| Jalal al Din Rumi
Ghazal 1506 |
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Archive for April, 2008|Monthly archive page
Jalal al Din Rumi Persian Poet
In culture, Middle East, Music on April 30, 2008 at 12:19 pm
An Afghan Challenge — Instructing and Mentoring
In Afghanistan, culture, Politics on April 30, 2008 at 1:07 amFor the past week or so, I’ve been at one of the Regional Training Centers (RTC). My task is to advise and assist the RTC staff on logistics functions of what has been dubbed the Focused District Development or FDD. The FDD takes a District Police element pluses up it’s manning. Re-equips them and re-trains the District as a whole unit.
To say that the process is problematic is an understatement.
Half of the numbers show for the training. They come in looking half taliban and half homeless. It would be funny if it were really a joke. I assisted in disarming them as they came into the FOB this cycle. As they were being searched, they were relieved of everything from opium to hashish to strange unidentifiable objects that no one wanted to ask about. Confiscate it and move on. lol Their weapons were in a sad state of disrepair. They brought in a tripod mounted PKM that was damaged to the point of uselessness. It had to be a left over from the Soviet Invasion. It was that old.
Aside from assisting and advising the Military and DynCorps RTC staff in their logistical functions and methodology, I give a general logistics seminar to all of the trainees and a more detailed seminar to the District Leadership and Logisitics Staff.
The instruction for the District trainees is fairly dry. It’s logistics. Accountability, Responsibility, types of responsibilities, Hand Receipt procedures and OCIE. I usually throw in some “Dave pearls of wisdom” and a few jokes to keep the kids awake. I try to tell them how to take care of themselves when becoming responsible and accountable for property. Try to throw in a bit about husbanding resources as a means of furthering their country down the road to self sufficiency. That kind of thing. Throw in a bit of “Afghan pride.” Who knows if any of it sinks in or if they remember anything I said 15 minutes after they walk out the door.
Each iteration of the FDD comes from a different Province or Region within Afghanistan. Farah, Qandahar are the groups we have trained thus far. These boys are like the backwoods Mississipians of Afghanistan. Totally backward. Completely illiterate. Uncouth. Unclean. Indescribable. If the movie Slingblade had been filmed about an Afghani, it would have been set in Qandahar.
During last FDD cycle, the Qandaharis were on the firing range. They were practicing–more likely being taught–marksmanship. As the men were firing on the range, Afghan children were running about collecting the expended brass. They literally run out while the men are firing at the targets. Pop, pop, pop. Weapons firing down range and little kids trying to run out and collect the brass. The RTC staff have to continually run them off. Aside from the distraction. It’s a total safety hazard. For the kids, the staff and the trainees.
The Qandahar trainees asked the staff to allow them to catch the kids. They wanted to take them back to the barracks and they weren’t shy about it. Qandaharis are infamous for this sexual proclivity. They’re fairly open about their sexaul activities. Lascivious. Boastful. Proud even. Even going so far as to offer one of the RTC language assistants money to come back to the barracks. Quite disgusting.
Yet, they can’t have sex with women because it’s against the Qu’ran. Go figure. Strange culture.
This class is from Farah. A bit further North and West. Today. When I walked into class. I fired up my laptop. 60 Afghans almost simultaneously ask me to play them a “sex movie.” I started laughing and told them that I’d get fired if I did that. That broke the ice for me.
After that, the class went pretty smoothly. I only had to get loud one time to tell a couple of guys in the back to stop talking. I yelled; “I’m in charge here. The only Bubbas that should be talking is my terp and me. If you don’t like that, get the hell out of my class.” Then told my terp to translate that exactly as I said it. All the while, staring down the offending party. They’re like really bad children. Many of them look like children.
The only real problem with the class was that most of them probably hadn’t bathed in months. They stank so bad that my eyes immediately started to burn/ Tears were actually running down my face until I got used to the stench. The smell of 60 Afghan country bumpkins in a 20′ x 20′ room is pretty ornery. It quite literally singes the nose hairs.
Interacting with Afghanis is quite the experience though. Most of the guys stare at me like I’m from another planet. One kid was falling asleep and when his head drooped his eyes nearly popped out of his head. He looked straight up at me as if he were a small child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
After I finished boring them to death with my little seminar, I wished them luck, yelled to them to remember what I’d told them and said “Khoda Hafez.” (May God Protect You). What’s funny is that my terp always translates everything. Even when I throw out what little Dari that I’ve picked up along the way. I always get a kick out of that.
Innocuous odors aside, I enjoy interacting with the Afghans. Many of them aren’t much different from the boys out there in Rineyville, Vine Grove, Pikeville or Hazard, KY. Just good old boys trying to survive. People of this world oftentimes aren’t all that different.
Friendship — Khalil Gibran
In culture, Literature on April 29, 2008 at 12:39 amAnd a youth said, “Speak to us of Friendship.”
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
More wisdom from the Lebanese sage.
This one goes out to all of my friends out there but especially Gin Gin and Beccaboo. Two of the best friends a boy could ever hope for…
Rajon Rondo — Celtics Playmaker
In UK Basketball, Uncategorized on April 25, 2008 at 9:06 pmA new and improved Rondo leads the Celtics into the playoffs. It’s good to see more and more Kentucky boys playing prominent roles on Championship contenders in the NBA
By Peter May, Special to Yahoo! Sports Apr 23, 1:08 pm EDT
On the day before he participated in his very first NBA playoff game, Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics was invited over to Ray Allen’s rather sumptuous suburban digs for food and conversation. Allen’s mom cooked up the meal. Rondo and Allen watched the playoffs, with Rondo zoning in on the Hornets’ Chris Paul.
