Undercover Maryland state troopers infiltrated three groups advocating peace and protesting the death penalty — attending meetings and sending reports on their activities to U.S. intelligence and military agencies, according to documents released Thursday.

"Americans have the right to peaceably assemble with others of a like mind and speak out about what they believe in," Mr. Rocah said. "For state agencies to spend hundreds of hours entering information about lawful and peaceful political activities into a criminal database is beyond unconscionable. It is a waste of taxpayer dollars, which does nothing to make us safer from actual terrorists or drug dealers."

Kucinich to investigate police surveillance of protest groups

Raw Story
July 18, 2008

Such surveillance is apparently not limited to law enforcement and private investigators. In January 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a report showing "widespread Pentagon surveillance of peace activists.

Having deployed surface-to-air missiles, readied a 100,000-strong anti-terrorism force and instituted a series of security checkpoints, Beijing is adding Chinese residents as another layer in its shield to protect Olympics venues against possible attack.

But rights groups say that China is using Olympic security as an excuse to crack down on internal dissent.

Fears of a ‘no-fun’ Olympics in Beijing

The Age
July 18, 2008

FEARS of a “no fun Olympics” are growing as security restrictions increase and become more bizarre with less than 20 days to go until the opening ceremony.

Read Full Article Here

Well now.  Here’s something interesting. 

Not only is the Orwellian title attention-grabbing in its own right (and absurd, since experience hath shewn that governments by their nature do the opposite of “save lives.”), but just read this perversity and see if you don’t get cold chills.  Just think about the ramifications - our corrupt, foolish and selfish politicians collecting and owning all DNA data from everybody born in the USA:

• Our politicians’ record with data security (from both hacking and plain old screwups) is just awful.  Mistakes will be made.  Huge ones.  The United Kingdom, our apparent role model, already screwed up with DNA samples, among other things.
• You think “pre-existing condition” exclusions are bad now!
• What little good could come out of such a thing is certainly outweighed by sci-fi mischief and Keystone Cops incompetence.

Oh, but it sounds so well-intended and helpful, doesn’t it?  What’s the history of that as applied to politicians?

Anyway, it’s scheduled for debate in the House of Representatives.  Nearly all reps will vote on this without having read a word of it.  They may tell a 20-something legislative aid to read it for them, but most of those starry-eyed future congresscritters haven’t lived long enough to get through a history book and they’ve never heard about such a thing as constitutional limitation of powers.

It’s up to you to tell your reps what’s what and just who they work for.  Brave New World?  It's still your choice.

That is why I despise the shameless commercialization of his birthday. Everything that he is – his wisdom, his grace, his authority – has become gift-wrapped and sellable. Probably not surprising, considering the capitalistic smut we have to live with every day.

Like someone in a British newspaper said (I really can't recall which one, but it was roundabout the time of the 46664 concert in London in June), Mandela should not ever have to meet a Pussycat Doll. God that's the truth! He deserves more than to be treated like some cardboard cutout with which to get your snapshot taken.

Yet he bears all the celebrity self-promotion with the same twinkle-eyed humour that has made him so loved among people, offering up the last few years of his retirement to try and wake people up to the Aids pandemic. Not many people can claim such selflessness. Imagine for a moment that you've spent your entire life fighting oppression, a considerable amount of it in prison. You then go on to finally beat it. Instead of enjoying your twilight years you take on an even bigger beast, a monster that doesn't discriminate based on skin colour or sex or sexual preference. If it gets the chance it will take you out. It's already chewing away at about a third of the world's population.

That's bravery. Forget big guns; they have nothing on true courage.

It kind of makes you squirm guiltily, doesn't it; to realize that you, half his age, a quarter of his age, whatever, have not done half as much. Sometimes I think we're all fidgety pretenders when we nag about the fuel prices etc. We take so much for granted.

A brief note: actually all five of these comments were made to me in the span of Monday evening by two white, graduate-level-educated men that covered up every offense with "I'm just kidding," couldn't see how uncomfortable and offended I was, and I think were hoping I would read the remarks as flirtatious in some way.

(I'm not living out a schedule these days where I can write these posts all at once, so I'm debating whether to just break my remarks down into multiple posts. Maybe I'll combine it all together later. I just feel like it's more important to post everyday instead of writing out a manuscript that will get put up in two weeks, or never. Let me know what you think?)

