DON’T FORGET BURMA NO. 103…
0230 by Jeff Hess
24 February 2008
24 February 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about Selections from One-Hundred-One Time Management Goals:
60. Throw golden bricks at myself.
61. Throw no dirty bricks at others.
62. Throw no dirty bricks at myself.
85. Replace my in-basket with an in-drawer and out-basket with an out-drawer.
86. Have on the desk only the current task.
23 February 2008
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff Hess
The Buddha, on his deathbed, is reported to have cautioned a disciple to ensure that all of his remains be burned lest “they build shrines to my finger bones.” The last wish failed, and finger bones or no finger bones, Buddhists have raised many magnificent temples to honor the Buddha. But to what end?
Asia inspired awe horizontally. In the perpendicular West, the great public monuments abased the visitor, compelling an upward gaze. The very name of the Acropolis announced its height; the interior spaces of Gothic cathedrals soared to heaven, leaving worshipers far below in the terrestrial mire.
Yet the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat proclaimed their majesty as the focus of a wide vista, to be approached with contemplative languor. A complete transit of the Forbidden City, crossing one vast courtyard after another, takes hours; Confucian architects must have believed that fatigue promotes obedience.
The magnificent exception is the Shwedagon, Burma’s glorious, golden pagoda. Rising 320 feet from its base atop steep Singuttara Hill, on the outskirts of old Rangoon, the Shwedagon looms over the approaching pilgrim at a height equivalent to that of the Pyramid of Cheops, the tallest structure in the world until the Eiffel Tower was completed.
Shwedagon means “golden hills,” and the place lives up to its name with fabulous excess: Since the Buddhist shrine was raised a thousand years ago, the devout of Burma have repeatedly replated the surface of its central, bell-shaped stupa with gold, which is now estimated to weigh more than 100,000 pounds. The ornamental crown, the hti, is set with thousands of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, topazes and sapphires; at the apex, a 76-carat diamond may be seen twinkling for miles at dawn and sunset.
Just as I ponder the good that might be done by the treasuries of the Vatican, I too must ask: what would the Buddha have done with a 76-carat diamond?
23 February 2008
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff Hess
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Write To Done.
23 February 2008
23 February 2008
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
CAPT Benjamin Tupper : A cat has nine lives. Most of the people I know have one. But apparently, if you are an Afghan National Army 1st Sergeant named Iftak Kharullah, you have two lives to live. Iftak, who I eulogized in a previous Sandbox post after his purported death in combat in December, has pulled a Lazarus on me, and risen from the dead. So I offer…
23 February 2008
FROM MY DAD…
0800 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 chuckle I present: From My Dad.
A woman was helping her husband set up his computer. At the appropriate point in the process, the computer advised him that he would now need to enter a password, a word easily remembered that he will use to log on.
The husband was in a rather amorous mood and figured he would try for the shock effect to bring this to his wife’s attention.
So, when the computer asked him to enter his password, he made it plainly obvious to his wife what he was entering by stating each letter out loud as he typed: P… E… N… I… S…
His wife fell off her chair laughing when the computer replied: PASSWORD REJECTED. INSUFFICIENT LENGTH
23 February 2008
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff HessI really don’t like repeating stories covering all the aspects of Sylvester Stallone’s latest Rambo movie, but the response from the military dictators of Myanmar is so childish that I can’t help myself. Frustrated by their impotent attempts to ban the movie, the generals have resorted to the using a WM(Movie)D: the bad review.
From The Canadian Press:
Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo character looks like a fat lunatic in his new movie, a Myanmar magazine said this week, bucking local public opinion that has glorified him for his exploits fighting the ruling junta’s unpopular soldiers.
The new “Rambo” film shows the weary hero on a mission to rescue a group of Christian missionaries taken captive by brutal government troops in the jungles of Myanmar.
Stallone’s fictional exploits have made him a folk hero among the government’s real-life foes here, who circulate bootleg DVDs of the film, even though state censors have ordered video shops not to carry the movie because it denigrates the army’s image.
“We need many Rambos in Myanmar,” said a 75-year-old retired civil servant after watching it. Like other viewers, he asked not to be named for fear of trouble from authorities.
The movie’s catch phrase, “Either live for something, die for nothing – it’s your choice,” is especially poignant after non-violent demonstrations for democracy were violently quashed by the army last September.
