Blogcritics Author: Simon Barrett

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Book Review: A Song For The World - The Amazing Story Of The Colwell Brothers And Herb Allen: Musical Diplomats by Frank McGee

Simon Barrett — Thu, 2 Aug 2007 18:56:17 EDT

We live in an information-overloaded society, yet we actually know so little. While I was reading this book I took a straw pole of some people I know, and 100% of them had no idea who the Colwell brothers, or Herb Allen are. So much information, yet so little knowledge is a real problem in today’s world. The three ‘cowboy brothers’ and Herb, probably did more for world peace, or at least peaceful co-existence, than any President, or any government organization has ever done. Frank McGee has produced a great book that chronicles the story of these eclectic individuals. Even better the book is peppered with photographs of the actual people and events.The story starts right after WWII, the Colwells are in their teens, and have a true skill in the entertainment world. Initially self-taught, they make their mark on the radio landscape, appearing in the Tex Williams weekly show. Invited to ‘tour’ overseas for one month the young brothers can not resist, and against their parents' better judgment they set off on their adventure. It was almost a decade before they returned to the US. As part of MRA (Moral Re-Armament) and later Up With People they joined in the youthful mission to try to make the planet a better place. As the saying goes, ‘They boldly went where no man has gone before’. If there was conflict, you could guarantee that the Colwell brothers were not far away, acting as ambassadors of peace.A Song For The World is a great and heartfelt work, Frank McGee has certainly done his homework; he follows the Colwell’s and Allen across the planet. From India, Africa, China, Russia, and just about every other country you can think of, we watch these kids grow into men, and subsequently fathers. Very late in the book McGee talks about how they became married men, and I have to admit it is a pretty strange tale. As nomadic minstrels they had little opportunity to go through the conventional courtship rituals. Instead they married first and dated later! While this sounds bizarre, the formula obviously worked for them.There are very few musicians that have the bragging rights that these guys have; they have played for Kings and Queens, Emperors and Empresses, they have entertained millions of people, and yet never had a top 10 hit! This is a fascinating read and reveals a side of humanity that today is sadly in short supply: happiness, caring, and above all giving. We can learn much from the selfless actions of the Colwell brothers and Herb Allen.What absolutely blew me away was that for the best part of 20 years these guys received no pay at all, they just relied on the kindness of others to provide for their day to day needs.A Song For The World is well worth the price of admission, and should be on everyone’s reading list for the summer.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

An Interview With Gerrie Hugo About Africa Will Always Break Your Heart, Part Two

