April 30, 2001
# More summing

In my continuing quest to simplify the FTAA protests (if only to get people interested in what's going on) I found that Tom Tommorrow has done a pretty good job, as usual.

posted by dru in blog
April 29, 2001
# it's [still] simple

This pretty much sums it up:

income since 1967

From Boom for Whom?, by Doug Henwood.

posted by dru in good_articles
April 28, 2001
# photos from QC

Again, I've been wallowing in procrastination, conferences, irc, and essays, in that order. In other words, I'm not getting as much done as I should.

I have, however, put together my photos from Quebec City into a viewable form. If you want to see the higher-resolution versions, go here. Captions and better layout coming soon.

posted by dru in photo
by kendall

Nice stuff here, Dru -- which are you going to let me publish on MF?

I'm taking some photos at an Iraqi Sanctions protest today in Dallas. Nice to run more protest photos on MF. I like 'em.

Festivals of resistance and all that!

April 23, 2001
# impressions from Quebec

It really comes down to a very simple question: should money translate cleanly into power for whoever has it?

In other words, should having a lot of money give whoever holds it the potential to control natural resources, the media, politics, education, and health care? Should there not be other ways of delegating power over the institutions that shape our lives and the planet?

If there's anything that was reinforced for me in Quebec, it's the fact that an increasing number of people have a problem with the trend towards the Commodification of Everything. More forcefully, I'm having trouble seeing how any kind of effective democracy can happen within capitalism. I can still imagine how capitalism can be just and not as violent as it is if it is governed by democracy.

Thirdly, I get the distinct impression that a lot of people think that democracy and elections are synonymous, and I disagree completely. 31 rich males in a room secretly discussing the future of the western hemisphere is not democracy. On the other hand, I am extremely encouraged to see what I believe are elements of actual democracy taking hold among protesters and activists. Affinity groups making decisions by consensus, Food Not Bombs providing free food to the visitors, thousands of hours of volunteer effort in organizing places for people to stay and spaces for teach-ins, training, meetings and discussions, the creation of alternate sources of information. All this is, in my understanding, a sign of democracy at work. And it's all done for the love of an idea, not money or anything other material gain.

What if these people were paid, even minimally, for their work? It's not hard to see how a alternative system is feasible, at the very least.

Last, I want it to be absolutely clear that the police did not "act with restraint". Unless indiscriminately filling an entire city with poison gas is restraint. But it's not, so they didn't.

posted by dru in activism
by Bruce

Dear Dru, I have to say that I am very relieved to see your posting. (I was a little worried that you might have been arrested.) All of these protests relate directly to what was termed Jubilee 2000 (Jubilee is referenced in Leviticus and theoretically occurs every 50 years.) Several religious (and others, e.g. Green Party) groups in Port Townsend have been having meaningful presentations on forgiving debt, protecting the environment etc. (It all seems so frustrating at times especially when I read that w got a good rating for his first 100 days. I wish they would have asked me.) If anyone is interested in how the churches and synagogues of America stand on some of the issues try and find a copy of "A Cry for Justice", The Churches and Synagogues Speak, edited by Robert McAfee Brown and Sydney Thomson Brown, 1989, Paulist Press New York/Mahwah. Don't be fooled by the date just substitute w for Regan references - it is current. thank you for your reports.

by SMJ

Right on, Dru. Your thinking seems very clear on these issues. Looking forward to hearing more soon. I just got back from Portland and Seattle, -- noticing $ issues getting in the way of the humanity we share...it seems that the majority of certain sectors have forgotten decent human commonality. The disease of $-hunger has pervaded the cracks of many lives, creating a groundless, bizarre new "royalty". Amazing! Catch up soon.

by george

FROM: MR.GEORGE NYERERE,

ADDRESS: PLOT 31 KENWOOD COURT,

EDITH CAVEL ANDGOLD REIC STREET JOHANNESBUG, SOUTH AFRICA

CODE: 2000.

ATTENTION: Hudgins.

I do foresee the surprise this letter will bring to you as it comes
from a
stranger. But rest assured as it come with best of intentions. However,
your
address was courtesy of a business journal at the World trade Center in
Johannesburg. But after due consideration from your profile, I became
aware
and assured of your credibility of handling this trust and my future.
Thus,
after my humble decision to solicit your understanding and co-operation
in
this transaction, as it will be beneficial to all of us involved.

My name is George Nyerere (Jnr.) from Tanzania. I am the son of the
late
President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere, who died about two years ago. My
father used his position then to make for himself and us some
fortune. My father died after a protracted illness. I was studying
overseas
when my father died and I was forced to return for the funeral. His
attorney
notified me the "WILL" prepared by my late father in his chamber that
he had
used his position then to make some money, which he brilliantly
transferred
and deposited it with a private Security Company here in Johannesburg,
Republic of South Africa.

