Friday, September 18, 2009
Racism Still Lives Boldly and is Apparently Well Nourished
The extreme fear and threats of violence and armed confrontation made by those who would benefit the most by the kinds of reforms Obama is proposing can be readily explained if the origin of these intense feelings is racism. For many whites, battered by the new economic reality, poorly educated and enveloped in a homogeneous social environment in which extremist Christian fundamentalist ideology thrives, the rapidly changing world of the twenty-first century is extremely daunting. They are collectively fearful. These fears are compounded and fueled by ignorance. What makes the situation apparently unbearable to those susceptible to the crazed references to socialism, communism and even fascism is that their President is an extremely intelligent and highly articulate black man. This unavoidable fact is unconscionable, for the black man is supposed to be beneath them and intrinsically inferior to them. This reality turns their essential perception of reality on its head and is very frightening.
The lynch mob mentality is apparently not dead. The nation has cause for concern, since powerful interests, who are threatened by the Obama presidency for obvious and understandable reasons, are unabashedly exploiting this fear that often seems to approach mass hysteria. The nation, polarized in this way, may continue to stagnate and may ultimately regress to a time when violence dominated the political landscape. National policies must be guided by reason and compassion if we ever hope to progress as a humane society. The President is only one man, but the national destiny is in the hands of all of us.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Culture of Fear
The Right's Fringe Festival
The racist, antigay, pro-gun, antichoice, Christian nationalist march on Washington
By Sebastian Jones
September 16, 2009
This Saturday, some 70,000 people marched through downtown Washington, DC. Organizers of the "Taxpayer March on DC" crowed on their website that "thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans" took to the streets because they've had "enough of the out of control spending, the bailouts, the growth of big government and soaring deficits." Pretty straightforward, bread-and-butter economic conservatism, right?
So imagine my surprise when, having just arrived at the march, I saw a thin, tall, bearded fellow with a boonie cap jogging up Pennsylvania Avenue shouting "White Power!" A few people looked around awkwardly, not sure how to react, but mostly the crowd just moved along. Why wouldn't they, after all, when just a few paces down the road an elderly man was showing off his "McCarthy Was Right!" sign, or when numerous placards compared the president to various genocidal tyrants, or when the most common mass-produced poster (courtesy of an antiabortion group) demanded that we "Bury Obamacare with Kennedy"?
This was only a sampling of the hateful language on display at the rally, which was only tangentially about taxation. More accurately, the event was a FreedomWorks-organized, corporate-funded, Fox News-fueled celebration of every conservative political and cultural cause of the past fifty years. Milling around the crowd, it was impossible to miss the references to issues as disparate as blocking investigations of CIA torture, promoting assault weapons and God "judging" America for homosexuality. Confederate flags were flown, Obama was told to "go back to Kenya," and so forth and so on. The crowd itself was almost exclusively white--and its members had come to get their country back.
(read more)
I Love English!
Most people think that French is a beautiful language and it is! Truly it is the language of love and all you women out there who have never had a man make verbal love to you in French, you are missing a treat. And, no, it doesn't seem to work the other way around.
For sublime poetry, Punjabi is unequaled. Although my Punjabi fails me this day, still the sound and the cadence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib pierces straight into the soul, elevating one's being to the sublime.
All that said, for communication, I love English. I love its devil-may-care attitude toward itself, the way it never takes itself too seriously. ( [English teachers] take it seriously, but that's another matter. No Henry Higgins I, I am pure 'Enry 'Iggins.) This is a robust tongue in need of no language police to protect its purity, for it has no purity to protect.
(Now that I have partially placated any English teachers who may be reading this. I proceed to the important stuff.)
Amrit always has, but Suni just started after they got married. (See how smoothly that flows and how perfectly understandable it is?)
I think my least favourite word is 'enthused.' It makes me cringe right from my cramping toes to the crown of my head. It sounds ugly, rhymes with ooooooooozed. I am not opposed to back formations, but I am opposed to gratuitous ugliness.
