Reflections by Comrade Fidel

HAITI: UNDERDEVELOPMENT AND GENOCIDE

 

Just a few months ago, on July 26, 2010, Lucius Walker, the head of the American organization Pastors for Peace, at an encounter with Cuban intellectuals and artists, asked me what the solution for Haiti’s problems would be. 

Without a second’s delay, I told him: “In today’s world, there is no solution, Lucius; in the future of which I am speaking, there is.  The US is a great food producer, it can feed 2,000 million people, it would be able to build homes that stand up to earthquakes; the problem is the way in which resources are distributed.  We have to return even the forests to Haitian territory; but there is no solution in today’s world order.”

Lucius was referring to the problems of this mountainous, over-populated country, stripped of trees, of fuel for cooking, communications and industries, with a high rate of illiteracy, diseases such as HIV and being occupied by United Nations troops.

 “When those circumstances change ―I added ― you yourselves, Lucius, will be able to take American food to Haiti.”

The noble and humanitarian leader of the Pastors for Peace died a month and a half later, on September 7^th, at the age of 80, passing on the legacy of the seed of his example to many Americans.

An additional tragedy had not yet appeared: the cholera epidemic which, on October 25^th, reported more than 3,000 cases.  To such a harsh calamity, add the fact that on November 5^th, a hurricane ravaged its territory, causing flooding and rivers to overflow. 

We must dedicate to this body of dramatic circumstances the attention it deserves.

Cholera appeared for the first time in modern history in 1817, year in which one of the great pandemics occurred devastating humanity in the nineteenth century; it had a huge mortality rate principally in India. In 1826, the epidemic reappeared, invading Europe, including Moscow, Berlin and London, moving on to our hemisphere from 1832 to 1839. 

In 1846, a new even more harmful epidemic is unleashed, striking at three continents: Asia, Africa and America. Throughout the century, epidemics affecting those three regions were repeated occurrences. However, in the course of more than 100 years, taking in almost the entire twentieth century, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean saw themselves freed from this disease, until January 27^th, 1991 when it appeared in the Chancay Port in northern Peru; first it extended along the Pacific coast and subsequently along the Atlantic seaboard, to 16 countries; 650,000 persons became ill in a period of 6 years.

Without the least doubt, the epidemic affects much more than poor countries in whose cities over-populated neighbourhoods are massed together, many times lacking drinking water, and the sewers which are carriers of the vibrio cholerae that spreads the disease pour into the drinking water.

In the special case of Haiti, the earthquake destroyed the water and sewer network wherever they had existed, and millions of people live in tents that often even lack latrines and everything gets mixed up together.

The epidemic that affected our hemisphere in 1991 was the Vibrio cholerae 01 biotype El Tor Ogawa serotype, exactly the same one that penetrated Peru that year. 

Jon K. Andrus, Associate Director of the Pan American Health Organization, informed that the bacterium that was present in Haiti was precisely that. From it derived a series of circumstances to bear in mind, which at an opportune moment will determine important considerations.

As we know, our country is educating excellent Haitian medical doctors and providing health services in that sister country for many years now. There were very serious problems in that field and we were moving forward, year after year. Nobody could imagine, since there was no history of it, that there would be an earthquake that would kill more than 250,000 persons and cause innumerable wounded and injured. In the face of that unexpected blow, our internationalist doctors pitched in with greater zeal and tirelessly dedicated themselves to their work.

In the midst of the harsh natural disaster, barely a month ago, the cholera epidemic broke out with a fury; and as we have already stated, in such unfavourable circumstances, the hurricane struck. 

Faced with the serious nature of the situation, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, yesterday declared that 350 doctors and 2,000 nurses were needed to battle the disease. 

The official made a call to extend the aid further than Port-au-Prince and revealed that supplies of soap and clean water were only reaching 10 percent of the families living outside of the capital, without indicating how many were being reached in that city.

