Saturday, November 26, 2005

Christmas '05? "Fagetabouit"

A man sits at a table writing. A second man walks into the room

2nd Man: So what are you writing Bro? Last will & testament?
1st Man: No, it's my Christmas list
2nd Man: What's that for?
1st Man: It's a list of the stuff I'm gonna give to people this Christmas. You know what Christmas lists are.
2nd Man: Yeah I know what they are I was wondering what you were doing that for?
1st Man: I gotta figure out what to give who. Otherwise I won't know what to buy, like for my grandsons.
2nd Man: OK, since you're not getting my drift, I'll spell it out. Why do you have to give people stuff at Christmas?
1st Man: Because everybody does that. People expect it. If I didn't, everybody would think I was Scrooge- a miser.
2nd Man: "Everybody does it" So that makes it right? How did "Everybody" start buying presents for Christmas?
1st Man: I don't know, maybe they just felt like it.
2nd Man: Spontaneously, just like that, "Everybody" just went out and spent all the rent money on neckties and Barbie dolls?
1st Man: Aw come on, you know, it's all about Santa Claus and baby Jesus!
2nd Man: "Santa" was dreamed up by a reporter back in the eighteen hundreds - it's just a fairy tale. You know "coal in their stockings if they're not good" and baby Jesus? Do you think that when he grew up he told people that they should buy each other lots of gifts to celebrate his birthday every year? The whole Christmas thing is just one big marketing bonanza. A way to sell a lot of stuff that nobody really needs or in many cases even wants to make bigger profits for the manufacturers and retailers- and the credit card companies too.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Nov. 24, 1963 - Ruby Shot Oswald

JFK was assassinated a few days before. It was only a few weeks after my twenty-ninth birthday and it was the beginning of the biggest crisis in my life. I suddenly realized that the world was under control of "the forces of evil" that could eliminate a president who interfered with their agenda and that no one was safe from their reach not even in the middle of the Dallas police station. Lee Harvey Oswald was only a pawn, just like Jack Ruby. We never saw any of the real killers. The effect of all of this was to bring about my own personal "Mortality Crisis" . I suddenly knew that I too would die someday just like JFK. Even he was not immortal, nor was I.
The details of my crisis are too sordid and tawdry to describe here but the crisis lasted about six years and after it I was almost an adult.
I suppose some readers might wonder how I could have lived for 29 years without understanding that I wouldn't live forever or why the death of JFK hit me so hard but those of you who lived through the Kennedy Era (so short but so beautiful) will perhaps understand.
The young people of this country are normally completely apathetic about politics. The principals are seen as hypocritical liars and thieves whose only interest is to increase their own power and line their pockets. It's always been that way and I don't see any likelihood that this will ever change. Like the French say: "La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme choses" ("The more things change the more they remain the same")
But for "One brief shining Moment" , young people became involved - the baby boomers or "Flower Children" as they were then called, demonstrated. Against Vietnam, against segregation and materialism. They exposed the Emperor's New Clothes and laughed at his nakedness. They turned on and dropped out and notwithstanding the end result of their exaggerations and oversimplifications, they filled the land with a huge breath of fresh air.
Now, forty three years later, the "Flower Children" are getting to retire, they're evaluating their 401K's and Iraq's looking at property in Costa Rica or Arizona and sending checks to the Republican National committee. They "tolerate" George W. Bush because he gave them tax cuts after Slick Willie (Clinton) gave them prosperity.

The young people of today don't have a JFK. Certainly Howard Dean is no substitute and I doubt that Hillary could inspire any of us except a few very bitter women (who are probably Republicans). Every once in a while I look around to see if there's anyone around who could spark ideas and action but as yet, I ain't seen a soul.

Their is a perennial controversy about whether it's the man or the moment. Do the times produce the hero or
do a few, rare individuals act as catalysts for major upheaval? Think Hitler & FDR, maybe JFK (if he had lived long enough) Or do the times produce the heroes?

Friday, November 18, 2005

My Biopic

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Black Comedy

In your life, things are so twisted that you just have to laugh.
You may end up insane, but you'll have fun on the way to the asylum.

Your best movie matches: Being John Malkovich, The Royal Tenenbaums, American Psycho

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Paris Daze (Redux)




"The times they are a changin'" (Bob Dylan said that)
Here's another side of "gay paree"

Monday, November 07, 2005

Slaves' Revolt ?

