If 2020 began with promise, all that changed as every industry tradition we took for granted was stripped away without warning. The pandemic has seen nearly 20 million positive cases in the U.S. alone, and soon 350,000 will be dead. Every facet of entertainment was impacted: live theaters and movie theaters closed, production in TV and movies halted, agencies reliant on live events and film and TV shows saw revenues dry to a trickle. Layoffs and furloughs followed everywhere.
Then came the social protests following the death of George Floyd, the polarization and politicization of everything down to whether to wear protective masks to stem the spread of Covid, and a divisive presidential election still being disputed by the loser, and 2020 became an ugly year.
During moments of disruption, some shrink from adversity and resist change, while others step up and stand tall and find ways to turn hardship into a positive. Here is a look back at those in the industry who found ways to be memorable in a most forgettable year.
Click on the photo above to launch our photo gallery.
Health care workers and first responders receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru clinic at the bus depot in Frisco on Sunday, Dec. 27. Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
In late December 2019, the world was anticipating the excitement and possibilities of a new decade.
A presidential election was approaching as people watched politicians vying for the Democratic Party nominee. The world was readying itself for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. In Summit County, visitors flocked to local ski resorts to enjoy their winter vacations. No one was thinking about sourdough starters.
A year later, Summit County, along with the rest of the world, looks a lot different than it once did. People line up to enter grocery stores. Customers bundle up as they eat outside in below-zero temperatures. Seeing the lower half of a stranger’s face feels like an intrusion.
For some, the year has been devastating. People have lost their jobs. Business owners try to make ends meet with limited capacity and dwindling revenue. Parents worry about their children’s mental health as the Summit School District weaves between learning models. Over 2,000 Summit County residents have gotten the novel coronavirus. Four have died from it.
As the county moves into 2021 with no fireworks and limited fanfare, a lot remains unknown, but officials say there is much to look forward to.
Summit County Director of Public Health Amy Wineland speaks at a press conference March 5 in Frisco to discuss the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the state. Photo by Liz Copan / Summit Daily archives
A public health crisis 100 years in the making
Before 2020, Amy Wineland’s job as the county’s public health director was largely behind the scenes. She helped coordinate initiatives to prevent tobacco use, worked with her department to ensure local businesses were following protocols and successfully managed an outbreak of the mumps among Keystone Resort employees.
“To have the first case in Colorado here, I think it was kind of waking up to your worst nightmare,” she said. “You feel like you’ve done all this training and exercising, but you just can’t be prepared, you can’t be prepared for the enormity of that particular situation and what was to come.”
The next day, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a mandatory closure of ski resorts across the state. And on March 16, Summit County issued its first public health order, closing all nonessential businesses.
“It was quickly realized how deadly this virus can be and the impact it can have on our health care system,” Wineland said. “Early on, when we were seeing the hospitalizations increase and knowing what the health care capacity was within the state, the north star from the shutdowns was really to prevent overwhelming the health care system with something we didn’t really understand.”
Wineland will be the first to acknowledge the shutdown order was “draconian.” However, it’s what helped Summit County have a successful summer, she said.
“When we did go into shutdown, we were able to suppress the spread of the virus, which allowed us to have … a summer that allowed us to get back to somewhat of a sense of normalcy,” she said.
People wear masks while walking along Breckenridge's Main Street on July 12. The Breckenridge Town Council implemented a mandatory mask zone July 9 to help prevent the spread of the virus at the popular location. Photo by Libby Stanford / estanford@summitdaily.com
A successful summer
From June through August, it seemed like the pandemic’s economic impact on Summit County might not be as bad as some feared.
On May 7, the county amended its public health order allowing businesses to open at 50% capacity and requiring that people wear face coverings in public.
After a winter of staying at home, visitors found themselves itching to go somewhere. No place was better than the mountains, with cool temperatures and plenty of outdoor recreation options.
Local governments got creative, creating the Frisco and Breckenridge Main Street promenades to promote outdoor dining. All four local ski areas were able to open for outdoor activities.
Businesses that had to close in March were able to make up some of their lost revenue over that time while the real estate industry saw its busiest summer on record.
