Newsletter
Dear Friends,
Thank you for reading this enewsletter.
I also wanted to note the two incredible events coming up, one is at Omega in October and the second is our trip to Guatemala in December. Please see the information links below for more information.
OCTOBER 2010 RHINEBECK, NY OMEGA INSTITUTE, RHINEBECK, NY
Master Healer & Shapeshifter Apprenticeship Sacred Ground & Sacred Healing Ways Part One of a Two-Part Professional Certification Training Omega Institute proudly presents this exclusive apprenticeship training with eminent shamanic teachers Llyn Roberts and John Perkins.
COMPLETE DESCRIPTIONS AND QUESTIONS/REGISTRATION AVAILABLE AT THIS LINK
PART ONE: OCTOBER, 2010 SACRED GROUND
Shamans are the spiritual mediators for their communities, those who maintain the balance between spirit, humans, and the natural world. In Part 1 of this apprenticeship, we establish our shamanic connection to sacred ground, and are introduced to the foundations of the intensive healing forms and rituals that we learn in Part 2 of this training.
DECEMBER, 2010 – MAYALANDS JOURNEY SHAPESHIFTING A NEW WORLD DEEP IN THE LANDS OF THE MAYA
With JOHN PERKINS & LLYN ROBERTS Sponsored by: The Prophet’s Conference http://www.greatmystery.org/events/maya2010.html
For more information: Call (1)888-777-5981 (1)888-777-5981 or (44)020 8123 5108 email: adventures AT greatmystery.org
Authors John Perkins and Llyn Roberts will take us on an amazing journey to the ancient Mayan sites of Tikal, Antiqua, and Lake Atitlan, using ancient shamanic approaches to propel us to higher states of consciousness — and to experience how changing the dream can help us shapeshift not only ourselves, but the world around us.
Finally, I also wanted to share my latest Huffington Post titled, “Mr. CEO, Can You Spare A Job or a Free Lunch?”, and hope you’ll share and pass it along to your social networks via Twitter and Facebook.
Mr. CEO, Can You Spare A Job or a Free Lunch?
By John Perkins
“An economic policy which does not consider the well-being of all will not serve the purposes of peace and the growth of well-being among the people of all nations.”(Eleanor Roosevelt)
In case you are tempted to feel sorry during these troubled times for the corporatocracy . . . this just in:
The CEOs who fired the most workers during the current economic recession also rewarded themselves with the highest pay. Top managers at the fifty corporations with the greatest number of layoffs were paid an average of $12 million in salary, bonuses and other perks — 42 percent more than the average for the Standard & Poor’s 500. To make matters worst, at most of these companies – a whopping 72 percent in fact – layoffs were announced at a time when earnings were increasing. This according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies that covered the period from November 2008 to April 2010.
Isn’t it comforting to know that while you and I are experiencing the worst economy we’ve seen in our life-times, with jobless claims rising to 500,000, the CEOs are thriving? They are purchasing luxury cars, yachts, new homes, and even buying off foreclosed properties at fire-sale prices. Perhaps we should sleep better at night knowing that they are working so hard to offset their ruthless firings of employees by trying to revive the Rolls Royce dealerships and mortgage companies!
Not only are some of the world’s richest CEOs getting richer off the backs of laid off employees, but they’re doing it at the same time profits rise and shareholder cigars are lit with martinis in hand celebrating the companies continued reign of predatory capitalism. These same 50 top layoff leaders’ companies also enjoyed a 44% average profit increase in 2009. And many of them paid little or no taxes (e.g. Exxon, with over $45 billion in profits, recorded no U.S. income taxes and GE generated $10 billion in pretax income and took a tax BENEFIT of $1.1 billion).
I have to admit that I was never terribly enamored with Karl Marx. When I was a young man, many of my peers called on his writings to justify taking to the streets against the Vietnam war, but I – a business student – saw that war more as an excuse for the military-industrial complex to get rich than as a class struggle. Now, however, I have to suspect that Marx was wiser than I used to believe. In fact, the Institute for Policy Studies report estimates that CEOs in the U.S.’s largest publicly traded corporations earn an average compensation 263 times higher than the typical American production worker. Sounds like the exact situation Marx warned us about!
The study cites some very telling specific examples. Among them
- Wal-Mart’s CEO Michael Duke laid off 13,350 workers and earned almost 20 million for his trouble;
- The now disgraced Mark Hurd of HP managed to reduce his work force by 6400 and still earn $24.2 million;
- AMEX’s Kenneth Chenault earned $16.8 million while American Express laid off 4,000 employees accepted $3.39 billion in TARP funding;
- Intel Corp’s Paul Otellini trimmed about 5,000 jobs and received $14.4 million in compensation.
The report notes, “The $598 million combined compensation of the top 50 CEOs in our layoff leader survey could provide average unemployment benefits to 37,579 workers for an entire year – or nearly a month of benefits for each of the 531,363 workers their companies laid off.”
As I wrote in Hoodwinked, “When we examine the state of our economy – the shortage of businesses that produce real things that people need, the huge gap between rich and poor, the current national debt, and the exploitation of the many by a very few – we see a profile similar to that in the Third World.”
Our overall standards may be higher than in the Third Word; however, in relative terms the similarities are shocking. And each year, in fact each quarter, with every new report, the situation grows worse. The sad fact is that the rich get richer and the middle class is disappearing.
Some of the most shocking statistics that highlight the discrepancies are those around hunger. While the CEOs feast on caviar, nearly 17 million, or almost 1 in 4, American children are at risk of hunger. Those hungry children are the victims of bloated, unregulated, corporate Robber Barons who lay off workers (parents) for bottom line greed.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
You and I can change the future for the better by taking action now. Demanding accountability and regulations that protect workers and stop the excessive payouts, golden parachutes and layoffs. A list of the companies is available at http://www.ips-dc.org/reports/executive_excess_2010 .
