Externalities in a corporate-military world

A paper from scientists at the University of Washington and Simon Fraser University confirms that childhood Leukemia rates in the Iraqi province of Basra have more than doubled in the past 15 years. According to the senior author of the paper Tim Takaro of SFU “We hope our calculations pave the way for investigating why the rates have climbed so high. We also need to know why they are higher than the rates found in Kuwait, the European Union or the United States.” Now, I'm the first to admit that I'm more of a qualitative researcher than quantitative one but I'd wager that these childhood Leukemia rates can be tied to a few other things going on in Iraq over the past two decades. I'd bet that uranium depleted bombs, chromium poisoned dust and mountains of toxic burning garbage might also factor in. If you thought externalities were bad in the corporate world, you should see the corporate-military world.

There is an immaturity to war, in fact it might be the most immature of human habits. Of course it would be naive of me to leave it at that. War is also the manipulation of large groups of people and capital on the opinion of a few and for the benefit of even fewer.

A recent LA Times article looked at the practice of burn pits in Iraq, which private military contractor Kellog Brown and Root (KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton) used as an ad hoc waste management strategy, when one has to assume, inept planning, loss of profitability or complete lack of morals left them with few other options. Supposed to be a stopgap measure, the burning has continued on unchecked. Many soldiers and contractors now suffer from a vast array of health problems ranging from leukemia, lymphoma, congestive heart problems, neurological conditions, bronchitis, skin rashes and sleep disorders. Legal action has been taken, including nine class action lawsuits which have been filed against KBR, but as always it looks like the moral and ethical victory will take a long and arduous uphill battle.

As quoted in the LA Times, John Wilson of the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans states "The military needs to step up and address this problem...the fumes emanating from the pits could become the Agent Orange of the current war zone."

Words like that, recalling the last public relations nightmare caused by a toxic externality, signal that the PR dueling has ramped up. Agent Orange was of course the chemical weapon (dioxin laden herbicide) that helped kill half a million people in the Vietnam war and disfigured thousands more. Despite the horrific damage done by Agent Orange several class action lawsuits against the US military were all dismissed. Chemical giants Monsanto and Dow, who created the toxic herbicide, were successfully sued in different lawsuits but it ended up being a negligible amount when awarded to some sick veterans, considering the slow chronically painful deaths they experience. It appears the courts have already begun the tossing and dismissing of veteran and civilian health concerns as an Indiana Judge threw out a recent case against KBR involving a chromium dust filled plant that American contractors were uninformed was a toxic work environment. One positive development (perhaps) is that a health panel has begun looking into the issues around the recent Iraq operations, overseen by the Department of Veteran Affairs. Will it be another 911 Commission though? But back to KBR's burn pits and the children of Iraq.

Items burned in the pits have included medical waste, plastics, computer parts, oil, lubricants, paint, tires and foam cups, according to soldiers and contractors. Some say amputated body parts from Iraqi patients were burned in Balad, site of a large U.S. military hospital. The pit in Balad was a full 10-acres. 1o acres of toxic burning shit. And all around these pits for years now, cancerous uranium depleted shells have been raining down on these children and American military personnel. The military leaders fought hard to make sure they could use these uranium depleted bombs which supposedly gave them an advantage the first time they pulverized southern Iraq in the early 1990s. We can be sure all that depleted uranium just went through the ecosystem, blew away in the wind or was rinsed off by the rain though, right? I mean those kids with Leukemia were born a full ten years after the first uranium shower, and I don't know what the half-life of weapons grade uranium is but it can't be that long.

So while I congratulate researchers at SFU and U of W for their quantitative discovery, I believe that when looking qualitatively at the insane toxic war that has been waged in Iraq it becomes obvious that man made lakes of burning garbage, millions of uranium soaked shells and heavy metal particulates wafting in the air will certainly cause serious health problems in children. And in soldiers, military contractors, animals, water and crops too for that matter. Maybe it should just stop? Maybe they should clean it up, properly.

While the decision makers who send soldiers to these hellish landscapes might be clinical and deliberate in their thinking, there is a hysteria in war that seems to cloud reason, distort logic, and suffocate human progress. Maybe the Bush Administration and their royal, religious and corporate friends knew full well the hell that would be loosed with any invasion. So before it begins some colonel stands in front of the media demonstrating the moral and ethical accuracy of smart bombs, convincing us the face of war is becoming more humanitarian, more compassionate and precise. The charm offensive, it really is offensive isn't it? 8 years later soldiers are coming home half rotten with disease, child cancer rates have doubled and a whole generation of Arabic youth is growing up with more hatred of the west than ever before. How could we let this happen? How were we duped once again? We said no, emphatically. Millions and millions of people in 800 cities around the world protested the invasion and yet it still happened. Our ethics were obvious but our power was illusory. We thought they would listen, the "leaders". So where is our power? And how can we assert it? (for another post I suppose)

