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Hawk at Spontaneous Arising has tagged me for the Magnificient 7's meme.
If I over-analyse, I'll NEVER post this...so here goes nothing:


Seven Things to Do Before I Die


Love - as much as I can


Live - on the Canadian West Coast


Add Canine to my list of animal companions


Go completely vegan


Recrudesce my practice of Ashtanga Yoga (hopefully LONG before I die)


Visit a peaceful Middle East where I could drive myself anywhere I chose to.


Procrastinate less




Seven Things I Cannot Do


Remain silent in the face of injustice or suffering


Keep quiet at some times when I really should


Consider plastic surgery


Enjoy most music on the radio


Abide willful ignorance


Empathise with Conservatives


Patronise for the sake of ambition




Seven Things That Attract Me to Blogging


I always have an opinion


I learn something new every day (through one blog or another)


I met (and continue to meet) interesting people


It's EASY


I prefer the medium to others for self expression


It's more convenient than a soap-box


Youngfox




Seven Things I Say Most Often


"Come for your pilly!"


"Did I see that movie already?"


"It's already Monday tomorrow?"


"Yeah, well..."


"Where's the magic bag?"


"As a matter of legality, please remove my number from your call list"


"I love you."




Seven Books that I Love


Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins


The Secret World of Og - Pierre Berton


50 American Revolutions you're not supposed to know - MickeyZ


The Essential Rumi - Coleman Barks(a collection of Rumi's poetry)


The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson


The Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice


Manual of Woody Landscape Plants - Michael Dirr




Seven Movies That I Watch Over and Over Again (and some I just enjoyed once)


Gorillas in the Mist


The Silence of the Lambs


Dial M for Murder


The Life Aquatic


The Usual Suspects


Pulp Fiction


Batman Begins



Seven People Who Must Now Do This



Everyone's off the hook here because most of my blogging friends have already done this sort of post - but if you decide to run with it, I'm looking forward to reading...

Peace.

May you see the Golden Mean in all Things.

Stop The Landmines

You won't see this on 'the box' in the US.
A little too clear of a picture of what reality is like for many in the world.


I came across this Public Service Announcement from an Expendable in Scotland.
(the link is a browser window which plays a quicktime movie)



Apparently all US media outlets are refusing to carry this PSA in support of Stop Landmines .

Happy Winter Solstice to One and All

Newgrange in Co. Meath, Ireland is also known as Bru na Boinne. It's an absolutely beautiful place where ancient society marked the magic of Nature at the Winter and Spring Solstices. People still flock there today to see the sun rise through the narrow shaft and send a beam of warmth and life into a 5000 year old coffered-ceiling structure corbelled ceiling built into the earth like a cave. Beautiful sculptures and rock (originating far from the structure itself) was built by people long before the pyramids came to be and still we are uncertain of so many things about our own histories.




I hope everyone takes a moment to enjoy the day, the sun, the Life.


A rock at Bru na Boinne carved in the typical Irish pattern:




Winter Solstice illuminates the Mound:






The view at Solstice from inside:

Law Suits filed in an effort to have the Polar Bear declared "Endangered"

I can't beleive that they have not already been declared an Endangered Species. How can they not be?






Our world is warmer than has ever been previously recorded and these animals depend upon the annual onset of cold weather for their very survival.




For as long as modern man has walked this planet, Nanuk has wandered the North and been the most powerful individual ever to survive it's harsh and unique environment. They have forever wandered out onto the sheet ice, swimming from from one ice floe to another as they hunt, as is their very existance.




Now the Polar Bears are now drowning while they hunt, swimming from one ice floe to another is no longer as easily done. Sheet ice is melting and breaking up; ice floes are farther apart; the once fruitful shoreline is changed. Their prey now move to deeper water themselves and are no longer as accessible to the Great Nanuk.




They drown while they hunt because they are tired and hungry.



