Down South Perspective

Allan Gets Libeled 

This message, and maybe several to follow, is directed at readers of my new book, Can't You Get Along With Anyone? A Writer's Memoir and a Tale of a Lost Surfer's Paradise. If you have not read the book, you may not be interested. Also, if you're planning on reading the book, the following information may hurt the read a bit, via screwing with gradual disclosure; you'll know too much too soon.

Under normal circumstances I would not subject my subscribers and site visitors to a message of theoretically limited interest, but "normal circumstances" have been elusive in my life lately, and very definitely right now as I write.

On the other hand, this message also has to do with In Search of Captain Zero, which you likely have read. So whether or not you read on… it's a tough call. (A version of what follows is on the adjunct site to CYGAWA. If you've been to that site you may have already seen this. If interested, you might skim this for new stuff.)

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Along with the encouragement I've received from so many of you – what CYGAWA meant to you — questions also showed up in my Inbox: How is my life now? (For that matter, where the fuck am I?) What's going on in Pavones as a result of the book? Repercussions? And, lately, where can copies be bought?

By way of a short answer to all the above: Although the story of CYGAWA is over, and new editions (assuming there are new editions) will not be substantially different than the version you've read, the story in effect does continue.

Relentless is the word that comes to mind.   

I (barely) survived the events of the book, but the book itself may not survive. In a sense, the survival of my book is what this message (and maybe others to come) is about.

First an excerpt from the first formal review of CYGAWA, written by James MacLaren: 

"Weisbecker wants not only to know the truth, he also wants very much to pass the truth along to his fellow humans. This motivation, in people like Allan Weisbecker, is atavistic, cannot be smothered even if the person doing so wishes to smother it, and leads directly to a whole world of grief when those for whom the truth is inconvenient get even with the truth-teller."

I've added the italics; these words are the point of the excerpt. More:

            "There are A LOT of people out there who are going to do their best to see to it that this book sinks like a stone."

Prophetic, as it turns out. Attempts – some direct and personal, others indirect and institutional – to kill my book have started and will no doubt continue.

I do not use the word "kill" lightly. For me, my book either lives or dies. It's a living thing to me; my offspring, my child.  

Right. One defends one's child to the death.

And yes, I've received a threat on my life as well. (To which I ask: What else is new?)

Whatever it takes, my book will not be killed (even if i am). 

Late in the book I talk about story endings, how important they are. I also say that the real ending to my book is its very existence.

Again, that existence is threatened, and from all sides.

First, and I must repeat this also: The book speaks the truth. The events, the facts, of the story are true. This I know. (And I also prove, for anyone who cares to investigate, via the book's adjunct website.)

The conclusions I come to based on the events and facts of the story, and based on my having been alive on planet earth and having paid attention while doing so, are also truths, but of a different, more abstract, nature. I'm talking about the truths of human beings, why they are the way they are, and yes… why the world is so fucked up.  

I say in the book that all the reasons why the world is so fucked up are based on people believing untruths.

I know that I'm right on this one thing.

That my words have affected many of you, some profoundly, and that many of you know what I know about why the world is so fucked up has moved me greatly. (I say this based on the hundreds of emails I've gotten.) I apparently did not go through it all for nought.  

Okay. Enough self-serving puffery: One of the characters from the book is actively threatening it's very survival. I'll not identify the character here, nor go into details. That's to come. Please hang in, bear with me.

Take this one to heart: When you lie about someone they get angry.

When you tell the truth about someone they get outraged. And frightened.

This person is outraged and frightened. This person is demanding to know the names and addresses of everyone who bought the book. And wants all copies pulped or burned. Destroyed. Burned. My book. 

Here's some news I got from my former home down south: My ex-girlfriend, Lisa, is celebrating. And so is one of her current boyfriends, whose name is Brian.

Celebrating.

This message is about the celebrating couple, Lisa and Brian – their (first) attempt to kill my new book, via lies about another of my children — my other memoir, In Search of Captain Zero.   

I'll deal with the other attempts, including the direct one mentioned above, in upcoming messages.

Be advised that I may be asking for your help and support. 

The following review appeared on the In Search of Captain Zero Amazon.com page (use the Close button at the bottom of each page, not the Back button):

Click here for the review…

Click here for the reviewer's profile , which gives away who he really is via his email address…

Click here for my response … 

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(Before you read the below stuff you should have already gone to the above links in the order presented)

If you go to Amazon.com you'll see that neither review is now posted. This is because Amazon got cold feet about publishing my review and removed Brian Neumann's even though I emailed saying DO NOT remove it, since I had already been libeled (it was on Amazon for a month) and taking it off did not repair the damage done to me. I demanded the right to reply to the libel, via my review.

Amazon knew they'd fucked up by publishing Neumann's libel in the first place and decided to cut their loses and take Neumann's libel off, and then refused to publish my reply. (I'd cached Neumann's libel beforehand.)

By the way: The photo above and to the right is the real Lindsey. (Lindsey moved up to Jaco, which is why Brian and Lisa used his name — had they used a current Pavones resident's name, they would have got busted on their lies.) 
 
If you care at all about truth and seeing to it that chronically dishonest people get their comeuppance, and if you care about (physically) unspoiled places and want to help them remain so, DO NOT BUY LAND FROM BRIAN OR LISA down at Pavones. These two are trying to get rich developing a large chunk (60 acres) of pristine outback Costa Rica. Their company name is Volvere Aqui, S.A.

Getting involved in a land deal (in a Third World country) with dishonest people is dumb-ass anyway, isn't it?

And, as I say in my review-reply, if you are "a reader" (and you probably are, bless you), you should be outraged at their lies.    

A final note: With Brian Neumann's transparently dishonest smearing of my integrity, he "opened the door" to my telling people not to invest with him, or his partner. Had he not come up with this completely dumb-ass move, I would not have had "good reason" to retaliate. Now I do have good reason, and every right, legal and moral, to brand him (and his partner) as dishonest.

As Lisa and Brian both know, part of the mission statement of my website (which Lisa helped me craft) is to give people advice on land buying in Costa Rica (to make a new life, not to get rich), including who to avoid down there. They should have thought of that before libeling me in a public forum.

Upcoming postings will deal with the other threats to my new book and how I'm dealing with them.  I have to say it again: Thank you for your support. I do need it. I must save my book. I believe it deserves a life. It deserves to be read. If you agree, hang in with me on this stuff. Please.

If you're moved to write to Brian Neumann, to maybe ask for his reason for libeling me, be my guest. His email is on his profile, above. And maybe forward this page to people you know who are interested in the expat life, Costa Rica, or… just… truth.

Here's James MacLaren's review in its entirety:

http://www.ink19.com/issues/december2006/printReviews/canTYouGetAlongWith.html

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