When it's all wrong?

I'm angry today.
At the world and myself for our ignorance and our failure.
For what we have created and what we haven't.
Where are the goals for this world?
Where is the food?
Where are the doctors?
How much is water worth?
Is it too hard to share a roof?
Which brand of clothes keep you warm?
If you don't have that I have nothing.

Gold plated breasts covered in caviar.
Can you spare a dolar?
That lazy kid selling flowers in the street saturday night.
More guns, more bombs, more hate.
Free trade, for those allowed to read about it.
What does imperialism mean?
When did slavery end?
Wheezing from those tasty pesticides agrivating my passively polluted lungs.

Dogs in the street, dogs eating leftovers,
Where are fernando's leftovers?
The maid and her stale maize,
Sex included or pay your debts and leave.
When did slavery end?

New environmentalist t-shirt with my new environmental car.
There will never be no new environment,
When will they say stop buying?
When will it be time to sell truth?
Is it too inconveniente to buy it?

Back to MTV,
Back to Hollywood,
Back to sleep till it's over.

Who's got the guns?
Who do they serve?
Why are we servents?
Independent thought. . . life in danger
Independent country . . . who can catch a bomb?

If they win we all lose.
People over profits is going to squash the profiteers,
A corporation can't accept co-exisence,
Insatiable appetite for success,
We strive to feed it blood.

Independent thought

This debate is not academic! Imperialism must end!

There have been many times in the last few years when I have come to understand exactly why people take up arms for what they believe in. I'm not talking about "soldiers" in Australia or other imperialist nations that chose it as a vocation because of lack of other prospects or some misplaced nationalism; I'm talking about the people who take up arms as the last option when they can no longer take the misery that is being inflicted on them. Travelling through Latin America I heard eye witness accounts of what soldiers did backed and trained by US soldiers in order to keep there own people down. People fighting for nothing more than the right to their land and freedom. Everyone of these accounts has changed something inside me.

I just watched a movie which did the same thing. "Voces de los innocentes" - "Voices of the innocent" is about the civil war in El Salvador. The war went for 12 years and claimed 75000 lives. It was faught over land rights of the people versus of business owners. 1 million people fled the country. Ironically many of them to the US who were training the El Salvadorian soldiers to do the killing. Fortunately it didn't feature in the US mainstream media and most US citizens know nothing about the wars their "democratic" country waged on Central America. This saved awkawrd moments when Pedro came to clean the pool.

The story traces a young boys experience of the war during which his first love and 3 best friends are executed and his village is burnt to the ground. If only this were a hollywood fantasy to bring in big box office receipts.

This war is still being waged. While Central America is now for the most part obediently under control in it's misery and extreme poverty the same cannot be said for Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, the recently reaffirmed black sheep of Central America the Sandinista movement with it's leader Daniel Ortega have recently returned to power. The people of Nicaragua felt the roth of US backed forces in 1979-1990 because of it's ambitions to deliver food water and education to it's people. The Contra war funded by weapons sold to Iran resulted in the loss of around 30000 deaths.

We have seen the same disregard for human life in both action and innaction from the empire which maintains our injust economy in many other countries and instances both before and since these events. For now we can see the lengths Australia, US and UK will go to in Iraq and Afghanistan. And while the rhetoric preparing for masacres continues over Iran my greatest fear is for the people of Venezuela. President Chavez has established his independence from the empire and has the curse of millions of barrels of oil. The attempts to undermine and remove him from within and the empire have so far been unsuccessful. What will come next? We know the US doesn't keep body counts for it's enemies. Will these people I'm living among be the next uncounted "terrorist insurgents" to feel unspeakable pain for daring to reach for dignity?

Watch the movie if you can. Learn the history and decide what world we are living in and what world you want to live in.

Chico Mendez

At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity.

Amazon soil becomes infertile shortly after being cleared because of it's acidic properties and the balance of decomposition and growth.

