Edward Benson
May 20
May 16
“ Very soon we EHMs discovered that we did not need to wait for countries to nationalize oil fields as an excuse to manipulate their politics. We turned the World Bank, the IMF, and other “multinational” institutions into colonizing tools. We negotiated lucrative deals dor U.S. corporations, established “free” trade agreements that blatantly served our exporters at the expense of those in the Third World, and burdened other contries with unmanageable debts. In effect, we created surrogate governments that appeared to represent their people but in reality were our servants. Some of the earliest examples: Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, and Israel.
— John Perkins
The Secret History of the American Empire
p. 166-167
The Secret History of the American Empire
p. 166-167
May 14
I’m not big on Tokyo, but this made me really miss Japan.
May 12
“ After that flight, the Dalai Lama invited our group to his home in Dharmasala, India. Following a cordial greeting, he said something that seemed most unusual, given his position as the leader of a spiritual movement. “Don’t become a Buddhist. The world doesn’t need more Buddhists. Do practice compassion. The world needs more compassion.
— John Perkins
The Secret History of the American Empire
Page 65
The Secret History of the American Empire
Page 65
“
The plane deposited us on a mud runway deep in the forest. A cluster of Shuar men were assembled at the edge of the clearing. They looked pretty much as I remembered them—muscular, buff, laughing, happy people, except now they wore old T-shirts and Dacron shorts the missionaries insisted they use to combat the sin of nudity.
As they unloaded supplies that had arrived with us, an old man approached me. When I announced my interest in helping his people save their jungle from destruction he reminded me that my culture, not his, was causing the problems.
“The world is as you dream it,” he dolt me. “Your people dreamed of huge factories, tall buildings, as many cars as there are raindrops in this river. Now you begin to see that your dream is a nightmare.”
I asked what I could do to help.
“That’s simple,” he replied. “All you have to do is change the dream…You need only plant a different seed, teach your children to dream new dreams.”
— John Perkins
The Secret History of the American Empire
page 108
The Secret History of the American Empire
page 108
May 09
Book to Print!
Ah, the fresh smell of paper pulp! An unexpected box in the mail containing twenty copies of The Art of Rails can mean only one thing — the book has gone to print!
For the sake of getting things done, only two observations:
- I really need to finish up this W. Web story, but I’ve been dragging my feet ever since I ended up starting a war!
- All of the Wrox authors really need to get together and make a pact to send in menacing pictures for their book covers. That way the book store can place the Wrox books across the isles from each other and it will look like different topics in computer science are staring each other down.
Feb 11
Feb 10
Something is wrong here
Feb 09
Declaring Something Doesn't Make It True
(see Peter Overby quote below)
What really puts a bad taste in my mouth is the way in which the Clinton campaign doesn’t see reality as the summation of past actions, but rather as a marketing campaign that can be whatever they pay money to brand. “Oh, now the voters want something new now? That’s OK! Yesterday we were the voice of experience, but today we’ll be the voice of the outsider!”
What was it that George Orwell write about? Memory holes?
Leaders act to to lead and speak to inspire, not speak to market and market to win.
A campaign so blatantly built around “winning the presidency” rather than “leading the country” is not one that deserves the White House.