Urban camouflage

I’ve heard people ask whether Afghanistan serves as a training camp for operations aimed against own population. The following fuels all those speculations about the real purpose of Canadian Soldiers’ involvement overseas.

“The Department of National Defence, Defence Research and Development Canada – Suffield, (DRDC-S), AB, has a requirement to develop a Canadian Urban Environment Pattern (CUEPAT) based on the unique requirements of Canada’s three major metropolitan areas, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The current CBR individual protective equipment (IPE) used by the Canadian military is provided in a woodland or desert camouflage. A camouflage suited to the Canadian urban environment is required when the milatary (sic) operates in urban terrain.” SOURCE

Universal health care – what it is and what it costs

I needed an emergency operation while on a trip to France. I was brought into a hospital in a pretty mountainous region. It was a small facility that specialized in treatments for which my body required the tune up. After the operation I was brought back to a spacious and bright double-room, with a lovely view of the surrounding hills. Monsieur S., who was recuperating in the neighboring bed entertained me with wonderful tales of his native Morocco, while cheerful nurses brought me herbal teas, and served beef stroganoff for dinner, topped with a huge bunch of fresh grapes for dessert. It went on for 3 days. It wasn’t my first stay in a hospital, and I have to say that it was the best (if one can consider a hospital stay as such): very friendly staff, pacifying environment, and an overall feeling of being in good hands.

Then I checked out. Never in my life have I had to pay for private health care insurance. The operation and hospital care in France were taken care of by my Ontario universal health program (OHIP). I never saw the bill, never will. Does it cost me anything to be insured? Sure. It’s part of the budget that comes from a portion of income tax. How much does it cost me? I don’t know. I never see the bills when I visit a doctor, or check in to a hospital, sort of like I never see a bill for every poor peasant that my government kills overseas, on my behalf. And, I don’t expect to see a bill every time I get sick, otherwise the government better show me a receipt for every bullet they send into an innocent child’s heart.

I can’t overstate how embarrassed I am as a human being to hear that there are countries where a debate is needed to determine whether universal health care is, or is not required. It really begs a question whether we should still call ourselves sapiens, or whether it is time call us for what we really are: homo cinicus, or homo cretinis, etc.

Here I am, in the French hospital, before the operation

I shall not write a screenplay. Yet.

I declined the offer to write a screenplay. People ask me: How can you decline to write a screenplay? What would possess you to ditch such a golden opportunity? Etc., etc.

I blogged about it several times already. My main concern with screenplay writing is the writer’s integrity, mainly due to the collaborative nature of the work. Below are my thoughts on the matter, and those who follow my blog will notice that they haven’t changed over the years.

I spent my childhood and teenage years in a neighborhood close to the huge TV complex and movie studios. The neighborhood was not an artist’s colony, just a regular residential district, but because of the location it attracted a large number of people from the biz. At the time my good friend’s father was a prominent moviemaker, with a well equipped darkroom that he let me use at will. He was often visited by other folks who lived around – writers, news anchors, and a whole lot of actors. I had an opportunity to watch the creative process of screenplay writing. It was quite the show: plenty of collaborative work accompanied by glass clinking, enacting of the scenes, and so on. It turned me off for good. I am not saying that a screenwriter does not have creative control but only that, at some point, this process involves additional people, and I am a loner when it comes to creative work. I’m one of those recluses who is unknown to his neighbors. My ideal working environment is a deep forest, and ear plugs.

As coincidence would have it I just finished reading Alberto Moravia’s Contempt, and found a passage which closes the subject very well (following translation is mine):

Writer is thus a man who is always in the shade, the one who rips his veins so that someone else can win acclaim. Even though two thirds of the film’s success is the writer’s doing, he never sees his name on the advertising posters where only the names of the actors, director and the producer’s are printed. Maybe it is true, as happens very often, that a writer can become a kind of a master of the slave profession and make a substantial income off of it, but he cannot say: “I made this film … This film is mine.” The writer must be content only with the money he receives for his participation, and which eventually becomes the sole reason and purpose of his work.

Does it mean that I shall never write a screenplay? No, but should I ever decide to participate in this spectacle it will be only incidental, something that I might toss off in between books. Currently I am deeply entrenched in two novels, both requiring my entire self.