At one point during the Hornets-Mavericks game, Rondo turned to his host and said, “I’ve got to be better than the guy I’m going to guard.’’ That would be the Hawks’ Mike Bibby, savvy playoff veteran. The next night, Rondo had 15 points, nine assists and two steals in the Celtics’ rather convincing 104-81 victory over Atlanta. Bibby? Five points, one assist.
“Only one game,’’ Rondo said. “I can do better.”
Rondo months ago put to rest any thought or suggestion that he might not be up to the task to be the starting point guard on a potential NBA championship team. He has made what seems to be a seamless transition from questionable shooter/occasional firebrand to calm, cool, assassin who, as he showed Atlanta in Game 1, is an utter pest on defense and, on offense, is to be left alone at one’s own peril.
Rondo’s made believers all over the NBA. Isiah Thomas, in one of his rare moments of lucidity, said of him, “He’s the guy who really makes them go. They don’t have another guy who does what he does. He’s tough. He’s gritty. He rebounds. He’s smart. He’s a perfect complement to those guys. I can’t say enough good things about him.”
Utah point guard Deron Williams is also an admirer. “He’s got the tools to be one of the best defensive point guards in this league – the long arms, the big, quick hands, the great anticipation,’’ Williams said. “And he’s added a lot to his offensive game. You can’t play off of him.”
But what most stands out in watching Rondo is that the kid – and he still is only 22 – never seems to get rattled. Nothing fazes him, be it a bad shooting night, an earful from coach Doc Rivers or a blown defensive assignment which finds Kevin Garnett in his face. “He was always that way,’’ asserts Tubby Smith, Rondo’s coach at Kentucky. “But that’s what you want from a point guard.”
Rondo also has evolved into a leader on the floor who now is unafraid to take shots, order his teammates around and generally play like a point guard is supposed to play. Other than Williams and Paul, there may not be another young point guard in the NBA with as much upside as this kid, who, lest we forget, is just completing his second NBA season with a completely different set of teammates (and circumstances) than he had in his first NBA season.
“He puts so much time into his game so it’s nice to see a guy who works on it and see it come to fruition,’’ Rivers said. “He’s so ahead of the curve. He started last year with a great IQ, which always helps because then you have something to work with. And then he has this self motivation that he wants to be good, that he wants to be the best. And he has the stubborn streak that sometimes gets in his way, but he has learned to move that out of the way and allowed himself to be coached.
“He’s one of the few that I’ve ever had in all my years of coaching that I’ve had to get on to trust his own natural abilities. And he has unbelievable natural instincts.”
Bibby already knew about Rondo long before Game 1. Rondo’s high school coach in Louisville was Doug Bibby and, as Rondo noted, “He’s kin with Mike.” As in, cousins. So Doug Bibby sent Rondo out to work with Mike Bibby in the summer when Mike Bibby was playing for the Sacramento Kings. Mike Bibby mostly remembers a skinny, determined teen-ager, but, he said, he told Rondo that the kid had a chance if he stayed with it.
BOSTON – APRIL 23: Rajon Rond…
Getty Images – Apr 23, 9:09 pm EDTStaying with it has not been a chore for Rondo. He knew his outside shot was always going to be a question mark (his high field-goal percentage at Kentucky was due mainly to layups and short shots) so he took 500 jump shots a day over the summer. He shot 41.8 percent as a rookie. He shot 49.2 percent this past season and, as he showed against the Hawks, the sight of him nailing an open 15- to 18-footer no longer is accompanied by dropping jaws. He’s a legitimate candidate for Most Improved Player when you think about it; Detroit coach Flip Saunders said he’d pick Rondo if he had a vote.
Rivers also sees an attitude improvement in his young guard. While Rondo projects the image of Mr. Unflappable on the court, he also has an emotional side, the stubborn side that Rivers mentioned.
“We work on that,’’ Rivers said. “He had that problem at Kentucky. Someone would tell him something and he always saw it as criticism, instead of coaching. He’d close down. If there’s a big improvement this year, that’s it. Now, if someone tries to get on him or tell him something, he doesn’t answer with a question anymore. He listens and digests it. It has allowed him to play freer.”
And it goes without saying that adding an offensive dimension to Rondo’s game makes the Celtics that much more unguardable, not to mention practically unbeatable. Opposing coaches are still trying to figure out ways to not have Rondo beat you with his defense, his rebounding (he actually led Kentucky in rebounding in his second season there), his athleticism (he was a high school quarterback), his quickness and his knack for appearing in the right place at the right time. Now, they have to figure out ways to have him not beat you at the other end, where fellows like Allen, Paul Pierce and Garnett are roaming.
“We were trying to match a bigger guy on Rondo, but he made some shots and we have to live with that,” Atlanta coach Mike Woodson said.
The Hawks get another opportunity on Wednesday night in Game 2 before the series shifts to Atlanta over the weekend. Rondo freely admits he may not be able to replicate the impressive offensive game he had in Game 1. But he is determined to surpass the just-as-impressive defensive game he had in Game 1.
The morning after he had abused Bibby, Rondo was back at practice, going over tape with Rivers.
“I was trying to go back and see what I did wrong, how to stop Bibby,” Rondo said.
But he only scored five points!
“I know,’’ Rondo said. “But I want to shut him down. Those five points he had were because of two wide-open looks that I gave him. I can’t settle for that. And I won’t settle for that.”
If the favorites win out, The Rondo and the Celtics will play against Prince and the Pistons for the Eastern Conference Championship. It doesn’t get any better than that.
