a little while …

What’s most difficult to fathom about the demise of global capital markets is how dependent it is on the mass legitimization of fraud. Not just individual fraud, but a calculated system meant to promote fraudulence. One built on rules and regulations and the standardization of practices designed to counter accountability.

Abuse of mark-to-market accounting principles, a technique dating back to the 19h century, is one of the main factors that has guided the failure of the housing market and its subsequent impact on the economy at large. The collapse of AIG for instance, depends very heavily on fraudulent use of mark-to-market accounting principles in concert with unregulated credit default swaps. Brokers were allowed to insure bad loans (under the pretense that they were good) against default, book hundreds of millions of dollars at present-day value without putting up the collateral, and collect hefty personal yearly bonuses as a result. As the value of homes declined, the bad loans went into default and AIG was unable to back up the insurance they sold. They just didn’t have the money. (Not that any of this is new, of course).

A few years ago – back when “Peak Oil” dominated topicality (I just realized how futile it is linking to the Peak Oil wiki…) – I came across an article (which I haven’t been able to find) which decried OPEC nations for their obfuscation of the true nature of the quantities of oil-reserves they declared. I found a 2004 article in Asia Times that discusses the same issues, albeit with much fewer details. In the 1980s, OPEC implemented a production quota system that permitted member nations to produce as much oil as they declared, irrespective of having to present any proof that their declarations were backed by new sources, thus casting a shadow on the main driver of oil production and future revenue: oil discovery. By all accounts, discovery of new conventional oil supplies began drying up a long time ago as nation-states belonging to OPEC have seldom been acquiring new geographical real estate, but, due to a lack of accountability, are still allowed to maintain their production quotas.

From this point of view, the connection between credit default swaps and oil production quotas as mechanisms of maximizing capital returns by blurring the means which generate that capital isn’t so far-fetched. Brokers at AIG and energy ministers in Kuwait knowingly stifle accountability. By legitimizing fraud on global scales for the stated purpose of accruing wealth, and developing standards and practices meant to further those aims, the consequences typically seem to include gargantuan disaster.
Even in the face of catastrophe, there are still calls championing opportunism. I don’t have to look beyond the concluding statements of the dailywealth.com and the Asia Times’ OPEC articles for proof of that:

How Porter Stansberry concludes his lambasting of AIG:

How can you take advantage? First, make sure you have at least 10% of your net worth in precious metals. I prefer gold bullion. World governments’ gigantic liabilities will vastly decrease the value of paper currencies … Keep the fraud of AIG in mind when you form your investment plan for the coming years. By following these three strategies, you’ll survive and prosper while most investors sit back and wonder what the hell is going on.

How Bill Power caps off his piece on Peak Oil:

Clearly the scenario laid out by Campbell is not a pretty one. However, in every crisis lies opportunity. Astute investors should recognize the implications of declining worldwide oil production and adjust their portfolios accordingly.

i’ve been having huge problems with the ‘news’ lately. the other day i was watching tv at 11pm, which is the standard hour for the news on canadian tv, global, cbc, citytv and ctv being the major networks that get airplay. anyway, i don’t usually watch any of them as i’m a big fan of channel surfing first through all the sports channels (sportsnet, tsn and the score) then through all the pop culture channels (muchmusic, muchmoremusic, cartoon, comedy, mtv), but i decided to settle on citytv. i sat through a half an hour, the initial ten minutes of which was devoted to showing how a slice of salami (simulating human flesh, of course?) froze in sub-zero temperatures followed by how a bottle of water similarly froze, and the remaining twenty minutes, highlighted various worldly events, such as a dog falling through ice in colorado being alloted as much airtime as an earthquake in sumatra that killed hundreds of people. i promise you there is no exaggeration here: water freezing in -15C weather and a golden retriever falling through ice … this was the news.

here’s another example of news in print:
the exercise craze that crippled a generation
again, a news article on the topic of “health” guided by the flimsiest of anecdotal evidence trying to pass off as an actual report. what i wonder is whether this poor excuse for news is a result of the blogging phenomenon and the inherent lessening of journalistic standards or whether it’s always existed and has only become more obvious now that non-professionals are doing it too.

one of the most powerful things the nightmare that is HIV/AIDS can do, probably within our lifetime, is to force the world to realize that the old paradigm that describes the agents which cause mass ideological shift in the entire world has become stagnant and needs revision. the past however many centuries human agents have been responsible for causing the ideological revisions: once upon a time there was a zoroaster and he said something about monotheism and the world changed. once upon a time there was a jesus and he had some books written about him and the world changed. once upon a time there was a mohammed and he wrote a book and the world changed. once upon a time there was a marx and a hegel and they wrote a manifesto and the world changed. and so on and so on.
not to sound overly zealous, but within this generation there has to be a realization that once upon a time there was a virus called HIV and despite it being a dead thing, it has done more than any human agent ever in the history of the world to expose an underbelly of humanity that at once conceals all the ways in which humans are responsible for the deaths of millions of other innocent humans. this is something that transcends ‘named’ activism. it’s overwhelming to accept that something as microscopic as a virus can create 40 million orphans in the ‘developing’ world, or that poor women in india contracting the virus will soon become a foregone conclusion. HIV has managed, in only the last decade or two, to lay bare all the world’s injustices for all to see. but HIV isn’t the problem, as therapy exists and it works. the problem is poverty. sexism. arrogance. the idea that to provide intravenous drug users with support somehow promotes rampant drug use. or that to encourage safe sex somehow promotes depravity.
HIV’s got a lot more in store for us and by all ‘educated’ guesses, the worst is yet to come.

