By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
Margo Okazawa-Rey
Things were a little bit different at Town Hall on March 4. Things were a little bit…warmer. Activist and educator Margo Okazawa-Rey was in the house.
“I have never met a person as accomplished and humble as Margo,” introduced Linh Thủy Nguyễn, an associate professor at the University of Washington (UW)’s department of American Ethnic Studies. “Cover your ears, Margo,” Nguyễn joked, just before she listed all of Okazawa-Rey’s accomplishments.
She is a Professor Emerita at San Francisco State University, a founding member of the International Women’s Network Against Militarism and Women for Genuine Security, and the president of the board for the Association for Women’s Rights in Development. Okazawa-Rey has co-authored influential works such as “Building a Culture of Life: A Conversation on Abolition, Feminism, and Asian American Politics” and “Two Decades of Feminist Organizing for Genuine Security: Understandings from the International Women’s Network Against Militarism.” She travels the world, confronting the human tragedies caused by militarism and violence, particularly those affecting women and people of color.
She was in the house this night specifically to talk about a movement—the Transnational Feminist Non-Aligned Movement for Genuine Security and a Culture of Life. Presented by the UW Office of Public Lectures, the talk covered what we can do against the “culture of killing” in which we all live, which, in fact, has colonized not only our society but our hearts and minds.
From the get-go, this talk was different. The first thing the hosts did (led by UW Office of Public Lectures director, Yvette Moy), was to ask members of the audience to turn to each other and make a friend. Lectures generally take up the bulk of such events, yet in this case, Okazawa-Rey spoke (movingly) for less than 30 minutes before she asked the audience to digest and process with each other and then called for questions.
This is what interactions feel like when you care about humans.
When was the last time you heard, not in a setting of self-help or “motivational speakers,” that the most important focus should be your passion—the passion you are willing to spend your life for, the passion that will keep you going in hard times such as these? Okazawa-Rey is passionate about creating a kinder, gentler world. It wasn’t always so.
“You should have known me in my 20s,” Okazawa-Rey joked. The message conveyed was we can improve, anytime. With help from those who love, teach, and even school us on our imperfections, we can be better.
“I’d like to start in unison by acknowledging this moment,” Okazawa-Rey said. “In the world that is engulfed in the culture of killing,” from the “earliest genocides” to those now, “in the brutal wars…violence in all forms against all things living.” All people. All animals. The planet. Pause, she urged, “to feel collectively the rage, the grief, the disappointment, confusion, helplessness,” to feel our reactions to “the hypocrisy, betrayals by our own,” even friends and family. Let’s just say that’s all it took for the feelings to well up. Those feelings are “with us anyway,” so “let’s acknowledge it,” she said. Now what to do about it? What to do about the “monsters” we live amongst, so-called and quoted from late philosopher Antonio Gramsci.
Today, we have multiple monsters, Okazawa-Rey insisted, heads of state and heads of civil society that threaten the survival of the planet. But there are people out there who are facing the monsters.
“We are ready,” Okazawa-Rey assured, and gave a history of the non-aligned movement that has its roots in the Bandung Conference in 1955 of mostly newly independent Asian and African states. Those participating then represented half the world’s population.
“I take the principle of non-alignment as the starting place,” Okazawa-Rey said. “I hate to say it,” she went on, but our states and institutions “are not reformable. They are not about us or for us.” Our dominant global culture, including political parties, is founded in that culture of killing.
According to Okazawa-Rey, here’s what we need to embrace: the opposite of individualism (communal), the opposite of thinking solely with the head (use your heart and your hands), and the opposite of consumerism (share).
“Commit to a feminist vision of genuine security and a culture of life… developed collectively,” she said. She also outlined five key principles: safeguarding the environment to sustain life, meeting basic human needs, respecting human dignity, honoring people’s sovereignty, and preventing avoidable harm.
“These principles are rooted in values of interdependence, compassion, mutuality, reciprocity, humility, and, above all, love.” Maybe it’s “cheesy” to talk about love, she said. But it shouldn’t be.
After a significant pause for the audience to debrief, and for Okazawa-Rey to move her microphone and herself closer to the crowd (this person walks the talk), a question-and-answer session was held. Okazawa-Rey had already met the majority of the questioners, students at UW with whom she was sharing this week.
“Can you talk about the role of capitalism?” one student asked. “Capitalism is the problem,” Okazawa-Rey wryly answered. What if, instead of changing structures, our main directive was to change people? It’s not done rationally. “Think about the biggest change you had to make for your own wellbeing and survival,” Okazawa-Rey said. What did it take? Does a person stop smoking because they know the statistics? No. We need to grow our souls, Okazawa-Rey continued. We need to be in conversation and learn how to listen.
“How do I fight against the (negative) influence of social media?” another asked. Use social media only when necessary, Okazawa-Rey replied. Build relationships (yes, it’s good for that). Don’t give away our power. “Reinforce our commitments to one another,” she said. “The elites are going to give you little concessions to make you believe that we’re all together,” but we’re not, yet. Another questioner expressed appreciation for Okazawa-Rey’s insistence that love is a choice, and wanted to know how to maintain one’s passion in the face of what seems like an unsalvageable situation, and an unsalvageable planet.
We continue to engage in the struggle not necessarily because change will happen in our lifetimes, Okazawa-Rey answered. We do the work because we love life and we love people. “If we become jaded, the other side has won,” she said.
This presentation can be viewed here.
Kai can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.