I can also dangle participles and modifiers like a champ, but I usually edit them out, unless I find them amusing. (While running to the store to shoplift some more Sudafed, my boiling pot of meth exploded, contaminating the whole neighbourhood.)
Here, as I close, I mention a new favourite piece of nonstandard English I came across a couple days ago. Eleanor Bloom, listen up! I CAN HAS MORR COKE PLZ, follow the link; you won't be sorry!
And now, for those of you who have actually gotten this far, some real fun with English:
Metaphors
Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. Here are some examples:
1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a
pinhole in it.
4. She grew on him like she was a colony of e-coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree.
8. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM machine.
9. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
10. McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like
11. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 P.M. Instead of 7:30.
12. Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.
14. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 P.M. Traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 P.M., at a speed of 35 mph.
15. They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
16. John and Mary had never met. They were like two humming-birds, which had also never met.
17. He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River
19. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
20. The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
21. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a day.
22. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
24. It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools.
25. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up
Coming of Age
The definition of oneself
From looking glass self
To introspective self-realization
Your opinion of me
Has nothing to do
With who I am.
Integrity is what we do
When no one is looking;
It is also what is found
Upon looking at ourselves –
But only when honesty is employed.
Happiness is smiling
When no one is around.
Generosity is giving
What you didn’t think you had.
Love is loving the one
Who doesn’t love you back
Simply because you love.
A shocking realization:
That I need no one
But want them just the same.
It means I no longer hurt
For lack of company,
But revel in community
And in humanity
And in myself.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
"Mad As Hell"
The group of touring physicians, called the "Mad as Hell Doctors," held a rally at the state capitol.
"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" the crowd yelled, at the group's urging, before the nine doctors from Oregon and California talked about why they favor a single-payer, government-run health care system that would cover all Americans.
"I'm mad as hell because Americans are going bankrupt because of their medical bills," Dr. Bob Seward, an internist from Portland, told the crowd.
"I'm mad as hell when I hear our country is ranked by the World Health Organization as 37th in the world, in terms of health outcomes," San Francisco family physician Marc Sapir said.
The doctors are stopping in 26 cities on their way to Washington, D.C., and they're not happy with any of the health-care reform options Congress is considering.
(read more)
Food, Inc.
Control the land, control the farms, control the seed, control the processing, control the advertising, control the congress, control the news, control the distribution, control the retail, control the access, control the food.
High calorie, sugar laden processed foods coupled with our sedentary lifestyles is growing our waistlines and contributing to serious health issues like diabetes, heart ailments and cancers. One-third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Tell Congress that kids should be served healthy meals, not soda and junk food.
Some of our most important staple foods have been fundamentally altered, and genetically engineered meat and produce have already invaded our grocery stores and our kitchen pantries.
Cancers, autism and neurological disorders are associated with the use of pesticides especially amongst farm workers and their communities. Learn about what pesticides are in your food and their effects.
Did you know that the average food product travels about 1,500 miles to get to your grocery store? And that transporting food accounts for 30,800 tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year?
Approximately 10 billion animals (chickens, cattle, hogs, ducks, turkeys, lambs and sheep) are raised and killed in the US annually. Nearly all of them are raised on factory farms under inhumane conditions. These industrial farms are also dangerous for their workers, pollute surrounding communities, are unsafe to our food system and contribute significantly to global warming.
In January 2008, the FDA approved the sale of meat and milk from cloned livestock, despite the fact that Congress voted twice in 2007 to delay FDA's decision on cloned animals until additional safety and economic studies could be completed.
Approximately 1 billion people worldwide do not have secure access to food, including 36 million in the US. National and international food and agricultural policies have helped to create the global food crisis but can also help to fix the system.