“Everybody was feeling pretty good through the summer,” said Blair McGary, executive director of the Summit Chamber of Commerce. “Never has the allure of outdoor spaces been more prevalent.”
Although the summer was successful, it didn’t save Summit County’s economy by any means. From March through August, Summit County businesses were down an estimated $464 million in revenue, McGary said.
Paytone Tracy, an employee of the Myla Rose Saloon in Blue River, marches with demonstrators in Breckenridge on Nov. 30 while protesting state-mandated restrictions on dine-in service at restaurants throughout Colorado. Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography
Unintended consequences
Even when 2020 is a thing of the past, the world will be working to make up for the economic and behavioral health wreckage it left in its wake.
“I think this pandemic is really creating some steps backwards with … all of the unintended consequences we’ve realized,” Wineland said. “(We’ve seen) behavioral health needs, increase in suicides and overdoses, the economic insecurity, that people are facing struggles with food and housing. We’ve had an increase in child care abuse and neglect, increase in intimate partner violence.”
In Summit County, the local workforce has bared the brunt of these unintended consequences. The shutdown in March led nearly a quarter of the county’s workforce to leave the community by midsummer, creating staffing shortages at businesses across the county, McGary said.
“Our service industry was having trouble really staffing in the prepandemic,” she said. “Then we roll into the fall, and we started to see an uptick in numbers, and we started to see the writing on the wall of what was going to happen.”
After Labor Day, the county saw a spike in cases that led to a move into level red on the state’s COVID-19 dial. The move prohibited indoor dining for restaurants, limited gyms and fitness centers to 10% capacity and made it so no one could gather with others outside of their household.
The Summit High School class of 2020 is given a unique graduation celebration in the form of a motorcade procession down Main Street in Breckenridge on May 21.
Photo by Liz Copan / Summit Daily archives
Tim Applegate, left, owner of Sauce on the Blue in Silverthorne, and Rob Baer use a tape measure to space tables 6 feet apart May 26. After more than a two-month closure, restaurants throughout Colorado were allowed to reopen at limited capacity May 27.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Summit Daily archives
Despite the fact that group activities are canceled because of coronavirus, Summit High School students were determined to enjoy their prom, as pictured in a back yard in Dillon on April 25. Dressed in glamorous attire and face masks, the swanky seniors had a good time posing for photos with their dates and friends in an effort to bring some normalcy to their year.
Photo by Liz Copan / Summit Daily archives
Students wear their masks as they return to Silverthorne Elementary for the first day of school Aug. 27.
Photo by Liz Copan / Summit Daily archives
An employee scans a lift pass on opening day at Breckenridge Ski Resort on Nov. 13.
Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
A medical technician performs a COVID-19 screening test at the Silverthorne drive-thru testing site Nov. 20.
Photo by Jason Connolly / Jason Connolly Photography
Ruth Nash, an emergency department nurse at St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, poses after receiving her vaccine for the novel coronavirus Dec. 17. Nash was one of the first people to receive the vaccine in Summit County.
Photo by Libby Stanford / estanford@summitdaily.com
“It was devastating to our business community, both to our businesses, our employers, and our employees,” McGary said. “For restaurants to go from 25% capacity to no indoor dining was really, really devastating.”
Those in the workforce who are still here face low wages, increased job insecurity and daily exposures to the general public. At the beginning of the pandemic, Summit County’s Hispanic population, many of whom work in essential jobs, was disproportionately affected by the virus.
In June, Hispanic people made up 61% of all cases in the county despite only consisting of around 14% of the total population. Since then, the percentage of cases has dropped to around 32%, and white people make up the majority of cases.
“This pandemic has really exacerbated health disparities,” Wineland said. “Certain segments of our population have been disproportionately affected. Those include folks living in crowded conditions, those in service jobs, front-line workers, who don’t have the luxury of working from home and working remotely.”
Health care workers and first responders receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru clinic at the bus depot in Frisco on Sunday, Dec. 27. Photo by Liz Copan / Studio Copan
Hope for 2021
In a lot of ways, 2021 will be similar to 2020.
