[R-G] Of "Corporations Need Treatment"+send your s.o.t.u. as letter to editor

Sat Jan 24 09:47:48 MST 2004

For Everyone,

Hello All! Good Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday to all in US!
"Corporations Need Treatment, Documentary Argues by Stephen Leahy
TORONTO - Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the
world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on
globalization elegantly argues.
While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of "a legal
person", its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions.
Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required
to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created.
What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers
the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres.
"Everything we do in the world is touched by corporations in some way," says
'The Corporation' writer Joel Bakan.
Six years ago he was researching a book on the subject and teamed up with
documentary makers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and then set out to drum
up enough money to make the film and to do more than 40 interviews.
"Corporations are the most dominant institutions on the planet today. We
thought it was worth taking a close look at what that means," Bakan told
IPS.
In law, today's corporations are treated like a person: they can buy and
sell property, have the right to free expression and most other rights that
individuals have.
This legal creativity came as a result of U.S. businesses using the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- designed to protect blacks
in the U.S. South after the Civil War -- to proclaim that corporations
should be treated as "persons".
The filmmakers show four examples of corporations at work -- including
garment sweatshops in Honduras and Indonesia -- to demonstrate that this
"legal person" is inherently amoral, callous and deceitful.
The corporation, the film points out, ignores any social and legal standards
to get its way, and does not suffer from guilt while mimicking the human
qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.
A person with those character traits would be categorized as a psychopath,
based on diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization (WHO),
points out the film.
Unlike 'Bowling for Columbine' -- to which it has been compared -- 'The
Corporation' does not follow a shambling yet crusading interviewer (Michael
Moore) into corporate head offices to ask tough questions.
Instead the filmmakers use simple but beautifully lit head and shoulder
shots of its subjects against a black background. The interviewer is never
seen or heard; the corporate chiefs, professors and activists speak directly
to the viewer.
The technique is so compelling that not listening or turning away would seem
impolite.
The interviews are interspersed with archival footage from many sources,
including scenes from sweatshops and news conferences. It also includes some
ironic and darkly humorous excerpts from corporate ad campaigns and training
films from the 1940s and '50s.
But the film is not a rant. It gives ample time to corporate chief executive
officers (CEOs) and representatives of right-wing organizations, like
Canada's Fraser Institute.
Fraser's Michael Walker tells viewers that hungry people in the developing
world are better off when a sweatshop pays them 10 cents an hour to make
brand name goods that sell for hundreds of dollars.
And it is just good business sense that a corporation moves to seek out more
hungry people when its workers demand higher wages and better working
conditions, Walker argues.
Many others are less ruthless. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of
Royal Dutch Shell, is honestly concerned about protecting the environment.
Under his guidance, Shell adopted many green initiatives and a commitment to
developing renewable energy.
At the same time, Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists were hung in
Nigeria for protesting Shell Oil's pollution of the Niger Delta.
Social critic and linguist Noam Chomsky -- the subject of Achbar's 1992
award-winning 'Manufacturing Consent' -- carefully points out that people
who work for corporations, and even those who run them, are often very nice
people.
The same could have been said about many slave owners, he observes. The
institution -- not the people -- is the problem, Chomsky argues.
Eminent economist Milton Friedman sums up the role of the corporation
succinctly: it creates jobs and wealth but is inherently incapable of
dealing with the social consequences of its actions.
'The Corporation' documents a bewildering array of these consequences -- 
including the deaths of citizens who protest corporate ownership of their
water in Cochabamba, Bolivia -- that demonstrate the extent and power of
today's corporations.
It looks at the often-cozy relationships between corporations and fascist
regimes, such as that of IBM and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler.
It demonstrates the power of advertising to create desires for luxury items,
as well as how corporations can suppress information.
The documentary shows agribusiness corporation Monsanto successfully
preventing the news media from airing a story about the potential health
hazards of a genetically engineered drug given to many U.S. diary cows.
'The Corporation' also tells a number of success stories, including
activists' successful fight to overturn corporate patents on the neem tree
and basmati rice.
Bolivia's Oscar Olivera describes how citizens of Cochabamba city re-took
control of their water. The lesson, he explains, is the people's capacity
for "reflection, rage and rebellion" as an effective counter to corporate
globalization
That is one of the film's messages, says Bakan. "We want people to
understand that they can change things."
"Everyone keeps thanking us for making the film," says Mark Achbar, from the
Sundance festival of independent films in Utah state.
"People are fed up with being talked down to and enjoy being intellectually
engaged," he adds, trying to explain the documentary's popularity and
several international festival awards.
Despite its current limited distribution in Canada, 'The Corporation' has
been sold as a three-part, one-hour TV series to international markets, and
Achbar is hoping it will be translated into Spanish.
Of course, there will not be a multi-million marketing campaign. The number
of people who will see it will depend on those who have, spreading the word.
That is just one way to take back the power that corporations have usurped.
Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 by the Inter Press Service. ©
Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press Service."

