Ten Minutes of Fame by Andrew Lam

Future historians may very well look back at the beginning of the 21st century as an era in which the human mind developed into a split screen, with one eye on real space and the other ogling the electronic mirror.

This morning on a crowded bus I counted six people within my immediate view, texting, talking on the cell phone, checking e-mail, listening to iPods. In other words, they were trying to keep the bus from being their only space, their only reality. And what was I doing? I recorded what I observed in my laptop, of course.

If modern technology has been created to enhance our daily lives, something has dramatically shifted: More and more, our daily lives are enslaved to the electronic world.

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Earth Day - 22nd April

An article by George Monbiot:

It wasn't meant to happen like this. The climate scientists told us that our winters would become wetter and our summers drier. So I can't claim that these floods were caused by climate change, or are even consistent with the models. But, like the ghost of Christmas yet to come, they offer us a glimpse of the possible winter world that we will inhabit if we don't sort ourselves out.

With rising sea levels and more winter rain - and remember that when the trees are dormant and the soils saturated, there are fewer places for the rain to go - all it will take is a freshwater flood to coincide with a high spring tide and we have a formula for full-blown disaster. We have now seen how localised floods can wipe out essential services and overwhelm emergency workers. But this month's events don't even register beside some of the predictions circulating in learned journals. Our primary political struggle must be to prevent the breakup of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets. The only question now worth asking about climate change is how.

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Green consumerism is becoming a pox on the planet. If it merely swapped the damaging goods we buy for less damaging ones, I would champion it. But two parallel markets are developing - one for unethical products and one for ethical products, and the expansion of the second does little to hinder the growth of the first. I am now drowning in a tide of ecojunk. Over the past six months, our coat pegs have become clogged with organic cotton bags, which - filled with packets of ginseng tea and jojoba oil bath salts - are now the obligatory gift at every environmental event. I have several lifetimes' supply of ballpoint pens made with recycled paper and about half a dozen miniature solar chargers for gadgets that I do not possess.

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Info on Earth Day.

Was thinking of the poem recently, thought I would post.

Lines Written in Early Spring

by Wiliam Wordsworth

I heard a thousand blended notes
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.


To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.


Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower,
The periwinkle trail'd its wreaths;
And 'tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.


The birds around me hopp'd and play'd,
Their thoughts I cannot measure,
But the least motion which they made
It seem'd a thrill of pleasure.


The budding twigs spread out their fan
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.


If this belief from Heaven be sent,
If such be Nature's holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

Such a sweetly simple poem.

Amnesty International: Thousands lost in Kashmir Mass Graves

Hundreds of unidentified graves – believed to contain victims of unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses - have been found in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Amnesty International has urged the Indian government to launch urgent investigations into the mass graves, which are thought to contain the remains of victims of human rights abuses in the context of the armed conflict that has raged in the region since 1989.

The findings appear in the report Facts under Ground, issued on 29 March by the Srinagar-based Association of the Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). The report details the existence of multiple graves which, because of their proximity to Pakistan controlled-areas, are in areas not accessible without the specific permission of the security forces. Since 2006, the graves of at least 940 people are reported to have been discovered in 18 villages in Uri district alone.

The Indian army has claimed that those found buried were armed rebels and "foreign militants" killed lawfully in armed encounters with military forces. However, the report recounts testimonies from local villagers saying that most buried were local residents hailing from the state.

The report alleges that more than 8,000 persons have gone missing in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. The Indian authorities put the figure at less than 4.000, claiming that most of these went to Pakistan to join armed opposition groups.

In 2006, a state police report confirmed the deaths in custody of 331 persons, and also 111 enforced disappearances following detention since 1989.

Unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and torture are violations of both international human rights law and international humanitarian law, set out in treaties to which India is a state party. They also constitute international crimes.

Amnesty International has called on the Indian government to unequivocally condemn enforced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that prompt, thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all sites of mass graves in the region are immediately carried out by forensic experts in line with the relevant UN Model Protocol.

