16 December 2007
16 December 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff Hess
Fitz Cahall: There was nothing exceptional about how Ryan Utz and Micah Helser became friends. After nodding at each other in the office hallways for weeks, they happened to discover that they shared an interest in sustainable building. They got to talking and pretty soon found that they also shared a love for climbing and the great outdoors. While the…
16 December 2007
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.
16 December 2007
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff Hess
I heartily applaud Canada’s continuing commitment to pressuring the generals of Myanmar’s military dictatorship to reform. And ratcheting up the sanctions demonstrates that the world is still watching. But we’re not involved in a game of my-sanctions-are-tougher-than-your-sanctions. Let’s keep this adult.
“Despite repeated calls by the international community to return democracy to Burma, the Burmese regime has been completely unwilling to undertake genuine reform,” said Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, referring to Myanmar by its old name.
“With the new sanctions now in effect, we have the toughest sanctions in the world,” he added, in a statement announcing that the measures, drafted last month, had come into force.
“The regime continues to show a complete disregard for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Burma,” he added. “We believe that sanctions are the means by which we can best exert pressure on the military junta.”
It sure beats a five year, trillion-dollar preemptive war.
The measures include bans on exports from Canada to Myanmar except humanitarian goods, and on Canadians investing and providing financial services there, and a freeze on assets in Canada of Myanmar nationals linked to the rulers.
It also bans Burmese ships and planes from docking or landing in Canada.
How would you tighten up the sanctions?
16 December 2007
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.
“… once you have smelled that perfume, your life is ruined because nothing else will ever be as fragrant and your whole body becomes longing.” p. XI
16 December 2007
16 December 2007
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: A goal with an associate value is a priority. The process of prioritizing is a process of valuing.
15 December 2007
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff HessAs I follow the Myanmar story I wonder if I know that the world is keeping pressure on the military dictators there because it is, in fact, doing that, or because I’m simply paying attention. I’m not trying to make Myanmar into Schrödinger’s cat or a Zen koan. But would I be aware of Myanmar if I depended upon the rococo media in America?
I ask because I can see this story from Reuters eliciting a big yawn from news editors and directors around the country. I can just here them decrying another UN story on Myanmar, big whoop.
The U.N. Human Rights Council told Myanmar on Friday to prosecute those who committed abuses during a crackdown on peaceful monk-led protests and free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.
In a resolution adopted by consensus, the United Nations forum called on the ruling junta “to lift all restraints on the peaceful political activity of all persons” and “to release without delay those arrested and detained as a result of the repression of recent peaceful protests.”
It also urged Myanmar “to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of human rights violations, including for the recent violations of the rights of peaceful protesters.”
They grumble, [F]ull respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, who cares? Let me know when they start shooting lots and lots of people. Then they turn back to reading sport’s stories.
Myanmar criticised the resolution, backed by 41 countries including Britain, Germany, Canada and Korea, as “politicised.”
“This clearly shows that Myanmar has been put under pressure by influential and powerful countries who have their own political agenda,” Wunna Maung Lwin, Myanmar’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the Friday session.
Human rights groups welcomed the censure by the Council.
“This is a very positive thing,” Juliette de Rivero of Human Rights Watch told a news briefing in Geneva. She said it was important for Pinheiro to return to the country “to do a more in-depth investigation of violations he has already identified.”
They perk up, Juliette de Rivero, is she related to Geraldo? There might be an angle there, check it out, they order, returning to watching Faux News.
I’m really glad we have access to a world of news media.
What was the last story you heard on Myanmar from any of the networks or cable news channels?
15 December 2007
TONIGHT, INSTEAD OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE… LISTEN TO…
1417 by Jeff HessLiving on Earth’s Steve Curwood moderating questions for Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) at the Presidential Forum on Global Warming and America’s Energy Future. (The entire forum is also available.)
15 December 2007
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 In Iowa, political adversaries aren’t enemies.
15 December 2007
15 December 2007
FROM THE SANDBOX…
1200 by Jeff HessOld Blue: I had to hurry to get to Atlanta by 1300 so that I could in-process for a flight that boards at 1815 this evening. Typical. Hurry up and wait. God bless the United States Army. The wonderful people of the USO provide free wireless internet, which I am now gratefully using to post to the Adventure as I wait for my flight back to the war. I had prepared for saying…
15 December 2007
MY COMMENTS…
1130 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.
