Points of Departure

Allah Don't Surf...

2005-12-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

To those seeking deliverance from the crowded lineups, polluted beaches, and surf rage that now characterize the contemporary wave-riding experience, the mid-20th century is perceived as a sort of saltwater Garden of Eden.

In that bygone era when travel was cheap and surfers were few, anyone with a couple hundred bucks and a backpack could depart from the soul-crushing modern world and emerge days later on an unknown, uninhabited beach which offered perfect year-round surf.

Much has changed in the intervening decades.

Today, on-line reports and webcams are the primary nexus for surf-related communications. Clandestine destinations once spoken of in hushed tones and revealed with the utmost secrecy are now plastered on the Internet for thousands to see. Indeed, the wave-hungry traveler need only log on to surfline.com to find out within seconds which particular region of the world is firing and make his or her reservations accordingly.

Regrettably, many of these pristine beaches are now becoming clogged with surf camps and resorts for the well-to-do that promise crowd-free surfing for the right price. Other spots remain strictly off-limits owing to the fierce determination of locals (both native and ex-pat) to fiercely protect their beloved waves from the invading hordes of board-toting vacationers.

Surf journalist Mike Kew calls this insidious process "Californication"; a tribal practice endemic in parts of Southern California in which a small crew of locals will claim they "own" a particular stretch of beach.

Sadly, this territorial urge is no longer confined to the Golden State. Incidents of surf-related violence have become so prevalent they are even erupting in faraway (and once peaceful)wave utopias like Indonesia, Mauritius, and Fiji.

As the tentacles of this newfound protectionism extend into the farthest reaches of the globe, the Endless Summer mythos may be nearing extinction.

Or is it?

It seems there are still a few remaining beaches largely untainted by crowds, localism, or the greedy depredations of corporate surf gurus.

For those willing to risk their lives for some choice waves, the Islamic world remains largely untapped.

It is worth noting that there is nothing in the Koran forbidding believers from paddling out and enjoying Allah's liquid creations. Unfortunately, among the faithful, political violence remains the most popular extreme sport.

In other words, before heading east, leave the Bhagvat Gita at home and consider investing in some kevlar.

"Yemen is amazing," asserts surf journalist Charles Smith in the August issue of Transworld Surf. "There are more guns per capita then anyplace else in the world, so everyone is packing and serious."

In a tautly-written narrative that sounds like something out of Soldier of Fortune, Smith recounts his perilous attempt to "surf Osama's home break."

After checking out the lay of the land, Smith and a crew of fellow Arab-speaking explorers get their stoke on when they witness an adrenaline-inducing right-hand "peeling off the beached hulk of a ship in the town of Qishn."

Warned by locals that even US Special Forces rarely venture into this notoriously unstable region, the group pack the land cruiser with Russian small arms and head off into the unknown.

After a spine-smashing journey through mountainous roads they come upon a scene that can only be described as "epic."

When local tribesmen descend on the coastal village to wreak havoc and loot the illicit cargo of a Pakistani merchant vessel, they are soon met by government forces and a full-blown firefight ensues.

After an uneasy truce is reached, the Qat-munching stoners paddle out and enjoy a mysto session which Smith describes as "crazy, weird, and psychotic all at the same time."

Could this new breed of surf traveler engender a surf culture within the Islamic world?

Only time will tell...

Karen Hughes, call your pager. I have an idea...

OKC: A Botched Sting Operation?

2005-07-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

"From day one, a surfeit of scientific anomalies and inexplicable events have surrounded the allegedly airtight case against the two men [McVeigh and Nichols]. Indeed, despite widespread belief that the crime has been solved, a number of looming questions remain unanswered. While many would prefer to ignore the shroud of mystery that still envelops this monumental tragedy, to do so wouuld sacrifice perhaps our most valuable commodity: the historical record."

I wrote these words approximately five years ago in my contribution to the Disinfo anthology You Are Being Lied To (Disinfo, 2001).

While I was never one to doubt the culpability of McVeigh and Nichols, to this day I remain disturbed by evidence indicating the presence of multiple bombs inside the Murrah Building and the very real possibility that the lethal blast involved other individuals who are still walking free.

Thanks to reporter JD Cash's bulldog-like tenacity, the truth of what happened that fateful day is starting to emerge.

In a recent dispatch, Cash reveals that the Oklahoma City Bombing investigation (code named OKBOMB) was marginalized from the outset by Justice Department officials largely motivated by what he describes as "political considerations."

Despite empty promises made to the families of the victims that federal officials would "leave no stone unturned" in the investigation, Cash was informed by unnamed Justice Department officials (corroborated by extensive documentation) that "the FBI failed to arrest all the persons involved."

According to Cash, "one former senior member of the DOJ put it in strong terms. He laid blame at the feet of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Forearms" (BATF).

"I knew [Andreas] Strassmeir was central to this crime and I believe Carol Howe, the informant, was dead right," asserts the unnamed official. "She warned the ATF and they blew this whole thing. They knew the details of what was in the works and they messed everything up..."

More to come...

Of Microbes and Men...

2005-06-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

"Death rides triumphant on his pale Horse through our streets, and breaks into every House," wrote a terrified London physician in the deadly summer of 1665. Before year's end, 100,000 would fall victim to the silent depredations of the insatiable "Black Death."

As citizens sought refuge from the fatal presence of this "unholy visitor," the God-fearing people of London would undergo a sort of mass psychosis.

"Those stricken with bubonic plague," writes historian James Leasor, "expected no mercy, and were not disappointed. Shunned by almost everyone with whom they usually came into contact---for blood ties and kinship meant nothing at such a time---they died in agony by the thousand."

Corpses were burned in mass graves. Plague-stricken homes were anointed with an anonymous red cross, and in some instances, the inhabitants were locked inside until the entire household had perished from the deadly disease.

Soon there was a complete breakdown in the social order as grave robbery and drunkeness became all too common.

By the time the plague had run its grisly course, the once crowded city was likened to a living Hell; a desolate charnel house seemingly inundated with the putrid stench of rotting flesh.

While it is tempting to relegate these macabre events to an unenlightened age, if we fast forward three centuries, the malign power of plague to transform men's minds has changed very little.

In modern day South Africa, nearly one in three deaths are attributed to the ongoing AIDS pandemic. In response, a growing minority of free-spirited adolescents are challenging the age-old custom forbidding bestiality.

"We know about AIDS and we are very afraid of it," a high school student informs South Africa's News 24. "That is why we are having sex with these goats. Goats don't have AIDS."

The unnamed 11th grader says he engages in goat play approximately four times a week.

Having spent his formative years watching his elders die from AIDS, he considers his goat-lust a healthy alternative to an early death.

"It's obvious that if I'm not sick there is nothing I can transmit to goats and goats to me," he explains. "We won't become HIV-positive because goats don't get AIDS. We often share the same goat and don't get each other's diseases."

Bestiality has become so prevalent in the African nation, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has issued a bulletin decrying the practice as an "AIDS myth."

"Bestiality is a criminal offence. Charges can be laid under the Criminal Procedure Act and also in terms of the Animals Protection Act," assert SPCA officials.

Another disturbing rumor alleges that having sex with an infant or child is a sure-fire cure for HIV or AIDS. As a result, the nation is witnessing an explosion in child-related sexual offenses.

In 2004 alone, 21,702 cases were referred to the courts. According to official statistics, only 6% were convicted.

"Did you ever read 'Heart of Darkness'? asks Debbie Coetzee, a South African sex crimes detective interviewed by Worldnet Daily. "Well, we are way beyond that point and well on our way towards barbarism."

Meanwhile, a newly-invigorated strain of tuberculosis has suraced in California...

The Last Man Standing...

2005-05-08T20:22:00.000-07:00

Rare is the carpet salesman who can say that his very existence checks the inexorable forces of history. Yet Zablon Simintov is just such a man.

Holed up in Kabul's historic Flower Street synagogue, the 45-year-old enjoys a unique status: he is Afghanistan's last remaining Jew.

His wife and daughters wisely escaped this unstable, war-torn country six years ago. Yet the fierce iconoclast is determined to maintain a Jewish presence in a nation largely known for its embrace of Muslim fundamentalism.

It isn't easy. Having long ago lost his carpet store, Simintov lives a hand-to-mouth existence entreating the rare visitor for gifts of phone cards or whiskey.

It wasn't always like this.

For several years, he carried on his lonely struggle with Ishaq Levin, a determined co-religionist who shared his stubborn determination and avowed sense of purpose.

