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Community Currency - 2/23/12
February 27, 2012 F29 - Shut Down the Corporations Day of Action
Guest: David Osborn
On January 1, 2012, Occupy Portland put forward a bold call to action to shut down corporations on leap day, Wednesday, February 29, 2012. Occupy Portland is “leaping into action” for a not-to-miss day of civil disobedience to alert the world that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) must stop existing and that we as a society can reclaim our power over government!
Over 50 US cities are joining Portland and even Mexico City is uniting to end ALEC.
Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations. In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. The Center for Media and Democracy on July 13, 2011 issued a report based on documentation received from a whistleblower about the hundreds of bills written of, by and for corporations that have been introduced by legislators who have joined and met with ALEC, out of view of the public.
David Osborn is an instructor at Portland State University where he teaches courses on culture, narrative and social movements. He was been deeply involved in the Occupy Movement and is also active in the Climate Justice Movement with Rising Tide North America.
Community Currency - 2/16/12
February 16, 2012 Occupy Olympia (WA) and the Alliance for Global Justice are hosting an Occupy Solidarity Social Forum Feb. 18-19 in the Washington State capital city. The self-organized, social forum-type gathering is open to all occupiers and allies. Occupy Olympia agreed by consensus at General Assembly to host a self-organized gathering of the Occupy Wall Street Movement to network, build unity, share tactics, host and attend workshops, develop strategies, share our diversity and discuss how to develop action plans. Olympia is near the Seattle Tacoma airport, a travel hub. Free shuttle service will be available for participants. Olympia has a strong history of organizing. Occupy Olympia is a natural choice for hosting one of the nationally organized conferences springing forth from this movement because of its temperate weather, strong organizing history, overwhelming local support, proximity to a national airport and it’s local college support.
Details are posted at ossf2012.org. Participants should come prepared for tent camping or sleeping on church basement floors. Alliance for Global Justice (the fiscal sponsor) national coordinator, Chuck Kaufman, said, “Our interest is to create a space where the many local Occupations can network and share problems and solutions, begin to know each other and figure out how to support each other. There is no other agenda. It will be up to the Occupiers themselves to seize this opportunity and turn it into a Movement Building experience.”
People have joined the Occupy Express which began in Los Angeles this morning, and is on its way to Olympia.
The conference will be a unique blend of processes used at the social forums and general assemblies, created by the participants. Some of the worshops, presenters, singers and speakers include David Korten, Bob Poteat, Bill Moyer, Margaret Flowers, Kevin Zeese, Mic Crenshaw and David Rovics.
Bruce Wilkinson, a primary local organizer, shares his story of the evolution of the forum, the participants, workshops, their vision, hopes, and recent developments. Bruce is a Kentucky son now living in Olympia Washington were he graduated from the Evergreen State College. Board member and volunteer for Media Island International and the Alliance For Global Justice, he also organizes extensively with Occupy Olympia and a number of other groups. As an itinerant organizer, free radical and social movement reporter he works on a wide range of issues with a focus on networking, coalition building and weaving together a diverse social movement. Two years in Americorps facilitating kids and adults in the joy of constructing trails and performing environmental restoration work solidified his commitment to service. Preferring summers in the mountains out of a backpack, his calling to service often keeps him in the cities.
He does hope people will extend their stay to join in the actions planned for President's Day in the state capitol.
Community Currency - 2/9/12
February 9, 2012 "On December 16, 2010 we joined with Veterans for Peace and other organizations in an anti-war protest. The theme of the protest was developing a ‘culture of resistance’ in the United States. Many of us spoke that day about the need for resistance, perhaps none more clearly than noted author Chris Hedges who said “Hope will only come when we resist the violence of the state. . . . those who resist here today with non-violence are the last thin line of defense between a civil society and its disintegration.” ...
"The Tunisian revolution sparked revolutions that became known as the Arab Spring. Most notable was the still-ongoing Egyptian Revolution which began on January 25th receiving wall-to-wall coverage in the United States... The Arab Spring led to a European summer, especially notable in Spain and Greece – these rebellions also continue.
"While these uprisings were occurring, the United States was already in revolt but for the most part it was not covered by the media. The media did take note of the occupation of the capitol in Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent in Ohio and Michigan, but those were the tip of the iceberg of a widespread revolt. There were protests multiple times a week on a range of issues including closings of schools, tuition increases, mountain top removal for coal, austerity measures, health care, banking, foreclosures, failure of big business to pay taxes, climate change, war, torture, Bradley Manning – the issues and actions go on and on...
