NEWSLETTER

First off, exciting news from my dear friend, Eri Sakai Virden. Eri is a very accomplished teacher and practitioner of Lomilomi and western massage. She studied under kumu Dane Silva on Hawaii Island. Dane is my kumu as well, and is an extraordinary teacher. This past Christmas season, Eri was invited, personally, by Michelle Obama, to give our President and the First Lady massages on several occasions. As Eri moves forward as owner of Lomilomi Hana Lima Healing Center, in Kailua, on O'ahu, she will be teaching more classes, both in English and in Japanese. See my "Links of Interest" page to contact the Center.

We have several exciting new projects on the development slate. THE ART OF WEDDING is a wonderful indie film script which John Zak and Sandra Siegal are producing.  Think MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING with a Hawaiian Chinese flavor!    Also, Zak has optioned WISDOM'S BLOSSOMS, an anthology of juicy tales of the lives of the saints of ancient India. The mini series will film in India, and will reach an international audience with these fascinating, iconic stories. 

We have just begun filming THE FINE ART OF FORGIVENESS, a personal exploration of the ways humans experience and practice forgiveness. In the film, spiritual and healing practitioners of various disciplines will share their insights, along with people whose everyday lives have been touched by great, seemingly insurmountable, challenges. Ultimately, the film will offer inspiring guidance to those who wish  to journey on the path beyond forgiveness to inner healing. It is for those millions of individuals who strive to develop a rich, rewarding inner life that radiates from their deepest heart into the world around them. These realizations, put into action, create the momentum for changes that we all seek.

Also in the works is POOKIE MEETS THE PRINCESS, my book for young people, illustrated by Raul Rodriguez. We have submitted to publishers and are anxiously awaiting a reply. It is a great story and Raul's illustrations reflect the same delightful humanity he brings into his floats and other creations.

I have just released a new photographic book entitled SOME THINGS I'VE SEEN... The present version contains nearly fifty of my favorite images from my world travels.  Some are beautiful, some, curious, some, amusing. They are in color and in black and white. The book is 52.00 US, including US domestic shipping. That's a bit pricey, I know, but I am only printing small numbers now. It is hard cover, with fine gloss papers and it features the finest stochastic printing avaialble. If you are interested in purchasing a copy, please e mail me at zakwest1@sbcglobal.net I am looking to release a fine quality paperback version in the near future.

John Zak just completed consulting on a pilot for an international night time drama series called FLESH.  It's a sexy psychological thriller set in Cape Town, South Africa. I visited that wonderful city when working for the same production company, Franz Marx Films, some years back. They shopped it at MIPCOM in October and we are waiting for a pick up. My bag is always packed and next to the door!   

Some commentary:This current "meltdown" is very sobering for all of us. I really wonder exactly how we got here. No one has yet explained it to me adequately, and I hunger to understand how this happened. My dad used to say that all you need to do to boost the economy is to start a war. (He said it in a tongue in cheek way,  and in reality, he was very much against war.) The naysayers about the current stimulus package point to the fact that Roosevelt tried to stimulate the economy and it did not succeed until WWII began when factories across the USA were mobilized, and people got to work. Here's what i do not understand: We have already spent untold billions of dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we are sinking quickly from a financial and economic standpoint. Though I have always been against the war in Iraq, I  wonder why, at least, the billions we spent have not, somehow, filtered back into our economy in the manufacturing and supply sectors. Can someone please explain this to me? How can a company like Caterpillar go under when we are using all kinds of heavy equipment in Iraq? Is Halliburton (Cheney's former company) making a big profit? I have a strong feeling that we are not being told the true story. I also believe that Obama is doing the best he can, swimming upstream, working diligently to improve the situation, and deserves to be given a chance. 

The other aspect of this current situation is that people are being encouraged to spend, spend, spend....Does that really work? So many in our country live paycheck to paycheck, and they carry high levels of credit card debt. This just does not add up for me. Now there is talk of bankruptcy for General Motors here in the US...but they want to manufacture cars in China, where they are very successful, and import them to the US. All of this, using our bail out funds. We are no longer a manufacturing economy. Even the commercial aviation buisness has serious competition from AirBus. How are we going to earn our living here? There are openings in the health care sector...we need plenty of vocational nurses and nurse's aids due to the stress of an uncertain economy, an aging population, and unhealthy eating habits driven by fast food sales.

I went to a job fair last week. The positions were all for people with, at most, a high school education. Nothing at all in management for people with higher degrees, absolutely, nothing. Nearly all the companies at the fair were offering food service positions (many in fast food restaurants) or other minimum wage jobs. It was unsettling to see so many young people now entering the work force with few prospects, but it was even sadder to see men my age, dressed impeccably in business suits, patrolling the aisles for a job, any job that, even remotely, met their educational background and skill level. Talk of "retraining" is spouted easily, but it not so easy to accomplish, as it sometimes takes years of training to attain proficiency in areas that  pay reasonable salaries. Others, then, criticize these people with experience and long resumes as being lazy or unwilling to change with the times. Critics fail to acknowledge that these same individuals, even after retraining, must now enter the same job pool as younger, inexperienced employees who are often deemed more desirable by companies due to their willingness to take lower pay.

This is the world in which we must function today. Who let us down? Who was asleep at the wheel? What the he.. happened? 

Though it is sobering to accept, I truly believe that we are in a shifting phase in our world. Our paradigms are changing, and we have to examine our spending and savings priorities, indeed our entire outlook on life. I find it fascinating that people who have been engaged in nefarious activities, such as Madoff, Blagojevich and others, are being called out and taken to task for their misdeeds. I hope it continues. This is a time of cleansing, self reflection, and prioritizing. Maybe we don't need that new car or that piece of jewelry. Maybe we don't have to live in a McMansion...