and that isn't fanciful optimism that's the international energy agency saying that a two-third fall in global fossil fuel use in a little over a decade is possible and the most critical part of that is tripling renewables and improving energy efficiency. So the international panel on climate change that if the official United Nations body for climate change science showed us clearly in their report that of all the solutions to carbon emissions solar and wind are the biggest cheapest tools that we have in our toolbox today and governments are already getting this message there are lots of governments, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Portugal who are planning for 100% of their electricity to be clean by 2030 but over and in somewhere like China over half of global renewables are being installed there and it's the reason why China is starting to halt their coal power. There's a proposal right now from the COP28 presidency that at the next UN Global Climate Talks which is coming up this December that they will seek an agreement to triple global renewables and we really need to get governments to support this. This is an opportunity right now on the table but governments are they're hesitating on renewables they're hesitating on renewables because two reasons fossil fuel companies they champion just dangerous distractions things like hydrogen, carbon capture and we together have to tell governments that not just that renewables is a solution but it is the solution. The second reason governments are hesitating about renewables is because of the fundamental and historical injustices of the world's financial system. To make that tripling of renewable energy that the world needs it would take four to five trillion US dollars every year but last year that investment in clean energy it's it's only at 1.7 trillion it's one fifth of the way that we need to go so we have to come together to fight for the financial system to be transformed so that we bring justice to this renewable energy revolution. When you need to borrow money to build those renewables rich countries are paying an interest rate of just four percent on average but that sky rockets it skyrockets to 15 interest rates for countries who are in the majority world. Affordable money like grants low-cost finance that's a tiny percent just one percent of all the money being offered to fund renewables is affordable money so funding must flow from those that are most historically responsible for the climate emergency to those most impacted by it. We call for a transition that goes beyond replacing one broken energy system with another. I want to see energy ownership that redistributes power from the few to the many. We are familiar with saying no to things but we need to find our voice to say yes collectively we need to fight for the climate solutions to focus on building not just closing stuff down we need to say yes bring it here bring it to my backyard and we need to visibly show our support for the renewable energy revolution we need to demand that rich governments fossil fuel companies investors pay up so the whole world can power up so that is my introduction to why now is the time for renewable energy revolution and for mobilizing on the 3rd and 4th of November. So I am going to introduce our next speaker that I am honored to introduce Jacinta Fatimaou she is an Australian born Samoan woman currently working as 350 specific team regional campaigner she's working also with Pacific climate warriors and she's going to share with us right now how and why they're powering up in Oceania. Jacinta over to you. Thanks Bridget hi everyone yeah so it's 11 30 p.m for me but it feels really cool to be in community with everyone all over the world it was really cool to see where everyone's joining in from in the chat but for the Pacific I guess I can quickly share the Pacific Island countries have historically punched above its weight displaying climate leadership that's often lacking from our rich and high emitting countries and so while we are fighting the worst of the climate crisis we're also trying to realize our own just energy transition but the journey of this work and of the movement has seen our communities always at the forefront of solutions and a great example of that Pacific climate leadership is the Port Villa call for a just transition to a fossil fuel free Pacific which clearly demands for a dramatically scaling up of the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies across all sectors doing that alongside with the phasing out of all fossil fuels but yes we know that the fossil fuel dependence is still a region-wide economic burden and a challenge to our energy security however we also know that community-led energy has the potential to alleviate that burden for our Pacific communities giving us autonomy over our own energy security and resilience we know that we have to continue that pressure on the in the fossil fuel industry while also ensuring that the Pacific have everything they need in the face of the climate crisis and that process must be ethical and not cause like further harm to communities or our environment so that that transition to renewable energy must not perpetuate the crimes of the fossil fuel industry and a classic meme of that is Australia hiding behind renewable energy goals but also being like one of the world's largest explorers of coal and gas which is just like bad maths but this is where we've arrived as a network as a community and as a movement where the Pacific climate warriors are powering up our future and committing to build to building a world where Pacific peoples can thrive so for this upcoming global day of action the Pacific region Oceania are displaying a series of community actions and I think the last time I checked it's we've got 12 countries that have signed up that's not just from like the Pacific region but this is also our Pacific communities in the diaspora