Speaker by Various Artists

It's been the wettest summer on record in this part of the world. The kind of rain that makes you realise where the phrase 'soaked to the bone' really comes from. After a few days of sitting at work with dripping wet jeans and looking like some kind of bad-hair-day attempt at a wet t-shirt competition, the novelty of such rain does wear off.

The thunder that rattles the windows and sounds like a bomb going off in the street has a kind of charm I don't get sick of though. Massive afternoon storms where the sky grows black, the rain slashes the house and the lightening is so powerful it makes you feel like a flea on the earth, a mere pawn in some cosmic game, it's quite impressive.

Aside from the weather, which everyone seems to moan about wherever they live, it's a good part of the world to be in. I've been here long enough now to start to wonder if I'd rather be here or in Wellington. Not quite long enough to completely forget the contents of the shed where all my stuff is stored. That was one of the original criteria for time away, to come back and be pleasantly surprised to find things I'd forgotten about tucked in boxes of stuff I'd rather not have.

I suspect if I came back now the last 3 years would be like a dream within about 2 weeks. I'm not ready for that. I didn't go through the first 18 months of relative hell to just forget about it in a week or two. I've come to realize how much I underestimated the impact of moving to the other side of the world. Thinking that we're all basically the same, 21st century western people, no big deal, big smeary mess of cultures and all heading in the same direction. Well maybe, compared to moving to India or something, but I didn't move to India, I moved to Amsterdam and there's certainly enough differences to have an impact!

Amsterdam, a city with an enormous reputation, is actually very small. As far as the part where the tourists end up, you can bike across it in 15 minutes. And if you bike another 30 minutes you're pretty much on the outskirts. But there's a shitload of people here – by virtue of living in tiny boxes stacked on top of and alongside each other. We are apparently lucky to have a lovely apartment – all 85 square meters of it – which cost more than twice as much as our 3 bedroom "house by the sea with big garden" in Wellington. Ironically the mortgage repayments are less, and all interest paid is tax deductible, making it considerably cheaper than renting. I'm getting used to it, I feel safe on the 2nd floor, there's a great Greek restaurant downstairs, it takes me 15 minutes to bike to work … there are worse things!

The Dutch are experts at interior design that makes the most of every available centimeter – modular storage-come-seating, fold away tables, beds, wardrobes – anything to make living in a small box possible. Every home is an Ikea home basically – unless they're really wealthy, in which case their stuff often still looks like Ikea (because Ikea stuff is actually quite stylish) but costs 3 times as much. People either live a very modern minimalist existence with lots of white and hard edges, or a much more heavily knick-knacked cluttered, dark-wooded old-fashioned kind of life. Our home looks like a chlid's playpen – but I guess that goes with having a 4 year old.

We're coming into the rainy season now (virtually indistinguishable from the sunny season we supposedly just had) and the days are getting shorter. Initially I was amazed that it was still broad daylight at 10.30pm in the summer, now I'm amazed how little time it seems to have taken to get to a point where it's dark at 7pm. Soon it will be at 5pm. This might explain why the Dutch are so into lights. There are more light shops here than I've seen anywhere before – and really quite amazing lights. Biking or walking down a street when it's dark reveals the extent of this luminant passion – blazing chandeliers, delicate glowing filaments in bizarre patterns, works of art that happen to light up a place and subtle uplights – on show in every living room. Surprising though, for all this emphasis on lights, quite often the subtlety is taken too far – lighting is dimmed to the point where you can't see words on a page, all in the interests of some kind of bizarre chic. Well I don't get it – maybe it's the hick kiwi in me.

Our neighbour from NZ called the other day to say she wanted to build a deck, and quite possibly this would invade the privacy of our home – as she'd be able to see a piece of our house for the 10 minutes of a day that she used her deck. At one time this may have concerned me. But as I look now out each side of my apartment I can see quite clearly into the lives of about 30 other apartments – and they into mine. My concept of privacy has certainly changed. Let her build her deck, she can sit there in the howling southerly and I'll sit on my balcony in Amsterdam within spitting distance of the noisy English people who live behind us. Prost!

