..as the new leader starts building his legacy
of encouragement and innovation..
...the last contrast finds his legacy to be
harsh imbalance and discouraging inadequacies..
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
wait a minute boys ...
wait a minute boys ... this one's not dead !
so they took 'im to the infirmary
(Bob dylan, Hurricane)
things are not often as they seem?
things are not always as they seem?
a frenchman, Jaques Ellul, talks sense to me about Anarchy & Christianity, what they mean, how the Bible has been subverted to serve the interests Sharon (thought it was Oberon at first, fooled by those myriad dots :-) is talking about below ... not as much of a nutbar as Ivan Illich maybe, who just happened to be saying similar things, viz.
corruption of the best becomes the worst
from first principles then - God simply does not fit the subject/object 'model' of thinking, you can't think about God that way
well, it was an eye-opener for me at least :-)
be well.
so they took 'im to the infirmary
(Bob dylan, Hurricane)
things are not often as they seem?
things are not always as they seem?
a frenchman, Jaques Ellul, talks sense to me about Anarchy & Christianity, what they mean, how the Bible has been subverted to serve the interests Sharon (thought it was Oberon at first, fooled by those myriad dots :-) is talking about below ... not as much of a nutbar as Ivan Illich maybe, who just happened to be saying similar things, viz.
corruption of the best becomes the worst
from first principles then - God simply does not fit the subject/object 'model' of thinking, you can't think about God that way
well, it was an eye-opener for me at least :-)
be well.
Non Violent non-cooperation
Non Violent non-cooperation……….we are tiny drops in the ocean but together we are the oceans……….
So what is it these bastards want? These elite, these reptilians? It can’t be money because they fucking invented the filthy lucre and let’s face it they have it all already, they enslave us through their monetary system, but that’s not enough, it’s not their goal it’s not their aim.
They have taken a very long time, worked craftily and carefully for maybe thousands of years, they have removed us from our divinity with their religions, religions that are all the same! Mithras bears such an uncanny resemblance to Jesus who bears a very strong resemblance to Horus, these religions have another resemblance the congregation must not approach the divine directly but must do so through intervention from priests.
Possibly thought then we are being removed from our own divinity, denied our own powers, our spiritual awareness is stunted and thwarted we are encouraged to think of the divine as other, as outside ourselves and are grounded with only our five senses, we have more than five who knows how many more, in my every day work I am a psychic, I work on the premium phone lines, every body I speak to is an empath, is psychic, a healer EVERYBODY!
We are made up of energy, cosmic energy, basically that’s all we are, electrical impulses, I am an energy worker and I know how these energies can be directed, used for healing, understanding, psychic communication, our energies never die, they can’t they can leave our bodies and change but energy is infinite, changeable, focused or unfocused, mixing and blending with the cosmic whole or staying unique and individual just as we ourselves are.
Another possible thought then is that these powers that be; these fucking wankers that are controlling everyone are themselves after energy, our energy. Some energy they feed well from, some of it gives them a buzz, fear seems to be really potent for them, hate is an energy they cultivate again and again, sorrow will do at a push, grief will help them bubble, which may explain why we are kept in a state of fear, stress, pain and anguish. Even exposing their nasty games presents us with emotions that they can feed from. Remember emotion is simply energy, powerful directed energy when we watch our TV and see thousands die in the World Trade Centre.
These are my thoughts and I really want to be wrong, but why else constant war? Constant fear? constant division being promoted through humanity? Stupid reasons that make no sense given for why we must kill, why we must send our sons and daughters away to wars, how much fear is really being generated in Iraq, in Gaza, in Afghanistan? Take a moment can you feel that fear? That hate? That pain? Can you? I can, I am in a cold sweat, my stomach in knots, my eyes are full of tears and I know if I let them fall I will sob and sob.
We are being fooled and conned, held back, we know that now, eyes are being opened to awareness all over the world, yet we still feel small powerless unable and perhaps afraid to embrace our own powers, our own control, our own divinity, we have to stop being our own prison warders, we have to realise that we deny our own power at our peril. If they feed from our energy then we can change that, we need to be clear headed, not give in to despair or panic, we will have to be strong and there are difficult times ahead begin to feel your own energies, the energies around you, dare to be familiar with atmosphere, claim back your own divinity and know that you are a divine and powerful being.
Why have matters escalated over the past fifty years so much? They worked in secret for so long, so carefully, could it be arrogance that makes them break cover now or could it be their own fear? There own panic about what is happening with us, with the proles, the huddled masses, could it be that we as humans are evolving into a place we can fight them at their own game? We are evolving you know as a race, as humans, many of us are now born without wisdom teeth, acknowledged to be a natural evolution, how else are we evolving?
How else are we already evolved but in ignorance? Ask yourself these questions and dare to dream, because that’s all we have…….. our dreams.
So what is it these bastards want? These elite, these reptilians? It can’t be money because they fucking invented the filthy lucre and let’s face it they have it all already, they enslave us through their monetary system, but that’s not enough, it’s not their goal it’s not their aim.
They have taken a very long time, worked craftily and carefully for maybe thousands of years, they have removed us from our divinity with their religions, religions that are all the same! Mithras bears such an uncanny resemblance to Jesus who bears a very strong resemblance to Horus, these religions have another resemblance the congregation must not approach the divine directly but must do so through intervention from priests.
