hey...

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“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.”

- Joseph Campbell
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I know, I know... what can I say, it's been a tough past few months.

I've started and stopped several posts, just wasn't feeling it. Not that I haven't been putting my words down... I sold my first piece of writing last fall to the newly launched Cannabis Now magazine. More writing, including some of my photographs from my trip last fall to High Hopes Farm in southern Oregon will be in the next quarterly issue (I'm hoping I made the cut for the cover!). The images from that trip are what inspired me to produce the Cannabis Calendar:

(by the way... my calendars have the feature of having the current month, or any month you choose, be the first month in the calendar. If you want to start your calendar in April or May or June...)

I will be posting more, soon. There is lots to talk about.

For instance... why are Republicans - like Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker - going after middle class workers like teachers, cops, municipal works employees and firemen when absolutely none of our elected reps at any level are going after the Wall Street high finance types that sent our economy into the worst dive since the Great Depression.

From The Hill:

"The combined costs of lost income and wages, and federal government spending to mitigate the financial crisis, totaled more than $11,000, on average per U.S. household, during the acute stage of the financial crisis -- from September 2008 through the end of 2009," the group stated.

"In addition, the combined peak loss from declining stock and home values totaled nearly $100,000, on average per U.S. household, during the July 2008 to March 2009 period."

Pew also noted that the U.S. lost $7.4 trillion in stock wealth from July 2008 to March 2009, according to the Federal Reserve.

"This is roughly $66,200 on average per U.S. household," Pew stated.

That manipulated scheming stole over 2 trillion dollars from Americans' retirement savings. Yet Wall Street bonuses in 2009 were over $20 billion...

My suggestion? Republicans and Democrats both need to make a pilgrimage to the Emerald City. Republicans should ask for hearts, Democrats should ask for balls.
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In 2009 self-help "guru" James Ray was leading a *cough* Spiritual Warrior retreat in Sedona, Arizona (for only $14,000 each!). 3 people died from participating in an obviously ill managed faux sweat lodge ceremony. Ray was arrested early last year and his trial is currently underway. There has to be a cost to Ray (besides the penalties for his costing 3 people their lives) for such a cultural misappropriation... the sweat is one of humanity's oldest ceremonies and health and hygiene practices. Of course tricking people out of their hard earned cash is an ancient tradition as well... but people aren't supposed to die from sweat lodge!
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There is just so much news happening around the globe... North Africa and the Middle East are really undergoing a sea change as people finally are speaking out and rising up against autocratic rule. A note to the men of Egypt... y'all better recognize the women who stood beside you in the streets, who in fact helped orchestrate Egypt's uprising against Hosni Mubarak's 40 year rule. If you demand the rights of a free people, why or how can you deny the same equality to the women of your nation?
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The other day I was reading that China has the world's largest mall. 1500 store spaces and almost 10 million square feet! The Not-So-Great Mall of China: Welcome to the world's largest (and loneliest) shopping centre

As it happens only 15 stores are occupied...
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And yes, I am a photographer, for hire. My photographic art is always for sale and I am definitely interested in full time photographic employment or contract work. Here are a few of my latest images:

a couple of weeks ago, Golden Garden park, Eugene, Oregon

2009 Eugene Celebration Parade

Crump Lake, Warner Lakes Basin, south central Oregon 1993 (digital transfer from Kodachrome 64)

Another image from my High Hopes Farm trip, autumn harvest, 2010

And, as almost always... any of these photos are for sale at my RedBubble gallery - blank note cards starting around $3, postcards, laminated posters, framed prints... go take a peek.

And it won't be months before I return. I swear...
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“I am a possibilist. I believe that humanity is master of its own fate... Before we can change direction, we have to question many of the assumptions underlying our current philosophy. Assumptions like bigger is better; you can't stop progress; no speed is too fast; globalization is good. Then we have to replace them with some different assumptions: small is beautiful; roots and traditions are worth preserving; variety is the spice of life; the only work worth doing is meaningful work; biodiversity is the necessary pre-condition for human survival.”

- Robert Bateman

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Spring(?) and miscellanies...

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“When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects, this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.”

~ Robert Heinlein
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Wow. An historic moment. A milestone guaranteed to spawn a million conversations. An occurrence that will raise the hackles of bigots across the land... a black man will be representing his party as candidate for President. I'll be damned...

Now, do I think it will matter? Nah. Personally I think our "two party system" is but one party that likes to pretend it is two. I truly believe that the time has come for voters to -- as they did to the Republicans in 2004 -- dump the bums and prove that it is, really, we the people who hold the power in this country.

