The Christmas Con

Our First Video Release - Just in Time for the Holidays!

THE CHRISTMAS CON

A Little Bit About It...

All of us here at the blog are very proud to announce the release of our first blog video! It’s a Christmas message from us to you, and we hope that it stirs some emotion, stimulates thought and conversation among family and friends...

It was a collaborative effort, and many individuals were involved in the making of this film - a lot of whom may not know they were involved at all... No worries though - it’s a personal thing, so read those little credits at the end of the movie, and let us know what you think!!

The following films were the ones we liked best that we used in the making of “Christmas Con”

Earthlings, Big Sugar, Surplus, The War Tapes, The End of Suburbia.

Find links to these films (and more) in the sidebar of our blog.

Social Contradictions: A Curriculum of Killing in Canadian Schools

Recently we’ve been examining some of the many social contradictions that are provided to us by the policy makers and institutions of our nation. One of the most recent, acutely relevant, and highly controversial contradictions to surface is that of the increased presence of the Canadian military in our high schools.

It’s relatively clear (see article entitled “Ten Things You Thought You Knew About Canada and Other Stuff No One Wants You to Know”) that Canada’s “volunteer” army, much like that of the United States, is aimed at recruiting poor youth who have few options in their communities and particular social demographic for any sort of real opportunity in life. Targeting the poor and minority communities, the military institutions of North America are working to fill their ranks with able-bodied young men and women that are prepared to do anything to succeed, including die.

The popular perception of a military career is based upon the illusions of prestige, power, respect, and duty. A sense of heroism permeates the fabric of the military, and those that die are seen as true “heroes” who die “fighting for freedom”. This fantasy is what draws many into the ranks in the first place. It’s an institution in which your apparent integrity, bravery, and dedication are rewarded with economic security and external respect. This could not be further from the truth.

(Don't take our word for it, check out films 15 and 16, at this link)
http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/#


The fact remains that the duty of a soldier is to kill. They are trained to use firearms, to respond unquestioningly to commands, and to be unapologetically subservient to the whims of their masters. The military institution rewards conformity and lack of thought - it rewards brutal violence and a general disregard for human life. In exchange for their lives and minds, soldiers are rewarded with the promise of economic security and the chance at a hero’s death in the desert of a foreign land. (Digression: Although Canada appears to honor it’s military members with job security, many Canadians beg to differ. Check out the opinion of Lee Prokaska of The Hamilton Spectator, who argues that there is no real job security for Canada’s reservists.

Click on this link to read the article...
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com

For years it seemed that the Canadian military would be forever a body of peacekeepers, deployed on humanitarian missions throughout the developing world. With the dawn of the Harper administration, the Canadian military purpose drastically changed in direction and intent, and veered off into being a somewhat bellicose body. Aligning ourselves with the policies and actions of our southern neighbors, our country is headed along the same foreboding road towards a military industrial complex that will inevitably claim the lives of countless human beings around the world.


The political and military tactics of the United States have been questioned and even condemned the world over. (At this point, I would encourage you watch the movie “What I’ve Learned About American Foreign Policy” if you lack knowledge in regards to the worldwide terror the US has unleashed on this planet to date....)

WATCH THE MOVIE HERE...


With General Rick Hiller at Harper’s side, it’s hard not to see Canada as a US lapdog, but this isn’t just an accusation, this is something that the Defence Department and the Canadian government outwardly acknowledge in their “Defence Strategy 2020”. There’s a special part of this strategy, entitled “Special Relationships with Principle Allies” which states:
“Our most important ally now and for the future is the United States where our strong relationship has long benefited both countries. We must plan to nurture this relationship by strengthening our inter-operability with the US Armed Forces, training together, sharing the burden for global sensing and telecommunications and pursuing collaborative ways to respond to emerging asymmetric threats to continental security.”

(For a close look at Canada’s “Defence Strategy 2020, see the following website...)
http://www.cds.forces.gc.ca/pubs/strategy2k/s2k07_e.asp

It seems as if our government and our military general see nothing but positivity in the actions taken by the United States in their “war on terror”. Canada, walking proudly, hand in hand with a nation that is seen as a murderer and a rapist the world over.



Cleaning Military House
A 2006 status report released by the Auditor General of Canada in regards to the efficacy of the National Defense Department and their endeavors at military recruiting and retention, states that there seems to be “a low interest among Canadian youth in joining the military, and increasing military operational demands [demonstrate] the current recruiting system is not supporting the needs of Canadian Forces”. The report goes on to explain why the military shortage is so pressing - new foreign commitments, an aging current force, numerous unfilled positions within the institution, and the never-ending expansion of the “war on terror”. The department stated in their report that they were “concerned that the number of recruits is barely replacing the members leaving”.
(to view the full report see: http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/domino/reports.nsf/html/20060502ce.html

The Canadian Forces recognizes that their target market is changing. “A National Defence survey of this specific target group (Canadians aged 16-34 who are physically fit) indicated that only 6% were interested in joining the Regular Force, although about 30% said they would consider joining if their education was paid for or if they were offered an entry bonus”. The report also recognizes that “young Canadians from visible minorities are becoming an increasing portion of the population” and it recognizes the “need to recruit young women and young Canadians from Aboriginal and visible minority groups. It’s not surprising that this darker sector of 16-34 year olds is also among the most likely to obtain student loans in order to finance their post secondary education, as they are among Canada’s most impoverished. Entry bonuses and free education are music to this demographic’s ears.

According to head of Canada’s air force, the recent $17 billion dollar spending blitz on new military glitz “will help attract young people toward military careers” by helping to “counter public perception that the air force’s equipment is old and not up to the job”. Lt.General Steve Lucas, in an interview with Canadian Press (July 6, 2006), also outlined some “initiatives [that] are underway to attract and keep more people in the armed forces... includ[ing] processing new recruits more quickly and even loosening some long-standing rules about body size, in some cases opening up occupations that were previously closed to women”.

General Rick Hillier and his famous quote: “We are the Canadian Armed Forces. Our job is to kill people”


Getting Them While They’re Young

According to Carleton’s Capital News, “the Canadian forces wants to increase its regular force by 13,000 soldiers to about 75,000, and is also looking to raise the number of reserves by 10,000 to 40,000 over the next few years”. These are big expectations for a country not really known for it’s military prowess. How to garner from a peace keeping nation the number of trained executioners need to support this international “war on terror”?

The auditor general’s report on the status of the Canadian military concluded that it has “shown some satisfactory improvement in recruiting the military personnel it needs to meet it’s operational requirements” but “[t]he Department has not been able to improve it’s recruiting of Aboriginal people, visible minorities, or women” since the last audit. Although the Department has “carrie[d] out studies on the demographics of the Canadian labour force, is promoting diversity, and is spending $1.5 million on diversity recruiting, these efforts are not achieving results”.

The Canadian military is thus currently faced with the huge task of drastically increasing it’s numbers by extracting from what seems to be an unwilling population. The military department knows it will require ingenuity and creativity in order to create the number of soldiers it needs in the near future, and as such, they are embarking on interesting new measures throughout high schools across the nation.



One of the most controversial of these measures is the introduction of a high school co-op program, in which children in Grade 10 and up can earn money while they learn to kill people, which is exactly what General Rick Hillier needs them to do. In many public school boards across the nation, the military co-op plan has been instituted in our secondary schools. Our children are encouraged to join the reserves as a part of their educational curriculum, for which they will earn high school credits, extra cash, and health and dental benefits.

In many high schools here in Canada, the rules governing co-op placements as educational programs stipulate that no program should pay the students to enlist, eliminating incentive biases. The Canadian military was able to sidestep that stipulation. Apparently the military goals of our country are more important that the educational standards in our public schools.
Yet Another Social Contradiction...

There was a time shortly after Columbine, when North America was reeling from the effects of guns in their schools. Canadian education, for decades, has stressed conflict resolution without the use of violence. Some schools even ban the game “Red Rover” because of the level of physical “aggression” the game requires. The current “Safe Schools Act”, a code of conduct whose purpose is to “encourage the use of nonviolent means to resolve conflict”, seems contradictory to the message our General Rick Hillier feeds the nation.

In Canada we have never tolerated guns on our streets, particularly in the hands of our children, or in the halls of our schools. Our educational system has always had focused on the acceptance of diversity and the dangers of racism, and it has worked hard to prevent and deter violence in schools through numerous measures including locker searches and educational programs. Why is it, that our children, are now suddenly subjected to the mentality of the military? Since when did we as a people decide that 14 year olds ought to throw grenades, shoot rifles, play war games, and learn to kill people? Since when was basic training considered public education? We shame and condemn other countries who use their children as soldiers, but are we any different?

