Writer-director Qasim Basir is nothing less than compelling in his feature film debut, “Mooz-lum.”  In it he attacks Islamist extremism while giving moviegoers a rare and enlightening portrayal of life as a Muslim in America. There’s an indisputable strength to the raw melodrama of “Mooz-lum,” a tale from the heart indie that expresses itself in primary colors. A coming of age story of a Muslim-American college student in the midst of an identity crisis on the eve of 9/11, the plot will engender debate and curiosity once audiences leave the theater. The stellar acting from the very accomplished ensemble only adds to the list of reasons this film is worth seeing.

The LA Times says, “Having created rich roles for his actors, Basir elicits from them inspired portrayals. Well-crafted in all aspects, “Mooz-lum” is not only rich in nuance, but also an engrossing entertainment made with skill and passion.

We say, don’t miss it.

From Dr. Kazi Kearse…

Throughout history the elite have coalesced power by staging events to scare the populations of a given side, against the other side. The elite learned that you can finance both sides of a war, profit from the build up to war, and the fighting of the war, simply by staging events during peace time to bring the parties back to fighting, or give them ever new enemies to fight, and sources for you to collect money from.

The elite own all the major corporations, so not only do they get countries to loan money from them and thus owe them interest, but the money that the elite supposedly give to the country, just gets put into government contracts with the very corporations who are owned by the people who staged the war!

Corporatocracy is really a subgroup of the Oligarchy. The Oligarchy is made up of the families that own these large corporations and countries. The oligarchs are the ones who are really running the world. They are your true enemy. They like to try and fool you into fighting false enemies, like “the Muslims”, or “the communists”. All the while they fund those exact people to fight you too.

I submit to you that every event that has led our country into war has been staged by the same elite families; from the sinking of the Lusitania to the World Trade Center on 9/11. There are many excellent books and videos about the events that took place on September 11th, 2001. I will not try in this book to cover every one of them. I believe, however the following summarizes the highlights of the problems with the official story of the government and the 9/11 Commission. Some of the items in this list you may have heard about, some you may not have. ALL of them have been well researched…

Loose Change Documentary ( Full Cut )

1. The seeds of 9/11 go back to the 1980’s – 90’s.

The World Zionist Organization and the Israeli Likud government of Benjamin Netanyahu, principally Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and David Wurmser ( remember those names ). They published a document called: “Clean Break, A New Strategy For Securing The Realm”. Which called for cutting off peace talks, launching military assaults on Palestine, and getting rid of Saddam Hussein. Many of the authors of this document somehow make their way from Israel over to the United States and are given top positions in the US Government. Like Rahm Emanuel, later, in the Obama administration, they are somehow given “Duel Citizenship” status, and advanced roles in the American government. Richard Perle becomes head of The Defense Policy Board. Douglas Feith, Under Secretary, Defense Policy Board. David Wurmser, Chief Middle East Advisor. They all help draft the next document I will tell you about.

2. Neo Cons ( right wing conservatives ) who rose to power under president Ronald

Reagan, together with Perle, Feith, and Wurmser during the first Bush administration formulate a document and plan called “The Project For A New American Century”, also called the PNAC Report. In it they outline that America needs to increase it’s military presence around the world, and to preemptively strike other countries before they become too powerful. They particularly mention the middle east. The result will be that America will be able to maintain their dominance and control of vital resources. Oil is specifically mentioned. The document warns that this will take very long, unless there is a “new pearl harbor”.

3. The attack on the world trade center on 9/11/2001 would be used as that “pearl

harbor”. You may have wondered why George Bush Jr. stood on the top of the deck of that aircraft carrier when the troops had just chased out Saddam Hussein, with the whole war still ahead of him, and pronounced “mission accomplished”? Now you know why. His mission was accomplished! In fact it turns out, that the plans for removing Saddam Hussein where on president Bushes desk on September 10th, 2001.

The Truth About 9/11

4. There were many other preparations put in place before the attacks. To get a full

Understanding you have to look not only at what Al-Qaeda was doing, but also at the above players, now firmly in power in the American government. Sometimes you have to read behind the lines. CIA and Al-Qaeda ties go back many years. Osama Bin Laden was on the CIA payroll for many years, and carried out missions for them against middle east neighbors. In fact it is said that Al–Qaeda was funded by the CIA and put in place to do two things. To launch operations against American ( CIA ) enemies, and to act as a boogeyman in the American press, to justify funding the military establishment and the agenda of PNAC. In other words, to act in the interest of the banking families who own the corporations that get the contracts, and loan money to countries. Wars bring countries increasingly into more and more debt.

Media As A Weapon

The CIA tracked ( or monitored ) each of the so called hijackers before 9/11. One managed to bumble things so badly that he got himself picked up. Yet the real plot was never exposed. The stories of the other 19, mostly Saudi, so called highjackers are very bizarre. I say so called because some of them are still showing up alive and back home in the middle east walking around. It is said that Israeli Mossaud intelligence stole the 19 highjackers identities. Some of their wallet ids seemed to miraculously survive the incineration of the world trade center collapse and float down for investigators to find during the first few days of the clean up and investigation ? It was also amazing how fast our government had all 19 identities, backgrounds, and photos sent to the news media in really no time at all.

