Hello folks, I'm Ron Smith. I've reported for narconews in the past from Ecuador and Venezuela, I've also done reporting for Eat The State in Seattle, WA and Pacifica News, where I suffered the vagaries of the reactionary takeover. I've read narconews since almost the beginning, I believe, and I was thrilled to find out that it was returning. I am a documentary filmmaker by trade, I've completed documentaries on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and grassroots resistance to globalization in El Salvador. I helped to put together the first IMC in Seattle in 1999 and worked in the DC IMC during the 2000 World Bank/IMF protests. I am a documentary production company, you can see some of my work at http://www.activ8media.org, although the site needs alot of work.

I worked in the "non-profit" world in San Francisco for 3 years, but found the non-profit for which I worked entirely obsessed with making profit rather than serving the community. I also found that it hindered me from doing the work that I love, so after a brief hiatus caused by an injury from a wooden bullet fired by the Oakland P.D. that broke my focusing hand, rapidly followed by a layoff from said psuedo non-profit, I've decided to pursue an academic career, which will hopefully allow me to continue my independent reporting and documentary work. I lost some amazing people in my life and my sphere of operation to extreme violence last year, and I am slowly working towards operating at full capacity.

As you will hopefully see from my future submissions, I am shamelessly and unapologetically biased, though no more so than say, Fox News or NPR. In the interest of full disclosure, I support just about any popular movement that is seeking true liberation. I believe it is our role as G-8 dwellers to do what we can to create more space for local grassroots and indigenous movements to operate without repression from empire. Over the next few years I hope to bring you news from América Latina, the Middle East, South East Asia, as well as inside the halls of academia, pending adequate funding. I am currently working on a documentary detailing the human impacts of US military aid to Colombia, Regalo del Cielo, which I hope to have completed by the end of this summer. I will try to repost a trailer from the film on my website by the end of this week. Thank you all for being here, thanks to Al for resurrecting this amazing site!