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Ok, as many of you may kow I have been attending school for the last several years while doing the posters. I have now graduated with my BA from TESC and have relocated to Quintana Roo ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mexico in search of a job teaching English. Imagine my surprise when I discovered not only is Quintana Roo flooded with non-natives seeking to teach English but that instead of Mexico I would land a job in Taiwan. I have been hired by Shin Gou American School, in ChongLi city, Taiwan. All I need to do is get to the job by the end of November 30th (which is also my birthday coincidentally).

I am currently in Cancun due to the increase in job opportunities with all the hotels here, but so far to no avail. Thus it is getting onto time to leave here and attempt to make my way to Taiwan. This means getting an airline ticket from Cancun to the states and then to Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan with an outbound ticket from Taiwan to anywhere else within the first two week period due to immigration loopholes etcetera. This will cost roughly $1200.00 US Dollars depending on the flight.
 
As for the ticket out of Cancun that I had set up with the airlines as many of you know I had bought tickets many months ago to go to Germany for the G8 as some of you may remember the Department of State blocked my passport. I had to then cancel those tickets and reroute to Mexico from DC for the IMF- World Bank meetings. Somehow in the crossing over of tickets the travel agent booked me roundtrip to and from DC when I said to return to Seattle. I guess the Washington thing confused them? Thus I cannot change the ticket or use the funds from it to supplement the newly needed ticket.
 
Now I sit in Cancun with about 1000.00 pesos and rent paid until the 15th of Nov. As many know I have not asked for much from anyone in the past often just mustering through the five years of school and the trials that brought upon me. Sometimes I was grumpy and other times not. Now I have completed my BA and have a job offer that will allow me to save $1000.00 US Dollars a month, pursue my dreams of travelling and allow me to teach children thus gaining valuable experience for graduate school later. I just need help to get to my new job and am finding myself kinda screwed and am now asking for help. I have a friend in Seattle named Jim. He has all the bank info needed to make deposits. Please if you can help out with any amount contact me and I'll give you his phone number and he will be glad to deposit the funds into my bank account or just email Jim at lordstoner@hotmail.com to coordinate  Or if you use PayPal you can use the link below to donate. You can also send funds to P.O. Box 20798 Seattle, WA 98102 just place a red X on the envelope so Jim knows what is going on. Or if you have extra frequent flyer miles maybe we can set up an account with the travel agent his name is Tim and he manages STA Travel in Seattle on Broadway by Magic Dragon. His email is TCunningham@statravel.com  

If anyone feels inclined to buy the ticket as a graduation present or a birthday present that would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you cannot afford to give the funds and want to loan them that is great too as I can quickly send the funds back to you via Jim or the mail once I begin working.
 
I hope that you will be able to assist me and that I have not bothered you to much with my worries. This is my first time out of the states and it got a bit screwed up. If you can, please help. I could hold out here until months end if the time thing will help get the funds together after that I guess I walk back to Seattle. Thank you.

 
Thomas Hays
TH

Greetings & Salutations One & All!

I am still here in Cancun and let me tell you a guy could sure get used to the fabulous weather and great views. However the computers here leave something to be desired as I have not found not even one computer that will allow me to convert a Word Document into a PDF File then to a JPEG. So the posters are on a form of hiatus until such time as I can either locate a computer that will function for me, I get a job here and buy one, or I return to the states and get it going again there. Any way you slice it the posters will continue and I will stay abreast of all the important developments in this senseless war. However I seem to have found that no matter what you do there will always be copious amounts of white sand to dump out of your clothes, backpack and shoes even if you have not been near a beach that day.

I´ll keep everyone posted.

So I´m here in Cancun again. Seems there is a place I can teach English to Business men (a great place to meet well connected hook ups) here and that I can obtain my work visa for a mere $1250.00 pesos. Conidering rent is only $55.00 pesos a night it looks like I might be able to pull this off if I can start getting some pesos in my pocket instead of always spending them. If I get the job I´ll have to work a month without pay as ¨training¨ then I´ll be ok, so if anyone wants to donate to the keep Thomas out of Seattle fund shoot me a line and I´ll let you know how to make that happen or drop a check in the mail to P.O. Box 20798 Seattle, WA. 98102 place a red X on the outside so those checking my mail will know what to look for. Remember $1.00 is about $10.00 pesos so keeping me away coul be really cheap. 

I´m thinking after a girl I´ve been chilling with leaves I´ll go to the beach and sit and look at some new stars for awhile. Busses are $6.50 pesos one way, no transfers. Depending on where you eat out at you can spend as much as you want to but if you cook you can make it fairly cheap. A 6 pack of beer can run as much as $65.00 pesos so drinking isn´t always an option besides it is to humid and water is your best bet unless you want aching kidneys the next two days. 