The Killing Fields of Cambodia
In Cambodia, culture, Travel on April 25, 2008 at 4:58 pm
“Chea, how come good doesn’t win over evil?” young Chanrithy Him asks her sister, after the brutal Khmer Rouge have seized power in Cambodia, but before hunger makes them too weak for philosophy. Chea answers only with a proverb: When good and evil are thrown together into the river of life, first the klok or squash (representing good) will sink, and the armbaeg or broken glass (representing evil) will float. But the broken glass, Chea assures her, never floats for long: “When good appears to lose, it is an opportunity for one to be patient, and become like God.”
from the book When Broken Glass Floats by Chanrithy Him
Cambodia. Pol Pot– Brother Number 1. The Khmer Rouge. Infamous for the “killing fields.” Brought to the notice of the West by the movie which shares the name. Cambodia is synonymous with these fields, with death, with genocide on a massive scale. The Khmer Rouge were the authors of this tragedy. Turning children into murderers. Turning the “base people” against the “new people.” Turning children against their parents. But Cambodia is more than this tragedy.
Cambodia is much more than that stretch of time dominated by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot. Cambodia is the beauty of the Apsara. The nobility of Jayavarman VII. The majesty and antiquity of Angkor. The power of the Mekong, Tonle and Bassac rivers. The smiles of it’s carefree peoples. Jungles and forests and elephants and monkeys. Even so, a visit to Cambodia can never be complete without the reminder of the desolation and carnage that communism wrought upon the soul of the peoples of Cambodia.
The evils of Tuol Sleng. The Killing Fields. Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot. Democratic Kampuchea. The dark history that is enshrined at Cheung Ekh along with it’s victims.
Cheung Ekh is a foreboding place. It is a stroll into madness and the heart of evil. I could feel the past there . The sadness that bled into the ground with the blood of it’s victims. The blood that swells just beneath the sod. The evil that consumed the people of Cambodia under the guiding hand of Pol Pot. It’s victims caught in an eternal and silent plea for justice. A justice that will never be realized. Those skulls stare at you. Forever questioning how such a peaceful people could be turned into the tool of genocide by a mad prophet of death and destruction.
Cambodia’s notorious Brother Number One. The leader of the evil red revolution and murderer of millions. He died before he could be brought to justice.
Walking through the killing fields of Cambodia is horrifying. Yet, it’s fascinating. As I strolled through Cheung Ehk, I read the signs posts and literature. Tears welled up in my eyes. I felt a hand wrap around my heart. My stomach knotted up. My pulse was racing. Walking through those fields, your soul joins the millions of victims in silent protest. You can feel their screams and you join them in your heart. Surely, justice must come. It will not.
There is no justice. It is estimated that anywhere from 1.2 to 2.2 Million Cambodians died at the hands of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. Almost 1/3rd of the population of Cambodia. Cities, villanges and families were decimated. So many lives ended. Stolen. Human history unwritten, decimated, obliterated.
The motto of the Khmer Rouge as regards the “New People”: “To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss.”
The base people were the people of the villages. The new people were city dwellers. In 1976, the Khmer Rouge evacuated all of the cities of Democratic Kampuchea. And as the Jungle reclaimed the land, the Khmer Rouge destroyed a people. Their first victims were the literate. The educated. Being in possession of glasses was enough to prove guilt. As with all of the “great proletariat” revolutions, the Khmer Rouge soon ran out of victims outside of the party and feel upon itself with equal zeal. Murdering for the sake of murder. Murder became the great tool by which Pol Pot could purge the people of the evil of capitalism and turn back time. Erase history. Start from a new, pristine point without the corruptions of the West.
He would save the people by destroying them. A novel idea shared by many today in the lands of Islam today. The leaders of Islam share this vision. They would set the world on fire to save us from what? Hell. Create a hell on earth to save us from hell in the afterlife. There is nothing new in this. It is the same act of the murderous tyrant and his minions throughout history.
Sukhothai — Wat Saphin Hin (and the attack of the gnats)
In culture, Thailand, Travel on April 20, 2008 at 5:57 am
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On my last trip to Thailand, my buddy Becca and I visited Sukhothai. It is a city and national historical park about 450 km north of Bangkok. It’s a small slow town that is a bit off the beaten path for most travelers. I had read much about the city and the park and was eager to visit the famous and rather large Buddha at Wat Sri Chum. Sukhothai is considered the cradle of Thai civilization. The name means literally “Dawn of Happiness.” The city was founded in 1238 by two Thai princes who seceded from the Khmer Empire. As a kingdom, Sukothai grew to be larger than modern Thailand. It lasted only 120 years before is was co-opted into a new Thai kingdom.
Sukhothai is now the provincial seat for the northern province which bears it’s name. The city itself is divided into old and new Sukhothai. Old Sukhothai is a large historical park with ruins dating back to the original kingdom. The ruins have heavy Khmer influences. At times, the ruins have an Angkorean feel to them and there is actually one temple that is attributed to Jayavarman VII. Jayavarman VII is the builder of Bayon and several of the Angkor Temples. He is the famous Buddha King of Cambodia.
There are hundreds of ancient buildings and Wats or Temples in old Sukhothai. Hundreds of statues of Buddha throughout the park. Wat Saphan Hin is one such Wat. It is located about 7 miles outside of the old city on a hill top. The Wat houses a Buddha which is some 40 feet tall. I was very much looking forward to trekking out to this particular Wat even though it was so far out.