Masks aren’t going away any time soon, schools will still have online days, and businesses will have to comply with restrictions. However, there are signs of an end to the pandemic.
For one, the world finally has COVID-19 vaccines. The county announced Wednesday, Dec. 30, that it will be following the state’s guidance to vaccinate people ages 70 and older.
“I think this year is ending with an inharmonious climate right now,” Wineland said. “We have a moment of fatalism and fatigue as the virus continues to raise to new destructive heights, and yet we have celebration and hope as the vaccine begins to be put in people’s arms.”
The county is also looking forward to a move to level orange. Polis announced Wednesday evening that all counties in level red will be able to move to the less restrictive level orange Monday, Jan. 4.
Summit County has seen a steady drop in cases after going into level red. Since hitting a peak of 1,352 new cases per 100,000 people at the end of November, the number of new cases has declined to 706.8 per 100,000 people.
The success in slowing case numbers is the result of hard work by health care workers, the county’s public health team and the community as a whole, Wineland said.
If people continue to wear masks, avoid gatherings, get tested often and get a vaccine when it’s their turn, the county may see things look close to normal at the end of summer, she said.
“The virus is going to continue; it’s going to continue to be here until we get the majority of our population vaccinated,” she said. “That’s going to be several months from now, so we do need to continue to step up and protect each other.”
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) were hit hard by the coronavirus shutdowns, but some have done better than others. Net-lease REIT Realty Income(NYSE:O), for example, has turned in strong numbers after a notable hit early in the pandemic. That's not a shock for this industry bellwether, but don't take that as a reason to buy shares -- in fact, peer W.P. Carey(NYSE:WPC) is probably a better long-term bet as a new year gets underway. Here's why.
COVID-19 performance was strong
The pandemic was a real litmus test for real estate investment trusts. While some sectors were doomed to have terrible performance (like hotels), others (net lease) were a mixed bag -- REITs with resilient business models shined, while those with fragile models struggled. For example, EPR Properties, which owns things like amusement parks and movie theaters using a net-lease model, has struggled mightily because of its unique experiential focus. It is still only collecting around half of the rents it is owed.
Image source: Getty Images.
Realty Income, on the other hand, saw rent collection dip to around 80% in the early days of the pandemic. However, collections are back up to around 94%. So, relatively speaking, Realty Income has handled the downturn well. But W.P. Carey's rent collections never dipped below 96%, and are currently at 99% or so. Basically, when times got tough, W.P. Carey proved it had an even stronger model than Realty Income.
The business plan benefits from diversification
The key to W.P. Carey's success is its focus on diversification. Realty Income's portfolio is heavily focused on the retail sector, which accounts for roughly 85% of its rents. The rest is spread across industrial (10% of rents), office (3%), and agricultural (the remainder). And it generated around 4% of its rents from the United Kingdom as well. Compare that to W.P. Carey's mix of industrial (24% of rents), warehouse (23%), office (23%), retail (17%), and self-storage (5%) assets (a sizable "other" component makes up the difference). In addition, roughly 37% of W.P. Carey's rent is derived from outside the United States, largely from Europe.
You know diversification is good for your portfolio, but it can be just as beneficial for a REIT's portfolio. W.P. Carey's success during the pandemic is evidence of this and sets it apart from Realty Income, which is much more focused in its approach.
Dividend yield illustrates a history of growth
So W.P. Carey has held up better than Realty Income, and you might expect investors to reward it for that. But that doesn't seem to be the case when you look at the dividend yields these two REITs offer. Realty Income's yield is 4.6% or so, while W.P. Carey's yield is 5.9% -- more than a full percentage point higher. While some might suggest that investors are giving Realty Income some additional credit for its 27-year streak of annual dividend increase, W.P. Carey has increased its dividend every year that it has been public (23 years and counting). The two REITs really stand toe-to-toe when it comes to dividend histories.