According to the Women in Black, there are “overwhelming enticements and pressures on youth who do not have the resources for higher education and look to this option. This plays into an insidious underlying focus on vulnerable youth of a certain socioeconomic and racial stratification...”.

It’s not like kids who want a chance to get military training and shoot rifles with the big boys can’t - there’s always been cadets and Naval Reserves for youth who wish to involve themselves in it. They are already able to receive training (after school, weekends, and summers) and get paid for it, so why permeate our public schools? “Why is the school board acting as a broker for the military?” ask the Women in Black, “Is enticing students into a military co-op program bring monies into the school board’s coffers? Are our students being used as commodities for budget purposes?”

These are tough questioned that have yet to be answered, and have not even been acknowledged by the mainstream media. Although many numerous and disturbing questions remain unanswered, there are a few things that are infinitely clear:

1) Rich kids don’t join the reserves, they don’t join the regular forces. They go off to large private institutions where their parents pay for their post-secondary education, and they are not in need of a summer job.

2) The video game market demonstrates that our teenagers get a kick our of games like “Medal of Honor” and “Full Metal Jacket”. Kids who like these sort of games would love to try out the real thing and get paid for it, especially if it was a part of going to school.

3) The military is in desperate need of new members, members that will stay on long enough to make their paid training and education a benefit to the Canadian military, who foot the bill. As such, those who enlist now are faced with longer terms of service and tighter contracts.

4) The Canadian military is investing millions of dollars into targeted advertising that is meant to catch the attention of impoverished or underprivileged individuals. Not only is this campaign integrated into local media and the public landscape, it has been directly implanted in high schools all across the country. This was done quietly, with little fanfare and no consideration of public opinion.

5) People who go to war, go to war to kill and die. If you do not see your child as a killer, nor would you be happy seeing him or her dead, tell your local school about how you feel.

Quote...

"I still think today as yesterday that the color line is a great problem of this century. But today I see more clearly than yesterday that back of the problem of race and color, lies a greater problem which both obscures and implements it: and that is the fact that so many civilized persons are willing to live in comfort even if the price of this is poverty, ignorance and disease of the majority of their fellowmen; that to maintian this privilege men have waged war until today war tends to become universal and continuous, and the excuse for this war continues largely to be color and race."

W.E.B. Du Bois, Preface to new edition of The Souls of Black Folk (1953)

Finally an intelligent opinion...

Social Contradicitions: Crack Pipes in the Corner Store

By Keetah Bryant (FRL)

In the past, as I’ve stood at the check-out at the average corner store, I would ponder over the little roses in glass tubes, wondering who on earth would buy such things. ($2 for a stupid little rose? These were my thoughts). I verbalized this thought one day to my sister as we were buying drinks for our kids.

“Those are crack pipes, not roses...” She looked at me as if I were dumb. “They sell little bags of steel wool too,” she said as she motioned towards the plastic sacs tacked to the wall. Fifty cents. She later explained to me that drug addicts can make a pipe for smoking their drugs, just from a few things that can be purchased at the corner store. I was shocked. The fact that someone had taken the trouble to tear steel wool into little tiny bits, shove those bits into little bags, and then sell those for a profit to people who are desperately using crack, made me sick.


Find a market, sell them what they want. The capitalist profit-centered attitude was prevalent even here, among the glass tubed roses and individual packets of steel wool.
I recently met a man whom I first came to know through the local paper. A concerned father who felt compelled to remove crack pipes from neighborhood convenience stores and other family-oriented places, Bob took his fight to the press, to the internet, and to the street. To this day, he and his organization, The Surrey Coalition of Parents, continue to press the community to make changes in policy that will prevent local merchants from selling drug paraphernalia in view of the seeing eyes of our children.





Do as We Say and Not as We Do

It’s not really surprising to anyone that Surrey has a large population of drug addicts - crack heads as they are affectionately called around these parts. Local police officers entice them to clean up their “camps” on hot days by offering them Slur-pees in return for their cleaning cooperation. Because of the prevalence of this problem in Surrey, the municipality is considering opening community drug courts and more drug treatment centers. Through experience and education, policy makers have come to understand that treating drug addiction as an illness rather than a criminal act is often much more effective for both the user and the larger community.



Regardless of the method of treatment, prevention is also a primary concern, particularly among the youth. Education is essential, as is setting a standard as a society that reflects our values in relation to crack use. Unfortunately, this two-tiered approach to prevention os far from being realized.

By selling drug paraphernalia next to the chocolate, it normalizes the merchandise, it makes it socially acceptable. More socially acceptable than even pornography magazines, that at least lay masked from small eyes, behind the counter. We as parents are expected to teach our children that crack is dangerous, and inappropriate for their consumption, yet everything you need to become a junkie (but the crack itself) is available at most local corner stores. What does that say about our social attitude towards using crack? What sorts of implications will this have for the efficacy of prevention education? No one ever listens to a known hypocrite, what would make future generations any different?

I’ve never been a believer in rules of any sort, and I personally would prefer simple anarchy. But what’s worse than rules and restrictions on personal freedom is the classic double standard which seems to be ubiquitously present in our society. The presence of the this double standard is most evident when there’s a conflict between profit and anything else that might stand in it’s way.

Fundamentally, and in this context, Bob and The Surrey Coalition of Parents have every right to expect better of their society. Given the obvious intolerance our society has towards illicit drug use (check out those mandatory minimum sentences Harper proposed for drug “offenders”...), it would logically follow that the policies and laws surrounding drug use would reflect that intolerance. This is obviously however, not the case. What we the people must come to understand is that our values, our morals, our children and their susceptibility, are far less important that the profit motive in this society. And until the profit motive loses it’s stronghold on our collective psyche, we as a people will continue to be subordinated to the desires of those who wish to profit off of us, and our children.

F.Y.I

For more information on Bob, The Surrey Coalition of Parents, and the on-going battle between the people and the businesses here in Surrey, check out this site:

http://www.visionaryrecords.com/crackpipesincandystorescrusade/COPrecords.html

Social Contradicitions: Cigarettes in the Pharmacy

By Keetah Bryant (FRL)

Going through my e-mails on the weekend, I came across a petition to ban British Columbian drugstores from selling cigarettes, something that’s already been done in seven Canadian provinces. Apparently there’s a contradiction between the idea of being a health care provider and a dealer of death. While yes, it is a contradiction of sorts, it’s only one of many contradictions provided to us by our local drug store, and Canadian social and business policy at large.

What other items do drugstores sell? At this point, discussion on the ever-lurking monsters, the pharmaceutical companies, will be left for another debate. What I would like to to point out are the contradictions behind other products that you can purchase in the drug store, and then subsequently ingest. Food items, if you’d like to call them that.
To begin with, there’s a plethora of pop.

Coca Cola and a Whole Lot More...



Many of these sweet drinks contain more than just preposterous amounts of sugar (which, it has been agreed, is something most of us could do with less of). Other ingredients include sodium citrate, caramel (E150), brominated vegetable oil, and sodium benzoate, among others.

Sodium Citrate: This is a proven anti-coagulant. Yes, that’s right, it interferes with your natural blood clotting mechanisms. Good I suppose, if you were trying to bleed to death. The citrate ion, present in this little additive, actually chelates calcium ions in your blood, making clotting impossible.

Caramel (E150): This sweet sounding additive is actually a colorant, not anything else. Also present in things like brown bread, many scientists believe consumption of this agent can result in neurological disorders and adverse effects to our disease immunity systems.
Brominated Vegetable Oil: Present in some of citrus-flavored drinks here in Canada, this nasty little additive has been banned in the UK. Apparently it can accumulate in our tissue, and lead to various anatomical abnormalities.

Sodium Benzoate: This ingredient can also be found in things like fruit juices and ketchup. Some doctors believe it can lead to neurological disorders and allergic reactions, like asthma.




Chips and Salty Snacks...

Snack corporations have recently recognized the need to remove hydrogenated oils and trans fats from their products. As consumers became aware of the grave dangers these sorts of additive posed to their health, the companies responded by offering trans-fat free products. Although some types of chips boldly state the presence of MSG in their bags, others allude to the less familiar, although equally damaging taste enhancers like disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

MSG (Monosodium Glutamate): This substance is widely known to cause allergic reactions in people, manifested in any number of ways, including headaches and skin conditions. It has been associated with brain damage, possible psychological side effects such as depression, and can also lead to birth defects.



Not only are these chemicals associated with brain damage, they also have pre-determined and targeted effects our brains. These man-made substances elicit a chemical response in our brains, causing us to consume large amounts of food items treated with taste enhancers. As such, deep and lasting associations form between us and the products we consume containing these chemicals, and this could be likened to a deadly addiction.