and that's got that with the focus of the role of Australia's fossil fuel industry in the region and the history of our coal and gas campaigns we know that this is a really really big opportunity for our communities to power up for climate solutions but our showpiece event that will be accompanying these distributed actions is in partnership is in partnership with indigenous an indigenous community in New South Wales in Australia the Gomore traditional earners and their lands have been hugely impacted by both Santos gas and white haven coal but we're doing a special tour connecting indigenous communities on the front lines of the extraction of the fossil fuel industry to the communities like ours who are on the front lines of impact but yeah it feels super exciting to see how our journey of our region's contribution to the movement our communities on the ground have shared some really creative tactics already on that really connect to our showpiece event but visually culturally arty I don't know in through story but yeah I guess there's a lot of appetite for our network to be a part of this global community for this global day of action who have just come out of doing a lot of community recovery and rebuilding capacity for this work but yeah we'll be able to create special moments that as a collective we'll be able to uplift Pacific climate leadership on the grassroots level as well as on a regional government's level we'll also be able to continue to highlight the hypocrisy of the Australian government who are bidding to become a renewable energy champion and we'll also be able to lay down that foundation of the importance of intentional ongoing relationships with indigenous groups and with our comrades and partners in the movement but the Pacific Islands Forum is also coming up and so we see this as a really good opportunity to send a message to the Australian government that they need to choose a side either the side with the continued destruction of the fossil fuel industry or with the communities and power up for our futures so that's our plans in a nutshell by to you Bridgette. Pick a side are you with the fossil fuel industry's destruction or are you with the indigenous leaders of this world? Thank you Jacinta. Now I am really delighted to have the phenomenal Zaki Mamdu to speak next he's the campaign coordinator of Stop Ecot that's the grassroots fight to stop a massive oil pipeline right through the heart of East Africa and they're looking at how solutions could also be a tool of resistance in their struggle. Zaki over to you. Thanks thanks so much Bridgette and greetings to everyone comrades friends colleagues it's great to be here with all of you and thank you for the opportunity to speak and thanks to the previous speakers as well. So look mine is really just some reflections that I hope to share with everyone here reflections like Bridgette said looking at the ways in which a solutions narrative and focus and approach could not have come at a better time for the African continent and for the African climate justice movements but also some thoughts around how this kind of shift or at least integration of a focus on renewable energy solutions to the climate crisis is very much a form of resistance. So when we think of resistance we often envision you know people on the streets raising their voices against oppressive regimes you know always fighting against something and opposing some sort of of imposition and some form of injustice and in the context of the climate justice movement that is often exactly what resistance has looked like in the case of the Stop Ecot campaign and for those who don't know this is a campaign that was launched some years back to confront the construction of what would be the world's longest heated crude oil pipeline the East African crude oil pipeline which spans a distance of 1443 kilometers you know from the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda through to the coast of Tunga in Tanzania and in the context of this campaign we have and continue to draw out the risks the harm the dispossession you know the violence and the corruption that is both produced and reproduced by this project and in doing so we have established ourselves and our coalition as a barrier which has been effective and at the very least has served to delay you know the completion of this project. Now anyone who understands the issue of climate should know and appreciate the ways in which the exacerbation of the climate crisis which is of course you know fueled by projects such as ECOP will in turn work alongside those very same projects as well as their impacts to significantly deepen levels of poverty and insecurity you know displacing almost incomprehensible number of communities and and generally will just exacerbate every single socioeconomic issue that that we could think of and I think that is a fundamental point that I'm sure most of us here understand and it's why so many of us have taken up this issue and have given of ourselves in struggle and in resistance to confront it. The reality however is that there are still so so many people who do not fully understand that point nor the gravity of the crisis that we are confronted by and and while the climate movement continues to grow each day and of course as more and more people are hit by the devastating impacts of climate change you know they're also becoming increasingly radicalized by the issue and even while this is the case our movements in my view have still not done enough to draw out these links and connections to create a truly mass-based you know popular social movement for climate justice and for me in some ways this is evidence at least for me in that you know look recently we've seen an amazing number of 75,000 people out in the streets in New York and and close to 3,000 people in the streets of Nairobi during the climate summit which of course is huge and this is something hasn't been seen