Simon Barrett — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:31:51 EDT

In part one Gerrie Hugo explained a lot about his life in South Africa, and the reasons for writing Africa Will Always Break Your Heart. In part two we talk about his life after South Africa, and the problems of bringing a book to fruition.This is quite the international group, you are in Sweden, your publisher is in South Africa , your promotion is being handled out of Southern California, and I am interviewing you from Canada. Even a few years ago this would have been an impossible situation! How important is the internet to you in your endeavours?The impact of our global village still does not fail to astound me. I am a techno-peasant and have yet to grasp the full extent of what the worldwide web can do for one. I am however slowly getting to grips with it and would not have made one sale had it not been for this capability. My writing also started off by posting little nonsensical snippets on chat sites. I can clearly recall one titled “The Plight of the Yak Fur Traders in Outer Mongolia.” The response to this diatribe was so overwhelmingly positive that it led me to believe that I might be able to hammer something together closely resembling a book. I also used these chat sites as a sounding board and posted endless snippets of my work. I need to thank all my good friends in cyberspace for allowing me to bore them to tears. They were my initial “editors” and because I value their opinions this book is now available.On the topic of editing I need to add the following. I saw the need for a specialized edit but alas the budget did not allow for that. I had an editor in South Africa and she did a sterling job with the first 90 pages but I ran out of funds. I then followed her advice and suggestions with the rest of the book.Credit for most of the editing will have to go to three main ladies in my life. The ladies in no particular order of importance are:Gun von Krusenstjerna, a translator and now good friend who is busy translating my book into Swedish. This little bundle of energy and wrinkles pointed out things that both my wife and I overlooked, even with detail scrutiny. (Just kidding about the wrinkles – she is a stunner for her age.)Lisbeth, my mother-in-law, a retired school headmistress and one of my main supports with this work.My wife Bodil, who never complained and made endless suggestions and pointed out obvious flaws missed even with the 100th read. With her all things in life is possible.Neither these ladies nor I can call English our first language and I believe they have achieved the almost impossible to get my ramblings into something resembling a book that others might want to read. I wrote “informally,” the way Afrikaners expressed themselves in English and was concerned about how this would be received. As I’m sure you know one becomes “blind” when having read a text for the umpteenth time.Translation into Afrikaans will be such a natural step that I don’t even count this as an achievement but need to mention that it's work in progress as well.If you could wind the clock back, would you join the military again?In short no. Not because of the things I was exposed to but the knowledge that I wasted most of my adult life in defending a dinosaur cause. I should have listened to the career guidance councillor who advised me to become a “professional” student. I’m a born teacher and the part I miss most about the military is to be able to give instruction. I sometimes daydream about teaching young fertile minds, influencing them to expand their capabilities and to never stop doing so. Information will always be the most powerful weapon in the world.I long for lost opportunities, for developing my own potential, for being able to speak more than four languages and to be able to play a musical instrument. Maybe it’s not too late but I can only mourn for all the time wasted.On a lighter note, books are like cocaine, they are very addictive. I have never met an author that stops after one, and so what are you working on now?I have completed a few children’s stories. They will be available soon. Currently only in Afrikaans and aimed at the expat community but they will be translated into English in due course.I’m also working on a tongue in the cheek version of the “History of Ciskei.” This little Bantustan played a major role in the continued covert fight against the ANC after the organisation was un-banned. Call it a Tom Sharpe or Terry Pratchett version of events in this comical “independent country” that no-one but the National Party of old recognised as an entity.Maybe the writing was already on the wall when the flagpole got pulled over during the flag hoisting ceremony with Independence Day celebrations.I aim to illustrate the importance of the covert operations I exposed with this book. What could have happened had I not spoken out and effectively put a stop to their activities. And on a personal level, I understand that your wife has been diagnosed with MS. I send my brightest greetings to a lady that obviously has great strength (well she is married to you!), and how is she doing?Have no fear of offending me. That’s my job. I have a very thick skin and realise it was intended as a joke. I read somewhere that one have to have a thin skin when writing and a thick skin when marketing as well as facing critics. In any event I hand this part over to my wife who can express this part a lot clearer than what I could dream to. I will make the odd comment after her piece.Dear Simon,Thanks for the greetings! Whether or not I’m a lady can always be discussed but still…MS sucks. I was diagnosed in '99 but know for a fact that I’ve had this crap since '94. And all things considering, it could have been worse. Don’t get me wrong now, but it can sometimes be difficult that it doesn’t show; no limping, no blindness etc. Therefore it can be hard to actually make people understand that I actually do have MS. What they don’t see is the chronic pain and extreme fatigue I’m living with. I refuse to take on the role that many a good Swede expects from a handicapped person. Having worked in neurosurgery and neuro-medicine I know exactly where this might end up, seen many terminal cases of MS. But life is too precious to waste, thinking of what can and might happen – or not.Gerrie and I have, with our respective backgrounds, long since come to terms with just how capricious life can be. One should never take anything for granted. The years I spent in Angola and Namibia taught me that.Somehow Gerrie and I are more than husband and wife. We’re “partners in crime”, friends, lovers, mates. And the fact that I’m “sleeping with the enemy” is still terribly upsetting for some of (most of?) my colleagues in the solidarity organisation I’m working. Oh, how enlightened we Swedes are…One memorable comment; “Well, if the MPLA can forgive UNITA I guess I can try to forgive you.”Somehow that was never an issue with my parents. When gently trying to introduce them to the fact that I’d met up with Gerrie and we’d become an item (3 months after we’d first met), they had no problem with it.My wife is an extremely brave and mentally strong person. She is the love of my life and after meeting her I decided to cut out the crap in my life that can take up so much of one’s time. Petty issues like what people will think of me and why therefore disappeared out of the window. We live for the truth and we live it now as the current is the only certainty we will ever have.Sweden is now your home, can you tell us a little about life there?What can one say about civilisation? A country rated the second-best in the world after your good old Canada. What a wonderful eye-opener this was for me. Clean, friendly with law-abiding citizens. People that find it hard to cross a street against a red light even when there is no traffic around for literally miles. A culturally rich society where people fly their national flag with pride. Hell, they even get tearful about paying taxes and having the privilege to vote. People who not only sport names like Åsa and Håkan but can also pronounce them. This is paradise. I still spend some Sundays just getting on the subway and exploring some new and wonderful places.Crime is an alien entity. There are fewer murders in the entire Sweden in one year than there are in Hillbrow (a suburb of Johannesburg) over a weekend. Try to get your head around that one.The only negative thing I can say about Swedish society is that they seem to very naïve as to the mental make-up of the low-life forms of this planet. Your average Swede can not fathom how cruelty and bad genes can exist in other humans let alone how they can practice activities associated with it.I do have a problem with the fact that the founders established this country so close to the artic circle. Winters are no joke for a Boer from the Southern tip of Africa and I tend to lose my sense of humour when it gets to minus 25 degrees Celsius. Would you ever consider returning to South Africa? If you had the opportunity to make a real difference would you go?In the short term I would not even consider going back to South Africa for a visit. Not even to attend my father’s funeral. I have too many powerful enemies with extremely long memories. I might be brave but I’m definitely not stupid.I have dual nationality and am proud to call myself a Swede. Africa Will Always Break your Heart is my final apology and effort to try and set the record straight. Africa can continue to break hearts as far as I’m concerned. I wish I could say that I now wash my hands with the entire continent but just like an abused wife I will always return for more. My love for her is too strong.Postscript: Gerrie Hugo is a most engaging man, I hope that his book makes it to the best seller list, if for no other reason than the he can show that the Truth And Reconcilliation committee was a sham!

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

An Interview With Gerrie Hugo About Africa Will Always Break Your Heart - Part One