The culture of war is a hysterical reactionary stupor utilizing unparalleled logistical management to create sickness, death and destruction on both the "winning" and losing sides. If we as a civilization are in our adolescence, then we're at that dangerous and destructive point where an adolescent should probably reach out for help; but we have no one to help us, we only have ourselves. We have to learn responsibility, for this planet, for the living creatures and systems at work, and for our own kind. KBR managing waste through burn pits is akin to a teenager stuffing all their filthy clothes, pizza boxes and dirty plates under their bed. Actually it's more like a teenager, instead of cleaning their bedroom at all, just burning everything in a pile. Fumes from smoldering plastic and garbage filling their room with a choking haze, with a strong chance of burning the rest of the house down too. The careless immaturity of war once again. Externalities, in all their forms, represent a complete lack of responsibility or accountability. Like an apathetic child who can't comprehend the damage from their actions, these PMCs like KBR, have made so many mistakes and so many poor decisions with horrific consequences. So many children, soldiers and innocent civilians have been sickened, disfigured and maimed by the immaturity and indecency of war- and its many vendors. We need to question how any leaders eager for war can be considered moral or ethical. And how can it ever be in the interest of the people when the masses always suffer it, every last one of us. The ones that fight, the ones who pay, and the ones who bury their friends and family.

War is what happens when thinking stops, when we are prevented from coming to a reasonable solution for any problem based on our capacity for compromise, creativity and innovation. And leaders make that choice for us, despite our protest. I love Michael Bakunin's sentiment that the most powerful assets we posses as humans are the power to reason and the desire to rebel. Of course in order to have a healthy functioning society we also have to have a power to reason and desire to co-operate. Either by hysteria or by manipulation, when it comes to war too many of us are prevented from being rational about its reasons and rebelling when we know its consequences. We should be more aggressive, more forceful, and more frightening the next time our leaders try to pull the wool over us. We can't settle for war, we can't accept it. It is an insult to our intelligence and disrespects the value of our lives.

In the 21st century we have the technological knowledge of how to create vast quantities of energy and food. We can reclaim water, we can build better cities, we can provide for every person on this planet if we really wanted to. Imagine what we could do if we put the trillions of dollars and the impressive logistical know-how that it takes to operate this war into making the world a better more livable and equitable place? Food security, water security, education, disease research, energy production, climate change, imagine if we put a trillion dollars and the man hours that have gone into making Iraq a toxic wasteland into any one of these pressing issues. Instead, we'll likely just have another war down the road. At this point I remain pessimistic that our swords will be transformed into plowshares. Too many leaders and thinkers insist on keeping us in the Hobbesian world. The voice of Benjamin Franklin echoing in the halls of power that "Those who beat their swords into plowshares will end up plowing for those who did not." And while at the time American leaders like Franklin were fighting to end the tyranny of royal rule and build a democratic utopia, today we stand with our toes patriotically curled over the edge of hell because this moral militarism.

Eight thousand years of human civilization and you'd think we would be close to overcoming the animal-human, the one hoarding food and craving territory, the one that justifies murders based on fairy tales written a millennium ago, the animal-human that flings its own shit and beats its babies to death, drunk with ignorance. One would think that given this much time we would be able to back away from the cliff but no, here we stand, the flames baking our toenails.

Like cave-men invading camps for fire, the US banged its chest in primitive rage and unleashed a toxic circus on the people of Iraq and its own soldiers, and for what? Oil? Strategic control of geography?Retribution for 9/11? Does anyone even remember what the hell they said they were going into Iraq for? Yellowcake from Nigeria? Well they never found a single weapon of mass destruction, and no yellowcake, but it took mass destruction for them to do it. If there wasn't enough weapons grade uranium to make a bomb before the US invaded Iraq there probably is today. The only problem is that it's now stuck in all those children.


Asteroid now.

Failed movie pitches, a best of collection

In the several years I spent both in Hollywood and in Vancouver, adapting and writing screenplays, pitching to numerous producers, and crafting what I believed were destined to be blockbusters, I have come to know rejection intimately. I've seen less talented and passionate writers be rewarded for mediocre scripts while my cinematic genius languished, as narrow minded producers sunk millions into mindless drivel. Below are the best pitches I ever made in my opinion, all of them rejected. I'm still open to making these films come alive if any producer reads this and is interested.

Were the Wild Things Were.


