Lockheed Martin, the low-ball contract, and Canadians

folkies,

read this.

following out of:

*the montreal anarchy festival

and

*the bundle of thoughts and conversations we can all
share and have and discuss about:

social relations
wealth distribution
cultural welfare
infomation circulation
power and knowledge
populations and flows
discipline
regulation
social control
governance
trauma
threats and risks
technologies of administration
discourses of security
containment
grids and networks
absorption
nonlimited locality
etc., etc....

...you should all know that Lockheed Martin has been contracted out to perform and administer our own national 2004 census. early test runs have been initiated, with tomorrow, may 11, being the big date for 'green light, go.'

this presents problems...i'm not arguing a boycott of the census; some good comes out of tracking the numbers, especially in 'ol venerable canada. there is utopian value in the conceptual premise. unfortunately, i don't literature to give you in this regard.

that said, i'm not arguing not to boycott either. one cannot overlook the basic source of the design and the method of measurement. LM has been nailed in the past for numerous oversights. in its compiling of 'data', is one of the most frequent suppliers of information to governments and administrations worldwide to track, survey, and monitor potential 'risks'. LM can read 'threat' anywhere...anyone read paul virilio's 'pure war', perpetual preperation for emergency? mike davis' 'ecology of fear'?

the folks who design the world's most advanced surveillance systems, and comprehensively integrated, effective weapons systems are now openly surveying the great white north at the behest of our federal government. seems their applications have a non-limited capacity. consider the current iraq scenario as a potential place for such application: supply the hardware and logitics to destroy and pacify, and then subsequently track and spur the rebuilding of a society with demographic tools and an unfathomable depth of statistical analysis...short-circuited feedback loop, eh? the double articulation of making docile bodies…

i don't know much about the tending or bidding process, nor many details about how the contract was awarded, but i'm a bit anxious about it all.

the image i've attached...well, i'm safely on the protest side.

but, to avoid overt and rehearsed didactic remarks, i leave you all with some links: see what you can, will, and want. it's all about relays, eh? consider this my relay to you:

1.) Boycott the Canadian Census

http://census.vivelecanada.ca/

2.) Heather Mallick’s Globe Article

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040508/MALLICK08/TPFocus/

3.) The US Project on Government Oversight

http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/ca-030701-contract.html

4.)...and the contractors themselves, Lockeed Martin

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fnec&ti=100

.. slippery slope, this conundrum, right in the unavoidable backyard...

much love
n