Inner workings of capitalism and surveillance
I often step on toes in a clumsy attempt to reach out to people. So I'd like to clarify a few things:
I've got a lot more going on than mere phone calls, believe me.
Yet in order for people to understand how I could possibly be under surveillance, and why this relates to activists and people, in general, they need to know the overall context. People won’t get where I’m coming from, unless they know my current situation, and also what my past experiences have been.
The problem is, economics is a sensitive topic. As an identifiable person of colour, I find it even more difficult to talk about finances, etc, due to certain stereotypes (eg, I must be more of a capitalist, more corrupt, more materialistic, or whatever), especially within a climate of increasing socio-economic polarization.
Yet economics is totally relevant to surveillance and privacy issues. So I splashed right in, trying to describe my situation, and how it all relates. Perhaps not such a good idea.
But here's why economics and surveillance go hand in hand:
Despite having a fairly holistic vision for socio-environmental change, I still have to contend with daily needs and ongoing systemic oppressions.
The 'powers that be' would have learned a lot by observing me. Perhaps it's the unique mix of life, work, and academic experiences -- plus my social intensity and outspokenness -- that's made me a special case. All I know is that I went from being watched by a few to being harassed by many. I should also mention that someone I know had a job interview with the FBI to do undercover surveillance work here in Toronto, and someone else I know has mafia connections, which they made use of and told me about it, while I've been under surveillance. Can you see how things might mushroom from there?
Not only have I been unemployed for a long time (and emotionally unwell, depressed, angry), but then I started working for various hospitality personnel agencies. These agencies sometimes hire hundreds of people at a time; and some may do so, while paying people next to nothing. This has proved fruitful learning for the 'powers that be.'
Having worked at venues, big and small, all across the city, I have seen a lot, despite my previously isolated existence. I've worked at both the Progressive Conservatives' and Liberal Party's annual dinners, as well as other large-scale or important events.
I also worked at the Rolling Stones concert (July 31, 2003), for example, and was one of over a thousand people hired through a particular job agency. I had worked for them many times before; yet this time, I didn’t get paid. (This has been my experience with several jobs, but it was unexpected with this employer.)
The Stones or SARStock concert is a classic case of capitalism at work. This was meant to be for the city, yet it catered to more privileged people and classes, and really the ones who benefitted by far were concessions contractors, sponsors, and organizers. Meanwhile, people like me sweated it out for 12 hours lugging beer and ice, I couldn't hear the music, and didn't see one dime for my efforts. Big bucks, cheap labour.
On top of it all, guess what? Yes - surveillance, folks.
By observing me in these different scenarios -- educated but broke -- and then studying the exploitative, yet effective, practices of some employers, plus the fact that there’s a lot of ethnic diversity in manual labour type of work, security agencies could learn a lot about how to manage people (with me often being a catalyst for interpersonal dissensions). It's also a useful means of recruiting people as low-level, low-cost spies.
(Obviously, this will take some explaining, so please don't expect me to convince you in just one post that pervasive government surveillance is going on.)
But let's suppose some people working at the concert are 'plants' -- or even many of them. These people don't just spy on or interact with me; I'm not so fascinating. In this case, the concert would offer an opportunity to co-ordinate people in confusing, high-density situations, while also training people to do undercover security work.
Guess what? It doesn't only happen at a Republican Convention. And why not start practising here in T.O.? The economic (and political) takeover is already well underway. This is not a scene out of ‘The Practice’ or whatever – this is real life.
Read the first two responses in Now's Letters to the Editor (‘Don’t Blame Air Canada,’ ‘Incredible Exploding Morals;’ Sept. 9-15, 2004).
I once wrote a lengthy email about how the movie industry is a great means of hiring masses of ordinary people, not just as film extras, but also as low-level enablers or 'plants'. The movie project mentioned above seems pretty ironic and symbolic in light of activist concerns about post-911 'security measures', don't you think? Perhaps it's deliberately so.
Conservative agendas are seldom impulsive acts. I believe the government places people as 'plants' or enablers in workplaces, community groups, and so on, well in advance. But beyond that, they probably help people set-up actual, legitimate institutions or organizations, through which they can both feed people through and hand-pick recruits (eg, technical colleges, bartending schools, etc). This can include NGOs. International ones are even better.