(video clip)
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A most lucid explanation
If I understand what he’s saying ..the current economic crises can be traced back to the Reagan Administration. In 1980 they deregulated the Savings and Loan industry ..which put the business of making home loans in the hands of amateurs. Then, in 1987 ..the Reagan Administration had to bail out the Savings and Loan industry when it collapsed under the weight of it’s own incompetence (and unbridled greed). The Federal government allowed the Savings and Loans to package questionable loans, and sell them as stocks ..or mortgage-backed securities. It was mortgage-backed securities that helped make the housing slump of 2006–2007 ..go global in 2008 ..and wipe out investment houses from Bear Stearns to Deutsche Industriebank
Peace
Why do you say it is not?
Surely, the reason that world peace is non-existent,
is indeed because of the fact that you say it is not possible.
Then after you voice this well-believed lie,
you're actions follow, as you lie in a pool of your own acquiescence.
We are the problem of this world, but we are also the solution.
Stop believing you're powerless and join the revolution of peace.
Google Earth
For the second time this month, Google is causing an immense amount of speculation.
Google has this time surprised its users with this crop circles logo.
Today’s logo shows a flying saucer above a series of crop circles that spell Google. Well, almost — the L has been abducted. That's similar to the last Google flying saucer logo from ten days ago, where an O was taken.
If you look at today’s logo’s file name, it’s “goog_e.gif” The URL of the logo is “http://www.google.com/logos/goog_e.gif” (there is a missing L). The last logo was go_gle.gif – reflecting the missing O. So that’s O and now L. What next?
We were all thinking it
September 15, 2009 -- BBC -- The Iraqi man who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush, has been released from jail in Baghdad, his brother has told the BBC.
Journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi's act of protest made him a hero in large parts of the Arab world and beyond.
Zaidi was convicted of assaulting a foreign leader.
The TV reporter's three-year prison sentence was reduced to one because he had a clean record. He was released three months early for good behaviour.
Zaidi's family has been preparing to hold a party for him and he has received offers of money, jobs and even marriages from sympathisers across the Arab world.
His brother, Dargham al-Zaidi, says the journalist was beaten while in prison, suffering a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding. Those allegations have been rejected by the Iraqi military.
The previously little-known journalist worked for the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV.
As he flung the shoes, Zaidi shouted: "This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."
His action was celebrated in internet games and on T-shirts and some people have offered him their daughters in marriage.
We were all thinking it, now here's your chance.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Just One Thing
No normal decent person is just one thing.
OK!?!
I got some shit I'm conservative about,
I got some shit I'm liberal about.
When it comes to crime, I'm conservative,
when it comes to prostitution, I'm liberal.
...Chris Rock...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Isadora Duncan
Duncan's fondness for flowing scarves which trailed behind her was the cause of her death in a freak automobile accident in Nice, France, on the night of September 14, 1927, at the age of 50. The scarf was hand-painted silk from the Russian-born artist Roman Chatov. The accident gave rise to Gertrude Stein's mordant remark that "affectations can be dangerous."
Duncan was a passenger in the Amilcar automobile of a handsome French-Italian mechanic, Benoît Falchetto, whom she had nicknamed "Buggatti". Before getting into the car, she said to a friend, Mary Desti (mother of 1940s Hollywood writer-director Preston Sturges), and some companions, "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" ("Goodbye, my friends, I am off to glory!"). However, according to the diaries of the American novelist Glenway Wescott, who was in Nice at the time and visited Duncan's body in the morgue (his diaries are in the Beinecke Library at Yale University), Desti admitted that she had lied about Duncan's last words. Instead, she told Wescott, the dancer actually said, "Je vais à l'amour" ("I am off to love"), which Desti considered too embarrassing to go down in history as the legend's final utterance, especially as it suggested that Duncan hoped that she and Falchetto were going to her hotel for a sexual assignation.
Whatever her actual last words, when Falchetto drove off, Duncan's immense handpainted silk scarf—a gift from Desti that was large enough to wrap around her body and neck and flutter out of the car, became entangled around one of the vehicle's open-spoked wheels and rear axle. As The New York Times noted in its obituary of the dancer on September 15, 1927, "Isadora Duncan, the American dancer, tonight met a tragic death at Nice on the Riviera. According to dispatches from Nice Miss Duncan was hurled in an extraordinary manner from an open automobile in which she was riding and instantly killed by the force of her fall to the stone pavement." Other sources describe her death as resulting from strangulation, noting that she was almost decapitated by the sudden tightening of the scarf around her neck.
