Witness - World and the Underworld - 08 Oct 08 - Part 1

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Seeking Operación Cóndor Information

I am working on a research project which involves U.S. State Department and intelligence services through the research of documents spanning back to the mid 1970's that have been released through the FOIA, Freedom of Information Act.

While the focus of this project is the involvement of the USA in the Southern Cone of South American during this period, I would also be interested in accounts from people who were here, or had family here at that time. The nationality of the individuals is of no importance, nor is the ability to speak English.

Specifically, I was wondering if any of you out there had any first or secondhand knowledge of Operación Cóndor, or if you had any first or secondhand experiences relating to that period in history. More specifically, I am interested in accounts of life in Buenos Aires during the period between about 1972 or '73 up until around 1983. Memories, stories, letters, photos, etc. are all of interest. And of course, anyone with info relating to other member countries of Operation Condor is of interest as well.

While notes and/or recordings might upon occasion be used to insure the accuracy of the project, personal information can and will be withheld from others upon request.

I will provide some brief background for those of you unfamiliar with Operation Condor, Operación Cóndor in Spanish. Operation Condor was a shadowy Latin American military network created in the 1970s whose key members were Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. This group was later joined by Ecuador and Peru. The operation was a covert intelligence and operations system that enabled the Latin American military states to hunt down, seize and execute political opponents across borders. Refugees fleeing military coups and repression in their own countries were "disappeared" in combined transnational operations.

Of particular interest is the fact that Operation Condor was not only the result of the joint work of intelligence and security services of those member nations, but it also received direction, support and financing from the USA through its State Department, intelligence and security services.
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Turks apologize for Armenian massacres

You might wonder why I would be bringing this up in a forum for people in Buenos Aires. Although the United Nations acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians in 1973, calling it "The first genocide of the 20th century" and U.S. Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan acknowledged it, in 1985 Argentina became the first country to acknowledge the genocide of the Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917. Additionally, as of 2007 there are about 130,000 Armenians living in Argentina making it the 8th largest group outside of Armenia.

Here is an article I read this evening:

Turks apologize for Armenian massacres
Prominent intellectuals show regret online for World War I-era atrocities

ANKARA, Turkey - A group of about 200 Turkish intellectuals on Monday issued an apology on the Internet for the World War I-era massacres of Armenians in Turkey.

The group of prominent academics, journalists, writers and artists avoided using the contentious term "genocide" in the apology, using the less explosive "Great Catastrophe" instead.

"My conscience does not accept that (we) remain insensitive toward and deny the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected in 1915," read the apology. "I reject this injustice, share in the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers, and apologize to them."

The apology is a sign that many in Turkey are ready to break a long-held taboo against acknowledging Turkish culpability for the deaths.

Historians estimate that, in the last days of the Ottoman Empire, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks in what is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Armenians have long pushed for the deaths to be recognized as genocide.

While Turkey does not deny that many died in that era, the country has rejected the term genocide, saying the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest during the Ottoman Empire's collapse.

Online apology
Nearly 2,500 members of the public also signed the online apology, giving their support to the intellectuals.

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk was prosecuted after he commented on the mass killings in 2005. Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist was shot outside his Istanbul office in 2007, following his prosecution for comments he made about the killings of Armenians.

Turkish nationalists have criticized the online apology and on Monday a group of some 60 retired Turkish diplomats described the move "as unfair, wrong and unfavorable to national interests."

"Such an incorrect and one-sided attempt would mean disrespecting our history," the diplomats said.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party said: "No one has the right to insult our ancestors, to present them as criminals and to ask for an apology."

By late Monday, there were no public threats of legal action over the petition.

"Many in Turkey today, in good faith, believe that nothing happened to the Armenians. For many years, the official line has been that this was a secondary event that occurred in the conditions of World War I. But the truth is not so," Cengiz Aktar, a professor at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University and one of the petition's organizers told Vatan newspaper in an interview.

Voice from the conscience
"It is a voice from the conscience. Those who want to apologize can, those who don't want to don't have to," he said.

Gila Benmayor, a journalist and columnist for Turkey's mass-circulation Hurriyet newspaper said she signed the petition because she believes "the time has come for change."

