Dreadlock Rasta

The second grade (who are actually high school juniors) begins a chapter on music this week, so I am going to acquaint them with the work of a certain Robert Nesta Marley, born 1945. I get to listen to top-notch reggae all week, how's them apples?

I got this plan half-baked at a conference back in December but brought it up to speed by actually putting in the music and lyrics, and focusing on the protest aspect of Marley's music--Get Up Stand Up, Buffalo Soldier. I even scrounged up some photos of Haile Selassie.

I have put in photos of my visits to the Comfort Women protests, and followed up on our "discussion" of Utopia/Dystopia by eliciting writing and speaking on the problems we face in our world and whether protest is a useful tool in finding solutions.


I'm hoping to actually spark some discussion here, since Korean culture is, um, protest-oriented. Back in the days when more-or-less benign dictators and chaebols ruled the country, marches, vigils and vigorous protests were the voice of the democratic tide. Protests in Korea led to the end of the Chun Doo-hwan era by forcing direct elections--the high visibility of those protests on the world stage thanks to the Seoul Olympics of 1988 surely didn't hurt.

So, what would you protest today, and at whom would you target your protests?