Wednesday, May 4, 2011
On the Death of Osama Bin Laden
Osama Bin Laden was discovered and killed in Pakistan on May 1, 2011 by U.S. CIA-led forces. The taste of revenge and retribution may prove to be temporarily satisfying to a hurt and troubled nation, but the real resolution to the endemic problem of global terrorism may prove illusory. What it does affirm is the reality of blood lust that remains very much a part of the human psyche.
It may be comforting to embody the image of Osama Bin Laden with all the aspects and characteristics that we define as evil. It may lead some to conclude that evil has been vanquished much like the fiery dragon of a bygone era. This event may distract the population from considering the unmistakable reality that the possibility of evil is within all of us and that the nation that so proudly claims to have defeated a devil has a history resplendent with evil deeds and their horrific consequences. We seem unable to acknowledge all the needless death and destruction throughout the world that have been a direct consequence of the unabashed use of American military power.
Osama Bin Laden was, without doubt, a crazed yet charismatic psychopath obsessed with a radical and extremist agenda. He is a man responsible for extraordinary suffering and death throughout the world. His death by violent means was inevitable, but in the final analysis, he is but one man. The institution he helped construct cannot endure for long; because, the belief system that sustains it is untenable. Eventually it will collapse and be replaced by other groups driven by hatred and vengeance. Unfortunately, the cycle remains unbroken.
As a people, we would be better served if we could collectively become more self-aware and look critically and honestly at our own behavior as a nation. When all the elation and self-praise begins to dissipate as it must, we are still left with the institutions, infrastructure and weaponry that are conducive to death and destruction that we have dutifully fashioned over the many years of our national history.
It may be comforting to embody the image of Osama Bin Laden with all the aspects and characteristics that we define as evil. It may lead some to conclude that evil has been vanquished much like the fiery dragon of a bygone era. This event may distract the population from considering the unmistakable reality that the possibility of evil is within all of us and that the nation that so proudly claims to have defeated a devil has a history resplendent with evil deeds and their horrific consequences. We seem unable to acknowledge all the needless death and destruction throughout the world that have been a direct consequence of the unabashed use of American military power.
Osama Bin Laden was, without doubt, a crazed yet charismatic psychopath obsessed with a radical and extremist agenda. He is a man responsible for extraordinary suffering and death throughout the world. His death by violent means was inevitable, but in the final analysis, he is but one man. The institution he helped construct cannot endure for long; because, the belief system that sustains it is untenable. Eventually it will collapse and be replaced by other groups driven by hatred and vengeance. Unfortunately, the cycle remains unbroken.
As a people, we would be better served if we could collectively become more self-aware and look critically and honestly at our own behavior as a nation. When all the elation and self-praise begins to dissipate as it must, we are still left with the institutions, infrastructure and weaponry that are conducive to death and destruction that we have dutifully fashioned over the many years of our national history.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
The Battle for Tomorrow - special offer
“Teen fights for equality in power-packed novel”
My new book (a novel) went up on Amazon today. It’s about a sixteen- year-old girl who participates in the blockade and occupation of the US Capitol.
As the story begins, Angela Jones is the primary caretaker of her invalid mother. Having taken on the responsibilities of an adult, she is still treated as a child by law. A 23-year-old political activist opens her eyes to the urgent issues facing humanity, including the sinking economy and catastrophic climate change, problems that will have devastating consequences for Ange’s future.
Ange is arrested during the protest and winds up in a juvenile detention facility. While there, she finds herself fighting for the right to live independently, in opposition to laws that require her to be released to a parent or guardian.
Living overseas has really highlighted for me the massive age discrimination experienced by US teenagers. In most developed countries the school leaving age is 16, also the age when most working class youths get full time jobs and move into their own flats and apartments. In many countries, sixteen-year-olds (as full fledged taxpayers) are allowed to vote. I blog about this at http://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.com/2010/07/17/election-2010-lowering-the-voting-age/
I suspect The Battle for Tomorrow will be controversial because it talks frankly about teen sexuality, contraception and abortion. Americans don’t believe in talking about sex to teenagers, which may be the reason the US has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 43% of girls and 39% of boys have had sex by age 18 (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_23/sr23_024.pdf).