He deposited this consignment as valuables. The Security Company does
not
know that this consignment contains cash money, except the attorney and
me.

The amount is Eighteen Million United States Dollars (US$18Million).
However, my aim of contacting you is to help me and take this sum into
your
nominated account in your country or any other part of the world.
Secondly,
you will also help me look for a profitable investment overseas because
I
don't have knowledge of international investments. As a result of my
present
situation, I won't be able to conclude
this transaction alone.

If you are interested in helping me out, try and contact me with the
current
e-mail address {quintonmukasa@yahoo.com} indicating
your interest to help me. I will then furnish you with more details. I
have
mutually agreed to compensate you with 30% of the total sum for your
assistance, 5% for expenses that might be incurred in the course of the
transaction. Then the remaining 65% will remain for my family and me,
which
you will help us invest.

This transaction is 100% risk-free and it is important you visit South
Africa for the conclusion of this transaction.

However, for it to be easy for us to transfer this money out of South
Africa
safely into your nominated
account, I got a contact, some top bank officials working in the South
African Banking System who will
assist us. These bank men will assist with every banking requirement
for a
smooth transfer of this
money to your overseas account. These bank officials would have helped
me to
transfer this money long ago,
but that could not be possible because they said I would need to open a
non-resident account here in
South Africa where the money would be paid in before being transferred
abroad. I cannot open this account
because of my status as a refugee.

In this regard, the bank officials advice me to look for a good and
reliable
foreigner, who would come to South Africa, and assist me to open this
non-resident account. That is why I solicited for your assistance and I
hope
you
will be bold enough to take the bull by the horns and come down to
South
Africa soonest, Or you can appoint a someone for this deal. This will
enable
us to proceed immediately, To transfer this fund into your account.

On the conclusion of this business, I want to use my own share of the
money
for investment in your country
and also go into good and profitable business for the future sustenance
of
my family. Based on the above
explanation and in consideration of short time frame in which I want us
to
conclude this transaction.

Be informed that this transaction needs utmost trust and
confidentiality.
Note also that the transaction attracts no risk on your side hence all
the
modalities for safe, smooth and successful transaction have been
arranged by
me.

Looking forward to receiving your urgent reply.

Best regards,

by Gartner Elana

We are as God made us, and often a great deal worse.

by directv

Buy www.i-directv.net this it is a wonderful addition to anyones home entertainment system.

April 19, 2001
# two links

This animation [flash, 1.3 MB, violence] is pretty fun on its own, but it probably makes a lot more sense if you've seen the Stick Figure Death Theatre. Of course, I made my stick figure death animation, years ago.

Porn Star or My Little Pony? is pretty disturbing, in a critical theory kind of way.

Oh yeah, I'm going to Quebec (still) in about five minutes. If you have any suggestions as to what I should take pictures of, who I should interview, or what I should ask, post them below as usual. I'll check when I arrive, and I'll probably write updates and post them here from time to time.

posted by dru in culture
by ema

Interview the french guy who wrecked McDonalds in Paris. He's there. The Mexican president has stated that he wants to have dialogue with protestors. He's pro - it's done a lot of good in the North of Mexico, he claims.

by Bruce

Just in case you run into W remember that Tom got one of the 1,000 points of light from his dad.

by SMJ

It would have been good to get some updates during the events at QC but apparently too hard to do in the midst of events? Been looking for them and hope they are coming soon!

by Dru

Things were more than a little hectic. It's hard to write in a readable format when so much is going on. Updates will be posted in the next few days.

April 18, 2001
# Off to Quebec

Looks like I'm headed to Quebec City after all. I'll be interviewing people, taking pictures, and maybe doing some volunteer work for CMAQ (Centre for Media Alternatives Quebec).

Here's a list of links that I came up with for Indymedia Maritimes:

ftaa.jpgIn late April, world leaders from North, South, and Central America (excluding Cuba) will be meeting in Quebec City for the Summit of the Americas, where issues of economic integration, human rights, and democracy will be discussed. However, attention has been the most focussed by far on the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), which is in a sense the sequel to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), but extended to include most South and Central American nations.

Information

The amount of attention paid to the FTAA is due to a number of reasons. The following links point out a number of issues many citizens have with the agreements being negotiated.

Action

Now that you have educated yourself about the issues concerning the FTAA, there are a number of ways to take action (assuming you come to similar conclusions as the thousands of activists headed to Quebec in April):

    Opération Québec Printemps 2001 has listings of teach-ins, events, and other logistical information.
  • Quebec2001.net has a great deal of similar kinds of information, but focussed on Quebec.
  • The Field Guide to the FTAA Protest in Quebec City is an exhaustive source of information essential to anyone headed to Quebec.
  • Guess what, we've got rights is a citizen's guide for dealing with police, and knowing the rights and responsibilities of police officers and citizens.