"Some things need to spoken, need to be discussed and expressed in an open way," she told The Associated Press.

She said she did not hesitate to sign the petition because the wording was not controversial.

"The words were carefully chosen so as not to upset any side," she said. "We are not betraying anyone. We are merely telling the Armenians that we share their grief."

The apology comes at a time when Turkey and Armenia have taken steps toward repairing ties. The two neighbors have no diplomatic relations and their shared border has been closed since 1993, when Turkey protested Armenia's occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkey backs Azerbaijan's claims to the disputed region, which has a high number of ethnic Armenian residents but is located within Azerbaijan's borders.

In September, however, President Abdullah Gul became the first Turkish leader to visit Armenia, where he and Armenian President Serge Sarkisian watched their countries' football teams play a World Cup qualifying match. Read more!

Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08

One prominent Argentinian writer described the Falklands conflict as "two bald men fighting over a comb". But the war was anything but pointless to the men who fought in it and Al Jazeera met Argentinian veterans for whom the "Malvinas" as they are known, are still an obsession.

To see Part 2 click on the read more link below Part 1.

Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08 - Part 1




Veterans - The Falklands - 21 April 08 - Part 2

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Che Guevara: Hero or Sh*thead?

I have found the whole Che Guevara as a hero and freedom fighter phenomenon to be somewhat disconcerting. I can understand superficially why one might come to think of him worthy of being idolized. However, it only takes about five minutes of reading about his life to see that the man and the myth are quite distinct from one another. Here are a few points to consider:

• Che's biographers consistently report that he sent thousands to the firing squad in Cuba without benefit of trial or any due process after Fidel Castro's takeover. Che Guevara himself was said to have acknowledged ordering "several thousand" executions.
  
  
• During the Cuban missile crisis Che G. advocated nuclear war believing that a better world could be created from the ashes. He believed this in spite of the estimated costs of human lives in the millions.



• Characteristic of dictators and opponents of civil liberties Che G. believed that the end always justified the means and his written words, speeches and historic record reflect his ruthlessness.

1. "Blind hate against the enemy creates a forceful impulse that cracks the boundaries of natural human limitations, transforming the soldier into an effective, selective and cold killing machine. A people without hate cannot triumph against the adversary."



2. "Crazy with fury I will stain my rifle red while slaughtering any enemy that falls in my hands! My nostrils dilate while savoring the acrid odor of gunpowder and blood. With the deaths of my enemies I prepare my being for the sacred fight and join the triumphant proletariat with a bestial howl!"

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Global Warming: WHAT THE F*CK IS GEORGE W. BUSH THINKING, OR IS HE THINKING AT ALL???

The United Nations Climate Change Conference began this week on Monday. This two week meeting is the thirteenth conference to be held by the 192 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change and is the third meeting by the 176 parties of the Kyoto Protocol. Of key importance in this conference is the negotiation of standards on climate change for the post 2012 period which marks the expiration of the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol.

"The scientific debate has been conclusively laid to rest by the latest scientific findings from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - climate change is unequivocal and accelerating" noted the Indonesian Environmental Minister and President of the conference, Rachmat Witoelar.

Of particular note the new Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd and his team were sworn in the same day this conference began. Putting global warming and other environmental concerns at the forefront of his list of priorities, Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol that day reversing the decision of the former conservative party that has controlled Australia the last eleven years.

Yet in spite of this good news the United Nations acknowledged that this is not enough. They went on to add that no meaningful agreement can be reached without the participation of the United States, the last of the world’s industrial powers to refuse to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. "There is no doubt that the U.S. has to play a key role in the post-2012 agreement," noted Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Union’s climate chief. "I think what the rest of the world would like to see is a credible effort, a credible commitment from the side of the U.S. to resolving this major challenge."

The key stated objective of the Kyoto Protocol is to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." The United States' ratification of this treaty is vital to its success as the USA is the world’s largest carbon emitter and contributor of roughly 25% of the world’s greenhouse gasses. The USA is rated as an Annex I country (like the European Union) and as such the USA would be expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 5% less than 1990 levels.