The World Trade Center was always publicly owned. A man named Larry Silverstein, however was somehow given the right to purchase it. Larry is a long time Zionist and billionaire with ties to Israel. He mysteriously worked out a sweetheart deal where he only had to pay a few million dollars for the multiple buildings, and quickly took out several billion dollars worth of insurance on them. Along with the clause that if the buildings were blown up by terrorists he would get twice as much.

Out – Foxed : Rupert Murdoch’s War On Journalism

Guess who he hired to be in charge of security? President Bush’s brother, Marvin Bush. Then weeks before the attack, they decide to shut down the buildings for “renovations”. The planners of 9/11 had a problem still. They had the technology since 1984 to remotely fly airplane jetliners into buildings, but the jet fuel, and building materials only burn to a few hundred degrees, however steal, which the buildings were made of, only melts and weakens at several thousand degrees.

An explosive would need to be added, but very few can burn that hot, except for something called Thermite. The debris field at ground zero was full of weapons grade nano thermite. In fact pools of molten metal were found only under the three buildings that collapsed. This is a by product of a nano thermite reaction. A chemical that is only able to be developed in state of the art American military labs. It’s not found anywhere else in the world. How was it delivered to The World Trade Center? Remember those renovations? Turns out that nano thermite can be sprayed on, like paint.

There were many manipulations going on, just prior to the buildings being pulled. Pulled means a controlled demolition. Silverstein admitted it when he was being questioned about building #7. He said “that’s why we had to pull the building”. Then his globalist friends got to him, and a few days later he took his statement back. Seemed he slipped and said too much.

Larry Silverstein Saying “We Decided To Pull The Building”

Stocks where being manipulated too. Massively in the days before the attack. As if some people in Wall Street knew that certain companies related to the airline industry was about to take a big hit. Goldman Sachs was not the only ones seeming to have inside information, even companies held by government officials were being sold as if they knew something was coming.

On the day of 9/11 inside information abounded around Washington. George Bush was sent out of town to go read to elementary school children, so that Dick Chaney would have a free hand to manage the events of the day. Chaney had an intimate knowledge of “the darkside” of PNAC and the military industrial complex, going back through several administrations. He needed to be at the helm for those minute by minute decisions. Like keeping those fighter jets far away until they are needed, like the one that shot down flight 93 over Pennsylvania only after the passengers had retaken control of the plane. Records show that Cheney was up early that day and sped to the underground command center.

There were a lot of people that morning who knew something. Someone called congressmen and told them not to come in. Someone called over 4,000 Jewish employees and told them to not come in also.

Rumsfeld Admitting Flight 93 Was Shot Down

5. Same thing at the Pentagon. The “so called” plane only hit the side of the building that was under renovation. Conveniently, Rumsfeld and crew were clear on the on the other side of the building. It’s very mysterious how with all the video cameras around the highest security building in the world, they will only show us one blurry image of something white hitting the building. Private businesses in the area had video footage, but the government came and took it from them, and never returned any of it. Same thing with all the audio tape from the cock pit black boxes. Some they kept, some they ripped up. No reason given, and no disciplining of the people who shredded it.

It does not even seem likely that a plane hit the Pentagon at all. The plane, particularly the engine, was never found in the building. In fact the hole that was originally made in the building was too small for it to have been the commercial airliner that they say it was. Experienced pilots have said that THEY could not even have flown into the pentagon the way they claimed this plane did. They also point to the fact that there is no ground dug up in front of the building,which surely would have happened if a plane that size was coming in from a banked turn at a high rate of speed. Nothing, that is not computer guided, couldhave hit the building so cleanly.

6. Problem – Reaction – Solution:

The attack on the world trade center, put together by the Neo Cons and the former Israeli Likud Zionists would be very profitable for their financial masters, the international banking families, because remember how the elite make money; by selling wars. The problem: “Terrorism”, gets sold to the American people through the media machine the elite own. The reaction is that we willingly give up our freedoms for a ( false) sense of security. The solution then gets to be incrementally stepped up to tyranny…Full control…Full Spectrum Dominance by a small elite…and the whole world will be swallowed up in it before they can do anything about it!

7. Once they control everything they can turn up the tyranny. They can collapse economies and get us to work more and more for them. They can poison us. They can imprison us. All without trial. For they are now, judge (regulators), jury (press) and executioner ( law enforcement ). Their minions cycle around and back again, from the corporate world, to lobbyists, to government regulators, then back again to the corporate world….etc.

The secret that cannot be spoken above a whisper is that if we ever had a government, it’s long since gone. 9/11 was an inside job. Americans and Israelis inside both governments killed over 3,000 Americans that day…Have sent over 4,000 American soldiers to their deaths, 60,000 to a life of VA hospitals and blew up over 1.5 million Iraqi men, women, and children and dislocated many millions more. All for empire, money, and the oil that comes with it.