But when your bones ache, your eyes burn and your head feels ready to burst it doesn't really matter where you are – the flu's the flu and it's time to go to bed. So that's where I'm headed – tissues and lemsip for me. Consider this the first of an irregular series – how the other half (of the world) live – tell me if you want to hear more.

I've had a gutsfull. I need to complain. First, why I'm going to sack Xtra. Second, my day on the trains, or A Transport Hub Doth Not A Network Make

First up, Xtra. We hooked up with them because we were sitting around at about 11.30 one Tuesday night and thought fuck it, let's get the Internet, and they were the only ones who answered the phone, so call that credit where it's due. Hey, I'm still waiting for the guys at Walker "Woosh" Wireless to clear their answerphone

Trouble is, the majority of our email recipients don't get our attachments. We found out pretty quickly, and spent about 5 or 6 hours on the helpline over a week or so trying to get to the bottom of it. We fixed a few other things we didn't realise were wrong along the way, but still no fix for the attachment problem (and if that sounds psychoanalytically dodgy, all I can say is that I've known a few)

So then I started sending emails. Trying to find help on the Xtra website was like trying to speak to a software engineer in Microsoft - it's everywhere and nowhere to be found. Still I eventually discovered a button by which I could send a help request, and got a response immediately. Sadly, it was automated, saying that somebody would get in touch with me in the next 24 hours. More sadly still, nobody did, nor have they yet, even since numerous follow up emails on my part

I've even suggested to them that it might not be their fault, it might be something to do with my system, but nada, even though they claim to support my platform.

So I'm over them. I quit.

Transport. What a completely lame joke. Somebody needs to sort it. I'll do it, if no one else wants to

We looked after a house in Devonport. Perfect. Commuting to Ellerslie, I thought, would be a cinch. Ferry, train, done. Ferry, good. Arrive in Britomart 8.15 am. Sweet. Picture 4 counters: Tickets, Tickets, Tickets, Information. Only the Information counter is staffed, and it has a queue 5 people long, most of whom have large backpacks

I ask for a train to Ellerslie. There isn't one. That's not possible. Well, there is, but you'll have to wait 40 minutes. Oookaay. Alternatively, there's a bus leaving NOW, if you run. I say I'll wait (I want a train) - so where do I buy a ticket? On the train, cash only. I haven't seen cash since I did a paper round for the Auckland Star. So much for a world class transport centre. Kind of the exact opposite, really. Nice architecture, in parts, though. Sort of. Who cares? There are no trains!

And I have to actually degrade a fellow human for the completely robotic task of purchasing a ticket. In the country stations, that's fine. Enjoyable, even. But downtown? God knows what's gonna happen if people actually start using the trains. I see ticket booth congestion

I make periodic attempts at the Auckland rail system, because I like trains and I think public transport is a good idea, for God's sake. In Auckland though, it's a bit like the way my parents feel about art, it's something that one ought to support, like some kind of sick person, when you've lots of time

On another occasion I get into Britomart and navigate no fewer than 5 pieces of misinformation on public display before locating a train at the wrong platform at the wrong time. I know it's my train - don't ask me how. Somehow I found out. Then the goons show up, uniformed ticket sellers. Lots of them.

"Right" announces one, "off round the water".

This is bad: Ellerslie is nowhere near water. Orakei, Meadowbank stations are by water. Different lines. One to Manukau, the other to East Tamaki. More goons show.

An argument erupts, "nah, over the hill." "Bullshit, it's round the water."

"Nope. Over the hill."

Shrewd questions come to mind. The train starts moving. It goes over the hill. The goon residing in my carriage looks one part pit-bull, one part Cornish pastie. I resolve to write a blog about it. The electronic sign announcing the next station reels off stations at high speed, out of order, and far away. It's surreal, embarrassing in an anxiety-nightmarish kind of way

What a completely incompetently bungled load of crap! Whoever emerges triumphant from the highly entertaining mayoral race - and the more important council elections, needs to just sort this. From my point of view of a lowly passenger, it has the distinct appearance that nobody in management is turning up for work

I think I'll put my money on Dick, partly because he's not John, but more so because he seems to be more or less smart and reasonable, which is about as much as you can hope for in an employee.

