Occupy World Movement

2011 is certainly the year of protests worldwide. January began with the Egyptian revolution which resulted in the resignation of long-time leader Hosni Mubarak. There have been other protests in the Middle East and Africa including Syria, Libya, Yeman, Bahrain and Isreal. Scattered protests have occurred in Europe including the UK, Spain, Italy and Greece. Many of these protests are still happening. For example, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in early September in Israel's biggest ever demonstration to demand social justice, a lower cost of living and government actions to the concerns of an increasingly suppressed middle class. This past summer the UK was hit with violent protests. Greece has been plaqued by debt issues which has resulted in riots protesting austerity measures. There is unrest around the globe due to high unemployment, rising food and energy costs, along with the fact that a select few have too much while too many around the world have too little. These select few tend to make the rules too as far as government decisions are concerned.

In September, 2011 a group in New York City decided to protest outside of the corporate sector of New York. The Occupy Wall Street Movement was born. A month later these protests have been held in dozens of other US cities as well as across the world. Occupy Wall Street has literally become “Occupy the World” as protests broke out in nearly a thousand cities worldwide on October 15 to show the global solidarity of the 99 percent with their grievances against the 1 percent. In my home country of Canada a few dozen cities had “Occupy” protests. In my home city of Saint John, New Brunswick which is a city of under 100,000 people, peaceful protests were held to protest corporate greed. This points out the magnitude of anger towards coporate greed. Most of these protests have been peaceful, which is a good thing, as violence accomplishes nothing. A few places around the globe however, had these protests turn violent. For example, in Rome, buildings and cars were burned.

In 2008 Wall Street and multinational banks wer bailed out by trillions of dollars of tax payer money. Most of that money was never recoved and many of the exectives of the same companies that were bailed out continued to receive their ludicrous bonuses while the middle class continues to get squeezed. No wonder there is a lot of anger and discontent on the street. Everyone joining the movement is part of the 99 per cent who have bailed out the top one per cent. The problem is not as simple as anti-capitalism. I personally believe in capitalism. I am all for hardworking honest people. I think people should be rewasrded according to their profession or business to a certain degree. What I am against is “the too big to fails” and corrupt multinational corporations that think they are above the law and control governments and the media to push their corrupt agenda. The mainstream media has been talking alot lately about bullying on an individual basis. That is a good thing. Maybe it’s about time for this same media to talk about corporate bullying. Big corporations hold countries hostage to get trillions of dollars of taxpayer money or the corporate lobbyists do backroom deals in the offices of many govenments. The big corporations get the special breaks while the small business owner gets squeezed. Organizations like the IMF and the big banks and their partners going into countries and stealing their resources and impoverishing people is bullying at it’s best! The system now makes it tough for the average family farmer that grows organic food to compete against the likes of Monsanto who wants to control the world’s food supply by deceptive practices. It is sad to see genuine treatments and even cures of many diseases being withheld, because of the greed of Big Pharma that shoots down anything that is not in their business interests. These are just a few examples of how corrupt the economic system has become. People are fed up with the system as a whole and this is what the movement is about.

The greed of large multinational corporations stinks and is rotten to the core. The governments and the mainstream corporate media that supports them do not represent the common people. They represent the large banks and multinational corporations and many people are waking up. Are you listening Big Pharma? Are you listening Big Banks? Are you listening Big Agra? Are you listening Big Oil? Are you listening CBC, BBC, CNN and all the corporate media that hide and distort the real truth? Are you listening Federal Reserve and the IMF? Are you listening Presidents and Prime Ministers? Your time is running out !! The internet, especially social media is waking people up. People like Alex Jones, Gerald Celente and others are waking people up with alternative media available on the internet. Big corporations and big global banks have polluted the world at will, bankrupted countries, and killed millions through needless wars that they started for their own business interests. We need not be controlled by the elitists anymore. People are awaking and rising up. People need to continue this movement in a peaceful way. In addtion to holding protests in selected cities, we need to do more. We need to expose the head of the snake. That being the very large corporate powers that are behind the root of this greed. We need to stop feeding this snake. That means supporting your local farmer. Buy products made locally when possible. Stop shopping at businesses with corrupt business and environmental practices. We can take a more natural holistic approach to our health and be aware of the lies and deceipt of Big Pharma. Demand change from your government. We can all take part in this protest in individual ways.

9/11 Ten years later…My Personal Perspective.

Ten years ago the world was shocked by the events of September 11, 2001. I personally can’t believe it has been ten years since that tragic day. Time sure does fly. The morning of September 11, 2001 was one of those mornings that almost everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when the two planes hit the world trade center within a half hour of each other. I was at work at my desk and just happened to go to the CNN website , as was my usual routine early in the morning, and seen the news of the first plane hitting the World Trade Center tower. My initial reaction was shock, but assumed it was an unfortunate accident. I did not realize the extent and the fact it was more than an accident until a plane hit the second building. At that moment I was scared and I knew America was under attack. On that day and the days that followed, I was glued to CNN and other new sites to find out what was happening. I was very emotionally saddened by the fact that close to three thousand innocent people lost their lives on that fateful day. Many others were emotionally scarred for life as the result of the four plane hijackings (two hitting the WTC buildings, one hitting the pentagon in Washington, and one crashing in a Pennsylvania field). There are so many that are living without their loved family members for the rest of their lives. As well, some people close to ground zero those few days in September are now suffering from cancer and other ailments pushing the real death toll higher.

