Andy Laverdure responds to the North Dakota editorial, "Opportunity for Dialogue Squandered." The editorial followed the Turtle Mountain Chippewa banning Rob Port from tribal land.
Open letter to Tony Bender, president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association
By Andy Laverdure, Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribal member
Your most recent article decrying the banishment action taken by the Turtle Mountain Tribe against Rob Port is off mark. You state that the action “did more to discredit the tribal council than it did to discredit Port." How so?
You misconstrue the intent of the banishment action. If you actually lived on the reservation and witnessed or experienced the hurt and harm caused not only to the tribe itself, but to tribal residents (Indian and non-Indian), you would realize that the banishment action was necessary and appropriate. The action primarily served to bring the issue to the forefront and to spotlight the tribe’s disgust at the insult.
The banishment action does not restrict Rob Port’s free speech in any way whatsoever. Can you tell me how this is possible? Rob still has his blog site. He still works with Steve Cates and the Dakota Beacon. He still apparently and appallingly has the ears of the North Dakota Newspaper Association.
In your article, Mr. Bender, you state “a real opportunity to educate and refute any misconception is being squandered” and that tribal membership should “use this opportunity to tell this story from the perspective of the tribe." You let me know where the story can be told, who should tell the story, and how it should be told.
If the tribe didn’t take drastic measure, do you even think anyone in your news world would be showing any interest? Most North Dakota newspapers have always shown distaste for Indian issues. Selected news is usually negative, except for positive input from individuals like Dorreen Yellow Bird at the Grand Forks Herald.
There have been many occasions where tribal people have tried to tell their story, but no one would listen. Who makes the decisions in the state relative to what is newsworthy? Not tribal members, that’s for sure.
It may come as a surprise to you, but the US Constitution applies only sporadically to Indian tribes. Tribes have their own laws and have every right to apply those laws as they see fit. In this case, the Turtle Mountain Tribe saw fit to banish Rob Port for the terror he caused to the tribe and the tribe’s membership. The article and the ensuing battle that occurred in the sayanythingblog site caused a great deal of consternation and emotional harm to tribal membership. The harm cannot be adequately described, but it was great. No one seems to care about that aspect of this story; after all, those negatively affected are only a bunch of Indians. As I asked before, and will continue to ask, where is the outrage about the article from the non-tribal voices in our state? The article brought shame onto the whole state, not only Indian Reservations.
Thank you,
Andy Laverdure
(Comment two) To the editor
From: Andy Laverdure
Tony Bender, president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association argues the importance of free speech and the First Amendment in his May 25, 2007 opinion article to various outlets in North Dakota.
Mr. Bender states that “debate often makes us wiser and sometimes changes hearts and minds”. I certainly hope so.
When you enter http://www.sayanythingblog.com/, you can use key words to search the site in the upper right corner of the page. If you type in “Indian Reservations” for example, you will be taken to a list of all threads that discuss Indian Reservation related issues. This is an important tool to use for tracking issues.
If you type “Manhart” into search, you will find pornography. The article, titled: “Air Force Sgt. Michelle Manhart Suspended While Military "Investigates" Playboy Spread
(With Pics)”, dated January 11, 2007 is written by Rob Port. The article has an update at the bottom of the page that states "Thanks to a helpful reader, if you want to see Sgt. Manuhurt's pictorial click here, here and here. Investigation complete". Please note the new spelling of the name Manhart. The click here references are blue and take you to the nude pictures. These pictures display full frontal nudity.
KXNET.com syndicates the sayanythingblog site. KXNET includes: KXMB, Bismarck; KXMA, Dickinson; KXMC, Minot; and KXMD, Williston. Syndication means these stations sponsor and support Rob Port and his sayanythingblog site. You need to contact these stations to see if they support nudity and pornography.
The North Dakota Republican Party also supports the sayanythingblog site and has a link calling the sayanythingblog site “Interesting”. The Dakota Beacon, an extension of the Republican Party lists the sayanythingblog site as “North Dakota’s most popular blog” and has Rob Port as one of its contributors. Steve Cates, publisher of the Dakota Beacon, is also Chairman of the North Dakota Family Alliance, an organization that espouses integrity and a Christian statement of faith. Each of these entities, the NDGOP and the Dakota Beacon support and promote the Rob Port blog site. Do they also support and promote pornography?
When you enter the sayanythingblog site, there is no notification to anyone entering that the site contains nudity and pornography. Anyone under the age of 18 can enter the site. Parental blocks? Those can only be made when parents are aware.
Now, I ask, how does pornography affect free speech at the blog site? A friend of mine has stated “people who live in glass houses…”
Thank you,
Andy Laverdure
.
Tony Bender's editorial:
"Opportunity for Dialogue Squandered"
by Tony Bender
http://www.in-forum.com/Opinion/articles/166916
Thursday, May 31, 2007
RETURN OF THE EIGHTH "MAN"
As much as many fans of 'Doctor Who' hate the FOX TV movie from the mid-1990s, they've generally accepted it with all its faults as being part of the Canon. After all, you can't refer to David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor without including the Eighth, as played by Paul McGann.
And there was the fact that the last actor to play the Doctor in the long-running series, Sylvester McCoy, was seen in the opening ten minutes of the movie as the Seventh Doctor before he was gunned down and forced to regenerate into the new incarnation.
It's just that business about his mother being human that bothered a lot of fans......
However, it looks like Paul McGann's portrayal is now officially part of the Canon - thanks to a sketch resembling him that shows up in the latest episode of the revived series, "Human Nature".
This could be the first baby step toward bringing back Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor - not in the series itself, but in a TV movie (which could lead to a franchise of side projects).
Empire Online is reporting that BBC and director Geoffrey Sax want to continue the story of McGann's Eighth Doctor in a way to separate it from the popular television franchise.
Here's the report from Empire Online:
"Because of the demand for Eighth Doctor stories on film, due to the popular Big Finish audios and BBC7 Radio audios made specifically for those productions, a film is finally in negotiations. There are still many things to finalize, such as if Paul McGann is interested in portraying The Doctor on film again. The Tardis interior from the 1996 TV movie [was] auctioned off back in 1999, but they plan on recreating the same interior from the TV movie, which is a popular design."
According to the article, the movie would avoid already established 'Doctor Who' villains like the much-overused Daleks, the Cybermen (Mondasian or Lumical), and the already utilized Master (who was played by Eric Roberts in the FOX version). Instead, a new alien species would be introduced, and instead of traveling to the United States, the TARDIS would be on Earth for just a few minutes before heading to three different alien worlds.
So far this is just rumor, something which the series can generate quite easily. Just last weekend, The Sun, allegedly a cat-pan liner which purports to be a newspaper in the UK, claimed that Freema Agyeman was going to be axed from the series because her work has been sub-standard. Of course, The Sun's timing sucked, as she's been garnering fantastic reviews for her work in "Human Nature".
The script for a TV movie about the Eighth Doctor has been updated several times since 1999. If it turns out to be successful, it could lead to a franchise of movies that would finally give McGann's portrayal the tenure it is due. And with the 45th anniversary of the series coming up, perhaps a pairing of the Eighth Doctor with the Tenth might be in order to mark the occasion.
BCnU!
Toby OB
And there was the fact that the last actor to play the Doctor in the long-running series, Sylvester McCoy, was seen in the opening ten minutes of the movie as the Seventh Doctor before he was gunned down and forced to regenerate into the new incarnation.
It's just that business about his mother being human that bothered a lot of fans......
However, it looks like Paul McGann's portrayal is now officially part of the Canon - thanks to a sketch resembling him that shows up in the latest episode of the revived series, "Human Nature".
This could be the first baby step toward bringing back Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor - not in the series itself, but in a TV movie (which could lead to a franchise of side projects).
Empire Online is reporting that BBC and director Geoffrey Sax want to continue the story of McGann's Eighth Doctor in a way to separate it from the popular television franchise.
Here's the report from Empire Online:
"Because of the demand for Eighth Doctor stories on film, due to the popular Big Finish audios and BBC7 Radio audios made specifically for those productions, a film is finally in negotiations. There are still many things to finalize, such as if Paul McGann is interested in portraying The Doctor on film again. The Tardis interior from the 1996 TV movie [was] auctioned off back in 1999, but they plan on recreating the same interior from the TV movie, which is a popular design."
According to the article, the movie would avoid already established 'Doctor Who' villains like the much-overused Daleks, the Cybermen (Mondasian or Lumical), and the already utilized Master (who was played by Eric Roberts in the FOX version). Instead, a new alien species would be introduced, and instead of traveling to the United States, the TARDIS would be on Earth for just a few minutes before heading to three different alien worlds.
So far this is just rumor, something which the series can generate quite easily. Just last weekend, The Sun, allegedly a cat-pan liner which purports to be a newspaper in the UK, claimed that Freema Agyeman was going to be axed from the series because her work has been sub-standard. Of course, The Sun's timing sucked, as she's been garnering fantastic reviews for her work in "Human Nature".
The script for a TV movie about the Eighth Doctor has been updated several times since 1999. If it turns out to be successful, it could lead to a franchise of movies that would finally give McGann's portrayal the tenure it is due. And with the 45th anniversary of the series coming up, perhaps a pairing of the Eighth Doctor with the Tenth might be in order to mark the occasion.
BCnU!
Toby OB
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
United Nations calls for second Indigenous Border Summit
By Brenda Norrell
Human Rights Editor
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
http://www.unobserver.com/
Independent news at the Hague
NEW YORK -- The Indigenous Border Summit of the Americas, held in San Xavier on Tohono O'odham land in Arizona, was so successful that the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues is calling for a second Border Summit.
The Border Summit is having far-reaching global impacts.
"As the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues VI came to an end, I am glad to inform you that it too recommended the call for another International Border Summit," said Tony Gonzales, field representative for the International Indian Treaty Council and among the moderators of the Border Summit in San Xavier.
"Migration and development, border deaths and conflict, border crossing and ID use and displacement of whole communities apparently is coming under scrutiny. It is emerging as a hot topic in the halls of the United Nations and gathering movement; and the global search for solutions."
In New York, the Permanent Forum priorities were the protection of intellectual and traditional property rights, safeguarding genetic integrity, climate change and border issues.
The Border Summit of the Americas, organized by Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham, with support from the International Indian Treaty Council, in 2006, issued a proclamation of Indigenous border rights. The proclamation called for an end to the militarization of borders and a halt to the harassment of Indigenous Peoples crossing borders. The declaration opposed the construction of a U.S. and Mexico border wall that would dissect O'odham communities and violate an O'odham ceremonial route.
The summit gathered testimony from those who are living in the border region, including victims of the military and border agents and those struggling to uphold human rights. The summit brought together in solidarity Mohawk from the north with Indigenous from the southern border.
Gonzales said the Border Summit received endorsement from the United Nations at the preparatory session in April, then again in May from the Forum.
"The preparatory meeting held in mid-April 2007 in Minneapolis in the presence of Willie Little Child, UN Permanent Forum member, endorsed the Border Summit including the San Xavier District Declaration, and recommended in their report the support of another such effort to the UN Permanent Forum."
A site has not yet been selected for the second Border Summit.
The United Nations said that Indigenous leaders wrapped up the annual session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues with a series of recommendations calling on Member States to take steps to protect their rights to lands, territories and natural resources.
Participants urged countries to adopt measures to halt "land alienation" in Indigenous territories – such as by imposing a moratorium on the sale and registration of land in areas that are occupied by Indigenous Peoples, according to the U.N. news release.
They also called for the world’s estimated 370 million Indigenous Peoples to be given a central role in dispute-solving arrangements over the lands, territories and natural resources they occupy and use, as well as the right to receive information about these issues in a language they can understand.
During the two-week summit, recommendations included a call for financial and technical assistance so that Indigenous Peoples can map the boundaries of their communal lands, the imposition of penalties on those who carry out harmful activities on indigenous lands, and the payment of compensation to indigenous peoples as a result of such activities.
The recommendations are contained in the Forum’s report, to be forwarded to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which stresses that territories, lands and natural resources are the sources of Indigenous Peoples’ spiritual, cultural and social identity.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Chairperson of the Permanent Forum, said that Indigenous People worldwide have long suffered discrimination over their entitlements to occupying and using lands and natural resources.
“One of the key reason why Indigenous Peoples are being disenfranchised from their lands and territories is the existence of discriminatory laws, policies and programmes that do not recognize indigenous peoples’ land tenure systems and give more priority to claims being put by corporations – both State and private,” she said.
More than 1,500
Indigenous representatives attended the Forum’s session. Next year’s Forum will focus on the theme of climate change and there will also be sessions devoted to the Pacific region and to the protection of the thousands of threatened Indigenous languages.Indigenous oppose Border Wall and Militarization:
http://americas.irc-online.org/amcit/3648
To read reports on the Border Summit, please see:
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/
Articles from the Border Summit by Brenda Norrell:
"Mohawk and Tohono O'odham solidarity at Border Summit"
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id59.html
"Border Summit opposes border wall"
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id62.html
"Tohono O'odham Bennett Patricio, Jr., ran over by Border Patrol"
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id63.html
"Tohono O'odham Mike Wilson: Border Patrol is occupying army"
http://bsnorrell.tripod.com/id61.html
PHOTOS: Top: Mike Flores, Tohono O'odham receives flag from Mark Maracle, Mohawk, at the Border Summit in San Xavier. Lower left: Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants dieing in the desert, speaks at summit. Right: Irvin and Angie Ramon, Tohono O'odham, whose 18-year-old son Bennett Patricio, Jr., was ran over and killed by the Border Patrol speak at summit. Bottom right: Treaty Council staff Tony Gonzales on Alcatraz. Photos Brenda Norrell. Bottom right: Western Shoshone Carrie Dann and Michelle Cook, Navajo and participant at the summit in San Xavier, at the Permanent Forum in May in New York. Courtesy photo.)
Gwich'in and Saami on Climate Change: The thawing Arctic
http://www.winonadailynews.com/articles/2007/05/15/opinion/otherviews/guest0515.txt
'Wounded Knee' disappointing end to the Hollywood trail
THE END OF THE HOLLYWOOD TRAIL
by Hanay Geiogamah
Reposted from Pechanga Net: www.pechanga.net/
In the wake of HBO' s disappointing and history-deranging adaptation of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, American Indian actors, writers, aspiring directors and producers arrive at the end of the trail for their decades-long struggle to gain a footing in Hollywood: our cause is lost in the American film and television industry.
It is now time for us to abandon our stake in the Hollywood camp, this distressed outpost, now time for us to gather on the open beach at Santa Monica and there bury in the sand our hopes for participation and inclusion, then head out of town with our heads held a high as we can hold them. We will be better off re-locating our work back to the reservations, to the tribal communities and scattered remnants of land allotments that were given to us in treaties with the United States government over a hundred years ago in the epic tragedy which Dee Brown described so vividly and thoroughly in his iconic history. And there, hopefully safe from the misbegotten creative and economic forces of the industry, we must knuckle down and produce our own films, our own television dramas, write our own accounts of our history, and present them in images that we create and that we will control. We have an audience of two million American Indians waiting.
With Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, the power brokers of the industry have demonstrated that their entertainment values and demands prevail over anything we say or do, write or create, that our history is for them to tell, to fictionalize, to distort with false love stories and character portrayals, and to trivialize all that is complex and tragic. HBO did not ask for or seek the help and guidance of any of the experienced American Indian creative professionals who might have helped steer them away from this debacle. Yes, Indian actors played the Indians, but that was all.
With breathtaking arrogance, Bury My Heart's narrative forcibly inducts American Indians into the brotherhood of savagery as a way of universalizing them and making them like all other people. Genocide is dramatized as just as much the result of the mean-spirited and physically cruel behavior of American Indians, who were fighting for their very survival, as it was of the inhumanity of the American armies. The last shreds of Indian nobility are eliminated once and for all.
