I guess it is possible to get used to anything. Seems that in incremental steps we can become numb or blind to things that by all rights should shock us silly. For instance ...

It’s clear to multitudes around the world that gory, nasty, ugly, cruel, inhumane acts of torture have been perpetrated by US citizens and that there has been an illegal war, carried out by the USA, some of its allies and many of its citizens.

Torture has been sanctioned by top echelons of the US government, which by definition, makes them war criminals. I hear that intelligence gathered through the use of torture is useless too. You think? I’d say anything at all to get someone from water-boarding my brain.

Many of us are convinced that war criminals remain free in the USA. Were it Russia or China doing the things that the USA has done, what would the USA be saying and doing?

And Obama? The Great Leader/Saviour? He who will deliver US from evil? He’d rather look forward than get all hung up on the past. He appears okay about ignoring the crimes of the Bush Gang and the mighty US intelligence and military machines. He apparently has not stopped the practice of rendition. And this is not front page news.

Listen President Obama, that torture, war crimes thing is a festering wound in the side of the entire world. We all know about it. It has to be excised or your words, the words in your Almighty Constitution will mean doodley to the world. If this wound is not healed it will poison us all. It cannot be tucked safely away into the past any more than the crimes of apartheid could be in South Africa. Without truth, justice and sincere effort to reconcile, it remains an infection and yes, leaving it be is an effective enemy-making strategy.

It is pitifully obvious that Canadian Prime Minister Harper has chosen to remain silent about that torture, war crimes thing done by his good old buddy south of the border. Is there hidden complicity or is it just silent consent? At the least, silence is consent.

There are international legal agreements that have been ignored without consequence rendering international jurisprudence impotent. When you include the families and friends of those killed, injured and “disappeared” then you can say factually that millions of people have been directly and indirectly injured, emotionally, psychically and physically. Thousands have been blown to smithereens. Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How many have been on the receiving end of limitless, Geneva Convention-defying detention and the unadulterated hell that goes with it?

To silent Canadians: Political power is not set in an election — that’s one of the mass daydreams. Make a big enough noise and watch politicians jump . Think about writing, phoning, sending carrier pigeons, text messages and emails. Don’t let up. Once isn’t enough. Our silence is our consent.

Have we become inured to atrocity?

A week ago today, we saw Naomi Klein speak at the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. I should clarify that I heard more than I saw because my seat was located directly behind Mr. Big Head.

With a zoom and deft action when Mr. B.H. tilted to the left, I took this one.

In attendance along with Naomi Klein were family members. Her mother, Bonnie Sherr Klein, introduced her to the full house. (Tickets for this event sold out in two hours.) Her father, Michael Klein and her husband, Avi Lewis, attended also.

The parents of Ms. Klein live a hop, skip and another skip from my sister Jane in Roberts Creek. It was in their home that Naomi worked on parts of No Logo. Naomi Klein finished writing Shock Doctrine in a writers’ cabin in Half Moon Bay which is just a smidgen north of the town of Sechelt. That was in the fall of 2007 when a series of seven massive storms hit the the Pacific coast. You will remember one of these because it gobsmacked Stanley Park so thoroughly that scores of gigantic trees were blown to hell in a few hours. During that period the electricity was down on the Sunshine Coast for weeks in some places. At the cabin, Naomi — may I call her that? — had a portable generator going. She reported that she had to choose between powering her refrigerator or her laptop. She remarked that she did what all writers working to a deadline would do.

Naomi began her talk with an anecdotal presentation of her connectedness with the Sunshine Coast. It was a delightful, engaging, often humorous introduction to her heavier material. Incidentally, Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis live part-time on the Sunshine Coast.

She did not read from her books. She shared ideas and told stories.

As she related her personal experiences in places like wartime Iraq, the content of her presentation became less academic and more personal. When she speaks of world events she does so as a humanistic reporter who has been to the places she writes about, who has spoken to and lived with people in those places. She’s brave.

Her talk covered the themes of both No Logo and Shock Doctrine with reference to current events. She’s clear in stating that the bailouts are theft of public wealth.

