A New Day for Burma

Today is a long, patiently awaited, and determined victory for Burma’s political party: National League for Democracy.  Today Aung San Suu Kyi has won a seat with 40 some other colleagues in Burma’s Parliament.

Suu’s story is amazing, her dedication to ideals that are much bigger than one person, one political view, is courageous and heroic. She veritably abandoned her personal life to become the cornerstone of a democratic movement in her country. A movement that is finally allowing her to taste it’s fruition. May the ideas and values shared by Suu grow strong roots in a changing Burma.

Here are some of Aung San Suu Kyi’s quotes

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/61546.Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

“In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued.”
(From a speech read on video on August 31, 1995 before the NGO Forum on Women, Beijing, China)

“Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear

“If you’re feeling helpless, help someone. ”

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” Freedom from Fear

“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear”

“To view the opposition as dangerous is to misunderstand the basic concepts of democracy. To oppress the opposition is to assault the very foundation of democracy.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma

“We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi

“I don’t believe in people just hoping. We work for what we want. I always say that one has no right to hope without
endeavor, so we work to try and bring about the situation that is necessary for the country, and we are confident that we will get to the negotiation table at one time or another.”

“The search for scapegoats is essentially an abnegation of responsibility: it indicates an inability to assess honestly and intelligently the true nature of the problems which lie at the root of social and economic difficulties and a lack of resolve in grappling with them.”

“Some of the most relaxing weekends I have ever enjoyed were those I spent quietly with a sense of all work to date completed, and an absorbing mystery.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma

“There is a special charm to journeys undertaken before daybreak in hot lands: the air is soft and cool and the coming of dawn reveals a landscape fresh from the night dew.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma

I am grateful for such determination and selflessness to be thriving in this world.

Blessed Be Aung San Suu Kyi!!

water

I beseech you, the waters of this world are more precious than oil, everything that feeds us, literally and figuratively feeds our experience is more precious alive and well than sick and dying.

The wildlife and the people of the Gulf Coast waters are sick and dying, as well as elsewhere in the world, like in and around the Athabascan Tar Sands in Alberta Canada. Our waters are all connected, they exist in a prehistoric cycle that cannot be contained and controlled indefinitely without causing unimaginable catastrophe to the influence of control.

We must protect theses places and seek out better solutions to the clean up of oil. Toxic chemicals are being used to disperse petrol and it makes no sense! No Sense! What is done to the waters of the world is done to our own children, to ourselves. And there are so many people interested and adamantly seeking solutions that use BIO-REMEDIATION methods- most commonly mushrooms that fruit from the act of eating the oil away. This is not hearsay, this is working knowledge that is being refined everyday.

The business of oil is the most lucrative and powerful on the planet. Very tempting financial security. But what security can exist when toxicity threatens everyone eventually. Do you have children? They are the future of this world and whatever state we leave it in is theirs to cope with.

…This I say from the perspective of a child born into this mess, who is not afraid to see it for what it is and question it persistently… And of a woman who loves life and children and the simple divinity of joyfully living a simple life so that others may simply live.

Oyster Mushrooms devouring crude oil from saturated ground

“An experiment was done that consisted of four piles of soil that were saturated with oil. One of them was a control pile, another was treated with enzymes, another with bacteria, and the fourth with oyster mushrooms. Six weeks later, the tarps were removed. Every pile was dead and dark except for the one treated with oyster mycelium: hundreds of pounds of mushrooms had grown. Soil toxicity was originally at 10 000 – 20 000 ppm. 16 weeks later it was reduced to less than ~200 ppm, allowing for various plants, worms and other species to grow.”

Photo and excerpt from http://www.lionsdenu.com/devastating-bp-oil-spill-pics-and-the-mushroom-solution/

photos can also be found here: http://mycomoon.blogspot.com/

Unsung

Oh my family

All my Earthly Siblings

What if the Earth cried out to us

how would you hear

through the discovery and witness

of how many eyes, spirits

will it take your personal pain too

before you to join in the plea

perhaps a great sacrifice is being called of You, Humanity

And what will you be willing to do?

What would be too much?

How can we let down our barriers to each other to trust?

The Truth is simple, start there

What we need, as all living things, mammals especially

ideally pure waters, organic soils, and fresh air

(once we did not need these things

they were everywhere, except where toxic elements occurred naturally

places our ancestors revered or feared)

Now these places are becoming scarce, endangered all the time

for unpopulated places always run the risk of being implanted with toxic waste

they are the places we must take our precious toxic treasures from or across

Now we must protect them, we must! We must!

Here in America

the “Last Frontier” was conquered

The peoples enslaved or free but robbed of culture

The animals with them, some species could not survive the brink

others were saved, but for how much longer

how long before they die, like us, so many of cancer?

