I was going to just give you the link to this article, but thought if the words were here you'd actually read it.
Taleban insurgents have killed at least 27 people travelling on buses in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
A Taleban spokesman said that all those killed in the attacks on three buses were Afghan government soldiers, but officials said they were civilians.
The attacks happened on Thursday but the bodies have only just been found, dumped over a wide area.
A number of the men were beheaded after the attack in the Maiwand district, local and military sources say.
A Taleban spokesman said its fighters had boarded the buses travelling on the province's main highway, removed men identified as soldiers and shot them.
Afghan officials said all the victims were civilians as soldiers travel in military convoys or by plane.
Kandahar province has seen fierce fighting in recent months.
The Afghan army and international forces are fighting a counter-insurgency campaign against anti-government forces in the south of the country, the BBC's Martin Patience reports from the capital, Kabul.
'Child killed'
The casualty figures could not be independently verified.
According to police in Kandahar, the militants failed to stop one bus, after which they opened fire, killing a child aboard the vehicle.
Stopping another bus carrying about 50 people, they killed 24 of those aboard and freed the rest, Kandahar police chief Matiullah Qateh was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
He added that women and children were aboard the buses involved in the attack.
An Afghan defence ministry spokesman, Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying a total of 31 people were killed.
Six of the dead were found beheaded in an area away from where the others were shot, the general explained. A village elder also said some of the dead had been decapitated.
Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP news agency that those killed were soldiers en route to Helmand province.
"We found government documents on them and we killed 27 of them," he said. "The rest, who were civilians, we freed."
-courtesy of bbc news.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Palin
Here are some words from a very intelligent man.
Obama and the Palin Effect
by Deepak Chopra
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision
Look at what she stands for:
o Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
o Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
o Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.
o Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
o Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
o ”Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness
Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow — we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
Obama and the Palin Effect
by Deepak Chopra
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in Minneapolis this week. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as an unlikely choice, given her negligent parochial expertise in the complex affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents, which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure. Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal goes deeper.
She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and turning negativity into a cause for pride. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision
Look at what she stands for:
o Small town values — a nostaligic return to simpler times disguises a denial of America’s global role, a return to petty, small-minded parochialism.
o Ignorance of world affairs — a repudiation of the need to repair America’s image abroad.
o Family values — a code for walling out anybody who makes a claim for social justice. Such strangers, being outside the family, don’t need to be needed.
o Rigid stands on guns and abortion — a scornful repudiation that these issues can be negotiated with those who disagree.
o Patriotism — the usual fallback in a failed war.
o ”Reform” — an italicized term, since in addition to cleaning out corruption and excessive spending, one also throws out anyone who doesn’t fit your ideology.
Palin reinforces the overall message of the reactionary right, which has been in play since 1980, that social justice is liberal-radical, that minorities and immigrants, being different from “us” pure American types, can be ignored, that progressivism takes too much effort and globalism is a foreign threat. The radical right marches under the banners of “I’m all right, Jack,” and “Why change? Everything’s OK as it is.” The irony, of course, is that Gov. Palin is a woman and a reactionary at the same time. She can add mom to apple pie on her resume, while blithely reversing forty years of feminist progress. The irony is superficial; there are millions of women who stand on the side of conservatism, however obviously they are voting against their own good. The Republicans have won multiple national elections by raising shadow issues based on fear, rejection, hostility to change, and narrow-mindedness
Obama’s call for higher ideals in politics can’t be seen in a vacuum. The shadow is real; it was bound to respond. Not just conservatives possess a shadow — we all do. So what comes next is a contest between the two forces of progress and inertia. Will the shadow win again, or has its furtive appeal become exhausted? No one can predict. The best thing about Gov. Palin is that she brought this conflict to light, which makes the upcoming debate honest. It would be a shame to elect another Reagan, whose smiling persona was a stalking horse for the reactionary forces that have brought us to the demoralized state we are in. We deserve to see what we are getting, without disguise.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
For a month or so since I had been back I had felt like my head was detached from my body. I wasn't in the mood to be in columbia, I desperately needed a job, I missed my friends and was looking for something to do to ground me. I applied at 8 different places for a job, and because I have kick-A availability for once I thought getting a job would be a piece of cake. Did I mention I didn't want to be in Columbia?
