This years meeting, held over several days in Greece this May, took place  amidst a backdrop of the restructuring of many global systems of governance. So it is going to be very interesting to watch what political and economic decisions get the go ahead over the next few months.

There are always relationships behind the media and PR spectacle

As always, held at a well policed and guarded luxury location, the “power elite” of the “west” get to have friendly and productive discussion about how they can help make life better for all and solve the problems of the world. Pity they have to do it with such a significant amount of secrecy, doesn’t really help their reputation, although I don’t think that they would care all that much.

Valid info is slowly coming to the surface and over the years more info is being leaked about this wonderful gathering of the worlds privileged and hard working best and brightest. This year there was the usual investigative journalists covering what they could of the event with this brief synopsis giving a good indication of the importance, reach and magnitude of Bilderberg, relying on the seasoned stalkers of the event as well as some quotes from Russian Intelligence. This year there was also the well regarded but commonly called “left” leaning Guardian having some reasonably good daily coverage and reporting of the conference, albeit somewhat humorous, which is a good change from the sensationalised reportage from Alex Jones of Infowars.

Of course when powerful people gather in one place there is always clear ideas about reaching outcomes, such as that with the G-20 PR spectacle held earlier this year. (It is hard to ignore the irony when the leaders, businessmen and technocrats attending global conferences that are held to discuss solutions to reducing poverty and alleviating problems caused by financial disruption, arrive in flash cars and stretch limos and spend several days wining, dining and strategizing in luxury). But with the Bilderberg conference being shroud with secrecy, with hardly any mainstream media exposure apart from the previously mentioned one and almost nil coverage behind the closed doors, talk of clear outcomes is very loose indeed. I guess only time will tell. Keep your eyes peeled and for heavens sake tell the sheople to stop taking the blue pill (no not viagra Bobret).

Till next time.

m3

the home equity loans market sucked many in

After reading the papers this morning an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, a paper fast becoming sensationalist rubbish like it’s Daily Telegraph counterpart, particularly caught my attention.

Using Nicholas Bolton, a young investment lad who has been getting quite a bit of publicity as of late in the Aus press, as the perfect example of all that is bad in generation Y.

“… for a generation who grew up with money – and for whom money had a great deal to do with worth – a recession might be the first step towards re-evaluating life.

Of course those gen Y people she speaks of have grown up with excess and have put a high value on material wealth, but they are not the only generation to do so. What about the excess in the 80′s, the excess and high value put in material wealth and money that led up to the  ‘Black Monday’  1987 stockmarket crash. No, that was different wasn’t it? And, why of course we (I’m a gen Y’er) put a high value in material wealth and money, we are bombarded by advertising left right and centre. Marketing and advertising is a huge industry, and oh are they savvy. Understanding consumer behaviour utilising psychology is the forefront of advertising and marketing. But that is a whole other issue. I think it is not just the gen Y’ers that need to do some re-evaluating.

Jensen goes on further to say

“For a group of people typified by arrogance, who flitted between jobs and took out mortgages they could never repay, unemployment might be a welcome kick in the teeth. Not for everyone, but for many.”

And of course some gen Y’ers are are arrogant, but they are not the only ones, every generation has an element of arrogance flowing through it. Oh yes, they took out mortgages they could never repay, again, marketing.

The lure of lines of credit leveraged on speculative equity has been a trap for thousands of Australians

For years people in Australia (probably in many countries) have been fed ads about equity and given incentives through ‘first home buyers’ grants. Peddled loans by predatory lending companies, with credit default swaps and lines of credit on that good old ‘equity’. The housing market has been marketed as this avenue to wealth and prosperity, to the great ‘Australian Dream’. Another myth perpetuated in media.  And yes, unemployment will be surely a “kick in the teeth”. But gen Y’ers are used to casual employment as of late, and many are used to career changes. Lots of Australians are getting a “kick in the teeth” while many who instigated the catalyst for this current downturn are still able to see the dentist twice a month to get those beautiful teeth whitened, when they should be getting a sledge hammer put to them (metaphorically speaking).

Now it is obvious opinion pieces are just that, the authors opinion, as is this entry of mine. They are written to get people fired up a great of the time, get people on the website as well, post replies. This equals more hits which in turn plays a part in increasing advertising revenue.