Everyone to whom I spoke and all the I read prior to visiting Sukhothai recommended renting bikes as the best way to tour the old city. Traffic is light in Sukhothai. The people are friendly. Sukhothai is not large as far as cities go but the ruins and temples are spread out. Too far to walk and not far enough for a car or Tuk Tuk. Renting bikes was an excellent recommendation. Becca and I rented bikes from our hotel. Mapped out our sight seeing trail. Then started out to see the magnificence that are the nearly 1000 year old ruins of Sukhothai. We spent most of the morning tooling around the ruins in the main part of the park. The noon sun came up and started to beat down on us. So we decided it was time to get some shade and a cold one. Grab a bite to eat and plan the rest of the afternoon. We stopped at a local restaurant and ate. I drank a couple of beers. Had a whiskey or two with our waitresses. One of whom was cute as a button. So I snapped a couple of pictures of her. We rested a bit. Then decided to head back to the hotel for a mid-afternoon nap. The 85-90 degree sun had drained us a bit and I was a bit sun burnt from being out all morning.
After resting for a couple of hours, we realized that we had missed Wat Saphan Hin. No way i was going to miss that. We decided to go back out and find the hilltop Wat and it’s massive Buddha statue. It was nearing 4 PM. The park closed at dusk. We figured sun down was a good three hours away. Plenty of time.
We headed out.
We stopped near the entrance to the park to view the foot print of Buddha that we had missed earlier. Then we headed out to find our Wat.
We biked out on the main road that should have taken us about half way to Wat Saphan Hin. When we came to the walls of the old city, I was comfortable enough that I knew where I was heading. We exited the old city. Turned down a road which ran parallel to the northern wall. About two hundreds meters up that road, we found our turn off. This road took us about half a mile into what looked to be a farm neighborhood. Lots of barns and cows and such. I had a map of the park with us. Even so, somewhere along the way, I must have confused a road or two as they weren’t marked with any kind of real signs that I could discern.
We pedaled for about 10 minutes up the country lane. It was time to ask direction. I saw a friendly looking Thai fellow. So I pulled out my map and asked for directions to Wat Saphan Hin. We were on fairly familiar ground as I remembered passing near to this location earlier in the day. We were near Wat Sri Chum and the huge seated Buddha.
After a series of failed attempts at Thai, unintelligible grunts on both of our parts and several directional gestures based on the map and our location, our Thai friend sent us off in the general direction of Wat Saphan Hin.
We pedaled back to the main road and turned right towards our destination. I thought that it would be a few hundred meters down the road. Oh no! It took another half hour to get to the road that would take us to our Temple. By the time we hit that road, the sun was fading off into the distance. The road to the Wat was closed and barred. But we bravely stayed on course. I wanted to see my Wat on the Hill. I’d be damned if a mere unmanned barrier was going to keep me from my destination.
It was another 10 minutes or so down that road when we finally reached the Temple.
Wat Saphan Hin.
We made it. Barely enough light to snap photos. But we were able to get some great sunset pics and then night photos of the Temple.
It was a beautiful site. It was also exhausting walking up the steep, rocky hill to the Wat. Especially after a long day of pedaling around and climbing on and exploring all of the ruins in the old city. Well worth the climb, though. We took our pictures. We rested a bit. And then realized that it was pretty damn dark and we were far outside of the city.
Time to go.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been out in a forest at dark. I had forgotten the bugs. The bats. All of the flying insects that would be on the road.
Becca and I started back. It was still a bit light out. So it wasn’t bad at first. As we got to the main road, it started to get dark pretty fast. Absolutely no street lights in the old city or in the area we are biking. Another thing that I didn’t take into account. Although, LonelyPlanet.com did warn me of this. Obviously, I forgot the warning.
I start cruising down the road as fast as I can pedal.
“What the hell was that!”
BAM!
BIP!
WHAP!
BAP!
WHACK!
SPLAT!
I start getting pelted by bugs. Large flying insects popping me in the forehead. Small bugs flying into my eyes and nose. Any time I open my mouth to yell back at Becca, I swallow a pound of nats, flys and mosquitos. I start laughing because I hear Becca scream once or twice. I think I was buzzed at least once by a bat. I saw something swoop down and nearly hit me on the head. At one point, I’m fairly certain a small bird landed in my hair and attempted to make a nest.
I start pedaling faster and doing that forward lean as if I were rolling against a strong headwind. All the while getting wind blasted by all manner, all sizes of insects and small birds. lol
We rocketed through this thick mass of nasty bugs for a good 30 minutes before it subsided as we came to the edge of the old city. I had dead bugs on my glasses. There were bugs in my hair. Bugs stained my shirt. Bugs crawling out of my nose and ears. I couldn’t help but laugh. So we rested there for a second as we picked small bugs and bird feathers out of our teeth and hair.
We stopped at the edge of the park for a bit. Then proceeded on to the restaurant at which we had eaten earlier. We sat and ate a bit. Drank a few beers and then returned to our hotel. I had every intention of getting out and experiencing the Sukhothai nightlife. But, apparently, the day was too much. Our adventure too great. I decided to take a quick nap and didn’t re-awaken until after midnight.
The next morning, we left Sukhothai and returned to Bangkok. We awakened early so we could see the ancient ruins at Si Satchanalai Historical Park prior to our flight. More on that later…
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- sundown at Wat Saphan Hin
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- I didn’t remember there being a moon out that night…maybe it was a UFO
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- Wat Sri Chum at night too bad that gate was locked
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- old Sukhothai in the dark
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- Wat Sri Chum Standing next to the Buddha
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- Wat Saphan Hin
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- dusk…still light enough to take pics
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- acting like I’m taking a pic of Becca so I can get a good view. Becca is laughing because she knows what I am doing
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- my waitresses good side
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- posing with the Buddha
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- view from Wat Saphan Hin
Reason and Passion
In culture, Literature on April 19, 2008 at 1:03 amAnd the priestess spoke again and said: “Speak to us of Reason and Passion.”
And he answered saying:
Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite.
Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.
But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.
Surely you would not honour one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both.
Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath In God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.
