Issue 2 / Volume 1
www.TheAgoraNational.ca Conventional VS alternative
Playing to win
Report from the front lines
Permaculture: Important positive change
VPD have a new sound weapon
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The Anti-Terrorist
Cynthia McKinney
Jesse Lemieux
Alicia Charles
Terri-Lynn
Wednesday December 23, 2009 Would a real man please stand up?
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Lee Smith
A Bullet to the Head
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Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
CONTENT ADVISORY PAGE 2
Who is protecting our children
UPDATE
Child trafficking in Beautiful British Columbia
by Simon Doyle L 2
Swindle flu
by Wayne Prante N 3
hEADLINES
LOCAL 4 4 5 7 8 9 9 11 12 14
Creating your own reality Incredibly stupid units Bankrupting BC Hydro Enlightenment in the city Natural addiction therapy Air Brushing your weight away Ogopogo: History and Mystery Santa isn’t coming this year What if How to break up
NATIONAL 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11
Lawsuit exposes S.P.P. agenda A torch of another kind The Bloc outside of Quebec Strategic cultural assimilation If CSIS comes knocking Bill C-6, hazardous legislation Canadian forces in our cities Ocean of sound Revolution Music The Canadian Zeitgeist Splitting The Sky
WORLD 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 12 15 19 19
An overview of Linux 9/11, an iside job? Africa, HIV/AIDS and the Church Psycho-Babel Swine flu projections hyped Permaculture: positive change Artist spotlight The origins of World War 3 Seven lesson school teacher Playing to win 21st Century community activism
AND ThE POLITICS Of CLImATE ChANGE By Kevin Annett www.hiddenfromhistory.org
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1998 report by UNESCO on International Child Trafficking names Vancouver as one of three major centers for child prostitution in the world, along with Bangkok and Rotterdam.
In the early hours of October 14, 2000, an aboriginal reporter named Noel watches as two children no older than eight are loaded into a stretch limousine on the Squamish Indian reserve and driven to the back door of an upper class club in Vancouver. Noel waits for hours, and when the children emerge, he tries to speak to them, but is assaulted from behind and his tape recorder disappears.
Continued page L 1
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Advisory
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Child trafficking in Beautiful British Columbia continued from front page In the fall of 2001, an investigator named Rob Nicholson publishes a book entitled “Stolen Innocence”, in which he documents extensive child trafficking and pornography by social workers, lawyers and policemen connected to the Ministry of Children and Families (MCF). Nicholson proves that the MCF continually places foster children in homes of known and even convicted pedophiles.
the full knowledge of the local RCMP detachment in both towns, and in one case, even clergymen from the United Church were involved.” The word on the street is even more explicit. Marion is a middle aged sex trade worker who is a veteran of “the stroll” along east Hastings street, where disappearances are a common occurrence. For years, she has watched as children are procured according to a well-organized and protected system involving wealthy predators. “The going rate for a young child is $1500 these days. Foreign tourists will ask for a young virgin, of either sex, and the younger the age, the more they’re willing to pay. It’s watched over by the Vancouver cops, who get a cut. But it’s run by an international network; Vancouver’s just one spoke in the wheel. I hear it’s got a direct tie to Thailand and the child sex trade there.” Don’t expect any police or legal intervention to stem or even investigate such child abuse and trafficking in B.C. According to Rob Nicholson, the Attorney General’s office is itself implicated in this organized pedophilia. “In the case of two convicted pedophiles, a Dr. Gossage and a Mr. Benest, a school Principal, the B.C. Attorney General’s office through a special prosecutor, Peter Leask, protected these child rapists and ensured that compliant judges imposed On March 12, 2006, a woman named Annie a media ban to protect their identities and reputaParker tells the author that she had been abducted by tions. Leask had also served as the attorney for Vancouver policemen and used in something called Gossage. Such direct collusion between pedophiles “The Hooker Game”, in which both women and chiland the government has gone unchallenged.” (Audren are drugged and filmed while being sexually asgust 2002) saulted and sometimes even killed. According to a retired RCMP special investigaA war of terror on the innocent is going on as you tor in Vancouver who requests anonymity, child read this, not far from your home, under the trendy pornography and trafficking is continually on the rise façade of Vancouver’s happy image. Yet it is a war hidbecause of judicial toleration of violence against den from most people, and nowhere to be seen in the children, as indicated by constantly minimal prison consciousness and agendas of “progressive” minded sentences for convicted child sex offenders. To people in Vancouver. quote the RCMP official, Carol Martin is an aboriginal woman who works “The unofficial policy and official practice is to as a crisis counselor at the Downtown Eastside look the other way when children are raped. It’s just Women’s Centre in Vancouver. To her, the abduction not considered much of a crime to violate a child. and trafficking in children is just an extension of what That climate encourages pedophiles to act with imher people have been suffering for centuries. punity.” “More of our children are being taken from us With the approach of the Olympics and the inevery day, and put in white foster homes where the flux of wealthy tourists into Vancouver, the trafficking abuse is just as bad as it ever was in residential in children will only increase. According to Carol schools. Every day we hear cases of the government Martin, placing little kids in homes of pedophiles and abusers. “We’re not only going to see 5000 people made Nothing’s ever done about it. And even our own kids homeless by the Olympics, but a lot more women are being criminalized by the system at a young age, and kids disappear. Whenever the tourists show up, to give cops the excuse they need later to pick them our people go missing.” up and abuse them. That’s all got a name: genocide.” What is to be done? Rudy James is a Tlingit native elder from Alaska In a culture like ours, where people are comwho helped preside at the first independent Tribunal modities and children are traditionally seen to be into Indian residential schools, held in Vancouver in originally sinful, child abuse cannot help but be enJune of 1998. At this event, Rudy heard first-hand tesdemic. But what is less obvious is the fact that petimonies from survivors of child trafficking in B.C. dophilia in Canada is actually being organized and “I was shocked when I heard how widespread the protected by the very institutions of state and church child trafficking is in many of the northern Indian vilthat pose as protectors of children. lages” Rudy described shortly after the Tribunal. The Catholic, Anglican and United Church of “We had two separate groups of Indians tell us Canada, for instance, have been legally absolved that their chiefs and councilmen at two villages near by the government of any wrongdoing for the torture Bella Bella and Powell River were actively trafficking and death of more than 50,000 children in their Inlocal children to wealthy Americans and Canadian mildian residential schools: a travesty of justice that itary personnel. This was happening apparently with nevertheless has proceeded without protest or comment from most Canadians. Annual missing women march held feb 14th in the downtown eastside. Such mass indifference to a crime against humanity in our midst is more than telling. For one wonders how child prostitution, trafficking and murder can ever be eradicated from our midst when the foxes are still in charge of the chicken coop; and while the right of adults and institutions to violate and destroy innocence continues
to go unchallenged and unpunished. A Cowichan native on Vancouver Island whom I’ve known for years once told me that, before the coming of the whites, his people had a simple way to deal with anyone who harmed a child in their village. “A group of warriors assigned to the job would take the offender out into the forest, and you’d never see him again. For us, our children were sacred, and we had a zero toleration for whatever might harm them: because we knew that if the next generation was crippled, our people had no future.” Perhaps it’s time for such simple tribal wisdom to prevail in "Beautiful British Columbia", where men with money and power continue to run amok over the lives of the innocent.
Kevin Annett is a community minister, educator and award-winning film maker who lives and work in Vancouver’s downtown eastside. www.hiddenfromhistory.org 250-753-3345 Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org , and see the trailer to Kevin's award-winning documentary UNREPENTANT film on the same website. Soon to be released feature film, THE DIARY, based on Kevin Anett's epic struggle to bring to light genocide in Canada - see the trailer at: www.thediarymovie.com/trailer ................................................ “Kevin is more deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize than many who have received it in the past.” - Dr. Noam Chomsky Institute Professor Emeritus Massachusetts Institute of Technology “A courageous and inspiring man." (referring to Kevin Annett) - Mairead Corrigan-Maguire Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Belfast , Northern Ireland "As a long time front line worker with the Elders' Council at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, I stand behind what Kevin Annett is trying to do for our people. The genocide that continues today and which stemmed from the residential schools needs to be exposed. Kevin Annett helps break the silence, and brings the voice of our people all over the world." Carol Muree Martin - Spirit Tree Woman Nisgaa Nation "I gave Kevin Annett his Indian name, Eagle Strong Voice, in 2004 when I adopted him into our Anishinabe Nation. He carries that name proudly because he is doing the job he was sent to do, to tell his people of their wrongs. He speaks strongly and with truth. He speaks for our stolen and murdered children. I ask everyone to listen to him and welcome him."
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Who is protecting our children? by Simon Doyle Editor’s note: The Agora first printed this story in the Nov 6th issue. You can find the full version online at www.TheAgoraNational.ca
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he Maples is the last stop in BC for the most abused teenagers; the ones most at risk and dangerous to themselves and the community. How can we heal and protect these youth when the very place charged with healing and protecting them has its own serious issues? Why is there no accountability? A man with a resume like no one else in BC is speaking up about Maples, but he is dismissed, and attempts are made to discredit him. Wes Pidgeon has been working with children in BC for the past 17 years. He was day program coordinator in the Chilliwack school district for many of the highest profile kids, those considered too troubled to attend alternate school full time. A stack of signed references commend Wes for his past services and establish his credibility. Included within this stack are references from the BC attorney general and solicitor general’s offices, as well as numerous letters from various family centres and churches. As a former employee of the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre, Wes says he has seen things many parents would have a difficult time imagining. While employed there between June 1998 and July 2000, Wes claims to have read internal documents describing accounts of children being beaten and abused, staff negligence causing bodily harm, staff incompetence leading to life threatening injuries, and drug dealing between staff members. Much of the abuse and negligence Wes says he witnessed first hand, he supports with a sworn affidavit. This is not the first time the Maples centre has been in the spotlight. In 1994, 14-year-old Serena Fry was alleged to have hung herself with a belt while in the care of the Maples centre. She had been raped two weeks earlier, while out on a pass that allowed her on city streets alone on a Friday night. Serena’s father testified in court that he had many concerns around the lack of information around his daughter’s death. Many of the facts were unclear, and attempts at getting to the truth of what occurred were made all the more difficult by the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development’s lack of cooperation. For more than one year, journalist Anne Rees tried to get access to the documents surrounding Fry’s death through the Freedom of Information Act. Included among these restricted documents was Serena’s own diary. In the end, Rees was unable to secure their release and was flagged as a potential threat to the government through the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act surveillance system. Historically, the Maples has a track record of blocking the truth and threatening the staff in order to keep the abuses in house. In the past, when media have tried to investigate, the staff has openly stated that they are afraid to talk. When you talk to Wes Pidgeon you get the distinct impression this man bears a heavy burden. You are struck by the clarity and detail of his memory; besieged by spoken volumes of names, places and dates all overlapping in a myriad of interconnected accounts. His sincerity becomes apparent in his words, “Why in the history of this province is it so rare for an individual who has worked within the system to step out and speak out about many of the abuses and misconduct occurring within the system? And even more so, a considered expert with a long history that encompasses many of the most talked about issues in this province, steps out and is stonewalled.” Wes recites the occurrences at Maples as though he’s repeated it all many times before. His concern and determination to convey the gravity of the dismal reality these children endure, appears undiminished. His numerous accounts of what goes on between the walls of Maples speak for themselves, go to www.TheAgoraNational.ca for the complete list. Wes runs down a list of prominent people in our communities he has contacted about Maples. Politicians, newspaper editors, publishers, prominent businessmen, police investigators, the list goes on and on. “When I’ve tried to speak with these people the strategies range from avoidance, ‘I can’t help you, there’s nothing I can do about it,’ lectures, or even anger as
to why I would waste my time. I have come to find that there are a lot of skeletons in all three parties’ closets and anyone who initially tries to help is quickly shut down. This is a small province and the fear runs deep around the most dysfunctional ministry that this province has ever seen. You would think if they were serious about protecting our kids and they really were investigating, they would talk to the guy who told them about it. Well, they haven’t… Who will protect our kids if these people won’t?” What follows is a list of people Wes says he has talked to. This list is small portion of the master list, which is in Wes’ sworn affidavit. It’s a who’s who of leaders in this province who Wes says dismissed his concerns. Rich Coleman, Liberal MLA for Fort LangleyAldergrove, BC minister of housing and social development (when approached Coleman was the solicitor general. He is a former RCMP officer) Gordon Hogg, Liberal MLA for Surrey-White Rock, ex-children and families minister Mike de Jong, Liberal MLA for Abbotsford West and BC attorney general and government house leader John van Dongen, Liberal MLA for Abbotsford South, ex-minister of public safety and ex-solicitor general Allan Markwardt, deputy minister for children and families Barry Penner, Liberal MLA for Chilliwack-Hope and BC minister of the environment Anne Mayo, John Nuraney’s former constituency assistant and former Maples staff Jane Sterk, leader of the Green Party of British Columbia Stuart MacKinnon, Green member of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and a former Maples staff who witnessed some of the abuse Paul Jenkinson, founder of the BC Association of Social Workers, has witnessed some of these concerns while working on the children’s help line Carole James, leader of the British Columbia New Democratic Party Adrian Dix, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway (was children and families critic but switched portfolios shortly after Wes spoke with him. It is also important to note that Adrian was the premier of the day’s assistant back in the late ‘90s which was the same government that impeded the Serena Fry investigation) Bill Good, CTV News anchor, CKNW radio talk show host (one of the many individuals who viewed photographs of neglectful conditions in regards to care of our most at risk youth and the wasted money involved) Harry Lali, NDP MLA for Fraser-Nicola As Wes explains, the BC Child, Family and Community Service Act, Section 14 applies to everybody on the list and anybody else who is confronted with this information and chooses to do nothing. Section 13, Subsection 1 states: A child needs protection in the following circumstances: (i) if the child is or has been absent from home in circumstances that endanger the child’s safety or well-being, “If a child is in the ministry’s care and they are being abused and neglected, part (i) applies to them,” explains Wes. Section 14, Subsection 1 states: A person who has reason to believe that a child needs protection under Section 13 must promptly report the matter to a director or a person designated by a director. Section 14, Subsection 3 states: A person who contravenes subsection (1) commits an offence. Section 14, Subsection 6 states: A person who commits an offence under this section is liable to a fine of up to $10,000 or to imprisonment for up to 6 months, or both. “This is unacceptable for the people who are in positions of authority and trust to turn their backs on these children. The lowest thing that can be done, in our society, is the abuse of children, so why is it that these people chose to continue to ignore, avoid, hinder, gloss them over or simply allow the practices?” Wes asks. Now that I and The Agora have become privy to Wes’ allegations, the responsibility to bring them to the proper authorities rests on our shoulders. As
compassionate human beings we are compelled to do what is right. We are now bound and determined to have these allegations investigated. After the meeting with Wes, I called the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development. I asked what their protocol was when someone came to them with allegations of child abuse and neglect within their ministry (understanding that at no point did we make reference to any specific case or incident). I asked if we could have an interview with the minister herself, Mary Polak, but was deferred to Allan Markwardt, deputy minister. After trying unsuccessfully to contact Markwardt for a phone interview, I received an email from the ministry’s communications officer notifying us that we would be unable to speak with Markwardt due to privacy issues. We were then referred to a service provider’s link regarding the BC Handbook for Action on Child Abuse and Neglect. The handbook states that anyone who suspects a child is being abused while in the ministry’s care must contact the designated regional director. When asked who the designated regional director was for the Vancouver area, the ministry’s communications officer did not respond. I have now witnessed, first hand, the unwillingness of the ministry to co-operate with reporters, and was dismayed at the runaround I received while trying to get the answer to a simple question. We would like to see full investigations into abuse within the BC Ministry of Children and Family Development. We want our political representatives to stand up for our children and defend their right to a safe and caring environment to grow up in. My intent is not to slander anyone mentioned in this article, but to ensure we have a safe and effective system in place to help the children who need it most.
UPDATE
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ecently the Burnaby RCMP responded to Wes’ allegations and arranged to meet with him. I met him at the detachment with the hope of recording the conversation and baring witness to the meeting. We were greeted by two officers who refused to let me into the meeting, stating that there was no need to have an independent witness as they would be recording it on video and audio. I asked if we would be able to get audio and video copies of the interview, to which one officer replied, “Yes”. I was determined to witness the interview, but the officers would not allow the interview to happen with me in the room. “Is there a law against having an independent witness present, when giving a statement,” I asked. The officers would not directly answer my question, they just repeated, “We agreed to do an interview with Mr. Pidgeon, if you want that to happen we are willing to speak to him alone.” Wes spoke with the officers for over two hours, during which his education and credibility were brought into question by the officers, who seemed to care more about Mr. Pidgeon more than the alleged abuse. Wes detailed all of the allegations printed in our first issue, to which the police responded that they needed hard evidence of the alleged abuse, such as witness testimony. Wes told them that all the information was in the files, that if they were to look into the past incident reports they would see that his allegations were true. The officers repeatedly side steped Wes’ suggestion, seeming to have no interest in looking into the files about The Maples. After the meeting Wes said, “they arent interested in investigating this, its a joke, I told them all the information is in the incident reports but they refused to even acknowledge they might look into them.” “I don’t understand why the police wont look into the files, it is all there...well I know why they don’t want to investigate...” As this story has unfolded I have witnessed the unwillingness of the Ministry of Children and Family Development to investigate Mr. Pidgeon’s allegations. I have witnessed the RCMP’s reluctance to investigate incident reports that they have been told hold information about children being abused. If you have any information regarding child abuse within government facilities please contact The Agora.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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The VPD have a New Sound Weapon
Long Range Accoustic Device (LRAD) being used in Pittsburg. by Terri-Lynn
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dish-shaped sonic weapon, called a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) or Medium Range (MRAD,) which is the condensed version that the VPD bought this summer. These devices were originally intended as military weapons to help enforce the safe zones around United States military vessels, and on other ships to deter pirates. It is being used in Iraq on "Insurgents", has been used in Georgia against protesters, and most recently against civilians in Pittsburgh at the G-20 summit; where thousands of Pittsburgh police blared the weapon indiscriminately at small crowds which consisted of a handful of protesters, curious onlookers, and any hapless commuter within range for that matter, bombarding them with painful levels of sound. Unlike a regular PA which has one large speaker cone that disperses the sound, the LRAD has dozens of focused transducers which transmit a focused wave of powerful deterrent tones, by which piercing sound can cause pain, nausea, disorientation, temporary vision loss, and quite possibly, permanent hearing damage. The weapon has 3 different levels, the first setting is a REALLY loud megaphone, but the fact that it is a focused sound wave, with the sound dropping off dramatically on either side of its 30 degree range, makes it less than ideal for addressing large crowds. The second setting sounds like an annoying car alarm, and the third level is a high pitched burst which can reach up to 151 dB. Just how loud is that? Well if you have ever gotten too near to a police car siren, they can reach about 120 dB, and considering that decibels are measured on a logarithmic scale, and there is a 10-fold increase in noise energy for each 10dB increase, it means the LRAD can reach levels 1000 times louder than a police siren. Not to mention 100 times louder than a person's average pain threshold at 130dB. The inventor of the technology himself, Elwood Norris of American Technology Corporation, has stated "it's like putting on handcuffs, you drop whatever you've got and cover your ears". At the unveiling of their new weapon to the public last week, Vancouver police Const. Lindsay Houghton told the press "the police don't plan to use the device for anything more than communication", touting it as a glorified long distance megaphone, the flaw in that argument we have already addressed, but to make it even clearer, on the ATC website they describe "The directionality of the LRAD device reduces the risk of exposing nearby personnel or peripheral bystanders to harmful audio levels.". So, if you find yourself directly in front of the LRAD you may be exposed to harmful audio levels, but if you happen to be a peripheral bystander it reduces your ability to hear the audio. Given these specifications, it is absurd that the VPD would choose to spend $17,000 on an ineffective PA system, that does not suit their "supposed" intended purpose.
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Robert Holmes, president of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association said he's concerned about the lack of guidelines around the use of the device. "There has been no safety testing of the weapon in Canada, Where is the evidence that they have a firm knowledge of what it can do? Where are the studies about what it does to people it's used on? Where is the training? Where are the protocols?" In response to these concerns, the VPD went into damage control mode and pulled out a two steps forward, one step back move and released these statements: Chief Const. Jim Chu said that the “tone” capability, which emits the high-pitched and possibly painful tone, will be disabled. Which is good to know for now, although the first two settings can still cause permanent hearing damage, and there is no commitment that it wont be re-enabled at some point considering their next statement: Const. Lindsey Houghton added that “If the department ever decided in the future to explore any alternate uses for the device, the VPD would develop appropriate policy and training for approval by the Vancouver Police Board,”. Unfortunately, we have a police force with a notorious recent history of misusing and abusing other "non-lethal" weapons. One just has to look at the usage creep of the taser from last resort before lethal force, to casual use for means of pain compliance, to realize we are dealing with police force who's track record in following training policies doesn't exactly merit a lot of trust. The fact remains that this device is a weapon, and saying that they plan to use it as a "communication device" is like saying they plan to use a laser beam for a search and rescue flood light.
at communication by the people to voice their concerns to their government have fallen on deaf ears, and then the city brought in bylaws restricting free speech, and advertising and vending, of the non corporate kind, starting Jan.1 2010. Then when people were understandably upset, the authorities response was a planned massive up scaling in police force, cameras on the street, military involvement, and to top it all off a brand new weapon just to make sure YOU know, that THEY are the ones calling the shots here! Sadly, if you look around its the same theme the world over. So we have to ask the question; who is to blame for the escalation of opposition? Lets take a look at Bud Mercer, now the top cop in charge of security for the 2010 games. What experience has he had in crowd control? Well remember the APEC pepper spray fiasco in 1997? He was on the front line of police, firing pepper spray into the faces of anti-globalist, human rights activists, gathered in a generally peaceful, but increasingly agitated, and non-compliant crowd (non-compliant; by this writer's definition being 'people who refused to have their rights to freedom of assembly and free speech squashed' ), which resulted in a clash with Vancouver police. If you take a look at Mercer's own statements you'll find that they gave the crowd a whopping one second warning to disperse, before firing pepper spray. He also admitted that "conversation and open hand techniques were supposed to be used before pepper spray". I guess the training and policies didn't apply that day though, because out of the 52 complaints of police wrongdoing, many of which were found by the Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP to be "inconsistent with the Charter and not appropriate for the circumstances", not a single one was prosecuted by the crown. For similar shining examples of the VPD's restraint in using brutal force, and following policy protocols, check the Hyatt Protests or Robert Dziekański's death for some more high profile cases, or just type Vancouver Police brutality into any search engine worth its salt to see countless other offences. Police brutality runs rampant worldwide, and the VPD is no exception. Vancouver will be under the worlds magnifying glass this spring. Are we gonna show them this is just another place where lines of riot cops in full gear, advance on protesters, some also in full gear (which now includes, industrial ear protection and reflecting discs BTW) square off, head to head, intimidating and agitating each other to the brink of an 'agent provocateured' riot? What do you think will happen if they turn this sound weapon on in the middle of a crowd? If you check footage online you'll find that people panic and start running, and the chaos that ensues is a cataclysmic environment that is far more likely to cause a riot than to stop one. Do you think that potential tourists see that on T.V. and say "Oh, that looks like a nice place to visit"? If the VPD are escalating their presence to avoid being a world wide embarrassment, then I suggest the opposite, that LESS police presence and MORE respect for peoples' freedom of speech and right of peaceful assembly (that they have sworn an oath to protect), would be a far better tactic.
Some fast facts on LRAD's -Range: 300 meters (984 feet or about 3 city blocks) over land or 500 meters (1640 feet) over water, depending on environmental conditions -Focused Beam width: About 30 degrees -Maximum Volume: 120 dB at 1 meter in normal operation, 146 dB sustained or 151 dB burst at 1 meter with override -Hearing Damage threshold: Any sound over 90 dB can damage a person's hearing, according to the National Institute on Deafness. -Sound pain threshold:The pain threshold that an ear can withstand is estimated around 130 dB, depending on tolerance. Alas, permanent hearing loss is the least of our worries, the real threat is the oppositional mind frame that Police (and protesters for that matter ) have entrenched themselves in. With both sides digging their heels in and gearing up for the OWElympics. Its ironic that we are told this device will be used for communication, considering every attempt
Terri-Lynn is a freedom, truth and peace activist and artist. Email: Terri@vultureculture.ca Website: vultureculture.ca
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Inevitable Doom and Creating Your Own Reality by Ellen Atkin
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aving spent inordinate amounts of time pouring over enlightening , uplifting and revealing materials that relate to spirituality, religion, new age thought, channeled information, Jesus, personal development and metaphysics, while at the same time removing myself from otherwise gainful measures to listen to, watch and read any and all kinds of alternative media relating to the impending doom wrought upon humanity by a eons old reptilian death cult (that we are all supposedly related to) that has infiltrated all outward expressions of our culture (government, religion, media, healthcare, education, popular social movements, you name it), I sit here weighing the two futures heralded by both viewpoints. Neither viewpoint seems to entertain much of the other. People who, to quote Niall Bradley who is quoting a senior advisor to Bush, "believe that solutions emerge from a judicious study of discernable reality" want only to focus on what can be proven, within the parameters of "discernable reality". What of this NWO death cult, with its array of ignorant to complicit minions, which we are reacting too? Does it not steep itself, indeed has it not risen out of ancient mystery schools, secret societies, and occult worship that involves everything in Satan's wicked lair? They play with earth energies, celestial energies, lay lines and geomancy, all the while leaving us "realists" to playing with only our hearts and minds. Not a fair fight I would say. Why not arm ourselves with some celestial tools as well? Truth is, most everyone has had an experience that confirms there is more to this life than "discernable reality", so there is nothing to prove there. Yet, are we dealing with Dr. Strange style inter dimensional game play, are we passively waiting for to be lifted up to heaven during the rapture when Jesus returns to earth, or are we merely creating our own reality with thoughts of peace, love and harmony as so many new agers would have you believe? It is totally taboo to talk about the NWO "realist style" within the new age community. You will get shut down and accused of creating that reality. Indeed, much of what is discussed among the "realists" empowers and enforces the elitist agenda. You are supposed to get angry and do something about it, but more often than not, you just feel sick about it. Normally, one feels revulsion when encountering, to put it mildly, the bad news that humanity is the rat in the maze with no idea that it is in the maze in the first place. Alternative media has been ringing the bell for years now about the very public and very documented and very searchable evidence that we are in big trouble if the controllers of our destinies continue to have their way with us. Not too many people can argue that we are not approaching an apex of some sort. Call it the end times, call it the shift, call it 2012, call it a pandemic, call it an Orwellian nightmare, call it whatever you want to call it. In the final analysis, you will call it. It is hard to imagine anyone of a certain age who hasn't been caught in a circumstance where there was nothing to do but pay up, shut up or put up, against all inner feelings of non compliance at all of these options. If you start paying attention you
learn to avoid the naive assumptions that led you to being cornered in the first place. Contrarily, you make positive actions that get you to the reality you favor (lying on a beach in Mexico for instance). Essentially this is the formula for humanities' emancipation from the dying embers of the new world order. Yes, the dying embers of the new world order. In these enlightened times, all the masks are coming off the players. Corruption is being revealed on a global stage and even the most uneducated, uninformed backwards peasant will tell you the government is corrupt. It is actually a lot easier than you might think to discharge this corrupt agenda. Governments and up the line are marveling at how far they have come in their grand plan. They can't believe it themselves. They know it takes massive amounts of effort in a cyclone to keep on target. The universe moves towards harmony, not deviance. The NWO fights against the prevailing energies of the universe. Repeating this agenda without offering a better alternative or at least a neutralizing statement, is actually contributing to their purpose, in my view. We need more good news on the activist fronts. And here it is, the NWO will fail, freedom will reign, man will live by God's law in accordance with our true and rightful destiny. Government and the police state will stand down. They will be ordered to do so by the people. To quote a website (jahtruth.net) dedicated to revealing and defeating the NWO, "The legislators are bought or frightened by the New World Order, to keep making up this legislation, to rip you off, make you poor, and enslave you. So, the only way that you're going to stop that from happening, is if these legislators are more afraid of you than they are of the New World Order. And the only way that they are going to be more afraid of you is if you tell them what's going to happen to them if they don't keep God's Law and get rid of all this illegal legislation that they've made up. You have to put the fear of God into these people. What are you waiting for?" Politicians aren't powerful and they know they aren't powerful. Even the most masterful illuminati high priest is afraid of what you can do. These people are to be pitied and in some cases, sentenced for their crimes. I'll give you an example of how easy it is to change things. Last year at this time, I was sent urgings through the health community to contact my government opposing bill C-54 (now bill C-6). I did. I sent Stephen Harper and his entire cabinet an email that said, there will be a shit storm if he tried to pass this bill. Then I sent an email to the Block and the NDP (didn't bother with the Libs- irrelevant at that point) that said, "Bring 'em down." Two days later the house fell. Who says you have no power? Try it on for size. The universe is bending for you. If that doesn't sit well with you, then something as simple as imagining the world where your heart wants it to be and knowing it will happen as sure as your already booked vacation will work wonders as well. Is it any less plausible than the draconian nightmare proposed by our corporate controllers now? In the final analysis, nothing is a foregone conclusion. I am excited about the future myself. There is plenty of opportunity; Opportunity for a new government to make new laws that finish off the NWO; Opportunity for people to feel and be a part of a new and positive future. How are we expected to go from our present state, to a world of total slavery and domination? There is a heck of a lot of maneuverability in between. Knowing this is a big step in seeing the right future become reality. It has in fact already been done. The NWO has already failed. It is our mission as sovereign souls to wake up to it, anyhow, anyway; the sooner the better.
Ellen Atkin is a Vancouver based photographer, health advocate and writer who travels to Mexico for the winters. She has been writing about her experiential manifestations on her blog, rawtraveling.blogspot.com, since 2006.
Incredibly Stupid Units
Amy Goodman with Chris Shaw
by Ivan Doumenc www.grassstruggle.blogspot.com
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reported some time ago how Chris Shaw had renamed the RCMP's 2010 Olympics Integrated Security Unit (ISU) to "Incredibly Stupid Unit", as a tribute to this law enforcement group's ability to shoot itself in the foot for no apparent reason. In particular, the ISU made recent headlines for allegedly harassing a student whose only crime was to know Chris Shaw. Well, it appears that the Canadian Border Services Agency has just snatched the gold from the ISU in the highly contested "stupidest law enforcement agency" competition. Award-winning American independent journalist Amy Goodman was on her way to Vancouver last Wednesday to give a talk about her latest book. She was stopped at the Canadian border and grilled for an hour and a half about her intentions in Canada. What the border officers really wanted to know is if Goodman was planning to talk at all about the 2010 Olympics. Problem was, Goodman had no plans whatsoever to talk about those Olympics, not knowing - yet - that there was much to talk about. Back in her New York offices a few days later, a very upset Goodman who just couldn't wrap her mind around why the Canadian border officers were so obsessed with the Olympics, decided to do what American investigative journalists do best - investigate the matter. She was not impressed with her findings. Police harassment, stifling of people's rights to freedom of expression, broken Olympic promises, eviction of low-income residents - it all came out like a big Olympic lava flow. Not to mention, of course, intimidation of foreign journalists on their way to a completely unrelated event. And so this morning, quite logically, she dedicated a large portion of her daily news show Democracy Now! to the civil rights issues surrounding the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. She invited who else but Chris Shaw himself, along with civil rights lawyer David Eby, to explain to her hundreds of thousands of viewers and listeners worldwide what the hell is going on in Vancouver. The Vancouver Olympics civil rights question is now front and center in America's independent media news rooms, thanks to the fine work of the Canadian Border officers. Anti-Olympic protesters could not have done a better job. This is truly extraordinary. Where in the world do they recruit those people?
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Why Should We Bankrupt BC hydro? S
ave Our Rivers Society spokesman Rafe Mair wrote in his Tyee column Nov 16 that bankrupting BC Hydro is a very real possibility. Our Crown utility is “on the hooks for $31 billion in future ‘take or pay’ contracts which will, it's estimated, double if the Bute Inlet private development [General Electric/Plutonic] goes through. Every new licence ups the ante. So, how does BC Hydro handle this?” Mair asks. “BC Hydro is not permitted to bring new power on stream, with the exception of upgrading its own facilities and bringing on the Site C dam. The latter is hugely damaging to the environment, and unpopular. In fact this is a ‘man of straw’ because Campbell and company are setting up a false dichotomy: it's either private power or Site C. This is nonsense.” Mair’s biting analysis, “Here it is in a nutshell. Kimil Campbell and the pusillanimous lickspittles he surrounds himself with are shattering our environment by ruining our rivers and the animals and vegetation they sustain… They're either bankrupting BC Hydro, the most important and successful of our Crown corporations, or forcing it to make the BC citizens pay with their own electricity bills for the immense profits of private companies. “And here's a question for the premier that he's utterly failed to deal with – every year BC Hydro pays the province hundreds of millions of dollars by way of dividend, which goes to our schools and healthcare. Now this money is sucked out of BC and into the pockets of private shareholders like Warren Buffett. “Why are you doing this Premier Campbell? “There is absolutely no sense to this policy which devastates us environmentally and fiscally, so why are you doing all this to our wonderful province which has been entrusted to your care?”
Conventional Versus Alternative
by Alicia Charles www.Kinkou.ca
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ou’re not feeling well so you head to the medical clinic. You fill out forms, wait half an hour for a nurse to show you into a room, then you wait another 15 to 20 minutes for the doctor. You tell the doctor how you feel, he writes you a prescription and then shows you the door. Five minutes max. This scenario sound familiar? Sadly, in 2009 it’s a common experience with medical clinics and doctors. Where’s the examination, the detailed Q&A about your symptoms and health habits, an explanation of your diagnosis? So you have repetitive migraines? Take some Tylenol 3. Feeling low energy and unfocused? Take some anti-depressants. Ongoing cough? Take some Robitussin.
