Personal Account of Journalist or Professor – education and deconstruction.com

In Bolivia

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Book of the Week is “In Bolivia, the Adventurous Odyssey Through the Americas’ Least-Known Nation” by Eric Lawlor, published in 1989. In the late 1980’s, the author visited various parts of Bolivia, speaking with natives and tourists to learn how the culture evolved, based on its history.

There was labor unrest in the Bolivian mining industry in 1919, 1922, 1927, 1942 and 1967. Over the years, thousands of unarmed, protesting miners of tin or silver died when fired on by the military. In the 1942 confrontation, the government blamed the deaths on Communist agitators, and later, Nazis. The government sociopathically crushed the miners’ revolts every time.

The author visited Santa Cruz, which put out such products as oil, cotton, sugar, rice and coffee. Its major industry was black-market cocaine, sold by small-time dealers. They were left alone because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) of the United States was interested in catching only kingpin Roberto Suarez. After having made about half a billion dollars a year– some from supplying America with about one third of its illegal cocaine– he was caught in July 1988.

Prior to that, there was a cocaine gravy train. Pilots made lots of money flying the drug to Miami. Even teenage boys made a living, stomping barefoot on kerosene-marinated coca leaves to process them. They were rumored to develop skin cancer. The author was offered but declined a job drug-running, from two different men he’d just met. He bought a small amount of cocaine, and was advised to stash it in his underpants. He was actually fortunate that it was stolen from its hiding place in his hotel room, because shortly afterwards, the DEA came around and interrogated him.

More and more farmers were finding the growing of coca more lucrative than food crops. The Bolivian government warned the drug lords in advance that American law enforcement and the Bolivian army were going to raid their labs. They fled to Panama. Another way America made a token gesture of cracking down on the cocaine industry was to threaten to withhold about $60 million dollars of annual aid. Ordinary Bolivians were angry at U.S president Reagan for crashing their economy and being a hypocrite. They said, “We’ll stop exporting cocaine when he stops exporting weapons.”

The author visited a region in Bolivia called La Loma. The tribe who lived there depended on a river for their very simple lifestyle. There was plenty of fish, and they were happy. The people in Tarija– near the border of Argentina– were unhappy. For, they went on strike to demand that the government build the power plant it had promised them six months prior. The author interviewed a Bolivian army soldier who told him the country should be ruled by the military. The military was nonpartisan, and its goal was to do only what was best for the country, not what was best for the politicians. If it achieved its goal of improving the economy, however, the military budget would grow with it.

The author was trapped in Tarija for weeks. He couldn’t leave by bus, train or plane, and there were guarded barricades all around the city. He spoke with a man who had fought in the Bolivian war with the Paraguayans over disputed territory in the Chaco in 1932. Many more Bolivians died of dehydration, starvation and disease, than from their wounds.

The Bolivians fought incompetently, lacking training and resources. The war ended in 1935, due to attrition on both sides. Bolivians’ emotional turmoil was comparable to that of Americans’ after Vietnam and Watergate. Trust had been broken between the Bolivian people and their leaders. So revolution (during which ninety thousand people died) ensued in 1952. But the aforementioned interviewee thought Bolivians were worse off after the revolution.

Some changes were made: nationalization of the tin mines, land reform, and Indians got the vote. But Bolivia went bankrupt in 1956. The United States instituted a stabilization program there. The military led the country again until 1985. The takeaway from Bolivia’s governments through the decades, is that dictators are largely similar the world over:

“He had wealth and status… He produced nothing and provided no leadership. He was not very smart and had few skills… his contempt for his countrymen and his belief in his own superiority was not typical of what is normally considered moral.”

Read the book to learn a smattering about Bolivia’s history of missionaries, violent occurrences, and mindset over the last several centuries.

A Dedicated Life – BONUS POST

[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]

The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Dedicated Life, Journalism, Justice, and a Chance for Every Child” by David Lawrence, Jr., published in 2018.

