ABA Faux Pas

Just when I was starting to like lawyers again, the American Bar Association selected Carolyn Lamm as president.

Goldman’s Golden Boy

Three years ago this month, Harper’s did an expose  on how Obama sold his soul to Wall Street in order to advance his ambitious political career. One year ago this month, Ralph Nader—Obama’s former employer—remarked in no uncertain terms that Obama was an opportunist, plain and simple. The fact that America’s number one public interest advocate recognized this flaw in the rising star of the Democratic Party gave some of us pause, but for others it required a year of multiple betrayals before they understood he was Goldman’s golden boy.

Catching Up

The project I’ve been working on since 2003 is to engage emerging and established thought leaders in discussions that might lead to sustained, structured analysis of the public health model of civic participation. What I called Communicating Social Transformation in my academic thesis.

Having begun my own blog in 2005, I was able to expand on the comments and conversations I had with people during the previous two years, at various blogs and news sites, on such topics as using research as an organizing tool. The organization of the Skookum sidebar reflects that effort. My subsequent work with the Center for World Indigenous Studies, as well as the Public Good Project, demonstrate what that means.

More recently, I wrote a narrative for a CWIS cinematic documentary proposal to Sundance Institute, but we were not successful in securing any funds. The history of the World Indigenous Peoples’ Movement and specific aspects of that struggle remain viable topics for both cinema and broadcast television, but we aren’t quite there yet. Indigenous-produced media is still restricted to film festivals with occasional exposure on public television, rarely getting into what sovereignty and self-determination are all about.

That will change, and when that wall falls, all hell will break loose. In the meantime, corresponding with people who are key to making that opportunity happen is a regular part of my correspondence. Since many of these people are not indigenous, building their awareness, which in turn serves to motivate commitment, is a step in the process that can’t be bypassed.

My guess is that we will eventually see something akin to the 1960s culture shock over race, environment, gender, and religion. Only this time, the culture shock will bring all of this together in support of the human right to choose a way of life consistent with indigenous or hippie values that reject state and market control. It’s a big step, and it will be chaotic — particularly given the economic panic and religious hysteria that accompany environmental catastrophe — but being intellectually prepared might help.

Living a Nightmare

As Human Trafficking Report notes, the recession hasn’t just turned people out of their jobs and homes, it’s put kids on the streets whose only means of survival is prostitution. Much is made of the impact of Obama’s privatization of the US Treasury on public health and education, but little is said about what happens as communities fall apart with an already shredded social safety net. While Obama’s pals on Wall Street live in the lap of luxury at public expense, the most vulnerable among us are living a nightmare.

Red Black Green

The Georgia Green Party takes on Black incarceration. As noted by Black Agenda Report, a quarter of the world’s prisoners are in the US, and half of those are Black. As Bruce Dixon reports from Georgia, that is not a coincidence, but rather the result of an overtly racist social policy.

Gaining Respect

In some indigenous societies, the combination of colonial economic, political and religious philosophies has perverted aboriginal governance and culture in misogynist ways. In Paraguay, overcoming gender discrimination hasn’t been easy, but some of the indigenous women there are finally gaining the respect they deserve.

Catalan

Despite obstacles mounted by the Spanish government, consultations on independence for Catalonia will take place next month in 130 towns. International observers from pro-sovereignty political parties like Sinn Fein and Plaid Cymru are expected to help monitor the process in northeastern Spain. Delegates from Corsica, Sardinia, Scotland and Sweden will likely join in reporting on this next step toward regional autonomy for stateless nations in Europe.

Dumb Founded

Formal reports are expected imminently, but preliminary analysis is that a new wave of mindless idiots — inspired by the teabagging episode — has entered the electoral arena as candidates, with GOP and industry agents recruiting them to harness their anti-social energy to more focused objectives. Initial estimates of the situation are that — unlike the property rights fundamentalists of the mid 1990s — these malcontents have difficulty mastering the most simple tasks of communicating in the public realm–literally standing stunned before audiences when asked such difficult questions as, “What credentials do you bring to public affairs?”.

Obama’s Inhumanity

Shamus Cooke examines Obama’s inhumanity toward immigrants, and the growing hostility of the Democratic Party toward the same.

Putting People First

As the largest oil exporter to the US, Canada also generates the largest greenhouse gas emmissions in the world. For the Athabascan peoples of Northern Alberta, this means their lands, waters, and wildlife have become a major planetary sacrifice zone. In the documentary Downstream, the story of Fort Chipewyan and their physician, Dr. John O’Connor, challenges the notion that dominant society’s governments or the oil industry will ever put people first.