This article was posted to American Conscience a year ago. I discovered it while going through our archives, and was so impressed with it that I have decided to post it again!
Hajja RomiBuilding a new world: Cathy Garger interviews Garda Ghista
May 4th, 2008 · 2 Comments
Dateline: May 3, 2008
Interview with "Building A New World Conference" Organizer, Garda Ghista By Cathy Garger
G. Ghista, in a recent photo.
To anyone who reads anything more than whatever phony "news" the Associated Press puts out, it will certainly come as no surprise that the US political system has failed its own citizens and perpetrated irreparable harm and destruction throughout the world. US national elections have been rigged, the Constitution, civil rights, and human rights laws have, for all intents and purposes, been trashed and burned, while an increasingly brutal, militant Police State watches our every move while committing unthinkable crimes of injustice…primarily targeting those of darker skin, indigenous peoples, the poor, and Muslims.
Starting in 1991, those in power have been resolute in perpetuating eternal genocide on entire nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Both 9/11 and Katrina were crimes against humanity, and mounting evidence suggests that 9/11 may have been manufactured with far more sophisticated technology than mere explosives alone** (see info, below, on the most recent version of the "official story," conveyed by the US President himself). Meanwhile, quietly, in hush-hush conversations, one-day whistleblowers with critically important inside knowledge whisper details in private that will eventually cause many a public servant to feel a sharp – but mercifully swift - rope burn about the neck… provided, that is, a legitimate judicial system were ever to come into existence.
Simultaneously, for our misdirection, misinformation, and distraction, a mighty cadre of nationally controlled and organized leaders from various "liberal" causes direct their opposition groups to both control the information well-meaning progressives receive and orchestrate activist events into lame, pointless exercises in futility.
Unquestionably, these always bright and personable "left-gatekeeping" organization heads work hand in hand with the power holders, political party heads, foundation money
granters, and infiltrated US media to create feel-good events, protests, and conventions to keep delusional liberals believing their vote still counts, that their protests make all the difference, and that an American democracy actually exists.
More astute citizens, however, are finally waking up to the true Mayday nightmare scenario in which we are now living. And those who actually know what is going on fully realize that, regardless of which of the current, Rove-approved, Three Muskateer political candidates - who spar for the camera, sprouting claws on cue - wins the election? The genocidal slaughter taking place both inside the US and across the sea – will continue, unabated. Meanwhile, phone calls and letters to Congress fall upon the deaf ears of federal sociopaths who apparently have decided some time ago they no longer even need to pretend like they care. Both political parties are good-to-go with waging the current radioactive wars - using Depleted and non-Depleted Uranium both - upon dying nations while outraged Americans in an ever-sinking economy devoted to wars everlasting lose, first, their vacations, then eventually their jobs, their homes, their medical coverage, and their ability to put wholesome, non-genetically modified, non-irradiated food on their dinner tables.
Finally, in the midst of this looming sea of sheer national madness where otherwise decent people actually delude themselves into believing the DLC's stunning propaganda - that they can actually elect a President who cares about the well-being of the people even one whit… a conference is announced that appears to hold at least a healthy glimmer of promise. For the stated purpose of this gathering that begins May 22 in Virginia is not merely to share more information on radical topics than the controlled "left" events would ever allow. Instead, according to the stated goals for the "Building A New World" Conference by lead organizer, Garda Ghista, this is a different type of conference - one that promises to deliver room and space for bright minds and accomplished activists to "think outside the box" and brainstorm solutions for desperately needed political, social, humanitarian, and economic change.
Curious to discover whether this month's Virginia event would be merely yet one more lame "progressive" conference… or, one that could actually initiate real change, I contacted Garda Ghista, the president of theconference sponsoring organization, World Prout Assembly, for more information. Below are excerpts from our communications, with contact details for more information and registration following our interview.
I am wondering if you can share why progressive activists, angry about what is going down in DC, would want to dip into their hard-earned savings to attend the "Building A New World" Conference?
