"It is our territory. Just because it has passed title illegally throughout the years doesn't mean that it isn't ours."
~Janie Jamieson
The Baghavad Gita is something I read during a very difficult period of change in my life. It helped me to find my own strength when it seemed to be needed.
Recently I picked up a copy of Carlos Castanedas' Tales of Power and after getting into it and finding I'd begun a series of books out of sequence, I was only spurred to keep on so that I could get to the rest.
Follow the Path with Heart.
Right now I'm reading The Secret History of the World and it is compelling to say the least, could blow your mind, or confirm your own thoughts, and will surely present notions or facts that you didn't already know.
[.....]
A number of times in American history, the populace has glanced outside the duality struggles of content and briefly viewed the controlling symbols of context. Artists have glimpsed outside the duality and have allowed a large number of the ruled to see the rulers. And visionaries have also seen outside the duality. These are times when third parties in America have had their greatest impact.
But these times have been rare. Much more common has been the dominance of one of the symbols, equality or freedom, at the expense of the other. In the first half of the 20th century, the symbol of equality dominated America and the world in the form of mass communications, mass production, mass culture, totalitarian, communist, Fascist and Nazi political systems. As Erich Fromm observed, the overriding desire was to 'escape from freedom' during this period of time.
The second half of the 20th century, though, saw the decline of the equality symbol and the rise of the symbol of freedom. Much of the impetus for late capitalism and consumerism has been fired by this 'escape from equality' and a 'return to freedom.' This desire to escape from equality and return to freedom is behind the rise of postmodernism and relative narratives over meta-narratives. It is also responsible for a lack of standards of morality, for celebrity culture and Hollywood and the growth of the religious right and evangelical fundamentalists. It is also behind the growth of a segmented, niche marketplace full of numerous cable TV channels and the explosion of brands and consumer choice.
[.....]
"I don't think that Canada's position is isolated in any way and I don't think that we have done anything other than participate productively, actively in looking for solution that will lead to a ceasefire."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he does not favour sending Canadian troops to southern Lebanon as part of a multinational peacekeeping force, adding that countries in the area should be responsible for resolving the conflict.via (emphasis mine)
"It is time for a new Middle East," she said. "It is time to say to those that don't want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail. They will not."~Condlizzard quote via
Troops were also fighting Hezbollah militants inside the Lebanese border.via
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the number of Lebanese killed in the ten days of violence was more than 330.
He said that more than 55 bridges had been destroyed and claimed Israeli forces had also targeted medical convoys.
"This attack is no longer against Hezbollah, it is an attack against the Lebanese and Lebanon," he said.
Alan Baker says that Arbour, who has been an international war crimes prosecutor and a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, doesn't understand the situation.via
"Here, it just seems like the world is doing nothing.via
"People are dying and it feels like a collective punishment on the whole nation.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted that he intended to commit war crimes in Gaza, telling his cabinet that he wanted “no one to be able to sleep tonight in Gaza”. Olmert thus officially acknowledged Israel’s policy of collectively punishing 1.4 million Palestinians, a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Escalate Attacks on Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), and Isolate the Gaza Strip from the Outside World
29 June - 5 July 2006
~9 Palestinians were killed by IOF.
~6 of the victims were killed by the IOF shelling in the Gaza Strip.
~Two of the victims were extra-judicially executed by IOF in the West Bank.
~91 Palestinians, including 18 children, were wounded by the IOF gunfire.
~IOF warplanes launched a series of air strikes and mock air raids on the Gaza Strip; offices of the Palestinian Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior and a number of civilian facilities were destroyed or damaged.
~IOF conducted 81 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and reoccupied areas in the Gaza Strip.
~102 Palestinian civilians, including 7 ministers, 24 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, 6 children and two girls, were arrested by IOF.
~5 houses and hundreds of donums[1] of agricultural land were destroyed by IOF in the Gaza Strip.
~6 houses in the northern Gaza Strip were transformed by IOF into military sites.
~35 charitable societies in the West Bank were raided and a number of them were closed by IOF.
~The electricity network in Rafah was destroyed, and the town has been living in darkness.
~IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have imposed a tightened siege on the Gaza Strip; dozens of patients are stuck at Rafah International Crossing Point on the Egyptian border; and IOF positioned at various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 3 Palestinian civilians.
~IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall in the West Bank; IOF started to establish a fence around “Kermi Tsur” settlement, north of Hebron; and IOF confiscated at least 25 donums of agricultural land in Beit Oula village, west of Hebron.
