From Zombie Ants to the Shopocalypse: My Top Documentary Pics of 2009

I’ll leave others to review Avatar and Night at the Museum 2–here are my recommendations of the best documentary films I saw over the past year. Yes, call me a docu-geek, I probably watch more documentaries than other genres (thank you netflix!)–though animated cartoons come a close second! If you’re wondering why “The Yes Men Fix the World” isn’t on here–I just haven’t had a chance to see it, though I’m a big fan. Most have links to the official sites with trailers for viewing.

1)Planet Earth BBC Series: I know I’m a bit tardy with this one, but I only recently came across it–then I was addicted for a while.  What a gorgeous, awesome, mysterious globe we live on!  Nearly every scene is stunning. My favorite? The birds of paradise.  No, wait, the cute polar bear cubs and awesome whales.  No, actually it’s the zombie ants whose brains get taken over by viruses and then dissolved.  True story. I sometimes suspect that this is what has happened to me.

Top Reads of 2009

Often the seeds of a better possible world are planted via words, so I’ve decided to share my top  (non-fiction) reads of 2009. While I came across tons of great books–old and new–I’ve focus here on those I think are most important for a deeper understanding of our current political, social, and economic world and tools to transform it.  I welcome your recommendations too. Here’s the list, with reviews below:

Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Naomi Klein)
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Rebecca Solnit)
The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption and the Culture of Total Work (Curtis White)
Deep Economy (Bill McKibben)
The Democrats : A critical history (Lance Selfa)
10 Steps to Repair American Democracy (Steven Hill)
Travel as a Political Act (Rick Steves)
Winter Soldier–Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man/Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Turth About Global Corruption/Hoodwinked (John Perkins)
The Global Activist’s Manual: Local Ways to Change the World, (Eds. Mike Prokosch & Laura Raymond)
Renegade for Peace & Justice, Congresswoman Barbara Lee Speaks For Me
One Country (Ali Abunimah)

Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein

This is the most important recent book I’ve read.  The Shock Doctrine provides a powerful lens for understanding globalization & international events over the past few decades.  It ties up seemingly unrelated events from around the globe into a coherent narrative by explaining the main motivations, strategies, and actions of key financial & foreign policy elite.  Klein provides a deep context for understanding the spread of radical capitalism (and increasingly, disaster capitalism, as Klein calls it) and its real world consequences…

Shock Doctrine Review

“It is yet another Civilized Power, with its banner of the Prince of Peace in one hand and its loot-basket and its butcher-knife in the other.”–Mark Twain, 1901, speaking of U.S. imperial policies in Philippines

This is the most important recent book I’ve read.  The Shock Doctrine provides a powerful lens for understanding globalization & international events over the past few decades.  It ties up seemingly unrelated events from around the globe into a coherent narrative by explaining the main motivations, strategies, and actions of key financial & foreign policy elite.  Klein provides a deep context for understanding the spread of radical capitalism (and increasingly, disaster capitalism, as Klein calls it) and its real world consequences as promoted by the ideology of Milton Friedman and the Chicago School.

This school of thought is variously called neo-liberalism, the Chicago School, or the Washington Consensus (as a package of socio-economic policies for countries in the global south to implement). I once heard someone say neoliberals are just neocons who never quite left the Democratic Party.  Whatever you call it the main thesis is that economic growth is the highest good, is achieved by unfettered “free” markets and deregulation, and that as much of the economy should be in private sector as possible.

On this view, the role of government is to nurture market economies rather than schools, families, jobs, health care, and food for citizens. Gone are robust notions of the common good. Gone is the notion that democracy minimally means the will and voice of the people and protections of certain basic rights.  In fact, neo-liberal ideology has become so successful at marketing itself that many now equate democracy with unfettered free markets, the two somehow inseparable.  Politicians utter them in the same sentence and the populace has learned to imitate that meme. And as a twisted conclusion of this way of thinking, any government that attempts to protect the common good, to actually implement the will of the people, is labeled undemocratic.

This goes a long way to explain how popular, democratically elected presidents such as Evo Morales in Bolivia can be labeled as undemocratic or even a dictator in the United States’ media.  Morales is not falling in line with the Washington Consensus (in fact he ran on that platform) and he is not doing what is best for Multinational Corporations.  Worse, he said that Bolivian resources should be for the Bolivian people, the majority of whom are indigenous.  Two whammies.  This is utterly unacceptable to the corporatocracy & American foreign policy folks (often the same people in the ever-revolving door) and after reading John Perkins

Where’s that 2nd Bill of Rights?

Well, Happy Bill of Rights Day!

On this day in 1791 the Bill of Rights went into effect when Virginia became the 11th state to ratify them.  These first 10 amendments became part of the beloved constitution that we all know so well (right?). This bedrock document for protecting individual civil and political rights (thank you James Madison) has been a source of inspiration the world over and has been something that we have struggled to interpret, uphold, and live up to through the last 218 years.

FDR declared the day of observance in 1941.

But lesser known is FDR’s call in 1944 for a “Second Bill of Rights”–sometimes referred to as an “Economic Bill of Rights“.

hmmm…whatever happened to that?

Plant the Seed: Planting Justice Party and Fundraiser

All of us at Planting Justice are excited for our first end-of-year fundraising party at the Humanist Hall!

Come celebrate the hard work and quick progress Planting Justice has made creating tangible change throughout the Bay Area towards a more just and sustainable urban food system.  I can attest to the impact PJ has had in a very short period with little funds.  I have seen the faces of middle-schoolers working on their own food forest and gardens and the excitement of men in the H-unit at San Quentin in preparation for the vegetable garden in the prison yard.  Now 2010 promises to scale these up significantly along with creating real green local jobs on a model that is easily replicable.

Enjoy a night of delicious catered organic food by Pachamana Cafe, Linden Street Brewery, and entertainment by the finest local performers.

The line-up includes a Bollywood dance performance by Archana Sachdev, the Halau O Keikiali’i Hula Group, CommuniTree, Mariee Sioux, Dascrybe of Debajo del Agua, the Space Pirates Cooking Show, and more. There will also be a silent auction that will offer wonderful installations of sustainable urban food systems, including a custom permaculture garden, a bee hive, a chicken coop, an earthen cob oven, a greywater system, as well as dinner-for-two at a local restaurant!

All proceeds go to support Planting Justice’s Green Jobs program in 2010 and their urban permaculture projects at San Quentin State Prison, middle-schools and high-schools in Oakland, and various backyards and frontyards that are helping community members grow healthy food right where they live.

The event is expected to sell out, so please reserve your place today!

Event Fee(s):

Event and Dinner: $30.00

Event, Dinner, Wine, and Beer: $40.00

Sponsor attendance for low-income youth: $30.00

No one turned away for lack of funds

When: December 13th, 2009 6:00-10:00PM

Where: Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland, CA 94609

Contact: Phone: (949) 677 6229

Email: plantjustice@gmail.com

To read more about Planting Justice visit the website or see my Terrain Magazine/Oakland Local article.