“More money is almost never the right first response. Rather, we need to begin by figuring out how well we are doing with the money we already have.”

-the author, on embarking on a quest to improve the lives of preschool children, beginning in 1999 in Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Born in March 1942 in New York City, the author was raised Catholic in a wealthy family of eventually, nine children. His father was a journalist covering politics in New York. In 1948, the family moved to a residence that was a six-hour drive north of the city to tend to a farm that had animals and food-crops.

The author retired as a newspaper executive at the end of 1998, to take on a new career as an advocate for young children. There were two possible ways to institute “high quality” (the author never exactly defined what he meant by that) pre-kindergarten for all, regardless of need, in the entire state of Florida:

Lobbying the Florida state legislature to pass a bill, or
Propose a Constitutional amendment, voted on by the people, during an election for state officials.

The latter required: that hundreds of thousands of Floridians sign a petition; that an expensive campaign be launched in order to raise awareness and promote the initiative and get people to vote for the amendment. Unfortunately, the opposition always launches a campaign to smear such an initiative (or oppose it in order to smear a prospective candidate for office or an incumbent who would run for reelection– in planning for the next election; for example, currently– 2022 and 2024).

Anyway, read the book to learn whether the author and millions of others, in November 2002, actually achieved their ultimate goal (Hint: over the course of decades, through the cumbersome political process that is democracy– such radical, widespread change happens in baby steps; with the aid of the trick of telling voters that funding for the new program wouldn’t come from raising taxes!), and learn much more about his philosophy, careers, and fundraising successes for good causes (for which, it appears, he deserves bragging rights.)

Life’s A Campaign – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Life’s A Campaign, What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success” by Chris Matthews, published in 2007. This quick, lighthearted read gave a few tips, through a series of specific examples– some autobiographical– on how to develop, manage and maintain political relationships. Incidentally, thirteen years after the book’s writing, the author– a journalist and TV-show host– had become psychologically burnt out from the political shenanigans he covered.

The author advised the reader who attended a political event to always stand on the far right side in a group photo. That way, the reader’s name would appear first in the photo’s caption in the news article. He also briefly described the exploits of Theodore Roosevelt, Churchill and JFK, saying they were all war heroes before becoming politicians. However, he neglected to mention that each man had a crack public relations team that glorified their histories and papered over their past failures, to help them get elected. Read the book to learn more about the author’s and others’ political adventures.

“The sad truth we learn from all of this is that it’s one thing to call your critics ‘liars,’ but to regain the political edge you must prove they are.” The author was referring to John Kerry’s unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid, but such dishonesty is part and parcel of politics, egged on by the media. Both politicians and the media have gotten wily messaging and optics down to a science (but right now, NOT literally!).

As is well known, the media are currently whipping up a frenzy over– not a presidential campaign– but over a highly contagious, potentially fatal virus-pandemic that has variants. As is now the norm, the messengers and their bosses’ utterances have been characterized by lack of transparency. Obviously, they benefit vaccine makers, mask sellers, COVID drug peddlers etc.; most of those messengers and bosses are failing to disclose their financial interests in the profit-seeking aspects of the whole kit and caboodle. Ho hum.

A Long Way From Home – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “A Long Way From Home, Growing Up In the American Heartland” by Tom Brokaw, published in 2002.

Born in February 1940 in Webster South Dakota, Brokaw wrote of his first 22 years. He described the 1940’s and 1950’s Missouri-River infrastructure projects, among others, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, whom his father assisted. Previously, all kinds of fish could be caught in the river.

Particularly noteworthy was the literal and figurative power the U.S. president possessed upon the 1953 completion of the flow-altering, water-corralling, energy-generating achievement: “President Eisenhower flipped a switch in the Oval Office to activate the eight turbines that, when powered by the focused force of the water, would transmit electricity to seven states.”

