Shaping

We all do it.

I've been doing it since I was a child.

We tell the story the way we saw it and the way it works best for us.

"Did you eat your spinach?"

"It is gone isn't it?"

Like a magician, I had dropped it into my napkin,

and into my lap.

Then, I would throw the napkin behind the TV set.

It worked fine.

Until one night I forgot to pick up the napkin.

And many days later,

my mother presented the moldy spinach

as evidence of my behavior.

You could say,

I was busted.

We all shape.

It might not be the truth,

But then,

It's not exactly a lie.

The recent show of democracy was heralded by the Media

Here is one you didn't see:

Some Just Voted for Food
By Dahr Jamail Inter Press Service
Monday 31 January 2005

BAGHDAD - Voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, several voters said after the Sunday poll.

Many Iraqis said Monday that their names were marked on a list provided by the government agency that provides monthly food rations before they were allowed to vote.

"I went to the voting centre and gave my name and district where I lived to a man," said Wassif Hamsa, a 32-year-old journalist who lives in the predominantly Shia area Janila in Baghdad.

"This man then sent me to the person who distributed my monthly food ration."

Mohammed Ra'ad, an engineering student who lives in the Baya'a district of the capital city reported a similar experience. Ra'ad, 23, said he saw the man who distributed monthly food rations in his district at his polling station. "The food dealer, who I know personally of course, took my name and those of my family who were voting," he said. "Only then did I get my ballot and was allowed to vote."

"Two of the food dealers I know told me personally that our food rations would be withheld if we did not vote," said Saeed Jodhet, a 21-year-old engineering student who voted in the Hay al-Jihad district of Baghdad.

There has been no official indication that Iraqis who did not vote would not receive their monthly food rations.

Many Iraqis had expressed fears before the election that their monthly food rations would be cut if they did not vote. They said they had to sign voter registration forms in order to pick up their food supplies.

Their experiences on the day of polling have underscored many of their concerns about questionable methods used by the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government to increase voter turnout.

The right to vote also includes the right not to vote.

Because "not voting" is a vote.

It says you don't believe in the system.


We all shape.

And some of us do it really well.

The Fourth Estate is crumbling.

The cyberstate may be the fifth.

And it is here.

And yes,

I am shaping.