Valuation is a bargain by comparison
The next issue to consider is valuation. Realty Income's price to adjusted funds from operations (FFO) ratio is around 19 times, using the REIT's third-quarter results as a run rate. That's a big number for a company that's basically a slow and steady tortoise. W.P. Carey's price to adjusted FFO is closer to 15 times, using the third quarter as a run rate. That's not exactly at bargain levels, but it is a lot more compelling than Realty Income's valuation.
Reliable dividends, reasonable price
Realty Income is a well-run company, but you'll probably be better off avoiding the "default" choice in the net-lease space and looking at strong alternative W.P. Carey. It has a good business model (perhaps even better than Realty Income's), a strong performance history, a robust yield, and a more reasonable valuation. It wouldn't be fair to suggest investors should dislike Realty Income, but when you step back there are some pretty good reasons to prefer W.P. Carey.
The drops in Nielsen ratings go far beyond the typical erosion of the past decade that is a result of viewer fragmentation due to the dramatic increase in content options coming from streaming services.
The declines in prime-time viewers range from 32% for ViacomCBSInc.’sVIAC 0.49% CBS, 28% for FoxCorp.’sFOX -0.30% Fox, 25% for Comcast Corp.’s NBC and 7% for Walt DisneyCo.DIS 2.18% ’s ABC compared with the fall of 2019. Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News CorpNWS 0.34% share common ownership.
The drops can be attributed in large part to the effects of the virus on their businesses. Production shutdowns in the spring and summer left broadcast networks scrambling to fill their schedules with fresh content in the fall, making them less able to capitalize from an increase in overall television viewing from people being stuck at home.
Broadcast networks operate under a more restrained business model than Netflix and other streamers, which stockpile programming and had plenty of new shows and movies to offer housebound viewers. Broadcast shows are typically ordered in the spring for the following season. This season, new episodes of existing series weren’t ready to air until late fall. The few new series there were had to be rushed onto the air without the usual lengthy development process.
Networks got some cost savings from the reduction of original programming being produced and developed for the fall. However, production costs in general have increased because of the precautions put in place because of Covid-19. For a one-hour drama, the additional costs are more than $300,000 an episode and over $150,000 for a comedy, people familiar with the matter said—a 10% to 15% increase over the usual production costs.
The decline in ratings is being felt on the advertising side as well. NBC ad revenue was down 12% in Comcast’s third quarter, which included the month of September. ABC’s ad revenue for the early fall was flat while the company saved money from production shutdowns. Ad revenue for CBS in the third quarter was off 1%, while Fox’s last quarterly results through September showed ad revenue declines of 15%.
The networks took different approaches to dealing with the disruptions to their content pipelines that the pandemic wrought. CBS relied heavily on reruns of current shows, betting its lineup of traditional sitcoms and procedural crime dramas was well-positioned for repeat viewing.
The success of ’The Masked Singer’ helped Fox finish first in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
Photo: Michael Becker/FOX
NBC relied on imports such as the Canadian dramas “Nurses’’ and “Transplant” to fill holes left on its schedule as well as game shows such as “The Weakest Link” and a new season of the talent show “The Voice.”
“I actually think we weathered the storm better than I thought we would,” said Jeff Bader, president of program planning for NBC and its cable networks. Mr. Bader said NBC managed to have 82% of fresh content during the fall, a decline of just 6% from the previous fall, thanks in part to a heavy quotient of new unscripted fare.
Not every gamble NBC took paid off. A pandemic-inspired new comedy called “Connecting” that primarily took place in video chats was pulled after only four episodes.
The dramas that have been on for much of the fall have also seen double-digit growth in catch-up viewing either via DVRs or on NBC platforms, Mr. Bader said. This is indicative of the continuing trend of viewers pivoting away from live television to on-demand, which is also how the networks are now determining success. A show with seemingly low linear ratings isn’t necessarily headed to the chopping block if it does well on secondary platforms.
“The definition of success is constantly evolving,” said Fox Entertainment head Michael Thorn.
ABC and Fox were fortunate to be able to make fresh episodes of their unscripted hits “The Bachelorette,” “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Masked Singer,” respectively. The success of “The Bachelorette” helped cushion ABC’s fall, while Fox’s heavy drop would have been even bigger without “The Masked Singer.” Both networks were starting from a lower base audience, making their drops less impactful.