I’m not saying western medicine isn’t useful at times; it has helped millions of people and most definitely has its place. A surgeon is handy for example if your appendix is about to burst. So why have our doctors become Pez dispensers with their pills? With the doctor shortages we have a recipe for neglect. And a dissatisfied doctor is a dangerous thing. I should know. I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance because the doctor wrote me a prescription for something made up mostly of a medication that I am severely allergic to. I told him about it at my appointment and it was in my medical file. At the hospital I was told that if I had arrived five minutes later, I’d be dead. Even though the hospital and I both filed official complaints against that doctor, nothing was done. I later found out that many of his other patients had similar experiences with him yet he was allowed to continue practising medicine. I was diagnosed with a severe panic/anxiety disorder a few years ago. I was put on medication that worked on my anxiety, but made me severely ill. When I went back to my doctor, I was given a new drug, and when that didn’t work, yet another. This continued for months until the last drug I was given made my depression and anxiety much worse and I woke up one night to find myself shoveling the tranquilizers they had prescribed, down my throat. I was horrified and immediately flushed every prescription drug down the toilet. When I met with the doctors and told them I wanted no more of their drugs, they told me I had to be slowly weaned off the pharmaceuticals because of their addictive nature. But they had a counselor who specialized in anxiety disorders that they could refer me to. I was absolutely stunned! Why hadn’t that been the first thing they recommended? There had to be a better way. That’s when I started looking into alternative medicine and therapies. What I found is that the biggest problem with “conventional medicine” is that it tends to treat the symptom not the cause of the issue. The problem with that is that if the root issue remains, no matter how much medication
you take, the symptoms will keep returning. So what are the alternatives? One major alternative is naturopathy. The Boucher Institute of Naturopathic Medicine describes the practice thus: “Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care profession founded on the time honoured belief in vis medicatrix naturae, ‘the healing power of nature.’ It is a holistic, coordinated approach to health care that respects the unique individuality of each person. The naturopathic physician attends to the prevention and treatment of disease and the promotion of optimal health.” Naturopathic doctors believe in getting to the root of illness rather than just suppressing the symptoms. They treat people as whole beings, not just physical bodies, and they avoid prescribing medication, preferring to go a more natural route. Naturopathic medicine is not the only route. If you are dissatisfied with your doctor and are looking to switch or add to your health team there are many therapies and modalities out there that have been proven to work and often enhance any medical treatments you may be on. These include energy healing (Reiki, crystal therapy, sound healing, colour therapy, EFT, etc), aromatherapy, herbalism, Ayurveda, meditation, homeopathy, acupuncture, acupressure, traditional Chinese medicine, biofeedback and reflexology. Some conventional doctors and most naturopathic doctors can recommend therapies and sometimes practitioners for you to work with. The best advice I give my clients about their health is to be proactive. Ask questions, get second, third or even fourth opinions if necessary. Research any medication or treatment that you are prescribed. Ask about alternatives to medications and build a personal health team made up of several professionals. Our health is the most important commodity we have. Without it we have nothing, so please don’t be passive. Alicia is a Holistic Wellness Practitioner and the owner of Kinkou in Vancouver. Educating people about holistic health and wellness and helping people to achieve their own spiritual enlightenment has been a life-long passion. She hopes to help change people's level of awareness and help them lead fuller, healthier lives. www.kinkou.ca
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Enlightenment in the City
by Elle Monaco www.EnlightenmentInTheCity.com
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I could help her so much, if she'd only listen to me! This is how enlightenment should be,” she wrote in an e-mail to me, alternating between pleading and demanding tones. “Oh my sweet love,” I felt, as I gazed at the computer screen with laughing compassion. I remember those days when I knew how it all worked. Life was pretty hard back when I "knew so much"! Ah, light workers. I’ve got to love them. They come in all shapes and sizes... tall ones, short ones, thin ones, those who know little, and those who know it all. Enlightenment is about unravelling--unlayering if you will—the behavioral patterns and inherently human junk that does not serve us, as we relax deeper into our truth. In one of the most stark examples of Spirituality vs. Humanity--and how it can often seem as if the two of them work at odds against each other-when it comes to depth, the more that one learns, the more one realizes how much that one does not know. This is quite contrary indeed to the societal idea that when one has gone to “school” one “should” come out with more knowledge than one went in with. Yet this Awakened role reversal comes in time to many (if not all) and is my personal guess as to why the greatest and deepest Masters will sometimes say very little when faced with a person with problems. After all, doing enlightenment for the sake of the planet is about Helping, yet doing it to a person's path may be a harmful version of Infringement. When dealing with the issues of Help vs. Infringement, it's interesting that so many of the deep and silent masters come across as so wise. I've often been amazed and thankful for their presence, and personally believe a lot of their wisdom comes through silence, for it is their grand understanding that: Ø We are all meant to be exactly where we are, learning the lessons that we are meant to receive. Ø We are all of such unique design through our own building of personality—from parental ideas, teachers, experiences and defenses of self that we've taken on—that they could never steer us as masterfully through our own lives, to the same degree that we could do it for ourselves when we're willing to learn. Ø They have come to enough resolution and peace within their self that they can simply hold the space for another, without the overwhelming desire to “fix” what is going on. The latter is called infringement, and hey, let's be honest. Everybody has their ups and downs when doing Spiritual training, and many people still utilize such a practice! It's all meant to provide people with a better way of being. It just heads downhill sometimes. As in very, very far down the gutter hole! Now I admit in Enlightenment, things can get a little sticky. If you are reading this column, you are probably human in this lifetime and that comes with its own sets of trials and tribulations as a result. Biology dictates a lot of our daily actions and just as back during the caveman days, men needed to spread the seed to as many women as possible to keep the species going; women needed to eat as much as possible to
keep their pregnancies healthy, so the baby didn't die in utero as a result of starvation. I have a lot more compassion for men, as trying to control myself when watching 30lb lobsters walk down the street, beckoning me to follow with double chocolate chip cookies and a cola on ice, would make my life very, very interesting indeed. Mind you, it all gets easier as I understand the deeper workings of truth, though Spirituality vs. Humanity still seems in conflict to many as if it has its moments when: Ø It is said to be true to your authentic form; then others get angry about the behaviour and it appears to be a no-win situation. Ø We are taught to be open and love in every moment; yet judgement arises in society about who we hang out with, if the other is not “acceptable”. Ø True love is saying something even when the other does not want to hear it; though do not infringe. Leave others to work through their issues, as they see fit. Oh wait, the latter would seem to be a direct conflict in Spirituality vs. Spirituality. If even our own ideas will not make themselves work when faced with each other, then how’s a light worker to use such things out in the rest of the world? The reason I bring this up, is that for all the peace and love that a lot of spiritual people seem to bring, is that there can still be an awful lot of judgement and enlightened "shoulds" that can walk onto the scene. I’ve stepped into some of the world’s most organic restaurants and grocery store co-ops (the ones where the workers are treated well by having stock options in the company) and for all the “light” that is there to be gifted, I can feel the anger wafting out the door. Plates and boxes are slammed down, self righteous behaviors of, “this teacher that I use is way better than that course that you took”, and drama abounds with, “you should meditate twice a day to clear your mind, so you stop acting like this!” while they go off after, venting and ranting about the state of humanity’s imperfections. When drama abounds, the decision can be made that others "require" a lesson, and that one should “help” the planet by standing up to a “rude person” and “teaching” them how to be a better person. It’s the “shoulds” of enlightenment and how things “ought to look”, that create a lot of problems in society—even
“...serving the world and helping it to become more spirituality advanced, does mean standing up to others, and saying things that another may not want to hear.”
when it stems from such a well meaning goal as “rising” another's "lower vibrational" frequencies. Now serving the world and helping it to become more spirituality advanced, does mean standing up to others, and saying things that another may not want to hear. Interestingly enough there are many
different ways to serve the light... and raising the world through Help vs. Harming it through Infringement can cause a sticky and even painful scene. Help is beneficial, infringement is wanting to help—even if it’s against the others obvious will, comfort levels and desire to be left alone. Interestingly enough, both come from a place of love, even if it may not always be evident. I have great compassion for the people involved with the drama above, yet even when subtler issues come up with a co-worker that could be helped a lot if... it is beneficial to be wise when deciding to "help" another, for it may not be what they want or need in that moment. Yes, it may do them a great amount of good, though it may simply not be their path to expand beyond the issue in this moment.
“Enlightenment is about unravelling--unlayering if you will—the behavioral patterns and inherently human junk that does not serve us, as we relax deeper into our truth.” When one has an open heart, and a yearning to offer love and help that can heal and heighten the vibrational level of the planet,then, how does one create good Help vs. creating Harm with Infringement? We all mean well after all, yet have you ever wanted a well meaning person to back off, if not outright go away? How is one to deal with the sometimes subtle differences between the two, while increasing harmony between the one who is choosing to serve, and the one who is receiving? A loving friendship can most definitely benefit when they serve each other with being upfront, on a subject. It is an amazing gift to have such care, while still maintaining the bounds of loving relationship! The solution is the realization that everything in life is multi-coloured and serving in love, means coming equipped with a tool box, full of things that may be pulled out and utilized in each new moment. Every minute is unique; and so is service to the individual. It is to something to breathe into; to feel into the other and have the issue be worked on, from that place of connection. A few ways to move forward beautifully on this subject are: Ø Having both people be in agreement, to be in this relationship of calling each other on their issues. Help is the agreement; infringement is forcing ones idea of "help" on another. Ø Are negative indicators in place from the receiver while the “helper” carries on without restraint? Examples are if the energy in the space goes down or the other person is visibly pained and wanting to leave. That is not help rather it is the “helpers” own ego or other need to be heard. Ø Do the actions look like help to the other party? It is not help, unless it is viewed so by the receiver. Think back to the last time when someone insisted on “helping” you when you did not want it. Ø Are boundaries being respected? If someone is constantly shouting “no” to the “help”, there’s the answer! In the end remember always that you and everyone else is perfect just as you and they are... and that matters above all else. Love encompasses understanding, so have fun, enjoy life and have compassion for those who would like help, as well as those who have a strong need to be the “helper”. Sometimes it can be the latter, who needs the "help" more! Peace! Elle Monaco was the author of the column “Enlightenment in the City” for over two years and is back on the scene once more. If you would like to participate in a “Dear Elle” column, and have get answers about this column, relationship issues or how to use spiritual teachings in the everyday write to me: elleslight@yahoo.ca Elle is an Authenticity Consultant, public speaker and a writer based in Surrey, B.C. Visit her website at www.enlightenmentinthecity.com for more information.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Addiction Recovery with Natural Therapies
Dr. Cynthia Isles www.aurorehealth.ca
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ver the last 25 years there have been many advances in understanding the physiological basis of drug and alcohol abuse; more specifically the neurobiochemical imbalances that occur in the brain. It is these changes that lead to the dependence on a substance, the repeated behaviours to obtain the substance, the loss of control over these actions, and the symptoms a person feels when they are not using or in recovery. Inside our brain is a pathway that leads to the feelings of reward, pleasure and well-being. Called the ‘Reward Cascade’, this pathway lies within the area known as the meso-limbic system. Messages are communicated to the different structures of this system via nerves and neurotransmitters which are the chemicals used to send information signals from one nerve to the next. Once this information reaches its final destination, the message is translated into a feeling or action. When this meso-limbic pathway works normally, the exposure to a naturally rewarding stimulus activates several neurotransmitters in sequence to relay the message until the final neurotransmitter, dopamine, is released giving the sensation of pleasure or reward. If there is a
What is Evolver.net? Evolver is a new social network for conscious collaboration. It provides a platform for individuals, communities, and organizations to discover and share the new tools, initiatives, and ideas that will improve our lives and change the world. Evolver promotes sexy sustainability, yoga glamour, and shaman chic. Are you an evolver? Evolvers are hope fiends and utopian pragmatists. We see the creative chaos of this time as a great gift and opportunity to rethink, reconnect, and reinvent. Evolvers appreciate pristine mountains, open source economics, and the precocious laughter of small children. Evolvers belong to the regenerative culture of the future, being born here and now. Did you ever think: Humanity has potential beyond our imagining? We are a part of nature and not the bosses of it? We could make a world that works for everyone? We could collaborate instead of compete? If so, you are an evolver already. If not, maybe you should give it a try? Why Evolver.net? Because we are the ones we've been waiting for. Because it's our world to change. Because the universe is deeply mysterious, displays an extraordi-
deficiency or imbalance in any of the neurotransmitters, the pathway is derailed leaving the person with feelings such as depression, anxiety, anger, and low self-esteem. Substances and behaviours that become addictive stimulate this same neural pathway. However they are able to cause a much higher degree of stimulation and thus, an abnormally strong reward signal. As the drug rewards are stronger the brain becomes desensitized to normal biological cues and the addiction is established. Addiction is the physical dependence which develops as a consequence of drug use; with continued exposure, tolerance develops as a result of the physiological changes within the brain; and cravings are the motivation and drug-seeking behaviours which lead to the high susceptibility to relapse. Tolerance develops as the use of a drug increases. The body perceives the overstimulation of the brain pathways and reduces its production of the neurotransmitters. With each subsequent exposure to the drug, the levels of neurotransmitters deplete, increasing the reward threshold. This leads to a need for ever increasing amounts of the drug being taken to achieve the desired effect. Within the brain, the prefrontal cortex has a primary role in awareness, determining risk and decision-making that occurs prior to the manifestation of an action. The brain releases a specific neurotransmitter to instruct the prefrontal cortex about the patterns of behaviour and environmental cues that lead to the pleasurable “high” sensation. These memories are stored. Through connections to other areas of the brain, the prefrontal cortex is able to initiate the cravings and drug-seeking behaviours in an effort to regain the “high”. As the addiction escalates and the neural circuitry is strengthened, the prefrontal cortex gradually loses its inhibitory processes and focuses the person to
nary sense of humor, and has a great dance beat. Maybe you don’t like social networks. Maybe you use too many already. Maybe you are sick of being IM’d and pinged, poked and stroked, prodded and friendstered. Evolver is different. Evolver.net brings together a global community that shares similar interests and values. It provides a platform that helps us find the resources, peers, news and information that makes a difference. Evolver.net is collaboratively filtered and professionally curated so that the best material gets disseminated widely. On Evolver.net you can: • Express yourself to your peers. • Find inspiring news and helpful information. • Share resources and swap services. • Connect with pioneering groups and organizations. • Find the collaborators you need to help you realize your vision. • Meet the community off-line – at regular Evolver “socials,” (known as “SPORES”) film screenings, parties, and events. What is an Evolver Spore? Spores can land anywhere, find the right spot, and quickly develop an aboveground and under-
engage in whatever conduct it takes to obtain the dopamine “high” again. The prefrontal cortex also processes stress and environmental cues and this is why cravings are especially strong during times of stress or when the individual is exposed to people, places or things that were associated with or remind them of the drug use. When a person stops using the substance, the damage to these brain messenger systems becomes apparent as the symptoms of withdrawal appear. Despite the tremendous deleterious effects on the body’s systems from chemicals and lifestyle, the body can and will heal. Certain natural therapies have been shown to restore the levels of neurotransmitters offering relief from the symptoms of withdrawal and a better chance at long-term recovery with good physical health and clarity of mind.
Dr. Cynthia Isles Naturopathic Physician Aurore Health Centre www.aurorehealth.ca 604-461-7226
ground network that supports many types of life through symbiosis. Evolver Spores are community meet-ups, creative salons, hubs of ecological activation and social inspiration. Evolver Spores bring people and groups together who share the ideal of a more beautiful and equitable world, and help them find the collaborators and tools they need to manifest their vision. Our goal is to facilitate a conversation around issues that the mainstream culture often ignores, that we consider important. We hope these discussions will quickly lead to meaningful activism. We offer the Evolver Spore model as a template that local communities can use, modify, or ignore, as they see fit. We see value in getting our growing Evolver community to synergize intentions, synchronize its efforts, and come together as one. We also welcome Regional Spores to invite likeminded organizations to speak on issues, co-create, pass out their informational materials, and join in the collective fun. There are over 30 cities around the world (and growing) creating Evolver Spores monthly in their local communities. The evolution will be actualized. www.evolver.net Vancouver’s local chapter: www.evolver.net/group/evolver_vancouver If you are intrigued by Evolver and want to get involved locally you should know we have events once a month called “Spores”, which focus on specific topics or themes, befitting of the times. Some of the themes recently have included Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security, Shamanism, Alternative Money, and most recently 2012. The next Evolver Spore will be on Peak Oil (Alternative Energy). See you there?
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Observing the Unknown Airbrushing Your Weight Away by Damaya hoffman observingtheunknown.blogspot.com
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s a woman growing up in a mainstream society such as ours, you're taught or programmed at an early age to believe skinny is pretty. You're taught this by magazines, billboards, television and from your peers (who've also been most likely programmed). You're taught that the outer shell is much more desirable then the inner shell.That your outer shell should be molded and decorated like the celebrities you see on t.v. and like the barbie dolls that are prostituting themselves in malls. You're not taught to like and accept yourself as you are. And if you ARE taught this, then basically media overrules all, because the media is a lot more important then what your parents have to say (can you read the sarcasm?)... Unless of course, you don't listen to that crap or watch it. But most people are effected by it, because it's everywhere! You're taught that natural isn't natural. That the only way to be 100% happy and 100% beautified is to diet and lose pounds. The only way to like yourself is to not like yourself. It's so hard sometimes to change that way of thinking, when you're already programmed the moment you blast off into this world. I'd highly recommend reading the book "Artichoke's Heart" by Suzanne Sup-
plee. It's all about "healing the fat girl inside" (as quoted from the book). It is such an inspiring book, even for those that aren't overweight. I very much enjoyed it, it'll make you laugh and really think about your inner self. The self that so many people have neglected. You find so many females constantly checking themselves out in the mirror, looking in complete disgust at the cellulite that has cultivated itself upon their thighs and their asses, and the stretch marks that have camped out on their hips or their cleavage. Wishing that they could physically airbrush it all away. Like the models in the magazines and posters. Nothing is good enough in their eyes... You hear things like "I wish my arms weren't so skinny," "My arms are too fat" or "I have pudge on my stomach" and "Do my ankles look fat?." And it goes on and on and on... And once they get to a weight that suits them, they're still not satisfied. And a message to all of you ladies that are a bit more voluptuous, you think that being skinny is any easier? Well, think again! And this is coming from a woman that is skinny... When you're skinny, you have people questioning your weight all the live long day! You have people that think you have an eating disorder, even when that is clearly not the case. You have people commenting and questioning
OgoPogO - The history and mystery
by Sterling Haynes “His mother was an earwig, His father was a whale, A little bit of head And hardly any tail.”
I
n British Columbia, Lake Okanagan’s Ogopogo is a different beastie than that described in the 1924 English music hall song ‘Ogopogo’. Years ago, giant water serpents were hatched from fertile prehistoric eggs in the frozen depths of the lake. The polliwogs immediately migrated to the upper warm surface off Squally Point. They hatched into double headed tadpoles that may form Ogopogos. A two headed name that’s spelled the same forwards and backwards. On maturity the carnivores would lose their other heads. The lake monster was known to Indians, who called it N’ha-a-itk [snake of the lake]. Centuries ago, small animals were thrown into the lake close to the underwater caves surrounding Rattlesnake Island. They were food gifts, an appeasement to the serpents. Years ago infants and toddlers would disappear off Squally Point. Early white settlers placed guards around the lake areas to protect citizens from Ogopogo during a blue moon. In the great depression new ferries were equipped with harpoons and pikes to prevent Ogopogo from boarding the vessels and swallowing the passengers and crew whole. The Ogopogo has the head of a sheep or horse and is dark green in colour. Some say the beast is 25
Squally Point Okanagan Lake meters long in adulthood but babies may be smaller. When moving, undulating humps break the water surface and can be seen by those with believing eyes. People living along Lake Okanagan appreciate the lake, the lore of Ogopogo, the mythology and the prehistoric pictographs of animal monsters. During Kelowna’s summer lake regattas, over fifty years ago, certain people saw this reptile. They have banded together to form the “Ogopogo Serendipity Society” [the OSS]. As a contrarian, I feel that this may be an attempt by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce to use history and Indian myths to promote Lake Okanagan’s scenic splendor, freshwater beaches and festivities. Perhaps some of our city fathers are secret members of the OSS. Meticulous research has been done in the lake for the past ten years. Scientific investigators have seen sonar echoes of shadowy serpents and hydrophonic babbles of mysterious sounds. Japanese submarines and divers have taken underwater pictures of Ogopogo haunts. There is a ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’ contest sponsored by the Penticton Rotary Club and the Wine Country Chamber of Commerce. The reward is two million dollars Canadian for the capture or proof of the presence of Ogopogo. The TV rights to the winners would be enormous. Okanagan wine would flow in abundance. The suc-
you all the time. Saying things like "Oh, you're so skinny!" or "Do you ever eat?" "Are you anorexic or bulimic?" and I even saw this one other girl throw a cheese burger at this fairly skinny girl and yell "HERE, EAT A CHEESEBURGER!!" It's sickening some of the comments you hear. Especially if you're naturally pretty skinny. I have gotten it from some of my peers. I feel very happy with the weight that I'm at. I feel energized and healthier then I have ever been before. But I have people that come up to me constantly making comments about it... You can't JUST be you! Society tells you that you need to change this or that. You get made fun of no matter what weight you're at... You can be tall, thin, short, overweight it doesn't matter. It's all about changing the outlook you have on yourself. Confidence is a very beautiful thing. Good self-esteem is beautiful. And if you have good confidence and good self-esteem then others can see it, and you'll draw in more beauty and love then you ever thought possible. Loving and accepting the you in you is wonderful... Love is in all shapes and forms. The media and people's comments shouldn't mold your mind like that. And if you feel happy with your weight and with yourself as you are, then don't let people's comments or the media make you second guess that, not even for a second. Healing the you, that's in you...
cessful scientists would be elected members of the B.C. Cryptozoology Club [BCCC]. At special awards nights Kelowna City Council would give out special medals - ‘The Order of Ogopogo”, a gold medallion labeled “O.O.” Even Disney could be involved promoting Ogopogo jogging suits, T- shirts and hockey jerseys, even dolls and pins. A movie would be made to promote Disney and could record the sex life of Ogopogo. Consumerism and propaganda would put this valley on the map. Years ago the City of Kelowna had a float constructed of Ogopogo for the use in parades throughout the province. Unfortunately Ogopogo was painted pink with purple polka dots. He looked very gay and was immediately labeled “Homopogo” by the media. The mayor and city fathers had him immediately painted back to his true colour, green, before any harm was done. The mayor, with the color change, has decreed that Ogopogo can no longer be referred to as “Homopogo, the Pride of Kelowna and Lake Okanagan. ”When hiking the lakeshore and Monashee Mountains [the peaceful mountains] I explore many of the wineries. During these times I may visit the OK God Bacchus. In the late afternoon I may be wakened from a deep reverie to see a dark green shape on the water’s surface . Would it be a vision, a dream, a fantasy of Ogopogo? There would be undulations surrounded by two headed polliwogs. It would seem real but now I’m not certain. Today I think I’ll try pinot blanc, then ask myself, “could the father of Ogopogo really have been a whale?” Come to Kelowna and bring your boat. At sunset, with Bacchus at your side, you too might see Ogopogo off Squally Point --- maybe if you’re lucky. Octogenarian Sterling Haynes keeps young writing humorous stories for magazines and newspapers. His book "Bloody Practice -doctoring in the Cariboo and around the world" [Caitlin Press] was on the BC best sellers list a few years ago. "Bloody Practice" can be obtained or ordered from most independent BC book stores. He has just signed his contract with Caitlin Press for his new book of 30 stories called A Wake up Call - medical tales from a large doctor at large. His book launch is slated for next April Fool's Day or maybe March 32nd, 2010. Sterling can mail you a signed copy of his book if you mail him a cheque or M.O. for $22.00 to 3135 Shannon Place, Westbank, BC, V4T 1L3.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Cowardice - Would a real man please stand up? by Lee Smith
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ixty years ago a man would stand up and prevent an assault on another human being, just out of principle. The police would arrest the perpetrator, and the guy who stopped the attack was often hailed as a hero. Today, most men shrink back in fear from the possibility of conflict. This despicable and common level of cowardice has worsened to a point where now an elderly woman can be physically attacked by a group of men in public, in broad daylight and no one will come to her aid. One fairly recent example of cowardice within our community: The scum who went around demanding money from women at a busy skytrain station. When he was turned down he would hit his target in the face and continue to beat them. There were people around, yet no one intervened. As a result several women were attacked until he was finally caught. It is time that we, as a community, not be so afraid to stand up and do the right thing by getting involved and coming to the aid of someone who needs it. Had one person, or rather a group of people, decided to apprehend the offender the first time, then it would have been one assault rather than many. We all have to ask, WTF is wrong with us? As a group are we that concerned with incurring personal risk, wrecking our designer clothing, or violating pointless vows of pacifism? Furthermore, where were the extreme posturing tap-out wearing tough guy wannabes when these ladies were being attacked? I am very certain that many of the same uberhardcore tap-out wearing posers were walking by, with all of the other cowards... ipod turned up, shoulders hunched, head down, doing nothing when these ladies were attacked. On top of this, at least 5 times a week I hear people talking about wearing a full pink outfit for anti-bullying day, but you never hear any of these people talk about getting a few friends and actually confronting one of these bullies. So what it seems like is that, not only are we, as a group, lazy, we are also fearful and apathetic. I think we can all agree that it's no secret that it is much easier to pretend to be a tough guy by wearing the same shirt as a real fighter, or look like a big pink pussy and bleat like a sheep; than to actually straighten your backbone and let real and direct actions make a difference. Not a single day goes by that I do not hear people on the street, in the bar, or on transit complaining about how criminals run wild in the streets. But wait a second, what are we actually doing to stop violent offenses? (besides complaining over our non fat soy lattes) Right now, the criminals have no reason to fear. They know people will do nothing if they decide to pick out someone on a whim, and beat them and take their stuff.
Do not kid yourself, these brutal scavenging predators care only about their own needs. They are devoid of compassion and they know the law is toothless, broken and corrupt, so there is very little risk taken for an immediate gain. As a community we all just stand there, thumbs in our mouths like scared toddlers, secretly hoping someone else will stand up and help. The saddest part of this reality is that most of us do not even call our legally castrated police force, who now usually fails at showing up to a scene in a timely fashion, or finding and arresting the violent perpetrator. Of course most people will tell you "yeah, I would stand up and kick some ass if something went down". In reality these same people would do nothing as they would wither be paralyzed with fear, or hoping someone else would stand up and lead them. This is bloody embarrassing. Furthermore, this cowardly behavior is a disgrace to our forefathers. Anyone who has stood there as another person was victimized should feel ashamed and disgraced. But, as always, there is hope. If we want things to change, we first need to admit to ourselves that as a community we have failed. Those who are leaders and have the ability to fight, need to stand up and be willing to step up and confront those who would needlessly harm another. Our lack of direct action, our allowance to be controlled so easily by fear, and our apathy, is what is allowing the average person to be victimized by a small percentage of immoral, evil, and woefully misguided people. Every one of us needs to understand that this current incarnation of the law does not serve to protect us, the average law abiding Canadian; rather, our laws now serve to protect the interests of the school yard bully, who eventually becomes the 'misunderstood' murderer / rapist / thief. If someone is out there hurting someone else and you’re standing there, you need to stand up tall, step up, and step in.
Sure, there are risks to this. I won’t lie to you. You could get hurt. However, the choice is simple, would you rather fight by someone's side and perhaps save their life, and one day have someone come to your aid in your time of need… Or would you rather be that guy or gal walking home one night and have your face stomped into the cement while other people stand by, laugh, gossip and do nothing. We all need to understand that this change doesn't start with the person sitting next to you, or your facebook friend who looks pretty tough. It starts with you. After all, it’s not all about you or me. It’s all about us, as a people, as a nation. So if you are sick of seeing thugs and criminals on our streets causing chaos, then when the situation arises you need to step up, stand up, and if you have to, fight and give them hell. Or at the very least call the cops. But at least do something, and do it quickly... However, if you would rather wait for someone else to take initiative, while whining in your stupid looking pink shirt, then shut up, and take your ass kicking while quietly sobbing when it’s your turn. Because if you do nothing, eventually, it will be your turn under the boot of a depraved man. Non Timetis Messor
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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A poem by Grace Powers Amenstop Productions December 5th, 2009 http://www.helpfreetheearth.com Twas the night before Christmas and all through Afghanistan The moon shone down on tanks and contraband “Free us from occupation!”, prayed parents that night Hugging their children to relieve their fright Suddenly overhead, there rose a great clatter Everyone peered out to see what was the matter Santa and his reindeer were racing on by He never even stopped to say “ho ho” or “hi’ He was dodging bombs, like hail they were falling “Run and hide!”, the people heard him calling Faster than eagles, the killers they came Whistling and shouting out racist names Then a wandering bomb hit Santa’s sleigh Reindeer became venison that fateful day “You blew up Santa”, cursed one of the troops “Blame it on the Taliban. My apologies. Oops!” Roofs were toppled and so were walls Dash away, dash away, dash away all Over the mud huts the murderers flew Americans, British and Canadians, too Giving the finger way up in the sky They nodded, high fived, then off they did fly The wind heard their words as they vanished from sight “Merry Christmas from NATO and to all a goodnight!”
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
W
hat if three tools could, in most cases, reverse the cause of disease, pain, inflammation and aging ….naturally, without the use of pills or surgeries? Could it really be this simple? Let’s find out. Our bodies are comprised of approximately 50 trillion individual cells, give or take a few trillion ! Each one of these cells has a’ brain’, carrying out hundreds of thousands of metabolic functions every second. This ‘brain’ is not the nucleus of the cell, it is the membrane surrounding the cell ! Does that not make perfect sense? Think about it. We touch something that is too hot and burn our hand. In a nano-second our body wisdom has retracted our hand, sent messenger molecules to assess the situation, followed by platelets, anti-inflammatory molecules and immune cells to begin the healing process, and on and on. Why this is so simple and yet profound is because every one of our cells is surrounded by interstitial fluids that connect each of them to every other cell in our bodies all the time ! Now let’s take this a step further. Think of all the body maladies that we are suffering from; arthritis pain, joint inflammation, diseases such as Cancer, Heart and Diabetes, weight gain, muscle spasms, skin conditions, weakened immune systems, asthma, allergies, stress, fatigue and exhaustion. Do we know the root cause is of any or all of these problems? Well, since our bodies are only as good as our cells, could the root of the problem be compromised, unhappy cells? If so, what does a cell need for optimum performance? It requires a clean environment, chemically balanced pH, hydration, good oxygen delivery and waste removal transport and the right nutrition. It’s just that simple. Living in North America for the past few decades, we have been subjected to an exponential increase in toxic chemicals in the environment and our food supply. These toxins have become embedded in our bodies, as body wisdom will not process that which will harm our organs. So we have all been storing hundreds of different toxic chemicals in our fat, steadily accumulating all our lives. We now know we must remove them to get our health back.. So what is the most efficient and effective method of detoxifying? Here’s the first tool ~ the far infrared sauna. Radiating waves of far infrared (the same heat as our own body warmth) back into us at 110 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly warmer than the human body, these toxins are released from their fatty surround, and both toxins and fat are ‘sweated’ out ! We simply shower them away ! Over a period of time, we will cleanse much of our life-time accumulation of toxins, leaving our cells unburdened, pathways unplugged and joints freed up. Additionally, the heart begins to work to cool us down, increasing blood flow, delivering 2 to 3 times the oxygen and nutrition to every cell, plus removing waste more efficiently. Increasing circulation this way has resoundingly positive effects.
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Did you know that, like a pool, the body also has an optimum chemical balance? It’s called pH, which stands for parts of Hydrogen or potential of Hydrogen. The more hydrogen, the more acidic it is. On the pH scale 7 is neutral, while anything above it is alkaline and everything below is acidic. Our bodies like to be slightly alkaline, at a pH of 7.365. If you drop the body’s blood pH to 7.2 we are sick, really sick, and if we drop our blood pH to 7.1, we die. Fact: All processed foods, dairy, meats, carbohydrates, candy, alcohol and most tap and bottled water are acidic. Pop is the worst with the highest quotient of acid of any food or drink on earth other than hydrochloric acid ! Did you know that high levels of stress can cause as much acidity in the body as drinking pop ?! Yup !! Question. If practically everything we eat and drink is acidic (the only foods that are alkaline are basically fruits and vegetables with a few nuts and seeds thrown in), how does our body maintain a critical pH level of 7.365 ??? Want to know? It’s not pretty. It steals! Yes our own bodies steal from our bone and tissue, all the alkaline minerals they can find to counter this acidic invasion. Minerals like sodium and potassium, magnesium and yes, calcium. Why do you think there is an epidemic of osteo-arthritis and osteoporosis? Because we are so pH challenged. That’s why. Give our bodies the tools to easily maintain their optimum pH without stealing from their own resources, and we will experience reversal of most of the maladies we have created. A body which is acidic is prone to pain and disease. A balanced alkaline body is quickly becoming optimized and healthy!!! Here’s the second tool. What is the fastest and most effective way to balance the body’s pH? Drink alkaline water from a water ionizer! As adults we are approximately 70% water, so it only makes sense that we can shift our pH by drinking highly alkaline water. These water ionizers (splitting the water into separate alkaline and acid streams) attach directly to our faucets, plug into the wall, and make this ‘magic water’ right in our homes! In addition, they diminish the size of the clusters of water molecules (in plain tap and bottles water these clusters are way too big to permeate our cell walls) which finally gets into our cells and hydrates us 6 times more than any other water we are drinking. They also eradicate free radicals from our bodies, which are damaging our cells and DNA as they scavenge for electrons. The hydroxyl ions created by the ionizing process donate electrons to these destructive single oxygen molecules and neutralize them. A pH balanced body cannot harbor Cancer cells for example. Cancer thrives in an acidic, low oxygen, temperate environment. Cancer cells literally hate heat and oxygen. So as soon as we introduce the penetrating heat and increased oxygen from the far infrared sauna, and the highly alkaline water, we are directly diminishing Cancer cell’s ability to live and
flourish in our bodies. The third tool is nutrition. Our cells require the ‘right’ kind and amount of proteins, minerals, essential fatty acids, omega oils and enzymes for optimum performance. The number one best protein source for the human body is hemp. Why? Because it has the same protein base as the human blood plasma, edistin protein. And it has a higher assimilation rate than animal protein. When you consider that there is literally no nutrition left in the soil in North America (something like 8% of what it was 100 years ago), we are making a false assumption that we will get our nutritional requirements met in the produce section at any grocer. In fact, the pesticides and herbicides used on this produce is one of the main inhibitors to our health. We must look to more concentrated forms of foods in order to ‘feed’ our cells. Organic and formulated for optimal assimilation. What you can expect from using all three of these simple but highly effective tools for life is the following: ~ Deep Cellular Cleansing and Detoxifying ~ Relief from Fatigue, Exhaustion and Stress ~ Relief from Joint, Muscle, Arthritis and Gout Pain ~ Assistance with Cancer, Heart and Diabetes Reversal ~ Burning More Calories than Running ~ Reducing Extra Weight and Cellulite ~ Reshaping the Body ~ Strengthening the Heart ~ Increasing Circulation and Micro-Circulation ~ Clearing Skin Conditions and Infections ~ Boosting the Immune System ~ Energizing and Clearing the Mind ~ Dispensing Lactic Acid Build-Up ~ Relieving Constipation and Reversing IBS ~ Relieving Indigestion and Acid Reflux ~ Promoting Deep Sleeps ~ Easing and Reversing Asthma and Allergies ~ Relieving Headaches and Migraines ~ Slowing the Aging Process The ultimate three tools for cellular rejuvenation, which means full-body optimization, are: 1.The Solarus Infrared Sauna with the Crystal emitters. This is the original with 45 years of global research and proof of it’s brilliant performance. 2. The Ionways Water Ionizer because of it’s unique plate cleansing and filtration systems. 3. Conscious Planet - Optimal Health Program and whole food concentrate products All three of these tools are available at the Ultimate Products for Life centre in White Rock. 1345 Johnston Road (bottom of 152nd). Call (604) 541-6111 for more information. Challamar Rayne, proprietor 778 552 2286
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
VANcouVer
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AMAZING FLU FIGHTER! *Star Anise* has been used for more than 3,500 years to fight flus and colds. When you use Turtle Island’s organic ganic star anise you’ll be amazed at how quickly and thoroughly your sinuses will clear up and at how easeas ily the tasty,, slightly licorise-like tea goes down. AMAZING FLU FIGHTER! *Star Anise* has been used for more than 3,500 years to fight flus and colds. When you use Turtle Island’s organic ganic star anise you’ll be amazed at how quickly and thoroughly your sinuses will clear up and at how easeas ily the tasty,, slightly licorise-like tea goes down.