And they aren’t done yet…. They want Iran…and they want YOU and your children. They will take it all if you don’t stand up now. Make no mistake about it. This is the 59th minute of the 11th hour. It’s up to you. Do you click this off and put on a music video, or do you do something? That’s all it takes to begin with. You doing some action. Sharing this link, joining an organization, or simply saying I will not comply anymore….

Speak the truth…LOUD….It’s our greatest weapon…

Stop The Machine Now

Islamophobia can best be described as an irrational fear of Islam and Muslims. The term was originally coined in the late 1980s, but became commonly used after September 11, 2001. Much has been said about the so-called “Ground Zero” mosque proposal in New Your City as of late.  RELATIVITY Online’s The Brady Report has seen Kyle Brady chime in with his own well-informed position on that matter as well.

What has often been left out of all the discussion is that the mosque is in fact already there and has existed for decades, pre-dating the former World Trade Center Towers themselves. Such is an example of how the malleable American public has been force fed a fear campaign by those who oppose much of anything to do with Islam and many are swallowing it whole. With that said, there are those who see the opposition of the mosque for what it is; most notably The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart. The Jewish Comedian turned trusted news source has championed the effort to reveal the ridiculousness and hypocrisy fueling all those who oppose the mosque, which is actually being renovated into a cultural center. Once again, Stewart reminds RELATIVITY of why we see him as America’s best News Anchor. Wonder if we could convince to do a guest editorial?

Hunter S. Thompson, the infamous Pulitzer prize winning writer and American social icon impacted generations of readers with his humorous, caustic, revelatory and sometimes rabidly poetic work.  The list below is an attempt to capture the man in all his audacious splendor. The fact the list of quotes compiled spans some 46 years is a testament to Thompson’s  relevance and iconic status in both America and literary culture as a whole.

Thompson was an widely acclaimed journalist, but also worked both professionally and non-professionally in the fields of deep sea fishing, politics, pistol and rifle shooting, as well as a tour of duty in the US Air Force. His often adventurous and sometimes wild exploits were well documented by himself (and others) as Thompson has often been referred to as the godfather of gonzo journalism.

His death in 2005 was a colorful as his life, when Thompson was found dead in his home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Many however, immediately cried foul. Thompson had earlier exposed a CIA drug smuggling ring and in the weeks leading up to his death was researching a story about the suspicious uniform collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11.  Thompson often said that people should not take the Bush Administration’s  explanation of the events of September 11, 2001 as the truth.

Writer Paul William Roberts of the Toronto Globe and Mail has repeatedly gone on record as saying Thompson called him the night before his death to tell him about the WTC story he was working on and that he was scared for his life. He told Roberts he had  stumbled across hard evidence showing the towers were brought down by explosive charges set off in their foundations. Now he thought someone was out to stop him from publishing it. Roberts has quoted Thompson as saying during the call, “They’re gonna make it look like a suicide. I know how these bastards think.”  As compelling in his death as he was in his life,  Hunter S. Thompson’s  work continues represent independence, swagger and the (North) American Dream.

• 1. Slaves to Fear
• “We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to Fear—fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a Terrorist sympathizer.”

• Extreme Behavior in Aspen, 2003

• 2.  Sheep and Swine

• “In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep.”

• The Great Shark Hunt, 1979

• 3.  Rain is Poison and Sex is Death
• “There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.”

• Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s, 1988

• 4. The Armed Forces
• “Be a beachcomber, a Parisian wino, an Italian pimp, or a Danish pervert; but stay away from the Armed Forces.”

• In a letter from Eglin Air Force Base while serving, 1957

• 5. Either Binge
• “We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine and a whole multicolored collection of uppers, downers, laughers, screamers . . . Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get into a serious drug collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge and I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon . . .”

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971

• 6.  Used Car Salesmen
• “America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money… we need to buy guns and have no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.”

• The Rum Dairy, 1988

• 7. Disco
• “I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes.”

• Speech to Graduates, University of Colorado, 1977

• 8. World of Thieves
• “In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the only crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.”

• Rolling Stone, 1971

• 9. The Writer
• “As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I’m not sure that I’m going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says, ‘you are nothing’, I will be a writer.”

• In a letter to Roger Richards in The Proud Highway, 1959

• 10.  The Absolute Truth
• “If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”

• The Great Shark Hunt, 1957

I learned at an early age to see with more than my eyes. The eyes can be deceived. That is why magicians can do wondrous illusions. They may wave something in front of you with one hand, and manipulate another thing with the hand that is behind their back. The corporate state is no different. While they flash before you a group of people or boats cleaning up, behind the scenes they are selling stock and bringing in foreign troops.

I will try and expose some of their illusions for you, so that you can see them as the tricks they really are. We will connect the dots of a vast underground elite worldwide manipulation to bring about an Extinction Event.

