June 26, 2008
Sunsets in Early Summer
Music & Visual Arts have always been a part of my spiritual journey; in many ways a secret part. As a young man growing, up when and where I did, I always wanted to keep up a fairly macho image. There is more to it than that, my illness gave me a less than smooth voice, clumsy fingers, an awkward gait, poor balance, and horrific stage fright. To compound matters, I was told that, as a Libran man, balance was important. Toss in a moody cancer moon, and a fickle Gemini Ascendant. Back on the train of thought, I never could sing, draw, or dance; and, as a youth, pretended to be happy with that -- quite a bit of sour grapes were involved there.
A kind of curious thing, before a serious health event in 2003, I teated highly in reading comprehension and analytical skills. Aptitude / IQ tests showed the same thing. After the near death event, a subsequent test showed more of an artistic aptitude; with a string sense of harmony, balances, tone, color, and so on. It was like there was a shift from being a logical left brain person to more of an intuitive right brain dude.
The songs I choose on these you-tube play lists mean or meant something to me; not necessarily the literal meaning of the song, or even what the author / composer intended. Just as an example, White Rabbit is obviously about something. But the Gohonzon is also a looking glass, a mirror, or even a window pane that enables to see things that might otherwise escape our attention. On another note, or chord, or cord, Caribbean Queen was the first dance song I liked {I hated disco until it was fairly out of style} and the first one I successfully danced to in public, while sober enough to remember the next day. Well, sort of danced. It was a Haller Haller moment pour moi [that is french lingo]. I wonder if Goethe would approve? As an aside, 1974 was a great year for R&B dance tunes.
Another thing related to the theme, was that I became seriously ill when I was 38. I guess that is more like a midsummer sunset? The last decade of the 20th Century were lost years for me. "Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by ... Every now and then I fall apart ..."
Every now and then, a creepy, sort of deja vu, gloom overtakes me. I have learned to be patient with that and let it pass. On the other side, bliss awaits. It is a wonderful world. However, we figuratively pave over paradise. We often live our lives as though we will always be here, when really, in the sense of conventional truth, we are just parked and the meter is running. We also calculate, compute, measure and count, when maybe, every now and then, we ought to just observe sans judgement [more french lingo].
One thing, the songs are just stuff people uploaded, and often vanish like dew drops in due time. The photos are mine, and non-commercial use is fine avec moi. One other thing; I'll be editing and re-dating these photo / music posts, so the direct link should work but might take you to new content and a different time.
June 25, 2008
For Reverend Greg; October 31, 1959 - June 10 2008
This is not say he was not a thinker as well. It took a while for me to get his humor, the depth of his nuanced sense of irony -- should I say sarcasm? He gave me some grief a couple times, and I was not sure how to take it. So I asked, and he told me. There may have been a time or two when I am rubbed him the wrong way, or he wondered what I meant by something. He would ask me about it, and accept my answer. He was not one of those who would try to tell me what I was really thinking. He might have disagreed with me, and e-said so, but did not try to put words in my mouth. He also seemed to accept disagreement without being excessively disagreeable.
One thing I began to notice about Greg was that it was not all about him. He was apparently genuinely interested in others, what they thought; what pushed their buttons; what made them tick. With some of the personalities one encounters on line, or in real time, they seem to feign interest in others; when it is really about them. Greg was definitely not like that. There was a time, in a study groups, when someone took something I wrote the wrong way, and a tiff started. So, in jumps Greg, explaining exactly what I had intended. Then the person who had given me as hard time slithered away and hid under a lotus pad. Meanwhile, I was not even aware Reverend Greg had been following the discussion. I thought that was impressive. He seemed to keep track of a lot of things going on in the cyber groups, he had the pulse. I suspect he had a very busy, rather adventurous 'real' life as well. The ability to keep track of so many things, that well; that accurately, can only come from genuinely caring.
I guess that; a combination of caring, boldness, and a do it now enthusiasm, is what enabled Greg to bring all of us, those who blog here, together, under one accurately named heading. It was truly a feat that was fraught with peril. He seemed to live Daisaku Ikeda's advice to be bold and courageous; even if doing so was not always welcome within SGI. If Greg had any agenda, other than getting people, those with diverse views, talking with one another, I never had a clue what it was. I do not even know his political views were, what kind of music he listened to, his favorite movies, and so on. I knew he liked martial arts -- duh!?! I was not even aware he was a scuba diver. I now know, from an obituary:
Greg was the vice president of Andrews 
Blueprint. He was head instructor of
Bujinkan Wako Dojo, an EMT, former
member of the Santa Clara Vanguard
Drum and Bugle Corp, member of the
Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai
International (SGI-USA) and for 22 years,
ordained minister in the Universal Life Church.
June 24, 2008
June 22, 2008
June 20, 2008
Good News on Terror?
For years, opponents of the "War on Terror" and "Invasion of Iraq" have argued that these moves backfired by causing an increase in terrorism. I always suspected that this was skewed, by counting the resistance activity in Iraq, insurgents and militants, as terrorist acts. I asked a number of people if this were the case, but never got a straight answer. If so, that would be like saying incidents of illegal drug use increased in areas that hosted a Grateful Dead Concert. That might be true, but it would not be part of a trend. It now appears my suspicions were correct.