I didn't like the feeling of a detached head, or the confused feeling that was in my heart. Then my mom, a woman who follows teachings of Buddhism (among other belief systems) suggested that I go to an energy guide/ healer. I said, why not? I don't know what else to do!
The women that I went to was a friend of my mom's. she had studied energy healing for years with the most practiced Buddhists in the country. The belief is that everything in this universe has energy flowing in them. This energy flows in a fluid manner (a.k.a not in a rectangle fashion but more of like a figure 8) through our bodies. Also, throughout our bodies there are shakras, certain energy centers, that account for different things in the body, for example anger, grounded-ness, the physical body, etc. Sometimes certain happenings in your life can disrupt the energy flow of the body, and sometimes blockages can happen in your shakras, throwing the whole system off.
another part of this belief system is the belief that there is another dimension, a spirit world. They believe in energy beings in the same way that Christians belief in angels. They believe that there is a God who is pure love, and wants humans to experience this pure love, and that they have it secretly waiting inside them, waiting to be tapped into. the angels are there to help humans too, to restore their energy to it's original state so we can be at peace and able to love.
the woman didn't think "healer" was the right word for what she does. She called herself a conduit. That people have the capacity to restore their original energy flow by themselves, but don't know how to do it. She is there to call upon the angels and to use her own energy to nudge away the things blocking the fluidity of the self.
she placed her hands on me, starting at the toes, going up the legs, hips, stomach, chest, neck, and head. moving slowly. using her energy.
this woman told me that i needed to be patient. She told me that I am adventurous, loving, and intelligent. She told me that anger, whose shakra is the liver, was built up in my body, but that my body was so ready to get rid of it that it wasn't hard to nudge it away. she said that normally energy flows in the body in figure eights, but that my energy was blocked, therefore was not flowing at all, as if someone had built a wall in my abdomen that didn't allow the two halves of my body to be connected by proper energy flow.
she told me that the things i was looking for would find me. i then told her about my job frustrations. she said i will get the job i am supposed to have, and to worry is to not have faith in the fact that life will play itself out. stress in no cure, but patience is the only remedy.
I left her, feeling not only physically restored but more contented and patient in my previously scattered mind.
a month passed and i was beginning to get impatient again. who wants their parents to pay for their groceries?
then i was sitting in my favorite coffee shop, telling my friend that works there that the new guy working that day is a d-bag because he got the job i have wanted for years. She talked to her boss, and i was hired on the spot. i got the job i have wanted for 3 years.
then i was offered another job, which is equally has amazing as the first.
although i would still rather be elsewhere, that's no longer on my mind. i haven't felt this content in a very very long time. i am peaceful. i used to feel like i owned this town, but at the same time i never felt connected to it. when i came back to it after a year, and everything changed, i felt like it had slapped me across the face. and then, after a little time, i met new people, and the new people that i have met have been so welcoming and lovely people that they have re-invented this place for me. it's now my safe-haven. a place in which i feel like i am not only accepted and comfortable, but that my presence is a joy for them.
that is a great feeling.
I didn't like the feeling of a detached head, or the confused feeling that was in my heart. Then my mom, a woman who follows teachings of Buddhism (among other belief systems) suggested that I go to an energy guide/ healer. I said, why not? I don't know what else to do!