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ROOIB Turtle urtle I on ever is, after one of t in the w as bein anti-infl propert
ROOIBOS Turtle urtle Island’s Island’ organic rooibos tea is on everyone’s everyone’ tongue right now and is, after a gentle simmering, simply one of the best tasting herbal teas in the world. Rooibos tea, as well as being tasty, tasty is also good for its anti-inflammatory and anti-allergic anti-aller properties. YERBA MA MATE TE The favourite tea in South America, it is stimulating without caf caffeine. feine. Used worldwide as a rejuvenator, rejuvenator and for stimulating mental alertness. Turtle T Island Organic Teas And Herbs, a V Vancouver ancouver company, can be reached at TIOTH.ca or 778-737-3456.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
HOW TO BREAK UP – A True Account
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n March 14, 2009, I prayed hard to God to send me a sign: an un-mistakable, un-twistable, un-DENIABLE sign about what to do about my relationship with my fiancé because it had been causing me inner turmoil for quite some time. The next morning I woke up, and found this email in my Facebook Inbox: (And so it began…) **The following are the ACTUAL emails that were sent back and forth between me and Madeline after discovering the ugly truth about Ahmet: the man I was engaged to marry and living with here in Penticton had another girlfriend in Vancouver the entire three years we were together. He was living a double life. He told her he was working out of the country, meanwhile he was working out of my home office in Penticton. And when he told me he was going to Vancouver to “work on the condo”, he was returning home to her. There has been no embellishment whatsoever (the only changes were for punctuation and spelling just to make it easier to read) - other than that it is raw and it is real. Read at your own risk. -Juliette March 15 at 12:19pm "Hi Juliette, I was reading your blog and my stomach fell when I read about your long distance relationship with Ahmet. I don’t know if you are still seeing each other, but I thought you should know that I have also been in a relationship with him since July 06, until today I guess. I guess there was a lot of lying involved to both of us. I don’t mean to cause trouble but I am sickened that this happened and would want someone to tell me the same. Madeline" Juliette: Madeline what are you talking about – me and Ahmet live together in Penticton and have for the past year. Madeline: Oh I’m sorry! This is not Ahmet ******? Juliette: Is this some kind of joke – because I have been with Ahmet for three years, and we have lived together for almost two years actually. We have two dogs and eight cats and are renovating a house here. I saw a picture of you and him together on your Facebook once and when I asked him about it he told me he knew you from the race track and he said he called you and asked you to change the photograph because it was upsetting me. If you are trying to cause problems, that’s not very nice. Juliette: Yes of course it is Ahmet ****** – look at my photos. Madeline: No I am not trying to cause problems. I am shaking as I write this. I can’t believe this is happening. I also asked him about you and
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he got so defensive. I didn’t want to believe it. But now I have the proof. He is a lying cheating piece of $#!*. I am so sorry. We have been in a relationship for almost 3 years. I always wondered why we had to use condoms. Now I know. I was the whore. How could he have done this?!?! Juliette: I have an engagement ring on my finger though. So how often do you see him? He goes to Van to work on the condo from time to time, Do you see him then? When is the last time you saw him? Juliette: Please answer me omg. Madeline: I saw him a couple weeks ago maybe, I don’t get to see him very often, maybe every couple of weeks. He says his company is going through hard times and he has to work like crazy. I can’t believe I felt anything for him. I should have listened to my gut. I want to hurt him so bad right now. Madeline: Well that’s three wasted years of my life. Better than being the whore any longer I suppose. I never really did trust him, but this, this is too much for me. What kind of human being is so deceitful?!?! Juliette: I don’t know…. I honestly don’t know what makes sense now. I mean, we live together, we’re reno’ing a house together, he’s best friends with my entire family…… we have pets… omg i have to face the truth now too…… ……… Madeline: I am so sorry I feel like everything is falling apart but i don’t even have a life with him. He met my parents and loved them but was always nervous to come over. I just can’t imagine how you are feeling and I’m sorry this is happening. But if you want him, you can have him, I will not be in contact with him. Juliette: I have lived on this earth long enough to know I don’t want a $#@!ing cheating bastard – I’ve had those and I hate them. Funny – yesterday I prayed for a sign of what I was supposed to do – a CLEAR – NO ROOM FOR DEBATE – SIGN because I have been feeling uneasy and confused but with no real evidence and $#@! – Be careful what you wish for lol – this is some $#@!ing sign omg. Juliette: Well he’s in Vancouver right now if you must know – working on the condo and some other stuff. Boy isn’t he going to be surprised when I tell him he cant come back – maybe I should sell his racebike lol. Maybe I sound flippant – but this is INSANE I think I’m in shock. Madeline: I’m in shock too! I am in total shock. I wish you were in Vancouver and we could confront him together. I hope he burns in hell, he talks such LIES!!! If you ever need anything from me I am happy to help. He is ignoring all my messages now. I left a couple angry
yelling messages on his voicemail. Yes sell his trackbike! The one he was going to let me use this year! I am in total shock too. Juliette: No he’s not ignoring he’s playing soccer. I’ve been calling a million times as well, so i guess as soon as soccer is over he will be putting two and two together. #&@%!!! So does everyone at the racetrack know you were together then? Because I have a lot of friends at the racetrack and nobody told me anything. Madeline: No not everyone at the racetrack, I didn’t know that many people. But definitely some. Jordan, his race partner, Andrea I’m pretty sure…. I am just thinking about that too. How many of his friends that I knew, knew the story but never told me. Gary, Steve, Rob…. I always wondered why I never met any female friends! Juliette: Omg Gary knows? $#@!ed up.
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Madeline: Yes, Gary would come out to dinner with us so often! WFT!!!! Are all guys just naturally DOGS?! Have you heard from him yet? I am going crazy, maybe he has nothing to say to me and will just end things like a coward. Juliette: No he’s scared to call I’m sure – he must be some kind of sociopath or something – like, how can a person live two separate lives? You know – I always joked with him that he had a wife and kids somewhere. You know we were trying to have a baby after two very devastating miscarriages???? $#@! Do you know if its possible to sell a racebike without the deed? Does it require a deed??? Juliette: Gary has come here and stayed at our HOUSE. What the $#@! is wrong with these people?????? Madeline: Omg it just is so much. I always joked with him about having a wife and kids too. Right from the start. He loved that! He loved to torture me!!! What is wrong with him?!?! What is wrong with me for not listening to my gut?! I found a card from you once and that is the moment I should have been true to my instinct. 2.5 years ago. Amazing what sheer wanting to believe differently can do. You were trying to have a baby? He told me once that he had a miscarriage. I hope he loses his testicles. I don’t know about selling it, but you are a better woman than me. I would be torching that thing for sure, with every last thing he ever gave me. I think there’s a site for selling jewelry from douchebag exes. I am going to look that up right now. To Be Continued… Check back in up-coming editions to find out how Madeline and Juliette’s relationship progresses, the many secrets they uncover about the man they thought they knew, and Ahmet’s reaction to being found out. Or if you would like to read the full, unedited version, please feel free to visit: www.HowToBreakUp.ca where your comments are welcome.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Lawsuit Would further Expose Secretive SPP Agenda “ … a community of Canadian, Mexican and American thought leaders whose purpose is to advance a shared vision of North America …”
by Dana Gabriel www.BeYourOwnLeader.Blogspot.com
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t is as a result of Freedom of Information Act requests and other previous legal proceedings that thousands of documents have already been forced into the public eye, shedding some light on the secretive nature of the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership agenda. The SPP appears to be dead in name only as many of its key priorities continue under the North American Leaders Summit. If a lawsuit brought forth by a U.S. public interest firm is successful, it would further expose the SPP and show how some groups relate inside the whole trilateral process. In a news release Oct 15, Judicial Watch announced, “the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has overturned the district court and ruled that Judicial Watch has standing to bring a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce related to the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), which was set up under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America. Judicial Watch argues the NACC is subject to the open meetings law known as Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and must make its meetings open to the public and must release records relating to those meetings.” Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton stated, “Our objective with this lawsuit is simple: to bring as much transparency as possible to the proceedings of this government-private program. In the spirit of President Obama's promise to provide 'unprecedented' levels of transparency to the inner-workings of government, the commerce department should stop stonewalling and open these meetings and documents up to the American people as soon as possible." As well as attempting to gain access to documents concerning the NACC meetings and activities, Judicial Watch also wishes to become a member of the group. The NACC was formed in 2006 to ensure that corporate interests were being addressed inside the SPP framework. It is made up of top Canadian, US and Mexican business executives from some of the largest corporations in North America. The US Chamber of Commerce, along with the Council of the Americas, serve as the NACC secretariat in the United States. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives serves as its secretariat in Canada and the Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (Mexican Institute for Competitiveness) serves as its secretariat in that nation.
The NACC was the only formal advisory board inside the SPP and much has been made about its influence in formulating policy. The group first met with Canadian Prime Minister Harper, Mexican President Calderon and former US president George W. Bush during the North American Leaders Summit in Montebello, Quebec in August 2007. They also met with the three national leaders at the Summit in New Orleans in 2008. Despite not being invited to participate in the North American Leaders Summit, which took place in Guadalajara, Mexico on August 9-10, 2009, the NACC still prepared a document to advise the leaders before they met. A statement to the leaders in advance of the 2009 North American Leaders’ Summit says, "Trilateral cooperation on borders, regulations, energy and other important issues is essential to the prosperity and security of North America. We and the business communities we represent trust that our advice to date has assisted leaders in choosing priorities and driving progress. Going forward, the NACC stands ready to offer our ideas and expertise, and we hope the three governments will continue with the NACC." Stuart Trew of the Council of Canadians concluded that, “The NACC may continue to exist. It might even meet every now and then to dream up new priorities for the three North American governments. But we have successfully robbed these CEOs of their privileged spot inside North American summits.” Last month, Jerome Corsi reported that the NACC continues to operate under the North American Leaders Summit structure, along with more than 20 trilateral working groups. They are further concentrating in areas of North American citizen security, economic competitiveness, energy policy and climate change. In a recent interview, outgoing CEO and president of the CCCE, Thomas d’Aquino, stated that, “When President Obama came to power, he faced a lot of pressure to shelve the SPP and not follow through with the NACC because his advisors were looking for an institution that would also involve environmentalists, union leaders, et al. But at the North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara this summer, President Calderon and Prime Minister Harper both told President Obama that the NACC was very
useful. In fact, the Canadian NACC group met with our prime minister and his key ministers for an hour and a half on the eve of his departure for the Guadalajara summit. He said that, regardless of whether the NACC continues formally on a trilateral basis, he welcomes our advice on trilateral issues.” It still remains unclear if NACC will be invited to meet with the national leaders at the 2010 North American Leaders Summit, which is expected to take place in Canada. Top trade officials from all three NAFTA countries met in Dallas on Oct 19 where US trade representative Ron Kirk played host to International Trade Minister Stockwell Day and Mexican Secretary of the Economy Gerardo Ruiz Mateos. The trilateral meeting focused on trade, North American business competitiveness, curbing protectionism etc. Despite the demise of the SPP, many of its key components have already been implemented or continue to move forward under the North American Leaders Summit, as well as through other initiatives. It remains to be seen whether the NACC will regain the influence it once had, but regardless, you can be sure that big business will continue to push for deep North American integration. The SPP, along with NAFTA have already laid much of the groundwork for a North American union. Dana Gabriel is an activist and independent researcher. He writes about trade, globalization, sovereignty, etc. beyourownleader@hotmail.com BeYourOwnLeader.Blogspot.Com
A Torch of Another Kind by Penny Repstock
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short time ago, in this great country of ours, we celebrated Remembrance Day. Although it is a time for reflection on all wars past and present, we usually focus on the sacrifice of life by our soldiers in the two ‘great’ wars of the last century. While many took the time to make the drive to their local Veterans’ monument to celebrate the efforts and memories of the few remaining soldiers from those days, others found it too difficult to break whatever schedule they had at 11 am to even take a moment or two of silence to contemplate the meaning of the day. For too long, we have been so sure of the ‘rights’ and freedoms that we have enjoyed in this country that we, as a society, have fallen ill with the sickness of complacency. We have come to believe that those battles fought and won so long ago have ensured a vic-
tory written in stone. Anyone who dares suggest that things are not necessarily what they seem or implies that conditions will be getting worse in the too near future are scoffed at or verbally attacked. Those who try to enlighten are written off as fear-mongering conspiracy theorists with a ‘Chicken Little’ mentality. But what else can you expect of a society that ignores what its politicians are doing? What difference does it make to our lives what Bills are passed, what laws are written, what policies are introduced? And even when we do have a ‘crisis of conscience’, how do you begin to fathom what goes on behind the doors of provincial and federal buildings? Where do you start to dig? What questions do you even ask? The task seems overwhelming and is put aside and forgotten. We turn back to the crises in our own lives that are much easier to understand even if their resolution is in question. Amongst the myriad of small and large govern-
mental policies and Bills that have been enacted over recent years, there are several in the works that are monumental in their repercussions to our daily lives. Many of these are eroding the very freedoms and rights we assume are guaranteed. What is disturbing about these laws is that they are being drafted by foreign political bodies. Yes, laws are being drafted by foreign governments and agencies that will steal our Canadian freedoms. Codex Alimentarius. The Copenhagen Climate Treaty and our own Bill C-6. These are just some of the new laws coming this way very soon. I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to be aware of even just these three. To say that they are life changing would be an understatement. Everyone can relate to acronyms like NAFTA but what about NAU, SPP or IMF? If you don’t know what
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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continued from previous page these mean, you should. You owe it to yourselves and your descendants. And, trust me, these aren’t even the tip of the iceberg that is heading for our ‘Titanic’ society. People, we are losing our rights and freedoms. They are disappearing before our very eyes – some slowly and quietly and others that will be sudden and overwhelming in their scale. You won’t even know they are gone until you see how badly you need them. Perhaps only then will we fully understand the principles that were so hard fought for by those whom we take a few moments each year to remember. I would like to remind you of the last stanza of what is surely the most famous of war-time poems albeit few under the age of fifty even know it exists anymore. The Canadian army doctor, John McCrea, wrote this in 1915 while serving in the area of Belgium known as Flanders. “Take up our quarrel with the foe To you from failing hands we throw The torch: be yours to hold it high
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If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.” Although it is only my interpretation of this stanza, I want you to think for a moment about the awesome responsibility he references in passing the torch from their hands to ours. I believe this ‘quarrel with the foe’ is not solely relegated to the battles of World War I. I believe this torch represents freedom – freedom from tyranny, all forms of tyranny. The men and women, both military and civilian, that gave their lives, their limbs, their mental health and peace of mind to keep freedom alive in that dreadful war knew what they were fighting for. They understood the value of, and certainly paid the price for, the freedom we now take for granted. If they could see how complacent we have become, how little worth we place on what they fought for … there must surely be some ghostly tears dampening their graves. We are not living in a movie set of Lord of the Rings. We cannot summon the armies of the dead to fight our battles for us. But we do need to educate
ourselves, rise up and be counted, align ourselves with action parties and groups who have the knowledge and means to help us all achieve a ‘critical mass’ to be reckoned with. By peaceful means, we can and must demand a truly democratic voice in our lives. If we do not do this soon, we may not have many more opportunities to do it at all and ‘freedom’ will become ‘just another word for nothing left to lose.’ Penny is just a regular, ordinary person. A mother of two wonderful sons for whom I desperately want a much better world than what I am seeing looming on the horizon. I’m the woman in the grocery line behind you. The one who gives you a passing smile as we cross paths on the street. The middle-aged lady who squints up at the sky and remembers how deeply blue and unsullied it used to be when she was a child. I am a citizen of this great country and I am a citizen of this world and I can no longer sit on the sidelines and quietly watch the deliberate destruction of our rights, freedoms and dignity as human beings. I am not a ‘useless eater’!
ThE ATTITUDE TOWARDS ThE BLOC OUTSIDE Of QUEBEC by Yvan Ung
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n the last few general elections, the Quebecer Bloc (Bloc Québécois) head office received complaints filed from ridings outside Quebec concerning its strict policy concerning candidacies. Under that policy, the QB’s head office systematically rejects all candidacies coming from ridings located outside Quebec, even if the vast majority of the non-Quebecer Bloquist nominations were acclaimed and/or conducted in complete compliance of the law. Even if they claim that the Bloc Québécois is only elected with the purpose of defending Quebecer interests, the actual reason is that they fear the epic scale of vote-splitting their presence may induce nationwide. Some of you may say that Bloquists only get elected to the House of Commons in order to tear the country apart and, as such, would be more effective in the National Assembly of Quebec. Others say that Bloquists have shelved their advocacy of Quebec sovereignty to become a provincial issues, government accountability-geared party. The facts are that they no longer aim to defend Quebec’s interests alone; now, they would help the whole country, or portions thereof, if Quebec stands to gain anything of value from the Quebecer Bloc’s proposals and actions. Among the most bizarre things I experienced of non-Quebecer Bloquists was that people from an Ontarion Liberal stronghold, Scarborough-Agincourt, came to the Quebecer Bloc’s Facebook group, asking for permission to have its candidate run in the next general election. Although I’m sure that this riding had a sufficient audience receptive to the Bloc’s platform to get some votes out, unfortunately, in the current state of the House of Commons, what Bloquists could do outside Quebec would be just that, getting the vote
out. Because Western Canadians are the people who, outside of Quebec, want to free Quebec from the federal government the most, Western Canada would be pivotal in Bloquist off-Quebec strategy, probably more so than ridings bordering Quebec. At best, it could turn the entirety of Western Canada into a gigantic battlefield between the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party, for some people would switch their votes to the Bloc under the promise of jettisoning Quebec out of Canada. At worst, the vote-splitting would bring close Liberal or New Democrat ridings to the Conservatives, bringing them a majority that even Bloquists didn’t want. The target audience for the Bloc outside of Quebec would currently be made primarily of separatists of all kinds (whether they favored Quebec sovereignty or that of another province is irrelevant, unless another federal-level separatist party rose to prominence), but some disgruntled federalists would also try the Bloquists since it is fresh air for them. Francophones will also be tempted to vote for the Bloquists because they would feel that the Bloquists protect their rights whereas no one else would. Since their platform also aims to help people who lost their jobs but didn’t receive EI payments, recently unemployed people would vote for the Bloc in hopes of making ends meet, should the Bloquist plan be implemented. That being said, some may ask, what’s in it for British Columbia? First of all, forestry being one of Quebec’s foremost industries, the Quebecer Bloc would come to the aid of this industry. God knows that forestry is at the core of BC’s economy and, since some of the $7 billion in the Bloquist plan to bail out manufacturing and forestry sectors would have gone to BC’s forestry sector, some forestry workers would have tried to organize Bloquist nominations and run in them, if only to aid the forestry businesses on the verge of bankruptcy. Also, as the
Quebecer Bloc reportedly nicknamed prisons as being “crime universities” they’d rather try a less repressive approach to prevent teenager-committed crimes aimed at rehabilitating teenage criminals. Should the British Columbian people see beyond mere separatism in the Quebecer Bloc, they would be more grateful to the Bloc beyond a mere 4%, as polled by the Parliamentary Channel (CPAC) in 2004, during the electoral campaign. In conclusion, it’s a shame the Quebecer Bloc doesn’t run outside of Quebec; it would finally provide a honest government that the entire country waited for so long. It’s saddening that neither the Bloc Québécois nor the off-Quebec people don’t see much further beyond separatism, no matter how they back their platform. However, to see the QB come out of Quebec would be more likely when a majority government is a certainty.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Swindle flu:
Strategic Cultural Assimilation Explained in Detail
Government and media Collude to Create h1N1 fear, Panic and Demand
by Boyd Adams BA162171294@yahoo.co.uk
by Wayne Prante www.FalseFlagFlu.com
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ederal and provincial governments, health officials and media have openly colluded to deceive the public, create H1N1 pandemic fears, and to create a demand and vaccine line ups for an unnecessary, unproven and risky product. Canada’s media defined poster boy for H1N1 vaccination did not die of the swine flu. Government officials and media have been shamelessly and fraudulently using this young boy’s tragic death as a “psychological operation” and sadly, many people have been buying it. Even the parents are trying to console themselves in thinking that their son’s untimely death will be used for a good purpose: vaccinating other Canadian kids against H1N1, without due consideration of the dangers and risks of vaccines. Moreover, without knowledge about effective and proven, natural, non-toxic health prevention measures. On the day that that Evan Frustaglio was laid to rest, the National Post ran a huge article depicting young Evan , with a large portrait, as a hapless victim of H1N1 and as a heroic martyr. Other major papers ran similar pieces, and it was also covered widely on TV and radio talk shows. “Evan’s sudden death is credited with putting a human face on the H1N1 virus and prompting people to stand in long lines across the country for the vaccine. Clinics in Toronto opened the same day he died.” National Post, Nov. 2, 2009 A CTV article on the same day, if you read far enough down, mentions that doctors suspect that Evan may have actually died of Myocarditis, a form of heart failure, which can have any number of viral, bacterial or fungal causes. We note that the symptoms which were described can also be easily confused with Pericarditis, or even Meningitis. Yes, in this regard, I am speculating. But so is the government! There are no other documented cases which show that H1N1 causes Myocarditis (or anything similar). Many diligent citizens from across Canada were on the case for a week searching for news reports in the English press that offered medical or forensic proof to back up the claim that Evan was an H1N1 casualty, but none was found. Finally, I received word that one report had surfaced in the French language media, which seemed to have done its job and was asking the essential questions. Rob Bedard found this report, translated it to English, and then broadcast his findings on YouTube. We now have proof of the fraudulent claims being propagated by government, health officials and the mainstream media which claim that young Evan died of H1N1. "We have all been lied to. The proof is on this YouTube video: Evan Frustaglio Truth: Breaking News. I’m not sure if the parents were aware of this lie, or if they were told to say otherwise, but what a terrible thing to use the death of a 13-year-old-boy to instill fear". Translation from a French language report: “The health authorities have an update on the cause of death of Evan Frustaglio of Ontario, the young hockey player who died last week. The 13-year-old was first diagnosed with influenza virus A (H1N1). Then we had suggested he might have been suffering from menin-
gitis. As there was much ambiguity, the national director of public health is back on the case. He told us that the parents do not wish to request an autopsy. We shall therefore have no confirmation whether it is influenza A (H1N1) that is responsible for his death.” http://tinyurl.com/yjkcnub Shame on the federal and provincial governments and on the Toronto area health officials for such blatant opportunism and propaganda. And while we are at it, shame on the Opposition parties in Parliament for not asking the appropriate questions about this incident, about H1N1, vaccine safety, efficacy and liability issues. Instead the NDP and Liberals are acting as cheerleaders and urging the government to go faster in supplying the vaccines, and thereby acting in the interest of Big Pharma, rather than their constituents. One honours the dead by asking questions, demanding accountability and by telling the truth. One dishonours the deceased with lies, disinformation and shameless exploitation. The creator of this video clip, Rob Bedard, has taken some heat for his efforts from emotional and irrational Canadians who seem to feel that it is better to live with a lie and fall into line, rather than ask essential questions. That however, is unacceptable and is the cause of many problems in society today and throughout history, as government seizes on emotional vulnerabilities to promote ridiculous agendas which only benefit Big Pharma and super-rich globalists. Bedard and others who did not buy the story and continued to research it are to be commended for voicing their concerns about this story, and for daring to ask questions and speak the truth, rather than living with a lie, and thereby perpetuating it. (from a CBC Report, Nov. 12th) “On Thursday, the Globe and Mail reported that Canada has so far spent $1.5 billion on the H1N1 vaccination campaign, twice as much as health officials predicted. The H1N1 vaccine targets the strain of H1N1 influenza A virus causing the current swine flu pandemic. Originally, it was estimated a single dose of the vaccine would cost $16. That cost has now risen to $30. The increasing cost is attributed in part to an unexpected surge in demand late last month. By the time the immunization campaign is complete, the cost could exceed $2 billion. ” So what caused the “an unexpected surge in demand late last month” last month, hmmm? Would it be wrong to conclude that the Evan Frustaglio “mistake” cost Canadians $500,000,000! My fellow Canadians, you also have a responsibility here. Democracy is not something that takes place on voting day and is then left to the government of the day. It is a process that we must be involved in continuously. Similarly, we cannot as history has often proven, rely upon corporate media to ask essential questions and to hold government accountable. It is up to all of us to inform ourselves and to help inform others, as well as to demand accountability from our elected representatives.
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anadians are faced with a number of concerns today, some of which are politically charged. Almost all of these involve our favourite third world country (the religious police state to the south). Many seem to have found it difficult to bring themselves to vote New Democrat (my party) in the October 14 election last year. Many did not vote at all. Of course the Canadian Action Party did not have a chance. Then things began to come to light more clearly. Stephen "The Puppet" Harper IGNORED the will of the Canadian people and the majority of the elected members of Parliament by continuing to toss out conscientious objectors who fled to Canada to avoid coerced participation in heinous war crimes of which there are now EVEN MORE photographs that the United States Government has ADMITTED to having but REFUSES to release (citing the graphic nature of the horrid abuse recorded thereon). After all the uproar over Guantanamo Bay and the shocking deterioration of the poorly controlled police forces throughout the United States into nothing more than rampant street gangs, it would seem that Rodney Watson should have no need to seek refuge in a church in Vancouver due to his having refused to ethically degenerate to the moral fibre of his commanders. Of course now that the LIEberals have done away with the so-called "leadership" of Stephane "Cry Baby" Dion and replaced his simpering whines with Michael "Yankee Plant" Ignatieff, they have finally shown their true colours. I suppose that after so much well-choreographed pretend bickering between the two branches of the CONserva-LIEberal Sellout Alliance, they decided that hiding their skull-and-crossbones behind a flapping red maple leaf was not working as well as they had planned. Canadians were not buying the old song and dance like our neighbours down south with their (supposed) "two-party" political system. So now what, now that the recently conjoined CONserva-LIEberal Sellout Alliance has realized that our beloved pals down there tend to bite a hook a bit faster with a bit less prior nibbling than we Canadians? Enter Michael Ignatieff. Yes, the fellow who lived in the United States for thirty-one years and now wants a shot at being our Prime Minister. Great job, Sherlock. That was a nice rabbit punch, putting a legally binding motion on the floor to help the war resisters, after Harper decided it would be a good smokescreen move before the by-elections. Looks like the Alliance had to risk losing some ground to the (real) opposition in order to pull off a fast one (or try to). Too bad it didn't work. Especially in New Westminster - Coquitlam. Fin Donnelly had no problem trouncing the minions of Hijack Harper and Michael Yanknatieff. Put yourself in an American's shoes. So what do you do with an advanced industrialized country which
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA sports the most educated and socially progressive society in the world, especially when you are in a pinch? Say you share your long northern border with this strong yet peaceful and intelligent 'gentle giant'. You are losing an illegal religious crusade. You need more stupid, backward, uneducated male chauvinists with the proper violence/hate mentality in order to keep your decrepit war machine trundling on. This is where they were in 1968. They had a serious problem. Their staged Gulf of Tonkin "attack" had worked, and Great Leader could now "justify" the "help" that was to be provided to the "elected" president of South Vietnam. Just one problem... After a large number of kidnappings, rapes and child molestations (among other vicious atrocities) took place in enough remote villages, the Vietnamese people began to wake up as to who their real friends were. Suddenly instead of the North Vietnamese Army's regulars, the United States found themselves facing a guerrilla army of farmers and trade workers whose mothers and sisters had been savaged by Yank military "men". Now there was REAL
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NATioNAL trouble. Does this sound familiar? Maybe like Afghanistan and Iraq in 2009? Will "them thar heathens" ever give up? It does not look likely, judging from recent American (and unfortunately Canadian) casualty counts. At least now, the Army of the Lord does not have the same problem that they had in 1968. Pierre Trudeau is a legend now, and the strategically planned buy-off of "Canada's natural ruling party" has come to fruition. That is not all. Just in case, the Lord has an ace up his sleeve. The "Canadian" Alliance, forming the Conservative Party "of Canada". Yes, there are still Canadians who have a problem seperating the old Progressive Conservatives from the Reform Party of Alberta. Harper himself has made reference to the Progressive Conservatives on severaloccasions (as if Joe Clark would have had anything to do with him outside of a boxing ring). At least Harper showed everyone his cowboy outfit, so he is not being completely dishonest. Maybe he should wear a straw hat into question period for a bit more publicity. Or if he wanted to demonstrate his cultural roots, maybe he could leer menacingly at Michaelle Jean and use the "N" word a few times. But I have to be honest myself. Even though the C.I.A. decided that what happened with the fifty thousand U.S. war resisters during Vietnamwould not happen again, they did a very poor job of training Harper. He was a little too quick to start with the Security and so-called "Prosperity" supposed "Partnership". Plus, bringing his pal Curious George to Canada for meetings a few too many times. That was a little obvious. He could have exposed his plans to disband our senate a bit later, after all the public outcry died down. But no... He just had to put it in high gear again. Take it easy, Stevie! Slashing the Status of Women Canada budget sobadly in his first budget was an obvious cultural engineering move as well, especially in conjunction with the Americanization of Canadian child care and the militarization of Canadian police. The Yank voters (for the most part) fell for the single party system with two names, but after his last few fiascos with his tag-team buddies on the LIEberal "opposition" it seems that Stevie cannot keep
his foot off the pedal long enough to keep from alerting the average Canadian that something is terribly amiss. It seems that the cultural assimilation has begun to stall, and the more educated and level-headed Canadians are too much of a 'look-before-you-leap' bunch for Stevie and Iggy to keep the plans of their American handlers running at the current pace without being clobbered in the next election. To cut a very long story unfortunately short for the sake of printing space, the moral of all this is that we absolutely MUST maintain a political system in which more than one party (if sharing two names) has a fighting chance. Even if it means donating to a party or voting for someone with whom we disagree on some peripheral issues. I am a staunch New Democrat, and even I must admit that Jack Layton can be a real twirp at times. Sometimes he can be downright 'out there'. But in all fairness, ANY Canadian trumps a foreign hijacker. Period. The social consequences for us as a people are just too perilous and the damage to our youth will be beyond repair by the time we see the Yanks go over the cliff if we follow them down this road. We are just WAY too close to their bumper right now, and travelling FAR too fast. By the time the social ramifications of a "Conservative" (or so-called "Liberal") government are apparent, we will already be headed into the abyss with them. For the sake of beautiful Canada, if you are not going to go all outNew Democrat like myself then PLEASE support the C.A.P. They do not have a snowball of a chance, but like us they really ARE Canadians.
Boyd Adams has worked in the pizza business for fifteen years. Being a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, he became a member of Amnesty International and a supporter of childrens' rights organizations at the age of fifteen - partly due to his own experiences before attempting to come to Canada as a refugee at age sixteen. Also a machinist and welder of modest financial means, Boyd Adams considers himself an average working fellow. He now writes political columns with specialty in Canadian federal politics.
If CSIS comes knocking... A community advisory from the People's Commission Network.
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here have recently been visits by members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to various local social justice organizers and activists. This community advisory is in response to those visits. Visits by CSIS to activists in Montreal are nothing new; they have taken place before around specific events or projects. CSIS has recently conducted over 60 visits to about 40 activists in the Vancouver-area, related to opposition to the 2010 Olympics. In general, CSIS visits can have different purposes: they are not only about information-gathering but can also be attempts to create or exploit divisions between activists, plant misinformation, intimidate, develop psychological profiles, and recruit informers. If CSIS comes knocking, we strongly encourage total and complete non-cooperation. A CSIS visit to your home or workplace will be a surprise, but we encourage you to be ready to not cooperate with them in any way. If you are in a precarious position -- due to your immigration status, pending criminal charges, probation, parole, or any other reason -- we strongly encourage you to NEVER EVER talk to CSIS alone. Instead, tell them to contact a trusted lawyer that you have chosen, and then refuse to say anything else. You can contact the People's Commission Network for references to lawyers who can act diligently against CSIS intimidation tactics. If you are comfortable doing so, ask for the names, telephone numbers and cards of the CSIS
agents who want to talk to you. Insist they provide their names, and don't say anything else. You are under no legal obligation, ever, to confirm your identity with CSIS. Sometimes CSIS agents might begin speaking to you and only later identify themselves. In that case, if you are taken by surprise, we encourage you to refuse to continue speaking with CSIS. You can always default back to being silent. In dealing with security services, silence is the golden rule. In all cases, you are encouraged to tell CSIS to leave your home or workplace or cease following you. Tell CSIS clearly to leave, in whatever fashion you feel is appropriate. You can insist they leave, to the point of closing doors in their face. Remember, although CSIS can act in very ugly ways, it has no arrest or policing powers. We encourage you to get in touch with the People's Commission Network to report any CSIS visits or related incidents. Your correspondence with the People's Commission Network will be considered confidential. Consider any unannounced CSIS visit to be harassment against you. If possible, we encourage you to write down your experience so that you have the facts clearly noted. CSIS' job is to gather information for the state and to disrupt movements of social justice. Their broad mandate includes monitoring any activities they deem to threaten the current political and economic order. Their intimidation focuses on indigenous peoples, immigrants, racialized communities, radical political organizations, labour unions, as well
as the allies of these groups. CSIS' actions, which show clear evidence of gross incompetence, racism, as well as complicity in torture, are just even more reason why they deserve no cooperation whatsoever by anyone involved in movements for social justice. Total non-cooperation with CSIS and other security agencies by the entire social justice community broadly and inclusively defined - is our best way of maintaining unity and solidarity, as well as keeping our focus on our important day-to-day organizing and activism. To recap: Do not talk to CSIS or share any information with them, no matter how harmless you think it is. Do consider reporting the visit to the People's Commission Network. Please share this community advisory within your networks, and with members of your organizations and groups, so we can encourage collective non-cooperation with CSIS. In solidarity, The People's Commission Network (Montreal) E-mail: abolissons@gmail.com Tel: 514-848-7583
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Bill C-6: Legislation that’s hazardous to more than your health.
by Dee Nicholson, Canadians for Health Freedom www.canadiansforhealthfreedom.org
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anadians don’t often pay a lot of attention to what goes on in the Senate of Canada.