Please send emails to every company on that list that you patronize or are temped to patronize and tell them the you will NOT buy from them until they change their ways, until their executives are willing to reduce their compensation and hire back those fired workers. Only through expressing our discontent will we make a difference!
We must demand a completely new economic policy that benefits all not just the wealthiest in our country. It is up to you and me!
END
Many thanks and blessings,
John
John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” and “THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE”
Twitter: @economic_hitman
Dear Friends,
Venezuela, Colombia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Wikileaks, BP, assassination squads – these are times that try our souls (to paraphrase Tom Paine). These are times that raise our ire. These are times for action!
I receive lots of emails about the subjects listed above. In recent days I have been inundated with emails from people who believe the U.S. is about to take action against the Chavez administration in Venezuela and that the action will appear as a grass-roots movement initiated in Colombia . Many ask me to speak out against this.
I have no inside information as to whether or not this is true but I do know that Washington was elated at the election of its puppet, Juan Manuel Santos, to the presidency of Colombia, by the agreement to establish seven new U.S. military bases on Colombian soil, and that “wars on drugs” are often supported by the CIA as a way of financing its own “Black Ops” and also as an excuse for donating US military aid to countries that then are required to purchase equipment made by the corporatocracy (this model was perfected by the British during the 1800s Opium Wars and further refined by the CIA in Asia’s Golden Triangle).
Many of my Latin American friends are convinced that the rising drug violence in Mexico is a response to the success of the Colombia drug wars – that it reflects the corporatocracy’s determination to take greater control over Mexico, and through it, Central America, and that it is manipulated by the CIA. I can not verify the validity of this theory but it would be not inconsistent with things I experienced as an economic hit man. The fact that so many people are so deeply suspicious of Washington’s motives sends a strong signal.
I am speaking out at every opportunity I have. On radio shows, at events where I lecture, and in my writings. I want to urge you to join me and to ask all your friends and your Facebook and Twitter connections to do so also. You and I have the power to prevent such actions – in Venezuela, Iran and throughout the world. We MUST exercise that power. These times are our testing ground.
The tired war machine that our country’s leaders revert to in order to promote long-term economic gain for just a few elite must cease.
I’m asking for your help and your participation in raising a storm. Pick an issue or issues – any of the ones listed at the beginning of this article, or others that draw on your personal passions. Please do all the following and together our voices will be heard:
1. Write to every blog you can about this and link to ones that battle corporatocracy
2. Write letters to your local newspapers
3. Send emails to your elected officials
4. Do not buy from BP, Exxon, Chevron/Texaco (destroyed large sections of the Amazon), or Shell (responsible for the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his companions in Congo). If you must buy gas, do it from Citgo; a Venezuela-owned corporation, it is also the only major oil company that finances education and health services to some of the world’s most impoverished people. Write emails to all these companies telling them why you are taking such actions.
We know that all the blustering of the Pentagon and White House over the Wikileaks disclosures is another indication that Washington is trying to cover up the crimes it commits in its rush toward resource domination. Rather than focusing on the real crimes committed by our troops in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere and the need to bring the guilty parties to trial and assure that such acts are never repeated, the U.S. government directs its energy at ferreting out the whistleblowers.
What we have to do is stop being hoodwinked by the communications people who constantly try to thwart us from reacting to the real issues at hand. We must start demanding transparency in our government and corporations and in their dealings with other countries. We must not let the U.S. propaganda networks blind us with fear. We must not reengage the old war machine in order to create a false economic boost for our country and devastation for so many others.
These are times when the corporatocracy is attempting to consolidate its power. It is up to each and every one of us to stand firm against those attempts. A line is being drawn in the sand in places like Venezuela and Iran. By the attack on Wikileaks. And the crimes of BP. Please take my hand and step across that line with me. United we will stop the U.S. from marching further to the drum of corporatocracy imperialism.
Many thanks and blessings,
John
John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of “CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN” and “THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE”
Twitter: @economic_hitman
Dear Friends,
Many of us are confronting huge shakeups in our lives — “shamanic deaths” or “dismemberments”. Whether encountering a major move, loss of income and security, life threatening illness, death of a loved one, shift in primary relationships – the familiar ways we know are dissolving.
This is equally true for the world at large. Our systems are collapsing. Violence escalates in our streets, third world dilemmas multiply, oil is filling the gulf, environmental and corporate atrocities mount, and the economy is still spinning out of control.
The events and books listed below are intended to help us deal with these crises — turning them into opportunities for change.
It’s not hard to imagine why these few years surrounding the mystique of 2012 are called the “End Times”. It’s easy to see how people can feel that the world is actually coming to an end.
But shamanic death and the Buddhist notion of “ego death” speak to the world AS WE KNOW IT ending. The threat – as well as the promise – of these times is for we humans to re-discover ourselves. These times force us to a deep place of vulnerability, yet also of mystery.
My co-facilitator, Llyn Roberts, and I invite you to join us on a grand adventure – that of re-creating ourselves and our world. Shamanic death and ego death are profound opportunities. New life awaits us. Now is the time for you and me to re-birth ourselves and each other.
Please join us for the life shifting events listed below as well as reading the newly released books authored by Dream Change colleagues.
The time is ripe — the time to embrace deep shifts of consciousness and act in life affirming ways to seed ecstasy on Planet Earth. We can do this, the mystery awaits…
From Our Hearts To Yours,
John Perkins
EVENTS
AUGUST 13-15 & 15-20, 2010 ~ Register Now!!!