What would you be willing to transform in your life to allow the other creatures of this world to live out their natural lives?

What would you be willing to sacrifice?

I believe if we begin to imagine transformation, we may discover creative and spiritual empowerment, community engagement and respect beyond our differences and that we may not have to sacrifice much;

what we do may just renew the vitality and energy of our own lives.

This is all a dream we are sharing, won’t you challenge yourself to begin re-envisioning?

Encourage Audacious Responsibility, Tenable Honor: EARTH Citizen, here we are.

a simple?message

Fellows of the Earth,

we are all so different. We want and desire many different things. Indeed all of us are unique, though all of us have unimaginable amounts of understanding for a great many people who share this world, though we may never meet them face to face.

Now more than ever before in history have such a small amount of people had so much influence (militarily, financially, and resource control-from education and the media to agriculture, water, oil, etc) over so much. And, on the other side, We have more of an ability to connect and share our support and experiences than ever before.

This is my dream, born from the social experiment that bore my country and the tickle beneath my skin at this world’s natural loveliness…

I dream of people sharing with each other, easily, listening as deeply as conversing, free of the need to persuade someone to see differently, trusting that when we’re ready the truth will ring-especially when we teach compassion rather than deceit. It’s not only ok that we are different with alternative wants and needs, but it’s necessary, for the simple brilliance of diversity. I also believe that enough of us just want to live our lives and pass the world onto the next generations. Correct me if I’m wrong… But this group with so much control, is no different from the feudal kingdoms, that turned us one against another in order to steal the wealth and livelihoods of people just like your own family.

All of us, to survive, need fresh air, clean water, and good food. Air, Water, and Soil are our most precious resources! Not gold, silver, oil and especially uranium. These rare resources should ever be extracted carefully, if at all, and slow as needs be to be so careful, for things will and must live past you and me. In the meantime I dream of us ever sharing and learning learning learning!

What if we could put aside the dividing lines. I don’t care what political party, class, or country you’re from, I want to know where You are from, what you’ve learned and where you plan to go with your values and ideals. I want to be free to share my perspective openly, and to hear yours without the thought of changing or being changed. I want my values to be part of the culture I exist in. Freedom- as a birthright, born free to drink, eat and breathe, and learn about ourselves and this most amazing world, make mistakes, and pull through to the other side of them. Freedom to follow our heart’s and let others be, to also peacefully exist freely. Freedom to learn the truth. Haven’t we all learned from the Nazis, Pol Pot, countless other and can’t we see today how educational deceit has crippled our ability to correct mistakes and live with dignity? If we teach history to learn from the mistakes of our ancestry than why would we ever teach what’s not real. (There are children around the world in armies, brandishing guns with intent, we put children down thinking them too young to comprehend enslavement) I believe the children of this world, could turn our turmoil around completely if we would only spill our past faults openly.

“Did he doubt or did he try, answers aplenty in the by and by, talk about your troubles, talk about your ills one man gathers what another man spills.” -Robert Hunter

It’s time for coexistence to be globally prioritized.

Proud to be an American: Wobblies

As a victim of the public education system, I have learned to enjoy my independent re-education.  It is truly criminal to subject children to a purposely shallow, if not altogether deceitful, recollection of histories, seemingly only for the purpose of propagating national pride and ignorance toward systems of control, when there is plenty of American history we can be truly proud of.  Indeed are we not taught that it is wise to learn from the past?

The I.W.W.- International Workers of the World, a.k.a Wobbly/Wobblies is one such movement.

The second half of the 19th century was scarred with union supported violence.  Idaho and Colorado Miners seemed to have seen and been a part of most of this violence, federal troops being called in to stymie and control many of their outbreaks.  For such hard working and raw individuals it is no surprise  that the mining unions have perhaps been the most violently determined.  Mining was and still is one of the most dangerous and undesirable jobs, but for those that can afford to own such industry it is incredibly lucrative.  Perhaps one of the greatest myths capitalist culture has given us came from the copper bosses and other mine owners, that is for business to be profitable the lowest tier of workers must be robbed of their very livelihood.

“The exploiting capitalist is the economic master and the political ruler in capitalist society, and as such holds his exploited wage slaves in utter contempt.”  from the speech Revolutionary Unionism by Eugene Debs.

In 1905 a manifesto was written and an organization of industrial unionists formed.  The coalition was supported by (duh duhn DUUUUN) the Socialist Labor Party/Socialist Trades & Labor Alliance, Socialist Party of America, Western Federation of Miners and survivors of International Working People’s Association.