Are all the reality shows on the box getting a bit boring? Too broke to buy anything off the Home channel? Has the intrigue gone out of the drama programmes? Do you feel there is something missing on the News channels? Don't fret. You can get it all on the other box in your house. Just set your armchair up down your hallway, put the spotlight on the switchboard and sit back. If your 'meter' box is outside, set up your barbecue under it and settle back in your deck chairs with friends and share the experience. There is a revolution going on but, sorry to tell you, you have not been invited to the fun. However you have been given the privilege of paying through the nose for it.

At first you will only notice a couple of clunky looking boxes, some wires, more spiders than live on the Nature channel and lots of dust. A little marked disc spinning in the meter or a tiny blinking light in the lumpy gadget beside it might catch your eye. If you listen carefully, some days you might hear something go click-clunk.

The next thing you will notice is ...well... not very much. So you are going to find it hard to believe it when I tell you that this dusty collection of gadgets links you to the life and welfare of the mountains and the plains and the skies of New Zealand. You are watching a few companies make massive and expensive decisions about that greater environment and energy use while you have been relegated to the passive role of just paying the bill. You are watching your house being designed, your appliances chosen for you and the school curriculum being shaped for your children.

You may find it even more difficult to believe you are observing a war that has been going on for over a century and it could end in the destruction of human civilisation, as we know it. Now that's epic entertainment for you. Bet you did not realise what a reality show you are part of.

After watching the switchboard for some days or minutes it may occur to ask yourself why you have never been very aware of it before. Why is it not part of your life like the cell phone and the TV remote? The answer is simple. The new owners of the switchboard would rather you did not notice its existence. And if you do notice it, they would rather you dismiss it as a cluster of life-endangering, black boxes that are the domain of "experts" somewhere out there.

But wait, I hear you say, I, or my landlord, owns my switchboard. Don't I own the switchboard in my house? Well, this will be news for you. You used to own it up till the 1990s but the National Government gave it away and it did not make prime news. Pity, because much of your future, and maybe lack of future, is being created in the unfolding switchboard drama and there is a bonanza worth many billions of dollars for the switchboard owners at stake.

To add a little twist to the tale, I will tell you that a gas conglomerate (NGC) now owns well over half of the 1.9 million switchboards in NZ and their control is expanding fast. Much of your NZ future lies in the hands of their bankers. Or as the Government will tell you, in the hands of The Market. More on The Market later.

Bonanza? This talk of bonanza? Yes it is hard to believe that the humble switchboard is key to a fortune and the future. The reason is the coming confluence of at least three great technologies and they are combining at the point in human history when oil and gas prices are set to rocket for our 6 billion people. The owners of the local wiring grid and the switchboards will be most able to ride the wave.

Communication Power

The first technology is PLC or Power Line Communication. This enables the local grid to transmit broadband information and entertainment to every electricity socket anywhere on your property. People have been able to talk to each other through the electricity wires for 50 years. However it has been limited to fairly primitive communications such as telling switches to turn heating systems on and off. Twenty-five years ago, the little community of Heathcote (5000 sw. bds) in Christchurch could even communicate to switch all the main-grid driven functions of a house from meter to meter. Another small community in Palmerston North (18000 sw. bds) were even dabbling with shared burglar alarm systems.

The big problem with using wires carrying large electrical current for communication has been 'radio interference' of various forms and now this problem has been nearly resolved. Soon it will be possible to transmit broadband along wires originally designed for transmitting Alternating Current electricity. All readers of this web article will understand what I am saying -it means being able to talk big scale.

Conversation Power

The second technology could possibly be described by the boring title of Intelligent Load Response Systems. "Smart metering" sounds spunkier but does not convey the whole picture. With "smart" electricity- monitors, you can check out the amounts and costs of your electricity usage as well as the load or demand for electricity on your local grid on your meter console or your computer. If you own your switchboard and belong to a community-owned network this will present great opportunities.

The downside of this technological revolution is that if someone else owns the switchboard in your house and the local grid, then they will be able to watch and control your patterns of electricity use for their purposes. (In NGC's case, they can optimise their gas sales.) They can dictate many of your life options. The implications for your privacy are interesting too as the Electricity Reforms were designed to transform you from being an electricity consumer with rights into a tradeable commodity. You, your consumption patterns, the switchboard in your home and the access to your property can now be traded to the merchant that will pay the most strategic price to you.