To me at least this hardly seems unrealistic in the face of the consequences if we do not make a meaningful effort at compliance. As noted above, the reality of climate change is both “unequivocal and accelerating”. In the United States alone we have seen radical shifts in normal weather patterns the last few years that can only be attributed to the effects of global warming. Flooding in some areas, droughts in others, erosion, hurricanes, and more such weather events are becoming more common every year.

All this begs the question: WHAT THE F*CK IS GEORGE BUSH THINKING? Or maybe the better question is WHEN IN THE HELL IS HE GOING TO BEGIN USING HIS BRAIN??? To put this into perspective let us look for a moment to just one example of the effects of global warming on the United States.

At the end of June of this year leading researchers in North Carolina issued a report noting that the coastline of that state would continue to experience significant loss in land area during the course of the next 30 to 75 years due to the effects of projected changes in climate (global warming). Those findings appeared in the report “Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on North Carolina Coastal Resources” which assessed the impact of rising sea levels on property values, recreation, and quality of life issues. The study was conducted jointly by researchers from Appalachian State University, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina Wilmington and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Among other things this study found that:

• North Carolina’s coastal topography makes it especially vulnerable to sea level rise and hurricanes;


• That the impact is both economic and ecologic;


• The expected one- to three-foot rise in sea level along four North Carolina coastal counties could mean billions of dollars in private property losses over the next 75 years;


• Recreational fishing and beach trips will also become vulnerable to increased erosion from sea level rise and expected hurricanes.

The thing to consider here is that this is just one study dealing with one small portion of the United States. To frame this issue in a more complete international context one need merely look to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In accordance with current research, global sea levels are expected to rise significantly the next 25 to 75 years with the IPCC’s estimates places sea levels at 1 to more than 2 feet (0.3 to more than 0.61 meters) within that time frame.

Looking to costs to North Carolina alone business interruption losses from hurricanes could increase by as much as $157 million per weather/storm event by 2080. In that same time frame it is estimated that 14 of 17 recreational beaches could, without adaptation, see erosion all the way to the roads which would eliminate the possibility for beach recreation in those areas. Recreational economic losses the next 75 years for southern North Carolina beaches are estimated in the range of $3.9 billion. Losses in property value in just four key counties are projected to reach $6.9 billion.

Okmyung “Paul” Bin from East Carolina University’s Department of Economics studied the impact of rising sea levels on North Carolina property values. “The amount of developed property along the North Carolina coastline has steadily increased over the last several decades due to a strong preference for coastal locations,” Bin said. “The number of building permits in Carolina Beach during the last four years alone exceeds the number of permits issued over the previous 20 years, and the average selling price for residential properties in Wrightsville Beach has increased more than 200 percent since 2001. This growth, coupled with soaring property values in North Carolina, has created greater vulnerability to rising sea levels.”

So again, one has to ask WHAT THE F*CK IS GEORGE BUSH THINKING? Of course in all fairness we cannot put all the blame on George II, the boy king. In his eight years in office Sir Bill (Clinton) failed to even bring the matter of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol before congress for consideration for ratification. The thing that gets me though it that Boy George has managed to ignore even domestic policy and law regarding global warming.

Just this year he received a healthy spanking from no less than the highest court in the land. On Monday, April 2nd of 2007 the Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the statutory authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles and that its stated reasons for not doing so were inconsistent with the Clean Air Act. The EPA and Bush administration have argued against the EPA's assertion of its authority noting a number of reasons: that it would hinder the President's ability "to negotiate with 'key developing nations' to reduce emissions", that it would in fact be too small a step in addressing concerns of global warming, and that voluntary regulation is preferable. In ruling against these assertions, the court went on to rebuke President Bush by noting that:" while the President has broad authority in foreign affairs, that authority does not extend to the refusal to execute domestic laws."

And it is not like there is an absence of mounting pressure at the grassroots level to address this issue because there is every indication that this is a subject of serious concern. Of particular interest to myself is KyotoUSA. On their website found at www.kyotousa.org they refer to themselves as “an all volunteer, grassroots organization that encourages U.S. cities and their residents to reduce the global warming greenhouse gas emissions for which they are responsible.”