Possibly thought then we are being removed from our own divinity, denied our own powers, our spiritual awareness is stunted and thwarted we are encouraged to think of the divine as other, as outside ourselves and are grounded with only our five senses, we have more than five who knows how many more, in my every day work I am a psychic, I work on the premium phone lines, every body I speak to is an empath, is psychic, a healer EVERYBODY!
We are made up of energy, cosmic energy, basically that’s all we are, electrical impulses, I am an energy worker and I know how these energies can be directed, used for healing, understanding, psychic communication, our energies never die, they can’t they can leave our bodies and change but energy is infinite, changeable, focused or unfocused, mixing and blending with the cosmic whole or staying unique and individual just as we ourselves are.
Another possible thought then is that these powers that be; these fucking wankers that are controlling everyone are themselves after energy, our energy. Some energy they feed well from, some of it gives them a buzz, fear seems to be really potent for them, hate is an energy they cultivate again and again, sorrow will do at a push, grief will help them bubble, which may explain why we are kept in a state of fear, stress, pain and anguish. Even exposing their nasty games presents us with emotions that they can feed from. Remember emotion is simply energy, powerful directed energy when we watch our TV and see thousands die in the World Trade Centre.
These are my thoughts and I really want to be wrong, but why else constant war? Constant fear? constant division being promoted through humanity? Stupid reasons that make no sense given for why we must kill, why we must send our sons and daughters away to wars, how much fear is really being generated in Iraq, in Gaza, in Afghanistan? Take a moment can you feel that fear? That hate? That pain? Can you? I can, I am in a cold sweat, my stomach in knots, my eyes are full of tears and I know if I let them fall I will sob and sob.
We are being fooled and conned, held back, we know that now, eyes are being opened to awareness all over the world, yet we still feel small powerless unable and perhaps afraid to embrace our own powers, our own control, our own divinity, we have to stop being our own prison warders, we have to realise that we deny our own power at our peril. If they feed from our energy then we can change that, we need to be clear headed, not give in to despair or panic, we will have to be strong and there are difficult times ahead begin to feel your own energies, the energies around you, dare to be familiar with atmosphere, claim back your own divinity and know that you are a divine and powerful being.
Why have matters escalated over the past fifty years so much? They worked in secret for so long, so carefully, could it be arrogance that makes them break cover now or could it be their own fear? There own panic about what is happening with us, with the proles, the huddled masses, could it be that we as humans are evolving into a place we can fight them at their own game? We are evolving you know as a race, as humans, many of us are now born without wisdom teeth, acknowledged to be a natural evolution, how else are we evolving?
How else are we already evolved but in ignorance? Ask yourself these questions and dare to dream, because that’s all we have…….. our dreams.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Edgar Allan Poe
Leave my loneliness unbroken!
quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart,
and take thy form from off my door!
'Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
justification
..since democracy was conceived as the end of monarchies, it was designed to coexist extremes in attitude (states of belief.)
The antidote role (three branches of governing) was inspired to reject taxation.
The United States was created as a health plan for parasitic behavior.
Health care makes us invest on possibilities that bad things should be prepaid for the best value?
This gambling attitude as been used to set up a dealership of competing parasites (as Blagovich demonstrates reflexively manifests.)
Shouldn't Insurance consider a tweak into Assurance?
If investing in debt has been so powerful,
what about the potential of health credit interest as appreciation values to balance the books?
The antidote role (three branches of governing) was inspired to reject taxation.
The United States was created as a health plan for parasitic behavior.
Health care makes us invest on possibilities that bad things should be prepaid for the best value?
This gambling attitude as been used to set up a dealership of competing parasites (as Blagovich demonstrates reflexively manifests.)
Shouldn't Insurance consider a tweak into Assurance?
If investing in debt has been so powerful,
what about the potential of health credit interest as appreciation values to balance the books?
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The extraterrestrial presence
The greatest story every denied,
is that we are not alone in the universe
The Disclosure Project
Lunomaly Research Group
Dr. Edgar Mitchell-Apollo 14
Travis Walton-Fire in the Sky
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Obama ~ Another View ~
" I am writing this in the last days of 2008 as I watch with dismay as vast numbers of people across the world, including many who should know better, have been duped by the mind-game called Operation Obama.
Even people with some understanding of the conspiracy have said things like: 'Well, at least he's not Bush' and 'Well, at least it's great to see such a new spirit of hope'. No, he's not Bush - he's potentially far more dangerous; and what is the use of a spirit of 'hope' if it's based on a lie? In fact, what use is 'hope' at all?
Obama's wife, Michelle, who I wouldn't trust to tell me the date in a calendar factory, said that 'everything begins and ends with hope'. Utter nonsense. Hope is a meaningless emotion because its fruits are always in the future and, by definition, never in the NOW.
Hope is like riding a carousel horse; no matter how fast you go you never get closer to the one in front. The idea, however, is to persuade you to stay on the horse, despite the evitable disappointment, in the 'hope' that things will change. But they don't because the very system is designed to prevent it.
That's the way 'hope' is employed by the dastardly and devious - take the crap we are giving you now in the 'hope' that things will get better (but we know they won't). Barack Obama is a purveyor of 'hope' because his masters want the people to accept what they are given now in the hope that good times will come.