I believe that we the people have relinquished the power vested to us by our founders, in exchange for the ease of allowing government to not just govern representatively but to dictate to us the boundaries of our lives while expanding the bureaucracy's powers at our expense.

Remember the film Brazil, by Terry Gilliam? (if not... rent it)



a graphic and strangely dreamlike look at bureaucracy gone amok... well, thats my view of where we've come to today. A very strange world in which we operate under a mountain of rules and regulations which no sane man or woman could ever understand or even begin to fathom. And we've allowed our Constitution and its primary Bill of Rights to become the tool of government, open to its own bizarre definitions of the intent behind the words.

When it comes to the Bill of Rights, they are a pretty common sense group of Amendments, consisting not of language scrambled by legal twistings and fine permutations but presented in a manner easily compehended, with the intent of controlling not the people by government but of the people having a tool with which we control our government.

And while I'm sure the Supreme Court justices are ok folks



I seriously question their interpretations of a very common sense document. But what do I know? I'm just a barely educated forklift driving middle aged (...sigh...) longhaired white guy Vietnam era veteran with an opinion...

I do know that I love this country and I don't like where we've allowed ourselves to be led to... as we stand on the brink of a new depression... and it breaks my heart that every real leader who has stood for peace has fallen under an assassin's bullet... and I sincerely hope and pray that an epidemic of insight sweeps across the land and infects us all with the virus of compassion and tolerance.

But hey, thats just me.
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In my posts awhile back on the Olympics I posted the picture of the "tank man"... an iconic photograph that stands in my memory. Last night I watched PBS' Frontline story on "tank man." Excellent, excellent piece. An indepth look at that 1989 peaceful protest by the Chinese people in Tiananmen Square that gave me a larger picture of that story and why people should not just boycott the Olympics but continue to expose the Chinese regime as the brutes they are. And for my Chinese visitors... I don't protest you. I protest government power that goes to excess in abuse of civilians... anywhere. Like here in the U.S. One of the points that continues to stick in my craw (not craw, CRAW!) about the U.S. drug war is that we imprison black males at a rate nearly six times greater than did South Africa at the peak of their hated and universally condemned regime of Apartheid.

It would be nice to hear the Dems young black male presidential candidate Barack Obama mention that somewhere down the campaign trail.
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I went up to Opal Creek a cuppla weekends ago with son Alex. Last year at this time of year the bear grass and rhododendrons were almost done with their blooming. This year there was still snow when we got to the old mill site. And not just a dab here and there but about 2' of snow. When I told brother Marty about the snow he asked if I had seen the Opal Creek website pictures. I hadn't but then I went to the site and wow, they have had just a bit. 7' in camp. But go and look for yourself.

Alex and I didn't hike all the way into Jawbone Flats. Instead we went past the old mill and turned north into the backside of the Hewitt Grove and went stalking waterfalls. Once into the woods it was a rare sight... all the ferns and salal were pressed flat from the weight of a heavy snow pack. Nary a flower in sight. The duff was soaked, and it was like walking on a sponge. Which of course it was. Part of why we fought so hard to save that forest back in the day.

At the parking lot we saw a pair of hikers loading up their backpacks including several bottles of water. We ran into them on the road near the head of the Opal Creek Trail and I mentioned I saw their water bottles. I told them about the quality of the water in the valley and how all drinking water in camp came not from spring water but from the creek and that the forest was one of nature's best water filters.

Here are a few images from that meandering:










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“Knowledge is awareness, and to it are many paths, not all of them paved with logic. But sometimes one is guided through the maze by intuition. One is led by something felt on the wind, something seen in the stars, something that calls from the wastelands to the spirit.”

~ Louis L'Amour

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Back to Tibet and the Olympics...

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“The prize reaffirms our conviction that with truth, courage and determination as our weapons, Tibet will be liberated. Our struggle must remain non-violent and free of hatred.”

~ Dalai Lama
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Watching the news this evening on TV and I saw my first summer '08 Olympics ad. Which for me is just a prompt to provide an update.



First... I just have to provide a link to this story, provided by the Students for a Free Tibet:

Dalai Lama offers help to the Chinese

THE Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, has made a gesture of goodwill to China by announcing that he wants to donate to the Chinese earthquake fund, despite Beijing’s denunciations of the “Dalai clique” and its description of him as “a demon”.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, he said he was worried that a gift to the victims would be misunderstood by China, which accuses him of helping to foment the riots that struck Tibet in March.

The Dalai Lama, who is due to meet Gordon Brown in London this week, adopted a conciliatory tone in his remarks on China, giving strong backing for the Olympics and expressing his desire to become a fully fledged Chinese citizen. “At the moment I am a refugee. But I would like to return to Tibet as a member of China’s Tibetan minority,” he said.