Isadora Duncan was cremated, and her ashes were placed next to those of her beloved children in the columbarium at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Mirrors
WAR, Inc.
In the 21st century,
great corporations will bestride the earth,
replacing nations as the true creators of history,
amassing powerful private armies to do their bidding.
Oral transmission in post-apocalypse sects
Savannah ..! Finn ..! look.
It's him. I finded him ..It's Captain Walker.
-He ain't made any wordstuff.
-It's a long track. Maybe he's burned out.
-Maybe.
-Maybe he's just listening.
Walker? Hello?
Maybe he's talking, but we ain't hearing.
You see ..his lips ain't moving.
Not with wordstuff, but maybe with sonic.
This is Delta-Fox-X-Ray. Can you hear me? Delta-Fox-X-Ray. Come in. Is anybody out there? Can you read me, Walker? What's up, Doc? Can you hear me,
Yeah, I can hear your ..who are you
-Quiet!-Shut up!
-Enough!
Who are you?
We are the waiting ones.Waiting for what?
Waiting for you.And who am I?
I think he be testing us .. this a testing, Walker? …you reckon we been slack?I don't know ..maybe you've been slack.
We ain't ..we kept it straight. It's all there. Everything marked ..everything 'membered. You wait, you'll see. This you knows. I be First Tracker. Times past count I done the Tell. But it weren't me that tumbled Walker. It was Savannah. So it's only right that she tell the Tell.This ain't one body's story. It's the story of us all. We got it mouth-to-mouth. You got to listen it and 'member. 'Cause what you hears today ..you got to tell the birthed tomorrow.
I'm looking behind us now. ..across the count of time . .down the long haul, into history back. In the end what were the start. It's Pox-Eclipse, full of pain! And out of it we were birthed ..from crackling dust and fearsome time. It were full-on winter ..and Mr. Dead chasing them all. But one he couldn't catch. That were Captain Walker.
He gathers up a gang, takes to the air and flies to the sky! So they left their homes,said bidey-bye to the high-scrapers . .and what were left of the knowing, they left behind. Some say the wind just stoppered. Others reckon it were a gang called Turbulence. And after the wreck, some had been jumped by Mr. Dead . .but some had got the luck,and it leads them here.One look and they's got the hots for it. They word it "Planet Earth. " "We don't need the knowing.We can live here. "
Time counts and keeps counting.They gets missing what they had. They get so lonely for the high-scrapers and the video. And they does the pictures so they'd 'member all the knowing that they lost.
'Member this?
-Tomorrow-morrow Land!
'Member this?
-The River of Light!
'Member this?
-Skyraft!
'Member this?
-Captain Walker!
'Member this?
-Mrs. Walker!
Then Captain Walker picked them of an age and good for a long haul. They counted twenty, and that were them. The great leaving. The rescue party departed at first light ..led by Flight Captain. Walker. "May God have mercy on our souls. " They said bidey-bye to them what they'd birthed.And from the nothing ..they looked back ..and Captain Walker hollered:
"Wait, one of us will come."
"Wait, one of us will come."
And somebody did come. .Walker! We's heartful to you, Captain Walker. We's ready now. Take us home. We kept it straight! Everything marked, everything 'membered!
You kept it real good. You ain't been slack.
Why are we waiting?That ain't me ..you got the wrong guy.
-Quit joshing!-Catch the wind.
-We got to see Tomorrow-morrow Land!
-Home! Tomorrow-morrow Land!
There were places like these.Cities. They were called cities.They had lots of knowing. They had skyscrapers ..videos and they had the sonic.Then this happened. This Pox-Eclipse happened, and it's finished. It isn't there anymore. You got to understand that this is home.And there ain’t no tomorrow Land ..and I ain't Captain Walker.