Simon Barrett — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:37:28 EDT

I read many books, and most end up on the ‘Done Pile’ and forgotten, while a few though go on my ‘must keep and revisit’ list. Africa Will Always Break Your Heart by Gerrie Hugo is on the ‘must keep’ list. I was just an obnoxious English grammar school kid when the apartheid ‘war of public opinion’ in South Africa was raging. Although I was young and outspoken, I most certainly thought that apartheid was just a glamorous way of dressing up the word slavery. I think I was mostly right, but I did not understand all of the factors at the time - and I certainly did not know the facts. Black versus White, was how it was portrayed to me.Gerrie has written a tour de force in Africa Will Always Break Your Heart. You might even recognize his name. He was featured in the 1997 Emmy winning documentary Gerrie and Louise (although it is best to only mention this when you are outside the range of his fist). A great disservice was heaped on Gerrie through this production. In classic TV tradition, facts were taken out of context and used to present a case that was blatantly false.I had the opportunity to chat with this very entertaining guy - he had much to say, and all of it important, for that reason I decided to make this a two part interview. Can you tell our readers a little about who Gerrie Hugo is? I’ll try to steer away from my standard flippant response which will always be a façade to hide away my grave concerns about the country of my birth and the pitfalls of life.I was born at home on the 1st of April 1956 in Cape Town. When my mother laid eyes on me she was immediately taken to the hospital. (See I can’t help myself) As the middle son of a military non-commissioned officer I tried without success to get my father’s love and attention and later decided to break all ties with him. His double standards became the main reason for me losing all faith in any form of Deity to date. He is still alive but in my mind I’ve buried him a few years ago for the sake of my sanity.I have always been a maverick and a fierce protector of what I believed to be the underdog. Mostly these beliefs were misplaced but that did not stop me from expressing my opinions in the most colourful language to all within earshot. I was therefore not well loved by my seniors and have always been much too outspoken to my detriment. The fact that I normally call a spade a shovel did not enhance my chances of ever making it to the General Staff of the Defence Force. Tact is not my forté and I do not suffer fools lightly. (Unfortunately there is too many of them around.)I rose through the ranks rapidly and was quite successful as an Intelligence Officer, as I’m with most things I put my mind to. Consumption of copious amounts of alcohol mostly contributed to the fact that I always “under-achieved” in my opinion. (I am now a dry alcoholic).Africa Will Always Break Your Heart details my career, and my life during the awful apartheid period I was part of the problem, and yet when I tried to become part of the solution even bigger challenges were sent my way.I now live in exile in Sweden. Even though by choice I will always see myself as being in exile. I sometimes long so much for the country of my birth that my chest physically hurts. Reading a newspaper online about all the murders, mayhem and chaos prevalent quickly cures me of my longing though. Africa Will Always Break Your Heart is a very powerful book, and one that you should be very proud of. It also has burnt many bridges for you. Was it worth it?Thank you very much for that comment. I believe that most people who possess the ability to do introspection and are willing to be honest about their flaws and shortcomings have a unique story to tell. Not only me. If I have to be proud about anything relating to my book it will have to be the honesty with which it was written. It was no easy road and admitting to my shortcomings and faults was indeed a very difficult thing to do. I knew that I had done the right thing when my 16 year old boy told me that he was proud of me and the fact that I could admit to my failings as a human being. So yes, I am indeed proud and will hold my head high in the face of fierce criticism. A little purging of the soul does one the world of good and I can strongly recommend it to the likes of Peter Davies to consider but more of that later.Most of the bridges were already burnt for me after speaking out against the apartheid-regime. The fact that I introduced the concept and/or revealed The Third Force was definitively not appreciated by the powers to be, and after that very little was left for me in South Africa. But yes, by publishing this book the hatred against me was once again resurrected and the same threats, from the same group of people, started surfacing. This time aimed not only towards me but also aimed at my wife.I think the reason was the fact that the Afrikaner way of life with their double standards was brought up. Is the truth worth it? Definitely.It is my story, my memories, how unsavoury it might be. But having lived a lie for most of my life had to be put to an end. I know that many people will disagree but still, it is my story and I have stuck to the truth as I knew it.When I compare your book to Peter Davies' The Scatterlings Of Africa I feel that he thinks ‘The wrong people won’, and you believe that the right people lost. It may be semantics, but you are both negative, albeit from opposing camps. No-one really won, everyone lost in their own way. Was there a better way to have handled the entire situation?I have not read Peter Davies and probably never will because of a moral problem I have with his (and others) point of view. The problem can be found in the lack of acknowledgement that they fought for an unjust cause. Any soldier fights for the government of the day and what it stands for. In South Africa the government of the day stood for Apartheid (white supremacy) and that have been aptly dubbed as a crime against humanity. Not one of these “heroic autobiographies” admits to or even hint at the fact that they actually fought for white supremacy. All will spell it out as a fight against communism. If they can or will not admit to this simple fact, I will treat all of their works with contempt and scorn.Hindsight is an exact science. A better way would have been for more serving members to see through the propaganda pumped out by the politicians, clerics and other authority figures and to have rebelled against the fact that human beings (people of colour) got categorised as dirt.For too long the white man’s political views on the Southern tip of Africa were just cleverly disguised Nazism. For the likes of Peter Davies I have a message: “Before you pump out your seditious opinions to the world, first analyse exactly what you were led to believe in, admit to the faults and shortcomings or else don’t advertise your ignorance.” If he still maintains that the wrong people won then I have no hope for him and his kind. The facts of the matter are that the popular and overwhelmingly majority’s will prevailed in the end. That is called real democracy and he seems to have a problem with that. You are very critical of South Africa during the apartheid period, and clearly you have managed to make a number of pretty high ranking members of the establishment pretty mad, yet I noticed that you currently use a South African publisher. Was it a challenge to find a publisher?Finding a publisher was a lot easier than I expected. The very first publisher in the UK I submitted my manuscript to, accepted it within weeks after I posted it on the condition that I would have to go on a two year waiting list. This led me to believe that my work was good enough and as I could not wait for so long I embarked on a self-publication exercise with Authorhouse in the UK. No-one warned me about the pitfalls of self-publication and the excessive cost of marketing but I guess one learns as one goes along. The good thing about self-publication is that I kept the copyright to my work and could thus shop around a bit more. I met up with John Dovey of Just Done Productions by chance and as I then did not have any publisher in South Africa things just took its natural course. John worked like a demon and within weeks I had the first copy of my book in my hand. I will always be grateful to this superb man for that moment in my life.John suffers fierce criticism for publishing me as he is a serving member of the citizen force in South Africa and normally publishes military history and related topics. Even though my enemies of old (as well as new) make up the larger part of his “readership” he maintains that I have a story to tell and will not budge in his decision to carry my work. According to some I should be strung up by my feet as I’m trash, a turncoat and a traitor. A traitor to what? Atrocities committed in the name of apartheid? A dinosaur cause and a crime against humanity. I can live with that.To get the media in South Africa interested in my work have been a totally different kettle of fish all together. South Africa is still in the Stone-Age as far as self-published authors are concerned. As I do not have the safety network of the “big boys” and have no chance of wining and dining the journalists with columns in the cultural pages, very little note has been taken of my book up to date. That is however soon to change through the tireless and selfless efforts of one Sarah Britten, author of, The Art of the South African Insult and I can only thank her from the bottom of my heart. I can also fully recommend her book. (Just as a by the way: For anyone to wine and dine a journalist to be reviewed is also something I find a bit repulsive, even though I know that it’s quite a common way to go about it.)I am currently in the process of negotiating publication of a translation into Swedish by none other than Henning Mankell’s publishing house called Leopard Press. Things seem to be on an upward curve. Part Two coming soon!