Just do what we demand, oops, sorry, Barack demands, and in return he'll inspire you to hope that it is all leading to the Promised Land. It isn't, but, by the time you realise that, it's too late.
What terrifies the manipulators is that people will abandon hope, as a future, sometime-never projection, and start to demand fairness, justice and freedom now. To avoid this nightmare they need to keep those desires as something to aspire to, not to actually have.
Thus, their man, Obama, sells 'hope' as a diversion technique, a holding position, to keep the masses from truly rebelling. We have no job, no food on the table and our home has been foreclosed, but at least we have 'hope'. Phew, thank goodness for that.
'I'm hungry, mum, can I have some hope, please?'
'I'm so sorry, darling, you can't have hope today, only tomorrow - hope is always tomorrow.'
'So will I eat tomorrow, mum?'
'We can hope so now, dear, but when we get to tomorrow, we can only hope it's the next day.'
On and on it goes. That's how 'hope' works. Or rather doesn't.
Obama's predominant mantra has been 'change'. Indeed, his massively-funded, record-breaking campaign was based on that one word - change. This is a technique used by Bill Clinton and many others and it is highly effective because, at any point, the system ensures that most people are not happy with the way life is. So, when you don't like the status quo, 'change' can be a potent message, even if, like Obama, you don't say what it means.
It has been vital to his success, and that of his controllers, that he has never specified what his 'hope', 'change', and that other mind-control trigger-word, 'believe', were referring to in terms of policy and the way society in general will be affected. Hope for what? Change what? Believe in what? To answer those questions with specifics would have been fatal to Obama's appeal.
I studied the military/government mind-control programmes and techniques in great detail for many years during the late-1990s and across 2000, and the Obama 'phenomenon' is the most blatant mass-mind control operation you could wish to see.
At its core the plan has been to make Obama the focus of everything you hope for, believe in and want to change. This is why it has been crucial for him not to specify and detail what is meant by his 'hope, 'change' and 'believe'.
However, I can tell you what those words mean in the context of the Obama mind-game. They mean whatever you decide they mean or want them to mean. The idea is for you to project all that you stand for onto him and so he becomes the symbol of you and how you see the world. Specifics would destroy that 'I am whatever you want me to be' scenario and so you don't get any detail, just 'hope', 'change', and 'believe'.
They don't want him to be seen only as 'the Messiah'; they also want him to be Abraham Lincoln, JFK, or Buddha - anyone you choose to project on him, for he is a blank page, blank screen and empty suit. Obama is a make-your-own, do-it-yourself leader, a projection of your own mind. (If you are still asleep, that is. If you are in any way awake, he's an open book.)
There is no more powerful way of manipulating people than to tell them what they want to hear and to keep shtum about anything they wouldn't like. Double-glazing salesmen are trained to pick up in general conversation what their target likes and dislikes and to respond accordingly in the way the product is sold. The technique is simply to tell the potential buyer what you have gleaned they want to be told.
Obama comes from the same stable, but on a massively bigger scale and with a whole network of advisors and controllers steeped in the art of manipulating minds, opinions and actions.
Obama's written-for-him speeches are not from the heart, but from the autocue. The 'heart' bit comes from extensive training and his Bill Clintonesque ability to 'mean it when he says it', a state of delivery that goes beyond mere acting. Tony Blair was trained in the same way.
But if you take a step back and look at these people dispassionately you can clearly see the techniques they consciously employ. Blair is the most blatant fraud in the way he delivers a line, stops in mid-sentence for emphasis and looks down for fake emotional effect. Obama is a little more slick, but, from where I have been looking this past year, not much. And how have people not seen those cold eyes just above the painted smile?
You can watch his mind working, turning between autocue screens to his left and right, then straight down the camera for his key messages. From-the-heart orators don't do that; they are too immersed in what they are feeling and saying to give even a passing thought to where they are looking or how the line is delivered.
I worked in television for more than a decade, often reading autocue while a director spoke in my ear telling me what cameras to look at. I have, since the early 1990s, spoken my truth on public stages across the world. I know, therefore, the difference between artificial autocue delivery and body language and talking from the heart without a script. Obama, I repeat, is coming from the autocue, not the heart.
Obama's speeches are a mass of mind-control techniques and Neuro-Linguistic-Programming, or NLP, and they are carefully constructed to implant beliefs and perceptions into the mind of the viewer. Click here for a description of his psycho-babble, headed An Examination of Obama's Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches.
As I keep emphasising, the whole Obama circus is an exercise in mass mind control and it has been so successful because so many people live their lives in a permanent state of trance. All of which brings me to the parallels with Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and similar regimes throughout history.
Obama may not look like Hitler, nor sound like Hitler, but the themes are just the same. Germany was in a terrible state economically and militarily in the 1930s in the aftermath of the First World War and the reparations inflicted on the country by the Rothschild/Illuminati-controlled Versailles 'Peace' Conference in 1919.
From amid the chaos came the man that Germans saw then in much the same way that so many see Obama today. His name was Adolf Hitler and his oratory and rhetoric, again supported by a ritualistic presentation founded on mind-control techniques, made him appear to be the German 'messiah', the German Obama.
Hitler promised 'change', 'hope' and something to 'believe in' amidst the consequences of war and financial collapse. He spoke to vast rallies of adoring followers and a mass movement emerged in support of Hitler's vision of a new tomorrow.
