Posts
23 November 2009
Animated map of the recession... Part of me feels like I just pretend that things aren't bad so I don't have to care about the folks affected.
15 November 2009
02 November 2009
01 November 2009
23 October 2009
21 October 2009
"Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good."
Vaclav Havel
Vaclav Havel
20 October 2009
And to think I have days where I don't like my job...
18 October, 2009
Apple Pickers Flee out of Fear of Bombing
By Peggy Gish (via CPT Iraq)
Large clusters of ripe apples clung to and weighted down the branches. Kaka Najeeb, the leader of Merkajia, a Kurdish Iraqi village near the Turkish border, led members of the Iraq team through his orchard. "This is one of the best apple crops we've had," he said. "With our hired workers it would take us about a month to complete the harvest. Without help, most of the apples will rot."
"Our workers heard that the Turkish Parliament extended [6 October] for another year the permission for the Turkish military to continue military strikes against Kurdish rebels in the border mountains." Najeeb continued. " So when Turkish military planes flew low over the trees the past three days, the workers believed the planes had come to bomb. They all fled."
This is not the first time Merkajia, an Assyrian Christian village, has been attacked. During the Anfal (1987-1988), a genocide campaign carried out by Saddam's regime, this and surrounding villages were destroyed, and the people scattered to other parts of Iraq. Then after the Kurdish uprising in 1991, the 200 families returned and built a new village uphill from the remains of the old. During the `1990's they came under intense bombardment and residents were kidnapped and tortured by Turkish soldiers. These attacks resulted in destroyed homes, farmland, livestock, crops and the displacement of hundreds of families.
In recent years, soldiers at the nearby Turkish base, about 12 km inside Iraq side of the border, have periodically launched rockets at Merkajia and other villages, usually during the spring or summer harvests. In order to go the nearest town, Kani Masi, residents must pass the Turkish base with its tanks and surveillance equipment. While the people in many of the other Christian and Muslim villages in that region have been afraid to return, a small number of men and a few women continue to stay in Merkajia.
The Turkish military claim they are targeting Kurdish rebel fighters who have attacked Turkish soldiers, yet most of their strikes are in these civilian villages and not in the stronghold areas of the rebel group, giving the people reason to believe that one purpose of the attacks is to clear the border areas of residents and destabilize the region.
"We are a peaceful people and just want to remain in the village of our ancestors," another resident told us. "Turkey does this for military purposes. We are the victims of this war. The U.S. government is supporting Turkey's actions. It doesn't care about the Kurdish people, just about their own purposes and profits. We love the American people, but not the American government and what it does."
"Please raise our voices to the people of the world. Do what you can to stop this bombing," Najeeb exclaimed. "Our apples and crops would provide for all we need to be happy here, if we are allowed to live and work here in peace."
Apple Pickers Flee out of Fear of Bombing
By Peggy Gish (via CPT Iraq)
Large clusters of ripe apples clung to and weighted down the branches. Kaka Najeeb, the leader of Merkajia, a Kurdish Iraqi village near the Turkish border, led members of the Iraq team through his orchard. "This is one of the best apple crops we've had," he said. "With our hired workers it would take us about a month to complete the harvest. Without help, most of the apples will rot."
"Our workers heard that the Turkish Parliament extended [6 October] for another year the permission for the Turkish military to continue military strikes against Kurdish rebels in the border mountains." Najeeb continued. " So when Turkish military planes flew low over the trees the past three days, the workers believed the planes had come to bomb. They all fled."
This is not the first time Merkajia, an Assyrian Christian village, has been attacked. During the Anfal (1987-1988), a genocide campaign carried out by Saddam's regime, this and surrounding villages were destroyed, and the people scattered to other parts of Iraq. Then after the Kurdish uprising in 1991, the 200 families returned and built a new village uphill from the remains of the old. During the `1990's they came under intense bombardment and residents were kidnapped and tortured by Turkish soldiers. These attacks resulted in destroyed homes, farmland, livestock, crops and the displacement of hundreds of families.
In recent years, soldiers at the nearby Turkish base, about 12 km inside Iraq side of the border, have periodically launched rockets at Merkajia and other villages, usually during the spring or summer harvests. In order to go the nearest town, Kani Masi, residents must pass the Turkish base with its tanks and surveillance equipment. While the people in many of the other Christian and Muslim villages in that region have been afraid to return, a small number of men and a few women continue to stay in Merkajia.
The Turkish military claim they are targeting Kurdish rebel fighters who have attacked Turkish soldiers, yet most of their strikes are in these civilian villages and not in the stronghold areas of the rebel group, giving the people reason to believe that one purpose of the attacks is to clear the border areas of residents and destabilize the region.
"We are a peaceful people and just want to remain in the village of our ancestors," another resident told us. "Turkey does this for military purposes. We are the victims of this war. The U.S. government is supporting Turkey's actions. It doesn't care about the Kurdish people, just about their own purposes and profits. We love the American people, but not the American government and what it does."
"Please raise our voices to the people of the world. Do what you can to stop this bombing," Najeeb exclaimed. "Our apples and crops would provide for all we need to be happy here, if we are allowed to live and work here in peace."
19 October 2009
12 October 2009
"Well, the weather's nice.''
-- Oakland defensive lineman Richard Seymour, asked on a conference call with New York reporters last week, "How's Oakland?''
via: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/10/11/week5/2.html#ixzz0TjUWXpKg
-- Oakland defensive lineman Richard Seymour, asked on a conference call with New York reporters last week, "How's Oakland?''
via: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/peter_king/10/11/week5/2.html#ixzz0TjUWXpKg
09 October 2009
“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common—this is my symphony.”
- William Henry Channing
- William Henry Channing
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