18 January 2008
18 January 2008
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff Hess
Every owner of a satellite dish in Myanmar knows the generals don’t like their access to the outside world and is trying to shut them down by jacking up the license fee 16,000 percent. The outside world knows about the onerous tax gouge. Probably the one people who might not know about it are at McMurdo Base.
So what do the generals do? They shut down a newspaper because it runs a story on the tax. From the European Journalism Centre:
The government’s Press Scrutiny Board ordered the Myanmar-language edition of the Myanmar Times not to publish this week for having run a story earlier that was not approved, said Ross Dunkley, editor in chief and CEO of Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd.
The story, from the news agency Agence France-Presse, was about a huge increase in Myanmar’s annual license fee for using satellite TV dishes. He denied reports the government asked that four editors be sacked, but acknowledged he was asked to make changes in the newsroom.
He did not specify what kind of changes, but said they were being implemented. The newspaper was founded in 2000 and is partly owned by the government. Like all media in Myanmar, it is censored by the Press Scrutiny Board under the Information Ministry. The France-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement Wednesday criticizing the government’s ban.
Are you glad we have the Internet? Don’ you wish everyone did?
18 January 2008
18 January 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 Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, 8 May 1947.
18 January 2008
18 January 2008
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
Citizen Soldier Sojack: I am an American Soldier and I was in a combat zone; and while I have no visible injuries, I am nonetheless forever changed. This is my reality. Serving my country has always given me an incredible sense of pride. It still does. But this most recent deployment experience also opened my eyes to the effects that deployments, particularly…
18 January 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.
IDIOT SIGHTING NO. 3
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, “Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?” To which I replied, “If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?” He smiled knowingly and nodded,
“That’s why we ask.”
18 January 2008
WHAT THEY SAID…
0758 by Jeff HessWe associate truth with convenience, with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem. [Economic and social behavior] are complex and to comprehend their character is mentally tiring. Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding. John Kenneth Galbraith on Common Wisdom, found in the book Freakonomics.
18 January 2008
WOULD YOU TOLERATE THIS IN THE UNITED STATES…?
0725 by Jeff HessYes, this happened in Spain, not the United States and Spain has its own sense of justice, but I see this as yet another example of how islamists are winning the ideological war we are engaged in. The police could have: (a) had a sniper take the cyclist out as soon as the hostages were clear or (b) installed a radio-controlled fuel shut off on the motorcycle and slapped the cuffs on as soon as it sputtered to a stop.
And don’t tell me that intentionally running a car in front of a racing motorcycle isn’t use of deadly force.
What does this have to do with the islamists? The headline on the video is Correct way to arrest a terrorist.
What I find most disturbing is that this bank robber is labeled a terrorist. Was he associated with ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, Basque for Basque Homeland and Freedom)? If we label every criminal a terrorist then there are no terrorists.
This happened nearly a year ago. I just did a quick check to see if the bank robber survived, and, if he did, what the outcome of his trial might have been. I didn’t find anything. Anyone know?
Hat tip to reader Cailin for the catch.
18 January 2008
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff HessFood is a powerful political weapon; both in the giving and the taking. This is one aspect of militant organizations in the Middle East that is often missed. Groups like Hamas are often loved, not because they fight for some cause, but because they distribute free food to those who are hungry. The same is true in Myanmar.
From Mizzima News:
A rice donation programme to poor people by the chairman of the township National League for Democracy was halted by authorities in Thada Oo township of Mandalay division in central Burma. He was warned to stop donating in future.
U Kyin Maung, chairman of Thada Oo NLD, on Tuesday was donating rice to 100 families, who are struggling to meet ends. However, he was stopped by the local authorities and warned not to continue, a close friend of Kyin Maung said.
“He was just donating rice to poor people and did not have any purpose for doing so. But the local authorities accused him saying ‘you are doing it so as to indirectly persuade the people and if you do it next time we will take action against you as per the law’,” U Ko Gyi, a close friend and member of the NLD, told Mizzima over telephone.
While Kyin Maung and family were planning to donate to 100 families, due to the disturbances by authorities only 25 families received the rice.
And 75 went without.
How do we take the politics out of food?
18 January 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 Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations From Sufi Wisdom by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.
“The perfect mystic is not an ecstatic devote lost in contemplation of Oneness, nor a saintly recluse shunning all commerce with mankind; but the true saint is goes in and out amongst the people and eats and sleeps with them and buys and sells in the market and takes part in social intercourse and never forgets God for a single moment.” Abu Sa”id, 8th century, CE p. 140
18 January 2008
18 January 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: You will have greater self-esteem if you prepare only a few vital goals and accomplish them than if you prepare a great many and fail. p. 50
17 January 2008
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff HessIf you have a blog on blogger.com you are by default a subversive and have now joined Have Coffee Will Write on the banned list of unfriendly information sources by the military dictators of Myanmar. The generals have a tough line to walk. They need the Internet for economic growth. But that very openness could bring them down.
From Mizzima News:
In a bid to stop the flow of information outside Burma one of the most popular blog sites www.blogger.com has been banned by the Myanmar Post and Telecomm Ministry as of Thursday morning, according to bloggers in the former capital.
In the wake of ‘Saffron Revolution’, another Internet Service Provider ‘Bagan Teleport’ has blocked this blog website. And now the remaining ISP under the MPT has blocked this website which bars computers in Burma from accessing the blogs.
Both the ISPs are under the control of the military regime but under two different administrations.
The world was so much easier for tyrants when all they had to worry about were printing presses.
What subversive act will you commit today?
17 January 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 Seven Interview with Foster Children.
17 January 2008
17 January 2008
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff HessMAJ Andrew Olmsted: This is an entry I would have preferred not to have published, but there are limits to what we can control in life, and apparently I have passed one of those limits. And so, like G’Kar, I must say here what I would much prefer to say in person. I want to thank hilzoy for putting it up for me. It’s not easy asking anyone to do some…
17 January 2008
ADDING STETSON KENNEDY TO MY LIST OF HEROES…
0826 by Jeff HessI learned about Stetson Kennedy this week while reading Freakonomics.
I was offered the chance to do something similar in the ’90s. I didn’t. That was a mistake.
Bonus No. 1: The Freakonomics Stetson Kennedy archive
17 January 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 your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
IDIOT SIGHTING NO. 2
My daughter and I went through the McDonald’s take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, “you gave me too much money.” I said, “Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.” She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said “We’re sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.” The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change.
17 January 2008
MY COMMENTS…
0728 by Jeff Hess
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.