Unfortunately, that's about the only thing they shared.

It would seem that the two believers lived on opposite ends of the spacious house of worship in a seething atmosphere of mutual hatred.

The flare-up began when religious elders urged the younger Simintov to bring Levin, an elderly man, to Israel. However, this well-intentioned plan backfired when the older man became convinced that his younger colleague was plotting against him in order to eject him from the country and sell the synagogue.

The dispute would reach soon reach epic proportions. Indeed, even the rise of the Taliban regime did little to quell the simmering animosity. Their feuding was so pervasive they blamed their arrest and torture by government religious authorities on one another.

"They beat me with cables and a Kalashnikov," recalls Simintov to the UK Observer. "Ishaq paid them to put me in there. He told them I was a spy." Levin, who suffered the same fate, countered with similar charges.

But alas, before they could forge an uneasy truce, Levin, who was in his 70's, recently left this mortal coil. Aware of his enduring hatred for the deceased man, police initially believed Simintov was the murderer. However, an autopsy revealed that the old man died of natural causes.

The 800-year-old Afghan Jewish community, which once numbered in the tens of thousands after a wave of immigrants resettled from neighboring Iran, now consists of one man.

Facing a bleak, uncertain future in a harsh, inhospitable land, it is difficult to speculate where Simintov will be in five years. Will he fulfill his destiny as Judaism's last man in Afghanistan or will his tale of courageous survival amidst war, terror, and torture engender a second Jewish Diaspora to his chosen homeland?

Only time will tell. But the outspoken man of faith is sure of one thing: he enjoys his newfound solitude.

"The old man was crazy," he remarks bitterly.

The Perils of Serenity

2005-03-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

Call it the freemasonry of the perpetually guilty; a group of unlucky souls who fear their privileged status has given them subconscious yearnings to tell off-color jokes and laugh at Rastafarians. This fancied notion, known as "unconsicous racism," is the core sentiment behind the newest wrinkle in the highly lucrative tolerance industry.

As I've written before, combating the dark forces of hate can be quite a profitable endeavor. However, the ranks of the extreme right have been drying up as of late.

So what better way to keep cashing in on the sensitivity seminars and Ford Foundation grants than to declare the majority of Americans guilty of some ill-defined form of "internalized" racism?

Indeed, according to these self-proclaimed experts, even the most colorblind soldier for social justice might be secretly harboring a klansman within.

"Studies show people can be consciously committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice," observe the good folks at tolerance.org. But alas, these misguided individuals might "still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes."

The horror!

Althought this sounds oddly similar to the kookery propogated by Re-evaluation Counseling and other holdovers from the 70's Human Potential Movement, it is quickly gaining ground in academic circles.

Harvard University is currently pushing forward with a study known as Project Implicit aimed at revealing the sheer prevalence of subconscious bigotry.

It is highly likely that in the coming years we will witness a whole new category of "innately" racist individuals and institutions.

As a matter of fact, someone is already questioning one of America's most sacred fellowships: the 12-Step group.

After two decades in Recovery, author Anne Wayman attended a seminar called "Journey Toward Wholeness---Beyond Racism" and came to a disturbing realization.

"As a white woman who has had a chance to examine my own, mostly unconscious, racism," she writes, "I've come to understand that the myth of perpetual powerlessness, while damaging to me, is often a real barrier for people of color."

She is particularly concerned with the First Step which declares that "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable."

Wayman now believes that "people of color understand powerlessness at a level I probably never will" and considers the whole notion that people are "perpetually powerless" implicitly insensitive to minorities.

Just what was Bill W. thinking?

Wayman now believes that the program needs to "let go of the myth of perpetual powerlessness" and only then will the Recovery movement "reflect true diversity."

Hold on a minute! What's going to happen to the millions of people who have achieved sobriety through 12-Step methods now that one of the steps has been deemed suspect?

Call me psychic, but I'm already envisioning a "Recovering Racists" (Eleven)-Step group...

2005-03-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

For all eternity...

THE ETERNAL HIPPIE: Endless Summer of Love

2005-03-12T21:13:00.000-08:00

Maybe it's my Irish Catholic fatalism, but I've always believed that the "quest for immortality" was merely a metaphor for achieving in life what will be remembered after one's death.

I guess I was wrong.

Ray Kurzweil, an amazingly self-absorbed baby boomer, is seeking immortality in the most literal sense of the word.

The 57-year-old inventor hopes to annoy the hell out of his fellow earthlings well into the next millennium.

"In my view, we are not another animal, subject to nature's whim," he smugly informs the Seattle Times.

Kurzweil envisions a world where microscopic robots or "nanobots" as he calls them, will be injected into the body and programmed to restore aging bones and muscles, unclog arteries, generate brain cells, and perform other life-extending tasks. Even better, genetic upgrades will be available on-line and the human heart will become obsolete.

Before you dismiss his predictions as the demented ramblings of a schizophrenic homeless guy with tin-foil "receptors" attached to his baseball cap, Kurzweil is far from a scientific neophyte.

A recipient of the 1999 Medal of Technology Award, the nation's highest honor, the pioneering researcher is credited with developing one of the first print-to-speech reading machines for the visually impaired. His other innovations include the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, and other advancements in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence.

The MIT graduate predicts that these developments will occur within the next two decades and is closely monitoring his health to ensure that he will live to witness this monumental scientific discovery.

While Kurzweil's utopia might sound tempting to some, should immortality become a commodity, my gut tells me very few will be able to afford this revolutionary panacea for the aging process.

Indeed, while the rest of us pass into the next world, future generations can enjoy the ubiquitous presence of a newly-created Mandarin class of ex-hippies who will maintain their tarnished legacy of bad folk music, political treachery, mindless new age spirituality, First Amendment revisionism, wife swapping, and perpetual self-congratulation for centuries to come...

Suddenly the prospect of death doesn't seem quite so bad...

2005-02-27T13:25:00.000-08:00

Damn dirty apes!

APE SHALL SHAG APE: The Cult of the Pygmy Chimp

2005-02-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

Make no mistake, the bonobo is quite a randy creature. Like a primate version of a wife-swapping 70's leisure cat, the tree-dwelling Pan paniscus spends each day in a perpetual state of erotic frenzy.

When these hot-blooded chimps aren't swapping mates for non-reproductive quickies, the switch-hitting females can be seen engaged in prolonged crotch-grinding sessions while the bi-friendly males have apparently perfected the outdoor sport of "penis fencing."

For decades this smaller cousin of the chimpanzee fondled and frolicked in relative isolation in the lush forests of Africa's Congo River Basin. However, the bonobo's free-loving, pacifistic, vegetarian lifestyle has captivated the imaginations of progressive researchers.

You see, the females don't just party like drunken strippers, they also enjoy a sort of benevolent despotism over the rest of the tribe.

"The species is best characterized as female-centered and egalitarian and as one that substitutes sex for aggression," writes bonobo expert Frans de Waal who considers this discovery "a belated gift to the feminist movement."

Like the hippie-run Freedom School in the 70's cult classic Billy Jack, in this simian micro-society issues of power, control, and violence have been subsumed by an all-consuming focus on love and affection.

"Bonobos are much less aggressive and hot-tempered than are chimpanzees, and are not nearly as prone to physical violence," asserts feminist author Natalie Angiers.

Don't the males ever rebel?

"They seem to be in a perfectly good situation," de Waal believes. "The females have sex with them all the time, and they don't have to fight over it so much among themselves. I'm not sure they've lost anything, except for their dominance."

Should we adopt the pan-sexual, non-violent, bonobo lifestyle, proponents argue, we may one day live in a society without war, violence, greed, or envy.

To further this global crusade, books and web pages are sprouting up in order to propagate the enlightened worldview of the pygmy chimp.

Some are even going so far as attempting to live their lives in accordance with bonobo principles.

"My philosophy of Ethical Hedonism applies the principles of The Bonobo Way to the far more complex, civilized lives of human ladies and gentlemen," chirps cable access sex kitten Dr. Susan Block.

However, it is worth noting that it wasn't that long ago when people believed that the the bonobo's larger cousin, the chimpanzee, was the peace-loving solution to makind's ills. However, the pioneering research of Jane Goodall would later prove that these cuddly creatures were capable of acts of cruelty, violence, and even organized warfare.

Furthermore, USC anthropologist Craig Stanford, a bonobo skeptic, argues that de Waal and others are pursuing a political agenda under the guise of science. According to Stanford, the majority of research has been conducted on bonobo's in captivity when evidence indicates that in the wild, female bonobos "are no more erotic than their chimpanzee counterparts." Field studies have also shown evidence of aggressive behavior by males and even...meat eating!

