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NGC 1333

Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

Lone in the light of that magical grove,
I felt the stars of the spirits of Love
Gather and gleam round my delicate youth,
And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth;
To quench my longing I bent me low
By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

{Sarojini Naidu ~ Song of a Dream}

NGC 7023

Krishnamurti Speaks

If parents love their children, they will not be nationalistic,
they will not identify themselves with any country;
for the worship of the State brings on war, which kills or maims their sons.

If parents love their children, they will discover what is right relationship to property;
for the possessive instinct has given property an enormous and false significance
which is destroying the world.

If parents love their children, they will not belong to any organized religion;
for dogma and belief divide people into conflicting groups,
creating antagonism between man and man.

If parents love their children, they will do away with envy and strife,
and will set about altering fundamentally the structure of present-day society.

As long as we want our children to be powerful, to have bigger and better positions,
to become more and more successful, there is no love in our hearts;
for the worship of success encourages conflict and misery.
To love one’s children is to be in complete communion with them;
it is to see that they have the kind of education that will help them to be sensitive,
intelligent and integrated.

Education and the Significance of Life, Chapter 6
J. Krishnamurti

Education and the Significance of Life,
by
Jiddu Krishnamurti

Intelligence is not separate from love ...

Modern education, in developing the intellect, offers more and more theories and facts,
without bringing about the understanding of the total process of human existence.
We are highly intellectual; we have developed cunning minds, and are caught up in explanations.
The intellect is satisfied with theories and explanations,
but intelligence is not; and for the understanding of the total process of existence,
there must be an integration of the mind and heart in action.
Intelligence is not separate from love.

For most of us, to accomplish this inward revolution is extremely arduous.
We know how to meditate, how to play the piano,
how to write, but we have no knowledge of the meditator, the player, the writer.
We are not creators, for we have filled our hearts and minds with knowledge,
information and arrogance; we are full of quotations from what others have thought or said.
But experiencing comes first, not the way of experiencing.
There must be love before there can be the expression of love.

Information, the knowledge of facts, though ever increasing, is by its very nature limited.
Wisdom is infinite, it includes knowledge and the way of action;
but we take hold of a branch and think it is the whole tree.
Through the knowledge of the part,
we can never realize the joy of the whole.
Intellect can never lead to the whole, for it is only a segment,
a part.

We have separated intellect from feeling,
and have developed intellect at the expanse of feeling.
We are like a three-legged object with one leg much longer than the others,
and we have no balance.
We are trained to be intellectual;
our education cultivates the intellect to be sharp,
cunning, acquisitive, and so it plays the most important rle in our life.
Intelligence is much greater than intellect,
for it is the integration of reason and love;
but there can be intelligence only when there is self-knowledge,
the deep understanding of the total process of oneself.

What is essential for man, whether young or old, is to live fully, integrally,
and that is why our major problem is the cultivation of that intelligence which brings integration.
Undue emphasis on any part of our total make-up gives a partial
and therefore distorted view of life,
and it is this distortion which is causing most of our difficulties.
Any partial development of our whole temperament is bound to be disastrous both for ourselves and for society,
and so it is really very important that we approach our human problems with an integrated point of view.

To be an integrated human being is to understand the entire process of one's own consciousness,
both the hidden and the open.
This is not possible if we give due emphasis to the intellect.
We attach great importance to the cultivation of the mind,
but inwardly we are insufficient, poor and confused.
This living in the intellect is the way of disintegration;
for ideas, like beliefs, can never bring people together except in conflicting groups.

As long as we depend on thought as a means of integration, there must be disintegration;
and to understand the disintegrating action of thought is to be aware of the ways of the self,
the ways of one's own desire.
We must be aware of our conditioning and its responses,
both collective and personal.
It is only when one is fully aware of the activities of the self with its contradictory desires and pursuits,
its hopes and fears, that there is a possibility of going beyond the self.

Only love and right thinking will bring about true revolution,
the revolution within ourselves.
But how are we to have love?
Not through the pursuit of the ideal of love,
but only when there is no hatred, when there is no greed,
when the sense of self, which is the cause of antagonism, comes to an end.
A man who is caught up in the pursuits of exploitation, of greed, of envy,
can never love.

Without love and right thinking, oppression and cruelty will ever be on the increase.
The problem of man's antagonism to man can be solved, not by pursuing the ideal of peace,
but by understanding the causes of war which lie in our attitude towards life,
towards our fellow-beings;
and this understanding can come about only through the right kind of education.
Without a change of heart, without goodwill,
without the inward transformation which is born of self-awareness,
there can be no peace, no happiness for men.

(Education and the Significance of Life, by Jiddu Krishnamurti)

Love Does Not Fail For You When You Are Rejected
or Betrayed or Apparently Not Loved.

Love Fails For You When You Reject, Betray, and Do Not Love. . . .
Therefore, The Most Direct Way To Know Love In every moment
Is To Be Love In every moment.