Rhinebeck, NY
Join Llyn Roberts or John Perkins for a weekend program at Omega – SHAMANIC REIKI or SHAPESHIFTING CONSCIOUSNESS. Attendance at either (or at a previous qualifying workshop) qualifies you to join the 5-day intensive SHAPESHIFTING INTO HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS with John and Llyn.
OCTOBER 2010
Rhinebeck, NY
Part One: Join Llyn and John for the all new apprenticeship program – MASTER HEALER AND SHAPESHIFTER APPRENTICESHIP – this program is offered exclusively at the Omega Institute. Part Two resumes at Omega in spring of 2011.
TRIPS
December 2-12, 2010
John Perkins and Llyn Roberts lead us on an amazing adventure deep in the Mayalands in Guatemala – SHAPESHIFT A NEW WORLD IN THE MAYALANDS – working with Maya medicine people and shamanically at ancient sacred sites to effect powerful shifts in consciousness during these changing times.
BOOKS
Order or pre-order the following books through any amazon link on the Dream Change website (see link at the bottom of this page) to ensure that Dream Change benefits from your purchases. Please consider making ALL amazon purchases at ANYTIME through Dream Change links! Just enter amazon from one of its book links on the Dream Change website, then you can access any department.
THE WORLD I DREAM OF by Curt Butz
Over 100 visionaries, artists, activists, scientists, environmentalists, educators and authors describe their ideal dream for humanity’s future.
SHAMANISM: THE JOURNEY BOOK by Robert Levy & Eve Bruce
Shamanic journeys that will empower you and strengthen your connection to the natural and spirit worlds – a guide through the doorways of alternate reality.
DIRECTING THE POWER OF CONSCIOUS FEELINGS by Clinton Callahan
Unleash conscious feelings to re-make your life in ways that really matter. This book is ultimately about our connection with, and responsibility for, the fate of the Earth.
ORDER THROUGH ANY AMAZON LINK ON THE DREAM CHANGE WEBSITE -
Visit us anytime on the web at http://www.dreamchange.org .
Many thanks,
John
New York Times Bestselling Author
Hoodwinked
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Secret History of the American Empire
Shapeshifting
The World Is As You Dream It
Psychonavigation The Stress-Free Habit Spirit of the Shuar
Independence Day – July Newsletter
Dear Friends,
We have it in our power to begin the world over again. (Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776)
I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July with family and friends.
I also wanted to encourage you at this crucial time in our nation’s history to understand that our rights in this country come from the consent of the governed.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…”,
Our planet shouts at us to take bold steps. Let us, the voters, the consumers, the ones whose children will have to live with the policies implemented right now, insist that our leaders show the courage to truly lead.
Most of us consider the legislation of rules and regulations to be the job of our elected officials. While technically this is true, those officials look to us to guide their decisions. As consumers, it is our job to let the corporations know that we want better controls. As voters, it is our responsibility to let demand legislations that protects us and our progeny from the types of abuses that are causing so much suffering around the planet today.
We have the power to make it happen. The only requirement: that we focus our individual passions and talents.
I also wanted to make sure I’ve addressed in this newsletter the many inquiries in regard to the recent news coverage on the minerals in Afghanistan and the U.S. involvement and position on the discovery. I’m including the full Huffington Post I wrote in regard to this mineral source.
Will U.S. Enslave Afghanistan With Discovery of Valuable Mineral Source?
By John Perkins
A little over a year ago, we were asked by the command and the Office of the Secretary, in collaboration with the U.S. embassy in Kabul, to begin assisting in an economic assessment of the state of Afghans’ economy. And the focus of that assessment was to assess the ability, or the long-term viability, of the Afghan economy. Well- publicized challenges there in terms of the Afghans being able to finance their own security, their own development. Obviously, the international community has stepped up in a tremendous way over the past several years, to provide everything from the security costs, but also just the base developmental costs associated with helping that war-torn country get back on its feet.
We began that work last summer. It continued through the fall. And as a part of that work, we began a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey and, as a by-product of that partnership, became familiar with and then became actively involved with a(n) effort to understand the potential of the mineral wealth of Afghanistan and the challenges, which are many, to the Afghans in developing that resource in a socially and environmentally responsible way, but that would lead to economic sovereignty for the people of Afghanistan to give them the ability to pay for their own development and to pay for their own security, and to enable the eventual reduction of all of the investment the international community is making, but most importantly, the investment of the blood of our young men and women that is sacrificed there every day in an effort to secure the future of the Afghan people.
And so that’s where we are today. We’ve begun an active effort with the U.S. Geological Survey to fine-tune, understand, and to communicate and facilitate effective, socially and economically and environmentally responsible development of this mineral resource to support the economic — the economic sovereignty of Afghanistan.
(Excerpt from June 15, 2010 Briefing – June 10, Full transcript of Special Defense Department Briefing from the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia on Afghanistan minerals.)
It is difficult to imagine a government official speaking words like those above and being taken seriously — by any of our elected representatives, the media, or even by himself.
A reasonably well-informed citizen today already knows that such statements are lame excuses for exploitation. We know the corporatocracy always stands to benefit from the immense resources of countries we ear-mark for “foreign aid” and we know the route of debt enslavement to ensure that deep-pocket profits from the discovery of mineral wealth flow into the coffers of the multinationals.
It is estimated that Afghanistan possesses over $1 trillion in oil, gas, iron, copper, cobalt, gold, and lithium. Such announcements are tantamount to saying “our corporations want it all and they intend to take it.”