before in the climate space but it it's also something not enough right sure both of these these feats are absolutely worthy of celebration but when we are confronting an issue that literally impacts every single person on the planet we need our movements to be able to mobilize in the hundreds of thousands and even in the millions and I think you know this is especially true in Africa where we have to ask ourselves why you know on the continent which stands to be the hardest hit by climate change and a continent of what one and a half billion people only 3,000 showed up to what was you know branded as Africa's climate march and personally I've I've always felt that the issue of climate has been somewhat abstract I didn't think that we on the African continent had the luxury of concerning ourselves with climate change while our people are unemployed while families can't put food on the table while children are drowning in feces at the bottom of pit latrines you know while students are crammed into classes of 80 to 100 people etc etc and it's only when I did some work in a small community called Snake Park in Soweto in Johannesburg that these views began to change and there I saw the front lines of extraction in South Africa and the ways in which extractive industries exploit and devastate our people you know fueling the crisis of joblessness of health of food insecurity of gender based violence you know among other things and after this experience brought me into the climate movement I realized that it it is hard to mobilize people around the issue of climate especially in the context of Africa our ideas are sometimes abstract and our jargon can be alienating our fights against against the the projects of industry are so so important and we know that but we've also seen these fights put Africans against other Africans and while we know that these projects will do nothing but destroy and they will bring nothing but but despair for many others at least at face value these projects projects like eco are seen as a as a hallmark of development and proponents would argue that we need the infrastructure we need the resources the jobs in order to meet our interlocking crisis of hunger of homelessness and of unemployment and in our opposition and in our resistance they would then turn around and slander us as anti-developmental as neocolonial agents you know working to undermine the growth of Africa and of course this is ridiculous right and we know that the only agents of neocolonialism and and deliberate underdevelopment are the extractive industries themselves you know the the multinational profiteers and and and even the African leaders who facilitate their interests but regardless of that in our experience I think we also know that this counter logic that is used against us tends to resonate with many people on the continent and it's part of the reason why it has become so important for the climate justice movement to adopt a truly intersectional approach you know using the crisis of climate as an opportunity to address all other socioeconomic issues it is why the primary role of the climate justice movement should be to inspire a climate agenda within other social movements bringing fights for jobs for food for land for healthcare for education to the fore of our agenda while also highlighting the ways in which we can attain these developmental feats you know without extractive destructive and exploitative projects without the profiteering logic of the fossil fuel industry and without fossil fuels entirely and by championing renewable energy for instance we aren't just advocating for a sustainable environment but also for the creation of jobs you know we're building resilience in communities ensuring that a farmer has food on the table even in times of unpredictable weather and guaranteeing a you know future where our children have roofs over their heads sheltered from from the wrath of natural disasters I think it's also important that we must be very clear here to assert that we cannot allow industry to to lead the charge on renewables because that would simply be the the saturation of injustice in Africa we we we need and and we'll fight for real African solutions for decentralized socially owned renewable energy systems which are contextual culturally appropriate and which are designed with the sole purpose of meeting the needs of our people and climate solutions then when we do that are not detached idealistic dreams they are intertwined with the you know the very bread and butter issues which touch every African household they form the building blocks of a just society where resources aren't pillaged but rather they are shared and where the environment isn't an externality but it's central to to you know every policy decision I think just in conclusion because I know I've taken some time we have a beautiful opportunity here with power up and with this mobilization and and in us coming together with this emphasis and focus as we you know seek to move to power up every corner of the globe we have an opportunity to build a movement whose whose songs will sound in the halls of history you know one which does not stop in its fight against the drivers of climate change but which also has the ability to shake the core of our entire system you know which offers resistance against the degradation of our planet a pushback against the odds which are stacked against the most vulnerable and marginalized of people you know societies and and which offers a challenge to the idea that the fate of the earth is sealed and this is a movement which which really gives us an opportunity to mobilize you know in vast vast numbers to move beyond the challenges that we've encountered when it comes to in terms of building the climate justice movement on the African continent to build a developmental movement which is set to fight for a world that is truly beautiful prosperous and just let me let me leave it at that