I'm very concerned about the direction in which the President is
misleading our country. The policies he is promoting seem to be
motivated by fear, greed, the pursuit of domination, here and abroad,
rather than justice, compassion, or at least concern for the common
good. Unnecessary war with Iraq, exponentially increasing national
defense and military spending, abridging civil liberties, more tax
cuts for the wealthy, ignoring the millions of people at home facing
economic hardship, no job opportunities, etc.; all are providing
little to address the root causes of war around the world, the
undermining of global environmental protection, the feeding instead of
curbing our countries gluttonous appetite for oil. Those policies and
priorities do not reflect my values, America's, or any other civil
persons.

Please help get our country back on the right track. Tell the
President you oppose our war with Iraq. War is not the answer, it's
the question why. Iraq could have been disarmed without war. The
emperor lied about the intelligence he had, said he had intelligence
he didn't, and used intelligence he was told was fabricated 6 months
earlier to justify the next step in his "unending war" plan to give
exponentially more corporate welfare to the republican military
industrial complex, etc.. The weapons inspectors found no WMD's and
they won't, they just lied to the world. The conflict can and must be
resolved peacefully through the cooperative action of the
United Nations. Urge your colleagues in Congress to roll back the USA
Patriot Act, restore our civil liberties, and protect the human
rights and dignity of immigrants and visitors to our country. Oppose
more tax cuts for the wealthy. With mounting deficits, growing
economic disparity, and increasing national and international
challenges, this is not the
time to
cut taxes for those who have benefited the most in our society. Also,
support shifting federal budget priorities away from the military
toward
addressing the increasingly unmet human and environmental needs at
home and
abroad. Promote policies to reduce U.S. energy use and encourage the
development of renewable sources of energy and alternative modes of
transportation. These priorities reflect the values for which I
stand. Let
your Congressmen know you hope you can count on their leadership in
Congress
to help advance them.

Wouldn't the following be a more preferable state of the union
address, though it's exponentially shorter and more real? Before our
country commits itself to an unending chain of human atrocities, the
beginnings of a world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from
the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should our nation not
take
pause to consider, the results of their lack of just action, the
extinction
of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom forefathers bequeathed
us, just
for this moment? Hasn't the basis of our countries birth and growth,
been
on its founding documents, and the spirit of those who imbued them?
Isn't
that spirit that an American affords the rights guaranteed him by this
nation to others, or he's nothing more than a cannibal, hiding behind
supposed, business, science or religion, as fronts for his legal
crime in
the name of free enterprise? Consider these facts :) To cover up
for their
voting fraud, his losing the presidency, and being bequeathed it by
the
Supreme Court, the President planned not preventing a terrorist
attack; he
just didn't think it would be so accurate. The anthrax attacks
coming on
the heels of the purposely not prevented 9-11 attacks, proves they
were
planned in advance and timed to follow the 9-11 attacks, which also
proves
the republican conspiracy knew about 911; and had the follow-up
attacks to
rush this country to war. There were no jets in the air until 50
minutes
after the initial jet hit the first Tower. Those anthrax attacks
have been
proven to be U.S. military anthrax! "We", the people should be
remanding
them to a U.N. atrocities against humanity court, for the 3000 they
premeditatedly mass-murdered, not endorsing their latest attempt to
keep
America ignorant of these facts through imperialistic war. "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". . . Thomas Jefferson. Lest "we" forget, if you don't exercise
responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will wither, as well.
Sadly,
now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you, who, here, where,
now,
when; or if not, possibly never? It would be mine.