Chocolates, Candies, and Sweets


Once again, we’re going to ignore the consideration of sugar altogether, and rely on the previously mentioned general consensus on that topic. We’re also going to ignore the consideration of caffeine, as we did in the discussion of soft drinks. We’re also going to ignore the ever-present hydrogenated oils and trans-fats that seem to be an integral part of today’s drugstore shelf chocolate. Rather, we’ll take a look at some less familiar but equally ubiquitous ingredients like soy lecithin and carrageenan.

Soy Lecithin: Soy lecithin comes “from sludge left after crude soy oil goes through a ‘degumming’ process. It is a waste product containing solvents and pesticides, and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. Before being bleached to a more appealing light yellow, the color of lecithin ranges from a dirty tan to reddish brown” (Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD. 2004)
Visit: www.wholesoystory.com

Carrageenan: According to Dr. Robert Cohen, “carrageenan is about as wholesome as monosodium glutamate, which is extracted from rice, and can be equally considered as “natural”. Aspartame (NutraPoison), is also natural, as it is extracted from decayed plant matter that has been underground for millions of years (oil). So too are many other substances, such as carrageenan that can also be classified by the FDA and USDA as wholesome and natural food additives” (2005)


Dr. Tobacman has done numerous studies on carrageenan and it’s effects, on animals as well as humans. She has demonstrated that “digestive enzymes and bacterial action convert hight weight carrageenans (those found in our food) to dangerous low molecular weight carrageenans and poligeenans in the human gut. These carageenans have been linked to various human cancers and digestive disorders”. Dr. Tobacman has also found indications linking carrageenan consumption to breast cancer in women.


Because only the degraded form of carrageenan (the degraded stuff in our stomachs after we eat it) can cause cancer, and not the undigested form, as added to many of our foods, the FDA granted the substance it’s GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, and as such, it appears in numerous food items.

The Verdict:

After careful consideration of the products that are present in our drugstores, the things they contain, and the harm they have been proven to cause, it only seems petty to instigate a campaign directly against cigarettes. At least people generally know the ills that cigarettes can cause - primarily lung cancer, strokes, bad teeth, and death. At least these products are labeled as harmful. At least these products are limited to consumption among the age of majority. At least cigarettes aren’t being sold as something benign, masquerading behind a corporate facade. What’s more cause for concern is the relative ignorance that prevails when it comes to food additives and the damage they do to our bodies.


There are no grave warning labels on our food packages in Canada (although they are readily available in parts of the UK). We as people are generally unaware that we are doing ourselves harm by ingesting these thing, even when we do so on a very irregular basis. There are no chip bags with ominous cancer warnings. How many people would buy a bag of monosodium glutamate-laced Doritos if they were slapped with the warning: MAY CAUSE PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE. How many women would indulge in “light” pudding snacks if the label also read “WARNING: AMOUNTS OF CARRAGEENAN IN THIS PACKAGE HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO CAUSE BREAST CANCER”?

Fighting against cigarettes is a socially acceptable, noble thing to do - it protects our children (and us) against the evils of large corporations and their ability to profit of our ill health. But, as in every war, the first consideration would be to KNOW YOUR ENEMY. The enemy is not the presence of the tobacco in the pharmacy, the enemy is the presence and persistence of corporate provisions everywhere we turn, and the dangerous substances they sell to us as “food”. But hey, at least now it’s trans fat free.

These sorts of petty contradictions will continue to be the norm until profit loses it’s primacy in our society, and knowledge prevails over the ignorance that these profit-centered institutions and ideologies have imposed upon us.

Website Resources (Do Your Own Homework)

http://www.caloriecontrol.org

http://www.soyonlineservices.co.nz/06guidance.htm

http://www.notmilk.com

http://www.newint.org/issue135/action.htm

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/lecithin.html

Spoonfed By Derek Burney

Spoon-fed. What’s In that Spoon??

If you’re like most politically conscious Canadians, you’d have watched the new year election with a degree of attention. You would have watched the polls (which rarely wavered from the prediction of a Conservative win), and you might have watched the Leader’s Debate on CBC, as you carefully weighed your choices and honed in on the candidate that would best suit your needs. The Canadian media would have played a large role in helping you formulate your decision, providing you with information on the most popular political candidates, their platforms, and their promises. And on the day you cast your vote, played your role as citizen and participated in the Canadian democracy as you ought to. The results rolled in. Canada, for the first time in 12 years, was headed by the Conservative party, this time with Stephen Harper as their poster boy.

This is precisely what ought to have occurred. We the Canadian public are fed “information” by our news networks and their affiliated pollsters, and we are faced with what looks like a choice that we must actively participate in. As long as this process is never questioned, never examined, these sorts of democratic elections might continue for years, serving the people of the so-called free nations that participate in them.

But something is gravely wrong with this picture of so-called democracy and choice. Behind the facade of news, information and choice lurks a sinister mechanism of mass control that we the public are completely unaware of. As the media networks churn out appropriate information for our consumption and consideration, the other network of Canadian elites designs and implements public policy, budget decisions, foreign policy, international relations, and the like. The election is merely the legitimating factor - it gives us the people the illusion of choice, that somehow we ourselves have participated in the direction of our future as a nation. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Regardless of how disagreeable this all might seem, the fact remains that more often than not, the truth is unbearably impalpable. We can continue to swallow blindly, whatever excrement elite politicians and their supportive news networks can shove down our throats, or we can open our eyes and see the reality of what it is we’re being fed. The only way to eliminate bullshit is first to recognize it as such.

In the words of Harry G. Frankfurt:

“One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone know this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident in their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry.”


Bullshit Delivery Systems:

There isn’t a Canadian around that doesn’t know that the CBC is the public broadcasting station. Heck, it’s the only channel you can get for free when you can’t afford cable. The common beliefs surrounding the CBC are primarily centered on dependability, depth of coverage, and lack of bias. There is a general sense of reliability that comes to mind when anyone mentions the CBC. If it’s on the CBC, then it’s to be trusted, right?

Sometimes it isn’t about what the media is telling us, it’s about what they choose not to tell us.For those of you who still hold dearly to your beliefs about the CBC, perhaps you’d be interested in hearing about Kalle Lasn’s (adbusters, The Media Foundation) experience with the network: apparently the money of some Canadians is not accepted as readily as others at the CBC. The network refused to air the association’s “Buy Nothing Day” ad spot, as it contradicted the ubiquitous messages of other advertisers who regularly advertise with the CBC.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2004/09/15/Arts/adbusters040915.html

http://adbusters.org/metas/psycho/mediacarta/legal/inthenews.html

It’s not just the CBC. (Unfortunately, the CBC is widely recognized for it’s accurate presentation of facts, and that wide recognition is far from deserved. As such, it’s the first network which ought to be exposed for it’s biases, strategic omissions, and it’s inability to respond to the needs of the Canadian people).

This sort of bias in information is present not only on a national level, but it permeates all levels of media delivery, all the way down to the free local papers that are left four times a week on our doorsteps. Hanna Kawas, chairperson of the Canadian Palestinian Association has become all too familiar with the kinds of “truth” that our modern media outlets offer us, the public. His letter, which he wrote to correct the editor of his local paper on his erroneous historical portrayal of past events, went unpublished, because it revealed a fallacy in what was purported to be fact.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2004%20opinions/May/11%20o/What%20Actually%20Happened%20By%20Hanna%20Kawas.htm

http://blog.zmag.org/ee_links/silence_on_israeli_terrorism

For a full account of the rise of a media mind control enterprise, look at the article on this blog, entitled “SOS From the Republic of Canwest”.

It’s readily apparent that the main objective of local and national media news sources is not truth. Omissions of fact and opinion are a regular occurrence at all levels of news media delivery. These entities work to maintain an image of Canadian society that is generally agreeable to the Canadian people, and maintains the ability of the elite to exercise societal control beyond the scrutiny of the public, whom they manipulate.


He Who Holds the Spoon...

So if the popular media, both in Canada and the US, can be seen as the spoon that shovels this fodder into our waiting mouths, than who is it that holds this spoon?

Most of us would assume, and rightly so, that our elected officials are the spoonholders of the nation. They decide how to administer taxation, how to distribute national funds, how to run the country. And we the people, gladly take this spoon into our mouths - after all, we are the ones who chose these individuals to hold the spoon. This is precisely the illusion that we the people are supposed to have, as those who truly hold the power (and hence the spoon), stay hidden from public scrutiny, and their manipulations of society go unnoticed by the masses.
Stephen Harper has no independent power - his leadership is an illusion. Elections are merely a process through which those in power gain the manufactured consent of the people. The Canadian Prime Minister, the US President, are puppets of the select few who hold the power, who wield the cash, and who use our country and it’s people as their commodity, which can be bought, sold, or traded as needed.