Number Five goes to:

"Do you/Are you/So you [insert stereotype here]"

So do you watch a lot of Bollywood movies? Are you studying to be a Doctor? Engineer? Are your parents Doctors? Engineers? So, you must know all the great Indian restaurants in town. So, you speak Indian? So, you're Hindi?

Honorable mention goes to the man who said to me "So, you don't play sports huh. There are one billion people in India and they never won an Olympic medal! That's crazy! How does that even make sense!" He wasn't asking rhetorically either. He was actually asking me to explain myself, on behalf of all of India, for our apparent incompentancies in the Olympics. This really hurt me actually, because it offends on a lot of levels. The assault on the power of a nation - belittling the nation, and its people, through an event that is used to deem countries better, faster, stronger. The bad taste is still in my mouth.

Also, hey assholes, there's no "Indian" language and there's no "Hindi" religion. At least if you're going to throw a blatant perception onto me, get your fucking language right. Don't even question me about, "well these are positive stereotypes, so why are you offended" - yes, there are worse things, but no, that doesn't make these statements ok. There is enough material about the model minority myth and how it is detrimental to Asian American communities and other communities of color, so I won't go into it here. But read read read!

Wow, you don't/aren't [insert stereotype here]? is a close relative to number 5, and becomes particularly potent when followed by that pity laced comment that goes something like this:

Oh that's really great that you aren't a Doctor. So many Indian people are forced into doing certain things, family pressure and all. It's so backwards/It's so sad/It's just really different Over There.

Yeah...that really doesn't help when you say that. My recommended reading in response to the Colonial Gaze  or just that whole "you're backwards" mentality is Chandra Mohanty's "Under Western Eyes."  My personal response is - stop being so fucking ignorant and realize that these situations are more complex and complicated than you've just written them off to be. Also, no one needs your fucking patronizing doe-eyes. Also, it DOES matter where criticism about different communities comes from, so don't try to tell me about how your "Indian friends" criticize certain practices/values/ideologies so you can too.

Look at that, number 5 was so long and now I have no more time. Until tomorrow.

For the latest in the the Sanders/Helix farcas go here: http://coffeeandink.livejournal.com/841797.html

Well, according to the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, you don't have to imagine very hard.  You just have to think about how you feel right now.  Because they've calculated the current cost of government, by taxation and direct regulation (but omitting the horrendous cost of the Fed's devaluation of currency), at 53.9 percent; and the Cost Of Government Day (or Tax Freedom Day) is today, July 16.

Welcome to the USA, where government takes well-OVER HALF OF EVERYTHING!

Sheesh.  In the Old Testament's I Samuel 8, they thought it a horror that the King would take ten percent!

Oh, and if all this isn't bad enough, the EPA has done a little calculating, and they've decided that the value of a human life has dropped almost a million dollars, to 6.9 million dollars. 

As the value of each dollar plummets, that is not very good news at all...

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless circumstances. It is the opium of the people.

Not, you'll notice, "religion's bad, mmmkay, we should probably ban it", the proposition in support of which the last sentence, taken out of context, is usually quoted, be it through ignorance or charlatanism.

Marx was an atheist, yes, and believed that in a rational, human society, most people would ultimately turn away from religion of their own free will.  But to Marx, the enemy was not religion itself, but a world which makes religion necessary.  This is precisely the opposite of the Richard Dawkinsian obsession with blaming all the world's real, material problems on the irrational ideas in some people's heads.

Similarly, we contrast the intolerant attitudes of Stalin, Mao and Christopher Hitchens with those of Lenin and the Old Bolsheviks, who saw as inherently progressive the struggle against religious persecution - and in particlar, as it happens, the persecution of Muslims in Central Asia - and once called upon his comrades "vigorously to counteract the division of the workers in the struggle into atheists and Christians, vigorously to oppose any such division".

Lenin opposed state interference in people's religion, not because he supported religion per se, but precisely because:

The combating of religion cannot be confined to abstract ideological preaching, and it must not be reduced to such preaching. It must be linked up with the concrete practice of the class movement, which aims at eliminating the social roots of religion.

Those elements of the contemporary British left who stand with Muslims - even if we don't necessarily share their views - against their oppressors are frequently accused of selling out our principles, of being shamelessly opportunistic, of leaving our Marxism at the doors of the mosque.

But if Marx were here today, he wouldn't be flicking through the Qu'ran for excuses to ostracise and isolate the people whose beliefs he found "backward".  He would be trying to expose the secular/religious dichotomy for what it is: a sham, a scheme to distract from the real (as opposed to the philosophical) causes of our problems and an attempt to pit us against each other instead of against the system.