As far as Obama is concerned, she says that the jury is still out. I have a feeling that she pulled her punches in speaking somewhat critically of Obama. (Or was that my projection? I’m critical of him — unquestionably.) In the Q&A, someone challenged Naomi about judging Obama too soon in his presidency. Naomi clarified that she saw Obama as always trying to find the centre. With a loud and crazy right wing in the USA, Obama needs a loud and crazy left wing making a big noise, which he does not have. She said that the left wing is being too polite in waiting to see what he will do. That might be good advice for Canadians too. Steve needs to hear more from those who disagree with his ways.

She noted that after Obama and his people successfully created the Obama brand that they then co-branded with Oprah — a clever move, illustrative of points from her books.

Youtube has a huge library of Naomi Klein talks. This talk was similar in many ways to the Youtube ones that I have viewed. In person though, Naomi’s sense of humour is revealed. Secondly, some points ring out more clearly when hearing a speaker in person. Naomi lays out one horrific fact after another, makes sense of them and still has a way of showing reason for hope — a high wire performance if ever there was one.

She looked tired by the end of the evening after a talk, a Q&A and a book-signing gig. I was one of the last people to get a book signed. She looked so tired in fact that I found myself unable to begin talking with her about any of the ten thousand ideas provoked by her talk. I had wanted to thank her for doing all that she does. As it was, I said “How are you?” as I shoved a piece of paper with the names of my cousin and her husband in front of her. I’d purchased a copy of Shock Doctrine for them. Naomi wrote the following inscription: “To P---- and W----, Be brave” and signed her name.

I left knowing that we spent the evening with a committed, sincere, brilliant, self-effacing individual. I believe that she goes on speaking tours less to sell books and more to share ideas and information that she believes is necessary to have in wide circulation. I’ve frequently reflected on that talk over the last week. Each time I am more convinced of the validity of my impressions of Naomi Klein. Thanks, Naomi Klein. Thanks a whole bunch.

TED, are you looking for a speaker with ideas worth spreading?

We attended the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts a few days ago. It’s the oldest writers festival in Canada and I’d suggest that it has the most beautiful setting of all, The Rockwood Centre, Sechelt BC. I’d further suggest that it’s so damned good because it is managed by Jane Davidson, former manager of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival and [ahem] my sister.

Here’s a shot of your itinerant scribe laying a big vibe on said sibling. Getting one back too.




Here’s the signing canopy with the book-selling tent in the background.




Floral bouquets were littered about the setting -- obviously the work
of some benevolent fairy godmother sort of being.



Here’s a shot of the lineup for the talk by the most worthy Naomi Klein.
The next billblog post will be about Naomi Klein’s gig.




The side windows of the 500-seat hall open to the Nature Kingdom.
Does any other writers festival compare? I mean, really.




The only way by car to the Sunshine Coast is via the Langdale Ferry
out of Horseshoe Bay, which is next door to West Vancouver, or one out of Comox further north.
This shot is from the highway leading down to the Langdale dock,
taken as we were leaving the Sunshine Coast. Pinch me.




.... and finally, a shot from the 10:30AM crossing of the Langdale ferry. Pinch. One more time.

The festival has one event at a time and invites only Canadian writers. Several events are sold out in mere hours, so if you’re thinking of coming next year, get onto copping your tix pronto when the sales start. This was my first year; I was a virgin. I am going back for more next year. Enough said.

It’s an experience in which so many elements come together to fill people up, both authors and attendees. The best for all by all is the inevitable result. Thanks Jane, board members, authors, worker bees and volunteers. Thanks Nature. Thanks trees. Thanks water, wind and mountains. You friggin slayed me. My corpus callosum has turned to silly putty.

The shark population has been reduced to less than 5% of its numbers in some waters -- largely because of the rampant and cruel harvesting of shark fins. The out of control appetite for shark fin soup, mostly in Asia, is the largest contributor to this. You and your neighbours also contribute to the decimation of sharks if you use certain cosmetics, Preparation H, some brands of glucosamine sulphate and obviously, shark cartilage tablets.

Make a noise about this. A big enough noise can result in a ban on shark products.

Here is a commercial that makes the point rather, uh, sharply:

We will be away from August 14 to August 19, so there’ll be no postings until after that. Tomorrow we travel to the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, incidentally the oldest writers’ festival in Canada, to see Naomi Klein speak. I am interested in hearing what she’s been investigating since Shock Doctrine was published. I hear that seats for her talk sold out in two hours flat. This fine festival is run by my incredible sister, Jane.