A feature article on the making of Bury My Heart titled "The Last Stand" in the May 27 Los Angeles Times gives a brief, perplexing account of how Hollywood came to the view that American Indians can now be justly and fairly seen as co-agents of their own destruction. As a two-hour condensation of the book, "The film didn't have time to dwell on the spiritual, Earth-friendly image of Native Americans," says the article's author, Graham Fuller. "Nor does it offer a politically correct perspective," he adds. The Sioux, we're told, were "as rapacious as their white conquerers."
This view is scaldingly laid out with the portrayal of Sitting Bull as a baby killer, as a coward who hid in his tipi at the height of the Battle of Little Bighorn, and as a greedy buffoon who lusts for the white man's money and approval. The scriptwriter, Daniel Giat, confidently tells The Times, "My primary objective was to fully dimensionalize these people. Sitting Bull was vain. He was desperate to hold onto the esteem of his people and win the esteem of the whites. But I think in depicting his desperation and the measures he took in acting on it, it makes it all the more sad and tragic, and I think we identify with him all the more for it."
To complete this grim, determined view, the film presents every Indian cliche imaginable in graphic, full-bodied images without context or explanation: brutal scalpings; stoic, saddened faces of Indian elders; sick, dying babies; herds of wild horses surging across open prairies; vast armies of Indian warriors mounted along high vistas; war ponies being ceremonially painted; desperate ghost dancers, and heartless Indian agents and schoolteachers. We've seen them all far too many times.
And to all of this, unbelievably, the article tells us, "The passel of Lakota and other Indian consultants hired for the project obviously didn't object too strenuously." No credible American Indian historians, scholars or film makers are quoted in The Times article. I was astonished to see the names of two highly respected scholars and historians listed in the film's credit crawl and was grateful that this embarrassment for them would not be seen by many.
As students in the early 1970s, members of my generation of American Indians carried paperback copies of Bury My Heart in our backpacks as talismans of hope. Thirty-seven years later, we must sadly accept that HBO, the avatar of original television programming and creative innovation, has failed to deliver a truthful, even recognizable telling of Dee Brown's history. The more cynical among us back then forecast that this would happen, and, alas....
By letting go of our Hollywood dreams, we American Indians can take control of our stories and images and establish creative sovereignty. Affordable digital cameras and production equipment and scripts written by the Indian writers whom Hollywood rejected and left blowing in the wind will help us to become free and independent tellers our our own stories. The failure of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee urgently tells us that we must, must do this. Aho, thank you.
Hanay Geiogamah Professor of Theater
UCLA School of Theater, Film and TelevisionDirector
UCLA American Indian Studies Center
by Hanay Geiogamah
Reposted from Pechanga Net: www.pechanga.net/
In the wake of HBO' s disappointing and history-deranging adaptation of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, American Indian actors, writers, aspiring directors and producers arrive at the end of the trail for their decades-long struggle to gain a footing in Hollywood: our cause is lost in the American film and television industry.
It is now time for us to abandon our stake in the Hollywood camp, this distressed outpost, now time for us to gather on the open beach at Santa Monica and there bury in the sand our hopes for participation and inclusion, then head out of town with our heads held a high as we can hold them. We will be better off re-locating our work back to the reservations, to the tribal communities and scattered remnants of land allotments that were given to us in treaties with the United States government over a hundred years ago in the epic tragedy which Dee Brown described so vividly and thoroughly in his iconic history. And there, hopefully safe from the misbegotten creative and economic forces of the industry, we must knuckle down and produce our own films, our own television dramas, write our own accounts of our history, and present them in images that we create and that we will control. We have an audience of two million American Indians waiting.
With Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee, the power brokers of the industry have demonstrated that their entertainment values and demands prevail over anything we say or do, write or create, that our history is for them to tell, to fictionalize, to distort with false love stories and character portrayals, and to trivialize all that is complex and tragic. HBO did not ask for or seek the help and guidance of any of the experienced American Indian creative professionals who might have helped steer them away from this debacle. Yes, Indian actors played the Indians, but that was all.
With breathtaking arrogance, Bury My Heart's narrative forcibly inducts American Indians into the brotherhood of savagery as a way of universalizing them and making them like all other people. Genocide is dramatized as just as much the result of the mean-spirited and physically cruel behavior of American Indians, who were fighting for their very survival, as it was of the inhumanity of the American armies. The last shreds of Indian nobility are eliminated once and for all.
A feature article on the making of Bury My Heart titled "The Last Stand" in the May 27 Los Angeles Times gives a brief, perplexing account of how Hollywood came to the view that American Indians can now be justly and fairly seen as co-agents of their own destruction. As a two-hour condensation of the book, "The film didn't have time to dwell on the spiritual, Earth-friendly image of Native Americans," says the article's author, Graham Fuller. "Nor does it offer a politically correct perspective," he adds. The Sioux, we're told, were "as rapacious as their white conquerers."
This view is scaldingly laid out with the portrayal of Sitting Bull as a baby killer, as a coward who hid in his tipi at the height of the Battle of Little Bighorn, and as a greedy buffoon who lusts for the white man's money and approval. The scriptwriter, Daniel Giat, confidently tells The Times, "My primary objective was to fully dimensionalize these people. Sitting Bull was vain. He was desperate to hold onto the esteem of his people and win the esteem of the whites. But I think in depicting his desperation and the measures he took in acting on it, it makes it all the more sad and tragic, and I think we identify with him all the more for it."
To complete this grim, determined view, the film presents every Indian cliche imaginable in graphic, full-bodied images without context or explanation: brutal scalpings; stoic, saddened faces of Indian elders; sick, dying babies; herds of wild horses surging across open prairies; vast armies of Indian warriors mounted along high vistas; war ponies being ceremonially painted; desperate ghost dancers, and heartless Indian agents and schoolteachers. We've seen them all far too many times.
And to all of this, unbelievably, the article tells us, "The passel of Lakota and other Indian consultants hired for the project obviously didn't object too strenuously." No credible American Indian historians, scholars or film makers are quoted in The Times article. I was astonished to see the names of two highly respected scholars and historians listed in the film's credit crawl and was grateful that this embarrassment for them would not be seen by many.
As students in the early 1970s, members of my generation of American Indians carried paperback copies of Bury My Heart in our backpacks as talismans of hope. Thirty-seven years later, we must sadly accept that HBO, the avatar of original television programming and creative innovation, has failed to deliver a truthful, even recognizable telling of Dee Brown's history. The more cynical among us back then forecast that this would happen, and, alas....
By letting go of our Hollywood dreams, we American Indians can take control of our stories and images and establish creative sovereignty. Affordable digital cameras and production equipment and scripts written by the Indian writers whom Hollywood rejected and left blowing in the wind will help us to become free and independent tellers our our own stories. The failure of Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee urgently tells us that we must, must do this. Aho, thank you.
Hanay Geiogamah Professor of Theater
UCLA School of Theater, Film and TelevisionDirector
UCLA American Indian Studies Center
THE FRIENDS OF TOMMY LOPAKA
When I can't find anything else to tape in the evening while I'm sleeping/getting ready for work/commuting, I turn to classic shows available on American Life Network.
Until my fave summer shows come back, I'll be doing that often, I think.
Monday night, I taped an episode of 'Hawaiian Eye' after 'Waking The Dead'. (That was on BBC-America.) It was called "Baker's Half Dozen" and it was about a pair of con artists who were swindling sailors in transit out of their money with the girl promising to marry each of them. The guy was a real scumbag (played by Peter Breck of 'The Big Valley'), but Dory Baker was never comfortable helping out in his hustle. Eventually, she helped Tommy Lopaka in nabbing her partner (who had killed his previous accomplice) and she promised to make things right for all of the sailors she conned.
In the end, it looked like Dory would even profit from the experience as she was probably going to end up married to one who was a member of an old-money family in Philadelphia. But first, she'd have to go to Denver, Colorado, and atone for a crime she had been involved in there.
As they parted at the end of the episode, Tommy gave Dory a letter of introduction to a friend of his in Denver who could probably help her. No mention of a name or occupation, and at first I thought it might be a reference to some other show from the Warner Brothers stable under the aegis of Wm. T. Orr, a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame (Creators' Wing). But my limited research didn't turn up any leads along those lines.
Basically that left me free to fill in the blanks as to the identity of this mystery character. I knew it couldn't be 'Perry Mason', as he didn't start practicing law in Colorado until the late 1980s. And a quick check of TV Acres (one of my favorite TV trivia sites, link to the left, of course!) didn't offer up any private eyes or police detectives who might have known Thomas Jefferson Lopaka.
So I chose Andrew Laird, an attorney who worked in Denver. By the 1980s, he'd be working almost exclusively for Carrington Oil (as seen in 'Dynasty' where he was played by Peter Mark Richman). Back in 1960, however, he could have been just starting out and willing to take any client who might help enrich his reputation. And Dory Baker's case may have been the perfect cause for him to champion.
And until somebody tells me otherwise, or gives me a convincing substitute that's even better, that's how it'll stand in Toobworld - one more tiny patch holding the great mosaic of the TV Universe together.
BCnU!
Toby OB
Until my fave summer shows come back, I'll be doing that often, I think.
Monday night, I taped an episode of 'Hawaiian Eye' after 'Waking The Dead'. (That was on BBC-America.) It was called "Baker's Half Dozen" and it was about a pair of con artists who were swindling sailors in transit out of their money with the girl promising to marry each of them. The guy was a real scumbag (played by Peter Breck of 'The Big Valley'), but Dory Baker was never comfortable helping out in his hustle. Eventually, she helped Tommy Lopaka in nabbing her partner (who had killed his previous accomplice) and she promised to make things right for all of the sailors she conned.
In the end, it looked like Dory would even profit from the experience as she was probably going to end up married to one who was a member of an old-money family in Philadelphia. But first, she'd have to go to Denver, Colorado, and atone for a crime she had been involved in there.
As they parted at the end of the episode, Tommy gave Dory a letter of introduction to a friend of his in Denver who could probably help her. No mention of a name or occupation, and at first I thought it might be a reference to some other show from the Warner Brothers stable under the aegis of Wm. T. Orr, a member of the TV Crossover Hall of Fame (Creators' Wing). But my limited research didn't turn up any leads along those lines.
Basically that left me free to fill in the blanks as to the identity of this mystery character. I knew it couldn't be 'Perry Mason', as he didn't start practicing law in Colorado until the late 1980s. And a quick check of TV Acres (one of my favorite TV trivia sites, link to the left, of course!) didn't offer up any private eyes or police detectives who might have known Thomas Jefferson Lopaka.
So I chose Andrew Laird, an attorney who worked in Denver. By the 1980s, he'd be working almost exclusively for Carrington Oil (as seen in 'Dynasty' where he was played by Peter Mark Richman). Back in 1960, however, he could have been just starting out and willing to take any client who might help enrich his reputation. And Dory Baker's case may have been the perfect cause for him to champion.
And until somebody tells me otherwise, or gives me a convincing substitute that's even better, that's how it'll stand in Toobworld - one more tiny patch holding the great mosaic of the TV Universe together.
BCnU!
Toby OB
Western Shoshone and Navajo at United Nations
Fighting for Indigenous Rights: Western Shoshone Carrie Dann with Michelle Cook, Navajo student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United Nations in New York. Courtesy photo Michelle Cook. Blackfoot Confederacy moves to implement its own passport
By John McGillWednesday, May 30, 2007 10:46 AM MDT
http://www.glacierreporter.com/
As early as Jan. 1, 2008, U.S. citizens may be required to present a passport or other documentation to get to and from Mexico, and more importantly for residents of Blackfeet Country, Canada. The $100 fee per person, said Blackfeet Tribal Councilman Rodney "Fish" Gervais, is a particular hardship for the tribal membership, and one the U.S. based Southern Piegan band of the Blackfeet is working to change, along with their northern relatives.
Representatives of the Blood and Siksika, two of the three Canadian bands, joined with their Southern Piegan relatives Friday, May 25, to finalize plans to create a passport designed for use by members of the Blackfoot Confederacy."I kept going to the Tribal Council about border crossing and the need for a common passport," said Gervais Friday from the Glacier Peaks Casino where the delegates came for lunch. "Now that I'm on the Council, it was one of the first things I did, and now we're in the final process. Tuesday [May 29] is the final signing."Gervais said he'd met with U.S. Immigration officials already, and the American side of the deal seems to be possible because of their willingness to recognize arrangements made in the Jay Treaty of 1794. In that treaty, both governments of the United States and Canada agreed to allow free travel for Native peoples across the international border although both governments have been criticized for their failures to live up to the treaty. Gervais said the Canadians have yet to agree to honor the passport."It's been years in the making," Gervais said. "We're taking the initiative; now comes the accepting part. The idea is a border crossing of our own like the Mohawk have. The Confederacy is behind it, and it strengthens the confederacy." The Akwesasne Mohawk found themselves similarly divided between the United States and Canada and eventually gained a border crossing specifically for members of their tribe.Gervais displayed a model passport - a plastic coated card with the member's name and photo, along with a place for signatures of the chiefs of each of the four bands. An American and Canadian flag grace each corner of the card.
"Since 9/11 it's become much more strict at the border, and it's a hardship for the cultural and religious ties of indigenous peoples," Gervais concluded.
Petition demanding apology from Mel Gibson for Apocalypto
Gibson told to apologize to students and Mayans
To: Mel Gibson and University Administration
Mel Gibson Apologize to CSUN students and the Mayan Community!
We demand that Mel Gibson, writer and director of the film “Apocalypto” apologize to the faculty, students and members of the Mayan community present at the California State University Northridge talk where he used an abusive obscenity in response to legitimate questions about his film. Mel Gibson’s obscene and hostile remarks tarnished the safe learning environment that the university strives to foster for all students, faculty and guests. His refusal to address the questions raised by the Mayan community members and his obscene response saying “F¬ ck off lady” demonstrates a fundamental lack of respect and understanding of the issues raised by the indigenous communities he claims to depict in his film. While we cannot hold a Hollywood movie like “Apocalypto” to the standards of accuracy in its depiction of history, we must hold it and its creator accountable for its public value, impact and influence. “Apocalypto” is a movie that perpetuates a racist and violent understanding of Indigenous peoples; these representations propagate, at best, misconception, and at worst, hate toward the Indigenous communities ...
http://www.petitiononline.com/MAYAN/
Rob Schmidt: Gibson was presenter at the First Americans in the Arts awards ceremony:
" ... The first big moment occurred when Mel Gibson presented an award to Morris Birdyellowhead for his supporting role in Apocalypto. As Gibson walked to the stage, he went right past me. He was literally a foot away.
For a split second I thought of tripping him to advance the cause of race relations. But I didn’t."
http://www.nativevue.org/blog/?p=544
Back home to a breakfast of cactus
It is good to be back near the southern border and a breakfast of cactus (nopalitos) after a train ride from Montana, down the west coast. I was deeply touched by the kindness of strangers on this trip and the great beauty of the mountains and coast.
The good news at home is that Marcos and the Comandantes have been successful in setting up Zapatista camps and traveling throughout northwest Mexico to support Indigenous Peoples and their struggles to survive. The Other Campaign has continued to visit the desperate, the hungry, those forgotten by the Mexican government, and those who have lost hope. The Zapatistas are supporting their rights to fish, to organize, to farm and live without oppression, slavery and toxins and pesticides in their soil, water and air.
The Migrant march from Sasabe, Arizona, is underway and the struggle for human decency continues at the border.
Thanks to all of you for sending me your news, especially rare reports like the turn-of-the-century sovereignty report, that will be in an upcoming article.
Congratulations to the Western Shoshone Dann family whose real life struggle is starting to win awards in the film, "Our Land, Our Life."
The crosses and coffins on the beach in Santa Monica were a chilling reminder of the human cost of war for everyone; a haunting reminder of complicity, censorship and a fear-draped America.