This is it!We's loaded and waiting, Captain. We got the wind up our arse, Captain. Let's go!Who's coming? We's pulling a leaving.There ain't gonna be no leavings. All that's just jerking time.We's working it different. Ain't you seen nothing? He couldn't catch the wind. There weren't no skyrafting. There won't be no salvage-shun. This is our Tomorrow-morrow Land. He's proof of that.
Programmed! All of you programmed. If he ain't Captain Walker, who is he? He ain't no different to us. He slogged it on foot. If he can get here, we can get back.He ain't much bigger than us. Copilot did it. So why can't we? That's the trick of it. Who's coming? Across the nothing? Don't you 'member? When you finded him, he were half jumped by Mr. Dead. Nobody's saying it ain't a hard slog. If we wants the knowing, it ain't an easy ride.
Look ..! There ain't no knowing! There ain't no skyraft and no sonic. You slog out there to nothing! Worse than nothing. The first place you'll find is a sleaze pit called Bartertown. If the earth doesn't swallow you up,that place will.
Don't listen to im ..! He's got wordstuff out his ass! Whoever's got the juice, track with us.
Now listen good! I'm not Captain Walker. I'm the guy who keeps Mr. Dead in his pocket. I say we're gonna stay here. And we'll live a long time and we'll be thankful. Right?
Yeah right .. whoever's got the juice, track with us.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Genocide and Mass Murder
However this happened, whoever did it, it's business as usual for the human race. The killing of thousands of innocent people on this particular day of infamy isn't anything out of the ordinary for you earth creatures. Isn't it just a repeat of what's been going on with this "Planet of the Apes" since the day you got here? The history of your pitifull existence is littered with innumerable examples of genocide and mass murder commited brother against brother in an endless theater of bloodletting. Starting with the Roman Empire, 50,000 spectators were entertained with gladiatorial games, executions and animal hunts. An estimated 500,000 people and over a million wild animals died in the Colosseum games. Let's go down the list: the Peloponnesian War, the genocides of Amalekites and Midianites, the destruction of Carthage, the Mongol horsemen of Genghis Khan, the un-ending religious wars, the eradication of as many as 100 million indigenous natives of the Americas, the complete extinction of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population, the War in the Vendée, The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, the Philippine-American War, the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa, War of the Three Kingdoms, the complete destruction of the Zunghar people, the Armenian Genocide, the Assyrian Genocide, the Greek genocide, the Spanish civil war, the Nazi holocaust of the Jews, the American civil war, the genocide against the Don Cossacks, World War One, the Guatemalan civil war, the Srebrenica genocide, the Rwandan Genocide, the Bangladesh War of 1971, Béla Kun's ethnic cleansing against Turkish and Crimean Tatars and other minorities in 1921-22, World War Two, Lenin's Red Terror, Stalin's Great Purge, the Korean War, Mao's suppression of counterrevolutionaries, Pol Pot's Killing Fields, massacres at the partition of India, or the Hama, Tlatelolco massacres, and the mass killing of communists by Suharto's New Order, War and Genocide in East Timor, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Nanjing Massacre, the Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish citizens, the Bombing of Chongqing, the Blitz, the bombing of Dresden and Hamburg, Pearl Harbor, the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, the Ethiopian Red Terror, the Halabja poison gas attack, The Persian Gulf War, the genocide in Tibet, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, should I stop there or keep going? You earthlings have spent the past ten thousand years perfecting your killing skills. You are very good at it. I don't know how long you will last.
Terrorist?
Smashing brain cells
Thursday, September 10, 2009
My Enemy
If I destroy my enemy.....
I destroy myself.....
If I save my enemy.....
I save myself.....
If I know my enemy.....
I know myself.....
If I love my enemy.....
I love myself.....
Coastal zone
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The New Deal
In 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States,
the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort
during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.
The FSA is famous for its small but
highly influential photography program, 1935-44,
that portrayed the challenges of rural poverty.
You can see a portion of this collection at the
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
What USA Seeks to Destroy and How Muslims will React
Basically it was a re-phrasing of what I told him how Muslims will react in response to US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although I am a leftist and free thinker this is how I thought Muslim extremists would react.