Garda: The major sessions at the conference cover what I feel are the most critical issues facing us today - issues that all of us should be equally concerned about. It doesn't make sense to me to be concerned about one area of injustice and not about all others. In the final analysis, all of us are brothers and sisters, we are all one human family, so what affects one should affect all. To have this level of caring for one another would reflect a genuinely civilized nation.
What makes this any different than all the rest of the so-called "progressive" conferences?
Garda: It's hard to say. I can't pinpoint whether it will be different. One thing that might be different is that I have not even been active amongst "progressives" or at progressive conferences. I've been sort of content to read, study and write. However, beginning in 2004, my exasperation and outrage with the political and economic status quo in America seemed to reach a new level, and leading a life of quiet desperation no longer seemed morally tenable. Aside from the educational value of the critical panel sessions, we've organized a Collective Roundtable Brainstorming for Solutions session on Sunday morning, where all of us will hopefully pool our intellectual, activist resources based on a deep love for morality and justice, and come to some consensus on what steps must be taken in the short-term and long-term to install moralists as our leaders. Right now most of our leaders are criminals. Every senator and congressman who votes to fund an illegal war of aggression is complicit in that war and is hence a criminal. Every senator and congressman who votes to deny free universal healthcare to the people of this country is also a criminal. Due to these criminal politicians, more than 18,000 Americans die prematurely every year only due to lack of ability to see the doctor. This is inhuman. Michael Moore calls it murder.
It would be great if you could say WHY this is not "just" a progressive conference…
Garda: Again, Cathy, it's hard for me to answer this unless I can put myself into the mind of a "progressive." I can only speak for myself and say that I clearly am driven almost by forces beyond my understanding. No rational person would use personal credit cards to fund a national conference without any guarantee of return. I don't know any progressive who would take this kind of huge personal financial risk. So perhaps that's a difference right there. It may also be my personal determination to find some way to ensure that this is not just another conference, progressive or otherwise. In my mind, something *concrete* must emerge. My vision is for it to be the seed of a revolution that must take place here in America. Demonic forces (literally) have taken our country in a radically downward direction, and now radical action is required to move our country back to a status where it can once again be included amongst the civilized nations of the world. So it's about bringing strong moralists together in one location and then mapping out strategies to create one mass movement to fight for political and socio-economic Justice.
In another year we will likely face an economic meltdown none of us could have imagined. Today an article talked about gas next year being $10 a gallon. Other articles are talking about food rations - something we associate only with "third world" countries. So who is the third world country now? And when that happens, we can be pretty sure that our government will not be there for us, will not help us. Rather, we will be left to fend entirely for ourselves.
I was intrigued by the name chosen for the World Prout Assembly Event being held in Radford, VA later this month, "Building A New World" Conference. Can you please tell me why WPA feels we need to build a new world?
Garda: Well, our present world is really on the verge of collapse. Numerous articles attest to this and keep warning us. We can talk about ecological/environmental collapse, drastic climate changes which millions are not going to survive. Then there's economic collapse, already on the horizon, and finally military collapse, as due to the economic collapse the Empire will no longer be able to sustain its hundreds of economic colonies around the world. Essentially, we are watching capitalism in its death throes. So we need to be super alert now and be ready to provide solutions to the people. Solutions like forming cooperatives and spreading workplace democracy, creating local, self-sufficient communities. This is the future, and it's up to us to educate people. It's time to start our own vegetable and fruit gardens because in the coming collapse we just won't have money to buy produce imported from Chile, Brazil and other countries.
Many people write about the woes of the world today. This is good. We need to educate people about how they're being exploited. But at the same time we must provide solutions, and primarily economic solutions.
Whose idea was it to do the conference? How did the idea come about?
Garda: Out of intense frustration with the status quo, I started the WPA website in January, 2005. Its goal is to expose injustice and work for Justice in all spheres of life. Its vision is also to join the struggle to wrest economic power from corporations and hand it to the people.