ABC also was one of the first networks to resume production and had new episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Conners” and a new dark crime drama called “Big Sky” to give it momentum heading into the new year.
“We didn’t go the route that many other networks did—which was to slate their fall with reruns, or turn to acquisitions,” said Ed Isabella, vice president of research for ABC. “We knew we wanted our original shows back on the air.”
Fox took a similar approach to ABC, launching with its regular Sunday night animated lineup. It did try two new shows—dramas “Next” and “Filthy Rich” that were canceled after a handful of airings. Fox was stung by a low-rated World Series as well. The success of “The Masked Singer” helped the network finish first in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
“Certain shows still catch the fascination and hearts of the audiences,” Fox’s Mr. Thorn said of the success of “The Masked Singer.”
CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl said in an interview that it was a “fool’s errand” to compare this fall with last fall given all the disruption.
“We acknowledge it was a rough start, but we knew it was coming,” Mr. Kahl said. Besides most shows not being ready in September and October, Mr. Kahl said the gradual return to production also made finding a scheduling rhythm a challenge. In the new year, there should be a more traditional pattern of several weeks of new episodes of a show running before a repeat appears.
If there is a financial upside to the chaos the pandemic created this season it is that the networks won’t be ordering as many scripts to develop for next season because there are plenty left from the previous pilots season.
“We’re committed to making them, which is why we rolled them into the next cycle,” said Fox’s Mr. Thorn.
A year ago, Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist in the Chinese city of Wuhan, gave one of the world’s first warnings about Covid-19. Then police called him and sternly admonished him. In February, after the virus has snowballed into a global pandemic, Li himself died of the virus.
Now, despite Beijing’s efforts to downplay the collective misery Chinese people experienced last spring during the outbreak’s peak in China, many have gone on online to commemorate Li and express their lingering anger about the government’s handling of Covid-19 after it surfaced in December 2019. The tributes mark ordinary citizens’ refusal to go along with the state-sanctioned memory of China’s coronavirus history.
“Confirmed, seven SARS-type cases,” read the message 34-year-old Li sent to a WeChat group of his medical school alumni on Dec. 30, 2019, according to his post (link in Chinese) on Weibo, published in January. Li wrote that he wanted to warn his classmates about the then mysterious pneumonia cases resembling SARS, a respiratory illness outbreak in 2003 caused by a coronavirus similar to Covid-19. Li later clarified that the virus in question had yet to be identified, but he was still summoned by police who asked him to sign a letter acknowledging he had been told to “carefully reflect on your behavior” and stop “engaging with illegal activities” or else face further action.
Despite Beijing’s efforts to calm public anger, including labeling Li as a “martyr” and having Wuhan police apologize to Li’s family, Li’s Weibo page has become a “digital wailing wall” where people post messages to say how much they miss him and thank him for his courage in speaking up. Some have come to treat Li as a personal confidante, telling him about their wishes and fears for life, or even which movie stars they like. Li’s final Weibo post, in which he announced he had contracted the coronavirus, has received over 1 million messages and over nearly 4 million “like.”
This week, users also flocked to leave messages on Li’s page. “Happy New Year, doctor Li!” appeared in several posts. “The pandemic is far from over after a year, hope you are having a wonderful life in a parallel world,” said one.” Li’s name briefly showed up as one of the most trending topics on Weibo on Wednesday, but later quietly disappeared from the section.
Meanwhile, some used the chance to remember Li’s warning, sent a year ago, as a chance to vent their frustration about Beijing’s push for people to stick to a state-approved coronavirus narrative. China has now largely managed to control the pandemic domestically, and through propaganda organs is trumpeting this success while simultaneously casting doubt on how the virus originated and spread, and how the country dealt with it. One state television dramatization of the coronavirus battle downplayed the role of the many women medical workers on the frontlines, suggesting they were reluctant recruits to the effort. By censoring, arresting, or prosecuting those who sought to tell or preserve different perspectives, the regime has managed to transform what was once seen as China’s “Chernobyl moment” into evidence that its one-party system is superior to western democracies. “China’s achievements in fighting the pandemic are the best response to the fallacy of ‘China concealing the virus,’ said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry on Monday (Dec. 29).
