Day 9/January 12, 2011!

Today, field research was cancelled because all night and day we had crazy thunderstorms on and off. The weather here is so unpredictable! Maybe it’s an island thing. Anyway, I woke up this morning about 5:28 am and looked out my window and it was super duper windy and stormy! The way the light projecting from Menehune was angled with the building and the way the wind was blowing the raindrops made it look like the raindrops were actually snowflakes! It was a little disconcerting, but then I remembered that I’m in Hawaii. ANYWAY, moving on. So, because we didn’t find out field research was cancelled until 8:45 am (we went down in our rain jackets and waterproof gear and were ready to go! But, the team leaders failed to let us know that we weren’t going to do field work in pouring rain and gale force winds on the edge of a cliff…), we spent the morning reading articles and chillaxing. I was really sad, though, because field research is the best part! And, all of us are so used to being in the outdoors, there was a little cabin fever going on—I know I really wanted to go for another run on the beach and one my roomies actually felt a bit ill because she didn’t go for her usual run! (See, world, we need to take care of the environment because it’s essential to the maintenance of our mental and physical health!!) Yup, so we had two classes today—one 3-5 pm and one 7-9 pm. The 3-5 pm class was a discussion on PR firms and their invisible manipulation and how the world is an oligarchy of corporations all acting for money, and the 7-9 pm class started out with discussions on acoustic pollution in the oceans and ended with a discussion on PR firms and the fascism and repressiveness of our government. The world is scary. Like, I wish there was another planet. Other countries seem really appealing. For a variety of reasons—like, the European Union refuses to use GMOs (genetically modified organisms/food), for example…GMOs have been proven to reduce pesticides, but they’ve also proven to physically damage your organs. I don’t know who to trust any more other than myself. PR firms terrify me. It’s like there’s a whole ‘nuther world within our world…Edward Bernays, the nephew of Freud and the originator of public relations states that “democracies need an invisible ruling elite…the public is not capable of thinking on it’s own and making their own destiny.” With this in mind and inspiration from his uncle Freud, he (essentially) created the scientific method of mind control we call public relations. PR firms manipulate; to be a democracy, people need all the information. With PR, there is suppression of information; well, with the merging of government and corporation, where’s the public knowledge? And, now that corporations are now seen as individuals in the political sphere, they can fund political candidates and push their own corporate viewpoints…money speaks wonders. Anyway, so that was today. I found it oddly ironic that the video we watched (Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, based on the book John Stauber) was almost a public relation technique in itself—promoting anti-public relations. Make sense? I just want truth. Dr. Green gave us several websites to get “real” information from—here they are: PRwatch.com, TruthOut.org, ReaderSupportedNews.com, and DemocracyNow.com. Let me know if these are credible; internet is only accessible from the roof or the lanai, so I don’t know when I’ll be able to access it. Daddy, I’ll be interested to see what you have to say. Please, when you and momma come to Hawaii, we should talk in detail! Then I went to sleep after typing up my notes.