The IWW believed that as long as one class was set above as employers of an industry and another laid below as workers of an industry there could be no peace while one toiled for the riches of the other.  Their dream was an end to wage labor and the advent of worker ownership in industry.  While their dreams have for the most part yet to be realized the IWW has helped win some of the most basic rights for all American laborers.

With the Nation’s 1st stay-in strike at a GE plant in Schenectedy NY in 1906, the IWW helped to organize and raise funds for massive strikes all around the country.  Miners, smelters, steel workers, textile workers, lumber workers, sawmill workers, bakers, meat packers, shoe makers. . . every industry employee was struggling for the right to a decent life.  IWW helped to win the some of the first battles for the 8 hour work day and pay raises to decent wages.  But they also helped workers strike in order to get safety equipment, and in general the IWW spawned a movement of labor organizing and union building.

The IWW, since it’s 2nd year, has had no president, no paid organizers.  The workers themselves carried this massive union, spoke out for it and gathered it’s supporters one by one with whispers when necessary.  Wobblies, adament about their cause, immersed in their drive to organize, spread the word and share their dream of “One Big Union” took to soap boxes in the streets and came to fight some of the most important and early battles for our freedom of speech.

“Soapboxing” became restricted by ordinance by many local governments.  But, true to their dream, Wobblies would gather in towns where their members were being jailed and purposely get arrested.  In this way they flooded the jails and put so much stress on the local systems to feed and house them that the ordinances were rescinded.  A huge part of the Wobbly effort was travelling to different places for the protest.  They called upon each other to help fill jails and strike.  They were the bums, the train hoppers but they were bums to keep their integrity, they were fighting for their children and grandchildren, they were sharing a very human dream of hope and community.

***

No movement is perfect, and the innocent desires of any movement are often challenged by the individual characters that carry it.  This movement is no different, though it is an example of the intricacies of propaganda and espionage warfare.

I am proud of the Wobbly effort because of the unity and vision it encompassed.  The IWW helped to unite the workers under the same industry of different companies to strike together, and then the workers of different industries altogether.  The war fought against the Wobblies carried a banner of fear based on the dream that would share corporate profits with the employees rather than the stockholders.  It is no wonder that their activism has faded from our ambitions.  That their fight for decent employment has resulted in the corporate evolution of outsourcing labor.  That we learn of the eight hour work day in American History 101, but not how that movement was disintegrated by yellow journalism and propaganda, how these activists helped nurture women’s suffrage, the civil rights movement and the freedom movement of the ’60s.  We don’t learn that they dreamed of so much more.

So many distrust the words Socialism and Communism, but it is people that have corrupted these ideas in action and in propaganda.  Ideas are innocent of human endeavor.  Have Capitalism and Democracy not been corrupted?  Indeed an honest look at present affairs deems that they have.  Our new Presidential administration is being criticized by the conservative “right” for being socialist, when from my perspective the goal is to help support the people rather than corporations.  If this is so, may socialism become a new dream untainted by the past.

Perhaps one day even Participatory Economics will be possible.  The IWW is still striving for worker rights and the dream of worker ownership and this world-wide organization is not giving up.

Gulf Coast Devastation, or How the Criminals Take the Cake

It’s been over a month now that oil continues to spill into Gulf Coast waters.

Oil seen swirling through Gulf waters

I find myself dumbfounded by where the responsibility for cleaning up this mess has fallen.  BP, really?!?! And most of their solutions sound like someone is throwing a dart at a tack board of ideas.  And while sound bytes ring through the cable networks of the terrible extent of this disaster, news reels of oil spewing out of pipes- I can’t help but wonder why BP isn’t forbidden to be involved in what is a Global issue, not a corporate issue.

Couldn’t NASA have solved this problem with some duct tape by now, or more likely 43 days ago? We are intelligent and Creative beings and our institutions, our cultural processes do not reflect this.

This isn’t the only oil devastation happening either. Niger has oil leaking out over farms, fields, wetlands- all in all a much greater disaster than the Gulf and no news stations are acknowledging that, no one is supporting the clean up or trying to fix the pipe line problems there.  Oil is a precious commodity these days, and I am awestruck that we aren’t treating it as such. Not only is it incredibly destructive when it leaks out into our environments, but it’s cost continues to rise, and it becomes harder and more extreme to extract from the earth. Our politicians push for more drilling, but we can’t cooperate to protect what we are already drilling!!

Oil burning from a leaking pipeling in a Niger swampland.

Here is an amazing article that broaches the big picture.

Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

Exxon and Shell are mostly responsible for massive oil spills in Africa that number in thousands of instances since the 1970s.

“One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil – 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska – has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.”

The reality of this situation is that Oil companies are the top profiteers in the corporate world right now. Their profits coincide with their ability to cover up their mistakes and disasters, their ability to bully communities and governments that are economically dependent on their business, and their ability to pay for political support that is conveniently supported by the mass media.