A story about a capricious young boy who's sent to bed without supper. While playing in his wolf costume alone in his bedroom, his imagination creates a whole new wonderful world of lush forest and expansive desert; filled with the remnants of amazing adventures that would appear to have just been had by wild and fascinating creatures. Everywhere he goes it looks like something amazing and fun just happened but he's always one step behind where the wild things were (seen in photo above unsuccessfully trying to chase down one of the Wild Things). Eventually after wandering around for a few hours, unable to catch up to the action, he gets so dejected and frustrated that he snaps out of it to find the last lukewarm scraps of what was meant to be his supper waiting for him in his bedroom.

Gay and Gayer, a remake of the lovable cult classic Dumb and Dumber


Lloyd Christmas is an outrageously gay limousine driver in Providence, Rhode Island, who becomes infatuated with his passenger, Mark Swanson, as he drives him to the airport. Mark is heading home to his family in Asspen, Colorado but leaves a briefcase at the airport. Lloyd notices, and retrieves the briefcase before a pair of thugs arrive to pick it up, dashing ahead of them to snag the briefcase. Lloyd is unable to catch Mark in time, and is left on the ramp of the airport with briefcase in hand. Harry Dune, Lloyd's roommate, is in the pet grooming business, and has recently spent his life savings converting his van (a 1984 Ford Econoline) into a sheepdog. *(seen above with a reverse dog boner as the two go racing as fast as they can to Colorado) They are in a race against the thugs to get the briefcase to Asspen and back in the hands of Mark Swanson, as the audience is treated to the gayest comedic romp they've ever seen. Leaving them wondering, who is gayer?

2012, 2

In 2009, American geologist Adrian Delmsley learns from a colleague, Dr. Satnam Tsurtuami, at an underground copper mine in India that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are acting as microwave radiation, causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. At the G8 summit in 2010, heads of state are made aware of the situation, which was prophesized by the Ancient Mayans to culminate on the 21st of December, 2012. They begin a massive, secret project intended to ensure the survival of humanity. But before they can even begin it's discovered that ANOTHER cataclysmic disaster is about to wipe out humanity just a few months before the date of December 21st 2012, predicted by the ancient Mayans. This new disaster was predicted by the Ancient Aztecs and is even worse! In 2012, Jackson Turtis is a writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for Russian billionaire and amature pilot Yuri Parpoff. After being told about the Mayan prophecy he starts to get ready to save his family and survive the apocalyptic destruction. But right in the middle of it he's made aware of the Aztec prophecy, which happens a full two months earlier than the Mayan one! Now with even less time the world and Jackson have to clamor even more quickly to survive. AND if they survive the first world ending Aztec prophesized cataclysm they're fucked because of the second Mayan one.


While I have several other scripts and adaptations that I've pitched to closed-minded studio execs and producers with no vision, these are my favorites. I felt it necessary to get it off my chest how frustrated I've been that these brilliant ideas have not been made into films, and perhaps more sadly never will. If you are a producer, with vision, and you want to make the world a richer and more colourful place, please help me make any one of these visionary scripts come to life.

Sincerely,
Wes Regan

Asteroid Later- I believe there's still a chance these films can be made.

Top Douchebags of the month

I'm introducing a little monthly installment on the Asteroid Now blog called "Douchebag of the Month" in recognition of the slimiest most arrogant pricks I come across in the media. I'll make it brief so as not to dignify them with a concerted effort but I do feel they should be recognized for their abject douchiness. Starting from least to greatest.

Alaskrafts, a company in Alaska kills small furry animals and makes them into ugly bikinis that make you, your girlfriend or wife, look like a cast member from Quest for Fire. And while in a way that's awesome, in another way it's really lame. What's also confusing about this site is the amount of crazy evangelical sentences like "I repent of these actions and with your help I will change and not repeat them again" along the side of the website. I wonder if they're referring to killing small animals so that they can objectify women and dress them up like stone aged sex-slaves? If you scroll all the way down to the bottom right this is what you'll read: "I know that I am not worthy; but, I willingly accept You as my Lord and my Savior, and I thank You for Your blessings over my family and me. If interested in buying pelts please contact Mr. Cutler, NY City, (Manhattan) Phone:+1 (347) 484 1670, Tell him Steve Fields sent you." Well, Steve Might not be the slimiest and most arrogant prick but killing small animals to dress up women like cave-man sex slaves, and begging Jesus for mercy while repenting for his sins on his fur bikin website is just enough to land him a spot on this month's list.

Dutch long track Speed Skater Steve Kramer throws a hissy-fit after being disqualified from a race. Considered the best in the sport he abusively shoved a female volunteer on his way off the track from obvious disappointment, and perhaps an inherent douche streak. It was also alleged that he yelled " Is it not that you know who I am?! I'm the world's greatest long track speed skater in the history of the world of speed skating!" or something to that effect.