Different UN officials were lamenting the fact in the last few days that the response from the international community to the call for aid made to confront the situation was not even reaching 10% of the 164 million dollars urgently being requested.

 “Amos called for a swift and urgent reaction to prevent more human beings from dying of cholera”, informed a news agency.   

Today another agency communicated that the numbers of Haitians who had died had now reached “1,523 persons, 66 thousand 593 have been cared for, and more than a million inhabitants are still sleeping in public squares”.

Almost 40% of the sick have been looked after by members of the Cuban Medical Brigade which has 965 doctors, nurses and technicians who have managed to reduce the number of dead to less than 1 for each 100.  With that level of care the number of dead would not reach 700. As a norm, the people dying were extremely weakened by malnutrition or other similar causes.  Children who are detected on time, generally do not die. 

It is of vital importance that we avoid the epidemic extending to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean because in today’s circumstances this would cause extraordinary harm to the nations in this hemisphere. 

We urgently need to seek efficient and rapid solutions in the fight against that epidemic.  

Today the Party and the Government [of Cuba] made the decision to reinforce the Cuban Medical Brigade in Haiti with a contingent of the Henry Reeve Brigade, made up of 300 doctors, nurses and health technicians, that would add up to more than 1,200 collaborators.

Raul was visiting other regions of the country and was informed in detail about everything.

The people of Cuba, the Party and the Government, are once again measuring up to their glorious and heroic history.  

 

Fidel Castro Ruz

November 26, 2010

9:58 p.m.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was framed, secret evidence shows

Witness statements accuse Nigerian military commander of ordering killings and taking bribes

By Andy Rowell and Eveline Lubbers

Sunday, 5 December 2010

reuters

The controversy surrounding Ken Saro-Wiwa has persisted for 15 years

Compelling new evidence suggests the Nigerian military killed four Ogoni elders whose murders led to the execution of the playwright and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

The evidence also reveals that the notorious military commander Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Okuntimo, whose troops were implicated in murder and rape, was in the pay of Shell at the time of the killings and was driven around in a Shell vehicle.

Since the time of Saro-Wiwa's death, Shell has insisted that it had no financial relationship with the Nigerian military, although it has admitted paying it "field allowances" on two occasions. It has consistently denied any widespread collusion and payments. However, The Independent on Sunday has gained exclusive access to witness accounts that were to be used in evidence in the case of Wiwa vs Shell, brought by Ken Saro-Wiwa's family. The case was settled last May for $15.5m, just days before it was due to start in New York. The settlement meant the testimonies were never made public.

They provide fresh insight into Shell's financial and logistical involvement with the Nigerian military and with Lt-Col Okuntimo.

One of the key witnesses due to testify was Boniface Ejiogu, Lt-Col Okuntimo's orderly in the Internal Security Task Force, a coalition of army, navy and police. Mr Ejiogu testified to standing guard as victims were raped and tortured while Lt-Col Okuntimo was in command. Asked if he ever saw his commander receive money from Shell, he said he witnessed it on two occasions.

Mr Ejiogu described in detail how, just days before the Ogoni elders were murdered, he drove with Lt-Col Okuntimo to Shell's base in Port Harcourt, where the officer received seven large bags of money. "I was there when other soldiers were carrying the Ghana Must Go bags," he testified. The bags were so heavy the soldiers had difficulty carrying them, and one fell open. "The thing opened," Mr Ejiogu said. "I saw it was money in bundles. He said, wow, this is money. I say, yes man, it is money."

On another occasion, Mr Ejiogu witnessed four bags being given by a Shell security official to Lt-Col Okuntimo at the official's house late at night.

Another witness, Raphael Kponee, also due to testify, was a policeman working for Shell. On a different occasion, he saw three bags being loaded into Lt-Col Okuntimo's pick-up truck by his driver and another driver in front of the security building at the Shell base. Shell officials have admitted that money was paid to the officer, but purely as field allowances for his men, who were protecting Shell property in Ogoniland.