thank you very much so powerful Zachy thank you we must connect we must connect across movements for justice across climate land economic social justice to the world we want to see thank you and I'm going to take us to another part of the world let's move to Brazil with our fantastic next speaker Peri Diaz Peri is a Brazilian journalist working for more than 10 years in the environmental movement in Latin America he's the Latin American communications manager with us at 350.org and he's going to tell us about the power of action in Rio de Janeiro Peri thank you Brigitte it's so good to be here and I love to hear just Santa and Zachy speaking about their origins because I see I see lots of similarities with what we see in Latin America as well but I want to take us to Rio de Janeiro as Brigitte mentioned I want to take us for a walk along the beaches of Rio I'll tell a short story I wrote something here and I want you to come with me so imagine a hot day in those beautiful beaches that we always see in the pictures of Rio de Janeiro the crowd having fun and the wind and it's very fun and vibrant it's so relaxing right but imagine and you should know that this city that is the symbol of Brazil and where more than 10 million people live is also a territory of fight fight for social environmental and climate justice and we're talking about several communities that fight for that for example in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro there are tens of thousands of families that make a living from artisanal fishing and this work that they do is incredibly important because they feed the region's residents and they they're also keeping alive a very very important traditional culture that is based in knowledge sharing and in solidarity as well and these families have have been suffering for decades from the impacts of oil and gas in the region Rio de Janeiro is located in the Guanabara Bay right and in this bay there is a large oil refinery that is fed by a huge network of oil of pipelines oil pipelines and of huge sheeps that circulate no stop in that bay and that make the work of these fissures incredibly difficult because they literally rock their bolts right and besides that the oil spills in that area are frequent and many of these oil spills actually result from intentional and criminal disposal by these ships so it's really absurd and impressive the waters become polluted the fish dies and the fissures end up paying the price for that so these communities have been denouncing this neglect for the environment for more than two decades but we know fossil fuel companies are so powerful in terms of using their money and their resources to intimidate communities and at times they manage to suffocate the voices of these fissures so 350 has been working with this community this community is actually for years and we work with the main association of fissures there in that area which is called ALMA to amplify their fight and these are the communities that will lead our power up campaign in Rio de Janeiro I'll tell you a little bit about ALMA this organization ALMA means men and women of the sea of the Guanabara Bay I think it's a beautiful name because it's poetic right men and women of the sea it's beautiful but it but I think it also reveals their extremely strong their visceral connection with the sea they see this fissures see the sea as an extension of their homes and of their bodies this is how important the seas for them and in November these are the men and women who will participate in this action they will sail their boats to a well-known location on the shore of Rio de Janeiro and they will stage their protest from there from this very sea that they protect that they are defending so we think it will be an action that will claim for system change of course but it but it is also a beautiful testimony of the strength and of the beauty of this movement right so they're calling basically for a fair energy transition in Brazil because this fair energy transition will allow this oil spills and this intimidation to being the past they're asking for real development because the jobs and activities that that they have are not as good as the ones that they could have I mean the community's jobs are not as good as the ones that they could have if the the oil and gas industry wasn't there so they're calling for real development there for jobs and for activities that do not destroy the environment and finally they're asking also for a shift in the resources the way the resources are used there because these resources including subsidies are used today to feed oil and gas and they want these resources to be redirected to a just energy transition so they're basically saying no more subsidies for the climate crisis and we want our money to be used to be to build a fair word for everyone that's the message of this of this action that we're going to have in Rio and just to wrap up we're going to have other actions in Latin America as well we're going to have actions in other parts of Brazil including the Amazon forest we're excited about that too and we're going to have actions in Argentina Colombia and Bolivia as well and we think that these communities are showing that Latin America is a territorial fight for justice and for solutions as well for for the climate crisis thank you Brigitte I cannot wait to see the action that the people of the sea pull off I am so excited for the 3rd and 4th of November to see that thank you Perry I have great respect and admiration for our final speaker Rochetta Ozan she is the founder of the Vessel project of Louisiana the Gulf Fossil Finance Coordinator with the Texas Campaign for the Environment Fund she's an internationally recognized speaker advocating for clean air clean water sustainable communities particularly for black indigenous and people of color but perhaps as as a mother myself I hold an especially regard that Rochetta is also single mother