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Life & Times Transcript
3/1/07 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- The Port of Los Angeles has an ambitious plan to clear the air, but are shippers on board for the ride? Geraldine Knatz>> If people want to sue us for trying to clean up the air, that's not a bad position to be in because that means we're trying to do something. Gary Toebben>> The amount of burden to businesses could be so significant that they would not make the improvements. Val Zavala>> And then, rare treasures offer a glimpse into centuries of Chinese art and culture. Did bells sound the same in seven hundred B.C.? It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Val Zavala>> So what do you think is the single biggest source of pollution in the Los Angeles area? Cars? Factories? No, it's our port. But now port officials want to cut pollution in half and they're telling cargo companies, terminal operators and truckers to go green. And as Saul Gonzalez tells us, they're serious. Saul Gonzalez>> With their sea air and ocean breezes, coastal communities are often seen as healthy alternatives to smoggy cities. But in towns with big ports, breathing can be risky. Ports spew out a toxic brew of contaminants, making them major sources of air pollution. That's the case at the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Together they make up the largest and busiest harbor facility in the United States and one of the worst polluters in southern California, according to Sam Atwood with the region's Air Quality Management District. Sam Atwood>> The smog-forming emissions from the ports are greater than those emissions from all six million passenger vehicles here in southern California. That gives you an idea of the magnitude. Saul Gonzalez>> On an average day, the ports emit some ten thousand tons of air pollutants. Most of the emissions come from ships. Heavy trucks and locomotives that travel to and from the ports also pump out pollutants. Air monitoring stations in communities adjacent to the ports record dangerous levels of nitrogen oxide as well as fine soot and sulfur oxides. The chemicals cause high rates of heart and lung problems among dock workers and area residents according to public health experts. Jesse Marquez>> "As we began to discuss port air pollution, we realized that almost every family that I knew here in Wilmington had children and adults who had asthma or some respiratory problem." Saul Gonzalez>> Five years ago, Jesse Marquez and other activists started organizing house meetings and protests. Along with environmentalists, they filed lawsuits and fought for legislation to clean up the city-owned ports. Eventually, the courts sided with the environmentalists and the policymakers relented. Antonio Villaraigosa>> "Well, good afternoon, everybody. Today's an historic moment." Saul Gonzalez>> Recently, with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa commending them, officials from both ports adopted a five-year plan to slash pollutant levels. It is said to be the most ambitious environmental program of any port in the world. Its highlights include requiring vessels visiting the ports to use cleaner burning fuels, equipping berths with electric terminals so that ships can plug in for power instead of running their engines, helping drivers finance the replacement of aging and dirty diesel trucks with clean vehicles and replacing cargo-handling vehicles and port locomotives with equipment that uses cleaner fuels and state of the art exhaust treatment technologies. Geraldine Knatz>> The primary goal is to cut emissions from all port sources by fifty percent. Saul Gonzalez>> Geraldine Knatz, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles, says requirements set by the ports will force global changes in the shipping industry. Geraldine Knatz>> I do think that we're setting a trend in changing the maritime industry internationally and that what happens here will benefit those other port communities because, if the ships are cleaner coming here, they're likely going to be cleaner going to other cities in the United States. Saul Gonzalez>> The new rules adopted by port officials go further than current federal and international guidelines and apply to both United States and foreign ships. Foreign-flag vessels account for about ninety-five percent of the big commercial ships in United States ports. Geraldine Knatz>> "You know, I'd like to embrace the more stringent standard and see if we can get there." Saul Gonzalez>> Knatz says that local officials have decided to do what the United States government should have done, which is require that all ships, foreign and domestic, that use the ports reduce their emissions. The action, she concedes, takes the ports into new legal waters. Geraldine Knatz>> I guess we're sticking our neck out and we're trying to do some things that people will question whether we as ports have the regulatory authority and they may question it through litigation. You know, as far as I'm concerned, if people want to sue us for trying to clean up the air, that's not a bad position to be in because that means we're trying to do something. Saul Gonzalez>> The Environmental Protection Agency did not respond to our interview requests. The EPA's position is that it prefers that the international body that regulates shipping adopt stronger air emission rules. But if it doesn't, the agency has promised to take up the issue of pollution from foreign-flag vessels sometime this year. The other contentious question for the port's anti-pollution plan is, who will pay for it? Industry says that implementing stringent rules will be costly and would drive business away. Gary Toebben>> It may be too ambitious for the industrial sector that is involved here. Saul Gonzalez>> Gary Toebben, President of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, says