MrEjiogu also offers compelling evidence as to who may have murdered the four Ogoni elders at a meeting on 21 May 1994. Saro-Wiwa was due to speak but was turned away by the military. Mr Ejiogu said he heard Lt-Col Okuntimo tell his task force commander to "waste them... in the army you waste them is when you are shooting rapidly".

Within 24 hours Saro-Wiwa was arrested and charged with the murders. It was implied that he had had the elders killed because of their moderate stance on Ogoni issues. Despite an international outcry, he was hanged in November 1995, following a sham trial described by the then British prime minister, John Major, as "judicial murder".

A Shell spokesman said yesterday: "Allegations concerning Okuntimo and Shell are not new. There is a lack of any credible evidence in support of these allegations. Shell Petroleum Development Corporation and Shell at the time spoke out frequently against violence and publicly condemned its use."

_________________________________

Marsha Ambrosius | SexTapes 3… 2… 1…

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Queen Unique

For all us that can hardly WAIT, here are some appetizers to get you THROUGH those late nights & early mornings UNTIL Late Nights & Early Mornings

Get all 3 parts via the links below (courtesy of Marsha’s Twitter page)… enjoy

Part 1: http://omg.ly/bX4E

SextapePt1 by MsAmbrosius

Part 2: http://omg.ly/vpm6

SexTape Pt2 by MsAmbrosius

Part 3: http://dlvr.it/9Df5C

SexTape Pt. 3 by MsAmbrosius

…and now my celibacy vow JUST MIGHT BE in trouble… *bites lip*

Zora Neale Hurston

	The following is a compilation of all of the known Zora Neale Hurston sound recordings* created while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s.
	GO HERE TO HEAR THE RECORDINGS LISTED BELOW		MP3
1.	Bella Mina		MP3
2.	Crow Dance		MP3
3.	Dat Old Black Gal		MP3
4.	Ever Been Down		MP3
5.	Gonna See My Long Haired Babe		MP3
6.	Halimuhfack		MP3
7.	John B. Sails		MP3
8.	Let the Deal Go Down		MP3
8.	Let's Shake It		MP3
10.	Mama Don't Want No Peas, No Rice		MP3
11.	Mule on the Mountain		MP3
12.	Oh Mr. Brown		MP3
13.	Oh the Buford Boat Done Come		MP3
14.	Po' Gal		MP3
15.	Shove it Over		MP3
16.	Tampa		MP3
17.	Tilly, Lend Me Your Pigeon		MP3
18.	Wake Up Jacob		MP3
	Above is a compilation of all of the known Zora Neale Hurston sound recordings* created while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s. Today, the original recordings are housed at the Library of Congress. Hurston worked for the WPA in 1935 and again in 1939. Today, Hurston is better known as a major literary figure, but she was also a trained anthropologist, including studying under Franz Boaz. A native of Eatonville, Florida, Hurston fell upon hard times during the Great Depression and eventually sought out relief work with the Federal Writer’s Project (FWP). Having already conducted fieldwork for her own studies, Hurston worked with Herbert Halpert and Stetson Kennedy in the FWP. Her work on Florida’s turpentine camps is still considered authoritative. For more on Hurston and her fieldwork, go to the Florida Memory Project: http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/zora_hurston/ The Works Progress Administration (WPA) – after 1939, the Works Projects Administration – was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the President Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration that had employed over 8.5 million people by its demise in 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included a Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for the preservation of folk traditions for future generations. In Florida, the FWP was based out of J

The deadline for the current competition has been extended to January 31, 2011. This deadline is final.