If you have ever watched a heart or brain monitor on the hospital dramas on TV you will know how the electrical activity is seen in spiky waves running across the screen. There is usually an underlying regularity to it but when the patient is sick, feverish or overexcited the waves go a bit berserk. Electricity demand on the national and local grid is a bit like that.

Now that speculators control and play the "electricity market", its state of health often looks pretty critical as trader greed and adrenalin rushes kick in. So you hear reports of "spot prices" reaching dollars per kiloWatt hour and theoretically it means the grid system is gasping for survival and the terminal alarms are about to start beeping.

Within very short periods demand for electricity can spike up - such as when everyone gets up at an ad break in the big game, puts the jug on for supper and goes to the loo, thus setting off the city water and sewage pumps as well. Demand for electricity goes back down as everyone sits down again. So you can get the price of electricity varying from two cents to twenty cents per kiloWatt hour within quite a short period.

We are not only in the age of "smart meters" now. We are in the age of "smart" home appliances that can pick up signals off the grid and turn themselves off when electricity is twenty cents a unit and resume activity when the price drops again. The time of day can be broadcast on the network so standby clocks are no longer needed. Turn the appliance on and it will be timed to the second. And don't worry - good systems will allow you to override them manually if necessary.

People Power

The third technology is DG or Distributed Generation. Right from the Edison's first commercial lighting circuit about 1890 in the home of J P Morgan, the powerful banker, bankers have seen grid-based electricity as the opportunity to control the world's wealth.

The first decade of electricity grids was dominated by the War of the Currents in which AC won out over DC. The inhumanity of the War is illustrated in one fascinating and macabre story in which the development of the Electric Chair was a key weapon of DC side. Once large grids were in place with bulk-electricity generators, the battle evolved into the Generation War in which bulk-electricity generators have fought to suppress distributed-electricity generators and other competing forms of energy transformers such as solar- based systems.

DG can take many forms. Essentially it involves small generators based close to the point at which the electricity is used. As such they can be relatively efficient in that little is lost in transmission. Owners of the bulk-electricity generators naturally don't like this as their principal shareholders make fortunes from controlling the bulk flow of electricity. In America they purchased major political broadsheets (commonly called "newspapers") and radio stations in order to shape state and national legislation controlling electricity generation, building codes, subsidy systems etc.

In New Zealand, all they have to do is buy a few big ads regularly. This flow of funds keeps our present generation of timid editors and politicians in line. The control of the bulk-generator sector of the media is far more complete than that though. They have achieved almost total colonisation of the concept of "power" and, more latterly, the awesome concept of "energy". Most media people and our universities are now hardwired to image grid-sourced electricity as power and energy itself without question now. So much for the possibility of NZ developing a Knowledge Economy.

Despite this overwhelming dominance, isolated innovations in DG have occurred. Be proud of one invention by Christchurch City Council. South Power (Orion) has developed a small gas-fired turbine called the Whispergen. Designed primarily to heat homes, it also generates small amounts of electricity. Orion and Meridian have just signed a $300 million to put 80,000 of them into the European Market.

Photovoltaic cell technology (transforming solar energy directly into electricity) is still expensive but the little research done this far indicates it is far cheaper than all the paraphernalia required to fight wars for the unsustainable use of oil and gas for bulk-electricity generation. Origin Energy in Australia, the new owners of Contact Energy, has just announced a "revolutionary" use of silicon. The research cost a fraction of what our Government plans to spend advertising its annual Budget or on a naval boat.

Is this just an Origin Energy PR gimmick like their name? I cannot say without knowing what else they get up to. BP makes much of their photovoltaic programme even as they pronounce it "horrendously expensive". Their PV programme is a fraction of their PR investment portraying themselves as the "green fill-up" and "beyond petroleum" and they invest 50 times its cost exploring for oil in the Arctic alone. In the 1970s solar-focussed research companies were bought up by the fossil fuel sector to "close the enemy down". And all the solar technology in the world is no use if building speculators can destroy our solar-based generating capacity in our urban areas anyway. As they are doing are doing on scale!