And since everyone is in a posting mood from the day of introductions, post your opinions about the FTAA, activism, Free Trade, and democracy below, and discuss amongst yourselves while I desperately try to finish some of my essays.

posted by dru in activism
April 12, 2001
# price/performance

"Right now it doesn't cost anything to kill a black man"

(in Cincinnati, amongst other locales in the land of the free)

More coverage of the Cincinnati uprising. Also, Indymedia Centres in Cleveland and Ohio Valley have continuing, and somewhat more realistic, coverage.

Where was the Color in Seattle?

Where are the White Activists in Cincinnati?

Thanks to everyone for posting introductions. Feel free to post yours. It's good to get feel for how many people visit misnomer, and how often (server statistics generally don't give me that sense).

posted by dru in blog
by Kendall

This Cincinnati story may be good for WhitePrivilege.com, Dru, once it develops a bit more.

April 11, 2001
# Intros!

It's introduce yourself day here at misnomer!

Click on the "post a comment" link below, and write a short (or long) note saying who you are, and toss in a link to your web site if you want. If you're really ambitious, say something about why you read misnomer, or something interesting about yourself.

posted by dru in blog
by Helen Highwater

There's absolutely nothing interesting about me.

I stop by Misnomer every day or two, because it's a quality site, part of a surfing routing gathering bits and pieces for Unknown News, where we try to expose the hypocricy of the powers that be -- crooked cops, paid-for politicians, pervert priests, etc.

I wouldn't normally intrude with a plug, but the management here did just about ask me to... :)

by sylvia

Hi

I read misnomer at least once a week, because it's a good site, and because Dru's my S.O. I usually hear about his on-line ventures from him face to face. I never venture too far into this digital land myself. Most of the time I am artist, sometimes I try to be a mathematician. My quasi home page is a link dru made for me with photos of some sculptures I made last year.

by jessamyn

hi, I'm Jessamyn. I read misnomer because it's a place I can find info on activist and other anti-capitalist activities and it reminds me that not everyone on the web is debating what color iMac to buy.

by Kendall

I read Misnomer regularly to monitor the progress of Dru's IRC-enabled Political Re-Education Program, of which I am one of the senior tutors. :>

Or something like that...

by Ola

I read the Misnomer daily. I'm a student at RPI trying to find a job in New York's Capital District. This is a shameless plug for employment, please hire me. I read the Misnomer out of nostalgia mostly, but to keep up on news and what my friends, including Dru, are thinking and doing as well.

by disastro

I've never been here before. Can't even remember how I got here.

Anyway, enough about me. Everyone's invited for coffee at my place in the a.m.

by Bruce Marston

I live in the land of Oz and like to know what is going on in the real world. Doesn't your mother or father, not, read your column? I haven't seen them post a comment. Actually I like to check up on former students of my wife's like Dru and Ola. Love to you both- Bruce

by David Grenier

Im Dave. I started reading Misnomer when Manila was first released and editThisPage was first launched. It was one of the few weblogs I liked because it was one of the few that didn't obsess about dot coms and palm pilots. I've found lots of great sites through here, including Monkeyfist, Rebecca Blood, then by extension Jessamyn.

Ummm, as far as interesting stuff, I once tried to get my picture on the wall at Spike's Junkyard Dogs in Providence by eating six jumbo dogs. I ate five and a half and then threw up on The Gap.

by Lilly

I keep coming back to Misnomer to find info that isn't the usual and is worth thinking about.

by Sara Mall Johani

Hi, my name is Sara Mall and I read Misnomer to keep up with what my son Dru is thinking about. We do have weekly conversations which sometimes range into the relevant and interesting world of events but Misnomer fills these out, at the very least. My husband Tom still considers himself a neo Luddite, though he has determined to make Misnomer the exception to his stance. However, it's still an intention in progress. I wasn't going to comment but, thanks to Bruce, I had better prove that we do take an interest. It's always eclectically informative.

by Niel

I'm one of Dru's imaginary IRC friends and I read Misnomer because it's there.

by Daniel

Hola desde Barcelona (Espaņa)!

