Continue reading »]]> I am a child of the nineties. I was not around when Vietnam was at its height and I only know of the war through history lessons, movies and books. When I picked up this book I didn’t know what to expect. Would this be a patriotic cry from a warrior of the conflict? Would this be an anti-war rant by a long lost hippy? Would this be a favourable account? Negative?

Groundbreaking book from an American hero

Covert The Not Known tells us not of the facts we read in books, it tells of the reality. The dirty, gruesome truths that are in essence the facts of war. This is not Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back or John Wayne in the Green Berets. This is a  book about a man who was almost destroyed by what he saw and thrown to the very ridge of madness by what he had to live with. Covert is powerfully written from the heart and almost like a therapy session for the writer. I think this book could well be the ultimate document about the Vietnam War.

The book opens with Jerry, a rebellious youth, who lives a troubled life in Fort Worth, Texas, finding his way to a recruitment station. With ease he then finds himself thrown into the world of the military. I found myself drawn into the story almost from the get-go. The truth of the matter is very different to the patriotic cries of history. Jerry became a Marine and served with honour– that is one of the many truths in this book. The other truths are that he became damaged, disregarded and dismissed with personality disorders. He suffered immensely because his country felt the need to fight a war it thought it could win but ultimately lost. This book at times is distasteful, gruesome, but ultimately honest and I believed every word Jerry wrote. I think anyone considering joining the forces should read this book. I think anyone who utters the word “war” or “invasion” in a positive or glorified way should read this book. Wars do not make people great. They destroy the men and women who are sent to fight them.

Jerry wasn’t destroyed. He was strong enough to pull himself around with the love of his wife. He lived a fulfilling and successful life and he managed to at least put some of this stuff behind him. That is the redeeming feature– he lived to tell the tale and made a success from his life until the very end. I believe that this book could be a very powerful motion picture. I think it has the makings of a very honest film about a war people seem to regard as a joke in the modern age. In my life, I have only read one book about Vietnam with the same powerful rhetoric. That book was called A Rumour of War. It was a bestseller and told the truth. This book is called Covert The Not Known. It is just as powerful and it tells even greater truths. I think Jerry did the world a huge favour writing this one. Perhaps one day we will learn from it.

Continue reading »]]> Ken Howard has written a book called Green ROI (also known as Internomics: The Lateral Collective Interface). The book is a blueprint for the future, utilising technologies we already have. Now, Ken has written this book to inform us all about the future of the world with a series of lectures and videos.

“Flat out, this book will make you MONEY! Lots of money!”

This book promises to make you “money… lots of money.” I can see where Mr Howard is coming from with this analogy. He gives a series of currently available technologies and then tells us how they can be used and what they can do. I have met Ken and I have found him to be a very interesting guy. He has the drive to make these things happen himself, yet he is sharing them with the world. This isn’t a book you will read for entertainment. This is a book that you need to concentrate on. In the first chapter, he explains about the changes that have taken place, for example, the gamble that became the Internet. Would it take off? How did it change the world? Of course, we know for a fact that the Internet was a huge success. Now what would happen if, say, one of these or all of these technologies Ken talks about took off? Who would get rich? Of course, the people who believed in them would get rich. I guess you could say that this book is not just a blueprint for the future. It is a blueprint for someone with enough guts to take the world by the horns and get rich. For example, Ken takes us through a series of possibilities… Garbage? How can you make money from garbage? He has a plan for that. Energy is also one of his big blueprint ideas. The motto of the book is simple: We have the technology.

As a guy who doesn’t read this kind of stuff, I have to ask myself, “Was I interested?” To begin with, I wasn’t. I really didn’t care one way or another about this book. I liked Ken as a guy and I enjoyed talking to him, but as a book, I wasn’t prepared to buy this one. I have heard many crackpot ideas in my life. This was just going to be another one.

BUT…

Then I actually picked up a copy. I read the first chapter, aptly titled “Hey, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling in,” and I was hooked. I wasn’t hooked on the writing, I was hooked on the ideas that this book presents. The idea of being part of the future and investing in technologies to make the future green, sustainable and profitable. I think Ken makes some valid points. Why are these ideas not in place? It’s a risk. The technology we have already works and makes money. As the song goes, “Why try to change me now?” I guess whilst our governments are making money from these ideas, nothing will change… Or will it? If the right person reads this book and sees the money-making potential, then perhaps it will change.

Ken Howard promises that this book will make you money. He promises that this is the future; and I am starting to wonder, if this is the future, then why am I not investing? I guess like everyone else I am sceptical of the ideas presented in this book. Ken is convincing and his writing style is similar to that of Michael Moore. I would say in my learned opinion that Ken has got some good ideas brewing and I don’t need to explain his concepts to you. I think that this book may well find itself on many shelves around the world and when it takes off, it will take off. Ken will make sure it takes off. Go and get a copy now. This is just like the book says, a way to make money.

It’s available at Amazon in print format and through iTunes/iBooks.