They drown because for so many generations we've talked about climate change and what we might do to prevent Catastrophe; but we've not done nearly enough.

Now a group of Conservationists in Alaska is doing what little they can to try and prevent these wondrous creatures of the North - an integral and identifiable part of what we think of as 'Canadian'- from slowly disappearing while nothing is done.

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP 12/15/05) - Three conservation groups say they will file a lawsuit Thursday under the Endangered Species Act seeking to protect polar bears from extinction.




The lawsuit says Arctic sea ice that bears depend on for hunting, mating and travel is melting at an unprecedented rate because of global warming.




Center for Biological Diversity spokeswoman Kassie Siegal says the lawsuit will be filed in federal district court in San Francisco.




The other plaintiffs are the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace.




The groups petitioned to have the polar bear listed as threatened last February.




The Endangered Species Act requires that the Interior secretary respond within 90 days of receiving such notice but the secretary has yet to comply.




Scientists with the US Minerals Management Service Wednesday released a report documenting the deaths of four polar bears found drowned in September 2004 when sea ice had retreated a record 160 miles north of the northern coast of Alaska.




The researchers say that more polar bears may have drowned that have not been found.

full article



The Center for International Environmental Law CIEL is helping.



I hope for all our sake's that the Polar Bears of the Arctic will continue to exist as they should - in the wild, hunting, swimming, playing, fighting, rearing their young, braving the harsh elements; not just in cages in zoos around the world.

Indigenous Colombians successfully using pacifism to stand their ground against violence

The indigenous natives of Colombia are standing their ground to keep their ancestral lands from violent marxist and government forces using nothing but their ceremonial staffs bound with the colours of their flag.




They are organised and determined.




Peace CAN be a force for change - even today.









Thanks to mr. damon who posted a great write up with many links at his site and at American Samizdat.
Check it!

In times like these, there's no time to waste

Thanks to Michael at Spontaneous Arising for this excerpt from Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Since there is faith these days, but absence of inner life, there seems to be a greater need of the inner life than there has ever been before. It is the head quality which is developed and it is the heart quality which needs to be developed in order to bring balance in life. Life, so balanced, is then prepared for the inner culture or spiritual life.



Many consider sentiment something quite unimportant, something that should be kept aside from the central theme of life today which is intellectuality. No one who has given a thought to the deeper side of life will deny for one moment the power and inspiration that manifest themselves once the heart is kindled.



A person with heart quality need not be simple, he need not discard intellect; only the heart quality produces that perfume in the intellect which is as fragrance in a flower. Morals learned from logic are dry morals, a fruit without juice, a flower without fragrance.



It is the heart quality that as a course of nature produces virtues which no one can teach; a loving person, a person with sympathy in his heart, teaches morals through himself. It is the balance of mind and heart, or the balance of thought and feeling that makes the ground ready for sowing the seed of the inner life."

We can but attempt to improve ourselves to be the change we want to see in the world.

America’s “Ghost Detainees” Shuttled to Morocco

“December 8, 2005 — North African nation hosting secret prisoners identified. According to informed intelligence sources, the country that is hosting most of the U.S. terrorist suspects moved from Eastern European secret prisons in advance of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s recent European visit is Morocco.



Many of the prisoners are being held at remote prisons established by former King Hassan II to torture political prisoners. Many of these prisons are in located high in the Atlas Mountains and are so remote, they can only be easily reached by helicopter.



The deal with Morocco was reached as a result of the close relations between Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and former Secretary of State and UN Special Envoy for Western Sahara James Baker, Baker’s Special Envoy assistant John Bolton, and former US ambassador to Morocco Margaret Tutwiler. Western Sahara is illegally occupied by Morocco but the Bush administration supports the continued Moroccan occupation of the oil and mineral rich territory. In return, Morocco has supported the holding of “Al Qaeda” suspects, interrogations by its security services, and close liaison with Israeli intelligence and military personnel.”