Write your own state of the union speech and send it as a letter to
editor
:)
Sample :) ""We" must, again, have gov't of..., by..., for the
people, not
profits." :)
Before our country commits itself to an unending chain of human
atrocities,
the beginnings of another world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should
our
nation not take pause to consider, the results of their lack of just
action,
the extinction of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom our
forefathers
bequeathed us, just for these times? Hasn't the basis of our
countries
birth and growth, been on its founding documents, and the spirit of
those
who imbued them? Isn't that spirit that an American affords the
rights
guaranteed him by this nation to others, or he's nothing more than a
cannibal, hiding behind supposed, business, science or religion, as
fronts
for his legal crime in the name of supposedly 'free' enterprise? Yet,
'their' delusional profits and delusional pleasures they supposedly
garner
in ever increasingly cyclical and centralizing patterns, from
division and
conquer based tools, based on the definition of destruction and
killing as
power, exact real deficits exponentially higher than the short-term
'material' profits they've deemed they've earned. An e.g., the
closing of
youth programs to increase the amount of mostly poorer and ethnic men
brought into the prison industrial complex 'system', which increases
the
demand for jails to be built, decreasing the amount of money that is
allocated to youth programs, closing more of them, increasing..., ad
infinitum! Another e.g., the delusional profits, the corporate
welfare that
is supposedly garnered from the defacto-slavery of inmates making .03
cents
an hour, costs taxpayers from $60,000 to $150,000 a year per inmate,
real
deficits that are exponentially more. Thomas Jefferson said, "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". If "we" don't change the course of this nation now, by
remembering
that the length of our responsibility can't be ignored, or else our
experience of freedom will be short, extinction of humanity will be
realized
soon, although it won't actually happen for decades. Lest "we"
forget, if
you don't exercise responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will
wither,
as well. Sadly, now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you,
who,
here, where, now, when; or if not, possibly never? Truly Yours,

I'm a known advocate,
mental health professional, writer and poet, especially in the U.S..
As always, feel free to copy and share,
as well. Enjoy a festive eve' as you can. Au revoir.

Matutinally Yours, james m nordlund reality (aja) :)

