CAPT Benjamin Tupper: I’ve told and retold this story many times to friends, counselors, and family. Unfortunately, repetition has not cured me of the need to continually bring it up for reflection and comment. Even though the events occurred over 15 months ago, they still feel fresh, and urgently in need of expression. They beg an answer, an…
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.
Last evening I wrote about Eve Goldberg’s Streets Of Burma and a general lack of protest music in the the United States. Music has always been seen as a political tool to control by the tyrants and despots whether it was swing music in Germany or Rock ‘n’ Roll in bible-belt America. Myanmar is no different.
From Gulfnews:
The generals who rule Myanmar have spies snooping for subversives in the most unlikely places, such as a small music school in a rented house sandwiched between a Hindu temple and a broomstick factory.
It isn’t a renegade hip-hop crib, or a blue-hazed den of protesting folkies, just a small rehearsal hall of plywood and particle board where children peck away at piano keys and a chorus of university students sings with enough heart to raise the low roof.
What riles the government is that the music school depends on foreign support, especially from a group of Yale University students and other American donors. Some of the generals’ enforcers suspect a dangerous plot.
And we all know the how subversive a group of foreigners like an all-male a capella group from Yale can be.
When the school opened, neighbours told the students they wouldn’t last long. They were still going strong last year, and a few foreign visitors began dropping by, so intelligence agents started showing up.
They reminded the students that Myanmar’s security laws hold them responsible for anything their foreign guests do, and if the outsiders strayed into politics, the locals would go to jail.
Choir director U Moe Naing, 40, explained that the group wanted to be good enough to perform for the public. They were working with foreign musicians and getting some experience by showing their talents to foreign music lovers, he told them.
Naing, a pianist who once studied to be a geologist, didn’t want trouble. So he followed orders. Yet the spies kept the heat on. They got especially pesky in May, when Naing’s choir hosted a concert with an all-male a cappella group from Yale.
Twenty Yale singers were on a three-week tour of Southeast Asia, with a five-day stop in Myanmar, where a Yale graduate had been teaching at the Gitameit school.
Fifteen minutes before the performance, a captain from the Special Branch police came backstage to poke around, while 250 people sat in the audience.
The singers’ butterflies morphed into terror that their show was about to be shut down as an anti-state activity.
“He threatened me, saying, ‘Maybe I’ll come back to take you away,'” Naing said. “I was really afraid.”
He didn’t show up. Fortunately.” And the show did go on, and the spies have kept their distance in recent months.
What are you doing to help the show go on?
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.
Most Aggadot have two levels of meaning. The overt, which deals openly with the explication of the Biblical text and the clarification of the Biblical narrative; and the covert, which deals more subtly with contemporary problems that engage the attention of the homilists and their audience. p. 49
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: A golden brick is a positive reinforcer, a compliment, an expression of care or concern. Example of golden bricks include: respecting, rewarding, acknowledging, complimenting, cooperating, caring, showing enthusiasm, trusting and loving.
Dirty bricks are negative reinforcers like putdowns, blaming, threatening, criticizing, ordering, labeling, preaching and ignoring. p. 118
There is a line in Jarhead where after a helicopter flies overhead blaring a Doors song, one of the marines looks up and says, shit, don’t we have any of our own music? Molly has lamented the lack of protest music (although I think that’s what good Rap is) on the war and other injustice in the world.
This evening I came across Eve Goldberg and Girls With Glasses.
Goldberg has been receiving a lot of individual attention for her single Streets of Burma, which has been picked up by Amnesty International as part of its campaign to free imprisoned monks in Burma, now known as Myanmar.
The monks were imprisoned following peaceful anti-government demonstrations last fall.
“When I saw the monks being beaten and taken away by force in Burma, I felt outrage and I felt powerless,” Goldberg says on he website. “What could an ordinary person like me do from halfway around the world? I couldn’t stop the military in Burma, but one of the things I felt I could do was bear witness to the events there and remind people here in North America that the people of Burma are counting on us.”
Band member Allison Brown said there will be postcards available at the concert that the public can sign and send to Amnesty International to support their efforts to free the monks.
Who are the Americans writing protest songs for 2008?
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 10 Universities Offering Free Writing Courses Online.
The Usual Suspect: All right, before I bust another literary nut with reckless abandon and no consideration, I think I owe some of you an explanation. I’m not a hateful rebellious little bastard 24/7. I’ve still got the ol’ priorities straight, I still stay as sharp as I can out in sector, and I know better than to get myself in trouble with my superiors. It breaks down like this…
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
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.
Dear Tech Support:
Last year I upgraded from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0. I soon noticed that the new program began unexpected child processing that took up a lot of space and valuable resources.
In addition, Wife 1.0 installed itself into all other programs and now monitors all other system activities, such as Poker Night 10.3, Football 5.0, Going To The Pub 7.5, and Softball 3.6
I can’t seem to keep Wife 1.0 in the background while attempting to run my other favorite applications. I’m thinking about going back to Girlfriend 7.0 , but the uninstall doesn’t work on Wife 1.0.
Please help!
Thanks,
Troubled User
REPLY:
Dear Troubled User:
This is a very common problem that men often complain about.
Many people upgrade from Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0, thinking that it is just a Utilities and Entertainment program. Wife 1.0 is an OPERATING SYSTEM and is designed by its Creator to run EVERYTHING!!! It is also impossible to delete Wife 1.0 and to return to Girlfriend 7.0 . It is impossible to uninstall, or purge, the program files from the system once installed.