These days, however, many of us are biting our fingernails, as consideration of Bill C-6 ends the committee phase and heads for third and final reading by 103 unelected people who have a job that until recently, at least, was nice work if you could get it. Why? Because this benign-looking bill has language within it that has the potential to wreak havoc with the rights and freedoms of all Canadians, rights enshrined in the Charter and the Constitution, all made conditional on a Minister’s will: if enacted, Bill C-6 can remove civil rights guaranteed to all citizens of this nation, and render it a virtual police state. Let’s cut to the chase: C-6, masquerading as a consumer protection bill brought forward by Health Canada, literally obliterates the Rule of Law. Clauses in this bill remove the law of trespass, and allow for warrantless search and seizure, confiscation of private property, fines, and imprisonment, all at the whim of the Minister, and without recourse to any court. Guilt is considered automatic, if a charge is brought. It marks the end of due process of law, rights enshrined since Magna Carta. Most troubling of all, in Section 2, it makes Canadians subject to the dictates of foreign authoritiesslash-governments, thereby abolishing our sovereignty and our democracy. No, I’m not kidding. It is here that the most deleterious effects of C-6 are lurking: the ability of foreign agencies to dictate health policy means citizens have no say about the implementation of Codex Alimentarius guidelines, which severely and dangerously limit our access to essential nutritional supplements, mandate the use of pesticides and herbicides and fertilizers, and otherwise curse the production of healthy food on this planet. Given Health Canada’s record of actions from the draconian to the ridiculous when it comes to dictating to Canadians about their allowable forms of health care and nutrition, visions of “Soylent Green” come to mind. This is the last government agency that should have the powers of storm troopers, but our health police claim they can’t do their job without them. This idea is rather silly on its face, given that the normal target of the “guardians” of health in this country is your average seller of vitamins; but Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq passionately defended her ministry’s need of legislation worthy of Stalinist Russia, and swore there’d be no abuse of power. Easy for her to say. Not content with chewing up and spitting out the rights of ordinary Canadians, Bill C-6 sets precedents in law for other legislation, which may incorporate its clauses into original wording by a simple ministerial change, or an Order-in-Council, without Parliamentary oversight, and, most particularly, without our own. C6’s many offenses against our enshrined rights can therefore be cloned in other areas, and literally bear the potential to create a police state. Before anyone calls me melodramatic, let’s take a look at the case of one Dr. Eldon Dahl, Naturopath, of Calgary, Alberta. Dr. Dahl’s story gives an exemplary view of the nature of the agency that wants these police powers, and just how trustworthy they are to handle them, “for the protection of Canadians”. Bear in mind as you read this account, Bill C-6 has yet to pass. Not letting a little thing like that stand in its way, Health Canada honed its SWAT skills upon
the good doctor and his family with the assistance of some ignorant jurist who signed a warrant. The agency is no doubt licking its chops in anticipation of warrantless law enforcement for fun and profit: their own fun, and Big Pharma’s profit. Dr. Dahl’s particular story begins this past January, on an ordinary day in the doctor’s home. The following is an excerpt from his brief to the Senate Committee Hearings, warning them not to give extraordinary powers to an agency that would treat any Canadian as they treated his family: “On 15 January 2009, at our home in Calgary, my wife answered the door. Four RCMP officers, one with his gun drawn and finger on the trigger burst through. The sheer force of entry damaged the locking mechanism, which lay on the floor. I will never forget the terrifying look on the face of my wife; I have never seen her so afraid. To describe the panic that I felt is nearly impossible. My wife raised her hands over her head in surrender, as an armed RCMP officer pointed his gun to her chest yelling, “That is not cool, that is not cool!” I thought she was going to be killed. Unbeknown to us, at our daughter’s house across town, our daughter’s roommate was experiencing the same treatment. The RCMP and Health Canada broke into our daughter’s house without her name appearing on any warrant. This is her private residence totally unrelated to our business. The raiding party forced themselves into my daughter’s house and even kicked in her bedroom door. That day’s events have permanently scarred my memory, and I live with the terror that it may happen again. I heard my wife say, “Please put the gun away! We are no harm to any of you. We are humanitarians, not criminals.” The RCMP kept us confined for the “protection” of Health Canada agents who arrived shortly thereafter, under the supervision of drug inspector Kim Seeling. I was handed a search warrant and told of our right to remain silent, because anything said could be used against us in a court of law. The search warrant was for Folic Acid, the amino acid L-carnitine, plant based progesterone cream and other ultra safe supplements that are available over the counter in the USA or for export. I asked the officer for clarification, “You raided our home at gunpoint for common vitamins?” He answered, “We have a search warrant for these products.” My wife asked the officers for their names and badge numbers; they refused her request. My wife, daughter and I were sequestered to sit in our living room for 11 hours. I asked the officer if I could photograph or film the investigative proceedings. He said, “You need to sit where you are. We are treating you very low key. We could place you in a holding cell till the search and investigations are concluded, but we don’t think it’s necessary if you cooperate.” Next I was supervised by two RCMP officers who forced me to open our home safe. Once opened, Kim Selling photographed its contents. Whenever washroom breaks were needed, a male RCMP officer went with us and stood at the door and listened. Having my wife and daughter victimized in our own home clearly violated our Canadian Charter Rights. And why? Everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure. Storm trooper tactics were never required. The
decent and humane thing would have been for Health Canada to notify me in writing or by phone call that they suspected some of my products may not have been in compliance, the let me respond and make good on any alleged noncompliance. After all, my products are 100% safe, as Health Canada well knows. “ The damages to Dr. Dahl’s family did not end with the trauma of being on the wrong end of a loaded service revolver, supposedly warranted by the dangerous activity of selling perfectly safe nutrients. He goes on, in his brief, to describe the continued conduct of Health Canada, and the devastation of his family income: “November 15, 2009 marks 11 months. No charges have been laid against me. My entire finished products inventory (not only those listed in the search warrant) continues being seized, my case files are sealed, the RCMP Incident Report refused, and our Access of Information report has been denied. My ability to make an income remains severely restricted because I am unable to conduct any business. Health Canada also seized my family’s personal computers plus a tax refund cheque that was in my desk. I am an author, and two of my books that were to be published are on the hard drives that were confiscated. Thus, I am also unable to earn an income from my writing. In seizing my entire inventory, Health Canada violated Section 37 of the Food and Drugs Act, which exempts products that are not manufactured or sold for consumption in Canada. Many of the products I sell are destined for foreign countries and fully comply with the regulations in those countries. Health Canada also went way beyond its authority by deliberately damaging my international trade reputation. This is an abuse of power with intent to harm. They questioned Slovakia Health, stating that they had concerns about our company’s reliability. When I asked what the enquiry entailed, the inspector at Slo-
vak Health would not say what Health Canada was asking for nor if they divulged any of my confidential information to him. Health Canada is already destroying businesses and livelihoods. C-6 would give them the power to escalate and expand their police powers exponentially, across many industries, including every retail store in Canada. Since Health Canada has a history of abusing the powers given to it by the Food and Drugs Act (the armed raid on my home being only one example), there is reason to believe that they will also abuse the even greater powers given them by C-6.” Canadians need to realize that the language of C-6 is no accident, nor is it an error on the side of caution: In order to make Canadians submit to foreign orders such as the Codex guidelines, or WHO mandatory vaccinations, the government needs to provide for such submission. Without doing so, trying to overcome the righteous indignation of Canadians
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ing Conservative Senators -- he has five empty chairs to fill -- and tip the majority of the Senate over to his side, with the added benefit of having to appoint all new committee members. And that will make everything more difficult. We are regrouping: the battle is won, but not the war. Winnipeg-born Dee Nicholson describes herself as a “Truth Seeker". She takes pride in her special ability to see through propaganda and paradigms, and wields her pen like a sword for our rights as Canadians and part of the human family. The author of two books, she is a degreed metaphysician, Reiki Master, and life coach, as well as an activist for human rights, especially the right to choose our food, medicine, and health care. Today finds Dee delving into the real nature of the health care system world-wide, and exposing the fist of controls tightening around our health freedoms, notably through the World Health Organization’s Codex Alimentarius Committee. She was one of the first in the health freedom movement to point to Canada’s expanding loss of sovereignty and ultimate vulnerability to regulations set by foreign, unelected committees of her trade group memberships. Dee is the National Director of Communication for Freedom in Canadian Health Care, which is a charter group member of Canadians for Health Freedom (www.canadiansforhealthfreedom.org). She is a frequent blogger on the site, offering commentary on a wide range of topics.
Blending Canadian Soldiers into the urban landscape
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this nation, and make no mistake, that is the intent. If it were not, we would not see comparable wording in legislation being passed in many other ”free” nations, over the objections of their ordinary citizens, whose voices are invariably ignored, silenced, or dismissed, like our own. We must also be aware that when we put the C-6 clause making us “subject to foreign authorities” side by side with the Copenhagen Accord, which seeks to institute a “global authority”, and Ban Ki Moon speaks of “binding” terms, what is really being said is that the foundations for Canada’s surrender to a global governance system are being laid, and that more than our juris prudence is at stake: it is our nation itself which is on the block. If we dance to the tune of a foreign authority, of what use is a “vote”? When Canada sits down at a World Trade Organization meeting, how much clout does its one vote have against the other 192 at the table? If Canadians want to have access to natural health products, and the Codex Guidelines say that’s not okay, to whom do we protest, with any hope of making a change? Where is our freedom then? If you love this country, if you appreciate your rights and how terribly important they are, if you value your freedom, if you want your children and grandchildren to inherit freedom and the ability to choose how to live in this land, you need to embrace the reality that Canada as we know her is in grave danger of being sublimated into the oft-cited New World Order. And you need to join with other likeminded Canadians to say no to Bill C-6, before Bill C-6 lets this government give away the farm. All the information you need to contact the Senate is online. Call, write, fax, email. Do it now. If you don’t make that much of an effort, what will you tell your children?
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would be a whole lot more difficult. If this is not true, why was it necessary for Prime Minister Harper to fast-track the bill, by making it exempt from the Administrative Rules by which legislation is normally scrutinized by a committee to ensure compliance with the Constitution? Is this not a tacit admission that he, and the Minister of Health, knew in advance that this legislation is in violation of numerous rights and freedoms, not least of which is the right to be innocent until found guilty by a jury of one’s peers. Curiously, though the unconstitutional clauses in C-6 are glaring enough for the average layperson to spot without difficulty, the bill passed three readings in Parliament and was sent to the Senate by a unanimous vote. Queries to all party leaders brought a similarly unanimous stance, in form letters which ignored completely the stated concerns of the writers, saying that none of them saw any constitutional problems with Bill C-6. My colleagues and I were agape with astonishment. Even Jack Layton earned a lump of coal for Christmas with his nonchalance about the fundamental rights of Canadians. Meanwhile, most Canadians hadn’t even heard of Bill C-6; since a bill replacing the ages-old “Hazardous Products Act” is hardly the stuff of headlines, the bill had slipped by practically unnoticed, and was given unanimous consent by a Parliament that must have been, we opined, “hypnotized, drugged, bribed, or tortured” into their unanimity. In order for the Senate Committee to get an idea of the unconstitutionality of Bill C-6, and precisely which clauses are unconstitutional, lawyer Shawn Buckley valiantly championed our rights to the Senate Committee on November 25th. But he was the sole witness, out of twenty, to present a view opposing the bill. It would appear that every single applicant wishing to testify against the bill was summarily turned down, rendering Mr. Buckley’s appearance into a bone thrown to the howling dogs, just so the committee could say it considered the constitutional issues. Keeping his composure admirably under the circumstances, Buckley was, reportedly, “impressive” to observers. But by the numbers, can we be assured that the appropriate weight will be assigned to the information he supplied to the members of the Committee? We suspect it will not. The last testimony came from Health Canada, with a special appearance by none other than the Health Minister herself, wherein she vigorously defended the rectitude of the same paragons who raided Eldon Dahl. The committee will now examine the bill based on the testimony, the heavily biased testimony, of 19 witnesses who didn’t give a rat’s behind for our rights or the future of this country, and one brave guy whose appearance was political tokenism at its most egregious. Activists from varied groups across the country, discovering the truth about C-6, have banded together to fight this atrocity of legislation, organizing under the banner of “Canadians for Health Freedom” ( HYPERLINK "http://www.canadiansforhealthfreedom.org" www.canadiansforhealthfreedom.org). Mobilizing a united force, and directed by a core group of experienced and knowledgeable personnel, the members launched an email, fax and phone campaign to the Senate, demanding that Senators protect their rights by rejecting Bill C-6, in no uncertain terms. Given the overwhelming rejection of those who wished to testify against the bill, some are suggesting that the hearings were rigged to assure its passage. Rumors of political pressures on “rogue” senators are flying. Undaunted, Senator Elaine McCoy has faithfully blogged her observations of the proceedings to ensure interested Canadians had a front row seat; Senators Day, Banks and Grafstein have also registered their misgivings about the bill, and all four agree that they share many of the concerns to which we alerted them. But how many others stand with them? Notwithstanding the monumental effort that has been brought to bear thus far by Canadians who are standing up for the rights of all, and the championing of these rights by four Senators who remain impassioned about the Rule of Law and its role in a free society, Bill C-6 seems to have lost none of its steam. To the more cynical among us, “the fix is in” on this one. Canadians have very little time to hold this government to account for its attempt to stifle our rights in
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Since this article was written, Bill C-6 has passed Third Reading in the Senate, but the stolid Senators who backed the Constitution were able to withstand a forced vote to reject the amendments proposed by the Social Affairs Committee, and put in a couple of key amendments in full session. These amendments focused on our constitutional rights, and were a good step, but a step too short, nonetheless. The amendments may be viewed at: www.parl.gc.ca/40/2/parlbus/chambus/senate/joure / 0 8 0 j r _ 2 0 0 9 - 1 2 - 1 0 E.htm?Language=E&Parl=40&Ses=2 We were disappointed that the Senators did not see fit to address Sections 2 and 14, where Canadians are to be made subject to foreign authorities, but gratified that, with these amendments, we were granted a second kick at the cat: the Bill must now be sent back to the Commons for a second complete go-round, and then back to the Senate again. This allows us to fight for the whole package: it's our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and we want all of them, all the time, forever. That's what Canada has always stood for, and at least some of us would rather fight than switch. Some are saying Harper may prorogue Parliament at some point during their Christmas break. If he does so, he is not dissolving Parliament, but the Bills that are on the Order Paper now will die automatically. That's good news and bad news. Good, because C-6 will be gone, at least until its evil twin emerges somewhere down the road. Bad, because Harper will stack the Senate with more rights-remov-
by The Agora David Pugliese of The Ottawa Citizen on November 17 reported Canadian soldiers may be getting camouflage specifically designed for combat in Canadian urban environments. The designs are to be based on the "unique requirements" of the urban settings of Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, according to an outline of the project being coordinated by scientists at Defence Research and Development Canada in Suffield, Alberta. Scott Duncan, head of the soldier and systems protection group at DRDC Suffield is quoted as saying, "Given our large urban population, should any operations be required, there's a good probability that some of them will be taking place in urban environments." Eric Graves, editor of Soldier Systems Daily, said "It makes zero sense for the Canadian military to produce an urban pattern based on their own cities unless they plan on fighting there… If that’s the case, it’s the perfect choice.” HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp, a company of Maple Ridge, BC, has been awarded the contract to develop the new camouflage. “Clement Laforce, deputy director general for DRDC Suffield, said the patterns that would be produced are not just for chemical or biological protective suits, but also for general use for the Canadian Forces.”
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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OCEAN OF SOUND with Jospeh 'Pepe' Danza
Ask Pepe any musical question at www.theAgoraNational.ning.com
MUSIC & SPIRIT Yes, Music is my Religion (if Religion is understood as a Pathway to Spirit rather than a stale institution and dogmatic ideas). Music is the Ship that takes me to the Other Dimension (which is right here right now all the time). My favorite vessel is the Drum, but any form of Sound will do. When you get deep into Sound you find the doorway to Silence. When you enter the vortex of Rhythm deeply you find the Still Point at the Center. All you need to do is Show Up and get out of the way. Getting out of the way, however, takes an enormous amount of discipline and knowledge. Firstly, we need concentrated and committed study and practice so our technique can serve us effortlessly and not become a block in our expression. Secondly, we have to cultivate self knowledge in order to recognize the intrusions of Ego in our artistic expression, and, without judgment or violence, observe it and bypass it. Thirdly, we must have a clear Vision of what it is we are Serving, and ideally some kind of Archetype we have chosen to focus our efforts (it doesn't matter if it is Jesus, Buddha, Lemanja, the most abstract idea, or your daughter or lover, as long as it opens your heart and your will to love and serve). Intention is a very important key. Our Sound then becomes an integral expression of Who We Are and a tool for Healing, Prayer and Meditation Showing Up takes a lot of work too!. We are blocked by fears, by "you are not good at that" subliminal messages that we unconsciously incorporated through our lives, by lack of trust, by trying to project a certain image, by all our false but fiercely held images of ourselves. The fact is that if we don't show up completely, our experience and expression is always going to be partial. Showing up means leaving all our habitual safety nets behind and diving fully and deeply into the activity… into the moment. The most important tool and helper in this is Breathing. Most of our bodies have developed unnatural habits and blocks that prevent us from proper breathing. Without it our Energy cannot flow freely and fully and therefore we cannot experience the Ecstasy that each moment offers us. From working, to playing music, to great sex, to coping with Life’s challenges… a deep knowledge and connection to Breathing will be your best ally and balm. One of the issues that come up often as a teacher is (usually young) people who don't quite want to follow your instruction because they just "want to be themselves". I try to explain that "being myself" is most often a trick of the Ego and it can be translated to "leave me in peace in my little cage of conditioning". It's just another way of not Showing Up. By learning with a teacher and completely embodying and experiencing what is being communicated, we expand our tool kit and our means of expression. After that we can choose what we keep and what we don't need. But the only chance that we have is by experiencing it fully to begin with, otherwise we'll never know what they were trying to teach us and we wasted our teacher's time and our own. There is no doubt that someone who has dedicated many years to cultivate Spirit through Music can make our path a little bit easier and shorter.
Showing Up can sometimes be enough. Even taking a simple pattern on your instrument and becoming aware of breathing fully, relaxing, and connecting with the Great Storehouse of Energy (I'll let you figure out what that means to you), can take you very deep into what I jokingly refer to as "Headquarters". The rhythm pattern acts just like a Mantra, and the body relaxes into the choreography of the playing and becomes the Dance. If to this you add a group playing in unison and sharing Intention, you can have a powerful experience even if you are technically limited. There are no shortcuts, though, and no substitutes for Patience, Commitment and Discipline. Good thing about it is... it can be a lot of fun too. Always keep your sense of humor, breathe!, and accept where you are at with Joy and Compassion. We are all students, and at whatever level we are we all have someone to look up to and think: "if I could only...". Well, we Can!. But it all comes in it's own Time, and we might as well enjoy ourselves on the way there. Learning is a precious gift. I feel quite embarrassed when I'm referred to as "Master Drummer"… I have so much to learn!!!. And I don't think I'll ever feel differently about it. Music is a humbling experience constantly. My Guru Trichy Shankaran, after playing a concert, would hear my amazed and admiring comments and gently say: "you should have heard my Guru play"... So, So, wherever wherever y you ou a are re a at, t, llet et S Spirit pirit s shine hine tthrough!. hrough!. N No o matter matter h how ow much much w we e w weigh eigh o orr h how ow m many any p pimples imples o on n o ur nose, nose, we we a ittle our are re a allll e embodiments mbodiments o off B Beauty... eauty... llittle s parks of of tthe he B ig Light, Light, and and o ur e ssence iis s L OVE. sparks Big our essence LOVE. W hen we we ffully ully s how u p tthe he s imple b eauty o ur When show up simple beauty off o our h umanness radiates radiates a nd tthat’s hat’s a B eauty b eyond humanness and Beauty beyond w hatever o ur p hysical c arriage m ay b e tthis his ttime ime whatever our physical carriage may be a round… True True Beauty. Beauty. around… A she... Ashe...
website: website: www.pepedanza.com www.pepedanza.com www.myspace.com/pepedanza w ww.myspace.com/pepedanza muchoashe@gmail.com e mail: mail: muchoashe@gmail.com
About Joseph 'Pepe' Danza Leader and creator of percussion group Drum Prayers and an electrifying percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, teacher and composer, Pepe has been a major force in World Music for many years. A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, he has spent his life playing music, and has travelled the world studying, performing, and teaching. He spent many years in Asia studying and practicing spiritual disciplines, as well as music. Pepe was one of the Artistic Directors of the West Coast Sacred Music Festival for four years. He is at the top of his field in Vancouver
as
a
drummer/multi-instrumentalist
and
works as a performer, teacher, and recording artist. He has also produced albums for local artists.
Pepe has
been nominated for countless awards as a performer and composer, including Musician of the Year (West Coast Music Awards), Juno for his work with Asza, Leo Awards for his film music, and Jessie awards for his theatre scores.
Pepe teaches drumming classes in North Van. and in Vancouver, and accepts private students for Percussion, Guitar and Shakuhachi Flute. Pepe is available for recording sessions, workshops and concerts. Please contact by e mail.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
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music for the new American Revolution,
Pokerface is back! by The Agora The Agora (T.A.) - What was the driving force behind creating you latest album "Peace or War"? Pokerface (P.F.) - Peace Or War (POW) was a follow up to our critically acclaimed fourth disc, MADE IN AMERICA (MIA). Unfortunately, it took us the next 6 years to write and record it. Four of the years were just learning how to produce the CD ourselves in our own studio. We basically recorded this disc 3 times. Each time we got better sounds, better signal path levels, better equipment and software etc… We just couldn’t release it until it met our expectations and the level of quality our fans are use to. We also needed to address the political and spiritual climate of our country. It’s going to hell in a hand basket with the political prostitutes we have as leaders. We need to call their crimes out on the carpet. 911 has been used as the end all be all to destroy our Constitution and Republic. T.A. - Paul, how do you respond to being called an anti-Semite by the Anti Defamation League? P.F. - As with any group or person who is making a difference for real freedom in our country or the world, you will get all of the love-hate names from the parasitical groups like the (ADL)All-Defecation-League, (SPLC)Southern-Perverted-Law-Center, (SWC)Simon Weasel-Balls Center and others, all because you have the temerity to call out the criminals for their crimes against our country and humanity. Remember, some are more special then others, on this global plantation. Our friends in the OATH KEEPERS (a rapidly growing group of current and former military and police who will abide by their oath to defend this country from all enemies domestic and foreign) represent a real threat to the establishment. Well, as of this November, the ADL terrorist-in-charge, Ape Foxhole, has now called this group – racists. Ironically, he fails to recognize that there are several patriotic American Jews involved in the organization. The truth doesn’t matter to these douche-bags. The ADL is trying to do damage control because these Oath Keepers are the real deal and will overturn their Machiavellian plans to destroy America and the world. So, when these anti-Christian, anti-American groups call me names, I take it as a badge of honor and hold it close to my heart. It means that Poker Face and Paul Topete have arrived at being labeled a threat to their Globalist plans, real or imagined. They are expending time, energy, and assets on us. If you go to the ADL page and do a search, my name will come up 3 times: once for knowing the great American militia patriot leader Mark Koernke. The other 2 are for my political activism in telling the criminal illegal alien invaders to go the hell home. For that I have been called a MinuteKlanner, instead of the proper forefather term of Minutemen. One of my closest friends and mentor, Sherman Skolnick (American first Jew – host of Broadsides cable show in Chicago), asked me back in January of 2000 if I had gotten any LOVE-Hate from these real Haters of the truth ADL/SPLC/SWC/AIPAC etc… I said, not yet Sherman, but the day we start to matter, I guess we will. Well, that happened 6 years to the month when the ADL sicked their colored Hate group on us called One Peoples Project… We call them the one peoples rejects. The truth is not found in ANY of them. You see, the ADL represents and does the bidding of the International Bankers. It’s not our fault they all happen to be Jews. ANY threat to their Global Zionist plantation plans and these traitors will try to defame you, impugn your character, and assassinate your reputation so nobody listens to your pertinent message. I always laughed when I would hear Frank Zappa refer to the ADL as a PR group after their attack on his
Jewish Princess song. Look it up on You Tube, it is good to watch. T.A. - What is the single most pressing issue that America has to deal with before it can get back on track? P.F. International Banksters and their Supremacist political ideology - Zionism. We need to shut down anti-American groups like AIPAC /ADL/SPLC/SWC/OPP /JINSA and hundreds of other pro-Israel first groups infesting our country. We need to give the current prostiticians their pink slips. Eventually, we need to hold court for their treason against the Constitution they swore an oath to uphold and defend. Kinda like having a Nuremberg II kind of trial for them. Our current lot of politicians are pro-Globalist, not pro American. They are pro tyranny, not pro freedom. There is a 2nd American Revolution coming because of their treachery. We The Free need to clean house, literally. Unfortunately, these bastards feel that they have stolen our wealth and freedoms fairly and will not give them back unless equal and opposing force is used against them. Force and pain are the only thing these assholes understand. T.A. - Are you guys on tour in the US right now? If so how has the response been compared to previous tours? P.F. - We don’t necessarily TOUR like a normal band, for many of our gigs are political rallies and events. We have some shows coming up with the END THE FED and TEA PARTY RALLIES We also have our CD release party coming up Saturday, December 19th at a club called LUPOS in Allentown, PA. Two other protest bands will be joining us – Dave Cahill and the Almighty Terribles from NJ, and the AMEROS from NY. Maybe this will be the beginning of the Patriot TOUR. T.A. - What changes have you made to your musical sound and style since your last album and why? P.F. - PEACE OR WAR is the first CD that we all wrote together from beginning to end. In the past, I had worked with other writers, and brought several songs that were pretty much completed except for the individual parts written by Dennis and Brett for each song. This time around, all of the songs were conceived by the three of us. Most were jammed out ideas that we would bring to practice and throw down on. The
ones that stuck, we birthed as songs. PEACE OR WAR still has the familiar wall of sound we are known for; meaning, we have multi-part harmonies and counter melodies mixed in with blazing guitars, both acoustic and electric. We did add more keyboards into the mix on this disc than we have had in several years since 1996. Poker Face’s 1st two discs were heavy laden with keyboards. After our 2nd disc NEXT! I discovered the guitar. And, by the 3rd disc, we basically converted over to a guitar only sounding band. The writing on this one also shows our growth as artists and as people. Our songs are more memorable, some say more commercial, but we think that they are complex/interesting enough for the listener to enjoy. The disc has received rave reviews from a variety of sources so far. We will continue to write the music for the 2nd American Revolution that is coming on like a freight train. Our Federal, Sate and Local officials know no bounds of tyranny. They keep ramming down our throats that there is no God, and the STATE is your new God. Until We The Free hit the reset button of tyranny, Poker Face will continue to be its Revolutionary minstrels. Check out www.PokerFace.com to listen to their new tracks and buy some killer schwag.
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ello Canada! We, of the Canadian Zeitgeist Movement, are honoured and excited to participate in the Agora National.
The original Zeitgeist film has been viewed by over 100 Million, according to the creator of the film, Peter Joseph. So what are the Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project all about? Origins of the Zeitgeist Canada Movement In Vancouver, on Z-Day, March 15th, 2009, we had 240 people watch Zeitgeist Addendum. From that viewing, a core group developed and began to lay the foundations of what is now Zeitgeist Canada. The domino effect has resulted in Zeitgeist chapters forming all across the country, interconnected by the main website at: www.zeitgeist-canada.com. What is Zeitgeist Canada? Zeitgeist Canada is a group of people no different than you. We, like you, understood that something is seriously wrong with this society, but could not put our finger on exactly what. Most of us came across the initial Zeitgeist movie, and it was like a light going on. For the first time we understood the underlying causes of all the chaos and unfairness pervasive in our society. Sure, we all understood we were being sold out and that media, government and corporations were corrupt, but we never fully understood the dynamics of money and debt and their pivotal roles in controlling society. Some of us started out as sceptics, believing this was just one of those “conspiracy movies” that have been quite common since the advent of the Internet and YouTube. It was while researching information to contradict and disprove the material in the Zeitgeist movies that many of us became convinced that Peter Joseph was on to something here. Since that time, there has been a proverbial flood of information available for those interested in researching these topics. Our numbers are growing quickly and our ideas are starting to creep into the mainstream, and it is just a matter of time before our ideas are widespread and well understood. Most of us live in and around Vancouver. We at-
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tend various events such as Car Free Day, Gay Pride Parade, local festivals, etc. with our tent, posters, t-shirts, buttons, pamphlets and most importantly, copies of the Zeitgeist movies that we distribute to people passing by. We've handed out thousands of DVDs and our street action events have been a magnet for the curious and likeminded. We engage people in discussions and urge them to keep an open mind and just look at the material and decide for themselves. We encourage them to do their own research and not take our information at face value. Interestingly enough, a large number of people feel just like us and appreciate that there are groups such as ours who have not given up on making society and the planet a better place to live. Many are aware of The Zeitgeist Movement but have not looked into it to any degree. We find that this on the ground approach to be the most effective way to get the word out and strongly suggest that you carry out a similar process in your area.
planet, there are many organizations attempting to work towards a future where the human species can live in some kind of balance. However, if you examine the pace of change and improvement at hand, one is left rather disheartened by the persistence of the atrocities and inequality still dominant in the world today. We must ask ourselves why this is. It appears most people today respond to social issues in a way that does not address the true root causes of the problems, and rather, seeks to engage in “patchwork”. For example, police and prisons are indeed patches, for they do nothing to address the reasons behind what we label as “criminal” acts. Human beings have reasons for their actions, and those reasons are derived from a multifaceted array of environmental influences.
What are The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project? The Zeitgeist Movement is the activist arm of The Venus Project, in avocation of broad social change that involves nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. Our social aims are not based on politics, morality, laws, religion, government or any other “establishment” notion of human affairs. Instead, we promote a modern, non-superstitious understanding of what we are and how we align with nature, of which we are a part. The Venus Project has been working for decades to establish the technical methods and educational imperatives, which can transition society away from its current cycles of endless war, poverty and pervasive corruption. The project aims to develop an improved social design based on environmental alignment, efficiency, sustainable resource management, and practicality. Most critically, The Venus Project aspires to improve the standard of living, personal freedom and well being for not one nation or class, but for the entire human family. With all of the problems that pervade the
The fundamental mechanism that drives our monetary based system is scarcity. In a scarcity-driven environment, efficiency, sustainability and abundance will never flourish, for they simply go against the nature of the profit structure. Therefore, it is also impossible to have a world without war, poverty, environmental destruction and corruption, when competition is the basis for society. To put it simply, it is our monetary-based, scarcity-driven society that is responsible for the imbalance, distortion, fragmentation, and destruction that continues to plague this world. Accordingly, the goal of true social reformation would be to eliminate the causes that generate socially offensive behaviour. The key is not in alleviating the symptoms that our current system produces, but in transcending the system entirely. This is what The Venus Project is about. All social systems, regardless of political philosophy, religion, or cultural values depend upon the Earth’s natural resources in order for their survival. Concurrently, it is a natural consequence of a social order for the supporting values integral to the functioning of that order to maintain dominance, regardless of the true relevance or benefit of those values. Consequently, if a social framework is established that supports detached self-interest, greed, dishonesty, inflated ego manifestations, and any other perverse value distortions, then it should come as no surprise when these are the dominant values that are constantly being reinforced and perpetuated. When it comes to cultural influence, we must examine the immense psychological implications that have developed due to the system of monetary exchange and competitive trade. Money, contrary to the attitudes of most of the world's population today, is not a natural resource, nor does it represent resources. In fact, money is only functionally relevant in a society when certain natural resources are scarce and must
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be rationed, and thus a system has emerged where people are given an arbitrary value for their labour, in exchange for servitude, which can thus be used as a medium of exchange for those scarce resources. Unfortunately, the majority of people have now been fully indoctrinated into this artificial frame of reference, and most cannot even consider an alternative method for social functionality. Many have even gone as far as thinking that money represents “choice” or “freedom”. That money could be equated with democracy is an immense illusion; the opposite is really true, that money is a tool for social control and manipulation. In this system, we are only as free as our purchasing power will allow. When a political candidate has more money to advertise for his party, that isn’t a democracy. The system serves those in positions of differential advantage, and thus, it is really a dictatorship of the financially wealthy. While money was relevant at one point in history, the advancement of our science and technology has rendered our archaic social and economic system obsolete. We now have the ability to move into a completely new paradigm, one where the inherent negative consequences of our current social establishment ― perpetual war, poverty, human exploitation and environmental destruction ― no longer require tolerance. What The Venus Project is proposing, and hence what The Zeitgeist Movement advocates, is merely the next step in our social evolution, as dictated not by a person or group's opinion, but by statistics, trends, inference and extrapolation, as deduced through the application of the scientific method towards social design. This new social design can be termed a resource-based economy. In the words of Jacque Fresco, the founder of The Venus Project, “We call for a straightforward redesign of our culture, in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but also as totally unacceptable. Anything less simply results in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.” A resource-based economy utilizes existing resources as its core, rather than commerce. All goods and services are available to everyone without the use of currency, credit, barter or any form of debt or servitude. The aim of this new social design is to free humanity from the repetitive, mundane and arbitrary occupational roles which hold no true relevance for social development, while also encouraging a new incentive system that is focused on self-fulfillment, relevant education, social awareness and creativity, as opposed to the contrived, shallow, self-centered, corruption generating goals of wealth, property and power, which are dominant today. The foundation of this concept is the realization that, through the intelligent management of the Earth’s resources, along with the application of science and technology, we have the ability to create global abundance, and thus escape the detrimental consequences produced by the real and artificial scarcity that dominates the planet today. What is needed is a systems approach for the entire world, one where we declare
the Earth’s resources as the common heritage of all the world’s people. This approach can provably create an enormously higher standard of living for every human being on Earth, while simultaneously restoring and protecting the environment that we have loused up over the years. Beyond the technical understandings associated with a resource-based economy, the major concern of The Zeitgeist Movement at these early stages is the communication aspect. Our current focus is on overcoming outdated cultural values, erroneous ego identifications, and the vast ignorance of the conditioned culture, which is perhaps the most difficult aspect to consider. If this critical awareness is achieved, most people will likely never be able to look at the world in the same light, and the problems that pervade the globe today will simply be considered unacceptable, thus motivating change. The dominant social values of our society, which has resulted in the countless problems all over the globe, is largely due to a collective ignorance about two fundamental insights humans can have about reality: the emergent and symbiotic aspects of natural law. The emergent law of nature is that all systems are, when uninhibited, perpetually changing, while human understandings are likewise in a constant state of transition. Technologies that exist today would have been considered unimaginable in ancient times. Likewise, since we are continually in a state of learning, our conclusions are constantly being reshaped. We must be open to new
information at all times, even if it threatens our current belief systems and identities. Our society today has not recognized this, for being proven wrong is erroneously associated with failure. However, being proven wrong should really be celebrated, since it is elevating us to new levels of understanding and increasing awareness. The symbiotic aspect of natural law is that the whole of nature is one unified system of interdependent variables. We must understand that our integrity is completely dependent upon the integrity of everything else. While there are many thoughtful, well-intentioned people and organizations pointing out the rampant problems worldwide, very few offer viable solutions. The solutions that are presented almost always tend to get framed within the existing social establishment. The Venus Project, and thus, the Zeitgeist Movement, is different. Our elemental focus is on locating the root causes of social problems and working to provide solutions from their lowest common denominator. The pervasive problems we witness today, such as poverty, hunger, environmental destruction, war, and all other social turmoil, are not the result of corporate power, the rich ruling elite, or flawed legislation. These issues are actually symptoms of the foundational sources. The solutions lie in addressing the true causes of human behaviour, which is primarily a function of the values that our social system continually reinforces. It is our social system at the very core that is responsible for the circumstantial problems we witness all around us. Corruption is not merely some byproduct of our social system; it is, in fact, the very foundation of it. We can continue to be slaves to the corrupt socio-economic system or we can focus our energy on meaningful, holistic, lasting change that has the
realistic ability in bringing about a sane future. It is time to grow up and work to create a truly sustainable, equitable, and socially just world. It is up to you. For more information, please visit: www.thezeitgeistmovement.com and www.thevenusproject.com. Our Goal: The goal of the Canadian Zeitgeist Movement is to create and work with its chapters, from their start up stages, continuing throughout their constant growth. It is important for all Canadians that join the Zeitgeist Movement to feel an instant connection with the ideas and principles of the movement. This can be best achieved by direct involvement with one’s own local chapter. It is at this level that any individual can participate in the local events, promote growth of the movement within their local community and bring to the table their own creative talents. Every person can and should feel that, at whatever level, they too can play an active role in the growth of The Zeitgeist Movement. Connecting and working with your local chapter to develop and build relationships with one’s own community, is the quickest and most efficient way to foster the growth and ideas that are the foundation of The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project. - Hit the streets at local festivals and events armed with information.
- Use the Zeitgeist-Canada forum to communicate ideas within the various chapters and make others aware of information you feel will help with regard to further understanding both issues within the monetary system, as well as questions and ideas regarding a resource-based society. In short, let’s share our collective wisdom. We would love for you to come visit us at our website, www.zeitgeist-canada.com and through that find the group in your local area or work with us to create one.