{Avatar Adi Da Samraj}

Inconceivable is this supreme Atman,
immeasurable, unborn, inscrutable, unthinkable,
He whose Self is infinite space.
He alone remains awake when the universe is dissolved,
and out of this space He awakens the world consisting of thought.

Krishna Yajur Veda, Maitri Upanishad 6.17. VE, 667

NGC 3576

Sometimes dreams are wiser than waking.

{Black Elk}

The Absolute Relative

A woman who's overslept
encounters an ancient mirror;
clearly she sees her face---
there is no other reality.
Nevertheless, she still mistakes
her reflection for her head.

If practioners become fixated on the rank of the relative absolute, their cognition is always affected by attraction and aversion and their point of view is biased. This is why enlightening beings of higher faculties always sit and recline in the midst of a variety of different situations in action; you see everything before your eyes as your own original true clean face, just as if you were looking at your face in a mirror.

Seeing everything in this way, over months and years all things become your own prescious mirror, and you are their prescious mirror. Dogen said, "Experiencing myriad things with the burden of the self is delusion, experiencing oneself in the manifestation of myriad things is enlightenment." That is what this means.

At this point, you are mentally and physically liberated, mind and body free and at ease. Like two mirrors reflecting each other without any image between them, mind and objects are one suchness, things and self are not seperate. "A white horse goes into white flowers." "Snow piles up in a silver bowl." This is called focusing the prescious mirror.

This is what the Nirvana Scripture refers to as those who realize suchness seeing Buddha nature with their eyes.. When you go into this focus, the "great white ox" will not go away even though pushed, cognition of equality appears right before you. This is what is meant by the saying that there is only one vehicle, the middle way, the manifestation of reality, the ultimate truth.

If learners who have reached this state consider it enough, then as enlighteniong beings they still fall at the peak into a deep pit. Why? They do not know the conduct of enlightening beings, and do not understand the conditions for a Buddha land. It was in order to remedy this problem that the masters went on to define the rank of coming from the absolute.

{Kensho: The Heart of Zen/Shambhala/Thomas cleary}

*Focus*

Love's Healing Meditation

Music:

WEBSITES TO HELP YOU STAY INFORMED

http://www.opensecrets.org/
http://www.tompaine.com
http://www.motherjones.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.truthout.com
http://www.antiwar.com
http://www.thinkprogress.org
http://www.tomdispatch.com
http://www.juancole.com
http://www.dailykos.com
http://www.thenation.com
http://www.workingforchange.org
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.interventionmag.com
http://www.villagevoice.com
http://www.buzzflash.com
http://www.lewrockwell.com
http://www.fff.org/toc/co05.asp
http://www.reason.com
http://www.amconmag.com
http://www.counterpunch.com

Consequences of the War in Iraq and in the Oil Industry/Neocon War for Empire:

http://www.thememoryhole.org
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/iraqspecial.htm
http://www.robert-fisk.com/iraqwarvictims_mar2003.htm
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/list.php
http://www.fair.org/international/iraq.html
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/f acesofthefallen.htm
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/Liteky_Baghdad_031203.htm http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties

Issues pertaining relevant to political thought:

http://www.activismispatriotism.org
http://www.artistsnetwork.org
http://www.commoncause.org
http://www.centerforamericanprogress.org
http://www.americacomingtogether.com
http://www.adaction.org
http://www.cdt.org
http://www.cbpp.org
http://www.epinet.org
http://www.rprogress.org
http://www.democracyforamerica.com
http://www.airamericaradio.com
http://www.house.gov/reform/min
http://www.strike-the-root.com
http://www.Patriotwatch.org
http://www.silentnolonger.com
http://www.realisticforeignpolicy.org
http://www.oldamericancentury.org
http://freenet.sourceforge.net
http://www.freewayblogger.com
http://www.freewayblogger.com/images/quagmire_accomplished_t n.jpg

To bring the troops home see:

http://www.bringthemhomenow.org
http://www.mfso.org
http://www.ivaw.net
http://www.optruth.org
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org
http://www.militaryproject.org
http://www.sorgen.net/id19.htm
http://www.nlg.org/mltf
http://www.MilitaryCorruption.com
http://www.costofwar.com
http://www.iraqometer.com
http://www.whereisthemoney.org
http://www.sftt.org
http://www.hackworth.com

Good Organizations to Join or Follow:
Civil Liberties:

http://www.aclu.org
http://www.eff.org
http://www.au.org
http://www.tjcenter.org
http://www.civilrights.org
http://www.bordc.org
http://www.caedefensefund.org
http://www.acsblog.org
http://www.tortureisnotus.org

Human Rights Groups:

http://www.hrw.org
http://www.tolerance.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org
http://www.globalpolicy.org

Womens Rights:

http://www.naral.org
http://www.plannedparenthood.com
http://www.34millionfriends.org
http://www.now.org
http://www.feminist.org
http://www.ncjw.org
http://www.legalmomentum.org
http://www.nationalpartnership.org
http://www.aauw.org
http://www.arhp.org
http://www.rcrc.org
http://www.blackwomenshealth.org/site/PageServer
http://www.latinainstitute.org
http://www.breastcancerfund.org