As the writer Webster Tarpley points out, fascism in its true sense is not just a Police State imposed by a tiny hierarchy. It might end up like that, but first it is brought to power by a mass movement from within the people who have no understanding of what the 'change', hope' and 'believe' they are being offered really means. They just know that they want some because, as with Obama, they make it mean what they want it to mean. Only later do they see, to their horror, what they have signed up for.
Obama is far more dangerous than Bush because he can sell a line to those who are in the trance while Boy Bush could not do that on anything like the same scale. Bush was a transparent idiot with no communication skills who needed massive fraud at the polls to get him officially 'elected'. He could never be the figurehead to inspire a mass movement of the people to support some vacuous 'hope', 'change' and 'believe' when they don't even know what those words are supposed to mean.
But Obama clearly can, because he has.
One of 'his' (his controllers') prime targets are the young, just as they were with the Nazis and the Hitler Youth Movement. If you think this parallel is far-fetched then have a look at this video to see how extreme Obama worship has already become for some young people. Hitler Youth was just the same. Click here to watch ...
In line with this theme, the WorldNetDaily website reported:
'The official website of President-Elect Barack Obama, Change.gov, originally announced that Obama would "require" all middle school through college students to participate in community service programs; but after a flurry of blogs protested children being drafted into Obama's proposed youth corps, the website's wording was softened.
Originally, under the tab "America Serves", Change.gov read, "President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps.
"Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year," the site announced.'
Obama said in a speech in July 2008 in Colorado Springs that he wanted to see a 'civilian national security force' that would be as powerful and well-funded as the Marines, Navy and Air Force. As Joseph Farah, founder of WorldNetDaily, wrote:
'If we're going to create some kind of national police force as big, powerful and well funded as our combined U.S. military forces, isn't this rather a big deal? I thought Democrats generally believed the U.S. spent too much on the military.
How is it possible their candidate is seeking to create some kind of massive but secret national police force that will be even bigger than the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force put together? Is Obama serious about creating some kind of domestic security force bigger and more expensive than that? If not, why did he say it? What did he mean?'
Obama meant, amid the flowery words, that he's not in favour of either peace or freedom. He is a front-man demagogue for the same force that controlled Boy Bush, Clinton, Father Bush, Reagan, Carter, ad infinitum; but the difference is that he has been hyped to such hysterical proportions that he will be allowed to get away with far more than they were, at least until reality dawns on the mass ranks of his hypnotised supporters. And, clearly, that could take some time.
The cabal will be anxious to squeeze every minute from Obama's honeymoon period and we can expect to see events move quickly after his inauguration in January............
More here
Terminator
george orwell was indeed an extraordinary visionary
he would look upon the present day and say
truly, the nightmare of 1984 is beginning
surveillance is ubiquitous
and the nsa is listening and watching
perpetual war is exactly what we have with
the "war on terror"
robot drones kill "suspected" terrorists
.....judge, jury and executioner.....boom!
the global weapon$ trade is a force unto it$elf,
it is draining our very blood to do it$ bidding
secret space based weapon systems are being built
and will become the final solution for control of the world
eisenhower was right about the
"military-industrial complex", warning us didn't help
the united states spends nearly the same amount of
money on the war machine, as the rest of the world combined
Here comes the "Reaper"
The Predator B
General Atomics
new and improved
MQ-9 "Reaper"
robot warfare is here
Some Things Never Change
Many Americans, including myself, feel more optimistic about the future of the nation and prospects for a more rational and ethical foreign policy now that the administration of George W. Bush has been supplanted with an exceedingly more intelligent and compassionate national leadership. Obama’s decision to close the infamous Guantanamo prison and proclaim an end to the practices of torture and “extraordinary rendition” are, of course, meaningful steps in that direction.
However, we still see before us the prospects of perpetual war. The intended withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and their redeployment to Afghanistan will merely transplant the violence to a different location. It is still not assured that the alleged stability in Iraq will be maintained following the transition, since millions of Iraqis remain displaced and the national infrastructure is still in shambles after nearly twenty years since the wholesale destruction of the nation following the First Gulf War.
What has made the present situation particularly troubling is the accelerated use of “robot warfare” especially the use of pilotless drones equipped with weapons of mass destruction. The current strategy, that obviously has the approval of the Obama Administration, is that these malevolent devices are and will continue to be used against individual targets such as houses in remote areas, where suspected militants are presumed to reside. The missiles that are used do not discriminate between actual enemies and innocent men, women and children whose only guilt is one of association.
It is particularly disheartening that there is no public outcry or expression of outrage by the American people in regard to this reality, for it heralds a new and frightening age where aseptic and sanitized killing will become the norm. The military is very engaged in developing all manner of robot killing devices. Will the expansion of this method of warfare be acceptable to the American public as long as no Americans die as a consequence?
It is unwise to ignore the magnitude of this change in policy, for those who are the victims of these devices are exceedingly outraged. These kind of killings will not be forgotten nor the terror that is invoked in those who are powerless against such technology.
Warfare of this kind, in which we feel justified in killing our suspected adversaries along with any others who may be in the vicinity, indicates that the concept of fighting terror with terror remains as an accepted strategy. In the long run this will only bring us grief, for it does not address the real issues that propel our adversaries in the first place. Furthermore, the implication is that this kind of warfare has no end, since we will continue to have such opponents determined to do us harm as long as the current relationship between the powerful nations and much of world’s poor remains unchanged. Furthermore, this policy of perpetual aggression ensures that much of the nation’s precious resources will continue to be diverted to war and the machinery that sustains it.