My own personal views have changed since September 11, 2001. At that time I believed mostly everything that the government and mainstream media told me. I can remember talking to a friend about a year or two after the attacks and he mentioned that the US government was probably behind the attacks. I thought he was crazy. How could the US government have a part in killing their own citizens? It made no sense at all back then. Since that time the internet has exploded in growth, therefore there are more ideas being put forth other than mainstream media. Mainstream media is owned and controlled by very large corporations including the military industrial complex. The news from these sources tends to be biased and pro war. Could it be that 911 was used as a pretense to invade Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle East countries? Could 911 have been used to put fear into people and therefore be able to control people through terrorist propaganda? I don’t have the answers and don’t know exactly who was behind the attacks but I do believe organizations like the CIA and others are corrupt. I am not in a position to state that was behind the attacks. I tend to take a view somewhere in the middle between Muslim terrorists and the US government being behind the 911 terrorist attacks. There are scenarios that just don’t add up. Why did building 7, which was not hit by a plane, collapse? Why were the holes in the pentagon wall too small to account for a jet crashing into it? There are countless other questions relating to the facts of 911. I do not believe much of what CNN, FOX and other mainstream sources say. They never criticize US foreign policy. Mainstream media is a pro war machine just like their corporate bosses who make money off of wars such as General Electric who owns NBC. In my opinion, with all due respect to the majority of American people who are peace loving people; US foreign policy stinks and until they change their policies more attacks are imminent whether it is sooner or later.

Ten years later there are hundreds of millions listings when you google 911. There are countless articles with facts and theories as to the events of that day trying to answer the who, what, how, when, where and whys. Some are facts that can’t be argued. The tragic loss of life as well as the 911 heroes, such as the firefighters are non disputable. Why it happened and who was really behind it may never be completely answered in our lifetimes. God bless the innocent victims of 911 and their families.

DEBT ..Destructive Economic & Banking Trickery

Debt is the slavery of the twenty first century. Due to our excessive borrowing and spending beyond our means we find ourselves in very perilous economic times. There are three sure things in life now death, debt and taxes.

According to the US Debt Clock.org, the US national debt is over 14.5 trillion dollars as of the first week of August 2011. This is fast approaching 50 thousand dollars for every citizen in the United States. In addition to that, states and cities are in the red, many of them close to bankruptcy. If that isn’t startling enough, the total personal debt is over 16 trillion dollars, which equates to over $50,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The U.S. debt has increased 43% under President Obama in just over two years. The U.S. national debt is currently rising by over 4 billion dollars every single day! On Aug 2 the US government approved legislation to raise the U.S. debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion. What a legacy to leave to our kids and grandchildren! I am not a math wizard, nor am I an economist, but any person with a sound mind knows that this is not sustainable. Governments are not able to raise taxes enough to pay the debt, especially at a time when unemployment is high and the economy is bad. The United States credit rating was just downgraded to AA from AAA by Standard & Poor, which makes matters worse. Borrowing costs for governments and consumers will rise. This is the first time in history the US credit rating was downgraded. The time is fast approaching when this economic charade will come crashing down! Will the US declare bankruptcy? Will the US dollar collapse? These scenarios are not only possible, but also quite likely in the future. The question appears to be when instead of if.

Other countries are not immune to the debt crisis. In Canada the National Debt Clock pegs the national debt at over 500 billion dollars. The works out to over $16,000 per citizen of a country of 35 million. Canada also has an issue with total personal debt of over 1.4 trillion dollars. European countries are in a similar situation. Greece and Ireland have needed EU bailouts. There is now concern about Italy, Spain and other European countries with dire financial situations. The debt and currency crisis is contagious in a global economy.

There are many reasons for national and personal debt. In our generation, we have borrowed and spent beyond our means. Personal debt especially increased with the availably of easy credit. The western world is based on consumerism. We are told to buy to keep the economy healthy. We often buy stuff we don’t even need. We are bombarded with advertisements that entice us purchase more, even if we can’t afford it. Government debts are caused by a variety of different things. One thing that most people don’t realize is that many governments were pushed into massive debts by design. The International Money Fund (IMF) has loaned many countries money, knowing that they could not pay it back, and then when facing default austerity measures were put into place and public resources, such as the water supplies were privatized. Massive corporations including banks and the military industrial complex have great control over governments, especially the United States Federal government. In addition to that the FED, which lends money to the US government, is a private entity controlled by wealthy banks. Is there any wonder why the government bailed out the “To Big To Fails” a few years ago? Wall Street has hijacked Washington! Guess who is paying the bill? Trillions of US taxpayer dollars have been spent in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other foreign countries that many argue, including myself, are needless wars, only fought to control resources and to make certain corporations very rich. This needless spending is bankrupting America!

The numbers don’t lie. With this massive debt that many western countries hold, especially the US, there is coming a time soon that we will hit a roadblock. We may smash into the roadblock and it could be very painful for the average citizen. In fact many citizens are already feeling the pain of failed economic policies. The United States government can’t keep printing money to solve this issue. Currency devaluation and hyperinflation is the result to too much money being printed. The only way to fix this debt crisis is to write off a great portion of it. This probably won’t happen. There are a very small, yet powerful group that control and manipulate world affairs behind the curtains. Could an economic collapse be on the horizon? Some think that this may have been in the works for a while, so that the elite global powers can set up a New World Order and have a global currency. This is a wake up call for people. The average citizen needs to be aware of what is going on and collectively seek change in the way our country is governed. The United States and Canada are the best countries in the world, but we can’t be salves to debt and global elitists anymore. We are sliding down a treacherous slope. We need to hope for the best but prepare ourselves for the worse.