There are a number of elites in this country, most of whom you will not find in the parliament buildings, but rather sitting on numerous corporate boards, heavily invested in energies, armaments, and media. These individuals have a history that reflects tight and lucrative associations with government, lavish lifestyles, and social and racial exclusivity. These people hold a common belief that the masses, we the people, are mere cattle that need to be fed, led, and directed, so that they, the profiteers, can continue manipulating, deceiving, and profiting off, our working class mass.


Meet Derek Burney...

Derek Burney is best known for his role as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1987 1o 1989, during which time he helped to finalize NAFTA.

In 1989, he left his post as Chief of Staff to become the Canadian Ambassador to the United States until 1993, at which time he moved on to Bell Canada. In 1999, he moved on to CAE Inc., where he was president and CEO of the company until 2004. He currently sits on the following corporate boards: CanWest Global Communications, Quebecor World Inc. (a print media corporation), TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. and Shell Canada, where he is lead director. He is also president of the board of New Brunswick Power, and is a valued “fellow” at CDFAI (The Canadian Defense and Foreign Affairs Institute). He also teaches at Carleton University, a school which recently published his book/memoir “Getting it Done”. Most recently, Mr.Burney joined Oglivy-Renault, an exclusive law firm here in Canada (where Brian Mulroney is senior partner), as a senior advisor on trade and other international issues. It’s interesting to note that one of the most controversial appointees to cabinet by Mr. Harper is a former employee of this same law firm. Michael Fortier, our new Minister of Public Works, used to practice law at Oglivy-Renault.



After the 39th federal election held on January 23, 2006, Derek Burney led up the Harper transition team meetings, which took place behind closed doors. According to the Globe and Mail, Derek “led the transition team, which was responsible for hiring senior staff and setting up the cabinet-committee structure in the weeks after the Conservatives' Jan. 23 election win”. He continues to be a pervasive force that exerts huge power and influence on the policy and direction of the Canadian government, all beyond the seeing eyes of the public. Stephen Harper responds to the desires of Derek Burney and his social cohorts, and not to the desires of the Canadian people. This is relatively easy to see, provided one knows where to look.

You might call Derek Burney a true prophet if you had heard him speaking in the months before the election. You would observe that everything he spoke of had come to pass in a relatively short period of time. You would realize that Mr. Harper’s actions are merely an expression of this great man’s thoughts, and as such you would recognize the breadth and depth of his control.

Derek Before the Election

On November 17, 2005, Derek Burney made a speech at The Ranchmen’s Club in Calgary, entitled “Canada-US Relations: Are we Getting it Right?”. As he addressed the attendees, he drove home his agenda: “..security and prosperity should be the over-riding priorities for our government, and relations with the United States are critical to both.”

In September earlier that year, he had addressed a crowd at the First Canadian Place, which was playing host at the time to the Toronto Branch reception of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs. At this event, he gave a speech entitled: “Canada-US Relations: Weeds in the Garden.” He opened his speech with the following statement:

“We should take our head out of the sand and reconsider our position on missile defense and endeavor, more generally, to become more than a spectator in the defense of our own continent... If we want to be more relevant in Washington we need to give security a higher and clearer priority. We cannot afford a free ride on our own defense.”

He went on to encourage smarter cooperation with the US in relation to the energy and forestry sectors, saying that the current negotiations over softwood lumber were equivalent to “huffing and puffing”, and that a more “pragmatic...” and “permanent solution” would “inject more certainty for the whole industry”.

He later reminded the attendees, that Trudeau’s “personal dalliances with Fidel Castro..did not sit well with the Regan administration, and that Canada has currently “aggravated already tender nerves in Washington” by it’s abrupt decision to “stand down on Ballistic Missile Defense”. “The mood is not healthy,” he warned.

But Derek Burney had a solution for the audience, and a good one. “We could use more creative thinking and consistent political leadership,” he suggested, “a real sense of purpose from the top reflecting conviction not wariness”. He identified the “pressing need to rejuvenate existing bilateral institutions”. According to Mr. Burney, “NAFTA... is under heavy strain” and “NORAD risks becoming a shell”. Just months before the election he identified “the single biggest threat to Canada’s well being today” as “a lapse or breach of security along our shared border”.


Why Derek Sells “Security”

The most relevant and recent link to Derek Burney’s insistence on Canadian military security can be found in his connection with CAE, beginning in early 2000. CAE is not just a company that has interests in passenger planes, as some news sources would have us believe. In 2000, with the help of Derek Burney and his close ties with the US, the company managed to secure a contract with the ARI (United States Army Research Institute), where it delivered it’s first Medallion visual system to the US Army in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

In 2001, CAE (under Burney’s lead), purchased BAE SYSTEMS Flight Simulation and Training of Tampa, Florida, for US$80 million to “gain access to the mammoth US defense market, and named the company CAE USA”. Exactly a year after this purchase, CAE “became a prime contractror for the US Army” when it signed a US$50 million deal to create the world’s first AH/MH-6 combat mission simulator for it’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).

In that same year, CAE, in partnership with CBD Training won a five-year contract worth C$28 million to provide aircrew training and courseware development for the US Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB) in Nevada. In 2002, CAE Canada also announced a partnership with Boeing to “collaboratively evaluate and develop opportunities in missile defense...[and] to evaluate and develop systems related to air and missile threats, sensors, interceptors, and battle management/command, control, and communications systems.” Burney saw the move as “enabling stronger defence, intelligence, and police cooperation.” “We should increase our defense spending...” he said, “ ...procrastination on such issues like missile defence does not help”.

During his time with this company, Derek Burney succeeded in making numerous and lasting in-roads with all sorts of military production power all over North America, which was assisted by his previous career experience and networking connections as Ambassador to the US. Not only did CAE grow during his reign, they also diversified into marine vessel control and navy training, while “divesting” from less profitable business markets (like forestry) in 2002.


Derek Swings Into Action
Immediately after the Conservatives predictably won the most recent federal election, Derek Burney undertook action to ensure that the priorities he had conceived of for Canada were met. As one of the key members of Harper’s transition team, he had immediate access to policy reform measures, budget decisions, and military directions. And all of this is rather evident from the string of events that followed the last election.

In the second week after the election, Stephen Harper met up with Derek Burney in a closed door meeting. The following week brought with it appointments to cabinet that it seemed no one could have anticipated, including the appointment of an unelected Minister of Public Works, Mr. Michael Fortier.

On January 25, 2006, just weeks after the election, there was a shoot out at the Peace Arch border crossing in British Columbia, a CanWest Global media stronghold. You’d think Mr. Burney knew this was going to occur - as previously mentioned, he had identified a breach at the border as “the single biggest threat to Canada” previous to the election. The aerial shots of the impromptu event, produced by CanWest Global, seem to have been snapped and captured just as the events were unfolding. The incident forced the Canadian guards to leave their posts, as they “feared for their safety”, being that they were unarmed. Within one day, the Harper government responded to the incident with a pledge to arm our Canadian border guards, to increase our border security. Stockwell Day, the newly-minted Minister of Public Safety scurried into the province immediately following the border breach, and assured the public that the guns would be forthcoming. Between the US border paranoia and the well-timed breach of armed criminals brashly penetrating the Canadian border, right in front of CanWest Global’s waiting cameras, it seems Mr. Burney’s desire to have “secure borders” is well on it’s way to being fulfilled.

In line with Mr.Burney’s intolerance of independent nations, Harper moved to cut off funding from the newly and democratically elected Hamas, the Palestinian authority, after they failed to recognize their stolen homelands and the occupiers as “Israel”.

It seems as if Derek Burney was also paving the way for Mr.Harper when it came to his first leader’s summit in Mexico. According to reports from the CBC, there were “secret negotiations” between Canadian and American officials “to arrive at a framework agreement over softwood lumber prior to the announcement of formal negotiations”. Ian Brodie, Chief of Staff for the PM, and Derek Burney, travelled to the US two weeks prior to the Leader’s Summit to meet with US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, the senior presidential advisor Karl Rove, and the old Chief of Staff at the White House, Andy Card. Apparently they were working to “have a deal pretty much in place so that when the negotiations resume[d] they [would] conclude quickly and favorably”. It seems Mr. Burney ensured a “pragmatic and more permanent solution” to the softwood lumber issue all on his own. Why delegate when you can get it done yourself?