Thanks to all of you who take the time to check in here to read the news. I look forward to hearing from you. Brenda
brendanorrell@gmail.com
The good news at home is that Marcos and the Comandantes have been successful in setting up Zapatista camps and traveling throughout northwest Mexico to support Indigenous Peoples and their struggles to survive. The Other Campaign has continued to visit the desperate, the hungry, those forgotten by the Mexican government, and those who have lost hope. The Zapatistas are supporting their rights to fish, to organize, to farm and live without oppression, slavery and toxins and pesticides in their soil, water and air.
The Migrant march from Sasabe, Arizona, is underway and the struggle for human decency continues at the border.
Thanks to all of you for sending me your news, especially rare reports like the turn-of-the-century sovereignty report, that will be in an upcoming article.
Congratulations to the Western Shoshone Dann family whose real life struggle is starting to win awards in the film, "Our Land, Our Life."
The crosses and coffins on the beach in Santa Monica were a chilling reminder of the human cost of war for everyone; a haunting reminder of complicity, censorship and a fear-draped America.
Thanks to all of you who take the time to check in here to read the news. I look forward to hearing from you. Brenda
brendanorrell@gmail.com
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
WWW.WTF
I'll be the first to admit that I'm off the deep end about Television at times, but some of these comments I see in TV-related blogs can sometimes scare me.
Take, for example, this one in response to a question about what to cover during the summer doldrums:
I loved Marc's suggestion about posting about old shows, or maybe a "do you remember..." thread for shows like 'Holmes and Yoyo' and 'Mr. Merlin'. You and I are prob about the same age, so I think I would enjoy that. A sort of Proust meets Bellisario, if you will.
Proust and Bellisario? Why not Kierkegaard and Grant Tinker?
Luckily for my computer screen I had my spit-take tendencies curbed through dream regression therapy.....
BCnU!
Toby OB
Take, for example, this one in response to a question about what to cover during the summer doldrums:
I loved Marc's suggestion about posting about old shows, or maybe a "do you remember..." thread for shows like 'Holmes and Yoyo' and 'Mr. Merlin'. You and I are prob about the same age, so I think I would enjoy that. A sort of Proust meets Bellisario, if you will.
Proust and Bellisario? Why not Kierkegaard and Grant Tinker?
Luckily for my computer screen I had my spit-take tendencies curbed through dream regression therapy.....
BCnU!
Toby OB
Oglala Commemoration 2007
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
http://lpdctexas.blogspot.com/
Oglala Commemoration 2007
Updates An Army of One:
" We must each be an army of one on the endless struggle between the goodness we are capable of and the evil that threatens us all from without as well as from within. Yes, we can be an army of one. One good man or one good woman can change the world, can push back the evil, and their work can be a beacon for millions, for billions. Are you that man or woman? If so, may the Great Spirit bless you. If not, why not? We must each of us be that person. That will transform the world overnight. That would be a miracle, yes, but a miracle within our power, our healing power. To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart, from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance instead of prejudice, distrust, and hatred. We will have to teach our children ----as well as ourselves----to love the diversity of humanity. To heal we will have to make a conscious effort to live as the Creator intended, as sisters and others, all of one human family, caretakers of this fragile, perishable, and sacred Earth. To heal we will have come to the realization that we are all under a life sentence together...... and there's no chance for parole.We can do it - yes you and I and all of us together. Now is the time.Now is the only possible time."LET THE GREAT HEALING BEGIN
"Leonard Peltier From Prison Writings: My Life is a Sun Dance
Edited by : Harvey Arden
Please click here for a copy of Army of One flyer:
http://www.leonardpeltier.net/downloads/leonardword.pdf
Words to start your day, something to think about, something to act upon.
May the Great healing begin with you.
Join us for the 8th Oglala Commemoration on June 26th, 2007 in Oglala, South Dakota. A day of ceremony,a day of remembrance, and day of honoring, and a evening of awareness at the youth concert. This is a free event, opened to all family, friends and supporters of Leonard Peltier.We are very pleased to announce the following performers have confirmed:Arrow Space, (rez rock)Julian B (hip-hop)Native Era (Nammy nominated hip-hop)JD Nash (Nammy nominated southern rock and M'cee)Dale Alan (folk)More to be announced soon! This is a free event and we ask that you bring a school supply for the drive, we will be collecting school supplies for this event for the annual give-away.Education is the first step of empowerment.Quick Notes:
The auction is still opened. Take a look as this is our main support to pull this event together.
We have the "2006 Live" Oglala Commemoration Youth Concert on CD.
We will have a booth next weekend at the NAICCO "Moon when the Pony Sheds" pow-wow at the Franklin County fairgrounds just outside of Columbus, Ohio, this will be our last fund raiser for this year's event,Please be sure to sponsor our annual Pendleton Blanket Raffle
For more information about the Oglala Commemoration please visit the following website address: http://www.oglalacommemoration.com/
In Solidarity,
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee LPDC WEBSITE:http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
http://lpdctexas.blogspot.com/
Oglala Commemoration 2007
Updates An Army of One:
" We must each be an army of one on the endless struggle between the goodness we are capable of and the evil that threatens us all from without as well as from within. Yes, we can be an army of one. One good man or one good woman can change the world, can push back the evil, and their work can be a beacon for millions, for billions. Are you that man or woman? If so, may the Great Spirit bless you. If not, why not? We must each of us be that person. That will transform the world overnight. That would be a miracle, yes, but a miracle within our power, our healing power. To heal will require real effort, and a change of heart, from all of us. To heal means that we will begin to look upon one another with respect and tolerance instead of prejudice, distrust, and hatred. We will have to teach our children ----as well as ourselves----to love the diversity of humanity. To heal we will have to make a conscious effort to live as the Creator intended, as sisters and others, all of one human family, caretakers of this fragile, perishable, and sacred Earth. To heal we will have come to the realization that we are all under a life sentence together...... and there's no chance for parole.We can do it - yes you and I and all of us together. Now is the time.Now is the only possible time."LET THE GREAT HEALING BEGIN
"Leonard Peltier From Prison Writings: My Life is a Sun Dance
Edited by : Harvey Arden
Please click here for a copy of Army of One flyer:
http://www.leonardpeltier.net/downloads/leonardword.pdf
Words to start your day, something to think about, something to act upon.
May the Great healing begin with you.
Join us for the 8th Oglala Commemoration on June 26th, 2007 in Oglala, South Dakota. A day of ceremony,a day of remembrance, and day of honoring, and a evening of awareness at the youth concert. This is a free event, opened to all family, friends and supporters of Leonard Peltier.We are very pleased to announce the following performers have confirmed:Arrow Space, (rez rock)Julian B (hip-hop)Native Era (Nammy nominated hip-hop)JD Nash (Nammy nominated southern rock and M'cee)Dale Alan (folk)More to be announced soon! This is a free event and we ask that you bring a school supply for the drive, we will be collecting school supplies for this event for the annual give-away.Education is the first step of empowerment.Quick Notes:
The auction is still opened. Take a look as this is our main support to pull this event together.
We have the "2006 Live" Oglala Commemoration Youth Concert on CD.
We will have a booth next weekend at the NAICCO "Moon when the Pony Sheds" pow-wow at the Franklin County fairgrounds just outside of Columbus, Ohio, this will be our last fund raiser for this year's event,Please be sure to sponsor our annual Pendleton Blanket Raffle
For more information about the Oglala Commemoration please visit the following website address: http://www.oglalacommemoration.com/
In Solidarity,
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee LPDC WEBSITE:http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
Photo: Muscogee's Julian B/Courtesy photo Julian B
"Your blog is now so boring!!"
HEY!
You think every single day of your life is filled with exciting police car chases ending with precarious cliffs and then sailing your pirate boat over turbulent choppy waters is it??
LIFE GOT BORING DAYS THEN BLOG ALSO WILL HAVE BORING DAYS LA!!
Idiots.
I'd blog again when I got something interesting to write about.
Would also appreciate it if people who know where to buy garden swings let me know, wanna get one for the new place.
I WANT IT WHITE AND ENTWINED WITH GREEN VINES!!!
Chio!!
AH! I thought of something interesting to write about!!!
INSULTS THAT DON'T WORK!!!!!!
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??
Wanna throw insults at me to break me down? Perhaps, also stop me from blogging so that I can't lead the perfect life I am leading right now? To throw in a bonus, maybe also kill myself in the process?
NO, NOT GONNA WORK.
Besides the usual no-thinker insults like,
- I am fat
- I am boring
- I am ugly
recently there are also some new interesting insults I have received:
1) I stay in a HDB flat.
Errrrrrr....... And so I stay in a 3-room hdb flat cos my family is not rich. SO WHAT?
Honestly, if you think about it, so rich for WHAT? People will keep trying to borrow money from me lor!
I then don't want that sort of burden. I think it's way better to act poor. =D
LOL... It's so funny that people would tell me stuff like they stay in some shittyass private house and I am inferior to them.
Trying to justify your life now aren't you?
Why I wonder? Is it because you are ugly and lead a damn sad life? I won't trade a beautiful house for that. =)
2) Mike will dump me soon
Yes, he will definitely listen to you guys and dump me.
That is why he had forsaken everything that is familiar to him in the US, got a mass reduction in his expected US salary, and come to Singapore to live in our terrible weather.
;)
3) My neh nehs are very small.
NABEH NEH SMALL ALSO KENA!
BIG say I look like slut, SMALL then say I airport - I can never win lor.
Whatever, you guys. Comments disallowed, don't bother leaving any, they won't be approved.
Good day!!
You think every single day of your life is filled with exciting police car chases ending with precarious cliffs and then sailing your pirate boat over turbulent choppy waters is it??
LIFE GOT BORING DAYS THEN BLOG ALSO WILL HAVE BORING DAYS LA!!
Idiots.
I'd blog again when I got something interesting to write about.
Would also appreciate it if people who know where to buy garden swings let me know, wanna get one for the new place.
I WANT IT WHITE AND ENTWINED WITH GREEN VINES!!!
Chio!!
AH! I thought of something interesting to write about!!!
INSULTS THAT DON'T WORK!!!!!!
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE??
Wanna throw insults at me to break me down? Perhaps, also stop me from blogging so that I can't lead the perfect life I am leading right now? To throw in a bonus, maybe also kill myself in the process?
NO, NOT GONNA WORK.
Besides the usual no-thinker insults like,
- I am fat
- I am boring
- I am ugly
recently there are also some new interesting insults I have received:
1) I stay in a HDB flat.
Errrrrrr....... And so I stay in a 3-room hdb flat cos my family is not rich. SO WHAT?
Honestly, if you think about it, so rich for WHAT? People will keep trying to borrow money from me lor!
I then don't want that sort of burden. I think it's way better to act poor. =D
LOL... It's so funny that people would tell me stuff like they stay in some shittyass private house and I am inferior to them.
Trying to justify your life now aren't you?
Why I wonder? Is it because you are ugly and lead a damn sad life? I won't trade a beautiful house for that. =)
2) Mike will dump me soon
Yes, he will definitely listen to you guys and dump me.
That is why he had forsaken everything that is familiar to him in the US, got a mass reduction in his expected US salary, and come to Singapore to live in our terrible weather.
;)
3) My neh nehs are very small.
NABEH NEH SMALL ALSO KENA!
BIG say I look like slut, SMALL then say I airport - I can never win lor.
Whatever, you guys. Comments disallowed, don't bother leaving any, they won't be approved.
Good day!!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
THE MAILBOX SNAKE: O'BSERVATIONS ON THE "LOST" FINALE
Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, executive producers of 'Lost', have said for months that the third season finale would be a game changer. They called it "The Snake In The Mailbox".
And as a son of a letter carrier, I can tell ya - that was some mailbox snake!
Plenty of other sites have gone into detail about it. And I have to save a major chunk for a few days anyway for a special post. But these are just a few thoughts I had with a few Toobworld O'Bservations:
As everybody knows by now, the final scene was a reboot of the system. For three years, the "present" took place on the island, with most of the characters having flashbacks to their previous lives. But for these two hours, we weren't seeing Jack's flashbacks to his past, but "flashforths" of his time in the actual present time. Based on clues in those scenes, like the make of his phone (The KRZR wasn't released until October of 2006.), or some bridge graffiti (I've seen it alleged that there was a "PHS 2006" visible.), we were watching Jack as he is "now".
The island sequences in the finale were now the actual flashbacks.
In the present, Jack is now one seriously messed-up dude. And that fulfills the meaning of the show's title: Jack is more lost now than when he was stranded on that island.
According to that premenstrual Amazon bitch Bonnie, the code for the jamming signal had been programmed by a musician. Here's one of my pet theories, and it ties into another of mine (and that which is mine, is mine!): That musician who was working for the DHARMA Initiative was once a member of the rock group Geronimo Jackson. Let's face it, there has to be a reason for that band to keep popping up. (Their album "Magna Carta" was in the Hatch and the undercover agent at Locke's hippie commune was wearing the T-shirt.)
I also think that if you look at that album cover, easily to be found via a Google image search, one of the band members is striking a very Sawyeresque pose. It could be that he is actually the father of James Ford, and it was through his time in the band that he made all of his money - which drew Anthony Cooper to him as a mark for a con.
We've pretty much wrapped up Sawyer's storyline when it comes to his daddy issues in relation to the original Sawyer. It would be another venue to explore should he meet this DHARMA bum musician/computer programmer and find out that he was once a band-mate with his dad.
Here's an idea I have for what may develop over the coming season: having lost his best friend on the island, Hurley may step up to take the place of Charlie Pace in watching out for Claire and Aaron. (We saw that he had assumed some of that responsibility in preparing for the radio tower exodus while Charlie left for the Looking Glass Hatch.) I'm not saying that this will lead to romance, but at the same time, Hurley's a lovable guy so why shouldn't it?
One thing we know for sure - he could certainly provide for her and the baby once they got back to the mainland. (If in fact they do both leave. Although Desmond saw Claire and Aaron get on the rescue helicopter, maybe Hurley stays behind because his luck is better there.)
Desmond's dreams weren't always literal. He saw Charlie flicking the switch and then drowning. It wasn't as simple as flicking a switch - instead Charlie had to tap out the rhythm of "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys (perfect combo for this show!). And the drowning bit didn't follow immediately.
So what if it's not a rescue helicopter that he saw Claire and Aaron get into? Maybe it will be a black ops chopper from the Hanso Organization and they abduct Claire and the baby for some dark purposes off-island.
"Mailbox Snake" would make a great name for a band. I've already got it in mind for use in a Toobworld story.....
From TV.com:
When Charlie is about to drown in the looking glass he makes the sign of the cross. However he does it incorrectly. He touches the correct parts in the correct order, but he does make a fatal error; he uses his left hand instead of his right.
Charlie was such a religious person (even when he was a sinner), that it's inconceivable to this old altar boy that he could make a mistake like that. Even if you're a southpaw, the Church insisted that you make the Sign of the Cross with your right hand.
This show has been so attentive to its own details, could this really be a mistake? If so, I'm thinking that perhaps the film was reversed for some reason. But what if it wasn't done in error? I wouldn't put it past this show's creators to have had some hidden meaning for it.
Or, as with Jack's tattoos, they'll come up with some splainin for why it happened. Even if we don't want it, as with Jack's tattoos....
I sent an "Extra" in-joke to David Bianculli of the Daily News - that Kate was wearing Charlie's hoodie during the nighttime portion of the exodus. I think it was recognition of her off-screen sweetie's last episode......
It was the same zippered sweatshirt/windbreaker that Charlie was wearing during that first night on the island.
Ben told Richard Alpert to lead the rest of the Others to "the temple". I'm wondering if the temple has any connection to the remains of that four-toed statue?
And does the island provide yarmulkes at the temple?