Thanks to Youngfox for posting this Wayne Madsen article at Pourquois Pas?.

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Pausing to mark a dark day in Canada's recent history.






So many women today, in so many countries, struggle for equality under the most adversarial conditions. We can immediately conjure up images of Afghani women and young girls who do not have the freedom to get an education simply by virtue of their gender; but we need not look so far afield to find examples of oppression.





While Western Nations or NGOs attempt to effect real and positive change around the world to empower women with the most basic rights, it would serve us well to remember that the underlying reasons for the discrimination against women are often learned at home.





Our own backyard still has many problems that need tending if we are to reach a truly equal society.

The Montreal Massacre






For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women.





Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists."





Almost immediately, the Montreal Massacre became a galvanizing moment in which mourning turned into outrage about all violence against women.

More stifling of the free press in Iraq

Aside from the obvious - indiscriminate violence all around, kidnappings, among so many inumerable atrocities, now they’re refusing entry to all non-Iraqi Arabs…




The government of Iraq has barred non-Iraqi Arabs from entering the country ahead of the Dec. 15 general elections.

"It covers all border points whether airports, land border crossings or ports," said one senior official.

An Interior Ministry official said it was "part of security procedures" reportedly implemented Nov. 29, with no formal announcement. No date for lifting the restriction has been set.

Here's where it gets really special:

An Associated Press correspondent of Egyptian nationality was also barred from boarding a plane Friday for Baghdad. Iraqi officials say there will be no exceptions to the new rule.

So the AP will now have to rely either on non arabic speakers to report the news from Iraq and/or journalists who speak Arabic as a second language. I realise there are doubtless many talented and hopefully scrupulous journalists who fit this bill, but wouldn't it be nice to know that your news is coming from someone who speaks Arabic as their mother tongue?


Looks like Iraq could be on its way to becoming a Belarus style democracy.

'Democracy' in Belarus

Conveniently this comes before an election set for 2006. It is already illegal to critcize the President who has so far remained in power for 11 years.

The parliament of Belarus has passed a law intended to stop mass protests - ahead of 2006 presidential elections.


The law will make it a criminal offence to "discredit" the Belarusian state both within Belarus and abroad - with a three year jail term for offenders.


The new law was passed overwhelmingly by the lower house of the Belarusian parliament on Friday.


Officials say it will help prevent protests similar to those that led to Ukraine's so-called Orange Revolution.


The new law makes it a criminal offence to deliberately make available to foreign states or organisations, false information on the political, economic or military situation in Belarus, or to discredit Belarus or its government.


Anyone found to have done so could face between six months and three years in prison.



Sanctions threat


The bill broadens the scope of existing legislation - it is already illegal in Belarus to criticise the President, Aleksandr Lukashenko, or any top officials.


The head of the Belarusian KGB, Stepan Sukhorenko, said the law was intended to stop a wave of protests like those in Ukraine last year during the Orange Revolution.

Swaziland cancels all World AIDS Day events by royal decree

I find it truly shameful that rulers of nations are still hampering the treatment, and thereby helping the spread, of HIV among the planets poorest and most destitute while the means exist to deter the spread and treat those already suffering.

In a royal decree, Swaziland's King Mswati cancelled the AIDS Day events, saying they would interfere with a month-long traditional ceremony.

Mantombazana Tshabalala-Msimang told an audience in Durban that they should eat lots of vegetables and garlic, for its anti-fungal properties.


She's been called "Dr. No" for her reluctance to support the use of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, which have been shown to prolong the lives of HIV/AIDS patients.

Jilin Chemical Catastrophe

The chemical plant explosion in Jilin that has loosed an 80km slick of carcinogenic benzyne into the Songhua river will soon reach the Amur river in Russia and result in the vast contamination of the rivers waters.
Russians are preparing for the emergency situation and to cut off the supply of drinking water as soon as the slick reaches them.


