War on Drugs

This will be a brief note about the "war on drugs".

Obama is disappointing me because I thought he would question dreadful policies like the “wars on…”. They don’t work, and the battle that is going on now in Mexico is just one more tragic example of these failures.

Obama seems to me more naive than cynical about this. For example in the recent on-line question-and-answer session where he accepted questions from the general public, his reply to the requests to legalize marihuana was almost trivial. He didn’t add the traditional “hehehehehe", but his giggling was just about audible. He acted sooo surprised that so many of his following was interested in this dubious topic.

It was not an adequate answer when thousands of Latins are suffering violent deaths related to this problem.

His contribution will be more “Black Hawks” for more war.

Who are happy with this? On one hand Sikorsky Aircraft, the company that makes them. The DEA also benefits because the justification of the whole program is the illegality of the drugs in question. And of course, the drug cartels would loose lots of money if they were legalized.

Who looses?

The victims of all that violence. Just ask the Colombians.

Nuclear Arsenals

Source

Global map of nuclear arsenals

President Barak Obama just made a very important declaration : his desire to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons.

He admitted that his is the only country to use such arms, but he added that this is the very reason that the U.S. should lead the way to their abolition.

There are moments when one gets depressed and says that democracy doesn’t work. But then again there are luminous and honorable episodes when the system shows its marvelous capacity to correct its error and represent humanity’s most beautiful longings. And President Obama, with his profound belief in the will of the people (“Yes, we can!”) continues to fulfill our hopes.

I’m not naive: His gesture is double edged. While he shows himself to be a man of principles and humanitarian leadership, he continues the war in Afghanistan.

We have every reason to be afraid that the shining knight on his great horse of state that Barak Obama is today will end up like Lyndon Johnson did way back in the 60’s when he pushed on with the Vietnam war. The parallels are frightening: an unpopular war in a country whose corrupt government is not worth defending, an elusive, dedicated and fanatic enemy fighting in its own terrene against foreign invaders, and the inevitability of many dead U.S. soldiers.

It is true that Obama is more charismatic, a Camelot-inheritor who resembles Kennedy more than he does Johnson. And he knows how to make inspiring political gestures. But already there is an humanitarian crisis on the Afghan – Pakistani border caused by U.S., drone-delivered bombs.

I fear for how he will be able to deliver on his many promises if he, too, becomes a “war president”. But I’m not cynical either, and I applaud this man who has become an icon of the Twentieth Century’s conscience.

Pagan me

Source

The author of the blog that I copied this image from, Kim Greyson, explained it this way:

"I gave this drum to my firstborn Granddaughter who was 4 years old at the time....I really like this symbol because in addition to associations with migration and independent movements, it is sometimes suggested to represent the Triple Goddess of the three ages of womanhood. It holds a special meaning to me having made this drum as a Grandmother - for my firstborn daughter's - firstborn daughter. Another perfect path of 3."

A friend said that I am an atheist, and therefore pagan. I investigated a little and realized that what characterizes the pagans is that they are everything except monotheists. This is quite a big bunch of beliefs. I wrote him somewhat flippantly about my doubts on the matter, but now think I may develop this topic; it could be good for my spiritual spirit.

It seems that the term pagan is complex, and is not at all like those of “barbarian” or “primitive” even though it is applied to the precursors of the more abstract and complex religions. For example, it has been used to describe a supposed evolution from an archaic totemism to polytheism, and finally to monotheism. The pagans would be the first two systems of this trilogy.

Used by the Christians, the word pagan is similar to that used by the Jews to indicate the other: “gentile”, or the one the Muslims use for the same purpose: “infidel”. That is, it is a pejorative term for the outsider.

Recently nevertheless, the ethnologists have been using it to designate three groups of beliefs: a) historical polytheism like the Celtic and the Norse, b) indigenous religions such as Chinese and African folk beliefs and c) neo-paganism (like the “Wicca”). It can, consequently, refer quite complex systems of beliefs.

From a broad point of view paganism also includes Eastern and mythological religions. The Buddhists, on the other hand, really are not a proper religion; they don’t worry so much about the existence of gods, but rather about “dharma”, that is to say, truth and individual compassion. The Buddhists do recognize some divine beings, but they are not gods in an Occidental sense. Rather they are spirits that are similar to us humans, and they accompany us in our cycles of "samsara", the cycle continued of life, death and rebirth.