Federal Watchdogs:

http://www.pogo.org

Corporate Watchdogs:

http://www.poclad.org
http://www.corpwatch.org
http://www.corporatepolicy.org
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org

World Bank/IMF/Globalization issues:

http://www.sndden.org/rwg/index.htm
http://www.50years.org
http://www.jubileeusa.org

Labor Groups:

http://www.aflcio.org
http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
http://www.seiu.org
http://www.cwa-union.org
http://www.afscme.org
http://www.workingamerica.org

Gay Rights Groups / News Services:

http://www.hrc.org
http://www.gay.com
http://www.365gay.com
http://www.planetout.com
http://www.ngltf.org
http://www.pflag.org
http://www.glaad.org
http://www.freedomtomarry.org
http://www.MillionForMarriage.org
http://www.proudparenting.com
http://www.sldn.org/templates/index.html
http://www.advocate.com
http://www.out.com

Stopping AIDS:

http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp
http://www.worldaidsday.org/default.asp
http://www.aids.org
http://www.aidsonline.com
http://www.apathyislethal.org/affected.html
http://www.aegis.com
http://www.aidsquilt.org
http://www.worldaidsday.org
http://www.stopaids.org

Minority Groups:

http://www.hispaniconline.com
http://www.naacp.org
http://www.cair-net.org
http://www.aaldef.org/home.html
http://www.rainbowpush.org

Housing:

http://www.nationalfairhousing.org

Seniors:

http://www.aarp.com
http://www.nsclc.org

Mental Health:

http://www.nmha.org
http://www.bazelon.org

Universal Health Care:

http://www.uhcan.org
http://www.citizenshealthcare.gov

People with Disabilities:

http://www.adawatch.org
http://www.aapd-dc.org

Progressive Investment Groups:

http://www.responsiblewealth.org
http://www.www.livingeconomies.org
http://www.trilliuminvest.com
http://www.progressive-asset.com
http://www.nypn.org/htm/Members/blsp
http://www.sensiblepriorities.org
http://www.timedollar.org

Political Websites:

http://www.opendebates.org
http://www.newprogressivecoalition.com
http://www.couragecampaign.org
http://http://www.worldcantwait.net
http://www.moveon.org
http://www.democrats.com
http://www.democrats.org

Dems Tv

http://www.americanrhetoric.com
http://www.fairvote.org
http://www.democraticunderground.com
http://blackboxvoting.org
http://www.truemajority.com
http://www.progressivemajority.org

Geo-political global intelligence:

http://www.stratfor.com

Open-source encyclopedia and reference related:

http://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.encyclopedia.com
http://www.britannica.com
http://www.bartleby.com/65
http://www.iep.utm.edu/a
http://thesaurus.reference.com
http://www.dictionary.com
http://maps.google.com
http://earth.google.com
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcindex.htm
http://www.nccs.net
http://www.technorati.com

Humor Websites:

http://www.theonion.com
http://www.awolbush.com
http://www.whitehouse.org
http://www.dubyaspeak.com
http://www.gwbush.com

Weapons of Mass Destruction:

http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Radio and Television Programs:

http://www.airamericaradio.com
http://www.radioleft.com
http://www.newsworldinternational.com
http://www.democracynow.org
http://www.outrageradio.com
http://www.openairwaves.org
http://www.pacifica.org
http://www.pbs.org/now
http://www.jimhightower.com
http://www.buzzflash.com/
http://www.radiopower.org
http://www.freespeech.org

A host of Liberal Radio Links:

http://www.radiopower.org/liberal_links.html..Anchor

Media Issues:

http://www.mediaaccess.org
http://www.mediamatters.org
http://www.democraticmedia.org
http://www.prwatch.org
http://www.publicintegrity.org./default.aspx
http://www.ccmc.org
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/index.shtml
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.freedominfo.org
http://www.coldtype.net
http://www.accuracy.org
http://www.fair.org
http://www.prwatch.org/spin
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45

NEWS sites - Non-Partisan:

http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.haaretzdaily.com
http://jpost.com
http://www.islamonline.net/english/index.shtml
http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage
http://www.hindustantimes.com
http://www.dailymirror.co.uk
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk
http://www.latimes.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
http://www.independent.co.uk
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.reuters.com
http://www.sfgate.com

NEWS-sites - Liberal Perspective:

http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.dailykos.com
http://www.tomdispatch.com
http://www.juancole.com
http://www.thebreakthrough.org
http://www.mydd.com
http://www.billmon.org
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com
http://americablog.blogspot.com
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
http://atrios.blogspot.com
http://www.thinkprogress.org
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com
http://www.mydd.com/
http://www.boomantribune.com
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com
http://www.liberalstreetfighter.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.oriononline.org
http://www.prospect.org
http://www.newtopiamagazine.net/news.php
http://www.ReclaimDemocracy.org
http://www.uspirg.org
http://www.publiccitizen.org
http://saveourcourts.civilrights.org/index_flash2.html
http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general
http://www.nlg.org
http://www.ourfuture.org
http://www.aaldef.org/home.html
http://www.cair-net.org
http://www.familiesusa.org/site/PageServer
http://www.alternet.org
http://www.freepress.org
http://www.villagevoice.com
http://buffaloreport.com
http://www.interventionmag.com
http://www.truthout.com
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Movies:

NEWS-sites - Conservative Perspective:
http://www.anti-war.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.theadvocates.org
http://www.libertarian.org
http://www.progress.org/dfc
http://www.sepschool.org
http://www.theihs.org
http://www.libertarianstudies.org
http://www.lfs.org
http://www.lp.org
http://www.fff.org
http://www.libertarianism.com
http://www.americanlibertyfoundation.org
http://www.libertysoft.com/liberty
http://www.instituteforjustice.org/index.shtml
http://www.heartland.org
http://www.independent.org
http://www.hacer.org
http://www.cei.org/pages/about.cfm
http://www.free-market.net
http://www.lewrockwell.com
http://www.mises.org
http://www.drugpolicy.org
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org
http://www.theamericancause.org
http://www.amconmag.com
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?sec=iolmisc
Veterans / Peace Issues:

http://www.veteransforpeace.org
http://www.ivaw.net
http://www.ustourofduty.org
http://www.bendermantimeline.com
http://www.freecamilo.org
http://www.optruth.org
http://peacecoup.us
http://www.soaw.org/new
http://www.bvfp.org
http://www.metaphoria.org
http://www.unitedforpeace.org
http://www.codepinkalert.org
http://www.guerreroazteca.org
http://www.thepeacealliance.org
http://www.peaceroots.org
http://www.nomoredeaths.org
http://www.vaiw.org
http://www.iraqbodycount.net
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org
http://www.vvaw.org
http://www.mfso.org
http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english
http://www.peacefultomorrows.org
http://www.actagainstwar.org
http://www.debka.com
http://www.iwpr.net
http://www.ruralpeacemakers.org
http://www.addictedtowar.com
http://winwithoutwarus.org
http://www.peace-action.org
http://www.californiapeaceaction.org
http://www.warresisters.org
http://www.globalexchange.org
http://www.war-times.org
http://www.objector.org
http://www.nonviolence.org
http://www.activism.net
http://www.volunteermatch.org
Political Art:
http://www.antiwarposters.com
http://www.postgen.com
http://www.alahue.com
http://www.track16.com
http://www.know-our-enemy.net/make-no-mistake
http://www.critical-art.net
Religion-Based Organizations to Join or Follow:

http://www.shalomctr.org
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
http://www.btvshalom.org
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_en.asp
http://www.geocities.com/toi_billboard/recommen.htm
http://www.paxchristiusa.org
http://www.ncccusa.org
http://www.afsc.org
http://www.csmonitor.com
http://www.faithfulamerica.org
http://www.crossleft.org
http://www.adl.org
http://www.tikkun.org
http://www.gush-shalom.org/english/index.html
http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp
http://www.refusersolidarity.net
http://www.rhr.israel.net
http://www.seekpeace.org
http://www.rebuildinghomes.org/start.php
http://www.socialaction.com/index.phtml
http://traubman.igc.org/dg-prog.htm
http://www.geocities.com/jewishpeacemakers
http://www.peacenow.org
http://www.btselem.org
http://www.ipcri.org/index1.html
http://www.pij.org
http://www.icahd.org/eng/faq.asp?menu=9&submenu=1
http://www.phr.org.il
Medical Marijuana Issues:
http://www.granitestaters.com/home
http://www.mpp.org
http://www.dpf.org/homepage.cfm
http://www.drugsense.org
http://www.jackherer.com
http://www.mapinc.org
http://www.norml.org
Excerpt from the Cato Institute
http://www.cato.org/current/drug-war/index.html
On Rights to Choose Responsible, Casual Drug Use, Check Out These Resources:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-op-legaliz e16oct16,0,4914395.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
http://www.drcnet.org/cops
http://www.ssdp.org
http://www.november.org
http://www.mpp.org
http://www.dancesafe.org
http://www.csdp.org
http://www.drugpolicy.org
MyGen Profile Generator

Television:

...

Data encryption, the process of scrambling stored or transmitted information

so that it is unintelligible until it is unscrambled by the intended recipient.

Historically, data encryption has been used primarily to protect diplomatic

and military secrets from foreign governments. It is also now used increasingly

by the financial industry to protect money transfers, by merchants to protect

credit-card information in electronic commerce, and by corporations to secure

sensitive communications of proprietary information.

All modern cryptography is based on the use of algorithms to scramble

(encrypt) the original message, called plaintext, into unintelligible babble,

called ciphertext. The operation of the algorithm requires the use of a key.

Until 1976 the algorithms were symmetric, that is, the key used to encrypt

the plaintext was the same as the key used to decrypt the ciphertext.

In 1977 the asymmetric or public key algorithm was introduced

by the American mathematicians W. Diffie and M. E. Hellman.