The women that I went to was a friend of my mom's. she had studied energy healing for years with the most practiced Buddhists in the country. The belief is that everything in this universe has energy flowing in them. This energy flows in a fluid manner (a.k.a not in a rectangle fashion but more of like a figure 8) through our bodies. Also, throughout our bodies there are shakras, certain energy centers, that account for different things in the body, for example anger, grounded-ness, the physical body, etc. Sometimes certain happenings in your life can disrupt the energy flow of the body, and sometimes blockages can happen in your shakras, throwing the whole system off.
another part of this belief system is the belief that there is another dimension, a spirit world. They believe in energy beings in the same way that Christians belief in angels. They believe that there is a God who is pure love, and wants humans to experience this pure love, and that they have it secretly waiting inside them, waiting to be tapped into. the angels are there to help humans too, to restore their energy to it's original state so we can be at peace and able to love.
the woman didn't think "healer" was the right word for what she does. She called herself a conduit. That people have the capacity to restore their original energy flow by themselves, but don't know how to do it. She is there to call upon the angels and to use her own energy to nudge away the things blocking the fluidity of the self.
she placed her hands on me, starting at the toes, going up the legs, hips, stomach, chest, neck, and head. moving slowly. using her energy.
this woman told me that i needed to be patient. She told me that I am adventurous, loving, and intelligent. She told me that anger, whose shakra is the liver, was built up in my body, but that my body was so ready to get rid of it that it wasn't hard to nudge it away. she said that normally energy flows in the body in figure eights, but that my energy was blocked, therefore was not flowing at all, as if someone had built a wall in my abdomen that didn't allow the two halves of my body to be connected by proper energy flow.
she told me that the things i was looking for would find me. i then told her about my job frustrations. she said i will get the job i am supposed to have, and to worry is to not have faith in the fact that life will play itself out. stress in no cure, but patience is the only remedy.
I left her, feeling not only physically restored but more contented and patient in my previously scattered mind.
a month passed and i was beginning to get impatient again. who wants their parents to pay for their groceries?
then i was sitting in my favorite coffee shop, telling my friend that works there that the new guy working that day is a d-bag because he got the job i have wanted for years. She talked to her boss, and i was hired on the spot. i got the job i have wanted for 3 years.
then i was offered another job, which is equally has amazing as the first.
although i would still rather be elsewhere, that's no longer on my mind. i haven't felt this content in a very very long time. i am peaceful. i used to feel like i owned this town, but at the same time i never felt connected to it. when i came back to it after a year, and everything changed, i felt like it had slapped me across the face. and then, after a little time, i met new people, and the new people that i have met have been so welcoming and lovely people that they have re-invented this place for me. it's now my safe-haven. a place in which i feel like i am not only accepted and comfortable, but that my presence is a joy for them.
that is a great feeling.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Krishna Das
"A few weeks after Ram Das and I had been at Maharaj-ji's Hanuman temple, tucked in the majestic himalayan mountains, a day came when a curious and soul-searching Canadian entered the front of the temple. Now, Maharaj'ji was a busy man, always organizing the things in the village, ordering monks here and there for temple up-keep, always occupied with something and running around all over the place. The day the Canadian man entered, Maharaj-ji quickly asked, 'What are you looking for here, canadian? What do you seek to learn?' The canadian, who hadn't really thought of exact reasons for coming, suddenly became nervous and hesitant, and decided to say, 'I want to learn how to meditate.' Maharaj-ji let how a sudden, boisterous laugh. He looked at the man, and started to shoo him to the back of the temple, to the small room where Ram Das and I were sitting. Maharaj-ji said with a jovial tone, 'Go! Go back with the rest of your western friends, and meditate like Jesus.' This confused the Canadian, but he followed orders quickly because the short interaction with Maharaj-ji left him shaken and excited about actually being accepted into the temple. He came back to the room where we were all sitting on the floor. We all introduced ourselves and then we began to tell us the story of what had just happened. His account of Maharaj'ji didn't surprise us because we had already come to understand his colorful nature. But as we continued talking we were perplexed at why our Babba, as we called him, had told the canadian to pray like Jesus. We thought maybe he was trying to make him feel more comfortable in this new asian country by referring to this western God, Jesus. But we asked ourselves, 'Why did he say to meditate like Jesus? How did Jesus meditate?' We soon decided to ask Babba as soon as he came back in the room this very question. A few hours later, (he was a busy man) Babba came back into the room in his quick and lively manner to check on us. We greeted him, and then I asked him,'Babba, how did Jesus meditate?' The usually busy and lively man got very still. He slowly closed his eyes, slightly lifted his chin, and raised his arms, palms upward. He stayed like this for a couple minutes, everyone in the room was completely silent, watching him. Babba was so peaceful and calm that it seemed like he was completely removed from us, as if he were the only person in the room. Then, with his arms raised and chin tilted upward, a small, silent tear rolled down his cheek. He slowly opened his eyes and looked to us, and said 'He lost himself in Love.'"