A recent study has challenged the prevailing view that Global Terrorism is on the increase. Researchers with Human Security Report Project (HSRP) reviewed data from three USA based sources -- the National Counter Terrorism Center, the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, and the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism. All of those studies showed an upward trend in terrorism.
However, HSRP Director Andrew Mack maintains that these results are skewed by counting civilian casualties in the Iraq War as incidents of terrorism. Mack noted that civilian deaths in similar civil wars, those in Africa, were not considered terrorism. James Ellis, research and program director at MIPT, admitted to Reuters. "It [Iraq] has had a distortion effect."
Normally speaking when we talk about civilians being killed
in civil wars we use the terms war crimes or crimes against humanity
or even genocide. We don't normally call them terrorism. However,
if you want to you can, but if you are going to do that
then you have to do it consistently."
"And the problem with two of the data sets that go back to
1998 is that they don't do this consistently. They're counting
very large numbers of civilians killed in Iraq terrorism, but
when we look at sub-Sahara Africa's many civil wars, which
kill lots and lots of civilians, they're counting very, very few
of these. And the consequence is that you have a distorted data."
-- Andrew Mack
The HSRP reports indicates that even if questionable Iraq data is included, "there has still been a substantial decline in the global terrorism toll ... global terrorism fatalities declined by 40 percent between July and September 2007, driven by a 55 percent decline in the "terrorism" death toll in Iraq after the so-called surge of new U.S. troops and a cease-fire by the Shi'ite militant Mehdi Army"
Key points of the report:
- Fatalities from terrorism have declined,
- There has been a dramatic decline in support for al-Qaeda throughout the Muslim world.
- There has been an "extraordinary, but largely unnoticed, positive change" in sub-Saharan Africa -- the number of conflicts fell by more than half between 1999 and 2006 -- casualties there declined by 98 per cent.
- A reduction in armed conflicts and combat deaths, noted in an earlier study, also continues.
I was curious as to any reasons why AQ's popularity is declining, I managed to pick up a few bits and pieces:
- A rejection of AQ's "gratuitous and indiscriminate violence against their co-religionists."
- A rejection among Muslims of ' "indiscriminate violence, extremist ideology and harshly repressive policies."
- Widespread and better coordinated counter terrorism efforts.
"By deeply alienating the very publics whose support is critical to their cause, the Islamists have become their own worst enemies and created conditions that will likely bring about their eventual demise," said Mack. [The] strategic implications are critically important, because historical evidence suggests that terrorist campaigns that lose public support will sooner or later be abandoned or defeated."
After reading up on this study, I began to worry about Mr. Mack's reputation. I mentioned to my wife that I hope he is a saint, because I suspect he was about to be viscously smeared by our friends in the left - green web movement. I mean, is Mack accepting funding from US Defense Contractors, "Big Oil," or, even worse, "Big Tobacco?" Just what is this "Human Security Report Project (HSRP)" Are they some sort of wing nut foundation, or perhaps a CFR front?
It turns out that HSRP is part of the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University [sfu] at Vancouver BC. Andrew Mack has an impressive resume. He was once head of the The Peace Research Center at the Australian National University. I came across this little snippet:
"Even before its birth, the proposed centre was the target of attacks from right-wing opponents. These attacks escalated in intensity and viciousness after the appointment of Andrew Mack as the head of the Centre. The critics claimed that peace research was vacuous academically, that Mack was an apologist for communist militarism, and generally that peace research was a dangerous and subversive activity, constituting little more than peace movement ideology in academic guise."
So, before attempting to slime this guy as some kind of puppet of the right fascist big oil defense contractor oligopoly, folks should stfu and do some fact checking.
- Directed the Human Security Centre at the University of British Columbia where the Project was located until its move to Simon Fraser University in May 2007.
- Visiting professor at the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University (2001)
- Director of the Strategic Planning Unit in the Executive Office of Secretary General Kofi Annan at the United Nations (1998–2001).
- Chair in International Relations at the Institute of Advanced Study at the Australian National University (ANU) (1991 - 1998),
- Director of the ANU's Peace Research Centre (1985 - 1991)
- Senior Research Fellow at ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (1984/85).
More om his resume: Link
Sources:
Report Challenges Orthodoxy on Global Terror
Global Terrorism in Sharp Decline
Is global terror threat falling?
Study finds global terrorism on the decline
Iraq figures distort terrorism statistics: study
June 17, 2008
June 08, 2008
June 02, 2008
Bo Diddley: December 30, 1928 - June 2 2008
28 songs -- Bo Diddley and other artists who did covers or songs based on the Bo Diddley sound. Bo Diddley was one of the first level masters of rock.n;roll. Pop songs based on the Bo Diddley beat, the hambone sound rooted in West African music: Not Fade Away, Hand Jive, hey Little Girl, I Want Candy, The Game of Love, Magic Bus ...