Copublishers Introductions... ¡Presente!

I'm a very liberal progressive/democrat sort living in rural Republican Idaho because I fell in love with the beauty here.  I have a Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA, but obviously am not employed in that area (actually I'm into books but that's another story).  I often do volunteer web research for liberal political organizations like Moveon.org.  I've been reading NarcoNews for well over two years and although I'm not prone to many comments or much reporting, there are some news events/actions that try my soul... and then I have to speak up, or write a comment or do something. I like to do research, and do not consider myself to be aggressively outspken, but I've never been afraid to speak about what is true and right and just, and yes, authentic.  I am definitely opposed to the US drug war.  I'm also opposed to NAFTA, the WTO, and globalization for the rich.  I believe that south and central America have learned many lessons and have acquired much wisdom that is needed here in the north.  I hope to contribute in my own small way to NarcosphereNarco News.  Although I do not speak Spanish and Portuguese I can usually read enough for the important information.  I guess that's all.  Oh, and I'm a really good cook.

As I said in my bio blurb, I'm a 28 year old Mennonite boy from a town near Vancouver, BC and am presently working through my first year at medical school at Queen's University in Kingston, ON.  I've been hooked on Narco News and then Big,Left,Outside ever since I stumbled upon Al's announcement of Marshall Mathers as journalist of the year in August 2002. I saw that and couldn't believe my eyes, so I started reading and linking, and WHAMO! I was sucked into this vortex of incredible, stylishly written and penetrating journalism. The thing that really pulled me in, though, was the vision I saw being put into action that powerful change requires authentic community. The Narcosphere and School of Authentic Journalism are beautiful examples.  I am following this movement, and hopefully participating somehow, with the hope that I will learn to incorporate that sensibility into the work I will be doing as a Doctor - with community projects somewhere or integrating my practice with the needs of acommunity somewhere - I don't know how that's going to manifest yet.  I'm totally inspired by the work that Al and his swarm are doing down there, and I can't think of a better way to spend my student line of credit than by funding this project. Thanks again for all your work, and I look forward to participating in this new journey you've initiated.

My name's Erik Siegrist. I'm a writer, best known for my film reviews at Ain't It Cool News as 'Anton Sirius' (here's me reviewing the Trials of Henry Kissinger and Cuban Rafters, among others.) I've also dipped my toes into the blogging thing. Like Al I'm something of an ex-pat, although I ended up north of the border instead of south. I've watched the country of my birth drift further and further up its own ass over the years and wondered what, if anything, I could do about it.

This seems like a good place to start.

I live in Edgewater, Chicago. I'm against the drug war and it was either that or Latin American politics that lead me to NarcoNews. I switched to BigLeftOutside with Narco's hiatus and have Al's comments at DailyKos.com bookmarked for additional Giordano political fixes.

As a "political hippie" I worked on the "underground" papers of the 60's and 70's (The San Francisco Express Times, The Chicago Seed, The Viet Nam GI) and lived communally in California, Colorado and Wisconsin. I worked on the Harold Washington campaign for Chicago Mayor in the 80's.

I made sure that my daughters learned the most relevant second language for an American in Chicago, Spanish, and wish my parents had had the same foresight.

I manage information with computers as a job, and I'm following closely the impact of the internet on the political process. The surface has only been scratched on the democratic potentials within the realms of internet software, I believe.

When asked after 9/11 how I thought the war on terror would go, I replied, about as well as the war on drugs.

Two years before the Pentagon let the cat out of the bag I was following William Calvin's thoughts on an Ice Age caused by Global Warming. (Free on the web - A Brain for all Seasons.)

I believe that the best swimming in the world is on Lake Michigan in July and August.

I am an undergraduate student at the Univ. of California at Santa Barbara.  I am history major and hope to study Latin American history in graduate school.

I came across Narconews about two and a half years ago while searching the net for opposition to the drug war.  This little site motivated me to study Latin American history, especially the work of Luis Gomez in Bolivia.

Other than doing well in my classes, my main goal is to learn Spanish so that I may continue my education in my chosen field.

One of my prouder accomplshments was the publication on vheadline.com of a paper I wrote for my Andean History class a couple of months ago.  The paper compares the coups against Chavez and Allende.  You can read it at this site.
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=14386

I am a Southern Californian product.  I enjoy bodyboarding, and baseball.  Also I am a diehard Dodgers fan. (yeah, yeah I know it is how the system keeps me mediated but old habits and loyalties have a stronger influence than most people think or concede and I don't feel inclined to give that habit up just yet)

Anyways I look forward to seeing how this immedia project develops and I wish everyone the best of luck.  Long live NarcoNews!

I am a writer and graphic designer whose work has appeared over the years in Playboy, Best American Short Stories and many other publications, most recently in Library of America's "Writing Los Angeles." I contribute book reviews to the San Francisco Chronicle, and administer newsroom-l, an email discussion list for journalists.