 

To apply online, follow these guidelines No restrictions as to style, content or number of submissions. Enter as often as you like. Send between now and midnight of January 31, 2011. Simultaneous & multiple submissions welcome. Previously published material welcome if under 5,000-circulation or if previously published online only. Each fiction or nonfiction piece is counted as a separate entry, and should total no more than 6,000 words except Short-Short Fiction (no more than 1,000 words). Each poetry entry may include up to three poems, not to exceed five pages total per entry. All poetry Honorable Mentions will be published. Save cover sheet or letter with the submission you'll be uploading and send as one file. Should you forget to include such covers, however, it's OK, as contact information is automatically forwarded to us when you pay online. Cover sheet or letter is not required if entering online, as contact information is automatically forwarded to us when you pay. If including such a cover or letter, however, save it to the submission you'll be uploading and send as one file. --> Payment is $17 per submission in order to cover our many expenses and reserve your book. Payment will be by credit card or echeck through PayPal. Each entry must be in a separate file (up to 3 poems in one file (See #6)). Many file formats are accepted. Enter file to upload:  Select category... Short-short fiction Fiction Nonfiction Poetry

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Winners of NMW Awards are showcased along with interviews, profiles and tributes to writers such as Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Khaled Hosseini, J. D. Salinger, Julia Glass, Shel Silverstein, George Garrett, Ken Kesey, John Updike, Lee Smith, Cormac McCarthy, Lucille Clifton, Shelby Foote, Paul West, Norman Mailer, Sharyn McCrumb, William Kennedy and tributes to writers for the ages, including Faulkner, Hemingway, Dickinson, Keats, Percy, Warren and others; also prize-winning stories, poems and articles, plus humor, graphic arts and writing advice. Color cover/ 208 pages. See our FAQ page for additional information.

Thanks for your interest and, to those of you who have already applied, thanks for your patience. Feel free to apply more than once.

 

Glimmer Train welcomes the work of established and upcoming writers. We especially appreciate stories that are both well written and emotionally engaging. Please let us read yours! If it is chosen for publication in Glimmer Train Stories, you will be paid upon acceptance. Your story will be prepared with care, and presented in a handsome, highly regarded literary journal to readers all over the world. If you've seen Glimmer Train Stories, you know that we go to some lengths to honor our contributors and their writing. Every category will be open for one full calendar month, from the first day through midnight of the last day. (Exception: The December Fiction Open closes on January 2nd each year.) Click on category link for complete guidelines: January: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words) and Standard February: Short Story Award for New Writers March: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds) April: Family Matters and Standard May: Short Story Award for New Writers June: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds) July: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words) and Standard August: Short Story Award for New Writers September: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds) October: Family Matters and Standard November: Short Story Award for New Writers December: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds) Please note: There are no minimum word counts for any category besides the Fiction Open. As always: Submissions must be original, unpublished fiction. (Online publication does not disqualify a piece.)  •  Please, no novels, poetry, or stories written for children.  •  Submissions should be made via our site, but in a pinch you can make paper submissions.  •  Please doublespace, use 12 point font, to save our eyes. Name, contact info, and page count are all optional.  •  When we accept a story for publication, we are purchasing first-publication rights. (Once we've published your story, you are free to, for instance, include it in your own collection.)  •  Competition submissions are also automatically considered for standard publication.  •  It's fine to submit a previously submitted story (revised or not) to any category for which it qualifies.  •  We're happy to consider stories whether they're submitted as competition entries or standard submissions, for which there are no reading fees. Standard or competition? How to decide  •  Simultaneous submissions are fine; we ask that you email us immediately please should a submitted piece be accepted elsewhere.  •  Response times for all competitions have been shortened so your stories won't be tied up for more than two months after the close of any category. Competition winners are posted here and are announced in our monthly bulletins.  •  Please put glimmertrainpress.com and mail.glimmertrainpress.com on your safe-senders list so we can reach you, and keep us advised of email address changes by clicking on Contact Preferences once you're logged in at the site. (We never share your contact info.)

One of the most respected short-story journals in print, Glimmer Train Stories is represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize, O.Henry, New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and Best American Short Stories anthologies. Glimmer Train Press, Inc., 1211 NW Glisan Street, Suite 207, Portland, OR 97209 USA Copyright © 1998-2010 Glimmer Train Press, Inc. All Images Copyright © Glimmer Train Press, Inc.

