There was visible health monitoring upon arrival at the airport…a system left over from the SARS and Bird Flu days.  Had to fill out a form reporting any symptoms of illness and coming out of immigration the arrival crowds are “scanned” by some sort of technology for temperature readings and any person showing a high reading is pulled to the side. I don’t know what they do with you from there and I didn’t wait around to find out! :))

Hong Kong is often mistakenly thought of as a city or a country. Actually it comprises a small peninsula bordering mainland China called the New Territories, Kowloon, on the southern tip of the peninsula, plus a group of islands, including Hong Kong Island across Victoria Bay from Kowloon, and covers about 1,100 square kilometers. Although Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories came under the rule of the British as a result of the Opium Wars between Britain and China (1939-1942), the area is now a part of China since the hand-over of the lease by the British in 1997 and has maintained it’s status as a Special Administrative Region. Each stage of Hong Kong’s economic development can be linked to events in China and the two economies continue to become interconnected as Hong Kong “looks over it’s shoulder.”  But as far as I am concerned, culturally it is another country distinct from mainland China thanks to the British.   Also, along with southern China that used to be called Canton, the everyday language is Cantonese although English is widely understood and spoken especially by the business community. On the other hand, the various dialects of mainland China, based on the Beijing dialect, have melded and have become known in the west as Mandarin. Cantonese and Mandarin speakers do not much understand each other.

Only 20% of the land mass is urban. Typically, Asians don’t mind high-density living so “city” planners left the bulk of the island to itself and built “up.”  Josh says Hong Kong Island has the highest population density of any urban area in the world.  And I might add…the most expensive. It has surpassed Tokyo! It’s clean and efficient. A high-speed train (runs on time almost to the second every 10 minutes) brought me 30 minutes from the airport right onto Hong Kong Island for $10. Contrast this with the $60 taxi ride from the airport in Las Vegas Nevada to Greg’s house!

When I was here twice before, I stayed in Kowloon. It was just a short ferry ride across the bay to Hong Kong and I only explored the terminal area…not imagining where/how people actually live here…although Kowloon, which used to have a small town look, now looks much like Hong Kong Island with it’s own wall of high-rises.  For a couple thousand dollars a month, you can imagine how small an 800 square foot flat is compared to my apartment in Oaxaca which is 3 times the size for $300!  Tidy by necessity. Josh’s one bedroom has a double mattress on the floor…the corner of which has to be lifted up to get the door closed! It took a bit of juggling to find a place for my 2 small pieces of luggage and computer bag. Josh gave me his bed and he took the big comfy leather couch in the small living room…but I think tomorrow we will switch so I can roam around in the middle of the night without waking him…if  “roaming around” is what you would call it given the amount of space. :))  But I can also go out on the veranda with a straight-ahead view of the bay and Kowloon beyond in between 2 walls of high-rises.  But lest I give you the wrong impression, behind his tower is about a 3-block by 1 block area of free space with swimming pool, gym, a children’s play area and a restaurant you would never know was there looking from the street.

So Josh has already given me an access lesson to his flat.  The tower has about 6 doormen, (actually I think more for security,) but you have to know which tower entrance to use…a magnetic card letting you in the door.  Then an elevator takes you up to level 6 (car park) where you get another elevator that takes you up one more floor to his flat. So no just stepping out into the city like it is for me in Oaxaca.  I hope I can remember all this when Josh goes to work tomorrow!  He says he will take me for a tour of The American Club where he is a chef. But first things first.  I MUST NOT lose the card or the key at this stage of the game because my iPhone still has “no service” for some reason (I haven’t mastered it’s secrets yet) and I don’t yet know were I can find an internet cafe!  Hence no contact with Josh if I get locked out.

Incidently, I’ve never seen this before but in all those apartments very few have their curtains drawn on their windows at night so you can see clearly what everyone is doing in their living rooms.  Josh says they just don’t think about it…they just see what is in front of them.

Amid jet-lag my psyche is swirling…on the road since retirement in 2002. Since 2005, after 4 months in a sublet in Brooklyn, there were several more months in China and SE Asia.  Then after a couple months in Salem and Las Vegas, a year and a half in Oaxaca Mexico 2006-7.  Then several more months in China and SE Asia again.  Then back to Oaxaca November 2008.  Now Hong Kong and Thailand and wherever else. So I guess you could say, like many famous people do, that I “divide my time” between Mexico and Asia with “vacation time” in the U.S in-between. And I do mean vacation time. It sounds romantic.  It is…only in retrospect! :))  But I’m not complaining.  I am very lucky.  I feel like a 35 year-old. I could be sitting in a plaid barco-lounger in front of the TV…feeling my third-age…65 years.

Flew into Las Vegas from Oaxaca the end of September to spend a few days with my oldest son, Greg.  Always a big treat.  My old U.S. Samsung flip phone was on it’s last legs and Greg couldn’t get ahold of me when I landed so he decided I needed an iPhone so he bought me one.  I can even text on it like all the kids all over the world. I have a Mexican phone and a Thai phone for local calls but I keep the U.S. number/phone just in case I get a court order to appear for something…or my kids can reach me in an emergency! :))  Otherwise I use video-skype on my computer that I travel with.  Come to think of it I also have a WiFi skype phone when I don’t have my computer with me!  With my cameras and phones and computer, it’s now called “Flashpacking” Instead of backpacking!