I have lived and worked in Mexico with my family continuously since 1981, in Cancun since 1983. We also lived in Mexico off and on from 1971 to 1977, mostly in the village of Yelapa, Jalisco, about 18 kms. from Puerto Vallarta by boat only. In 1981, Anita Brown and I moved to Mexico for good with our son Eli, then seven weeks old, and my daughter Faera, then ten. We have not been back since. Jesse was born here in 1984. All three were educated here. Eli is an IBM-certified computer support technician. Jesse is a graphic designer and webmaster. Faera now lives in the Bay Area, where she is a California state-certified interpreter.

My pet peeve is the way Cancun is falsely portrayed as an example of globalization at its worst, an environmental disaster. It's not true. Cancun does have very significant environmental problems that need to be attended to, but the air is clear, the ocean is transparent and there is no toxic pollution from industrial production.

Cancun was designed, financed and constructed by Mexicans. Seventy-five per cent of the hotels are Mexican-owned, as are the overwhelming majority of businesses. The tourists are predominantly middle and upper middle class, about 65% international (mainly American), but the Mexican tourism grows substantially every year. Although they get the most publicity, spring breakers represent less than three per cent of the total.

For more on this, go to CafeCancun.com

You can see information about my latest book at  Mad Laughter: Fragments of a Life in Progress

I am a Canadian by choice (born in Seattle, Wash.), 50 years old, white-collar worker for a government agency in British Columbia. I have a radical history (joined a Trotskyist group when I was 16)and have always supported Latin American solidarity work. I have a BA in political science and a Masters in Mass Communications. I don't have a computer at home so am limited to what I can sneak in at work. I love what this site is doing! Hope to participate as much as possible. Venceremos!

Hi, and good afternoon to everybody... Luis Gómez, 37, mexican, journalist... I love my job, and I certainly love my people (I always try to report surrounded by them)... and that's all I have to say by now in English. If someone has any question about me, please go to Narco News, read my reports...

Ahora, sí, gente, vamos en español con esta Narcoesfera...

Saliendo de las entrañas de la insurrección boliviana, de la que me encuentro cocinando un libro, me dispongo a poner en este proyecto algunos trozos de realidad que entiendo y otros que me encuentre en el camino.

Los que ya me conocen, saben a lo que me refiero: este periodista trasnochador y trasterrado, con 37 primaveras en el morral, quiere aprovechar el espacio para darle voz a su gente, a la que conoce y a la que no. Los que no me conocen, pues tienen de dos sopas: pueden comenzar por leer mis reportajes en Narco News o se aguantan a que comience con mi libreta de reportero a ponerle salsita a esta cosa...

Mientras tanto, abrazos y besos...

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!

Sometimes, we jump into a moment from which we never return. That happened to me in the late 1980s, when I quit my job with a mainstream newspaper to jump into the underground.

An article in the January 1988 issue of Milwaukee Magazine described my moment this way:

“It wasn’t the most likely career move. Last fall, reporter Bill Conroy quit his job at the staid, established Business Journal so that he could take a lower-paying job at the recently underground and still quite outrageous Shepherd-Express. So why’d he do it?”  

In essence: because it was there.

But my career move wasn’t really as dramatic as it appeared to most outsiders at the time. I had been writing for the prior incarnation of the Shepherd-Express (The Crazy Shepherd) since 1983 — while also holding down my mainstream journalism job. By 1987, I was a veteran Shepherd who was, as I told Milwaukee Magazine, looking for “more writing freedom and more opportunity” than I was finding at the mainstream paper.

When the publisher of The Crazy Shepherd came up with a plan to expand the reach of the monthly underground paper, I decided to jump on board. The first part of the plan involved merging the muckraking iconoclastic Crazy Shepherd with Milwaukee’s alternative music publication, The Express, to create the Shepherd-Express. The next step was to begin publishing the paper weekly.

So, in the fall of 1987, I leaped into the wormhole and joined the Shepherd-Express as a full-time investigative reporter. My goal was to write my own future.

And that's still my goal -- although life has taken me on a number of detours along the way.

The Shepherd is still publishing. In fact, it's the major alternative paper in Milwaukee today. But most of us involved in getting it off the ground have long since moved on. I got married to Teddi Beam, another dreamer -- and the first African American to be elected president of the UW Madison student government. She is now charged with expanding the minority enrollment and bilingual services of the gifted and talented program of a major school district in San Antonio.

During most of the 1990s, I focused on raising our family (four kids) and staying employed -- working at five different newspapers (primarily business weeklies) in four states. The moves brought me up the pecking order of the mainstream-media ladder -- from reporter, to managing editor, to editor -- which is the role I play now with a mainstream business weekly in San Antonio.