Khalil Gibran
The Prophet is a book of 26 poetic essays written in English in 1923 by the Lebanese-American artist, philosopher and writer Khalil Gibran. In the book, the prophet Almustafa who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses many issues of life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.
Khalil Gibran was an extraordinary writer whose words have inspired me to live and love and continue down my path for the whole of my adult life. I’ve actually forwarded this book as a gift to several people in the hopes that they will find the same inspiration in it for their lives and loves.
Enthusiasm
In Quotes on April 18, 2008 at 11:39 pmI found this out there…..
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about — Charles Kingsley
I enjoyed reading and thinking about this. Wanted to share it.
A view of Bangkok
In culture, Thailand, Travel on April 17, 2008 at 5:38 amOver the past few years, I’ve had several conversations with folks back in the States about Thailand. I’ve found that there is a common misconception that Thailand is a backward Third World country. People seem to have this idea in their head that Thailand and it’s capital city, Bangkok, is nothing more than a small backwater with a few hundred prostitutes, a couple of Buddhist Temples and not much more. I get this glazed look from folks when I tell them that Bangkok is a modern city that is larger than most US cities.
Reality. Thailand is a modern country. Bangkok is an ultra-modern city.
Bangkok or Krung Thep as it is called in Thai is the 22nd largest city on the planet. It is home to an estimated 15 to 20 Million Thais and foreign guests. It’s historical and cultural attractions make it one of the most popular destinations in all of Asia. It is the major Asian Business, travel and tourism hub.
That’s just the beginning. A trip to Bangkok is a visit to one of the most visually stimulating cities on the planet. It’s BTS Sky Train system makes the city easily accessible. The Chao Phraya river adds to both the beauty and accessibility of the city. One can travel the Chao Phraya river and see some of the most incredible and beautiful sites in all of Asia. Wat Arun, the Canals, the early morning floating marke, The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew as well as numerous other Wats (Temples), Cathedrals, Mosques. Magnificent Statues. Crocodile and Monkey farms. Most of the major hotel chains of the World find their home right along the Chao Phraya. The Hilton. The Sheraton. The Shangri La. Sofitel. In addition, there are innumerable wonderful B&Bs, Guesthouses and Boutique Hotels all along the river and throughout the city from Silom to Sukhumwit to Sathon and Petchaburi.
The city has a magnficent night life with numerous restarurants, bars, discotheques. There is something for every taste in Bangkok. Shopping at Siam, Silom, Pratunam. There are numerous cinemas which play both Thai and Hollywood films. There is a huge Chinatown. Little Arabia is along Thanon Sukhumwit at Soi 3.
Of course, there are Patpong, Nana and Soi Cowboy and the infamous sex districts. Patpong was a bit of a surprise for me. I ventured into the place without knowing where I was. Of course, I had heard of Patpong. I expected something completely different. I was with a Thai friend shopping along Silom Road. We walked along the road and through a maze of street vendors selling everything from beer and t-shirts to Thai Silk and tailored suits. We turned down into a larger maze of stalls and shops and, though I didn’t know it, we entered Patpong. We’re walking through the stalls and there are little blonde haired Aussie and British and Swedish children all about. I’m looking at a stall with t-shirts when I hear techno music. I turn towards the music and not more than 8 feet behind me is an open door through which one can plainly see half naked girls shaking her little Thai booties to the music. Surrounding the whole Nightmarket are Go Go Bars and all manner of Red Light shows. It was quite surreal to see all of these little Western Children and their Mothers shopping in the midst of what amounts to a sexual Disney land. I started laughing and my Thai friend looks at me and asks what it is that I find so funny. I just point to a huge Go Go sign and then to a blonde lady carrying her baby. She shrugs her shoulders as if to say; “And?” It was quite the contrast. And no one seemed to mind or pay it any attention.
Thailand is a land of contrast. None more striking than Bangkok. Pornography and prostitution is illegal in Thailand. Drugs are illegal in Thailand. Even so, there is a thriving sex industry in Bangkok that centers on these three areas–Na Na, Soi Cowboy and Patpong. You see old pot bellied men walking around these districts with sexy, slinky little Thai girls who are a 3rd their age. It’s quite a site.
Sex is not the only attraction to Bangkok.
For those who are more culturally minded, there are numerous cultural sites. Beautiful Temples and Palaces. Wat Arun, Wat Pho, Wat Phra Kaew also known as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace being the most famous. The famous backpacker district known as Khaosan Road. Full of global travelers. You will meet folks from every corner of the world. Folks of all ages. I’ve met women in the 60s amongst the Khaosarn trekkers. Africans, Israelis, Euros, Arabs, Brazilians, Argentinians, Aussies and Americans. Singles, friends in twos, threes and larger groups, couples, families. Any combination imaginable. If you find yourself at Khaosarn someday, make sure to stop by Gullivers. You can’t miss it. Over the entrance hangs a Tuk Tuk.
Tuk Tuks are the three wheeled open air taxis that are ubiquitous in Bangkok. Be careful to arrange your price before getting into one of these for a ride you won’t soon forget. It’s a must have experience when visiting Bangkok.
Bangkok is a phenomenal experience. If you aren’t careful, you’ll find yourself enchanted or even addicted to the city. I know I fell for it’s charms. I love Bangkok. Might even make it my home someday.
The pictures below are the view from my hotel room in the Landmark Hotel. Landmark Hotel is downtown on Thanon Sukhumwit. It’s a great hotel. Not too pricey. Central to Bangkok. Easy access to the BTS. Close to numerous popular clubs and bars.
The official name of Bangkok:
Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
It’s listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest city name in the world. The short name is Krung Thep which translates to “City of Angels.”