On February 16th, 2005 the Kyoto Protocol became law for the 141 countries that had ratified it to date. On that very same day Seattle Mayor Gregg Nickels launched the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement to advance the goals of the Kyoto Protocol through leadership and action. Two years later, The U.S. Conference of Mayors launched the Mayors Climate Protection Center to administer and track the agreement and by November 1, 2007, there were more than 710 signatories to that Agreement.

Under this Agreement, participating cities committed to take the following actions:

• To strive to meet or beat the Kyoto Protocol targets in their own communities, through actions ranging from anti-sprawl land-use policies to urban forest restoration projects to public information campaigns;


• To urge their state governments, and the federal government, to enact policies and programs to meet or beat the greenhouse gas emission reduction target suggested for the United States in the Kyoto Protocol -- 7% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012; and


• To urge the U.S. Congress to pass the bipartisan greenhouse gas reduction legislation, which would establish a national emission trading system.

So to me a simple man, the question remains the same: WHAT THE F*CK IS GEORGE BUSH THINKING????? Or maybe is he thinking at all remains the key question. Or maybe what the hell were we thinking when we allowed this tyrant to steal two elections? WHAT THE F*CK ARE WE THINKING AND WHY ARE THE FRENCH THE ONLY ONES WHO GET TO STORM THE BASTILLE??? I always heard they were sissies. So what does that make us?

p.s. I hope you take not offence my French friends. It is called American satire, deal with it. Please!!!

Sources and further reading:

http://unfccc.int/2860.php

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/06pdf/05-1120.pdf

http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/global.warming/stories/treaty/
http://www.kyotousa.org/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/nov/30/bali.climatechange
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/kyoto.htm

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Plagiarizing my Own Story??? Give me a break!!!!

I had a rather interesting situation arise this week concerning an article I had written. A client called me complaining that I had posted an article on my blog that I had written for him/her. I was accused of all kinds of things: plagiarism, theft, betrayal. I was also informed that the original idea for the subject of this article had come from this individual which meant that their rights on the idea superseded my own copyright on the creative expression of that idea (the article itself). There were the usual threats implied and otherwise.

I had a few ideas of my own on the matter, after picking myself up off the floor in disbelief. First of all as I had spent several days researching the subject and about half a day writing the article (alone I might add), there was no way to accuse me of plagiarism*. (It was my own article for heaven’s sake!!!) Second, unless I sold the exclusive rights to that article or otherwise disclaimed them (which I had not done) I retained all creative rights to that article. It matters not that someone else used that article on a “so called” copyrighted blog. (In fact as the author of the article I should have been credited on that blog, a requirement I did not invoke at the time nor will invoke.) The simple fact of the matter is that as a writer I posted the article as representative of the kind of work that I publish. It was a well researched and written piece and I was proud. There was no opportunity for personal gain other than as a writer as I in no way was involved with the target audience for that article.

With all that in mind, I began to wonder myself about artistic control, editorial control, and the like. So off I go again, this time to research a subject and to write an article about intellectual property rights, something that interests me as a writer and artist and should interest anyone involved in the expression of creative ideas.

I want to first define intellectual property and copyright and secondly I want to address the concept of idea-expression dichotomy before going into actual intellectual property rights themselves.

Noun: intellectual property
Intangible property that is the result of creativity (such as patents or trademarks or copyrights) 1

Intellectual property
n.
A product of the intellect that has commercial value,
including copyrighted property such as literary or artistic works, and
ideational property, such as patents, appellations of origin, business methods,
and industrial processes. 2

Intellectual property

Computing: Intellectual property (IP) The ownership
of ideas and control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas.
Use of another person's intellectual property may or may not involve royalty
payments or permission, but should always include proper credit to the
source.

Economics: Non-tangible property that is the result
of creativity such as copyrights and patents. 3

Noun: copyright
A document granting exclusive right to publish and sell literary or
musical or artistic work 1

Copyright n.
The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical,
dramatic, or artistic work. 2

Copyright
noun
A document granting exclusive right to publish and sell literary or
musical or artistic work. 3

This takes us to the subject of ideas. In short copyrights provide protection for the expression of an idea and not the idea itself. This is known as the Idea-Expression Dichotomy. This doctrine has held in literally hundreds of cases and is one of the most commonly used principles regarding copyright. Idea-Expression Dichotomy means that an author’s ideas go into public domain while their creative expression of those ideas remain the author’s to control. 4

A perfect example of this doctrine can be found in the United States Copyright Act 5 which was itself modeled after TRIPS and Berne, discussed below. A relevant portion of this act reads as follows:

In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend
to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept,
principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described,
explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work. 5

This specific distinction is at the heart of the issue between patents and copyrights. Were ideas to be protected under copyright law, then all inventors would have to do is create a copyrighted piece and then they could circumvent governing patent law.

