An Open Letter to British Journalists

March 22, 2002

By AHRC News Services

on 3/21/02 8:58 AM, Mira , a journalist covering a homeowner association bill the British Parliament was considering that some building industry groups were pushing for with assistance from former CAI president Katherine Rosenberry, wrote AHRC News Serivices :

The BBC will not report this because it is irrelevant to the United Kingdom.

Dear Mira:

Thank you for taking your time to send us the above response. We are replying precisely because it is very relevant to the U.K.

1. CAI (Community Associations Institute) has an agenda to export its aims for housing on a global basis. We have observed them doing this in such disparate places as Russia and Indonesia. Whether one agrees or disagrees with their aims, we believe it is incumbent on journalists in each country to let their citizens know what is going on. A percipient California legislator stated in the early 90's that there was a "silent revolution" taking place in housing all across America, unseen, unexamined and swift.

He predicted that within a few short years, the nature of housing as we know it, would be radically reshaped.

In the U.S., this has certainly happened. There are now over 50 million Americans living in homeowner associations. Virtually all new housing tracts are required by local governments to be in homeowner associations.

For example, in San Clemente, California, the new Talega housing project will contain 4,800 homes. All will be in homeowner associations. As a practical matter, approximately 95% of the people have no choice but to buy a home in a homeowner association.

2. We have endeavored to set forth some of the profound ramifications of this "silent revolution".

In essence, it turns the clock back on the progress that has been made since the days of feudalism.

The movement to increase the power of citizens by providing them with a home that they could call their own has now taken a U-turn. The new CAI movement is designed to strip homeowners of more and more individual rights - all in order to enable CAI lawyers and allied vendors can have a vast money making machine through fines, foreclosures and the like.

In Harris County, Texas, alone, there have been thousands of foreclosures on homeowner association homes every year. Mrs. Blevins, an 80 year old widower who owned her $300,000 home free and clear, found herself sitting on her front lawn with her possessions one day last year when the sheriff came and forcibly evicted her. Why? Because she had allegedly overlooked to pay about $800 in homeowner association dues.

3. The above are not accidental by-products of the CAI system - they, in fact, are the intended consequences. Make no mistake about it - the CAI agenda is to shape legislation so that homeowners are on an economic treadmill. CAI does not line the coffers of politicians for nothing.

Gray Davis, current governor of California, was the author of the "Davis Stirling Act" (termed by some homeowners as the Davis Stealing Act) in 1985. He has a current campaign war chest of over $28 million - after spending over $9 million to defeat a potential rival in the Republican primary election this month. While all this $37 million has not come from CAI obviously, nevertheless it has come from CAI and other groups that seek to get politicians to sell out citizens' rights. This movement is big business, big time.

4. We informed you last year that Katherine Rosenberry - the past president of CAI - had taken off a year from her law teaching job in San Diego, to burrow deeply into the Lord Chancellor's office in London in order to spread the CAI message.

This gives you a glimpse into the extent that CAI will go in order to "CAI" the world, and the immense resources at its disposal in order to do so. If this is not relevant to the U.K., then we are not sure what is. Frankly, we think that this is exactly the type of story that a journalist would die for. It is ahead of the curve, of national and international significance, and pulls back the curtain that conceals the secret activities of forces that plan to powerfully reshape the world - a world that is of intimate concern to each citizen - their home.

5. The role - or lack of role - of the BBC in all this is an integral part of the story. Frankly, our perception of BBC journalists in this country is not flattering. They seem to toady up obsequiously to the existing power structure, focusing on trivia and frills. They thought it to be journalistically significant that Bush and Blair use the same toothpaste. There is not the trenchant, rigorous reporting that the true journalistic tradition calls for.

Hence, it is no surprise to us - though obviously distressing - that they pay absolutely no attention to a major new movement that will so profoundly affect the lives of British citizens. We do not know yet how deeply Katherine Rosenberry and other Community Associations Institute (CAI ) operatives have been able to burrow into the Lord Chancellor's office, but you can be sure that their efforts are but the opening shot.

It is doubly distressing that the BBC deliberately turns a blind eye to this movement, because it is the British citizen who pays their salaries and overhead. Presumably, the British citizen does so on the explicit understanding that the BBC will investigate all those matters of vital concern to them. Instead, the BBC in significant part seems to have turned to mush.

Mira, what we are reporting are matters of no small moment. We hope that you will see the significance of what we are saying. Sadly, in so many areas, we see only the dying embers of the journalistic fire.

The powerful onslaught of vast wealth has wreaked havoc on the journalistic profession, enervating it, marginalizing it, - and in some case, crushing it.

What we are reporting is a major story - one that may lie hidden behind today's headlines - but one whose significance stretches off into the future with profound consequences.

Best wishes

AHRC News Services