Time Magazine's cover story this week: “Mandela at 90; The Secrets of Leadership,” by Richard Stengel, illustrates principles the former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, followed to fight apartheid:

“He liberated a country from a system of violent prejudice and helped unite white and black, oppressor and oppressed, in a way that had never been done before.”

Of Mandela's arrest and subsequent imprisonment for twenty-eight years, Stengel states:

“The key to Mandela is those prison years. He went in emotional and headstrong and emerged balanced and disciplined.”

Like Mandela, it took Moses forty years of wandering in the desert with the Israelites until the promised land was reached. During those years of character refinement and learning dependence and obedience to God, Moses emerged as a great leader.

I certainly can learn invaluable lessons from these two great men. Instead of becoming bitter and resentful because of my problems, I will try to examine adverse situations and ask myself: What personality defects in me are being reshaped or removed by this experience? How can I become a better Christian through this trial? What does God want me to learn from this? And last but not least, How can I better serve others as a result this?

Dear Lord, You know my defects and sins, yet you still love me. Transform my consciousness so I might view the hard times of life as opportunities to grow and change; to become more like You. Thank You for the living examples of greatness we have in our present time that teach us the character refinements we gain from adversity. Continue to help me grow into Your likeness. Amen.

The US Army’s XM1063 projectile is designed to be ’non-lethal’ - but is it peaceful or hovering on the brink of illegality?

Guardian
July 10, 2008

Is the XM1063 a stink bomb, a banana skin, or a bad trip? It’s hard to know. XM1063 is the code name for the US army’s new secret weapon which will "suppress" people without harming them, as well as stopping vehicles in an area 100m square. But is it a violation of chemical weapons treaties, or a welcome move towards less destructive warfare using non-lethal weapons?

Exactly how it works is classified, but we have established some details. The first part of the weapon is an artillery round - or as the army puts it, "a non-lethal personal suppression projectile" - fired from a 155mm howitzer, with a range of 28km. It scatters 152 small non-explosive submunitions over a 1-hectare area; as each parachutes down, it sprays a chemical agent. Development was overseen by the US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre (Ardec).

A presentation by the makers, General Dynamics, says the XM1063 will "suppress, disperse or engage personnel" and "deny personnel access to, use of, or movement through a particular area, point or facility" (=see PDF).

Smelling it out

Experts suggest three possible payloads: an existing riot-control agent, malodorants or a new chemical agent. Existing agents include CS gas and a form of pepper spray. But these seem unlikely choices, because their effects only last minutes, and could wear off before friendly forces arrive. They could also face a legal challenge: the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention prohibits the use of riot control agents in warfare

"The matter is further complicated if pepper gas was used as the irritant since this is a plant toxin," says Steve Wright of Leeds Metropolitan University. "Such toxins are explicitly banned."

The possibilities seem to boil down to anti-traction agents (which make the whole area impossibly slippery), a malodorant or some novel chemical agents.

Anti-traction agents are possible, but seem unlikely because research in this area (such as Darpa’s Black Ice program) still seems to be at an early stage. It would be unusual for an agency to still be doing basic research when another is about to field a finished product.

A malodorant is a super stinkbomb with a truly intolerable smell. The Pentagon has been working on such chemicals for years, and a recent US army briefing on future artillery concepts specifically mentions artillery-delivered malodorants. (see PDF)

This might sidestep the Chemical Weapons Convention with the argument that malodorants are not chemical weapons. However, Ralf Trapp, an independent disarmament consultant formerly with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, challenges this interpretation.

"That argument rests on the assumption that there are no other toxic effects of these chemicals, and that one can control the dose so that one never crosses into the dose range for toxic effects," says Trapp. "It also is based a concept of toxicity that is centuries out of date - malodorants do have a physiological effect and toxicity is not limited to lethality."

Finally, there is the possibility that the US has decided to ignore the convention and use new non-lethal chemical agents. This approach has supporters in high places. Before the Iraq war in 2003, Donald Rumsfeld pushed for rules of engagement that would allow US forces to use non-lethal chemicals.

Until the 1980s, the US maintained stockpiles of a chemical incapacitant known as BZ or Agent Buzz. BZ is a psychoactive chemical causing stupor, confusion and hallucinations lasting for more than 24 hours. It has an evil reputation, but this is based largely on rumour as few facts are available. Most people have only heard of BZ in connection with the film Jacob’s Ladder. This depicted soldiers exposed to a secret chemical weapon in Vietnam with terrible results, including permanent psychosis.