For those interested :) "of or pertaining to the morning, day :)
relating
to or happening in the morning or in the early part of the day
(formal),
(Mid-16th century, from late Latin matutinalis, from Matuta, goddess
of the dawn.)".  Thank you!  Hello All! Good Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday to all in US!
"Corporations Need Treatment, Documentary Argues by Stephen Leahy
TORONTO - Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the
world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on
globalization elegantly argues.
While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of "a legal
person", its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions.
Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required
to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created.
What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers
the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres.
"Everything we do in the world is touched by corporations in some way," says
'The Corporation' writer Joel Bakan.
Six years ago he was researching a book on the subject and teamed up with
documentary makers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and then set out to drum
up enough money to make the film and to do more than 40 interviews.
"Corporations are the most dominant institutions on the planet today. We
thought it was worth taking a close look at what that means," Bakan told
IPS.
In law, today's corporations are treated like a person: they can buy and
sell property, have the right to free expression and most other rights that
individuals have.
This legal creativity came as a result of U.S. businesses using the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- designed to protect blacks
in the U.S. South after the Civil War -- to proclaim that corporations
should be treated as "persons".
The filmmakers show four examples of corporations at work -- including
garment sweatshops in Honduras and Indonesia -- to demonstrate that this
"legal person" is inherently amoral, callous and deceitful.
The corporation, the film points out, ignores any social and legal standards
to get its way, and does not suffer from guilt while mimicking the human
qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.
A person with those character traits would be categorized as a psychopath,
based on diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization (WHO),
points out the film.
Unlike 'Bowling for Columbine' -- to which it has been compared -- 'The
Corporation' does not follow a shambling yet crusading interviewer (Michael
Moore) into corporate head offices to ask tough questions.
Instead the filmmakers use simple but beautifully lit head and shoulder
shots of its subjects against a black background. The interviewer is never
seen or heard; the corporate chiefs, professors and activists speak directly
to the viewer.
The technique is so compelling that not listening or turning away would seem
impolite.
The interviews are interspersed with archival footage from many sources,
including scenes from sweatshops and news conferences. It also includes some
ironic and darkly humorous excerpts from corporate ad campaigns and training
films from the 1940s and '50s.
But the film is not a rant. It gives ample time to corporate chief executive
officers (CEOs) and representatives of right-wing organizations, like
Canada's Fraser Institute.
Fraser's Michael Walker tells viewers that hungry people in the developing
world are better off when a sweatshop pays them 10 cents an hour to make
brand name goods that sell for hundreds of dollars.
And it is just good business sense that a corporation moves to seek out more
hungry people when its workers demand higher wages and better working
conditions, Walker argues.
Many others are less ruthless. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of
Royal Dutch Shell, is honestly concerned about protecting the environment.
Under his guidance, Shell adopted many green initiatives and a commitment to
developing renewable energy.
At the same time, Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists were hung in
Nigeria for protesting Shell Oil's pollution of the Niger Delta.
Social critic and linguist Noam Chomsky -- the subject of Achbar's 1992
award-winning 'Manufacturing Consent' -- carefully points out that people
who work for corporations, and even those who run them, are often very nice
people.
The same could have been said about many slave owners, he observes. The
institution -- not the people -- is the problem, Chomsky argues.
Eminent economist Milton Friedman sums up the role of the corporation
succinctly: it creates jobs and wealth but is inherently incapable of
dealing with the social consequences of its actions.
'The Corporation' documents a bewildering array of these consequences -- 
including the deaths of citizens who protest corporate ownership of their
water in Cochabamba, Bolivia -- that demonstrate the extent and power of
today's corporations.
It looks at the often-cozy relationships between corporations and fascist
regimes, such as that of IBM and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler.
It demonstrates the power of advertising to create desires for luxury items,
as well as how corporations can suppress information.
The documentary shows agribusiness corporation Monsanto successfully
preventing the news media from airing a story about the potential health
hazards of a genetically engineered drug given to many U.S. diary cows.
'The Corporation' also tells a number of success stories, including
activists' successful fight to overturn corporate patents on the neem tree
and basmati rice.
Bolivia's Oscar Olivera describes how citizens of Cochabamba city re-took
control of their water. The lesson, he explains, is the people's capacity
for "reflection, rage and rebellion" as an effective counter to corporate
globalization
That is one of the film's messages, says Bakan. "We want people to
understand that they can change things."
"Everyone keeps thanking us for making the film," says Mark Achbar, from the
Sundance festival of independent films in Utah state.
"People are fed up with being talked down to and enjoy being intellectually
engaged," he adds, trying to explain the documentary's popularity and
several international festival awards.
Despite its current limited distribution in Canada, 'The Corporation' has
been sold as a three-part, one-hour TV series to international markets, and
Achbar is hoping it will be translated into Spanish.
Of course, there will not be a multi-million marketing campaign. The number
of people who will see it will depend on those who have, spreading the word.
That is just one way to take back the power that corporations have usurped.
Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 by the Inter Press Service. ©
Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press Service."

I'm very concerned about the direction in which the President is
misleading our country. The policies he is promoting seem to be
motivated by fear, greed, the pursuit of domination, here and abroad,
rather than justice, compassion, or at least concern for the common
good. Unnecessary war with Iraq, exponentially increasing national
defense and military spending, abridging civil liberties, more tax
cuts for the wealthy, ignoring the millions of people at home facing
economic hardship, no job opportunities, etc.; all are providing
little to address the root causes of war around the world, the
undermining of global environmental protection, the feeding instead of
curbing our countries gluttonous appetite for oil. Those policies and
priorities do not reflect my values, America's, or any other civil
persons.