This small-scale electricity generation becomes very potent when developed in conjunction with hydrogen cell storage systems, "energy efficient" dwelling design that makes optimal use of solar energy/thermal barriers and where local communities control their grid. Add to the mix the arrival of broadband communication with smart appliances and switchboards that are able to talk to the grid and we have a revolution with a fortune at stake.

Just a note of caution - if you check out the eurekalert site above, remain mindful that any civilisation that attempts to base itself on all the hydrogen hype would be equally unsustainable as is our present one that is based on the nuclear hype of 50 years ago. The bulk of global agriculture is based on oil and gas sourced products now.

The NZ Board War

The Generation War took on a new phase in NZ in the 1990s - just as our local communities were developing truly sustainable technologies and strategies. The Wellington people were early casualties. Taranaki people have just succumbed. Aucklander's ownership of Vector is under siege. The bankers behind structures like Prime are fighting to get control of grids like Powerco and Vector before people catch an inkling of the real value it in the new age that I describe. Our Government and the media are not going to enlighten the good people of Auckland of Vector's vast potential value. The Market and its advisers are certainly not going to reveal its real value.

The NZ Herald is not going to tell them. They have just refused to publish, without reason, my short letter summarising the new unrecognised value from this great confluence of technology. Its journalists are paralysed by strictures that "control" and electricity use are the domain of different departments.

Look at Terry Hall's article Small shareholders have options in power plays. in the August 30 Dom Post.

Where does that give you an inkling of the vast potential transfers of corporate power and wealth from our communities? No wonder Wellington people got done like a dog by TransAlta et al. after following his advice. Where does the article give you a glimmer of the horror for our 6 billion souls implicit in the coming end our oil/gas based economy and our loss of serious options to avert a disaster?

The point is people who care not whether billions live or die designed our present electricity/gas system. Their lack of compassion is exemplified in the US State Department "Expendables" policy under Henry Kissinger. If it suits their short-term interests they will trigger genocide on scale as we witnessed in Cambodia and East Timor. They are manifest in the likes of Arthur Andersen and Co, principle architects of Enron, OnEnergy and our reformed electricity system. In 1999 they created a ten year plan for Monsanto to control 100% of the worlds seed resources i.e. global biomass energy. Similarly this consultancy created plans for Enron to control all the global gas and electricity resources and distribution within two decades.

So what stopped these totalitarian plans? Small communities. People like you and me in our local communities. They refused to buy shonky GE products. They banned unsustainable nuclear technology from their region. They refused to roll over and hand over their electricity grids despite intense media campaigns dumping on them. Of course, these communities are still vulnerable to massive intervention by national Government's to force them to comply. That is why we have the imposition on our country of something called The Electricity Market with COMPETITION. Or as the Electricity Commission's web-history prefers to put it.

"During the 1990s the electricity industry again experienced massive change through extensive reform initiated by the Government. Today, we enjoy a new competitive electricity market with separated line and generation operations and several large, private-sector players. Businesses and consumers are now positioned to benefit from real choice and competitive pricing."

I have not space here to show what a multiple lie this term is. However I have just posted a small survey of what the average consumer and their local community now "enjoys". (I did it as research for part of chapter 7 of my cartoon series Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy.) In the survey I use the household switchboard as my measuring stick. Read the survey. It's as hilarious as it is tragic. Before the Electricity Reforms, about sixty communities representing all regions in our country and several large corporations participated for most of a century in the electricity market. Now only a few large companies can participate in the market. In the massive 1993 and 1998 market interventions, 99% of Kiwis were disenfranchised and effectively excluded from it. We have never been under such rigid controls and had so few effective rights since the electricity industry began. This is despite the amazing "user friendly" technology available now.

Another prime architect of our reformed system is Professor William Hogan , described on the net as Research Director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG) This group is " developing alternative strategies for a more competitive electricity market." Linda Clark on Nine to Noon struggled valiantly through an interview with him and at the end asked "Why do I always find the subject (the electricity market) fiendishly difficult and it makes my head hurt?"

Now, in case reading my little survey is making your head hurt too, read the hurried, unedited antidote I fired off to Linda in case she was wondering about her own sanity. My summary message was and is:

It is simple if you understand one thing: it is designed to make your head hurt. Understand this and life will become more simple. Your head will hurt less though your heart may ache a little.