The bus ride from Merida to Cancun winds through some very poor villages complete with grass roofed huts, banana trees, coconut trees, stray dogs, bare foot children and almost everyone sleeps in hammocks and few houses have doors, but almost all have tv´s. Yep they are watching the Simpson´s aint that a trip? The three wheeled bicycles are very popular even in the poorest of villages there is no shortage of bicycle taxi´s and hammock salesmen. Even the motorcycles often use 3 wheels and are cabs. No squirrels just Geckos instead and roaches as big as your thumbs are fairly common depending on the number of geckos there are around. Here there are fewer misquitos than in Merida. I suspect that is due to the ocean being so close instead of being in a flat swamp. Much better for us white boys who glow in the dark and attract misquitis like torches attract moths.

I'm learning allot about myself while I am on the road. There are options open to go to Nica, Dominica and a few other places. Of course there is still the chance to go to India and teach for a year or so there at the platform schools. The airfare to Bubaneswar during the months of Jan and Feb is about $850.00 American so if I am working I'll have that very soon. There are invites to Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Japan and others that if I conduct myself rightly could take me the loooooong way back to Seattle. Of course once I get onto a decent computer I´ll start posting pictures for everyone.

Maybe the posters will be on hiatus for awhile as the computer programs needed and processing speed of most of these computers is about what we were using in 1986. I hope everyone is having a great time and I look forward to seeing everyone when I return.

TH

District of Columbia Government and US Interior Department â€" BACK OFF on
Postering Fines!

The ANSWER Coalition has put up many posters around Washington DC advertising a
march from the White House to the Capitol on Saturday, September 15 to stop the
Iraq War and Impeach George Bush.  That day, General Petraeus is scheduled to
deliver to Congress a report justifying the troop surge in Iraq.  Who represents
the interests and demand of the majority of people in the US, the world, and of
US military serving in Iraq - the thousands of protesters against the war, or a
general hand-picked to deliver George Bush the report he's already had written?

A local FOX affiliate began campaigning for the city public works department to
remove the posters. This week, the ANSWER Coalition received fines of $150 each
for 64 posters (including some from a protest in March 2007 at the Pentagon),
amounting to $10,000.  The US Department of the Interior is also threatening to
enforce removal of the posters.

The ANSWER Coalition is right to refuse to remove the posters, and to continue
to put up more.  Local regulations permit the posters, and such messages are
supposed to be protected under "free speech".  Increasingly the public airwaves,
newspapers, and public space are being privatized. The Mayor and other
politicians put up thousands of posters during election season, and all sorts of
commercial messages are posted...yet this unprecedented fine is only directed at
anti-war organizations.

Are anti-war and anti-Bush messages the only ones to be stifled?  The people
should be able to express themselves on the street, and dissenting messages â€"
especially against such an illegitimate, immoral war and a regime demonstrably
guilty of war crimes and destruction of legal rights of the people â€" must be
heard.

The $10,000 in fines is not about violation of regulations.  Itâ€--s transparent
political suppression.

Criminalizing of political dissent is the action of a government that fears the
response of the people. Everyone, and every organization, religious institution,
union, and community group who values the right to assemble and speak out in
public must protest these fines, threats, and intimidation against the ANSWER
Coalition.

Join in protesting these fines, and demand they be rescinded, and the ANSWER
Coalition and other political organizations be allowed to continue to poster.

Call the Director of Department of Public Works, William O. Howland, Jr.
202-673-6833
And the Mayor of DC, Adrian Fenty, at 202-724-8876.
Send a fax by clicking this link.
Send copies of your support statements and letters to
info@internationalanswer.org

Help us here at replacementsneeded.com get a caravan to DC for the IMF/World Bank meetings from
Oct 19th-21st in DC. Together we can and will let those in power know that we are no longer willing to sit
on the sidelines while they destroy our planet and invade other countries in our names.
TH 

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Greetings & Salutations

We here at Replacements Needed are planning a trip to DC in October to attend the IMF and World Bank meetings from 0ct. 19th - 21st of this year. We are based in Seattle, Washington and are organizing a "Caravan for Unity" from the west coast to DC. If you are an organization whose aims include ending war, indigenous rights, reform of global monetary systems, freedom, free speech, democracy and/or civil rights or any other cause that needs attention brought to it then we would love to have your support. We are hoping that the bio-diesel buses out there will be able to take part in the trip. We encourage pirate flags and lots of noise makers. Let's ALL show up and let those in charge know that we are sick and tired of the destruction of our planet and its peoples in the name of profits for the corporate elite. Join us in this endeavor and together we can make a difference.