"We are reaping the whirlwind today because of government secrecy in the past," says Jim Ketchum, who ran the BZ testing program in the 1960s. "It has allowed critics to make unsupportable claims about agents such as BZ without rejoinder from the government research community." Although the US is known to have been active in this area since 2000, no comments are available from researchers on non-lethal chemical agents - now termed "calmatives", whatever their chemical action.

Ketchum has written a book, Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten, about his experiences of testing BZ on hundreds of volunteers. The effects are very different to those portrayed by Hollywood. None suffered physical harm, mental breakdown or any lasting after-effects. Rather than driving subjects berserk, it has a sedative action. But unlike the fentanyl used in 2002 by Russian police when they stormed a Moscow theatre where Chechen rebels were holding hostages, BZ does not rely on sedation for its effects and does not carry the same risk.

Clouding the issue

Ketchum is now retired, and his successors have had decades to develop more effective and safer agents. But strict secrecy is still in place and there is no information about current research. Ketchum argues that the use of incapacitants would save lives, especially in situations where insurgents are mixed with the civilian population. Others believe that such agents are not just illegal but a step towards unlimited chemical weapons.

"It shouldn’t be forgotten that the horrors of gas warfare in the first world war began with teargas, followed up with lethal firepower," says Wright.

As a sideline, the XM1063 projectile also has a "vehicle area denial" component composed of nanoparticles. The US army has researched chemicals to interefere with engine combustion in the past, including work with ferrocene (normally used as an anti-knock additive) which prevent engines from working, with the idea is that this would stop any vehicle within the affected area. However, the potential health risks are unknown, especially when nanoparticles are involved.

Testing of the XM1063 was completed successfully last year and it is due for low-rate production from 2009. Ardec says that the production decision is on hold awaiting further direction from the program manager. It seems the decision on whether to enter a new age of chemical warfare now rests with the military rather then civilians. Unless put under pressure, the US Army seems unlikely to give any details of what’s in the surprise package until it is used. And maybe not even then.

WeAreChange meets Chris Jericho

To these things here are some (though certainly not all) the answers:

As for relationships and marriage.

The reasons I do not want another relationship or marriage:

1.       I have no intention of working a job where I am working for someone else.  Self employment is the only acceptable form of employment for me.  Presently I am a full time student and unemployed; women only want relationships with men with employment and money.  I fully agree with the belief that a person should look for (among other things) financial security in a partner and being I cannot provide financial security to a partner I am not a good prospect for partnering with nor will I get involved in any new relationships until I am financially secure.

“But if any provide not, for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8.

2.       Even should I have the financial wherewithal it is extremely unlikely that I would enter another relationship for I am a felon.  As a felon I am subject to the injustices that follow every felon around for the rest of their lives and I am not willing to enter into a relationship knowing that I shall be bringing this injustice into the relationship.

“And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.” Ecclesiastes 3:16.

3.       Further, I am as yet unable to trust women and knowing that a felon is subject to tighter restrictions under the law and in society this distrust leads to thinking of all the myriad things that an unfaithful partner and her lover can do to be rid of me while keeping what for themselves what is not rightfully theirs.

“And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleases God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her.  Behold, this have I found, says the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account: which yet my soul seeks, but finds not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.” Ecclesiastes 7:26-28.

As for children.

Reasons why I do not wish to have more children:

1.       I had three children which were taken from me from the court and given to my ex-wife who did not want them.  She did not want them because the person she was unfaithful to me with told her he did not want children and being she had children he would not marry her.  She then gave me physical custody of the children so she could be with her boyfriend.  After she signed custody of them over to me she discovered her boyfriend had only been leading her on for once she told him she no longer had custody of the children he moved out of town.  The court that took them away from me and gave them back to her said when she signed over custody to me she did not have an attorney therefore they would not allow the contract to stand.

“If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regards; and there be higher than they.” Ecclesiastes 5:8.

2.       If I had financial security to where I was able to care for more children it is highly unlikely that I would have any more of my own, instead I would adopt children for I find it offensive to bring more children into such an unjust world.  However, being I am a felon I would probably not be allowed to adopt any children.

“So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.  Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.  Yes, better is he than both they, which have not yet been, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.  Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor.  This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 4:1-4.

Well, I shall close here and continue to pray that until next time may love and peace be yours always, amen.