In turning my attention to intellectual property rights themselves, I came across two important international agreements regarding intellectual property that govern world standards: what is known as the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) 6 and the Berne Convention 7 . Both of these agreements control nearly every country in the world and even developing nations such as Brazil, India, Korea and Thailand now recognize the automatic rights of authors over their own writing as a result of TRIPS and Berne.

In 1994 the World Trade Organization negotiated what is called the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Ratification of the TRIPS is a compulsory requirement for membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and any nation seeking to obtain access to world markets opened by the WTO must enact the strict intellectual property laws mandate by TRIPS. A few of those rights include:

• Copyright must be granted automatically and immediate to creation of material with no requirement for registration or renewal.


• Copyright terms for authors are for the term of their life plus 50 years after death.


• Copyright terms for films are set at 50 years and photographs at 25.


• National exceptions to copyright rights are to be tightly constrained.


• TRIPS rights must be equal for all persons in a member state with no benefits enjoyed by local citizens not available to nationals from any TRIPS country.

The Berne Convention of 1886 upon which TRIPS was based was an international treaty that is still in place to protect intellectual property rights. As with TRIPS, under Berne copyrights for creative works do not have to be declared, asserted, or registered. They are instead immediately in force upon creation (as soon as a work is “fixed”, that is, written or recorded on some physical medium). At that time the author is automatically entitled to all rights of copyright to include any derivative works until such time as the author explicitly disclaims those rights or until fifty years after his or her death.

I also found myself interested in the rights and privileges afforded to authors in particular. Authors under TRIPS and Berne have the right to:

• display their work publicly,


• import or export their work,


• produce and sell copies of their work,


• create derivative works,


• sell or assign any of these rights to others.

In conclusion, I have found in life that the old clique that there are not any problems, only solutions holds true. I have additionally learned that any situation can be turned into a positive learning experience. Through the travails of dealing with a disgruntled client asserting ridiculous claims to my own writing I have learned a valuable lesson in copyright law and international treaties governing intellectual property. In the future I will not be so quick to entertain absurd claims that someone else owns my writing in the absence of a disclaimer by me of those rights.


Footnotes:

http://www.wordwebonline.com/
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/intellectual+property
http://www.edwardsamuels.com/copyright/beyond/articles/ideapt1-20.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/copyright.table.html
http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/27-trips_01_e.htm
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html

Author’s notes:

1. I might note here that I still have the core research for this article and I uploaded the article onto my client’s blog from my own computer at my own home, a fact verifiable through internet records.


2. And I had a friend proofread the article providing an e-mail record of creation superseding any blog’s claim to ownership.


3. I might add this is all rather odd to have to get into considering the fact the client was and may still be a friend.

Additional Reading:

1. Works Unprotected by Copyright Law, i.e. titles, short phrases, IDEAS http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/unprotected.html
   

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The Story of Edwyn and Airiel

Chapter 1

I.

He awoke to a world he had not dreamt in or of. Most believed that the waking world, the one created by the vision of the collective, was the true world and the one of dreams merely the construction of individual imagination. He was not so sure at this point. All alone, clearly this was a world of his own but yet… But yet it seemed somehow more real and more relevant than the other place where he labored and suffered along with everyone else.

Looking around he was stunned at the sensation of it all. The air held a lofty sweet aroma akin to gardenia or maybe some other such flower. He could very nearly taste the delicate sweetness of the air as his lungs took it in one breath after another. Reaching down to touch the ground he felt the coolness of the grass glistening still with its morning sprinkling of dew. Then reaching further to feel the ground he sensed the pulse of the earth as if it were a living thing.
“What a wondrous place” he said to himself. “It seems so much more alive that that other place I call home.”
Looking around he found himself high on a mountainside that looked like it had been part of some ancient war amongst the planets, or maybe the gods themselves. The mountains were high and covered with beautiful lush green grass. Here and there however was an outcrop of huge boulders that seem almost as if they were thrown by something. Maybe Aries himself, Edwyn’s own deity, had thrown them in some fit of rage over a war gone wrong. Or maybe Bacchus had tossed them after running dangerously low on wine.