Chad Kroeger wants to shut down a Facebook fan page for a pickle that now officially has more fans than his Band Nickelback. The rock star, who many believe time traveled from 1994 to present day to pursue a classic rock career in the future, engaged in a heated debate with the young lady who started the fanpage as a joke. Now Chad is the bigger joke. Please travel back to Northern Alberta in the early 90s where you belong Kroeger. (seen in the photo above with his band...or is it to the right pointing like a total gaylord?)


And finally there's the Kenyan thugs who stole my friend Rob's money in Nairobi. These roving douches were created, or rather given vast douchey powers, after the bombing of the US Embassy in Kenya. They now comb the streets of Nairobi's central business district abusing locals and extorting foreigners. My friend Rob is on a humanitarian aid mission to help people in slums by improving sanitation and infrastructure. These "police" considered the most corrupt in East Africa took every last penny he had, save bus change to get home, after he gave a buck fifty to a beggar in the street. They win biggest douchebag of the month hands down.

Asteroid now (but only small ones, strategically landing wherever these douchebags might be)

The Gates of paradise

For years the converging of business and environmentalism has produced some innovative technologies, promising enterprise, and has reinvigorated both venture capitalists and stock markets eager for promising IPOs. Even despite a major economic crisis, greentech investments have fared better than expected. So when Bill Gates recently spoke at TED, he upped the ante to an already very busy, and very high stakes game. Speaking in front of a giant projection of our planet (due for an asteroid impact sometime) complimented by a big number 0, the message was clear. Reducing emissions should not be the goal, eliminating them should be.

Gates' vision of Earth circa 2050 is not fanciful utopian musings or idealistic wishful thinking, this is a man who has stated he is on a mission to stop global warming before it stops human civilization. The difference is that when some crazy red eyed hippie says the same thing we're quick to discount them, when someone like Gates says it, a man who has already helped to transform the world like few humans before him, heads turn.


With the incredible network of connections and massive capital at his disposal, having an icon like Gates join the green brigade has major implications. The dream of a healthier, greener, less polluted, more equitable future is no longer the dream of the flower children. it's no longer the PR efforts of a a green global conspiracy of over funded NGOs, funding-hungry alarmist scientists or of unrealistic left winged politicians who want to mire free enterprise in a bureaucratic eco-despotism. No, it's none of the things that many major corporations, energy companies most of all, and the politicians or media attack dogs who have been stuck in an antiquated status-quo have said it is. It is now front and centre, part of our mainstream culture, it has become the new way of doing things.

Regardless of the science behind climate change, for or against, a cleaner more equitable world is something worth striving for. The screaming and howling from those trying to squeeze every drop of oil out of the ground and into aerodynamically retarded vehicles, those who belch toxic gasses into the air we breathe and materials we surround ourselves with, has filled the media for years. A chorus of shrieking and finger pointing "experts" has gobbled down fists full of money from those who writhe in anguish at the thought of change, and made a noise pollution befitting of the very noxious culture they've been paid to downplay. Creating new, cleaner and better technologies, new cleaner and better jobs, new sciences, business practices and economics to meet the demands of a growing population that exerts a very real influence and toll on the planet, shouldn't be like pulling teeth. To me that sounds like progress, and too many people for far too long have been standing in the way of it. I hope Gates' bold presentation will, if even for a moment, silence the shrieking din of bullshit.

For more on Gates' presentation at TED go here.

I hope I'm able to enjoy being a healthy old man living in Gates' zero emission world, and therefore I say asteroid later.

No retreat...no surrender

It's hard sometimes to devote time to writing about the things I find fascinating in this world, when they don't always align with the things I get paid to write about. That being said, my employers at both Thirdi and at Building Opportunities with Business have been extremely accommodating when it comes to letting me rant and speculate and carry on in those respective blog environments. In those blogs I've been able to cover everything from Hugo Chavez and his insane comments about Haiti being caused by American earthquake machines bouncing rays off of the ionosphere to why CEOs might not have Facebook and Twitter accounts because they're sociopaths. Seriously, I can't believe some of the stuff they let me get away with...

But this is where I'm going to really let loose.

And at the end of each post I'll decide whether or not an asteroid should smash into this planet ending our embarrassing, miserable, pathetic, corrupt, perverse, irrational, pointless and self destructive human civilization OR (because it's inevitable anyhow that one will hit us) that I sincerely hope we have more time to continue our amazingly diverse, inspirational, compassionate, industrious, creative, innovative and exciting human civilization.

So to recap:

Asteroid now = bad (please come save us from ourselves asteroid, shit has gotten way outta hand down here)
Asteroid later = good (leave us alone asteroid there's some amazing stuff going on down here)