Only well water is potable at this stage and this seems to be largely accessible to corporate interests (McCains french fries need to keep the chinese KFC consumers happy) while the populations of tens of millions are scrambling to aquire adequate supplies of bottled water.




What I desperately want to know is this:



What's being done to clean up this spill and how has it already affected the ecosystem of the Amur and its tributaries???



Have any readers found any mention of the consequences of this spill (other than that of drinking water)?

Starved, tortured prisoners found in Iraqi cell

While the US is busy admitting to yesterday's news , today we hear of detainees who've had their skin peeled off.

The deputy interior minister was more explicit, saying he was stunned by the prisoners' treatment.


"I've never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad; this is the worst," Hussein Kamal told CNN.


"I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off various parts of their bodies."

Depleted Uranium use = Nuclear War

A must read interview...



with Leuren Moret (a geoscientist whose credentials are listed at the top of the interview).





Here are just a few excerpts:

In April of 2003, the World Health Organization said they expect global cancer rates to increase 50 percent by the year 2020.

ICONOCLAST: What can soldiers expect when they come home?



MORET: If they were in Bradley Fighting Vehicles, they’re coming home with rectal cancer from sitting on ammunition boxes. The young women are reporting terrible problems with endometriosis. That’s the lining of the uterus malfunctioning, and they just bleed and bleed and bleed. Some of them have uterine cancer — 18 and 19 and 20 year olds.

ICONOCLAST: Does exposure to depleted uranium effect their psychological background when they come home?



MORET: Depleted uranium are these particles that form at very high temperatures. They are uranium oxides that are insoluble. They are at least 100 times smaller than a white blood cell, so when the soldiers breathe, they inhale them. The particles go through the nose, go through the olfactory and into the brain, and it messes up their cognitive abilities, thought processes.
It damages their mood-control mechanism in the brain. Four soldiers at Fort Bragg came back from Afghanistan, and within two months, those four had murdered their wives.

I could keep quoting, but it's really worth reading the entire interview.


Another bunch of information that the general public (including me!) would prefer to believe is not part of our present reality.



Sad news for the Planet.







Thanks to Blondsense where I picked this up.






Also posted at Pourquoi Pas.

Remembrance Day...for everyone...

Remembrance day will be upon us tomorrow and there is so much strife in our present day that I think many of us will find little time to give a moment's consideration to all those individuals who have fought for the rights of their people.


It is not only our organized military men and women serving in war-time (past & present) who deserve remembrance.


Many people around the world have made personal sacrifices and Ken Saro-Wiwa's story is but one of countless stories from around the world of the ultimate sacrifice being paid by non-violent protesters fighting against corporate and governmental sidelining of the interests of the people:



Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (October 10, 1941 - November 10, 1995) was a Nigerian author, television producer and environmental activist.

The Ogoni people of the Niger Delta are still as confident, proud and strong as Ken Saro-Wiwa left them 10 years ago but they have little to smile about on the anniversary of his tragic death.


Their youths roam idly about their peaceful oil-rich land with no hope of employment, and their schools and hospitals are but a shambles.


~ full article

In 1990, Saro-Wiwa founded MOSOP, to advocate for the rights of the Ogoni people. The Ogoni Bill of Rights, written by MOSOP, set out the movement's demands, including increased autonomy for the Ogoni people, a fair share of the proceeds of oil extraction, and remediation of environmental damage to Ogoni lands. In 1992, Saro-Wiwa was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government.


In January 1993, MOSOP organised peaceful marches of around 300,000 Ogoni people - more than half of the Ogoni population - through four Ogoni centres, drawing international attention to his people's plight. The same year, Shell ceased operations in the Ogoni region.


Saro-Wiwa was arrested again and detained by Nigerian authorities in June 1993, but was released after a month. In May 1994, he was arrested and accused of incitement to murder following the deaths of four Ogoni elders, believed to be sympathetic to the military. Saro-Wiwa denied the charges, but was imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death by a specially convened tribunal. The trial was widely criticised by human rights organisations.