“Dance is our national soul”
In Cambodia, culture on April 16, 2008 at 1:29 am
The fine–boned young princess, clad in silk and glittering jewels, performed beneath the stars on the open pavilion within the palace walls, accompanied by the Royal dance troupe and the “pinpeat” orchestra: Gongs, drums, xylophones, horns and stringed instruments. Selected by her grandmother, Queen Sisowath Monivong Kossomak Neary Rath Vattana, to become a dancer when she was only a baby. She toured the world as the “white Apsara” or principal dancer of the classical Cambodian ballet – a stunningly graceful, 2000 year–old blend of sinuous hand gestures and sinuous body movements, all deep with meaning. Responsible for its rebirth, she became the symbol of classical Khmer dancing, dormant since the 15th Century, when the glory of Angkor faded and with it the Khmer cultural dominance of Southeast Asia. In reviving the classical dance, Queen Kossomak and Princess Buppha Devi brought the dance not only to the world but also –for the first time- to the Cambodian people. In the past, the classical dance was the Royal dance, performed only before Royalty to commemorate their dynastic ancestors and to honor the gods.
As in the old days, technical training is given in the morning and regular schooling takes place in the afternoon. Although now retired from professional dancing, today at age 53 Princess Buppha Devi continues to dazzle audiences through her work as director of the 300 dancers who belong to the modern Royal ballet. Today, Apsara-dancing performances are no longer relegated to the gods and kings. Performances can been seen at the major hotels, and at Chatomuk Theater near the Royal Palace. With the tinkling of xylophones and a euphony of gongs and drums, the Apsara dancers, dressed in their tightly fitted silk tunics embroidered in gold and silver, barefoot but with elaborate headdresses, and outstretched arms symbolizing the naga and glistening with jewelry, enter the stage to perform with incredible grace. Dancing holds great significance for the Khmer people and the government considers the Royal ballet in particular to be a national treasure. Princess Buppha Devi , along with the Ministry of Culture, helping to ensure that its traditions will flourish in the next century. As Proeung Chhieng firmly believes, “Dance is our national soul”.
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A little more about one of my favorite experiences in Asia. If you ever find yourself in Cambodia, don’t miss this. You will not be disappointed. Your heart and your soul will thank you.
Barack Obama on Average Joe America
In Politics, Uncategorized on April 12, 2008 at 7:55 amYou go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Basically, he thinks the average American is a racist, xenophobic, gun toting, scared, moron who can’t get a job without government assistance.
He should change his name to Joseph. Stalin would be proud as would Mao, Marx and Lenin.
A Successful Counter-Insurgency in Iraq
In Middle East, Politics, Uncategorized on April 12, 2008 at 6:08 amLet’s ‘Surge’ Some More
By MICHAEL YON
April 11, 2008It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.
I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.
The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”
As the outrages of Abu Ghraib faded in memory – and paled in comparison to al Qaeda’s brutalities – and our soldiers under the Petraeus strategy got off their big bases and out of their tanks and deeper into the neighborhoods, American values began to win the war.
Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.
Some people charge that we have merely “rented” the Sunni tribesmen, the former insurgents who now fight by our side. This implies that because we pay these people, their loyalty must be for sale to the highest bidder. But as Gen. Petraeus demonstrated in Nineveh province in 2003 to 2004, many of the Iraqis who filled the ranks of the Sunni insurgency from 2003 into 2007 could have been working with us all along, had we treated them intelligently and respectfully. In Nineveh in 2003, under then Maj. Gen. Petraeus’s leadership, these men – many of them veterans of the Iraqi army – played a crucial role in restoring civil order. Yet due to excessive de-Baathification and the administration’s attempt to marginalize powerful tribal sheiks in Anbar and other provinces – including men even Saddam dared not ignore – we transformed potential partners into dreaded enemies in less than a year.
Then al Qaeda in Iraq, which helped fund and tried to control the Sunni insurgency for its own ends, raped too many women and boys, cut off too many heads, and brought drugs into too many neighborhoods. By outraging the tribes, it gave birth to the Sunni “awakening.” We – and Iraq – got a second chance. Powerful tribes in Anbar province cooperate with us now because they came to see al Qaeda for what it is – and to see Americans for what we truly are.
Soldiers everywhere are paid, and good generals know it is dangerous to mess with a soldier’s money. The shoeless heroes who froze at Valley Forge were paid, and when their pay did not come they threatened to leave – and some did. Soldiers have families and will not fight for a nation that allows their families to starve. But to say that the tribes who fight with us are “rented” is perhaps as vile a slander as to say that George Washington’s men would have left him if the British offered a better deal.
Equally misguided were some senators’ attempts to use Gen. Petraeus’s statement, that there could be no purely military solution in Iraq, to dismiss our soldiers’ achievements as “merely” military. In a successful counterinsurgency it is impossible to separate military and political success. The Sunni “awakening” was not primarily a military event any more than it was “bribery.” It was a political event with enormous military benefits.
The huge drop in roadside bombings is also a political success – because the bombings were political events. It is not possible to bury a tank-busting 1,500-pound bomb in a neighborhood street without the neighbors noticing. Since the military cannot watch every road during every hour of the day (that would be a purely military solution), whether the bomb kills soldiers depends on whether the neighbors warn the soldiers or cover for the terrorists. Once they mostly stood silent; today they tend to pick up their cell phones and call the Americans. Even in big “kinetic” military operations like the taking of Baqubah in June 2007, politics was crucial. Casualties were a fraction of what we expected because, block-by-block, the citizens told our guys where to find the bad guys. I was there; I saw it.
The Iraqi central government is unsatisfactory at best. But the grass-roots political progress of the past year has been extraordinary – and is directly measurable in the drop in casualties.