After that, I’ll be travelling briefly to Saskatchewan to honour the life of my Uncle Al, a true gentle gentleman. I miss you Uncle Al. His sister, my Mother and one of my sisters will also be making the trek.

Catch you on the flip side.

This is a lengthy clip from Youtube, 52 minutes. In it, Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, speaks at the Animal Rights conference in Los Angeles in May 2009. It’s worth watching.

Ron Colby is the director of Pirate For The Sea, an award-winning feature-length documentary about the life of Paul Watson. The interview took place on August 7, 2009. It is in four blog posts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

In conversation with Ron Colby, continuing from part 3.

RC: We going to try to, you know, we have been holding off, we have been festivaling it. It's a very bad time for documentary films, and to a degree for films in general, to get them out there and to try to get them sold and what have you, but I think if people demand to see this film, then the word will continue to get out and Paul, through the film, will continue to inspire.

I don't want to just preach to the choir, I want to let other people see this and make their own judgement, because a lot of people say, "Oh well he's just a terrorist," or "He's a radical terrorist," or this or that, and of course to me the terrorists are the people who want to lay down these crude pipelines and ship it down the inland waterway, and Union Carbide and Monsanto and all of these incredible corporations that are basically poisoning and ruining it. So those are the real terrorists and we are just trying a rearguard action. But I would like it to become the action whereby the majority of people get behind it and say that this is what we want.

B: Hit the tipping point and landslide the other way.

RC: Exactly.

Ron Colby is the director of Pirate For The Sea, an award-winning feature-length documentary about the life of Paul Watson. The interview took place on August 7, 2009. It is in four blog posts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

In conversation with Ron Colby continuing from Part 2.

RC: To digress a minute, to go back to my little experience at Coney Island when I was a kid, I thought, "I don't know what to do." The Hudson River where a lot of this pollution came from was one of the most polluted rivers in the nation, just a free dump zone. Pete Seeger who lived in Beacon on the Hudson decided he had enough of it. He raised $150,000 by doing some concerts. He had a ship built called the Clearwater and he sailed up and down the Hudson singing about how to clean up the river. Ultimately he got laws changed. He got all sorts of things done and the river, while not being the most pristine on the planet has just increased a hundredfold, the fish have come back, I mean people can catch fish there now and it's just amazing what happened.

I went back to Coney Island a couple of years ago because I thought I'd see what it looks like now and the water was, you know, comparatively clear. There's another one individual who did something. Granted he has a pretty high profile, but by the same token, he's not a super wealthy man and he just did it by singing, so these people are inspirations to me and by making this film I hope that I can make an inspiration to other people where they can see that they can do something.

When we have these Q&A's after the screening, you know people, you can sense that they want to do something and they don't know how to begin. It's really not all that complicated. I tell them it pretty much starts in the kitchen, what you eat, what you buy, where it comes from, how it was processed, how it was grown, all of those things. And then it reaches out from there.

B: I agree with you completely. We’ve got a big issue developing here along the coast of British Columbia. The government is going to build a plant of some kind up at Kitimat, and bring dirty Alberta oil over by pipeline and ship it in tankers down the inside passage which is risky business at the best of times, but one Exxon Valdez incident and ...

RC: I have done that sail or actually I went by ferry all the way up to Prince Rupert. I was up there as a producer on a film. This is going back to 1993. As an American you always think of Canada in this kind of pristine, glowing, gemlike state after we've defiled a lot of what we have down here. And so when I went up there I had some time after the wrap of the film, I said I want to see a virgin forest and I just want to go out and walk around a virgin forest. So I very naively went over to Victoria Island [Vancouver Island] and took a bus up there and I took a ferry up inside the islands there and all the way up to Prince Rupert. And as I looked out at the trees I could see that they were all third generation or what have you. When I got to Prince Rupert I rented a car. I said well I'll just drive into the interior and I'll find my virgin forest and get out and walk around.

We drove ninety miles which is as far as I could go on my limited time schedule and never saw virgin forest and all I saw was all these slain trees lying around just cast up on the side of these rivers where they never made it down to where they would have been milled, and huge old beautiful trees and logs. So finally I saw somebody and he said there is one but you have to get on a helicopter and fly over to this place because there's no road in there. I thought to myself, what a horrible thing you know in such a short amount of time to have done that to this place.