Over passage of years I believe in it more and more.
Freud was right as I read many years earlier his " Future of an Illusion " in 1985.
USA is neither Christian nor rightist.It is a minority ruled state at war with all the worlds oppressed regardless of whether they belong to any race or religion.
Article I wrote for Daily Nation Lahore 21 June 2002. The Nation published it again in AUGUST 2002. Also published on www.orbat.com the article drew some very outraged responses from US readers:---
WHAT USA SEEKS TO DESTROY
A.H Amin
The three cardinal attributes of today's geopolitics are "globalisation", "non ideological international themes" and "emphasis on economics" rather than "ideological conflict" as the key theme in international relations. It is another thing that below the surface "ideology remains a key issue", "the desire to enslave smaller or weakerstates by larger or stronger states" remains the key issue and "globalisation" is but another name of capitalism practiced at a globalscale.
The so called unipolar system also has limitations and is being repeatedly challenged, if not conventionally, then unconventionally as proved by events of 9/11. The famous philosopher Toffler may have re-defined power but human nature remains the same as it was 2,500 years ago. US Think Tanks and so called experts may advance subtle theses but the underlying conflict is the same i.e. a West which adopted Eastern Christianity and refashioned it as per Barbarian ideals versus an East with a different mindset and a different set of values.
The international capitalist order was challenged by French Revolution and the Communist Revolution in Russia but the power of the imperialistic exploiters could not be broken. Nonetheless without USSR military aid the Arabs could not have survived Israeli hegemonism. This is an irrefutable historical reality.
Long ago the West's present dilemma was summed up by one of its greatest historian Gibbon in the following words "Yet this apparent security should not tempt us to forget that new enemies and unknown dangers may possibly arise from some obscure people, scarcely visible in the map of the world". In the same paragraph Gibbon cited the example of the Arabs who had "languished in poverty and contempt" till the advent of Islam when in Gibbon's words Islam" breathed into those same bodies the soul of enthusiasm".
When modern US thinkers with links with US State decision making and analytical bodies state with confidence that "ideology is no longer fashionable" and that "international terrorism" is the key issue who are they fooling. If this line of thinking is to be followed, whenever any White Man or a Jewish man dies it is terrorism while whenever any non-White or Muslim dies this is casualty inflicted in sheer self defence in the war against terrorism. A stooge is a man who was protected by USSR and a King or Emir or a president protected by US Forces or US aid is a perfect patriot.
Take the "Firebombing of Tokyo" on the fateful night of 9/10 March 1945. On that night the US Airforce in the proud words of an American writer" conducted the most destructive air raid in history". Sixteen square miles of Tokyo were destroyed and some 83,793 Japanese civilian were killed mostly by third degree burns while some 40,918 were injured. A US General proudly exclaimed "It made a lot of sense to kill skilled workers". Compare this with US position on 9/11. If for a moment we accept that 9/11 was a great outrage in which some 3,000 were killed not all of them skilled, what was Tokyo Raid of March 1945?
There is a subtle motivation here. An ulterior geopolitical agenda. The West still fears ideology which it abandoned after 1945 in favour of shameless materialism. It fears men who cannot be bought, who have no fear for the tomorrow, who cannot be stopped by a NATO or the wide Atlantic or wider Pacific. USSR may have been a more synthetic state but the men motivated to die without motivated by the CIA pumped dollar via Silent Soldiers is a more dangerous specie. Enters the Asian and African Collaborator Regimes. Liberal Presidents, subtle Emirs, Egalitarian Kings, all mustered like Sepoy Jahan Khan in the First World War to fight the War against Terror. The Soviets were more naïve if less morally defective than the American decision makers. The Americans seek to accomplish enslavement through more sophisticated methods. Thus one of their intellectuals states in an article that "unlike centuries past, when war was the great arbiter, today the most interesting type of power do not come out of the barrel of the gun".