Obviously much of what we know about the bonobo has likely been distorted by those seeking to validate their own academically-driven theories about the evil nature of men and how a rational society should be run.

Even if these captive bonobos enjoy the occasional ape orgy, how exactly does this help them survive in Africa's untamed wilderness?

"As appealing as their genetic programming may be to the students and faculty of Smith College," writes Steve Sailor, in reality, "there are fewer than 10,000 bonobos alive, no more than 1/20th the number of those testosterone-addled common chimps."

These arguments will likely do little to quell the enthusiasm of the bonobo faithful. And perhaps we will seek their guidance when the apes take over...

2005-02-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Our last hope?

Five Minutes in the Garden of Eden...

2005-02-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

Like most undergrads who attended college during the progressive 1990's, I'm well aware that western exploration was an unqualified disaster for the world's primitive tribes. Nevertheless, I can't help but profess a certain guilty admiration for pioneering pathfinders like John Hanning Speke , and Richard Burton.

Long before the lethal process Conrad called the "merry dance of death and trade" was underway, the two plunged headlong into Africa's uncharted interior and risked their very lives on a single-minded quest to locate the source of the Nile River.

What I find particularly interesting are Speke's experiences as the first European to encounter the many isolated tribes that make up what is now Uganda. One can only wonder what went through his mind when he encountered the surreal court of King Mutesa, the youthful chief of Buganda.

"Hardly a day went by without some victim being executed at his command, and this was done wilfully, casually, almost as a kind of game," remarks historian Alan Moorehead in his illuminating White Nile. "Torture by burning alive, the mutilation of victims by cutting off their hands, ears, and feet, the burial of living wives with their dead husbands---all these things were taken as a matter of course."

However, since the 1986 Seville Statement absolved preliterate cultures of violent behavior, the excesses of Mutesa's reign have largely been airbrushed from the historical record.

Today, clove-smoking modern primitives adorn their bodies with piercings and tribal tattoos in the hopes of recapturing their primordial instincts and anarcho-primitives rail against technology and perceive stone age settings as a sort of utopian alternative to the modern world.

Perhaps it was only a matter of time before someone decided to capitalize on this popular reverence for Rousseau's "noble savage."

The February issue of Outside magazine features a fascinating adventure narrative by David Behar that recounts his harrowing odyssey into the untamed rainforests of West Papua, Indonesia.

Behar's trek was chartered by a company known as Papua Adventures which specializes in "First Contact" expeditions that allow tourists to interact with authentic native tribes who remain untainted by contact with the western world.

"We'll meet 'em, share a little tobacco, chill for a bit, and then move on---like passing nomads," explains Kelly Woolford, the 43-year-old ex-pat who heads Papua adventures. Woolford's inaugural expedition was in 2003 when the Missouri native led two Europeans on a successful first contact.

"We were out for almost two weeks when we came upon the 'new' tribe, he writes on the Papua Adventures web page. "They escorted us to their makeshift bushshelter. We offered them tobacco and they didn't want it. We offered them some biscuts to eat and they refused that too. The chief talked to us for several minutes, but we couldn't understand his language. Then the chief signaled us to go and then they walked away into the jungle."

Not exactly worthy of a made-for-TV movie but then again, who can put a price on communing (however briefly) with an authentic primitive tribe?

Behar's group fare far worse and the brief encounter turns ugly when they are chased off by hostile tribesmen. However, after returning home, he remains haunted with the thought that perhaps the entire episode was staged.

Woolford is adamant that what they saw was real. "Papua is so weird, you don't need to stage anything. It's the land of the unexpected," he explains. This view is immediately contradicted by an expert of Behar's acquaintance who analyzed video footage of the expedition.

"I'm 95% sure it is a hoax," says William Foley of the University of Sydney. The anthropologist informs Behar that he detects several anomalies such as the lack of skin ailments which are commom among West Papua's bushmen and he finds that the tribal dress is far "too elaborate" for a mere hunting party. "All those headdresses---no way."

Other experts agree with this finding but Woolford is standing firm and argues that objections to his endeavors are largely rooted in an institutional bias among anthropologists who have long dominated this field of exploration. "If you are fit, and you want to pay, then you should have the right to go," he says.

Behar remains unsure what exactly he saw.

"My intuition tells me that what I saw on our trek can't possibly exist. But what if it does? What if West Papua is the last place on earth where ghosts of the past still thrive in the present---where the surreal becomes real?"

Unfortunately, denizens of on-line world don't exactly share Behar's sentiment. Indeed, Woolford has already earned a place at the Museum of Hoaxes web page where he is currently being derided by skeptical readers as an unsavory chisler whose so-called "tribes" are little more than locals decked out in Gilligan's Island headhunter garb.

"I call BS," remarks an irate poster. "If some sap pays for that, they shouldn't have had the money in the first place."

Does Woolford merit this opprobrium? Hardly. I reserve my contempt for the legions of coddled, wannabe Shamen who would believe that conversing (however briefly) with a primitive will somehow lend credence to their fanciful theories as to the superiority of uncivilized man.

2005-02-07T00:41:00.000-08:00

Sheer Madness

REVIEWS: The Crowd

2005-02-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind
by Gustave Le Bon
Dover books, 2002 (originally published in 1895)
139 pages

Like many social critics of the late 19th century, Gustave Le Bon was not a particularly cheerful man. Whether this can be ascribed to the terminal pessimism that seems hardwired into the DNA of French intellectuals or a sincere belief that better times are behind us is open to speculation. One fact is certain: the irascible theorist was obsessed with the sinister machinations of large crowds. "When the structure of a civilization is rotten," he warns, "it is always the masses that bring about its downfall."

So begins one of the more incendiary works in the history of western thought. Having influenced the likes of Hitler and Mussolini, it would be an understatement to say this pioneering study of crowd psychology is still tainted by controversy over a century since its publication. Yet it would be foolhardy to dismiss this pivotal book merely because of its small-but-infamous readership and the author's intemperate opinions(which were quite common at that time).

Looking beyond these superficial critiques, Le Bon's analysis contains many astute observations about the nature of crowds and mass movements that are quite applicable to our time. Although often shortchanged for its reliance on "generalizations," one must keep in mind that these observations occurred in the bitter aftermath of the Franco-Prussian debacle, the Commune, and the Boulanger affair. These historical events are effectively used by Le Bon to anchor his arguments about the suggestibility and underlying hysteria that tends to characterize crowd behavior.

So what exactly does Le Bon have to say about crowds?

For one, regardless of intellect or class status, when anyone gravitates towards a crowd or vast collective, a process begins that entails a sort of mental tranformation as the contagious and all pervasive crowd mentality permeates the mind. "From the moment that they become part of a crowd," Le Bon observes, "the learned man and the ignoramus are equally incapable of observation."

Thus, even the most distinguished and sophisticated member of a given society can fall victim to what he calls "the law of the mental unity of crowds." Le Bon speculates that this may explain why "the most savage members of the French Convention" were primarily "inoffensive citizens, who, under ordinary circumstances, would have been peaceable notaries or virtuous magistrates."

Recent history provides further examples of this phenomenon. As Ervin Staub points out in The Roots of Evil (Cambridge, 1989), Germany's feared assassination squads, the Einsatzgruppen, included in its numbers college professors, public officials, lawyers, an opera singer, and a Protestant minister. However, this strange form of madness is largely ephemeral; quite often the same individuals willing to engage in group violence are quick to return to their normal status once this stimuli is removed.

This provides yet another paradox: while crowds are certainly susceptible to acts of revolt and impulsive violence, mass man is also inexplicably drawn towards authority. In essence, his quest for power is often matched by an inexplicable love of fawning before a benevolent dictator. As Le Bon remarks, "should the strength of an authority be intermittent, the crowd, always obedient, to its extreme sentiments, passes alternately from anarchy to servitude, and from servitude to anarchy."

For the most part, the crowd is largely uninterested in hearing rational arguments about what is in one's better interests. Crowds are far more susceptible to suggestion and speeches and propaganda emphasizing glory, tragedy, sacrifice, patriotism, vengeance, and war. Le Bon asserts that truth needn't ever be an obstacle in whipping up the popular imagination. "The unreal has almost as much influence on them as the real," he observes, "they have an evident tendency not to distinguish between the two."