On April 4, 2006, Harper’s speech from the throne touted the US as our “best friends”, and as the wars wage on in the Middle East, it seems as if Canada and the United States are becoming increasingly similar in action and ideology. According to the Ottawa Citizen, most folks (65%) are OK with Stephen Harper signing off his speeches by sputtering “God Bless Canada” at the end of them, but some of us are unsure about these new ideologies and the inevitable actions that regrettably come with them.

Military Ambitions

The importance that Mr. Burney places on the militarization of the nation is rather blatant, but what is a little more unclear is why this militarization is so important to him. Most of us are familiar with the newly identified threat of “international terror” since the the events of 9-11 captivated us all. More recently, our own “homegrown terrorist act” was apparently avoided by swift and sly intervention on the part of the police and CSIS, but is the this the real reason behind the need for all this proposed military might?


In understanding Canada’s pursuit of a beefier military, it’s helpful to understand the backgrounds of those advocating such a situation in the government. The new Canadian defense minister Gordon O’Connor is a former General and also a former lobbyist. O’Connor worked as a military lobbyist for eight years, until 2004 when he was first elected. “He even lobbied for Airbus (Boeing) on a contract for military transport planes that he will now play a roll in judging” (Murray Cooke, 2006). It isn’t surprising that O’Connor, like Burney, is supportive of the American missile defence project.

One of the current parliamentary debates over military expenditures features O’Connor vs. Gen. Rick Hillier. O’Connor wants to spend $2.5 billion on four Boeing C-17 Globemasters - long haul strategic transports, which would be acquired in a “sole source” acquisition. Hillier would rather the government spend $4.6 billion on 16 short-haul tactical transports. Hillier would rather use rented Russian long-haul planes, available to Canada on 72 hours notice through a NATO agreement, than buy them from the United States. This purchase, according to some, would “deprive the Montreal-based aerospace industry of billions of dollars of lucrative industrial spin-offs in the coming decades”. In all liklihood, as indicated by comments from Peter McKay and other conservative party members, the Boeings will be bought.

In a recent interview Derek Burney stated to the press that he “put[s] a premium on loyalty, and most people in politics do”. He obviously must be loyal to his friends at Boeing, who helped lift CAE to it’s “top-supplier” status with the US Military back in 2002. He is also obviously loyal to the militarization of space, the ongoing “war on terror” and the other “evils” that “independent nations” breed, as has been indicated by his speeches, writings, and current strategic power positions in Canadian society.


Energy vs. Environment

Derek seems to have other allegiances as well, primarily in the energy sector, so it’s no surprise that with the rise of the Conservatives in Canada came the fall of the previously ratified Kyoto agreement. As previously mentioned, Derek Burney is currently the president of the board of New Brunswick Power, a company that burns large amounts of fossil fuels in order to generate electricity for the region and the every hungry United States.

In 2002, the government of New Brunswick “gave their endorsement and approval for a $750 million project to burn Orimulsion,” (which is a patented and generally “dirty” fuel source that comes only from Venezuela)at the Coleson Cove Generating Station. According to David Thomspon (2002), “... the plant has operated since 1976, burning a low grade of number 6 bunker oil”. The largest power plant in New Brunswick, it is “also the largest single point of greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions in Atlantic Canada”.

The Orimulsion dream didn’t last long at New Brunswick Power, as the independent Venezuelans backed out of the deal. For environmentalists in the area, it’s a small relief, as Orimulsion has been recognized has a highly pollutive and volatile fuel which resists clean-up when spilled in water by sinking out of sight into the ecosystems below. Coleson Cove is back to burning the more expensive bunker oil, and the cost of dealing with independent nations and their fickle nature over their exports will be approximately “$2 billion in increased fuel costs over the next ten years”.

When N.B. power isn’t burning oil, it’s burning coal for energy. According to Larry Lack (2005), “almost 80% of Nova Scotia’s electricity and 20% of New Brunswick’s is generated at coal-fired plants... Most of the coal burned by New Brunswick power... is mined at the world’s largest coal mine, located on the Guajira Peninsula in northern Columbia near the Venezuelan border”. This mine, called Cerrejón, was sold in 2002 “to a consortium of Australian, British, South African and Swiss corporations”. In response to pressure from the IMF, these new owners effectively slashed the price of the coal comming from Cerrejón, which made it far more affordable on the world market. New Brunswick Power became one of the mine’s biggest customers, as the low wages of the Columbian mine workers allowed them to purchase the coal at a highly competitive price.

The mine and it’s effects have been highly controversial in Columbia, “where massacres and death squads in mining and petroleum-extraction regions have taken the lives of hundreds of union leaders and thousands of campesinos in recent years”. Currently, the mine is 35 miles wide and five miles long - the consortium that controls that area (until their lease expires in 2034) plans to “ double the mine’s area, extending it into the territory of five more villages that are likely to be relocated or obliterated when the company decides it needs their land”.
It’s no surprise then, that the newly appointed Minister of the Environment, Rona Ambrose is no friend of Kyoto and it’s restrictions on the burning of fossil fuels. According to Rona, Canada is not even willing to purchase the Kyoto “credits”, which can be viewed as fines over-polluters pay to nations who have their emissions under control. The Conservatives have completely backed out of an international agreement that Canada was an integral part of. People like David Suzuki are left completely aghast and dismayed, that the government would have the audacity to lose it’s international face over something has globally influential as climate change.

When looking at the associations, the corporations, and the loyalties that Mr.Burney himself professes to have for such alliances, it’s no surprise that the Harper government turned it’s back on Kyoto to face a more military-oriented and less environmentally friendly future. With all the loyalties Mr. Burney and his associates have to oil companies, energy companies, foreign coal barons and their militias, missile makers, purveyors of armaments and artillery, and “the American way”, it should be no surprise that this is the direction our country is taking. And if you expect to hear about these hows and whys on your local or national news, or read about it in the press, that won’t happen, because Mr.Burney and his associates are well in control of the media and press through intimate board associations like CanWest Global and Quebecor World Inc.

Saving face isn’t important to the faceless - those that operate beyond public scrutiny. What is important, is the continuation of anonymity among the powerful, and a lack of public awareness in regards to social control. So long as we the people remain blind to what it is that forces our obedience and consent, we will continue to destroy each other and our planet in order to provide short term benefits for the elite. It is imperative that we the people begin to understand these mechanisms of control, and who the individuals are who reap the benefits of such mechanisms. With this awareness comes accountability, and with accountability, a new possibility, of lasting fundamental change.

A Nation of Contradictions

Ok so i guess i need some help understanding what's going on. On this auspicious eve of bush's presidential address on immigration policy i'm trying to understand how language can hide so much violence, hatred and inhumanity. i'm trying to understand how sentences do not grammatically falter from the weight of so much hypocrisy. And i'm trying to understand what mechanisms have so flawlessly facilitated a logic that allows us to forget legacies of genocide, slavery and oppression in exchange for values of democracy, liberty and justice.

What the fuck am i missing here?

Perhaps extracting some quotes from tonight's speech will help to explain my confusion:

"We must begin by recognizing the problems with our immigration system. For decades, the United States has not been in complete control of its borders. As a result, many who want to work in our economy have been able to sneak across our border and millions have stayed."

Did he just say "sneak??" See 'cause when i think of the word "sneak" i tend to associate it with the more light-hearted of activities. Such as sneaking into a second movie matinee without buying a ticket or perhaps a kid sneaking in a donut before dinner...shit like that. Working for years to finance an incredibly physically and emotionally draining journey across latin american borders where in which you are more than likely to fall victim to robbery, as well as physical and sexual assault at the hands of gangs who roam the streets looking for migrants, if not at the hands of police authorities themselves, seems deserving of another descriptor. Furthermore, to say that they just "snuck" across the border denies them the dignity of acknowledgement of the circumstances from which they are fleeing. It infantilizes people, reducing their struggles to a childish game of hide-and-go-to-america. It refuses to recognize the tremendous amounts of hope and investment, fear and terror, as well as danger and risk by which such a journey is characterized.. ok lets move on the next quote:

"Once here, illegal immigrants live in the shadows of our society. Many use forged documents to get jobs, and that makes it difficult for employers to verify that the workers they hire are legal. Illegal immigration puts pressure on public schools and hospitals, strains state and local budgets, and brings crime to our communities. These are real problems, yet we must remember that the vast majority of illegal immigrants are decent people who work hard, support their families, practice their faith, and lead responsible lives. They are a part of American life but they are beyond the reach and protection of American law."

