Yesterday, Robert Freeman listed "The Real Top Stories of the Past Decade". The stories are:

# The Supreme Court hijacking the 2000 presidential election. # Bush knew of 9/11 long before it actually happened. # Iraq was all premised on lies, yet we're still there. # The Global War on Terror. # The fact that 2/3 of all economic growth went to top 1%. # The Neo-Feudalization of the American economy. # The surrender of civil liberties. # The failure of "the free market" to sustain prosperity. # The collapse of the media. # The meaninglessness of elections.

Freeman ends his article with the question: "Did I tell you about the big move to locally-grown produce?" Below, I copy my response.

Hello Robert,

and Happy New Year. No, you did not tell about the big move to locally-grown produce. Do you mean people have begun to turn themselves into small farmers? Last year, I heard something similar from a young traveller to Philadelphia (USA). Hopefully, there is a real trend towards local food production and self-subsistence. It would be interesting to hear more about it.

Agreed, your top stories are more real than those which have been poured out by the media. And not only by the media. The intellectuals alike have preferred to close their eyes to the truth that the Bush government knew about 9/11 in advance and did nothing to stop it. The people has been manipulated by the media, and betrayed by the intellectuals.

According to you, Obama has betrayed everything he ran on. Not everything, I would say. Did he not fight for the domestic health care reform? Did he not change the tone of the foreign policy?

If Obama were a new Gandhi, or Martin Luther King, he would be less US-centric than his predecessors. But Obama is not ahimsa. Nor is he free.

When I read your stories, Robert, I conclude that your perspective, too, is US-centric. "Historians will look back on the Naughts as the time when Americans Lost Their Country", you write. Why do you isolate your decade in your country from our decade in our countries? Anyway, I wish you a good start of the new lustrum. Let's help each other (and Obama) to avoid the catastrophe.

- Mikael