Glimmer Train welcomes the work of established and upcoming writers.

We especially appreciate stories that are both well written and emotionally engaging. Please let us read yours! If it is chosen for publication in Glimmer Train Stories, you will be paid upon acceptance. Your story will be prepared with care, and presented in a handsome, highly regarded literary journal to readers all over the world. If you've seen Glimmer Train Stories, you know that we go to some lengths to honor our contributors and their writing.

Every category will be open for one full calendar month, from the first day through midnight of the last day. (Exception: The December Fiction Open closes on January 2nd each year.)
Click on category link for complete guidelines:

• January: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words) and Standard
• February: Short Story Award for New Writers
• March: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• April: Family Matters and Standard
• May: Short Story Award for New Writers
• June: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• July: Very Short Fiction Award (Up to 3,000 words) and Standard
• August: Short Story Award for New Writers
• September: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds)
• October: Family Matters and Standard
• November: Short Story Award for New Writers
• December: Fiction Open (2,000 to 20,000 wds)

Please note: There are no minimum word counts for any category besides the Fiction Open.

As always:
Submissions must be original, unpublished fiction. (Online publication does not disqualify a piece.)  •  Please, no novels, poetry, or stories written for children.  •  Submissions should be made via our site, but in a pinch you can make paper submissions.  •  Please doublespace, use 12 point font, to save our eyes. Name, contact info, and page count are all optional.  •  When we accept a story for publication, we are purchasing first-publication rights. (Once we've published your story, you are free to, for instance, include it in your own collection.)  •  Competition submissions are also automatically considered for standard publication.  •  It's fine to submit a previously submitted story (revised or not) to any category for which it qualifies.  •  We're happy to consider stories whether they're submitted as competition entries or standard submissions, for which there are no reading fees. Standard or competition? How to decide  •  Simultaneous submissions are fine; we ask that you email us immediately please should a submitted piece be accepted elsewhere.  •  Response times for all competitions have been shortened so your stories won't be tied up for more than two months after the close of any category. Competition winners are posted here and are announced in our monthly bulletins.  •  Please put glimmertrainpress.com and mail.glimmertrainpress.com on your safe-senders list so we can reach you, and keep us advised of email address changes by clicking on Contact Preferences once you're logged in at the site. (We never share your contact info.)

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Lilith accepts submissions year-round. We welcome high quality, lively writing: reportage, opinion pieces, memoirs, fiction and poetry on subjects of interest to Jewish women.

To submit poetry, fiction, or a feature year-round:

Features (1000-2500 words, approximately) can include: autobiography (testimony, letters, journals, memoirs); biographies of women, living or dead; interviews; social analysis; fresh research; oral histories; new rituals; investigative reporting; coverage of local, national, international events and projects; opinion pieces.

Lilith also welcomes: fiction, news briefs on interesting events or people (500 words or less), resource listings for organizations, projects or upcoming events, and poetry.

"Lilith's commitment to publishing poetry is an essential dimension of the magazine's creativity, and shows a recognition that poetry by Jewish women, on Jewish themes, is a burgeoning aspect of American—and Jewish—culture," said poet Alicia Ostriker. "Lilith is uniquely wonderful as a source for Jewish girls and women of all ages."

We encourage you to read the magazine to judge whether Lilith is the appropriate venue for your work. We suggest that you obtain a sample copy of the magazine, or look at the table of contents of recent issues on the website.