It's the oldest trick in the book - keep them confused and they won't know where their wealth went. In the present illusion trick, we are told these old messy bits of wires and poles is a bit of a liability to communities and there are these kind companies (banks) out there that will take them off our hands. We are informed that the in new "free" electricity market we need "big boys" to look after our interests and they will do all the talking for us. And of course, they say they listen to us. Witness the large billboards of the Arthur Andersen clone in the form of SOE, Genesis Energy.

Listening and talking involves conversations. This is a two way process. Increasingly the ability of individuals and their communities to maintain an intelligent exchange with the grid is being limited. The technology is here for some real fun communication but we are stuck back in early Telecom days. You had to rent your phone and take whatever colour was dictated.

In the 1990s that phone rental was pure cashflow out of your pocket. The annual rental was more than the cost of a new modern phone and in many cases our rental phone was decades old. It certainly did not enable all the innovations like fax and answer machines.

Most electricity meters in NZ are two or four decades old too. Before the Reforms, many communities had plans to upgrade their member's switchboards with "smart" meters by 2000. The 19thC relics on the switchboards represent a dream cashflow for the lucky new owners - probably over half a billion dollars this last decade. And their ownership of the meters enables of the new owners to dictate so much else of your life.

To summarise your situation now, I will extend the telephone analogy.

Effectively you cannot own and must rent whatever equipment you and your community are given. The reality is that you can invest in as much 'smart' technology to run your home as you like but you and your community cannot negotiate directly with your local grid to make use of it. The fragmentation of the ripple response and integrated distribution system is like all the wires in the mouthpiece of your phone have been crossed. If you could talk, it would be on a rigid network controlled by the bankers of a few bulk-electricity generators rather than a system of region-based nodes made resilient by Distributed Generation like the internet system we enjoy.

At a time when the future of 6 billion souls relies on the creation of sustainable uses of energy, especially in the form of electricity, it is imperative we connect every talent we have in every community. Our local grid is a wonderful resource, especially if we enhance it with all the direct powers of the sun. Let us stop the rort and start the talk between communities and their local grid so peace at least has a chance.

Dave McArthur is the founder of the Bonus Joules website.

Much soul searching has been done since the 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. Why do these terrorists hate us? people ask. During a powerful address to congress and the American people just days after September 11 three years ago, US President George W Bush asked that very question. His answer?

"They hate our freedoms - our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other ... These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way."

Three years later, giving his regular radio address while surrounded by families of September 11 victims, he stated the attacks were a turning point. "We saw the goals of a determined enemy: to expand the scale of their murder, and force America to retreat from the world."

President Bush appears to think he has done a good job. The United States is safer than it was three years ago, he says (quoting the September the 11th Commission). More than three-quarters of al Qaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed, he tells us. The United States is bringing democracy to the broader Middle East, "because freedom will bring the peace and security we all want".

Excuse me if I humbly disagree with the president's view of success.

America has had success in tracking down terrorist cells within the US, but that hardly means America is safer than it was in 2001. The world view is not only that John Kerry is the preferred president but that America's standing in the eyes of many countries, not only in the Middle East but also in usually friendly Europe, has been dealt a blow. (Surely a worsening reputation overseas could mean a boon for terrorists, aiding their membership drive, which, consequently, could result in security problems for the United States?)

When dealing with the president's claim about al Qaeda's depleted numbers, we must remember a month after the September 11 attacks President Bush unveiled a list of the 22 most wanted terrorists in the world. So if three-quarters of al Qaeda's key members and associates have been detained or killed, that would mean 15 or so of those names could be crossed off that list, right? Wrong. Try three.

As for democracy coming to the broader Middle East, I think we will just wait this one out.

You may remember how successful the Soviet Union was at taming Afghanistan in the ten years following the 1979 invasion. Despite pouring in 140,000 men, the communist invaders beat a hasty retreat from the mujahideen (including a US-funded Osama bin Laden) in a war that helped bring down the Iron Curtain. The US has about 18,000 troops in Afghanistan, who are more worried about searching for Osama bin Laden than protecting the rights of ordinary Afghans who want to vote in the upcoming elections.