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BREAKING ThROUGh A WALL Of POLICE PROTECTION fOR INTERNATIONAL CRImE: ThE TRIAL Of SPLITTING ThE SKY AS A TRIAL Of ThE ChENEYBUSh-RUmSfELD CABAL Of WAR PROfITEERS
by Anthony J. Hall Professor of Globalization Studies University of Lethbridge Alberta, Canada Who and what is on trial? When Splitting the Sky broke through police lines in his attempt to conduct a citizen’s arrest of former US President, George W. Bush, the Mohawk Freedom Fighter pierced a thick wall of tyranny. He broke through a tight phalanx of state protection for the perpetrators of War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and Crimes Against the Peace. With his courageous act, Splitting the Sky announced the unwillingness of millions of global citizens to tolerate any longer the culture of impunity that places a small, interlinked global plutocracy above the law. By breaking police lines, the Attica Brother and American Indian Movement activist scouted a route of liberation for those of us seeking to get out from under the weight of complicity in International Crime committed in our name. We are all deeply implicated in the state terror permeating the 9/11wars because it is our tax dollars that fund these imperial assaults. Splitting the Sky’s action in Calgary highlights the abject failure of law enforcement agencies to do their job. It highlights the unwillingness of police and those who direct them to apply the law equitably and independently. When he broke through police lines last march, Splitting the Sky built on the message of Muntadarar al-Zaidi, the Baghdad journalist who fired his shoes at the departing US President. Al-Zaidi's symbolic shot was seen and applauded around world. By dramatizing the role of so-called law enforcers as protectors of international crime, Splitting the Sky highlighted that many millions of global citizens have seen more than enough evidence to understand that George W. Bush and his war cabinet are credibly accused war criminals. If we lived in a world where the integrity of law prevailed over the power of money, political corruption and military might, the Cheney-Rumsfeld-Bush Syndicate of War profiteers would have been apprehended long ago to face charges in a properly constituted Court of International Law. When Splitting the Sky presents himself this coming march to a Provincial Court in Calgary Alberta to face a criminal charge for Obstruction of Justice, who and what is really on trial? Whose sense of justice was
really obstructed? I predict that the light of future history will cast the trial of Splitting the Sky as an important point of departure for a process of people’s jurisprudence directed at bringing to justice those responsible for the highest order of International Crime. The trial of Splitting the Sky calls attention to the partnership linking Barack Obama’s presidency to the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld brand of organized crime headquartered in the military superpower’s apparatus of so-called National Security. It highlights the current US President’s expansion of his predecessor’s policies of aggressive warfare aimed at appropriating natural resources from Indigenous peoples the world over. Conducted in the name of an implausible official interpretation of what transpired on September 11, 2001, the ongoing 9/11 wars widen and accelerate the imperial onslaught that has gathered force ever since Christopher Columbus initiated a new world order in 1492. The trial of Splitting the Sky places a spotlight on the ruthless of state terror as manifest in torture, genocide, and aggressive warfare. more than six decades ago the judges sentencing the convicted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg deemed that aggressive warfare constitutes the supreme crime against the entire human family because it encompasses such a broad array of tributary international crimes. The police lines that Splitting the Sky briefly breached in Calgary Alberta were set up to protect the person whose blood-soaked hands signed the executive orders for an orgy of state-sponsored criminality. Thus the Calgary Police Force, the RCMP and those that direct them chose to make themselves, as well their agencies, accomplices in horrific crimes - crimes that have transformed words like Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, Dark Sites, Black Sites, Ghost Prisoners and Extraordinary Rendition into household phrases. As the Nuremberg Principles make clear, the implicated law enforcement officers cannot claim in their defense that they were merely following orders in deciding to arrest Splitting the Sky rather than George W. Bush. Who gave the police their orders? What was the chain of command? What was the content of the directives given the police? The Crown Prosecutors have a responsibility to make public this crucial information in presenting their case against Splitting the Sky. Why did George W. Bush and his handlers choose Calgary, Alberta as the site of the former Commander in Chief’s first major speaking engagement after leaving the us presidency? Calgary is a key colonial capital of the Texas-based oil and gas empire that resides at the very core of the world’s most powerful Military-Industrial Complex. Calgary is the political heartland of the Minority Government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper’s ascent to power was as the Canadian franschise holder of the Bush brand of neocon governance whose machinations regularly subordinate the rule to law to jack-booted displays of law and order. This Neocon approach has seen officers of the Canadian government hand over civilians convicted of nothing to the Afghani puppet regime for certain torture. As illustrated by the treatment of Omar Khadr, the lawlessness of the current Canadian government makes Harper and Bush partners in victimizing child soldiers contrary to many international treaties. A major sponsor of Bush’s talk in Calgary was the Bennett Jones law firm, one of the key agencies engaged in the fire sale of western Canada's natural resources. the foreign colonization of Alberta's re-
sources often takes place in complete defiance of Canada's constitutional affirmation of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights. Will the Alberta judiciary’s handling of Splitting the Sky’s trial continue the slide of my home province away from the sovereignty of Canada? Will the court extend Splitting the Sky a fair trial or will the judge railroad the accused at the behest of political masters in Washington, Dallas, Houston, Ottawa and Calgary? Will Splitting the Sky’s right to present a full defense be respected? Or will the judge demean his or her court to decide, say, that George Bush’s real or imagined “misdeeds” have no place in the proceedings. Will the Provincial Court of Alberta rise to the responsibilities invested in this instrument of Canadian sovereignty? Or will the trial of Splitting the Sky take place in a kangaroo court putting on full display Calgary's colonial function in the American Empire? Will the court encourage, embrace and even demand a full airing of the real legal issues inherent in the decisions made by Splitting the Sky and those of the police officers that arrested him? Will it illuminate or obfuscate the responsibility of citizens when we see agents of the law unwilling to enforce statutes like Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act? Is Canada's international reputation to be that of a haven for the most recent crop of credibly accused War Criminals? The Calgary Principles Whatever happens with the Crown’s trial, Calgary will be the site of a people’s process aimed at delivering some measure of justice in a world too often starved of it. Among those who have agreed to take part in both the Crown’s and the people’s processes are Ramsey Clark and Cynthia McKinney. A former Attorney General of the United States, Ramsey Clark has a long history of representing Splitting the Sky as his lawyer. This history began when prominent figures in the United States intervened to cover up the lies and crimes of the Attica prison debacle of 1971. This event changed Splitting the Sky’s life forever. In the US election of 2008 Cynthia McKinney ran as the Green Party’s candidate. She is widely recognized as an inheritor of the quest for domestic and international justice advanced in different ways by both martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Ms. McKinney served for four terms as a us Congresswoman representing a constituency in Georgia. She has stood bravely for the principle that Universal Human Rights extend to the Palestinian people. With her words and actions, Ms. McKinney epitomizes the necessary merger of the global Anti-War Coalition and the international movement of those committed to the quest for the truth of what really happened on September 11, 2001. In order to stop the otherwise never ending 9/11 wars, we must make reason and science prevail over fear mongering, superstition and disinformation in determining who was really responsible for the originating acts of the Global War on Terror. I propose that the convergence of events and personalities, character and circumstance, on the frontiers of so much contested power offers an important opening to a new era of juridical development. I propose that the trial of Splitting the Sky presents a platform for the elaboration of a new set of juridical rules and protocols to be known as the Calgary Principles. It has been six decades since the UN General Assembly agreed to a succinct refinement of the principles that emerged from the trial of some of the top Nazis as well as their juridical, medical and industrialist
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continued from previous page accomplices. During those decades there has been an intensification of the culture of impunity that immunizes those at the top of the hierarchy of wealth and power from any legal accountability for their crimes. Like the Tokyo Trials of the defeated leadership of imperial Japan, the Nuremberg Trials were a classic example of “victors’ justice”. The trend that began in the aftermath of the Second World War has never been preempted. Again and again only those on the losing side of international conflicts face legal consequences for their crimes. Even the International Tribunal dealing with the Rwandan genocide of 1994 restricts its proceedings to dealing with the crimes of only one side in the conflict. Only Hutus are targeted for prosecution. The jurists empowered by the UN security council consistently veer away from any reckoning with the many serious crimes of Paul kagame’s Tutsi-dominated Rwandan Patriotic Front. With Anglo-American backing channelled through Uganda, this Tutsi-dominated military force conquered its externally manipulated foes to become the core unit of the Rwandan armed forces. Kagame’s army was built up to become a key pillar of the Central African branch of the American Empire. this empire includes many Canadian mining companies, including Barrick Gold, that operate with warlord and child soldier protection in one of the most war-torn zones on the planet. The immunity from prosecution of President Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated army contributes significantly to the ongoing genocide that plagues the people of the resource-rich Eastern Congo to this day. The inflicted deaths of millions of displaced and brutalized Congolese clears the way for illicit flows of blood diamonds, coltan, gold and soon oil. These operations, that expose the utter ruthlessness of imperial capital’s heart of darkness, epitomize the severity of the enforced lawlessness that enriches a few at the lethal expense of the many. The inequities of victors’ justice were on full display last march 17 when the police decided to protect credibly accused war criminal George W. Bush and to arrest and incarcerate Splitting the Sky. Like a disproportionately large proportion of other native Americans and African Americans, Splitting the Sky has spent too much of his life locked up by the state. On the other side of the ledger is George W. Bush. Bush epitomizes the class that is, with some few exceptions, above the law. In his life’s journeys Bush has drawn on the kind of privilege that is rooted in generations of colonization and conquest. The former US President accelerated these trajectories of violence and theft when he and Dick Cheney were at the controls of the most formidable war machine ever assembled. In Calgary we saw close up the extraordinary protections regularly extended this credibly accused war criminal. In my view Bush as well as his patrons and clients will not be brought to trial until humanity finds a way to withdraw the license to kill afforded by the institutionalized inequities of victors’ justice. A core precept of the Calgary Principles, therefore, must deal with the need to move beyond the kind of victors’ justice that became institutionalized following the second world war. A central principle of the rule of law is the need to enforce its authority equitably and uniformly. This basic principle must be made to apply to those who commit the highest order of international crime, no matter whether they are on the winning or losing side of international or domestic conflicts. As long as the power politics of victors’ justice continues to protect the likes of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, the rule of law remains a fraud. Under present conditions the rule of law is a sad hoax designed to disguise the role of law enforcement agencies as protectors of the ill-gotten wealth often stripped from the branches of humanity that Franz Fanon once labelled the wretched of the earth. The elaboration of the Calgary principles will have to entail the quest for new language and juridical concepts to capture the full extent and complexity of International Crime in the Twenty-first Century. In moving this process forward we could do worse than to look for inspiration to the example set by the great Polish and Jewish jurist, Raphael Lemkin. In 1944 Lemkin coined the term “genocide’’ in an attempt to identify the outer extremes of the state terror then underway in Axis occupied Europe. Lemkin’s juridical contribution was not the last
word in the process of making International Law reflect the expanding scope of International Crime. In more recent decades the technology of mass destruction has become so much more powerful and many-faceted than it was in Lemkin’s day that we need new terms and procedures to deal with the moving frontiers of criminality. Consider, for instance, the nature of the crime that takes place when whole populations are sentenced to endless futures of disproportionately high rates of genetic deformity through the saturation of their mother lands with depleted uranium. Consider the nature of a crime that would see a drug company covertly introduce a new disease strain in order to market a prepared antidote or vaccine to cure the disease it had disseminated. What names, what prohibitions and what punishments do we need to respond to and discourage crimes that infect populations, deform populations, and even destroy whole ecosystems making the renewal of all kinds of life, including human life, impossible to sustain? The makers of the Calgary principles will have to pay particular attention to the role of media conglomerates, public relations firms and public broadcasters in creating the psychological environment that allows international crime to thrive in the Age of Elite Immunity from Prosecution. The sophisticated propaganda of the global war on terror presents a text book example of how mainstream media venues often play major roles in the perceptual dehumanization of population groups whose natural resources are targeted for appropriation in aggressive war. We saw a small sample of the role of mainstream media as thought police in the censorship that characterized most of the coverage of George W. Bush’s visit to Calgary the journalists assigned to cover the event almost uniformly directed attention away from Splitting the Sky’s attempt to conduct a citizen’s arrest of George w. Bush. Two Interconnected Trials The trial of Khalid Sheik Mohamed (KSM) that will take place in New York City in the months ahead will help to establish the geopolitical framework for the formulation of the Calgary principles and the trial of Splitting the Sky. For many months key venues of the mainstream media have been advertising KSM as the so-called “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks. After having been tortured dozens of times in us custody, the demented KSM apparently agrees with the label given him even as he boasts outlandishly of the role he has imagined for himself in many more alleged terrorist incidents. For millions of observers who do not accept the official conspiracy theory of 9/11, KSM and those who will be tried with him are obvious patsies. KSM's own history of double, triple and quadruple dealing illustrates that the history of al-Qaeda was internal, and remains internal, to that of the National Security State. The operatives of the National Security State once did their complex business transactions with their pet Islamic theocrats such as CIA asset, Osama bin Laden, through the Lahore-based bank of Credit and Commerce International. The treatment of KSM is but one small part of the application of torture not to unearth information about future terrorist attacks, but rather to create a false record to support the specious claims on which the 9/11wars are premised. This propensity was put clearly on public display with news of the torture in Egypt of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi. The purpose of alLibi’s torture, which Dick Cheney directed, was to produce false testimony subsequently presented at the United Nations in 2003 of a non-existent connection between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The purpose of the Anglo-American resort to torture has recently been described by Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who has become a whistle blower exposing the underlying fraud of the Global War on Terror. Murray was removed from his job when he began to pay attention to what was happening in his posting to prisoners flown in through illegal renditions from many parts of the world. Here is how Murray describes the patterns of
torture in Uzbekistan, a key polity in the region’s multitrillion dollar political boondoggle of oil and gas extraction as well as pipeline construction. Murray asserts, “the whole point of the intelligence being obtained under torture was to actually exaggerate the terrorist threats and to exaggerate the strength of al-Qaeda that was the whole point of why people were being tortured, to confess that they were members of al-Qaeda when they weren’t members of al-Qaeda and to denounce long lists of names of people as members of al-Qaeda who weren’t members of al-Qaeda” http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/102409b.h tml By putting a focus on the lies and crimes of the Cheney-Bush-Rumsfeld Cabal of War Profiteers the trial of Splitting the Sky, together with the formulation of the Calgary Principles, is shaping up as a counterpoint to the upcoming show trial of KSM and others in New York. We invite broad participation in the Calgary proceedings this coming March from jurists, academics, students and concerned citizens from around the world. The convergence of interest in and around Splitting the Sky’s trial should be seen as one part of a global upsurge of popular will flowing from the growing recognition that our formal machineries of domestic law and international relations are leading humanity into a blind ally of death and destruction. The ugly imperatives of might is right will prevail over the rule of law until the people and peoples of the world find a way to overcome the inequities of “victors’ justice”. The core corporations of the Military-Industrial Complex have achieved such a lock grip on the executive, legislative and judicial branches of most of the world’s governments that humanity’s slender achievements in instituting democracy are being quickly negated. What meaning does an “X” on an election ballot have if voters have been duped by disinformation and smear campaigns even as they have been drawn into realms of public mythology that are completely disconnected from the realities of how power is exercised? The citizens of Afghanistan are far from alone in suffering the fate of what I call ballot box colonialism. Hence, it can be said that these days the most important agencies of the Military-Industrial Complex and the National Security State are the media conglomerates. These agencies of propaganda for Aggressive War bombard us on a daily basis with mental missiles of Psychological Warfare. The constant barrage of messages we receive that peace is to be found in war, that freedom is to found in slavery, that wealth is to be found in indebtedness, and that truth is to be found in lies, is pulling humanity away from our fragile inheritance of reason, rationality, and enlightened discourse on the real menaces we face. Earth’s endangered biosphere is the real source of humanity’s health, sustainability and security. That is where we must point much of our remedial attention and creativity. To do so we must find a way to pull back from the oblivion of the modern-day Indian Wars that are depriving so many global citizens of both “Life, Liberty and Happiness” and “Peace, Order and Good Government”, as we move into the second decade of the New Millennium.
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Cynthia mcKinney, Trials and Tribulations Cynthia Ann McKinney is a U.S. politician and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States. She is the first African-American woman to have represented Georgia in the House.
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hile in Cape Town, South Africa last month, I discovered a wonderful group called Desert Rose who performed the song you’re about to hear now. They sang in Hebrew, Arabic, and English with such passion in dulcet tones that found my open heart. This tune and video stay with me wherever I go, a combination of a haunting melody set to scenes I witnessed myself on my triumphal entry into Gaza. Triumphal, because I tried three times to get to Gaza—to see for myself what the controversy had been about, to see for myself what Operation Cast Lead was about, and to see what the people of Gaza were all about. What I will tell you this evening is my story that brings together South Africa, the United States, and Palestine as your theme suggests: “Turning Hope into Reality.” I received a call on Day One of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead asking me to please get on a boat and go to Gaza to deliver much-needed medical supplies to people being bombarded with depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs, white phosphorus from F-16s and helicopter gunships, all in an area about twice the size of Washington, DC with no way out for the people to escape. Much to my mother’s dismay, I immediately said yes. We all saw, thanks to Al Jazeera and Press TV, the bombs raining down on the people. There was no way I was going to turn down an appeal to help, because I had been there before. It was like déjà vu for me. In 1991, I had stayed up all night, mesmerized by the U.S. bombs falling on Baghdad, and I couldn’t believe that something so beautiful, that looked like Fourth of July Fireworks, could be so deadly. George Herbert Walker Bush had given us seven reasons why war on Iraq was necessary. Not a single one of those reasons was good enough for me. So, as a Member of the Georgia Legislature, I asked the Speaker of the House if I could speak on a point of Personal Privilege. The speaking time was granted to me and I went to the “well” of the House to explain my position. I recounted the history of U.S. aggressions against countries populated by people of color. I announced that I rejected our President’s seven points for war, and then intoned that George Bush ought to be ashamed of himself for launching Operation Desert Storm against the Iraqi people. My colleagues stood up and walked out on me. Their action was carried in every major newspaper around our state. The members changed the rules to test my loyalty to the United States. My harmless environmental legislation to establish a study committee to examine whether environmental racism was the reason why metropolitan Atlanta’s blackest zip code also suffered the highest toxic releases, died for lack of a second. And then out of guilt and probably respect, one of the Speaker’s “old hands” confessed to me that he had been instructed to kill the bill in retribution for my remarks. He apologized to me for going along with the Speaker’s dictate. I was gratified that the truth had been spoken—by me and by my new friend who was one of my longest serving colleagues in the Georgia House. After that, I ran for the U.S. Congress with the platform that all of our relations, both foreign and domestic had to have one foundation: respect for human rights. As a child of the civil rights movement, I knew what lack of human rights meant in the Confederate South of America. I had been there, with my father, at demonstrations and on picket lines. On one hot and humid Alabama day, I faced the Klan--armed and spewing their hate--and I knew how our dignity had been won: By black men wearing re-affirming signs around their necks proclaiming, “I am a man.”
By black men and women who spoke out of turn, or cast a glance too long at a white person, or dared to assert their dignity as human beings, had their lives ended wearing ropes around their necks, swinging from trees, the strange fruit that Billie Holiday made famous. By children on the frontlines, facing mobs, as they tried to enter school to learn. Facing water hoses and dogs just for their share of the Bill of Rights and the United States Constitution. By university students sitting-in in Greensboro, North Carolina, placing a simple demand to be served. These were just some of the actions that helped our country join the community of man. So, I understood aggression for oppression when I saw it. There was no room in my view for nuclear weapons, NATO expansion, or discrimination against any person, group, or country. While in the Congress, I voted against every Pentagon budget that came before me. I introduced legislation to eliminate the use of depleted uranium and to stop the transfer of U.S. weapons to regimes that did not respect human rights. I drafted legislation to ban the importation of coltan from the Democratic Republic of Congo into the United States and represented the Congressional Black Caucus at the Durban World Conference Against Racism, despite intense pressure to not attend in order to avoid a discussion of Zionism. I defied the Democratic Leadership that instructed Democrats to stay away from a Congressional Panel created to investigate the government’s response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Not only did I participate, I held a town hall meeting in New Orleans, received testimony from residents there, and invited residents to Washington, DC to tell their stories directly, without filter, to the Congressional Panel. I wrote legislation based on what I learned from those Katrina survivors and the ones in my Congressional District to: 1) punish with loss of federal funds and equipment for the period of one year, any law enforcement agency that denied the civil rights of its residents fleeing the cataclysmic waters, and 2) environmental legislation mandating that health effects of the toxic brew still resident on everything in New Orleans and other affected areas be made public so people would know before they moved back and before clean up crews went to work, just what the environmental and health hazards were that people faced. As a result of my efforts on behalf of human rights that also included using my Congressional Office to investigate the theft of the 2000 election and questioning the truth of the Bush Administration explanation of September 11th, I was targeted for defeat and was the only Democratic Member of Congress to lose reelection in 2006. The significance of the 2006 election was this: The very first bill to fund the war came up for a House vote and passed with exactly the number of votes required. Had I been there to cast my no vote, the bill would have failed. We would be talking about our peace dividend now. Like free tuition through the Ph.D. for students or free health care, including medicine, for all who need it. But instead, the “War Party” that consists of prowar elements inside both the Democratic and Republican parties, made sure they controlled enough Congressional votes to keep our country at war. And so now, President Obama is poised to spend the most on war, in one year, since President Bush began the “Global War on Terror.” Fed up with the lies of the Bush Administration after its serial election theft, I filed articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. I left Congress in January of 2007. I left Washington, not because I chose to, but because the Israel Lobby inside the United States was able to utilize all of its leverage inside both the Democratic and Republican parties and target and defeat me. They tar-
geted me because I dare to believe that all human beings, including Palestinians, have human rights. Later in 2007, I declared my independence from every bomb dropped, every threat leveled, every civil liberties rollback, every child killed, every veteran maimed, every man tortured as a part of the U.S. war machine. In 2008, the Green Party, nominated me to lead their ticket and I ran for President with Rosa Clemente as my Vice-Presidential running mate. Our Power to the People Campaign was based on the universal application of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I spoke out against President Clinton’s sanctions against Iraq, and President George W. Bush’s war against and occupation of Iraq. I am now organizing against President Obama’s escalation of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the continued U.S. troop presence in Iraq, the drone attacks against Afghanistan, Somalia, Pakistan, and the continued detention of innocents in Guantanamo. I am working with the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir, to Criminalise War and with other activists to hold U.S. and U.K. leaders accountable for their choices to take our countries to war. I work with a legal team in Spain that successfully brought Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s troops to book for genocide and we are now pressing that same Court to hold U.S. corporations accountable for their continued murder and exploitation of Congo’s mineral wealth while the United Nations looks on and actually facilitates those criminal acts. I support the Brussels Tribunal against war crimes committed in Iraq, and I support and am working with the individuals who just filed a brief in the Spanish Courts charging Presidents Bush, Bush, Clinton, and Obama with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Iraq. I expect to travel to Canada to support Splitting the Sky, a Native American who was arrested while trying to serve a “people’s warrant” for the arrest of George Bush for his war crimes. Underlying my work with these organizations is my belief in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, when I was called by the Free Gaza Movement to help the people of Gaza, I didn’t hesitate. Unfortunately, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, in international waters, the Israeli military rammed our boat, trying to kill us. You can still see my interview on CNN—that was conducted after we were rescued by the Lebanese government. In that CNN story entitled, “Gaza relief boat damaged in encounter with Israeli vessel,” you can see the boat that was completely destroyed, not just damaged, and I make it clear that the “encounter” that CNN writes about, was a ramming. In the backstory report of the journalist who was with us on the boat, Karl Penhaul, tells the entire story, much to the dismay of CNN headquarters that was receiving dispatches from the Israeli military and wanted to report them instead of the truth, but Karl kept disputing Israel disinformation and reported only the truth. In my CNN interview, I state that the Israelis might have deterred our mission, but not our cause. So, in June of this year, I climbed back on a Free Gaza boat, laden with school and other supplies, with twenty other activists, including Mairead Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner for her efforts on behalf of peace in Northern Ireland. I know the reputation of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee these days is in tatters, but Mairead earned hers. This time, the Israelis didn’t ram us, they kidnapped us on the high seas by commandeering our boat and forcibly taking us to Israel where I spent 7 days in an Israeli prison. That is where I wrote and recorded my letter from an Israeli Prison, that can be heard on youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZPRKJzgkHA&NR=1 During our arrest and booking by Israeli authorities, Mairead leaned over to me and whispered, “Dr. King would be proud of you.” I later told her that “I knew I was going to the top when I began to associate with a Nobel Laureate. But I didn’t know it was going to be the top bunk!” After being deported from Israel, Member of Parliament George Galloway became aware of my travails just trying to get to Gaza, called and asked me to join the Viva Palestina USA land convoy that was idling in Cairo waiting for permission from the Egyptian authorities to enter Gaza. So, two days after being released from prison in Israel, I
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA continued from previous page found myself in a hotel in Cairo with the pyramids as a backdrop as 200 Americans waited for the Egyptian Green Light to enter Gaza with medical supplies. Finally, the word came after much wrangling and many public statements by me to our President, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and the Egyptian press. We were given 24 hours to deliver our supplies, see Gaza, and get out. M1 of Dead Prez and I spent the day together with some of the locals who took us around to see the rubble and life as it is today, after Operation Cast Lead, in Gaza. What was so moving to me was that after more than 20 days of unrelenting bombardment with experimental weapons in addition to the depleted uranium which attacks the DNA of the Palestinians, white phosphorus that burns the bodies of the living to a crisp, and other weapons supplied to Israel by you, thanks to the generosity of your Members of Congress, and successive U.S. Presidents, Gaza lives. The dignity of the people is intact. The world’s fourth most powerful military could not dampen the spirit of humanity and I saw it in Gaza. The name of our boat that we were kidnapped from was the Spirit of Humanity. Both of our boats, the DIGNITY that was rammed and the Spirit of Humanity, were destroyed by Israel. The humanitarian supplies never reached the people of Gaza. In fact, Egypt, after consulting with the Israelis and the Americans, refused to allow the supplies into Gaza that thousands of Americans paid for for Viva Palestina, USA. George Galloway is planning another convoy to Gaza to try again to deliver the supplies that never made it from Egypt the first time. The Free Gaza Movement is now fundraising to send to Gaza another boat, this time many boats--an entire flotilla of boats--filled with activists from all over the world. I intend to be with them if they are successful. So, finally, I think it’s fairly obvious that I am not Muslim, I am not Arab, I am not Palestinian, but I can see, think, and feel, and I believe in justice. This room is filled with people who are not black, but who have dedicated their lives to the struggle of black people. Today, we see the targeting of immigrants; Latinos; Native Americans; gays, lesbians, and transgender people, and we abhor it. We reject hate and instead, we’re hungry for justice. Anyway, Dr. King reminded us that justice is indivisible: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I have read his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” a dozen times and only now do I come face to face with the work of someone mentioned in it: Louisville’s own Anne Braden, a “Subversive Southerner” as coined by Cate Fosl. For Georgia Powers to win an award that bears Anne Braden’s name must be counted among the ultimate of lifetime honors. I congratulate the honorees Pam McMichael, Khalilah Collins, and Bud Dorsey. These are the works that turn hope into reality. It is only by what we do that our hopes can become our reality. I will close my remarks with this documentary that was prepared by the young people of Oakland, California as we experienced an intifada, USA style, after the murder of Oscar Grant and the palpable fear of black elected officials who kept quiet for seven whole days after the murder. On the seventh day of silence, the city erupted. In the aftermath of the Oscar Grant murder, one young black man, Lovell Mixon, shot and killed four Oakland Police Department officers when stopped by them rather than be killed by them. The courts just granted a change of venue to Los Angeles to the rogue Bay Area Rapid Transit law enforcement officer who murdered Oscar Grant. That officer could pull the trigger in Oakland, but he doesn’t want to face Oakland justice. I’ll be standing with the young people now organized to ensure that Officer Mehserle receives justice no matter where they hold his trial. Oscar was murdered because he questioned the actions of the white officer who had handcuffed and was ruffing up Oscar’s Latino friend. When Oscar objected to his friend’s treatment, Oscar was accorded the old-fashioned justice reserved for blacks who don’t know their place, or who dare to question white authority. I debuted this short documentary in Cape Town, South Africa at a film festival. And what Cape Town, South Africa; Oakland, California; Gaza, Palestine share is the similar response meted out, especially to people of color trying to be free. What the Kentucky Alliance represents is a chance to work together and change the facts. Watch the trailer for Operation Small Axe here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfixe3-2RQo
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An o v e r v ie w o f L inu x by Kevin Wunderlich runs on the computer. The biggest difference between Linux and Microsoft Windows is that the Linux kernel is compiled with security, permissions and quotas to make it a true multi-user, multi-threaded system. Whether in a server environment or home environment, the Linux system is stable, secure and better equipped to handle a heavy workload without failure or long delays than Windows. There are numerous other differences at various levels within the operating system, such as being able to choose the format of the hard disk drive. The file system is a factor in the overall performance of the final system. File Systems Open Source Software
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Linux has a variety of file systems to choose from. File systems map the physical space on a hard disk drive in logical fashion to allow the operating system to read and write to the hard drive. This is fundamental to computer systems and all computers require hard drives to operate. File systems examples are ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS, JFS. One may choose from these six or more depending on what you intend to use the system for. Almost all file systems under Linux have options to change their behaviour and also have what is called a “journal” which provides a means of recording what has been saved to hard disk physically, versus what is still in memory waiting to be written to the hard disk. The result is apparent once you have been through a power failure while working on a computer. A Linux computer with a journaled file system will easily power up again with little chance of data loss.
pen source and closed source are the two primary types of software. Linux is open source software licensed to the general public and may be freely downloaded, modified or compiled. Anyone who wants to, and knows how to, may become involved and contribute ideas or changes to the Linux project. Closed source software is produced by individuals or companies, usually for profit, and distributed with a proprietary licence that forbids the end user from modifying or seeing the source code. The words “open source software” may be familiar to people, but for clarification the word “code” should really be included to help properly understand that it is the source code that is open. This is what programmers write their programs with and then compile into machine-executable code. The Desktop It should be noted that open source code means that any computer programmer can access and modify the Linux is all about choosing what software you want. source code that makes up the software that runs on a This is true even about the desktop. There are many deskLinux operating system. top environments, but the two most popular are called KDE and Gnome. The main differences between these History of Linux are largely cosmetic as both are capable of running the Linux had its beginnings in 1991 with Helsinki Unisame applications. versity computer science student Linus Torvalds. He Linux is now a vast expanse of software in the genwanted to create an operating system that ran on PCs yet eral computing world. There are hundreds of different had the functionality of the one which he used at his uniLinux flavours, commonly called distributions. Each distriversity called Minix. bution has a main developer and usually assistants. In a Torvalds started programming a replacement for few cases corporations have released a Linux distribution Minix. This replacement, which later became the Linux and made it available to download for free. kernel,” was initially developed on Minix but as it matured, Linux is free to download and use today. In the past, it became capable of hosting its own development. This one could walk into a retail computer store and purchase was done with only a running kernel, a compiler and coma Linux software package complete with printed manuals mand line. (A kernel is the core or brain at the centre of and CD/DVD. Now, it is far easier to use the internet to software on any computer and controls the timing, schedburn your own free install CD or DVD. uling and communication with the hardware at the lowest In a future article, I will explain how to install Linux. levels.) This was once a task for experienced computer users only, This is a very complex and sophisticated program to but is now manageable by anyone with moderate comwrite and is a huge achievement in itself. Torvalds decided puter experience. to release his Linux system with a general public licence, allowing others to contribute to the project. Cool Linux links: The internet newsgroups, which are like public bulhttp://distrowatch.com letin boards, were instrumental in providing a means to http://linux.com communicate his ideas and collaborate with other likehttp://www.ubuntu.com minded programmers. The project gained momentum http://www.opensuse.com when a machine running a Linux kernel was able to comhttp://www.gentoo.org pile a Linux kernel. http://www.debian.org By March 1992 the X window system running on Linux provided the graphical interface we are now accustomed to. The windowing system or desktop that users see is the highest level of software on the machine. But the operating system is comprised of many levels of software between the desktop and the kernel. The Kernel The kernel is the first piece of software that loads when a Linux system is booted up. As it loads into memory the kernel identifies and prepares the processor(s). Then it iterates or enumerates all the other circuits or hardware in the computer, initializing and preparing each to accept the kernel’s instructions. The kernel controls, manages and schedules all subsequent software which loads and
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Top 10 Reasons 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB www.wearechangevancouver.org
by Tosh Suo 1- The mysterious collapse of World Trade Center Building # 7. On the evening of Sept. 11th, 2001 at 5:20pm, (7 hours after the collapse of the second tower) World Trade Center Building #7 (WTC7) located 350 feet away from the North Tower collapsed into it's own footprint at near freefall speed displaying all the characteristics of controlled demolition. This building was not hit by a plane and yet fell rapidly and virtually imploded into a neat little pile of dust.[1] There are video clips of police telling people to "get back..the building is about to blow up" just before the implosion of the building.[2] The BBC reported the collapse of the building 20 minutes before it happened while it is still standing behind reporter Jane Stanley.[3] The destruction of this building was shown live on several other networks and then abruptly "forgotten" about. The video footage however has been preserved for all to see on the internet. It's worth noting that it takes weeks to rig a building with explosives for controlled demolition usually after months of planning. 2- Unignited explosive material found in the dust at Ground Zero Physicist Dr. Steven E. Jones formerly of Brigham Young University has analyzed 4 different Ground Zero dust samples from different sources which contain fragments of unignited Thermite. A peer reviewed paper by Danish chemist and Copenhagen University professor Niels Harrit documenting the evidence of explosives present in the dust is titled 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe' and is available in the Open Chemical Physics journal.[4][5] There are video clips of a yellow substance that resembles ignited thermite dripping from the South Tower just before collapse. Thermite is a pyrotechnic composition of a metal powder and a metal oxide, which produces an aluminothermic reaction which can reach temperatures of 4000 degrees Fahrenheit in a matter of seconds which would account for the molten metal described by numerous eyewitnesses including the NY Post's March 3rd, 2004 account of NY firefighters who recalled they saw “heat so intense they encountered rivers of molten steel.”[6] NASA thermal images of Ground Zero taken Sept. 16th [7] show pools of hot spots with temperatures of up to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit which cannot be explained as a result of a "fire induced gravity driven collapse" as claimed by the official 9/11 report. 3- Hundreds of eyewitnesses described bombs at the towers and were ommited from the 9/11 Commission Report There is news clip after news clip of eyewitnesses describing "explosions" and "bombs going off" before and after the planes hit the towers.[8] William Rodriguez the World Trade Center janitor of 20 years described a massive explosion in the basement BEFORE the first plane hit and then a few seconds later feeling and hearing the strike of American Airlines flight 11 high above.[9] During live coverage of the attacks on ABC7 News, office worker Evalle Sweezer said in an interview that "...as we were coming out, there was no lobby.... so I believe the BOMB HIT THE LOBBY FIRST then a couple seconds later the first plane hit".[10] Firefighter Louie Cacchioli told people weekly on Sept. 24th that "I was taking firefighters up in the elevator to the 24th floor to get in position to evacuate workers. On the last trip up a bomb went off. We think there were bombs set in the building".[11] 4- Woman in impact hole of the North Tower disproves official story The "official" story sold to the public of why the towers collapsed is that fire from the jet fuel weakened the steel in the towers and caused them to collapse. There is video and pictures of a woman waving for help standing directly in the impact hole of American Airlines Flight 11 that hit the North Tower.[12] The fires from the jet fuel (most of which burned up in the initial fireball and explosion of the impact) were allegedly hot enough to compromise the steel to the point of pulverizing the towers but not hot enough to singe her hair? 5- Magic passports Alleged 9/11 hijacker Satam Al Suqami's passport was conveniently found on a sidewalk before the South Tower's collapse. The passport is unburned and perfectly intact after supposedly flying out of the hijacker's pocket in the jet impact fireball.[13] Other "evidence" includes an unburned perfectly intact red bandana found at United 93's crash site [14] and Mohammed Atta's luggage which was conveniently left behind containing a Qur'an, instructional videotapes on flying large aircraft and roadmaps of Washington
DC and New York along with Atta's will. (Who would bring their will on a plane that they apparently were going to destroy?) Shortly after 9/11, four of the alleged hijackers turned up alive as reported in the BBC [15] Waleed Al Shehri, Abdulaziz Al Omari, Saeed Alghamdi and Khalid Al Midhar. 6- United 93 crash site does not add up If you take a close look at the crash site of United 93 (a simple Google image search of "United 93 crash site") you will find that there is nothing but a few small fragments of the plane and a small hole in the ground approximately 15-20 feet across and about 10 feet wide.[16] There were small fragments of the plane and pieces of passenger bodies found 6 miles away and could not have "blown" in the wind or "bounced" that far. There are no large pieces of debris as one would expect to find in a typical plane crash like wings, cockpit or large fuselage pieces. The crash scene is consistent with the plane having been shot down and numerous witnesses describe seeing a military jet in the area at the same time the plane went down.[17] The official story was first that heroic passengers overpowered the terrorists and crashed the plane into the ground and then it was changed to the terrorists crashed the plane into the ground. In 2004, Donald Rumsfeld slipped up in a speech and said "...the people who attacked the United States in New York...SHOT DOWN the plane over Pennsylvania". [18] 7- Bin Laden's "confession" tape was mistranslated and it's authenticity is questioned. The "smoking gun" of Osama bin Laden's guilt is a 2001 alleged confession tape where he apparently takes full responsibility for the attacks.[19] The Department of Defense did the original translation but upon closer investigation, bin Laden is only describing the attacks, not taking credit for them.[20] Shortly after 9/11, Osama bin Laden went on record denying responsibility for the attacks on 4 separate occasions. In bin Laden's 2007 video message where he looks much younger than the 2001 tape, the picture is frozen for the majority of the video while his remarks continue. Most of the tapes released are audio only and unconfirmed to be authentic. The alleged confession tape is also the subject of debate as Osama bin Laden is writing with his right hand when according to the FBI he is supposed to be left handed.[21] When you compare the bin Laden from the confession tape to the other tapes, there are noticeable differences in his appearance especially in the face and many doubt that it is even him in the video. The Egyptian Paper alWafd posted news about Osama Bin Laden's death on Wednesday December 26, 2001 stating he died of lung complications. A November 1st, 2001 article in the London Guardian titled: 'CIA agent alleged to have met Bin Laden in July' [22] reads: "Bin Laden has often been reported to be in poor health. Some accounts claim that he is suffering from Hepatitis C, and can expect to live for only two more years. According to Le Figaro, last year (2000) he ordered a mobile dialysis machine to be delivered to his base at Kandahar in Afghanistan." In 2002, the FBI's counterterrorism chief, Dale Watson, told a law enforcement conference in Washington DC he thinks Osama bin Laden is "probably" dead. 8- NORAD stand down and terrorism drills Between Sept. 2000-June 2001 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled fighter jets to intercept errant aircraft 67 times [23] which usually only takes about 10 minutes. The purpose is to check on planes that fly off course or lose radio contact. On the morning of 9/11, all 4 aircraft would fly off course for up to 1 hour and 20 minutes and not one plane was intercepted. USA Today reported that NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) had run drills where aircraft would be flown into the World Trade Center and Pentagon in the 2 years before the attacks.[24] September 11th, 2001 was day 2 of 'AMALGAM VIRGO', a drill that simulated airplanes being hijacked in the North Eastern United
States. There were numerous other war games on 9/11 which sent most of the fighter jets hundreds of miles away. One drill named 'NORTHERN VIGILANCE' inserted false radar blips on military radar screens which are used to simulate errant aircraft. At 8:45am on Sept. 11th, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly Virginia conducted an exercise which simulated a jet crashing into their building.[25] So on the morning of 9/11, the US is running drills where hijacked aircraft go in and out of radar, fighter jets are sent out of the country and planes are crashed into buildings. What a coincidence. 9- Bush did nothing when notified of America being under attack The fact that George W. Bush remained at Booker Elementary for 30 minutes after being told that America is under attack putting the school children and teachers at risk of becoming a target of a terrorist attack is telling. The only way the Secret Service and Bush would remain in a location with children when under a terrorist attack is because they had to have known that the school was not a target. The itinerary of Bush's visit to the school was public knowledge since Sept. 7th. 10- Anthrax attacks tried to frame Muslims Most people remember that the anthrax mailings that occurred just after 9/11 were mailed to media outlets and a couple politicians. You may not remember that the hand written letters in the envelopes read: "death to America", "death to Israel", "Allah is great". The media was quick to blame Al Qaeda but it later turned out that the specific strain of Anthrax that was used was the weaponized Ames strain from the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.[26] The suspect eventually blamed for the Anthrax mailings was Bruce Ivins who worked at the lab and cannot defend himself as he allegedly commit suicide under very suspicious circumstances. Alleged lead hijacker Mohamed Atta was accused of buying Anthrax from "Iraqi officials" at a meeting in Prague, this was used to link Iraq to 9/11 and "weapons of mass destruction" but the meeting never happened. The US and the UK pointed to documents which purported to prove that Saddam was buying yellowcake uranium from Niger and this was also used to make the case that Iraq had WMD's but it turned out that the documents were fake and are now known as the "Niger uranium forgeries". Regardless of the fact that the entire Iraq war is based on proven lies and forged documents, the US and UK occupy the land and kill innocent people everyday while the taxpayer gets the bill.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Women, hIV/AIDS and the Catholic Church in Africa by Natalie Angell
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hen talking about issues facing the global south, so often we hear about the legacy of colonialism, the World Bank, the IMF and the structural adjustment policies they implemented in Africa, but rarely do we have the courage to bring up the reality of the Catholic Church. In November, I was asked to speak on this issue after the screening of Tapologo, (www.tapologofilm.com) a film about HIV/AIDS in South Africa. It was playing at the Amnesty International Film Festival and I was honoured to be given the opportunity to be a part of something that brought to light the human rights violation associated with the abstinence based doctrine of the Catholic Church. Films such as Tapologo have the power to open up the dialogue about these sensitive issues, but more importantly, they bring to light the courageous individuals who take a stand - often from within the church itself. The anti-condom doctrine is a violation of human rights in the most horrific way. It has devastated two generations of people throughout much of Africa and must be brought to the forefront when discussing the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Despite the inherent darkness of HIV/AIDS, there is an incredible power and spark in the eyes of women - women who rise up against their challenges and create change at the local level. These small accomplishments have the power to change our world. The men and women who have challenged the anti-condom doctrine share a valuable lesson – one of transformation, courage and the importance of using our experiences of pain to share what needs to be heard. Mobilizing Women For Change I have the great honour of seeing strength in the eyes of the women we work with in Uganda. The Shanti Uganda Society works with HIV positive women, midwives and birthing women in Uganda, East Africa. Our programs are based on community participation and empowerment. We encourage HIV positive women to speak their truth and share their stories. There are 28 women in our women's group. These women support a collective total of over 170 children. Most of them are either widows or grandmothers who are the sole caregivers of grandchildren. Each woman has graduated from a jewellery or textiles training program, has received a certificate of graduation, business training and continuous health education workshops and support. They now all make a regular income and are supported with their short and long term goals. Their children are in school, they are eating nutritious food and they are all collectively working towards putting the money they make from jewellery and textiles sales towards additional income generating activities, such as farming.