But an article in The Voice, a Myanmar-language magazine, decried Rambo’s bloodletting and said he “looks funny fighting a war even though he’s so fat with sagging breasts.”
“Stallone’s unsmiling and serious-looking style makes him look like a lunatic,” it added.
There nothing quite like slamming a movie star’s he-boobies is there?
23 February 2008
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff Hess
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Midrash and Literature edited by Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick.
Allegorized: intransitive senses 1 : to give allegorical explanations 2 : to compose or use allegory transitive senses 1 : to treat or explain as an allegory 2 : to make into allegory- allegorizer noun [87]
23 February 2008
23 February 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about Selections from One-Hundred-One Time Management Goals:
41. Set up a systematic, highly selective reading program.
43. Limit TV programs to a vital few – if any.
45. Unblock natural drives by doing what I enjoy.
46. Implement a blanaced exercise program.
59. Throw golden bricks at others.
22 February 2008
22 February 2008
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff Hess[Blogger note: because publications such as Irrawaddy are blocked and unavailable to the people of Myanmar through internal sources, I’m trying a new policy regarding how much of an item I use. For select publications I’ll be reprinting the story in full to make it easier for some of my readers in Myanmar to get news. If Irrawaddy (or any other publication) objects, I will return to the more restrictive policy of only abstracting certain points from published sources. What do you think? JH]
The military dictators of Myanmar continued their war against information with additional arrests of journalists not afraid to write and publish stark and unflattering news about the generals. The most recent victims are Thet Zin and Sein Win Maung, the editor and office manager of the Myanmar Nation weekly news journal.
From Irrawaddy:
The two journalists were arrested when police and intelligence officers carried out a four-hour search of their offices and confiscated documents, including a copy of UN Special Rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro’s report on Burma, Shan ethnic leader Shwe Ohn”s book on federalism, a VCD on the September uprising and poems. The two journalists were taken to the headquarters of the interior ministry.
It was unclear under what specific charges the two journalists are being held. However, Rangoon-based journalists suggest their arrests stemmed from the news journal”s principles of journalistic integrity. Unlike some publications, the Myanmar Nation didn”t have a cozy relationship with the junta’s villainous Information Minister Kyaw Hsan.
Furthermore, the editor, Thet Zin, has been an anti-government activist and critic. He was arrested and tortured in 1988 for taking part in the student pro-democracy protests at Rangoon University, and he was occasionally detained and interrogated by officials throughout the 1990s. Continue Reading »
22 February 2008
22 February 2008
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff HessI’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is The Minimalist”s Guide to Simple Housework.
22 February 2008
22 February 2008
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff HessCAPT Lee Kelley: Just yesterday, it seems, I was in the middle of an 18-month deployment. And my life back home, and my family, went through drastic changes during that time. I felt that the pieces of everything I found familiar were being shattered apart like a busy marketplace during a suicide bombing or a thousand sparrows lifting off from a single tree…
22 February 2008
FROM MY DAD…
0800 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 those who think the Cold War is over, I present: From My Dad.
22 February 2008
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff HessI’ve written before about the pros and cons of vacationing in Myanmar. On the plus side, if you plan accordingly, you’re putting much needed western currency in the hands of some of the country’s poorest people. On the negative side, you’re lending an air of legitimacy to the military dictators who oppress those same people.
British labor and human rights activists called for a boycott of Lonely Planet books Thursday, urging the travel series to withdraw its guide to Myanmar.
Britain’s largest labor group, the Trades Union Congress, argued the book lends legitimacy to the country’s autocratic regime by promoting tourism to the isolated southeast Asian country, which is also known as Burma.
The very existence of a travel guide to Burma encourages people to visit a country they might not otherwise consider, General-Secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement. «We want to see the travel industry drop Burma from their list of destinations and taking the Lonely Planet guidebook off the shelves would help enormously.
My sense is that responsible tourism — avoiding large hotels and markets such as those for jade and gems — does more good than harm.
What do you think?
22 February 2008
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff HessMy name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Midrash and Literature edited by Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick.
Allegory: 1 : the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human existence; also : an instance (as in a story or painting) of such expression 2 : a symbolic representation : EMBLEM 2 [87]