As I note in my book, Hoodwinked, since WWII, we have sculpted history’s first truly global empire. Instead of gladiators in camouflage suits (or in tandem with them, as is the case in Afghanistan), we send in con artists or Special Defense Department operatives laden with briefcases and computer models. They make pronouncements like the one quoted above. They then apply laser-sharp tools of economics to chisel away at precious minerals mined from the newly discovered resource target.
When I was an EHM, our corporations would identify a country that possessed resources considered vital, as well as strategic chunks of real estate. Then the EHMs shuttled off to convince the leaders of that country that what they needed were massive loans from the World Bank and its sister organizations; however, the money would not be dispensed directly to the targeted country- it would instead pay U.S. corporations to build infrastructure projects, such as power plants, harbors and industrial parks. “These will benefit you,” we assured the leaders,” and your friends” while all the while the real profits accrued to the perpetrators of this mutant form of predatory capitalism.
Those countries could not repay the loans; consequently, the EHMs returned with a new proposition. “We can fix everything. All you have to do is sell your oil (or other resources) cheap to our corporations, drop the environmental and labor laws, agree to never impose tariffs on U.S. goods, accept the trade barriers we want to erect around your markets and products, privatize your utilities, schools, and other public institutions..,” and on and on.
This highly profitable and corrupt system is already in place in Afghanistan and will continue its horrible march toward stripping the people of Afghanistan of one of the last resources and hopes that country has to break the stranglehold of poverty.
Will you and I allow this to happen? We know by now that if our system is dependent upon turning countless millions of children into financial slaves, the future for our children is bleak. We — you and I — must rebel against these policies. We must send emails, refuse to purchase products made from these resources, boycott the companies involved, and take to the streets if necessary . . . we simply must not allow these crimes against humanity and nature to continue!
END
I hope you’ll continue to read my books and you can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Happy Early Father’s Day
Dear Friends,
Being a father has been one of the seminal events in my life and to have the joy of being a grandparent has just doubled the blessing. It has also made me even more aware of my responsibility to my grandson and his sisters and brothers around our precious planet.
All of us are anxiously waiting a fix to the devastating oil spill that BP created in one of our most environmentally fragile regions in North America. Let us also not forget the terrible destruction Chevron/Texaco caused in the Ecuadorian Amazon (as of this writing, more than 400 times the toxic wastes of the BP disaster), SHELL in the Congo, EXXON in Alaska, and all the other tragedies that result from drilling, mining, cutting, and dredging. As I frequently discuss in media interviews and public speeches, it is our job to be in a true relationship with the environment. Just as a father guides his children toward maturation, we must do the same for the environment. If we want to save our lands, forests, air, and water, we must dream actively of this better world.
While we encourage organic farmers and many types of companies to turn toward green technology, we still are not doing nearly enough. Every one of us must alter our dream, must continually re-create ourselves and the societies we form. We must rescue our dreams of this sustainable and just world from the clutches of sociopathic CEOs, public relations con artists, greed-driven corporate policies, and the form of predatory capitalism all of these promote.
When politicians run for office, they talk about “growing” the economy. What they usually mean is manufacturing houses, cars, appliances, computers, and other material products from cement, metal, plastic and other raw materials that are mined from the Earth, Pachamama . Such production consumes vast amounts of energy and causes unquantifiable pollution. We see how these processes then create huge trash piles of waste that are incompatible and harmful to the land and the water surrounding them.
Our Founding Fathers would call on us to revolt and battle the corporatocracy that has grown so selfish and greedy and so entrenched that it threatens the security of our nation, the entire planet, and indeed the very survival of our species and many other life-forms.
Now is the time for all fathers and mothers to parent our children to not only dream for a more sustainable and positive world, but to also demand it of ourselves and for future generations.
We can – and must — achieve this. I know you and I will continue working very hard to complete our journey to success.
I also want to share this new piece of extraordinary 2 min video with you. I’m constantly inspired by innovative ways to present ideas and had the great fortune of coming across this cartoon created by the folks at http://www.StudioJoho.com which so clearly presents our ideas in an original and unique fashion.
I hope you will check the cartoon link out and circulate it to your friends and peers as well. See the link here – http://tinyurl.com/y84lvka .
I hope you’ll continue to read my books and you can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter – @economic_hitman .
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website –http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Peace Begets Peace
Dear Friends, I know all of you continue to work for a peaceful world and I thank you for all you’re doing. I wanted to send you this piece, “An Ode to Mother’s Day: Peace Begets Peace,” and hope you will find it meaningful.
“An Ode to Mother’s Day: Peace Begets Peace” By John Perkins
We’re in the midst of a war in our country and it’s our job to re-engineer the world for peace. Our narrow-minded attitudes and the resultant policies foment violence, rebellions, and wars. In the long run, almost no one benefits from attacking the people we label as “terrorists.” With one glaring exception: the corporatocracy.
By the time this newsletter has posted I’ve celebrated Mother’s Day with my wife, daughter and son-in-law, and our grandson. If ever there is a time in our history to celebrate mothers, this is the time. Mothers are a true force when it comes to protecting their children. What’s interesting is that mothers will go to the same great lengths to protect their children from war.
Many know “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was penned by Julia Ward Howe in 1862, but how many know that in 1870 Howe, who had become a suffragist and pacifist, also called for a Mothers Day for Peace through her “Mother’s Day Proclamation.” Part of that proclamation says:
“We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
There are some who credit Howe for creating the beginnings to what is now commonly known as Mother’s Day. One only has to be reminded of the brave Cindy Sheehan and other mothers who marched with her to stop the war. Images of mothers beside their lost children in morgues in Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and the United States are now a daily occurrence. Websites like http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/us_veteran_mother_against_the_war.htm and many similar ones present an endless and shocking display of proof of how terror begets terror.