Please help get our country back on the right track. Tell the
President you oppose our war with Iraq. War is not the answer, it's
the question why. Iraq could have been disarmed without war. The
emperor lied about the intelligence he had, said he had intelligence
he didn't, and used intelligence he was told was fabricated 6 months
earlier to justify the next step in his "unending war" plan to give
exponentially more corporate welfare to the republican military
industrial complex, etc.. The weapons inspectors found no WMD's and
they won't, they just lied to the world. The conflict can and must be
resolved peacefully through the cooperative action of the
United Nations. Urge your colleagues in Congress to roll back the USA
Patriot Act, restore our civil liberties, and protect the human
rights and dignity of immigrants and visitors to our country. Oppose
more tax cuts for the wealthy. With mounting deficits, growing
economic disparity, and increasing national and international
challenges, this is not the
time to
cut taxes for those who have benefited the most in our society. Also,
support shifting federal budget priorities away from the military
toward
addressing the increasingly unmet human and environmental needs at
home and
abroad. Promote policies to reduce U.S. energy use and encourage the
development of renewable sources of energy and alternative modes of
transportation. These priorities reflect the values for which I
stand. Let
your Congressmen know you hope you can count on their leadership in
Congress
to help advance them.

Wouldn't the following be a more preferable state of the union
address, though it's exponentially shorter and more real? Before our
country commits itself to an unending chain of human atrocities, the
beginnings of a world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from
the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should our nation not
take
pause to consider, the results of their lack of just action, the
extinction
of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom forefathers bequeathed
us, just
for this moment? Hasn't the basis of our countries birth and growth,
been
on its founding documents, and the spirit of those who imbued them?
Isn't
that spirit that an American affords the rights guaranteed him by this
nation to others, or he's nothing more than a cannibal, hiding behind
supposed, business, science or religion, as fronts for his legal
crime in
the name of free enterprise? Consider these facts :) To cover up
for their
voting fraud, his losing the presidency, and being bequeathed it by
the
Supreme Court, the President planned not preventing a terrorist
attack; he
just didn't think it would be so accurate. The anthrax attacks
coming on
the heels of the purposely not prevented 9-11 attacks, proves they
were
planned in advance and timed to follow the 9-11 attacks, which also
proves
the republican conspiracy knew about 911; and had the follow-up
attacks to
rush this country to war. There were no jets in the air until 50
minutes
after the initial jet hit the first Tower. Those anthrax attacks
have been
proven to be U.S. military anthrax! "We", the people should be
remanding
them to a U.N. atrocities against humanity court, for the 3000 they
premeditatedly mass-murdered, not endorsing their latest attempt to
keep
America ignorant of these facts through imperialistic war. "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". . . Thomas Jefferson. Lest "we" forget, if you don't exercise
responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will wither, as well.
Sadly,
now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you, who, here, where,
now,
when; or if not, possibly never? It would be mine.

Write your own state of the union speech and send it as a letter to
editor
:)
Sample :) ""We" must, again, have gov't of..., by..., for the
people, not
profits." :)
Before our country commits itself to an unending chain of human
atrocities,
the beginnings of another world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should
our
nation not take pause to consider, the results of their lack of just
action,
the extinction of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom our
forefathers
bequeathed us, just for these times? Hasn't the basis of our
countries
birth and growth, been on its founding documents, and the spirit of
those
who imbued them? Isn't that spirit that an American affords the
rights
guaranteed him by this nation to others, or he's nothing more than a
cannibal, hiding behind supposed, business, science or religion, as
fronts
for his legal crime in the name of supposedly 'free' enterprise? Yet,
'their' delusional profits and delusional pleasures they supposedly
garner
in ever increasingly cyclical and centralizing patterns, from
division and
conquer based tools, based on the definition of destruction and
killing as
power, exact real deficits exponentially higher than the short-term
'material' profits they've deemed they've earned. An e.g., the
closing of
youth programs to increase the amount of mostly poorer and ethnic men
brought into the prison industrial complex 'system', which increases
the
demand for jails to be built, decreasing the amount of money that is
allocated to youth programs, closing more of them, increasing..., ad
infinitum! Another e.g., the delusional profits, the corporate
welfare that
is supposedly garnered from the defacto-slavery of inmates making .03
cents
an hour, costs taxpayers from $60,000 to $150,000 a year per inmate,
real
deficits that are exponentially more. Thomas Jefferson said, "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". If "we" don't change the course of this nation now, by
remembering
that the length of our responsibility can't be ignored, or else our
experience of freedom will be short, extinction of humanity will be
realized
soon, although it won't actually happen for decades. Lest "we"
forget, if
you don't exercise responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will
wither,
as well. Sadly, now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you,
who,
here, where, now, when; or if not, possibly never? Truly Yours,