Let me explain what an Extinction Event is. Over the past 540 million years, there have been 5 known extinction events, where over half the life on earth perished. The last one, about 65 million years ago, killed off the dinosaurs. The last 5 extinction events where all natural in origin, meteors, pole shifts, ice ages…etc. The extinction event that has begun is the first of its kind. A man made extinction event.

A small group of men, and international banking families have been amassing power behind the scenes for hundreds of years. I will not go into how they did that here, but you can read my other posts and find out how they did what they did. What they did was construct a control grid around the world. Through controlling EVERYTHING they are able to reap great profits. When you go from millions to billions to trillions of dollars of worth, eventually it becomes less about money and more about power.

Our country is not owned by the United States government, nor is it run by the government. Overseas bankers own our country, principally British and European banking families. Congress gave it to them, over 130 years ago, through bribery and debt. Today they own everything, including you. Most of the money you earn goes to them….And if you don’t pay them, they will lock you up.

But eventually, even this was not good enough for them. They knew that we would eventually wake up to what they were doing. They have figured out that they can only effectively, and sustainably control about 500,000 people. More than that, and they will eventually be strung up by the masses.

Their solution they call The Great Culling. The slow extermination of the other 6 billion people on the planet. Hundreds of different programs where funded to manipulate our air, water, and food, with the ultimate aim being sterilization, and slow kill extermination through cancer, and other diseases.

The elite use corporations to do their dirty work. One of the oldest and most corrupt has been British Petroleum ( BP ). Did you know that BP is the 4th largest corporation in the world? It use to be owned by the British government. Back in the 1950′s it joined together with the CIA and installed the Shah of Iran, who was very ruthless, but backed their oil interests.

I wonder if half of the zeal to attack Iran, is them wanting to get their old control back? Either way, the relationship between the BP and the British and American governments has only grown over the years.They do this today through puppets like Tony Blair and Dick Cheney. Remember the first top secret meeting Cheney had after getting in office was with oil companies. Soon after 9/11 happened, and they divided up the middle east oil fields and pipelines. BUT, what if that wasn’t where their evil plan ended? What if it also included plans for an event in 2010, that Cheney would still be involved with through his company Halliburton?

Wall Street and Corporate Manipulation:

The gulf oil disaster occurred on April 20th, 2010. However days and weeks before the actual event happened there were very large stock sell offs by Goldman Sachs, BP, and their executives, like Tony Hayward, who is now their spokesperson. Why would these executives dump what had been good stock in mass? No other reason except insider trading. They knew something was going to happen. Just like they knew before hand on 9/11 and dumped stock. In fact it’s the same company, and many of the same executives.

In some very suspicious business negotiations Dick Chaney’s Halliburton bought an oil fire fighting company, named Boots and Coots, just weeks before it created the fire at the gulf oil rig. When I say created, it’s conjecture of course, but I find it very odd that many of the safety devices were turned off or not working at the time of the explosion on the oil rig.

This is just the beginning of the corporate collusion however. To fully comprehend what happened behind the scenes you have to also understand a company named NALCO. who makes the dispersant BP insists on using even after our government told them not to. Right on the label it says do not inhale contents, yet what is the first thing BP did? They filled planes with it and began aerial spraying!!! Not only is this substance on of the most toxic dispersants they could use, but it becomes extra toxic when heated…like in heated by the warm gulf temperatures.This toxic soup not only is ingested by sea and wildlife, but also enters the water cycle, through evaporation and rains down on plants, and people!

There are other companies involved and they are all connected through Dick Cheney. Halliburton has a Salt Lake City office next door to Mineral Management Services ( MMS ). MMS was also involved in the oil rig disaster, but they also have an office in England next door to BP. Also,you need to know, that NALCO, the company that makes Corexit is run by a Harvard (I’m guessing, bonesman) named Erik Frywald. Who has ties with Exxon, Dupont, and Eli Lilly.

Plot thickens even more, because these companies are also linked to Pegasus International, which while having the public face of an event planning and travel company for the elite, also has known CIA and black opps ties.

Would you be shocked to know that Pegasus International bought an old airpark in Florida that it secretly stocked up with thousands of white vans, an underground bunker, train tracks and large warehouses with pipes going into them? These vehicles were moved into position just prior to the oil rig explosion, as if they knew exactly where it would happen! It is said that as part of a CIA / NSA operation these vehicles may be outfitted with advanced spying technologies.

Pegasus International also does work with Cerberus Capital Management which just bought a company a few days prior to the explosion called Dyn Corp International, which is connected to Goldman Sachs. The next day, Goldman Sachs sold its stock in Trans Ocean, and made a big profit after the oil fire.

What is interesting is that in Greek mythology, ( which the elite’s love ) Pegasus was a horse, and it is said that everywhere he stamps his hoofs a spring appears. The town that the airpark is in is called Green Cove Springs. Pegasus was sired by Poseidon, the Greek God Of The Sea. Odd that a company with that name would be involved in such a sea disaster. Cerberus is also from Greek mythology and was a half dog / half wolf beast that guarded the gates of hell (The Hound Of Hell).