Today this man says "there is a much bigger pay off in getting others to want what you want". And there is no shortage of collaborators, ambitious men who usurped power whether it was after the downfall of Ottoman Empire with British or French money or in Egypt or Pakistan or in Indonesia.
Somewhere deep inside the US decision makers are at a loss to admit as to how with a 30 Billion USD intelligence budget, 13 Federal Organisations dealing with Intelligence and some 30,000 eavesdroppers employed by USA's National Security Agency was the Al Qaeda able to strike. Compare 30 Billion USD per year spent since two decades with maybe 4 Billion USD lost in 9/11. If the East or the Islamic World has any edge over the West it is in willingness to sacrifice rather than materialism and selfishness.
What the West and particularly the USA fears is not nuclear weapons but men motivated by ideology. Men who cannot be bought like the so many Emirs, Kings and Military Presidents from Morocco till Pakistan.
The world has not changed from Gibbons' times. The New Barbarians as the USA sees the Muslim radicals are more dangerous because they cannot be bought. Because they have operational talent and strategic acumen. Because they do not beg like Sadat for a Camp David but fight with their limbs rather than Stingers. What the US seeks is destruction of ideology which as per one theme presently floated in the so called prestigious National Defence College at Islamabad is no longer fashionable.
This is the Clash of Civilisation and will continue till this world exists or till the USA discovers a new planet where human beings can survive and to which the Americans will migrate after all the mineral resources of this world are exhausted and we are left to die without water or fuel.
If this is so and if low intensity war is the only way in which the conventionally weaker forces can defeat the conventionally stronger forces then so be it. If extremism in thought or ideology is out of fashion and out of favour with USA and its camp followers, so be it. If we are in any case condemned to be sub humans in a world order dominatedby the G-7 and have no other recourse but to fight with bomb, dagger or suicide explosive pack then so be it.
Jala kay Mashal-i-Jaan, Hum Junoon-Sifaat Chalay. Jo Ghar ko aag lagaay,hamarey saath chalay.
Translation of the above verse in Urdu done for my dear friend Oberon who cares to read what I write
God Bless You Oberon
(lighting the oil torch of passionate faith we the fearless fanatics proceed into the arena,anyone who accompanies us to fight must first set his own house and all his /her assets on fire)
Altered states
Notes from Cuzco, Peru ~ April 1977
On the slopes of the Andes, in a yurt overlooking a sage-green valley, I’m participating in a peyote ceremony that has taken place here for over 1,000 years. I’m collecting data for my senior thesis: ‘The neurological basis of hallucinations’. However, none of my faculty advisers know I’m here, and if they did ..they would probably deny any involvement. I’m here because I want to experience, first hand, the psychological effects of a guided peyote session the way it’s practiced by South American Indians ..and not for purposes of recreation the way I used to. I have a theory that human nature follows a cycle; it fluctuates between the need for ‘order and stability’ ..followed by the need for ‘exploration and rebellion’ against order and stability. I arrived at this theory from reading books by Aldous Huxley, as well as personal experience. I’m hardly able to sustain a committed relationship for more than a few months. Anyway, I believe that early Indian cultures had less destructive ways to deal with this cycle that didn’t involve excessive alcohol, domestic violence or broken homes. The peyote ceremony is, in a sense, a ‘guided’ exploration into altered states of consciousness ..followed by a gentle period of ‘re-entry’ that allows participants to integrate their extra-ordinary experiences with the ordinary reality of everyday life. It satisfies the need for exploration in a way that is far less disruptive, and way more conducive, to the well being of the individual and the tribe.