Having provided a general guide to understanding the motives of crowds, Le Bon provides a fascinating taxonomy of various crowd types ranging from religious sects to criminal gangs to parliamentary assemblies. Yet throughout this discussion the same rules he sets forth earlier in the book can be applied to these vastly different mass gatherings.

This begs an important question: if the madness of crowds has proven so problematic throughout history, is there any sort of corrective action we might take to rechannel the energies of the crowd in a more positive direction?

Le Bon is of the opinion that the sheer irrationality and complexity of this powerful social force make it both foolhardy and against the laws of history to engender any sort of "sudden and far-reaching transformations."

Like a runaway train, the crowd can only head in a single direction: toward the abyss.

Le Bon's misunderstood little book would prove to be strangely prophetic. The impending "era of crowds" that sent shivers down his spine would display its awesome destructive power with the rise of totalitarian Europe.

We have since learned that there is a well-defined causative link between the expansion of state power and incidents of death-by-government. Yet citizens across the world continue to demand that government play a greater role in their lives. Why?

We may never know but this long-forgotten study offers a few plausible (albeit disturbing) answers.

2005-01-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

Living in filth...

JOURNEY INTO MADNESS: The Animal Collector

2005-01-17T14:37:00.000-08:00

(First in an occasional series)

At first glance, it looks like any other suburban residence. But the mask is starting to slip. The front lawn is littered with makeshift kennels. A pungent odor of animal dung intermingled with rotting flesh is beginning to emanate from behind tightly shuttered windows. Perhaps a perceptive ear will detect the feral cries of the inhabitants inside.

This isn't any ordinary home; it is a charnal house for unfortunate creatures, a concentration camp for pets forced to live (and often die) in agonizing squalor.

Meet the animal hoarder.

Perhaps it all begins with a couple of stray kittens. Then, slowly, the descent into madness begins. This once wholesome display of affection for God's creatures becomes an insatiable greed; more and more animals must be obtained in order to palliate the twisted needs of a diseased mind.

Situated in a lovely tree-lined section of Caroline County, Maryland, Chubbers Animal Rescue enjoyed a special status in the community as a loving sanctuary for the region's stray cats. Linda Farve and Ernie Mills, the proprietors, had even met with the local humane society to ensure that their operation was recognized as a reputable animal shelter. There was even a web page to assist in outreach efforts.

However, on May 1st, 2003, animal control officers, police, and volunteers from the Caroline County Humane Society (CCHS) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) came knocking.

"In one part of the house, we were stepping on several layers of feces and skeletons," remembers Krista Hughes a volunteer from the HSUS. "It was disgusting. The amount of filth was unbelievable."

As the tragic story unfolded, it was found that the couple possessed some 350 cats of which 70 were in "various stages of decomposition." Along with the pervasive stench of death, those who entered this strange house of horrors encountered "surfaces covered with inches of waste and garbage."

The surviving animals suffered from severe neglect evidenced by dehydration and starvation along with cases of feline AIDS and leukemia.

The two misguided pet lovers were subsequently convicted of felony animal cruelty. Farve and Mills were given three month jail terms, fined, and prohibited from owning any animals for the next five years.

The mismanaged shelter, which one volunteer described as a "a rescue gone wrong nightmare," is worth noting as this wasn't the absent-minded neglect of an aging "cat lady," but two articulate and self-professed cat lovers who actually believed they were helping the animals in their care.

This is all too often the case.

"[Hoarders] are in a state of denial that prevents them from seeing the filth or understanding their animals are sick, dying or dead," asserts Gini Barrett, director of the American Humane Association Western Regional Office in a Psychiatric Times article discussing this strange phenomenon.

According to the aforementioned article, there is scant medical or clinical literature on this disturbing pathology and we can only speculate what drives the animal hoarder to accumulate and neglect animals. Indeed, there are numerous competing theories and suspected motivations for why people hoard and mistreat animals.

Obviosly there is some type of delusional thinking at work as many accused hoarders will often speak of a shaman-like ability to communicate with animals and, despite evidence to the contrary, will protest that their pets are in perfect health and receive the highest standards of care.

Among the elderly, obsessive hoarding may be symptomatic of cognitive decline. Yet others contend that the poor impulse control, self-isolation, and fear of persecution that often characterizes this type of animal abuse is a form of addiction. Another theory argues that the collecting is rooted in an inability to sustain adult relations with others. To make up for this, the individual focuses all of his or her attentions towards animals. Others believe that the hoarder is a frustrated individual who thrives on the feeling of power that he or she enjoys by controlling the lives of the animals.

There is also an overlap between the hoarding of worthless consumer items and the amassing of pets. Perhaps the pets become mere objects that must be retained whether living or dead lest the hoarder experience profound anxiety.

According to the Hoarding of Animal Research Coalition (HARC), we can expect an estimated 5,000 hoarding cases per year with a quarter million animals suffering from this deadly form of benign neglect.

Regardless of one's opinion of the mentally ill, the animal hoarder is an altogether unsympathetic figure. Certainly cases among the elderly that involve some form of dementia merit a degree of compassion and understanding. Yet it is difficult to empathize with the remainder that usually involve someone crudely deploying animals (and animal corpses) like props to lend meaning to an otherwise marginal existence.

To paraphrase Camus, it would seem that the welfare of pets can often prove to be the alibi of tyrants.

THE ACID CONSPIRACY

2005-01-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

.

Growing up with the unsettling prospect of nuclear annihilation does strange things to people.

This thought always comes to mind whenever I see a Vietnam-era photo of hippies frolicking.

Then again, perhaps there is something more to the flower child zeitgeist that remains indecipherable to the rest of us.

Therein lies an interesting conspiracy theory.

I'm currently reading David Black's indispensable Acid: A New Secret History of LSD (Vision 2001) which recounts in fascinating detail the drug's trajectory from a promising treatment for schizophrenia to its current status as a highly illicit substance.

In a section aptly titled "Grand Illusions," Black asks a highly provocative question: was the psychedelic era in all its revolutionary grandeur an organic countercultural phenomenon or a clandestine government experiment in social control?

"Any counter-insurgency operation with access to the discoveries of the CIA's MK-Ultra project would have available an arsenal of techniques when faced with political challenge," he remarks ominously.

The aforementioned project remains one of the more shadowy chapters in the agency's unsavory history.

Although most documents pertaining to the project were destroyed in 1973, we do know that in the 1950's, secret mind control studies were conducted in response to reports of communist brainwashing techniques.

In the hopes of winning this "battle of the minds," the coercive potential of various mind-altering substances (including LSD) were extensively explored on human subjects.

Fast forward ten years or so, and the US is facing the worst domestic unrest since the Great Depression. Thousands of anti-war protesters are challenging US involvement in Vietnam with increasingly volatile hippie-led demonstrations posing a major threat to the established order.

By 1968, the CIA was effectively in charge of all "anti-dissident operations" as part of an infamous program known as "Operation CHAOS."

Considered one of the most invasive surveillance operations in US history, the CIA worked hand-in-glove with the FBI agents and procavateurs to monitor, disrupt, and isolate suspect individuals and political groups.

Meanwhile, the psychedelic subculture was being closely monitored by government-connected think tanks like the Rand corporation.

According to an excerpt from Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain's renowned Acid Dreams, William McClothlin, a Rand analyst, issued a report suggesting that LSD can engender "changes in dogmatism" and "political affiliation."

Black places an acid-dealing arms dealer with intelligence connections named Ronald Stark at the center of this cognitive counter-insurgency campaign.

From his clandestine European laboratories, Stark was trafficking in millions of hits of LSD which resurfaced in hippie enclaves throughout America.

This wasn't the mind-expanding LSD-25 of the Leary era, but a mass-produced,synthetic version which Black says was "much more hedonistic" and capable of "merely amplifying what was already there, including much that was negative."

He quotes legendary 60's icon, marijuana reform activist, and former White Panther leader John Sinclair who remains puzzled by the events that transpired during those turbulent years:

"We thought at the time that as a result of our LSD-inspired activities great things would come about. And of course it didn't...They were moving that shit around. Down on the street, nobody knew what was going on."

Sinclair also points out that the influx of LSD, Heroin, and STP into the 60's drug scene coincided with the federal government's Operation Intercept which effectively curtailed the domestic supply of marijuana and led many to experiment with other substances.

Is it beyond the realm of imagination to believe that elements within the national security community willingly flooded the underground economy with poor-quality LSD as part of its take-no- prisoners strategy against anti-war protesters?

Let's be honest, somebody had to be high to believe that a group of guitar-strumming hippies were capable of transforming the USA into some sort of Maoist worker's paradise...