Is this the first conference of its kind that WPA has organized?
Garda: Yes, it is. WPA is a two year old fledgling, grassroots NGO [Non-Governmental Organization] built on dreams for a better world.
The ideology and mission of WPA is a way of thinking that most Americans have probably never been exposed to before. Can you please tell me where and how this ideology originated?
Garda: It may well have originated from suffering in my own life. When we suffer, we can do one of two things. We can focus on our suffering, dwell on it forever, keep reconstructing it in our mind. Or, we can merge our suffering with the suffering of entire humanity. We can reach out to feel the suffering of other human beings around the world. In most instances, we will find that the suffering of others is far, far greater than our own suffering. I've lived in quite a few countries, including six years in UAE [United Arab Emirates], seven years in India, a year in Singapore, nine years in Canada, a year in Germany, several months in UK, and have traveled to many other countries. In each place I made it a point to merge with the local people. For example, in UAE, I sat for hours with the local Bedu women, learning enough Arabic in the process to be able to understand the joys and pains in their hearts. For this very reason, the US imperialist wars in the Middle East are heart-breaking to me. You cannot find a more hospitable, more affectionate, more generous people than the Arabs of the Middle Eastern countries. It is they who embody the real meaning of the term 'civilization'.
How is the WPA set up and funded? Is it a 501(c)(3) non-profit?
Garda: It is funded almost entirely by myself, for the simple reason that I keep forgetting to ask for donations on the site, as I get so engrossed in the news articles I am posting. I love studying and learning more than anything else. WPA is in the process of becoming a 501(c) (3) non-profit. Hopefully, that paperwork will be completed by the end of this year.
It appears that the economic model that Prout espouses is more compassionate and humanitarian than the current US system of capitalism and its close cousin, fascism, whereby big business interests – and not what's best for the citizens - currently affects government decisions. That being said, how do most Americans who you've come into contact with so far react to the Prout economic model?
Garda: I don't really go out of my way to talk about Prout to people, aside from to my thesis adviser. I talk about the principles it embodies. For example, I try to talk about cooperatives. A lot of people don't even know what a cooperative is. Some people think it is related to [bureaucratized] communism. Of course, there is no connection between the two. In [such type of] communism, the people own nothing and all business profits are turned over to the government or, rather, to a bureaucratic elite [a new stratum]. In contrast, the bedrock of a Prout economy is cooperatives, which means, local people control their own economies. The majority of businesses in a town will be set up, owned and controlled by local people in a collective manner. All workers are also owners. Collective decisions are made. So we would be moving from a scenario of subordinated cooperation (boss - employee) to coordinated cooperation (worker/owner - worker/owner).
Capitalism breeds so much selfishness. It teaches each person to think for himself first, for his own profit first, and only afterwards for others. In the cooperative model, because cooperatives are collectives or collections of people all working for a common goal, so each worker/member learns to think first for the collective and only afterwards for himself. So by creating a cooperative commonwealth we can change the entire culture here - from one of extreme selfishness and self-centeredness to one of collective caring and community. Like so many other issues, this is an issue of education. Right now in Sweden more than 60 percent of businesses are run as cooperatives. The result is far more egalitarianism in the workplace. Here cooperatives are practically unknown. We need to talk to the people about cooperatives, and if possible, we need to establish them and help spread the cooperative movement here.
Can you please tell me what is the WPA viewpoint or position on the US imperialist wars being waged since 9/11 under the guise of an eternal "War On Terror"?