I understand rules. Rules allow people to coexist without beating on each other for the simplest things. Rules keep the world turning as it is, and some might say that isn't necessarily a good thing but a lot of the time it's better than the alternative.

The thing about believing that rules are essential is that it's so easy to be consumed by them. One day a society puts in laws and the people are happier because the law supports the majority--isn't that what laws are made to do?

However, in the event that such a society implements such laws, it becomes obvious when something else is vitally wrong with the function of the society. Perhaps a man overshadows his neighbor, stealing from him, abusing him verbally, and so the lawmakers set out to fix it. Although in the beginning, a law is put in effect to liberate the wronged, in the end the laws are made more for the betterment of the majority than the minority. Eventually the minority has no voice at all. It is overshadowed by this great democracy, these leaders who claim to know best, but they forget that they don't know all.

"I find the world funny because if I shouldn't, it would surely break my heart."

It's not arrogance. I know that there are those who set rules intending only for the good of the people. What they forget--what most people forget to take into account--is the individual.

"Society exists only as a mental concept. In the real world there are only individuals" -Oscar Wilde

My grief is with the way high school is run. And truly, I would write for day and night, write about everything I feel is wrong with it, about every injustice and paradox and mistreatment if I thought it would do a lick of good. I would join the Student Council if I thought they were given any voice in the setting of such rules and behaviors, if I thought they did anything but plan dances and raise money.

The truth? Most parents--that I've met, who I know are out there--don't care about their kid's voice because they've had to speak for them for so long. It's a fantastic idea, that there is any such thing as a human being created from another human being. A miracle, even.

In the course of raising a kid what most parents forget is that the kid is a person, too. The parent may sit by the child's side while he/she does their first math problem and feel such pride. They may attend every soccer game, every chess tournament or cheer routine but in the end it is the easiest thing in the world to forget that perhaps, it is not them doing these things but the parent through the kid.

And when setting rules and pushing for laws, they forget, in their need to protect and control, that perhaps the safest thing is not always the best thing.

I won't say they never stop to consider how the kid would feel if his or her right to drive at 16 were taken away, because maybe some parents would. All I will say is, in the course of pushing for such regulations the voice of the minority affected is hardly heard at all.

Last year I was a member of my school's Student Council. I signed up, thinking, "Wow! This way, I can make a difference. I can have a say in how things are run." What I didn't know was that I can talk my heart out and it will never make a difference, not to this school board, because to them I am just a teenager and what do teenagers know?

If there is a clearer vision than any, it is of those who have not had the chance to be blinded. At least, not yet.

Today, riding home on the bus, I noticed the new security measures. A camera at both the front, back, and middle of the bus. We had to have our IDs to get on and off, and there was a monitor constantly moving down the aisle, watching. Watching for what?

The truth? The truth is that it does not matter that every one of the kids who ride my bus is perfectly behaved, every single day. People--parents, the ones who control the school board--are scared. They've seen the videos of shootings, heard of the grief of the families. After such incidents, the families are driven to sue. Sue, sue the school for making my child this way! Sue the school for not stopping this! Sue the teachers and the staff and anyone who even glanced in the direction of their child before they were killed!

In all that blame, all those accusations, they say the heart is the students who were murdered. What they don't say is that it isn't the fault of the school. It isn't the fault of the killer's peers, or the gun company that made the gun, or even the security guard who was too late to do anything. So who's to blame?

Everyone, because everyone plays a part. The friends, who push some loner kid into doing something humiliating. Perhaps that is even the catalyst, that final shove off the cliff. There's the teachers; but really, it isn't their fault they must teach objectives all year long rather than expression. And most definitely, there are the parents because with each generation comes new ideals and standards. The majority of parents are stuck in the past. They don't remember how it didn't matter that there were no seat belts because their friends thought their car was awesome. For a while, that was all that mattered.

But now, schools--high schools in particular--do not teach kids how to live. They teach kids how to survive.

"I never let my learning interfere with my education" -(mark twain?)

The way I see it, there are two ways a future school education can go. It can go the way of the school board and the parents. It can be strict minutes. Every second is counted, every error docked in order to "get a better understanding of the needs of the children." Every rule ever created is created by people who do not have to live by the standards.

For example. I was in Algebra II class--first day of school--and the teacher hands us index cards so we can write down information about ourselves. Alright. So I write my name...my email...my home phone number...and then it asks for my address. Why does she need my address? Oh, well. So I write that down, too.