This algorithm requires two keys, an unguarded public key used to encrypt

the plaintext and a guarded private key used for decryption of the ciphertext;

the two keys are mathematically related but cannot be deduced from one another.

The advantages of asymmetric algorithms are that compromising one of the keys

is not sufficient for breaking the cipher and fewer unique keys must be generated.

In 1977 the Data Encryption Standard (DES), a symmetric algorithm,

was adopted in the United States as a federal standard.

DES and the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA)

are the two most commonly used symmetric techniques.

The most common asymmetric technique is the RSA algorithm,

named after Ronald Rivest, Adi Shami, and Len Adleman, who invented it

while at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977. Other commonly used

encryption algorithms include Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL),

and Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-HTTP).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working with industry

and the cryptographic community to develop the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES),

a mutually acceptable algorithm that will protect sensitive government information

and will be used by industry on a voluntary basis.

Data encryption is regarded by the U.S. government as a national-security issue

because it can interfere with intelligence gatheringtherefore, it is subject to export

controls, which in turn make it difficult for U.S. companies to function competitively

in the international marketplace. To resolve this dilemma, the federal government

in 1993 proposed key escrow encryption, an approach, embodied in an electronic

device called a Clipper chip, that makes broadly available a purportedly unbreakable

encryption technique (although the code was broken by researchers in 1995)

with keys to unlock the information held in escrow for national security

and law-enforcement purposes by the federal government.

This approach, however, has been unacceptable to civil libertarians

and to the international community. In 1994 the Clipper algorithm (called Skipjack)

was specified in the Escrow Encryption Standard (EES), a voluntary federal standard

for encryption of voice, facsimile (fax), and data communications over ordinary

telephone lines. A subsequent compromise escrow scheme intended to create a

standard for data encryption that balanced the needs of national security,

law enforcement, and personal freedom was rejected in 1995;

a compromise proposed in 1999 was also controversial .

Cryptography Definition Source

Secrecy is a two-edged sword for a democratic nation. On the one hand, secrecy

has a legitimate basis in those situations in which fundamental national interests

are at stake (e.g., the preservation of American lives during wartime).

Moreover, the history of intelligence reveals many instances in which the revelation

of a secret, whether intentional or inadvertent, has led to the compromise

of an information source or the loss of a key battle.

On the other hand, secrecy has sometimes been used to stifle public debate

and conceal poorly conceived and ill-informed national policies, and mistrust

is therefore quite common among many responsible critics of government policy.

A common refrain by defenders of policies whose origins and rationales

are secret is that "if you knew what we knew, you would agree with us."

Such a position may be true or false, but it clearly does not provide

much reassurance for those not privy to those secrets for one very simple reason:

those who fear that government is hiding poorly conceived policies behind a wall

of secrecy are not likely to trust the government, yet in the absence of the substantive

argument being called for, the government's claim is essentially a plea for trust.

In pursuing this study, the committee has adopted the position that some secrets

are still legitimate in today's global environment, but that its role is to illuminate

as much as possible without compromising those legitimate interests.

Thus, the committee has tried to act as a surrogate for well-intentioned

and well-meaning people who fear that the worst is hiding behind the wall of secrecy

it has tried to ask the questions that these people would have asked if they could have done so.

Books:

The spectacle is ideology par excellence,
because it exposes and manifests in its fullness the essence of all ideological systems:
the impoverishment, servitude & negation of real life.
[Guy Debord; La socit du spectacle (Society of the Spectacle)]
Broadcast: 9/7/2002
Child Soldiers
Thousands of children in more than 40 countries across the globe are being forced or tricked into becoming soldiers.
It is a tragedy that we are all well aware of we often see them on the TV news
casually toting AK47s; governments and non-government institutions hold child soldier conventions;
and the United Nations has declared that sending children into battle is an international war crime.
Yet, this tragic practice of robbing children of their humanity is far from abating it is increasing.
Through a series of intimate encounters with children
who have been through hell as soldiers in Uganda, Sudan, Burma, Colombia and Sierra Leone,
this documentary examines the complex issue of their recruitment,
their often hazardous and brutal life,
and for those who survive the fighting the daunting post-conflict challenges that lay before them.
The documentary team follows these children and films them under fire.
They record the intimate stories of escapees from the rebel groups
that routinely force the children into committing atrocities.
They are present when these children re-unite with family and community,
some undergoing a simple but emotionally charged ceremony of tribal rites and human compassion.
Even back with their families, the children are not necessarily safe.
They are kidnapped to be soldiers, escape, go home to their villages,
only to be kidnapped again and again.
It is an appalling cycle that puts them in terrible peril,
and robs them of both their humanity and their future.
PRODUCTION BACKGROUND
Over five years in development,
and a year in production, "Child Soldiers" took highly specialised filmmakers,
equipped with light-weight digital cameras, into conflict zones across four continents.
All faced considerable challenges - and danger - operating alone in difficult locations,
often with fighting in the area, or even finding themselves on the front line.
For example, in southern Sudan, Field Director/Camera Operator Tim Wise
accompanied a unit of the Sudanese Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA) as it mounted a major attack
against forces of the Government of Sudan.
Thankfully, Tim got out of the war zone unscathed,
but a cat and mouse game ensued in Kenya,
as Tim kept one step ahead of SPLA operatives intent on seizing his 'politically sensitive' footage.
ABOUT PRODUCER ANDREW OGILVIE AND ELECTRIC PICTURES
Producer Andrew Ogilvie established Electric Pictures in 1992.
Since then, the company has earned a reputation as one of Australias leading independents
as a result of the production of documentaries in a variety of genres and formats
that have attracted high broadcast ratings and major awards in Australia and overseas.
Recent program credits include: Soccer Dreams, Playing the Game, Painting Country,
Winds of Change and The Human Race.
Andrew Ogilvie on "Child Soldiers"
"Child Soldiers" is the most difficult project I have been responsible for.
We were asking film crew to go to remote and very dangerous places,
most often alone and with little backup if something went wrong.
While we took every possible precaution to protect them,
there were a number of occasions when I wasn't always sure if they
were going to come back in one piece, and this was very stressful.
Our location directors/camera operators came from Australia, Hong Kong and the USA.
All have different backgrounds,
but were selected because of their experience, special skills and access to the locations in Africa,
Cambodia and South America.
They are a very brave bunch of men and women,
and deserve special credit for making this film possible.
I am very happy with the film.
It is a very challenging subject, but I believe we have done it justice,
and perhaps contributed to a broader understanding of the issues involved.
Children should not be employed as soldiers anywhere,
for any reason whatsoever. My hope is that this point will be driven home to viewers
- that they will be motivated to look for ways to assist political efforts
to reduce the number of child combatants,
and help with their rehabilitation through the support of those organisations
that are working with these children in the field.
ABOUT THE WRITER/DIRECTOR ALAN LINDSAY
Alan has 30 years experience as a producer, writer and director.
Recent credits include the ABC, Film Australia and Vue Pty Ltd documentary A Compassionate Rage
(co-producer, writer & director) filmed in Albania,
Jordan and Australia, the ABC and Vue Pty Ltd Ice Break Heart
(producer, writer & director)
filmed in Antarctica and the Artic and the Woolstore Productions Macarthurs Dream filmed in the UK,
Italy, France, China, Japan and Australia.
Recent drama credits include the mini-series Savage Play filmed in Scotland
and New Zealand and starring Ian Richardson.
Alan Lindsay on "Child Soldiers"
I approached "Child Soldiers" with some trepidation.
I knew it would be a tough film to make emotionally, and it was,
though the courage of so many of the kids in the film is so inspirational
it sustained the huge effort that it took to bring the documentary together.
The film would not have been possible
without a team of field camera operator/directors prepared to take on the substantial risks involved.
Making "Child Soldiers" meant going into areas that common sense says
you should avoid like the plague. I went into Kitgum,
Northern Uganda, on the Sudan border, twice.
It is a town which has been practically under siege for the last 18 years,
where 10,000 kids have been kidnapped by a vicious group called the Lords Resistance Army (LRA)
led by a man many consider a psychopath, Joseph Kony.
I filmed kids who had just managed to escape from the LRA.
What they went through no-one should have to bear.
I don't know if the film will make a difference to a child soldier's life.
I sure hope it does - something has to challenge the apathy
and greed that keeps kids in armies and rebel groups.
There is no justification for using kids to fight wars
and absolutely no justification for the inertia of the international community in addressing this abomination.
There are far too many people in power
prepared to waste the lives of children for political or economic advantage.
NOTES ON LOCATION DIRECTORS/CAMERA OPERATORS
"Child Soldiers" was made with the support of five location directors,
four of whom also operated the camera in various locations:
Tim Wise
Location Director/Camera Operator
Nationality: Australian (Sydney)
Location: Sudan
Tim went to perhaps the most dangerous location of them all in the oil fields of southern Sudan
- in the company of Peter Strandberg,
an internationally acclaimed Swedish journalist and stills photographer.
Once there,Tim and Peter were isolated from the outside world for ten days,
during which they accompanied more than a thousand SPLA rebels
(many of whom were child soldiers) to the front line,