I had to look all this up on line.

I answered my friend in a very trivial way declaring myself to be Buddhist and Totemic. If that were true my totemism would take some transcendental ecological form (I talk to animals). Or perhaps I could identify with a reformed and informal neo-Buddhist approach. I really do not dare to describe myself as an atheist; perhaps “agnostic” is a more appropriate term.

People defend their own form of spirituality at sword-point, but it’s really a private matter, isn’t it. Cults’ obsessive/compulsive efforts to impose their own belief systems on others are just like attempts to control other people's sexuality. But this is another subject.

Dr. Michaelle Ascencio

                                                                                                                           Fuente


I went to a conference tonight in the Central University of Venezuela where Dr. Michaelle Ascencio talked about the "Splendor of Diversity". Her talk was a truly charming “splendor” where humor and good will made palatable some very serious topics.

Several important ideas stayed with me. Here is one of them: she mentioned how we recognize the inherent humanity in those around us, and when we deny this, we must pay a price. Prejudice, the rejection of another human being because of his or her inherent qualities like color or birth-conditions like culture, turns against us. As a consequece, a part of our own humanity must also be rejected: like Kafka's cockroach, we begin to loath aspects of ourselves.

I know there are characteristics that we reject in other people: their lack of honesty, their cruelty, or their lack of responsibility. But these are not inborn qualities. In fact, when we require a certain standard of behavior from or fellow beings, we probably honor their capacity to do better.

All this sounds much preachier than Michaelle’s talk did. But since the last part of the 20th century humanity has begun to see the need to eliminate the barriers between the Croats and Muslims, the northern and southern Irish, the Palestinians and the Jews, the Blacks and the Whites, the Turks and the Armenians, and all the other groups that have historical reasons to reject each other. It is important for those that harbor prejudice to see the damage they do to themselves.

Fuente


This fits in with other reflections on the subject of our common humanity: we urgently need a new "imaginary", a new source of basic culture that leads us towards Eros and away from Thanatos.




Other postings on the topic of the "imaginary" as it is and as it could be:

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/08/esperando-el-mesas-y-figuras-modernas.html

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/08/rambo.html

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/08/frankenstein.html

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/08/frankenstein.html

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/07/english-today-i-would-like-to-think.html

http://reflexiones4-karen.blogspot.com/2008/06/heroism-and-martyrdom.html

Help!

Somehow when you click to enter this blog, you have great trouble getting out again, even me, the authoress, when I check to see the appearance of what I have posted. There doesn't seem to be any way to ask the Blogger people about this. If anyone happens to see this, and knows how to fix the problem, I'd appreciate a "comment" or a note to reflexiones@live.com.

Piantao (Crazy)

Source


Here are two ballads to nuttyness. The first is a poem by George Bilgere, and the second is a tango, music by Astor Piazzolla and lyrics by Horacio Ferrer. I coppied the words in English, but the better Spanish version can be found here.


I am well aware that this blog has many fewer readers than Commondreams.org where this poem was copied from, but I liked it. So here it is, reproduced in "Thoughts".


Bridal Shower
by George Bilgere

Perhaps, in a distant café,
four or five people are talking
with the four or five people
who are chatting on their cell phones this morning
in my favorite café.

And perhaps someone there,
someone like me, is watching them as they frown,
or smile, or shrug
at their invisible friends or lovers,
jabbing the air for emphasis.

And, like me, he misses the old days,
when talking to yourself
meant you were crazy,
back when being crazy was a big deal,
not just an acronym
or something you could take a pill for.

I liked it
when people who were talking to themselves
might actually have been talking to God
or an angel.
You respected people like that.

You didn't want to kill them,
as I want to kill the woman at the next table
with the little blue light on her ear
who has been telling the emptiness in front of her
about her daughter's bridal shower
in astonishing detail
for the past thirty minutes.

O person like me,
phoneless in your distant café,
I wish we could meet to discuss this,
and perhaps you would help me
murder this woman on her cell phone,

after which we could have a cup of coffee,
maybe a bagel, and talk to each other,
face to face.