Dyn Corp says that they are a leading governmental service provider, in support of US national security and foreign policy objectives…What???…A private government spy agency???? Bought by a company that names itself after the Hound Of Hell…???? Ummm…let’s summarize what we are learning…

1. Before the well was blown, certain financial and tactical arrangements were put in place.
2. Once the well was blown, it would be handled first, by BP’s corporate army, and second by U.S.
3. Corexit would be used, developed by NALCO.
4. Contamination of sea, and and air, would begin.
5. Aim: Extinction Event ( as prophetsized by Credo Mutwa, Hopi, and others).
6. Goal: New World Order / World Government for remaining 500,000

The Extinction Event has begun. Already it is effecting not only the sea life, and wildlife, but also crops near by have developed a strange virus. Some with white spots on the leaves, some with yellow. The plants / crops are turning brown, and dying suddenly. They are calling it a plaque, but we all know where it is coming from. The oil that’s gushing out, and the dispersants they are spraying. BP KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE DOING!!!!

The most toxic chemicals coming out of the gulf is not the oil, or even the dispersants, but something called Volatile Organic Compounds. These are natural chemicals that are highly concentrated at extremely toxic levels and are spewing up with the oil from under the ground. The EPA has taken readings in the gulf and the levels of these compounds are off the charts!!! If you can smell the oil, you are breathing it in, and need to get far away.

Lindsey Williams, who use to work as a preacher on the Alaskan oil pipeline, spoke recently on the Alex Jones Radio Show and released the following EPA figures from that day:
Notable VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS now being leaked from the hole:

(Items 1-3 as read by Lindsey Williams from his copy of this week’s unreleased (handed to him) EPA report):

1. Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) being emitted at levels of 1,200 PARTS PER BILLION (ppb) into the surrounding Gulf water (AND into the AIR ABOVE the surface, once it surfaces due to density issues) – KNOWN levels which are considered “safe” for human life are = ONLY 5-10 ppb;

2. Benzene (C6H6) being emitted at levels of 3,000 ppb (human safe levels = ONLY 0-4 ppb);

3. Methylene Chloride (aka DCM / dichloromethane CH2Cl2) being emitted at levels of 3,400 ppb (human safe levels at BELOW <61 ppb).

* Alex Jones also reported he had read or heard rumors about emissions of …

4. VANADIUM particulate expulsion (safe levels UNKNOWN: per Wikipedia there are 2 isotopes of Vanadium naturally occurring: 1 stable, 1 RADIOACTIVE!).

RUPTURE is not just in 1 place, but since the initial strike, there are now at least 2 locations, each hole 20 miles apart.

Full Lindsey Williams Interview:

I hope that I have made some things clear to you. This is an unprecedented Extinction Event. It was planned, and and is being managed by a cabal of elite bankers and corporations, along with the CIA and NSA through international ties to multinational corporations.The crown has landed on our shores, to finish the job it started in 1776….And it won’t require a single British soldier. The corporations, private security forces, and foreign UN troops, are going to do it for them….

So what can we do about it????? First we have to tell people. You need to help get this information out to people. Tell your friends, the media, whoever will listen. We will have to make drastic changes to our lives. Some people may have to move. Patriots can begin to fight back against the elite, by stopping cooperating with the machine, and throwing our bodies into the gears, make it slow down…and eventually grind to a stop! Begin by changing how you think. Shop at the local market instead of the chain store. Take your money to a credit union, instead of the big banks. Everyone can change in their own individual ways. Begin today, right now.

We need to put together the best minds from around the world in how to stop the oil from coming up. This will have to be a private operation outside of government or corporate involvement. We need to do it, like our lives depend on it, because it does…

Lastly, I want my children to know, that daddy tried to stop it. We have difficult days ahead. Gandhi said, that first they ridicule you, then they want to kill you, then you win. I fully expect that we will be made fun of, mainstream media will try and say we are extremists. Then they will try to imprison and kill us. Which they are already doing…but I would rather face them head on then take their slow death…

Martin Luther King said in his last speech: “I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get to the promised land”. Individually, there’s no guarantee of your outcome, but together as a people, if we stand up together we can defeat the elite!!!

From Dr. Kazi Kearse PsyD…

Kazi can be found on Facebook, his blog and liveperson.com

Sarah Palin may be an unemployed, Facebook abusing, gaffe-prone idiot, but it seems as if she has, by accident and without knowing, stumbled across something she has a valid position on: the mosque proposal in New York City, close to Ground Zero .

Essentially, there’s been a proposal for the equivalent of a Muslim activity center – a mosque with restaurant, entertainment facilities, and more – to be built mere blocks from the site of the World Trade Center destruction, which has, as could be expected, received immediate, kneejerk reactions from both sides of the argument. Those of a conservative, oft-racist, persuasion have jumped on the fact that this is a Muslim center and not one of their own Christian brand, as if simply being of the Islamic faith was an affront to Americanism and disrespecting the lives of the dead from 9/11. Similarly, those of the liberal, oft-too-open, political flavor have done quite the opposite and used the proposal as a weapon of peaceful propaganda, claiming that it would cater to moderate Muslims, despite a valid argument that there is no such middleground option in Islam, and it would show that America holds nothing against those that did not declare war upon the nation.