I believe The Battle for Tomorrow will be the 21st century Catcher in the Rye, only the hero is a sexually active female and the action takes place in the streets of Washington DC.
To celebrate my new book, I am offering a 2 for 1 offer (expires May 14th) – a free ebook version of The Battle for Tomorrow with purchase of new, used or ebook version of my memoir The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee. Email receipt to stuartbramhall@yahoo.co.nz for coupon code for a free download.
Links for The Most Revolutionary Act
(winner of 2011 Allbooks Review Editor’s Choice Award):
New and used print copies: Amazon
ebook (all formats) for $5.99:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/55477
Links for The Battle for Tomorrow
softcover $18.95: www.thebattlefortomorrow.com
ebook (all formats) $5.99: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/51531
Link to audio file of Battle for Tomorrow (Chap 1)
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Thích Quảng Đức
Thích Quảng Đức (1897 – 11 June 1963) was a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon road intersection on 11 June 1963. Thích Quảng Đức was protesting against the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's Ngô Đình Diệm administration.
Photos of his self-immolation were circulated widely across the world and brought attention to the policies of the Diệm regime. Malcolm Browne won a Pulitzer Prize for his iconic photo of the monk's death, as did David Halberstam for his written account.
After his death, his body was re-cremated, but his heart remained intact. This was interpreted as a symbol of compassion and led Buddhists to revere him as a bodhisattva, heightening the impact of his death on the public psyche. (read more) (mooncake)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
whats up: 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT: "It was 25 years ago today when a deadly explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet state of Ukraine led to what was then the worst nuclear disaster in history. It sent a cloud of radioactive fallout into Russia, Belarus and over a large portion of Europe."
Chernobyl Disaster @ wikipedia
25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT - info, video commentaries, news, links
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RC'S NEWS & RANDOM BLOG
An exhibit at the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum. Mutations in both humans and other animals may have increased as a result of the disaster.
Chernobyl radiation map
Chernobyl Disaster @ wikipedia
In 1945, a profoundly sad experiment in public health began when U.S. forces dropped a 13-kiloton nuclear fission bomb on Hiroshima, Japan...
Status of Reactors 1 - 4 at Fukushima Daiichi
25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT - info, video commentaries, news, links
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
WHATS UP
RC'S NEWS & RANDOM BLOG
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Stonewall Uprising
"A Naked Man Being A Woman"
Diane Arbus 1968
American gays and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s faced a legal system more anti-homosexual than those of some Warsaw Pact countries. Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years of the 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many social movements were active, including the African American Civil Rights Movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s, and antiwar demonstrations. These influences, along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots.
Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. The Stonewall Inn, at the time, was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of patrons, but it was known to be popular with the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn, and attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.
After the Stonewall riots, gays and lesbians in New York City faced gender, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. Within six months, two gay activist organizations were formed in New York, concentrating on confrontational tactics, and three newspapers were established to promote rights for gays and lesbians. Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the U.S. and the world. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. (read more)
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
7 deadly sins
to defeat the beast use...
humility against pride...
charity against greed...
kindness against envy...
patience against anger...
chastity against lust...
moderation against gluttony...
diligence against sloth...
Friday, April 22, 2011
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. While this first Earth Day was focused on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes, who was the original national coordinator in 1970, took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations.
Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. In 2009, the United Nations designated April 22 International Mother Earth Day. (read more)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
What Price Comfort?
In contemporary civilization, individual success is often measured by such parameters as social and economic status and the level of wealth one has achieved. Those who are looked up to as models to be emulated have accrued a remarkable degree of luxury and live enshrouded by all manner of conveniences. They are propelled forward in life with the goal of satisfying essentially selfish desires. They are often driven by a ferocious ambition, and, to their credit, exhibit a remarkable level of creativity, ingenuity and motivation.
The world of humans and the natural world that we are an integral part of cannot be sustained if the focus of individual existence is rooted in acquisition. The price that humanity collectively pays for comfort, convenience and an utterly false sense of personal security is enormous.