We can do better than this.
However, we still see before us the prospects of perpetual war. The intended withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and their redeployment to Afghanistan will merely transplant the violence to a different location. It is still not assured that the alleged stability in Iraq will be maintained following the transition, since millions of Iraqis remain displaced and the national infrastructure is still in shambles after nearly twenty years since the wholesale destruction of the nation following the First Gulf War.
What has made the present situation particularly troubling is the accelerated use of “robot warfare” especially the use of pilotless drones equipped with weapons of mass destruction. The current strategy, that obviously has the approval of the Obama Administration, is that these malevolent devices are and will continue to be used against individual targets such as houses in remote areas, where suspected militants are presumed to reside. The missiles that are used do not discriminate between actual enemies and innocent men, women and children whose only guilt is one of association.
It is particularly disheartening that there is no public outcry or expression of outrage by the American people in regard to this reality, for it heralds a new and frightening age where aseptic and sanitized killing will become the norm. The military is very engaged in developing all manner of robot killing devices. Will the expansion of this method of warfare be acceptable to the American public as long as no Americans die as a consequence?
It is unwise to ignore the magnitude of this change in policy, for those who are the victims of these devices are exceedingly outraged. These kind of killings will not be forgotten nor the terror that is invoked in those who are powerless against such technology.
Warfare of this kind, in which we feel justified in killing our suspected adversaries along with any others who may be in the vicinity, indicates that the concept of fighting terror with terror remains as an accepted strategy. In the long run this will only bring us grief, for it does not address the real issues that propel our adversaries in the first place. Furthermore, the implication is that this kind of warfare has no end, since we will continue to have such opponents determined to do us harm as long as the current relationship between the powerful nations and much of world’s poor remains unchanged. Furthermore, this policy of perpetual aggression ensures that much of the nation’s precious resources will continue to be diverted to war and the machinery that sustains it.
We can do better than this.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Abortion
How to, reduce/minimize/avoid, abortion:
The majority of abortions
are because of "unintended" pregnancy.
"Unintended" pregnancies are
avoided with birth control and education.
The "Church" must embrace
birth control and education.
Overpopulation is a
serious threat to world peace.
Statistics on "abstinence-only sex education" show
girls are eight times more likely to allow "oral"
and six times more likely to allow "anal".
The "Church", in forbidding birth control,
is promoting overpopulation and ignorance.
The "Church"
must change position.
1984
"If, for example, it would somehow serve our interest to throw sulphuric acid in a child's face-are you prepared to do that?"
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Can Obama Restore World Peace -Agha H Amin
Can Obama Restore World Peace ?
How Far will USA fail and succeed-How far can Obama or Holbrooke go
Agha H Amin
9 February 2009
While Obama in personal terms did well and became the first mixed origin man to become US president it is unfair to expect many changes that Obama or his team can bring. Holbrooke may be giant of a man but his stature has to be judged in correlation to the various complicated and often overwhelming forces of history.
Three major foreign policy issues confront USA. The Arab-Israel Issue, the Afghanistan issue and the India-Pakistan issue. In the background is the more formidable albeit more intangible issue of Islamic extremism. The first and last issues above listed include state actors and the Afghan issue is a combination of non state and state actors.
It appears that Obama can only have a semblance of success in the Arab-Israel Issue. That is if he can just pursue the brilliant plan put forward by Rabbi Michael Lerner, pushing into the garbage all nonsense that the state department pen pusher clerk type bureaucrats or the crafty think tanks may try to put forward. In Afghanistan no amount of Holbrookes can succeed. Here the issue is a complex one. With more than 11 states having extreme outlooks about whether the Talibans should be or should not be allowed to rule Afghanistan. The issue is highly complex. In Bosnia the issue was far simpler with Russia far away and Europe extremely divided.
Nor were the mild Bosnian Muslims a threat to Europe. In Afghanistan we have Russia, Iran, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhastan, China,
whole of NATO as well as USA against Taliban whose only possible allies are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Where will poor Holbrooke fit in in this complex game as the magician who had achieved a miracle at Dayton? Afghanistan is and will remain for many decades a catch-22 for the USA. It is not like a Vietnam from which the USA can withdraw. The Vietnamese were a race using an ideology to survive. In Afghanistan its an ideology with multiple races that the USA is fighting. In Vietnam withdrawal was an option. In Afghanistan withdrawal will not lead to a solution but to another more bitter and deadly phase of the war. If the USA withdraws it will lose and if it stays it will continue to suffer with no end in sight for many decades. This is the tragedy of USA's situation in Afghanistan. Even if thve USA withdraws the Afghan civil war would continue and other state actors would intervene, while the USA would lose all allies that it had created in Afghanistan. So if we have to grade USA in Afghanistan the solution is not in sight. Holbrooke will fail.