The problem is that neither side is correct – both have legitimate and defensible positions, which is especially odd in the modern polar political climate.

In terms of arguing against the mosque’s existence so close to Ground Zero, there are mountains of evidence that Islamic centers of prayer, and those that run them, played large roles in the attacks of September 11^th, 2001 and continue to do so, even within America’s borders. The 9/11 hijackers sought solace, solidarity, and support in various mosques, on both coasts, and the more recent terrorist attempts, such as the failed Times Square Bomber, have had similar aid – a careful reading of Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars”, James Bamford’s “The Shadow Factory”, and a number of other investigative journalism efforts on the topic make this quite clear. Even now, a decade later, those that support the subjugation, injury, or death of non-Muslims, due to either American citizenship or Jewish heritage/faith, can find sympathetic persons for their cause across the country. Since the Islamic faith, if interpreted in a semi-strict fashion, allows for no religion other than its own and calls for the death of all Jews, this is a serious issue, especially as fundamentalism sweeps the ranks of Muslims worldwide.

That being said, not all Muslims are terrorists or wish harm upon the Western World – this is a fact that should be inherently understood by rational individuals worldwide. The terrorist attacks of September 11^th were carried out by fundamentalist Muslims with disgruntled attitudes and a brainwashed perspective, and did not, nor do they currently, represent the opinions of all Muslims, just as the Catholic Pope does not speak for all Catholics. In a fit of panic, there were some unintelligent, embarrassingly stereotyping decisions made in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but it can be argued that America has, on the whole, returned to its more rational state. Mosques are not the places of evil and fundamentalism that they are so often made out to be, most especially within the borders of the United States – they should not be pigeonholed as centers of evil to be banned, harassed, or discriminated against.

Thus arrives the crux of the problem: both sides of this argument have a point. A mosque so close to the ashes of the World Trade Center would undoubtedly send a message of tolerance and forgiveness to Muslims, but it could just as easily serve as an inspiration-by-proximity center fostering anti-American sentiment, so there is no easy answer to this permit request. None of this, however, was intended by the loudmouth embarrassment that is Sarah Palin – her words were simply meant in the racist, derogatory, and unacceptably judgmental manner in which she presented them. That she touched upon so salient a point by accident is a fantastic coincidence, but it does nothing to make the issue any less politically or socially relevant.

From Kyle Brady…

Kyle can be found on his blog, via email, or on Twitter.

Dr. Ron Villejo is set to take RELATIVITY OnLine readers on an odyssey of experience and faith. September 11, 2001 changed so many things for so many people and this article is one’s man’s trek into the heart of trauma, fear and understanding. “The Psychology of Trauma” is the first in series of three articles from Villejo– the second of which will tackle his journeys to the Middle East, beginning six months after September 11^th, for consulting assignments.  Fatedly, he was selected to be part of a big leadership project for a major Saudi Arabian client.  The third article will focus on a psychology of terrorism, as terrorist attacks occurred in major cities in the ensuing years and created new kind of psyche within many as a result.

Early on the morning of September 11^th 2001, I was meeting with a client at our Chicago office.  I was working for an international consulting firm, based in the US.  I walked my client out, when we finished, catching a glimpse of my officemates watching TV in a small breakout room.  Hey, weren’t they supposed to be working!  Hmm, watching ‘Oprah,’ I bet.  Maybe ‘Good Morning, America.’ 

It was not a good morning for America.  And, work, well, it quickly became unimportant.  

What happened that morning stunned one of the most powerful nations in the world, and knocked it to the ground.  Literally.  

The facts of September 11^th are familiar to many of us already:  Nineteen hijackers commandeered four planes that morning, and on suicide missions crashed them – two against each of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; one on the Pentagon just outside Washington, DC; and one into the fields in the state of Pennsylvania.  More information is easily accessible on the internet.

Let me walk you through that horrible day and the following days:  (a) with firsthand account from the eyes, ears – and mind – of a Filipino-American who happens to be a clinical psychologist as well; and (b) with facts, experiences, and insights on a psychology of trauma, which I hope will illuminate something meaningful for you, dear readers.

Immediately, after walking my client out, I went to that TV room.  It was surreal, even odd, to see a long-distance, holistic view of the Twin Towers from the confines of a small TV screen, then to see on live TV one of the towers crumble… well, unimaginable, unspeakable horror.

I didn’t watch for too long.  I ran to my office, and got on the telephone.  The lines were, expectedly, disrupted.  I couldn’t get a hold of my family, and vice versa.  There must have been millions and millions of calls happening all at once, turning fiber optic lines into veritable bottlenecks of communication.