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

Book Review: Africa Will Always Break Your Heart by Gerrie Hugo

Simon Barrett — Thu, 5 Jul 2007 16:43:25 EDT

This is a book that I really don’t know where to start with. Although by his own admission the first draft was slammed together in only six weeks, it is exceedingly well written. Either Gerrie Hugo is a master of the art, or else he employed a superb editor. Africa Will Always Break Your Heart is not just a biography, it is a history lesson about South Africa during the rather grim age of apartheid and its hateful and vengeful effect on the indigenous population.Gerrie Hugo mostly manages to create a very funny read in the first half of the book. I am sure that anyone mentioned has Gerrie crossed off their Christmas card list. His childhood was not particularly good, life was often difficult, an army father with double standards, and a mother whose infidelities were obvious to even the most casual observer created a less than ideal environment. In his teenage years we discover there is no doubt about his sexual orientation, as a hormone-ravaged young man he was a true terror to the fairer sex, and amusing the stories are.The second half of the book takes on a much darker shade. As a member of the armed forces we watch Gerrie get pulled gently but insistently into the always murky world on ‘intelligence’, agendas abounded, the obvious quest of the White minority being to sustain the status quo against increasing world pressure to force democracy. And an increasing groundswell from both the Colored and Black majorities to recognize their presence (and yes there is a difference, one was indigenous while the other was an interloper, this is a fact that few of us in the west understood).Being asked and commanded to do increasingly more inane and obviously illegal tasks Gerrie becomes rebellious, but asking questions does not get him any answers, just more and more grief.Democracy finally arrived and It was time to speak out. Gerrie knew that much of what he had been involved in was in at least immoral and usually illegal. The Truth And Reconciliation Committee seemed like the perfect way to move forward, he found it the exact opposite. Although he had gained some notoriety by going to the press, little of his story garnered support, a smear campaign on his character had been conducted by his old colleagues, and even some of the press fell into this disinformation.Finding himself with a criminal conviction on a trumped up charge, no money, no home, and no job, life was indeed looking grim. I will give Gerrie credit though, he did not crumble as most people would. With a price on his head, he continued to try and get his message out.Now aged 50, he lives in Sweden, far away from his family, friends, and enemies, he is a much happier person, and maybe one of the few people who understands exactly what happened in South Africa during these turbulent times.This is the second book that I have read recently about this area and this time frame; they take two different viewpoints but share a very common thread. Peter Davies in The Scatterlings Of Africa concludes his book with the quote "and the terrorists won", referring to the ANC; Gerrie could have concluded with the comment "and the white terrorists lost". Two very opposing looks at one very disturbing period of history.There is more than a smattering of bad language in Africa Will Always Break Your Heart, but it is so well put together, funny, sad, poignant, and disturbing, it should be on your summer reading list.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

TV Review: The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A Small Planet - "Work"

Simon Barrett — Tue, 3 Jul 2007 12:44:30 EDT

“When most people go to work they leave their environmental ethics at the door,” says Joel Makower. And how true that is. It is estimated that commercial concerns account for 17% of the global warming problem. This week on Big Ideas For A Small Planet the workplace is examined, and more particularly what we can do to make a cleaner, more eco-friendly environment in which to work.For the human race to continue to grow we must become more ecologically aware; in easy to understand terms, each of us leaves an ecological footprint that can be measured in how much land we need to support our habits. Globally it is about six acres per person, yet in the US it is almost 24. By reducing this ‘footprint’ we can make the world a better and sustainable place. Big Ideas looks at three enterprises dedicated to this mission.Kim Jordan and Jeff Lebesch, the founders of New Belgium Brewing Company, demonstrate their dedication to the environment and to their employees by creating an ideal working environment. By using environmental stewardship they have created not only a fun workplace, but also one that is environmentally friendly. Kim explains how through good environmental management you can still make a great product and not hurt the bottom line.David Hertz, founder and president of Syndesis Inc shows us that new is not always better. When he decided to buy a property for his booming business he decided to renovate rather than build. This is so much friendlier to the environment. Using innovative technologies, David has created a truly unique workplace. A green roof (yes, plants), solar panels, and smart lighting all lead to a situation where this building is essentially self-supporting, and its physical footprint mirrors its ecological footprint.Maybe the most innovative enterprise reviewed in this week's episode is that of Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. This Bay Area company conducts environmental audits in an effort to show how a company can reduce its environmental impact. “Every company can lower its environmental impact” he tells us, and small steps lead to larger ones. I had the opportunity to chat with this environmental leader.When did you come up with the idea behind Ecological Footprint? And how long has the company existed?The Ecological Footprint emerged out of my PhD work (from 1990 to 1994) in collaboration with my graduate professor, William Rees at the University of British Columbia. I have since focused much of my life on implementation – taking the Footprint from an idea to a real, policy-relevant measurement and management tool for living within the means of one planet Earth. Over the years, business leaders, scientists, academics, government officials, and non-profit organizations have vastly advanced the influence of the Footprint around the world. Collectively these efforts have started a sea change and made the case for establishing a Global Footprint Network in 2003 — a partnership-based , international network — to serve and support the Footprint community and to foster large-scale change. Now, footprint discussions are found everywhere – carbon footprints being particularly popular.Today green is in, but that was not the case even a few years ago. Was it difficult to persuade companies that they needed your help?Our strategy with businesses is to support green leaders in out-crowding the grey dinosaurs. Companies are starting to recognize that coming to grips with ecological limits is more than looking green. Ignoring limits becomes a potentially costly blind spot in their business strategy. This is why more and more, companies are contacting us, rather than us calling them up.The Bay Area has a tradition for being leading edge, and amenable to new ideas. Are you moving into other cities, and what sort of reaction are you getting?Indeed, the Bay Area is a great location for innovation. That’s one reason we are here. Our activities though are far from limited to the Bay Area. In fact, our strategy is to build a message and measurement method that works for people around the world, across the US, for Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America. This is why we have 75 partner organizations across the globe. Still our engagement in the US is weak: most of our current projects are in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Africa. There have been a number of studies in the US beyond Marin and Sonoma county: for instance, a partner of ours is producing an assessment of Utah’s Ecological Footprint.In Europe we are working with partners and countries and hope to get the European Union to adopt the Footprint as a resource accounting metric. Local governments in Australia are exemplary leaders in Footprint applications and sustainability policy. In Africa we are bringing an ecological lens to the sustainable development debate. The Government of Japan has adopted the Footprint as a national indicator; and cities, companies and NGOs in Canada are actively using the Footprint for a variety of applications. In other words, the Footprint is being applied from global scale down to products.In essence, Global Footprint Network is very much an international organization with an even more international partner network active on five continents. The partners share the goal of making planetary limits central to decision-making everywhere, and putting an end to ecological overshoot. Partner organizations represent industries, national and local governments, and policy and research groups around the world and together we make progress and have a reach and impact that would be impossible for any of us acting alone.An often used statistic is the 1.3:1 ratio of resources used versus resources replenished; basically we are running on a deficit. What kind of change in this ratio can a company expect if they follow your recommendations?Our most recent Ecological Footprint accounts show that humanity used 30% more resources in 2003 than planet Earth was able to regenerate in that year – this overuse is our global ecological deficit. Basically, humanity is living off its ecological credit card. Ecological deficit spending means liquidating the planet’s ecological assets. While this can be done for a while, overshoot ultimately leads to the depletion of resources – as in the case of fisheries collapse, deforestation, or CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere.This is the challenge humanity is facing: while we are facing global resource overuse, many people around the globe still need larger Footprints to live well – more corrugated roofs, more rice, more electricity for their hospitals, etc. Also, some of the planet’s capacity needs to be left aside for wild species. This means that industrialized lifestyles need to become far more resource efficient if we want to get humanity out of overshoot. Recognizing this, many are now talking about the need for a factor 10 revolution – finding technologies that can provide the same service on 10 times fewer resources. Many such technologies exist – fluorescent versus incandescent lights, or wind power versus coal-fired power plants, etc.As with almost every new concept, the key is education. How is Ecological Footprint getting the message out?Ending ecological overshoot depends on recognizing ecological limits. In our culture, this is almost like trying to break a taboo - we don't like limits, and don't want to talk about them, we ignore them in our economic theories and political practice.But ecological limits just are. Very much like gravity – gravity just is. Whether you like it or not. Walking up a hill we may curse gravity – but this does not make gravity disappear. The Ecological Footprint helps us recognize, measure, and manage to live well and live within ecological limits.Part of what makes the Ecological Footprint unique is that it functions both as a resource accounting methodology and as a powerful communications tool for the recognition of planetary limits, and for more precise and accountable conversations about sustainability.This is why we are joining with partners to spread this thinking through all kinds of channels – from calculator campaigns where people can assess their own Footprint to policy education campaigns as in the case of the "Living Planet Report" with WWF.Our outreach efforts include publication of a widely circulated newsletter, ongoing website improvements, public talks and trainings around the world, expanding the reach, effectiveness and impact of our partner network, and media campaigns highlighting Overshoot and Footprint applications.Judging from Google hits and ranking, the reach of our partner organizations, and the continuous mention in international media, we can say with confidence that millions are being reached and served by the Footprint.Postscript: You can catch Big Ideas For A Small Planet Tuesday at 9pm on The Sundance Channel, and if your cable company doesn't carry this fine channel, all is not lost; you can watch most of the show online.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