But I've never lost touch with the bigger "authentic" picture. I have continued to pursue hard-nosed investigative reporting at all of the papers I have worked for in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota and now Texas. For example, in Minneapolis, where I was managing editor of a business weekly, I am proud to say that a major airline actually threatened to seek a court order to prevent us from printing information about the mechanical failings of the airline's passenger jets -- information one of our reporters had dug up through a Freedom of Information Request. Needless to say, we published.

Right after the 9/11 attacks, I and a few of my former Shepherd compatriots decided to dabble in another newspaper start-up in Milwaukee, to create a forum for voices of reason and dissent in the post 9/11 world. The resulting paper, called Virus, published its first issue in December 2001. It eventually morphed into two newspapers, one of which is still publishing.

My investigative journalism in recent years has focused on federal law enforcement -- FBI, Customs, DEA, etc. Narco News has picked up some of my work in the past -- in the form of links to the stories. That's how I was first introduced to Al and the authentic crew of Narco News, which I consider the vanguard of a media metamorphosis.

Over the years, I've been robbed at gunpoint while investigating a series of violent neighborhood muggings; had my office shot at while pursuing a narco money-laundering story; and even had the government threaten to take my computer under the guise of national security -- all in the pursuit of authentic journalism.

So, given what I know of the far more serious risks being taken by the folks at Narco News in pursuit of the same goal, I feel right at home on these pages.

What I believe:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

   I am a University of Texas at Austin student, and I started reading NarcoNews about the time of the Mexican midterm elections in what I considered my favorite piece on NarcoNews (Fox at the half-life).  I study Human Biology : Problems of Developing Nations as a pre-medical student.  
    My parents are Indian, but I was born in Beaumont, TX near the Louisiana border.  An oil town that busted about twenty years back, I've realized I was basically living in Louisiana and not in the "real" Texas.  Beaumont is more Old South and Cajun than Austin and other parts west which are more Southwestern and more Hispanic.  Austin is of course, a crazy city growing very, ver rapidly.  The town is pretty liberal or "out there."  The motto of the city for all practical purposes is "Keep Austin Weird," an exhortation to buy at local landmarks and not national chain store.  
      The University, I think, was more alternative and radical than the city, but I think that has reversed.  All too often it seems like the University is 50,000 tourists living in the heart of a city, clueless and oblivious as to what makes Austin "different" from their Dallas/Houston cloned suburbs.  Kids are in no way representative of the state, with far too many people from Tom DeLay's Sugarland.  
      My only job is working as an usher in the UT Basketball stadium named after a fascistic UT chairman.  So my name is Anand Bhat, and I am in somewhere in a land called Texas.  

My name is Ana Cernov and I'm from Sao Paulo, Brasil. I've been following Narco News since its start...

I was a student at the First J-School, held in Merida in February, 2003 and as much as possible, I try to translate the articles to portuguese.

I have a masters degree in international relations, received for a study on narcotrafficking and its reflect in Latin American politics, specially Colombia.

About a year now, after the degree, I've been working for the City Hall and teaching at a small private institution in Sao Paulo.

I'll post it in portuguese and spanish later...bad internet conection might even erase this presentation if i don't send it now...

saúde!
ana

I'm Judith, usual screen handle Comadre, living the precarious existence of an institutionally underemployed schoolteacher and single parent pretty much by choice in and about Berkeley, California. I've been an activist for peace and justice causes since adolescence in the late 60s and early 70s, and my mother is just now accepting that it wasn't just a passing fancy on my part. The many evil tentacles of the War on People Under the Guise of an Attck on Drugs got my attention as to their human rights, environmental, and economic disastrousness, and I went tooling about on this Internet I barely trust looking for ways to get involved while raising a young child on my own a few years back. I got connected with NarcoNews and the guy who publishes same shortly after NN made its debut in 2000 and it's been generally productive and even more reliably fun.

I generally prefer working behind the scenes (the granddaughter and the former lover of a few former fugitives, I have a taste for calling as little attention to my own life as possible except among trusted friends) but the latest e-mail from our founder and publisher prodded me gently, that it was time to come out of hiding. I've been doing some backstage support stuff for NN almost as long as there's been NN, and might as well bring it to the newly-rededicated Narcosphere.

I'm the sloppiest typist you ever saw among otherwise good copyeditors, so forgive any errors; it's just my Web accent, really. I enjoy taking a gleeful monkeywrench to what passes for most news and public commentary as well as most of what passes for politics and legislative proposals.  my main political affiliation is "freelance nonviolent troublemaker."

oh, and my 9 year old shares a lot of my attitude including the sense of irony and intellectual playfulness.  maybe we'll bring her into the Narcosphere too.

Hello fellow compatriots! I've just posted a short version of my life on a Notebook, as my life somewhat ties into the subject of Bill Conroy's Borderline Security, and as he unveils his manuscript, I'll discuss more about my experiences in law enforcement culture.

It is good to share more of what makes me tick - and I look forward to working with old and new friends.

Nora

JUSTICE!