The "riots" in Paris continue to escalate. At the last count, there were more than 300 communities affected and now there are a few deaths as well as many injured. It is ironic that it's the French who are under seige by their disenfranchised minorities. "Liberte, Egalite & Fraternite" is only for native born, white Frenchmen. The young people in the 'burbs are fed-up. They know that they have no future in France. Even an education will not guarantee either a job or acceptance in white France. When I lived in Paris, many years ago, when people discovered "un Americain", they would confront me with the "segregation" and "racial prejudice" practiced by my fellow countrymen.
Now, the Nike is on the other foot. People of African or Arab origin, even if their families have been residents of the country for two generations or more, are still not considered to be full citizens. The difference is frequently not always visually obvious but most of the time, just a few words spoken by someone will identify his ethnic origins.
The French have always been hypercritical about foreigners' attempts to speak the French language. The ability to speak correct, unaccented French is an absolute requisite to social acceptance as well as meaningful employment.

So the young residents of the dismal suburbs that surround the principal cities, have taken to the streets to express their frustration, anger and desperation. We've had a glimpse of our own "malaise" in New Orleans just a short time ago. It was the French Philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who wrote "Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.". Economic slavery is no less slavery than any other form and millions of people all over the world, are in chains today. Western civilization must resolve this issue before a "slaves revolt" brings down the civilization that we cherish. We've had a glimpse of our own "malaise" in New Orleans just a short time ago.

Saturday, November 05, 2005

"I read the news today oh, boy"

It's "a day in the life"...
Last night one of our local channels screened an interview with an eight year old girl who was shopping for hunting gear with her dad. This little blonde cutie shot her first deer three years ago, when she was five years old! Now if that's not the beginning of a dark tale, what is?
What happens to someone who kills at five? Could we try to imagine what she might do or be at eighteen? Perhaps she'll have an awakening at puberty (adolescence is a crucible) and realize the error of her childish ways.
Or perhaps, her taste for the kill will develop. When tigers kill people they are hunted down and killed because it is believed that the taste for human blood is addictive. Of course she might become a soldier, we need good killers in the Army or ???

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Once in a Deep Dark Forest

The woman was awakened by the sun as it rose above the trees surrounding the clearing where she was sleeping. She opened her eyes and looked around her. She saw the tall evergreens and the grassy meadow.
She tried to remember how she had come to this place, where she had come from and where she was supposed to go.
She couldn't remember anything about where she'd come from, she didn't know where she was and she had no idea where she was going.
She wept and hoped that somebody would come and rescue her.


The woman was awakened by the sun as it rose above the trees surrounding the clearing where she was sleeping. She opened her eyes and looked around her. She saw the tall evergreens and the grassy meadow.
She tried to remember how she had come to this place, where she had come from and where she was supposed to go. She couldn't remember how she had gotten to the forest but she knew she was where she was supposed to be and she knew she had continue west, with the sun on her back until she reached the river where there would be a boat to take her to her final destination.
She rose,rolled up her sleeping bag and put it in her back pack, then she took the path heading west through the forest.


The woman was awakened by the sun as it rose above the trees surrounding the clearing where she was sleeping. She opened her eyes and looked around her. She saw the tall evergreens and the grassy meadow.
She tried to remember how she had come to this place, where she had come from and where she was supposed to go. She remembered her home near the ocean, and her family that she had left there. She remembered her bedroom where she had slept all her life. She remembered her father and all the good times they had together.
She knew she had come from the east, she could see the path that had brought her to this place and she saw the path the path that headed west, towards the river where there would be a boat to take her to her final destination.
She rose,rolled up her sleeping bag and put it in her back pack, then she took the path heading west through the forest.
She knew where she was going and why she was going there, her memories of the past helped her to understand where she was and where she was going Her vision of her destination, gave her the courage to head towards it with joy and determination

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Guilty As Charged

Today, November 1, 2005, only two months since my return from Nepal, the situation in the Middle East continues to deteriorate. Nepal's part in the Iraq war is that of an-innocent bystander with no political or religious ties to either the Iraqis or the U.S. Yet, because of their position as the best source of literate, low-cost labor the people of Nepal are now reluctant participants. Many young Nepalese has been tricked into jobs as "civilian support personnel" for the U.S. Armed Forces. Local village headmen have earned huge (by Nepalese standards) bounties or recruitment bonuses by convincing young men in their villages to sign employment contracts with companies thought to be offering employment in Saudi , Jordan or the United Arab Empire. After flying to Saudi (at their own expense) they discovered that their jobs were in Iraq cleaning toilets, cooking or other menial jobs that the soldiers no longer perform. (What ever happened to KP?)
If they refuse these jobs they are required to pay their own way back to Nepal and reimburse their employers for all expenses incurred on their behalf, including the headman's fees. The only way this would be possible would be for their families to sell their small farms and everything else they own of any value in order to pay back their sons' debts.
A group of Nepalese workers who worked on one of the U.S. military bases in Iraq was captured by insurgents and after a short attempt at ransom negotiations it became obvious that no one was going to pay anything for their freedom. After some videotaped statements by the prisoners, all of the Nepalese were brutally murdered on camera.
Their only crime was poverty