"Even though all of this was occurring, those of us organizing the occupation of Freedom Plaza were still not sure if the American people were ready to stand up against the power of concentrated wealth that had corrupted the government. On July 13th when Ad Busters published a blog calling for “20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months,” we were not sure whether this would detract or be synergistic with the Occupation of Washington, DC. After a brief discussion, we quickly reached consensus and on July 19 endorsed the action. We decided to do all we could to help it succeed, issuing a joint statement of endorsement with one of the OWS organizing groups on August 8. Organizers from Occupy Washington, DC went to the assemblies in New York to participate in making plans for OWS. Many of us were there on the first day and some stayed until our occupation began on October 6.
"While 20,000 did not show up on Wall Street, a small but persistent group of people did sleep in the park and show commitment to the cause of holding the wealthy accountable. This combined with New York City police abusing their power and pepper spraying non-violent protesters who were already in their custody; and then making mass arrests of 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge, led to an explosion of hundreds of occupies throughout the country. More than 1,200 Occupy camps sprang up quickly around the nation and the world. This TIME “Person of the Year” protest awakened Americans to their common economic struggles and the power of their solidarity.
"The Occupy Movement had gotten the attention of the nation. The first few months had a noticeable, even dramatic, impact on the public discourse, but the first few months were not without their problems. Occupies were not ready for dealing with many of the problems that exist in our unfair economy – homelessness, mass poverty, crime and violence – all existing problems which were drawn to occupy sites. Decades of policies that funnel wealth to the top left many in the nation abused, beaten down and battered. The Occupies had the challenge of dealing with those injured Americans.
"Occupiers were torn between taking care of as many of the 99% as they could and building an effective political movement and safe encampments."...
Kevin Zeese is an attorney who has been a political activist since 1980. He works on peace, economic justice, criminal law reform and reviving American democracy. He advocates for democratizing the economy as co-director of It’s Our Economy and works to oppose to war and shrink the military budget through Come Home America. He chronicles the dramatic rise of corporate power in How Did Corporate Power Get a Stranglehold? and in this blog post on the Occupation of Freedom Plaza and Moyers explanation of Wall Street's Occupation of America Zeese serves on the steering committees of the Bradley Manning Support Network which advocates for alleged whistle-blower, Bradley Manning, and October2011.org
He has challenged the activities of the national Chamber of Commerce throughStopTheChamber .org, as well as the activities of Karl Rove’s Americans Crossroads as part of AmericanCrossroadsWatch.org and is seeking to overturn the Citizen’s United decision, including filing complaints against Justice Clarence Thomas, as part ofProtectOurElections.org .
He has been active in independent and third party political campaigns including for state legislative offices in Maryland, governor of California and U.S. president, where he served as press secretary and spokesperson for Ralph Nader in 2004. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006 and was the only person ever nominated by the Green Party, Libertarian Party and Populist Party.
Zeese serves as president of Common Sense for Drug Policy. He is a co-founder ofVoters for Peace , Prosperity Agenda, True Vote and the Drug Policy Foundation, now known as Drug Policy Alliance.
Kevin shares his experiences at Freedom Plaza, where things stand, his hopes for the movement, and the evolution of their plans, outlined in his blog posting Phase II Occupy Washington, DC Two Houses & Freedom Plaza, Occupy the Economy, NOW DC and more. He also worked on The 99%’s Deficit Proposal: How to create jobs, reduce the wealth divide and control spending.
Community Currency - 2/2/12
February 3, 2012 W. David Kubiak has a unique, impressive bio, spanning three distinctly different cultures - the US, Japan, and India. For well over a decade, he has focused on the problem posed by giant corporations, their threat to humanity and the Earth. Big problems call for "Big Medicine," a non-profit think tank focused on "the corporate takeover of our countries, cultures and consciousness" which he founded in 2000.
Born in the US, he majored in psychology, philosophy and pre-med studies, and served in the Peace Corps' first South Korea rural health program until 1970. He then moved to Kyoto, Japan where he studied Eastern medical theory, taught media studies, ran underground event spaces, and worked as an activist journalist. He is married, has three children, and divides his time between Kyoto, Kennebunkport, Maine, and Udaipur, Rajasthan.
Besides provocative publicity stunts like attacking Japanese yakuza gangs, running for Kyoto mayor, or winning the Democratic Vice-Presidential contest in the 2000 New Hampshire Primary, he is best known for his metamedical approach to eco-social illls and activism. Inspired by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, James Grier Miller, Ken Reiner and Eastern medical lore, Kubiak has used media, conferencing and electoral politics to publicize memes for "Big Body" (mega-corporate) disease, immuno-activism, industrial anthroculture, and the transformative powers of human attention.