II.

Not knowing immediately what to do next, he elected to explore this wondrous new land. Walking a little further up the hill he began to take in the expanded view of this world. Trees were sprinkled all around amongst the rocks, boulders. They each seemed like the storybook trees he imagined as a young child, each one rich with the possibility of lazy afternoons spent in reading or imagination. Looking at them he sensed that each on had its own story to tell if one were to merely tune in to them.
After a while he came to a stream and introduced himself by first putting his hand into it feeling its cool crispness playing over his sore fingers. He next took a sip and then a more generous draught of the water tasting its own sweetness lightly tickling his tongue.
It was then that he spied her. She seemed only a vague shadow knelt down on the other side of the stream with her head on her knees and arms spread around them. It was funny, in this world of vivid sensation she seemed almost dim to him as if she had yet to fully come into focus. It seemed that while she was not of this place, had not helped create it, that somehow she belonged here if only for a time.
Walking closer to her she seemed to come more into focus the more his gaze fell upon her. Reaching out he tenderly laid his hand upon her shoulder and immediately felt a flow somewhat like electricity bonding them, binding them through that touch. She seemed familiar to him yet he knew not from where. It seemed as if he had imagined her in yet some other dream so long long ago. Looking down upon her, he noticed the stark contrast between her fair skin and rich dark hair cascading in curls upon her shoulders and beyond.
Suddenly a flicker of recognition came upon him and then passed just as quickly. She seemed for a moment to be his Kym as he saw her so many years ago in another waking dream. She had been sitting in a stool before a mirror and he had walked up behind her and brushed her hair gazing into her brilliant blue eyes in the mirror. This new vision couldn’t be Kym, she was far too young, in her mid twenties he would guess. As she slowly turned towards him the resemblance was unquestionable.

III.

She was stunning in her beauty, yet she seemed to him incomplete. Looking deeper at her he noticed that her own beautiful blue eyes were gazing upon him without comprehension that when he spoke her ears heard him but sensed not words. She could feel his touch upon her shoulder yet did not understand. In that instant it seemed obvious that she came neither from this world nor from his other one, the so-called waking one. At that same moment he began to understand that this was his untimely child, lost so long ago. That would explain why she could not sense in the usual fashion. Her time had been too brief to fully comprehend what her body and spirit and mind were telling her.
Struggling with his own incomprehension, he felt that surely there must be something he could do for this child, his child. Suddenly it came to him: maybe he could lend her his own experience for a time so that she could develop her own. Sensing her own confusion and fear he reached out to her slowly and embraced her face in his hands. Indicating to her to close her eyes he did the same and slowly he began to concentrate on the connection between them.
Once he could experience the flow of energy passing from him to her through his hands he imagined all the wonders of his own experience. He gave to her the gift of sight spectacular in its wonder the greatest in many ways of the senses of the body. He gave to her sound and taste, smell and touch. He then looked deeper into himself and he gave her intellect and emotion and finally he gave her his own sense of spirit, ever changing along with his realm of thoughts and feelings.
Suddenly he felt tired of body mind and spirit. Turning his gaze upon her own he sensed she was experiencing the same sensation and he motioned to her to sit down with him for a while.

IV.

They sat there on their mountainside for what seemed the longest time taking in the wonder of the world around them. After a while their gazed fell again upon each others. He began to speak to her the name that she had given for herself in the time before her untimely birth. She immediately motioned him to silence delicately placing one finger upon his lips. She spoke to him then for the first time more in his head that with her lips.
“No father, I am no longer her. I am known as Airiel now.”
“Airiel” Ariel he thought to himself letting the sound of it pass through his mind. “I like it” he said to himself. “Your mother would have liked it too” he very nearly said out loud.
Ariel asked him of her mother, startling him with her ability to read his mind his thoughts even as he just experienced them himself.
“Your mother is in the land where people discover themselves” he told her knowing that she would not understand.
“Will you be with her again?”