All past and current allegations of enforced disappearances must be investigated and, where there is sufficient evidence, anyone suspected of responsibility for such crimes must be prosecuted in fair trial proceedings, with all victims granted full reparations.

Press Release: One Democratic State Group

Gaza: The Holocaust Continues

The latest Israeli war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip have resulted in the brutal killings of 21 Palestinians, including 6 children, within the last 12 hours. More than 40 have been injured. Fadel Shanaa, a Reuters cameraman, was amongst the dead. His visibly marked car was targeted by an Israeli missile in an attempt to cover up crimes committed in day light. The areas targeted are Shijaeyah, Beit lahia, and Bureij refugee camp. Al-Salam Mosque in Shejeyah was demolished; Al-Wafa hospital was rampaged; and houses were set on fire. In Juhr El Dik, eastern of Bureij, a group of civilians, including children, was targeted by an Apache helicopter. 14 of them died on the spot.

This comes as the number of terminally ill patients who have died as a result of the imposed heinous siege has reached 135. The latest victims today were two toddlers from the Nusairat camp. The Israeli authorities denied both of them permits to be treated in the West Bank and Jordan.

As 85 per cent of all transport in Gaza has come to a stand still due to shortages in fuel, and as universities and schools have shut down, the people of Gaza are bracing themselves for worse days to come. Israel seems to get the wrong message, not only from the international community, but also from the Arab world as well. Its Foreign Minister is being welcomed as a hero in Doha, while Jimmy Carter is denied entry into the besieged Gaza Strip. With this international conspiracy of silence and the complicity of the UN and EU, the people of Gaza are left alone to face the ongoing Holocaust. All warnings and photos of dead bodies of children and women seem to have failed so far in making the Arab and Islamic worlds translate their words of support into action. We ask: what is needed more than the photage of Mohammed Burai and the toddlers of Nusairat to convince the Arab world to break this unprecedented, medieval siege? Has the existence of Palestinians become a burden, not only on Israel, but also on the Arab World? Are Palestinians, especially Gazans, left with the option of surrendering, or dying like cockroaches?

This slow-motion genocide must come to an end now before Gaza explodes.

Another revealing article on the causes behind the escalating food prices.

Excerpt:

Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the San Francisco-based Oakland Institute, which has done exhaustive studies on issues relating to food trade and agriculture, told IPS that various causes for the current crisis are being cited in policy circles, including increased demand from China, India and other emerging economies.

The high per capita income growth of some of these countries has resulted in changing appetites.

Additionally, she noted, the price increases are also attributed to rising fuel and fertiliser costs, climate change, and the new emphasis on converting crops to biofuels, which are being held responsible for almost half the increase in the consumption of major food crops in 2006-07.

"What is not being mentioned is that in the last few decades liberalisation of agriculture, dismantling of state-run institutions like marketing boards, and specialisation of developing countries in exportable cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, cotton, and even flowers has been encouraged by international financial institutions backed by rich countries like the United States, and also by the European Union," she pointed out.
Mittal said these reforms have driven the poorest countries into a downward spiral. "Removal of tariff barriers has allowed a handful of Northern countries to capture Third World markets by dumping heavily subsidised commodities while undermining local food production," she said.

This has resulted in developing countries turning from net exporters to large importers of food, with a food trade surplus of about 1.0 billion dollars in the 1970s transforming into an 11-billion-dollar deficit in 2001.

She also said the situation has been worsened by the dismantling of marketing boards that kept commodities in a rolling stock to be released in event of a bad harvest, thus protecting both producers and consumers against sharp rises or drops in prices.

P.S. Sorry for my cut-and-paste practices, but can't write.

Why Food Costs are Climbing by Eric Reguly

Rome - Fatal food riots in Haiti. Violent food-price protests in Egypt and Ivory Coast. Rice so valuable it is transported in armoured convoys. Soldiers guarding fields and warehouses. Export bans to keep local populations from starving.