Obviously the "Revolution Trip" had a far-reaching impact on baby boom adolescents. While many acid-fueled seekers engaged in fruitless political adventurism by embracing the "armed struggle," others gravitated towards ashrams, communes, and various cultic confabulations that emerged during the spiritual crisis of the 1970's.

Since that time, the "freedom generation" have obviously come to terms with these youthful indiscretions.

While many former hippies have played a commendable role in working to reform the nation's draconian anti-narcotic laws, the vast majority of baby-boomers now wholeheartedly support the government's militarized campaign against mind-altering substances.

"Boomers have collaborated and shamelessly switched sides on the war on drugs with full knowledge of the repercussions," asserts Reason staffer Jeff Jarvis.

Did bad acid help abort the 60's agenda of total cognitive freedom?

Probably not.

Nevertheless, Black's informed speculations indicate that there may be more to the 60's experience than meets the eye.

2004-12-20T01:09:00.000-08:00

Dwarf Hater

THE LITTLEST CLASS ENEMIES: North Korea's Dwarf Obsession

2004-12-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

"The race of dwarves must disappear." Obviously this statement betrays a severely disturbed mind. Yet the man responsible for this cruel edict is no mere streetcorner schizophrenic. He is Kim Jung Il the unchallenged dictator of North Korea. And in this far outpost of communist rule, these infantile outbursts are received by his trembling underlings with all the veneration one would grant to a living God.

Some eight years after the diminutive despot issued this harsh dictum, the nation's dwarf population has been placed on a fast track toward obsolescence.

This won't be the first time dwarves have suffered under totalitarian rule. "In circuses in Germany, midgets and dwarfs were reported to be in short supply after World War II," asserts historian Frederick Drimmer. It would seem that National Socialism and dwarfs were deemed incompatible and some 10,000 were put to death under Nazi Hereditary Health Laws.

While the deranged leader has yet to achieve his goal of a nation completely devoid of little people, South Korean intelligence sources indicate that "management of the disabled" has become a major focus among North Korea's communist party leadership.

Beginning in 1960, in the interests of making Pyongyang the "revolutionary capital" of the nation, an extensive survey of city residents was undertaken for the singular purpose of expelling the disabled from the city.

Since that time, this twisted social engineering project has become far more extensive. By the 1990's, party officials initiated a "dwarf search team" specifically dedicated to rounding up and resettling the nation's smallest residents.

According to the testimony of Hwang Jang-yop, a North Korean defector, "concentration camps" have been set up in South Hamkyung province to house "persons of very short stature." The gulag-like facilities were constructed at the behest of Kim Il-Sung to "prevent dwarves from multiplying."

In the hopes of eliminating any traces of dwarfism in the nation's collective gene pool, the short-statured dissidents are forbidden to marry and are forcibly sterilized. If the condition is deemed hereditary by party health officials, entire families are sterilized as well.

It is difficult to discern any kind of Marxist programmatic goal behind this cruel policy. Perhaps the anti-dwarf campaign reflects a growing move toward Eugenics in the communist east.

However, before we recoil in horror at this disturbing attempt to crudely remodel the human species, in the west, advances in prenatal testing are allowing 21st century mothers to detect whether or not their child will be born with Achondroplasia, the genetic defect which causes dwarfism.

Obviously fears of having an "abnormal" child will tempt many would-be mothers to consider terminating the pregnancy. In one high-profile case four years ago, an Australian couple opted to abort a 32-week old fetus after testing at a Melbourne hospital resulted in a diagnosis of dwarfism.

The controversial decision by doctors to allow the late-stage abortion outraged Australia's dwarf community.

"It needs to be reinforced that dwarfism is not a death sentence and life remains very much full of promise," Francis Kelly the spokesman for Short-Statured People of Australia (SSPA) informed reporters for The Age.

Unfortunately, the looming temptation to create a race of aesthetically-pleasing, perfect children could outweigh any ethical considerations.

Is the dwarf becoming an endangered species?

2004-12-18T19:45:00.000-08:00

Hoaxed again!

THE BIGOT WITHIN: The (Im)Perfect (Hate) Crime

2004-12-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

If you attended college here in the People's Republic of California, chances are, you probably suffered the misfortune of encountering a Kerri Francis Dunn.

You know the type, the shrill, bullhorn-toting "activist" hell-bent on ridding the world of "intolerance."

What I find particularly annoying about these sage-burning Stalinists is how rarely they point out that government is often the biggest transgressor when it comes to committing heinous acts (racist or otherwise). Indeed, usually their prescription for a rainbow-hued world is more government!

In other words, they want the same trigger-happy feds who carried out the Waco killings to enforce their allegedly "humanistic" beliefs at gunpoint.

You might call Kerri and her tin-foil-hat-wearing colleagues the snitches and hall monitors of the far left; a bizarre subculture of paranoids who believe the entire country is being threatened by a toxic confederation of violent skinhead gangs, clandestine Nazi cartels, Klansmen, and other influential purveyors of "hate."

Unfortunately, this fervent belief in the malevolent powers of the racist mind often collides with reality.

In case Kerry and her fellow true believers haven't heard, organized racism is on the decline. Indeed, the notion that well-organized, corporate-sponsored hate mongers spend every waking hour terrorizing their fellow citizens flies in the face of a UCLA study compiled a decade ago which found that "less than five percent" of those accused of committing hate crimes in Los Angeles County "were identified as members of organized hate gangs or associations." While this study may be somewhat dated, there is little reason to believe there has been any major statistical shift.

And what about those allegations that 9/11 was going to fuel Anti-Arab violence ?

In actuality, FBI statistics reveal that bias-related violence dropped 25% in the year following the shocking terrorist attack. Further complicating the picture are figures indicating that Black males are disproportionately prosecuted for hate crime offenses.

Obviously these self-professed hate hunters need an unsettling dose of reality.

Regardless of how many video stores rent copies of D.W. Griffith's Birth of Nation, tribalism bas been a defining characteristic of the human species since the dawn of man. No amount of campus "teach-ins," patchouli oil, or angry letters to college newspapers is going to eliminate our innate need to identify and associate with those who look like ourselves.

Instead of celebrating the fact that America has come a long way in the past century and working toward improving the lives of everyone, the Kerri Dunns of the world seek to embroil the public in endless (and soporific) debates about race. Debates I might add, which often serve to create racial tensions where none exist.

While it is one thing to point out and educate about past (and current) injustices, it's another to declare that the US is teetering on the brink of a racial bloodbath led by a bloodthirsty mob of homicidal rednecks.

Nevertheless, the "hate crime" serves to validate this dark scenario and apparently one day last March, Kerri Dunn needed a great deal of validation.

According to the Pasadena Star News, prosecutors allege that the embattled professor, who once taught psychology at prestigious Claremont McKenna, allegedly vandalized her own vehicle in a bizarre attempt to "rally the Claremont Colleges against racism and intolerance."

For her efforts, Dunn has been convicted of insurance fraud and faces jail time. Nevertheless, her ploy certainly worked.

Classes were cancelled the next day so students and faculty could hold a fist-pumping anti-racist Woodstock on the various Claremont campuses. The FBI was contacted. And the collective hand wringing which transpired was downright stomach churning. Of course she took the time to report all of this to her insurance company---and that's where she screwed up.

Now it would seem that the only intolerance is being directed towards the erstwhile victim whose story quickly fell apart when two witnesses came forward.

Apparently Dunn was so caught up in the speech she planned to deliver that fateful evening on hate crimes [what timing!] that she failed to notice people were watching her paint racist slogans on her car, slash her tires, and cave in a few windows for good measure.

Poor Kerry is still denying the charges ("racist conspiracy" anybody?). However, I have to concede she truly has brought Americans closer together.

I'm certain people of all races will agree that Kerri Dunn is a noxious blowhard.

UPDATE: At Dunn's December 16 sentencing hearing, Pomona Superior Court Judge Charles Horan gave the defrocked professor a withering tongue lashing.

According to Horan, Dunn's poorly-staged one-woman show "terrorized" minority undergrads and threw a cloud of suspicion over their white counterparts that could well have triggered "racial violence" (Irony alert).

Along with a year in prison, Horan ordered Dunn to recompense Claremont College nearly $20,000 for the cost of added security measures and canceled classes. The unrepentant hoaxer was also ordered to pay police an unspecified amount for the resources expended investigating her groundless claims.

Although her parents urged the court to let their daughter return home to New Jersey to obtain psychological help, the court was unmoved. The judge conceded that Dunn had some serious mental issues but her inability to admit any wrongdoing left him no alternative.

