I had a Shiatsu massage the other day, which I guess indicates that I have some extra money from time to time and therefore can’t really complain about anything every again (it’s $60 for an hour).  And as she worked me over, poking and prodding, her hands like molten lava, finding pockets of tension littered throughout me, I couldn’t help thinking I was kobe beef or something.  Well, to be more exact, I was lying there and she moved my entire shoulder/arm around in circles and I felt like a mangy stray dog lying on it’s side, half dead, that she was using magical hands to bring back to life.  And as she pushed here I couldn’t help but smile when something at the other end of my body would kick out or cringe or flex.  She’d dig into a part in my neck and my toes would flex, or she’d dig into my left calf and my right hand would flex.  I was laughing thinking, A) I don’t know a goddamn thing about my body, about how it’s wired, and what connects to what yet I live within in it every single day; and 2) isn’t it amazing to think how connected everything is within us, that the bloody thing works pretty much all on it’s own?  I’ve never said to my foot, hey you down there, keep working.  It just does.  All these things within us are all connected – amazing.

Which leads me to another kind of rant altogether: politics and media.  What I’m about to say generally wont be anything new you’ve heard, but maybe I’ll raise some little details to surprise you, at the very least a good books to read list -  so, here we go …

I Can’t Watch TV

I have to admit I’m a super-duper fan of TV on DVD box sets.  They satisfy my need to not only watch a great show, but to avoid that lingering anxiety with every episodes cliff-hanger ending, having to wait a week for the next one.  With the DVD sets I can watch them back to back to back.  It is not an uncommon thing for my wife and I to buy a season of something (mostly from HBO) and kiss a weekend goodbye watching them all. (I have a bit of an addictive personality, which is why I don’t drink – whole other story).  Anyway, what all this means is, I don’t really watch all that much TV-tv – you know, the 500 channels, surfing around for something to watch, the news items here, the sales of something there, and the pundits talking this way and that way.

Yet there are times when I’m drawn to the TV-tv, usually some sporting event or the comedy hour of the Daily Show and the Cobert Report, and they most certainly entertain … except for the fucking commercials.  So, I skip the commercials and move onto the news … which isn’t any better for me … even sadly to say, on the CBC.

** One night I watched the CBC news anchor speak with that “this is so serious, I’m talking to you like a child” voice, moving from a story on the bombings and death in Lebanon/Israel to “up next, how to keep your BBQ clean”.  It was shocking, the same tone, the same emotional intensity to both stories – professional distance.  Which is why I guess I watch the comedy news, at least they take a stand, albeit a sarcastic or ironic one, but at least you can sense that the story they’re talking about is something they have actually thought about.  “Oh but Shane, what you don’t want is news anchors to be biased, you want them to present both sides fairly and thus this professional distance from the stories, this hands-off we’re presenting both sides freely here for YOU to decide.”

Okay, here’s a nice little bit on the CBC radio this morning.

“We’re talking to Barrie Zwicker, the author of Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-Up of 9/11.  Good morning Barrie”
“Oh, good morning, thank you for having me on.”
“Well, Barrie, I wanted to ask you, what’s the problem with conspiracy stories about 9/11?”

I have to interject here, another story Jordan told me about on the CBC news the other night.  A CBC Anchor was speaking with a U ot T professor about hospitals, words the question thus: “What’s wrong with talking about privatizing Canadian Health Care?”  Which only leaves the person to say, so they don’t sound like a fascist, “Well, you’re right, there is nothing wrong with talking about the privatization of Canada’s Health Care.”  The problem to Jordan and I is, the question itself: you’ve pre-supposed that you are right and they are wrong no matter what they say.  (In this story, what she did say was that there are all kinds of privatization in Canada’s health care, that doctors offices are their own shops, what she thought the anchor was really asking her was what she finds wrong with the idea of creating corporate modeled health care in which you only run a hospital to make profit.  At this point I would say, touché.)

So, Barrie replied to her: “Well, I think I have a problem with the question you just asked.  By definition, the quotes ‘official’ explanation of what happened on 9/11 by the government of the United States is a conspiracy story.  So many hijackers conspired together to bring down the world trade towers.  That’s their conspiracy theory based on the facts of the case.  But there are other people who after examining the facts of the case feel there could other and better theories based on the facts.”

She, the host, then blasted him on “well, that would mean from your definition that everyone’s opinion is just as valid no matter their professional background.’  To which he went on to reply that yeah, he totally agrees, here’s the resumes of all the people who worked on his book debunking the official theory of 9/11 who offered from their extensive research alternative explanations.  To which she replied, “time’s up, people are bored at home, time to take a break, thanks for all your time, it’s been great really getting to the bottom of this story, I feel like as a journalist I can go to sleep tonight thinking I’ve not only illuminated myself but I’ve worked hard for my money to illuminate the public as well.”

Thank you and goodnight.

(PS – for those that are interested in alternative views to the 9/11 reports, please check out this link - and I would also say, when doing so, yeah, some of it may be over the top, but the questions they raise are interesting and more and more of them are picking up steam not only in fringe “conspiracy” circles but with more and more professions in science and politics – just check it out if only to hear what else is out there.)