That's how I ended up here just a few months ago and transferred my AOL monthly debit to Narconews.com. I could become this site's poster boy: "I cancelled my AOL account and diverted the money to Narco News, it's the best decision I could've made. It's the best diversion for the money AND the mind on the Net!"

I've posted a few notes and even applied for the SAJ fellowship, which I recommend reading if you are interested in the other half of my life/purpose on this planet. Plus, I could use some rigorous authentic journalism training.

By way of introduction (I wrote this when I posted the Reporters at War note), I'd mention that I spent early 1992 in Croatia, working for Pacifica Radio and Duetsche Welle with Joel Brand. I then spent the next five years in Prague with the likes of Matt Welch, Ken Layne and Robert Eversz. Having been more radicalized as an undergrad in the late Cold War era, Eastern Europe was a wake-up call.

I worked at the UCSB Daily Nexus war/editorial room when CNN gave us the first-ever "live" war under Bush I; then listened to war coverage on NPR, when I could sneak away at Sheppard AFB, under Bush II, while I was in USAF technical school training. I joined the LA ANG after 9/11 when it seemed the lessons to be learned were: greater awareness of danger (wherever it occurs), civic duty, and a renewed sense of responsibility to our future for its fragility had finally "hit home."

In between BWI and BWII (also known as the internecine Clinton period) I lived in Prague, mostly, and travelled extensively through the former East Bloc working for the Soros foundations, specifically the Central European University. I started a non-profit to house my literarily ambitious creations: the Prague Summer, Latin America, and Russian Writing Workshops. The one in Mexico was the most bi-cultural and dearest to my heart, but I clashed with academic behemoths and lost (or that's my rationalization for dropping the ball).

The  city-that-care-forgot N'Awlins has been my US base since Prague. After spinning my wheels for a few years and being patriotic after 9/11, I received a fellowship in Latin American Studies at Tulane University, where I am currently enrolled.

Hello all! I'm writing from Toronto, Canada, where we are just coming out of our deep-freeze. I'm writing on voice activated software, so excuse any weirdnesses in my grammar and vocabulary...
I'm a writer, photographer, performer, literary translator and activist. The majority of my activism is through art, but I have been known to publish articles and interviews when I can wade through all the crap and censorship. (I finally taught my computer the word crap!)
I just scored a radio gig on CKLN, Toronto's best community and alternative radio station -- you can check it out at www.ckln.fm.

My main areas of interest are queer rights, women's rights, anti-racist action, and general anti-classist, anti-corporate messing with the system. To check out some of my journalistic work, go to www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?x=26745 and ignore the first two paragraphs that I didn't write. Or try www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2003-08-07/news_story7.php

I'm glad to meet you all. I can't be as active as I'd like to be for a while due to problems with my hands, but rest assured I am at least in the shallow end, and have moved beyond toe-dipping...

Be well,
Sandra

My name is Dwayne Chandler and for the past 12
months I have been a somewhat regular poster
to bigleftoutside. I also aspire to be an extremely lethal authentic journalist.
I was born and raised in New York state and
have made frequent trips from there and out into the world since my eighteenth year.
At the moment, I am a soldier in the US military and extremely frustrated, bitter and ostracized.
My only fulfillment, my only passion, comes from
literature, politics, confrontation with injustice, and the procreation of rage in every fiber of myself. Regardless of the constant denials of our supposedly civilized world, I daily struggle with an insanity born of my experiences that reveal what determines the true worth of a human: the shallow, the fickle, ignorance, flashy media garbage, attractive automobiles, material possessions, celebrity, wealth and power.
My heart only beats with passion and joy when I rage; without fire and vinegar in my blood a smile will not form on my lips and yet I am afraid to die.

Hello,

I am a freelance writer who has been examining the drug war for about 8 years. I started as a volunteer with the Media Awareness Project of DrugSense  - www.mapinc.org - and now am on staff as an editor of the organization's weekly newsletter. A few years ago I wrote and pretty much self-published a book designed to be a general overview of the drug war in the U.S. called "Maximizing Harm." There's always more to learn, so the book is a bit flawed and out of date now, but I still have a draft on the internet at www.maximizingharm.com

I've also worked in the commercial media, starting at small town newspapers in the Chicago suburbs about ten years ago. I continue to freelance for some commercial media outlets, including the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Reader.

I look forward to learning more about the world here.

Steve Young

My name is Andrew Stelzer; I was a student at the School of Authentic Journalism last year.  Until recently I was reporting news and doing radio theatre at KBOO community radio in Portland, Oregon (www.kboo.org); but now I have switched locales--I am in tampa, florida, reporting for WMNF--another community radio station (www.wmnf.org).  WMNF is a Pacifica affiliate.  I also file reports for Free Speech Radio News, and Independent Native News. I have been very lucky, reporting for the past 3 years, I havent had to compromise--Ive never had an editor tell me what I could or couldnt say.