Meanwhile, despite Dunn's noticeable absence, the Claremont campus community remains free of racist terror.

THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS: Japan's Internet Suicides

2004-12-05T19:53:00.000-08:00

To face death unflinchingly. This simple credo remains one of the defining characteristics of the Samurai mythos. While it is tempting to dismiss this sentiment as a mere metaphor for bravery, it is worth noting that the cultural significance of ritual suicide (seppuku) led the warrior poets of this bygone era to create a macabre lexicon of death.

To cite but a few examples, Shinju was used to describe a suicide pact carried out by desperate lovers. Kanshi or "suicide through remonstration" was infrequently employed to sway a political leader when other methods failed. Sokotsu-shi was an act of self-sacrifice designed to appease one's ancestors in repentance for an egregious offense. Junshi entailed killing oneself to display reverence for a fallen leader.

Centuries later, this obsession with facilitating one's own demise remains an integral part of the Japanese psyche.

However, the modern age is giving a new twist to this age-old ritual.

Currently, death-driven Japanese web surfers are logging on in order to form suicide pacts with other troubled souls in what is being called netto Shinju or Net suicide.

Although the trend began some two years ago, the past few months have seen a sharp spike in this Internet-driven phenomenon. Since the first case was reported two years ago, close to 70 people have perished in nearly two dozen of these fatal gatherings.

In one of the worst recorded incidents, police discovered seven corpses on October 12th in a van parked north of Tokyo. Wrapped in a blue plastic shroud, the vehicle was transformed into a lethal death chamber after the victims fired up four charcoal stoves for the purpose of inducing carbon monoxide poisoning.

This seems to be the most popular method with the majority of the deceased consisting of young men in their 20's. However, a greater number of young women and older men are starting to take part in this unsettling trend.

What many find particularly inexplicable is why these desperate individuals choose to die with someone they barely know. Kiyohiko Ikeda, a professor at Yamanashi University, speculates that they attain a certain amount of "solace in finding someone similar to themselves through the Net, ready to join in their attempt to kill themselves."

As Japan struggles after a decade-long economic downturn, many believe the limited opportunities available to the nation's young will add momentum to what is already a skyrocketing suicide rate. According to recent statistics over 34,000 citizens took their lives in 2003.

Unlike the Samurai who were quite explicit about their reasons for death, a jisei, or death-poem left by a 24-year-old man who perished last year in a reported net suicide, offers little insight into his motivations.

"We don't know the reason why we want to die," he writes. "We've [sic] got together to die peacefully."

It would seem that old habits die hard.

FORCE FEEDING IN MAURITANIA: The Occult Powers of Food

2004-11-27T01:27:00.000-08:00

Here in the land of plenty, food is a daily obsession. Every waking hour we are surrounded by dueling social forces compelling us to maintain a desirable, athletic physique, and, at the same time, eat heartily lest we take for granted the benefits of living in the richest country in the world.

Yet in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, the right to stay thin is a highly contentious issue according to a recent article in the Khaleej Times.

In an inversion of contemporary American values, Fatima, a ten-year-old resident of Noukachott, risks being branded an outcast for she is defying centuries of tradition by resisting the age old custom of "gavage" or force-feeding.

The fattening up of would-be-brides is rooted in the enduring belief among Mauritania's dominant White Moor Arab Population that a woman's portly appearance "symbolizes high social stature."

To ensure that girls have achieved this physical ideal, the Times reports that "psychological pressure" and in some instances, "physical force" is used in the gavage ritual. In a collective effort to secure a wealthy son-in-law, families often set aside significant quantities of food (usually milk) lest their daughters be shunned by would-be suitors.

When these measures fail, families turn to women like Fatematou, who runs a "fat farm" in Atar, a wind-swept city located in the Northern Sahara. "I make them eat lots of dates, lots and lots of couscous and other fattening food," she tells the BBC's Pascale Harter.

While the pre-teen rebel seems an unlikely freedom fighter, Fatima is openly revolting against the pre-nuptial procedure. "They’re turning me into a machine being prepared for sale. I want to stay thin and light. My four sisters can hardly walk from their weight,” she remarks.

Fearing long-term health effects for Mauritania's women, a UN-sponsored ministry for women and children was formed to combat the custom. Unfortunately, nearly two-thirds of current brides admit to having been force-fed.

However, Sociologist Mohammed al-Amin weld Mohammed believes that the nation's obsession with obese women isn't merely rooted in economic considerations as it is also "considered beautiful."

Force feeding isn't limited to Mauritania. On the African continent where food is often scarce, this particular fetish has no lack of historical precedent. Indeed, in Alan Morehead's White Nile, the renowned historian discusses the "provincal court" of Rumanika, a 19th century tribal chieftain who ruled over a vast territory in what is now modern day Uganda:

"He [Rumanika] kept an extraordinary harem of wives who were so fat, they could not stand upright, and instead grovelled like seals about the floors of their huts. Their diet was an uninterrupted flow of milk that was sucked from a gourd through a straw, and if the young girls resisted this treatment they were force-fed like the pate de foie gras ducks of Strasbourg: a man stood over them with a whip."

However, Conspiracy researcher Tim O'Neill believes that this ancient fetish dates back to our primitive ancestors. In a provocative essay appearing in Adam Parfrey's incomparable Apocalypse Culture anthology, he argues that the erotic properties of corpulent women "emerges out of a kind of folk-wisdom that stretches back to the Paleolithic era."

There is evidence for his assertion. Archeologists conducting research on the island of Malta have discovered ruins indicating the former presence of a Neolithic fertility cult whose adherents "associated obesity with fertility."

While little is known about this unknown tribe, its existence is evidenced by ornate temples occupied by statues depicting profoundly obese women. One might easily speculate that this age-old fertility cult lives on today in the minds of Mauritania's menfolk.

Should the industrialized world fall victim to disaster, famine, and food shortages, one wonders if this unique archetype will be reawakened in the western imagination.

OPENING PANDORA'S BOX:

2004-11-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

I just finished a new piece for drugwar.com.

CN

"...These aren't the ruminations of a crew of stoners swapping conspiracy theories over bong hits in the back of a van, but the opinion of a nationally recognized organization of experts in such diverse fields as science, law, ethics, and medicine. While it is hoped that the Center's learned observations will engender greater public debate about the vaccines, this authoritative document is also invaluable as it explores the underlying motivations behind this backdoor attempt by government officials to claim ownership to our minds..."

To read entire article click here.

RECOVERY IN RUSSIA: Inside a Detox Gulag

2004-11-11T08:39:00.000-08:00

Welcome drugwar.com readers and thanks to Preston for the link.

CN

Victoria Malakhova could care less whether you "work your steps," find your inner-child, or connect with some unnamed "higher power." Instead, the iron-fisted director of the most brutal drug treatment center in Russia is interested in only one thing: results.

"Isolation, bread and water, that's all one needs to deal with withdrawal," she informs a western journalist.

Welcome to City Without Drugs (CWD) and the sadistic world of Recovery---Russian style.

Situated in the industrial city of Yekaterinburg, some 900 miles east of Moscow, the mere mention of this notorious facility sends shudders down the spines of Moscow's needle-scarred street urchins.

"On the first day we beat them with belts until their buttocks turn blue," Igor Varov, a co-founder of the renowned facility informs Mark Franchetti of London's Sunday Times.

The controversial practice usually involves some 300 lashes. "Every week we have to buy a new belt because they go too soft, but we have been impressed with the quality of Gucci belts," Varov explains.

However, CWD officials aren't merely punishing their unfortunate charges for losing the battle with addiction, they strongly believe that drug use can be cured with a strong dose of old-fashioned Slavic cruelty.

"Drug addicts are animals who have lost all sense of values," Varov asserts. "This way, the next time they think about getting a fix they remember the pain of the thrashing rather than the rush of the drugs. It's very effective. You cannot solve this with mild manners - you need tough measures."

After a rigorous beating, the recovering junkies are then handcuffed to a bed where they undergo the agonies of withdrawal while living on a strict diet of bread and water.

Those who make it through this harrowing ordeal and are considered drug-free graduate to performing harsh physical labor and other errands in a starkly ascetic environment. Any backsliding by these newly-liberated addicts invites violent reprisals.

The questionable cure at Yekaterinburg typically lasts 12 months and many parents pay over $1,000 to CWD to get their children off of drugs---an exorbitant fee in Russia.