Once described by Whole Earth Review as "one of the most interesting minds on the planet", Kubiak depicts our era as the endgame in an evolutionary contest between sensual human communities and "Big Bodies", vast corporate entities, which he describes as "alive, in charge and out of control." He argues that insights from superorganisms, living systems theory, and immune cell biomimicry may offer more effective remedies than traditional political activity and that downsizing, decentralizing and democratizing "big bodies" across the board are our only hope of regaining democracy, planetary health or evolutionary control.
His recent writings include- The Belittle Big Bodies Banzai: A Year-End OWS Salute and Immune Key to 2012 and The Contract on Corporate America", Green Tea* 2012 Campaign Pledge to the 99% - with a tip of the hat to the '94 GOP and the devious Dr. Newt which includes-
As the once and future sovereign 99% of the United States of America we propose to not just reclaim our government from corporate usurpations, but even more importantly, to rescue our children, communities and natural world from their cancerous growth and inhuman scale.
That is why, in this era of corporate coin-operated politics, we offer instead a self-fulfilling strategy for eco-social transformation that citizens can execute themselves in the next few years.
2012 offers a chance after five decades of corporate encroachment and dominion to finally expose this coup and inspire countless citizens to confront it without fear. This historic change would end the reign of morbidly huge bodies that promote autocratic values, addictive consumption, and the heedless destruction of cultures, communities and ecosystems worldwide. Given our finite living world, any entities striving for endless growth regardless of consequences are quite literally cancerous and must be combated like tumors before they kill our body politic and consume the biosphere. This battle can renew us as a nation that respects basic human rights, social justice and the sanctity of the natural world.
Like Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts and Eisenhower, our most corporate-leery presidents,
we intend to expose these growth-obsessed monsters as humanity's greatest adversary in the battle for justice, democracy and planetary health. Beyond exposure, we offer ways and means:
· To evict their henchmen from our statehouses, captured agencies and public nervous system.
· To dissolve or defy the rules that shield them from social justice and ecological redress.
· To legally downgrade them from "persons" to "hazardous instruments" with zero political rights.
· To swiftly shrink them back in scale and power to an eco-socially harmless size.
· To make us all proud again that real human beings with healthy values are back in charge...
It's powerful medicine, indeed! His voluminous activities, writings, videos, insights can be found on his websites, which include- The Magic Ten Percent and Big Medicine Central.
Community Currency - 01/26/12
January 26, 2012 Blessed or cursed by the confluence of two rivers, the American and the Sacramento. Sacramento was a major port, developed rapidly, became the seat of the state government, suffered from floods and epidemics. Government remains the largest employer in the city, levees and canals have been built which carry the life giving water to farmers and developments far to the south. The delta which has been a home to countless fish, providing people with recreational opportunities, has also been a major point of contention, as public funds have been lavished on projects, levees, canals, which haven't always served the public interest. Fortunes have been made by those who have been able to control the political processes, the land, the water, the course of development.
Most recently Governor Jerry Brown gave a speech on the "State of the State" which in an Orwellian manner crusaded a massive project which he has been championing called "The Peripheral Canal." While citizens, environmentalists, fishermen have voiced strong opposition to the boondoggle which seems to clearly serve a very few at great public expense, causing untold ecological damage, the project has found some support among other legislators and could slip by if the public is kept in the dark, without any popular means to oppose stealth legislation. Dan Bacher has been a very vocal opponent of the project for sometime, he blogs at FishSniffer.com" ,Sacramento for Democracy and Alternet.org and has tried to warn the people of Sacramento and California about the political machinations taking place to further the enrichment of the few. However, Californians have already lost many battles, against many giant industries, beset by challenges on many fronts, it's hard to say how many Californians know about this project and the damning details which would kill it, if people were informed. Dan Bacher is able to cast much light on one of the darker corners of Californian politics, which mirrors, in many ways, the struggles faced in every state and every nation. His article on the recent turn of events is entitled
State of the State: peripheral canal won't 'mend' anything.
Dan Bacher is a committed activist, as well as an avid fisherman.
To learn more about the campaign to stop the project and to restore the Sacramento Delta, see- Restore the Delta.
See the new 3 minute video entitled Kill the Canal.
Community Currency - 01/19/12
January 19, 2012 Occupy The Courts!