the costs need to be shared. Gary Toebben>> If, in fact, you implement every regulation called for and you implement it right away, the amount of burden to businesses could be so significant that they would not make the improvements. Saul Gonzalez>> What would they do? Gary Toebben>> They wouldn't be able to operate at the ports and those jobs would go somewhere else. >> "You should know that we have many, many environmental programs in place and operational." Saul Gonzalez>> To promote their plan, port officials recently sponsored a harbor tour, inviting some long-time critics. Many environmentalists want to make sure that taxpayers aren't saddled with the two billion dollar cost of implementing the plan. >> "There really should be some money from the industrialists and from the shippers and the businesses that make money off of the ports, so we're asking them also to ask industry to pay part of the bill of cleaning up the ports. Don't put it all on the public." Saul Gonzalez>> Environmental groups favor a thirty to sixty dollar fee on every cargo container unloaded. That's similar to a state bill vetoed last year by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at the urging of business. Gary Toebben>> We want to make sure that whatever fees are assessed to the carriers don't make us be non-competitive with other ports around the country that are already expanding their capacity. Saul Gonzalez>> Port officials hope costs will be met by a combination of government funds, tariffs, bonds and fees. In addition, if shipping and terminal operators don't meet pollution control standards, the ports might not renew their leases. Geraldine Knatz>> So in exchange for our investing in their terminal facilities which will allow them to grow and handle more cargo, we will then ask them to sign on to these requirements. So it's sort of tit for tat, you know. We're going to allow them the opportunity to grow and, in exchange, they're going to grow green. Saul Gonzalez>> As efforts to clean up the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports cruise ahead, California officials and activists are meeting with counterparts around the world to promote a global, clean ports movement. For Life and Times, I'm Saul Gonzalez. Val Zavala>> We're here at Wilmington at what appears to be a typical pizza takeout restaurant, but this company attracted national attention and criticism when it started a new policy. It can be summed up in two words: Aceptamos Pesos, "We Accept Pesos". The idea seemed like a no-brainer to owner, Brett Fielder. The company's target customers are Hispanics. With plenty of holiday trips to Mexico and all those extra pesos, why not spend them on pizza? Did you ever think you would get the kind of reactions it's gotten? Brett Fielder>> We never thought. I mean, we made the decision. We rolled out the program. We talked about it on a conference call on Friday and, by Monday morning, the news trucks were everywhere. Val Zavala>> What kind of reaction was it? Brett Fielder>> The first reaction was just amazement and a lot of press about the fact that, you know, a pizza chain was accepting pesos. Val Zavala>> Just the novelty of it. Brett Fielder>> Yes. But some of the conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingram picked up on the discussion and started talking about illegal immigration and how it was unpatriotic and -- Val Zavala>> -- these are national radio talk show hosts that got hold of the story? Brett Fielder>> Yes. So they started doing actual segments on it. O'Reilly did it on Fox. There were a number of conservative talk show hosts who picked it up, so then it started a discussion of is it unpatriotic? Are we encouraging illegal immigration? Should we not be taking pesos? That was what started the first news cycle. Our response to that, obviously, was simple. We did it as a marketing ploy for us. It was a way to pick up some of those extra pesos that people brought back home. Val Zavala>> Nothing political about it. Brett Fielder>> No, it has nothing to do with illegal immigration. Those are issues that should be discussed and addressed. This doesn't have anything to do with that. When I cross the border into Mexico, I can spend my dollars pretty much anywhere I go there. Our stores are in neighborhoods that are at least eighty percent Hispanic. Our folks are going back to forth to Mexico on a regular basis. They come back home with pesos. It makes perfect sense for us to accept them. Val Zavala>> Fielder points out that Wal-Mart stores, at least the ones along the border, accept pesos. Still, he got plenty of angry calls even to his home number. Brett Fielder>> The meanest was that I was going to be sorry. I mean, I got a couple of those. We were going to be sorry, you know. I had some threats to the people who work here. We increased security for a little while to make sure that things were going to be okay. Val Zavala>> In the meantime, the policy was working. In the first week, twenty percent of their pizzas were paid for with pesos. Since then, it's tapered off. But when we were there, some students came in eager to trade in their ten thousand peso bill for a large pizza with pepperoni, but then a glitch. Brett Fielder>> "So apparently this one's old." >> "This one's old." Brett Fielder>> "It's not going to be any good to me when I take it to the bank." Val Zavala>> It turns out their bill was from 1988. >> They said our bill was old. Apparently, we went to Mexico in the 1980s and forgot we had that (laughter). Val Zavala>> (Laughter) A trip made a long time ago. >> A long time ago. Brett Fielder>> Mexico devalues their currency on a fairly regular basis. We have a chart of bills that are accepted by the Mexican banks, so we only accept those bills coming in. Otherwise, it's just like accepting a counterfeit twenty here. Val Zavala>> So you could not have redeemed