forebearance Via the Plagiarist archives, a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun;
Loved the wood-rose, and left it on its stalk;
At rich men's tables eaten bread and pulse;
Unarmed, faced danger with a heart of trust;
And loved so well a high behavior
In man or maid, that thou from speech refrained,
Nobility more nobly to repay?—
O be my friend, and teach me to be thine!
religion and technology Via Idoefact, this excerpt from Lynn White Jr's collection of essays, Medieval Religion and Technology draws an interesting relationship between theology and technological development in the West,
The cumulative effect of the newly available animal, water, and wind power upon the culture of Europe has not been carefully studied. But from the twelth and even from the eleventh century there was a rapid replacement of human by non-human energy wherever great quantitites of power were needed or where the required motion was so simple and monotonous that a man could be replaced by a mechanism. The chief glory of the later Middle Ages was not its cathedrals or its epics or its scholasticism: it was the building for the first time in history of a complex civilization that rested not on the backs of sweating slaves or coolies but primarily on non-human power.
The study of medieval technology is therefore far more than an aspect of economic history: it reveals a chapter in the conquest of freedom. More than that, it was part of the history of religion. The humanitarian technology which our modern world has inherited from the Middle Ages was not rooted in economic necessity; for this 'necessity' is inherent in every society, yet has found inventive expression only in the Occident, nurtured in the activist or voluntarist tradition of Western theology. It is ideas which make necessity conscious. The labor-saving power machines of the later Middle Ages were produced by the implicit theological assumption of the infinite worth of even the most degraded human personality, by an instinctive repugnance towards subjecting any man to a monotonous drudgery which seems less than human in that it requires the exercise neither of the intelligence nor of choice. It has often been remarked that the Latin Middle Ages first discovered the dignity and spiritual value of labor -- that to labor is to pray. But the Middle Ages went further: they gradually and very slowly began to explore the practical implications of an essantially Christian paradox: that just as the Heavenly Jerusalem contains no temple, so the goal of labor is to end labor.
courage is doing the right thing Nothing better illustrates Israel's often unreasonable handling of their relations with the people of Palestine than this letter signed by thirteen reservists of one of Israel's elite commando units - the Sayeret Matkal, reproduced here in full,
To: Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
We, citizens who serve in active reserve duty, soldiers and officers, Sayeret Matkal veterans, have also chosen to join the front guard in the way we have been trained. With grave concern for the future of Israel as a democratic Zionist and Jewish state, and with concern for her moral image - we can no longer stand asside.
We tell you today:
# We shall no longer lend our hand to the subjugation taking place in the territories.
# We shall no longer lend our hand to the quelling of human rights of millions of Palestinians.
# We shall no longer serve as a defense shield for the settlements campaign.
# We shall no longer deface our human image as an army of occupation.
# We shall no longer deny our commitment as fighters in the Israel defense forces.
We fear for the fate of the children of this land, exposed to an evil that is unnecessary, and to which we have lent our hands. We have long transgressed the limits of soldiers, just in their ways, and have become fighters suppressing another nation.
We shall not cross this limit anymore.
We stress and declare: We shall continue to protect the State of Israel and the security of its people from all enemies.
"He who dares - wins."
A related news article on the Washington Post concludes thus,
Separately on Sunday, Israeli military activities continued in the West Bank, where a six-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammad Naim Isryda, was shot in the chest and killed while playing near his house in the Balata refugee camp on the edge of Nablus, Palestinian medical officials reported. Israeli military officials said soldiers opened fire on the area after a homemade explosive was thrown at them. Another youngster from the camp, Nur Emran, 13, died from injuries he suffered on Tuesday, when an Israeli soldier shot him in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The soldiers opened fire on youths who were throwing stones, bricks and bottles, a military spokesman said. The spokesman said the military had not received any formal complaint that a youth had been hit.
nurturing the culture of fear There is an undeniably moronic, mind numbing quality about these alert levels, reb, blue, pink, white whatever. Like the boy who cried wolf, this administration has made a habit of capitalizing on this Culture of Fear, which, in the months following the terrorist attacks had some meaning but is now merely pathetic. posted by ubaid - Sunday, December 21, 2003 at 7:38 PM -
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wasted intelligence Via the Whiskey Bar, these lessons that Vietnam taught but which seem to have been since, unlearned,
From Robert McNamara's memoirs, published in 1995,
1. We misjudged then -- as we have since -- the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries ... and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience. We saw in them a thirst for--and a determination to fight for -- freedom and democracy. We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people... to fight and die for their beliefs and values -- and we continue to do so today in many parts of the world.
4. Our misjudgments of friend and foe alike reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then -- as we have since -- to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology equipment, forces and doctrine in confronting unconventional, highly motivated people's movements. We failed as well to adapt our military forces to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
6. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale U.S. military involvement ... before we initiated the action.
7. After the action got underway and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course, we failed to retain popular support in part because we did not explain fully what was happening and why we were doing what we did. We had not prepared the public to understand the complex events we faced and how to react constructively to the need for changes in course as the nation confronted uncharted seas and an alien environment. A nation's deepest strength lies not in military prowess but, rather, in the the unity of its people. We failed to maintain it.
8. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Where our own security is not directly at stake, our judgment of what is in another people's or country's best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our own image or as we choose.
9. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action -- other than in response to direct threats to our own security -- should be carried out only in conjuction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
10. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions ... at times, we may have to live an imperfect, untidy world.
11. Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues.
These were our major failures, in their essence. Though set forth separately, they are all in some way linked: failure in one area contributed to or compounded failure in another. Each became a turn in a terrible knot.
more real estate Nothing humbles me quite as much as the contemplation of things such as this. posted by ubaid - Wednesday, December 17, 2003 at 1:17 AM -
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Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passes from life to his rest in the grave.
The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around, and together be laid;
And the young and the old, the low and the high,
Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie.
The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband, that mother and infant who blessed;
Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest.
The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,
Shone beauty and pleasure - her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.
The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.
The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.
The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.
So the multitude goes - like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes - even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.
For we are the same that our fathers have been;
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we feel the same sun,
And run the same course that our fathers have run.
The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink;
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling -
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.
They loved - but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned - but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved - but no wail from their slumber will come;
They joyed - but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.
They died - aye, they died - we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.
Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.
'Tis the wink of an eye - 'tis the draught of a breath -
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
The United States military acknowledged today that six more children have been killed in a bombing raid in operations against suspected Taliban members in eastern Afghanistan.
The children and two adults were killed in an attack on Friday night when United States special forces raided the compound of a known militant.
It is the second time in a week that the United States has admitted killing children in airstrikes in Afghanistan.
Although aware of the children's deaths on Saturday, the military did not acknowledge them until Wednesday when a journalist raised the question at a news conference in Kabul, where a constitutional council is convening this weekend.
Then there is this rather inane decision to bar France, Germany, Russia even the so far fairly neutral India, from bidding on contracts involving reconstruction and development projects in Iraq. Obviously, none of the disbarred countires are much too happy,
A leading German industry group said the Pentagon decision seemed in breach of fair-bidding principles for public works agreed among rich nations.
"We suspect that in substance it contradicts the OECD principles for international tenders for public projects, although the United States in particular always calls for observing these principles," said Ludolf von Wartenberg, general manager of the Federation of German Industry.
Over more than a century, Germans built much of modern Iraq -- from the Baghdad-Istanbul railway to the central bank building in Baghdad and the national university, along with dams, bridges, roads and canals.
Steven L. Schooner, co-director of the government procurement program at the George Washington University law school, disagreed. "It's an extraordinary step when you tell your trading partners that, because of their position on a difficult policy issue, you won't do business with their firms," he said. "From a public procurement standpoint, this is embarrassing. Our defense department, the government's largest purchasing agency, has published a document affirmatively discriminating against many of our trading partners."
Finally, the country with the world's second largest reserves of oil is buying it at the amazing price of $2.64/gallon on average and sometimes as high as $3.06/gallon. Halliburton is raking in the moolah and the money is coming from the United Nations Oil for Food program, though the American taxpayer starts subsidizing oil imports beginning next year.
A spokeswoman for Halliburton, Wendy Hall, defended the company's pricing. "It is expensive to purchase, ship, and deliver fuel into a wartime situation, especially when you are limited by short-duration contracting," she said. She said the company's Kellogg Brown & Root unit, which administers the contract, must work in a "hazardous" and "hostile environment," and that its profit on the contract is small.
Iraqi's state oil company, SOMO, pays 96 cents a gallon to bring in gas, which includes the cost of gasoline and transportation costs, the aides to Mr. Waxman said. The gasoline transported by SOMO — and by Halliburton's subcontractor — are delivered to the same depots in Iraq and often use the same military escorts.
So what do these mean? Well, for most parts the war and destruction nee construction of Iraq is going as planned.
Collateral Damage The New York Times reports how nine children in an Afghan village were killed while at play when an American air strike went snafu. Besides the children the strikes also claimed the life of a 25 year old who was to be engaged within the week,
Two brothers in the village, Sarwar Khan and Hamidullah, lost three children between them, they said. "The Americans are all the time making these mistakes," said Mr. Khan, who lost his two sons, Faizullah, 8, and Obeidullah, 10. "What kind of Al Qaeda are they? Look at their little shoes and hats. Are they terrorists?" [...]Nevertheless, Saturday's attack was at least the fourth this year in which civilians have been killed or injured. Eleven members of one family were killed in April in Paktika in eastern Afghanistan when American forces called in air strikes on a group of militants escaping toward the Pakistani border and a bomb landed on a house. Eight people, including women and children, were killed in a village in the northern province of Nuristan on Oct. 30 when American planes bombarded their village at night. The military acknowledged the April bombing but has not confirmed responsibility for the Nuristan bombing.
Imagine nine American children being killed in an attack on say a toy store, how will the American public react? Is there any way to explain to the parents here that their children were 'collateral damage'? It has been some time since the Taliban was thrown over but such incidents continue to occur, how long will the people of Afghaistan and now Iraq suffer before they can let their children play marbles on the streets without fear of losing them to another American strike against the Al Qaeda? posted by ubaid - Sunday, December 07, 2003 at 6:59 PM -
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