Editorial Specifications:

 

• Unsolicited submissions will be considered when sent in hard copy by postal mail. We may subsequently ask you to submit electronically. You will a contract for work we accept for publication.
• Author's bio: one to two sentences, written in the third person, should accompany the manuscript.
• Footnotes: None! Sources should be incorporated into the story, in parentheses if necessary. Longer information should be submitted on separate pages for use as possible companion pieces to the main feature.
• Translations: All non-English (including Hebrew or Yiddish) words or phases must be followed by English translation the first time they are used in a non-fiction piece and should appear in italics.
• Format: Manuscripts should be submitted in hard copy, double spaced, with pages numbered. Please put author's name and contact information on each page of the manuscript. Queries may be sent as Word document attachments by e-mail to info@lilith.org.
• Artwork/photographs accompanying articles should be labeled clearly on reverse.
• Please allow 12-16 weeks for editorial decisions. Enclose a stamped self-addressed postcard if you would like us to let you know that your manuscript has been received. Manuscripts will be returned only if you enclose a self-addressed envelope with sufficient postage.

You may order a sample copy of the current issue for $7.00 (includes postage).
One-year subscriptions are $25.97. Orders accepted by mail, e-mail, fax or phone.

 

LILITH WRITING COMPETITIONS

ANNUAL FICTION COMPETITION

  Lilith Magazine is looking for unpublished original stories with heart, soul and chutzpah illuminating issues in the lives of Jewish women.

FIRST PRIZE: $250 and publication of story in LILITH Magazine.

Submission instructions:
--Manuscripts should be double spaced and should not exceed 3000 words.
--Manuscripts should be mailed in. We will NOT accept electronic submissions.
--Enclose a stamped envelope for return of manuscript.

Deadline: December 15, 2010

Send fiction contest submissions to:
Fiction Competition
LILITH MAGAZINE
250 West 57th Street, Suite 2432
New York, NY 10107

 

POETRY PRIZE AT LILITH

Lilith magazine invites submissions of edgy, exciting poetry touching in any way on Jewish women's experience for The Charlotte Newberger Prize in Jewish Women's Poetry at Lilith. Winning poets will receive a cash award, and publication in the renowned independent Jewish women’s magazine, and the possibility of a public reading.
pioneer car audio
For over 30 years, Lilith magazine has been one of the rare publications to feature poetry alongside its investigative reports, scholarship, memoirs and fiction. This first-ever poetry prize at Lilith is named for a woman who has been a longtime supporter of the arts in Chicago and on the national scene.

Submission instructions:
--Poets are invited to submit up to three poems, in hard copy only.
--Each poem not to exceed 100 lines in length.
--Include name and contact information, including e-mail and phone numbers, on each page submitted.
--Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for the return of any manuscript.

Deadline: December 15, 2010

Send poetry contest submissions to:
Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize
LILITH MAGAZINE
250 West 57th Street, Suite 2432
New York, NY 10107

 

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Book: Diana Evans -

"The Wonder" - A Notting Hill novel

The plot of Diana Evans’s first novel, 26a, had its roots in her north London childhood and the suicide of her twin sister.

Her second, The Wonder, draws on another aspect of Evans’s experience. Before she turned to writing she was a dancer, and at the heart of The Wonder is The Midnight Ballet, an imaginary black dance company founded by a brilliant, troubled Jamaican dancer, Antoney Matheus, wrote the Telegraph book review.

Diana Evans was born in London and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria. She studied Media Studies at the University of Sussex and was a dancer in the Brighton-based troupe Mashango before becoming a journalist and author.

The Wonder is not a new Novel, it is published in September 2009 and since August it is available in paperback.

Vintage books wrote about the novel: It’s carnival time! Diana Evans’s second novel The Wonder takes the reader on a dance through Notting Hill past and present.

We see Antoney Matheus and his mother arriving from Jamaica in 1958 to stay in a dim room on the corner of Portobello and Faraday Road; we watch Antoney take his first steps as a dancer to Baba Brooks, the Mighty Sparrow and James Brown in a house on Tavistock Crescent where the Marshall Brothers, from Trinidad, put on a regular Blues party; we see Antoney’s son Lucas wandering a prettified Portobello Road in the nineties trying to piece together his lost father’s life. Check out the sixties Carnival scene on p. 106: ‘There were all kinds of folks about. Whistle-blowing teenagers, spacy Mediterranean students in stripy tops, big-haired Jamaican girls in mini-dresses, old black men slurping pints outside the pubs, shopkeepers, policemen, open-shirted steel band skivers, a well-known barmaid in her famous leopard-print coat. There were fragments in this district of the Sahara Desert and the Irish Sea, the Panama Canal and the music box of Kingston, and the happy and terrible commotion that had developed from this was that you could find a good party as easily as you could a good fight.’

