War, Bus Rides, and Japan in the South Pacific

I have determined that I loathe riding buses. For me, it is a triple-whammy of pain. First, the seats seem to be designed for people about 4.5 feet tall. Not only does this diminish one's legroom to nothing, but it also means that the curvature of the seats place one or more large lumps in the small of my back. Second, I get carsick easily and the modern buses do nothing to get fresh air in your face to prevent the inevitable queasiness that comes with stale air and winding roads. And finally, Shandelle is a similar victim of carsickness. So, I get carsick and then must also be nice to her while sick as well. And Greyhound wonders why no one except knife-toting, drunken weirdos want to ride their buses? It's because they are hell.

We finished up our stay at the Arts Factory in Byron Bay. Last night a Belgian looked over my shoulder while Sha and I were surfing the Net and saw we were reading about the war. Interestingly, he started speaking to us about the whole Iraq issue and America in general. While he was definitely an open-minded chap, he was decidely anit-war/pro-peace in philosophy. He wanted to understand better about the whole issue and what America/ns think.

Overall, the entire trip to NZ/AUS has been a real bummer (that's hippie-talk for those of you not around for the sixties) with regards to America's image abroad. Here's a great example in this Observer story (http://www.observer.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905936,00.html) that talks about how the NSA is spying on other UN Security Council members who will be voting on the Iraq issue. Sadly, not a single one of the American major media outlets covered this issue. Americans just plain don't know about it. It's swept under the rug (http://santafenewmexican.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7234803&BRD=2144&PAG=461&dept_id=367954&rfi=6) and not reported. The Aussies, Kiwis, etc all hear this stuff and the American government's image (and thus opinions of it's people) turns to garbage.

It's not that we're bad people in America, it's that we just don't have all the right facts. The former days of "objective" journalism are long gone and we're sadly seeing too much spin to be able to digest it right. With the inputs the public receives in places like Topeka where trusted Tom Brokaw still comes on NBC every evening and only shows spin that will make its advertisers happy, it's understandable that more Americans aren't questioning America's policies. Few people ask: What is the underlying cause for people to hate America in the middle-east? Why are those people protesting globalization? Why do people hate Americans? The mainstream media doesn't ask these questions because they're subservient to the people who pay the bills, their advertisers. The media system has become a giant problem in the country by not doing its job. Thus, too few people really grok the root of the problems (or they're too busy being frightened by Killer Bee outbreaks to think clearly). We went to see The Quiet American (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0258068) and the CIA agent character in the movie says "[America] is not imperialist." It was sad when the audience erupted in laughter.

There's some good stuff to read and see about all this garbage. If I had to pick one source to start with, it'd be a compendum of Noam Chomsky's interviews: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky. It's a pretty darn good read. In the end, it teaches us to *think* and question anything we hear from anyone (including the crap someone may actually read on this homepage!).

And finally, it's clear that the Japanese really won WWII as they appear to already own most of the East Coast of AUS. Seriously, we're now in Surfer's Paradise (which is as close to Las Vegas as the Land Down Under gets). It's a 10 mile strip of beaches coverd in 30 floor condo high-rises, Disney theme parks, and mega-malls in front of sandy beaches. The signs are in English, Korean and Japanese everywhere. It's a trip and I'm glad I forced Shandelle to stop here. Somehow, even stopping to see the ugly, touristy parts of a country are as much of the experience as witnessing the natural beauty. The highlight of the area is a real, live shooting range where you can go and shoot automatic weapons. I don't think we'll be hitting that one (Shandelle's choice), though I have to admit it is really tempting. If you could shoot a bazooka, I'd definitely be there.