I was sorry to see the character of Tom go; when it comes to villainous Others, he was a rather personable fellow. He was probably the show's best stand-in for Alan Hale as the Skipper.
But at the same time, I understood the justification Sawyer gave for killing him - in revenge for taking Walt off the boat. And Tom was in favor of killing Sayid, Jin, and Bernard against Ben's orders, something I would have thought was more in keeping with the personality of Ryan Pryce, the commando leader. (However, Pryce was not one to disobey orders.)
Speaking of following orders, there was a moment there when I thought Mikhail might break rank with Ben Linus, once he saw how much Ben had lied to them all about the Looking Glass Hatch. In the end, he did as he was told and killed Bonnie and Greta to make sure the communication jammer would never be activated. And when that failed, he nearly sacrificed his own life by detonating a grenade against the porthole to flood the communications room and drown Charlie.
(I say "nearly sacrificed his own life" because I'm not convinced Mikhail is dead. That Rasputin of 'Lost' will probably show up again someday, minus an arm perhaps - losing parts like Allardyce T. Merriweather in "Little Big Man" - but still alive and kicking.
Unless I actually see his body being chomped on by the DHARMA shark, I'll refrain from declaring him to be really most sincerely dead.)
Nice foot action by Sayid in killing that other Other. Had I been in that same situation, I could have done the same thing - except I'd just have to take the boots off and gas him like Ben's dear old Dad....
I wonder if Bernard's confession will ostracize him from the other 815ers, and especially his wife Rose? On the other hand (something Mikhail no longer has - an Other hand! ba dum dum!), we know she doesn't want to leave this island and may see his attempt to spare their lives as the only way they could guarantee both of them could stay there together.
I was sorry to see Marsha Thomason leave the show so soon after being introduced into the storyline. (The fembots of the Looking Glass Hatch were dispatched with even more dispatch, but they were little better than ciphers as characters.) In a way, Thomason's Naomi was this season's Leslie Arzt - introduced into the series with a sense that she'll be around for a while. I let my imagination cast forward in wondering what her flashback story might be, what was her full name and was it an anagram or had some link to a philosopher? Basically, the same kind of thing I did with Mr. Arzt before he blowed up real good.
Another reason it was a shame to lose her services on the show - Naomi was exotically beautiful and the island could always use that kind of scenery. Besides, the show has killed off way too many of the women over the last three seasons.
Perhaps we haven't seen the last of her - once they get around to pulling the knife out of her, maybe Naomi will begin to revive as Locke and Mikhail have been seen to do.
Or maybe Marsha Thomason might return to the series in another role. I get the feeling that there's supposed to be something to do with genetics when it comes to DHARMA research, which might be why Gary Troup's novel was called "Bad Twin". Perhaps when we see who else was aboard that freighter of hers, there's another woman who looks just like her; maybe even a whole platoon of them!
But the killing of Naomi totally pushed Locke into the villain category for me. (As if his selfish obsession to destroy the submarine and Mikhail's communication shack weren't bad enough to qualify.) I don't care if in the end he was right about trying to make sure they all stay on the island - that was morally wrong. Stabbing a woman in the back in order to prevent her from completing the call to the ship, and yet then not shooting Jack for trying to do the same thing? Bad guy. And one who can't even carry through with his convictions.
When Walt appeared to Locke while he was lying wounded in the mass grave, I'm convinced that it was a manifestation of the smoke monster, just as Eko's brother, Jack's Dad, Kate's horse and Sayid's cat were. And as such, quibbles about the height spurt by Malcolm David Kelley can be splained away by the smoke monster's fudging with the details.
But at least now, Walt can come back in some other "flashforth" since he grew too much to continue the island part of the story and yet still have it only be several months after the plane crash in 2004.
If so, it could tie in with one of several new mysteries for the last three seasons which were provided in Jack's "flashforth":
Who's in the coffin we saw when Jack went to the funeral and was the only person who showed up? I'm thinking it was for Michael Dawson, Walt's Dad. It was held in a black neighborhood of Los Angeles, probably similar to the one where Michael used to live during the Rodney King riots.
And the blowup of that newspaper clipping about the funeral seemed to suggest that whoever had died killed himself. After what Michael did to get himself and his son off the island, killing Ana Lucia and Libby, he deserved no better than the coward's way out. And it would also splain why nobody else bothered to show up to his funeral.
The clipping also suggested that the name of the deceased might begin with a "J" and end with "ntham", leading some to suggest that it's a "Jeremy Bentham", yet another philosopher name. Even so, Michael could have been using it as an alias.
Another "flashforth" mystery: Who is the mystery man Kate is living with now, off the island? (She said that she had to get back to him before he started wondering where she was.) Could it be Sawyer? Nathan Fillion's cop from Tallahassee? Some character from DHARMA we haven't met yet? Maybe she even hooks up with Richard Alpert?
And a third: What was the deal with Jack saying that his father was upstairs at the hospital - and probably drunk - when we saw that he was dead before Jack crashed on the island.
Or was he? Remember, the coffin was empty when Jack finally found where it landed. And even though he saw his Dad's body in the Sydney morgue, maybe Christian Shepherd was just temporarily paralyzed by the venom of a Medusa spider. (I believe now that those beasties have been introduced into the series, they better not be forgotten when it comes to island life!)
(I've read a LOT of online articles and interviews since this episode aired, so everything is starting to blend and blur. However, I think I may have read somewhere that Lindelof & Cuse have stated that Christian Shepherd is definitely dead. Not that it really matters - Death isn't all it's cracked up to be in this show!)
By now, readers of this blog post will have noticed that I've barely mentioned the sacrifice made by Charlie Pace, for me the high point of the episode. This is the segment I'm reserving for about three more days, and regular visitors to the site may figure out why......
All in all, this episode justified my claim that 'Lost' is one of the five best TV shows in my personal Toobworld pantheon. (Since you insist, the others are 'The Prisoner', 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', and 'Columbo'.) I've said it time and again that I'm in it for the ride, and Lindelof & Cuse have shown that nothing is presented in this series without reason.
Hurley's rescue mission in the Shambala DHARMA van proves that!
And finally, speaking of Hurley, I did have one small complaint which ties in with his appearance in the season finale:
Where was the Hurley bird?
For the last two season-enders, we got to see that weird bird fly at Hurley, screeching his name. It would have been a nice touch if it happened again while he was making that boastful challenge to the surviving Others via the walkie-talkie. (And by the way, with the finale, he and Bernard have joined the ranks of those among the survivors who have killed.....)
Well, sorry for the delay - not that I think anybody was on pins and needles waiting for my O'Bservations.......
Check back in a few days to see what I have in store for the late, great Charles Heironymous Pace......
BCnU!
Toby OB3
PS
"Jack Flashforth" would make a great name in a swashbuckler.....
And as a son of a letter carrier, I can tell ya - that was some mailbox snake!
Plenty of other sites have gone into detail about it. And I have to save a major chunk for a few days anyway for a special post. But these are just a few thoughts I had with a few Toobworld O'Bservations:
As everybody knows by now, the final scene was a reboot of the system. For three years, the "present" took place on the island, with most of the characters having flashbacks to their previous lives. But for these two hours, we weren't seeing Jack's flashbacks to his past, but "flashforths" of his time in the actual present time. Based on clues in those scenes, like the make of his phone (The KRZR wasn't released until October of 2006.), or some bridge graffiti (I've seen it alleged that there was a "PHS 2006" visible.), we were watching Jack as he is "now".
The island sequences in the finale were now the actual flashbacks.
In the present, Jack is now one seriously messed-up dude. And that fulfills the meaning of the show's title: Jack is more lost now than when he was stranded on that island.
According to that premenstrual Amazon bitch Bonnie, the code for the jamming signal had been programmed by a musician. Here's one of my pet theories, and it ties into another of mine (and that which is mine, is mine!): That musician who was working for the DHARMA Initiative was once a member of the rock group Geronimo Jackson. Let's face it, there has to be a reason for that band to keep popping up. (Their album "Magna Carta" was in the Hatch and the undercover agent at Locke's hippie commune was wearing the T-shirt.)
I also think that if you look at that album cover, easily to be found via a Google image search, one of the band members is striking a very Sawyeresque pose. It could be that he is actually the father of James Ford, and it was through his time in the band that he made all of his money - which drew Anthony Cooper to him as a mark for a con.
We've pretty much wrapped up Sawyer's storyline when it comes to his daddy issues in relation to the original Sawyer. It would be another venue to explore should he meet this DHARMA bum musician/computer programmer and find out that he was once a band-mate with his dad.
Here's an idea I have for what may develop over the coming season: having lost his best friend on the island, Hurley may step up to take the place of Charlie Pace in watching out for Claire and Aaron. (We saw that he had assumed some of that responsibility in preparing for the radio tower exodus while Charlie left for the Looking Glass Hatch.) I'm not saying that this will lead to romance, but at the same time, Hurley's a lovable guy so why shouldn't it?
One thing we know for sure - he could certainly provide for her and the baby once they got back to the mainland. (If in fact they do both leave. Although Desmond saw Claire and Aaron get on the rescue helicopter, maybe Hurley stays behind because his luck is better there.)
Desmond's dreams weren't always literal. He saw Charlie flicking the switch and then drowning. It wasn't as simple as flicking a switch - instead Charlie had to tap out the rhythm of "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys (perfect combo for this show!). And the drowning bit didn't follow immediately.
So what if it's not a rescue helicopter that he saw Claire and Aaron get into? Maybe it will be a black ops chopper from the Hanso Organization and they abduct Claire and the baby for some dark purposes off-island.
"Mailbox Snake" would make a great name for a band. I've already got it in mind for use in a Toobworld story.....
From TV.com:
When Charlie is about to drown in the looking glass he makes the sign of the cross. However he does it incorrectly. He touches the correct parts in the correct order, but he does make a fatal error; he uses his left hand instead of his right.
Charlie was such a religious person (even when he was a sinner), that it's inconceivable to this old altar boy that he could make a mistake like that. Even if you're a southpaw, the Church insisted that you make the Sign of the Cross with your right hand.
This show has been so attentive to its own details, could this really be a mistake? If so, I'm thinking that perhaps the film was reversed for some reason. But what if it wasn't done in error? I wouldn't put it past this show's creators to have had some hidden meaning for it.
Or, as with Jack's tattoos, they'll come up with some splainin for why it happened. Even if we don't want it, as with Jack's tattoos....
I sent an "Extra" in-joke to David Bianculli of the Daily News - that Kate was wearing Charlie's hoodie during the nighttime portion of the exodus. I think it was recognition of her off-screen sweetie's last episode......
It was the same zippered sweatshirt/windbreaker that Charlie was wearing during that first night on the island.
Ben told Richard Alpert to lead the rest of the Others to "the temple". I'm wondering if the temple has any connection to the remains of that four-toed statue?
And does the island provide yarmulkes at the temple?
I was sorry to see the character of Tom go; when it comes to villainous Others, he was a rather personable fellow. He was probably the show's best stand-in for Alan Hale as the Skipper.
But at the same time, I understood the justification Sawyer gave for killing him - in revenge for taking Walt off the boat. And Tom was in favor of killing Sayid, Jin, and Bernard against Ben's orders, something I would have thought was more in keeping with the personality of Ryan Pryce, the commando leader. (However, Pryce was not one to disobey orders.)
Speaking of following orders, there was a moment there when I thought Mikhail might break rank with Ben Linus, once he saw how much Ben had lied to them all about the Looking Glass Hatch. In the end, he did as he was told and killed Bonnie and Greta to make sure the communication jammer would never be activated. And when that failed, he nearly sacrificed his own life by detonating a grenade against the porthole to flood the communications room and drown Charlie.
(I say "nearly sacrificed his own life" because I'm not convinced Mikhail is dead. That Rasputin of 'Lost' will probably show up again someday, minus an arm perhaps - losing parts like Allardyce T. Merriweather in "Little Big Man" - but still alive and kicking.
Unless I actually see his body being chomped on by the DHARMA shark, I'll refrain from declaring him to be really most sincerely dead.)
Nice foot action by Sayid in killing that other Other. Had I been in that same situation, I could have done the same thing - except I'd just have to take the boots off and gas him like Ben's dear old Dad....
I wonder if Bernard's confession will ostracize him from the other 815ers, and especially his wife Rose? On the other hand (something Mikhail no longer has - an Other hand! ba dum dum!), we know she doesn't want to leave this island and may see his attempt to spare their lives as the only way they could guarantee both of them could stay there together.
I was sorry to see Marsha Thomason leave the show so soon after being introduced into the storyline. (The fembots of the Looking Glass Hatch were dispatched with even more dispatch, but they were little better than ciphers as characters.) In a way, Thomason's Naomi was this season's Leslie Arzt - introduced into the series with a sense that she'll be around for a while. I let my imagination cast forward in wondering what her flashback story might be, what was her full name and was it an anagram or had some link to a philosopher? Basically, the same kind of thing I did with Mr. Arzt before he blowed up real good.
Another reason it was a shame to lose her services on the show - Naomi was exotically beautiful and the island could always use that kind of scenery. Besides, the show has killed off way too many of the women over the last three seasons.
Perhaps we haven't seen the last of her - once they get around to pulling the knife out of her, maybe Naomi will begin to revive as Locke and Mikhail have been seen to do.
Or maybe Marsha Thomason might return to the series in another role. I get the feeling that there's supposed to be something to do with genetics when it comes to DHARMA research, which might be why Gary Troup's novel was called "Bad Twin". Perhaps when we see who else was aboard that freighter of hers, there's another woman who looks just like her; maybe even a whole platoon of them!
But the killing of Naomi totally pushed Locke into the villain category for me. (As if his selfish obsession to destroy the submarine and Mikhail's communication shack weren't bad enough to qualify.) I don't care if in the end he was right about trying to make sure they all stay on the island - that was morally wrong. Stabbing a woman in the back in order to prevent her from completing the call to the ship, and yet then not shooting Jack for trying to do the same thing? Bad guy. And one who can't even carry through with his convictions.
When Walt appeared to Locke while he was lying wounded in the mass grave, I'm convinced that it was a manifestation of the smoke monster, just as Eko's brother, Jack's Dad, Kate's horse and Sayid's cat were. And as such, quibbles about the height spurt by Malcolm David Kelley can be splained away by the smoke monster's fudging with the details.
But at least now, Walt can come back in some other "flashforth" since he grew too much to continue the island part of the story and yet still have it only be several months after the plane crash in 2004.
If so, it could tie in with one of several new mysteries for the last three seasons which were provided in Jack's "flashforth":
Who's in the coffin we saw when Jack went to the funeral and was the only person who showed up? I'm thinking it was for Michael Dawson, Walt's Dad. It was held in a black neighborhood of Los Angeles, probably similar to the one where Michael used to live during the Rodney King riots.
And the blowup of that newspaper clipping about the funeral seemed to suggest that whoever had died killed himself. After what Michael did to get himself and his son off the island, killing Ana Lucia and Libby, he deserved no better than the coward's way out. And it would also splain why nobody else bothered to show up to his funeral.
The clipping also suggested that the name of the deceased might begin with a "J" and end with "ntham", leading some to suggest that it's a "Jeremy Bentham", yet another philosopher name. Even so, Michael could have been using it as an alias.
Another "flashforth" mystery: Who is the mystery man Kate is living with now, off the island? (She said that she had to get back to him before he started wondering where she was.) Could it be Sawyer? Nathan Fillion's cop from Tallahassee? Some character from DHARMA we haven't met yet? Maybe she even hooks up with Richard Alpert?
And a third: What was the deal with Jack saying that his father was upstairs at the hospital - and probably drunk - when we saw that he was dead before Jack crashed on the island.