It is through a mother’s eye that every man, woman and child can see those images and understand a deeper pain and truth behind war — for all sides involved. Benjamin Franklin said, “There was never a good war or a bad peace.”
What if we stop waiting for our leaders to create the peace we want? What if we all again took each other’s hands and raised them together for peace instead of war? What if we made it a daily occurrence to march for peace, a daily demand for soldiers to come home again to their mothers and their wives and their children?
As we leave this last Mother’s Day behind, let’s commit to practicing peace. Let’s celebrate the next Mother’s Day by proving that peace begets peace. Will you join me?
HOODWINKED (Random House) is available in all the stores. You can order the book through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter – @economic_hitman .
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Celebrate Earth Day – The world can be as you dream it…
Dear Friends,
Earth Day, for those of you who might not be aware, is Thursday, April 22nd. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day gives us an extraordinary opportunity to reflect on how we can all come together and build a sustainable world.
I will be blogging as part of the Earth Day network and encourage each of you to hit the Earth Day Network site and see how you can participate in this wonderful celebration as well - http://www.earthday.net/ .
I have recently been in contact with Chevy and Jayni Chase and have become a proud supporter of the newly founded Green Community Schools program – I note in this newsletter later how much my 7th grade teacher meant in my life and I think it’s vital that we enable and empower our youth to have the best schools possible with which to dream their lives.
I hope that you will visit the site – http://www.GREENCommunitySchools.org and join their Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/GREENCommunitySchools and follow them on Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/ourGREENschools .
In my books, “The World Is As You Dream It” and “Shapeshifting” as well as “Hoodwinked,” I detail my own journey of dreaming and believing in more than what the modern media tell us is true.
While we face a multitude of obstacles with the economic downturn: ongoing wars, job losses and environmental crisis, I prefer to have hope.
I feel incredibly optimistic when I hold my grandson in my arms. Holding him reminds me of the power of dreams and children. As infants we enjoy an intimacy with everything around us; tiny stones, butterflies, flowers, birds, animals (both stuffed and real). We live in a world of beauty and imagination. Ecstasy comes easily. We feel at one with nature and the realm of dreams. As adults we mistakenly begin to put this type of knowing behind us.
The Native North American shaman, John Fire Lame Deer, writes in his book, Lame Deer, Sioux Medicine Man (London Quartet, 1980, p.157) , “They have forgotten the secret knowledge of their dreams. They don’t use knowledge the spirit has put into every one of them; they are not even aware of this, and so they stumble along blindly on the road to nowhere – a paved highway which they themselves bulldoze and make smooth so that they can get faster to the big, empty hole which they’ll find at the end, waiting to swallow them up.”
As my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Simpson, told me so many years ago, “Dreams do come true, you know.” She was referring to day time “dreams”, our conscious aspirations, as well as the night-time ones.
The secret knowledge described by Lame Deer is no secret to most of the people we erroneously refer to as “primitive.” Throughout the world, these people understand the power of dreams. When we honor our dreams we empower ourselves. In all the places I’ve traveled — Asia, Europe, Himalayas, South and Central America – in the company of so many indigenous teachers/dreamers, I have learned the power of dreams. These guides have taught me that all power, dreams, energy, balance, and health originate in the Earth. If we are to survive as a species we must set as our highest priority the preservation of Earth herself.
As you know I founded the organization Dream Change – http://www.dreamchange.org , a world wide grass roots movement of people from diverse cultures and backgrounds that is dedicated to shifting consciousness and promoting sustainable lifestyles for the individual and the global community. The objective of inspiring earth-honoring changes in consciousness is accomplished through programs that educate and foster environmental and social balance. DC was originated to encourage new ways of living.
With Dream Change’s Director and my co-workshop facilitator Llyn Roberts, I’ve taken groups of people to many different places and been blessed at every turn in living my dreams while fully awake. Every culture on this planet believes in the incredible wisdom of dreams or comes from a heritage that once believed in this. Dreaming — setting our positive intents — and then taking actions to materialize them are the most powerful things we do in life.
Individual dreams affect the courses of our lives; collective dreams determine the futures of civilizations.
I’m determined to spend the rest of my life dreaming and working toward a just, sustainable and peaceful world for my grandson. I believe we can restore rainforests, polluted lakes, promote sustainable energy, and help the world’s starving people feed themselves.
The choice does not lie with our political leadership, no matter what the party.
The choice and dream is ours to create and we are up to the challenge.
Llyn Roberst SHAMANIC REIKI (O Books), along with my latest book, HOODWINKED (Random House), is available through all the stores.
You can also order our books through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
Please share this newsletter with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter – @economic_hitman .
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website –http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Don’t Let the Robber Barons Fool You
Dear Friends,
I thought it might be timely on April Fool’s Day to talk about the foolish status of our modern day celebrity and robber baron fascination.
As I write in Hoodwinked, we’ve made icons out of the likes of Donald Trump, a ruthless real estate developer who publicly glorifies the firing and humiliation of people on TV.
During this ratings season millions tune in to see Trumps’ glee of firing fellow celebs on “Celebrity Apprentice,” and Trump just announced (APWire, March 18, 2010) the next season is already in filming. The AP story cites, “Trump’s revived Apprentice will recruit candidates who have lost their jobs, are stuck with jobs they don’t like to just get by or have finished college with no offers in sight.”
Trump has been quoted as saying, “You can’t be emotional in business; it will flat out kill you.”
So, while we Americans are out of work, hungry, angry, and disempowered, this might be the perfect opportunity for all of us to take a good hard look at these so-called celebrities and icons that we prop up and, by association, expect future generations to emulate.
