thefullmonte on Myspace
Posted 9/22/06
Wanted to let you know that we've tweaked our myspace page from the lame state it was in, to its now respectable place in the myspace world. Please check it out at:
www.myspace.com/thefullmonteMedia
and you can also subscribe to our Youtube site:
www.youtube.com/thefullmonteMedia
- Aaron Rockett
Back from Afghanistan
Posted 9/6/2006
I made it back from Afghanistan. Talked to the director of the film, David, and he said he likes the footage that he's seen so far. The air-date of the 2 hour special on The National Geographic Channel will be closer to the end of the year, probably three months from now. David said the editing and post production work will take a little time. I'll keep you posted.
On another note for those of you who are big fans of the NY Times best-seller, "The Kite Runner," I was hanging out with the casting director of the film in Kabul. I still haven't read the book, but judging from the fact my step-mother read it in a day, I gather it's great. Hollywood is going to bring it to the big screen. Marc Forster, the director of "Finding Neverland" (starring Johnny Depp) is directing the project. Funny enough, they're filming the feature in China, just over the border from Afghanistan. I guess they found a village that looks like Afghanistan... minus the unrest. Talk soon.
-- Aaron Rockett
Progress in Afghanistan?
Posted 7/31/06
A year earlier I had spent 3 and half months making reconstruction films for USAID in Afghanistan. Although this trip for National Geographic is only 14 days, I feel like I�ve already been here longer than my previous trip. Between running to an interview with a US General to a night patrol with the British Army to setting up an interview with a former Mujahideen commander, we�ve been getting a lot done in a short period of time.
There has been some rocket attacks in Kabul and a couple suicide bombings, and there is heavy fighting in the South. With Nato taking over control of operations from the US, Helmand province has seen a lot of bombs, bullets and bodies. General Pritt told me a lot of it has to do with drug lords protecting their poppy crops by funding insurgents (this year has been a bumber crop), and foreign fighters from Pakistan coming over.
On the question of whether rural Afghans are supporting the Taliban or not, my friend who is a doc filmmaker from the BBC that has spent a lot of time with the Taliban insurgents, made a good point. �Afghans are not calling it a Jihad, they�re calling it an insurgency.� If the people were calling it a Jihad as they did against the Russians, it would be bad news�but in this case they�re not. The people are tired of war.
Still, Afghans are getting impatient with reconstruction after 25 years of fighting. They want to see progress.
But I think there is progress. Afghan�s impatient driving is one of the most dangerous parts of being in Afghanistan with drivers cutting in and out and going up the wrong side of the road. Your white knuckles become sore from gripping the door. But I was watching local Afghan television the other day, and an �Afghan Reality� news program with a young Afghan correspondent is dedicated to going around Kabul embarrassing bad drivers into following traffic laws. It seems they�re addressing a problem that kills a lot of people everyday in Afghanistan.
-Aaron Rockett
Interviewing the Taliban
Posted 7/25/06
We have been all over the place doing interviews, going out on patrols and making contacts. I've included a pic from one of our interviews with a top Taliban official and close advisor to Mullah Omar. He was just released from Guantanamo and is now under house arrest.
Sorry, I thought I would have more time to blog, will write soon.
-Aaron Rockett
Arriving in Kabul
Posted 7/18/06
After a connection through London, and a lay over in Dubai I arrived at Kabul airport. Because of a spate of synchronized bombings in Kabul a couple weeks back, and a suicide bombing in Gardez that killed 7 a couple days ago, the security at the airport has become particularly tight with check points.
I was the first to arrive in Afghanistan from our camera crew. I had no idea where my contact was after no answer to a few of my phone calls. I fought through the throbs of people with my luggage check point after check point until about a quarter mile out of the airport I saw a little piece of paper with my name on it. Our fixer, Hanif, had sent his brother to pick me up in his place.
Fixers are locals that help journalists set up interviews, translate, and have good contacts in the community. Hanif in particular is well connected. He is a news anchor with a nightly news show broadcast all over Afghanistan and parts of Iran and Pakistan. So when Hanif and I drove back to the airport to get the rest of the crew, we were waved through every check point and pulled right up to the front of the airport.
Hanif and I picked up the crew flying in from Pakistan: David, the director, Chris, the cameraman, and Peter, sound and second camera. I'm the crew's field producer. We are working on a National Geographic documentary film project.
From recent accounts it seems the the strong resurgence of the Taliban has brought with it the suicide bombing techniques of Iraq.
I'll keep you posted on the progress of the production and the happenings going on in Afghanistan.
-Aaron Rockett
Posted 7/14/06
I am leaving for Afghanistan. Please check back in. I hopefully will have time to post a few entries from the field.