He tried to stand up to big business by forming a union for rubber tappers. He took on big business and took it to the highest stages.He brought people together to talk about and organise against clearing the Amazon for cattle farming.

He was threatened for many years and eventually murdered on his doorstep for standing in the way of profits. He had a wife and 2 children.

Freedom not to think

The freedoms that we enjoy allow us to grow obese to the point of not being able to walk consuming products that we know are not good for us yet don't quite know why we can't stop eating them. The freedom to think whatever the media tells us to with it's mock debates and bashing of any idea outside corporate structure. It gives us the freedom to make our children addicted to television crippling their mental development while both parents work full-time. We talk about why autism and ADD are increasingly prevelant among our children but enjoy the freedom of feeding them preservatives poisons and pesticides which are even more damaging to younger than the are carcinegenic for the rest of us. They give us the industrial freedom to ruin our soil, water and air making everyday life a health risk. These freedoms must be treasured.

We have the freedom for pop music to be devoid of social value and teach children about sex and the glamour of living in excess that we should all expire to. We have hollywood to enforce stereotypes of the black, poor and gay. Free at last!

We have the freedom to work if we want to eat, have a roof over our heads and send our children to school. Ok we need to produce to exist but what for the loosers, the disabled, those with social and mental dificulties, the old, the young, those addicted to drugs, those who have been abused? Do they also deserve these luxuries? And why can it never be enough in our world? Why must the house be bigger, the ring larger, the TV flatter?

Where do we learn these values? Where do we learn our fears? Where do we learn our prejudices and racism? Social psychologists have proven that if a black person has to write they are black on an exam the results will be worse - this is something we learn.

The point! We are eneviatably a product of our surroundings. We are surrounded by thousands of things that are damaging us physically and mentally which we don't need to be surrounded by. We are taught the prejudices that we know. We are taught that the world must be the way it is: we must have winners and losers; good people and bad people; rich and poor.

The reason why we are surrounded by these toxic influences and substances living this life of psuedohappiness for the winners and misery for the losers is because the economic system mandates all of the above troubles. Every problem above exists for an economic ends.

The solution...
We must create a new consciousness which recognises that corporate freedom is not the same as human freedom. We must look at the net effect of MacDonalds and Coke and the majority of our media content. Realise that they are extremely effective in manipulating our desires and perseptions and extremely addictive but also realise that they are definate negative influences on society. We don't need corparate freedom to kill us. We don't need corporate freedom to make us hate. It's not for any human ends.. it's all for the money and money isn't real.

Freedom!

Recently in Venezuela a TV channel, RCTV stopped broadcasting free to air because the government decided not to renew the concession which comes up every 20 years. The channel was known as a channel of the opposition. That was it was dedicated to removing and discrediting the current government. It has been labelled a Cuban style crack-down on freedom of expression and condemned mostly by the US other foreign media sources. It has also been the basis for a number of protests.

On this issue specifically I find little sympathy for the corporate body involved. Not just because of the quality of their programming or the role that they played in the coup of 2002 to remove democratically elected Hugo Chavez from power. For the later reason alone I think that it's fortunate none of those involved wit the channel have been charged. If the same were to have happened in Australia or the US I´m sure the reaction would have been swifter and more severe. (If you want to read more about it http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11970 is a good source or google it and you will find various views.)

In a broader sense what are the freedoms we are enjoying in the west? We have the freedom to watch what we want right? But how broad is the spectrum of opinion in corporate media soures? Today tonight on Channel 7 in Australia or Fox News in the US
are some of the greatest manipulators of public opinion. They have the ability to manufacture consent to kill other humans out of fear. They then change course without ever explaining why.. manufacturing consent Naom Chomsky

Live Earth or Aid - Steps to economic and social revolution?

It can only be a good thing that people are thinking about the issues of world poverty and environment. In the rich world we are far too sheltered from the worlds realities of the world and encouraged not to think about the really important things both close to home and on the other side of the world.