The Anti-Condom Doctrine Despite our success, the Catholic Church and the very real human rights issues they bring forth is one we face regularly in Uganda. Rare are the courageous individuals who rise up from the church and silently bring the anti-condom doctrine away from a discussion about birth control and back to an issue of human rights, community health and personal freedom. Many people ask what the HIV/AIDS rate is in Uganda. Museveni, the president of Uganda is held as a golden example of successfully reducing HIV rates and improving the economic development of his country. This is the same man who has embraced the abstinence model and allowed war to ravage the northern region of Uganda for the last 24 years. I don't believe the success story in the least. AIDS is everywhere in Uganda and the random numbers do not come close to representing the reality on the ground. The 28 women we support were selected from over 600 HIV positive women in the community - that number only represents the number of women who have had the courage and money to get tested - most of these women are not accounted for in Uganda's success story. AIDS has killed an estimated one million people and left well over a million orphaned children in Uganda. Between 2003-2008 the United States committed over $15 billion to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic headed by the anti-condom doctrine, much of that money in Uganda went to promoting abstinence. Recent indications have shown an increase in HIV rates in rural areas – a direct correlation to the widely funded abstinence, anticondom campaign. The Catholic Church has a strong influence in the community where we work. Over the years I have seen personal accounts of sexual harassment, power and the corruption of funds. Across the road from the church is a health clinic founded by an inspiring woman named Sister Ernestine. After being scolded for not going along with the corruption within the church, raising her voice to the anticondom doctrine and refusing to use her position as health director to corrupt funds, Sister Ernestine left the diocese and set up a clinic across the street. They now serve well over 1000 HIV positive patients on a weekly basis. Each time we are faced with a barrier that the diocese puts on our path, Sister Ernestine is the first one to encourage us to never give up hope, to not stop in the face of those with all the power and control because the women are the ones to suffer. Last year, we were gifted a piece of land by the community we work with to build a birth house. The goal was to reduce maternal mortality and HIV transmission rates and to provide a safe and empowering place for women to birth that did not feel like a hospital. In September, the church informed us that in order to run our birth centre on the land owned and given to us by the diocese, we would need to follow their rules, which included not promoting the use of condoms. They pulled both our local project coordinator and myself into a back room, and pressured us into agreeing to go by the rules of the church. This involved accepting abstinence based education as our only method of programming. We were devastated and had no intentions of falling short on our commitments to this community, so we gathered our women's group, searched long and hard for a solution and have recently purchased an acre of land. Building begins in just a few weeks, we will not be running the centre under the control of the anti-condom doctrine and we
are committed to reducing HIV transmission rates in the community where we work. The 28 women in our income-generating group have strong opinions about the importance of education and the use of condoms. And they should – they often share stories about their experiences as women in a male dominated society. Many of them are now widows left to care for their children and grandchildren. Hope from the Grassroots Level When we first began working with the 28 women in our women’s group, they were completely disempowered. They were of the mentality that their positive status meant the end of life and there was absolutely no sense of community, support or sisterhood. They didn't look each other in the eyes when they spoke, were continually facing secondary infections and didn't have the money to support their children and grandchildren. Many of them lost jobs, income and loved ones. During our first training program, Lydia (the ‘mother’ of the group) stopped Florence (one of the youngest members) and said “did you see that young girl who was wheeled into the health centre a few months ago? She was weak and dying. Have you seen her?” Florence, who was now on ARVs, making an income and eating well responded, “the young woman was me.” Watching this group of 28 women transform their own lives, the lives of their children and the entire community has been one of life's greatest lessons for me. It is one of courage, of hope and most of all a lesson in the incredible strength women have when they join together in service and stop at nothing. Many of the women we worked with had never left the village and therefore could not make their way into the city to purchase the supplies they needed to make their jewellery. They formed small groups and each elected a leader who felt comfortable making her way into the city to purchase supplies for the rest of her sisters. They have created their own support network and it is initiatives like these that heal communities and bring peace. We've held English classes, workshops on nutrition, discussed the reality of becoming a widow and caring for grandchildren, and welcomed new life. The women now sing songs, tell stories, support one another and most of all look you in the eyes and hold their heads up high. It is a movement that is changing lives in Uganda and it is small women led organizations such as Shanti Uganda that bring compassion, empathy and love back into the realm of community organizing worldwide. These women represent the many women around the world who are standing up against the human rights violations that surround the issues of HIV/AIDS. They refuse to allow a male dominated system of control to determine whether they live or die and they are speaking out against the injustices committed by those attempting to control their minds, bodies and spirits. Natalie Angell is passionate about peace, healing and the power of conscious change. After working with birthing women in Uganda, she founded The Shanti Uganda Society and it committed to reducing maternal mortality, empowering HIV positive women and addressing the reproductive impact of war in Uganda. www.shantiuganda.org
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Psycho-Babel: A Ponerological Approach to modern Doublespeak and the Distortion of Language www.ponerology.com
by Harrison Koehli Harrison Koehli is an editor for the alternative news website www.sott.net and Red Pill Press www.redpillpress.com, publisher of Andrew Lobaczewski’s important book, “Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes.” An authority on its subject matter, Harrison’s writings deal with the influence of psychopathy on politics. He maintains the website www.ponerology.com, and is currently writing a book on the subject. He has appeared on Dr. Kevin Barrett’s “Dynamic Duo” radio program and Dustin Cantwell’s “Fane of the Cosmos” and written articles for saferelationshipsmagazine.com. He studied jazz performance and religious studies at Grant MacEwan College and the University of Alberta.
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anguage deliberately distorted to veil its true meaning is commonly referred to as 'doublespeak' (from Orwell's 'newspeak' and 'doublethink'). This distortion of words is becoming increasingly severe and overt. Even modern cinema, as evidenced in the immensely popular V for Vendetta, has noticed and commented upon this fact. The meanings of words are being changed. Disturbing, and often violent, concepts are labeled with neutral and ambiguous words, like "collateral damage", "reducing safety margins" and "extraordinary rendition", while neutral or meaningless words are given nefarious and suggestive meanings, like the ubiquitous yet chimerical "suspected terrorist". How are we to account for this phenomenon? Why is it so viral? In fact, its appearance in our daily discourse, and its ultimate significance for our understanding of government and the mental 'hygiene' of those subject to government policies, was clearly understood and explained by scientists working behind the "Iron Curtain" during Nazi occupation and under Communist rule. The work of these scientists was conducted in secret, beyond the peering eyes of the state and its secret police. Nevertheless, the scientists soon realized that someone in authority was aware of their work, for when they attempted to access materials on relevant subjects from university libraries, (such as human psychology for example), they found that all such books had been systematically removed. From this, the scientists quickly understood that to be caught with such forbidden material and research would mean almost certain death. The research in question is summarized and explicated in the work of Prof. Andrzej Lobaczewski's Political Ponerology1, and was only made available to the general public when it was published by Red Pill Press2 in early 2006. In his book, Lobaczewski approaches the question of political evil as a physician approaches the pathodynamics of an infectious virus, following the causal links between psychopathic individuals in positions of political power and the negative effects they have on a non-psychopathic population. One of the key concepts throughout his analysis is the psychopath's use of language. From an early age, psychopaths become aware of their difference from the vast majority of their peers, and learn to recognize each other in a crowd. As a psychopath does not have the in-born ability to feel complex emotions, expressions of such emotion in normal humans (like an expression of love, a widow in mourning, a man fearing for his life or family) are seen by the psychopath as contemptible signs of weakness and naivete, and only provoke in him a misplaced sense of superiority. Normal humans are seen by psychopaths as little more than cattle, and are treated accordingly by them. However, while psychopaths are aware of their difference (they might say 'superiority') from 'the mob' of general humanity, they learn to act as if they, too, are 'normal'. Growing up, they learn to mimic the movements and expressions that accompany specific human emotions. They do this because appearing normal is essential to their own survival at the expense of their victims. A psychopath can appear to be in emo-
tional pain, eliciting pity and material support; he can seduce women with his air of confidence (the textbooks are full of unattractive psychopaths who are surprisingly successful in this venture); he can lead a church congregation with high-sounding words, while embezzling the funds they give in support. However, psychopaths know that if what lies behind their mask of sanity were to be publicly exposed, and if the masses of normal people were suddenly to understand that psychologically deviant human beings in positions of power are the real source of war, the most the Pathocrats could hope for would be long stretches in the nearest penitentiary. The people would rebel against the terror they have been subjected to under their influence - the manipulation, the lying and injustice that have led to interminable war, death and suffering. But for a psychopath, the only injustice is not getting what he wants: power. Once a group of psychopaths has reached a position of such power in government (although the dynamic applies to any organization or hierarchy), such a government must work to make itself and its policies appear acceptable to the non-psychopathic human's sense of morality. If such a government were to lower its mask prematurely and truthfully say, "We, the government of psychopaths, despise you as much as we despise our so-called 'enemy'. We will work our hardest until you, our very own citizens, and those of any hostile foreign power, are utterly destroyed. Through poverty, total war, and genocide we will kill you all", the people would naturally revolt. As such, the government of psychopaths (or pathocracy) must mask its language in an acceptable ideology. Thus, a war of aggression becomes a "holy war" or "preemptive" war, not for the purpose of imperialistic invasion, but to "protect the homeland". This language is immediately recognized for what it is by other psychopaths, and they can pledge their support accordingly. But with experience, and after extensive observation and research, a non-psychopathic individual, too, can develop an ability to read the hidden meaning. The effect of such language on the minds of normal individuals is that which Lobaczewski calls 'conversive thinking'. This is a subconscious selection of premises that leads to false or paralogical conclusions. The conscious manipulations of psychopaths are unconsciously converted in the mind of the normal person and taken for truth. For example, we see evidence of this in the irrational fear many Americans have come to have for Muslims. It is not uncommon to hear emotional pleas to "nuke them all", or "turn the whole Middle East into a glass parking lot". A recent CNN commentator, Glenn Beck, even went so far as to ask a Muslim congressman, Keith Ellison, why he should not suspect him of being "a terrorist". The net effect of this hysteria is that the guilt of the minority of every population (i.e., the psychopathic minority) is projected onto a separate and identifiable
religious or racial group. The fact that such language, and the resultant conversive thinking, is pervasive in our own political discourse is not a promising sign for the health and future of humanity, and should prompt an immediate and in-depth analysis of the nature of psychopathology and its presence in the leaders of our governments, military, and intelligence services. The history of "man's inhumanity to man" is actually one of pathocracy, and if we can learn one thing from the pathocracies of past generations, it is that millions will die as a result of the present one. With the advent of depleted uranium munitions (used during the current occupation of Iraq), white-phosphorous (used in the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Palestine), and current advances in ethnic-specific weapons, to name but three modern weapons of mass-genocide, things are looking far worse than ever before. The remainder of this essay will provide contemporary examples of such distortions of language. As a warning, I should say that stripping the veneer of ideology from the following words and phrases may come as a shock to some readers. As Lobaczewski warns, "even normal people, who condemn this kind of [pathocracy] along with its ideologies, feel hurt and deprived of something constituting part of their own romanticism, their way of perceiving reality, when a widely idealized group is exposed as little more than a gang of criminals. Perhaps even some of the readers of this article or Lobaczewski's book will resent the unceremonious stripping away of all of the literary motifs of the psychopathic mind. The fact is; there is no romanticism in the global "War on Terror". The men and women promoting it are nothing more than a "gang of criminals", as Lobaczewski puts it. There is no epic "clash of civilizations"; there is no primeval "good against evil"; there is no heroic "protecting Western freedoms and values". These are simply ideological "literary motifs", and the truth is much more prosaic. War Cries 1. "Bringing peace to [insert foreign country here]" This refers not to bringing any kind of meaningful peace to a country in turmoil but to killing all foreign enemies. The idea is that, without anyone to fight back, there will be peace. For a psychopath, 'peace' is achieved when any and all opposition has been exterminated;
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA continued from previous page 2. "Bringing freedom to [insert foreign country here]" - This refers not to any real freedoms, but merely the psychopathic freedom to rape, pillage, plunder, and murder a given group of people. For a psychopath, freedom means being able to do whatever he wants, without opposition. 3. "Protecting our Freedoms" - A variation of #2, this simply means protecting the right to rape, pillage, plunder, and murder from the perceived threat of people who disapprove of, and may attempt to bring a stop to, such acts. 4. "Defending oneself" / "acting in self-defense" This refers not to any real type of defense resulting from an unprovoked attack. Self-defense means that a psychopath has the right to maim, torture, terrorize, or kill anyone who complains that he is already being maimed, tortured, terrorized by the psychopath in question. For a psychopath, defending oneself means attacking and blaming the victim for the psychopath's own crimes, and then holding them fully accountable for these actions. 5. "Support our troops" - The does not refer to any real moral, empathic, physical, emotional, or monetary support for those sent to die as cannon fodder. For a
psychopath, "support" means sacrifice; normal people, whether part of, or foreign to, the country of the pathocracy, must be killed, as they form an ever-present obstacle to complete control. Wars are a perfect means to not only kill a pathocracy's own citizens, but also those of any 'enemy state'. On another level it means "support what we say our troops should be doing - do not, under any circumstances, ask the troops themselves or support their right to disobey illegal orders". 6. "The War on Terror" - The war on terror is a war of terror. It is a war on the victims of terror at the hands of psychopaths. When the victims of psychopathic terror respond (as have the Palestinians to the terror of the Israeli government and military), they are attacked in the name of 'anti-terrorism'. The victims of terrorists (e.g. the Palestinians) become the 'terrorists', and are killed as a result. Masks of Sanity 1. "Outrageous conspiracy theories" - This refers to actual conspiracies. By associating the word 'outrageous' with completely plausible conspiracies, normal people are hesitant to question "official" lies. In fact, all covert/black operations are considered 'conspiracies'. However, when one is exposed for what it is (whether it be an assassination, a propaganda campaign, a spy-ring, a drug-running operation, a coup d'etat, a false-flag), it is pejoratively labeled "conspiracy theory" for the purpose of damage control. 2. "Patriotism" - This does not refer to love of one's homeland, but unquestioning belief and support of official government doctrine. Anyone opposing the official doctrine is labeled as "unpatriotic", "anti-American", "anti-Israel", etc. 3. "Diplomacy" - This refers to threats and intimidation preceding an already decided upon military strike. For example, the invasion of and the inevitable invasion of , Syria , Lebanon etc. 4. "Appeasement" - This refers to failure to preemptively attack those considered to be "enemies", like Iran presently, and usually refers to an ideology that promotes peace between nations. For example, Donald Rumsfeld's statement: "Can we truly afford to believe that somehow, some way, vicious extremists can
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WorLd be appeased?" In fact, Rumsfeld represents the very "vicious extremists" whom the majority of world powers are appeasing. 5. "Free Elections" This refers to the 'freedom' psychopaths have to steal elections, by bribing candidates with campaign donations, blackmailing them for support, and using widespread voter fraud. In short, free elections are stolen elections. 6. "Morality" (e.g. "Jewish or Christian morality" or " Israel 's military is the most moral in the world"). When used in the context of a psychopathic military, 'morality' refers to the psychopathic morality of complete lack of conscience. For example, feeling empathy for your enemy is "soft", "weak" or "simple-minded". Cold-blooded killing machines are extremely moral soldiers, in the minds of pathocrats. Word Salad 1. "Extraordinary Rendition" - This phrase refers to "out-sourced torture", without any extradition proceedings. Cynically, 'rendition' can refer to "giving back" (although prisoners are often 'given back' to foreign countries that happen to not comply with human rights legislation), "melting down", "processing", as for industrial use, as livestock is "rendered". The euphemism is that these often innocent prisoners are processed as cattle. 2. "Collateral Damage" - The intentional killing of innocent civilians. 3. "Free Speech Zone" - A (usually) wire enclosure in which citizens who wish to publicly voice their displeasure with the ruling pathocracy are confined, which is set up at a enough of a distance from the representatives of said Pathocracy to ensure the displeasure does not actually reach them. Any dissenter wishing to express his or her free speech outside of the "free speech zone" may be harassed or arrested. 4. "Intelligence" - The information (viewable only by military and government leaders) that is used to justify war, revoking freedoms, and increasing control. Since there is no way to verify intelligence due to its secrecy, it can easily (and usually is) fabricated, and the proof of its fabrication usually comes only after it has served its purpose, and hundreds of thousands are dead. 5. "National Security" - How safe a country is, as determined by "intelligence". 6. "The world-wide threat of militant Islamofascism" - This reveals that the psychopaths uttering these words, in fact, wish to take over the world of normal people, installing the universal 'law' of the psychopath. This 'law' can manifest itself in any ideology, whether capitalist, socialist, fascist, communist, Judaic, Talmudic, Christian, Muslim, etc. 7. "Globalization" This is not about the distribution of wealth to poor countries, but another way for pathocratic corporations to steal and plunder the natural resources of those same poorer countries, leaving the native populations to starve.
selves up for a cause that appears worthwhile, but which only suits their handlers, which are again agents of the intelligence services of the pathocracy (Mossad, CIA, MI5, etc.). 2. "Hero" - This refers to a pathocracy's own military 'cannon fodder',who died for the expressed purpose of "bringing freedom and democracy to [country]". They usually die young, and serve the purpose of emotionally entangling a hesitant population into a war of aggression. Used in conjunction with "support our troops", this label stifles any criticism of an aggressor's war crimes. 3. "Infiltrators" - Walid Phares, a neoconservative Pathocrat, recently wondered "how deeply have 'Jihadist' elements infiltrated the U.S. government and federal agencies?" In fact, as anyone opposing Zionist terror and propaganda is labeled a "terrorist sympathizer", or "terrorist", these 'infiltrators' are merely individuals who oppose Zionist terror and propaganda. 4. "Anti-Semitic" - A label which refers to any behavior critical of the pathocratic Zionist genocide of Palestinians, or critical of any crime committed by a Jew. By stifling any criticism of Jews in general, psychopathic Jews escape any legitimate criticism for their crimes. 5. "Self-hating Jew" - A Jew that displays "anti-Semitic" behavior but cannot have this label/libel applied for obvious reasons. 6. "Anti-defamation" - This refers to "defamation". The so-called "Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith" and their imitators commonly use such terms as 'antisemite', 'Islamo-fascist', 'rabble-rouser', 'radical Left', 'paranoiac', 'lunatic', 'conspiracy theorist', 'madman', 'nut', 'terrorist sympathizer' to stifle criticism of Israel or pro-Israeli policies. 7. "Security Contractors" - More accurately described as mercenaries - agencies and individuals paid to carry out 'black' or 'covert' operations, usually involving false-flag operations or inciting sectarian violence. 8. "Insurgents" - Individuals who are resisting (often by force of arms) an illegal invasion of their country by a foreign power. 9. "Terrorists" - Very often, also individuals resisting an illegal invasion of their country. Terrorism can also be used factually to describe the false flag operations of the illegal invaders. But generally, when this is the case, they are called "Arab Terrorists." 10. "Freedom Fighters" - Usually the very same "terrorists", when their actions are acceptable or funded by members of the Pathocracy. For example, when being funded by the CIA and ISI in Afghanistan against Soviet invasion, militant Islamic groups were referred to as freedom fighters, not terrorists.
Collateral Damage
Non-substantive Labels 1. "Suicide Bomber" - a) an explosive device detonated at a distance by intelligence services of the pathocracy (Mossad, CIA, MI5, etc.) and blamed on a fanatical extremist belonging to the religion of the enemy of the pathocracy. This can also take the form of bombs being placed in vehicles of the civilian population at check points and later detonated to create the most mayhem and chaos while maximizing the propaganda effect. b) A patsy incited to blow them-
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Were Swine flu Death Projections hyped? Adam Murdock, M.D. Freemen Institute
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he 2009 H1N1 swine flu “pandemic” may turn out to be one of the most overblown and expensive medical crises in modern history. Indeed, this particular swine flu may be one of the weakest in history. The most recent figures show that the number of flu cases are already dropping in the U.S., England, and elsewhere. It is a mild illness in most but occasionally can lead to severe complications due to bacterial superinfections. In the UK, under 200 people have died from the virus and in the US a debatable 4 thousand people have died. The number of deaths in the US greatly expanded from 1,200 to 4,000 after the CDC recently decided to lump in bacterial infections and “flu-like illnesses” with confirmed swine-flu related deaths. Even with these inflated numbers, in comparison to previous pandemics or even compared to seasonal flu epidemics, this has been a relatively mild illness. The Spanish H1N1 flu of 1918 was estimated to have killed up to 50 million people. In 1957-58, the Asian HN2 flu caused the death of 1.5 million to 2 million people. Only a decade later, this was followed by the Hong Kong H3N2 in 1968-69 which is thought to be responsible for one million deaths. So far the 2009 H1N1 flu has only been implicated as the cause of death for a few thousand people. What is striking is that just six months ago, officials in the US and UK were predicting tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of deaths from this swine flu. Since that time officials have had to revise their numbers downward on many occasions. According to the UK Independent, “Britain's Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, published a worst-case scenario suggesting the country should plan for up to 65,000 deaths. That planning assumption has since been revised downwards twice. In September the ‘worst case’ was cut to 19,000 deaths, and in October it was cut again to 1,000 deaths. This compares with an average annual toll of 4,000 to 8,000 deaths from seasonal winter flu.” A similar revisionist trend has occurred in the United States. As a result of the original nightmare “pandemic” scenarios, governments around the world have spent billions of dollars to stockpile antivirals (ie. Tamiflu) and to propagandize, produce, and distribute H1N1 vaccinations. The most notable change in how government has tackled this flu emergency has been how they have used the media to spread panic amongst the citizens of the world. Just take the example of Kathleen
Sebelius who is the US Health and Human Services (HHS) director. She has publicly gloated over the US Federal Government’s campaign to spread H1N1 flu information on children’s television programming. This has included putting flu messages and even creating whole television shows devoted to government flu propaganda on programs such as Elmo’s World on Sesame Street, Sid the Science Kid, and ESPN. They have also spread their reach into internet social networks like Facebook. In her testimony before Congress, she remarked that she is particularly proud of hearing stories of children that are now correcting their misinformed parents after they had watched the government programming. This propaganda campaign is in addition to direct advertising and almost continuous hysteria from supposed health experts on prime time television. The advice from these individuals is sometimes so obviously biased that it can be nauseating. How could the estimates have been so wildly exaggerated? Unfortunately, it all comes down to power, money, and prestige. In order to get to the bottom of why swine flu hysteria was so overblown one has to simply ask: Who is profiting from the whole swine flu hysteria? In answer to that question one has to look no further than the drug companies and the medical research establishment. As I have reported previously, drug companies are in line to make billions of dollars over this pandemic and are preparing to expand vaccinations for years to come. As drug companies have already produced vaccinations for most of the other infectious diseases that cause significant mortality in the western world, they are now looking for a new crop of diseases that could become potential vaccine candidates. In fact, facing the prospect of curtailed drug spending, pharmaceutical companies foresee vaccination expansion as one of their greatest areas of focus and future profit. According to the Associated Press (AP), “vaccines are seen as a critical path to growth for drugmakers, as slowing prescription medicine sales and intensifying generic competition put pressure on company bottom lines.” In addition to drug companies, as reported in Reuters, medical researchers have had to respond to “accusations” that the “pandemic has been ‘hyped’ by medical researchers to further their own cause, boost research grants and line the pockets of drug companies.” In response to this, researchers have maintained that “we need to know a lot more to conquer the virus, and funding for new research and drugs is vital to be equipped for future pandemics.” Where this comes full circle is with the government. The great majority of medical research spending is sponsored by government. It is well known that funding from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) and other international governmental bodies favors “pertinent” or as I like to call it “trendy” research. This funding favoritism is especially true of research that can be used to support government policy positions. Most recently, this has been seen in the great expansion of government sponsored global warming research. Now, vaccine experts and their infectious disease cohorts are likely to profit greatly in terms of research grants for preparing for “future pandemics.” One only has to hope that those future pandemics will actually deserve all the attention and expense that this one has. Finally, central governments profit greatly from supposed pandemics such as this one. It permits them to try to justify their existence as our “great guarantors” of health and safety. It also allows them to continue to expand their tentacles of influence and power to an even greater extent in individual
lives as they try to remove our medical freedom by making health care decisions for us. Remember that the government, as President Obama’s top economic advisor Rahm Emanuel puts it, “never” likes to “waste a good crisis” by not effecting a change that they would ordinarily not be able to accomplish. In this case, governments are trying to expand their mandate as the sole provider of health care because they were the only ones able to protect us from a supposedly horrific swine flu pandemic. Even if the truth has been that their efforts have been largely fruitless, the vast majority of people will remain oblivious to this fact. In the future the government will never cease to congratulate itself for coming to our rescue. The way government has reacted to this flu reminds me greatly of Orwell’s “doublethink” as employed by the totalitarian government in his book Nineteen eighty-four. In terms of the swine flu, the H1N1 “doublethink” means that government says one thing but the reality is the exact opposite. This “doublethink” says that freedom from death from the swine flu means surrendering your medical freedom to a government health bureaucracy. The reality is that government intervention will have proven to do little more then spend our tax dollars and come at the expense of our health care freedom. This is evidenced by the fact the governments have used this mild flu and hysteria surrounding it to create medical emergency acts that would grant powers to forcibly vaccination citizens despite their objections. One has to ask the question – would government, researchers, and drug companies been able to justify billions of dollars of expenditures and encroachments on our freedoms if realistic swine flu death projections were used from the beginning? In addition, would the public have been so eager to tune into government and media flu propaganda, or support totalitarian pandemic emergency power bills, or shown up for mass vaccinations if they knew the truth and not the worst? Would they have done any of these things if they had known from the beginning that this pandemic would amount to a few hundred deaths? Surely, the answer would be no. Many health professionals agree that the original estimates were unreasonably high. According to the UK Independent, “Dr Steven Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘I thought the original predictions for the number of deaths were incredibly high.’” As with the avian flu scare before it, these groups have great incentive to inflate worst case scenarios because they have the most to profit from the hysteria. There is really no reason why this inflationary pattern will not continue so long as government can use the hysteria to justify increased expansion, drug companies can produce the needed pandemic vaccines, and researchers need a reason to justify massive pandemic research grants. In the end, I urge you to resist the temptation to sacrifice any of your freedoms for any ounce of government “well-meaning” slavery, especially over a contrived “pandemic’ such as with the 2009 H1N1 swine flu. Dr. Adam Murdock is a physician in Texas. He is the Founder and Editor of The Freemen Institute,
www.freemeninstitute.com
The Freemen Institute (TFI) is an educational and policy center concerned with preserving the foundations of liberty and the continuation of a free republic. The institute seeks to highlight and pursue research and policies consistent with the constitution of the United States and the original intent of the Founding Fathers. According to an old adage; a people must from time to time, refresh themselves at the well-spring of their origin, lest they perish.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Permaculture: Important Positive Change by Jesse Lemieux www.Pacific Permaculture.ca
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ike most important activities on the planet, permaculture has very little recognition in the mainstream media. Consequently, only a few people know what permaculture is and the role it is playing in the dramatically changing physical, political, cultural and social climates. Even fewer people understand or are aware of what impact permaculture is having locally. In fact, permaculture practitioners are active and determined to be a positive and functioning part of the design overhaul that global society is presently undergoing. I have been involved with the global permaculture community for a little longer than three years now. In late 2006 I went on a three month trip to Australia seeking an education in permaculture design. I really didn’t know what I was getting into. After my design class, for the first time in my life I felt empowered to make a difference on whatever scale I could. Rather than a world of scarcity I began seeing endless opportunities and abundance amongst all the chaos. I arrived home and immediately started to share with anyone who would listen. In late 2007, my wife Tanya and I left Canada to build our practical permaculture experience Down-Under. Our journey lead from eastern Australia to the Middle East and finally landed us on Denman Island, BC in September of 2008. We have settled here, managing an apple orchard and running our young permaculture education and consultancy business, Pacific Permaculture. In this time we have encountered all edges of the permaculture movement, from the global to the local. In the beginning there was Bill Mollison, a disgruntled and brilliant academic. In the early ‘80s and at the twilight of his life and career, he composed the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) curriculum and travelled the world teaching to all who wanted change. He knew that the only way to catalyze truly positive change was to teach more teachers. The message he taught was “earth care, people care and return of surplus.” During its first two decades permaculture was taken up by little more than a fringe few in the developed world and a handful of aid projects in less fortunate places. More recently, as the design system produced more and more credible results, permaculture saw an explosion in popularity and growth. In Australia, Mollison’s country of origin, permaculture has entered the curriculum at all levels of institutional education and still maintains its strongest presence in the grassroots. Permaculture cannot be brought under copywrite or controlled by a central authority, as the term “permaculture” was gifted to all graduates of the PDC, a clever strategic by Mollison. This open source character has kept permaculture widely accessible and truly democratic. In this merit-based teaching system, good teachers have students and poor teachers don’t. Credibility can only be built upon one’s results in the field, not locked up behind the walls of a large organization. Mollison’s efforts produced the first generation of permaculture educators and designers. That generation has done its job well, as it is not uncommon to come across a fifth or sixth generation PDC student. In 2006 I was lucky enough to have been trained by Mollison himself. The average permaculturalist is just that: average. Permaculture is such a straightforward and practical approach to designing human habitat and settlement that anybody who is interested in positive action can easily understand the basic principles. The inherent simplicity and elegance of permaculture de-
sign, the common sense solutions and the lack of glamour makes permaculture the effective agent of change it has become. Boil down the movement and most permaculturalists, if any, have little interest in making a name for themselves. They measure success less by fame and reputation and more by the results they get in the field. Permaculture designers relish a challenge, pitting their design skills against the most difficult of climates and landscapes. As a result, permaculture is known for its application in aid projects and grassroots development activities in the world’s most impoverished regions. The most well known example to date is Geoff Lawton’s hyper-arid design installation in the Dead Sea Valley of Jordan. A student of Mollison’s, Lawton used elegant earth shaping design to fully utilize all available rainwater. With the help of hardy pioneering tree species, Lawton transformed the dead and salty desert land into a permanent, self-watering and self-sustaining forestry and crop agricultural system. This seminal work has been well documented on video. Check out the following two websites for a synopsis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ8pjOG4p XI&feature=related http://permaculture.org.au/2009/11/17/greeningthe-desert-ii-video-greening-the-middle-east/ This important work by Lawton has inspired thousands globally, myself included, to take up training in permaculture design and get active in their communities. An excellent local example is Permaculture Vancouver, a local group that meets once per month to share experience and inspiration in permaculture design. Only seven months old and 165 members strong, many have a permaculture design certificate but most don’t. This group is open to all levels of understanding and interest. The members are moving fast and have already had a booth at the PNE and are doing urban permaculture makeovers in yards throughout Vancouver. If you want to get hands-on experience and learn more about permaculture I encourage you to head out to one of the monthly meetings. You can contact this group at: http://www.meetup.com/The-Vancouver-Permaculture-Meetup-Group/. Monolithic governments and universities, and those intrenched in such institutions, will still be talking about how to manipulate “sustainable consumer” behaviour, long after permaculture teachers have empowered and educated society in the art and design of a local production culture. I do not understate the complexity and scale of the problems we face, some days it can feel daunting. The potential solutions can seem just as overwhelming. I do concede that the change required on a global scale is truly staggering. However that change is massive only for the shear number of small scale and local initiatives required. I do not faithfully and blindly believe that “everything little thing is gonna be alright.” I do, however, know that if we choose to, each and every one of us can initiate and sustain significant and positive change. The first step is to stop complaining about what we don’t want, and ask the question: What do we want? From that all important question we can take steps towards a different world. This is exactly what permaculture designers and educators are doing. They both empower with information and implement appropriate small scale solutions wherever they go. Jesse Lemieux is located on Denman Island, BC and functions as a full time educator and consultant in permaculture design. This article is also posted at his blogspot: http://www.pursuingpermaculture.blogspot.co m/ His e-mail for permaculture related questions or comments: jesse@pacificpermaculture.ca.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
VANcouVer
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by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny
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Dr. Sherri Tenpenny is the President and CEO of Osteomed II, a multidiscipline specialized medical clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Her expertise includes women’s health, chronic pain relief and a unique method for asthma and allergy relief. Patients from 38 states and 9 countries have regained their health through integrative medicine and methods applied at her clinic. Dr. Tenpenny was board certified in Emergency Medicine through 2005 and is currently board certified in Osteopathic Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine. Her many skills include being an entrepreneur, an international business consultant, a published author, and a professional speaker. She is a member of many advisory boards, including the global Medical Tourism Association. She is also a polished and experienced spokesperson on national radio and television. As one of the most knowledgeable and outspoken physicians on the complexities of vaccination, she is known for her ability to present scientifically researched, complex information to audiences of all back-grounds. Her websites are www.DrTenpenny.com , www.PandemicFluOnline.com and her clinic at www.OsteoMed2.com
t seems people often need to experience a bullet to the head before they will believe bullets can be deadly, and then they rue the day they ignored warnings about playing with loaded guns. Vaccination seems to hold a similar place. People ignore words of caution and roll up their sleeves to get a flu shot. It seems they think getting a vaccine is the same as taking a multivitamin, and equally as benign. But when serious adverse events occur, such as Guillain-Barre paralysis, a seizure disorder or even a death, a jolt of reality lays bare just how damaging a “simple vaccine” can be. The stranglehold of fear, perpetrated by those in white coats and by bureaucrats in Washington, DC who take their marching orders from Big Pharma, is choking rationally thinking adults into submission. I get emails almost every day that say something like, "I bought your DVDs and your books, but I have a question: Should I get a flu shot?" What?! My mouth drops every time. I have to clear my head and find a way to say, "No, you should not get the flu shot," being cautious to keep my tone void of sarcasm. That may seem harsh, but we live in turbulent times. Soft language and hand holding until people “get it” is becoming increasingly more difficult. Being in the business of waking people up to the hazards of vaccines certainly has its ups and downs. A recent “up” was the public policy debate held on November 10 at the University of Texas in Austin called: Are Vaccine Mandates Good or Bad for Public Health? It was open to the general public and interest in this timely topic was reflected by the standing-room only attendance. Speaking in support of vaccination and school mandates was Tom Betz, MD, MPH, director of Region 7 for the Texas Department of Health Services. Several of his health department colleagues joined him in the audience but chose not to join him on the stage. I had the pleasure of being teamed with Dawn Richardson of Austin’s Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education and the State Advocacy for the National Vaccine Information Center in Vienna, Virginia. Our presentation was mostly about opposition to vaccine mandates but we were able to address our opposition to vaccines in general. Based on the hundreds of comments we received, the debate (see YouTube) was well received and enlightening for all. During introductions, Dr. Campbell informed the audience that the plan was to have two people on each panel; but that Dr. Betz was the only person from the health department who would agree to participate. Prior to settling in on the stage, I had learned the reason why. Shaking Dr. Betz’ hand, I thanked him for joining the discussion. He returned the niceties with a slight shrug, confessing that, “No one else wanted to do it.” Surprised, I queried, “Why not? This is a great way to tell everyone your message about vaccines.” My unspoken question was, “Why didn’t the health department want to jump on the opportunity to bury anti-vaccination pseudo-science, as you call it, once and for all, in front of everyone?” He quietly replied, “We’ve done these types of programs before; they never go well.” It seems pro-vaccine arguments are being soundly defeated, time after time. And the real vaccine “pseudoscience” is being exposed for the rhetoric it is: factoids crafted by public health officials from the WHO and the