the old one. It was worthless. Brett Fielder>> Couldn't have redeemed the old one. They're worthless after a period of time. Val Zavala>> Gotcha. Did you give them a free pizza? Brett Fielder>> Didn't give him a free pizza, but he had a two-for-one coupon, so he got two for one. It's Tuesday. It's two-for-one Tuesday. Val Zavala>> They use an exchange rate equivalent to what you'd get at a bank, which charges fees. But they're stopping at pesos, despite a demand from an unhappy caller. Brett Fielder>> This woman said to me, "You have to accept euros since you're accepting pesos." That wouldn't make sense for me because I guarantee I'm in a neighborhood where there aren't that many people who are traveling to Europe, so I wouldn't want to deal with another foreign currency. Val Zavala>> Fielder says the national exposure for this young company has far outweighed the negatives, including a big story on the number one Spanish language network, Univision. What's the long-term impact on your business? Has it boosted it or has it settled down? Brett Fielder>> I think it will have a permanent impact on business because brand awareness is very important. It brought a lot of new people into the store. All of the talk, all of the press, all of the conservative radio talk show hosts, they helped our business. They certainly didn't hurt it, so it brought a lot of new people into the store. We feel like we have a great quality product and they'll come back if they come here once. Val Zavala>> Well, Brett Fielder, thank you so much. You're a marketing pioneer here in Los Angeles. Brett Fielder>> I don't know about that, but thank you very much. Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week tells the story of the real-life Zodiac killer who terrorized San Francisco in the 1970s. "Zodiac" is directed by David Fincher and it stars Mark Ruffalo and Jake Gyllenhaal. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> I'm joined by critics Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com. Henry, what did you think of "Zodiac"? Henry Sheehan>> Well, it's a good procedural, you know, in that it gives you a lot of information about the killer who terrorized San Francisco from 1969 for another ten years. Famously, there was never an arrest in the case. The killings did stop, though. It's about a policeman and two newspapermen. Mark Ruffalo plays the cop. The newspapermen are played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. and how they became obsessed to various degrees with trying to catch this guy. It's directed by David Fincher, who directed "Seven" and "Fight Club". I have to say, in his larger ambitions to get inside these obsessive personalities, I think he failed. But in terms of just giving us a lot of information, tracking down a killer, following leads, seeing how the killer operated, I think the film was pretty successful. Larry Mantle>> Jean? Jean Oppenheimer>> I was actually very disappointed in it for a couple of reasons. I like police procedurals and I like the nitty-grittiness of sort of investigating a case, but if a movie is supposed to be about the almost sort of humdrum experience of investigating, the near-misses, the false leads, the almost boringness of it, then I have to really be involved with the characters, and I was not involved with any of these characters. Not with Gyllenhaal, not with Ruffalo and not with Robert Downey Jr., who's an actor I really, really practically worship. In fact, I didn't think, with the exception of the Gyllenhaal character, that the other two were really what I would call obsessed. Ruffalo the cop wants to investigate understandably. He's a police officer. Downey Jr. plays a reporter with addiction problems who sees this as his big chance. But all those things were reasonable. None of it was obsessive to me. Larry Mantle>> "Black Snake Moan" stars Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson in a tale set in the south with some rather stark images. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Black Snake Moan", Jean? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, I saw this film for the first time about six months ago and I did not know what to make of it. I didn't know whether to be offended or to find it humorous or what. But thank heaven, I went back to see it again a couple of weeks ago and, I got to tell you, it's a really outrageous sort of pulpy exploitation film. It's about race relations in the south. It's about sin and redemption. It's about singing the blues. It's a really outrageous, provocative, lurid story that has a surprising tenderness almost at its center. Christina Ricci is a white trash nymphomaniac who spends a large part of the film in her underwear chained to a radiator. Larry Mantle>> Our next film is the French movie, "Avenue Montaigne". It stars Cecile De France as a young woman whose job brings her into contact with a wide range of Parisians. The film was directed by Daniele Thompson. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Avenue Montaigne", Henry? Henry Sheehan>> Well, this is a piece of French pastry. I think director Daniele Thompson, who is French despite Thompson, this is what she set out to make. It stars one of the biggest young actresses in France, Cecile De France, who plays a young country girl who goes to Avenue Montaigne, a big fancy street. She gets a job in a bistro and kind of mixes in with all kinds of other stories involving a television soap actress who wants to be taken seriously, a concert pianist who doesn't want to play anymore and a rich old man who's getting rid of all his paintings played by the great French actor, Claude Brasseur. It's all supposed to be very sentimental and touching and funny, and it is. Larry Mantle>> The Bosnian film, "Grbavica", the Land of my Dreams, tells the story of a single mother and her twelve year old daughter who are trying to get by