Musicians and actors getting out and saying something must be done is great. If only they would turn the pressure to governments and business and go beyond their medium we may see these gestures really empower people to act. But till then it keeps giving us the call to think about what reality we are living.

As part of the Live Earth coverage on MTV there were a few blurbs saying that we have to hold our governments and big business responsible which is great. But MTV is as much a part of the problem as an Aluminium mine or a coal fired power station. A system based around profits which by market forces cannot put human and environmental rights ahead of profits. As a media outlet MTV plays an important role in normalising thought and behaviour and is funded through advertising to do so. The music industry has steered away from the next Bob Dylan for the same reason. Most socially critical artist who really want to speak out about change remain as independent artists and don´t get on MTV for the same reason.

We don´t have the direct censorship of a dictatorial regime but to deny that our media is heavily controlled and sensor ed is to be unaware of how many people there are out there that think differently and want to say something different to what the economic demands of our current system dictate.

Part of the answer to climate change is driving less and turning lights off but in the long term we are not going to go back to the dark ages and the developing world doesn´t have the same luxury of choosing it´s ways. When they get a power station or cars that is their success, not hybrids and carbon collectors. The real answer is in slowing down production - that is reusing all containers not packaging everything, not consuming new resources at current rates in every sector (so that we don´t have to cut down the rainforest's and pull up metals etc at the same rate), real investment in the solutions that will allow us to continue are in sustainable energy sources not riding donkeys and living in the dark. Capitalism says we need constant growth which means increased consumption of everything, food, clothes, computers, cars. . .

We can change our energy sources whenever we decide to make a serious investment but for now the money to be made from petrol and coal is too great, so we continue to spend infinitely more on finding new oil sources than developing the electric car which we had on the road running at 300km per charge years ago! The power as people to change this reality hasn´t been actualised for the same oppressive market forces.

Capitalism is killing the world and us. Analyse any problem and see if you can´t find a reason in market forces and government spending why the problem is being exacerbated for commercial ends or ignored by government.

Environmental awareness is as good an issue as working conditions, capitalist war, access and philosophy of health care or running water for the world to start realising our economy doesn´t work.

A revolution, as individuals and as a species, of peace, love and understanding is the only way to a new economy and our continued existence on this beautiful planet.

Who killed the. .electric car, planet, worker?

I just watched "Who Killed the Electric Car." Briefly, it explains that we had electric cars in the 20's that were more popular than petrol cars but they were phased out as petrol cars developed without anything too sinister. It then goes on to explain how the Californian government’s commitment in the 90's to a gradual increase in Zero Emission cars. Under the law car manufacturers were required to contribute a gradually increasing percentage of zero emission cars to be able to continue to sell cars in California. The cars were produced, they were fast quiet and enjoyable to drive according to users and they were popular despite negative advertising (they advertised the limitations first!) and were proven to be environmentally far superior to petrol powered cars. Even emissions based on coal fire electricity production were much lower than petrol cars.

The movie debates the reasons why the car failed and decides that it was everyone from air pollution authorities, oil industry bosses, federal government, hydrogen technology fuel cell prospects and car manufacturers themselves all wear part of the blame. Indeed they do all have their role to play however they fail to draw the biggest conclusion that it didn't succeed because there is more money to be made from other methods, the mandate set by a capitalist economy. The real message from the movie is profit over people, profit over environment and the lengths to which business and government will go to as means to ends.

This tale holds true for the reasons why vast amounts of money are spent on locating new fossil fuel reserves while comparatively small amounts are being invested in renewable technologies. When we have our own power generation that is renewed by nature there is no money to be made. The electric car has much lower maintenance costs and would see a massive fall in oil prices which would mean $100 trillion of oil yet to be exploited turn into a far smaller sum.

If we are serious about saving the planet, ending poverty and getting out of the clutches of big business we must endorse a new economy. Environmentally friendly consumption is an oxymoron. Global trade, as we know it is not a free-market and never has been. We cannot speak with our feet to a better world when no matter which direction you walk in you are squashing other people, other species and our planet.

What do you think about it?!