The Wal-Mart & McDonald Protest Report
The Wal-Mart & McDonald Protest Report projects have been created in Adobe Premiere, as an extended assignment under the topic of "Fairness and Justice," in the Photography 51 (Advanced Computerized Photography) course at East Los Angeles College, in the Spring Semester 2014, taught by Professor Minh Nguyen.
In this project, the assignment requires the inclusion of three well-connected parts: (1) "Fairness and Justice Activity of the Victims" with action and B-roll footages; (2) "Self-defense of the Villain(s)" with interview footage and (3) "Interview with Expert(s) for an Analysis of the Case."
One day in April 2014, I met a group of labor rights activists in front of the Metro Red Line Station at the cross-section of Vermont Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, who advocated the idea of raising the Minimum Wage in California to $15 per hour. I conveniently picked up the issue to complete the assignment. In my personal analysis of the case, the current amount in California for the Minimum Wage is far too low for residents in Los Angeles and neighboring Southern California counties due to high housing cost that is twice as expensive as in most of other states. My assumption is that, with all state and federal welfare benefits for the working poor, a married couple living in most of the other states (say Oregon) can still afford a comfortable living, and occasionally, if they live a very frugal life for ten years, they probably can save enough money for the down-payment of a condo; but in Southern California, even couples earning middle-class salaries have difficulty doing so. Thus, I have to agree that their advocacy is fully justified. I therefore designated low-wage workers in Southern California as the "Victims." Who are the "Villain(s)" in this case? Most of people might think that the Wal-Mart chain stores and McDonald Restaurants are. Well, to certain degree, this argument could be partially justified. However, if I am a manager or owner at Wal-Mart or McDonald, I could possibly argue that I am equally a victim in this case, because in most of other states, with all of the state and federal welfare benefits, couples earning federal minimum wages could still afford a frugal but nevertheless decent living, but I do have to agree that in Southern California, this is not the case; thus, I am a double-victim of both labor protest that damages the image of my company and real-estate profiteers who are responsible for high housing cost and who force me to accept a $15 per hour living wage that cuts down my profit margin. This defense of Wal-Mart and McDonald is partially based on the fact that I am a loyal customer of both businesses. Based on this analysis, I designated the real-estate speculators as the ultimate villains in this case. This designation is partially based on my personal experience (one of my close relatives used to be a real-estate speculator and motel-owner in North Hollywood; he cheated United States Government on tax and on immigration, violated zoning laws and caused class-action complaints from local residents, and mistreated other relatives to the extent that I have to cut off all relationships with him). Therefore, I decided to shoot some footages of the protest event and of interview with an expert on housing issue to complete the assignment.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Please note that any opinion(s) expressed in this video are strictly those of the people shown in the video. Edward Locke, the producer of this video maintains strict neutrality with regard to any social, economic, philosophical, ideological or cultural issues; makes all efforts possible when reporting on any issues with the highest degree of objectivity; and does NOT endorse, oppose or try to exclude any points of views, liberal or conservative, middle-of-the-road, or otherwise.
For any questions, please send me an email ([email protected]).
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