Now we come to Kashmir. The Pakistani establishment, and I will not call it a state because Pakistan is controlled by a small clique of about 1000 families and a pathetic equation of highly corrupt politicians and respectably corrupt generals. Now these 1000 families which constitute the Pakistani establishment are trying to sell the idea to the USA that when the Kashmir issue is solved the threat to world peace in the shape of nuclear war can be avoided. As an ex soldier I do not think that Kashmir would solve the issue. Kashmir resolved or not resolved the Indo Pak conflict will continue till one party is defeated or both or one of the two disintegrate. Seen in this context what would poor Holbrooke do. He will in the end emerge as a shattered, immensely weakened and totally confused man. In any case in terms of international law Pakistan and India by agreed terms of Simla Accord of 1973 cannot allow a third party to decide Kashmir Issue. So good luck to Holbrooke, a man of substance, from whom too much should not be expected. What he is expected to do is what no single man can achieve.
The Pakistani state should forget about any hope of getting Kashmir through Holbrooke. If Pakistans politicians and generals can preserve what is left of Pakistan, posterity will remember them as heroes. From the type of strategy or more correctly apology of strategy that the Pakistani state is purusing in Frontier and Balochistan, even preserving what is left of Pakistan would be a great achievement.
Lastly with economic depression engulfing USA and the West little should be hoped from USA or Obama or Holbrooke. All would be at a loss and all should be commended if they can retain what they have rather than doing what no one could do. Little good should be accepted. In this age the guiding precept should be Neither Hope Nor Fear.
How Far will USA fail and succeed-How far can Obama or Holbrooke go
Agha H Amin
9 February 2009
While Obama in personal terms did well and became the first mixed origin man to become US president it is unfair to expect many changes that Obama or his team can bring. Holbrooke may be giant of a man but his stature has to be judged in correlation to the various complicated and often overwhelming forces of history.
Three major foreign policy issues confront USA. The Arab-Israel Issue, the Afghanistan issue and the India-Pakistan issue. In the background is the more formidable albeit more intangible issue of Islamic extremism. The first and last issues above listed include state actors and the Afghan issue is a combination of non state and state actors.
It appears that Obama can only have a semblance of success in the Arab-Israel Issue. That is if he can just pursue the brilliant plan put forward by Rabbi Michael Lerner, pushing into the garbage all nonsense that the state department pen pusher clerk type bureaucrats or the crafty think tanks may try to put forward. In Afghanistan no amount of Holbrookes can succeed. Here the issue is a complex one. With more than 11 states having extreme outlooks about whether the Talibans should be or should not be allowed to rule Afghanistan. The issue is highly complex. In Bosnia the issue was far simpler with Russia far away and Europe extremely divided.
Nor were the mild Bosnian Muslims a threat to Europe. In Afghanistan we have Russia, Iran, India, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhastan, China,
whole of NATO as well as USA against Taliban whose only possible allies are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Where will poor Holbrooke fit in in this complex game as the magician who had achieved a miracle at Dayton? Afghanistan is and will remain for many decades a catch-22 for the USA. It is not like a Vietnam from which the USA can withdraw. The Vietnamese were a race using an ideology to survive. In Afghanistan its an ideology with multiple races that the USA is fighting. In Vietnam withdrawal was an option. In Afghanistan withdrawal will not lead to a solution but to another more bitter and deadly phase of the war. If the USA withdraws it will lose and if it stays it will continue to suffer with no end in sight for many decades. This is the tragedy of USA's situation in Afghanistan. Even if thve USA withdraws the Afghan civil war would continue and other state actors would intervene, while the USA would lose all allies that it had created in Afghanistan. So if we have to grade USA in Afghanistan the solution is not in sight. Holbrooke will fail.
Now we come to Kashmir. The Pakistani establishment, and I will not call it a state because Pakistan is controlled by a small clique of about 1000 families and a pathetic equation of highly corrupt politicians and respectably corrupt generals. Now these 1000 families which constitute the Pakistani establishment are trying to sell the idea to the USA that when the Kashmir issue is solved the threat to world peace in the shape of nuclear war can be avoided. As an ex soldier I do not think that Kashmir would solve the issue. Kashmir resolved or not resolved the Indo Pak conflict will continue till one party is defeated or both or one of the two disintegrate. Seen in this context what would poor Holbrooke do. He will in the end emerge as a shattered, immensely weakened and totally confused man. In any case in terms of international law Pakistan and India by agreed terms of Simla Accord of 1973 cannot allow a third party to decide Kashmir Issue. So good luck to Holbrooke, a man of substance, from whom too much should not be expected. What he is expected to do is what no single man can achieve.
The Pakistani state should forget about any hope of getting Kashmir through Holbrooke. If Pakistans politicians and generals can preserve what is left of Pakistan, posterity will remember them as heroes. From the type of strategy or more correctly apology of strategy that the Pakistani state is purusing in Frontier and Balochistan, even preserving what is left of Pakistan would be a great achievement.
Lastly with economic depression engulfing USA and the West little should be hoped from USA or Obama or Holbrooke. All would be at a loss and all should be commended if they can retain what they have rather than doing what no one could do. Little good should be accepted. In this age the guiding precept should be Neither Hope Nor Fear.
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Eternal Now!
Practically all the great religions, spiritualities and philosophies of the world advise us to live in the present - to live in the NOW! NOW, I am no follower of a particular church though I was born and reared a Roman Catholic and lived the first forty years of my life as such. Since then I am more a sort of agnostic Buddhist who is open to all the possibilities that lie anywhere - in any area of human knowledge from science to literature to religion even - for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of human kind. I read the Bible as a wonderfully inspiring piece of literature - with the exception of those blood-thirsty sections of a very racist Old Testament. However, the teasing out of the latter is a matter for another post.