Although many of his supporters have called for a boycott of the Olympics, the Dalai Lama said he would have liked to attend them. “It is right that China should have been awarded them,” he said. “It has the world’s largest population and a great and ancient culture. In normal circumstances I would very much like to have gone to Beijing as a spectator.”

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Amazing that the Dalai Lama practices what he preaches. There is a lesson there I think we could all heed.

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Out of New Jersey comes this story:

Olympics boycott cry grows louder

The quote I want to provide deals with the fact that Tibet is not China's only human rights issue:

Speaking from his Washington, D.C., office yesterday, U.S. Rep Chris Smith, R-Hamilton, an advocate of religious freedom and human rights in repressive countries around the world, said the "grandiose hoopla" of the opening ceremonies will be all about hypocrisy.

"At the very least, we should boycott (the opening ceremonies). Unfortunately, propaganda is ever present, and the Chinese are denying facts about their own government. There is a steady stream of propaganda about (the spiritual practice) Falun Gong, religion and the West."

Smith has criticized China for forced sterilization and persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.


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Another good read is this column from the Boulder (CO) Daily Camera, written for the LA Times by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

Jabbar: Olympics Boycott questions: '68 vs. '08

Should we boycott the Olympic Games to protest China's arrogant human rights performance, its political imperialism, its shoddy exports that recently have left some Americans ill or dead?

The answer is no. While it may seem disingenuous to be playing games with countries that aim weapons at us, the same claim can be made about us by many other countries.

I am of a mind that the actions of Smith and Carlos made a difference in 1968. However, this Olympics is an entirely different situation that requires different tactics to achieve a satisfactory resolution. Instead of turning our backs, we need to continue a dialogue with the Chinese.

The more we talk with each other, the more we understand each other and can reach compromises that will benefit the lives of those we are trying to help. Jackie Robinson once said that the great thing about athletics is that "you learn to act democracy, not just talk it." That's what our athletes will demonstrate to the 1 billion Chinese who may be watching.
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For me... I say continue with the boycott pressure. I mean if Ronald Reagan was able to be an instrument in the falling of the infamous Berlin Wall, surely the Dalai Lama can be one of the instruments of peace that tears down the Red Wall.


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PS...

One of the problems with walls? Just as soon as you tear one down, 2 more go up. That Medusa thing, dontcha know...

Israel/Palestine:



US/Mexico:



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“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

~ Albert Camus

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Boycott the Olympics...

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(image © 1996, Phil Borges, see his excellent Tibetan photos at his gallery)
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“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.”

~ Dalai Lama
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We interrupt my mental meanderings to bring you the following message:

I have watched the news about Tibet in recent weeks, wondering what the world's reaction would be to this latest "crackdown" by China. Well, with the start of the Olympic Torch Relay, the world's most adamant protestors are interrupting it at every city it is passing through. And China is of course, condemning these interruptions.

No surprise there.

What I find truly disturbing is that except for a few, the world has by and large ignored the plight of Tibetans and their oppression under the Chinese. And I include myself in that ignorance...

From my first political leanings, way back in the '70s in Santa Maria, I have accepted my participation in issues because the people affected by an issue have affected me and my thinking. I have been active with indigenous issues, migrant farmworkers, Iranian efforts to unseat the Shah (and that worked out real well...), protests against nuclear weapons proliferation, environmental issues (Opal Creek being the pinnacle of my environmental activism)...

But Tibet, until very recently, has flown below my radar. But in less than a year I have accepted their cause as mine, and another part of that movement that encompasses all issues I have involved myself with. I hate seeing people get screwed. And the Tibetans have shown me that they have been getting a bum deal for decades.

For those of you who are interested, please follow a movement that I predict will gain momentum as the spring wears on into summer and the Olympics approach. Politics and the Olympics are not strangers. But this time we are dealing with a very real holocaust and the perpetrators of this holocaust are the Chinese, the host country for this summer's Olympics.

Here is the link to GoogleNews stories with the keyword Tibet. In a shining "for instance," Australians are wanting action:

Majority want Rudd to intervene in Tibet

As you may or may not know, there have been new clashes in recent weeks by Tibetans against China's presence:



Uneasy, Normal Life Follows Tibet Riots

The history of China's occupation in Tibet, from the Government of Tibet in Exile.

