Seemorerocks: Inteview with Dahr Jamail

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Inteview with Dahr Jamail

Being matter-of-fact and looking at the truth directly without blinking – these are all reasons why I admire Dahr Jamail so much – right from when I used to listen to his dispatches from Iraq back in 2004.

Passion, Courage and Truth: Reporting from Ground Zero with Dahr Jamail

To listen to podcast GO HERE

I think we can all agree that mainstream media doesn’t report news that serves our best interest. Sadly, there’s no incentive for corporate media moguls to tell it like it is because speaking truth to external ‘reality’ empowers autonomy and critical thought. The greatest danger to the status quo is a humanity that thinks outside of the confines of its cultural conditioning. This doesn’t bode well for a mechanized civilization based on the foundation of consumption, distraction, fear, group think, and separation. In order to maintain the inertia of the status quo, we’re fed a steady diet of diluted half truths, sensationalism, celebrity gossip, and outright lies instead.

So where is a critical thinker to go to get real information about the state of our world?

Enter Dahr Jamail, author, mountaineer and truth-telling independent journalist.

Dahr has an extensive biography that has taken him to places such as the Middle East, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and the Arctic.

His story is one of pure courage. Disillusioned with mainstream media coverage of the Iraq war, he decided to find out what was really going on himself. Armed with a fake press pass, a few thousand dollars from his own savings, an email list of 300 people, and a heart full of passion, Dahr’s independent journalism career began in November of 2003 with email reports from ground zero. His initial reporting stint kept him in Baghdad for nine weeks where he was witness to untold suffering. Since then, he’s traveled many more times to Iraq as a freelancer for the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Nation and other major news outlets.

Dahr has also reported extensively on veterans’ resistance against US foreign policy, and is now focusing his efforts on the dire reality of anthropogenic climate disruption and the environment.

Dahr is gifted in his ability to express himself from a place of objectivity as well as a place of heartfelt truth. His love for this planet—particularly the Arctic—is palpable. As an avid mountaineer, Dahr is right there at ground zero once again—living, experiencing and writing about the alarming changes in the Arctic first hand. I, for one, am grateful for his willingness to tell it like it is without diluting the truth.

Dahr Jamail is no stranger to horror, terror and grief. His willingness to go into those painful depths is what enables him to continue living and working from a place of passion, purpose and pure love for this Earth.

In this episode, we delve into topics such as:

How we are officially in the 6th mass extinction event.
What is anthropogenic climate disruption and how far along are we?
The epidemic of censorship in mainstream media.
How purpose emerges from courage.
Navigating grief and trauma from the front lines of our collapsing world.
What is climate trauma.
Holding beauty and decline together in a dying world.
Grief work with Joanna Macy.
The importance of allowing our hearts to break.
The rapid melting of the Arctic and why we must pay attention.
The frightening reality of ocean methane release.
Navigating the knowledge of human extinction with presence, compassion, and purpose.
What is spiritual resiliency.