Additional curious information that represented the tenor of the times included the 1950’s South Dakota test of manhood handed down from father to son: pheasant hunting in wetlands, tall prairie grass, sorghum and cornfields.

Read the book to learn about many other cultural aspects of Brokaw’s childhood; a bygone era.

Beneath the Tamarind Tree

The Book of the Week is “Beneath the Tamarind Tree, A Story of Courage, Family, and the Lost Schoolgirls of Boko Haram” by Isha Sesay, published in 2019.

In April 2014, Boko Haram members (Muslim extremists) abducted a few hundred female students from a boarding school in Chibok in Nigeria. For the attention whores of the world, a Twitter account was immediately started, inviting comments. The American news cycle ended quickly, but trauma for the victims and their families– even for the girls who were released (fewer than half at the book’s writing)– will never end.

Apparently, the trading relationship between the United States and Nigeria wasn’t a sufficient motivator to resolve the situation peacefully. In 2017, there occurred more than $9 billion worth of oil, cocoa, cashew nuts, minerals and animal feed exchanged between the two.

The author had a vested interest in seeing the girls’ safe release, as her mother’s family hailed from Sierra Leone on the continent of Africa, and her family had lived there. So her personal experience put her in a better position to get the story, more than other TV journalists. Even so, information-gathering through personal interviews could be life-threatening, as Boko Haram was a terrorist group comprised of sociopathic sadists with weaponry– child-soldiers– who had occasional episodes of sympathy but usually had no qualms about committing looting and arson, to boot.

The author felt that the 2016 U.S. presidential election eclipsed all media coverage of her Nigeria story– more media coverage would have swayed the world to take action on behalf of the abducted girls. Possibly. But– in the 1990’s, American media outlets covered Nigeria only insofar as to give it a reputation for fraudsters who got Americans to fall for inheritance scams via airmail or email.

So that is all that most people here know about Nigeria. They usually don’t actively seek news from the European media outlets, such as the BBC, the Guardian, Al Jazeera or Reuters. “Breaking News” coverage on their favorite celebrities, politicians and themselves, is much more of a priority. Sadly.

Read the book to learn many more details.

Loyalties – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “Loyalties, A Son’s Memoir” by Carl Bernstein, published in 1989.

Born in 1944 in the D.C. area, the author suffered the anguish of having parents who believed in Communism and were punished for it. They celebrated the following holidays: Passover, May Day, Paris Commune Day, July Fourth, and the anniversary of the Russian Revolution– October Division.

In March 1947, president Harry Truman signed the “Loyalty Order” which was a law that required all government employees take the Loyalty Oath. The Oath treated people as though they were already guilty, for starters.

FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was secretly feeding Truman information (which would help him get reelected in 1948) on his political enemies in exchange for enforcing the Loyalty Order. As is well known, Hoover and Senator Joseph McCarthy had whipped up a false frenzy of fear that lots of people who believed in Communism were plotting to overthrow the American government. So part of the excuse Truman could use for terrorizing (mostly wrongly accused) Americans, was that they were members of a political party (Communist) that was illegal.

The author asserted that Hoover’s real motive in holding hearings (from 1948 to 1950) in connection with people who refused to take the Loyalty Oath (different and separate from HUAC’s hearings) was to eliminate the government union– whose members were the accused. Such progressive community organizers were fighting for civil rights, etc. They were a bee in Hoover’s bonnet. The hearings trampled on due process in a variety of ways, a few of which included:

the accused weren’t told whom their accusers were (the finger-pointers remained anonymous) and the latter weren’t allowed to be confronted, either;

the accused weren’t allowed to have an attorney present; and

the accusation alone served as evidence (!)– no proof was needed for the accused to be subjected to punishment meted out by the Loyalty Review Board, an FBI committee.

Read the book to learn of the ideological tenor of the times that shaped the social circles of the author’s parents–their trials and tribulations, and the emotional trouble these caused the author.