An Interview With Damien Lewis About Cobra Gold

Simon Barrett — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:26:15 EDT

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing an advance copy of Cobra Gold, Damien Lewis’s latest blockbuster novel. Cobra Gold takes as its subject a factual event, a huge bank robbery in the mid-1970s in war-ravaged Beirut, Lebanon. A robbery that to this day has no suspects and from which the gold is still missing!This is a wild fictional romp about one possible scenario, and well worth reading. Action-packed, and moving faster than a projectile from an AK-47, we have terrorists, gold, greed, and great storytelling. I had the opportunity to chat with Damien.So who is Damien Lewis? I’m a 41-year-old British author, who’s spent the last twenty-odd years as a war reporter working in some of the world’s less-visited trouble spots - Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe, Syria, Eritrea, Nigeria to name but a few. Predominantly, I’ve been reporting for TV news or documentary, the usual suspects – BBC, Channel 4, CNN, Sky. In 2000 I was laid low for several months following spinal surgery, and during my recovery period I wrote my first book, a biography called Slave. It went on to be published in 21 different languages, and is a number one international bestseller. It won the 2004 Index on Censorship Book Award.It was serendipity that led me to write that first book, and by then the flood gates had been opened. I went on to write several other military non-fiction books, and then this year I published my first fiction -- Cobra Gold -- which is based upon the true story of the world’s biggest-ever bank raid, that took place in the 1970s Lebanon civil war. I’m now looking at writing a series of three further fictions -- all based upon true stories -- and developing the same characters throughout. I still do the war-reporting side of things: in 2003 I was filming in the Sudan war zone for three months, making an award-winning feature documentary called War Hospital. In November last year I went to report from the Darfur conflict zone, and the article I wrote -- ‘Darfur’s Inferno’ -- has just won the One World Popular Features Awards. My work in war zones -- my experiences with rebels armies, terrorists, war lords, freedom fighters, genocidal leaders and all the rest of it -- is the powerhouse of real life experience that drives my fictional writing.Damien, you have produced a powerhouse book - how did you come up with the idea?I met a guy who is ex-British military, who came to me via a mutual friend. Over several mugs of tea in a café in London he told me the story of the world’s biggest-ever bank robbery, in 1976 war-torn Beirut city. Of the minimum 50 million dollars stolen -- some 200 million dollars at today’s values -- the majority was gold bullion. None of that loot has ever been recovered and the robbery remains a mystery. The man talking to me suggested a scenario: that perhaps the world’s elite military force, the British Special Air Service (SAS) had been sent in to rob the bank, because its vaults contained terrorist documents of high intelligence value to our own and allied governments. Whilst robbing the vault of those documents, the band of SAS maverick warriors decided to help themselves to the gold, as well. This was all theoretical, he stressed, but might it not make an interesting basis for a book, he asked me? Indeed it might, I agreed. I went away and used my extensive military and related contacts to further research the story – research that took the best part of a year to complete. The more I looked into the story, the more amazed I became. The world’s biggest bank raid ever is also the world’s ‘perfect’ robbery – for whoever did do it they got away with it completely. From that point I began plotting out Cobra Gold.Cobra Gold is your seventh book. Does it get easier? Or do you find that each book raises the bar a little?It gets easier and it gets more difficult. It gets easier because each book is less daunting than the last, because you know you can do it – your past track record evidences so. It gets more difficult in that each book mines a reserve of energy and creativity within the author, and each time one risks those reserves getting more and more depleted. The antidote to this is those real life experiences I wrote about – whether reporting from Darfur or scaling Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, as I did two years ago. In particular, Cobra Gold presented me with a significant new set of challenges, because it is my first full-length fiction. (I wrote 'Desert Claw' in 2006, a short story for the British Government World Book Day initiative, which is a fiction based upon the true story of a looted Van Gogh painting, in Iraq). Writing fiction is a very, very different ball game than non-fiction. To go into the reasons why is a whole separate interview. But in short, a true story has an internal, set narrative, time-line and collection of facts that informs it; a fiction has none of these, and the only constraints are those of the author’s imagination and creative input.It has been my experience that authors tend to model their characters after real people, and there is usually one character, often the main character that is themselves. How much of Kilbride comes from Damien?Good question! Well, the character of Kilbride -- that main protagonist in Cobra Gold -- is actually based upon a close friend of mine, who is British ex-Special Forces. He is one of the toughest soldiers I have ever met, and you would never want to cross him, but he is also something of a warrior-philosopher. This man does yoga on the battle field prior to each day’s fighting, and believes that no life should be taken without some sense of his being able to justify having done so. In his youth, he was totally wild and self-destructive, and arguably it was only the British military and Special Forces training that sorted him out. That’s my basis for the main character – a man of the people, and a real leader of men, one who would never ask his men to do what he would not willingly do himself. But at the same