RALPH’S SKETCH ‘N’ KVETCH…
0616 by Jeff Hess
2 February 2010
2 February 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
I think the first step of getting through these dry periods is one of acceptance. p. 98
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
1 February 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff Hess
We in the United States don’t have a lot of room to speak against rural electrification projects, what with the Tennessee Valley Authority, as well as the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, but two (or dozens) of ecological wrongs don’t make a right. A hydro-electric dam built in Myanmar to power China is wrong in a number of ways.
From Global Post:
A large dam will flood an area the size of New York City and displace thousands of local people over the next two to three years. The Myitsone dam, constructed by the Burmese military government and the China Power Investment Co., calls for a 500-foot-wide by 500-foot-high dam face, and is projected to produce between 3,600 to 6,000 megawatts of electricity by 2017.
The dam will inundate 300 square miles in Kachin state, flooding 47 villages, including the Mother of Peace shrine where the traditional New Year’s prayers are held.
But the capital of Kachin state, Myitkyina, already has affordable power 24 hours a day. So, why displace thousands of people in Burma when they already have power?
Because when the Myitsone dam is complete, the hydroelectric power will go to Yunnan, China.
1 February 2010
MY COMMENTS…
1834 by Jeff Hess1 February 2010
1 February 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff Hess
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 weather update I present: From My Dad.
1 February 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
I took a week off to give myself time to get out of the first character”s head and into the second”s. At the week”s end I hurled myself once more into the breach and wrote every morning for three days, and on the fourth day I got up and realized I could not go on. This realization has since become a way of life, repeated each morning with subtle variations. It would be nice if I were at least enjoying this non-writing time, but of course I”m not. I constantly beat myself up for it, accusing myself of self-indulgence and sloth, and that certainly doesn”t help. p. 97
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
31 January 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessApartheid might still be the law in South Africa were it not for the 27-year imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the international rallying point he provided opponents to South Africa’s oppression. The same might be said of Mandela’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, but I don’t think anyone ever called South Africa Mandela land.
From The Irrwaddy:
Asked if she knew my country, Burma, she said “no,” so I asked if she had heard of Suu Kyi.
“Of course, I know her,” she said. “She is our hero. She really is a woman hero. Are you from her country, how is she, has she been released?”
Sharab said she wished Suu Kyi well and would pray for her health and freedom. She said Tibetans think of Burma as “Suu Kyi’s country.”
“When I saw monks on TV chanting the ‘metta sutra’ while they marched in the streets and were shot at and beaten by government thugs, it reminded me of Tibetan monks and nuns who were beaten, forced out of monasteries, arrested and jailed by the Chinese Communist government in Lhasa,” Sharab said.
When do we cease to see the suffering for the stars?
31 January 2010
31 January 2010
THERE IS NO MONOLITHIC ANYTHING…
1505 by Jeff HessOne of the certain earmarks of irrational prejudice is the belief that any group of humans can be seen as monolithic. That just doesn’t happen.
Within the Jewish community there is a truism that asserts that when you have two Jews, you have three opinions. A bit of news out of Israel this weekend from Haaretz details a serious disagreement between two eminent and learned Jews that reeks of street fight.
In an interview with Army Radio, Dershowitz said he is appalled by the report and can’t fathom how it could have been written by a Jew. He said it is as if a Jew would have written the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and that the jurist is using the fact that his last name is ‘Goldstone’ to substantiate the report’s defamation against the Jewish people.
Dershowitz said he doesn?t believe he should be a part of an Israeli internal inquiry into last winter’s Gaza offensive, but said that he would be happy to help if he was asked to.
The professor said that in his opinion, the best way to deal with the report is to set up an Israeli committee headed by a reputable Israeli judge, suggesting former Supreme Court presidents Aharon Barak and Meir Shamgar.
Former minister and Meretz chairwoman Shulamit Aloni responded to Dershowitz’s comments, saying that Goldstone is far from a traitor. “Dershowitz’s statements border on hate. Goldstone is a Zionist Jew who was simply doing his job,” Aloni told Army Radio.
Aloni further went on to say that Dershowitz is a despicable man who opposes the left and supports the settlers. “His opinion doesn’t count in my eyes, and the way he speaks of Goldstone is disgraceful,” Aloni said.
For my part, I lean toward Goldstone and Aloni. Passion is a dangerous attribute in any instance, yet, humanity would probably still be in the trees without it. It is part of our condition we took on when we left paradise.
31 January 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
31 January 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
I”ve argued, too, that not only one”s productivity but the quality of one”s work is enhanced by this slow-and-steady modus operandi. When I work every day-or six days a wee, say-the book I”m working on stays very much in mind. I think about it during the day and let my subconscious work on it over at night. I don”t have a chance to lose my grasp on it. Why, then, don”t I start the teakettle going at seven, get to my desk by eight, and nail down the Pulitzer Prize? I suppose because things don”t always go as I would have them go. My best-laid plans, like those of other mice and men, gang aft agley. p. 96
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
30 January 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessI thank our founders for Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Not because I agree with anything they have to say, but because I don’t and, because of our Constitution, they are able to say what they want and criticize President Barack Hussein Obama. In Myanmar journalist play a very different game.
From the BBC:
A military court in Burma has sentenced a journalist to 13 years in prison for working illegally for foreign media organisations, his lawyer has said.
Ngwe Soe Lin, who reported for the Norway-based Democratic Voice of Burma, was convicted of violating immigration laws and the Electronics Act.
His lawyer, Aung Thein, said there was no proof he had broken any law and would appeal against the conviction.
Most foreign journalists are banned in Burma and the state censors all media.
Ngwe Soe Lin was arrested as he left an internet cafe in the Rangoon area of Kyaukmyaung in June 2009. After being interrogated for two months, he was sent to the city’s notorious Insein prison, where his sentence was handed down on Wednesday.
30 January 2010
30 January 2010
FROM MY DAD…
0630 by Jeff HessI 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.
30 January 2010
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0030 by Jeff HessFound in my electronic chapbook.
When does procrastination become other than creative? When it consists of avoiding work rather than postponing it, and when my alternative to working on Project A is not working at all. Since I”m inherently lazy, I force myself to work on Project B instead. p. 94
From Telling Lies for Fun and Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers by Lawrence Block.
29 January 2010
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2130 by Jeff HessIf I were an editor again, two words that I would ban from my publication would be terrorist and terrorism. Since I am the editor, and publisher, here at Have Coffee Will Write, I’m making it an editorial policy to not use those words. I do so because they are no longer helpful in understanding news.
They are not helpful because it is impossible to apply the word objectively. I have yet to read any definition that does not depend upon the view point of the person using such words. Case in point, the news from Myanmar concerning 11 people:
arrested in the past week at their village in Mingaladon Township in northern Yangon, the military-ruled country’s main commercial hub.
Police also seized handmade explosives, detonators, a pistol, rounds of ammunition and other “materials for conducting explosions,” the statement said.
The group was accused of blasts in seven factories on the outskirts of Yangon in September last year, in which there were no casualties, and of attempting further bomb attacks on security forces in December and January.
The lede to the story reads:
Myanmar’s police have arrested 11 “terrorists” accused of “evil plots” to carry out bomb blasts aimed at jeopardising plans to hold national elections this year, state media said Thursday.
I cannot accept that.
Resistance to tyranny is an important part of the human condition. The use of pejoratives by the powerful to dehumanize the weak is also part of that human condition.
We don’t have to accept the later as a matter of course.
As of this morning, I have stopped accepting the later.
I’m sure I’ll make slips. Please help to keep me honest.