The lady calls the class to attention and starts going over the syllabus. She begins to talk about what she likes, why she teaches--really, for so long that my page fills up with doodles but I don't interrupt. Then some kid at the back of the room raises his hand and asks where she lives (because in my town, where a person lives is a huge discussion topic--it's either close to the mall or far from it).

"I'm not going to tell you where I live!" the teacher told us.

And then it struck me how utterly rude that is. The first thing my English teacher ever told us was that she wouldn't ever ask of us what she would not be willing to answer herself. Isn't that like, one of the most important things with such a relationship?

Well, that did it for me. I was fed up with it. Everything.

My English teacher is possibly the only one I truly think understands. The district assigns us essay after essay after essay until I want to strangle someone with my bare hands. "Someone" being a school board member, of course. Possibly all of them.

Anyway, rather than simply assigning those essays, she makes them easier to take by doing creative things in between; i.e. letting us free write, have a discussion, etcetera. The bellworks always connect to ourselves, how we feel about an issue--not what the issue is, but our opinion of it.

Say what?? An opinion? Heavens forbid a high school student should ever have an opinion!

There are consequences no one but the very observant and a few kids will ever realize. See, such essays as we write have guidelines. Format, lines, spaces, citations, titles--there has to be an exact format when writing such essays as the ones we write. And in the process, I've lost what it means to go into an English classroom and wonder if all those problems I've been thinking about; how I'll express them today.

It has come to it that classes like English and History are no longer about seeing mistakes or giving our views, but of interpreting in only the right way, and writing in just one form. When has it become that the only things the district wants students to know is what they need to make a living? They say it is so we can be successful in life but what kid, who only knows structure and rules, will ever be content with that?

There is such unhappiness there. Truly, no one wants to be just a crowd. Just a student. Just a group, a minority, one with no voice because supposedly that voice will never be wise or right. Perhaps that is why kids follow the trends. Because possibly, if we're all alike and we all think similarly, we will become exactly what our parents and the school board (one in the same) expect of a group of teenagers.

If getting older means forgetting what it means to be younger, I won't ever grow up. Not if I have to stay in school my whole life or work at McDonalds, or write essays. What do I want to see? I want to see each of those board members go through exactly the same process that we do.

The other way future education can go is a very unlikely path, considering the people in charge. Creativity; freedom of expression; a voice; where have they gone? There could be a school where the kids confer with experience in order to determine what they need. Whoever said "kids don't know what they need" needs to spend a week in teenage shoes. A week being told there is nothing they can ever do to change what they are told.

I like that English teacher. Her bellwork questioned us, "Have you made a mark on the world?" and I was unhappy to say, no. I haven't. But I intend to, even if it means always being the minority.

Anyway, some time back, an elder mentioned in an off-hand way how broad-based the deliberate undermining of Africa was in its perpetration under the guise of colonialism. One of the key components of any effective exploitation of the lands resources would be founded on transportation -- its reach, efficiency, reliability, etc. However, the internecine squabbles with the EU of the time precluded any cooperative vision or effort. Once the living carcass of the continent had been carved up -- with the adjacent juxtaposition of feuding factions another deliberate act -- each group sought to consolidate their position, there clutch on their regions resources by making it difficult for their neighbors to get traffic/cargo through their area. This was done, it was shown to me, by the colonial powers designating differing rail gauges for their territories -- sometimes even within the same colony.

This is clearly short-sighted, if not blatantly stupid.It meant that to get cargo from one country to another, a de-training station(unloading from one train, carting the cargo across the border and reloading it on the other train) was required at every border crossing. It also meant that additional manpower as well as increased risk of loss due to damage in transfer, etc. were introduced. As this became clear, in areas critical to their interests, the colonial powers attempted to homogenize -- note I did not say coordinate -- various disparate rail systems. Some of this is detailed in Railroads of Central and Southern Africa, where the author references the railroad effort in southern Africa:

All of the major, global colonial powers each soon found out in their own way just how important the development of a viable railroad system is to the development of their nation or colony. The one major feature that railroads shared all over the world was that they represented the presence of that government in its territories, whether the rail line was built by the government or by private interests at a government's urging. The railroad became the "permanent way"; it was possibly the fastest and best way to show your presence either to a region's citizenry or to other nations. This was especially true for the European colonial powers. Great Britain, France, Germany, and The Netherlands all built railways to consolidate their interests in their colonies worldwide. Most of the colonial rail lines were built in Africa during the "scramble for Africa" that took place after the Berlin Conference of 1885. This conference was held among the European powers to settle the "ownership" of Africa. Great Britain came away from the conference holding most of Central and Southern Africa. And if it hadn't been for Cecil J. Rhodes, Britain's hold on these regions would not have become as strong as it did. Rhodes became the "Empire Builder" of Southern Africa.