Now, why am I going on about this?  What could this possible have to do with anything relating to the Shiatsu massage we started off with? As all news media races for the Fox News/CNN entertainment bottom, and I throw the converter at the TV, I’m left wondering: what kinds of effects does it have on voters, citizens, communities, and individuals in regards to our ability to mobilize ourselves and make educated decisions of support or protest for this or that issue in our world, in our time?

Cue: Alternatives to Main Stream America
The Printing Press

I’m a man of extremes.  One moment I’m reading 14 Graphic Novels in a weekend because I’m wrapped up in the latest Daredevil storyline (and a special note of gratitude to Michael Bendis for writing kick-ass comics, and to Duane for turning me onto him).  And yet, even in modern comics there’s deceit, questionable alliances, and confusing moral dilemmas of how to act and what to do.  Not much of an escape.  So, after the comics I got into an US/World politics book-a-thon:

Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man (Paperback)
by John Perkins

The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time
by Antonia Juhasz 

Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast

You’ll have to read them yourselves, they all come highly recommended by people of much more significant note than myself – which is to say their endorsement is of special note, whereas I’m just some fucking guy. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a highlight from Greg, which went something like this: “People call me an investigative reporter and I’m like, ‘what other kind is there?’  And when I watch the news I realize, ‘Oh, you mean I’m not like them, a government press release repeater.”

In Greg’s book there are some interesting discussions about things like going to war in Iraq for oil, but not to open the taps, but to keep them controlled and closed to keep the prices high.  Day after the US invaded Iraq and oil prices went through the roof, Saudi Arabia, the head country in OPEC, made $7.29 trillion dollars just on oil reserves alone – on oil just sitting there in tanks, not on new oil.  That’s a lot of dough and when you follow the money it doesn’t look good.

Greg also has a bit on the US elections and how Gore won in 2000 and Kerry won in 2004.  And no matter what happens, a Republican is going to win in 2008.  How?  Placing bad ballot machines in precincts that vote democrat, places you’d call neighborhoods with people of colour.  Greg by the way is the reporter that first broke the news story about how brother Gov. Jeb Bush worked to affect the Florida State results back in 2000 by illegally finding ways to remove Black people from the voter lists.  I know, I sound like one of those conspiracy theorists … well, check out his book, read his footnotes, see for yourself.  Yeah, it’s shocking.

John Perkins’, “Confessions of an Economic Hitman” is a whole other demon to read.  Aside from being a great kind of spy-like read, since it is a book of non-fiction about Mr. Perkins actual life sabotaging developing nations economies to suit larger US government political and economic pursuits, it reads as a shocking indictment of the IMF, World Bank, and other US institutions for globalization (read “US Corporate Dominance by any means or suffering of others”).  And this is coming from a guy, Mr. Perkins, who worked on the inside for years.

Which leads us to Antonia Juhasz’ “the Bush Agenda”.  I saw Antonia on TV being interviewed on Ontario Public TV and she had a chance to explain some items in detail.  Things like this BUSH - US administration has some serious ties to the Oil and Energy industries as former CEO’s or Board members, and that this connection perhaps is clouding their US policy vision.  For example, Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor, happens to have served on Chevron’s board of directors for enough plentiful years that they named an oil tanker after her.  Sweet! II would say Antonia’s book is a MUST read if you want to get a better inside view of the inner actions and effects of the US corporate take-over of Iraq.  Her research, understanding, and relevance is exhausting.

Oh, I should also say, because I tell myself this every time I read it: although these books are about US foreign and corporate global policy, they still do  retain  a relevance to us here in Canada.  Exhibit A: the new Conservative Party wins a minority election in Canada, they celebrate the win in Calgary, home of the great Tar Sand Oil boom, and within months Canada has pulled out of the Kyoto Accord on Climate change and implanting measures to control green house gases into our atmosphere.  I know, I’m crazy to think that there are connections there, I’m insane, I’m a nutter.

What about Shiatsu?

Okay, so I’ve dropped some links and books to read on the blog here today – why?  Well, when you get an insider view of things it affects your ability to see things in greater detail, or with more of a questioning disposition.  You wonder who is saying things and why, along with what they are saying, and what maybe they are not saying.  You wonder about the connections that one war or law or arms sales or protest have to do with each another.

Our lives are all so immensely interconnected. I believe  that overwhelmingly our lives are interconnected to each other and all things and with all of history in wondrous ways, ways you spend your entire lifetime trying to figure out.  Yet, there is all this white noise of politics and business and war and you wonder what does it all have to do with me and each other?  Those are some of the connections you can explore with the book list.

I’ll end this entry with a quote below to consider.  When I read this, it is not only  an indictment of the company at hand, but more an indictment on all companies and all of us stakeholders in companies, within ourselves, that have this same ability to NOT see or not WANT to see the interconnectedness of everything, of all actions.  And next week I have to get a red cyan pepper enema so I’ll think of some books to go along with that.  Until then, enjoy (or use it as a call to awakening and action):

“As the CEO of Halliburton Energy Services, the board of directors doesn’t sit me down and say, ‘John, make this a better planet.’  They want us to make money and create wealth for our shareholders and employees.  So the only way we can adopt a sustainability agenda is it must create sustainable wealth for all our shareholders.”

- John Gibson, Halliburton President and CEO, February 2004
From page 99, “The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time”, by Antonia Juhasz