Sunday, November 20, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
mooncake
LONDON — Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said he is worried about the growing number of monks and nuns setting themselves on fire in southwest China, in an interview broadcast Saturday.
The Dalai Lama told the BBC that those setting themselves alight were courageous, but questioned how effective self-immolation was as a form of protest against Chinese rule.
"The question is how much effect" the self-immolations have, the 76-year-old asked British broadcaster.
"That's the question. There is courage -- very strong courage. But how much effect? Courage alone is no substitute. You must utilise your wisdom."
Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have set themselves alight in ethnically Tibetan parts of Sichuan province since the self-immolation of a young monk in March at Kirti monastery sparked a government crackdown.
Activists say that at least five monks and two nuns have died and that Chinese police have at times responded by beating the burning protesters and their colleagues rather than providing assistance.
Asked whether the self-immolations could make life worse for people in Tibet, the Dalai Lama said: "Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.
"Nobody knows how many people killed and tortured -- I mean death through torture. Nobody knows.
"But a lot of people suffer. But how much effect? The Chinese respond harder."
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, founded a government in exile in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala after being offered refuge there.
He remains revered in China's Tibetan areas but is vilified as a "separatist" by China's communist authorities. (AFP)
DHARAMSHALA — Expressing her support and solidarity with the Tibetan people, a prominent Chinese research scholar living in Sydney has strongly criticized the Chinese government's repressive policies on Tibet for the last six decades.
In an article, Dr Chen Hongxin, a research scholar of Chinese contemporary politics, described the recent self-immolations by Tibetans since March as a way of protest against the Chinese government's wrong policy on Tibetans and their religious belief.
“At least six Tibetans have died as a result of self-immolation, and they have called for religious freedom, the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and freedom in Tibet.”
Dr Chen also wrote about critical questions that people might raise, why “happy and prosperous Tibetans” are ending their lives through self-immolations. Why the Tibetan monks who respect life and practice Buddhism for millenia by renouncing ill-feelings, are now burning themselves to death one after another?
“The answers underlying these questions lies in the truth of past 60 years which will bring tears in the eyes of the international community. In fact, through successive generations, the Tibetans have not only etched their history, but also exposed the Chinese government's propaganda through peaceful protests,” she wrote.
The article contained criticism of China's draconian measures towards the Tibetan monastic community. “Despite reconstruction of Tibetan monasteries in 1980s, the authorities imposed restrictions on the admission of Tibetans into monasteries, made “patriotic education”, which involves denouncing His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a compulsory subject for monks to study.
Dr Chen further wrote about her impression of Mr Xi Jinping's visit to Lhasa this year. “During his visit to Lhasa, the future Chinese president, Xi Jinping, not only did not meet Tibetans, but did not even visit a monastery. On the contrary, he met with officials from the police, army, political and judicial authorities. This act has exposed the Chinese government's intention of brutal and repressive policy on Tibet.” (tibet.net)
(mooncake)
Friday, November 18, 2011
Little Boxes
Little Boxes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Little Boxes" is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, which became a hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963.
The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes. It refers to suburban tract housing as "little boxes" of different colors "all made out of ticky-tacky", and which "all look just the same." "Ticky-tacky" is a reference to the shoddy material used in the construction of housing of that time.
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky tacky,
Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And the people in the houses
All went to the university,
Where they were put in boxes
And they came out all the same,
And there's doctors and lawyers,
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
And they all play on the golf course
And drink their martinis dry,
And they all have pretty children
And the children go to school,
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
Where they are put in boxes
And they come out all the same.
And the boys go into business
And marry and raise a family
In boxes made of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one,
And they're all made out of ticky tacky
And they all look just the same.
see also > what next: If I Had A Hammer
TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide
AHIMSA and the Metta Center for Nonviolence present a free public forum, TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide.
Sunday, October 30
2:30-6:30pm
Berkeley Society of Friends
2151 Vine St. in Berkeley
This special event launches the recent publication of Peace Movements Worldwide, a three-volume anthology with chapters covering insights and action from every continent with accounts of courageous and creative actions, ranging from the personal to the global.
more > TAKING STOCK OF PEACE: Inspiration from Peace Movements Worldwide | Project Censored
Project Censored
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
WHAT NEXT - new blog
ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY
rc recently launched a NEW BLOG - a mash up of whats up, what it is, whats more, GlobaLove Think Tank, stuff from my inbox & more - what next RC'S NEWS & RANDOM blog
whats up is now called "nuclear blog" - i started whats up in March of 2011 for miscellaneous news and random postings which don't fall under the photo or art & studies themes of my other two blogs ... includes a number of newsfeeds and a videos page. launched on the day of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
After the first few posts it became basically a news blog about the ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe with related nuclear news and commentary - not so random anymore, and it became progressively more activist...
what next is now where the miscellaneous news and random postings will land, and whats up will remain dedicated to nuclear news
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Exposing the One Percent: Freeport McMoRan Exploits Workers and the Environment | Project Censored
As the Occupy Movement emerges across the US and around the world, a prime example of greed and exploitation is occurring with very little coverage in the global corporate media. Members of the global top one percent are killing striking workers and using raw military power to protect their billions of dollors of annual profits. And the highest levels of US Government encourage and protect the exploiters...
more > Exposing the One Percent: Freeport McMoRan Exploits Workers and the Environment | Project Censored
by Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro
Censored Notebook | Project Censored: Archive for the Category ‘Censored Notebook’
Project Censored
Monday, November 14, 2011
Elmer Davis
"This nation
will remain the land of the free
only so long as it is the home of the brave."
