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War For Profit In Bougainville

“It is my opinion that absent Rio Tinto’s mining activity on Bougainville or its insistence that the Panguna mine be re-opened, the government would not have engaged in hostilities or taken military action on the island.”

”Because of Rio Tinto’s financial influence in PNG, the company controlled the government.”

”The government of PNG followed Rio Tinto’s instructions and carried out its requests … BCL was directly involved in the military operations on Bougainville, and it played an active role. BCL supplied helicopters, which were used as gunships, the pilots, troop transportation, fuel and troop barracks.”

– Sir Michael Somare Continue reading →

Members of Libyan National Soccer Team Join Rebels

Bloody civil wars in the 21st Century have taken on a distinctly ludicrous quality in many ways. Consider this story of the National soccer team of Libyan throwing its support behind the rebel factions engaged in war with Col. Moammar Gadhafi and forces loyal to him. Well it’s not the entire team I don’t think but 17 high profile figures in Libyan soccer have reportedly defected to the rebel side, including the national team’s goalkeeper Juma Ghat and the coach of Tripoli’s top club al-Ahly, Adel bin Issa.

Continue reading →

Roy Innis and the Demise of The Congress on Racial Equality

A few years ago I did some freelance transcription work while I was unemployed.  One gig I had was someone’s college thesis from 1979.  The topic was CORE, the Congress on Racial Equality, which was responsible for the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947 and the Freedom Rides in 1961, both important events in the civil rights movement. Continue reading →

The New York Times Would Like You to Know That Plastic is for Poor People

The bourgeois intellectual elite at the Mauve Lady (Grey with very strong shades of homosexual Pink) would like you to know that it’s about damn time we return to a time and place when, as writer Susan Mulcahy* declares, ‘men were men and a sofa was a sofa.’ Clearly, this only applies to rich people tufted couches with the nails in them and stuff, but there is one woman, one single solitary woman who has made it her mission to protect the dry cleanable garments of the world. Continue reading →

Mom Had Ooo-rah; How to Be a Real Woman

I won’t forget that spring weekday, and what happened in my 6th Grade classroom.  We were trapped inside because of the rain, and we were tearing mid-century modern room up in a way that might have made Mies van De Rohe horrified. Laughter echoed off the ceilings, and the pure joy of good kids playing ran down the halls.

I had a Whoopee Cushion, and made exuberant fart noises with it at every opportunity.  This was so not like me that my classmates were delighted and screamed with laughter.  It was so not like anyone else that our gym teacher hauled me out in the hall, slammed me up against a wall, and gave me a lecture about how “the football team” would pay for my misconduct.  What?  I wasn’t even on the football team.  His choking hand on my neck was simply stunning – no one had ever touched me that way before.  When I was disciplined at home I was simply told to leave the room.  No one had ever hit me.  My friend Andrea came out in the hall and warned the teacher – “If you hit him, you’re in Big Trouble.  And I don’t like you – never did.” Continue reading →

Growing up with ADHD

I have struggled to find the courage to sit down and expel this story from where it lay, lodged deep down under some or other memories that I’m more comfortable with. I have told myself that this story would be difficult to write simply because of how not terrible the experience was as a whole. I believe the truth is that I’m uncertain of how this story will sound when it’s in print. What light may shed on these relics from my past. I sit here now determined to excavate that which I have long sought to inter.

I documented recently that I am a High School dropout, a fact I’ve been rather proud of lately. I especially enjoy flaunting this when someone bewails the matter of their student loans. I actually have a commenter from the other site to thank for this change in my outlook. Previously I carried my status as an embarrassment to myself, my family, and my country. All of which I blame on The Education System, and I’ll tell you why. Continue reading →