Founded in 1999 to counteract an epidemic of addiction among Russian youth, the center is an outgrowth of a concerted vigilante effort by powerful (and allegedly mob-connected) local businessmen to stem the drug trade. Suspected dealers have been threatened, and in some instances assaulted by local anti-drug zealots.

CWD also acts as an informal intelligence-gathering arm of the state with a sophisticated pager network fielding thousands of tips alleging illict drug activity.

However, these dedicated drug warriors aren't interested in confining their activities to Yekaterinburg.

"With a typical lack of modesty, the fund's founders say their approach should serve as a model not only for Russia but for the West, too," reports the Holland Sentinel.

This sounds highly unlikely here in the states where 12-step methods are considered the "cornerstone" of addiction treatment. Indeed, since the inception of Alcoholics Anonymous over six decades ago, recovery has become a publicly accepted ritual rooted in the belief that substance abuse is caused by a medically-recognized "disease" as opposed to a mere lack of willpower.

Then again, studies indicate that 12-step methods are questionable at best and many qualified experts are openly challenging the once sacrosanct "disease" theory. Should this growing dissent become the accepted wisdom, this may create a vast therapeutic void that will unleash a whole new approach to treating drug addiction.

It is worth noting that Alcoholics Anonymous emerged in a similar environment. Medical efforts to treat alcoholism were sharply curtailed after anti-drinking advocates decided that state-enforced prohibition was the only available method to stem excessive drinking.

When this "noble experiment" failed, AA stepped into the breach.

Let's hope the control freaks at NIDA aren't in contact with the Russians.

BOLSHEVISM UNBOUND: The New (Erotic) Face of Communism

2004-11-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

To be a Bolshevik in the halcyon days of the Comintern was akin to belonging to the largest street gang in the world. It was a ruthless demimonde where murder was used as a mild reprimand and 20 million deaths a mere statistic. Despite this squalid atmosphere of political gangsterism and rampant corruption, there was no shortage of "useful idiots" willing to believe in the so-called Soviet "experiment."

Obviously much has changed.

Today Russo-Communism and its many variants are viewed as a mordibund ideology that will perhaps best be remembered for facilitating the greatest organized organized slaughter of humans in recent history.

But why all this talk about corpses? Can't people understand that communism is just plain sexy?

This highly effective recruiting strategy is being deployed by Russia's National Bolshevik Party in the hopes of winning new adherents.

Apparently the days have long since passed when a few evil geeks could generate enthusiasm among Russia's disaffected youth.

With bedroom eyes, lustful gazes, and intense revolutionary stares, a flock of new model appar[chicks] are featured on the group's web page to entice the eyes of wavering Trotskyites and other prospective party members.

"We need guys, who have tied their life with the Party, only in her see [sic] theirs destiny, believe in [the]Party, like in God and only during their sleep allow dreams about our steel [sic]dictator ship, but at day work for the party with severe or merry faces," reads a proclamation urging the Party's need for [sic] "45 Gebbels and Dzerzhinskiys."

According to the NBP Manifesto, the embattled political group which fuses Communist ideology with Nazi-era blood and soil mysticism seeks to generate what the organization calls "life expanse"--- defined as "territory, language, education, natural resources, transport passages, non-killed ecology, workplaces, social and economic niches, attractive and healthy women etc."

Will the party succeed in its quest to place a permanent roadblock on Russia's road to freedom?

Only time will tell. In the meantime, the NBP's tattooed "combat girlfriends" will continue their quixotic quest to turn back the clock and return to Russia's dark and frightening past.

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

2004-10-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let my small (but dedicated) readership know that my writing will be appearing in an upcoming book published by the good folks at disinfo.

If you're interested, Under the Influence: The Disinfo Guide to Drugs is already available on Amazon.

Preston Peete, my colleague and editor at drugwar.com, has done a superlative job bringing together an eclectic mix of esteemed drug war dissidents such as Paul Krassner, Daniel Forbes, Steve Wishnia, Jacob Sullum, Peter Dale Scott, Ethan Nadelman, and a host of other notables.

I just received my contributor copy the other day and I haven't been able to put it down!

2004-09-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

419 EATER: Dueling with Nigeria's E-Mail Bandits

It seems some dedicated (but corrupt) civil servant in Nigeria has access to millions in "over invoiced contracts," and all he needs is a respectable westerner like myself to transfer the proceeds to a secure bank account---for a lucrative fee of course.

Whenever I read these quasi-official promises of instant wealth (word of advice: turn off the caps lock guys), I always ask myself the same question: "Is there anyone on this planet stupid enough to fall for this nonsense?"

Sadly, there truly is a sucker born every minute.

According to US Secret Service estimates, this ham-handed confidence racket brings in profits in excess of $100,000,000.

In the lexicon of law enforcement, these shady proposals are called "419" letters; a name given to reflect Nigeria's penal statute against fraud.

It seems Lagos has become a nexus for Internet fraud with slick operators setting up shop in the city's many Internet cafes and sending thousands of the tainted e-mails to Americans and Europeans.

The scam is typically a protracted affair with hapless marks urged to forward various sums of money to facilitate the deal.

The victim is then set up for the final blow off---or worse.

According to the US Secret Service web page:

Victims are almost always requested to travel to Nigeria or a border country to complete a transaction. Individuals are often told that a visa will not be necessary to enter the country. The Nigerian con artists may then bribe airport officials to pass the victims through Immigration and Customs. Because it is a serious offense in Nigeria to enter without a valid visa, the victim's illegal entry may be used by the fraudsters as leverage to coerce the victims into releasing funds. Violence and threats of physical harm may be employed to further pressure victims. In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported as missing.

Nigerian officials are working to rein in the fraudsters but their efforts have been hampered by the sheer number of people engaging in this transcontinental shakedown.

Enter 419eater.

Operating out of jolly old England, a clever group of savvy anti-fraud crusaders are tackling the 419ers head on in a new Internet pasttime known as "scambaiting."

"It doesn't matter if you are new to this 'sport' or a hardened veteran; if you're wasting the time of a scammer, or frustrating them in any way, well that's good enough for us!" reads an announcement on the organization's web page.

The seasoned scambaiters pose as clueless marks and then reverse the game on their unsuspecting prey.

Although it is generally believed that confidence men (and women) are impervious to get-rich-quick schemes, this is often not the case.

In a particularly noteworthy coup, a bloke who goes by the nom de guerre of "Mike" induced one of the conmen to send him money.

Deflecting possible charges of racism, the web page makes clear that scambaiting is a colorblind endeavor:

It should be made very clear that in no way do we target people of a certain skin colour; we simply respond to scam emails that we receive, and it is a sad fact that most of them do seem to originate from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Sierra Leone, and South Africa.

419eater also serves as a useful news site with information about new scams being propagated, scambaiting techniques, and hilarious war stories of successful stings.

Will this deter the African e-mail onslaught? Perhaps not. But anyone who can turn an everyday annoyance into a frickin' sport earns the POD seal of approval.

2004-08-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

THE ISLAND OF SPAM: Bureaucracy in Paradise

Chaos theory tells us that the mere flickering of a hummingbird's wings can trigger a blizzard in Siberia. Whether or not one believes this fanciful notion, there is no denying that even the most well-meaning acts can set off a causitive chain unforseen by even the most forward-thinking experts.

That seems to be the case in Kosrae, a 42-square-mile island situated in the vast Micronesian archipelago that is undergoing a rapid transformation.

For centuries, the indigenous natives maintained a healthy lifestyle that combined rigorous physical activity with a Spartan diet consisting of fresh fish, homegrown taro root, and breadfruit.

Not anymore.

The expected lifespan for the Kosrae population is plummeting---but not for the reasons one would expect. There are no genocidal tribal wars or famines stalking this idyllic landscape. Instead an epidemic of obesity is making the island population increasingly vulnerable to diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

In just one one generation, "[Kosrae] has become an island of turkey tail, corned beef, Spam," Tadao Wakuk, a 60-year-old Kosrae native informs the Asian Reporter. "They’re eating this imported stuff. They like fast food, and it’s making them sick."

Sick indeed. With newly paved roads eliminating the lengthy treks that were once a staple of life in a picturesque setting many call the "Jewel" of Micronesia, the residents are emulating their doughnut-eating counterparts in the US. "The majority of modern Kosraeans don't have time or energy to farm or fish—they are too busy with their office jobs," reports Ellen Ruppel Shell in the Atlantic Monthly.

According to Shell, who recently authored a book on obesity, the spam-eating locals have relinquished the easy-going (and beneficial) beachcomber lifestyle to become paper-pushers charged with overseeing the substantial US Aid which flows through Micronesia each year.