Guest: Greg Coleridge
In the year following the outrageous Supreme Court decision blatantly granting corporations the right to buy elections, Move to Amend inspired by Occupy Wall Street and Dr. Cornel West is calling for a national day of protest and bold actions to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision! Occupy the Courts is a call for a one day occupation of Federal courthouses across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday January 20, 2012.
People are responding to the call and organizing actions across the country.
Greg Coleridge Greg Coleridge is the Director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); member of the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) national collective; and an original Move to Amend national steering committee member. He is author of Citizens over Corporations: A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Freedom in the Future, writer of the documentary CorpOrNation - The Story of Citizens and Corporations in Ohio, and contributor of several articles to the anthology Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy - A Book of History and Strategy. He helped organize a 2008 municipal campaign opposing the privatization/corporatization of the wastewater system and a citizen-led initiative requiring voter approval of any future sale or lease of any public utility.
Greg's Blog is Create Real Democracy.
Community Currency - 01/12/12
January 12, 2012 Our Right to Know and Label GMOs
The Committee for the Right to Know is a grassroots coalition of consumer, public health, environmental organizations, and food companies in California that is seeking the labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs).
On November 9, 2011, the coalition submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General for title and summary, prior to circulation as an initiative measure for the November 2012 election.
The more you know about GMOs, the more that you would like to see them banned completely, but most people don't really know that much about them and have no idea how prevalent they are in our food. The people in Europe have banned GMOs, but the battle against GMOs has been more torturous in the US.
Pamm Larry is a grandmother from Chico, Ca. She calls herself the Initial Instigator of the California Right To Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. Through on-the-ground, grassroots efforts, there are now 115+ community leaders who share her vision and have committed to getting this on the ballot, then won. They are joined by businesses, organizations, and folks from all over the country who want to know what's in their foods. She is Northern California Director of LabelGMOs.org. The Initiative has been approved and they are waiting for a summary, before they can begin gathering signatures. The Initiative process is still daunting in California and requires tremendous effort and grassroots support. It will also have a huge impact upon the entire nation and the food industry, if it passes. This effort is illustrative of the battle between corporate power and profits, and human and environmental health and well being, the challenge of getting out simple truths about what we put inside our bodies, so that we can safeguard our health, the way we feel, our ability to function and act. It also exposes the failure of government to protect people, the collusion between corporations and the regulatory agencies and how the light, the truth can force change in policies that have tremendous repercussions in our health and throughout the world.
Get inspired. Hear Pamm's story and join this epic struggle. We can trump corporate power.
Additional Resources -
The film The Future of Food
The film One Man, One Cow One Planet
Community Currency - 01/05/12
January 5, 2012 Wednesday, January 11, 2012 will mark the decade long anniversary of the first detainees being jailed at the U.S.-controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The terrible conditions imposed upon detainees at Guantanamo has indelibly enshrined torture as a facet of US policy in violation of international law and universal moral ethics. A broad coalition of groups have called for a national day of action against torture. There are plans to rally and form human chains in Washington DC, as well as San Francisco to pressure President Obama as well as Congress to return to the rule of law and to shut down the detention facility. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture,Amnesty International, Center for Constitutional Rights and Witness Against Torture are organizing the DC rally, which begins at noon in Lafayette Park; the San Francisco rally at noon at the Federal Building at on 7th & Mission is being spearheaded by Cynthia Papermaster ofCodepink with co-sponsoring organizations including Berkeley No More Guantanamos, Witness Against Torture , National Accountability Action Network,War Resister's League-West, World Can't Wait, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club, and the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture Director for Program Coordination, John Humphries gives an overview of the national and DC campaigns to end torture. He has more than ten years’ experience as a community organizer in rural Appalachia and in Connecticut. A member of the Hartford Friends Meeting, John has also traveled to Iraq in June 2002 with a Quaker/AFSC delegation, and he has helped organize a statewide interfaith network acting to oppose torture and the war in Iraq.
Cynthia Papermaster, is a 40-year resident of Berkeley, with a BA in Political Science and Master of Library Science degrees from UC Berkeley. She has been very involved as a parent with with PTA, and working on educational issues, as well as a champion of impeachment during the Bush reign; she continues to organize against torture and for accountability with Codepink.