Or was he? Remember, the coffin was empty when Jack finally found where it landed. And even though he saw his Dad's body in the Sydney morgue, maybe Christian Shepherd was just temporarily paralyzed by the venom of a Medusa spider. (I believe now that those beasties have been introduced into the series, they better not be forgotten when it comes to island life!)
(I've read a LOT of online articles and interviews since this episode aired, so everything is starting to blend and blur. However, I think I may have read somewhere that Lindelof & Cuse have stated that Christian Shepherd is definitely dead. Not that it really matters - Death isn't all it's cracked up to be in this show!)
By now, readers of this blog post will have noticed that I've barely mentioned the sacrifice made by Charlie Pace, for me the high point of the episode. This is the segment I'm reserving for about three more days, and regular visitors to the site may figure out why......
All in all, this episode justified my claim that 'Lost' is one of the five best TV shows in my personal Toobworld pantheon. (Since you insist, the others are 'The Prisoner', 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show', 'The Dick Van Dyke Show', and 'Columbo'.) I've said it time and again that I'm in it for the ride, and Lindelof & Cuse have shown that nothing is presented in this series without reason.
Hurley's rescue mission in the Shambala DHARMA van proves that!
And finally, speaking of Hurley, I did have one small complaint which ties in with his appearance in the season finale:
Where was the Hurley bird?
For the last two season-enders, we got to see that weird bird fly at Hurley, screeching his name. It would have been a nice touch if it happened again while he was making that boastful challenge to the surviving Others via the walkie-talkie. (And by the way, with the finale, he and Bernard have joined the ranks of those among the survivors who have killed.....)
Well, sorry for the delay - not that I think anybody was on pins and needles waiting for my O'Bservations.......
Check back in a few days to see what I have in store for the late, great Charles Heironymous Pace......
BCnU!
Toby OB3
PS
"Jack Flashforth" would make a great name in a swashbuckler.....
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Santa Monica: On the beach with the dead in Iraq
Update: Boeing subsidiary sued over secret torture flights for CIA
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4848217.html
The human cost of the war in Iraq for Americans and Iraqis
Photos by Brenda Norrell
Veterans for Peace, Arlington West: Photos 1: Symbolic caskets represent the dead in Iraq, a sight which America is being shielded from 2. Each cross represents a soldier killed in Iraq. Photo 3: Faces of US soldiers killed in Iraq Photo 4: Some of the Iraqi victims 5. Crosses represent US soldiers killed in Iraq. 6. Iraqi killed; 655,000: If there was a cross for each Iraqi killed, the beach would be covered
by Brenda Norrell
By Sarah Olson
(APN) FORT STEWART – "Just because we volunteered, doesn't mean we volunteered to throw our lives away for nothing. You can only push human beings so far," Marc Train, 19, a soldier from America's heartland, stationed most recently in Fort Stewart, Georgia, says.
"Soldiers are going to Iraq multiple times. The reasons we're there are obviously lies. We're reaching a breaking point, and I believe you're going see a lot more resistance inside the military."
Train's a Private in the US Army, but the last time anyone saw him on base at Fort Stewart was March 16, 2007, just before he headed to Washington, DC, to protest the Occupation in which he is expected to fight.
Before leaving for DC, Train contacted Garett Reppenhagen, Chairman of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Train wanted to participate in the street theater protests Reppenhagen was organizing for Iraq veterans to mark the fourth anniversary of the Invasion.
"When I learned he was coming from Fort Stewart where he was still an active duty soldier, my first thought was, Wow, the kid has guts," Reppenhagen said.
Photos show Train at an anti-war demonstration outside the Pentagon that drew over 30,000 people on March 17, 2007. He was on stage with veterans and other GIs opposing the Occupation. In one hand he held an antiwar banner; in the other, a red flag, waving in the wind, high above his head.
"We parted that evening with plans for Marc to get a ride to the Operation First Casualty [street theater] preparation the next day," Reppenhagen recalls. "Marc never showed. Something deep down inside me figured he wasn't going back to Fort Stewart."
TRAIN’S JOURNEY INTO MILITARY SERVICE
Marc Train was an Army brat. His father, Eric, was stationed in Germany, where Marc spent the first three years of his life.
Eric Train was responsible for border security between East and West Germany. "He may have seen some bad things there," his son Marc says, uncertain. "I've heard stories from people stationed with my Dad. When people tried to cross from East to West, they'd get pretty torn up. They were shot down. My Dad might have been exposed to that."
When the Berlin Wall came down, Eric moved his family back to the United States. Seeking to spare them the monotony of an active duty lifestyle, Eric transferred to the Army Reserves.
When Eric couldn't find a job, he started drinking. Spiraling into debt, Eric and Charlene were in the process of splitting up. When young Marc Train was five, his father shot himself in the head with a deer-hunting rifle.
After that, Train went through a predictable string of psychotropic medications for young people with trauma.
At one point, he was spent a month at Charter Mental Hospital in Wichita, Kansas.
"I'm kind of a mamma's boy," Train says, laughing a little. "For 13 years, I put her through a lot... I never went to class and the school would call her job all the time. We'd get really frustrated and yell at each other. The cops would come and I'd get taken away to jail. My Mom always came to pick me up later, though."
Marc and his mother ended up in Salina, Kansas, a city that promised boom-time economic growth. Marc Train bounced from school to school just the same: Salina High School South, an alternative school, and finally the Job Corps. He graduated from the Job Corps with a GED.
Marc and his mother weren't hungry, but they still struggled to make ends meet. The family wasn't homeless, but they occasionally went to stay with his grandparents. Mostly, they just kept moving from place to place. Looking around, Train didn't see much in the way of a future ahead of him.
"I was in an economic trap," he says. "I just wanted to find some stability in my life. The Army seemed like just the thing. Going through school, they teach you implicitly, if you're [unsuccessful] here, you're gonna be [unsuccessful] forever. I needed a way out of that."
Train signed up for the Army under the delayed-entry program in the summer of 2005.
TRAIN’S JOURNEY OUT OF MILITARY SERVICE
On September 1, 2005, Marc Train was picked up at his house by a recruiter and delivered to the military entrance-processing station (MEPS) in Kansas City. Nine days later, Train ended up at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he began a new life on September 9, 2005.
"That was zero day," Train says, talking about the Army process of breaking down and rebuilding new recruits. "They tried to shatter everybody."
As Train's boyhood was being smashed out of him by Army drill instructors, he watched Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rip through the Gulf Coast of the US. As drill instructors tried to remake him into a US Army soldier, Train grew more and more critical of the government's callous response to the death and economic devastation in the region.
He knew the National Guard should have been around to assist with the disaster, but the troops were deployed in Iraq instead.
After Basic Training, Train spent 16 weeks at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, learning to be an intelligence analyst. He was given an interim top-secret security clearance, and after an initial investigation, would have access to highly sensitive compartmentalized intelligence.
"The really spooky, CIA stuff," Train explains, without going into further detail.
In April 2006, he arrived at his first duty station at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The problems began when Train started a blog critical of the US government's financial decisions. How could the Administration disburse funding to its pals at Halliburton's KBR and Bechtel, but allocate nothing for the people in the Gulf Coast, he asked. Along the way, Train says he may have been a bit disrespectful to those responsible.
Seeing as how his writings were posted anonymously, it shouldn't have mattered.
But when Train's commanders saw his blog, they hit the roof. On the grounds he was a threat to national security, his clearance was suspended. A months-long investigation resulted in the revocation of his top-secret security status and other disciplinary action. He could no longer do the only job he knew how to do.
"No one ever asked me if I intended to overthrow the government, or even if I would have supported that. If they had asked, I would have said no, because I wanted to support my unit," Train says. "I'd seen movies like Iraq for Sale, and I had heard about the scandal at Abu Ghraib. I wanted to use my knowledge to support our mission and help the people in Iraq. But no one asked me.”
Train says his commanders told him they “thought I was an infiltration and espionage threat."
In November 2006, Train's security clearance was formally revoked and his commanding officer started to talk seriously about Train leaving the Army. Train agreed he and the Army weren't such a good fit anymore. He filled out a separation packet, and was pulled off the deployment roster in January 2007. His paperwork made its way through the chain of command.
By every indication, Train was on his way to getting out of the Army.
By this time, Train had signed the Appeal for Redress, an online petition for active duty members of the military. He joined IVAW and was developing a political critique of the policies that supported the Invasion of Iraq.
In February 2007, Train began hearing rumors his discharge had been rejected and he would be sent to Iraq anyway. His Rear Detachment Commander eventually confirmed the rumors, saying Train would deploy as an 11Bravo infantryman, with generic assignments and combat responsibilities.
"Everyone in the Army gets a few combat skills. But infantry? It's not what I was trained for," Marc says. "It would have been a suicide mission."
Train knew the threats were serious when he was sent to the rapid fielding initiative (RFI) and equipped for deployment.
Because he wasn't reclassified with more useful duties or properly prepared for the ones to which he was now assigned, Train became convinced going AWOL was his best option.
He left for the March 17, 2007, protests in Washington, DC, knowing he wouldn't return to Fort Stewart. Train arranged to meet other GIs in DC.
Jonathan Hutto, Cofounder of the Appeal for Redress, didn't know about Train's plans, but no soldier makes the decision to go AWOL lightly, he says.
"I support any and everyone who has been driven to go AWOL," says Hutto, himself an active duty member of the Navy. "It's not his fault he went AWOL. It's the government's fault for committing this war and creating such an untenable situation."
Like Hutto, IVAW’s Garett Reppenhagen says Train going AWOL was an understandable choice given the circumstances. "I also would have supported him if he had gone back and continued service," Reppenhagen said.
"I have a huge pain in my heart, like it's literally breaking," Train said after leaving Washington, DC.
SOLDIER QUESTIONS RECRUITMENT IN SCHOOLS
"The recruiters are coming into these inner-city schools, full of kids who are already going to have a hard life, harder than most people. When the same kids come back with post-traumatic stress disorder, the military denies them benefits. It sickens me because I wore that uniform. I represented a system of treating people like garbage."
The militarization of America's schools is shocking, Train says. "They're creating a culture of conformity. They're teaching kids to lash out at anything different." Train notes the metal detectors, the security guards on every floor, and students wearing uniform-like clothes.
"I want to counter the whole idea that just because you think you might have messed up one area of your life, your life is ruined forever," Train says.
He doesn't know specifics, but in the long run knows his future work will have something to do with giving young people hope. "I want to build support networks for troubled kids so they don't have to join the military."
"Regardless of what the mainstream media says about troops supporting the war, a lot of people around me disagreed with the policies," Train says.
"Recruiting is down. The length and number of tours is up. GIs are exhausted, and we're angry. When a bunch of uniformed soldiers say the war is [messed] up, the anger begins to spill over. There's going to be a breaking point soon. The Army already has a situation on its hands."
About the author:
Sarah Olson is an independent journalist and radio producer based in Oakland, CA. She can be reached at solson75@yahoo.com. Olson was previously featured in Atlanta Progressive News for objecting to testifying against another Iraq objector who she interviewed, Lt. Ehren Watada, in his recent tribunel.
Syndication policy:
This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/business/4848217.html
The human cost of the war in Iraq for Americans and Iraqis
Photos by Brenda Norrell
Veterans for Peace, Arlington West: Photos 1: Symbolic caskets represent the dead in Iraq, a sight which America is being shielded from 2. Each cross represents a soldier killed in Iraq. Photo 3: Faces of US soldiers killed in Iraq Photo 4: Some of the Iraqi victims 5. Crosses represent US soldiers killed in Iraq. 6. Iraqi killed; 655,000: If there was a cross for each Iraqi killed, the beach would be coveredby Brenda Norrell
SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- The human cost of the war in Iraq is stretched out on the white sand of the beach in Santa Monica, in white and red crosses, photos and symbolic flag-draped caskets, this Memorial Day weekend.
Some visitors have come for a holiday and are now jolted to the reality of war; the price being paid by the people of the world.
"Horrible," a parent says, then tries to explain to his children why these young soldiers have died. He can not think of any explanation to justify their deaths.
Others place lilies and carnations on the crosses. These are private moments filled with sorrow and strength. In the guest book, they write loving notes, remembering their brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, and friends.
The Iraqi dead are also remembered. There are photos of children and a reminder that if there were crosses representing the Iraqi killed in the war, that crosses would cover the vastness of the beach.
The Arlington West, Iraq War Memorial, is both a tribute to the sacrifice and courage of those who have died and a call for the end to war. It is a reminder that war is not selective in its victims.
Ultimately, this is the face of humanity, the dead and those left behind with suffering and grief. It touches everyone.
The flag-covered coffins bear witness to those whose deaths have not been publicized. For this, there is shame in the U.S. The dead have been buried in silence, away from the eyes of the masses.
They have died without the screams of their mothers being heard.
--bn
For more information:
Arlington West
Iraq War Memorial
Veterans of Peace
.
Related news articles:
Major General fired by CBS for anti-war advocacy:
War profiteers rewarded with billions
UPDATE:
A Soldier in Iraq Asks in Despair: Why Are We Here?
By Donald C. Hudson, Jr.
Clarksville, Tennessee Online
Tuesday 29 May 2007
After watching his roommate fatally wounded in a roadside bombing, an Army private wonders why the lives of good men are being lost when the Iraqis pose no threat to us and don't want us there.
Baghdad -- My name is Donald Hudson Jr. I have been serving our country's military actively for the last three years. I am currently deployed to Baghdad on Forward Operating Base Loyalty, where I have been for the last four and a half months.I came here as part of the first wave of this so called "troop surge", but so far it has effectively done nothing to quell insurgent violence. I have seen the rise in violence between the Sunni and Shiite. This country is in the middle of a civil war that has been on going since the seventh century.Why are we here when this country still to date does not want us here? Why does our president's personal agenda consume him so much, that he can not pay attention to what is really going on here?Let me tell you a story. On May 10, I was out on a convoy mission to move barriers from a market to a joint security station. It was no different from any other night, except the improvised explosive device that hit our convoy this time, actually pierced through the armor of one of our trucks. The truck was immediately engulfed in flames, the driver lost control and wrecked the truck into one of the buildings lining the street. I was the driver of the lead truck in our convoy; the fifth out of six was the one that got hit. All I could hear over the radio was a friend from the sixth truck screaming that the fifth truck was burning up real bad, and that they needed fire extinguishers real bad. So I turned my truck around and drove through concrete barriers to get to the burning truck as quickly as I could. I stopped 30 meters short of the burning truck, got out and ripped my fire extinguisher out of its holder, and ran to the truck. I ran past another friend of mine on the way tothe burning truck, he was screaming something but I could not make it out. I opened the driver's door to the truck and was immediately overcome by the flames. I sprayed the extinguisher into the door, and then I saw my roommate's leg. He was the gunner of that truck. His leg was across the driver's seat that was on fire and the rest of his body was further in the truck. My fire extinguisher died and I climbed into the truck to attempt to save him. I got to where his head was, in the back passenger-side seat. I grabbed his shoulders and attempted to pull him from the truck out the driver's door. I finally got him out of the truck head first. His face had been badly burned. His leg was horribly wounded. We placed him on a spine board and did our best to attempt "Buddy Aid". We heard him trying to gasp for air. He had a pulse and was breathing, but was not responsive. He was placed into a truck and rushed to the "Green Zone", where he died within the hour. His name was Michael K. Frank. He was 36 years old. He was a great friend of mine and a mentor to most of us younger soldiers here.Now I am still here in this country wondering why, and having to pick up the pieces of what is left of my friend in our room. I would just like to know what is the true reason we are here? This country poses no threat to our own. So why must we waste the lives of good men on a country that does not give a damn about itself? Most of my friends here share my views, but do not have the courage to say anything.----------
Donald C. Hudson Jr. is a private assigned to the 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
Fort Stewart Soldier, Blogger Goes AWOL, Objects to Iraq Deployment
By Sarah Olson
Special to The Atlanta Progressive News (June 11, 2007)
(APN) FORT STEWART – "Just because we volunteered, doesn't mean we volunteered to throw our lives away for nothing. You can only push human beings so far," Marc Train, 19, a soldier from America's heartland, stationed most recently in Fort Stewart, Georgia, says.