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The question of track gauge soon arose. The planners in London felt that a colony should not have standard (4'8-1/2") gauge track. So when the rail line was built into the South African hinterland, to Kimberly, through Bechuanaland and into Bulawayo in 1897, it was built using 3'6" gauge. This gauge had been chosen as the "standard" for railways that were to be built in Africa, so that when the Mashonaland Railway was completed from Umtali to Salisbury in May 1899 it was necessary to have a transfer point at Umtali for the transfer of freight from the 3'6"gauge cars to the 2' gauge cars. As common sense would tell you it soon became obvious that this type of operation just was not going to work. It was decided to re-gauge the entire Beira Railway to the standard of 3'6" gauge and this work was begun at Umtali in late summer of 1899. By November of that year the conversion work had reached a point about forty miles east of Umtali. The re-gauging of the remainder of the line was completed to the port of Beira by August of 1900 and turned over to the Mashonaland Railway for operation. On the morning of August 1 the inaugural train for the newly re-gauged line steamed into Beira from Umtali. The last sixty miles of the 2' gauge had been converted by a large force of men spaced along the track during the previous four days. As a side note, the wooden bridges of the entire line were also rebuilt using steel because they were neither strong enough nor wide enough for the new 3'6" gauge line.

In west & east Africa, the same scenario played out, though not quite as well managed -- South Africa had the advantage of being the largest single expanse of land under one rule, whereas east, and certainly west Africa were fractured into splinters, not unlike Europe itself.

So, like Britain flooding Ghanaian gold mines as they were leaving the country after granting its independence -- an act still the source of great controversy today -- it is not surprising that the colonial powers would leave the railroads in disarray as well. When you recognize that the partitioning of Africa by the Berlin Conference of 1885(as noted above) [PDF] was about more than simply commerce -- that there were implicit & explicit steps taken to ensure European hegemony & African destabilization -- this sequence of events is more comprehensible. Not only did the partitioning separate families of peoples with no disregard, it also threw together traditional adversaries, intensifying contentions over now even more limited resources.

But, back to the rails... So this process of the 'de-training station' became standard operating procedure in the movement of any goods across the land &/or to the sea for export. This of course created situations ripe fore abuse & corruption where personal battles for self-esteem and clamors to recover lost hegemony and respect became epidemic.

So, when contemplating the 'why' & 'how come' of Africa's ongoing state of operations, it might be worth factoring the deliberate obstacles created & placed deliberately to achieve that end. Clearly, even the discussion of the role of railroads in the colonial past and the neocolonial present is a vast discussion, at least as vast as Africa itself. Therefore, check back from time to time for updates & follow-on post on this topic. For those seeking more info about the British role in this, see The departmental system of railway construction in British W Africa 1895-1906. Undoubtedly, this issue of rail transit is high on the list of the burgeoning effort of the emerging African Union.

Title

...it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant people that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last... This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings.

The second novel by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns is both complimentary and contrasting to The Kite Runner. The first novel, masculine and brutal, while the second feminine with the underlining current of endurance and sacrifice. Both books are about Kabul, Afghanistan, where Hosseini is from, and both books are tales of survival. While The Kite Runner is a book about a family who left Afghanistan after the soviet invasion and takeover, A Thousand Splendid Suns is about a family who stayed in Kabul throughout nearly all the almost thirty years of the city's turbulence and war. Both have messages of love and sacrifice.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is an emotional story of two women, Mariam and Laila, who are married to a violent and malicious man. Their husband, Rasheed, reminded me of a concept I had read in Harlan Coben's Hold Tight: Evil people are always evil, and when they are given the approval to be cruel they will do so with great relish. Rasheed had been a wicked, controlling violent man before the Taliban, but with the absolute freedom of men to do whatever they want to their female family members, Rasheed's true abusive nature becomes his unabashed identity. He can do whatever, whenever, he wants to the women, and no police will save them because it's a family matter, no court would believe them because he's a man and they are women, a class of people who are "only slightly less contemptable than a communist."

...you'll learn nothing of value in those schools. There is only one... skill a woman like you and me needs in life, and they don't teach it in school... Only one skill. And it's this: tahamul. Endure.