time, there are elements of me in there also. I’ve worked all over Africa -- in that continent’s trouble spots, more than her beauty spots -- and the African setting and flavour of Cobra Gold springs in part from my own experiences. And if I ask myself would I have carried out the bank raid, had I been in the protagonist’s position, I’d hazard that I would. In fact all the ex-military types with whom I’ve discussed Cobra Gold have said the same things about the bank raid: “you would, wouldn’t you, especially if you could get away with it.”You have had considerable success with sales in the UK market, as I recall a #4 on the Times bestseller list. But you have not done as well in the lucrative North American arena; is Cobra Gold the breakthrough book?That would be good, certainly, and my trusty literary agent will be working on a U.S. deal as I write this interview. My first book was published in the U.S., and -- all being well -- it is presently being completed as a feature film by a top U.S. movie company. In fact, all my books have been optioned as feature films, and I have high hopes for Operation Certain Death and Bloody Heroes to be produced as big budget movies. So, there are in-roads already, and I believe that Cobra Gold would work well for a U.S. readership. I have American readers of my military books, but they purchase them off Amazon.You recently won an award for your coverage of the ongoing strife in the Sudan. We in the West have little idea of the situation over there. How bad is it?It’s very bad. I’ve reported from the Sudan war zone for the last decade or more, visiting the country forty-odd times. I’ve been to all the war-ravaged areas and seen some pretty terrible stuff out there. A lot of it sticks in my mind even to this day – the sickly-sweet smell of rotting human corpses, the rasping in-breath of a child dying from starvation. But what I witnessed in the Darfur camps was worse. It was worse because it involved savagery and evil on a massive scale against children – and it beggars belief that grown men could do such things against innocence. I have young children myself, and when I interviewed an eight-year-old victim of gang rape by the murderous militias, I was sickened and it beggared belief. Brutality and savagery in war are bad enough, but when directed against innocent women and children … Darfur has suffered an orgy of bestial savagery, where grown men have allowed pure evil to possess them. Such should not be allowed to pass.Being a war correspondent is not exactly the safest job in the world. Have you had any ‘close encounters of the really scary kind’?Looking back on it, I’d probably have to say ‘yes’. But at the time one is taken over by a kind of madness, a blind belief in one’s own invincibility and ability to survive. That’s the nature of reporting from war – without that belief young men would not be able to do what they do. And bear in mind that fear and adrenaline are the most addictive drugs ever, and war reporting is the most addictive profession ever. And each time one survives a near-death experience – the cocked pistol thrust into the ribs by a drugged-out Burmese soldier caught smuggling; the trek into the desert drop zone where chemical weapons have been deployed, with no protective gear – then the high jump bar is set ever higher for the next one.You are married and have two young children, is it time to hang up the war correspondent hat and settle down?Well, I’m older and wiser now, and when I look back on some of the things I’ve done and I’m stunned by the risks I used to take as a matter of course. A few years back I was out filming somewhere with an ex-SAS guy as security. I often shoot my own material, and I was using the camera. In the bar that evening the ex-SAS guy told me something. He said: 'You guys are like us, only even more crazy.' He explained that whilst I was filming with my eye glued to the viewfinder, he had been alert and with eyes all around, a finger on the trigger of his gun. At least he could see trouble coming and react to it, and defend himself. I was a sitting target, and blind to it. The risks we, as war cameramen take, were worse. So, in answer to your question – yes, I’ve stopped doing the most crazy stuff. I’m still doing a good bit of war-related reporting, but I’m not longer so on the edge. If that constitutes hanging up the hat, then I guess I’ve done so...I recently reviewed Matthew Carr’s excellent book about the history of terrorism. In summary, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Terrorism is a key theme in Cobra Gold, have you had any first-hand dealings?I spent a year or more living with ‘freedom fighters’ in the Burmese jungles (some would call them terrorists). The Karen, Shan and other ethnic groups are fighting the savage military rule of the central dictatorship – so they’re fare from being ‘terrorists’ in my book. In that scenario the ruling regime are the real terrorists. But there are many shades of grey in this debate. I’ve been on countless trips into the Sudan war zone with the rebels from south, east, and west Sudan. Are they terrorists – when they’re fighting the Islamist dictatorship? In both cases – Burma and Sudan – the rebels get much covert and some overt support from the Western powers. I’ve also infiltrated Islamist extremists circles in the UK and elsewhere, and learned of and experienced at first hand their fascist views and credo of hatred. Now in my book they are terrorists, because, if nothing else, their desire to fight and kill springs from a blind hatred and intolerance of the other – not from a desire to liberate and bring freedom and equality between races and peoples. If there is one thing that Kilbride and his band of men stand for in Cobra Gold, it is tolerance and freedom – to live and let live. We in the West tend to take it all for granted, and only when it is under threat do we start to value what we have.You have written both fiction and non-fiction books - which is your favorite?At present, fiction – simply because it’s the greater challenge. But my intention is to continue with both.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