You may think there's no connection here, but what’s interesting is that many workplaces (and some individuals) I've come into contact with, whom I believe are being co-opted by the government (either openly or indirectly), have suddenly received BIG boosts in their business and/or have undergone major changes recently. This wouldn't mean much -- if it was just one instance -- but it's happened in every single case, and I've then had strange interactions with people from each organization (notes to come).
For example, that hospitality agency I worked for had mostly small jobs before, placing a few people here and there. Yet for SARSstock, they, alone, received the largest concession contract out of so many food & beverage companies and agencies, hiring something like 1200 people.
By some twist of fate, people whom I had suspected of being plants through past encounters were also employed by this same agency, and ended up in my group. I also seemed to be the only person who didn't get paid. This is what I mean by subtle harassment, and yes, it is intentional: they still haven’t paid me. It's been over a year.
I’ve had a claim in with the Ministry of Labour, yet the Ministry has no legal authority or binding power, so I’m out of luck. Yet even the person handling my case was extremely surprised, and bristled at how openly the job agency disregarded the Ministry’s requests. The job agency made no attempt to hide the fact that they chose not to attend the labour hearing.
By the time of the hearing in March, the agency had changed hands. The owner by some lucky chance had been called up, out of the blue, and was offered a well-paying Food & Beverage position at York University. Just six months before The Stones concert, this man was thinking of closing his struggling business and returning to his native country of Jordan. Yet he somehow gets the biggest concessions contract at SARSstock, despite a multitude of competitors. This was considered the biggest concert in world history; sponsorship and contracts are not likely to be handed out randomly. Can anyone see the unlikelihood of what I'm pointing out?
Shortly after this, the owner then gets offered an excellent chef position at York* – which was not openly advertised, but was by invitation. (He told me this by phone, so it’s not second-hand news.)
*Note: While York University has a progressive reputation, some may be aware that the school's administration, as with most places, is highly conservative.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but there are countless other scenarios. I cannot explain them fully, for various reasons. And yes, I know - in itself - it means absolutely nothing.
But when this pattern repeats itself constantly, PLUS my getting weird phone calls, meeting strangers in the street who know stuff about me, being deliberately hit on the head twice within 7 months, having things tampered with, both online and in my home (photos to come), one has to wonder...
Let's put it this way: no one believed me for three years, but some are beginning to.
And if I am under surveillance, *they* (Big Brother) would also have been recording all the illegal goings-on in my building, which I believe has allowed them to blackmail my landlord, as well as fine-tune their ability to prey upon, or otherwise co-opt, both low-income people and people from different ethnic communities.
Is this important? I think so; it’s powerfully important.
Explaining things by going against the grain is not popular, so I'd like to clarify the economics issue, again. While Canada has many strengths, we are still unwilling to discuss economics in a sensible, holistic (and hence, effective) way -- simply because it's not polite to do so. Yet our avoidance of these issues is detrimental to the country's progress, and frankly, makes us very vulnerable to the U.S. and other foreign investors, who are *not* in denial about capitalism.
Yes, volunteerism may represent about $86 billion in revenue (saw this today) -- but it also means a lack of independence from government and donors, who are increasingly unreliable or unavailable, and also, the majority of unpaid volunteers are women. Social enterprise is greatly needed. I could suggest many reasons why it's not happening much, or isn’t happening effectively. But I'll spare you another diatribe.
And check this out:
Yep, I must be delusional. In fact, a therapist I was seeing insisted on diagnosing me as having delusional disorder. Considering all the facts -- my coming to the attention of authorities, being threatened with an investigation, and then exacerbating the situation, plus being highly political, controversial, outspoken, and emotionally volatile, and also having clear indications of harassment (at the very least – a harassing landlord, vandalism, theft, bizarre people, intimidating encounters, weird calls), etc -- my claims of surveillance are not completely out of the question.
Why, indeed, would the government want to sell off Toronto?
Why would security agencies have enablers and plants in various organizations, community groups, and even government positions?
Why carry out mass recruiting of spies and enablers, especially from diverse ethnic communities? (eg, taxi drivers, security guards, hospitality workers, etc)
Of course there's no connection between government, big business, and organized crime.
Isn't 'US-Canadian relations' just an evening news headline?
Will keep you posted on the continuing saga...
I've got a lot more going on than mere phone calls, believe me.
Yet in order for people to understand how I could possibly be under surveillance, and why this relates to activists and people, in general, they need to know the overall context. People won’t get where I’m coming from, unless they know my current situation, and also what my past experiences have been.