Exploration: The session begins ..our Guide is waving a rope of burning incense ...intended to awaken our senses. A drum beat softly repeats ..intended to strengthen our bond to the present. Tea is poured and cups ceremoniously passed between participants sitting cross-legged around a low bronze table. The simple act of sharing also helps bring us back to the present. I feel grounded and eagerly await whatever forms my altered perception may take. After experiencing several waves of nausea ..followed by tea .. images of early childhood begin to appear ..rising and falling .. over and over .. leaving me clutching at something for security (later I find my shirt lying bunched-up and wet on the floor beside me). Our Guide gently reminds us to watch these images flow until they vanish. Next, the blows of adolescence appear ..rising and falling ..leaving me feeling bruised and vulnerable until I’m barely able to hold back my tears. Our Guide gently reminds us to watch these images flow until they vanish. Now I hear someone playing a flute. Sounds soothing. Now I feel alternating sensations of tea and mango splash down my throat. Sweet and refreshing. I pass the plate from one grinning face to another. Now I’m grinning. Now it looks like I’m sitting between two huge grinning masks ..suspended in space. One of them starts laughing ..then another ..and another ..until everyone is rocking with waves of laughter. I feel a grip loosening, and worries, stretching back as far as I can remember ..lift like fog. I feel euphoric. But it isn’t long before the feeling of euphoria turns into panic. I’m looking down and there’s nothing there ..it's like I’m hanging over an abyss. Without the customary sense of worry, my psyche collapses like a house of cards. I scream and lose consciousness. When I awake, I recall lying with my head in the lap of one of the female assistants ..while she wipes my face with cool water. I’m shaking.
Re-entry: I’m listening to our Guide give instructions for re-entry (we were also given a copy of these to take with us). It went something like this: “..as you return, remember ..a river comes out of the mountains ..flowing and cohesive. Its power comes from yielding .. overcoming what’s hardest with what’s softest. As you return, remember ..follow the watercourse way ..choose harmony over quarreling. As you return, remember ..follow the watercourse way .. throw the portals of your tent open and pay homage to what’s light in the world. As you return, remember ..follow the watercourse way .. the soft quality of your mind will overcome the hardness of the obstacles you face. Remember, follow the watercourse way …the watercourse way …the watercourse way ..” and I could hardly forget. I could still hear these words echoing in my head for weeks afterward while I finished writing my thesis and submitted it for a round of grueling final arguments. I think it helped. Either that or they just caved.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
"Hillary-The Movie"
Hillary: The Movie, a slashing critique of then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, is taking center stage tomorrow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where the film's producers are using it to challenge the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
During the 2008 presidential primary campaign, a conservative advocacy group called Citizens United produced Hillary: The Movie, a 90-minute documentary that was available on DVD and came and went quickly in theaters. The group wanted to run it on cable TV as an on-demand movie and maintained that it was not subject to federal campaign rules because the movie did not say explicitly that people should vote for or against Clinton.
Now this case, involving the Hillary movie, has morphed into a broad attack on McCain-Feingold again. It is also an attack on the notion, first put forth by the Supreme Court more than 100 years ago, that corporate contributions from general treasury funds can be banned.
Representing Citizens United on Tuesday is Ted Olson, who as solicitor general in the Bush administration successfully defended the McCain-Feingold law in the Supreme Court six years ago. This time he is on the other side, attacking the law as it has been applied and contending that corporations should be allowed to spend unlimited amounts of their general treasury funds in campaigns.
"What is the matter with corporations? Are they inherently evil? Corporations — just as much as individuals — are entitled to protection under the First Amendment," Olson says.
But Larry Noble, former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission, counters that this case is not really about small nonprofit corporations and their corporate contributors.
"What Citizens United is doing here is its actually making a broadside attack on the corporate prohibition," Noble says.
(read more)
(Would you accept a ruling that gives corporate entities the same rights as a person?)
Finding Footing
Transience is one thing
Detachment is another
Kills me when you say
To never even bother
I hate it when you’re right
But not because I’m wrong:
I’m scared of how it is
And I knew it all along
Sincerity is everything
But watch it fade away
Emotional obscurity
When nothing’s here to stay
Struggling to find
Common middle ground
Impermanence has got me
Completely overwhelmed
To love is to let go
Is there even time for that?
Wanting not to bother now
That’s my epitaph
Can’t do it though
I never really could
My sincerity will kill me
Sometimes I wish it would
Transience is one thing
Detachment is another
Kills me when you say
To never even bother