thoughts and tirades

I’d like to direct you all to another blog by Christina Lagos, a friend of mine who is doing health care work in Lesotho right now. I have an incredibly amount of respect for her and want to share some of her stories with you. I also draw a great deal of inspiration from people like her who dedicate their time and energy to this sort of project. I wish her and Rachel and Tessa and all the others doing that this summer the best, and I find a lot joy in knowing that they’re making a difference in someone’s life right now. It’s pretty moving stuff.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately, and I’m especially inspired by a collection of Noam Chomsky talks entitled Understanding Power.” Thus far this is my basic summary: the United States has utterly anhilated many developing countries and purposefully impeded their growth by any means necessary in order to maintain the best business conditions possible. Our media outlets, regardless of where they point their political compass, support this institutional empire by only reporting what supports business interests. Whether or not you agree with this thesis, the sad thing is that it is impossible to ignore the facts - that our government has historically slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocent people and that these stories are not told in the media. They are simply facts often verifiable by declassified government documents. And this book was written before 9/11, so it's not talking about Iraq - it's talking about Nicaragua and Cambodia and events people my age don't ever learn about in history class.

That being said we are not powerless against the system. The first thing we have to do is educate ourselves - not buying into it with college and a degree but instead waking up and seeing the world and ourselves from a different point of view. I recommend checking out http://www.democracynow.org/ and Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting to complement you normal news site. Also, ask yourself what is truly important in your life. If you're happy making a lot of money and living the standard american dream with your yahct and country club membership, that is absolutely fine - I would recommend thinking about the negative externalities and minimizing them (by using green energy and gas, less water, etc), but if you're not happy or that is not your overall goal in life then do not be fooled into thinking that is the only life that is valuable.



More Moxie stories tomorrow.