Alright so first we are told that these people are criminals that leech off the services and institutions financed by honest hard-working tax-paying citizens, but then we're told that most don’t fit into this category....anyone else a lil confused? It contains elements of the die-hard right wing camp to which bush subscribes in its simplistic understanding of illegal immigrants as responsible for inordinate (and thus noteworthy) amounts of crime, as well as "straining" the economy. But wait! Then there’s a liberal sounding sequel that absolves the majority of immigrants from such social disgrace and reconstitutes them as honest, hard-working and god-fearing.

But alas, just when you think the president might be aware of some sort of shared humanity outside his white supremacist, heteronormative, imperialist world, further investigation renders this possibility moot.

What bush is actually saying is that america welcomes immigrants as long as they are humble, downtrodden, obedient, docile, hardworking and INVITED. The same way bush's ancestors were INVITED by the native people of America to inflict genocide, territorial invasion and centuries of subsequent occupation. So in other words, they (we) are welcome as long as we KNOW OUR PLACE. Just like how black people have always been welcome in the states as long as they knew their place (ie under the whip of a taxpaying white citizen). It’s only when us pesky coloured folks start applying the standards of white humanity to our own bodies that things get ugly.

ok moving on:

"We are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We are also a nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition, which has strengthened our country in so many ways. These are not contradictory goals. America can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. We will fix the problems created by illegal immigration, and we will deliver a system that is secure, orderly and fair. So I support comprehensive immigration reform that will accomplish five clear objectives."

oh gawd, now i'm lost again. WE are a nation of immigrants??? Is he actually admitting that his existence in america is not divinely ordained but in fact the result of a very real migration path that led him there? Could it be possible that empire is acknowledging its roots?

OR is this just an elusive statement that could also be understood as NOT including bush (and by extension europeans) as part of the immigration stock boiling in america's big melting pot, but instead be read as referring to the large population of "foreigners" that have come to america in recent years or perhaps have lived there for generations but carry the stain of colour on their skin that denies them naturalized nationality?

The rest of the speech dileneates his five magic objectives that will solve the big bad "immigrant problem." The first describes extensive measures that will be executed in order to strengthen border patrol, including a significant deployment of armed soldiers, military equipment, technology and resources to 'trouble' areas where the "sneaking" takes place. While describing these plans bush assures us that "the United States is not going to militarize the southern border"....I guess he felt like injecting a little comedy into the speech.

The second and third objectives describe his ingenious "temporary worker program" solution that subjects workers from the south to numerous humiliating checks and interrogations before they are deemed fit to enter america for a predetermined period of exploitation.

His fourth objective benevolently spares the many undocumented immigrants already residing in the US from the indignity of deportation and instead graciously allows them to simply pay "a meaningful penalty." Which, if monetary, should be easy considering all the big bucks undocumented immigrants must be making once they minus the remittance (the $$$ they send back to their home countries) from their lucrative taxi driving and housecleaning paycheques. I guess bush does have a heart after all.



His final and most touching declaration was a warning to all them foreigners to remember that once you're let into america, u need to talk, eat, worship, dress, walk and fuck american. Oh! As well as KILL for america, which he relays through a little anecdote of Guadalupe Denogean, a man from mexico who was severely wounded in Iraq. In exchange for his bravery and courage, he was awarded citizenship with bush attending his oath-taking ceremony. Does this mean undocumented immigrants can fight in american wars while they are turned away from the country itself??? Is it apparently legal to die for america when its illegal to enter it???



This is eerily reminiscent of the black americans who fought in vietnam for america when americans at home were forcing them to drink out of separate water fountains. As well as the Native Canadian soldiers who fought in the second world war only to come home to residential schools and the continued appropriation of their culture and heritage. But that was all in the past right? Heaven forbid that we try to contextualize and understand the realities of today by looking to history...or try to understand WHY people are risking their lives and separating from their love ones and homelands to come to the west. Could it have something to do with the stifling economic policies of the present, coupled with the debilitating marks of a colonial past?

I think that it is only through understanding these new immigration laws as rooted in histories of utter inhumanity that we are able to begin to resolve the contradictions inherent in the language of this new world empire. Perhaps this will hopefully help us discover ways in which we can work in solidarity with our suffering sisters and brothers across all borders, no matter how guarded.

The full text of the speech can be found here: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50223

Dick and His Tricks: Mass Ignorance Manufactured for the US to Create Fear and Encourage Hate

Who is Dick Lamm? He’s the former Governor of Colorado, who currently holds a position at University of Denver’s Institute for Public Policy - he’s the head of that department. He recently spoke out at a conference called “Defend Colorado Now”, which served to spread the word about “defending America” from this current onslaught of illegal immigrants. Lamm and his supporters seek to bar “illegal immigrants” from using services funded by the American taxpayer.

For his full speech, see this blog entry: http://www.thecitizen.com/node/5785

Apparently, Dick Lamm thinks that words like “racism” and “xenophobe” halt all important discussions and debate regarding immigration policy. That is, I suppose if you’d like to discuss and promote racist policies or a hatred of foreigners. He believes that a stress on diversity is obviously a road to national demise. He believes in a “culture of victimology” among minorities, a “culture” that’s unwarranted and false, that is supported by the funding of “large foundations”. Dick wants us to understand that we Americans are adversely affected by “the cumulative impact of millions of [immigrants]”.

Who is Dick Lamm? Dick is one of the many voice boxes of the ruling class - the political and economic elite. In order to undermine the solidarity of the working people, those in power seek to create superficial divisions among the working class - it’s best to have them fight amongst themselves over these “social problems”, rather than identifying the real cause of their strife, which would be the methods and desires of the ruling class.

Dick Lamm is an example of elite propaganda proliferation, and the blogger who wrote this article is an example of how beautifully this system of internal mind control works. Completely suceptible to the assertions made by Mr. Lamm, “eodnnaenaj1” has explicitly demonstrated how ignorant some Americans can be. No one can blame the blogger for his or her erroneous views, we can only blame a system which works to proliferate ignorance and derisive views. This unfortunate blogger might be the poster child for American ignorance - proof positive of the American proaganda system at work.

“eodnnaenaj1”, after reflected upon the speech made by the former governor, demonstrates his or her ethnocentricity and lack of complete knowledge by referring to external ways of life and cultures as “barbaric”. The blogger asserts that “over 100 languages are ripping at the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness”. Last time I checked, the American educational system wasn’t anything to be desired. Furthermore, the presence of multiple languages among people of a given geographical area can only make communication, learning, and understanding more pervasive and widespread. The most amusing part of “eodnnaenaj1”’s response to the unfounded fear that Dick Lamm instilled in his listeners is his or her allusion to George Orwell’s book, “1984”. I think you need to read that book again “eodnnaenaj1”, to truly understand the concepts.

The blogger sees the condition of the “true American” people being adversely affected by the scourge of immigrants that come flooding into the nation in droves. He or she sees them as a threat to “the American Dream”.


The Untold Truth:

What American dream?? Dreams are illusions, and so is this picture of “national security” that the elite have been so busy constructing. In order to assist this blogger, and others like him or her who remain deluded in the shadow of sharp talkers like Lamm,
we here propose a short series of truths:

1) North America needs minorities, particularly minorities who are uneducated and linguistically isolated, in order to keep the economy running. If it weren’t for the immigrants and ignorant minorities, who would clean the toilets? Serve the burgers? Drive the taxis? Run the convenience stores? Who would take care of the children for less than minimum wage? Who would clean the suburban houses? Who would change your car tires? If these people were a little more educated, and a little less isolated, this sort of “slavery” would be impossible. They might want good jobs and pursue higher education, and we can’t have that, can we? There can only be so many doctors, lawyers, and other high income earners in this country. Not everyone can have it all.

“True” Americans don’t have enough babies to keep up with the demands of the economy in North America. There aren’t enough pink little babies born in the nation each year to have “true” American toilet scrubbers and “true” American poverty. We as a nation need to outsource the lowest economic bracket of the population, because none of us here want to fill that void. Any capitalist will tell you that an oppressed, ignorant, powerless, and often indebted underclass is precisely what’s needed to keep this system chugging along. The “American dream” relies upon the subordination of lower classes. (Read some Noam Chomsky, some David Hume, maybe even some Walter Lippman, so you can understand why America allows and does not discourage immigrants from coming into the country).

2) Economic growth cannot be sustained without population growth. If Americans want a growing economy, that population has to come from somewhere. If Americans want population growth to cease, they are also asking for economic growth to cease. Based on America’s gross overconsumption habits, coupled with the massive debt and perpetual war, unless all Americans all want to starve to death, they had better keep that population growth chugging along.