I'm a known advocate,
mental health professional, writer and poet, especially in the U.S..
 Viva la evolution! As always, feel free to copy and share,
as well. Enjoy a festive eve' as you can. Au revoir.

Matutinally Yours, james m nordlund reality (aja) :)

For those interested :) "of or pertaining to the morning, day :)
relating
to or happening in the morning or in the early part of the day
(formal),
(Mid-16th century, from late Latin matutinalis, from Matuta, goddess
of the dawn.)".  Thank you!  Hello All! Good Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday to all in US!
"Corporations Need Treatment, Documentary Argues by Stephen Leahy
TORONTO - Corporations are not only the most powerful institutions in the
world, they are also psychopathic, a new Canadian documentary on
globalization elegantly argues.
While the corporation has the rights and responsibilities of "a legal
person", its owners and shareholders are not liable for its actions.
Moreover, the film explains, a corporation's directors are legally required
to do what is best for the company, regardless of the harm created.
What kind of person would a corporation be? A clinical psychopath, answers
the documentary, which is now playing in four Canadian theatres.
"Everything we do in the world is touched by corporations in some way," says
'The Corporation' writer Joel Bakan.
Six years ago he was researching a book on the subject and teamed up with
documentary makers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, and then set out to drum
up enough money to make the film and to do more than 40 interviews.
"Corporations are the most dominant institutions on the planet today. We
thought it was worth taking a close look at what that means," Bakan told
IPS.
In law, today's corporations are treated like a person: they can buy and
sell property, have the right to free expression and most other rights that
individuals have.
This legal creativity came as a result of U.S. businesses using the
Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- designed to protect blacks
in the U.S. South after the Civil War -- to proclaim that corporations
should be treated as "persons".
The filmmakers show four examples of corporations at work -- including
garment sweatshops in Honduras and Indonesia -- to demonstrate that this
"legal person" is inherently amoral, callous and deceitful.
The corporation, the film points out, ignores any social and legal standards
to get its way, and does not suffer from guilt while mimicking the human
qualities of empathy, caring and altruism.
A person with those character traits would be categorized as a psychopath,
based on diagnostic criteria from the World Health Organization (WHO),
points out the film.
Unlike 'Bowling for Columbine' -- to which it has been compared -- 'The
Corporation' does not follow a shambling yet crusading interviewer (Michael
Moore) into corporate head offices to ask tough questions.
Instead the filmmakers use simple but beautifully lit head and shoulder
shots of its subjects against a black background. The interviewer is never
seen or heard; the corporate chiefs, professors and activists speak directly
to the viewer.
The technique is so compelling that not listening or turning away would seem
impolite.
The interviews are interspersed with archival footage from many sources,
including scenes from sweatshops and news conferences. It also includes some
ironic and darkly humorous excerpts from corporate ad campaigns and training
films from the 1940s and '50s.
But the film is not a rant. It gives ample time to corporate chief executive
officers (CEOs) and representatives of right-wing organizations, like
Canada's Fraser Institute.
Fraser's Michael Walker tells viewers that hungry people in the developing
world are better off when a sweatshop pays them 10 cents an hour to make
brand name goods that sell for hundreds of dollars.
And it is just good business sense that a corporation moves to seek out more
hungry people when its workers demand higher wages and better working
conditions, Walker argues.
Many others are less ruthless. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, former chairman of
Royal Dutch Shell, is honestly concerned about protecting the environment.
Under his guidance, Shell adopted many green initiatives and a commitment to
developing renewable energy.
At the same time, Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other activists were hung in
Nigeria for protesting Shell Oil's pollution of the Niger Delta.
Social critic and linguist Noam Chomsky -- the subject of Achbar's 1992
award-winning 'Manufacturing Consent' -- carefully points out that people
who work for corporations, and even those who run them, are often very nice
people.
The same could have been said about many slave owners, he observes. The
institution -- not the people -- is the problem, Chomsky argues.
Eminent economist Milton Friedman sums up the role of the corporation
succinctly: it creates jobs and wealth but is inherently incapable of
dealing with the social consequences of its actions.
'The Corporation' documents a bewildering array of these consequences -- 
including the deaths of citizens who protest corporate ownership of their
water in Cochabamba, Bolivia -- that demonstrate the extent and power of
today's corporations.
It looks at the often-cozy relationships between corporations and fascist
regimes, such as that of IBM and Nazi leader Adolph Hitler.
It demonstrates the power of advertising to create desires for luxury items,
as well as how corporations can suppress information.
The documentary shows agribusiness corporation Monsanto successfully
preventing the news media from airing a story about the potential health
hazards of a genetically engineered drug given to many U.S. diary cows.
'The Corporation' also tells a number of success stories, including
activists' successful fight to overturn corporate patents on the neem tree
and basmati rice.
Bolivia's Oscar Olivera describes how citizens of Cochabamba city re-took
control of their water. The lesson, he explains, is the people's capacity
for "reflection, rage and rebellion" as an effective counter to corporate
globalization
That is one of the film's messages, says Bakan. "We want people to
understand that they can change things."
"Everyone keeps thanking us for making the film," says Mark Achbar, from the
Sundance festival of independent films in Utah state.
"People are fed up with being talked down to and enjoy being intellectually
engaged," he adds, trying to explain the documentary's popularity and
several international festival awards.
Despite its current limited distribution in Canada, 'The Corporation' has
been sold as a three-part, one-hour TV series to international markets, and
Achbar is hoping it will be translated into Spanish.
Of course, there will not be a multi-million marketing campaign. The number
of people who will see it will depend on those who have, spreading the word.
That is just one way to take back the power that corporations have usurped.
Published on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 by the Inter Press Service. ©
Copyright 2004 IPS - Inter Press Service."