“Of course my child”

he replied.

“How could it be otherwise? One cannot truly know where one of us ends and the other begins. I think sometimes that we just met too early and now we are taking time alone to complete our own individual journeys before coming together again for our shared one.”

Airiel looked upon him totally confused now and laughing aloud he exclaimed:

“Come child, that is a long story and I am too weary for such discussion now. We will speak of her and of us some other time. Let’s sit for a spell and I will tell you some other story, something shorter.”

Chapter 2

I.

“So Airiel let me now tell you the story of The Metaphor of the Tree. A while back I was studying in the wilderness for a few days. Each day that I was there I took a walk along a foot path to reflect upon myself and the things I was learning. The first day I was walking through the wilderness I saw some beautiful and unique trees. I later learned from your mother that their name is They were rather short for trees but dramatic. They had beautiful red bark that was more like skin than what one usually imagines as bark. These trees came from a single trunk but almost immediately above the ground they had branches that spread out in all directions twisting in turning in a unique and beautiful fashion. I thought to myself that these were beautiful and wondrous trees like none I had ever seen before.”
“The very next day I went walking on that path and I noticed this time that the trees were peeling. There were curls very much like pencil shavings all along the trunks of these trees. I thought to myself, aha what a parallel to my own life. With each season of my life, my development, I shed pieces of my old life to make room for the new. My life is a process wherein I am constantly changing and in order for the new to emerge the old must sometimes fall away, be shed off.”
“Again I went walking and my gaze once again fell upon those very same trees. This time I noticed that the branches were not completely red. There were portions of the branches that were the color of grey more common to trees in this area. It seemed as if the areas of grey were emerging from within the portions of grey and it set my imagination wandering. I began to think of the wonderful metaphor of these trees of how we each of us have this inner being that is struggling to come outside of ourselves. That just as these trees are a twisted maze of red and grey our own lives are a menagerie of our inner being intertwined with our outer more public selves with each side contributing to the totality of our being. I then went about my affairs proud of myself for this new revelation concerning the trees.”
“The very next day I went walking and yet again I noticed something different about the trees. I noticed that the grey part that I had earlier conceived of representing one’s inner being was actually a dead part of the tree and that it seemed to be in the process of being either enveloped by or shed off by the living part of the tree. I thought to myself again, what great lessons this tree has to teach me. Like with the shedding of the bark there are parts of us that die along the way of our life, yet they continue to threaten the living and thriving parts of our being, our soul. That life and death is a war that is waged within us each and every day that actually the grey and red represent that which is good and creates new life within us and that which is bad and creates dying or death within us. That a very large part of our struggle in life is to not give into that which brings us darkness, blandness, grayness, but to step into that which brings life rich with color and possibility. Again I went on content that I was continuing in my learning from the trees.
Finally, I came to take another walk in the wilderness and as usual I felt my gaze fall upon the trees. This time I paused to truly look at them and I felt my head going over all the stories I had learned from the trees. I thought about change, renewal, struggle, good and bad, and life and death. And suddenly I began to laugh softly at first and then it turned into near hysterical laughter. I found myself amused at my own ponderings. These are trees and not teachers. The very first day I went walking I had seen and experienced the trees as they were. These trees were no metaphor for my own life or the lives of mankind. They were living creatures in their own right and quite simply to my kind, to me, they were wondrous and beautiful in their own unique fashion.
I had developed this long story of twisted and ever changing meanings trying to make sense of my own life and looking ever for symbols from without to explain that which lies within. I wondered if I do the same thing when I look within myself. Is my story ever changing to fit that which I perceive each day? And if so, do I ever remember to just take in the beauty and wonder of my life and to appreciate its own unique growth?

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Unwitting Keys

Loneliness, self-pity, and despair are the gateway to the demon that lies within or just beyond each of us. Either knowingly or unwittingly we bring the creature through - becoming a temporal key, borne from this triad of spiritual disconnection.

Even in their ascension from worldly affairs wise men, learned men, scholars, poets, spiritual men, and men of god can each lend comfort and assistance to the forces of corruption.