"On 7 October 1950, 40,000 Chinese troops under Political Commissar, Wang Qiemi, attacked Eastern Tibet's provincial capital of Chamdo, from eight directions. The small Tibetan force, consisting of 8,000 troops and militia, were defeated. After two days, Chamdo was taken and Kalon (Minister) Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, the Regional Governor, was captured. Over 4,000 Tibetan fighters were killed."
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In November of 1950, Tibet sent a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations:

"Tibet recognises that it is in no position to resist the Chinese advance. It is thus that it agreed to negotiate on friendly terms with the Chinese Government. ...Though there is little hope that a nation dedicated to peace will be able to resist the brutal effort of men trained to war, we understand that the United Nations has decided to stop aggression wherever it takes place."
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Since then Tibetan deaths and disappearances at the hands of the Chinese are estimated to be over 1 million.

I have met Tibetan monks who now live in the US. Kind, gentle men, they all fled Tibet into India and all have tales of imprisonment, beatings and torture, the disappearance of friends and relatives and the experience of witnessing their country being overtaken by the Chinese. Many Tibetans have died working on the railroads being built in order to transport Chinese immigrants into Tibet.

Here is a video showing Tibetans fleeing over the Himalayas being shot by Chinese border guards.

More stories on Tibet:

Tibetan monks: A controlled life

Dharamsala alarmed at rate of Chinese migrants coming to Tibet

"We cannot but be alarmed at the rate of Chinese migrant workers coming to Tibet and China's mining of various minerals on the Tibetan Plateau" said Kalon Tempa Tsering of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration.

"The pace of China's settlement of Tibet's urban centres with Chinese migrant workers and its exploitation of Tibet's mineral resources are undermining the ability of the Tibetan people to hold on to their distinct cultural heritage," Kalon Tempa Tsering said.
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And, reminding me of California's goldrush heyday (an occupation that decimated an estimated 90% of California's indigenous population in one decade), China is reportedly doing massive mineralogical surveys of Tibet in order to exploit that nation's natural resource wealth:

When the railway was first extended into Tibet in the 1980s, as far as the desert staging post of Gormo, the purpose was to extract Tibetan oil, which has gone, at rate of two million tons a year for the past 20 years. In addition China mines the salt lakes of the same area in the Tsaidam Basin on a large scale. Gas was discovered in huge amounts in the 1990s, also in the Tsaidam Basin, and a pipeline was built to supply China’s hungry energy demand for fuels for manufacturing and electric power generation. Tibetan gas is now piped right across China.

China is investing huge effort of geological exploration, mapping mineral deposits all over Tibet. Recently the China geological survey announced the discovery of more than 600 new mineral deposits after concluding a seven-year geological study on Tibetan plateau, which has nothing less than $128 billion dollars worth of various minerals potential for extraction.
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Chinese immigrant influx in Tibet is a serious threat: British MP

“The influx of Chinese settlers in Tibet is a serious threat and is making the Tibetans a minority in their own land. When we were in Lhasa (capital of Tibet) we saw Chinese everywhere and more were due to arrive and many will have come now because of the introduction of the railway line from China to Tibet,” said Mr. Hamilton, who was one of the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons that visited Tibet in 2006 and reported their findings in a report.
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China: Dalai Lama Wants to Sour Olympics

The Dalai Lama, speaking in Dharmsala, India, the seat of his government-in-exile, urged nonviolence on both sides.
"I say to China and the Tibetans - don't commit violence," he told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in it to discredit him.

"It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," he said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."

He said that "if things become out of control," his "only option is to completely resign."

Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama's comments.

"If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence, he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence," Tenzin Taklha said. "He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama."
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One of the things I DO know... the Dalai Lama, like Martin Luther King, like Mohatma Gandhi, is a man of peace who believes -- as do I -- that violence cannot be used to end violence. And while I understand the protests against China, their hosting of the Olympics and the intent to use the Olympic Torch Relay as a venue for expression and the drawing of attention to the issue of occupied Tibet, there is no way that violent demonstrations will achieve positive results. Further I also understand the nature of sabotage and cointelpro and believe the violence accompanying the Torch Relay protests may be fomented by agents of the Chinese.

So do me a favor... get educated. Boycott the Olympics. Boycott Chinese goods (no shopping at WalMart?) and let the silence of our wallets send the message of dissatisfaction with China's continued occupation of the independent nation of Tibet. And tell George Bush not to attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony.



Free Tibet...



Note: all images are linked from their online sources. No copyright infringement intended.

Note 2: as with all things here, even this post ties back to Pablo... some of Paul's ashes are now in place on the NE side of the Bodhi tree and main stupa in Bohdgaya, India.


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Dharamsala, India, is the Dalai Lama's city of residence while he remains in exile.
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“Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.”

~ Buddha