Ranger Games

The Book of the Week is “Ranger Games, A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime” by Ben Blum, published in 2017.

Alex Blum discovered his calling early in life: becoming a soldier in the Rangers, an elite fighting force of the U.S. military. Beginning in 2001, he attended high school in the Denver area, with a few others who trained with him after graduating.

Rangers training was fraught with the usual extremes: sleep and nutrition deprivation for days; at irregular intervals for no reason– expletive-laden tirades by commanders; team-oriented missions that, for an individual’s smallest infraction– punished the entire group with prolonged, exhausting physical activity in wet, dirty, painful conditions, etc., etc., etc.

Blum successfully completed his training, but was subjected to undue influence by a particular spellbinding commander who was also a pathological liar, who later led Blum and several other impressionable young men to commit a bank robbery in Tacoma, Washington.

Even though most members of the group were in the military, the ringleader acquired the following black-market weapons to do the crime: two AK-47’s, a Springfield XD 9mm pistol bearing an underslung flashlight, and a 9mm Glock 19 with a red laser light. These were used to terrorize the bank employees, and unsurprisingly, the employees all exhibited symptoms of PTSD after the robbery. The volume of black-market firearms can only grow bigger and bigger if left unchecked, spurring more and more episodes such as this one.

A high-profile court case resulted, that raised numerous issues regarding military training, law, criminal justice, psychology and sociology in the United States. In the aftermath, the author– Blum’s cousin– a mathematician turned journalist, took an interest in the case for various reasons. His extended family’s reputation was harmed, he was curious as to how his cousin (a good boy from a good family, of course) could do such evil, and he sought to help his cousin turn his life around.

A huge body of knowledge has been gleaned on the major aspects of why Blum did as he was told, without questioning its morality, let alone criminality. In the American criminal justice system, there have been endless debates over insanity, brainwashing, and how to test whether a criminal defendant knows the difference between right and wrong.

Throw in the fact that the defendant underwent special-operations military training, and the debates never end. Only after years of extensive, frank discussions between and among the author, other family members, fellow defendants and attorneys was Blum himself able to make shameful, honest admissions about specific aspects of his behavior.

Blum’s story is reminiscent of numerous pop-cultural stories; his legal defense is similar to that in the 1995 movie, “Murder in the First” in that society played a role in Blum’s situation. But there have been plenty of documented real-life episodes too, similar to his in some ways. Tara Westover’s wasn’t, but her book “Educated” pondered how people can ascertain and agree on the Truth. It isn’t easy.

The following quote from Bertrand Russell can never be repeated too often: “There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Moreover, since he is aware, however dimly, that his opinions are not rational, he becomes furious when they are disputed.”

There was the real-life case of the man who called himself Clark Rockefeller– spellbinder and pathological liar– a similar character to Blum’s commander. The author also brought up Donald Trump, whose behavior was excused with the cliches “boys will be boys” and “that’s just the way he is” at the book’s writing. Yet “…past demagogues across the world had been greeted at first as clowns.”

Anyway, a government sending people to fight a war wants to win it, of course. The author wrote that after WWII, a psychological study showed the following:

Combatants fight for their buddies– the psychological bonding between them prompts them to sacrifice their lives for others on the team, not their country. They don’t really care about teaching the enemy about their own country’s values.

Petitionary prayer is perceived to work.

Hating the enemy doesn’t work– it’s hard to harm people one doesn’t know, even if one has been taught to hate specific ethnic groups. And individuals who harbor so much anger that they don’t care whether they harm innocent strangers of any ethnicity– one would hope would be weeded out in the military application process.

Without question, Blum’s military training involved the first idea in the above list. Blum appeared as a guest on Dr. Phil McGraw’s TV show, which suggested two different reasons why Blum helped commit the crime. Perhaps he had a genetic predisposition (it runs in families– an internal cause) for engaging in evil behavior that is triggered in certain situations; or brainwashing or peer pressure (societal, external stimuli alone) made him do it.