The problem is, economics is a sensitive topic. As an identifiable person of colour, I find it even more difficult to talk about finances, etc, due to certain stereotypes (eg, I must be more of a capitalist, more corrupt, more materialistic, or whatever), especially within a climate of increasing socio-economic polarization.
Yet economics is totally relevant to surveillance and privacy issues. So I splashed right in, trying to describe my situation, and how it all relates. Perhaps not such a good idea.
But here's why economics and surveillance go hand in hand:
Despite having a fairly holistic vision for socio-environmental change, I still have to contend with daily needs and ongoing systemic oppressions.
The 'powers that be' would have learned a lot by observing me. Perhaps it's the unique mix of life, work, and academic experiences -- plus my social intensity and outspokenness -- that's made me a special case. All I know is that I went from being watched by a few to being harassed by many. I should also mention that someone I know had a job interview with the FBI to do undercover surveillance work here in Toronto, and someone else I know has mafia connections, which they made use of and told me about it, while I've been under surveillance. Can you see how things might mushroom from there?
Not only have I been unemployed for a long time (and emotionally unwell, depressed, angry), but then I started working for various hospitality personnel agencies. These agencies sometimes hire hundreds of people at a time; and some may do so, while paying people next to nothing. This has proved fruitful learning for the 'powers that be.'
Having worked at venues, big and small, all across the city, I have seen a lot, despite my previously isolated existence. I've worked at both the Progressive Conservatives' and Liberal Party's annual dinners, as well as other large-scale or important events.
I also worked at the Rolling Stones concert (July 31, 2003), for example, and was one of over a thousand people hired through a particular job agency. I had worked for them many times before; yet this time, I didn’t get paid. (This has been my experience with several jobs, but it was unexpected with this employer.)
The Stones or SARStock concert is a classic case of capitalism at work. This was meant to be for the city, yet it catered to more privileged people and classes, and really the ones who benefitted by far were concessions contractors, sponsors, and organizers. Meanwhile, people like me sweated it out for 12 hours lugging beer and ice, I couldn't hear the music, and didn't see one dime for my efforts. Big bucks, cheap labour.
On top of it all, guess what? Yes - surveillance, folks.
By observing me in these different scenarios -- educated but broke -- and then studying the exploitative, yet effective, practices of some employers, plus the fact that there’s a lot of ethnic diversity in manual labour type of work, security agencies could learn a lot about how to manage people (with me often being a catalyst for interpersonal dissensions). It's also a useful means of recruiting people as low-level, low-cost spies.
(Obviously, this will take some explaining, so please don't expect me to convince you in just one post that pervasive government surveillance is going on.)
But let's suppose some people working at the concert are 'plants' -- or even many of them. These people don't just spy on or interact with me; I'm not so fascinating. In this case, the concert would offer an opportunity to co-ordinate people in confusing, high-density situations, while also training people to do undercover security work.
Guess what? It doesn't only happen at a Republican Convention. And why not start practising here in T.O.? The economic (and political) takeover is already well underway. This is not a scene out of ‘The Practice’ or whatever – this is real life.
Read the first two responses in Now's Letters to the Editor (‘Don’t Blame Air Canada,’ ‘Incredible Exploding Morals;’ Sept. 9-15, 2004).
I once wrote a lengthy email about how the movie industry is a great means of hiring masses of ordinary people, not just as film extras, but also as low-level enablers or 'plants'. The movie project mentioned above seems pretty ironic and symbolic in light of activist concerns about post-911 'security measures', don't you think? Perhaps it's deliberately so.
Conservative agendas are seldom impulsive acts. I believe the government places people as 'plants' or enablers in workplaces, community groups, and so on, well in advance. But beyond that, they probably help people set-up actual, legitimate institutions or organizations, through which they can both feed people through and hand-pick recruits (eg, technical colleges, bartending schools, etc). This can include NGOs. International ones are even better.
You may think there's no connection here, but what’s interesting is that many workplaces (and some individuals) I've come into contact with, whom I believe are being co-opted by the government (either openly or indirectly), have suddenly received BIG boosts in their business and/or have undergone major changes recently. This wouldn't mean much -- if it was just one instance -- but it's happened in every single case, and I've then had strange interactions with people from each organization (notes to come).
For example, that hospitality agency I worked for had mostly small jobs before, placing a few people here and there. Yet for SARSstock, they, alone, received the largest concession contract out of so many food & beverage companies and agencies, hiring something like 1200 people.