One of my clients was a high-end commercial property management company (TzH), based in Chicago, and I thought that the World Trade Center was their property.  I called my client contact, frantically, but couldn’t get a hold of her on any of her numbers.  I thought, my God, what if she was actually in one of the towers!?!  It was a couple of days later, before I could actually reach her, and feel a sense of relief.  TzH had other major properties in New York City, but, no, the Twin Towers were not in their portfolio.  

Trauma is a human phenomenon, more severe forms of which psychologists came to diagnose as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).  

Soldiers of war, victims of heinous crimes, and other people in suddenly or persistently horrible circumstances are prone to suffer from trauma.  They may be speechless at first, disoriented for a while, even lost in their behavior.  It’s like being knocked hard upside the head, or even kicked in the gut so hard that you ‘lose your wind.’  Your sense of self may feel dissolved, or cracked, or simply and unexplainably out of whack.  You may be physically injured, but trauma can occur entirely psychologically.  

One hallmark symptom of PTSD is re-living the trauma.  It’s as if the trauma were a videotape with an endless loop, so that it repeats itself automatically without your prompting it or expecting it.  You have no choice but to watch it over and over, because it seems to be right in front of you, clear as day, even if you were to close your eyes.  Swaths of images of those airplanes crashing into each of the Twin Towers were stitched into the psychic and neural fabric of Americans.  

There’s a general state of arousal (i.e., wakefulness, alertness etc.) which makes sleeping difficult.  Fear, anxiety, dread, horror, and worry are often part of the complex emotional tapestry of trauma.  Some war veterans reluctantly admit, though, that part of such tapestry is a sense of euphoria, power, or enjoyment in the midst of horrible circumstances.  We human beings are a peculiar lot, it seems at times, for we may feel genuine pleasure even in the midst of pain.  

That’s formal PTSD – severe, pronounced, so incapacitating that the victim may not be able to work, go to school, or otherwise take care of family and relate to friends.    

We were housed in a 40+ story office building, and our office manager said that there was no evacuation of our building just yet.  This order didn’t occur until mid-day.  In the meantime, after trying the telephone several times, I kept working that morning.  Ah, work is one of the best coping mechanisms I know.  It forces me to focus and set aside, mentally, the incident and its accompanying distress.  Besides, I had a second meeting scheduled with that same client (from early that morning) later that day, so I diligently prepared for it.  

There was another client in the office, and apparently he couldn’t concentrate on the task at hand.  I encouraged another manager, obviously shaken up like the rest of us, to speak with this client – to see how he was doing and offer him to stop and leave if he so felt.  

Anyway I peppered my work that morning with periodic checks on TV, with my officemates, and on the telephone.  I think the office manager and I were the last ones to leave, once we got the evacuation order.  

Trauma can be experienced vicariously, and through various forms of communications.  

The Sears Tower – another super tower like the Twin Towers – was just half a mile away from our office building.  I don’t think anyone was certain that the horrible attacks had actually ended.  For all we knew, another hijacked plane could’ve slid by the marshaled air security and crashed into the Sears Tower.  Thankfully, this was not the case.  But while none of us were directly affected by the attacks, there was no denying that we felt some measure of trauma.  Chicago is about a thousand miles away from all those crashes, but still we were traumatized.   

I believe that media, for better or for worse, facilitates the experience of trauma.  TV and the internet are the ‘worst culprits’ at spreading it through the country, and, I’m sure, across other countries as well.  Think about where you were when those planes crashed.  Think about how you felt, watching it that day and in the ensuing days.  It’s possible you experienced some degree of trauma, in ways that many of us Americans experienced.  

Trauma isn’t just the classifiable disorder that warrants the help of psychologists.  Rather, it is also the minute but persistent things that happen to us, like invisible tears or breaks within us.   

Downtown Chicago was a ‘ghost town.’  It was surreal to drive through this business district looking so ghostly empty, as this was usually highly trafficked and scrawling with hundreds of pedestrians.  In my mind, it was as if everyone was somehow annihilated, pulverized somehow, disappeared into thin air.  I was traumatized.  

My client and I decided to meet at his hotel a few miles away.  I got there early anyway to eat lunch at a restaurant, but more importantly to get my bearing.  Thankfully, there was a smattering of people, in the streets and inside, going about their day.  I needed to be around people.  

After lunch, I sat in front of a big-screen TV in the hotel lobby.  I was stunned, amongst a scattering of guests, similarly stunned.  I needed to be not just around any people, but people in particular who were doing the same thing I was and feeling the same thing I was.  There was comfort in watching TV together.  Which made my initial thoughts earlier that day, when I glimpsed my officemates watching TV, seem like a cruel joke.       

I was supposed to fly to Dallas that evening for other client meetings the next day.  I spoke to my colleague, before I left the office, and said that I couldn’t.  Remember, the US grounded all commercial flights.  Apparently, they were going to press forward with those meetings.  

I was also supposed to fly to Washington, DC, early the next week, for more client meetings.  These, too, were expected to occur as scheduled.  Flights were still grounded, as that horrible week wore on at a snail’s pace.  As we were ‘diehard, true-blue consultants,’ my colleague and I strategized on how else I could travel there, from Chicago.  Taking the train was an option, which I tactfully declined, as it would have meant leaving home the weekend after September 11^th and thereby missing my daughter’s 3^rd birthday that weekend.  She pressed me to leave anyway, gently, and I, thankfully, kept to my decision to stay.