I come to misnomer very often, it's part of my "own net" of websites that keep me informed about the stuff I am interested in: everything, and everything these days means politics and economics. I feel good here, I can smell that! and that's enough for trusting this site.

love (we are gonna need it)

by Jordan

I take a spin by misnomer every once in a while to see what's on Dru's mind. Knowing him for a number of years it's always interesting to see the progression and maturity of thinking that happens with time and age. I also find that the content of misnomer always has direct or indirect connections to my studies in architecture.

by heidi

i come here as my first stop to almost every visit to the electronic world.i do hang out with dru from time to time over beer. i agree with the smell of this site, almost like an oven with fresh brown bread a bakin'. i'm trying to be more appreciative of a system of electronic information which i often find draining and uninviting. lately i've had a lot of positive experiences with the web, especially indymedia. thanks all for bein' interesting and not just out to get my desires transferred in cash. with unexplainable giggles, see ya

by Roma Gary

Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

# shudder

This seems just a little too familiar for comfort, though not really in the context of dating.

More interesting artists from "Drawn and Quarterly".

AnarchoGeek: Democratic media, rating systems, and indymedia.

Jeez, someone must be really after my self esteem to repeatedly visit the site just to lower the karma on all of the postings. Wierd.

posted by dru in culture
April 10, 2001
# Stanley Fish

There is no such thing as free speech, an interview with Stanley Fish.

Reverse Racism, also by Stanley Fish.

posted by dru in good_articles
April 09, 2001
# pick n choose

More photos of the big evil fence in Quebec City from Reuters: 1, 2, 3

Compare and contrast: Reuters coverage of the Summit of the Americas. Activist/Independent coverage of same.

An oft-repeated debate about free speech, free trade, censorship, and the like.

I recently went back and read some bits of the discussion of Bijan's article about appropriate responses to spew, er, bad speech.

I find I'm getting more and more picky about what I write on misnomer, but the net result is not an increase in the quality of my postings, but a decrease in the frequency of them. All kinds of stress, exams, Argosy stuff, etc. might have something to do with that.

posted by dru in activism
by David Grenier

Dru,

I've found myself going through cycles with my writing, first with Retrogression for years, then with Weblogger. I'll go through periods when I write a lot, then periods where I slow down and don't write/post often, either because I feel like I have discussed everything I want, or because other pressures in my life are taking over.

by heidi

thanks for the link to pictures of the fence. what a tremendous waste of money. it actually insults me too much to articulate well. but do canadian citizens really think these millions of dollars spent on police and fences for this are actually worthwhile?! we're paying for violence...

April 05, 2001
# De-mos

Criticisms of Democracy.

The Argosy. And hey, it's me.

This week's cover has been (for some reason) endlessly entertaining to me; I can't tell if it's because I know the people on it, or because the photos are just funny.

posted by dru in blog
April 03, 2001
# You say Kwee-beck, I say Kay-beq

Construction begins (Reuters photo).

posted by dru in blog
by heidi

hey dru,

i just lowered the karma on something about pronunciation. i dunno i kinda got confused so i just clicked something. that might be one of my fundamental problems with computers. i am often tempted to just randomly press buttons that i do not understand on any level whatsoever, thus i end up meandering through the internet and never really realize what i have done here, except perhaps contribute some extra number to a site saying that yes i looked at it. but in fact this is all residue from the by'gone dazys when i would not spend more than two hours a month with the internet/e-mail. these days i've actually been reading and finding way too much interesting and thought provoking stuff on these strange machines which eventually make me feel like i've eaten too much sugar when i finnally get up and leave. well i like your work ... bye

by Ola

Those look like some pretty heavy duty fences ... what exactly are they expecting?

by Dru

They're expecting something on the order of 5000+ angry protestors, looking to shut down the proceedings. Not unjustifiedly, it seems.

April 01, 2001
# global hypocrisy index

Someone from IBM's Almaden Research Center is really intent on lowering the karma on all of misnomer. Whoever it is, must have a lot of time on their hands. I'm tempted to call karma a failed project, as every time I see that the karma has been changed, I wish that someone had posted a comment instead. I'll keep it around for a little while longer, just for kicks... though it is nice to know when people are generally pleased with one post or another.

I'm really quite busy. Mostly interviewing Argosy staff all this week. Today it was the staff writers. I'm really quite encouraged by the quality of the applicants so far. In other words, there's nothing much to see here on misnomer, move along...

... except for the long list of links about the FTAA that is presently on the front page of Maritimes Indymedia. The links are well worth reading, if I do say so myself.

"Anyone who says they can 'manage' any species except for humans is either delusional or lying outright" -- Paraphrase of David Suzuki, talking about the fish stocks off the Atlantic coast, which have been managed out of existance by the government fisheries types. Now, the natives are bearing the brunt of the animosity created by the death of the fisheries, instead of the bureaucrats who botched it in the first place. Here's a stat: 90% of the fish in the ocean are gone (compared to 200 years or so ago).

Suzuki mentionned the Union of Concerned Scientists' Warning to Humanity as well. It contains a lot of common sense, but it's worthwhile to note how far away from the obvious we are.

posted by dru in good_articles