By some twist of fate, people whom I had suspected of being plants through past encounters were also employed by this same agency, and ended up in my group. I also seemed to be the only person who didn't get paid. This is what I mean by subtle harassment, and yes, it is intentional: they still haven’t paid me. It's been over a year.
I’ve had a claim in with the Ministry of Labour, yet the Ministry has no legal authority or binding power, so I’m out of luck. Yet even the person handling my case was extremely surprised, and bristled at how openly the job agency disregarded the Ministry’s requests. The job agency made no attempt to hide the fact that they chose not to attend the labour hearing.
By the time of the hearing in March, the agency had changed hands. The owner by some lucky chance had been called up, out of the blue, and was offered a well-paying Food & Beverage position at York University. Just six months before The Stones concert, this man was thinking of closing his struggling business and returning to his native country of Jordan. Yet he somehow gets the biggest concessions contract at SARSstock, despite a multitude of competitors. This was considered the biggest concert in world history; sponsorship and contracts are not likely to be handed out randomly. Can anyone see the unlikelihood of what I'm pointing out?
Shortly after this, the owner then gets offered an excellent chef position at York* – which was not openly advertised, but was by invitation. (He told me this by phone, so it’s not second-hand news.)
*Note: While York University has a progressive reputation, some may be aware that the school's administration, as with most places, is highly conservative.
I know it doesn't sound like much, but there are countless other scenarios. I cannot explain them fully, for various reasons. And yes, I know - in itself - it means absolutely nothing.
But when this pattern repeats itself constantly, PLUS my getting weird phone calls, meeting strangers in the street who know stuff about me, being deliberately hit on the head twice within 7 months, having things tampered with, both online and in my home (photos to come), one has to wonder...
Let's put it this way: no one believed me for three years, but some are beginning to.
And if I am under surveillance, *they* (Big Brother) would also have been recording all the illegal goings-on in my building, which I believe has allowed them to blackmail my landlord, as well as fine-tune their ability to prey upon, or otherwise co-opt, both low-income people and people from different ethnic communities.
Is this important? I think so; it’s powerfully important.
Explaining things by going against the grain is not popular, so I'd like to clarify the economics issue, again. While Canada has many strengths, we are still unwilling to discuss economics in a sensible, holistic (and hence, effective) way -- simply because it's not polite to do so. Yet our avoidance of these issues is detrimental to the country's progress, and frankly, makes us very vulnerable to the U.S. and other foreign investors, who are *not* in denial about capitalism.
Yes, volunteerism may represent about $86 billion in revenue (saw this today) -- but it also means a lack of independence from government and donors, who are increasingly unreliable or unavailable, and also, the majority of unpaid volunteers are women. Social enterprise is greatly needed. I could suggest many reasons why it's not happening much, or isn’t happening effectively. But I'll spare you another diatribe.
And check this out:
...has particular expertise in structuring, negotiating and completing merger and acquisition…in cross-border transactions involving Canadian and United States corporations...has helped private sector clients involved in many industries...[and] has also assisted public utilities and has worked on public-private sector projects including privatizations.
...recently was involved in a large transaction involving the privatization of a major Canadian railway formerly owned by the Government of Canada. As part of the restructuring which preceded what has been termed "the largest initial public offering in Canada" and which included the transfer of many valuable non-rail properties such as, amongst others, the CN Tower...took the lead in lengthy negotiations with the Government including the Departments of Transport, Public Works, Finance and Justice and in structuring and concluding the transaction.
Yep, I must be delusional. In fact, a therapist I was seeing insisted on diagnosing me as having delusional disorder. Considering all the facts -- my coming to the attention of authorities, being threatened with an investigation, and then exacerbating the situation, plus being highly political, controversial, outspoken, and emotionally volatile, and also having clear indications of harassment (at the very least – a harassing landlord, vandalism, theft, bizarre people, intimidating encounters, weird calls), etc -- my claims of surveillance are not completely out of the question.
Why, indeed, would the government want to sell off Toronto?
Why would security agencies have enablers and plants in various organizations, community groups, and even government positions?
Why carry out mass recruiting of spies and enablers, especially from diverse ethnic communities? (eg, taxi drivers, security guards, hospitality workers, etc)
Of course there's no connection between government, big business, and organized crime.
Isn't 'US-Canadian relations' just an evening news headline?
Will keep you posted on the continuing saga...
posted by outside the box... at
1:43 PM