"Soldiers are going to Iraq multiple times. The reasons we're there are obviously lies. We're reaching a breaking point, and I believe you're going see a lot more resistance inside the military."
Train's a Private in the US Army, but the last time anyone saw him on base at Fort Stewart was March 16, 2007, just before he headed to Washington, DC, to protest the Occupation in which he is expected to fight.
Before leaving for DC, Train contacted Garett Reppenhagen, Chairman of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Train wanted to participate in the street theater protests Reppenhagen was organizing for Iraq veterans to mark the fourth anniversary of the Invasion.
"When I learned he was coming from Fort Stewart where he was still an active duty soldier, my first thought was, Wow, the kid has guts," Reppenhagen said.
Photos show Train at an anti-war demonstration outside the Pentagon that drew over 30,000 people on March 17, 2007. He was on stage with veterans and other GIs opposing the Occupation. In one hand he held an antiwar banner; in the other, a red flag, waving in the wind, high above his head.
"We parted that evening with plans for Marc to get a ride to the Operation First Casualty [street theater] preparation the next day," Reppenhagen recalls. "Marc never showed. Something deep down inside me figured he wasn't going back to Fort Stewart."
TRAIN’S JOURNEY INTO MILITARY SERVICE
Marc Train was an Army brat. His father, Eric, was stationed in Germany, where Marc spent the first three years of his life.
Eric Train was responsible for border security between East and West Germany. "He may have seen some bad things there," his son Marc says, uncertain. "I've heard stories from people stationed with my Dad. When people tried to cross from East to West, they'd get pretty torn up. They were shot down. My Dad might have been exposed to that."
When the Berlin Wall came down, Eric moved his family back to the United States. Seeking to spare them the monotony of an active duty lifestyle, Eric transferred to the Army Reserves.
When Eric couldn't find a job, he started drinking. Spiraling into debt, Eric and Charlene were in the process of splitting up. When young Marc Train was five, his father shot himself in the head with a deer-hunting rifle.
After that, Train went through a predictable string of psychotropic medications for young people with trauma.
At one point, he was spent a month at Charter Mental Hospital in Wichita, Kansas.
"I'm kind of a mamma's boy," Train says, laughing a little. "For 13 years, I put her through a lot... I never went to class and the school would call her job all the time. We'd get really frustrated and yell at each other. The cops would come and I'd get taken away to jail. My Mom always came to pick me up later, though."
Marc and his mother ended up in Salina, Kansas, a city that promised boom-time economic growth. Marc Train bounced from school to school just the same: Salina High School South, an alternative school, and finally the Job Corps. He graduated from the Job Corps with a GED.
Marc and his mother weren't hungry, but they still struggled to make ends meet. The family wasn't homeless, but they occasionally went to stay with his grandparents. Mostly, they just kept moving from place to place. Looking around, Train didn't see much in the way of a future ahead of him.
"I was in an economic trap," he says. "I just wanted to find some stability in my life. The Army seemed like just the thing. Going through school, they teach you implicitly, if you're [unsuccessful] here, you're gonna be [unsuccessful] forever. I needed a way out of that."
Train signed up for the Army under the delayed-entry program in the summer of 2005.
TRAIN’S JOURNEY OUT OF MILITARY SERVICE
On September 1, 2005, Marc Train was picked up at his house by a recruiter and delivered to the military entrance-processing station (MEPS) in Kansas City. Nine days later, Train ended up at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he began a new life on September 9, 2005.
"That was zero day," Train says, talking about the Army process of breaking down and rebuilding new recruits. "They tried to shatter everybody."
As Train's boyhood was being smashed out of him by Army drill instructors, he watched Hurricanes Katrina and Rita rip through the Gulf Coast of the US. As drill instructors tried to remake him into a US Army soldier, Train grew more and more critical of the government's callous response to the death and economic devastation in the region.
He knew the National Guard should have been around to assist with the disaster, but the troops were deployed in Iraq instead.
After Basic Training, Train spent 16 weeks at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, learning to be an intelligence analyst. He was given an interim top-secret security clearance, and after an initial investigation, would have access to highly sensitive compartmentalized intelligence.
"The really spooky, CIA stuff," Train explains, without going into further detail.
In April 2006, he arrived at his first duty station at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
The problems began when Train started a blog critical of the US government's financial decisions. How could the Administration disburse funding to its pals at Halliburton's KBR and Bechtel, but allocate nothing for the people in the Gulf Coast, he asked. Along the way, Train says he may have been a bit disrespectful to those responsible.
Seeing as how his writings were posted anonymously, it shouldn't have mattered.
But when Train's commanders saw his blog, they hit the roof. On the grounds he was a threat to national security, his clearance was suspended. A months-long investigation resulted in the revocation of his top-secret security status and other disciplinary action. He could no longer do the only job he knew how to do.
"No one ever asked me if I intended to overthrow the government, or even if I would have supported that. If they had asked, I would have said no, because I wanted to support my unit," Train says. "I'd seen movies like Iraq for Sale, and I had heard about the scandal at Abu Ghraib. I wanted to use my knowledge to support our mission and help the people in Iraq. But no one asked me.”
Train says his commanders told him they “thought I was an infiltration and espionage threat."
In November 2006, Train's security clearance was formally revoked and his commanding officer started to talk seriously about Train leaving the Army. Train agreed he and the Army weren't such a good fit anymore. He filled out a separation packet, and was pulled off the deployment roster in January 2007. His paperwork made its way through the chain of command.
By every indication, Train was on his way to getting out of the Army.
By this time, Train had signed the Appeal for Redress, an online petition for active duty members of the military. He joined IVAW and was developing a political critique of the policies that supported the Invasion of Iraq.
In February 2007, Train began hearing rumors his discharge had been rejected and he would be sent to Iraq anyway. His Rear Detachment Commander eventually confirmed the rumors, saying Train would deploy as an 11Bravo infantryman, with generic assignments and combat responsibilities.
"Everyone in the Army gets a few combat skills. But infantry? It's not what I was trained for," Marc says. "It would have been a suicide mission."
Train knew the threats were serious when he was sent to the rapid fielding initiative (RFI) and equipped for deployment.
Because he wasn't reclassified with more useful duties or properly prepared for the ones to which he was now assigned, Train became convinced going AWOL was his best option.
He left for the March 17, 2007, protests in Washington, DC, knowing he wouldn't return to Fort Stewart. Train arranged to meet other GIs in DC.
Jonathan Hutto, Cofounder of the Appeal for Redress, didn't know about Train's plans, but no soldier makes the decision to go AWOL lightly, he says.
"I support any and everyone who has been driven to go AWOL," says Hutto, himself an active duty member of the Navy. "It's not his fault he went AWOL. It's the government's fault for committing this war and creating such an untenable situation."
Like Hutto, IVAW’s Garett Reppenhagen says Train going AWOL was an understandable choice given the circumstances. "I also would have supported him if he had gone back and continued service," Reppenhagen said.
"I have a huge pain in my heart, like it's literally breaking," Train said after leaving Washington, DC.
SOLDIER QUESTIONS RECRUITMENT IN SCHOOLS
"The recruiters are coming into these inner-city schools, full of kids who are already going to have a hard life, harder than most people. When the same kids come back with post-traumatic stress disorder, the military denies them benefits. It sickens me because I wore that uniform. I represented a system of treating people like garbage."
The militarization of America's schools is shocking, Train says. "They're creating a culture of conformity. They're teaching kids to lash out at anything different." Train notes the metal detectors, the security guards on every floor, and students wearing uniform-like clothes.
"I want to counter the whole idea that just because you think you might have messed up one area of your life, your life is ruined forever," Train says.
He doesn't know specifics, but in the long run knows his future work will have something to do with giving young people hope. "I want to build support networks for troubled kids so they don't have to join the military."
"Regardless of what the mainstream media says about troops supporting the war, a lot of people around me disagreed with the policies," Train says.
"Recruiting is down. The length and number of tours is up. GIs are exhausted, and we're angry. When a bunch of uniformed soldiers say the war is [messed] up, the anger begins to spill over. There's going to be a breaking point soon. The Army already has a situation on its hands."
About the author:
Sarah Olson is an independent journalist and radio producer based in Oakland, CA. She can be reached at solson75@yahoo.com. Olson was previously featured in Atlanta Progressive News for objecting to testifying against another Iraq objector who she interviewed, Lt. Ehren Watada, in his recent tribunel.
Syndication policy:
This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited.
Friday, May 25, 2007
NUFFNANG!!
Advertorial
For those of you who thought I just wrote some gibberish as my title, well, you are horribly mistaken!
Nuffnang actually means Real Cool/Good in Jafaikan, in which I have no idea what Jafaikan is, so it is still kinda gibberish.
But good gibberish.
Thus begins the story of Nuffnang.com.sg.
Some months ago, my friend Ming gave me a call, saying he would like to treat me (+ Mike whom he also wants to meet) to a meal to discuss a business idea he has.
I was a bit jaded about people wanting to share "business ideas" with me, but Ming was very persistent and insisted on treating us at his (dad's) country club + picking us up so I didn't reject him... haha.
When we met up, he told me an idea that I actually thought of before: An agency for bloggers.
Well, KINDA like an agency you know... The idea is that to get all the bloggers together and sell their combined hits to advertisers - this way, even the small bloggers get a share of the advertising pie. :)
But there's so much involved in this, like how much each blogger should get, how you know how much hits a blogger gets anyway, and it's not even known if advertisers would be interested because this is not tried before, etc...
SO...
I thought Ming was just talking out of his ass, albeit in a very excited dreamy tone.
(Sorry la Ming, it did sound like a ridiculously grand plan what!)
Two months later, Nuffnang Malaysia, Asia's first blog advertising agency, was launched.
Hundreds of Malaysian bloggers rushed to sign up (1,700 so far), and Nuffnang was even the 4th most searched topic on technorati at one point!
(BTW Nuffnang is founded by Ming, who is Singaporean, and his friend Timothy, who is Malaysian, so the company is half M'sian and half S'porean.)
When Ming told me about me, I can't help but say "Wow...", because honestly, lots of people have smashing ideas, but how many of them do execute it?
And Ming, being resourceful as usual, actually had Nike Singapore as his first advertiser!!
Now, the top earning Malaysia blogger (Ahem Mr Sia!) is getting like RM1,000 per week, and the average small-time bloggers get like 20 buck per week too!!
BU HUI SHIOK???????
If I get 1,000 per week hor I will be damn rich can?! I'd be earning like, like, at least 6k a month????????
(I said at least - that's not to be saying I earn only 2k per month, idiots)
I KNOW ALL OF YOU WILL WANT TO BE MY FRIEND!!
Must start to pay taxes already! Buy car! Learn to drive first! Get platinum credit card! IPL armpits!!
Back to serious topic.
Ming's philosophy for the company is that it is not only getting money for bloggers (as well as earning a bit on the way la), it is also BY BLOGGERS FOR BLOGGERS.
Their little side aim is to forge a stronger community among the bloggers.
Although I despise a lot of the Malaysian bloggers who signed up, I must still say it's a good effort.
250 Nuffnangers were invited to go watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in KL yesterday!! (BTW it's a bit slow, the movie. I watched it in Singapore yesterday with Mike)
Hiyah!
To cut the long story short, I've just got good news for you mediocre bloggers!! (I know, I am so deliciously arrogant)
No longer do you have to sigh and complain about how you can't earn from your meagre amount of hits!
As long as you have more than 20 unique hits a day, you can get a share of the pie too!!
Of course your share will not be as big as mine la teeheeheehee.
If you want to try signing up, there is even a chance of winning a PSP!
Shiok or not?
You can sign up here!
You guys can thank me later for the recommendation. =D
p/s: Yes I know that's two advertorials in a row. Although you are doing nothing but reading a blog you think might be updated with something interesting, you still feel like you have the right to tell me I am cheating you. Shut up, I'll be updating my NY pictures soon. Been fucking busy.
For those of you who thought I just wrote some gibberish as my title, well, you are horribly mistaken!
Nuffnang actually means Real Cool/Good in Jafaikan, in which I have no idea what Jafaikan is, so it is still kinda gibberish.
But good gibberish.
Thus begins the story of Nuffnang.com.sg.
Some months ago, my friend Ming gave me a call, saying he would like to treat me (+ Mike whom he also wants to meet) to a meal to discuss a business idea he has.
I was a bit jaded about people wanting to share "business ideas" with me, but Ming was very persistent and insisted on treating us at his (dad's) country club + picking us up so I didn't reject him... haha.
When we met up, he told me an idea that I actually thought of before: An agency for bloggers.
Well, KINDA like an agency you know... The idea is that to get all the bloggers together and sell their combined hits to advertisers - this way, even the small bloggers get a share of the advertising pie. :)
Xiaxue = 30,000 daily hits = Advertisers think it's too little for big scale advertising
Xiaxue + hundreds of bloggers with 200 daily hits = 100,000 daily = Advertisers pay
But there's so much involved in this, like how much each blogger should get, how you know how much hits a blogger gets anyway, and it's not even known if advertisers would be interested because this is not tried before, etc...
SO...
I thought Ming was just talking out of his ass, albeit in a very excited dreamy tone.
(Sorry la Ming, it did sound like a ridiculously grand plan what!)
Two months later, Nuffnang Malaysia, Asia's first blog advertising agency, was launched.
Hundreds of Malaysian bloggers rushed to sign up (1,700 so far), and Nuffnang was even the 4th most searched topic on technorati at one point!
(BTW Nuffnang is founded by Ming, who is Singaporean, and his friend Timothy, who is Malaysian, so the company is half M'sian and half S'porean.)
When Ming told me about me, I can't help but say "Wow...", because honestly, lots of people have smashing ideas, but how many of them do execute it?
And Ming, being resourceful as usual, actually had Nike Singapore as his first advertiser!!
Now, the top earning Malaysia blogger (Ahem Mr Sia!) is getting like RM1,000 per week, and the average small-time bloggers get like 20 buck per week too!!
BU HUI SHIOK???????
If I get 1,000 per week hor I will be damn rich can?! I'd be earning like, like, at least 6k a month????????
(I said at least - that's not to be saying I earn only 2k per month, idiots)
I KNOW ALL OF YOU WILL WANT TO BE MY FRIEND!!
Must start to pay taxes already! Buy car! Learn to drive first! Get platinum credit card! IPL armpits!!
Back to serious topic.
Ming's philosophy for the company is that it is not only getting money for bloggers (as well as earning a bit on the way la), it is also BY BLOGGERS FOR BLOGGERS.
Their little side aim is to forge a stronger community among the bloggers.
Although I despise a lot of the Malaysian bloggers who signed up, I must still say it's a good effort.
The hard-working Nuffnang team
250 Nuffnangers were invited to go watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 in KL yesterday!! (BTW it's a bit slow, the movie. I watched it in Singapore yesterday with Mike)
Hiyah!
To cut the long story short, I've just got good news for you mediocre bloggers!! (I know, I am so deliciously arrogant)
No longer do you have to sigh and complain about how you can't earn from your meagre amount of hits!
As long as you have more than 20 unique hits a day, you can get a share of the pie too!!
Of course your share will not be as big as mine la teeheeheehee.
If you want to try signing up, there is even a chance of winning a PSP!
Shiok or not?
You can sign up here!