John and Cynthia also mentioned these resources:
Website with listings of many solidarity actions taking place nationwide -2012.witnesstorture.org
No More Gitmos - nogitmos.org
Guantanamo, Torture, Accountability & Indefinite Detention: We Are All At Risk Friday, January 6 - 7 pm in the Fellowship Hall 1924 Cedar St. Film Screening "Ending U.S. Sponsored Torture Forever," followed by a discussion led by members of Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture about what actions we can take.
Reception and Interfaith Service at 3 pm at New York Ave Presbyterian Church following the January 11th DC rally and actions, hosted by the
Community Currency - 12/15/11
December 15, 2011 Guest: Dr. David E. Martin
Dr. David E. Martin is the founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the architect and founder of the Global Innovation Commons and was the founder of Mosaic Technologies, Inc.. The impressive bio on his company's websites states that -
"Dr. Martin... is the author of the international legal framework for the Heritable Knowledge Trust and Heritable Innovation Trust programs. He has pioneered global programs to bring corporate and stock market transparency to multi–national extractive industries and has been instrumental in repatriating value to countries which have been subject to corporate and financial abuses. His work on ethical engagement and stewardship of community and commons–based value interests is at the forefront of global financial innovation. Dr. Martin is a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been named Chair of Economic Innovation for the UN–affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national governments.
"A spokesperson for global financial and intangible asset accountability and quality reform, Dr. Martin has worked closely with the United States Congress and numerous trade and financial regulatory agencies in the United States, Europe, and Asia in advocating and deploying infrastructure to support growing reliance on contract and proprietary rights in business transactions. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin, M·CAM has supported the modernization of banking, intangible asset, tax, and accounting laws through its work with oversight agencies and policy makers."
His novel, Coup d'Twelve: The Enterprise that Bought the Presidency is a fast paced spy thriller that looks at major events of this century, September 11, 2011 and the subsequent financial heists, from the point of view of someone who turned down the opportunity to play a part and profit from the crimes.
Dr. David E. Martin's work has taken him to many countries and he has access and understanding of technologies that many people probably could not dream of or imagine. The main character in his novel is obviously himself and in this interview he fleshes out his own history and details why he wrote the book, and what the early phases of the plot were.
Unfortunately, we did have technical difficulties reaching Dr. Martin in Mexico and the connection was flawed, so some of the words and sound were lost. He did however, verify that many of the events in the novel were based on his firsthand experiences, including the initial meeting of prospective shareholders where he was invited to join the conspiracy. In the novel the shareholders come from many different countries and they do not know who is really in control or the mastermind who brought them all together. There are fewer shareholders at the end of the tale than at the beginning and a couple of key CIA operatives who have coached the CIA Director on his speech are murdered. David explains at the end of this interview that the US Intelligence apparatus is relatively new, that other intelligence networks have been around for much longer. He explains that his novel forewarns of a newly emerging alliance between Iran, China and Pakistan, which is visible on the cover of the novel in the image of a slot machine coming up with the flags of those countries, displacing the US and Britain.
My review of his book is posted at Turning Down the Devil's Offer.
His insightful blog is Inverted Alchemy: An Integral Economy. This is Part III of a series..
Community Currency - 12/8/11
December 8, 2011 Coup d'Twelve: The Enterprise that Bought the Presidency
Dr. David E. Martin is the founder and Chairman of M·CAM Inc., the architect and founder of the Global Innovation Commons and was the founder of Mosaic Technologies, Inc.. The impressive bio on his company's websites states that -
"Dr. Martin... is the author of the international legal framework for the Heritable Knowledge Trust and Heritable Innovation Trust programs. He has pioneered global programs to bring corporate and stock market transparency to multi–national extractive industries and has been instrumental in repatriating value to countries which have been subject to corporate and financial abuses. His work on ethical engagement and stewardship of community and commons–based value interests is at the forefront of global financial innovation. Dr. Martin is a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been named Chair of Economic Innovation for the UN–affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums, the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national governments.
"A spokesperson for global financial and intangible asset accountability and quality reform, Dr. Martin has worked closely with the United States Congress and numerous trade and financial regulatory agencies in the United States, Europe, and Asia in advocating and deploying infrastructure to support growing reliance on contract and proprietary rights in business transactions. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin, M·CAM has supported the modernization of banking, intangible asset, tax, and accounting laws through its work with oversight agencies and policy makers."
His novel, Coup d'Twelve: The Enterprise that Bought the Presidency is a fast paced spy thriller that looks at major events of this century, September 11, 2011 and the subsequent financial heists, from the point of view of someone who turned down the opportunity to play a part and profit from the crimes.