Garda: Well, Cathy, this seems to be a rhetorical question you've asked here… US wars are indeed imperialist wars. They are also illegal as per Article 51 of the UN Charter. If we study the history carefully, we will probably find that US imperialist wars have been illegal for many decades or even centuries. America does not have a very good track record when it comes to its treatment of other countries. But certainly, the present regime in America has taken criminal wars to a new and horrible level. Close to two million Iraqis have been slaughtered as a direct result of US invasion and occupation. More than four million are refugees. Those remaining in Iraq suffer untold misery with only a couple of hours of electricity each day, only a few buckets of water and sometimes no water daily. Americans cannot even imagine it. Sometimes when I'm hanging out with people, listening to them chat about various things, my mind seems to invariably wander over to Iraq and Afghanistan, and I start feeling all the pain of the people there - then I start to wonder how people here can live in such utter oblivion of that all that pain. I just can't understand it.
Your panel of speakers and presentations certainly looks impressive and exciting. What do you hope will come out of the "Building A New World Conference?
Garda: Well, I feel I've done very little in my life compared to many of the speakers coming. The first thing I need to do there is to salute all those great people whose contribution to humanity is by any standard truly astounding. So even if I can simply salute these great people, I will feel very happy. And the second thing, the hope, the dream that I have, is to somehow cause this conference to be the seed of a great movement that needs to sweep our nation…a positive force that, through its sheer moral force, will have the capacity to obliterate all the crimes and corruptions going on in high places. And once that is achieved, that same positive mass movement needs to find the strict moralists and install them as the leaders of our country. This is the dream, Cathy. Please come there and help me to manifest this dream.
______________________________________
The "Building A New World Conference" will be held May 22 through 25 at Radford University in Virginia. In addition to this writer and Garda Ghista herself, other speakers include: Anti-war leader Cindy Sheehan, US foreign policy critic and historian William Blum, peace activist Kathy Kelly, economist Mike Whitney, USSF organizer and poet Alice Lovelace, impeachment and anti-war leader David Swanson, professor Robert Jensen, Senate candidate Kevin Zeese, SOA Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois, IVAW and "Winter Soldier" co-leader Adam Kokesh, Iranian blogger Kianoosh Sanjari, radio broadcaster Meria Heller, "After Capitalism" author and professor David Schweickart, Iraqi MD and anti-war activist Dahlia Wasfi, Tony Award-winning "Rescue Me" star Daniel Sunjata, World Can't Wait leader Sunsara Taylor, poet and essayist Gary Corseri (who will also represent Cyrano's Journal) and many more leaders and luminaries will join thousands of people from across the country for a conference that will lay down the foundations for building a new world now.
For Conference Registration and to see many more Speaker names, topics, and Conference details, visit:http://www.wpaconference.org To visit the World Prout Assembly website: http://www.worldproutassembly.org
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ADDENDUM BY THE AUTHOR
Originally, the "official story" told to the American public and the rest of the world about 9/11 was that the World Trade Centers twin towers collapsed due to the hijacked passenger jet airlines crashing into the towers. Then, remarkably, on September 6, 2006, the "official story" was suddenly changed by the President George W. Bush from crashing jet planes to explosives when he stated: "During questioning, KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] also provided many details of other plots to kill innocent Americans. For example, he described the design of planned attacks on buildings inside the United States, and how operatives were directed to carry them out. He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a point that was high enough to prevent the people trapped above from escaping out the windows."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/09/20060906-3.html . Since then, a few courageous private citizens - Jerry Leaphart, Edward Haas, and Drs. Judy Wood and Morgan Reynolds - have since come forth to legally challenge both the first and the second "official story." Not surprisingly, these legal actions have received virtually no media coverage. The legal actions are outlined in the link below this extremely-POOR placed advertisement: www.opednews.com/articles/genera_andrew_j_070906_professors_make_lega.htmAuthor's Website: www.mytown.ca/garger
Cathy Garger is a freelance writer, public speaker, activist, and a certified personal coach who specializes in Uranium weapons. Living in the shadow of the national District of Crime, Cathy is constantly nauseated by the stench emanating from the nation's capital during the Washington, DC, federal work week.
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www.afterdowningstreet.org/bangladesh ;
www.mytown.ca/banglavision &
groups.msn.com/banglavision
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