You guys can thank me later for the recommendation. =D
p/s: Yes I know that's two advertorials in a row. Although you are doing nothing but reading a blog you think might be updated with something interesting, you still feel like you have the right to tell me I am cheating you. Shut up, I'll be updating my NY pictures soon. Been fucking busy.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Desert Rock power plant: BIA issues death certificate for Navajos
UPDATE: VANDALS ATTACK DOODA DESERT ROCK:
http://www.desert-rock-blog.com/
Navajos fight the 'Lords and puppets' of corporations and spin doctors
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SHIPROCK, N.M. -- The BIA's cozy relationship with Navajo politicians and the corporation Sithe Global was obvious in the BIA's recommendation to build the Desert Rock power plant, the third power plant in the Four Corners area.
Navajos said the draft environmental impact statement is no more than another alien document, another BIA-issued death certificate for the Navajo people.
"This BIA EIS is hogwash" said the founding Doodá Desert Rock Committee president, Sarah Jane White.
"They already made their decision to approve the project and this DEIS is just going to justify their decision," said the Navajo from Sanostee.
"But not if I can help it, our elders and our youth are ready to stand with us against the Sithe Lords and their puppet DPA (Dine' Power Authority)."
The Four Corners area has long been considered a sacrifice zone, attracting death machines such as the uranium industry during the Cold War and more recently power plants and oil and gas industries. This region is also Dinetah, the sacred place of Dine' origin.
For energy companies, the way has been paved by Navajo politicians. Navajo politicians receive the bulk of their salaries from energy industries and approve the tribal leases. The bulk of the Navajo Nation Council delegates' salaries and travel expenses come from taxes and royalties from the polluting industries of power plants, coal mines and oil and gas wells.
While the air, land and water are polluted, many Navajo elderly live without running water and electricity, while the nearly all of the power that is produced is transported to non-Indians.
Navajos are speaking out against the environmental destruction and the environmental racism that has made Navajo people the target. However, each time they speak out, highly-paid spin doctors known as press officers try to silence them, claiming that building another power plant is the only way the Navajo government can provide jobs.
Bradley Angel of Greenaction sent a message to Navajo President Joe, Shirley, Jr.
"Why are you so pleased to push a coal-fired power plant that would contribute to global warming, contaminate the air with asthma-inducing pollutants and cause the eviction of Navajo elders from their homes … and of course, disturb the burials and cultural sites in the immediate vicinity of Desert Rock.
"Shame."
While pushing for the Desert Rock power plant, at the same time President Shirley said he opposes new uranium mining and the desecration of Navajo sacred sites.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration pushes for more power plants nationwide, as part of the overall scheme to enrich profits for a small circle of corporations. At the same time, Navajos continue to be sacrificed in Bush's bogus war in Iraq. In Iraq, the same corporate scenario plays out. Bush's corporate friends with US contracts are not only making the profits, but are finding it easy to pocket billions without any justification, a fact recently exposed by Congress.
Dine' Citizens Against Ruining the Environment points out the death trap of still another power plant here.
"The BIA's recommended approval of the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project is a step backward from even minimal environmental protection because the planned power plant will only worsen the air pollution problem in the already over polluted San Juan Basin air shed.
"Combined with deadly air contaminants from the nearby Four Corners and San Juan power plants, Desert Rock will literally create a triangle of death in the northern Navajo Nation where Navajo people have long suffered epidemic levels of asthma, black lung disease, and other respiratory diseases caused by the decades of chronic exposure to persistent and accumulative airborne pollutants emitted by the existing industrial death factories on and near the affected reservation," Dine CARE said in a written statement.
The draft environmental impact statement process is also fatally flawed. The project proponents paid for the two-year study.
"So not surprisingly, the pre-biased or prejudiced environmental analysis (or draft EIS) supported the controversial project. Under the guise of impartial environmental review, the governmental and corporate agents of genocide produced a pre-decisional document designed to justify a bad project and one that is opposed by the very people who live in the shadow of its 580-acre 'footprint.'
"That document, written in the technical language of the alien invaders, is nothing less than a BIA-issued death certificate for those brave indigenous Diné who hold the sacred ground at Ram Springs."
Dine CARE said the BIA is engaged in a campaign built on deceit and treachery.
"It completed its draft EIS making it accessible only on the Internet.
"How many of our people have Internet access? How many of them even have electricity? Adding to its deliberate misinformation, the Bureau also announced that it will publish the draft’s 'Notice of Availability' in the Federal Register in early June. How many of our people read the Federal Register? How many of them even read the legal notices section in the Navajo Times?
"The federal Indian agency then announced that it will hold public hearings on the 'available' draft EIS beginning in mid-June. It took them over two years to produce the DEIS and it is atrocious that they expect the Navajo public to review and present oral comments on the voluminous technical document in less than a week or two," Dine' CARE said.
But don't expect to read much of that in the newspapers.
Whenever editors do publish the statements of Dine' CARE, the spin doctors come out like starving dogs with gnashing teeth, attacking anyone who publishes the words of Dine' CARE and anyone who champions the voices of the grassroots Navajo people.
Editors of publications that pander to tribal politicians won't publish these words. Others won't even care.
Return to Censored homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
http://www.desert-rock-blog.com/
Navajos fight the 'Lords and puppets' of corporations and spin doctors
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
SHIPROCK, N.M. -- The BIA's cozy relationship with Navajo politicians and the corporation Sithe Global was obvious in the BIA's recommendation to build the Desert Rock power plant, the third power plant in the Four Corners area.
Navajos said the draft environmental impact statement is no more than another alien document, another BIA-issued death certificate for the Navajo people.
"This BIA EIS is hogwash" said the founding Doodá Desert Rock Committee president, Sarah Jane White.
"They already made their decision to approve the project and this DEIS is just going to justify their decision," said the Navajo from Sanostee.
"But not if I can help it, our elders and our youth are ready to stand with us against the Sithe Lords and their puppet DPA (Dine' Power Authority)."
The Four Corners area has long been considered a sacrifice zone, attracting death machines such as the uranium industry during the Cold War and more recently power plants and oil and gas industries. This region is also Dinetah, the sacred place of Dine' origin.
For energy companies, the way has been paved by Navajo politicians. Navajo politicians receive the bulk of their salaries from energy industries and approve the tribal leases. The bulk of the Navajo Nation Council delegates' salaries and travel expenses come from taxes and royalties from the polluting industries of power plants, coal mines and oil and gas wells.
While the air, land and water are polluted, many Navajo elderly live without running water and electricity, while the nearly all of the power that is produced is transported to non-Indians.
Navajos are speaking out against the environmental destruction and the environmental racism that has made Navajo people the target. However, each time they speak out, highly-paid spin doctors known as press officers try to silence them, claiming that building another power plant is the only way the Navajo government can provide jobs.
Bradley Angel of Greenaction sent a message to Navajo President Joe, Shirley, Jr.
"Why are you so pleased to push a coal-fired power plant that would contribute to global warming, contaminate the air with asthma-inducing pollutants and cause the eviction of Navajo elders from their homes … and of course, disturb the burials and cultural sites in the immediate vicinity of Desert Rock.
"Shame."
While pushing for the Desert Rock power plant, at the same time President Shirley said he opposes new uranium mining and the desecration of Navajo sacred sites.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration pushes for more power plants nationwide, as part of the overall scheme to enrich profits for a small circle of corporations. At the same time, Navajos continue to be sacrificed in Bush's bogus war in Iraq. In Iraq, the same corporate scenario plays out. Bush's corporate friends with US contracts are not only making the profits, but are finding it easy to pocket billions without any justification, a fact recently exposed by Congress.
Dine' Citizens Against Ruining the Environment points out the death trap of still another power plant here.
"The BIA's recommended approval of the proposed Desert Rock Energy Project is a step backward from even minimal environmental protection because the planned power plant will only worsen the air pollution problem in the already over polluted San Juan Basin air shed.
"Combined with deadly air contaminants from the nearby Four Corners and San Juan power plants, Desert Rock will literally create a triangle of death in the northern Navajo Nation where Navajo people have long suffered epidemic levels of asthma, black lung disease, and other respiratory diseases caused by the decades of chronic exposure to persistent and accumulative airborne pollutants emitted by the existing industrial death factories on and near the affected reservation," Dine CARE said in a written statement.
The draft environmental impact statement process is also fatally flawed. The project proponents paid for the two-year study.
"So not surprisingly, the pre-biased or prejudiced environmental analysis (or draft EIS) supported the controversial project. Under the guise of impartial environmental review, the governmental and corporate agents of genocide produced a pre-decisional document designed to justify a bad project and one that is opposed by the very people who live in the shadow of its 580-acre 'footprint.'
"That document, written in the technical language of the alien invaders, is nothing less than a BIA-issued death certificate for those brave indigenous Diné who hold the sacred ground at Ram Springs."
Dine CARE said the BIA is engaged in a campaign built on deceit and treachery.
"It completed its draft EIS making it accessible only on the Internet.
"How many of our people have Internet access? How many of them even have electricity? Adding to its deliberate misinformation, the Bureau also announced that it will publish the draft’s 'Notice of Availability' in the Federal Register in early June. How many of our people read the Federal Register? How many of them even read the legal notices section in the Navajo Times?
"The federal Indian agency then announced that it will hold public hearings on the 'available' draft EIS beginning in mid-June. It took them over two years to produce the DEIS and it is atrocious that they expect the Navajo public to review and present oral comments on the voluminous technical document in less than a week or two," Dine' CARE said.
But don't expect to read much of that in the newspapers.
Whenever editors do publish the statements of Dine' CARE, the spin doctors come out like starving dogs with gnashing teeth, attacking anyone who publishes the words of Dine' CARE and anyone who champions the voices of the grassroots Navajo people.
Editors of publications that pander to tribal politicians won't publish these words. Others won't even care.
Return to Censored homepage:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Sheep is Life Conference, Navajos' herding and weaving culture
"Sheep Is Life: A Celebration of Traditional Herding and Weaving Culture"
June 11–16 2007, Dine College
Tsaile, Arizona
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - Jay Begay Jr., The Sheep is Life conference coordinator said the Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway) presents a two-part event series scheduled for June 11th through 16th. All events will be located at the Dine College campus near Tsaile AZ. Accommodations and services are located nearby in Chinle, AZ.
Sheep is Life celebrates sheep, wool, and weaving with two days of free public events on June 15 and 16, Friday and Saturday, at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona. There will be hands-on activities, sheep and wool demonstrations, workshops, and storytelling events are scheduled daily at 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Organized by Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway), the eleventh annual Celebration honors the central role that sheep play in the philosophy and daily life of diverse traditional and indigenous cultures. All are invited to bring spindles, spinning wheels, wool, yarn, and weavings. Sharing and learning are at the heart of the Celebration.
"Sheep is Life" in every essence is an important part of our culture and traditions, to celebrate our sheep traditions and our lifeways once a year," said Roy Kady, Dibé be Iina, Inc president. "The event re-centers us in the cosmos of our universe; it is our blessingway ceremony for our continuance here on earth, and for the next generations to come."
Highlights of the celebration include:
• Workshops in wool processing, weaving, and other fiber arts, Monday – Friday
• Evening spinning and storytelling with Navajo elders during the week
• Two days of free events, vendors, and hands-on demonstrations, Friday and Saturday
• Herd Health care and management of sheep, goats, and other livestock
• Benefit Awards, Dinner, Friday, 6:00 p.m.
• Navajo-Churro Sheep and Wool Show, open to all, Saturday, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
• Navajo Rug Auction, Saturday, 6:00 p.m.
• Navajo Sheep Project 30th Anniversary special events
• Navajo-Churro Sheep Camp Tours
• “Weaving World” film
Complete information, schedules, registrations, and brochures are available. For information, call 928-729-2037 or e-mail jay_bjr@yahoo.com
To review the conference information, visit http://www.navajolifeway.org/ for a complete schedule which will be posted soon.
June 11–16 2007, Dine College
Tsaile, Arizona
FORT DEFIANCE, Ariz. - Jay Begay Jr., The Sheep is Life conference coordinator said the Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway) presents a two-part event series scheduled for June 11th through 16th. All events will be located at the Dine College campus near Tsaile AZ. Accommodations and services are located nearby in Chinle, AZ.
Sheep is Life celebrates sheep, wool, and weaving with two days of free public events on June 15 and 16, Friday and Saturday, at Diné College in Tsaile, Arizona. There will be hands-on activities, sheep and wool demonstrations, workshops, and storytelling events are scheduled daily at 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Organized by Diné be’ iiná, Inc. (The Navajo Lifeway), the eleventh annual Celebration honors the central role that sheep play in the philosophy and daily life of diverse traditional and indigenous cultures. All are invited to bring spindles, spinning wheels, wool, yarn, and weavings. Sharing and learning are at the heart of the Celebration.
"Sheep is Life" in every essence is an important part of our culture and traditions, to celebrate our sheep traditions and our lifeways once a year," said Roy Kady, Dibé be Iina, Inc president. "The event re-centers us in the cosmos of our universe; it is our blessingway ceremony for our continuance here on earth, and for the next generations to come."
Highlights of the celebration include:
• Workshops in wool processing, weaving, and other fiber arts, Monday – Friday
• Evening spinning and storytelling with Navajo elders during the week
• Two days of free events, vendors, and hands-on demonstrations, Friday and Saturday
• Herd Health care and management of sheep, goats, and other livestock
• Benefit Awards, Dinner, Friday, 6:00 p.m.
• Navajo-Churro Sheep and Wool Show, open to all, Saturday, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
• Navajo Rug Auction, Saturday, 6:00 p.m.
• Navajo Sheep Project 30th Anniversary special events
• Navajo-Churro Sheep Camp Tours
• “Weaving World” film
Complete information, schedules, registrations, and brochures are available. For information, call 928-729-2037 or e-mail jay_bjr@yahoo.com
To review the conference information, visit http://www.navajolifeway.org/ for a complete schedule which will be posted soon.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Indians in Brazil refute Pope's claims
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37862
While protesting, Indians in Brazil said they weren't silently yearning to become Catholics and weren't purified by the church as Pope Benedict said:
"... Wera Djekaupe, a GuaranÃ, arrived back at the museum. He repeated what he had just broadcast on a Brazilian television programme, as part of his activism in the press, media, academic circles and schools. 'The indigenous people of Brazil, long before the arrival of the Portuguese and other colonialists, already knew who had created the Earth. The great creator of all nature, of the sea, of the moon, of everything, was Ñanderú,' he said. 'The pope said that the Church purified the Indians. I refute that. Indigenous people were already pure; we were purified by the great Ñanderú,' Djekaupe said."
While protesting, Indians in Brazil said they weren't silently yearning to become Catholics and weren't purified by the church as Pope Benedict said:
"... Wera Djekaupe, a GuaranÃ, arrived back at the museum. He repeated what he had just broadcast on a Brazilian television programme, as part of his activism in the press, media, academic circles and schools. 'The indigenous people of Brazil, long before the arrival of the Portuguese and other colonialists, already knew who had created the Earth. The great creator of all nature, of the sea, of the moon, of everything, was Ñanderú,' he said. 'The pope said that the Church purified the Indians. I refute that. Indigenous people were already pure; we were purified by the great Ñanderú,' Djekaupe said."
Manitoba Chief calls for rail blockades
CBC News
"As First Nations leaders at an aboriginal summit in Quebec planned Wednesday for a national day of action, a Manitoba chief said they should instead hold a day of rail blockades.
Manitoba Chief Terry Nelson said blocking trains would send a stronger message about the poverty that aboriginal communities face and the numerous land claims that are still being disputed."
Read the story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/05/23/aboriginal-conference.html
"As First Nations leaders at an aboriginal summit in Quebec planned Wednesday for a national day of action, a Manitoba chief said they should instead hold a day of rail blockades.
Manitoba Chief Terry Nelson said blocking trains would send a stronger message about the poverty that aboriginal communities face and the numerous land claims that are still being disputed."