I generally assume corruption and understand the system that dominates the world is one where people with power and money use it to make more money, using methods that hurt people without power and money.  I find that almost any news situation ends up following that story line.  However, I am inspired at the resistance mounting throughout the world, and more relevant to this site, I am increasingly hopeful after experiencing the speed at which the truth about a story can and does travel.  Current events in Haiti are a great example, the real story is getting out virtually as fast as the constructed myths.   Narco news has done this a few times themselves; and I think the speed and  efficiency of the internet is hopefully about to reach threatening levels for the liars that control things.  Not only is news spreading itself, but networks of media/activists/people are growing in size and speed of communication.  Certainly this news does not reeach traditional outlets often, but as the number of outlets grow that choose truth over the company line, the truth will become impossible not to cover.
Wishful thinking?--we shall see.  I go back annd forth between thinking somethings gotta give, or maybe nothing ever changes...

Besides doing radio and occasional print journalism(I have an interview up on NarcoNews), I play basketball and do lots of other stuff--variety is good.  In the recent past, I have managed a homeless shelter, ran a youth radio program, and worked lots with kids.  In the longterm  past, I've lived in Portland, Raleigh, Washington D.C., Ann Arbor, Sydney, Australia, and I grew up in downtown Manhattan, NYC.

thats about it--I check out narconews sometimes but honestly, there are only so many hours in the day, and I dont like being in front of a computer all 24, so I am never up to date on all the worlds news all the time.  Sometimes thats frustrating as a reporter, but it means there is still lots to be learned.  But getting involved in the narcosphere could be a step into a new realm--this entry is the first blog type thing ive ever done.

heres to the future...

Born and raised in Mexico City, I am 55 yrs. and have worked in Mexico, the US, Canada and Europe. I recently moved to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. I got here after a sabbatical in which my wife and I travelled with our two children (5 & 6 yo.) through the US, Mexico, Central America and finally Canada, looking for a place to live.
I currently work as a consultant for a high tech company, but will soon start my prefered vocation (Canadian Immigration willing!): cabinet making. I also am my medical herbalist wife's pharmacist (I prepare and mix her herbal tinctures) and am co-keeper of our household.
I have followed Narconews for several years and am fascinated by the cultural changes taking place in our world. I am somewhat pessimistic of the possible outcome and at the same time I have much hope for the future.
Ezio

I was a student at the first J-school and I've written some articles for Narconews since and before then. I know it could have been more but although I majored in Journalism in college I only write or film when the story truly moves me. The best inspiration I believe comes when you feel outraged by something and the only thing you can do at the moment is write (or film) about it.

I discovered Narconews when I was researching about the coca issue in Bolivia for a documentary I had in mind. I dragged a friend (Helena, also a J-school scholar) into my project and off we went to Bolivia for a 9-day marathon of interviews. It was one of the best experiences ever! I felt alive and a true authentic journalist. I met Luiz Gomez and with him a handful of warriors fighting to make their living as they believe it should be. And why not?

The documentary "A Time of Protest" was selected to be exhibited at the World Social Forum 2004 in India. It's premiere though could be in no other place but at the J-school. At the moment, Helena and I are planning to work on it more (post-production details) and we also have another story to get our hands on: a documentary about Cuba, socialism and the US.

Btw, I work in an NGO in Brazil for COAV (Children and Youth in Organized Armed Violence), an international project that intends to raise awareness and share experiences about successful programes for marginalized youth around the world. For more info check the website www.coav.org.br where you can find plenty of information about favelas (low income communities in Brazil), drug trade, arms and its relation to children and youth.

Beijos!

A native Minnesotan from a conservative small town, I grew up thinking that Commies were the enemy, Republicans would save us, and the USA stood for democracy and apple pie.

I realized in college that this was not the case. Dang it, if the pinkos in Nicaragua are so foolish as to elect the Sandanistas, then we have to respect that and not fund a secret terrorist war against them.

The next turning point came when I was caught up in the unionization campaign at that phone job I got while I worked on my MA in Linguistics. Forced to strike on the first contract, I became an ardent supporter of the Labor Movement (if not always the Labor Establishment).

After that job was privatized and my MA was finished, I started reading Chomsky on other topics, and joined the IWW. This brought me to the streets of Seattle on N30, and on returning home I discovered Indymedia.

I was a founding member of the Twin Cities IMC, as well as the Counter-Propaganda Coalition.

I am married to a sweetie beyond compare, am a science-fiction and gaming geek, and like to dance around fires with drums. Go figure.

I've spent a lot of my adult life hanging around on the edge of things: politically, socially, and sometimes emotionally.  Now, retired and living in Oaxaca, I find myself at 66 to be more "mainstream", or maybe just less blatant.

Still, I fancy I have a pretty good "shit detector" after stints in the drug scene, the commune movement, the new-wave co-ops, "no-nukes", indigenous rights, and other movements, lifestyles and realities, so I don't spend a lot of time worrying about the pronouncements of the hypesters and newspeakers who masquerade as our masters of information, preferring the insights and observations of the rest of us.