Book Review: Cobra Gold by Damien Lewis

Simon Barrett — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:32:15 EDT

It is a fact that in 1976 there was a daring bank robbery staged in Beirut, Lebanon. A huge amount of gold bullion was removed and neither the perpetrators nor the gold has ever been found. Damien Lewis uses this as the backdrop to his fictional account not only of how the heist was performed, but also the aftermath of the events as they unfold years later in his new blockbuster Cobra Gold. Damien is no novice to the authoring world, and has been hugely successful in the UK marketplace, his writing style is accomplished, and the plot and character development masterful. This is a high octane story that propels the reader at breakneck speed through a world of intrigue, greed, and terrorism. I suspect that Cobra Gold may be his well deserved big break into the North American book market, I’ll be watching the New York Times bestseller list for this one.The premise behind the plot is that the heist was actually carried out by a rogue unit of the elite British SAS. This merry band of marauders led by the renegade Kilbride are tasked with a mission. They have to break into a bank in the middle of war torn Beirut and ‘liberate’ the contents of some safety deposit boxes that are thought to contain information about a shadowy terrorist group called the Black Assassins.Of course if this is the bank where they keep their papers, it is also the bank where they keep their loot, and rumor has it the loot is in the form of gold bullion to the tune of $50 million. Kilbride and his partners in crime figure that the gold would make a nice nest egg for their retirement years and set about incorporating it into their sanctioned mission.Once into the bank they make a remarkable discovery: there is way more gold than they had expected, almost 18 tons of gold! Even for 9 SAS solders, moving and stashing this amount of loot is a daunting task, it is not something that is going to fit in your kitbag!To reveal more about this raucous tale would spoil the surprises, but I will tell you this much, that is just the opening scenario to the book! There are all sorts of twists and turns in Cobra Gold. In some ways I found the writing style to be a little like early Tom Clancy, but without the boring and tedious techno drivel that Clancy loves to incorporate. Damien Lewis sticks to what the reader wants, action, action, and yet more action,This is a powerhouse of a book, if you are headed off on vacation put this one in your luggage and while sipping cold beers on that tropical beach treat yourself to this wild tale of derring-do.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

TV Review: The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A Small Planet - "Sports"

Simon Barrett — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 07:41:08 EDT

This week The Sundance Channel's Big Ideas For A small Planet takes aim at the world of sports, and what some companies and individuals are doing to make equipment sustainable and eco-friendly. Following their usual format, Big Ideas For A Small Planet zooms in on three story segments.Craig Calfee, of Calfee Designs is a well known designer of high end bicycles for discerning enthusiasts. Back in 1997, due to the high cost and shortage of carbon fiber, he started to explore alternative materials. One day while teasing his dog with a piece of bamboo he had a ‘EUREKA’ moment. Bamboo is very light, very plentiful, and incredibly strong -- the bamboo bike was born. It turns out that bamboo is actually stronger than carbon fiber, and it is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet; here is a truly sustainable raw material.Craig takes us through the building process, and it is amazing. To join the pieces together a combination of hemp fiber and epoxy is used. The finished product is superb, and according to riders, the bamboo absorbs the kinks and ruts, giving a very smooth ride. This eco-friendly bike now represents about 20% of sales for the company.Jason Salfi is the co-founder of Comet Skateboards. He points out that skateboarding is becoming more and more popular, annual sales have been growing every year, yet many of the skateboards on sale use non renewable wood resources, and lots of toxins in the manufacturing process, in the forms of glue and lacquers. Comet uses water-based paints and is also experimenting with a soy-based polymer that will be used to protect the deck. Jason wants to create a ‘closed loop’ recycle process. When you are finished with the product, it is compostable. I had the pleasure of chatting With Jason about Comet Skateboards.Comet Skateboards has been around for ten years; have you always been eco-friendly or is this a recent development?We never said we want to be the “greenest company’’, we just want to make the best boards possible. For us that includes making a minimal impact on the forest, the air, the water, etc. From day one we have used FSC woods, water coatings, and inks… We feel like these are the best materials available. After all we are making things for young people, if we offer them a product that compromises their future, what good are we to them?Most manufacturers are motivated by cost of raw material. How does your manufacturing cost compare to using more traditional materials?We pay a little more at times. Our product is part of our marketing and our values drive everything. There is more of a good vibe about our boards and the return on the investment is loyalty from the skaters.Do people buy because it is eco-friendly, or is just because it is a damn fine product?People like our boards because they last several times as long as other boards and skate great. When they dig a little deeper and find out about our core values, they are extra stoked. In the last year, however, many sales have been driven by our commitment to less impactful materials/eco edge.How close are you to using your soy-based protective covering?We are finishing the prototyping of the soy polymer and bio-composite boards in August and launching them in the fall. We have been working on this with E2E Materials in Ithaca, New York for two years to make sure it will live up to the Comet performance standards before we launch.I was talking to a friend of mine about natural-based lubricants; have you tried any of these as a replacement for oil-based?I was just on a panel with Jeremy Ridenaur from Wise Solutions in Watsonville, California. We may collaborate on a bio lube for skateboard bearings. The final third of the show concerns Alison Gannett, a well known ‘free skier’, best known for throwing herself of the top of really scary looking mountains! She has set out on her “Global Cooling Tour”. With CO2 emissions growing, and global warming being the result, the winter sports industry is in danger. Alison cites a study that claims that within 15 years ski resorts under 5,000 feet will cease to exist. Like most of the people featured in Big Ideas, she is just one person trying to make a small difference. Use energy efficient bulbs, campaign for energy producers to cut back on the use of coal and move to sustainable energy resources, are among her messages.Big Ideas For A Small Planet airs Tuesday at 9pm on the Sundance Channel; don’t worry if your cable provider does not carry Sundance, you can see most of the action on their website.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