A trending post, that has since been removed, rebuked the remarks from Wang.
“The intention of this article is clear: [Wang’s remarks] are the right collective coronavirus memory people should have…doctors whose collapse was recorded on video, medical workers who kept fighting the pandemic while wearing garbage bags, a medical system that was suddenly overwhelmed—did none of those exist? Who is Li Wenliang? Was there ever such a doctor?” wrote user “PRND21,” in a post that attracted nearly 6,000 shares. “As a Chinese person, and a husband of a Wuhan person, I refuse to forget,” he wrote.
In another post, a user shared the screenshot of the warning letter the police asked Li to sign. “One day, this piece of paper will be displayed in a museum!” wrote the user.
“It is already preserved in a museum that is in people’s hearts,” responded another.
The first weeks of December were eventful in South Korean politics. After months of partisan jawing and committee deadlock, the ruling Democratic Party flexed its 174-seat majority in the National Assembly to pass a truly massive slate of laws—more than 130 bills that touched on areas including government organization, corporate governance, labor rights, and climate change. But in Washington, only one bill among the 130-plus received any attention: the revision to the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, the so-called anti-leaflet law that prohibits disseminating leaflets near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) by launching large helium balloons in a manner that could cause “serious danger.”
Rep. Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement criticizing the bill. A Washington Post op-ed reported that Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun conveyed concerns about the legislation in his recent visit to Seoul. Amid the small club of Korea watchers in the United States, the bill was the only topic in South Korean politics that generated any significant discussion.
The singular focus on the leaflet law is a typical example of the old mindset—one I’ve criticized before—that assesses South Korea solely on the basis on how closely its North Korea policy aligns with U.S. needs. These blinkered views, disconnected from ground-level events, cause an unnecessary strain on an alliance that is far more important than just for dealing with North Korea.
Few dispute that China is this century’s greatest U.S. foreign-policy challenge. This naturally means that the U.S. ally nearest to China must be given a very high priority. If we really are in a second Cold War, South Korea is as important as West Germany was: a wealthy democracy with a twin in the communist camp, standing at the front line of the liberal world order. South Korea isn’t an auxiliary player but rather deserves to be evaluated on its own terms—something that’s unfortunately rare in Washington foreign-policy circles. Even among experts and think tanks that specialize in East Asia and the Koreas, there is little attempt to keep tabs on South Korea’s domestic politics. Instead, its politics (and sometimes its entire democracy) is judged based on two questions only: What is South Korea’s plan for North Korea, and how closely does that plan align with the U.S. plan for North Korea?
Such myopia is especially harmful today, when South Korean politics is going through a fundamental realignment similar to the ones overseen by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan in the United States. For 29 years after the end of military dictatorship in 1987, South Korea was largely a conservative country, with 19 years of conservative presidencies and 10 years of liberal ones. When liberal presidents like Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun did win, they did so by making strategic alliances with smaller conservative factions. Kim Dae-jung partnered with Kim Jong-pil, a former lieutenant of the dictator Park Chung-hee, while Roh campaigned with Chung Mong-joon, a centrist scion of the Hyundai Group. Even when they won the presidency, the liberals persistently faced a legislative minority, constricting their ability to implement a large-scale, center-left political agenda.
That era ended with the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye in 2017. The twilight years of Park’s presidency saw the changing of the guards, as the liberals scored four national victories in a row: the 2016 legislative elections, 2017 presidential election, 2018 local elections, and the legislative elections once again in April of this year, in which the Democratic Party earned a historic, filibuster-proof majority that it applied with gusto to pass a massive slate of progressive laws. With these victories, the electoral mainstream of South Korean politics shifted decisively. Voters in their 40s, who make up nearly 20 percent of the whole voting population, support the liberal parties by a 2-to-1 margin, making South Korea’s baseline electorate center-left rather than center-right. Conservatives may yet recapture the presidency, but in all likelihood, they will only be able to do so in the same way that liberals did 20 years ago—by co-opting center-left issues and forming an alliance with some of the progressive factions.