so today i was reading up on the recent passing of UN resolution 1737 imposing sanctions on iran for enriching uranium … something that totally perplexed me as iran is party to the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty and according to the IAEA have not broken any rules with the research they are conducting.

but as far as the general public is concerned, this isn’t important.
according to mainstream media, we have the following re-definition:
uranium = nuclear weapons
enrichment = weaponization

and that’s it, that’s all that matters.
and that’s what i’m getting at with respect to “credibility” and “cult-of-the-word” as the title of this post, we seem to be living in a culture where PR governs the usage of words and phrases to the point that they lose all meaning (see WMDs/insurgency/terroristm/etc… re: iraq) or undergo a re-definition more suitable for public approval of reactionary measures … like an impending attack on iran.
take, for instance, this article i stumbled across from the telegraph. i’m not sure if this is an editorial or what, but the shoddiness with which it’s written barely qualifies it as a blog entry. although various things stood out as oddly out of place for a serious discussion of iran’s position on the weaponization of nuclear capabilities, i finally had enough and decided to research the validity of some claims after reading this 2nd to last paragraph:

Reports from Iran say that Massoud Osanlou, the leader of the bus drivers’ union, was arrested at his home by members of the Basij, the pro-regime militia, and had part of his tongue cut out as a warning to be quiet.

“reports from iran say”!!!!!!! are you kidding me? when did we start taking for granted that ambiguity in citing sources is suitable only for a high school book report by someone who didn’t actually read the book?
so … i decided to research the validity of this claim that the leader of the bus drivers’ union had his tongue snipped, and by research, i mean i used google:
- a check on news.google.com returned ZERO results.
- and a general google search returned a bunch of sites with very little credibility the majority of which contained a cut and pasted snippet from this the title of which alone is enough to make you realize how useless the above claim by the telegraph is.
newsflash: it’s KU klux klan, not kLu klux klan!!!

people, please please please, stop taking for granted that journalism isn’t absolute, that because things are written by people who are paid to write doesn’t automatically assure its factuality or credibility.

this article got me thinking.

there were 103 interventions in the affairs of other countries between 1798 and 1895 by american armed forces – a large number of which occurred in the south-eastern hemisphere to counter indigenous uprisings.
and we should get it right, the portuguese and spanish were to the populations in the southern hemisphere what the british and french were to the indigenous peoples of the north. a white oppressor.
and for nearly a century, south america suffered. there was no doubt, the monroe doctrine ruled.

the tides seem to be shifting again.
evo was a coca farmer. hugo is part black and part indian. chiapas shifted mexico city: vicente fox is gone. the sandinistas control nicaragua, this time with international support. similar stories in chile. argentina. brazil.
as a member of a 3rd generation diaspora, the majority of which live in those south and central american countries, i’m glad. 600,000 of us exist and influence south america as former refugees, not as colonizers. chile, el salvador, honduras and belize are our homes away from home.

the people have begun capitalizing on an american attention shift from mesoamerica to mesopotamia. solidarity is winning. the usa is pumping its resources elsewhere. in light of all the victories in south america, we’ve now got a different population suffering under an updated monroe doctrine: PNAC.
what a shitty trade off … but the death of PNAC is on the horizon, there is no doubt in my mind.

“I’m not saying one thing or the other happened – just that I stare at the news and don’t believe anything they’re saying. I’ve got no idea. And it feels really weird.”

that he should mention edward bernays and the creel commission kind of made me glad, because it is entirely timely and necessary, but also filled me with a little dismay; times are grim when rushkoff is making reference to the likes of bernays. i tried not to link to a wikipedia entry there but i’m particularly lazy right now and i honestly looked for the lip magazine feature article, which i read in hard copy and wanted to link to, but couldn’t find online.

combining that pretty lucid rushkoff commentary with this report on worsening conditions for reporters around the world (courtesy of kenny) and the o’reilly vs letterman rematch made me do a double-take.
like i was saying to doug earlier:

me: but don’t you find it a little strange?
me: even when the argument is SOO logical that the alternative is absurd
me: there is still this notion of a necessary ‘debate’?
doug: lol yea it is kinda strange
doug: but the guest has to fill that 5 minute spot
doug:
me: sometimes i find myself totally baffled
me: but like, you know shit’s obvious when it’s being sounded off on network tv
me: and yet … nothing
me: hehe
doug: yea, i read an article in newsweek about just that
doug: how we’re kind of all just standing around on the outside of the unstoppable brawl
doug: and dinner’s getting cold
doug: but we can’t leave because they have the keys

the only way someone like david letterman would make vocal his opinion on someone like bill o’reilly, on a nationally televised network talk show, is if his point of view were overwhelmingly obvious … and it is, what he’s saying isn’t new and barely even begins to touch the surface of ‘what’s wrong’. and yet, this ‘democracy’ carries on, with its faux debates, and the totally absurd notion that being fair to ‘both sides of the argument’ should involve equally weighted consideration of reports like this (thank you kenny again). and thank you, national post, for dedicating an entire article on a report with this to say about its source:

“Rita Katz, director of the SITE Institute, said not much was known about the author of the document, Hossam Abdul Raouf, except that he is described as a member of al-Qaeda’s information and strategy committee and editor of the electronic periodical Vanguards of Kharasan.”