-Krishna Das, stories about his time with Maharaj-ji, and learning what true Love is.
-Krishna Das, stories about his time with Maharaj-ji, and learning what true Love is.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Ciao Ciao, ci sentiamo a dopo!
I've realized how quickly time moves. If you aren't really where you are, and always thinking about what, inevitably, will happen in the near future, day turns to night before you know it, and then night turns to day and all of a sudden you've returned to where you didn't want to be and wishing you could have had just a little more time.
i refuse to let that happen. especially in the final beautiful hours, minutes, and seconds that i have until the next times.
i just spent a week with roberto in Cinque Terre. five little towns settled in these little mountains but also kissing the charming italian coast. i am incredibly grateful that i was able to be THERE, in those moments, feeling every ray of the sun warming my body and every salty wave that i dove into, and i was able to truly enjoy every sip of fizzy white wine in between bites of focaccia, and savor every big hug and every silly kiss. i am very lucky that i only allowed myself a few moments of "oh crap, i'm leaving in a few days," (and only while roberto was sleeping), because had i be dreading my return (alone) to madrid, (and inevitably to the u.s.) the whole time, i wouldn't be as radiant as i am now from how happy the whole time was.
we slept in a tent.
i learned italian.
i shared everlasting moments alone with my favorite person in the world.
now i'm in madrid again. totally bumming out. feeling what is the accumulation 7 days of something i was not allowing myself to feel... Going Home
although i leave Europe with a substantially heavy heart, it is only in thinking of the of the amazing things it has given me this year. most abundantly, my friendships.
and although every second that i am writing this my throat is tight and my heart is sunk, and maybe my eyes are moist with warm tears, i know that this place will patiently await my return, and my friends will await me with open arms. to them i am forever grateful and indebted, and i am excited for the new moments we will have together.
giá mi manci, amore.
i refuse to let that happen. especially in the final beautiful hours, minutes, and seconds that i have until the next times.
i just spent a week with roberto in Cinque Terre. five little towns settled in these little mountains but also kissing the charming italian coast. i am incredibly grateful that i was able to be THERE, in those moments, feeling every ray of the sun warming my body and every salty wave that i dove into, and i was able to truly enjoy every sip of fizzy white wine in between bites of focaccia, and savor every big hug and every silly kiss. i am very lucky that i only allowed myself a few moments of "oh crap, i'm leaving in a few days," (and only while roberto was sleeping), because had i be dreading my return (alone) to madrid, (and inevitably to the u.s.) the whole time, i wouldn't be as radiant as i am now from how happy the whole time was.
we slept in a tent.
i learned italian.
i shared everlasting moments alone with my favorite person in the world.
now i'm in madrid again. totally bumming out. feeling what is the accumulation 7 days of something i was not allowing myself to feel... Going Home
although i leave Europe with a substantially heavy heart, it is only in thinking of the of the amazing things it has given me this year. most abundantly, my friendships.
and although every second that i am writing this my throat is tight and my heart is sunk, and maybe my eyes are moist with warm tears, i know that this place will patiently await my return, and my friends will await me with open arms. to them i am forever grateful and indebted, and i am excited for the new moments we will have together.
giá mi manci, amore.
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