Keep it up, y'all.

I became interested in Marxism about  thirty years ago, but it isn't because of my workplace -- teaching economics at the State University of New York at Buffalo.  At that beginning, I did some research on Venezuela which appeared in Latin American Perspectives and have continued a particular interest in that country (with also a relative born and raised there).  I've also experienced a bit of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.  

I have been editor of Research in Political Economy (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka ) since 1977, an unusual publication in its being a hardback yearbook centering on Marxist analysis with a page count allowing careful work.  If I had my choice I'd like to have more work in it on Latin America.

I've been quite involved in my faculty/staff union at Buffalo, but in the final analysis, it has been rather disappointing because of not being able to effect a more democratic, progressive redirection to the union.

I hope to learn as much as possible from authentic journalists!  The U.S. media is so corrupted.  (But The Guardian and The Independent have their weaknesses, also, even as they are more readable).

I think the long term challenge is to find a  way to obtain a mass circulation outlet in the United States which is not subservient to U.S. corporate money and culture and is still able to survive with full integrity.  It won't be easy!

Bob Morris. Los Angeles. Active in ANSWER, also Green Party. I guess I'm a watermelon.

Hello, I am Tim and I am a 30 year old computer programmer, guitar abuser and drug legalizer living in England. This is just to introduce myself on the occasion of my getting a co-publisher account.

I first came across Narco News during the time when Al was winning his court case against Banamex bank. I was impressed by this simple little web page which carried stories not available on any other news site at the time, and with its publisher, who had a no-compromise attitude towards corrupt power and (unlike most Americans) seemingly no interest in collecting money for himself.

Through this page I discovered that the political left (an endangered species in my part of the world) was alive and well in South America. I heard about such heroic figures as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, who seemed to be making life difficult for The Money in that part of the world.

This was very inspiring to me, since where I live The Money pretty much decides every detail of our daily lives, which it does its best to make dreary and hopeless, setting us against each other in endless pointless squabbles over pathetic little crumbs.

So when NN got in financial trouble and suspended activities, I thought Id try and help out using my credit card. I wired em some money, and if I ever get a job again will send some more! (The difficulty here is finding a job that pays without making me feel sick about myself.)

Anyway, its good to see NN is back at work, the world needs sites like this, as the mainstream media has become a propaganda machine.

Tim

Here Ricardo Sala. I was a student in last year's J-school at Mérida and Isla Mujeres. I sell wall fans for a living. Well, that would mean in order to pay the rent and for food and other stuff. What I actually do for a real living is promote awareness of 1.- public space and of 2.- drug policy and dp reform
You can check out my work at
1.- bicitekas and
2.- vivecondrogas, AMECA
We will be reviewing drug policy as it develops in América here at the Narcosphere.

Ey, aquí el Ric desde México Ciudad. Vendo ventiladores, ¿quieres uno? Bueno, mis dedicaciones de corazón son la reforma a las políticas de drogas y el fomento del espacio público. Puedes revisar mi trabajo respecto a lo primero en vivecondrogas y en AMECA, y respecto a lo segundo en bicitekas.
Aquí en la quesque narcoesfera estaremos revisando el desarrollo de las políticas de drogas en nuestra América querida.
¡PARTICIPEN, HISPANOPARLANTES!

Hello
I'm Sarah de Haro. I attended the J-School in Merida and Isla Mujeres by a great chance. I would love to be an authentic journalist but in fact I'm just a bad journalist. I do translations and subbings to earn my life.
From time to time I succeed in publishing an authentic story in the french press, and I recently wrote a book about people fighting AIDS in Africa.
I was in Colombia and Peru this summer, saw the coca, met the growers. I went to Peru thanks to the J-School. But I was not very gifted doing my report and I want to come back very soon.
Oh yeah, I'm a very big fan of Luis Gomez, too, but thats a secret.
See you all,
Sarah

(Una traducción en español sigue el inglés.)

I want all people to have the most possible control over their own lives— meaning, in large part, that conditions of justice and freedom prevail.

Liberty and justice require that people have equal power.

We can gain power for all only through collective struggle.

People will fight united together only when they have the information to understand their situation and the means to communicate with each other on a mass scale.

And so I’m here, at the world’s premier outlet for authentic journalism.  (I have double the reason to be part of a project ‘reporting on the drug war’ because the drug war is a very important tool for repressing and preventing movements for more equal power, freedom, and justice.)

When Narco News stopped publishing 2003 October 18, I wanted to bring it back to life and would have loved to have helped create the Fund for Authentic Journalism, but I didn't know about it.  Of course, George Salzman, Andrew Grice, and the others are faster, smarter, and better looking than I am, but every good goal (from a community art program to a co-op to authentic journalism to a democratic revolution) would benefit if anybody willing could contribute what he or she can.