During the past four decades we the people have sent a strong message of support to the modern equivalent of the robber barons. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is a prime example. He eliminated over 100,000 jobs at his company while taking huge bonuses and raises. He fought New York state, vehemently opposing environmental regulations that would have cleaned up the Hudson River and protected the lives of his own employees. By shifting GE from primarily manufacturing to financial services, he was a major driving force behind the U.S, economy’s unhealthy transformation from production to paper.
When I speak to young students and at MBA conferences, I say, “If you want to honor Jack Welch, give him credit for being one of the chief architects of our current environmental and economic crisis.”
We plaster the faces of billionaires on the covers of our magazines and praise them for donating fortunes to charities without bothering to point out that they made many times those fortunes by beating down their competitors. We watch shows about the rich and famous and in so doing, send messages to our children that they should aspire to living in mansions and traveling in private jets – regardless of how much environmental and social havoc is caused in the process.
Do we really want our future generations to embrace the horrible message of the bumper sticker, “He who dies with the most toys wins”?
The truth, we all know, is that no matter how many toys we amass we leave them behind when we die, just as we leave a broken environment, an economy that only benefits the richest, and a legacy of empowering greed over goodness. It is now time to commit to following a new path.
I believe that every one of us can change this by making our own demands on the media. We can demand that the prime media outlets cover how men and women live their lives meaningfully. Men and women who found non-profits, work tirelessly in aiding others, and don’t ever base their success on a bottom-line profit margin for shareholders.
What if we all boycotted these shows? Celebrity Apprentice, American Idol, and other similar ones during this season? And wrote emails demanding they stop producing these shows? It is really very simple. Here, for example, is the link for NBC -http://www.nbc.com/contact/general/ .
This month I encourage you to tweet out, Facebook message, and email the corporate entities in media and tell them we’ve had enough of CELEBRITY. Use their Twitter profile (eg – http://www.twitter.com/celebApprentice , and post your message to your followers. NO MORE ROBBER BARON CELEBRITIES.
This April Fool’s Day let’s expose the fools. And let’s not allow ourselves or our children to be fooled any more!
Hoodwinked (Random House) is available in all the stores. You can order the book through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
And I know I have mentioned the film “Crude”, an amazing and beautifully filmed documentary about the critical lawsuit filed on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian people in the Amazon against Texaco/Chevron. A MUST SEE! I wanted to note that it is now available on DVD through http://www.crudethemovie.com .
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events. The list for all events can be found on my website – http://www.johnperkins.org as well as on my Facebook Fan Page – John Perkins Author .
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Politicians Will Not Change the World
Dear Friends,
Many of you have asked how I feel about the Obama administration . . .
In short: the fact that we moved from a conservative Republican oilman from Texas to a liberal Democratic African American from Illinois, and yet change plods along at a snail’s pace – if at all – is a confirmation of what I discuss in detail in my “HOODWINKED.”
Our president has little real power.
In recent years, geopolitics have shifted; the corporatocracy rules.
Democrats and Republicans alike fall under the thumb of the multinational corporations.
We have entered a time of realignment not unlike that when city states joined together to form nations. Except this time it is global; countries are becoming less relevant. The emerging rulers are corporate CEOs, members of the corporatocracy.
Like huge clouds swirling around the globe, their conglomerates reach every continent, country, and village. They are unrestricted by national borders or any particular sets of law. Although many are headquartered in the United States and call upon the U.S. military to protect their interests, they feel no sense of loyalty to any one country. They form partnerships with the Chinese and the Taiwanese, with the Israeli and Arab nations, with Brazilians, Australians, Russians, Indonesians, Congolese—with anyone who possesses resources or offers markets they covet. As we have seen with Halliburton, they think nothing of relocating to places like Dubai, where they pay fewer taxes.
They hire a vast army of lobbyists who influence every politician in Washington and every other capital. They either own the mainstream media or control it through their advertising budgets.
The good news: for the first time in history this new empire has been created not by military force, but through the sale of goods and services. And the marketplace is democratic—once we decide to see it as such. It is the ultimate polling booth. Corporations exist only because we vote for them in their stores, at the malls, and over the Internet.
It is up to us to decide which companies will succeed and which ones will fail.
Politicians will not change the world, because they are beholden to the big corporations. AND the corporations are dependent upon you and me.
About a hundred fifty years ago we as a nation voted for Abraham Lincoln, and then we fought a Civil War to get rid of slavery. Later our women picketed Woodrow Wilson everywhere he went over women’s suffrage; they would not allow him to send troops into WWI to defend democracy in Europe “until we women enjoy democracy here at home.” We held teach-ins for Richard Nixon to educate him and the country on the travesty that had become the Vietnam War. We won those struggles, because we the people forced our leaders to change. In recent decades, we forced corporations to clean up polluted rivers, do away with ozone layer destroying aerosols, and remove trans fats from our foods.
Today, we the people are called upon to speak again. When we impact bottom lines, we change stock prices and attract the attention of boards of directors. Those boards influence the decisions made in the halls of legislatures.
We must not look to President Obama to change the world. We must do it – we must force those in control to adopt a new goal for the people of our planet: creating a sustainable, just, and peaceful world for all who live on this special space-station we call home.
Perhaps President Obama’s greatest gift to us will be that he taught us a lesson in democracy. We the people must take charge. We cannot look to a president to change the world. It is up to each of us to do it.
I thank you for your continued support of my work and my books.
HOODWINKED (Random House) is available in all the stores.
You can order the book through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
I hope you’ll also take time to listen to this recent interview I did with Wayne Hurlbert of BlogTalkRadio.com – http://tinyurl.com/yzckhmr .