Aspirations of transcendence from possibility eventually become our weakness. Our vanity our ignorance and our conceit grant entry to conditions where doorways become open if only in a crack for an instant. We must ever remain mindful that those dark things that dwell do not do so in quiet repose but rather are a springboard of tension ready in an instant to leap forth. Our inherent human weakness embraced by our arrogance becomes their opportunity. Therefore it is not small wonder that so much rhetoric has been passed along over the centuries regarding the sin of pride. Read more!

Reflections on Suffering

There is a picture that was published in National Geographic Magazine back in 1985 of an Afghan girl. Her name was Sharbat Gulu, and she was and is a Pashtun, one of the more warlike tribes in Afghanistan. The picture was taken by Steve McCurry.

The Afghan girl's eyes? I think that they have witnessed much suffering but to me that is the beauty of the photograph. It has substance, depth of character, feeling. While I am not allied with any particular belief structure I have a fondness for borrowing from a variety of sources in developing my own perspective on life and its many challenges.

Siddhartha, the Buddha, wrote of four noble truths which in short deal with the concepts of the five aggregates of clinging that ultimately lead to all suffering. He also spoke and wrote of the noble eightfold path which is designed to facilitate the alleviation of suffering. Panna, or wisdom, sila, virtuous behavior, and samadhi, concentration, are three aspects of that pathway. I think that most people misinterpret Siddhartha's teaching to the extent that they belief that the noble eightfold path actually leads one to a state wherein they no longer experience suffering. I think rather that what he had in mind was a method by which one might grow beyond their attachment to suffering. I think he believed that suffering was part of the human condition. Siddhartha defined suffering itself in his four noble truths and he went on with his noble eightfold path to give us means by which to cope with that condition. We are born from suffering, live in suffering, and die in suffering and that is simply part of life, or of our existence. Siddhartha believed that craving was requisite to suffering and to me among other things cravings and compulsions are biological functions at their root level and not simply an emotional or spiritual response to external stimuli.

Vipassana meditation itself is a method the Buddha taught to teach people how to understand these cravings and compulsions at their basest physiological level……. Stimuli. On a mental,spiritual and emotional level these longings can be either subjective or objective in nature (meaning from within or from without). I think that the eightfold path is a method of teaching one to transcend to the drama that is so often associated with suffering.

Along with other tools such as mediation one learns of the mutability of live in general and suffering in specific. We need not become too consumed with our misery today because surely tomorrow will bring with it either redemption of a new batch of woes to ponder. I also think of it as a system of utilizing suffering as a tool of enlightenment instead of an excuse to wallow in our pain or lack of fulfillment at the moment. As with most things in life, suffering is transitory. If there is any great truth that lays within the human condition it is that all we experience is but a transitory illusion to some extent. With discipline one can learn to see through our own suffering, or to gaze beyond our sorrow.

So what is the point of all this rambling you might ask. Well when I see pictures such as those of the Afghan girl, I immediately pause to consider not just her suffering, which is so clear in her eyes, but also I think of her as representative of the suffering we all embrace/endure as a species.........as philosophic and emotional and spiritual creatures. I am a bit of an existentialist and feel that when one suffers...........well we all do to some extent.

We are all a part of all experiences either through our involvement or our lack thereof. I believe in Carl Jung’s concept of shared memory and would go on to elaborate that as a species we endure collective suffering as well as memory. We can either turn our back on the suffering of the world insulating ourselves from the experience of any emotional response, or we can embrace suffering in the hopes of ultimately arising as people, as a culture, as a divine experiment ... and taste of all that life has to offer in hopes of attaining some sense of the aesthetics of beauty that life can bring even in the midst of our suffering. When I look upon those incredible green eyes of Sharbat I see the beauty of a living breathing and feeling woman not just carrying all the suffering of the world, her world, but inversely also experience along with her all the love of history reflected in her gaze.

There are many things to consider when lost in a moment of hardship and suffering. Albert Camus wrote: "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was within me an invincible summer". And to me this is an important aspect of life to consider. Embedded deep within all of us there resides that ray of sunshine ... that spark of hope of courage that remains invincible. If there is ever a moment you doubt me on that idea, then I would challenge you to explain to me why it is you get up every morning.

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