This sea change, however, has been mostly lost on Washington’s Korea watchers. In December, they were content to focus on one law with no attention paid to the other 130-plus that, according to the conservative Dong-A Ilbo, “effectively changed the foundation of our [South Korea’s] society.” The Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials Act, for example, is the culmination of the Moon Jae-in administration’s prosecution reform, whose drama involving the Justice Ministry and the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office gripped South Korea for months. Revisions to the Fair Trade Act are virtually certain to trigger billions of dollars’ worth of restructuring in South Korea’s largest corporations as they come under greater scrutiny for anti-competitive behavior. The “three ILO acts” represent the greatest expansion of labor union rights in decades, making South Korea catch up to the recommendations of the International Labour Organization, the United Nations agency that sets global labor standards. In fact, the leaflet law is not even the most important North Korea-related bill that passed; that would be the corresponding revisions to the National Intelligence Service Act and the Police Act, which shifted the authority to investigate espionage cases from the spy agency to the police. None of these laws drew any attention in Washington; there was no congressional statement, no op-ed, no policy paper on any of them.
This is a pity, not least because studying South Korean politics would have made the debate on the leaflet ban more rigorous and informed. Most of the criticisms against the law come from the hard-liners in Washington who characterize the leaflet ban as a weak-kneed “capitulation” to North Korea by the liberal Moon. But if they had been following South Korean politics, they would have known that this issue long pre-dated Moon. South Korea’s restriction on launching balloons containing leaflets near the DMZ began in 2007, with even conservative Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye enforcing the restriction. They did so because the safety concern was real: The last time North Korean shells landed in South Korean territory was 2014, when the North Korean military shot anti-aircraft guns at large helium balloons launched by activists.
The activists challenged the restriction with the court and lost, as the Supreme Court of Korea held in 2016 that the danger justified the restriction. The new law is no more than a legislative ratification of the Supreme Court’s decision four years ago, made more urgent today due to the risk of an inadvertent escalation into a nuclear war with North Korea. None of the criticism from the United States refers to any of this history, makes any analysis of the 2016 Supreme Court opinion, or engages with the text of the law that makes clear the ban is not a wholesale prohibition—as Article 24 of the law states, the leaflet distribution is prohibited only to the extent that it is done in a manner that causes actual harm or danger.
Greater focus on South Korean politics would have also revealed the domestic political dynamic around the balloon-launching activists, many of whom are North Koreans who escaped to the South. Many in the North Korean defector community in South Korea have joined forces with South Korea’s far-right. This trend was especially pronounced during the conservative Park Geun-hye administration, which subsidized the North Korean defector groups in exchange for their flag-waving support in downtown Seoul. As a result, they mostly stayed silent when the Park administration abused North Korean defectors, by falsely charging some as spies, but now vigorously protest Moon.
Being blind to these overall political dynamics harms the U.S.-South Korea alliance. Freedom of speech for North Korea activists is an important issue, but it is not the only important issue in the alliance that serves as the lynchpin for the liberal order in the Indo-Pacific. When the U.S. government expresses concern for freedom of speech only when North Korea is involved and not when, for example, the Park Geun-hye administration blacklisted and censored some 9,000 liberal-leaning artists, including the Academy Award-winning director Bong Joon-ho, South Koreans justifiably wonder if the United States’ supposed love for free speech is no more than a pretext to defend a hawkish stance against Pyongyang.
When the South Korean public sees U.S. experts on the Korean Peninsula—who are supposed to be well versed on these issues—cavalierly dismiss the concerns of more than 1.1 million residents living near the DMZ, they feel viewed as disposable chess pieces in the game of foreign policy, not as human beings who carry on their lives in a community. The leaflet ban may deserve debate, but it should be a better, more rigorous one, with an eye on the health of the overall alliance.
From the pews of a church where white deacons once refused to seat African Americans, a group of Black singers in Alabama reminds us why preserving our memories of this historic year is vital — even if we'd rather just leave 2020 behind.