in war-torn Sarajevo. [Film Clip] Larry Mantle>> "Grbavica", Jean? Jean Oppenheimer>> This is an extraordinarily powerful film with a real powerhouse performance by a Bosnian actress named -- I have to look at the name -- Mirjana Karanovic. The story takes place in Sarajevo maybe a decade after the Bosnian-Serbian war has ended. It's about a single mother and her rebellious twelve year old daughter. The mother was a victim of the war. In that war, there were not just tens of thousands killed, but there were over twenty thousand women who were kept in a prisoner of war camp and repeatedly raped. The lead character here is one of those women, so she has to try to deal with this throughout her life. It shows how it affects her relationship with her daughter. I predict this will be on my Ten Best list. I really think it's sensational. Larry Mantle>> Henry? Henry Sheehan>> This is an excellent film. It really captures the idea of post traumatic stress disorder not in a clinical way, but in the way this woman tries to navigate her new life after the war. There are some really interesting and fascinating character studies. She gets a job working as a waitress in a mob-owned bar and one of the guys that looks like just a scary muscle guy turns out to be a former med student who can't go back to that life anymore. He's kind of working as a goon. He looks scary, but in fact he's a very gentle intellectual guy. The film is full of surprises like that. It's just a really topnotch, excellent film, the winner of the first prize at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. Larry Mantle>> Thanks for joining us for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC joined by critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com and Jean Oppenheimer of Village Voice Media. Please join us again next week for the next FilmWeek on Life and Times. Val Zavala>> For the hour version of FilmWeek, tune in to KPCC public radio on Fridays at eleven a.m. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Val Zavala>> The Bowers Museum in Santa Ana is twice as large as it used to be and, to help kick off its new wing, it has brought priceless artifacts from China dating back five thousand years. Vicki Curry takes a look at "Treasures from Shanghai". [Film Clip] Peter Keller>> What we do in this exhibition is take you through five thousand years of Chinese art and culture, Chinese history, with the very finest pieces available from the Shanghai Museum, pieces that reflect the various dynasties. Vicki Curry>> It's a treasure vault of ancient objects showing the best of Chinese art going back five millennia. There's pottery, porcelain, jade, painting, lacquer ware, bamboo and bronze. Peter Keller>> When you talk about the Bronze Age, the Bronze Age in China was just spectacular. You talk about porcelains, the porcelains that were made in the early Ming Dynasty and before are almost the best in the world. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> The oldest items in the exhibit come from the Neolithic period about five thousand years ago, like these pieces of painted pottery and these jade ornaments and jewelry. Peter Keller>> But the fun thing to do is to think back what was going on elsewhere in the world at any one of those points in time. You know, three thousand years ago, there wasn't a lot going on in Europe or in the United States for the Americans. So China was definitely the center of the civilization at the time. Vicki Curry>> A good example of that is this piece called an Oracle Bone from around the twelfth century B.C. Peter Keller>> One of the earliest forms of writing that we know of anywhere in the world was done in China during the Neolithic period. Actually engraved characters on the scapula of a cow or a bull. Vicki Curry>> Many of the objects were unearthed from tombs where they were preserved for dozens of centuries. The ancient Chinese believed in a rich afterlife, so the items they took to the grave carried a special significance. This dog made of pottery represented someone's pet. And this creature, made sometime between 206 B.C. and 220 A.D., was meant to guard a tomb against evil. Peter Keller>> You look at the dates on these pieces and they can be three thousand years old and, first of all, they look like they were made yesterday. They're so technologically superb. You would never dream that an ancient culture could make such a thing. [Film Clip] Vicki Curry>> Decorations and materials changed across the dynasties depending on the fashions, economics or beliefs of the time. Designs ranged from elaborate to realistic to simple. Some objects were part of everyday life while others were used in ceremonial rites. Taken as a group, they paint a vivid portrait of Chinese culture and lifestyle. Peter Keller>> One of my favorite pieces is a Ming Dynasty painting, a scroll, that -- you're not going to believe this -- but it shows a group of women playing golf or it appears to be golf. They're holding golf clubs and they're putting a round ball into a hole. That's about three hundred years before golf was invented in Scotland. That's just, I think, a fun part of this exhibition. Vicki Curry>> The Bowers and Shanghai Museums hope items like that inspire visitors to learn more about Chinese history. Chen Kelun>> I very hope the visitor will like our exhibition and very hope they get the interest to know the ancient China as well as they can find something about present China. Peter Keller>> Just walking around with you, I got excited about almost every piece. So there are lots to come and see. I think it's well worth the trip down to Santa Ana to see "Treasures from China". Val Zavala>> "Shanghai Treasures" will be on display through August 19. For details, you can go to their website at bowers.org. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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