-Aaron Rockett
Senator confused between Email and Internet votes on internet bill
Posted 7/7/06
It is a little worrisome when lawmakers try to enact legislation, and they haven't a clue about what they are trying to legislate. While the internet has begun to take off as a successful economic landscape, the telecoms are trying to control the action. Their Cope Act has passed the Congress and now waits for the Senate.
Here is what Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) had to say about why he is voting against Net Neutrality and for the Telecoms' bill that will give them control over the internet pipelines:
�I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o�clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?
Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially.�
So he is now raring to give the power to the telecoms, and potentially stifle the economic online growth of the internet, which we have seen of late manifest Myspace, Google, ebay and others as business powerhouses.
The magnitude of what the Senate chooses to do on Net Neutrality, I don't even think they comprehend. But from what I understand of the Cope Act, it is like putting the fox in charge of building the fence for the chicken coop. The future ramifications of giving internet policy to the telecoms will affect the economic future of the United States. Commerce and business is increasingly moving to the net.
I hear none of the issues being addressed by the leadership, or the media. How will Europe, India, China respond and develop their online economic markets? What will stop US online businesses from hosting in other countries if the US puts up too many barriers? How will prices be affected for the consumer? How will innovation of small online businesses owned by Americans be affected? How will content providers and the free flow of information be affected in America if the Telecoms are able to create a fast and slow track based on those who are able to pay?
But I don't fault the Telecoms for trying to pull off what they are trying to pull off, business is business. But they are trying to sneak one over on the American public. And they are going all out. I've been watching their "TV Freedom" ads on television and posted on the internet at places like CNN, bashing Net Neutrality advocates like Google. In a brilliant PR move they have even enlisted people from disadvantaged communities to advocate their new law as bringing internet to everyone.
So far I hear very little from the other side as the debate is being shaped by the Telecoms, but people should start calling their Senators and give them a clue. I think we have a case where my generation knows more about the issues at stake, but we have neither the representation, nor do we have a history of standing up politically. If we're not careful, our forefathers are going to sell us down the river and not even know it.
Here's the link where I got the Senator's quote:
Senator Confused between email and the internet
-Aaron Rockett
Bye Bye Internet
Posted 6/29/06
Well the congress passed the Cope Act, favoring the Telecoms position, who want to create a fast and slow track, "two-tier" internet, based on those who pay to have their website more speedily accessed. And without much fan-fare a US Senate committee has now approved the bill.
"Net-neutrality" campaigners, which includes the inventor of the internet and Google, who oppose the bill say what is at stake, is the preservation of digital democracy.
Yet we have heard almost nothing from the US media about something that is going to affect millions of people. I wouldn't even know any of this if it wasn't for the BBC. In fact on CNN's website I was looking for information on this and the only thing I found on their home page was a large, prominently placed flash video ad, "TV Freedom"... sponsored by the telecoms about this issue. So I guess CNN let's the paid advertising do the informing for them?
I truthfully don't know how the two-tiered system is going to affect our ability to cruise the web and find info, but I do know that when barriers to entry are put in place such as a pay system, websites and information are going to be weeded out. The web is going to become a different kind of beast. More importantly, it's going to be much easier to control, but by who?...probably the same corporations and companies that control everything else.
Here are a couple BBC articles if you're interested.
BBC: Open net calls fall on deaf ears
BBC: Web inventor warns of 'dark' net
-Aaron Rockett
Opening the Floodgates for Internet Control
Posted 5/13/06
I realize that if they pass the COPE Act, which would create fast and slow tracks of Internet broadband service based on a pay system, various websites and the larger sites like Google could possibly start hosting in other countries like India where these particular laws don't apply. What would stop them from doing so? How would this law affect American access to international websites?
However, the central thing I'm concerned with, living in DC, is once you open the floodgates or create a law, it will allow for amendments and similar bills that will start pecking away down the road as different businesses look for an advantage...you know, the "natural progression" of things.
The COPE Act will set a precedent for changing the Internet. Other laws will start coming up. Before you know it, it might not be now, but in a few years down the road, you may see the Internet controlled by the same people that control everything else, like radio and television...but who knows what form that is going to take. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought Myspace for $580 million. He�s banking on something.
These are smart people with lots of resources, and they are able to hire the smartest people...and they think in short-runs and long-runs and bottom lines. I've seen them in action in DC, and in my travels in Afghanistan, strategy is key, and passing things under the radar or under the cloak of something else is pretty effective. And a side note, my film was just in a film fest in California and the major players who were there: the Intels, Googles, Yahoos were all trying to get video content for their websites. The big guys know the potential of the Internet and things are still playing out. But also, when it comes down to business and the dollar, the big guys will do anything to control the market and eliminate the competition. This doesn�t happen overnight, but in a methodical process of changing the Internet landscape little by little through regulations.