This leads us to the most out-of-date aspect of the Senate debate: the argument about the pace of troop withdrawals. Precisely because we have made so much political progress in the past year, rather than talking about force reduction, Congress should be figuring ways and means to increase troop levels. For all our successes, we still do not have enough troops. This makes the fight longer and more lethal for the troops who are fighting. To give one example, I just returned this week from Nineveh province, where I have spent probably eight months between 2005 to 2008, and it is clear that we remain stretched very thin from the Syrian border and through Mosul. Vast swaths of Nineveh are patrolled mostly by occasional overflights.
We know now that we can pull off a successful counterinsurgency in Iraq. We know that we are working with an increasingly willing citizenry. But counterinsurgency, like community policing, requires lots of boots on the ground. You can’t do it from inside a jet or a tank.
Over the past 15 months, we have proved that we can win this war. We stand now at the moment of truth. Victory – and a democracy in the Arab world – is within our grasp. But it could yet slip away if our leaders remain transfixed by the war we almost lost, rather than focusing on the war we are winning today.
Mr. Yon is author of the just-published “Moment of Truth in Iraq” (Richard Vigilante Books). He has been reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004.
See all of today’s editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.
Why is the systematic rape of women and children by al Qaeda and it’s allies not trumpeted to the mountaintops by our press as was abu ghraib.
And why do Americans not get upset about this.
Why are our efforts to build clinics and schools not trumpeted as loudly as rendition, waterboarding and haditha?
Why are people not outraged by this?
These are the types of things that could help our military build allies in the Iraq and the Middle East. The Media is complicit with the terrorists. Accomplices in Terror and Murder.
Pat Riley — Hall of Famer
In Sports, UK Basketball on April 8, 2008 at 9:30 pm
It’s official. Riley elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
Pat Riley, a member of the famous Rupp’s Runts, played in the 1966 National Championship game. Whiile in the NBA he played on one NBA Championship team (L.A. Lakers) and coached 5 NBA Championship teams (the 80s Showtime Lakers and the 2006 Miami Heat). The man was a coaching genius who could get multiple star caliber players to mesh into a cohesive team and win. No easy feat. Especially in todays game. He, also, took the ’94 Knicks to the Championship game but came up short that year. No one has been able to do much with the Knicks since.Coach Riley joins his mentor and Coach–Adolph Rupp–in the Hall of Fame as well as NBA greats like Red Auerbach and other legendary NCAA coaches such as John Wooden.
Congrats Coach Riley on a great honor and an incredible and exemplary career.
This is an excellent article on Coach Riley by Rick Bozich of the Louisville Courier Journal. (article here)
“I wish that coach (Adolph) Rupp, Harry Lancaster, Joe B. Hall, Mr. (Bill) Keightley and Louie (Dampier), Larry (Conley), Thad (Jaracz) and Tommy (Kron), God bless him, could be here to share this moment with me because the University of Kentucky was a special time in my life,” Riley said.
Indeed it was. Riley arrived at UK in 1963 from Schenectady, N.Y. He credited his basketball development to all 16 of his coaches, starting with his first coach — his father, Leon, a minor league baseball player.
At UK, Riley said he was assigned to share a room with Dampier, another freshman, from Southport, Ind. Riley had not begun to slick back his hair, but he said when he pulled out his blue-suede shoes and fancy clothes, the more conservative Dampier flinched.
Said Riley: “Louie had to be thinking, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me! I’ve got to live with this guy the next four years?’ “
Mr Wildcat — One Shining Moment
In culture, Sports, UK Basketball on April 8, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Mr Bill Keightley aka Mister Wildcat honored this year in CBS’s National Championship One Shining Moment Video Montage.
Being left speechless is a rarity for this reporter for those of you who know me.
As I looked at the lives of both men, the quality that stands out the most is loyalty.
I guess the important thing to do is follow my dad’s advice. Yikes, did I really just say that? But, seriously though, father knows best and he told me to love what you do and it won’t feel like work.
Nuxhall and Keightley followed those words until they left this world. And while it is sad to think that two legends in their own rights are gone, hopefully we can learn from the lives they led.
Jenny Elder Richmond Register
The Keightley family requests memorial donations be made to:
The Bill Keightley “Mr. Wildcat” Basketball Managers Scholarship Fund
UK Office of Development
100 Sturgill Development Buildings
Lexington, KY 40506-0015.
Free Tibet Now!!!
In Commerce, culture, Politics on April 8, 2008 at 8:39 am
Tibetans and their supporters are on the move throughout the free world. It’s the perfect time to move against the communist human rights violating monolith that is China.
China . The Host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It’s sacrilege. The Olympics are su
In 1950, China invaded Tibet. Extending the Maoist carnage and murder spree into the worlds most peaceful province. China rolled into Tibet and commenced to torturing and murdering Monks and ordinary citizens in the thousands and hundreds of thousands.
Why did Mao want Tibet? What was his claim?
It was simply a matter of Chinese prestige. Mao thought that all of the peoples of the area should have the opportunity to be murdered in his evil grasp and under his failed leadership.
In 1246, a Mongolian annexed Tibet into the greater Mongolian Empire. That Mongol Ruler was Khubalai Khan. Great Grandson of Genghis Khan. Khubalai Khan eventually conquered and united what we know today as China. This is the first instance in history of a united China. Khubalai founded the Yuan Dynasty. This is considered the first Dynasty of modern China. The China that we know today.
The China we know today was created by a Mongolian. Don’t tell the Chinese this. For some reason, it angers them. They see the Mongols as a primitive people. But it took a Mongol Emperor to bring China together. it was a Mongol Emperor who first brought Tibet into the Chinese sphere of influence.
China’s claim to Tibet is as ridiculous as a Mongolian claim to China.
