This documentary is going off the American and terrorist topic but was one of the most enjoyable in my eyes. Michael Ruppert a former LA police officer turned independent reporter, he predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletters. I found him very truthful and inspiring as a human being. The documentary is him recounting his career as a radical thinker and makes it clear about the crisis’s he sees ahead. His main passion is ‘peak oil’ a theory that we are soon to hit the peak of our oil usage, once past that peak we will hit a decline which would cause a global catastrophe. It was sad to hear his story on his career and how to many times the research he challenged to authority was mocked or ignored, and how the government chose not to address what he was showing them and even tried to intimidate him to stop him publishing his research. If however the truth got out about the oil crisis there would be a huge panic, thats something the government and media try to hide.

Reading the The Last Light was really an eye opener. It is a theory on what would happen say, if the oil was cut off from the entire world. It goes into detail about how goverments would fall, riots would break out and all authority would not exist, leaving the world in complete havoc. Although it is not entirely useful for my research it touched upon the relationship with the American and Saudi Arabian powers and even the elite powers. It should how the media tried and failed to cover up what was happening leaving people not knowing exactly what the dangers were, this I think it believable as we all know if the media exposed truth that was catastrophic there would be instant panic across the globe. It related to the Collapse documentary because Alex goes into detail about sustainabilty just like Micheal Ruppert did. Bringing the truth that us as a nation would not know how to grow our own food or even purify water. I am thinking my research is kind of heading for an exposure of the truth behind goverment conspiracies and how we as individuals can act upon it and protect ourselves.

I had to watch this documentary three times just to get my head around it. Adam Curtis simplifies a very complex situation and makes it easily understandable if you did not know anything about American powers and the relationship they have with Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

It begins with the meeting of President Roosevelt of America and King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia. As King Abdulaziz wanted to modernise his country like the west, so they formed an alliance. As America were in huge demand for oil,  the primister offered wealth and protection to Saudi Arabia, in return, they got to maintain the oil fields that are there. I took note that the king said “we will take your money, and we will take your technology, but you must leave our faith alone”, I found later in the documentary that the main faith within the heart of Saudi Arabia is Wahhabism. Wahhbism is a puritanical form of Islam, wanting to go back to the original teachings. Those who followed Wahabuism hated modern society and thought the western civilisation was corrupting Islamic beliefs. Therefore America protected Wahhabism through its thirst of Saudi Oil, and in doing do helped sow the seeds of radical Islam today. That pretty much answered my research into what I wanted to find out, the extreme ISIS problem , I wanted to know how and where ISIS had manifested from. However I do not want to focus entirely on ISIS, I want to find out other situations that have been covered up or ignored by goverments and mainstram media. It clear I am opening a can of worms, but to get a good understanding of what is really happening would be beneficial .

Watching Zeitgeist really opened my eyes on other theories out there that challenge goverment authority, global issues and media exposure. The part I needed to watch was part 2 in the documentary. It starts by theorising an idea that the goverment was part of the 9/11 attacks, with accusations that the President and Osama Bin Laden were connected, the buildings infrastructer was tampered with and even evidences conferences with congressman who completely ignore important facts that challenge the ‘terriost attack’.

Starting off there was articles being pulled up about the CIA running scenarios of planes crashing into the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers two years before 9/11, so they were perfectly aware of the procedure to take to avoid a scenerio like 9/11. I’ve searched for these articles online from New York Times and they do actually exists and were not just fornicated for the documentary. It also claims that George Bush had a relationship with Osama and his family, stating that on the day of 9/11 George was meeting Osama’s brother at a Carlye Group function. The Carlye Group is said to be directly linked with some of the world’s largest defense contractors, who made much profit on the post 9/11 anti-terrorism programme. This however cannot be proved, I’m trying to keep a very open mind whilst researching and try not to get too caught up in what the documentaries are informing me. The one part that got me was talking about the infrastructure of the building, with it interviewing the engineers who designed the builing it was pretty evident that something strange may have went on. The building collapsed in a pancake fashion, very similar to a controlled demolition as there was no resistance whatsoever. Even if the floors did heat enough to collapse they would fall through and leave the steel body still standing. Jet engine fuel burns at 

1500 degrees yet molten steel which was over 2000 degrees was found at the bottom of the rubble even 5 weeks after the attack. It leaves you thinking to yourself, how is it that jet engine fuel managed to completely melt the infrastructure to the point the entire frame and building topples into what looked like molten lava. Another thing was there was images of parts of the building found that looked like they had been sliced, just like a controlled demolition. This cannot be proven its from 9/11 though. The final thing I want to go over was the completely disintegrated planes that hit the Pentagon and the Shanksville crash site, now I used to be a little obsessed with planes when I was younger, especially after 9/11 so I used to watch Air Crash Investigations. I can say in confidence that every single plane crash accounted for, not matter the situation, always left rubble, body parts, and other parts of the plane scattered around the crash site.

After watching the documentary it really opened my mind on what issues the goverment chose not address, how it portrayed 9/11 across mainstream media and the message it sent out which still effects the minds in society in this present day. I am still having a very open minded view on the documentary as reading other peoples criticisms on the internet made me realise not to take everything as the truth. However it does seem apparent that something is not quite right about the situation, and the way the president dealt with it afterwards is very mistrusting. It also contributes towards my research on how the media portray situations and are able to give a very biased or untruthful message to the public to get them to think in a certain way. Again I think its useful to have this informatino for my proposed practical idea, to inform and educate the public.

After reading various articles from The Guardian and other newspapers its very clear there are mixed responses and biased views on war. Mainstream media yet again infiltrates the public into believing that countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq are nothing but violence, terror and bloodshed lands. An article I found first was about a book called ‘Life in War’ which focused on the humanitarian issues, with a special interest in telling previously untold stories of social injustice.  The images to the right are from the book and were photographed by an Iranian photographer Majid Saeedi. The article mentions Saeedi was tempted to photograph the war on the front line but instead remained with the people. As he was able to speak their language, it enabled him to embed with the people, showing photographs of suffering and violence that they had endured for over a decade. Saeedi also mentions that the men, women and children are the main victims of war, yet they are not seen anywhere. Afghan women are under immense pressure with the enforced Islamic laws and traditions that dictate what a woman is allowed to do in a male-dominated world. Forced marriages, domestic violence, poverty and lack of access to education are said to be some of the main reasons for self-immolation, an example is a photograph to the right which shows a 20 year old female who burned herself when she was 14. Its clear the presence from western society, civil wars and conflict within the country all have an impact on Afghans society, the photographs have gave me more of a close up insight of the damaging effects of war, the worst thing is its still happening right now.