3) In a nation that encourages conformity, assimiliation, and focuses on similarities, not differences, the individual is lost - America was founded on the rights of the individual. In a country that perpetuates negative stereotypes about visible minorities, in a country that keeps visible minorities under glass ceilings, in a country that uses brute force to inflict it’s will and ideologies on helpless independent nations, the only logical response would be to assert one’s independence and difference from that sort of status quo.



4) There is no left or right, no democrats or republicans. There is no black or white. There is no Hispanic or Caucasian. There are only two things that exist here in North America - people and profits. Conflict is designed by the ruling class in order to keep that distinction obscure. If the elites can keep the people fighting amongst themselves, the people are completely ignorant to the fact that elite profit is their only true enemy. Corporate greed and corporate profits are the threat to national security, the threat to “the American Dream” and essentially the one major threat to human existence. It’s corporate greed that’s responsible for American job loss, it’s corporate greed that creates a need for an exploitable labour force, it’s corporate greed that creates disparity and class struggles.

So keep listening to Dick, and fight right alongside with him, if your goal is to destroy your world as you know it. If your goal is to propagate hate, misinformation, and destruction, keep on writing “eodnnaenaj1”. There are plenty of us impoverished, working-class world citizens that are holding our breath, waiting for America’s illusion to finally burst.

10 Things You Thought You Knew About Canada (and Other Stuff Nobody Wants You to Know)

An Opinion Article By

Keetah Bryant

• WE LIVE IN A FREE SOCIETY

A truly free society offers all citizens equal opportunities to access education, leisure, work, and sustenance. In a free society, the media is decentralized and represents all facets of the opinion spectrum. Here in Canada, we have an educational system that favours the rich, and wealth concentration in rich neighborhoods prevents equal opportunity in the essential areas of education and leisure.

Our neighborhoods are demographically designed to cater to their populations. In one neighborhood you might find a plethora of organic food (Kitsilano) and in another area you might find ubiquitous fast food outlets (Surrey) - this selective availability of products does not promote equality. (There are those of you out there who will argue with me that the demand for certain things controls the market, and thus the prevalence or lack of prevalence of select business types is entirely due to the demand of the population in that area. I would argue with you that demand is heavily affected by knowledge and access, and if knowledge and access are restricted in certain neighborhoods, then one cannot say that the demand of that area is truly a reflection of the desires of the people.)

The majority of the British Columbian media is controlled by one media giant, CanWest Global. There are numerous accounts of this corporation’s monopoly on our local media, as well as mounting piles of evidence that point to their editorial control and unbridled censorship. We here in Canada have no right to point the finger at China for censoring information from it’s citizens, when we here are subject to the same restrictions. (For more information on Global, see the article in this blog, “SOS From the Republic of CanWest”)

• HARD WORK, PERSEVERANCE, AND HONESTY WILL GET YOU ANYWHERE YOU CAN DREAM OF GOING, YOU ONLY HAVE TO TRY
  

Nothing could be further from the truth. Unless you learn how to kiss ass, how to keep your mouth shut, how to put your needs below those of your employer, you will never amount to anything in our society. Unless you learn how to conform, how to suppress anything that challenges the status quo (including yourself), unless you are willing to silence any dissent that might well up in your throat, then you are condemned to fail. Shut up, put up, and give up - that’s the way to longevity in any career.

For a perfect example of how you ought to behave (even though no one ever explicitly tells you), see the book: “Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn’t Want You to Know and What to do About Them” by Cynthia Shapiro. (This book is available at your local public library).

In case you don’t have the time to read the book for yourself, here are some tantalizing pieces of advice that Shapiro offers the savvy worker:

“To find the hidden agendas in your company, look at what it’s key decision makers currently reward and value (even if it’s never talked about, even if it’s openly denied or politically incorrect)”.

“Putting yourself and your personal interests before the company will label you as a traitor, not to be trusted, not to be invested in”.

“It’s all about managing the image your company has of you. We all know raising a family and working full times makes for a life full of chaos and extreme juggling. The question becomes how much you let your employer see”.

“At work, your dress should always be conservative. If you can, it should match as closely as possible the style of those at the top”.

• WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY THAT IS FREE OF RACISM, SEXISM, AND GENERAL STEREOTYPING

Our society ultimately functions because of our alienation from each other. Racism, sexism, stereotyping and the exclusivity that those attitudes produce, all work together to ensure a working capitalistic system, in which the majority of the population is disconnected from one another. In this way, workers, visible minorities, the impoverished, men, and women, are all perceived as separate entities within society, with distinct and separate interests, making large scale change virtually impossible.



The status quo is maintained, and those who are oppressed continue on in their condition, blinded by the perceived solitary nature of their condition. These superficial divisions, that are encouraged in our society, only distract from the true nature of our economic system, which places control and power in the hands of a small elite, while the large majority of the population struggles amongst themselves for the scraps of token “control” that remain.

How are these divisions nurtured? Through news media, educational institutions, and entertainment devices. All of these mediums foster specific stereotypes that are accepted by the masses, and are then subsequently internalized as “us/them” ideas. When was the last time you heard the word “Indo-Canadian” in a local paper, without the word “gangster” being used in the same breath?
Can you think of any common stereotypes that exist about the Asian community? The Black community? Are your beliefs based on personal experience or what you have heard and learned from outside sources? How do these beliefs affect your interactions with people that are “outside of” your group?

• WE ARE MORE LIBERAL THAN THE UNITED STATES
  

Our two-party dominant system is a farce used to give legitimacy to our pseudo-democracy - Liberals and Conservatives are one in the same entity. Regardless of which party ends up holding the balance of power, ultimately corporate interests are the main concern of all government parties. The parties exist to give the voting public the illusion of choice, the feeling that change will occur because of their independent actions. It is a pacifying tactic that works to lull the public into percieving a democracy where one truly does not exist.




One of the most vocal scholars on this precise point is linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, who has written several books and appeared in numerous movies regarding the current world order. He sees our government as a puppet of large corporations, and the party system of the government as a mere distraction from the fact of our pseudo-democracy. For more information on this topic and more, read: “Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest For Global Dominance” (2003) and “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9/11 World”, both by Noam Chomsky.

Here are a few select quotes from those works:

“What remains of democracy is largely the right to choose among commodities. Business leaders have long explained the need to impose upon the population a ‘philosophy of futility’ and ‘lack of purpose in life’ to ‘concentrate human attention on the more superficial things that comprise much of fashionable consumption’. (64) Deluged by such propaganda from infancy, people may accept their meaningless and subordinate lives and forget ridiculous ideas about managing their own affairs. They may abandon their fate to corporate managers and the PR industry and, in the political realm, to the self-described ‘intelligent minorities’ who serve and administer power.”


“Those at the center of power relentlessly pursue their own agendas, understanding that they can exploit the fears and anguish of the moment. They may even institute measures that deepen the abyss and may march resolutely toward it, if that advances the goals of power and privilege. They declare that it is unpatriotic and disruptive to question the workings of authority - but patriotic to institute harsh and regressive policies that benefit the wealthy, undermine social programs that serve the needs of the great majority, and subordinate a frightened population to increased state control.”

• OUR COUNTRY HAS A FREE PRESS, AND A MEDIA SYSTEM THAT DELIVERS THE FACTS
  

Our media outlets are an integral part of the propaganda machine that operates here in North America. “Propaganda” is a word usually associated with a Nazi-esque regime, or outrageous claims that might come out of the Middle East. Propaganda isn’t something that is at all associated with a “free press”, is it?


Most of the media outlets here in Canada are governed and controlled by people with vast corporate interests, international connections, and stakes in defense contracts and the like. (Once again, check out the article on CanWest Global on this site, as well as the “Derek Burney” watch). Whether we like to believe it or not, the “news” that we get is designed and selected in order to complement and enhance the corporate agendas in our country. Noam Chomsky writes passionately about this concept in his books, and his opinion is featured in a film entitled “Manufacturing Consent” , which can be downloaded or watched at www.archive.org - just search the title in the “Moving Images” section of the search engine.

Here’s a little of what Noam has to say on the state of the North American media:

“ It’s not easy, under stagnating economic conditions, to maintain political power. Only one good method is known: inspire fear. That tactic was employed throughout the Reagan-Bush years, as the leadership conjured up one devil after another to frighten the populace into obedience.”

“One high government official [US] described it’s ‘Operation Truth’ as a ‘huge psychological operation of the kind the military conducts to influence a population in denied or enemy territory’ - a frank characterization of pervasive attitudes toward the domestic population.”

“My own personal interest, incidentally, is not the media per se but the intellectual culture. The media happen to be the easiest part of the intellectual culture to study. The elite media - The BBC, The New York Times, the Washington Post, and so on, are the day to day expression of the elite intellectual culture and are therefore much easier to study that intellectual scholarship. You can do that too, but it requires more complex research. In the media you can fairly easily find systematic biases about what’ permitted, what’s not permitted, what’s stressed, what isn’t stressed”.