They're singing "Auld Lang Syne," the Scottish ballad synonymous with ringing in the new year. It begins with this line: "Should auld acquaintance be forgot / And never brought to mind?"
That question — of whether to forget the past — is central to the art film, For The Sake Of Old Times, debuting on NPR this week.
"It's certainly my tendency — and maybe our natural human tendency — to want to rush forward and put this year behind us," explains Tyler Jones, the film's director. "But that may do a disservice, I think, to our memories and those who went before us."
Ingrid Richardson, right, was one of many choir members. Screenshot from filmhide caption
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Screenshot from film
Ingrid Richardson, right, was one of many choir members.
Screenshot from film
Produced by a diverse group of filmmakers assembled by 1504, a studio based in Birmingham, Ala., For The Sake Of Old Times pairs the performance of "Auld Lang Syne" with archival footage from 2020, particularly of the summer's racial justice protests.
Among them: a vigil and protest in Chattanooga, Tenn., the removal of a statue honoring Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, in Richmond, Va., and the dismantling of a monument commemorating the Confederacy in Birmingham.
And like nearly everything in 2020, the pandemic cast a shadow over the project — from the production itself, which the director says received third-party certification for adhering to safety protocols, to the content and the filmmakers' approach.
"We were aware going into the project that 2020 has disproportionately impacted communities of color in ways that I will never understand," Jones says.
Sean Patrick Kirby, director of photography, prepares the opening scene with Jaxon Moore. Andi Ricehide caption
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Andi Rice
Sean Patrick Kirby, director of photography, prepares the opening scene with Jaxon Moore.
"So, we wanted to also honor the racial reckoning of the year and to amplify community voices," he says.
The film also draws parallels between the events of 2020 and those that occurred during the civil rights movement.
Through his studio's collaboration with the Equal Justice Initiative — a nonprofit committed to ending mass incarceration — Jones has "learned about how Black churches played an integral part in organizing, in strategy and in healing during the civil rights movement, while ... most white churches stayed silent or took an oppositional role."
One way the film nods to that history is where it was recorded: a building that once housed a church that refused to seat Black worshippers at the height of desegregation during the 1960s.
Some of the singers included Carrie Davis (left), Justin Davis and Ebonee Elliot. Andi Ricehide caption
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Andi Rice
"To be together like that in a church that we couldn't even sit in. You understand what that means? That's a lot," says Carrie Davis, a singer, songwriter and music director who lives in the area.
Davis helped the studio gather community members to perform "Auld Lang Syne" and arranged the piece to reflect their voices, including her own.
While some of the film's historical tributes were intentional — like its location — others were coincidental. Such was the case with the oldest singer who performed, Eloise Ford Gaffney.
As the filmmakers and singers got to know Gaffney, they learned that she fought for voting rights for African Americans and was jailed for protesting during the civil rights movement.
The youngest of the victims, Denise McNair, was 11 when she died — which is, coincidentally, the same age as Jaxon Moore, the first and last person to appear in For The Sake of Old Times.
For Tyler Jones, the director, part of the film's symbolism is Moore "drawing on the community voices that are surrounding him as the song goes on."
"But at the end, he's the one that's moving forward. He's walking out of the church. And I think that it's really the younger generation that we now are having to follow," Jones says.
There's a verse in "Auld Lang Syne" that Jones says captures his wish for how the nation approaches the road ahead: "We'll take a cup o' kindness yet / For days of auld lang syne."
"My hope is that kindness sort of is the root of how we move forward," he says. "And certainly, I want the film to be an encouragement for that."
It's a hope that also resonates with Carrie Davis, the local singer and music director.
"Together in love, that's the way we're going to make this work. That's the only way we're going to move forward," Davis says. "Not forgetting the past — remembering the past, but moving forward."
December 30, 2020 at 06:06PM
https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2020/12/30/950636647/you-might-be-ready-to-forget-2020-this-film-reminds-you-why-you-shouldnt
Should 2020 Be Forgot? Choir Rings Out Year With 'Auld Lang Syne' : The Picture Show - NPR