I'm very concerned about the direction in which the President is
misleading our country. The policies he is promoting seem to be
motivated by fear, greed, the pursuit of domination, here and abroad,
rather than justice, compassion, or at least concern for the common
good. Unnecessary war with Iraq, exponentially increasing national
defense and military spending, abridging civil liberties, more tax
cuts for the wealthy, ignoring the millions of people at home facing
economic hardship, no job opportunities, etc.; all are providing
little to address the root causes of war around the world, the
undermining of global environmental protection, the feeding instead of
curbing our countries gluttonous appetite for oil. Those policies and
priorities do not reflect my values, America's, or any other civil
persons.

Please help get our country back on the right track. Tell the
President you oppose our war with Iraq. War is not the answer, it's
the question why. Iraq could have been disarmed without war. The
emperor lied about the intelligence he had, said he had intelligence
he didn't, and used intelligence he was told was fabricated 6 months
earlier to justify the next step in his "unending war" plan to give
exponentially more corporate welfare to the republican military
industrial complex, etc.. The weapons inspectors found no WMD's and
they won't, they just lied to the world. The conflict can and must be
resolved peacefully through the cooperative action of the
United Nations. Urge your colleagues in Congress to roll back the USA
Patriot Act, restore our civil liberties, and protect the human
rights and dignity of immigrants and visitors to our country. Oppose
more tax cuts for the wealthy. With mounting deficits, growing
economic disparity, and increasing national and international
challenges, this is not the
time to
cut taxes for those who have benefited the most in our society. Also,
support shifting federal budget priorities away from the military
toward
addressing the increasingly unmet human and environmental needs at
home and
abroad. Promote policies to reduce U.S. energy use and encourage the
development of renewable sources of energy and alternative modes of
transportation. These priorities reflect the values for which I
stand. Let
your Congressmen know you hope you can count on their leadership in
Congress
to help advance them.