True Religion?:
True religion, if such exists, is one which seeks to find its spiritual base and disavows the abuse of power. However, history and common sense tells us that the abuse of power is endemic in all organised religions. But, in my experience there are oases of spirituality in the great Religions, in certain religious orders of monks and nuns and denominational charity workers who follow a vision of asceticism and sharing and caring and peace etc.
The Pain of Yesterday:
By this I mean that many of us can be slaves of our past, namely enslaved to hurts and regrets and maybe even remorse, which one of our national poets, Patrick Kavanagh describes as "the devil's contrition." A powerful metaphor! Maybe even we cannot forgive ourselves for some past wrong against another. It is my experience that often self-forgiveness can be more difficult than forgiving others. In this sense, regrets can eat our soul away. We cannot live in the NOW if we are slaves to the past, not having let go or allowed our past brokenness to be healed.
The Fear of Tomorrow:
We can be slaves of the future, too. How many of us are slaves to the empty dreams of how much we will earn and how much we will achieve? How many of us are never happy with where we are NOW in our lives. As Shakespeare says in Sonnet 29:
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
We can be slaves also to fear, which is probably as endemic as wishful thinking and base greed and desire. We may fear what tomorrow will bring: whether by way of breakdown in relationships or loss of jobs or whatever.
The Answer is NOW!
Buddhism teaches us through meditation practices to cease to be slaves to our past and our future, and by being mindful to live in the endless possibilities of the present moment. Be aware of the rhythm of your breath. Awake to the wonder of being alive. Find hope within the beauty of your own soul, even if the body is getting old and breaking down. Observe the cycles of the seasons, how they come and go. Such is life and such is death. Neither is the opposite of the other really. Actually both are part of the greater cycle. Both belong to the eternity of NOW!
Above I have uploaded a picture I took from the bank of the Tiber, Rome, Easter, 2007. A brief peek at the beauty of NOW!
Human Nature Part I
There seems to be a paradoxical aspect of human nature that may help explain the penchant for aggression and violence. On the one hand, humans as members of a family, group, tribe or nation, are able to work harmoniously with cooperative effort towards goals that benefit everyone. This collective behavior operates effectively; unless, severe catastrophic conditions such as profound environmental calamities, famine, epidemics, etc disrupt this cohesiveness, or an individual is plagued with mental illness. I believe that this capacity for concerted endeavor is wired into the human brain as a result of millions of years of social evolution.
Juxtaposed to this natural propensity for harmonious behavior is the equally potent fear and mistrust of those outside the community whether it is family, group tribe or nation. Fear can trigger the body, directed by various chemical signals from the brain, to react with the classic “flight or fright” response. The urgency of such a reaction, precludes rational thought or reasoned consideration; it is a purely survival mechanism. This propensity is also engrained within the fabric of the human brain.
As individuals, we are often confronted by choices that may elicit responses dictated by either of these pathways. I view this as a life long struggle between the voice of intellect and reason and that of the emotions. It is both these aspects that define us as humans; we can not extricate them from our being; that would be wholly useless endeavor.
The path that a society chooses in confronting possible collective conflict or crisis, i.e. the path of reason or that of the emotions, depends largely upon education. If the culture at large condones and encourages violence as a legitimate response to threat and punishment as the primary means to promulgate justice, then individuals within that culture will adopt these methodologies. However, if the intellect and reason are the attributes that are encouraged and nurtured, then an entirely different set of outcomes are possible.
Although human civilization has tended in the past to succumb to the reactive pathway as dictated by hostility and fear, this does not preclude alternative outcomes in the future. The Utopian ideal for human societies is not outside the grasp of human history. We need, as a species, to reeducate ourselves and transform our view of self and other.
Juxtaposed to this natural propensity for harmonious behavior is the equally potent fear and mistrust of those outside the community whether it is family, group tribe or nation. Fear can trigger the body, directed by various chemical signals from the brain, to react with the classic “flight or fright” response. The urgency of such a reaction, precludes rational thought or reasoned consideration; it is a purely survival mechanism. This propensity is also engrained within the fabric of the human brain.
As individuals, we are often confronted by choices that may elicit responses dictated by either of these pathways. I view this as a life long struggle between the voice of intellect and reason and that of the emotions. It is both these aspects that define us as humans; we can not extricate them from our being; that would be wholly useless endeavor.
The path that a society chooses in confronting possible collective conflict or crisis, i.e. the path of reason or that of the emotions, depends largely upon education. If the culture at large condones and encourages violence as a legitimate response to threat and punishment as the primary means to promulgate justice, then individuals within that culture will adopt these methodologies. However, if the intellect and reason are the attributes that are encouraged and nurtured, then an entirely different set of outcomes are possible.
Although human civilization has tended in the past to succumb to the reactive pathway as dictated by hostility and fear, this does not preclude alternative outcomes in the future. The Utopian ideal for human societies is not outside the grasp of human history. We need, as a species, to reeducate ourselves and transform our view of self and other.
campaign for trust
Remember the campaigning as a very successful job.
What working felt like
for the unity created is a powerful value.
