9 July 2010

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2130 by Jeff Hess

While I’m in the mountains of North Carolina at my annual writer’s retreat, I’ve gone back to take a look at some of the websites dealing with Myanmar that you may not be familiar with. This morning I offer a story from the Independent Mon News Agency on: Ceasefire celebration noticeably absent…

For the 1st time since the ceasefire was created, the New Mon State Party will not be celebrating the anniversary of its ceasefire with the Burmese military government in 1995.

According to the Spokesperson of Central Committee of NMSP, there has been significant tension between NMSP and the Burmese military Government during the month of April. This led to the closure of several NMSP offices, including the office in Mon State’s capitol of Moulmein.

Tensions between the NMSP and the Burmese government State Peace and Development Council’s reached a near breaking point when the NMSP refused a final offer to submit to the SPDC’s border guard force proposal.

What is your favorite website for information from Myanmar?

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | No Comments »

9 July 2010

LOVE IS A LOADED PISTOL…

1830 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Music, TED Talks, Video | No Comments »

9 July 2010

FROM MY DAD…

0630 by Jeff Hess

From The Days Of Black And White Television…

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

That was before better living through chemistry and drill baby drill…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

9 July 2010

RALPH’S SKETCH ‘N’ KVETCH…

0330 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Art, Ralph Solonitz, Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

9 July 2010

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0030 by Jeff Hess

Today supine, groaning with demon crab claws
gouging my belly, I tell you I will secretly dance
and pour a cup of wine on the earth
when time stops that leak permanently;
I will burn my last tampons as votive candles. p. 27

Available Light by Marge Piercy

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Posted in Chapbook, Poetry | No Comments »

8 July 2010

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2130 by Jeff Hess

While I’m in the mountains of North Carolina, I’ve gone back to take a look at some of the websites dealing with Myanmar that you may not be familiar with. This morning I offer a story from the Human Rights Foundation of Monland on: SPDC fines villagers for digging bomb-shelters for their security in Kyainnsekyi Township…

Villagers have been digging bomb shelters for protection against the increasingly frequent skirmishes between the Burmese State Peace and Development Council and the Karen National Liberation Army forces. However according to the local SPDC commander the presence of these shelters destabilizes the community and has issued harsh fines and threats of forced portering for families who already have built or will built, shelters to improve their security.

Since the early of this May, villagers in Anan Kwin village, Three Pagoda sub-township, Kyainnseikyi Township, Karen State, had been building homemade bomb shelters, or locally called “cover-holes” (Kar Bar Kyin in Burmese). HURFOM’s field reporter has found that nearly every household at this point has dug a bomb-shelter. However, according to the information from locals, unidentified battalion officers from Tactical Command No. 2 based in Anan Kwin operating under South East Command, have ordered villagers to stop building shelters, condemning the presence of bomb shelters as making the region unstable. Villagers who had already dug bomb-shelters tagged with fines of twenty thousand kyat per completed bomb-shelter. Villagers were also threatened that if they continued digging bomb-shelters, besides a fine, they will be severely punished with forced portering.

What is your favorite website for information from Myanmar?

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | No Comments »

8 July 2010

THE HIDDEN INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKS…

1830 by Jeff Hess

Posted in TED Talks, Video | No Comments »

8 July 2010

FROM MY DAD…

0630 by Jeff Hess

From The Days Of Black And White Television…

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can’t remember getting e.coli.

That was before factory farms…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | 2 Comments »

8 July 2010

RALPH’S SKETCH ‘N’ KVETCH…

0330 by Jeff Hess

Enough about multi million dollar athletes and entertainers…my kudos to the working stiff who shows up day after day, night after night for crap wages, and maybe two jobs.

When the multi-million dollar Kings and Gods start to give a crap about my life… then I will care about them.

ralph solonitz

Posted in Art, Ralph Solonitz, Social Justice & Advocacy | No Comments »

8 July 2010

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0030 by Jeff Hess

Not-knowing is like grabbing
      the tail to direct the head
      of a dragon.

From On Harmony p. 17

The Art Of Writing by Lu Chi

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Posted in Chapbook | No Comments »

7 July 2010

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2130 by Jeff Hess

While I’m in the mountains of North Carolina, I’ve gone back to take a look at some of the websites dealing with Myanmar that you may not be familiar with. This morning I offer a story from the Free Burma Rangers on: Burma Army Conducts Sweeps of Villages in it’s Hunt for the Arakan Pro-Democracy Ethnic Resistiance…

Burma Army Battalions #232 (based at Patarli Village) and #289 (based at Paletwa Mro Ma Village), composed of over 180 men including the Tactical Commander and all the Battalion officers, are conducting sweeps against villagers in Paletwa Township, Chin State. The villages threatened include:

* Pumnyan Wa
* Nygeliwa
* Doe Chawn Wa
* Parkarwa
* Aumthiwa
* Shwe Lie Pue
* Phe Lie Wa
* Satanwa
* Mariwa

The Battalion HQ has been set up at Mariwa Village which is located only half a kilometer from the Indian Border and only 30 minutes walk from Tapu Shay Village, Raw The Village, and Latar Lunn Village, Lawntalet District, Mizoram, India (N22.124061, E92.752841). The Battalion is hunting ALA (Arakan Liberation Army) members and searching for six Burma Army defectors who have been cooperating with the ALA.