“The major media do report information, they must for a number of reasons. One is that their primary constituency requires it. Their primary constituency consists of economic managers, political managers, and doctrinal managers - the educated class, the political class, those who run the economic system. These people need a realistic picture of the world. They own it, they control it, they dominate it, they have to make decisions in it, so they’d better understand something about it. That is, why, in my opinion, the business press tends to have better reporting than other national press”.

When Noam Chomsky was asked how one might go about recognizing propaganda, he responded:

“There are no techniques, just ordinary common sense. If you hear that Iraq is a threat to our existence, but Kuwait doesn’t seem to regard it as a threat to its existence and nobody else in the world does, any sane person will begin to ask, where is the evidence? As soon as you ask this, the argument collapses. But you have to be willing to develop an attitude of critical examination toward whatever is presented to you. Of course, the whole educational system and the whole media system have the opposite goal. You’re taught to be a passive, obedient follower. Unless you can break out of those habits, you’re likely to be a victim of propaganda..."

"Just use your ordinary intelligence. There are no special techniques. Just be willing to examine what’s presented to you with ordinary common sense, skeptical intelligence.”

• WE ARE AN INDEPENDENT NATION
  

We are about as independent as a big toe on the foot of America. It doesn’t take much observatory power to recognize that Canada merely bows to the whims of it’s global super-power neighbour (particularly since Stephen Harper and his elite advisory team, which includes longtime US advocate Derek Burney, came into power). The United States deploys troops in an unfounded war, we deploy troops shortly after. America is “addicted to oil”, and Albertans are quick to provide all oil they could ever dream of (at least for awhile). Americans have a problem with border security? We have a problem with border security. The list goes on...

It’s well known in Canada that our archaic laws on marijuana use and possession have been on the reform table for years, screaming for much needed change. But, because of external pressure from our neighbours, we continue to uphold these restrictive, overly-punitive, and widely disregarded laws just to save face in front of our American friends. That doesn’t say much for our so-called independence.

• PEOPLE HERE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN SHORTCOMINGS
  

It’s a fundamental assumption here in North America, the land of opportunity, that success is here for the taking, if only we as individuals step up to the plate. This assumption is pressed into our minds as soon as we are able to perceive and understand. From that point forward, any failures that we experience can be presumed to be of our own making. This thought process is essential to the control of the masses - if people’s poverty, their inability to succeed here in North America is seen as something of their own control, then they have no one to look to but themselves for solutions. And this is precisely how the capitalistic elite have designed it.

The last thing the corporate elite want to assume is any responsibility towards the people whom they exploit. If the common person can be assured that their life position is due solely to their own shortcomings, and not due to the shaping mechanisms of a very powerful, external force, then this unrecognized force can continue to operate freely in it’s subordination of the masses, unchallenged and unrestricted. It has long been understood by those who hold positions of power and wealth, that in order to maintain their elite position, subordination of the masses must be of a primary concern.

Walter Lippman,was an influential journalist and Liberal of the earlier part of the 20th century. Noam Chomsky summarizes his take on the general populous:

“... the goal of putting the public in it’s place in this current ‘democracy’ could be achieved in part through the ‘manufacture of consent’ a ‘self-conscious art and regular organ of popular government’. This ‘revolution’ in the ‘practice of democracy’ should enable a ‘specialized class’ to manage the ‘common interests’ that ‘very largely elude public opinion entirely’”.

Essentially, the ruling class sees the common people as a potential threat to their control and as a nuisance to progress. The masses require pacification and domination. Rather than have the common people aware and resistant to their oppression, this “manufacturing of consent” has produced the common assumption that people are responsible for their own failures here in North America. Coupled with this internalized responsibility, we are made to believe that we need out government to regulate our world, keep us “safe” from the “terrorists” and assure us of our good health (with the help of giant pharmaceutical companies), and “superior” education. We relenquish all of our control and many of our rights, in exchange for the illusion of “national security”, because we are helpless failures without the system and it’s intellectual elite to support us.

• WE HAVE UNBIASED DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS
  

Psychological manipulation of the masses is possible. It happens every day, and there are countless institutions and companies completely devoted to making this mass manipulation ever more effective, and increasingly undetectable to the “untrained mind”. Internet cookies, point cards that track purchasing habits, demographically designed flyer inserts, and consumer profiling are all examples of the less covert methods of “getting in our heads”, but there are also less detectable methods.

A false consensus can be conveyed using polls, and thus the masses respond to this consensus by conforming themselves to it. Our entire human psyche is based on integration with the group, social learning, interdependence - and the makers of our modern day media know this, they know it inside and out. This is how the mechanism of propaganda works. By manipulating the psyche of the masses into a false consensus, the manufacture of consent has occurred. This “consent” can be garnered for acceptance of foreign and preemptive war, acceptance of ideologies and beliefs, and for the proliferation of false ideas, misrepresentation of facts, and general psychological control of the masses.

Because of this highly functional, scientifically developed method of “administering truth”, it seems impossible to conceive of an election in this sort of society that could occur unaffected by the devices and controls of information administration that currently dominate.

• VISIBLE MINORITIES DO NOT ENCOUNTER ANY BARRIERS TO SUCCESS IN OUR COUNTRY
  

Let us begin here with some numbers from Statistics Canada, released as a result of the 1996 census. Only 9% of the Canadian population has a university degree, yet 19% of visible minorities in Canada possess one. It also seems that a larger percentage of visible minority populations attend school, but somehow they are generally less likely than other Canadians to be employed. And working less means earning less. Even though the educational qualifications of this group are relatively high, their incomes are comparatively low. A visible minority here in Canada makes an average of $6000 less per year than the rest of the Canadian population.

In fact, if you are a visible minority, you are nearly twice as likely as your neighbor to live in poverty, because 36% of the visible minority population in Canada lives below the poverty level. It’s also interesting to note, that in the United States, whose minority population shares many like economic circumstances with it’s cohort in Canada, the prison population is a highly disproportionate visible minority group. Here in Canada, Aboriginal people and other visible minorities are highly disproportionate members of our own prison system.
(This picture was taken from a personal website, of an
individual who feels that minorities are infringing on
his right to "things").

According to a 2005 report released by Statistics Canada “ a substantial body of research has shown that the economic welfare of immigrants deteriorated over the 1980’s and 1990’s”. It also alludes to the fact that during the 1990’s incomes fell for most lower income families, and rose for most higher-income families in a majority of Canadian cities. Visible minorities, Aboriginal people, and single parent families are disproportionately represented among the working poor. On average, people in these groups have incomes less than half that of the average Canadian.

• OUR MILITARY IS FILLED WITH VOLUNTEERS WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY
  

The above statement is true, but the question of why these people volunteer begs to be asked. An interpretation of North American perceptions on “freedom and democracy” is also necessary.

Some of the perks offered by the military for enlistment are rather seductive: guaranteed income, paid education, and full health coverage. For individuals who look to student loans to finance their education, or for individuals who, for numerous reasons, feel incapable or unable to complete a post-secondary education, the military becomes a very viable option. But who are these people?
Noam Chomsky:

“If there is going to be an army, I think it should be a citizen’s army, not a mercenary army. There are several kinds of mercenary armies. One model is the French Foreign Legion or the Gurkhas, where the imperial power just organizes a mercenary army. Another model is a volunteer army, which is in effect a mercenary army of the disadvantaged. People like us, except for the occasional maniacs, don’t volunteer for it. But people like Lynndie England do volunteer, because they come from a background where that’s their only opportunity. So you end up getting a mercenary army of the disadvantaged, and that’s much more dangerous than a citizen’s army.”

The ideas of freedom and democracy are very hard to define, depending upon who’s speaking about them. Speaking to one of our Canadian troops, the impression would be given that freedom is equivalent to equal opportunity to all, and an existence that is free from oppression. Democracy would be portrayed as a system of government in which the people “participate” in the decisions of the nation. Our soldiers fight for these things, and they volunteer based on these principles - that and the guarantee of security in a very competitive economic world.

If one were speaking to a capitalist elite, freedom would be equivalent to the ability to do anything one choses, regardless of the repercussions. Freedom becomes the ability to dominate and control without being challenged. Democracy would be conceptualized as a system of control that serves to pacify the people into believing they have “free choice” and convinces them that they are “participating” in the decision-making process of their nation. Freedom and democracy are the goals of all people, but how we perceive and achieve those ends can be highly varies, depending upon which side of the fence you sit.