Hallo Everyone who comes to this. Here is more recent information about the lawsuit and where you can sign up! Thanks for your comments, good luck with it all!!

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We have the laws in place for equality which is great but norms and cultural practices are very powerful structures for upholding things like sexism and racism and whatever ism. That is why it is important to keep battling and it is exciting to see that there might be a class action suit against America’s friendliest “retailer” Walmart. They have done everything in their power to avoid unionization and keep women a step behind from men in terms of positions and wage. If you need some background about women and Walmart, check it out here

So, some senators and presidential candidates have called for Rumsfeld to resign. Somewhat expected although somewhat late in coming. Today, a father of 2 soldiers in Iraq ran a full page adin the NYTimes calling for his resignation. It looks like a pretty poweful ad (though I have not seen it). But hopefully it simple message will start to change the minds of some:

　　”We now know that the President and those who serve him misled us about weapons of mass destruction, about Saddam’s supposed nuclear program, about a link between Saddam and September 11,” the advertisement said.

It is pathetic though that a newspaper like the NYTimes can’t forcelly report on this issue… At least someone can publish an ad about it..

I just got back from seeing the documentary aftermath, unanswered questions from 9/11 made by the Guerrilla News Network and hosted tonight by Chicago Media Action. The documentary along with the two shorts were well done, mixing provocative information, with well-edited footage, and with a clean presentation style. Shown downtown in the heart of Chicago’s financial and governmental distict at a really beautiful Methodist church, the turnout was decent and definitely more diverse than what you would see at a similar event in San Francisco, the eternaly youthful city. Notably missing though were young people between the ages of 15-30… In some ways this was refreshing in other ways disturbing because Chicago is teeming full with young people. I guess it was refreshing because there was a better cross section of people from little old ladies to mothers with kids. But given the size of this city, I was surprised at the lack of young people at an event like this.

I have more to say about the fears, apathy, and frustrations that keep interested folks from actively seeking new avenues for expression, information, and change but I am too tired right now and somewhat down about the current state of affairs. It bothers me so that there is so much active protest and voices of dissent but that mainstream channels for media, expression, and politics can so effectively silence and earse primarily by tactics of ignoring. Who needs supression when you can ignore so effectively? It bothers me how easily the politicians and media have been able to conflate ( and with this seamless sickening perfection), 9/11 with terrorism, with the war on Iraq, and all though a simple language of good, evil, freedom, and terrorism, all the while social and economic conditions here and world over just worsen. But despite this people are actively demanding for other scenarios and options whether in the protests in Cancun or in the demand for the formation of a 911 Truth Commission…

Oh and if you need a natural jolt, well, just need to read news about 9/11

The US Navy recently left one of the most remarkable islands in the Caribbean, Vieques which is located off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico. With stunning and varied beaches, rolling green hills adorned with flowers and horses, a constant breeze, and an almost eerie yet magical biolumenescent bay it captures the heart instantly. Unfortunately and not surprising, though the Navy is gone, they left behind their invisible yet toxic filth. And depleted uranium is just one of the many contaminants left behind.

Cleaning up Vieques is going to take even more of an grass roots, political effort than eliminating the bulky and very visible prescense of the Navy. It is much easier to point at men in uniforms, blasting bombs, land restrictions, and deaths by live ammunition than the invisible world of environmental damage that continues to cause some of the most potent harm on the island as it is the foundation that has caused daily chronic illness or the devastation of cancer for local residents. Though “science” is supposed to make clear the verdict of pollution, too often those with money and power can bend the malleable plumbing of science to fit their needs. One tube can replaced by another so long as it fits the purpose occlusion.

Recently in the NYTimes, there was an article about the future of Vieques and tourism. The most obvious omission was the story of environmental destruction and pollution, the writer instead choosing to portray Vieques as a bucolic, carefree land, the only danger being that of aesthetic/architectural destruction:

“The question now is how bucolic Vieques -
population 9,106 and known for beaches, wild horses and the
micro-organisms that make bioluminescent Mosquito Bay
sparkle and glow – can preserve its pristine landscapes
while encouraging new homes and accompanying amenities.”

The question instead should be about how to clean Vieques to make it safe for its residents and how to make those responsible for the mess (and we know who those are), financially responsible for the clean-up. effort.

This misguided and naive article unfortunately provides a sort of looking glass into the future of Vieques if action is not mobilized around the clean up effort, a clean up that provides ways not to just protect the visually pristine landscape but create a healthy environment for all residents.

The PR Indymedia site is finally up thanks to the hard work of lots of folks like fredi here in pr and countless other volunteers around the world

Norsehorse pointed me out to the up and coming Mindfreedom fast that is being documented on this blog. The hunger strike is due to start on August 16th and meant to make people aware that mental health (and how treatment is delivered) is a human right issue as well as to challenge the international dominance of the bio-psychiatric model for illness which is being imposed outside of the U.S. through such “friendly” institutions as the WTO, WHO, and World Bank….

gender changers is holding registration for their second summer electic tech festival in Greece. Looks incredible…..

I have complained for a long time that doctors need to fight for more equitable health care in this country whether it be by humanizing residency, fighting the insurance companies, or questioning the use of patents for medicine especially outside of the g8 nations. So, looks like there are starting to do some good stuff through a class-action suit against a bunch of insuance companies. This group of 700, 000 doctors have settled with Aetna which happens to be my insurance company. And don’t get me started on how much I dislike them. In short my coverage when up $400 this year while my benefits overall went down like $900,000. They are bastards and I am glad they are being forced to recognize thier bastardly ways and pay.

Maybe doctors will get some joy from fighting the insurance companies and get the bright idea that serious reform can only come from within the field…

When I first started doing research on Free Software and the ethics of information freedom, I thought that the politics of information freedom were certainly important but perhaps not “as” important as other political causes. Now, years in the field and more intimate familiarity with the issues have made me think otherwise. I see the politics of information freedom as a sort of “meta” form of politics, the first condition of possibility for all other forms of political causes whether in the field of health, corporate reform, anti-globalization or the environment. Access to information and transparency are simply indispensable for social change.

Today, at the MindFreedom conference, which comes out of the psychiatric survival movement, I was reminded of the importance of transparency, information freedom, and freedom of choice in the realm of health rights whatever the health issue may be but especially in the realm of mental health.

At one point in the conference, someone asked how many people had received electroshock therapy and more than half the room in the large auditorium raised their hands. And most distrubing is that most had received it against their will. The critical hinge of the psychiatric survival movement is that it does not deny all together current and conventional medications but they shun, question, and protest the process of how such medicines and therapies are spread, administered, and forced upon patients. Informed consent is a farce (physicians rarely follow the legal process), while drug companies completely rig studies to make certain new drugs look risk free when in fact there is plenty of risk associated with them. The continued salience of stigma forces patients to adopt treatments that “pulls the plug” of their inner life force to appease a scared and prejudiced public. So the folks who are categorized as mental ill are lied to by the drug corporations, treated as unfit to make decisions for themselves by society at large, while the medical establishment gives very few choices for treatment except massive doses of pills that have been shown scientifically to have little positive effect in curing or even alleviating many illnesses. When a severely disabled patient relies on public health services for food and shelter, resisting medications is not such an easy feat. Only the rich can make choices in this country.

In the end, their main message is “no forced treatment” but that does not mean just informed consent at the moment of “giving treatment” but it means providing real alternative so that there is a choice. At this time, there is not much choice within conventional channels especially when drug companies are doing everything possible to create new markets and add depth to ones that already exist.
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