At present we have some reporters and a cinematographer interested in the trip. We are looking to make our way across the country to St. Louis to rendezvous with other groups from the Midwest and together make our way to DC for this historic meeting of the worlds leading financial institutions at a point in our collective history that Vladimir Putin described in May as a time that "disrespect for human life, claims to global exclusiveness and dictate, just as it was in the time of the Third Reich." It is now time to set aside our apathetic natures and to stand together and join in the struggle for Freedom and to restore Democracy to our once great nation. The fight must no longer be about merely the war, the focus must shift to the economic disparity that exists across the globe. When five per cent of the population controls over eighty percent of the wealth, while failing on every level to meet basic responsibilities, the time has come to unite everyone. We must set aside our differences, whatever they may be, and band together to fight the corporations and corrupted governmental structures that are killing the very planet that we must all share. No longer shall we sit on the sidelines watching as corporations and governments kill indiscriminately so that a select few can maximize profits. No longer can we afford the luxuries of bigotry and disdain for our brothers and sisters. We need to stand together; for it is through unity and unity alone, that we will overcome these greedy, corporate, warmongers. Join us in this trip to DC and let us show what a people united can accomplish.

Thomas Hays Replacements Needed

replacementsneeded@hotmail.com

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Greetings & Salutations

We here at Replacements Needed have been busy in the last few weeks. One of our recent projects involves a radio interview we did with Reginald and Tanya from 102.7 fm in Vancouver BC, and parts of Washington State. The show can be heard on the airwaves on 07-04-07 it can also be heard on the Internet at www.coopradio.org from 830 to 900 am. We want to thank the folks at 102.7 fm

We have also heard back from Howling Dog Press concerning the essay we contributed to a project of theirs entitled "The Cost of Freedom" The book will be hardcover, with a dust jacket and gorgeous end sheets. I've seen the proof copy, and it looks great.

The publisher is waiting to get as many "blurbs" from famous people as possible before we print a first run, so that we can show off the praise we've been getting on the back cover.

The response from blurbers and reviewers has been incredible. For a sampling of the praise we've gotten so far, scroll to the end of this email.

Thanks, I'll be in touch again soon!

best,
Whitney Trettien
co-editor, Cost of Freedom

BLURBS FOR COST OF FREEDOM:

"Cost of Freedom is a beautiful, accessible, and meaningful history of recent American anti-war movements that should be on the coffee tables of every American home."
-- Thom Hartmann, Air America

"This varied and exciting collection graphically reveals the vitality and expanse of the popular movements opposing violence and criminal ventures abroad.  It should inspire many more to join in these efforts to create a powerful force of concerned citizens that cannot be ignored, and that will help shape a much more hopeful and decent future."
--Noam Chomsky

"Looking at these pages, one is reminded of the persistence and the hope in movements to build a better world.  This is something we clearly aren't going to get from corporate media outlets.  We can all learn a lesson from the contributors in this anthology, that we need to tell our own stories, remind each other why struggle is important, that we can be creative, have more fun, and that it's possible to build the kind of power necessary to stop the madness."
--Eric Galatas, Program Director, FreeSpeech Television

"Cost of Freedom vividly documents the actions of citizens challenging corporate government. It leaves readers with hope—the hope that citizens will get organized and take back their government.  For too long, corporations have dominated government, and when it comes to issues of war and peace the military-industrial complex, big oil and international corporations have used the U.S. military to enforce their form of corporate globalization—trade that puts corporate profits ahead of the basic necessities of the people, saving the environment and a fair economy where wealth is distributed equitably.  Read this book, get excited and get active. We need active participants in U.S. democracy if we are going to ever really have a government of, by, and for the people.  You are not alone."
—Kevin Zeese, Director of Democracy Rising, and Chair of Voters For Peace

"Cost of Freedom: one human gauntlet, made of whatever a human can make -- a poem, a photograph, a statement, a rant, a banner, a graphic collage that mocks the machinery that made it possible, a human body cloaked in mourning, carrying a sign, a vessel of love, nostalgia and fury, protesting profiteering slaughter, demonstrating with amazing creative vigor and joy that human history is older ... and its future longer." —Kenneth Rosen, poet, and professor at University of Maine

 
If you would like to get copies of this book feel free to contact us here at Replacements Needed and we will do our best to facilitate it. Thank you all for your support over the years , we look forward to your support in the future. From October 19^th – 21^st  Mr. Hays will be attending the meeting of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington D.C. before going to Mexico to conduct interviews concerning the effects of these organizations and the G-8 upon the region. We ask that you support us through spreading the word and the posters so that we can save as many potential soldiers as possible from becoming yet another casualty of this unstoppable Energizer bunny of doom that is the American foreign policy. Together we can win this fight and together we can make a change in the world. For information on the IMF and World Bank meeting in D.C.  call or email For more information: www.globalizethis.org. mgj at riseup.net 202-898-5953.

See you all in the streets in DC!