There are over one billion individuals on planet earth that subsist of one dollar a day. Tens of millions of people have already died from AIDS because they do not have access to the drugs that could sustain them. This same disease has produced millions of orphans. Millions of men, women and children die annually from the gruesome process of starvation not because there is no food available, but because they do not have access to the food that could give them life – they cannot afford to live. The economies of many of the nations of the so-called undeveloped world have been encouraged and coerced to produce commodities for export to the developed world at the expense of their own indigenous people. Vast armies of individuals throughout the world work endlessly performing mindless tasks in frightful factories so that those more affluent can fill their lives and homes with stuff purchased at megastores filled with this seeming cornucopia.
Our addiction to the “good life” not only imperils the human world, but is having disastrous consequences in regards to the natural world. The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is already having a marked impact on the global environment – profound ignorance will not change this indisputable fact or its inevitable results. The diversity of life on planet earth is inexorably diminishing as a direct result of human activity.
What price are we willing to pay for the lifestyles we have chosen? This to me is a central question of the age. We are all the children of history and the future will unfold as a direct result of the choices we make. We can have a world where we honor and uplift the lives of all rather than accept a world where the lives of the many are sacrificed for those of the few.
The world of humans and the natural world that we are an integral part of cannot be sustained if the focus of individual existence is rooted in acquisition. The price that humanity collectively pays for comfort, convenience and an utterly false sense of personal security is enormous.
There are over one billion individuals on planet earth that subsist of one dollar a day. Tens of millions of people have already died from AIDS because they do not have access to the drugs that could sustain them. This same disease has produced millions of orphans. Millions of men, women and children die annually from the gruesome process of starvation not because there is no food available, but because they do not have access to the food that could give them life – they cannot afford to live. The economies of many of the nations of the so-called undeveloped world have been encouraged and coerced to produce commodities for export to the developed world at the expense of their own indigenous people. Vast armies of individuals throughout the world work endlessly performing mindless tasks in frightful factories so that those more affluent can fill their lives and homes with stuff purchased at megastores filled with this seeming cornucopia.
Our addiction to the “good life” not only imperils the human world, but is having disastrous consequences in regards to the natural world. The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is already having a marked impact on the global environment – profound ignorance will not change this indisputable fact or its inevitable results. The diversity of life on planet earth is inexorably diminishing as a direct result of human activity.
What price are we willing to pay for the lifestyles we have chosen? This to me is a central question of the age. We are all the children of history and the future will unfold as a direct result of the choices we make. We can have a world where we honor and uplift the lives of all rather than accept a world where the lives of the many are sacrificed for those of the few.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
fukushima nuclear disaster
Einstein said, "The splitting of the atom changed everything save man's mode of thinking; thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe." He also said, "Nuclear power is a hell of a way to boil water."
The "outer building" surrounding Unit 3 of Fukushima I explodes, presumably due to the ignition of built up hydrogen gas, on March 13, 2011. This is the reactor which has the extremely dangerous plutonium-laced MOX fuel. State of the nuclear reactor core remains unknown...
variations at whats more
the file is suitable for 4x6 high resolution photo prints - please print some and pass them around - no nukes!
fukushima nuclear disaster updates at "whats up"
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Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
friday the 13th
Apollo 13 was the seventh manned mission in the American Apollo space program and the third intended to land on the Moon. The craft was successfully launched toward the Moon, but the landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank ruptured, severely damaging the spacecraft's electrical system. The flight was commanded by James A. Lovell with John L. "Jack" Swigert as Command Module pilot and Fred W. Haise as Lunar Module pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for the original CM pilot Ken Mattingly, who was grounded by the flight surgeon after exposure to German measles.
The mission was launched on April 11, 1970 at 13:13 CST. Two days later an explosion crippled the service module upon which the Command Module depended. To conserve its batteries and the oxygen needed for the last hours of flight, the crew instead used the Lunar Module's resources as a "lifeboat" during the return trip to Earth. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17. NASA called the mission a "successful failure". (read more)
Saturday, April 16, 2011
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