of six and and we all share that we want to leave a better world for our children so Rochetta over to you to share why and how you're powering up in New Orleans good morning everyone yes so I am Rochetta Ozan of course I am here located in Seoul for Louisiana which is in southwest Louisiana and southwest Louisiana is a five-page area that's intersecting the Acadiana and Central Louisiana regions it is composed of Allen Parish, Beauregard Parish, Calcasieu Parish, Cameron Parish, and Jefferson Davis Parish as of 2020 the combined population of the five Parish area where I live was 313,951 so if you think about that in context and in the area where I live and you think about we have more than 12 petro chemical facilities three LNG facilities we were just approved for this new direct air capture hub and we have this big spaghetti bowl of pipeline already in this area that's low income more than 46% black low income white people here are shrimpers and fishermen and they live off of the land and off of the water here but yet in the last several years the United States has become the largest exporter of methane gas in the world methane gas like all fossil fuel pollution has significant health impact on black indigenous and people of color communities and that's where these facilities are largely um this is where they're built in these type of communities and the US continues to approve these type of facilities in Lake Charles in the Lake Charles area where I live where roughly half of the 80,000 residents are black the industry wants to build four new LNG or methane gas export terminals within roughly five miles of one another and Lake Charles is not alone as more than 20 new or expanded LNG terminals are slated to come online within the next decade entirely in or near communities of color yet as these communities are literally fighting for our lives on the front lines of climate change US banks are continuing to fund the fossil fuel industry so we have the US government who's approving these new facilities by issuing our permits and then we have US banks that are funding these same industries we are here to say as front line folks that enough is enough we will no longer be sacrificed by big banks such as JP Morgan Chase City Group Wells Fargo Bank of America Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley we will also hold those in government accountable for approving these industries that are killing us in our communities we want to send a message to President Biden that it is time to phase our fossil fuels it is time to declare a climate emergency and it is time to expense funds into communities that are disproportionately impacted by the decisions that are made by government and so on November the 4th in New Orleans we are coming together as front line folks from along the Gulf Coast which includes Texas Louisiana Florida and Mississippi we're coming together to say that we are not your sacrifice we are coming to show that frontline folks have a voice we are impacted our children are dying from asthma and cancer our elders are dying from cancer and other respiratory issues because we're breathing in toxic air we're drinking unclean water right now also in Louisiana we are facing a salt water intrusion because the salt is getting into is is heading into the drinking water there has been a state of emergency declared for Louisiana because of that salt water intrusion what else does it have to take to show that people are being impacted by the decision to continue to roll out new fossil fuel industries enough is enough so on our not not only on November 4th when we be calling on President Biden to declare this climate emergency and phase our fossil fuels we are also going to be showing the world why we fight for this place why we call this place home why we love the Gulf Coast we're going to be showing our culture here some great music some second line dancing if you all have ever heard of New Orleans and everyone is in New Orleans and you want to come here because of Mardi Gras because of the festivals that is the experience you're going to get because when we talk about how do we win the first step to winning is what you all did today is showing up the second step to winning is supporting each other supporting our fight telling the story of how what's happening in the deep south of the United States is directly related to what's happening in the global south of the world telling our stories telling our stories collectively the third way that we win is to continue to use joy as a strategy I know it feels like that we are not winning because we are not because new fossil fuel industries are constantly being approved but we are winning when we look at events like climate we can we see that we had over 75,000 people in the streets when we see that there were more than 600 actions happening collectively on the same day on in several different countries on all seven continents we are winning we have to continue to tell our stories we have to tell the story of how the train that derailed in Ohio is the same train that comes through west lake Louisiana where I live and the contents of that train are shipped on ships and barges across the world to Africa and to Germany and we have to make these stories stick in the minds of the people who are making the decisions that directly impact our lives I could speak all day at the end of the day I'm doing this because I am a mom I have six children some of my children have asthma some of them have eczema which is a skin condition I also have a grand baby we're no longer talking about generations far away the people we're trying to say the generations we're trying to say are here now we need to also finally incorporate and include the youth that we continue to talk about saving the world for they have to be a part of the story they have to be on the front lines with us don't be afraid to use the youth because we may not see the the the rewards of