Dr. David E. Martin's work has taken him to many countries and he has access and understanding of technologies that many people probably could not dream of or imagine. The main character in his novel is obviously himself and in this interview he fleshes out his own history and details why he wrote the book, and what the early phases of the plot were. Ironically, as we were beginning to discuss the next phase which regards our current time, the station lost its power, due to a vacuum cleaner and a fuse not because of any alphabet soup agency. We will continue our conversation next week on December 15th, as there are many more questions, issues that I'd like to explore.
My review of his book is posted at Turning Down the Devil's Offer.
His insightful blog is Inverted Alchemy: An Integral Economy. This is Part II of a series, Part I, Technological Advances Across Time, The Global Innovation Commons is archived here.
Community Currency - 12/1/11
December 1, 2011 Dr. David E. Martin looks briefly at what innovation is, and challenges a few popular American myths regarding the origins of inventions which have had a profound impact upon humanity. He looks at the enclosure system, the evolution of patents, and how the current system has been misused to suppress technologies that threaten entire industries. To rectify the situation, He founded the Global Innovation Commons to provide a global repository of innovations which, while possibly protected in one or more countries, can be used in the rest of the world, enabling open source generic production of technologies.
Dr. David E. Martin is also the founder of M-CAM, a public policy advisor, and visionary. He has done pioneering work in unstructured data analysis and linguistic genomics, and ground-breaking work in global finance and ethics. He has woven some of his life experience, obtained in over 120 countries, into his first novel, Coup d'Twelve. Dr. Martin gained international notoriety for his data analysis in disclosure prior to the global financial crisis in 2008. He blogs regularly at Inverted Alchemy: An Integral Economy.
Dr. David E. Martin is extremely knowledgeable and active on many important fronts. This is Part I of a two Part series, and Part II, will focus on his novel Coup d'Twelve.
His address to the EU Parliament on Future of Proprietary Economic Models, on September 17, 2008 complements this interview.
Download this episode (right click and save)Community Currency - 11/17/11
November 17, 2011 A Conspiracy of Spirits - Wall Street Vs. The 99% is a new novel by William Douglas, author of the award winning 2012 The Awakening. He also founded World Healing Day, and has written books about and taught Tai Chi.
William Douglas is a rather extraordinary person who has lived a courageous, unusual life. Our paths crossed at a critical time for me, and Bill and his wife Angela, appeared almost magically like angels, helping me when I needed help the most. As a political activist, I usually don't have time for "fun," "nonfiction" novels, but I made an exception for Bill and must admit that his novels are so engaging that they are very hard to put down, and I can devour one from cover to cover. I have learned, the hard way, over the years, that sometimes critical information is so heavily censored and attacked when one tries to "break it into the news" that one has a better chance of doing an end run and slipping it into the culture via the arts, through image, film, literature, poetry. Bill's novels are filled with information, ideas, experiences, taboo and alien to the dominant culture. Dressed as fiction, beneath the character veils, one can see Bill, the people he knows and loves, and has worked with, risking life and limb, in service to truth, in service to life, to humanity, to planet, illustrating that the forces of Life are greater than Death, that together our efforts do make a difference, in mysterious ways, perhaps invisible or inexplicable to the boundaries of our modern belief system.
The novel takes on climate change, suppressed energy breakthroughs, the power of dreams and every individual's capacity to tap into the tao where all is known, all is connected, all is one.
Have the one percent conspired to amass wealth and power at the expense of the vast majority of humanity? Are the 99% actually waking up and figuring out how to exercise their own power, despite the ominous construction of a police state, the rumblings of imminent disasters, the threats of terrorism, wars, unaccountable government, the duplicitous media? Will the 99% be able to take a deep breath together, find support amongst the wider population, steer us away from the endless war, destructive technologies, bleak off the cliff trail that we're on, and forge a better path for the future?
Today was a momentous day, a Global Day of Action for the 99%. For William and I a magical day of convergence, validating our work, and expanding our understanding of reality and circle of allies. As we were speaking, I received a report from the Global Innovations Commons who have extensively researched and identified who has patented and suppressed innovative technologies threatening the dominant oil/nuclear industries and retarded the move towards benign, renewable energy sources. They have also pioneered identifying and encouraging the development of promising technologies in countries not shackled by the horrific patent laws and lawyers that have actively tried to keep a lid on these technologies. They just posted a report entitled Proprietary Environments: Innovation Paradox and Policy by Dr. David E. Martin, Executive Chairman, M•CAM Inc.
My earlier interview with Bill about his novel 2012 The Awakening is posted here.