One of the benefits of meeting Paul was that I met several other environmentalists and writers and stuff, and the one that stands out in my mind most vividly of course is Farley Mowat. Farley's books about the decimation and decline of the wild in Canada are just incredible, even the softer ones that he's written. His book Sea of Slaughter is almost impossible to get through because of reading about what's happened up there. So that has totally altered my thinking about Canadians and the human species.

I would think that Canadians, if they value their self-image, they should look to the seal hunt, and they should look at many of the things that Farley Mowat talks about, they should look at the clear-cutting. They should look at these things that they are just blindly going along trying to initiate like bringing the crude down through the inland waterway [Inside Passage] there, so I don't know what to say, but it is suitably horrific, they’ve learned all our bad habits here in the lower forty-eight and of course the Alaskans aren't doing any better.

I just don't know what it is that puts in their minds that it in their mind that it is their right to do these things. I'm not a religious man. I consider myself a spiritual person but I'm not a religious man, but for those people and the majority consider themselves religious, the first commandment is "Thou shalt not kill.", and I just wonder what God if he exists would think about people, you know, wiping out entire species of not only animals but of trees and other things.

And when we consider the devastation that is happening now and is going to happen for the next forseeable future where we lose more plants and animals than we've lost in the last sixty-five million years, That's unprecedented and this diminshment is going to come back upon us in a spiritual way if not in an ubelievably real way where we may find ourselves standing on the brink.

continued in Part 4

Ron Colby is the director of Pirate For The Sea, an award-winning feature-length documentary about the life of Paul Watson. The interview took place on August 7, 2009. It is in four blog posts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

In conversation with Ron Colby ...

B: Ron, I feel from what I've read on the web, that Pirate For The Sea is a personal statement in some way, that there is an emotional commitment, so could we begin with a few words on what your relationship is with the oceans?

RC: OK, the answer is that I have had a long relationship. I'm originally from New York. As a little kid I always enjoyed the water and I went swimming and learned how to swim actually pretty early. When I was about seven my aunt and uncle took me to Coney Island to go on the rides and after going on some rides for a while I tired of it. I really wanted to go in the ocean. They said okay, so I ran down to the edge of the ocean. The water was just really murky and ugly looking and as I waded out into the waist-high tepid waves, I looked in and there were all these condoms floating there, not just one or two but like this flotilla of condoms. I said out loud to nobody in particular, "What are those?" Some big beery guy standing next to me said, "Dose is Coney Island whitefish."

That was my first real introduction to the horrible pollution that was going on in the oceans and that was a long time ago, 'cause I'm no kid anymore.

I became an ocean lifeguard when I was in college and graduate school and for a couple of summers after that when I was working in the New York theatre. So I was a surfer and an ocean lifeguard and totally appreciated the ocean and watched its different degrees of health on Long Island. I was always interested in it and never quite knew what to do about it in terms of trying to help out as it were.

When I read about Paul, I'm going back almost twenty-five years now to the early eighties, I said, this is a guy whose story I'd like to tell. Being a producer and sort of multiple hyphenate here in Los Angeles, I sought him out and signed an agreement with him whereby I could write a screenplay on his early exploits, and I did. I could never get it going despite the fact that I thought he was a real hero, and yet we make all these movies about comic book heroes, but nothing about the real guys maybe because he was too controversial at the time. I have no idea.

Meanwhile he kept inviting me to go on his campaigns. At one point about six or seven years ago he just asked me once too often and it sounded attractive and I went down to Costa Rica and ultimately out to Cocos Island to interfere with the shark finners and bring supplies to the Rangers and so on and so forth. That kind of hooked me.

After that I went to Antarctica and went up on the anti-sealing campaigns and I decided to basically make a biography of Paul, which I did. I met with his family and old friends and acquaintances and also journeyed with him on other places and photographed it, did his lectures, taped his lectures live and so on and so forth. So that's how I assembled this particular documentary, and I'm glad I did.

B: So, you're friends with him. You're more than just a documentary filmmaker in his life, you're actually personal friends at this point.

RC: Well we are, yes for sure. We've known each other all this time, so yeah were definitely friends. He's a busy guy as I am I so we don't hang out together all the time, but when he's down here we usually get together and he's been very kind in terms of showing up when he can at some of these festivals when we've been screening the film.