Elmer Davis
Sunday, November 13, 2011
telling the truth about radiation
Japan Crowd Funding.mp4
A story telling the truth about radiation from Fukushima nuclear disaster. This video is to raise funds for our crowd funding campaign for 'In Transition 2'. If you want to see how Transition Initiatives are responding to the situation then please donate! The money will pay for a film maker to shoot a story about the importance of setting up local renewable energy companies.
Breaking the Information Monopoly | Nukespeak
How do we know whether to believe what government officials tell us about the danger of radiation after a nuclear accident like Fukushima? New technologies are making it possible for citizens to break the government’s information monopoly, so that citizens can double-check the “no danger” announcements that government officials tend to issue after nuclear accidents.
Nukespeak | Nuclear Language, Myths and Mindset
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
whats up nuclear blog
Saturday, November 12, 2011
endless war
End less war.
End this war.
End less war.
End this war.
End less war.
End this war.
End less war.
End this war.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Veterans Day
They go to fight for freedom,
but they are dying for conquest !!!
(War Is a Racket)
(the arms industry)
(permanent war economy)
(list of arms manufacturers)
(military industrial complex)
Truth?
Perhaps we can divide humankind into two categories with regards to truth, viz., those who use the upper case form of the word, i.e., Truth and those who utilize the lower case form, i.e., truth. Those who use the former belong to the religious camp while those who prefer the latter are more likely to be more flexible minds with a more scientific bent. Religionists and believers of all hues believe that truth exists in a pure metaphysical sense in some heavenly vault presided over by a heavenly banker called God.
Then there are other ways in which we use the word “truth,” viz., in the singular or in the plural number. Once again those who use the singular number are more likely to be religionists or believers, insofar as they assume that there is one homogeneous form of the truth – a Platonic Idea of the Truth somewhere out there. They readily equate that with God – the Ultimate Idea. In their metaphysical world, capital letters abound. Also, those who use the singular number are more likely to use the upper case form of the word, while those who use the plural number are more likely to be those of a scientific bent who see the world in a more plural sense.
In Western cultures we are called on to swear upon the Bible in court, which in itself is a naked declaration of a Christian take on what truth means. Leaving this aside, let’s say that such a swearing is a metaphorical action rather than any religious declaration per se. One could swear on a constitution of a country or on the UN Declaration of Human Rights for that matter. That sometimes our law courts get it wrong, and that historically innocent people have been executed, testifies to how hard it is to arrive at what the real truth of a situation actually is.
Then, there is the psychological nature of truth. In this respect we recall Polonius’ advice to his departing son Laertes to be true to himself. Those of us with an existentialist bent will call this our desire for authenticity. Freud and Jung and their followers, taking inspiration from Kant, have taught us that truth has a very personal shape and that we can see things more as we are than as such things are in themselves. Then the fictional, if eccentric, Dr House reminds us in a most timely and contemporary manner that we all lie for various personal purposes. Objectivity, it would seem, like truth is not as easily defined as we might at first superficially and naively think.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Asteroid 2005 YU55
Asteroid YU-55, also written as 2005 YU55, is a potentially hazardous asteroid approximately 400 meters (1,300 feet) in diameter. It was discovered on 28 December 2005 by Robert S. McMillan at Steward Observatory, Kitt Peak. On 8 November 2011 it passed 0.85 lunar distances (324,600 kilometers or 201,700 miles) from the Earth. This is the closest known approach by an asteroid with an absolute magnitude this bright since 2010 XC15 (H = 21.4) approached within 0.5 lunar distances in 1976. (read more) (video clip)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
snow < = > sand
Grass is always greener
on the other side
Sea foam is bright white
and sparkles in the sun
Snoflakes dance in windy gusts
and lay to rest in fluffy puffs
And every -boarder would agree
Gnarly is as gnarly be
So be it snow or be it sand
Be it at sea or up on land
Awesome beauty in command
This does not matter: snow or sand
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Annya's story - a Chernobyl legacy | whats up: 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT
Annya's story - a Chernobyl legacy
Belarus: Annya's parents lived in a town so contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that it was destroyed and buried. When she was four Annya was diagnosed with a brain tumor...
more
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
Belarus: Annya's parents lived in a town so contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that it was destroyed and buried. When she was four Annya was diagnosed with a brain tumor...
more
• whats up: 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster | NUCLEAR "SAFTEY" = NUCLEAR THREAT
• whats up: RC'S NUCLEAR BLOG
After the first few posts it became basically a news blog about the ongoing Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe with related nuclear news and commentary - not so random anymore, it has become progressively more activist...
NO NUKES | RE-TOOL NOW
"A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney"
Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer. He was most notable for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired October 2, 2011. He died a month later, on November 4, at age 92.
Andrew Rooney was born in Albany, New York, the son of Walter Scott Rooney (1888–1959) and Ellinor (née Reynolds) Rooney (1886–1980). He attended The Albany Academy, and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in Central New York, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity, until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in August 1941. Rooney began his career in newspapers while in the Army when, in 1942, he began writing for Stars and Stripes in London during World War II.
In February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the second American bombing raid over Germany. Later, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the Nazi concentration camps near the end of World War II, and one of the first to write about them.
During a segment on Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, Rooney confessed that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist. He recounted that what he saw in those concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.
In London, during the war, Mary Hemingway made an accusation of plagiarism against several fellow journalists, including Andy Rooney, although the accusations were proven false.
Rooney's 1995 memoir, My War, chronicles his war reporting. In addition to recounting firsthand several notable historical events and people (including the entry into Paris and the Nazi concentration camps), Rooney describes how it shaped his experience both as a writer and reporter. (read more)
Andrew Aitken "Andy" Rooney
(January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011)
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