our labor in our time but if we empower and educate the youth that we're saving this world for now they will be the leaders of tomorrow who will continue to tell our story and continue to fight I've started with my six children you've probably seen that some of them are youth activists my daughter Cammy has a video on YouTube that you can go and watch of her showing a tour of our community in all of the facilities that are plaguing us my daughter Keandria works with the vessel project knocking on doors educating folks about what's going on in the community my daughter Camilla has a story in Teen Vogue and you can read the story of how her very own environment is killing her and poisoning her body and it's literally killing the skin from her body because of the the toxins in the air and you and you too can start at your dinner table with your own children with your own friends and with your family continue to fight celebrate small wins know that we are winning know that we are in this together and we look forward to seeing some of you on November 4th in the great state of Louisiana here on the Gulf Coast in the wonderful city of New Orleans celebrating but also standing up to say that we are not sacrifices it is time to phase our fossil fuels and it is time to help these communities to thrive thank you all so much for having me thank you Roschetta let's show up let's fight for our homes that stand in solidarity for each other's homes and let's use joy as a strategy thank you so much so you've heard about the amazing reasons and actions from around the world to power up now this is the moment where we're going to talk about how you can ramp up your involvement I pass over to my steamed co-workers in 350.org Clements Du Wa is associate director of global campaigns and Emil Tucker Alpi is global mobilization coordinator they'll be going through how you can get involved in power up thank you Brigitte and thank you everyone for your inspiring speeches I will be talking about how you can get involved in power up there are actually two ways you can organize your own action just as people talk about previously in this webinar or you can join an action near to you so to organize an action you should need to go to power up website and can you can you go with this thank you to organize an action you can go to our website and on the website you will see the organize you can click on the organize an action and you will see this page there you can modify all this here you can you will write your event name the date and the time of the event we already provide a description event description for you but it's totally modifiable you can change it you can write your events detail or you can use this this event description that that we provided after you register your action this will go to the your regional 350 team and they will approve the approve the registration once approved your light your light you will have a lightning vote on the globe and your lightning vote will shine with the others all around the group with other like more than 100 actions and hopefully the number will increase and also you will be able to track the people who are joining your action that you are organizing if you have any questions creating this registering events you can contact us at organizer.globalpowerup.org which will also show you the website address and also this email address at the end of the presentation so but also we will have we have FAQ doc document in the resources that we provided which yeah and we have a lot of resources which which will help your action to be a success these these are these are the resources for organizers we have organizers toolkit and there are many kits and main toolkits and guides and this organizer toolkit which includes our toolkit communication toolkit also we have logistics and safety toolkit and all the other toolkits and a mini morsch in that also we have some promotion materials the next slide please thank you also we have the promotion material which we have which includes visual guidelines logos also where is the manufacturing sheets and we have promotion videos with this and of course also amazing artists all around the globe next slide please you will see that from Philippines from Indonesia contributed with their wonderful powerful artwork for power up you are seeing Philippines in Indonesia in the page now and there are more others next slide please yeah from Singapore from Brazil Burkina Faso and the next slide please and France and Kenya all all these are like you can you can use in your to promote your actions and promote power up if you can't organize an action for some reason always you can join an action near you for this you will use the the map on the website just click on the join action section there and then you will come to this page you can just write your steam name state or country or the proposal code and you will see the nearest action and you can RSVP to this action yeah the next slide this is yeah you when you click on the light one of the lightning force that's the nearest to you you will see this join the actions page and then when you click join you will go to RSVP page which is in the next slide and when you fill this and click sign up you will be you will be the host of action will be informed and they will communicate with you about joining the action yes can we go just a little bit further okay yeah this is all by me sorry for being quick but I think we didn't have more time for that so join us and see you there with like other thousands of people on streets on industries all around the globe under the lightning walls thank you for the month so I have a TA yes hello everybody and I was really moved and I assume like many of you to hear all those stories of fights across the world and to think that we're all gonna be showing up on the 3rd and the 4th of November when the fossil fuel industry will celebrate another round of profits that are made from