For the first time in decades, the spectre of widespread hunger for millions looms as food prices explode. Two words not in common currency in recent years - famine and starvation - are now being raised as distinct possibilities in the poorest, food-importing countries.

Unlike past food crises, solved largely by throwing aid at hungry stomachs and boosting agricultural productivity, this one won't go away quickly, experts say. Prices are soaring and stand every chance of staying high because this crisis is different.

A swelling global population, soaring energy prices, the clamouring for meat from the rising Asian middle class, competition from biofuels and hot money pouring into the commodity markets are all factors that make this crisis unique and potentially calamitous. Even with concerted global action, such as rushing more land into cultivation, it will take years to fix the problem.

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In Pakistan,

says Sahib Haq, an official with World Food Programme’s Vulnerability Analysis and Mapping Unit in Pakistan, food prices rose at least 35 percent in the past year compared with an 18 percent rise in minimum wages. “There is a very big gap between the increase in prices and increase in wages … the purchasing power of the poor has gone down by almost 50 percent,” Haq said. The price of wheat flour is expected to shoot up by 40 percent or more in the coming months, according to grain industry officials. “There will be a big crisis,” Haq said. The new coalition government, which took power last month, raised the support price it pays farmers to buy wheat to ensure adequate supplies, but Haq said the move would result in sharply rising flour prices in the months ahead.

Winds of Change by Pablo Ouziel

Fragmented and divided, we are all individually searching for the freedom which allows us to be ourselves and follow our dreams. All of us who are on this planet today have different realities, different abilities and different points of view. Some feel satisfied with what they have, others do not. Some are happy with the current states of affairs in the world and others are trying to change things. I personally fall into the category of people who do not feel satisfied with the world in which I live. From a personal perspective, I have to admit that ‘western democratic capitalism’ has been good to me on the material level, however, on the personal level it has generated in me such contradictory emotions and reflections that I have been drawn towards the spirit of revolutionary existence.

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Society overall has accepted a system which leaves behind those who do not matter, who cannot make it. They don’t matter, because what matters are the statistics of humanity, statistics that are thrown at us on a daily basis with the sole purpose of dehumanizing social reality and promoting the interests of the rich and powerful. Again the important thing to me is not how these powerful individuals are able to maintain this situation, what is interesting to me is why the common people are so tolerant of this reality.

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It is important for westerners to be able to defend the fight of the Dalai Lama for Tibet against the monstrous China, because China has no right to commit the same kind of atrocities we commit. Only democracies are allowed to determine what belongs to whom, only democracies are allowed to overthrow governments, or police the world. Only ‘us’ because we are better than ‘them’. The problem for the common people is that there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’ because we have no say in what is happening. The people in power are laughing at our individual indifference, if we can understand that, then things can change. I have no answers, I just have one question: Where are the winds of change?

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Sunehri Mosque

Read an interesting article recently




Photo by abro on Flickr

Sunehri Mosque and fading myths by Majid Sheikh

Of all the mosques inside the Walled City, there are two that stand out as outstanding in their artistic content and architectural value ... them being the Mosque of Wazir Khan and the Sunehri Mosque.

The Badshahi Mosque is huge, very huge, but definitely not in the league of the first two in terms of beauty and finesse.

Of the two mentioned above, the Mosque of Wazir Khan is definitely in a class of its own. Its intricate brickwork and marble settings are unrivalled in the entire city of Lahore and the northern part of the sub-continent. But then it also goes without saying that the Sunehri Mosque is not only exceptionally beautiful, but is unique in its simplistic beauty. On a rainy moon-lit night, its golden-coated brass covered domes shine for miles around.

Its simple lines and golden domes stand out. If you happen to have lived inside the Walled City, it serves, from the roof tops, as the compass for the rest of the old city. But there is much more to this unique mosque, for the stories associated with it add to the myths that abound among the old folk inside the old Walled City.

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