CDC, and then regurgitated by under-informed medical professionals to a naïve public. Funny how medical bureaucrats and doctors are considered the "experts" when it is strangely obvious they don't understand, and probably don’t even read, their own medical literature. The Austin debate was the next important step in exposing that the science of vaccination isn’t so scientific after all. Vaccination has till now been accepted as safe, effective and protective. The shots can be described as a medical sacred cow, defined as “a medical procedure that is unreasonably immune to criticism.” Doctors and patients who question vaccines are ridiculed and marginalized. It is heresy to suggest that the status quo is wrong. Adverse events are considered “rare,” so when reactions occur, steps are taken to negate the association to the vaccine. Patients are discredited, parents are dismissed. Doctors subject very ill persons to thousands of dollars of inconclusive medical tests, rather than to simply acknowledge, and rightfully assign causality, to the vaccine. When a person reacts to penicillin or Paxil or any other drug, isn’t it simply blamed on the drug? Not so with vaccines. Going to Austin was an upbeat offset to other particularly disturbing news reported over the last few weeks about the H1N1, swine flu vaccine: -Several schools have vaccinated children without parental consent. -The growing list of reported miscarriages. -A teen athlete who is now crippled. -Two students and a teacher in China who died hours after getting the shot. -The strange and virulent outbreak in the Ukraine, where the WHO has been deafeningly silent about its findings, but knows that whatever is the cause, vaccination is the answer. We seem to regard germs the same way we think about terrorism: “Random attacks that can be deadly.” All parties who promote vaccination hawk this view, particularly those pushing both types of flu shots. Tens of millions have been spent in the US on national advertising campaigns, and even Sesame Street merchandising, to convince us that flu shots are necessary to keep us well and keep us alive. But perhaps we have it backwards. Viruses can cause random, mostly benign attacks, particularly among the healthy. But random, “deadly” attacks, with health consequences that can show up years later? I’d worry more about the vaccines. After 200 years, with our many advances in science and medicine, you would think that someone could develop a method to protect babies and adults from infectious disease other than injecting them with animal cells, stray viruses, heavy metals and toxic chemicals. Why do we call this health and protection? Until my dying breath I will never understand why people resolutely defend, and demand, the right to inject themselves and their children with these risky potients. For those who meet resistance when trying to warn family and friends of vaccine risks, the only thing to do, really, is to keep spreading the word. Don’t be discouraged. You never know who is listening and you never know when the seeds will sprout. Focus on those who are waking up and gratefully support them. The rest, well sadly, they may have to find out the hard way what it feels like to get hit by that stray bullet.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
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An Imperial Strategy for a New World Order: The Origins of World War III Part 1 by Andrew Gavin Marshall www.GlobalResearch.ca
Andrew Gavin Marshall is a Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Globalizaion (CRG), a non-profit research organization and think tank based out of Montreal, QC., and is studying Political Economy and History at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC. He can be reached at: crgandrew@yahoo.ca
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n the face of total global economic collapse, the prospects of a massive international war are increasing. Historically, periods of imperial decline and economic crisis are marked by increased international violence and war. The decline of the great European empires was marked by World War I and World War II, with the Great Depression taking place in the intermediary period. Currently, the world is witnessing the decline of the American empire, itself a product born out of World War II. As the post-war imperial hegemon, America ran the international monetary system and reigned as champion and arbitrator of the global political economy. To manage the global political economy, the US has created the single largest and most powerful military force in world history. Constant control over the global economy requires constant military presence and action. Now that both the American empire and global political economy are in decline and collapse, the prospect of a violent end to the American imperial age is drastically increasing. This essay is broken into three separate parts. The first part covers US-NATO geopolitical strategy since the end of the Cold War, at the beginning of the New World Order, outlining the western imperial strategy that led to the war in Yugoslavia and the “War on Terror.” Part 2 analyzes the nature of “soft revolutions” or “colour revolutions” in US imperial strategy, focusing on establishing hegemony over Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Part 3 analyzes the nature of the imperial strategy to construct a New World Order, focusing on the increasing conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa; and the potential these conflicts have for starting a new world war with China and Russia. Defining a New Imperial Strategy
In 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, US-NATO foreign policy had to re-imagine its role in the world. The Cold War served as a means of justifying US imperialist expansion across the globe with the aim of “containing” the Soviet threat. NATO itself was created and existed for the sole purpose of forging an anti-Soviet alliance. With the USSR gone, NATO had no reason to exist, and the US had to find a new purpose for its imperialist strategy in the world. In 1992, the US Defense Department, under the leadership of Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney [later to be George Bush Jr.’s VP], had the Pentagon’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Paul Wolfowitz [later to be George Bush Jr.’s Deputy Secretary of Defense and President of the World Bank], write up a defense document to guide American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era, commonly referred to as the “New World Order.” The Defense Planning Guidance document was leaked in 1992, and revealed that, “In a broad new policy statement that is in its final drafting phase, the Defense Department asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-coldwar era will be to ensure that no rival superpower is allowed to emerge in Western Europe, Asia or the territories of the former Soviet Union,” and that, “The classified document makes the case for a world dominated by one superpower whose position can be perpetuated by constructive behavior and sufficient military might to deter any nation or group of nations from challenging American primacy.” Further, “the new draft sketches a world in which there is one dominant military power whose leaders ‘must maintain the mechanisms for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role’.” Among the necessary challenges to American supremacy, the document “postulated regional wars against Iraq and North Korea,” and identified China and Russia as its major threats. It further “suggests that the United States could also consider extending to Eastern and Central European nations security commitments similar to those extended to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab states along the Persian Gulf.”[1] NATO and Yugoslavia The wars in Yugoslavia throughout the 1990s served as a justification for the continued existence of NATO in the world, and to expand American imperial interests in Eastern Europe. The World Bank and IMF set the stage for the destabilization of Yugoslavia. After long-time dictator of Yugoslavia, Josip Tito, died in 1980, a leadership crisis de-
veloped. In 1982, American foreign policy officials organized a set of IMF and World Bank loans, under the newly created Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), to handle the crisis of the $20 billion US debt. The effect of the loans, under the SAP, was that they “wreaked economic and political havoc... The economic crisis threatened political stability ... it also threatened to aggravate simmering ethnic tensions.”[2] In 1989, Slobodan Milosevic became President of Serbia, the largest and most powerful of all the Yugoslav republics. Also in 1989, Yugoslavia’s Premier traveled to the US to meet President George H.W. Bush in order to negotiate another financial aid package. In 1990, the World Bank/IMF program began, and the Yugoslav state’s expenditures went towards debt repayment. As a result, social programs were dismantled, the currency devalued, wages frozen, and prices rose. The “reforms fueled secessionist tendencies that fed on economic factors as well as ethnic divisions, virtually ensuring the de facto secession of the republic,” leading to Croatia and Slovenia’s succession in 1991.[3] In 1990, US the intelligence community released a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), predicting that Yugoslavia would break apart, erupt in civil war, and the report then placed blame on Serbian President Milosevic for the coming destabilization.[4] In 1991, conflict broke out between Yugoslavia and Croatia, when it, too, declared independence. A ceasefire was reached in 1992. Yet, the Croats continued small military offensives until 1995, as well as participating in the war in Bosnia. In 1995, Operation
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The AgorA Storm was undertaken by Croatia to try to retake the Krajina region. A Croatian general was recently put on trial at The Hague for war crimes during this battle, which was key to driving the Serbs out of Croatia and “cemented Croatian independence.” The US supported the operation and the CIA actively provided intelligence to Croat forces, leading to the displacement of between 150,000 and 200,000 Serbs, largely through means of murder, plundering, burning villages and ethnic cleansing.[5] The Croatian Army was trained by US advisers, and the general on trial was even personally supported by the CIA.[6] The Clinton administration gave the “green light” to Iran to arm the Bosnian Muslims and “from 1992 to January 1996, there was an influx of Iranian weapons and advisers into Bosnia.” Further, “Iran, and other Muslim states, helped to bring Mujihadeen fighters into Bosnia to fight with the Muslims against the Serbs, 'holy warriors' from Afghanistan, Chechnya, Yemen and Algeria, some of whom had suspected links with Osama bin Laden's training camps in Afghanistan.” It was “Western intervention in the Balkans [that] exacerbated tensions and helped to sustain hostilities. By recognising the claims of separatist republics and groups in 1990/1991, Western elites - the American, British, French and German - undermined government structures in Yugoslavia, increased insecurities, inflamed conflict and heightened ethnic tensions. And by offering logistical support to various sides during
the war, Western intervention sustained the conflict into the mid-1990s. Clinton's choice of the Bosnian Muslims as a cause to champion on the international stage, and his administration's demands that the UN arms embargo be lifted so that the Muslims and Croats could be armed against the Serbs, should be viewed in this light.”[7] During the war in Bosnia, there “was a vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling though Croatia. This was arranged by the clandestine agencies of the US, Turkey and Iran, together with a range of radical Islamist groups, including Afghan mojahedin and the pro-Iranian Hizbullah.” Further, “the secret services of Ukraine, Greece and Israel were busy arming the Bosnian Serbs.”[8] Germany’s intelligence agency, the BND, also ran arms shipments to the Bosnian Muslims and Croatia to fight against the Serbs.[9] The US had influenced the war in the region in a variety of ways. As the Observer reported in 1995, a major facet of their involvement was through “Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), a Virginia-based American private company of retired generals and intelligence officers. The American embassy in Zagreb admits that MPRI is training the Croats, on licence from the US government.” Further, The Dutch “were convinced that US special forces were involved in training the Bosnian army and the Bosnian Croat Army (HVO).”[10] As far back as 1988, the leader of Croatia met with the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl to create “a joint policy to break up Yugoslavia,” and bring Slovenia and Croatia into the “German economic zone.” So, US Army officers were dispatched to Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, and Macedonia as “advisers” and brought in US Special Forces to help.[11] During the nine-month cease-fire in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, six US generals met with Bosnian army leaders to plan the Bosnian offensive that broke the cease-fire.[12] In 1996, the Albanian Mafia, in collaboration with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a militant guerilla
WorLd organization, took control over the enormous Balkan heroin trafficking routes. The KLA was linked to former Afghan Mujaheddin fighters in Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden.[13] In 1997, the KLA began fighting against Serbian forces,[14] and in 1998, the US State Department removed the KLA from its list of terrorist organizations.[15] Before and after 1998, the KLA was receiving arms, training and support from the US and NATO, and Clinton’s Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, had a close political relationship with KLA leader Hashim Thaci.[16] Both the CIA and German intelligence, the BND, supported the KLA terrorists in Yugoslavia prior to and after the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The BND had KLA contacts since the early 1990s, the same period that the KLA was establishing its Al-Qaeda contacts.[17] KLA members were trained by Osama bin Laden at training camps in Afghanistan. Even the UN stated that much of the violence that occurred came from KLA members, “especially those allied with Hashim Thaci.”[18] The March 1999 NATO bombing of Kosovo was justified on the pretense of putting an end to Serbian oppression of Kosovo Albanians, which was termed genocide. The Clinton Administration made claims that at least 100,000 Kosovo Albanians were missing and “may have been killed” by the Serbs. Bill Clinton personally compared events in Kosovo to the Holocaust. The US State Department had stated that up to 500,000 Albanians were feared dead. Eventually, the official estimate was reduced to 10,000, however, after exhaustive investigations, it was revealed that the death of less than 2,500 Albanians could be attributed to the Serbs. During the NATO bombing campaign, between 400 and 1,500 Serb civilians were killed, and NATO committed war crimes, including the bombing of a Serb TV station and a hospital.[19] In 2000, the US State Department, in cooperation with the American Enterprise Institute, AEI, held a conference on Euro-Atlantic integration in Slovakia. Among the participants were many heads of state, foreign affairs officials and ambassadors of various European states as well as UN and NATO officials.[20] A letter of correspondence between a German politician present at the meeting and the German Chancellor, revealed the true nature of NATO’s campaign in Kosovo. The conference demanded a speedy declaration of independence for Kosovo, and that the war in Yugoslavia was waged in order to enlarge NATO, Serbia was to be excluded permanently from European development to justify a US military presence in the region, and expansion was ultimately designed to contain Russia.[21] Of great significance was that, “the war created a raison d'être for the continued existence of NATO in a post-Cold War world, as it desperately tried to justify its continued existence and desire for expansion.” Further, “The Russians had assumed NATO would dissolve at the end of the Cold War. Instead, not only has NATO expanded, it went to war over an internal dispute in a Slavic Eastern European country.” This was viewed as a great threat. Thus, “much of the tense relations between the United States and Russia over the past decade can be traced to the 1999 war on Yugoslavia.”[22] The War on Terror and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) When Bill Clinton became President, the neoconservative hawks from the George H.W. Bush administration formed a think tank called the Project for the New American Century, or PNAC. In 2000, they published a report called, Rebuilding America’s
Defenses: Strategy, Forces, and Resources for a New Century. Building upon the Defense Policy Guidance document, they state that, “the United States must retain sufficient forces able to rapidly deploy and win multiple simultaneous large-scale wars.”[23] Further, there is “need to retain sufficient combat forces to fight and win, multiple, nearly simultaneous major theatre wars,”[24] and that “the Pentagon needs to begin to calculate the force necessary to protect, independently, US interests in Europe, East Asia and the Gulf at all times.”[25] Interestingly, the document stated that, “the United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.”[26] However, in advocating for massive increases in defense spending and expanding the American empire across the globe, including the forceful destruction of multiple countries through major theatre wars, the report stated that, “Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor.”[27] That event came one year later with the events of 9/11. Many of the authors of the report and members of the Project for the New American Century had become officials in the Bush administration, and were conveniently in place to enact their “Project” after they got their “new Pearl Harbor.” The plans for war were “already under development by far right Think Tanks in the 1990s, organisations in which cold-war warriors from the inner circle of the secret services, from evangelical churches, from weapons corporations and oil companies forged shocking plans for a new world order.” To do this, “the USA would need to use all means - diplomatic, economic and military, even wars of aggression - to have long term control of the resources of the planet and the ability to keep any possible rival weak.” Among the people involved in PNAC and the plans for empire, “Dick Cheney - Vice President, Lewis Libby - Cheney's Chief of Staff, Donald Rumsfeld - Defence Minister, Paul Wolfowitz - Rumsfeld's deputy, Peter Rodman - in charge of 'Matters of Global Security', John Bolton - State Secretary for Arms Control, Richard Armitage - Deputy Foreign Minister, Richard Perle - former Deputy Defence Minister under Reagan, now head of the Defense Policy Board, William Kristol - head of the PNAC and adviser to Bush, known as the brains of the President, Zalmay Khalilzad,” who became Ambassador to both Afghanistan and Iraq following the regime changes in those countries.[28] Brzezinski’s “Grand Chessboard” Arch-hawk strategist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, cofounder of the Trilateral Commission with David Rockefeller, former National Security Adviser and key
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cotinued from previous page foreign policy architect in Jimmy Carter’s administration, also wrote a book on American geostrategy. Brzezinski is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bilderberg Group, and has also been a board member of Amnesty International, the Atlantic Council and the National Endowment for Democracy. Currently, he is a trustee and counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a major US policy think tank. In his 1997 book, The Grand Chessboard, Brzezinski outlined a strategy for America in the world. He wrote, “For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia. For half a millennium, world affairs were dominated by Eurasian powers and peoples who fought with one another for regional domination and reached out for global power.” Further, “how America ‘manages’ Eurasia is critical. Eurasia is the globe’s largest continent and is geopolitically axial. A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions. A mere glance at the map also suggests that control over Eurasia would almost automatically entail African subordination.”[29] He continued in outlining a strategy for American empire, stating that, “it is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America. The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geostrategy is therefore the purpose of this book.”[30] He explained that, “Two basic steps are thus required: first, to identify the geostrategically dynamic Eurasian states that have the power to cause a potentially important shift in the international distribution of power and to decipher the central external goals of their respective political elites and the likely consequences of their seeking to attain them: [and] second, to formulate specific U.S. policies to offset, co-opt, and/or control the above.”[31] What this means is that it is of primary importance to first identify states that could potentially be a pivot upon which the balance of power in the region exits the US sphere of influence; and secondly, to “offset, co-opt, and/or control” such states and circumstances. An example of this would be Iran; being one of the world’s largest oil producers, and in a strategically significant position in the axis of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Iran could hold the potential to alter the balance of power in Eurasia if it were to closely ally itself with Russia or China, or both – giving those nations a heavy supply of oil as well as a sphere of influence in the Gulf, thus challenging American hegemony in the region. Brzezinski removed all subtlety from his imperial leanings, and wrote, “To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.”[32] Brzezinski referred to the Central Asian republics as the “Eurasian Balkans,” writing that, “Moreover, they [the Central Asian Republics] are of importance from the standpoint of security and historical ambitions to at least three of their most immediate and more powerful neighbors, namely Russia, Turkey and Iran, with China also signaling an increasing political interest in the region. But the Eurasian Balkans are infinitely more important as a potential economic prize: an enormous concentration of natural gas and oil reserves is located in the region, in addition to important minerals, including gold.”[33] He further wrote that, “It follows that America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it.”[34] This is a clear example of America’s role as an engine of empire; with foreign imperial policy designed to maintain US strategic positions, but primarily and “infinitely more important,” is to secure an “economic prize” for “the global community.” In other words, the United States is an imperial hegemon working for international financial interests. Brzezinski also warned that, “the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America's status as a global power,”[35] and he, “puts a premium on maneuver and manipulation in order to prevent the emergence of a
hostile coalition that could eventually seek to challenge America's primacy.” Thus, “The most immediate task is to make certain that no state or combination of states gains the capacity to expel the United States from Eurasia or even to diminish significantly its decisive arbitration role.”[36] The War on Terror and Surplus Imperialism In 2000, the Pentagon released a document called Joint Vision 2020, which outlined a project to achieve what they termed, “Full Spectrum Dominance,” as the blueprint for the Department of Defense in the future. “Full-spectrum dominance means the ability of U.S. forces, operating alone or with allies, to defeat any adversary and control any situation across the range of military operations.” The report “addresses full-spectrum dominance across the range of conflicts from nuclear war to major theater wars to smaller-scale contingencies. It also addresses amorphous situations like peacekeeping and noncombat humanitarian relief.” Further, “The development of a global information grid will provide the environment for decision superiority.”[37] As political economist, Ellen Wood, explained, “Boundless domination of a global economy, and of the multiple states that administer it, requires military action without end, in purpose or time.”[38] Further, “Imperial dominance in a global capitalist economy requires a delicate and contradictory balance between suppressing competition and maintaining conditions in competing economies that generate markets and profit. This is one of the most fundamental contradictions of the new world order.”[39] Following 9/11, the “Bush doctrine” was put in place, which called for “a unilateral and exclusive right to preemptive attack, any time, anywhere, unfettered by any international agreements, to ensure that ‘[o]ur forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military buildup in hope of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States’.”[40] NATO undertook its first ground invasion of any nation in its entire history, with the October 2001 invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. The Afghan war was in fact, planned prior to the events of 9/11, with the breakdown of major pipeline deals between major western oil companies and the Taliban. The war itself was planned over the summer of 2001 with the operational plan to go to war by mid-October.[41] Afghanistan is extremely significant in geopolitical terms, as, “Transporting all the Caspian basin's fossil fuel through Russia or Azerbaijan would greatly enhance Russia's political and economic control over the central Asian republics, which is precisely what the west has spent 10 years trying to prevent. Piping it through Iran would enrich a regime which the US has been seeking to isolate. Sending it the long way round through China, quite aside from the strategic considerations, would be prohibitively expensive. But pipelines through Afghanistan would allow the US both to pursue its aim of ‘diversifying energy supply’ and to penetrate the world's most lucrative markets.”[42] As the San Francisco Chronicle pointed out a mere two weeks following the 9/11 attacks, “Beyond American determination to hit back against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks, beyond the likelihood of longer, drawn-out battles producing more civilian casualties in the months and years ahead, the hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can
be summed up in a single word: oil.” Explaining further, “The map of terrorist sanctuaries and targets in the Middle East and Central Asia is also, to an extraordinary degree, a map of the world's principal energy sources in the 21st century. The defense of these energy resources -- rather than a simple confrontation between Islam and the West -- will be the primary flash point of global conflict for decades to come.” Among the many notable states where there is a crossover between terrorism and oil and gas reserves of vital importance to the United States and the West, are Saudi Arabia, Libya, Bahrain, the Gulf Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan and Algeria, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Georgia and eastern Turkey. Importantly, “this region accounts for more than 65 percent of the world's oil and natural gas production.” Further, “It is inevitable that the war against terrorism will be seen by many as a war on behalf of America's Chevron, ExxonMobil and Arco; France's TotalFinaElf; British Petroleum; Royal Dutch Shell and other multinational giants, which have hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in the region.”[43] It’s no secret that the Iraq war had much to do with oil. In the summer of 2001, Dick Cheney convened an Energy Task Force, which was a highly secret set of meetings in which energy policy was determined for the United States. In the meetings and in various other means of communication, Cheney and his aides met with top officials and executives of Shell Oil, British Petroleum (BP), Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Conoco, and Chevron.[44] At the meeting, which took place before 9/11 and before there was any mention of a war on Iraq, documents of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals were presented and discussed, and “Saudi Arabian and United Arab Emirates (UAE) documents likewise feature a map of each country’s oilfields, pipelines, refineries and tanker terminals.”[45] Both Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum have since received major oil contracts to develop Iraqi oilfields.[46] The war on Iraq, as well as the war on Afghanistan, also largely serve specifically American, and more broadly, Western imperial-strategic interests in the region. In particular, the wars were strategically designed to eliminate, threaten or contain regional powers, as well as to directly install several dozen military bases in the region, firmly establishing an imperial presence. The purpose of this is largely aimed at other major regional players and specifically, encircling Russia and China and threatening their access to the regions oil and gas reserves. Iran is now surrounded, with Iraq on one side, and Afghanistan on the other. Concluding Remarks Part 1 of this essay outlined the US-NATO imperial strategy for entering the New World Order, following the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The primary aim was focused on encircling Russia and China and preventing the rise of a new superpower. The US was to act as the imperial hegemon, serving international financial interests in imposing the New World Order. The next part to this essay examines the “colour revolutions” throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia, continuing the US and NATO policy of containing Russia and China; while controlling access to major natural gas reserves and transportation routes. The “colour revolutions” have been a pivotal force in geopolitical imperial strategy, and analyzing
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Seven lesson school teacher by John Taylor Gatto
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all me Mr. Gatto, please. Twenty-six years ago, having nothing better to do at the time, I tried my hand at schoolteaching. The license I hold certifies that I am an instructor of English language and English literature, but that isn't what I do at all. I don't teach English, I teach school -- and I win awards doing it. Teaching means different things in different places, but seven lessons are universally taught from Harlem to Hollywood Hills. They constitute a national curriculum you pay for in more ways than you can imagine, so you might as well know what it is. You are at liberty, of course, to regard these lessons any way you like, but believe me when I say I intend no irony in this presentation. These are the things I teach, these are the things you pay me to teach. Make of them what you will. 1. CONFUSION A lady named Kathy wrote this to me from Dubois, Indiana the other day, "What big ideas are important to little kids? Well, the biggest idea I think they need is that what they are learning isn't idiosyncratic -- that there is some system to it all and it's not just raining down on them as they helplessly absorb. That's the task, to understand, to make coherent." Kathy has it wrong. The first lesson I teach is confusion. Everything I teach is out of context. I teach the un-relating of everything. I teach disconnections. I teach too much: the orbiting of planets, the law of large numbers, slavery, adjectives, architectural drawing, dance, gymnasium, choral singing, assemblies, surprise guests, fire drills, computer languages, parents' nights, staff-development days, pull-out programs, guidance with strangers my students may never see again, standardized tests, age-segregation unlike anything seen in the outside world....What do any of these things have to do with each other? Even in the best schools a close examination of curriculum and its sequences turns up a lack of coherence, full of internal contradictions. Fortunately the children have no words to define the panic and anger they feel at constant violations of natural order and sequence fobbed off on them as quality in education. The logic of the school-mind is that it is better to leave school with a tool kit of superficial jargon derived from economics, sociology, natural science and so on than to leave with one genuine enthusiasm. But quality in education entails learning about something in depth. Confusion is thrust upon kids by too many strange adults, each working alone with only the thinnest relationship with each other, pretending for the most part, to an expertise they do not possess. Meaning, not disconnected facts, is what sane human beings seek, and education is a set of codes for processing raw facts into meaning. Behind the patchwork quilt of school sequences and the school obsession with facts and theories, the age-old human search lies well concealed. This is harder to see in elementary school where the hierarchy of school experience seems to make better sense because the good-natured simple relationship of "let's do this" and "let's do that" is just assumed to mean something and the clientele has not yet consciously discerned how little substance is behind the play and pretense. Think of the great natural sequences like learning to walk and learning to talk; following the progression of light from sunrise to sunset; witnessing the ancient procedures of a farmer, a smithy, or a shoemaker; watching your mother prepare a Thanksgiving feast -- all of the parts are in perfect harmony with each other, each action justifies itself and illuminates the past and the future. School sequences aren't like that, not inside a single class and not among the total menu of daily classes. School sequences are crazy. There is no particular reason for any of them, nothing that bears close scrutiny. Few teachers would dare to teach the tools whereby dogmas of a school or a teacher could be criticized since everything must be accepted. School subjects are learned, if they can be learned, like children learn the catechism or memorize the Thirty-nine Articles of Anglicanism. I teach the un-relating of everything, an infinite fragmentation the opposite of cohesion; what I do is more related to
www.JohnTaylorGatto.com television programming than to making a scheme of order. In a world where home is only a ghost, because both parents work, or because too many moves or too many job changes or too much ambition, or because something else has left everybody too confused to maintain a family relation, I teach you how to accept confusion as your destiny. That's the first lesson I teach. 2. CLASS POSITION The second lesson I teach is class position. I teach that students must stay in the class where they belong. I don't know who decides my kids belong there but that's not my business. The children are numbered so that if any get away they can be returned to the right class. Over the years the variety of ways children are numbered by schools has increased dramatically, until it is hard to see the human beings plainly under the weight of numbers they carry. Numbering children is a big and very profitable undertaking, though what the strategy is designed to accomplish is elusive. I don't even know why parents would, without a fight, allow it to be done to their kids. In any case, again, that's not my business. My job is to make them like it, being locked in together with children who bear numbers like their own. Or at the least to endure it like good sports. If I do my job well, the kids can't even imagine themselves somewhere else, because I've shown them how to envy and fear the better classes and how to have contempt for the dumb classes. Under this efficient discipline the class mostly polices itself into good marching order. That's the real lesson of any rigged competition like school. You come to know your place. In spite of the overall class blueprint, which assumes that ninety-nine percent of the kids are in their class to stay, I nevertheless make a public effort to exhort children to higher levels of test success, hinting at eventual transfer from the lower class as a reward. I frequently insinuate that the day will come when an employer will hire them on the basis of test scores and grades, even though my own experience is that employers are rightly indifferent to such things. I never lie outright, but I've come to see that truth and schoolteaching are, at bottom, incompatible just as Socrates said they were thousands of years ago. The lesson of numbered classes is that everyone has a proper place in the pyramid and that there is no way out of your class except by number magic. Failing that, you must stay where you are put. 3. INDIFFERENCE The third lesson I teach kids is indifference. I teach children not to care about anything too much, even though they want to make it appear that they do. How I do this is very subtle. I do it by demanding that they become totally involved in my lessons, jumping up and down in their seats with anticipation, competing vigorously with each other for my favor. It's heartwarming when they do that; it impresses everyone, even me. When I'm at my best I plan lessons very carefully in order to produce this show of enthusiasm. But when the bell rings I insist that they stop whatever it is that we've been working on and proceed quickly to the next work station. They must turn on and off like a light switch. Nothing important is ever finished in my class, nor in any other class I know of. Students never have a complete experience except on the installment plan. Indeed, the lesson of the bells is that no work is worth finishing, so why care too deeply about anything? Years of bells will condition all but the strongest to a world that can no longer offer important work to do. Bells are the secret logic of schooltime; their logic is inexorable. Bells destroy the past and future, converting every interval into a sameness, as the abstraction of a map renders every living mountain and river the same, even though they are not. Bells inoculate each undertaking with indifference. 4. EMOTIONAL DEPENDENCY The fourth lesson I teach is emotional dependency. By stars and red checks, smiles and frowns, prizes, honors and disgraces I teach kids to surrender their will to the predestined chain of command. Rights may be granted or withheld by any authority without appeal, because rights do not exist inside a school -- not even the right of free speech, as the Supreme Court has ruled -- unless school authorities say they do. As a schoolteacher, I intervene in many personal decisions, issuing a pass for those I deem legitimate, or initiating a disciplinary confrontation for behavior that threatens my control. Individuality is constantly trying to assert itself among children and teenagers, so my judgments come thick and fast. Individuality is a contradiction of class theory, a curse to all systems of classification. Here are some common ways it shows up: children sneak away for a private moment in the toilet on the pretext of moving their bowels, or they steal a private instant in the hallway on the grounds they need water. I know they don't, but I allow them to deceive me because this conditions
them to depend on my favors. Sometimes free will appears right in front of me in children angry, depressed or happy about things outside my ken; rights in such matters cannot be recognized by schoolteachers, only privileges that can be withdrawn, hostages to good behavior. 5. INTELLECTUAL DEPENDENCY The fifth lesson I teach is intellectual dependency. Good people wait for a teacher to tell them what to do. It is the most important lesson, that we must wait for other people, better trained than ourselves, to make the meanings of our lives. The expert makes all the important choices; only I, the teacher, can determine what you must study, or rather, only the people who pay me can make those decisions which I then enforce. If I'm told that evolution is a fact instead of a theory, I transmit that as ordered, punishing deviants who resist what I have been told to tell them to think. This power to control what children will think lets me separate successful students from failures very easily. Successful children do the thinking I appoint them with a minimum of resistance and a decent show of enthusiasm. Of the millions of things of value to study, I decide what few we have time for, or actually it is decided by my faceless employers. The choices are theirs, why should I argue? Curiosity has no important place in my work, only conformity. Bad kids fight this, of course, even though they lack the concepts to know what they are fighting, struggling to make decisions for themselves about what they will learn and when they will learn it. How can we allow that and survive as schoolteachers? Fortunately there are procedures to break the will of those who resist; it is more difficult, naturally, if the kid has respectable parents who come to his aid, but that happens less and less in spite of the bad reputation of schools. No middle-class parents I have ever met actually believe that their kid's school is one of the bad ones. Not one single parent in twenty-six years of teaching. That's amazing and probably the best testimony to what happens to families when mother and father have been well-schooled themselves, learning the seven lessons. Good people wait for an expert to tell them what to do. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that our entire economy depends upon this lesson being learned. Think of what would fall apart if kids weren't trained to be dependent: the socialservice businesses could hardly survive; they would vanish, I think, into the recent historical limbo out of which they arose. Counselors and therapists would look on in horror as the supply of psychic invalids vanished. Commercial entertainment of all sorts, including television, would wither as people learned again how to make their own fun. Restaurants, prepared-food and a whole host of other assorted food services would be drastically down-sized if people returned to making their own meals rather than depending on strangers to plant, pick, chop, and cook for them. Much of modern law, medicine, and engineering would go too, the clothing business and schoolteaching as well, unless a guaranteed supply of helpless people continued to pour out of our schools each year. Don't be too quick to vote for radical school reform if you want to continue getting a paycheck. We've built a way of life that depends on people doing what they are told because they don't know how to tell themselves what to do. It's one of the biggest lessons I teach. 6. PROVISIONAL SELF-ESTEEM The sixth lesson I teach is provisional self-esteem. If you've ever tried to wrestle a kid into line whose parents have convinced him to believe they'll love him in spite of anything, you know how impossible it is to make self-confident spirits conform. Our world wouldn't survive a flood of confident people very long, so I teach that your self-respect should depend on expert opinion. My kids are constantly evaluated and judged. A monthly report, impressive in its provision, is sent into students' homes to signal approval or to mark exactly, down to a single percentage point, how dissatisfied with their children parents should be. The ecology of "good" schooling depends upon perpetuating dissatisfaction just as much as the commercial economy depends on the same fertilizer. Although some people might be surprised how little time or reflection goes into making up these mathematical records, the cumulative weight of the objective-seeming documents establishes a profile that compels children to arrive at certain decisions about themselves and their futures based on the casual judgment of strangers. Self-evaluation, the staple of every major philosophical system that ever appeared on the planet, is never considered a factor. The lesson of report cards, grades, and tests is that children should not trust themselves or their parents but should instead rely on the evaluation of certified officials. People need to be told what they are worth. 7. ONE CAN'T HIDE The seventh lesson I teach is that one can't hide. I teach children they are always watched, that each is under constant