How the KGB recruited the Spanish Ambassador

“Russian historian Yuri Felshtinsky and former KGB Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Popov claim in a new book, The KGB Plays Chess, that former IOC President [and Spain's ambassador to USSR], Juan Antonio Samaranch, was hired by the KGB in the late 1970s [...]

[...] Samaranch grew fond of Russian antiques, which he collected and shipped to his home in Spain. All antiques were closely monitored by the KGB; so the Spanish ambassador, a frequent buyer of valuable rarities, was taken note of. An agent from the KGB’s Second Main Directorate, which monitored the Spanish embassy, met with Samaranch and gently explained to him that his actions were subject to prosecution in accordance with the Russian Federation’s Criminal Code and were classified by Soviet law as the smuggling of contraband goods. According to Felshtinsky, Samaranch was offered a choice: he could either be compromised through the Soviet and foreign press detailing his activities, which would undoubtedly have put an end to his diplomatic career, or he could collaborate with the KGB as a secret agent.” SOURCE

What is Liberation Theology

Today is the 20th anniversary of the event that inspired my 4th novel: El Salvador’s special forces (trained by SOA, Fort Benning) assassinated 6 leading scholars, proponents of Liberation Theology.

Why?

“All through the 1980s and early 90s [U.S. army intelligence] recognized that the most serious threat to U.S. interests was not secular Marxist–Leninism or organized labor but liberation theology.” Peter Hallward, in: Damning the Flood

What exactly is Liberation Theology?

“[...] the core of liberation theology has never been Marxism.

It is rather the compassionate identification with the poor and their struggle for justice, inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus himself, which is at its heart. Instead of on social analysis, which was seen as a methodological tool, from the outset liberation theology placed greater emphasis on the crucial role of God’s people committed praxis – or, in other words, the Christian communities’ action inspired by faith and informed by theological reflection. source

Dangers of eating whole birds

With those feathers sticking out it looks like it choked on a bird.
Found on the beach, huge fish, about 1 meter long

What’s hiding under the bed

Some time ago I read DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS, by Kim Erickson, a book about the cancer cosmetics industry. I stopped using many of the products that I was in-taking unaware of the dangers. This includes the arm-pit deodorants and antiperspirants. Sure, I smell like a conquistador if I don’t shower for a few hours, but at least I’ll live longer.

Recently I found some alternatives from a health food store, many are 100% natural (and not just according to labels), for instance: salvia, mint, even the good old parsley.

Mentioning it because I just found the book under my bed, hiding there for a few years. I really should clean more often, the house of course, because I am as clean as a kitten.

From the jacket:

Each day, we are exposed to some 200 synthetic chemicals–without our knowledge. Skin, hair, body, and beauty products are loaded with potential irritants, carcinogens, neurotoxins, and hormone disrupters. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified many ingredients found in modern cosmetics as hazardous. Worse still, such product ingredients are easily absorbed through the skin. The potential health problems associated with brand-name cosmetics are many and varied.

As consumers of mainstream cosmetic products, we make up the single largest class of involuntary and avoidable carcinogenic exposures. Yet, the FDA is virtually powerless to protect us. Drop-Dead Gorgeous was designed to empower you. This timely, much-needed resource uncovers the dangers of these products and lists the nine most hazardous ingredients. The book guides you on how to read and interpret misleading product labels. A variety of natural alternatives and recipes for creating safe cosmetics at home are also included.

Sunday Contempt

Decided to re-read more of the books I once enjoyed. While some I remember vividly, many faded away in my memory, the only record of reading them a date scribbled on the first page (now a must). Today I picked up CONTEMPT, by Alberto Moravia. A book inside a book, about a writer whose empty life leads to a tragedy.

Oh, and a quote that’s been rambling in my head: Isn’t it funny that some day even our times will be called the good old times. Moravia.

Necessary Sacrifices

“We have come to recognize that there are potential desirable limits to economic growth. There are also potentially desirable limits to the indefinite extension of political democracy. A government which lacks authority will have little ability short of cataclysmic crisis to impose on its people the sacrifices which may be necessary.”

Samuel P Huntington

How to fight the cops

People who think they are being wiretapped by the cops could disable the taps by sending a stream of text messages or making numerous VOIP calls to overwhelm the system’s thin bandwidth, researchers in Pennsylvania postulate.

The researchers say they’ve found a vulnerability in U.S. law enforcement wiretaps, if only theoretical, that would allow a surveillance target to thwart the authorities by launching what amounts to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against the connection between the phone company switches and law enforcement.

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