Read the book to learn of the psychological growth experienced by the author and his cousin, the fallout for family members, and about the former’s detailed research results on the whole traumatic episode.

The Year I Was Peter the Great – BONUS POST

The Bonus Book of the Week is “The Year I was Peter the Great, 1956–Khrushchev, Stalin’s Ghost, and A Young American in Russia” by Marvin Kalb, published in 2017.

Born in 1930 in the Bronx, the nerdy author tutored Puerto Rican students for free at his high school, and in exchange, they became his bodyguards against the Irish kids who tried to bully him. The author attended City College and covered sports for its college newspaper. In the early 1950’s, a sting operation caught 32 basketball players from seven colleges across the country in a point-shaving (sports-betting) scandal.

Passionate about all things Soviet, after a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, the author was afforded the opportunity to do post-graduate, independent study in Moscow in 1956. He also became a translator of news articles for the American embassy there.

In February 1956, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, through delivering a famous speech, signaled that the political times were changing in the Soviet Union. The indoctrination of people born under the rule of his predecessor Josef Stalin, could be described thusly: “For much of their lives, they had been moored to rigid Communist dogma, trained to worship Stalin’s genius, dedicated to the Soviet system.”

At the time, the author was hopeful that Khrushchev’s speech was going to be ground-breaking, and reported to the American embassy, his personal observations of students’ rebellious behavior in Lenin Library and Historical Library. Unfortunately, it took about thirty-five (!) more years of the inhumane political system of pure Communism to collapse in a large portion of the world.

Read the book to learn much more about the author’s experiences during, and reminiscences of, a very exciting year in his life.

And Then All Hell Broke Loose

The Book of the Week is “And Then All Hell Broke Loose, Two Decades in the Middle East” by Richard Engel, published in 2016.

The author began his career in journalism in 1996. He chose to go to Cairo because he wanted to cover conflicts, and of course, the Middle East would always fit the bill. Also, to that end, he learned to speak fluent Arabic, and started making contacts in the region. All of his writings for a weekly newspaper were required to be approved by a government censor. The publication did its printing in Athens, Greece, to avoid really draconian restrictions.

The author was freelancing for ABC News when he arrived in Iraq in early March 2003. His coworkers were scared away by the start of hostilities. He– a Darwin award candidate– stayed on, with his employer-provided satellite phone, hazmat suit and ten thousand dollars in cash (for bribes, transportation, accommodations, etc.). He witnessed and reported on the age-old conflicts between Sunnis and Shias, and the more modern one involving the Americans and other Westerners, purportedly against the leader of Iraq.

In November 2005, the author’s extended stay at one Baghdad hotel was over, as the hotel was significantly damaged by a truck filled with explosives. At the time of the attack, the author was on vacation scuba diving in Thailand. Half a year later, he moved to Beirut. He then covered the Israeli-Hezbollah dispute.

The author showed how the Bush administration’s unnecessary aggression resulted in more violence and made the United States more of a target for terrorist attacks. The author also illustrated how the Obama administration offered support for certain political movements of people striving for freedom, and not for others similarly situated. Those occurred in Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, and Libya. In one egregious case, the administration broke its promise to deliver military aid. Such inconsistency created yet more instability.

In October 2011, the death-wish-plagued author went to Syria, whose government oppression was aided by Turkey. Ordinary Syrians were spreading the word about protesting, through social media. After paying people-smugglers to get across the Turkish border to chase after their story, he and a few others were grateful for the hospitality of strangers. They bummed free rides, accommodations and food.

By summer 2014, ISIS (a Sunni group) had surpassed Al-Qaeda as the region’s dominant jihadist group, penetrating Syria and Iraq. It had taken over Iraq’s military (not hard to do by that time), and physically roughed up its soldiers (who were Shias).