Piantao
by Horacio Ferrer

Recited

The afternoons in Buenos Aires have this... well, you know.
You leave your house down Arenales Avenue.
The usual : on the street and in you...
Then suddenly, from behind a tree,
I show up.

Rare mix of the next to last tramp
and the first stowaway on a trip to Venus:
a half melon on the head,
a striped shirt painted on the skin,
two leather soles nailed to the fet,
and a taxi-for-hire flag up in each hand.

You laugh! But only you can see me:
because the mannequins wink at me,
the traffic lights flash me three lights sky-blue
and the oranges at the corner grocery stand
cast their blossoms at me.
Come on!, that this way, half dancing, half flying,
I remove the melon to greet you.
I give you a little flag and I tell you...

Sung

l know I'm crazy, crazy, crazy...
don't you see the moon rolling through Callao;
a second line of astronauts and children
waltzing around me... Dance! Come! Fly!

I know I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy...
I see Buenos Aires from a sparrow's nest;
and I saw you so sad... Come! Fly! Feel!...
the crazy desire I have for you:

Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
As darkness sets in your porteña loneliness,
by the shores of your bedsheet I'll come
with a poem and a trombone
to keep your heart sleepless.

Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
Like a demented acrobat I'll dive,
into the abyss of your cleavage 'till I feel
I drove your heart crazy with freedom.
You'll see!

Recited

Let's go flying, my dear.
get on my super sport illusion,
let's run over the cornices
with a swallow in the engine.
From Vieytes they applaud: "Hooray! Hooray!",
the nuts who invented Love,
and an angel, a soldier and a girl
give us a dancing waltz.

The beautiful people come out to say hello.
And crazy, but yours, I don't know!;
I cause a stridency of bells with my laugh,
and finally, I look at you, and sing softly

Sung

Love me this way I am, crazy, crazy, crazy...
climb up into my insane tenderness,
don a wig of larks on your head and fly!
Fly with me now! Come! Fly! Come!

Love me the way I am, crazy, crazy, crazy...
open up your love, we are going to attempt
the crazy magic of reviving...
Come , fly , come! Trai-lai-lai-larara!

Yelling

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!
She's crazy and I'm crazy...
Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
She's crazy and so am I.

References:
1. Clown picture: http://www.fotosearch.com/DSN020/1804923/
2. Poem by Bilgere: http://www.commondreams.org/further/only-14-you-out-there-who-remain-ambivalent-about-incessant-place-cell-phones-our-lives-need
3. Lyrics by Ferrer: http://www.planet-tango.com/lyrics/bal-loco.htm

e e comings against them all

here’s one thing they don’t know about and that’s non-violence.

At the risk of sounding too 60’s, I won’t acknowledge the source of that quote. But it’s true.

Even this progressive miracle called Obama: he continues to bomb Afghanistan and plans a military “surge” there.

But the Right is something else. It is populated by a humorless culture of death and violence, where even saving fetuses is a motive for revulsion and murder. In its terror of losing control and money, it plans again to use the same smear tactics it used on Clinton to fire up its bitter base of discontents.

The same unnamed 60’s source recommended the use of humor and love against them. In those days this ploy rapidly degenerated into ineffectual “flower power”, but in essence it was the correct approach. “They” have an insurmountable power of physical coercion, and those who try to fight fire with fire end up with the same distorted faces of hate that their opponents have. Just look at the twisted portraits of all those proponents of asymmetrical war, armed resistance movements, and military-based revolutions.

It is time to raise a critical mirror where the violent can see the reflections of their own grimaces, and open windows where fresh air, health, and empathetic caring begin to be more attractive than faux-heroic, Rambo-esque posturing against invented enemies.

So….

Here, today is e e comings


i have found what you are like

i have found what you are like
the rain,

                       (Who feathers frightened fields
with the superior dust-of-sleep. wields

easily the pale club of the wind
and swirled justly souls of flower strike

the air in utterable coolness

deeds of green thrilling light
                                              with thinned

newfragile yellows

                                     lurch and.press

-in the woods
                      which
                               stutter
                                        and
                                                  sing

And the coolness of your smile is
stirringofbirds between my arms;but
i should rather than anything
have(almost when hugeness will shut
quietly)almost,
                                                   your kiss


Reference: Ornate letters: http://retrokat.com/medieval/leil.htm