IMPORTANT LINKS
NPR Radio Story
Baltimore Sun story
COPE Act
-Aaron Rockett
Why is the media quiet about Internet Censorship?
Posted 5/12/06
It seems the reason why we aren�t hearing anything about the COPE Act, which would effectively allow the telecoms to censor the internet and potentially weed out millions of websites and information, is because the large media outlets like NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, and an assortment of others would benefit from it. There is going to be a vote, potentially, within a week, yet not one network or newspaper to my knowledge, except for the Baltimore Sun in an Op-ed, has covered this story. Who�s in bed with who?
I asked my congresswoman�s office, Lois Capps (D) from California, why there have been no stories about the COPE Act (which would in a sense take away the free nature of the internet and allow the telecoms control over the content via a pay system)? The Capps representative merely said, �there�s a conflict of interest,� hinting, why would they?
It makes complete sense that the larger companies, like media outlets, who now have to compete with bloggers, personal websites, and other informational sources like my website, www.thefullmonte.com, would welcome this new law that would eliminate a lot of their competition. People often complain about how big business and money has corrupted the news media, perhaps this is a clear example. Are the people�s interests served by this law? The internet has leveled the playing field, but that�s now in jeopardy, and the media is not letting us know the facts.
Lawmakers and media outlets were in a fury over Google sensoring communist China's web searches, but now I fear the Telecoms having the ability to censor our access to information, will merely be played off as a natural progression of things.
I include Representative Lois Capps� views on the COPE Act, as well as the Baltimore Sun article and an NPR radio story.
Rep. Lois Capps� positions against the COPE Act:
Congresswoman Capps agrees that a free and open Internet has been critically important in expanding our economy and providing a platform for new voices to be heard in our society.
She believes that moves to restrict access to lawful websites in any way would undermine this key feature of the Internet.
She has said she will not be supporting legislation that would reverse the free and open nature of the Internet.
IMPORTANT LINKS
NPR Radio Story
Baltimore Sun story
COPE Act
Please contact your congressperson if you feel compelled, all it takes is a call or an email.
-Aaron Rockett
New laws by telecoms will censor the internet
Posted 5/10/06
I want to let you know that the congress wants to change the internet. In short, the telecom companies will be able to divide the information superhighways into fast and slow lanes. Web sites willing to pay their toll will be channeled through the fast lane, while all others will be bottled up in the slower lanes.
Both the House and Senate commerce committees are promoting new rules governing the manner by which most Americans receive the Web. By giving the telecoms the ability to harness your Web surfing, the government will empower them to shake down the most profitable Web companies (the NBCs, the Amazons, the household names), while those without the means will fall to the side.
Congressional passage of new rules is widely anticipated, as is President Bush's signature. Once this happens, the Internet will change before your eyes. Information on the web will be controlled. Lawmakers complain about Google sensoring communist China's web searches, but Telecoms having the ability to censor our access to information will be played off as a natural progression.
I include an article from the Baltimore Sun as well as another link about the COPE Act. I urge you to write your Senator and/ or Congressperson.
Baltimore Sun story
COPE Act
much of this blog is paraphrased from the Baltimore Sun
-Aaron Rockett
Media and the Conspiracy Theory
Posted 5/1/06
I had resisted watching, and for that matter reading any 911 conspiracy theories, it's just too sinister and painful to even fathom. I was recently emailed a 911 conspiracy doc film called Loose Change. I clicked on it thinking I would watch only a couple of minutes. I watched the entire hour and 20 minute film on a 4 x 4 inch screen on the internet. I've never done that before.
So I write this now because this film by 20 somethings (like myself), asks questions of our government that the established media wouldn't even dare. It logically reconstructs the events of 911 effectively so that even if it's not plausible that government leaders would deceive their people for their own ends, you are still left with questions about the government's explanation of events at the Pentagon, WTC, Bin Laden video, etc.
I understand why the media can't ask the questions or present the evidence that Loose Change did...people in the news media need to worry about their jobs. And as we've seen, media figures are often closely tied with those in power. I point to FOX News correspondent Tony Snow's recent appointment by the Bush Administration as the White House spokesperson.
Of course the film has an agenda, but Loose Change draws out an important question, what really is this administration's agenda? Perhaps the importance of a film like Loose Change, which is being widely distributed on the internet, is that it asks questions and tells a story the media establishment won't touch.
You can judge Loose Change for yourself:
Loose Change 911
- Aaron Rockett