15 December 2007
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.
My parents told me about Mr. Common Sense early in my life and told me I would do well to call on him when making decisions. It seems he was always around in my early years but less and less as time passed by until today I read his obituary. Please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance. For Common Sense had served us all so well for so many generations.
Obituary for Common Sense
Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.
He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.
Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children are in charge).
His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer Aspirin, sun lotion or a sticky plaster to a student; but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims. Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason. He is survived by three stepbrothers; I Know my Rights, Someone Else is to
Blame, and I’m a Victim.
Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.
15 December 2007
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff HessAdd Avian flu to the list of problems facing the people of Myanmar. As present world health problems go, the bird flu is way down on the list — to date only 208 people our of a population of more than six billion have died from the flu — but in a country where 90 percent of the population live on less than $300 per year, the loss of farm fowl is devistating.
From the World Health Organization:
The Ministry of Health in Myanmar has confirmed the country’s first case of human infection with the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The case is a 7-year-old female from Kyaing Tone Township, Shan State (East).
The case was detected through routine surveillance following an outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in the area in mid-November. She developed symptoms of fever and headache on 21 November 2007 and was hospitalized on 27 November. She has now recovered. Samples taken from the case tested positive for H5N1 at the National Health Laboratory in Yangon, and the National Institute of Health in Thailand. The diagnosis was further confirmed at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, Japan.
A team from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and the WHO Country Office are conducting investigations to confirm the source of her infection. Initial findings indicate poultry die off in the vicinity of the case’s home in the week prior to the onset of illness. To date, all identified contacts of the case remain healthy and ongoing surveillance activities in the area have not detected any further cases.
When one of your principle sources of food and income is threatened, can you care about political manueving in the capital?
15 December 2007
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 A Poetry Handbook: a Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry. by Mary Oliver
Analysis of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost Poem.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound”s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
Analysis: In the third stanza the reversal takes place. Instead of the guttural mutes being quieted – swallowed up in a splash of softer sounds – they rise up among and after the soft sounds, insisting to be heard.
The first hard g in the poem occurs on the first line of this third stanza: “He gives his harness bells a shake…”
Though the g is instantly quieted by the two h”s, the moment of introspection is almost over, and the ear anticipates this with bells and with the word shake – louder than lake, more forceful.
In the following line the k repeats in the very meaningful word ask (the traveler is not the only asking creature in the poem); and this line as well as the following line of the third stanza end with mutes.
Altogether, in this stanza, we have shake, mistake, seep and flake, while in the two stanzas preceding, there has been only one such moment (the word lake in line 7).
15 December 2007
15 December 2007
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: When you have the ability to focus on and accomplish your most vital priorities, you produce your optimal effect.
14 December 2007
14 December 2007
GOOD MORNING MYANMAR…
2030 by Jeff HessThe great problem with following a story like the ongoing oppression in Myanmar is that it is impossible to know, or even speculate, about discussions on the back channel. The world was caught totally unawares when the Oslo accords were presented in 1993, after involving Palestinian and Israeli negotiators in months of first face-to-face discussions.
Understanding that reality makes it difficult to assess what may or may not be going on anywhere. With that caveat, I have to say Asia Sentinel makes a good case.
Does any of this matter to people on the ground? Human rights advocates certainly welcome the tough talk, but they have grown skeptical of
what can be accomplished by harsh words and resolutions against a military regime that has ruled at gunpoint for 45 years.
“We are urging the UN not to leave Burma on the same footing forever,” said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. “Small negotiations here and there won”t help. They need to intervene in a more vigorous way so that civilians feel free to participate in society.”
Some countries, like the US, Australia, the EU and Japan have kept up the pressure on Burma, but others, like China, Russia and India have more or less accommodated the regime and continued to do business with the generals. The encouraging response to the State Peace and Development Council among nations that either want to buy gas from Burma or sell weapons has complicated international efforts to pressure the junta into easing its grasp.
“All the disjointed responses from the international community play right into the hands of the SPDC,” said David Mathieson, a consultant on Burma for Human Rights Watch. “The danger is – and the SPDC knows it – that the international community will set the bar so low that when the regime throws a few tidbits their way people will actually start cheering.”
How high do you think the bar should be set?