Trauma is not a one-time event that has a discrete beginning or ending.  Instead it can happen unexpectedly and reverberate continuously for days on end or much, much longer.

The event of September 11^th, itself, had a discrete beginning and ending.  But well into the ensuing days, we Americans were still traumatized by its impact.  

Downtown Chicago is populated with tall buildings.  For weeks, as I walked the mile from the train station to my office building, I would look up at the sky – and at those buildings – and imagine an invisible plane crashing into them.  I would see shards and shards of glass cascading down in slow-motion like a thunderstorm of destruction on the people below.

The funny thing, I didn’t really feel what should been emotions of horror, fear and dread.  I just saw such images time and time again on that walk.  I’m not an unfeeling sort of guy, but friends and colleagues know me as more of an intellectual, academic type.  The route to my heart is often through my head, first.  In my head was where the trauma most affected me.

In fact I had no emotional qualms, really, about going to the Sears Tower for meetings with my client TzH.  Officials had erected heavy concrete barriers around the base of the tower, in order to hinder would-be car bombers from getting too close.  Security inside was very tight, and they must’ve quickly set up X-ray screening machines at the entry points.  Queues formed, where none existed before.  Still, as I was ascending to the 60^th floor (if I remember correctly) of my client’s office, I imagined what it must’ve been like being in the elevators of the Twin Towers.  Again, I imagined an invisible plane crashing into the Sears Tower, while I was inside… unspeakable horror.  

Trauma is a form of empathy with our fellow men and women.

I flew to New York City for another meeting with TzH in early November.  I strained my head and neck, looking out the window of the plane, to see if I could catch a glimpse of what became known as Ground Zero, the site of the crumbled Twin Towers.  The cleanup, as you can imagine, was a round-the-clock effort and it took months to complete.  Another colleague told me, before I flew there, that he had gone as close as he could to Ground Zero.  He talked about the horrible stench in the air.  He didn’t need to explain.  Smoke was still smoldering in November, and it carried exactly what he meant, which I understood perfectly.  As he spoke, I could smell the stench of rotting, burning human flesh and bones.  

I visited our New York office on that trip, and one manager said that some of his staff actually witnessed the planes crashing, while looking out of their office window.  They were a few miles away, of course, safely tucked away by distance.  But who’s to say that they were actually safe, psychologically speaking?  In fact they needed time off to recover from what was obviously a more pronounced, close-to-the-incident trauma.  As he spoke, I could see what they saw.

Over many years, as a clinical psychologist, I had developed my ‘empathic sense.’  No, I can’t read minds, as some friends either are afraid of or are curious about.  But, yes, I have an ability to sense and grasp what others experience.  To put myself – mind and spirit – in their body.  This is an important means by which I can treat them.  It’s not a perfect, foolproof method of empathy, but I can do it.  There’s a kind of connectedness I can forge with people, that others can’t or won’t.  It’s a privileged opportunity, for I can tap the very privacy of a person – with his or her permission – and speak to intimate things that even their partners, families, or close friends are not privileged to speak to.  It’s almost a sacred privilege, really.  

So when someone tells me what they’ve seen or felt, I can visualize it and experience it in some measure as well.  A psychologist must bear that responsibility and burden with due care, professionalism and skill.  But at the end of the day, we are human of course and what we see and feel become entirely our own.  No longer the others’ sight or emotion.  

Trauma paves the way for healing.

Amazingly, I think, that in the very symptoms of trauma are the mechanisms for its resolution.  Here’s how it works.

You can ask, well, if TV transmits and perpetuates trauma, as I argued earlier, why were many people glued to it in the advent of a horrible incident like September 11^th?  Is it really some sick compulsion to subject themselves to the pain of additional trauma?

Those repeated images, like that of a videotape with an endless loop, are an attempt of our mind and body to come to grips with the trauma – more specifically its psychological impact.  This is at the heart of why so-called repetition compulsions are the way they are.  Why some of us repeatedly engage in seemingly self-defeating behavior or persistently painful experiences.  It’s an attempt to cope with a trauma.  

Some psychologists may be quick to point out that such repetitious behavior is pathological.  Not so fast, I’d intervene.  Yes, while long lasting such behavior can be formal PTSD – for the majority of us, with more minute forms of trauma, it’s actually an adaptive coping mechanism.  It’s even more purposeful, if we can draw insight, meaning, and thus resolution from such repeated trauma.   

I don’t know if anyone of us will ever forget September 11^th.  I hope not.  I hope our memories are a reminder that in the aftermath of horrors that we humans subject each other to, we can treat each other differently.

Time passes.  Healing happens.  Horrible images gradually go away.  As these things did, for me.  

Ron Villejo, PhD

ron.villejo@gmail.com   

+971 50 715 9026