HOME AGAIN: HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION

I touched down in the USA to find a copy of today’s Wall Street Journal on the men’s room floor. Leading Page 1: part four in a series of what they call “THE DEBT BOMB: Inside the ‘subprime mortgage debacle.” I love that word, don’t you? I can’t see to escape this story no matter where I go.

Debacle encompasses so much more than just this financial disaster Yes the market is surging up again, even as the Iraq surge seems to be a bust. So here we are, both issues, the one I worked on with WMD, and the debt problem showcased in my new film using similar language. Prediction: the word “FIASCO,” the name of a great book on the Iraq War as one big military mishap will soon be trotted out in connection with this mess.

No sooner did the plane land, than the din of CNN babble could be hear bouncing off the walls of LAX. Outside, not on TV, workers deonstrated. You could hear the chant made famous by Cesar Chaves: Si Si Puede.

I CAME THROUGH FIJI

Last night, I was sitting outside a small store called “Muzik/culture” selling the music of the Fiji Islands. A few tourists are looking at the CD’s, while music videos of songs like “My Fiji, My Pride” blast into the transit lounge in a town called Nati in the middle of the South Pacific. The lounge is really a duty-free and tax-free emporium raising some revenue from the frequent flyers like myself seeking a a slightly cheaper ticket between Australia and New Zealand and the USA.

You wouldn’t know that Fiji is now a military dictatorship evenas Queen Elizabeth still graces the currency. I am on the way back from a respite in Sydney, a thriving metropolis/tourist attraction which was about as far away from the American news scene. Australia didn’t disappoint in that respect because they have their own Bush loving PM to dislike. Most of the local news is about the possibility that the Iraq war supporting John Howard, now down in the polls may be ousted.

The terror war was is almost a side bar although an Indian doctor Haneef who was related to a terror grang in the UK was busted with great fanfare and then let go when no evidence against him could be found. Now, his family wants to sue for compensation for lost income and damage to his reputation. The Daily Telegraph reports that his case if “deader than a blue Norwegian parrot,” an obscure reference to a Monty Python, This whole case sounds like something out of a Monty Python. sketch famous long ago.

The only American in the paper in Aussie land today was Matt Damon promoting his latest Bourne Movie and Erin Brockovich, the sexy environmental lawyer played on the screen by Julia Roberts lawyer who is investigating a case involving Alcoa.

There was a brief flap in the paper earlier in the week when some Aussies in uniform posed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, an incident dismissed as a prank, Meanwhile, racism against aboriginal peoples continues to deepen with a new government campaign using a military invasion of tribal lands and a scrapping of tribal laws in the name of preventing sexual abuse against aboriginal kids. The people who originally documented the problem protested the government’s overreaction,

And now while I am writing, a local band is singing South African anthems popularized by Johnny Clegg, the ”White Zulu.” :Cultural cross pollination lives on Fiji

I spent some time with Media Channel supporters in Sydney including my old mate Jake Lynch who first met in the UK ten years ago. He and wife Anabel have brought their passion for Peace Journalism to Sydney University, I hung our with the creator of Skoptical media which is introducing an ambitious online citizen journalism news service. I also hung out with Greg Tingle, the Media Man who is a one man machine of promotion commotion. He introduced me to Social justice filmmakers working on East Timor issues and a flamboyant but talented artist who goes by the name of Madame Lash,

I also had chance to visit an Art of Islam exhibit in the citty’s main art museum and visit with performance artists like Indonesia’s amazing Arahimaiani who is challenging both Islamic fundamentalists and corporate fundamentalists at Art Space a unique government backed center for exhibitions and symposiums. In many ways, it seems to be the artists who are leading the fight here against corporate culture.

Speaking of the degeneration of Corporate Culture, I was disappointed to learn that Max Robins, the ecitor who has transformed Broadcasting & Cable magazine into one of the best media trades out there had been wacked by the powers that be. Maybe he was considered too critical or just plain analytical to cover the BOOB TUBE. (Ironically, Max appears in a new film of mine by that name.)

As I explain in the newsletter I write about credit and debt on stopthesqueeze.org, Australia is deeply caught up in the subprime crisis with banks and hedge funds at risk. The bubble that is bursting in the US is popping down under as well.

I am back in New York for a screening of my film IN DEBT WE TRUST at Downtown Community TV at 87 Lafayette Street on August 8th at 6PM.

Be there is you can.

On the presidential campaign–John Edwards is doing an event here in LA called “Small Change for Big Change.” Price of Admission at the Republic is $15 bucks. Al Gore was in Australia giving his slide show. Price of Admission: $ 1,000. Hillary is finally speaking out on the debt crisis.

If I was only still in school, I could submit this blog as a “How I sent my summer vacation essay. I would probably flunk.

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