And I know I have mentioned the film “Crude”, an amazing and beautifully filmed documentary about the critical lawsuit filed on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorian people in the Amazon against Texaco/Chevron. A MUST SEE! I wanted to note that it is now available on DVD through www.crudethemovie.com.
I’m also looking forward to seeing you at one of the many upcoming speaking events.
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
New York Times bestselling author of CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN and THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
Sign up to receive John Perkins monthly newsletter!
Shapeshifting Buddha Workshop Open
Dear Friends,
Llyn Roberts and I hope you will join us at “The Shapeshifting Buddha” workshop March 5-7 at Rowe Conference Center in Rowe Massachusetts.
This is an exciting opportunity to shamanically work with Buddhist principles and deities. You will heal and become more wakeful in an intimate, wonderfully powerful, rural setting.
View, and sign up for the workshop, at Rowe’s website, http://www.rowecenter.org . Or email Retreat@RoweCenter.org or call 413-339-4954. There is still time to register, but space at this beautiful center is limited.
I hope to see you there.
John
New York Times Bestselling Author of “Hoodwinked”
Follow me on TWITTER – economic_hitman
Dear friends,
I’m truly enjoying being in touch with so many of you through this book tour and book signings. I hope you’ll continue to come to the talks and I’m always happy to see you.
In case there is not a book signing near you, I hope that you’ll take time to check out the two new interviews that are up on our website – http://www.johnperkins.org .
I feel very blessed because I know there is so much we will all accomplish in the next decade. With the new green economy we are on the verge of crafting a global marketplace with far-reaching implications.
The heartfelt commitment of consumers and activists will be the new tipping point for change in the world even while the politicians on both sides of the aisle try to divert our attention with their bickering and one-sidedness.
And while there are those in our country who would have us believe our country can only be safe by focusing on war , terrorism and building armies, I know that homeland security will become a reality only when we accept the entire planet as our homeland.
I continue to be grateful for all you’re doing to support my work and my latest book, HOODWINKED (Random House). Each month for those of you who post a review on Amazon and send us a link to it at the johnperkinsauthor@gmail.com account, we will enter your email into a drawing for a signed copy of the book as well.
You can also go to http://www.dreamchange.org , to purchase the book and a percentage of the sales price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
HOODWINKED is by far the most important book I have written.
Please share this email with all your lists and please follow me on Twitter @economic_hitman .
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
Dear Friends,
This economic meltdown is not a fluke.
It had to happen to shake us awake.
An economic system where less than 5% of the world’s population (us in the U.S.) consumes more than 25% of the resources is not a viable model. It can not be replicated in China, India, Africa, or Latin America.
It is a failure.
We must change it.
That is why I wrote my latest book HOODWINKED. It describes the deep underlying causes of the current crises and provides a blueprint for change, for creating a world our children will want to inherit.
HOODWINKED describes in detail the Mamoni Valley Preserve and Junglewood projects and advocates these as models for a new form of capitalism – one that promotes a sustainable and just world.
HOODWINKED (Random House) will be in bookstores Nov 10, 2009, but I urge you to pre-order today.
You can pre-order through your favorite Internet shop – although if you go through http://www.dreamchange.org , a % of the sale price will be contributed to the nonprofit I founded nearly 20 years ago.
HOODWINKED is by far the most important book I have written.
And please join me on Twitter – @economic_hitman.
A more detailed description is below.
Many thanks and blessings,
John Perkins
HOODWINKED!
An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded
And What We Need to Do to Remake Them
By
John Perkins
Bestselling author of
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
Former economic hit man John Perkins has experienced today’s economic collapse before. The banking industry and sub-prime mortgage fiascos, the rising tide of unemployment, and the shuttering of businesses are all too familiar in the Third World countries where he worked. He was both an observer and a perpetrator of events that have now sent the US – in fact the entire planet – spiraling toward disaster.
The real cause of our global financial meltdown is what Perkins calls predatory capitalism – the mutant form of an economic system that encourages widespread exploitation of the few to benefit a small number of already very wealthy people. A new geo-politics has emerged; today the CEOs of big corporations, rather than governments, control human and natural resources around the globe, as well as politicians and the media. Their arrogance, gluttony, and mismanagement have brought us to the perilous edge. The solutions will not be “return to normal ones”.
There is a way out. “Unlike other empires,” Perkins says, “this one is not built primarily on the back of the military. It is subtle, market-based, and it depends on our voluntary choices. We hold the power – if we only recognize it.” Hoodwinked provides a blueprint for creating an economy that fosters a sustainable, just, and peaceful world for us and our children. It offers concrete actions each and every one of us can take.
John Perkins is the bestselling author of the classic expose Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and an economist who has enjoyed a front-row seat to world events for the past four decades—as the Chief Economist of a major consulting firm and economic hit man for the American corporatocracy in the 1970s, CEO of an energy company in the 1980s, and founder of nonprofits in the 1990s and 2000s. He spent the past 5 years traveling across the US and to many other countries where he met with government and corporate leaders, spoke at universities and business conferences, dialogued with people from all walks of life, and gained invaluable insights into the underlying causes of the current crisis. Now, in Hoodwinked, he shares those experiences, along with in-depth analysis, and the exciting stories about economic hit men, rogue politicians, and the secret world of CIA-sponsored jackals similar to ones readers thrilled to in Confessions.
John Perkins has been in and out of the world of high finance and low ethics, and in HOODWINKED he not only illuminates that world with dramatic stories and keen insights, but suggests what we might do to create a better society.
- Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States and retired professor of Political Science at Boston University
Another thriller from the master storyteller with an insider view. Perkins takes us once again into the dark nether world of corrupt bankers and economic hit men who lure the unsuspecting into financial ruin and reveals the connection between the folks who for decades enriched themselves at the expense of the world’s poor and those who now reap billions at the expense of America. Same people, same scams.
- David Korten, author of Agenda for a New Economy and The Great Turning, and board chair of YES! magazine.
John Perkins’ engaging narrative draws us into a brilliant analysis of capitalism’s shadow side, and points us to a hopeful path to a better future.
Hoodwinked is a must-read for anyone who cares about our economic welfare, social justice, and our collective well-being.
- Daniel Goleman, author of Ecological Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
From John Perkins
John Perkins’s new book HOODWINKED now available to pre-order at any on-line bookseller (order through links at www.dreamchange.org to support the nonprofit John founded). Join me on Twitter – @economic_hitman .
Dear Friends,
Climate Change is uniting the world.
For the first time in history, all humans on this planet – in fact all life forms – face the same catastrophes. Hurricanes in the US, earthquakes in Peru, and tsunamis in Indonesia are relatively localized. But our man-made crises are global. World-wide, our resources diminish at accelerating rates, prices of essentials skyrocket, populations explode, plants and animals go extinct, and violence reaches epidemic proportions. Above all, we have GLOBAL climate change.
And we are all aware of it. Across the planet, we share this information – over cell phones and the Internet.
The knowledge that we are changing our climate has taught us that our home is a space station without shuttles to fly us to safety.
In HOODWINKED I write: “As I stood at the side of the road (in Tibet), staring at that glacier, I thought about the river systems that flow out of the Himalayas: the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, and Yangtze. They provide water to billions of people. The glaciers that serve as their wombs—their reservoirs—are disappearing rapidly, due to global warming.”
We may well lament what we have done. But we can learn from our mistakes. We must turn our folly into an asset.
We must stop climate change. Today this newsletter and blog post is part of BlogActionDay – http://www.blogactionday.org , I hope you’ll visit the site and read more about what you can do.
And let’s also be inspired by the fact that climate change has united us. Focus that inspiration in ways that propel us to new levels of consciousness. And commit our energies to creating a sustainable and just world for ourselves and our children
Past news…
Speaking of Democracy, Honduras, and President Obama. . .
In writing my new book Hoodwinked (Random House, Nov 2009 publication date), I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.
Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.
Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.
I was told by a Panamanian bank vice president, “Every multinational knows that if Honduras raises its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean will have to follow. Haiti and Honduras have always set the bottom line for minimum wages. The big companies are determined to stop what they call a ‘leftist revolt’ in this hemisphere. In throwing out Zelaya they are sending frightening messages to all the other presidents who are trying to raise the living standards of their people.”
It did not take much imagination to envision the turmoil sweeping through every Latin American capital. There had been a collective sign of relief at Barack Obama’s election in the U.S., a sense of hope that the empire in the North would finally exhibit compassion toward its southern neighbors, that the unfair trade agreements, privatizations, draconian IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and threats of military intervention would slow down and perhaps even fade away. Now, that optimism was turning sour.
The cozy relationship between Honduras’s military coup leaders and the corporatocracy were confirmed a couple of days after my arrival in Panama. England’s The Guardian ran an article announcing that “two of the Honduran coup government’s top advisers have close ties to the US secretary of state. One is Lanny Davis, an influential lobbyist who was a personal lawyer for President Bill Clinton and also campaigned for Hillary. . . The other hired gun for the coup government that has deep Clinton ties is (lobbyist) Bennett Ratcliff.” (1)
DemocracyNow! broke the news that Chiquita was represented by a powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and its consultant, McLarty Associates (2). President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Covington partner and a defender of Chiquita when the company was accused of hiring “assassination squads” in Colombia (Chiquita was found guilty, admitting that it had paid organizations listed by the US government as terrorist groups “for protection” and agreeing in 2004 to a $25 million fine). (3) George W. Bush’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, a former Covington lawyer, had fiercely opposed Latin American leaders who fought for their peoples’ rights to larger shares of the profits derived from their resources; after leaving the government in 2006, Bolton became involved with the HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century”Project for the New American Century, the HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_National_Policy”Council for National Policy, and a number of other programs that promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere. McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte was U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations; he played a major role in the U.S.-backed Contra’s secret war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and has consistently opposed the policies of the democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. (4) These three men symbolize the insidious power of the corporatocracy, its bipartisan composition, and the fact that the Obama Administration has been sucked in.
The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:
What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States’ School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)
All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.
Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.
Footnotes
(1)
“Who’s in charge of US foreign policy? The coup in Honduras has exposed divisions between Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton” by Mark Weisbrot
HYPERLINK “http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/honduras-coup-obama-clinton” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/16/honduras-coup-obama-clinton (July 23, 2009)
(2) HYPERLINK “http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in” http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/21/from_arbenz_to_zelaya_chiquita_in (July 23, 2009)
(3) “Chiquita admits to paying Colombia terrorists: Banana company agrees to $25 million fine for paying AUC for protection” MSNBC March 15, 2007 HYPERLINK “http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17615143/” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17615143/ (July 24, 2009)
(4) Fore more information: HYPERLINK “http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covington.html” http://aconstantineblacklist.blogspot.com/2009/07/eric-holder-and-chaquita-covington.html (July 23, 2009)
(5) “The high-powered hidden support for Honduras’ coup: The country’s rightful president was ousted by a military leadership that takes many of its cues from Washington insiders.” by Mark Weisbrot, Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009
HYPERLINK “http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weisbrot23-2009jul23,0,7566740.story” http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-weisbrot23-2009jul23,0,7566740.story (July 23, 2009)