These are the criminals that are in control. No mafia has ever obtained power like this, not only do the oil giants get to run rampant with power and projects and the manipulation of communities and governments around the world but when they make a mess it’s like the chief of police told them to go bury the body.

Crimes against humanity are happening, every day, every moment, and while it is easy to be overwhelmed, to feel helpless, to just not know what to do- There Are Simple Things That We CAN DO!! One of the most simple and important actions is becoming informed! Be a witness to what is happening, do not take any media source as an accurate picture of what is. Share the knowledge, talk to friends, family, and strangers about what you see, read, hear, and feel! Acknowledge how you feel but don’t let it control you, talk to people without forcing opinions, Question Question Question!!!

We are responsible for the state of the world, all of us. May we learn to live up to that responsibility and realize that we can achieve the dreams we believe in- no matter how big.

the forgotten word

have we become such a culture of pointless babbling that the very power of words is lost to us?

The printing press, the radio and the television have changed our social and scholarly cultures in massive ways. Now our homes, workplaces, and other places of gathering are infected with the media spewing garbage from the mouths of people whose sole work responsibility is to continue talking about anything and everything as though it is both fact and important.

This bombardment of chatter is deafening. . . . may we survive it. . . .

Peace.

pondering

Derrick Jensen writes in “Endgame Vol.1 :the Problem of Civilization”, “Our current sense of self is no more sustainable than our current use of energy or technology.”

To me this poignant sentence says so much. We (the industrial masses) are all filled with hatred and fear and desires and a sense of searching for something. . . and we all seem to take these things on as our very own, or blame them entirely on something outside our own responsibility. We dissect political, moral, and environmental values to the extent that we are all representations of a hapless minority. We are suffering from accute selfishness and denial of the sacredness of naturally pure water, old growth forests, and our own innocent wandering through the wilds. “Our current sense of self” is so egocentric, anthrocentric that we are failing to see the enormity of suffering we have allowed to progress over a millenia. We commit suicide, live lives that are miserable and degrading and allow the ideas that wealth is power and the wealthy supreme continue to make us miserable and degraded.

“Without Unity we cannot be Free, we’ll just be. . . . . . . . . Typical” -excerpt from my own poetry

I have no illusions about sharing this information, perhaps you agree and share also the throbbing in your heart chakra that I feel or perhaps your mind reacts passionately against such propositions. I do not seek to change anyone by sharing such thoughts, only to change myself -for I am responsible and only through actively encountering that truth can I learn and share beyond the hatred and fear, only then can I truly be and share the gift of Love.

Group Advises Stopping Flow of Gifts to Doctors

This is really important legislation!! Please read this article! Finally we can lend our voices to something vital for our well being, literally!

“The institute (Institute On Medicine) acknowledged that many doctors depend on industry funding for refresher medical courses but said that “the current system of funding is unacceptable and should not continue.” The report recommended that a different funding system be created within two years.

Senator Kohl said that he has been investigating refresher medical courses, and he said the industry’s funding has biased some courses.”

The industry of course is the DRUG Industry! ha! We need a civilian war on drug-companies!! ….Anyway we cannot continue to allow pharmaceuticals to influence our doctors and their education!! Perhaps this will help our herbalists, massage therapists, midwives, curanderas and homeopathics find greater freedom in expressing their wisdom!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/health/policy/29drug.html

H.R.1866: Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1866

This legislation alone could have an enormous impact for the good of the American economy and the health of our environment and well being on a whole.

There are 59 members on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and 39 members on the Judiciary Committee, both of which are considering this action at this time.

Please look it up and send a message to your representatives in support of this bill.

here is a copy of the letter I sent, please feel free to use it:

In regards to your participation on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and that Committee’s consideration of H.R. 1866: Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2009.

Honorable Representative,

In consideration for H.R. 1866 it is my request that as much unbiased research is done and a reflection of the will of the small farmer is created by a promotion or rejection of this bill.

It is my understanding that as we begin to strive for a more sustainable system, hemp carries so much potential for the growth of American industry, exportation, employment, and the promotion of healthier agricultural environments.   Hemp has the potential, and we who hold considerations for the generations of the future look, to fully replace trees as a paper source.  This is not only possible but has the potential to renew the lumber industry as providing long lasting goods instead of being wasted on the environmentally unsound practices in use by pulp mills across the country.

It is my fear that business interests in timber, oil, and pharmaceutical companies and stock will continue to prevent actions such as H.R. 1866.

As potential uses and markets are investigated may the growing properties of the hemp plant show the apparent possibility for this single crop to greatly improve the American Economy even a short term basis.

Sincerely,