You cannot go back to Girlfriend 7.0 because Wife 1.0 is designed to not allow this. Look in your Wife 1.0 manual under Warnings: Alimony-Child Support . I recommend that you keep Wife 1.0 and work on improving the situation. I suggest installing the background application Yes Dear 2.7 to alleviate your program problems.
The best course of action is to enter the command C:\APOLOGIZE! because ultimately you will have to give the APOLOGIZE command before the system will return to normal anyway.
Wife 1.0 is a great program, but it tends to be very high maintenance! Wife 1.0 does come with several support programs, such as Clean and Sweep 3.0, Cook It 1.5, and Do Bills 4.2
However, be very careful how you use these programs. Improper use will cause the system to launch the program Nag Nag 9.5 Once this happens, the only way to improve the performance of Wife 1.0 is to purchase additional software. I recommend Flowers 2.1 and Diamonds 5.0
WARNING!!! DO NOT, under any circumstances, install Sec retary With Short Skirt 3.3 . This application is not supported by Wife 1.0 and will cause irreversible damage to the operating system!
Best of luck,
Tech Support
Two days after Thailand returned to the rule of a democratically elected government, new Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said his government would not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. This is good news for the military dictators running Myanmar. For the people of Myanmar, however, the news is not encouraging.
From Reuters:
“Non-interference in others’ internal affairs remains the thrust of our diplomacy,” said Noppadon, a former lawyer and spokesman for ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
Noppadon, an Oxford graduate, said democracy and human rights were internal affairs of the former Burma, ruled by the military since 1962 and the focus of international opprobrium since crushing pro-democracy protests in September.
Thailand is not turning its back on Myanmar, but it is taking cover behind the regional association of which it is a member.
Thailand would rely on the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, one of the few international groups willing to have Myanmar as a member, to bring change about, Noppadon told a news conference.
“We will work under the ASEAN framework to make democracy in Myanmar prosper and a bring better standard of living to the people,” said Noppadon of a country now one of the poorest in the region.
Given that Thailand bears the brunt of the flow of refugees from Myanmar, I have to wonder, does this also signal a change in the policy of caring for those refugees? Will the Thai government now turn refugees back and empty the existing refugee camps?
What do you think?
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.
“The Nature of the Aggadah” by Joseph Heinemann. There are three types of Aggadot: Biblical, Historical (post-Biblical) and ethical-didactic. p. 43
Today, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: Six Time Power Procedures: change routine, cultivate observation, make your motions faster, think with a pencil in your hand, make comparisons, use the spontaneous goal (ask what is the purpose of your action, pulling yourself into focus on what is relevant, on the vital issues).
A golden brick is a positive reinforcer, a compliment, an expression of care or concern. Example of golden bricks include: respecting, rewarding, acknowledging, complimenting, cooperating, caring, showing enthusiasm, trusting and loving.
Dirty bricks are negative reinforcers like putdowns, blaming, threatening, criticizing, ordering, labeling, preaching and ignoring. p. 118
It is tragic enough that in the United States we consider $2,500 as fair compensation for the wrongful death of an Iraqi civilian killed in the course of military action. I can’t swear to it, but I think we paid West German farmers more than that for a cow killed in the course of training exercises.
The military dictators of Myanmar think even less of their citizens.
From the United Press International:
In November 2006 a low-ranking army officer came to the suburban Rangoon home of a young mother. He told her that her husband had died of malaria in a mountainous border region some three months before, while serving an infantry battalion.
How Htun Htun Naing got there in the first place is unclear. He was not a soldier. The 31-year-old had been arrested and imprisoned for gambling. Apparently he had been taken from jail and sent to carry materials for the military in the rugged war-ravaged east.
The government of Burma openly uses prisoners on labor projects. Home Ministry publications include accounts and photographs of farms and quarries where the workforce consists of inmates. Corrections Department signboards dot roads around the countryside and criminal sentences are typically for rigorous imprisonment.
[Snip]
[T]he officer visiting Htun Htun Naing’s family advised them that they should go to the concerned battalion’s headquarters to look into the matter. He collected some personal documents with which to process the case but left them with nothing: neither a doctor’s report nor a medical certificate to verify his account.
Htun Htun Naing’s wife, struggling to raise her three small children, was in no position to travel to an army camp halfway across the country. She continued her work as usual and waited to hear more.
So it was until the following year, when the family received a letter. The form inside, dated Jan. 30 and issued by the ministry accounts office, acknowledged the death/injury of U Htun Htun Naing, son of U Myint Shwe, in the service of Infantry Battalion 250 based at Loikaw. It informed the family that in accordance with an instruction from operation headquarters, the amount of 7,200 kyat had been cleared for payment as compensation by the Myanmar Economic Bank within the financial year.
The current exchange rate for Myanmar’s Kyat to US dollars is $1 equals K 1,223 (as of 6 February) so the the K 7,200 equals a whopping $5.89.
Htun Htun Naing’s family has made a complaint anyhow. They have not dared to ask for justice or even more details of how he died. Just for a review of the case and a little more money, please. So far they have heard nothing. There seems little chance that they will. They may not have proof of his death, but they have ample proof that in Burma life really is cheap; perhaps even more so than anyone had imagined.
How cheap is your life?
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 50 Simple Ways To Stay Productive.
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