Wouldn't the following be a more preferable state of the union
address, though it's exponentially shorter and more real? Before our
country commits itself to an unending chain of human atrocities, the
beginnings of a world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from
the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should our nation not
take
pause to consider, the results of their lack of just action, the
extinction
of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom forefathers bequeathed
us, just
for this moment? Hasn't the basis of our countries birth and growth,
been
on its founding documents, and the spirit of those who imbued them?
Isn't
that spirit that an American affords the rights guaranteed him by this
nation to others, or he's nothing more than a cannibal, hiding behind
supposed, business, science or religion, as fronts for his legal
crime in
the name of free enterprise? Consider these facts :) To cover up
for their
voting fraud, his losing the presidency, and being bequeathed it by
the
Supreme Court, the President planned not preventing a terrorist
attack; he
just didn't think it would be so accurate. The anthrax attacks
coming on
the heels of the purposely not prevented 9-11 attacks, proves they
were
planned in advance and timed to follow the 9-11 attacks, which also
proves
the republican conspiracy knew about 911; and had the follow-up
attacks to
rush this country to war. There were no jets in the air until 50
minutes
after the initial jet hit the first Tower. Those anthrax attacks
have been
proven to be U.S. military anthrax! "We", the people should be
remanding
them to a U.N. atrocities against humanity court, for the 3000 they
premeditatedly mass-murdered, not endorsing their latest attempt to
keep
America ignorant of these facts through imperialistic war. "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". . . Thomas Jefferson. Lest "we" forget, if you don't exercise
responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will wither, as well.
Sadly,
now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you, who, here, where,
now,
when; or if not, possibly never? It would be mine.

Write your own state of the union speech and send it as a letter to
editor
:)
Sample :) ""We" must, again, have gov't of..., by..., for the
people, not
profits." :)
Before our country commits itself to an unending chain of human
atrocities,
the beginnings of another world war to permanently cover-up and divert
attention from the republican conspiracies' latest atrocities, should
our
nation not take pause to consider, the results of their lack of just
action,
the extinction of humanity it will realize, and the wisdom our
forefathers
bequeathed us, just for these times? Hasn't the basis of our
countries
birth and growth, been on its founding documents, and the spirit of
those
who imbued them? Isn't that spirit that an American affords the
rights
guaranteed him by this nation to others, or he's nothing more than a
cannibal, hiding behind supposed, business, science or religion, as
fronts
for his legal crime in the name of supposedly 'free' enterprise? Yet,
'their' delusional profits and delusional pleasures they supposedly
garner
in ever increasingly cyclical and centralizing patterns, from
division and
conquer based tools, based on the definition of destruction and
killing as
power, exact real deficits exponentially higher than the short-term
'material' profits they've deemed they've earned. An e.g., the
closing of
youth programs to increase the amount of mostly poorer and ethnic men
brought into the prison industrial complex 'system', which increases
the
demand for jails to be built, decreasing the amount of money that is
allocated to youth programs, closing more of them, increasing..., ad
infinitum! Another e.g., the delusional profits, the corporate
welfare that
is supposedly garnered from the defacto-slavery of inmates making .03
cents
an hour, costs taxpayers from $60,000 to $150,000 a year per inmate,
real
deficits that are exponentially more. Thomas Jefferson said, "If a
nation
expects to be ignorant and free...it expects what never was and never
will
be". If "we" don't change the course of this nation now, by
remembering
that the length of our responsibility can't be ignored, or else our
experience of freedom will be short, extinction of humanity will be
realized
soon, although it won't actually happen for decades. Lest "we"
forget, if
you don't exercise responsibility, its Siamese sister, freedom, will
wither,
as well. Sadly, now, it first needs to be exorcized. If not, you,
who,
here, where, now, when; or if not, possibly never? Truly Yours,

I'm a known advocate,
mental health professional, writer and poet, especially in the U.S..
As always, feel free to copy and share,
as well. Enjoy a festive eve' as you can. Au revoir.

Matutinally Yours, james m nordlund reality (aja) :)

For those interested :) "of or pertaining to the morning, day :)
relating
to or happening in the morning or in the early part of the day
(formal),
(Mid-16th century, from late Latin matutinalis, from Matuta, goddess
of the dawn.)".  Thank you!   Viva la evolution! 

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