*sigh*

… though i never expected this blog was gonna turn into a personal ‘rant-space’ i’m left wondering now what else it could have been.

here’s the deal with web2.0, there’s no doubt about its success being a function of online social interaction – there are a million articles written every day about it. despite its cult-of-buzz and despite its near-spontaneous creation by the web’s most influential person nobody’s heard of, tim o’reilly (unless you read wired magazine, itself a real springboard for everything web2.0) there definitely is something about web2.0 that interests and (*gasp*) excites people like me. this blog and wordpress are a testament to that.
so yay for web2.0 …

backtrack a little, who remembers the early days’ attempts at social networking through personal sites? geocities? angelfire? tripod? they had ‘communities’ and ‘neighbourhoods’ and all that other crap. and, most importantly, and especially compared to the elegance with which more and more websites are being designed, they were UGLY. music would just spontaneously start playing (not REAL music, but the most hideous thing ever to pretend to be music: MIDI!), images would cover so much real estate as to require sidescrolling, get stretched to infinity, distorted, barely fit inside borders, grouped between random spurts of retarded text, yada yada yada. nothing had come out before or after with such a haphazard attempt at aesthetic design … until myspace showed up.

to say myspace has “showed up” is a gross understatement, this shit’s virtually taken over and i don’t even know what the fuck makes it so special.
here’s an excerpt from an angry email i wrote earlier today which provided a link to a myspace profile page:
“jesus christ, i can’t even scroll down this page. look, here’s the deal with webpages, unless it’s a fucking photo-essay I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO SIDESCROLL to view the content. if the internet were a comedy club, myspace would be amateur hour and people would vomit. i don’t hate gay people, but myspace is a fag.”
if you’re reading this (there’s only two of you anyway) and wondering: “how come waleed, handsome devil that he is, hasn’t linked to myspace at all?” well, cause it sucks. if you don’t know what myspace looks like, i envy you like i envy young children and i’d rather not be the one who rips that innocence away from you.

i hate myspace. i’d rather not live in a world whose future is myspace.

on november 13 we’ll be having province-wide municipal elections in ontario. being a resident of mississauga this ostensibly deserves my attention.
a quick google search for: mississauga municipal elections results in little more than the official mississauga.ca Vote 2006 microsite … except for a handy guide to maintaining pro-life voting consistency a few results down, as useless as that is.

…not very much to build on.
getting a list of the candidates in my ward was easy, but apart from peter ferreira, the incumbent in the race, none of the other candidates has any web presence. the same goes for all the other wards as well. virtually ZERO web presence.
alright, so maybe municipal politics doesn’t need to exist online, it is after all of mainly local consequence, a grassroots thing spreading through the community by word of mouth and the local media (more on that later). ya fucking right! the very idea that the local affairs of a city as big as mississauga can live OFF the web is completely detached, especially when an organization such as the fcm can have the influence it does on federal decisions and without which a guy like jack layton wouldn’t be where he is now.

anyway, off to the trustworthy local media:
well, our only local ‘media’ source, the mississauga news – an envelope of flyers in print form and a similarly barren eyesore in electronic form (despite having won the newspaper website of the year award from suburban newspapers of america, an american trade association that has very little to do with news and very much to do with ad-driven revenue) – has actually reported on a few candidates in the lead up to the election.
the newsworthy items are:
1. carolyn parrish – tales of potential bribery in ward 6
2. adnan hashmi – also mentioned in the above article. this ward 10 candidate actually was charged with bribery
3. eve adams – strong-arming residents to put her signs on their lawns.

too bad all of this coverage has everything to do with why we SHOULDN’T vote.

so where do i get information on the councillors in my ward?
how can a democracy function like this? especially on a level where decisions affect citizens locally … things like schools, strip malls, public transportation, the environment, local police, in the case of mississauga, more strip malls.
somehow, our collective decision to focus on gay marriage, or terrorism, or haiti is leaving local policies and politicians unchecked … how long can we keep ourselves divorced from what happens in our neighbourhoods?

i haven’t been alive long enough to really know this, but i’m pretty sure that for some time now a deceitful mediated narrative has gradually been replacing genuinely reasoned skepticism, dilligence and deference.
internationally, we’re fucking great at espousing the virtues of freedom and democracy – collectively sermonizing and enforcing what we aren’t, while increasingly deviating from what we should be. what we aren’t is a properly functioning democracy and what we are becoming is a rhetoric machine, a menace to future generations who will hopefully look back on this period with condemnation instead of continuing a legacy of active ignorance.