I believe we (everyone who wants to make the world better, not just Narco News co-publishers!) must create a network which ensures that all the world is aware of such projects and knows ways to help and join together.  (I have registered a web address for the on-line part of such a network, pwgd.org for “People Who Give a Damn,” but haven’t done anything more.)  Such a network needs two qualities to be useful.  First, the information it provides must be in a usable form— in essence, be work of authentic journalism.  Second, all people must be reached by the critical news relevant to them.

Those are my goals and ideas.  In reality I am a non-active student, unemployed journalist and web designer, employed overnight stocker, and failing union agitator.  I live in my parents' home in Natick, Massachusetts, 18 miles west of Boston, where I invite any co-publisher traveling near hear to stay and be our guest.

Estoy aprendiendo español, y apreciaría mucho sugestiones de estilo o correcciones.

Yo deseo que todas las personas tienen el mando más posible sobre sus propias vidas— este significa, en gran parte, que las condiciones de justicia y libertad prevalecen.

Libertad y justicia requiren que las personas tienen el poder igual.

Podemos ganar el poder por el todo solomente por medio de esfuerzo colectivo.

La gente lucharía unido juntamente solomente cuando tiene la información necesita comprender su situación y los medios para comunicarse con unos a otros en gran escala.

Y así estoy aquí, a la fuente preeminente del periodismo auténtica.  (Tengo doble la razón estar una parte de un proyecto que ‘reporta sobre la guerra contra las drogas’ porque la guerra contra las drogas es un instrumento muy importante para reprimir y preventar movimientos para el poder más igual, libertad, y justicia.)

Cuando Narco News suspendí publicando 2003 octubre 18, yo quise revivarlo y habría querido haber ayudado crear Fondo para el Periodismo Auténtico, pero yo lo no supe.  Por supuesto, George Salzman, Andrew Grice, y los otros son más rapidos, más inteligentes, y más hermosos que yo, pero cada meta bueno (de una programa del arte de la comunidad a una cooperativa a periodismo auténtico a una revolución democrática) beneficiaría si alguien bien dispuesto podría contribuir lo que puede.

Yo creo que nosotros (todos que quieren hacer el mundo mejor, no solomente los co-publicadores de Narco News!) debemos crear un sistema que asegura que todo el mundo sabe de tal proyectos y sabe un medio ayudar y unir juntamente.  (Yo haya certificado un dirección de Internet para el parte on-line de tal una sistema, pwgd.org, que significa [en inglés] “People Who Give a Damn” [que traduce muy aproximadamente como “Gente Que Cuido”] pero no haya hecho nada más.)  Tal una sistema necesita dos cualidades para tener utilidad.  Primero, la información él provee deber estar en una forma servible— en la esencia, periodismo auténtico.  Segundo, todas las personas deben recibir las nuevas critical y relevente a ellos.

Estos son mis metas y mis ideas.  En realidad yo soy un estudiante sin actividad, un periodista desocupado y un diseñador de sitios web desocupado, un trabajador empleado que rehenche una tiende gran, y un agitador fracasado de una unión.  Vivo en la casa de mis padres en Natick, Massachussets, dieciocho millas oeste de Boston, y invito cualquier co-editor que viaja cerca de aquí quedarse y estar nuestra invitado.

Reber Boult, a graduate of Vanderbilt University, practiced law for 35 years in Nashville, Atlanta and criminal law in Albuquerque. He was on the staff of the ACLU's Southern Regional office from 1968 to 1971. He worked with the National Lawyer's Guild Military Law Office in Japan in 1973 and 1974, helping U.S. Marines resist the war.  He worked with the Wounded Knee Legal Defense/Offense Committee in Sioux Falls and Porcupine, S.D.  He's worked for a small motorcycle shop, a bulldozer repair shop, a filling station, a large electronics retailer, the Institute for Southern Studies, a Federal Public Defender office, a public school system, and the U.S. Navy.

Greetings everyone,

My name is Alex and I am a seventeen year old high school Senior in Michigan, USA.  I was born in the former USSR and moved to the United States in 1995, I was nine years old at the time.  

I debate for my school and take college level classes in government.  I enjoy writing and reading about various events regarding democracy and the drug war in Latin America, with a special interest in Venezuela's political struggles.  

wow, no drug test required for membership?

me: currently in brazil, jobless, happy, anti-democrat and anti-republican, addicted to internet, english-speaking/português falante.

i came to the narcosphere by way of 10 days i spent in the yucatan with al and about 40 other unforgettable people, a little more than a year ago. the hangover only ended a couple days ago. i went to mérida because al & luis had been the only folks on the net sneezing 'bullshit!' after every forero article that popped up on nytimes.com.

i think that's it.

you know i was thinking about auditioning for the wonkette spot but i haven't got any dresses and i wouldn't trust giordano, were I in one...

good to be here. now let me just figure out how to post.
down with empire!
and may all our cerveja be cold and pimenta, ardente!