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA surveillance by myself and my colleagues. There are no private spaces for children, there is no private time. Class change lasts three hundred seconds to keep promiscuous fraternization at low levels. Students are encouraged to tattle on each other or even to tattle on their own parents. Of course, I encourage parents to file their own child's waywardness too. A family trained to snitch on itself isn't likely to conceal any dangerous secrets. I assign a type of extended schooling called "homework," so that the effect of surveillance, if not that surveillance itself, travels into private households, where students might otherwise use free time to learn something unauthorized from a father or mother, by exploration, or by apprenticing to some wise person in the neighborhood. Disloyalty to the idea of schooling is a Devil always ready to find work for idle hands. The meaning of constant surveillance and denial of privacy is that no one can be trusted, that privacy is not legitimate. Surveillance is an ancient imperative, espoused by certain influential thinkers, a central prescription set down in The Republic, in The City of God, in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, in New Atlantis, in Leviathan, and in a host of other places. All these childless men who wrote these books discovered the same thing: children must be closely watched if you want to keep a society under tight central control. Children will follow a private drummer if you can't get them into a uniformed marching band. II It is the great triumph of compulsory government monopoly mass-schooling that among even the best of my fellow teachers, and among the best of my students' parents, only a small number can imagine a different way to do things. "The kids have to know how to read and write, don't they?" "They have to know how to add and subtract, don't they?" "They have to learn to follow orders if they ever expect to keep a job." Only a few lifetimes ago things were very different in the United States. Originality and variety were common currency; our freedom from regimentation made us the miracle of the world; social-class boundaries were relatively easy to cross; our citizenry was marvelously confident, inventive, and able to do much for themselves independently, and to think for themselves. We were something special, we Americans, all by ourselves, without government sticking its nose into our lives, without institutions and social agencies telling us how to think and feel. We were something special, as individuals, as Americans. But we've had a society essentially under central control in the United States since just before the Civil War, and such a society requires compulsory schooling, government monopoly schooling, to maintain itself. Before this development schooling wasn't very important anywhere. We had it, but not too much of it, and only as much as an individual wanted. People learned to read, write, and do arithmetic just fine anyway; there are some studies that suggest literacy at the time of the American Revolution, at least for non-slaves on the Eastern seaboard, was close to total. Thomas Paine's Common Sense sold 600,000 copies to a population of 3,000,000, twenty percent of whom were slaves, and fifty percent indentured servants. Were the colonists geniuses? No, the truth is that reading, writing, and arithmetic only take about one hundred hours to transmit as long as the audience is eager and willing to learn. The trick is to wait until someone asks and then move fast while the mood is on. Millions of people teach themselves these things, it really isn't very hard. Pick up a fifth-grade math or rhetoric textbook from 1850 and you'll see that the texts were pitched then on what would today be considered college level. The continuing cry for "basic skills" practice is a smoke screen behind which schools preempt the time of children for twelve years and teach them the seven lessons I've just described to you. The society that has become increasingly under central control since just before the Civil War shows itself in the lives we lead, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the green highway signs we drive by from coast to coast, all of which are the products of this control. So, too, I think, are the epidemics of drugs, suicide, divorce, violence, cruelty, and the hardening of class into caste in the United States products of the dehumanization of our lives, the lessening of individual, family, and community importance, a diminishment that proceeds from central control. The character of large compulsory institutions is inevitable; they want more and more until there isn't any more to give. School takes our children away from any possibility of an active role in community life -- in fact it destroys communities by relegating the training of children to the hands of certified experts -- and by doing so it ensures our children cannot grow up fully human. Aristotle taught that without a fully active role in community life one could not hope to become a healthy human being. Surely he was right. Look around you the next time you are near a school or an old people's reservation if you wish a demonstration. School as it was built is an essential support system for a vision of social engineering that condemns most people to be subordinate stones in a pyramid that narrows as it ascends to a terminal of control. School is an artifice which makes such a pyramidical social order seem inevitable, although such a premise is a fundamental betrayal of the American Revolution. From colonial days through the period of the Republic
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WorLd we had no schools to speak of -- read Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography for an example of a man who had no time to waste in school -- and yet the promise of Democracy was beginning to be realized. We turned our backs on this promise by bringing to life the ancient pharaonic dream of Egypt: compulsory subordination for all. That was the secret Plato reluctantly transmitted in The Republic when Glaucon and Adeimantus exhorted from Socrates the plan for total state control of human life, a plan necessary to maintain a society where some people take more than their share. "I will show you," says Socrates, "how to bring about such a feverish city, but you will not like what I am going to say." And so the blueprint of the seven-lesson school was first sketched. The current debate about whether we should have a national curriculum is phony. We already have a national curriculum locked up in the seven lessons I have just outlined. Such a curriculum produces physical, moral, and intellectual paralysis, and no curriculum of content will be sufficient to reverse its hideous effects. What is currently under discussion in our national school hysteria about failing academic performance misses the point. Schools teach exactly what they are intended to teach and they do it well: how to be a good Egyptian and remain in your place in the pyramid. III None of this is inevitable. None of it is impossible to overthrow. We do have choices in how we bring up young people; there is no one right way. If we broke through the power of the pyramidical illusion we would see that. There is no life-and-death international competition threatening our national existence, difficult as that idea is even to think about, let alone believe, in the face of a continual media barrage of myth to the contrary. In every important material respect our nation is self-sufficient, including in energy. I realize that idea runs counter to the most fashionable thinking of political economists, but the "profound transformation" of our economy these people talk about is neither inevitable nor irreversible. Global economics does not speak to the public need for meaningful work, affordable housing, fulfilling education, adequate medical care, a clean environment, honest and accountable government, social and cultural renewal, or simple justice. All global ambitions are based on a definition of productivity and the good life so alienated from common human reality I am convinced it is wrong and that most people would agree with me if they could perceive an alternative. We might be able to see that if we regained a hold on a philosophy that locates meaning where meaning is genuinely to be found -- in families, in friends, in the passage of seasons, in nature, in simple ceremonies and rituals, in curiosity, generosity, compassion, and service to others, in a decent independence and privacy, in all the free and inexpensive things out of which real families, real friends and real communities are built -- then we would be so self-sufficient we would not even need the material "sufficiency" which our global "experts" are so insistent we be concerned about. How did these awful places, these "schools", come about? Well, casual schooling has always been with us in a variety of forms, a mildly useful adjunct to growing up. But "modern schooling" as we know it is a by-product of the two "Red Scares" of 1848 and 1919, when powerful interests feared a revolution among our own industrial poor. Partly, too, total schooling came about because old-line American families were appauled by the native cultures of Celtic, Slavic, and Latin immigrants of the 1840s and felt repugnance towards the Catholic religion they brought with them. Certainly a third contributing factor in creating a jail for children called school must have been the consternation with which these same "Americans" regarded the movement of African-Americans through the society in the wake of the Civil War. Look again at the seven lessons of schoolteaching: confusion, class position, indifference, emotional and intellectual dependency, conditional self-esteem, surveillance - all of these things are prime training for permanent underclasses, people deprived forever of finding the center of their own special genius. And over time this training has shaken loose from its own original logic: to regulate the poor. For since the 1920s the growth of the school bureaucracy, and the less visible growth of a horde of industries that profit from schooling exactly as it is, has enlarged this institution's original grasp to the point that it now seizes the sons and daughters of the middle classes as well. Is it any wonder Socrates was outraged at the accusation that he took money to teach? Even then, philosophers saw clearly the inevitable direction the professionalization of teaching would take, preempting the teaching function, which belongs to everyone in a healthy community. With lessons like the ones I teach day after day it should be little wonder we have a real national crisis, the nature of which is very different from that proclaimed by the national media. Young people are indifferent to the adult world and to the future, indifferent to almost everything except the diversion of toys and violence. Rich or poor, schoolchildren who face the twenty-first century cannot concentrate on anything for very long; they have a poor sense of time past and time to come. They are mistrustful
of intimacy like the children of divorce they really are (for we have divorced them from significant parental attention); they hate solitude, are cruel, materialistic, dependent, passive, violent, timid in the face of the unexpected, addicted to distraction. All the peripheral tendencies of childhood are nourished and magnified to a grotesque extent by schooling, which, through its hidden curriculum, prevents effective personality development. Indeed, without exploiting the fearfulness, selfishness, and inexperience of children, our schools could not survive at all, nor could I as a certified schoolteacher. No common school that actually dared to teach the use of critical thinking tools -- like the dialectic, the heuristic, or other devices that free minds should employ -- would last very long before being torn to pieces. School has become the replacement for church in our secular society, and like church it requires that its teachings must be taken on faith. It is time that we squarely face the fact that institutional schoolteaching is destructive to children. Nobody survives the seven-lesson curriculum completely unscathed, not even the instructors. The method is deeply and profoundly anti-educational. No tinkering will fix it. In one of the great ironies of human affairs, the massive rethinking the schools require would cost so much less than we are spending now that powerful interests cannot afford to let it happen. You must understand that first and foremost the business I am in is a jobs project and an agency for letting contracts. We cannot afford to save money by reducing the scope of our operation or by diversifying the product we offer, even to help children grow up right. That is the iron law of institutional schooling -- it is a business, subject neither to normal accounting procedures nor to the rational scalpel of competition. Some form of free-market system in public schooling is the likeliest place to look for answers, a free market where family schools and small entrepreneurial schools and religious schools and crafts schools and farm schools exist in profusion to compete with government education. I'm trying to describe a free market in schooling just exactly like the one the country had until the Civil War, one in which students volunteer for the kind of education that suits them, even if that means self-education; it didn't hurt Benjamin Franklin that I can see. These options exist now in miniature, wonderful survivals of a strong and vigorous past, but they are available only to the resourceful, the courageous, the lucky, or the rich. The near impossibility of one of these better roads opening for the shattered families of the poor or for the bewildered host camped on the fringes of the urban middle class suggests that the disaster of seven-lesson schools is going to grow unless we do something bold and decisive with the mess of government monopoly schooling. After an adult lifetime spent teaching school, I believe the method of mass-schooling is its only real content. Don't be fooled into thinking that good curriculum or good equipment or good teachers are the critical determinants of your son's or daughter's education. All the pathologies we've considered come about in large measure because the lessons of school prevent children from keeping important appointments with themselves and with their families to learn lessons in self-motivation, perseverance, self-reliance, courage, dignity, and love -- and lessons in service to others, too, which are among the key lessons of home and community life. Thirty years ago [in the early 60s] these things could still be learned in the time left after school. But television has eaten up most of that time, and a combination of television and the stresses peculiar to two-income or single-parent families have swallowed up most of what used to be family time as well. Our kids have no time left to grow up fully human and only thin-soil wastelands to do it in. A future is rushing down upon our culture which will insist all of us learn the wisdom of non-material experience; a future which will demand as the price of survival that we follow a path of natural life economical in material cost. These lessons cannot be learned in schools as they are. School is a twelve-year jail sentence where bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.
John Taylor Gatto won Teacher of the Year awards for New York City and New York State in the early 1990s. He is the author of: -Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling, -The Underground History of American Education: A School Teacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling -Weapons of Mass Instruction.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
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Copenhagen 2009, the politics of Climate Change. 1991 U.N. policy paper describes exact purpose and trajectory of current Copenhagen Treaty. Jurriaan Maessen December 10, 2009
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1991 policy paper prepared for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) by self-described ‘ecosocioeconomist’ professor Ignacy Sachs outlines a strategy for the transfer of wealth in name of the environment to be implemented in the course of 35 to 40 years. As it turns out, it is a visionary paper describing phase by phase the road to world dictatorship. As the professor states in the paper: “To be meaningful, the strategies should cover the time-span of several decades. Thirty-five to forty years seems a good compromise between the need to give enough time to the postulated transformations and the uncertainties brought about by the lengthening of the time-span.” In his paper “ The Next 40 Years: Transition Strategies to the Virtuous Green Path: North/South/East/ Global”, Sachs accurately describes not only the intended time-span to bring about a global society, but also what steps should be taken to ensure “population stabilization”: “In order to stabilize the populations of the South by means other than wars or epidemics, mere campaigning for birth control and distributing of contraceptives has proved fairly inefficient.” In the first part of the (in retrospect) bizarrely accurate description of the years to come, Sachs points out redistribution of wealth is the only viable path towards population stabilization and- as he calls it- a “virtuous green world”. The professor: “The way out from the double bind of poverty and environmental disruption calls for a fairly long period of more economic growth to sustain the transition strategies towards the virtuous green path of what has been called in Stockholm ecodevelopement and has since changed its name in Anglo-Saxon countries to sustainable development.” “(…) a fair degree of agreement seems to exist, therefore, about the ideal development path to be followed so long as we do not manage to stabilize the world population and, at the same time, sharply reduce the inequalities prevailing today.” “The bolder the steps taken in the near future”, Sachs asserts, “the shorter will be the time span that separates us from a steady state. Radical solutions must address to the roots of the problem and not to its symptoms. Theoretically, the transition could be made shorter by measures of redistribution of assets and income.” Sachs points to the political difficulties of such proposals being implemented (because free humanity tends to distrust any national government let alone transnational government to redistribute its wellearned wealth). He therefore proposes these measures to be implemented gradually, following a meticulously planned strategy: “The pragmatic prospect is one of transition extending itself over several decades.” In the second sub-chapter “The Five Dimensions of Ecodevelopment”, professor Sachs sums up the main dimensions of this carefully outlined move to make Agenda 21 a very real future prospect. The first dimension he touches upon is “Social Sustainability”: “The aim is to build a civilization of being within greater equity in asset and income distribution, so as to improve substantially the entitlements of the broad masses of population and of reduce the gap in standards of living between the have and the have nots.”
This of course means, reducing the standards of living in “The North” (U.S., Europe) and upgrading those of the developing nations (“The South and The East”). This would have to be realized through what Sachs calls “Economic Sustainability”: “made possible by a more efficient allocation and management of resources and a steady flow of public and private investment.” The third dimension described by the professor is “Ecological Sustainability” which, among other things, limits “the consumption of fossil fuels and other easily depleted or environmentally harmful products, substituting them by renewable and/or plentiful and environmentally friendly resources, reducing the volume of pollutants by means of energy and resource conservation and recycling and, last but not least, promoting self-constraint in material consumption on part of the rich countries and of the privileged social strata all over the world; ”In order to make this happen Sachs stresses the need of “defining the rules for adequate environmental protection, designing the institutional machinery and choosing the mix of economic, legal and administrative instruments necessary for the implementation of environmental policies.” Dimension 4: “Spatial Sustainability”: “directed at achieving a more balanced rural-urban configuration and a better territorial distribution of human settlements and economic activities (…)”. The fifth and last dimension described in the UN policy paper is “Cultural Sustainability”: “looking for the endogenous roots of the modernization processes, seeking change within cultural continuity, translating the normative concept of ecodevelopment into a plurality of local, ecosystem-specific, culture-specific and site-specific solutions.” But to realize such a dramatic new direction for the world, Sachs once again stresses the importance of incremental implementation. A matter of boiling the frog slowly as opposed to throwing the poor animal into a boiling-hot cooking pan: “Even if we know where we want to get, the operational question is how do we proceed to put humankind on the virtuous path of genuine development, socially responsible and in harmony with nature. It is submitted that UNCED 92 should give considerable attention to the formulation of transition strategies that could become the central piece of the Agenda 21.” This is the word- Agenda 21: the UN strategy for redistributing the wealth accumulated by the “North” in order to create a completely “balanced” world society- under auspices of the United Nations of course and the private central banks controlling it. This can only come about by destroying the middle-class. A sudden redistribution and industrialization would not do- for the middle-class would undoubtedly rise in defiance against it. Therefore, Sachs argues for an incremental and carefully planned dissolution of the middle-class phase by phase: “To be meaningful, the strategies should cover the time-span of several decades. Thirty-five to forty years seems a good compromise between the need to give enough time to the postulated transformations and the uncertainties brought about by the lengthening of the time-span. The retooling of industries, even in periods of rapid growth, requires ten to twenty years. The restructuration and the expansion of the infrastructures requires several decades and this is a crucially important sector from the point of view of environment.”
Then Sachs plunges into his most shocking statement: “However, the single most important reason to consider the transition strategies over a minimum of thirty-five to forty years stems from the non-linearity of these strategies; they should be devised as a succession of changing priorities over time. A good illustration is provided by the population transition. In order to stabilize the populations of the South by means other than wars or epidemics, mere campaigning for birth control and distributing of contraceptives has proved fairly inefficient.” Sachs argues that “an accelerated programme of social and economic development of the rural areas should be the utmost priority in the first phase of a realistic population stabilization scheme.” Who or what is to coordinate all this, according to Sachs, and how exactly is the UN to take control? “The solutions”, says Sachs, “can vary in terms of their boldness and take the form of global, multilateral or bilateral arrangements.” These arrangements should as far as Sachs is concerned ensure “at least partially the automacity of financial transfers by some form of fiscal mechanisms, be it a small income tax or an array of indirect taxes on goods and services whose production and consumption has significant environmental impacts.” Over time, gradually, these taxes should increase: “Starting the operation with a one per ten thousand tax and increasing it so as to reach one per thousand in ten to twenty years seems a fairly realistic proposal, the more so that the scheme creates an interesting market for the private enterprises involved in R and D.” Reading all this, the question as to what entity should take charge is not difficult to answer. Sachs: “In order to generate maximum synergies between the national strategies and global action, the United Nations should create a forum for the periodical discussion and evaluation of these strategies and a research, monitoring and flexible planning facility to put them in a global perspective.(…). The forum should have a fair representation of all the main actors involved: governments, parliaments, citizen movements and the business world. Given its importance, it should be lifted from specialized agencies to a central place in the UN system.” The “fair representation” Sachs is talking about is of course only a pretext to get everybody on board. As the recently surfaced “Danish Text” clearly illustrates, the IMF and World Bank will always have final say in the construction of any international system.
IMF Headquarters Washington, D.C.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
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Organized crime in charge of E.U. carbon trade, Europol says. EUXTV December 10, 2009
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irst, there was ClimateGate – the scandal with hacked emails suggesting scientists have abused data for research on global warming. Now, another international climate scandal is emerging that may have an impact on the talks in Copenhagen. Europes top police body Europol, the closest thing that European Union has to the American Fbi, has exposed a massive fraud with the unions official market in carbon credits, the Emission Trading System. The fraud is costing tax payers in a handful of European countries more than five billion euro – 7 billion dollars – and raises doubts about the effectiveness of carbon trading as a measure to curb emissions. Europol director Rob Wainwright issued the following statement: These criminal activities endanger the credibility of the European Union Emission Trading System and lead to the loss of significant tax revenue for governments.
Police authorities in Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom have worked together in what Europol calls a process to identify and disrupt the organised criminal structures behind these fraud schemes. The fraud is based on a what is tax experts and investigators call as a Carroussel fraud with missing traders. This carroussel generates money by stealing value added tax from governments. The first step of the criminals is to open a trading account with a national carbon registry, in the name of a newly registered company. From there, this company buys EU emission allowances in another country on one of the six official carbon exchanges in Europe. After that, these emission allowances are moved to another country, and subsequently sold to an unregulated broker in yet another country. This broker then charges VAT on these transactions but does not pay the collected VAT to the tax authorities. Just before the tax authorities realize that this company owes them huge amounts of VAT, basically a period of a few months, the
company and its owners disappear. A new company is set up, using other front men, to repeat the carroussel. Crime rings that run such schemes can have several dozen or hundreds of companies whose real owners are difficult to trace. Basically, this type of fraud is possible because European countries continue to disagree on single market tax legislation. Carroussel fraud is a constant feature in the European cross-border market and until recently only happened with shipments of valuable goods such as iPods or flat-panel tvs, not with carbon credits. Europes tax commissioner, in an interview with EUX.TV, has estimated the damage from these carroussel frauds at more than 60 billion euro per year as Euroean finance minister continue to disagree on effective measures to fight this fraud. The Emission Trading System system was set up in 2005 as part of Europes efforts to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. That topic now is at the top of the agenda at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen this week and next. This unprecedented and massive fraud is likely to prove a major embarrasment for EU negotiators.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak
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eveloping countries react furiously to leaked draft agreement that would hand more power to rich nations, sideline the UN's negotiating role and abandon the Kyoto protocol The London Guardian recently reported on the disarray of the UN Copenhagen climate talks after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN's role in all future climate change negotiations. The Guardian reports that the document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals. The so called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as "the circle of commitment" – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has purportedly only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalized this week.
As The Guardian reports: "The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions." One senior diplomat described the document as, "a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks", reports The Guardian. After a confidential analysis by developing countries and The Guardian the details of the text describe the mandate to: • Force developing countries to agree to specific emission cuts and measures that were not part of the original UN agreement; • Divide poor countries further by creating a new category of developing countries called "the most vulnerable"; • Weaken the UN's role in handling climate finance; • Not allow poor countries to emit more than 1.44
tonnes of carbon per person by 2050, while allowing rich countries to emit 2.67 tonnes. Developing countries that have seen the text are understood to be furious that it is being promoted by rich countries without their knowledge and without discussion in the negotiations. "It is being done in secret. Clearly the intention is to get [Barack] Obama and the leaders of other rich countries to muscle it through when they arrive next week. It effectively is the end of the UN process," said one diplomat, who requested to go unnamed. Antonio Hill, climate policy adviser for Oxfam International, said: "It proposes a green fund to be run by a board but the big risk is that it will run by the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility [a partnership of 10 agencies including the World Bank and the UN Environment Programme] and not the UN. That would be a step backwards, and it tries to put constraints on developing countries when none were negotiated in earlier UN climate talks." "The text was intended by Denmark and rich countries to be a working framework, which would be adapted by countries over the next week."
Copenhagen Accord establishes Global Government framework. Paul Joseph Watson Saturday, December 19, 2009
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lthough the final Copenhagen agreement is largely being dismissed as a failure by both the mainstream media and climate skeptics, it does establish the framework for a global government which will control climate finances via taxes on CO2 emissions, as Lord Monckton warned on The Alex Jones Show this week. Monckton said that the main goal of Copenhagen was to “establish the mechanism, the structure, and above all the funding for a world government.” “They are going to take from the western countries the very large financial resources required to do that.” Monckton said, adding “They will disguise it by saying they are setting up a $100 billion fund for adaptation to climate change in third world countries, but actually, this money will almost all be gobbled up by the international bureaucracy.” The final text of the accord states that funds obtained from climate financing will be controlled by a “governance structure,” and that a “High Level Panel” will be appointed to decide where the money will come from. In effect, this means that a UN-controlled structure of global governance will override the sovereignty of nation states in collecting and doling out funds obtained under the justification of climate change. As Monckton explained, these funds will come from a global tax on financial transactions and a tax
on GDP. Earlier draft versions of the agreement spelled this out in detail, but the final version leaves it more vague, merely stating the funds will be collected “from a wide variety of sources, public and private, lateral and multilateral.” As information that was leaked in the first few days of the conference revealed, the money will not even go to the UN, but it will go straight to the IMF and World Bank who will then lend it at loan shark rates to poorer countries, thus further indebting them to the global government and advancing climate colonialism. The agreement also gives the green light for carbon trading markets, which as we have documented are all owned by climate kingpins like Maurice Strong and Al Gore, to be more heavily financed and expanded. Many elements of the final text have been watered down and the agreement has little teeth in terms of enforcing national limits on CO2 emissions, which is why many in the skeptic camp are celebrating the apparent failure of the conference. The Club For Growth organization said that Obama’s failure to get developing nations to agree to more draconian measures has “probably saved thirty million jobs” in America. “I am greatly relieved that the last-minute
agreement President Obama negotiated is being widely described as ‘meaningful.’ When politicians call something ‘meaningful,’ that means it isn’t,” states their press release. However, Copenhagen delegates have already promised to convene another series of meetings next year to strengthen what is spelled out in the final agreement. Globalists are persistent and they will continue hammering away until they get what they want, not because the environment is on the verge of collapse, but because their agenda for world government is stalling as more people find out the true agenda behind the global warming scam. This is why we need to be more vigilant than ever and keep the elite on the back foot. While it’s true that the globalists have failed to achieve the entirety of what they set out for, they are still moving forward with their agenda by taking baby steps rather than giant leaps. We have slowed the juggernaut of global government, but it continues to grind forward, which is why we need to continue to awaken more people so that we can have greater strength in pushing back and resisting the tyranny that the globalists want to enforce by taxing and regulating the very life-giving gas that we all breathe.
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Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
PLAYING TO WIN PART 1 BY ThE ANTI TERRORIST WWW.ThEANTITERRORIST.CO.UK Gorau adnabod, d'adnabod dy hun.
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nce upon a time, there was everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing, just pure consciousness experiencing being conscious. After an indeterminable amount of 'time', simply experiencing being conscious became a little monotonous, so consciousness decided it would be nice to have a conversation about being conscious. Consciousness divided itself in two, and although both parts were aware they were one, discussed the experience of being conscious. The conversation was captivating for a while but—inevitably—it became cyclic and dull. "Let's play a game," said one half, "Let's pretend that being over there is more important than being over here." So they did. They spent 'time' moving back and forth, despite already being everywhere and nowhere at once. The mental exercise, suspending disbelief and discussing whether or not they were where they were, was thrilling, for a 'time' but - as before - it became repetitive and predictable. "I know," said the other, "Let's pretend that if I get over there before you, I win." So they did. They raced back and forth and took turns at winning, and they congratulated each other and the game was absorbing and interesting. 'Time' flew by. They divided and split and multiplied over and over, mitosis and cytokinesis, increasing the odds and making the race more and more exciting but, eventually, even that became a little dull. "Let's make it so that if I win, I really win and if you lose it means I am be"er than you are." the others smiled and said in unison, "that's just silly, I AM you." they laughed for an eternity, then, "Okay, let's pretend that if you lose, you forget that you are me." And so the game took a fascinating turn and we have been playing it ever since. When you finally remember who you are—when you know that we are all one—this game ends and we can begin a new adventure. I am convinced at a fundamental level of the power of the individual. I believe that we create our own reality and that we are personally responsible for the lives and experiences that we have. Everything that you have in your life right now is something you created, and everything that is going on in the world right now we created collectively. We are all one, yet we all have individual desires. Everything I do, everything you say, everything we think affects the entire universe. What happens to the one happens to the all and what happens to all happens to the one. Most people do not like to acknowledge this truth because it would mean embracing the concept that we created the abuse or the lack or the suffering in our lives or in the world as a whole. We are all connected, yet solely responsible for our personal actions. Never confuse responsibility with culpability—they are two entirely separate things. No one is culpable. Everyone should be responsible. That the two are so often used interchangeably is evidence of old programming that you can consciously choose to change. When people are told, ‘You should take responsibility… ’ they most often hear, ‘Accept punishment for 'fill-in-the-blank.’ As a result, most people spend so much of their time and energy running from the former (culpability) that they rarely stop and embrace the la%er (responsibility). Most people live much of their lives feeling like either a victim of something, or a perpetrator of something else. It can be… tiring. The conspiracy theories fuelling this game remind me of a set of Russian dolls, the pertinent question being who’s really at the heart of things? The Queen twists open to reveal George Bush Sr and George Bush Sr twists open to unleash David Rockefeller, followed by a Rothschild, then a slowly descend-
WorLd ing, nested puzzle of the Black Pope (on a rope), Elvis, the Mafia, the Annunaki and so on. Perhaps the centre doll is Homer Simpson. And inside that is a donut. I get the distinct feeling that if the dolls were all made of foam rubber and were all exactly the same size, you could rearrange the plot sequence anyway you liked, based on whatever you’d read on the Internet the night before. Regarding the amorphous word, They—it’s used all the time, and the meaning is always different for every person employing the term. Throughout human history there’s always been a they, whether they referred to the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, the Roman ruling class, the Imperial British, the Third Reich, the Czars, the Communists, the Church - whoever they are changes continually, yet the concept of they has been a constant theme of the human experience. the truth is, they is simply Other - the other part of the All - and the game of Other goes on. What interests me more than Who they Are is the question, What Do they Really Want? My answer: they want your industry. That’s all. And they are willing to dangle the promise of eternal life if you work in this one for nothing. Or they may promise corporate bonuses, or your name on a public building, or an award, or sainthood or a statue. They may even promise you your ‘freedom’ if you do what they say. You may think you must give them your obedience, your adherence, your loyalty, the very birthright of your soul, though all they really require is your industry. Any ruling class sees the seething biomass of humanity as existing to serve and service their needs, and have developed manipulation into an art form in order to accomplish this goal. If the enticements of jingoism, religion, television—any and all aspects of bread and circuses—don’t work, if a sovereign soul ever attempts to try and opt out, they do their utmost to corner you like a straying sheep and use every threat they can muster, including hunting you down and gunning you down in the name of their current status quo. They want your industry. They want you to serve and service them, and they’ll stop at nothing to achieve this. There is a secret the Elite would rather the seething biomass not catch on to: They run the world like a corporation. To them, it’s really Just Business. The tendency is to view the Elite as a shadowy, sinister bogeyman—don’t fall for it—think shadowy, sinister businessman instead. They run everything like a corporation. Nations are corporations, religions are run like corporations, clubs, organisations, secret societies—the ones in charge are simply looking to maintain and hopefully increase their slice of the pie. Pump profits. Feather the CEO’s nest. That’s all. Just business. It’s the rest of us who take it so personally, and—believe me—they count on that. They love to keep us angry, agitated, and continually arguing with one another. So, what happens when a work force gets larger than the job requires? Cutbacks. Layoffs. Where the Elite agenda is concerned, reducing the work force could translate into poisoning the food and water supply, or pushing tainted vaccines, or the timeless classic: keeping different cultures schismed, agitated and continually killing each other off. Factor in the current trend of constantly reminding the population that we are all a cancer on the earth, or we are responsible for the changing climate, or we are guilty for the mess we are all in today, and the amount of money involved in the carbon credit scheme begins to make a strange sort of sense. We are not dealing with Dr. Evil or Snidely Whiplash, we are simply faced with businessmen. The good news is, They have an Achilles’ Heel… Let’s say they do indeed manage to fulfill their manifest destiny. They bring world population down, they clear the continental United States and return it to a pristine state to serve as a pleasure park nature reserve, they get their work force down to a ‘manageable, cost-effective size’—in other words, just enough people to serve and service their needs—say they manage all this—what then? In the end, people who live simply to dominate and enslave others always eat their own. They turn on each other. Dominating others is an addiction they will never be able to lose. In their quest for superiority, when they run out of biomass to torment, they will turn on one another. Small consolation if you and most of the rest of the population has long since fallen as a casualty to their agenda, but in approaching this life on earth as a game, you can turn this weapon in their hand by gaining and maintaining clarity about why and how they play, and what they hope to gain. Know thyself. Know thy adversary. Adopt and adapt their strategies— not to dominate them in turn, but to keep yourself free. Do everything possible to postpone any sweeping countermoves your adversary may attempt and keep on buying time—perhaps enough time for them to start killing each other off. And, why not? They’ve been using that particular tactic on us for millennia. Perhaps it’s time to start learning from your opponent. In approaching life as a game, it follows that we all have a part to play. One of my parts in this story is to be the messenger, a Potentiator of the Mind, if you like. However, I’m bringing a little more than the game obliges me to bring. I am also here to remind you that it is a game.
Community, Activism and Technology in the 21st Century by Issac Ooman
W
ith most of the internet running on free software, the call is on for this freedom to permeate to individual users. I spent a day not too long ago at Media Democracy Day, where technology activists held a panel called Democratizing the Web on everything open source and how it can free not just individuals but also groups. Kate Milberry, who gathered and moderated the panel, told me in a phone interview that open source is, “The most revolutionary thing since the printing press.” Kate by no means expects any sort of “cyber-utopia” to spring up because of the technology, but wants to foster it as a democratic medium with huge potential. “As Anderson said, nationality is imagined. Media democracy is alternative to the corporate structure, especially after users discovered that they can create their own media. We cannot separate community and technology.” Activist organizations, she explained, are one such community, especially since they contribute to the neighbourhoods they represent. Free Geek is one such activist organization that interacts with the local community. Member Iffany Le Chance explained during the panel that, “Free Geek is a non-profit computer recycling centre. It's all about technology and access to it.” She further showed how Free Geek volunteers can donate hours to work on computers, and then use those hours to get a PC. The one catch for those used to the ageing ideology of purchased operating systems is that all Free Geek computers come installed with open source operating systems such as Ubuntu. Iffany underlined that having free operating systems made sure that the technology was shared rather than bought. Where the community comes in is when Free Geek educates local people on the toxicity of computers, holds outreach events and grants computers to non-profits. Iffany noted, “Computer liberation means liberating people as well. Open source goes against the bloating of software. Since users create the software, it's less bloated and there's less chance for viruses to infect them.” On a basic level, Free Geek works against the “planned obsolescence” of computers – the imaginary life cycle given to them by their manufacturers who want to sell you more of their product. Whereas Iffany talked about individual computers, Jessi Berkelhammer of Riseup Network spoke about servers and cloud computing. “Obviously corporate online applications make money via premium services by collecting user data,” she said. “There is no reason to trust that companies won't hand over data to a third party like the government.” Riseup.net creates online networks for activists to organize and plan, using open source. Megan Adam, co-founder of email provider Resist.ca took this to another level. She said that, “The idea of who owns your data is tantamount. Open source allows ownership and integrity of your material. Corporate services tend to delete material on whim. The open source is communitybased so more people can work on code and “get on” issues quickly.” Resist.ca in that vein provides email and list distribution for activists that is not subject to corporate third-party policies. Megan summarized the purpose of open source beyond the confines of the computer perfectly. She said that, “Open source is providing the model for the society we want.” With all these groups interacting with one another and their local communities, they may very well create the blueprint for a a society based on sharing and community rather than buying and ownership.
Wednesday December 23, 2009
The AgorA
W 20
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