Movie Review: A Mighty Heart

Simon Barrett — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:47:56 EDT

I am sure that most of you are familiar with the story of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped, very likely tortured, and finally beheaded by Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan. Five years after the brutal and pointless event, director Michael Winterbottom brings the story to the big screen. It was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch this movie; the potential for a two hour festival of gore was looming large. My fears were completely unfounded. The movie is based on Mariane Pearl's (Daniel's wife) book of the same title. The sad events surrounding this inhuman and unnecessary piece of recent history are viewed through her eyes. The director has done a fine job of neither glorifying nor gorifying the story.Angela Jolie plays a convincing and totally believable role as the distraught and frustrated Mariane. In the scene where she finally learns of her husband's brutal death, Jolie produces some of the best acting I have seen in a very long time. While this movie was in the production stage there was lots of 'grumbling' from the 'experts' about how Jolie did not have the depth to play this part. Well the 'experts' were wrong.Daniel Pearl is played by Dan Futterman, and a fine job he does. We get to meet Danny mostly through flashbacks from happier times. We walk away knowing that he was a loving husband, and a ‘dog with a bone’ when it came to a news story. Maybe the saddest part of this whole story is that the Pearls were due to leave Pakistan the day after Danny was kidnapped, Mariane was six months pregnant and it was time to leave. A Mighty Heart also explores some concepts that we in the west may not be familiar with -- the huge rift between Pakistan and India, and maybe even more interesting, a brief look into the Al Qaeda organization, and how it uses ‘compartments’ -- if you break into one, you do not break into the next.A Mighty Heart is rated R for strong language, but even with that edited out, it is not a movie for youngsters. It is very deep, and very sad. It opened on June 22, and I think it will do very well indeed.Even though this is not a chick flick, my co-reviewer Jan (my wife) and I give this one two wet hankies!

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.

Mrs. Sam "Soul Man" Moore Speaks Out On Piracy In The Music Business

Simon Barrett — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 00:08:49 EDT

In the world of soul music there are few bigger names in the industry than Sam Moore. Although now in his 70s, the "Soul Man" icon is still going strong. In fact in 2006, he released an album that featured such luminaries of the music world as Sting, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Bon Jovi playing with him. You cannot command that kind of high powered musical accompaniment without being a powerhouse yourself.I was delighted when a DVD turned up in my mailbox last week. It was of two concerts given by Sam Moore (I am guessing sometime in the early eighties). My wife is a big fan of Sam’s so we powered up the home theatre system and watched them. Although the sound and audio quality was a little lacking, one cannot be too critical when you are dealing with this kind of archival footage.I wrote up my review, which was very positive, and published it. I was completely shocked when the following morning I discovered a comment about the review from Sam Moore’s wife (and manager). In the comment she made the claim that this was a bootleg, and that Sam was receiving no royalties whatsoever from it, and that the distribution company had been issued a cease and desist notice. I contacted Joyce Moore and she showed me irrefutable evidence supporting her claim. Not only is the footage bootleg but even the cover art used!The Moore family kindly consented to give an interview about this case in particular, and piracy within the music industry in general.To say I was surprised to find your comment, would be to put it mildly! When did you first become aware of this DVD being on the market? I (Joyce) started to see Google search hits about the release about six weeks ago.What steps have you taken to stop it being sold? We have served cease and desist notices on MVD, on their supplier who is based in the UK, and also on Amazon. Amazon have cooperated fully. We have also contacted other websites, the music publishers, and the owner of the cover art photo. We have been pretty busy with this.Is this type of piracy common? I would have thought that the larger companies would not want to be smeared with this kind of activity.Oh, some of the larger companies do care, the problem is that they are careless! And it depends what you mean. If it is a major like Universal or Sony or Warner they are very careful with the music copyright. But these video guys are not diligent, they’re careless, and never really contact the artists to verify that the paperwork they are presenting is bona fide, or if they even really get the true artist agreements. These video guys are not the music industry although they do sell to many of the same outlets. We have personally had a few of these cases, and we know of many other artists whose works are being sold for profit and who never see a dime as a result. They did not agree to be part of the DVD for someone else’s benefit.What needs to happen to clean up the music industry? There is so much to clean up in all facets of the industry, that I’m not sure there is enough ink to expound here. It would help a great deal if we could teach our children that file sharing and taking music for free is not a right they have somehow acquired and no harm is done. There is great harm to the artists whose livelihood, health insurance, pensions, and ability to continue eating depends on their historical works. Companies also need to realize that they cannot just do anything they like without getting the permission of the artist. And this covers all types of merchandising and all facets of the entertaining industry.There should also be a broadcast right for any and all transmissions of an artist's work use on radio, TV, etc. At least to the same extent that there is for the writers and publishers of the songs being performed. In every civilized country in the world, with the exception of the U.S., artists do get these payments. Only the U.S. has refused to ratify this. So not only do the U.S. artists not get any payments for broadcast at home -- they can’t collect in the other countries of the world, because there is no equity or reciprocity. On a lighter note, can we expect to see some official releases from the illustrious Sam Moore sometime soon? (My wife is a big fan of yours!)Sam Moore's Overnight Sensational (2006) is still out there in the music stores, and is a truly amazing album. Everyone on the planet should have a copy!Sam is working on a project for Disney that will include some other soul legends, and he is also on Randy Jackson’s upcoming debut album with Concord Records. Recently he was on the Today Show, and in the past year has appeared on Letterman, Conan, Emeril, The Late Late Show, the Grammys, won a MOBO lifetime achievement award, and starred in several specials on TV in the UK.There is also a new tribute video for Billy Preston which is being released using “You Are So Beautiful To Me" from Sam’s album (which featured Billy Preston's last ever studio performance, together with Eric Clapton, Robert Randolph, and Zucchero).Clearly there is much wrong with the music industry. What saddens me is that no musician seems to be impervious to the problem. Sam Moore is such a well known figure in the industry and still finds himself a victim. What chance do the smaller fish in the pond have?Oh, and I am always a believer in the saying "Every cloud has a silver lining." Although I did not get to publish my review of the DVD, I do get to publish a review of a Sam Moore live concert. In a million to one chance, it turns out that he is playing here in Calgary on Friday night, and my wife and I have been invited to attend.

Simon is an Educator in Calgary, Alberta. His own piece of idiocy is zzsimonb's rantings and he is also a contibuting editor for Blogger News Network.