Read the story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/05/23/aboriginal-conference.html
Mohawk Nation News: The International Corporate Agenda
STEPHEN HARPER’S “FOOL SOME PRISON BLUES” – PRIVATIZATION AND THE DEATH OF DEMOCRATIC DUE PROCESS
Mohawk Nation News
May 21, 2007
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, or whoever really runs the Canadian dictatorship, has wiped out any pretension that Canada ever was a democratic country. He did this by obstructing democratic parliamentary debate on the use of Canadian taxes. If Canadian cops were on their toes as true defenders of law and order, he could be charged under the Criminal Code of Canada, Section 129.1. He intentionally, with malice aforethought, obstructed parliamentarians who were engaged in enforcing the laws concerning “revenues, customs, excise, trade or navigation”.
Harper outlined his methods in a 200-page manual showing his party members how to obstruct justice and democratic due process. This is a major constitutional crisis that can’t be swept under the carpet. Right now he’s hiding out in Afghanistan . He might end up in the next cave over from Bin Laden.
The public is getting so confused they don’t know what the rules are anymore. Big business and big government want to keep them in a trance. If someone sees a baby being killed, they’re afraid to help because they might be arrested for intruding on someone else’s rights.
Harper and the two major political parties see the people as the enemy, particularly us, the Indigenous people. He needs a personalized target. It looks like hysteria is being created deliberately to set us up as the threat or scapegoat. In the 911 model, the threat is more terrifying than the action. He steers the public to vent their anger and hatred on us. That’s how he was able to push through the anti-terrorism legislation. He got rid of habeas corpus and usurped peoples’ right to the sanctity of their home.
Harper obviously has no rules for himself. It looks like he thinks democratic institutions won’t work. They certainly have never treated us humanely or respected our sovereign rights to the land and resources of Turtle Island .
Harper wants severe rules and regulations over everybody, especially the media. He does not want to be judged. He doesn’t even want us to have our minds in gear. Through propaganda and brute force, people are losing their freedom to sociopaths and control-freak demagogues.
How does one know when the government is corrupt? When the public leaders lie. When the public doesn’t object. Then nobody can tell what’s true anymore. Harper has hamstrung the Parliamentary committees so there is no free open discussion. The cabinet decrees laws, sets the agenda and cancels hearings at will. Once lies have become the status quo there can be no real communication. All words become meaningless babble or catch phrases.
Canada and the U.S. have turned into oligarchies controlled by a small elite who act on behalf of multinational corporations controlled from afar. They are fronts for international investors to get the leases to run the assets and drain the resources on Turtle Island .
Starting in the 1960s the middle-class was meticulously destroyed. They were attacked as being materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war mongers, brutal and corrupt. This is true in the way they ran the Indian Affairs bureaucracies where colonial control of the lands and resources reside. This is a kind of rot and disease spreading through the colonial constitutional trees on Turtle Island controlled by the oligarchy.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim “Jonestown” Prentice announced fundamental changes to the way Indigenous land claims are to be settled. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next thing he announces is his plan to lease out the settling of land claims to private corporate structures on some kind of profit-sharing basis. We demand that the land claims be mediated by a neutral and mutually agreed upon third party. The “other” party cannot be anyone from the federal, provincial, territorial or local “Indian” entities set up by Canada . Nor can they be any of the corporations that act as the puppet masters for Canada ’s pseudo government.
Are they working on privatizing Indian Affairs? Don’t laugh! This has already been tried in Kanehsatake and on many other communities by placing its management under the control of private companies. It was a catastrophe for Indigenous people and a bonanza for the well connected accounting, management and legal firms. All the money went to the companies, the lawyers and a few cooperative band councilors. Services were stopped. The Indigenous People got less than before.
Indian Affairs could be planning to lease us out to multinational investors who want to get their paws on our land, hydro electric power, resources and diamonds that can be extracted from our land in the north. This happened before when they leased out our education to church run residential schools, whose staff got their paws and other parts on our young children, molesting and killing them with impunity.
The Crown would love to get out of its legal responsibility to us by handing us over to corporations who have no obligations. Their only agenda is profit! Not service for the people. Not living up to the treaties. They have to cut costs, services, streamline everything and put their friends in big jobs with fat salaries.
The big pie in the sky is “leasing”. It is really the “confiscation” of all lands, resources, public assets and programs by international investors. The plan is already operational. Assets have already been confiscated such as highways, cable, television, electricity, internet, water, prisons, schools, health care, private police forces, airports, parking garages, social services, welfare, pensions, housing, drug and alcohol treatment programs, adoptions, programs for the elderly, road maintenance, garbage collection, fire departments, environmental protection, job training and placement, child support enforcement, child care, child protection – get the picture? Even the management of all these assets and programs are being privatized and leased out.
So what happens when you have a complaint? You can’t go to your member of parliament. The lease holder might be in Singapore or Zurich Switzerland , 5,000 miles away! They’re probably run by numbered companies.
Does this mean that people don’t have to pay taxes anymore? The Treasury Board will give Indian Affairs $9 billion who turn it over to an offshore multinational corporation which is the leaseholder that is headquartered in Paris France . It's international colonialism!
The private sector can raise costs and authority on the assets they lease. The government doesn’t have to answer to the public. It’s all international. The head office might be in Germany or wherever. They don’t understand what you’re talking about. Your call will go to a call center in India . You’ll be put on hold and then passed around to five others whose job is to give you a nervous breakdown. Don’t think you’re going to get an answer about the plumbing leak in your rental apartment, or the 200% increase in the road tolls you have to pay just to get home.
Would this be considered high treason? It is when the government is consorting with foreign entities that destroy the economy and rob them of those things they stole from us.
The local brokers of these leases/confiscations are making out like bandits.
Rudy Giuliani of 911 fame is the exclusive lawyer for Cintra of Spain, which is headed by Prince Juan Carlos. Cintra is now the proud owner of what was once the “ Chicago Skyway”. They are working on getting the Midway Airport too. The leases are for 75 to 99 years. Once leased they are exempt from taxation. Upstate New York recently signed the same sort of lease with National Express Group of London UK which specializes in rail and bus transport.
Some U.S. municipalities are trying to get their water systems back. But they keep getting outbid by Illinois American Water which is owned by a German investor that is also functioning in 29 U.S. states.
These international corporations are gaining control of the cities. Today one can’t get into some cities without paying tolls and the infra structures are falling apart. Canadians will soon be trapped in just like Indigenous People.
Were going back to the middle ages, man! Prisons have been privatized to save money. Correction Corporation of America runs half the private prisons and expects to double their investment in 5 years. Costs must be minimized. Jails must be kept full. Less is spent on prisoner care and training of guards. To maximize profits jail time must be maximized. In some prisons the inmates work for 17 cents an hour making clothes, car parts, computer components, shoes and furniture. It’s not just license plates anymore. This is going on even though it’s a violation of international law.
The “three strikes you’re out” law in California is coming soon to Canada , your home on native land. So Congress is being heavily lobbied to increase sentences. Correction Corporation and corrections officers are some of the largest campaign contributors in California . Ten years ago there were ten private prisons and 2,000 inmates. Today there are 140 with 70,000 inmates. They are aiming to increase this slave labor by 500% in the next ten years.
If people don’t wake up soon, by the time Harper’s out of office, Canada will be dismantled and sold off to foreign corporations. Let’s see what happens on June 29th when Indigenous people demonstrate everywhere against injustice and mistreatment. We think that the “war room” in the “ Tower of Power ” at Indian affairs is working round the clock to speed up privatization. Minister “Jonestown” Prentice wants to drag us into the colonial courts for doing what we’re supposed to do, protect our possessions. Then we’ll be heavily fined for this “crime”. “Jonestown” threatened we are “liable” and funds owing to our communities will be cut.
In exchange for our freedom, the oligarchy wants Turtle Island – our land, resources and no Indigenous title. That’s the big prize! With no venues for democratic debate, we’’ll all be divided into two camps, the prisoners and the guards. That’s the game.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com & http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=katenies20@yahoo.com
For updates, speakers, workshops, to sign up, go to:
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ Please sign the Women Title Holders petition. BOOKS available, “Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy” & “Warriors Hand Book” ($10 USD each including shipping).
Mohawk Nation News
May 21, 2007
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, or whoever really runs the Canadian dictatorship, has wiped out any pretension that Canada ever was a democratic country. He did this by obstructing democratic parliamentary debate on the use of Canadian taxes. If Canadian cops were on their toes as true defenders of law and order, he could be charged under the Criminal Code of Canada, Section 129.1. He intentionally, with malice aforethought, obstructed parliamentarians who were engaged in enforcing the laws concerning “revenues, customs, excise, trade or navigation”.
Harper outlined his methods in a 200-page manual showing his party members how to obstruct justice and democratic due process. This is a major constitutional crisis that can’t be swept under the carpet. Right now he’s hiding out in Afghanistan . He might end up in the next cave over from Bin Laden.
The public is getting so confused they don’t know what the rules are anymore. Big business and big government want to keep them in a trance. If someone sees a baby being killed, they’re afraid to help because they might be arrested for intruding on someone else’s rights.
Harper and the two major political parties see the people as the enemy, particularly us, the Indigenous people. He needs a personalized target. It looks like hysteria is being created deliberately to set us up as the threat or scapegoat. In the 911 model, the threat is more terrifying than the action. He steers the public to vent their anger and hatred on us. That’s how he was able to push through the anti-terrorism legislation. He got rid of habeas corpus and usurped peoples’ right to the sanctity of their home.
Harper obviously has no rules for himself. It looks like he thinks democratic institutions won’t work. They certainly have never treated us humanely or respected our sovereign rights to the land and resources of Turtle Island .
Harper wants severe rules and regulations over everybody, especially the media. He does not want to be judged. He doesn’t even want us to have our minds in gear. Through propaganda and brute force, people are losing their freedom to sociopaths and control-freak demagogues.
How does one know when the government is corrupt? When the public leaders lie. When the public doesn’t object. Then nobody can tell what’s true anymore. Harper has hamstrung the Parliamentary committees so there is no free open discussion. The cabinet decrees laws, sets the agenda and cancels hearings at will. Once lies have become the status quo there can be no real communication. All words become meaningless babble or catch phrases.
Canada and the U.S. have turned into oligarchies controlled by a small elite who act on behalf of multinational corporations controlled from afar. They are fronts for international investors to get the leases to run the assets and drain the resources on Turtle Island .
Starting in the 1960s the middle-class was meticulously destroyed. They were attacked as being materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war mongers, brutal and corrupt. This is true in the way they ran the Indian Affairs bureaucracies where colonial control of the lands and resources reside. This is a kind of rot and disease spreading through the colonial constitutional trees on Turtle Island controlled by the oligarchy.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim “Jonestown” Prentice announced fundamental changes to the way Indigenous land claims are to be settled. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next thing he announces is his plan to lease out the settling of land claims to private corporate structures on some kind of profit-sharing basis. We demand that the land claims be mediated by a neutral and mutually agreed upon third party. The “other” party cannot be anyone from the federal, provincial, territorial or local “Indian” entities set up by Canada . Nor can they be any of the corporations that act as the puppet masters for Canada ’s pseudo government.
Are they working on privatizing Indian Affairs? Don’t laugh! This has already been tried in Kanehsatake and on many other communities by placing its management under the control of private companies. It was a catastrophe for Indigenous people and a bonanza for the well connected accounting, management and legal firms. All the money went to the companies, the lawyers and a few cooperative band councilors. Services were stopped. The Indigenous People got less than before.
Indian Affairs could be planning to lease us out to multinational investors who want to get their paws on our land, hydro electric power, resources and diamonds that can be extracted from our land in the north. This happened before when they leased out our education to church run residential schools, whose staff got their paws and other parts on our young children, molesting and killing them with impunity.
The Crown would love to get out of its legal responsibility to us by handing us over to corporations who have no obligations. Their only agenda is profit! Not service for the people. Not living up to the treaties. They have to cut costs, services, streamline everything and put their friends in big jobs with fat salaries.
The big pie in the sky is “leasing”. It is really the “confiscation” of all lands, resources, public assets and programs by international investors. The plan is already operational. Assets have already been confiscated such as highways, cable, television, electricity, internet, water, prisons, schools, health care, private police forces, airports, parking garages, social services, welfare, pensions, housing, drug and alcohol treatment programs, adoptions, programs for the elderly, road maintenance, garbage collection, fire departments, environmental protection, job training and placement, child support enforcement, child care, child protection – get the picture? Even the management of all these assets and programs are being privatized and leased out.
So what happens when you have a complaint? You can’t go to your member of parliament. The lease holder might be in Singapore or Zurich Switzerland , 5,000 miles away! They’re probably run by numbered companies.
Does this mean that people don’t have to pay taxes anymore? The Treasury Board will give Indian Affairs $9 billion who turn it over to an offshore multinational corporation which is the leaseholder that is headquartered in Paris France . It's international colonialism!
The private sector can raise costs and authority on the assets they lease. The government doesn’t have to answer to the public. It’s all international. The head office might be in Germany or wherever. They don’t understand what you’re talking about. Your call will go to a call center in India . You’ll be put on hold and then passed around to five others whose job is to give you a nervous breakdown. Don’t think you’re going to get an answer about the plumbing leak in your rental apartment, or the 200% increase in the road tolls you have to pay just to get home.
Would this be considered high treason? It is when the government is consorting with foreign entities that destroy the economy and rob them of those things they stole from us.
The local brokers of these leases/confiscations are making out like bandits.
Rudy Giuliani of 911 fame is the exclusive lawyer for Cintra of Spain, which is headed by Prince Juan Carlos. Cintra is now the proud owner of what was once the “ Chicago Skyway”. They are working on getting the Midway Airport too. The leases are for 75 to 99 years. Once leased they are exempt from taxation. Upstate New York recently signed the same sort of lease with National Express Group of London UK which specializes in rail and bus transport.
Some U.S. municipalities are trying to get their water systems back. But they keep getting outbid by Illinois American Water which is owned by a German investor that is also functioning in 29 U.S. states.
These international corporations are gaining control of the cities. Today one can’t get into some cities without paying tolls and the infra structures are falling apart. Canadians will soon be trapped in just like Indigenous People.
Were going back to the middle ages, man! Prisons have been privatized to save money. Correction Corporation of America runs half the private prisons and expects to double their investment in 5 years. Costs must be minimized. Jails must be kept full. Less is spent on prisoner care and training of guards. To maximize profits jail time must be maximized. In some prisons the inmates work for 17 cents an hour making clothes, car parts, computer components, shoes and furniture. It’s not just license plates anymore. This is going on even though it’s a violation of international law.
The “three strikes you’re out” law in California is coming soon to Canada , your home on native land. So Congress is being heavily lobbied to increase sentences. Correction Corporation and corrections officers are some of the largest campaign contributors in California . Ten years ago there were ten private prisons and 2,000 inmates. Today there are 140 with 70,000 inmates. They are aiming to increase this slave labor by 500% in the next ten years.
If people don’t wake up soon, by the time Harper’s out of office, Canada will be dismantled and sold off to foreign corporations. Let’s see what happens on June 29th when Indigenous people demonstrate everywhere against injustice and mistreatment. We think that the “war room” in the “ Tower of Power ” at Indian affairs is working round the clock to speed up privatization. Minister “Jonestown” Prentice wants to drag us into the colonial courts for doing what we’re supposed to do, protect our possessions. Then we’ll be heavily fined for this “crime”. “Jonestown” threatened we are “liable” and funds owing to our communities will be cut.
In exchange for our freedom, the oligarchy wants Turtle Island – our land, resources and no Indigenous title. That’s the big prize! With no venues for democratic debate, we’’ll all be divided into two camps, the prisoners and the guards. That’s the game.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com & http://us.f520.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=katenies20@yahoo.com
For updates, speakers, workshops, to sign up, go to:
http://www.mohawknationnews.com/ Please sign the Women Title Holders petition. BOOKS available, “Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy” & “Warriors Hand Book” ($10 USD each including shipping).
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