China has brought herself these troubles. The Chinese want to join the Global scene as a full and respected partner. Yet, they still want to carry on as belligerent neighbors. Taiwan is another example of Chinese over-reaching and trouble making. Taiwan is a separate nation. Yet, China continues to want to claim it as part of mainland China. China wants a peaceful partnership with the free world. BUT they don’t want to be held to the standard of peaceful nations. China wants to make money off the West even as they terrify and cow their own citizens. Even as they deny many of their citizens basic human rights.
The Taiwanese have built a country based on capitalism and free markets. It’s people were thriving even as Mao was murdering millions in his failed Cultural experiments (revolutions). Yet, China demands the right to rule over the island nation as if China were the author of Taiwan’s successes.
Now that the Olympics have given the enemies of China a world wide forum, expect the Tibetans and other groups to surface. As the Olympics draw closer, it will be more and more difficult for China and the governments of the participating nations to ignore their demands.
Tibet has international support. I’m interested to see where the pressure on China leads. Will China react as they have in the past with violence and severe punishments? Will they cave to international pressure? Will China be forced to stop murdering innocent folks for the crime of desiring freedom and liberty? Will the world stand up and be counted? Or will the same eyes which refused to see the genocide in Darfur be willfully blind still?
Will Tibet finally gain their independence or at least autonomy? Or will Chinese hypocrisy and murder be rewarded yet again by it’s eager accomplices in the West?
Of course, we all want our cheap electronics, tennis shoes and t-shirts from Walmart via cheap Chinese labor. Therefore, the chances of China being held to any real standard of human rights is slim to non-existant. It’s the same with oil. We want our cheap products. And Hell! We’re free. We have our liberty. Why should anyone care about those damn Chinese or Tibetans? Or anyone else for that matter.
I’ve met a few Tibetans along the path of my life. They have always been nice, peaceful people. Exactly what you would expect. As if each Tibetan were an emissary of the Dalai Lama himself. Poised. Perfectly composed. Even when the subject of the mighty Dragon arose.
Peace.
Questions or Comments are always welcome.
Moses Crosses Over Into The Promised Land
In culture, Sports on April 7, 2008 at 2:58 pmCharlton Heston, 84;
Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson and went on to become an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of conservative causes, has died. He was 84. Heston died Saturday at his Beverly Hills home, said family spokesman Bill Powers. In 2002, he had been diagnosed with symptoms similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease.
Photo Gallery
With a booming baritone voice, the tall, ruggedly handsome actor delivered his signature role as the prophet Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Biblical extravaganza “The Ten Commandments,” raising a rod over his head as God miraculously parts the Red Sea.
Heston won the Academy Award for best actor in another religious blockbuster in 1959′s “Ben-Hur,” racing four white horses at top speed in one of the cinema’s legendary action sequences: the 15-minute chariot race in which his character, a proud and noble Jew, competes against his childhood Roman friend. article here 
Bill and me.
In culture, Politics, UK Basketball on April 7, 2008 at 8:06 am
This picture was taken about a week after Kentucky won the 1996 NCAA Championship.
At that time, I was in The Old Guard. Stationed at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. President Clinton ran on post all the time. It was a secure place. Relatively light risk. The Secret Service would swarm the post. Snipers on the rooftops. Bikers would be on post stopped at not so random points talkiing to the wind. Those huge Suburbans would be stationed at strategic points. All of them with their Tripod mounted .50 Caliber Machine Guns. The post would basically be closed down for a few hours on those days.
Each time he came on post, guys from Alpha Company would swarm the man. The first time that I met Bill, I was walking back from a dentist appointment. I saw a group of our soldiers surrounding someone directly in my path. About ten feet out, I realized that it was President Clinton. I was fairly surprised.
I had taken a copy of U.S. Grants Memoirs with me to read while I waited at the dentist’s office. So I walked on into the crowd and when I got the chance, I asked him to sign my book. He signed it and then asked me how I liked it. He told me that he had read it in college. He stood there and talked to me about U.S. Grant for about 5 minutes.
Changed my opinion of the man. I didn’t really like his policy on the military. But I grew to like the man.
In that picture, I walked up to him and asked him to take a picture with me. He actually talked to me a little about SEC Basketball. Being from Arkansas, he was, of course, a Hog fan. I wonder how he likes John Pelphrey these days.
I have to say. I really wasn’t a big Bill Clinton FP fan. Among other things, he made Yassar Arafat when he should have been hunting him down. He damn near shut down the military even as he upped the tempo with deployments to the Balkans. One thing that I did like was that the move out of Germany and into Eastern Europe started during his Presidency. I don’t know how much he had to do with it. It was a good move.
I knew that eventually President Clinton would be back to McNair. So I had this picture enlarged to get it signed. The next time that I caught him on post, I ran out to try to get him to sign it. I was a bit late. He was already getting back in to his ride. So I approached the vehicle but was cut off by a Secret Service Agent. The guy took the picture from me and promised to get it signed for me. As they drove away, I realized that I hadn’t given him my name.
I thought that was it. No signature and no pic.
About two weeks later, my First Sergeant called me up to his office. I walked in as a guy in a suit walked out. 1SG Thompson looks at me strangely and hands me a large yellow envelope. I open it there in his office and start laughing. The envelope contains the picture signed;
To SGT Kaelin
Thank you for your service to your country.
Bill Clinton
Pretty Sweet!
My Personal experiences with Clinton were great. The man always seemed to have a moment to spare for Joe Soldier. That’s enough for me to give him some respect. I may not have liked all of his policies. Even so, he was a really cool guy. I always thought that he’d be a great guy with whom to hang out, watch a ball game and down a few beers.