I like to say nowadayz—about RAW—"...my Mother gave me the name, but now I've earned it."

I would have preferred to be RAW on NarcoSphere as a sign on (love them quick logons) but, I appreciate Al's choice on this matter. Besides, most folks who wish to remain "anonymous" are probably hiding most other facts as well.

I've been in the background of the Oakland Bay Area progressive politics for some time. I get drafted to many projects which keeps me away from most paying gigs...

The most relevant—to the NarcoSphere—aspect of my current incarnation is as the WebSlave of http://www.HaitiAction.net. I also do the same for the neglected http://www.PNVRC.net (Peoples NonViolent Response Coalition).

Also of note—that is, other professions which contribute to my rather unique point of view—is that, I have been a deacon at Allen Temple Baptist Church (http://www.allen-temple.org) for some time and was also drafted to be a union hack awhile back:

International Rep - IATSE (fired)
BA - NABET 531 - San Francisco (forced to merge with the IATSE, where I was kicked upstairs then fired.)

currently a member of
IATSE 600 - Photographer, Hollywood
IATSE 16, San Francisco
NABET 51, San Francisco

-RAW

raw@igc.org
raw@aol.com
raw@haitiaction.net

It is my pleasure to support the work of Al Giodano and the other autenticos.  I come at the world from a conservative albeit libertarian perspective, the Goldwater-Reagan wing of the GOP that cannot abide the current Texas-based monarchy.  Al loves Fidel & Hugo, I don't, but we come together in a search for the truth. Indeed, next time I go to Caracas I may need to bring Al along...

When I am not surfing the net or contributing to the Washington Times, I am a member of a Wall Street research firm that builds financial models for accounting firms and banks. My observations of narco news and other new media outlets, and my own work as a journalist and ibanker, shows me that transparency is the necessary ingredient for a free society. Consider three points:

1. The only free press is the one you own (thanks to the Internet, we've got that covered).
2. The only rights you have are the ones you can defend (again, so far so good).
3. Defending your rights is costly, both in terms of time and money(unless you live on the Internet, again, que bueno).

Any listeros who want a quick primer about what I think about the drug war should read the following item from Insight on the News:

Mexico Drug War has a US Front http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail& amp;storyid=210913]

The point of the article is not bad actors in Mexico, real or imagined, but the shady characters who inhabit Washington & Wall Street and ultimately call the shots.  Never doubt that the warlords who run the narco sistema ultimately owe their loyalty to the king of gringoland.

Saludos,

I'm living in (and plotting my escape from) Bellingham, WA a sleepy town between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, B.C. Currently I'm coordinating the 4th Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival, a two week documentary fest, presenting the best and most authentic new docs we can scare up. We just held one of the first public screenings in the U.S. of Nettie Wild's (who made A Place Called Chiapas) film Fix:the Story of an Addicted City, which documents two-years in the struggle to open North America's first safe injection site in Vancouver, B.C. (North America's second site just opened in Victoria, B.C.) The film is just now getting a U.S. distributor. I had dinner Friday with two of the main characters in the film, Ann Livingston, an organizer of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users(Vandu) and Philip Owen, the former Mayor of Vancouver. They are both incredibly inspired and inspiring and way, way ahead of the curve. I'm coming to the story a little late, but I will do what I can to get more of their story out to you guys cause its a good one.

I am a 21 year old student living in Austin, Texas, although I was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia.  My native language is spanglish, but I will try to keep my posts in one or the other.  Narco News is my most trustworthy source for news about latin america, case in point the recent expose on plans for a coup against Mesa.  I'm not sure which enrages me most: Chilean troops prancing around impoverished border towns, or the local media ignoring the story (the implication seeming to be that elite reporters would feel safer in a Bolivia occupied by Chile than one where they might face campesinos on equal political and economic grounds).  I truly believe that authentic journalism will burn down the walls of apathy and disinformation that separate many of us and that allow the few to continue to oppress the many.  I'm here to learn how to contribute to the fire.  Thanks for the invitation.

Tengo veintiun anhos y soy un estudiante que reside en Austin, Texas, aunque naci y me crie en La Paz, Bolivia.  Mi lengua nativa es el 'spanglish', pero intentare comentar unicamente en ingles o espanhol.  Narco News es mi fuente mas confiable para noticias sobre latinoamerica, sirva de ejemplo el reciente articulo sobre el plan de golpe contra Mesa.  No se si me enoja mas pensar en soldados chilenos paseandose abusivamente por los pobrisimos pueblos fronterizos o la inexistente reaccion mediatica (quiza porque muchos periodistas pertenecientes a la elite preferirian una Bolivia ocupada por Chile a una donde puedan toparse en iguales condiciones politicas y economicas con un campesino). Realmente creo que el periodismo autentico podra incendiar los muros de apatia y desinformacion que nos separan y permiten que los menos continuen oprimiendo a los mas.  Busco aprender a contribuir mi llama a esa fogata comun.