In the second half of the 1990’s, the author felt safe wherever he entered the region. Ten years later, “Journalists became worthless [with widespread use of the Internet on smartphones], at least as megaphones. But we became valuable as commodities to be stolen, bought and sold, traded for prisoners, or ransomed for millions.” In other words, no one needs the author as a journalist anymore because the world can learn what’s going on locally or globally through social media. The Middle East has become a dangerous place because hostage-taking (especially among journalists) has become trendy again. The bad guys can show graphic images of their deeds on YouTube videos.

Read the book to learn of the atrocities, lesser violence and litany of armed conflicts the author read about (in the form of history), witnessed, experienced for himself, and/or covered in his decades-long career up until the book’s writing.

Chasing the Dragon

The Book of the Week is “Chasing the Dragon, Into the Heart of the Golden Triangle” by Christopher R. Cox, published in 1996.

In 1994, this book’s author– a journalist, Jay Sullivan– a Vietnam veteran, American intermediary Barry Flynn, and local assistants, embarked on a shady adventure in Shan State, an embattled but little-known territory of Burma.

The author sought to interview the King of Opium and Shan State separatist– Khun Sa– at one of his mansions in Shan State, western Laos or northern Thailand. Khun Sa moved among them surrounded by bodyguards; for, there had been more than forty attempts on his life.

At the time of the book’s writing, Burma produced more than 70% of the earth’s illegal opium. Poppies are the most lucrative cash crop ever because they can be turned into heroin or opium, which is compact, portable and resists spoilage.

Sullivan sought to find out from Khun Sa whether there were Vietnam-War servicemen who were still missing-in-action or prisoners-of-war in Thailand or Laos, so he could contact them. As a Vietnam veteran himself, he had made numerous trips to the region through the years to salve his survivor’s guilt. He had yet to find concrete evidence of any veterans left behind. His quest was kind of a lost cause, as greedy local residents were only too happy to take bribes, breed deceit and swindle the victims’ families.

The trip was shady because it was illegal for foreigners to go to Shan State without permission. They had to bribe people-smugglers to transport and guide them. The trespassers risked their lives. Multiple, reputedly hostile people and animals, tropical diseases and inhospitable terrain in Shan State provided evidence that the author and his companions had a death wish.

The author described events that, along with Thailand’s corruption, have resulted in a horrible safety record, that has precipitated needless deaths and ruined lives. One thing leads to another. More specifically– shoddy, non-fireproof housing-construction does poorly in accidents and natural disasters. This leads to or compounds problems like flooding, landslides, and fires.

In 1988, a variety of different groups fought to claim the land, including multiple native tribes, the Burmese army, local militias, Communists, narco-insurgents, exiled Nationalist Chinese soldiers, and dacoits. AIDS was ravaging the whorehouses (which were supposed to be illegal, but the cops were paid off to let them be) in populated areas of Thailand.

Also, unsurprisingly, opium production was outlawed in Thailand in 1959. And at the book’s writing, Thailand had no official laws against money-laundering. Thailand proclaimed itself to be crime-free; never mind all those heroin and opium addicts in its slums. Around the same time, there arose a Nigerian Connection.

Beginning in the late 1980’s, “Ironically, Thailand’s poppy-eradication and crop-substitution programs, while decreasing the availability of raw opium, had driven hilltribe addicts to more potent, more accessible heroin that was produced just over the border in Burma.” The nation curbed the drug trade just enough to keep the financial aid coming from the United States. There was also honor among thieves in the black markets of baht, teak, jade and rubies.

Read the book to learn the suspenseful saga of the author’s adventures, as well as a wealth of regional history, the life story of Khun Sa, and about the complicated web of relationships among all different groups with different goals that enhanced the intrigue of the circumstances (hint: According to Khun Sa, “The KMT had received financial support from Taiwan and the CIA, the Communist Party of Burma [CPB] was underwritten by neighboring China, and the Burmese government received foreign aid.”)