where they filmed an ambush of a large convoy of Sudanese government troops.
Eric Poon
Location Director
Nationality: Chinese (Hong Kong)
Location: Myanmar (Burma)
Accompanied by a camera operator, Hong Kong based producer,
Eric Poon made two trips to Myanmar over a period of three months
to cover the story of those children who are fighting for the Karen National Liberation Army,
a rebel group who have been locked in bitter conflict
with the Myanmar Government for decades.
During his first trip into the jungle, he contracted malaria, but once fully recovered,
Eric returned to complete the assignment.
Alan Lindsay
Location Director/Camera Operator
Nationality: Australian (Melbourne)
Location: Uganda/Scotland
Alan Lindsay was also responsible for the overall direction and writing of the film.
During the filming period, Alan travelled to the USA and Europe,
accompanied by camera operator Kevin Manning,
to film interviews with leading experts and eyewitnesses.
He also made two solo trips to Uganda where he filmed the story of children
who have been rescued from the notorious Lord's Resistance Army
- a group that raids northern Uganda from their base in southern Sudan,
to kidnap children to fight for their cause.
Sophie Barry
Location Director/Camera Operator
Nationality: Australian (Melbourne)
Location: Sierra Leone
No stranger to dangerous filming assignments, Sophie travelled alone to Sierra Leone,
where, with the assistance of the U.N and various aid agencies,
she filmed interviews with ex-child soldiers and covered the story on the disarmament of rebels
and the reunification of children with their parents.
Sophie filmed some of the most frank
and chilling accounts by younger children of the atrocities they were forced to commit.
Meredith Davenport
Location Director/Camera Operator
Nationality: American (New York)
Location: Colombia
Over four weeks, American photojournalist,
Meredith Davenport earned the trust of a group of children who had escaped the notorious FARC
a former Colombian socialist army, now operating as a rebel, free enterprise,
dealing in cocaine, kidnapping and extortion,
which has been in bloody battle with the Colombian government for more than four decades.
In the film, these children tell us about how they have been used as terrorists,
and the effect this has had on their lives.
During filming, Meredith was held up at knifepoint by street kids in Bogota,
but she managed to escape with her camera to continue filming.
SELECTED QUOTES FROM THE FILM
The Children
ROSE - abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda:
When I was abducted I was pregnant - they made me walk to Sudan to the LRA camp.
I felt terrible pain in my belly but there was no treatment.
The pain continued. I had to bear it.
I was in pain until my baby came.
LRA ESCAPEE - "The LRA were looting the village.
I tried to run away but it was too late.
They forced me to carry two 50kg bags of sugar.
I couldn't carry them on my own, so they captured 2 more kids to help."
FORMER GIRL SOLDIER in hiding in Colombia
-The first time I cut a man's throat I was frightened.
It was more frightening than when I shot someone.
FORMER CHILD SOLDIER - "I killed innocent people in terrorist attacks with bombs.
I haven't given it much thought. I know there was one town where I planted dynamite
- I used about 25kg of explosives. I am really not sure."
CHILD SOLDIER, Sudan
- If you die white man, your people will cry because they have their freedom.
But for me if I die, our people can't cry, because too many people have died.
I have lost 5 brothers in the war.
CHILD SOLDIER, Myanmar
- "I feel sorry. Why do I feel sorry?
Because by the time I could go to school,
I am already too old for the beginner's class.
I can't dream of going to school any more because it is too late.
I will stay in the army until I die.
"I lost all my dreams, all my hopes for the future,
I feel like a dead person."
FORMER CHILD SOLDIER, Sierra Leone
- You capture someone and split their belly open.
You remove the heart and liver it is roasted and eaten.
You put salt and pepper on it and cook it for the boss man".
"We have to tie their eyes no to see. We used big machetes to cut off their hands."
The Adults
MAJOR (RTD) OKWIR RABWONI, MINISTER YOUTH AFFAIRS, UGANDAN GOVERNMENT -
... all of my bodyguards were child soldiers,
and they were highly disciplined, because they have no distractions when they are on the job,
and they take orders and they perform them faster than the adults.
So if they have a good leader, they are very efficient soldiers.
GENERAL MARGO, LEADER OF SOUTHERN SUDANS 'DEADLY POISON' REBELS OF THE 1960S -
Well, I condemn child soldiers, wherever it is practised,
whether it is in the Sudan by the SPLA or by the Government,
or in any corner of the world, because if you cannot get grown up people,
to recruit them, and people are running from you,
then you must know that what you are doing is unpopular.
And if what you are doing is unpopular, why force it on the people?
The international community has to intervene...
the concept of child soldiers is wrong and should be punishable, because it is wicked.
BILL PACE, WORLD FEDERALIST MOVEMENT, COALITION FOR THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT,
on the role of the Security Council in international conflicts -
It has to do with the United Nations
and how the United Nations deals with these issues.
Lets use the metaphor of fires. It wasnt set up to put out or stop fires.
What they have created in the United Nations isnt a fire department,
its not a volunteer fire department, its an ad hoc, volunteer fire department.
So, first you have to go down to the Town Council, in this case the Security Council,
and get all of the Town Council to agree that theres a fire.
And if any one of them say
"no, we dont agree theres a fire, then there is no fire".
The other aspect of this scenario that is so outrageous is that the Council is full of members
who set fires and who are the primary providers of the matches and the incendiary devices.
So this is the challenge that we have as a world community.
Are we going to move from this unbelievably irresponsible way of dealing with international peace and security
and create a UN that is at least a volunteer fire department,
that has fire engines, volunteer fire women and firemen, and water to put out, say,
even small fires?
OLARA OTUNNU, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR CHILDREN AND ARMED CONFLICT, UNITED NATIONS -
The best (solution) is to prevent children being recruited in the first instance.
Which is why the importance of the standards, the norms,
the protocol and pressure to bring to bear on parties in conflict
so they will not recruit children in the first instance.
So that is the first line of this struggle.
And then of course the second stage is if, God forbid,
they are already recruited, they are within these fighting groups to seek their release,
to seek their demobilisation within the fighting groups.
And then, the third stage of tackling this on which we need to put a good deal more emphasis,
is what to do with the ex child soldiers.
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Heroes:

The Sacred Ground
By
Jesse Wolf Hardin
There are few things more counter-evolutinary
than the many trendy philosophies that encourage
transcending the body and sailing away from the anchoring planet Earth.
This is analogous to the modernist trend of sealing the dead in lead-lined coffins,
which are filed above ground in crowded crypts,
or the institutional religiosity that posits escape
from the cycles of experiences of human existence as some form of salvation.
Instead, in New Nature Spirituality, we reconnect and re-pledge to the animal,
vegetal, liquid, and mineral greater Self that is sacred Gaia.
Indeed, if we are to have any chance of humanity reclaiming
a healthy role in the balance of the Whole,
we’ll need to be as solid inside as a rock.
And to stick like clay. To be as nutritive as soil.
Like a sedimentary deposit, we’ll need to settle back into place,
serving as food for what grows out of that sacrd marriage of hominid and home.
And like some lava-tinted igneous formation,
we’ll need to embody and express the passion of this molten-hearted planet.
After centuries of orbiting somewhere above the Earth,
outside of our own existence,
let it be said that some of us have finally landed.
And what is this land that we bind to and rise from?
It is the “sacred ground” that piulses underneath the pavement,
breathing deeply through the cracks in the sidewalks
and cramped suburban yards.
It is the substance of plant and animal and stone,
of ancient forms and extincted species reconstituted into the heated soil
of the garden and the dirt on our hands.
It is the fertile loam that bears our crops,
the foundation that supports our dwellings,
the geologic extension of our Gaian beings.
It is the sleletal framework of our destiny, the very terra firma of our lives.
No wonder when someone makes a unsubstantiated claim
we say that it is “groundless”—for without this orb of ground,
we’d be nothing but a fleeting formless potential.
Without this Earth to manifest through and on,
human kind would find itself, quite literally “lost in space.”
It is the most natural and unpretentious people that we call “down to Earth,”
and it’s they who carry in their own inner,
tile fields the wisdom and love of the grounded Whole.
And yet we often complain of being “soiled.”
Like a delusional Lady MacBeth,
we try to scrub every last bit of dirt from our bodies,
all the vain hope of washing away the evidence of our organic source,
and the reminder of our ultimate destination.
Butr scrub, lie, or hide---we all will die.
And until then, live we must---not only on,
but for this special Earthen trust.
It is time for all women and men to stand up for thaty which we stand upon.
There is no more sure measure of the environmental health
of the world than the sad depletion and toxification of forest and agricultural soils.
There is no greater “common ground” than this,
dependent as we are on its minerl purity
and organic richness for the foods our burgeoning population eats,
and with all of the life hanging on the fate of the microbial
and fungal communities housed in its top few inches.
We need now more than ever a newfound appreciation
for the good Queen Dirt---for she si the corporal body of all that has come before,
stretched wide and thin like Gaia’s sheath or skin…
and the promise of what’s yet to come.
She is part of mineral-Gaia, the beauty of which attractsus to her mountains and parks,
her magnetic grid aiding migrating salmon and Southbound larks.
Mineral Gaia, who draws,
who draws down the lightening to both highest peaks and iron seams,
and in this manner brought the transformative power
of fire to an already dynamic world.
She is ever reborn, ever an aspiring adolescent,
and yet she’s also the oldest gal on the block.
Her wind-rounded stones function as an abacus,
recording epochs as though seconds, millenniums as moments.
Indeed, it would be accuracte to say that all rocks are the “rocks of ages.”
They are timekeepers and place keepers,
speaking from the perspective of eras and eons.
In their vibrations are echoes of the tragedies
and celebrations that make up evolutionary history,
and they align like Easter Island monoliths to point toward the unfolding future.
The largest boulders give us a feel for our true, expansive size.
The tiny pebbles and fractured shards lying at our feet are some of our own prescious bones,
waiting once more for a fresh cloaking of flesh.
From beach sand to canyon cliffs,
we’re blessed with an aggregate of teachers, patiently instructing us on the means and ways home.
If we are to remain a distinguishable part of the inspirited Whole,
we will have to reawaken a conscious,
reciprocal relationship with what is surely us:
hallowed ground and mineral crust.
Do not turn away.. but hold onto this rock, this Earth, this way.
{ Aboriginal Wisdom }
It’s true what the Aborigines have been telling us:
the knowing mountain sighs.
This ground is the bridge between our far-reaching dreams,
and a reachable sky.
{Gaia Eros ~ Jesse Wolf Hardin}
{USGS photo/link - Lake Carnegie/Western Australia}
{What Makes Earth So Unique? Press Chart For Article...}
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