distracting our climates our lands our lives and so that's what power up is also about it's about not only reclaiming our future but reclaiming our lives our collective power and yeah we're collective power to build the the real revolution that we need and that will change our our lives and so I know it can be scary to to start an event you you have seen on the map there are plenty that are already being organized but we we hope to see many more and that's the beauty of the global day of action it doesn't need to be big it's we just need to be all together and to create opportunities for people to show up and so on our website as email show you just show you there is tons there are tons of resources that you can use and including concept ideas tactics that could feed your your context because we we know that we we come with like many different contexts all of us we we've heard it today again but that doesn't mean that you know we we can't fight against the same enemy and so and also share our dreams together and be hopeful in our anger so our map and with the many dots that you will see will also give you visibility to recruit new people to join because hopefully those days of actions are also to strengthen our our groups our mobilization maybe you're alone today but thanks to this mobilization and all the many others that will create all together in the future we will strengthen our our groups and be more and more along the day so what's going to happen as well is that on that day 350.org is going to amplify your action and people's action so we are going to build and to share the visibility with our messages that are really strong with our creativity and we also want you to to have this media visibility across the world so you'll find on the website as well some messages that you can tailor then to your own context we have those facts that are called where is the money to show that we're not only utopists we are also really grounded into a reality that we we need to change and yeah finally we know that the fossil fuel industry have the billions but we know that we are the power and so we need more people to organize and so that's why we also encourage you to think about the next steps after the action so that we can you know move together as a movement afterwards as well. Thank you Claremont I just want to say thank you so much for all the contributions we've had so far now I'm going to ask Iris to share with us how she's captured in her live drawing the exhilarating vision that our speakers have conjured for us today. Iris can I pass to you to share your screen? Hello normally you should be able to see my screen and if you like you can pin it I'm just going to go over very quickly a couple of the key points from each of the speakers because a lot was said from the first speaker from Fabiana I think the main thing that came out of there is the fact that we really must listen that the new future is really ready and it's on the ground we just need to basically listen to resources that are already there and then work together to kind of bring those out then we had Bridget really bringing forward you know the idea of saying yes not always saying no and yes in my backyard and that that support for three for the tripling the amount of renewable energy really needs to be coming from governments but that we really need to be bringing that forward as much as possible we heard from Jacinta saying that we need to really show that you know there's so much appetite for action and we just need to bring everybody together to really pick a side we had Saki telling us about how we must show the links and connections between different groups that we need an intersectional approach and we need to really show that integration has to be a form of resistance and then also highlighted really nicely there was is that like we have such a nice a beautiful opportunity for justice in this fight then we had we had Perry from coming in from Rio de Janeiro talking about linking you know fishermen to the climate fight here talking about the action around people of the sea really taking on the oil refinery that intimidates local fishers and pollutes in a way that's really not acceptable and just sort of imagining the actions of those coming together we also had Rochetta coming to us from Louisiana calling on Biden to basically declare a state of emergency around climate and just showing the way that there's such racial injustice with these fossil fuel facilities being built in these communities of color showing that it's really about you know talking about here and now is that we need action it's enough and is enough and we need to bring youth into this this fight then we were talking with ML about you know how to do it so this is just how saying that we have the toolcast the toolkits and we have the resources so everything's there to take action and that it really it's about reclaiming our future which is what Clémence talked about that it really doesn't matter if it's a bigger small action it's just about it being together and that we can that of course your action will be amplified so this is a very very quick overview of all your points I'll be sharing all the illustrations of course into one big illustration after the call wow Iris that is just stunning and beautiful and what a stunning time it's been together to all of our speakers to everyone that was joining from I've seen people online from Nigeria UK Benin USA Japan Philippines Granada France let's do this thank you for being part of this if you do one thing today after this call go to the map find an event near you RSVP to the event you want to go to or be brave register one get your community involved and do it yourself let's do this let's go to globalpowerup.org for all the resources and support you need email contact at globalpowerup.org if you need any support we can't wait to join you on the 3rd and 4th November to power up that's it thank you everyone