~Ken Saro-Wiwa

US used chemical weapons in Fallujah

This is the sort of behaviour that would justify outrage so otherwise misplaced and vainly held aloft as though a golden calf.


This is the sort of behaviour that people will be called to answer for.

This is unforgivable behaviour that has no valid excuse.


This is making enemies in the world.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Generosity of Spirit

A 12-year-old Palestinian boy shot in the head and chest this week by Israeli soldiers died of his wounds on Saturday, Palestinian officials said. His father said his family had decided to donate the boy's organs to Israeli children who needed them.

"We want to send a message of peace to Israeli society, to the Defense Ministry and the Israeli parliament," he said. Israeli forces "killed my son who was healthy and we want to give his organs to those who need them."

Americans & Canadians: please help TODAY

I'm sharing an email alert I received today (along with many others) and I'm asking humbly for your help:

Hello.


Sorry to bother you but times are desperate for the Refuge and if we can all send the information below to anyone we know in the U.S., plus other Canadians so they can send it to their contacts in the U.S. too, we could really help.


Also, please take the time to send a new letter through www.beingcaribou.com asking the PM to stand up to his strong statements to "pull out all the stops to ensure the integrity of the calving grounds".


The time may have come for him to figure out what those stops will be, and start pulling. Thanks for your help. We still believe that together we can stop this from happening, and that it's only over when the last person who cares, gives up. So please don't give up. We need your help.


Sincerely, Being Caribou Arctic Drilling Proposal on Senate Floor Drilling in the Arctic Refuge will be under debate today on the floor of the US Senate (Wednesday, November 2) while the Senate is debating the overall Budget Reconciliation bill. It is possible Arctic champion Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) will again offer an amendment to remove the Arctic drilling provision from the budget reconciliation bill. Debate is expected to go all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Drilling in America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has no place in the federal budget reconciliation bill.


This proposal has nothing to do with lowering gas prices. According the Government’s own Department of Energy, drilling in the Refuge will lower gas prices by only a penny per gallon 20 years from now. This proposal has nothing to do with reducing our dependence on foreign oil. The Department of Energy estimates that even when the Arctic Refuge is at peak production, our country will still be importing 66% - a whopping two thirds of all of our oil.


Drilling in America’s Arctic Refuge has nothing to do with the budget – it is a backdoor effort to ram an unpopular proposal through the Senate, sidestepping the usual process of open debate. The American people have made it clear that they want the Arctic Refuge protected. There are some places that are too special to ruin with oil drilling, and America’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of them. WE NEED AMERICANS TO CALL THEIR SENATOR NOW!!


Please take a moment and call your Senator – tell them to please protect America’s Arctic Refuge and vote against the budget reconciliation bill.


Every Senator is important, but it is critical that the following swing Senators hear from all U.S. residents:
Snowe (R-ME) • Collins (R-ME) • McCain (R-AZ) • Smith (R-OR) • Coleman (R-MN) • Dewine (R-OH) • Chafee (R-RI) Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121


To send an email, click here


If this bill passes the Senate, we will still have a chance to stop it in the House, and indications are looking better all the time that the House will not accept a budget with Arctic in it. But if we can stop it in the Senate, we don't have to worry about the House - please call your Senator today!


If you're not already a member, join the movement to protect Alaska's wild places. Visit www.alaskawild.org <http://www.alaskawild.org/> and click on the bear!


erica heuer publicist,
being caribou
p. 867.393.4440
seven cassino street whitehorse, yt

Lost & Forgotten?

The CIA's counting on it:

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

Now the countries who are aggin it will have to force the outing of the countries who are fir it so they can take their lumps.

The reports all say eastern Europe but I'm suspicious of democracy inviting itself to stay in places like Kyrgystan where the public's never even heard of the place, let alone what they might be doing there.