B. So on these trips with Paul and on Sea Shepherd missions, what would be your greatest satisfaction?

RC: I guess just in participating in these things in so far as, you know, there's a certain disconnect between what people would like to do and what they are able to achieve. I think that a lot of people would like to do something about the oceans or the environment in general or just improving how they operate in their own lifestyle, in a more conservative way, as in conservation and so to see myself out there feeling like if I was actually doing something.

It's also kind of a lot of fun in so far as you are aboard this ship not only with Paul but with anywhere from fifteen to, when we were in Antarctica, forty-four different crew members and so that's quite a family and sort of a forced introduction to these people because while there's some continuity from campaign to campaign, there's not a lot. There's usually four or five people that you'll know and the rest are all comparative strangers and they all come from different parts of the world. I found that quite entertaining and interesting, and I have made some friends that way as well.

B: How about the risk and danger? Did you ever feel like you were seriously in danger?

RC: The answer is yes. I never gave it too much thought, quite frankly, not that I'm an heroic guy necessarily, but my job, especially like down in Antarctica where we had some really incredible seas and it was in the old ship, The Farley Mowat, which could have, you know, popped a few rivets at any time and gone down, not to mention getting bumped by the Japanese or rammed by the Japanese or by an iceberg. Those things crossed my mind but that's what I was there for and when I saw the Nissan Maru, which is the Japanese factory ship, in these thirty to forty foot high seas bearing down on us, a lot of people kind of ran and hid and I was out there photographing it. Mainly the thought that ran through my mind was, "This is so cool," because you know, that's what I was there for. You didn't want a bunch of tepid stuff so I was thrilled to see things going on.

B. I guess when you've got something to do it's easier to get through.

RC: I think so. That was my purpose. You know the problem in Antarctica is it's light twenty-four hours a day and you never know when something is going to happen. So you are constantly, more or less, on stand-by. You don't know when somebody is going to say something interesting or a pod of whales will swing by, or the Japanese will loom into sight. So it's kind of exhausting that way and fifty-five days at sea was a long time.

I'm glad I did it. It's quite a memory. It's quite an exotic place down there, especially the icebergs which are just basically beyond description in terms of size and configuration.

B. Back to Pirate For the Sea, what would you really like said about it, Ron?

RC: I think that this is, so far anyway, the definitive biography on Paul Watson for sure. He's written some books about himself and what have you, but this is, you know, you are aboard the ships and you see the man and you get to know him quite intimately actually and what he thinks, most assuredly. So there's that.

I think that one of the reasons that I made the film and one of the reasons why I pursued Paul for so long and wrote the original screenplay, was that the fact that here was a man who really came from nothing. He came from a poor family and got involved with Greenpeace, became a founding member. But then they threw him out of there for being too much of an activist. And with no money and no real backing other than a personal vision and determination, he created the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and has basically done an incredible amount of good for the creatures of the sea. So my raison d'être for this whole thing was to show people what one person can do. Paul is a perfect example of that.

Continued in Part 3.

I have just finished a lengthy phone interview with Ron Colby, director of the documentary film Pirate For the Sea. This interview provided enough material for at least four billblog posts (including this one). You can find the interview in subsequent posts (above) or via these links: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

I thank Ron Colby for being so generous with his time, so thoughtful with responses to my questions and for being an inspiration himself.

Let me give you an orientation.

Ron Colby has an extensive background in film, as an actor, director, producer and in other roles, dating back to the 1970’s. A summary of his professional career can be found HERE.

Growing up with a persistent concern about the pollution of the oceans and the assault upon marine life by humans, Ron Colby sought ways to make a difference. Along the way he met Captain Paul Watson, the well-known activist-conservationist, leader of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Captain of the Farley Mowat and the Steve Irwin, key figure in the Animal Planet series, Whale Wars.

Pirate For The Sea is an award-winning full-length documentary directed by Ron Colby. Over several years Ron filmed Sea Shepherd missions, getting to know Paul Watson personally, forming a view of him quite apart from the opinions of others who write with less first hand knowledge than he. He describes Pirate For The Sea as “the definitive biography of Paul Watson”, the result of a substantial amount of personal time spent with him at sea and on land, not only observing but getting to know him personally as well.

In making Pirate For the Sea, Ron’s over-arching goal is to inspire others to take action toward bringing health to the oceans and the life forms therein.

Stay tuned to this blog as a fascinating interview is shared.

Captain Paul Watson and Ron Colby

Continued in Part 2 .