After declaring independence in 1986, the Federated States of Micronesia signed a Compact of Free Association with the US which triggered over 100 million per-year in foreign aid. "The bureaucracy required to manage and distribute this windfall continues to be Kosrae's single largest employer," she asserts.

Less than two decades later, over 80% of Kosrae's adults are now overweight with more than half of this number morbidly obese. As this silent epidemic takes its toll, diabetes-related surgical amputations have become rampant. The outbreak of bulging waistlines is making Kosrae an international sensation for those who study obesity.

Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Rockefeller University is examining the islanders in the hopes of proving what he calls the "thrifty gene" hypothesis"; a belief that one's physical makeup is directly linked to the lifestyle of one's ancient ancestors.

Many experts speculate that the natives of Kosrae remain shackled to a primal drive which compels them to overeat in order to store food for leaner times.

Unfortunately, this was far from a problem prior to the introduction of a vast state-run bureaucracy and the ensuing abundance of imported fast food.

As the people of Kosrae lurch unsteadily toward modernity, it would seem that the price of statism is very high indeed.

2004-04-30T01:24:00.000-07:00

STARVING PATRIOTS: Botswana's Unlucky Political Class

To most career politicians, the prospect of retirement can be summed up in that most banal of 70's-era slogans: Let the good times roll. If you played the angles right (which most do), you can look forward to plundering your Swiss bank accounts, sitting on a few corporate boards, and, if you still crave the spotlight, you can assist your former colleagues by covering up government misdeeds. Unfortunately, in the African Republic of Botswana, this frenzy of self-gratification has yet to catch on among its political class. Just ask Gaerolwe Kwerepe.

"I am one of those who are starving and the government doesn't care," he asserts in a front page article in this week's Botswana Gazette.

A number of retired legislators, like Kwerepe, who served in the National Assembly for nearly three decades, now live without money or food to sustain themselves.

Originally a British protectorate, Botswana, is roughly the size of Texas with a meager population of just over 1.5 million. As the nation recoils from a pernicious AIDS outbreak, life expectancy has dropped to less than 40 years of age. Today, there are less than three dozen former MPs or cabinet members still alive.

While Krewepe believes these former statesmen should be valued for their wisdom and political experience, to his horror, he feels he has been betrayed by the same government he faithfully served.

"We transported the sick to hospitals and at times paid school fees for poor children and the government does not appreciate that. I contributed eight cows towards the building of the University and that is forgotten," remarks the former MP.

He isn't alone. Lemme Makgekgenene, who served in the Assembly from 1966 to 1999 is in similar straits. The wizened patriot says he may have focused far too much on his fellow citizens when he should have been paying greater attention to his own financial needs. "We only thought of our constituents and forgot ourselves, but now life is difficult for us," he tells the Gazette.

Bahiti Temane, an outgoing imcumbent says a bill was considered in 1994 allowing former politicians to receive a small pension like civil servants. Regrettably, the measure failed to garner support because the proposed amount was considered insignificant. Nevertheless, Temane believes Botswana's hard-working legislators, who steered the ship of democracy while many other African nations fell victim to bloody civil wars and brutal dictatorships deserve some sort of recompense. "MPs use their resources to carry out their work, therefore they must get a pension and other benefits when they retire," he explains.

While the prospect of a political leader starving to death sounds unthinkable, in these harsh environs where famine and disease are rampant, the specter of death is a constant companion.

Possessing the highest rate of HIV infection in the world, Botswana is threatened by what experts call a "new variant of famine" due to the viral epidemic sweeping Africa.

As journalist Alex De Waal explains, in previous years, "The victims of famine were almost exclusively young children and the elderly. Young adults rarely died - and women survived better than men. Society's core was preserved, and it could recover."

This is no longer the case. In Botswana today, over 30% of the population is infected with the deadly AIDS virus resulting in a plummeting life expectancy. Should a widespread famine erupt, the future of one of Africa's most progressive nations could be in peril.

Botswana's founding fathers face a dangerously uncertain future.

2004-04-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

CRACK SMOKING BRITS: A Drug War Heresy

Like it or not, America's unrestrained political culture has provided a fertile seedbed for organizations advocating causes that would make the average citizen shudder. There are Christian Reconstructionists who believe that those convicted of apostasy, blasphemy, and other Biblical thought crimes should be subjected to death by stoning. Meanwhile on the secular front, a small minority of environmentalists consider the annihilation of the human race a viable strategy to save the planet. Yet amidst these often disturbing ideological and religious beliefs, there is one topic none dare touch: Crack Cocaine.

Don't get me wrong, there are dozens if not hundreds of Libertarian groups that oppose the drug war. However, while this position tacitly supports the consumption of crack cocaine, it is often masked in various euphemisms such as "repealing prohibition," "ending the drug war," and other phrases. There is no single group or organization willing to openly endorse the controversial practice.

To even express such an opinion in the United States is akin to saying that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was a justifiable act. After over two decades of unrelenting propaganda, the 80's crack epidemic remains seared in the nation's collective consciousness.

Far too many Americans have seen friends, relatives, movie stars, athletes, and others fall victim to this seductive high. However, in the United Kingdom, a small cadre of coke-smoking renegades have formed the first political action group dedicated to enlightening fellow smokers (and the public) about the controversial substance.

This begs an important question: Have they gone blinkers?

Matt Southwell, who heads London's "Crack Squad," named in ironic tribute to a Metropolitan police anti-narcotic unit, thinks otherwise. Indeed, the outspoken crack smoker is dedicated to rehabilitating the drug's notorious reputation. According to Southwell, the underlying reason for crack abuse isn't so much crack cocaine, per se, but the underlying subculture which surrounds its use.

"So far dealers have managed the cultural norms of crack use," he tells the UK Guardian in a 2002 article . "No one else has been able to intervene. More bingeing means more money for dealers - and dealers try to create chaos."

Likening the western crack experience to the Native American's destructive relationship with alcohol, Southwell is on a mission to replace the sinister "druggie" image with a more respectable persona: the responsible crack smoker.

To substantiate his argument, he points out that cocaine is freebased openly in the Dutch drug community yet the nation, which is often criticized for its liberal drug policies, has yet to experience a runaway crack epidemic. So how does one become a sensible crack user?

At periodic gatherings, squad members are given a series of guidelines to ensure that casual use won't spiral into full-blown addiction.

Huffing in the morning is strongly forbidden as this often leads to all day sessions. In the hopes of ritualizing the crack experience, smokers are told to allow a disciplined interval to elapse between hits. Lighting up with chums who imbibe more than you do or those who have already started smoking is also strongly discouraged. Squad members are also instructed to consider alternatives to traditional glass pipes which intensify both the high (and the come down).

While these rules of the road may seem a matter of common sense, to many Crack Squad members these do's and don'ts are akin to a drug culture revelation.

"Now I smoke once a week, sometimes twice. My habit costs about £140," Ben Straud, a 38-year-old asphalter tells Guardian reporter Peter Carty. Prior to his exposure to Southwell's Crack Squad, the long-term addict dealt the drug from his home to support his large habit. Now he limits his use and experiences fewer of the symptoms of heavy crack use such as paranoia, anxiety, and violent behavior. "I smoke all day on a Tuesday, it's something to look forward to," Stroud says.

According to Carty, over 70% of the Crack Squad once fed their habit through crime. However, many have since joined the work force after beating back the demons of addiction. Southwell is also advocating "pipe exchanges" to avoid the spread of disease and is organizing a dealers certification program to ensure that the blow he and his comrades purchase will have fewer harmful impurities.

Carty ends the article by speculating that a newfound interest in cocaine among the British upper classes may make the Crack Squad an important social force that will ensure that the substance is used moderately and without the health hazards that Americans faced when the drug was in vogue during the 1980's.

Will we see a similar movement in America?

As the Brits would say, not bloody likely.

Considering the vast majority of the nation's drug treatment programs are rooted in the "disease model" of addiction promulgated by 12-step advocates, it is doubtful addiction experts will support an initiative allowing moderate use of crack cocaine. Moreover, as explained in a recent article of mine, officials at the National Institute on Drug Abuse are seeking to develop a regimen of pharmaceuticals that will render the human brain immune to the high associated with cocaine.

However, looking beyond these institutional barriers, few Americans are willing to allow rampant crack smoking having witnessed its ravages firsthand.

It would seem the Crack Squad will remain a uniquely British phemonenon---and perhaps that's a good thing.