In Iraq it is easier to see how we can be deceived by Mr Bush. He declared major combat operations over in Iraq when 138 US soldiers had been killed. This week that number passed 1000 - after major combat operations were meant to have finished.

Bush can't complain that he couldn't have seen this happening. A quick web search turned up this Christian Science Monitor story from September 27, 2001, which adequately answered his question "Why do they hate us" (in fact, that's the headline).

Jamal al-Adimi, a US-educated Yemeni lawyer, speaks for many when he warns that "if violence escalates, you bring seeds and water for terrorism. You kill someone's brother or mother, and you will just get more crazy people."

Trying to root out terrorism without re-ploughing the soil in which it grows - which means rethinking the policies that breed anti-American sentiment - is unlikely to succeed, say ordinary Middle Easterners and some of their leaders.

On the practical level, Hariri points out, "launching a war is in the hands of the Americans, but winning it needs everybody. And that means everybody should see that he has an interest in joining the coalition" that Washington is building.

I also found this article by Tom Maertens, a former senior counter-terrorism official at the State Department, who puts the record straight about the reasons behind hatred of the US.

"One of the axioms of military strategy," Maertens writes, "is know your enemy. Bush has claimed that terrorists attacked us because they "hate freedom". What they really hate is US policies: our unquestioning support for Israel and its settlements in the Palestinian areas; the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan; our support for repressive Arab governments, and our invasion of Iraq."

He adds, "The current administration has exacerbated Arab hostility. It has abandoned our traditional evenhanded role as the honest broker in the Middle East peace process and - for the first time in US history - endorsed Jewish settlements on the West Bank."

If I was to meet President Bush I would suggest he read (or re-read) those articles and then delve into a book penned by a senior US intelligence official under the mantle Anonymous, called: "Imperial Hubris: Why The West Is Losing The War On Terror".

After a brief history lesson, the intelligence man turned author boldly predicts the occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq are doomed to failure and reinforces that it is government policies which make America unsafe and which, ironically, makes the US about the best ally Osama bin Laden ever had.

In no way does this other way of looking at terrorism mean these people are soft. In fact, Anonymous subscribes to the same way of waging war as a US Navy admiral who famously said during World War 2 the best way to win was to "kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs". Understanding does not mean sympathy, but, perhaps, a better way of seeing how US policies are perceived around the world.

Until President Bush starts listening to and understanding these other points of view, then the coffins draped in American flags may keep being flown back in greater numbers and the more likely it is that Afghanistan and Iraq will turn into not one Vietnam, but two.

They're clever buggers, those Republicans. They'd never held a convention in New York (till now) and they knew any move to do so would make them the subject of massive demonstrations and ridicule. Even more reason to do so, you can almost hear them say - after all, any publicity is good publicity.

They knew the eyes of America would be on them: the left to be outraged at the arrests from the riots; and the right, well, to get their jollies off that the Grand Old Party were having such a great time deep in Democrat territory. And they didn't waste the opportunity.

All week the speakers were talking about September 11 (just down the road), building the character of their president (who stood with his arm around a fire fighter, just down the road) and, predictably, taking aim at John Kerry (who should be sent down the proverbial road). It wasn't just the Democrat presidential candidate's war record, either ˆ Swift Boat Veterans For Truth were already scoring points in that department. Kerry's record of defence voting was questioned, most vehemently by a retiring Democratic senator, Zell Miller.

"George W Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip. From John Kerry, they get a "yes/no/maybe" bowl of mush that can only encourage our enemies and confuse our friends," Miller said.

Vice president Dick Cheney, who appeared subdued compared to a pumped-up Miller, also chipped in:

"Even in this post-9/11 period, Senator Kerry doesn't appear to understand how the world has changed. He talks about leading a 'more sensitive war on terror"' ... as though Al Qaeda will be impressed with our softer side."

In a stunning coincidence, dozens of convention-goers wore jandals (flip-flops for those North American types) - not on their feet, but on their hands. And in a "spontaneous" reaction to Kerry-bashing, the crowd waved their arms and yelled "flip-flop!" You've gotta love these unscripted conventions.