Healthcare could be a powerful effort for unity.
The contribution potential can infuse the economy as a credit source.
Participation in healthy behavior pays reparation for the wealth parasite.
Think of the health-care we could provide with the wealth-fare already "invested."
Self-sustaining credit could grow from monthly installments
allowing payment for presenting information in adaptable forms.
Doctors are the prescription
for curing ignorance by sharing
their practice of observation, but
sometimes they'll feel they have to
pay people do do what is good for themselves.
This could remove the penalty reflex for malpractice (if costs were covered and participation had financial compensation)
if "bail-out" was considered the price of education.
Education could be tuned-up to give credit rather than force into debt.
If government wasn't in the loaning business there would be no taxes.
Could that possibility be a science to research?
The balance of powers in democracy needs to extend to currency health.
Profit was good for production values but toxic to Information Age development
due to secrecy standards.
A support credit needs to be created for service industry
to maintain the most healthy unity.
Intellectual property is another value
that should not have profit-motive pressures.
The financial vehicle for accumulating conceptual properties is called A Trust.
Trust as entitlement of supportive patriotism? (contrasting the plunderers?)
What working felt like
for the unity created is a powerful value.
Healthcare could be a powerful effort for unity.
The contribution potential can infuse the economy as a credit source.
Participation in healthy behavior pays reparation for the wealth parasite.
Think of the health-care we could provide with the wealth-fare already "invested."
Self-sustaining credit could grow from monthly installments
allowing payment for presenting information in adaptable forms.
Doctors are the prescription
for curing ignorance by sharing
their practice of observation, but
sometimes they'll feel they have to
pay people do do what is good for themselves.
This could remove the penalty reflex for malpractice (if costs were covered and participation had financial compensation)
if "bail-out" was considered the price of education.
Education could be tuned-up to give credit rather than force into debt.
If government wasn't in the loaning business there would be no taxes.
Could that possibility be a science to research?
The balance of powers in democracy needs to extend to currency health.
Profit was good for production values but toxic to Information Age development
due to secrecy standards.
A support credit needs to be created for service industry
to maintain the most healthy unity.
Intellectual property is another value
that should not have profit-motive pressures.
The financial vehicle for accumulating conceptual properties is called A Trust.
Trust as entitlement of supportive patriotism? (contrasting the plunderers?)
The Reader's Digest Version of the Purpose of Life
Ok, so you want to fix the world, and by some twist of reality you've been given an absurd amount of power, but you don't want to be a tyrant or thoroughly wreck things, so you ask yourself, what now?
First of all we have to agree on what "fix" means. And generally that means improve, but improve what? We're not talking about grass roots homeless shelter style solutions here, you have more power than that in this context. We're talking about systemic change. A fundamental shift towards the plus side of the social spectrum.
So, what is the plus side? For practical purposes we have to answer a fundamental philosophical question. Wow, right? Philosophy stops being an esoteric head game and becomes a practical policy facet. The question is nothing less than, what is the point of life? We have to know before we can plan for fixing it. Well, here is it, the reader's digest version of the meaning of life and how to improve it.
42 right? No, that joke is a bit over used. And this is no joke. No, the meaning of life is "I don't know what the meaning of life is." Sounds like a non answer, but for practical purposes it's a very useful one.
Here's why. Once you can agree that you don't know what the deep all important hidden meaning of life is you're free to focus on what you DO know. and here's something we all know, that we can all agree on, and that my friends is the first step to real improvement by any practical definition.
Pain sucks. Pleasure rocks. Living people experience both.
Ready for it?
*drumroll*
The point of life is...
To maximize pleasure, to the greatest degree, with the least amount of work, for the greatest number of sentient beings, for the longest amount of time.
The various ways to do this are infinite in variety, and one great joy of life is figuring them out.
But it's worth keeping in mind, while you may be doing good, perhaps you could do more good somewhere else.
Good hunting.
-The Preceding is a chunk of my upcoming book.
First of all we have to agree on what "fix" means. And generally that means improve, but improve what? We're not talking about grass roots homeless shelter style solutions here, you have more power than that in this context. We're talking about systemic change. A fundamental shift towards the plus side of the social spectrum.
So, what is the plus side? For practical purposes we have to answer a fundamental philosophical question. Wow, right? Philosophy stops being an esoteric head game and becomes a practical policy facet. The question is nothing less than, what is the point of life? We have to know before we can plan for fixing it. Well, here is it, the reader's digest version of the meaning of life and how to improve it.
42 right? No, that joke is a bit over used. And this is no joke. No, the meaning of life is "I don't know what the meaning of life is." Sounds like a non answer, but for practical purposes it's a very useful one.
Here's why. Once you can agree that you don't know what the deep all important hidden meaning of life is you're free to focus on what you DO know. and here's something we all know, that we can all agree on, and that my friends is the first step to real improvement by any practical definition.
Pain sucks. Pleasure rocks. Living people experience both.
Ready for it?
*drumroll*
The point of life is...
To maximize pleasure, to the greatest degree, with the least amount of work, for the greatest number of sentient beings, for the longest amount of time.
The various ways to do this are infinite in variety, and one great joy of life is figuring them out.
But it's worth keeping in mind, while you may be doing good, perhaps you could do more good somewhere else.
Good hunting.
-The Preceding is a chunk of my upcoming book.
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