What is your favorite website for information from Myanmar?

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | 2 Comments »

7 July 2010

COULD THIS LASER ZAP MALARIA…?

1830 by Jeff Hess

Posted in TED Talks, Video | No Comments »

7 July 2010

WALMART WEDNESDAY…

1030 by Jeff Hess

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 1… Good morning. I’m away on my annual Wildacres Writer’s Retreat atop Pompeii’s Point in North Carolina. I’ve been reading Fred Goldstein’s Low-Wage Capitalism and thought his “Why the bosses need Walmart” instructive. Enjoy Part 1: Not only does Walmart pay low wages, but its low prices Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 2… But Walmart not only drives down the wages of its own workers. By using its leverage as the world’s largest retailer, it pressures its suppliers to lower costs. This can only be Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 3… Wages at Walmart have been variously estimated at anywhere from $8 to $10 per hour It considers a full-time job to be thirty-four hours a week. But even at $10 per hour Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 4… The company is fiercely anti-union. In 2000, when eleven butchers at a Walmart in Jackson, Texas, voted to join the United Food and Commercial Food Workers, Walmart Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 5… In 2004, Walmart accounted for 2.3 percent of the U.S. gross national product. It sold 14 percent of the groceries in the country and 20 percent of the toys. It racks up $300 billion in Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 6… The cost of Walmart’s low prices is illustrated by the plight of workers at the Western Dresses factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2003, sixteen-year-old junior sewing Keep reading…

ON LOW-WAGE CAPITALISM, PART 7… On the home front, Walmart tracks every item rung up on every cash register by every cashier. It has central communications and its loading workers wear headsets for Keep reading…

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7 July 2010

FROM MY DAD…

0630 by Jeff Hess

From The Days Of Black And White Television…

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread Mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.

That was before factory farms…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

7 July 2010

FROM MY CHAPBOOK…

0030 by Jeff Hess

The Poetry of Lu Chi:

Sometimes the words come freely;
      sometimes we sit in silence,
      gnawing on a brush.

From Choosing Words p. 12

The Art Of Writing by Lu Chi

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Posted in Chapbook | No Comments »

6 July 2010

GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…

2130 by Jeff Hess

While I’m in the mountains of North Carolina at my annual writer’s retreat, I’ve gone back to take a look at some of the websites dealing with Myanmar that you may not be familiar with. This morning I offer a story from the Chinland Guardian on: Salai Tin Maung Oo Memorial Day Observed…

Chin people throughout the world today paid tribute to their national hero and Burma’s student leader Salai Tin Maung Oo, marking the 34th anniversary of his assassination in Insein Prison by the military regime.

Former General Secretary of Chin Literature and Culture Committee, Salai Tin Maung Oo, was secretly hanged to death at the age of 25 inside Burma’s notorious Insein Prison on 26 June 1976 by the Ne Win-led military regime.

He was given a capital sentence without any fair trial and lawyer for his political beliefs, selfless fight for democracy, justice and peace in Burma and leading anti-military protests, which are now well known as U Thant’s uprising and Shwedagon Strike in 1974 and 1975 respectively.

His cellmate, Dr. Za Hlei Thang, said in the interview conducted by the Chinworld Media: “The death of Salai Tin Maung Oo is a big loss to Burma as a whole and to the Chin people in particular. I very much respect him for his upright determination and being a prominent Burma’s student leader as a Chin national.”

“I believe the unity among the Chin people would have been much more advanced had he lived until today, and especially, our solidarity and closeness between plain and hill Chins would have improved. In addition, what the new generation could learn from him are his bravery, leadership skills and upright beliefs,” added a Chin medical doctor and MP, who is now in exile in the US.

What is your favorite website for information from Myanmar?

Posted in Free Burma, Myanmar | No Comments »

6 July 2010

TOWARD A SCIENCE OF SIMPLICITY…

1830 by Jeff Hess

Posted in TED Talks, Video | No Comments »

6 July 2010

IT’S TEABAGGER TUESDAY…!

1530 by Jeff Hess

Previously: How To Birth A Teabagger…

Posted in Teabaggers, Video | No Comments »

6 July 2010

RALPH’S SKETCH ‘N’ KVETCH…

0930 by Jeff Hess

Posted in Art, Environment, Ralph Solonitz | No Comments »

6 July 2010

FROM MY DAD…

0630 by Jeff Hess

Stella Award No. 1

Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit.

While the above contains a grain of truth, the bull shit level is so high that it almost deserves teabagger status…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Posted in From My Dad, Humor | No Comments »

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