The vitriol and sniping about foreign policy were roles turned over to the eager captains and majors. So, at the end, the five-star general, President Bush, came in and seem like a breath of fresh air - spending much of his time on domestic issues and breathing the fresh air of positivity into the convention.

"Since 2001, Americans have been given hills to climb and found the strength to climb them," Bush opined. "Now, because we have faced challenges with resolve, we have historic goals within our reach and greatness in our future," he eloquently stated, with a chorus of angels singing behind him (just kidding). Then he addressed the issues of jobs, home ownership, health care, education and even talked of simplifying tax. All of these things the Democrats usually club the opposing party with, but, by some work of magic, some of them are positives and others are going to be fixed. Great!

He also launched an attack against an unpopular leader of dubious intelligence ˆ himself! "People sometimes have to correct my English. I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it."

Yup, if you believed everything you heard, he's a regular guy who loves his country, who wants to put more money into your pocket, simplify tax and health care and he'll protect you better than anyone else!

Are you scared yet? I am!

Admittedly most parties get a convention balloon in the polls, but this week Bush is already ahead of Kerry by 11 points, 52-41.

After the Democrat convention, Kerry was said to be ahead 50-44. But Kerry only enjoyed an extra two percentage points after his convention. And the lead was not in double digits.

The convention, according to this article in the New York Observer, also re-affirmed that the Republicans are determined to play by a different set of rules. Those who remember the 2000 presidential race will know exactly what that means, particularly in Florida - in the words of Robert Sam Anson, dubious vote-counting and systematic, massive disenfranchisement of minorities, en route.

In fact, Anson says, events are heading towards dubious Florida election: The sequel.

The installation in the state's most heavily Democratic counties of "touch-screen" voting machines (the gizmos that leave no paper trail and don't record 1 percent of ballots cast), Kerry Watch told you about a few weeks ago. Ditto, the "accident" that failed to cleanse the registration rolls of Republican-voting Cuban felons˜but worked flawlessly getting rid of Democratic-voting black ones.

Well, there've been further developments. Notably, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote last month, officers of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement - an agency that reports to Jeb - going into the homes of elderly black voters in Orlando, supposedly to investigate allegations of voter fraud during the city's March mayoral election. Interviewed by Mr. Herbert, a spokesman for the younger Bush's cops refused to divulge what "criminal activity" brought on the intimidating visits to elderly African-Americans, and claimed that those grilled had merely been selected at "random".

Sure. And snow is in the forecast for Tallahassee next week.

As with everything Bush says, you have to balance his words against his record. Take for example his claim in July of wanting to be the "peace president". The pro-peace website Common Dreams reminds us that preparing for peace does not include increasing military spending to historic levels, arguing "insanely" for development of low-yield tactical nuclear weapons and a revived missile defence shield programme.

That stance may put this Bush quote (from the convention) in perspective: "We are staying on the offensive, striking terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them here at home."

Critical thinkers may also want to examine his claim that more than 50 million people have been liberated during his term of office and democracy is coming to the broader Middle East. Ask an average citizen in northern Iraq or southern Afghanistan how liberated they feel (and how harsh the hand of democracy is) and the reaction may be vastly different.

But, as I said, they're clever buggers these Republicans. The messages from the convention were clear and extremely concise. Bush loves his family. Bush loves his country. Bush isn't perfect, but he can protect me. Trust him over any wobbler!

If you look at how Americans get their news, the case for those who want Bush out of the White House may not improve, either. According to a 2002 survey, 56% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats get their news from local TV news. When related to the mid-term elections of the same year the findings were grim:

Almost six out of ten top-rated local news broadcasts contained no campaign coverage whatsoever.

Most of the local campaign stories that did air were broadcast during the last two weeks of the campaign.

Nearly half the local political stories were about horserace or strategy, and not about issues.

The average local campaign story lasted less than 90 seconds.

Fewer than three out of ten local campaign stories that aired included candidates speaking, and when they did speak, the average candidate sound bite was 12 seconds long.

Campaign ads outnumbered campaign stories by nearly four to one.

A presidential election decided on 12-second soundbites two weeks before the elections? Hmmm. That may spell, as the party faithful were so fond of yelling at the Republican convention, "Four more years" for the incumbents.

After all, any publicity, even 12 seconds worth, is good publicity.