This book is a beautiful story of a deep love and companionship of two women, of their ability to endure beyond their imaginations, of survival, and of the ultimate sacrifice love can make: The laying down of one's life for another. It is the story of redemption and reunion, Mariam's illegitimate and loveless life being redeem by the love Laila, Aziza, and Zalmai give her and the reunion of the star-crossed lovers.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a visceral account of life in a war zone, the horror, the sounds and the bodies. It is beautiful at times with poetic passages and loving moments between characters, while revealing the life of oppression women were forced to endure during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. It is haunting, depressing, joyful, and hopeful.

... like a rock in a riverbed, enduring without complaint, her grace not sullied but shaped by the turbulence that washes over her.

For me, whenever the events were stamped with the date, winter of 1993, Summer of 1994, Fall of 1999, etc, I thought of what was going on in my life at the same time, birth of my daughters in clean hospitals, having water that poured from my tap, using an indoor flushing toilet and bathroom with a shower. Not to mention I could walk my kids to the park and not worry about them getting killed by sniper fire and taking it for granted my daughter wouldn't be raped by soldiers passing by. Never once fearing we'd take a trip out of town and returned to find our house now the possession of the government.

Because this book is graphic and shows the reality of war and domestic violence, this book is not for people who are sensitive to such things. There are several passages that will rip your heart out, and several that makes your stomach sink with dread and worry for Mariam and Laila. I am sure there are people who find the story too depressing to finish.

I didn't think it was possible that I could like this better than The Kite Runner, but I do. The focus on the women, their struggles, their endurance, their support of one another, and their ability to dream and hope for escape and freedom despite all they go through is humbling and encouraging. I feel a sense of kinship to them, a sense of shared suffering and not giving up, fighting back in the face of hopeless odds. It has a softer and steadier voice than The Kite Runner, as if told by a female narrator instead of a man. It is an incredible journey of forgiveness and redemption.

So they run around to try to pressure
Little me to stop at any measure

They murdered a man only three days past
Another policeman assigned now corrupt with Masonic cash
Everyone turns away eyes averted
Justice on the 28th will for me be perverted

To the Family help if you care
Remove this annoyance before in court I appear
Why should I suffer?
Are we not all brothers?

One step two step three and four
Cleaner than ever before
Boon craved to be given
Or revert back reality engrained truth hidden

Masonic revenge target locked
“Let’s destroy his life it’s not worth a lot
Let’s cut his strings watch him flip flop
God one is so bored and this cheers us up so why stop?”

Thousands of innocent lives lost
Simply because the Masonic high did not give a toss
“Were so establishment heaven sent
This game is our entertainment”

“This is our god given right
To make money off blighted lives that we film day and night
To stream upon our Masonic paedophilic web site
So all you chappies can download to pay outright”

Millions have they made off the likes of me
Thousands of hidden camera’s secret viewing fatality
Pushed so many too far used so sore
Suicide for some their only open door

Look back at media reports
Unexplained deaths a lesson Masonic-ally taught
A murder of a girl child by mother to free her Masonic release
Mother now resides within a mental hospital for this the masons teased

“It’s only a game no one cares”
Wrong call my little paedo mason now the world hears
The media eye focused on you
“Golly gosh on a stick what ever shall we do?”

This cruel game MUST STOP
This is truth I speak information gathered from the top
To all out there that care
Destroy their ARENA of fear

Despite the numerous historical examples that could be presented for both of these positions, what is important is how Turkish society perceived "human rights" and "democracy" in this context. Because the Great Powers used these terms to legitimize the most obvious colonial moves, Turks began to view both notions as "Western hypocrisy." Beyond the specific historical reasons, the fundamental problems that lay behind the failure to bring the perpetrators of the Armenian genocide to justice persist to this day. If it is not possible to draw a clear line of division between humanitarian goals, on the one hand, and a state's economic and political interests, on the other, then how are we to come to a consensus about ethical norms? And on what legal and theoretical grounds shall we justify international interventions? These questions remain unanswered.

Upon their Pre-pedo web site
Little me trying to fight the good fight
Little me with my heart on my sleeve
Little me my life torn apart my soul to bleed

I built that Trojan horse
They realised the prospects of making money of course
This was the only way to expose them for me
Now the Trojan horse ran the furlong three

Little me to die
Whilst that grinning mason cream millions I cry
Little me the jester upon the stage
NOW WATCH AND HEAR MY RAGE