Mmm good old advertising, one  of the core drivers of consumerism.

m3

There is no doubt that the events in New York and Washington DC on September 11th 2001 changed the world in ways many are still trying to comprehend. The scenes broadcast across much of the world are etched into the minds of many people. The planes, the twin towers, the pentagon. Then there were the declarations of a “war on terror” with Osama promoted as the prime leader, the invasion of Afghanistan, then the subsequent invasion of Iraq and the  overthrowing of Saddam Hussien. Oh, and lets not forget the anti-terror laws that were passed in many countries. Laws which have raised many concerns from civil and human rights groups due to their ambiguous nature and being a means for possible abuse (if not already abused).

Now there is no doubt that there are questions needing to be answered in relation to 9/11, with a commision set up to establish answers to these questions. The commission produced a 585 page report that was meant to answer the questions. But as per usual there are people that do not trust the government and those whom are enveloped in its power structures. So the report has recieved much scepticism, and debate continues and will continue for years to come. The claims by Bush and his cabinet that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, which was the basis in which the Iraq invasion was justified, had come unstuck and it has been proven quite convincingly that the intelligence used was clearly flawed.

Now no reasonable person would deny that govenrment intelligence is flawed, just as is human intelligence, but this is common when it is related to war or conflict. Transparencey in government and the military is almost non existant, as releasing information almost always falls under the guise  of compromising “national security”.

We will always be confronted with events where the public is given limited information, particularly when mainstream media sources, where many attain their information and subsequent view of the world from, are owned by the big six media conglomerates.

As for the “war on terror” it is just another PR campaign spun up by those wanting to justify their ideological crusade. And Afghanistan and Iraq, well, the US armed and trained the Taliban in fighting against the soviets and Bush senior was a good buddy of Mr Hussien before the gulf war in 1991. But that is common knowledge now.

Then there are the groups that profit from war. The arms industry is a very profitable area of business. The biggest arms manufacture is of course a US based company Lockheed Martin. However there are many other companies that are involved in profiting from war.  Anup Shah of globalissues.org provides some good info on this.

Now I would think people should of become more suspicious after Dwight D. Eisenhower raised concern of the connections between the arms industry and government in his 1961 farewell speech. Right?

Then there is also suggestion of investment companies involved, with the Carlyle Group being one of the more common ones whose co-founder David M. Rubenstien sits on the board of one of the major organisations that influences US foreign policy (the other board members and their links are also worth looking up). Conflict of interest? Maybe, but this type of affiliation is rife in the upper echelons of power, part of the world system. But do we need to just accept it and go on with our lives?

I wont even start on state terrorism, I’ll leave that for another blog.

m3

This year is proving to be interesting. We have Mr Barack Obama leading what was once the unilateral power in the world, the first African American US president and a eloquent and well spoken persuasive leader who is a fresher image to that of Dubya Bush. There are the reports of climate change that was brought into popular culture by the film An Inconvenient Truth (or convenient lie, depending on your sources). Then there are the increasing pirate attacks off the Somalian coast, the conflict in Palestine-Israel, which saw huge protest erupt in major cities in response to perceived Israeli aggression, the financial turmoil, unemployment, social unrest in Thailand and in many major centres, the constant psychological problems of beloved celebrities like Britany Spears, Linsay Lohan, and lets not forget Mel Gibson’s divorce.  There was the G20 summit which pronounced a new world order, much to the excitement of paranoid conspiracy theorists, an increased role for NATO, the North Korean rocket launch, Michael Jackson selling of his beloved items due to impending financial ruin, Australian PM Krudd (Kevin Rudd) declaring the need for capitalism with “feeling” and of course we can’t forget the twitter “revolution” that has swept the world (at least the minority with internet access). That is just to name a few things off the top of my head.

There is obviously much more going on then I could or would even want to put in this entry.  But there is no doubt that it is going to be an interesting year (not that any other years past didn’t have points of interest) and we are going to be challenged and faced with opportunities on an individual, cultural and global level. I would just like to remind you, that is the lone reader (if there is any) that if we want “Change”, to borrow the wonderful word used in the PR campaign of Obama, it is going to have to be instigated by each and every one of us. If we leave it up to the leaders we’ll just get the same old crap, doublespeak, limited action and a debt burden, financially as well as socially, that future generations will despise us for. So don’t leave it up to the so called leaders, the shepherds (mostly men mind you) to do what it is that needs to be done, lead your self.

People that have access to opportunities that a large part of the world don’t have a responsibility, get out there and tell you neighbour you love them (metaphorically as well as literally) write that email, make that call, join that club, do those things on the “to do” list you made last month, get out there and live, connect, express, like, dislike…ok I need to stop now, hang on… one more thing…don’t jump on the “Change” bandwagon, ask yourself what is the change I want to see? and have a hard think about what change is needed. Will our political and business leaders provide the means for this?

Enjoy…

m3

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