Official website www.dianaommoevans.com

 

 

 

Dear...

by Saul Williams on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 6:10am

 

As the media sways between reporting on the huge disservice Julian Assange has done to government secrecy and posting the secrets, as Interpol tries it's hardest to track him, as the American government places him on the top of their most wanted list, and as the barefoot bandit sits alone in a cell awaiting trial- I would like to take a moment to admit that these guys are pretty much heroes in my book... and I don't think I'm alone. The hacker is the digital dignitary of the i-generation. These are the same guys I seek out to help me burn hard to find dvds onto my hardrive, the same guys who help me get music off of my ipod and into my itunes. They save me from waiting lists and long lines at the genius bar and overpriced software, they help me replace lost and mistakenly deleted files, and if I had the savvy they did, if I could prove that the government was lying about the number of civilian casualties during a seven year war that I thought was wrong from the start, if I could help make this “Age of Transparency” a bit more transparent, I would gladly play my part. I'm not an anarchist. I shy away from most labels, yet register as a democrat when it means I can vote for someone I believe in. I've got my own set of contradictions. I'm also a musician and know damn well that I wouldn't like someone breaking into my computer and leaking my music before I decided it was time. But I have also celebrated the fact that I could now give away music for free by doing just that. And that freedom is the result of the hard work of people I do not know: programmers, engineers, fellow makers and creators, artists of the wire who dabble between worlds and understand codes where I see chaos. I respect them. Those that can capitalize on it and use it to their advantage are the pioneers of our time and those that would use it for the greater benefit of humanity, are the heroes.

Most of my heroes have been arrested. Many have stood on the wrong side of the law. And the law has not always stood for truth. The law has stood for control, dominance, and sometimes even manipulation. Law, at it's best, has served to protect. Yet it has also served as a means of restricting growth and has not always seemed to change at the rate of human consciousness. Some laws have some catching up to do. So do some governments. So do some people. And I'm sure that in some regards I am also one of those people. If I was in the military and believed I was protecting and serving my country by fighting in a war and some hacker gave away the correspondents to our barracks or fire-power, I imagine, I'd be pretty upset. Yet, I find it hard to be upset when I think the best support for our troops would be sending them home and enlisting them in college. If you want to help rebuild the infrastructure of a country send engineers, send teachers, build hospital (no preachers).

 

But I digress. And who says I understand how to fight disingenuous governance, poverty or hate? I'm just saying I understand the importance of counterculture, of those who prefer boom over pop. Hardcore. Underground. The ones who dare to question and expose, who put their lives at risk, like soldiers fastened to their beliefs, but who fight alone or in small packs of the daring and courageous, Those who stand up and speak out even when the masses seem apathetically addicted to the status quo, which is probably good for business. And I'm not anti-good business. I'm just for new business models. And new fashion models, while you're at it. They don't have to be so skinny!

 

But the reason that I'm writing you Santa is because Kanye already rocked a red suit, I wanted to suggest a yellow cape, something with fringes, maybe a few feathers or ornaments. It's not like you have any connection to Jesus so you might as well change your shit up and get on some newness. The way I see it, you're another one of them do-gooders. You give kids something fun to dream about while we adults scramble the meaning of things. Things like the meaning of power, or the role of responsibility within it. Things like the power of the imagination and the beauty that can come about when you engage it. Anyway, it's nice to have someone to write to sometimes and I thought you might like a letter that wasn't asking you for anything. Do your thing, big guy, my son is counting on you.

 

My love to the Mrs.

 

xxx