Bob flew in to Las Vegas from Thailand while I was in Vegas…was fun listening to all the banter between the two of them.  Then we both flew to Portland where we are ensconsed in our middle son’s (Doug) rental house in Salem where he has been for the last few months trying to earn some money so he can go back to Thailand.  His Thai wife, Luk, was here with him for a couple months but her tourist visa ran out so she is back in Thailand waiting for him to return in November.

Otherwise lots of errands like the accountant, bank, doc, pharmacy, going through stuff at the Azalea St. house to give to Doug and other stuff to set aside to take down to Oaxaca. Took my little computer to the Apple store for some more memory and re-install of the OS which I hope clears up some of the goofy stuff it has been doing. Toyota is dead so guess we will just store it at the farm until Doug can arrange to have a new motor put in it. Took the little ‘94 Lexus in for a rehab so it ought to serve us well while each of us is in Oregon in the future for visits.

Got my Thai visa at the Thai consolate…very easy and quick…1 year multi-entry…good thing Bob was with me cause we used his retirement visa as a back-up to prove that I was going to Thailand as a tourist to visit family. Cost me $175 but is better than going across the border every 15 days or flying in and out every 30 days. You’d think they would make it easier for tourists to go spend money but they are trying to keep out the backpackers who they don’t like very much and who don’t spend much money.

Bob saw his mom for her 90th Bday…we will go up to Portland again next Sunday for a family get together again with her and the rest of the family.

Josh, after a visit from his wife, Amy, this last week, has informed us that they have agreed to go their separate ways. He seemed quite relieved and was actually pretty chipper. Think the worst of the bad feeling was the shock a couple months ago when she left Hong Kong and told him she didn’t think it would work.  We are relieved a decision has been made.

When I get back to the States from Asia next spring I’m going to drive some more stuff down to Oaxaca.  Have looked at so many cars I am now thoroughly confused and can’t even remember the first ones I looked at. :((  As of now it looks like the Toyota Rav4.  Nice highway driving but hardy enough for Oaxaca potholed mountain roads.

Bob and I both leave on Nov 1…he back to his house south of Pattya in Thailand and me for Hong Kong to see son Josh. Doug will leave for Thailand first or second week of November so he will be there by the time I leave Hong Kong for Thailand. So I will see him and Luk on the island of Koh Samui.

There is a huge couchsurfing get-together in Istanbul in May but I just realized I might not be able to make it. My MEX visa is up June 16 and I think they said I needed to come in 30 days before to renew…or whatever it is they make you do. So if I am going to fly back to Oregon, pick up the car, and get down to Oaxaca by the beginning of May, I’ll have to leave Asia about 2-3 weeks before that….in April sometime. I’m thinking out loud here. March and April is hot in Thailand so maybe I’ll roam around Turkey and Syria before flying back to the States. Unless I’m sick of being on the road by that time.

So we have a few friends to visit still and some phone calling to do and should be good to go by Nov 1.

We have been waking up way too early. Maybe just good prep for the impending time change/jet lag.

Truth is universal if not absolute.  Aikido is a martial art founded in the early 1900’s by a Japanese man, Morihei Ueshiba, who wanted to teach a way for people to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. To control the aggression of an attacker with caring and without inflicting harm.

I am reminded that about 30 years ago, at a mind/body conference, I took part in an Aikido workshop led by George Leonard (for further study read “Education and Ecstasy, The Ultimate Athlete (which deals at length with aikido) and The Silent Pulse.) A 3rd dan Aikikai practitioner, Leonard was a particularly charismatic practitioner and my experience with him would have a profound effect on me for the rest of my life.

Wikipedia:  <em>The word “aikido” is formed of three kanji:

* 合 - ai - joining, unifying, harmonizing
* 気 - ki - spirit, life energy
* 道 - dō - way, path

Aikido is often translated as “the Way of unifying (with) life energy”[1] or as “the Way of harmonious spirit.”[2]

Aikido is performed by blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on. This requires very little physical energy, as the aikidōka (aikido practitioner) “leads” the attacker’s momentum using entering and turning movements.</em>

and

<em>One applies aiki by understanding the rhythm and intent of the attacker to find the optimal position and timing to apply a counter-technique. Historically, aiki was mastered for the purpose of killing; however in aikido one seeks to control an aggressor without causing harm.[2] The founder of aikido declared: “To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.”[6] A number of aikido practitioners interpret aikido metaphorically, seeing parallels between aikido techniques and other methods for conflict resolution.</em>

Now I don’t propose we all become control freaks and walk around in a defensive posture (which sometimes invites attack) but there was something particularly powerful in being taught this “attitude” using both a mind and body analogy.

 A friend posted this on a couchsurfing forum today.

Anekantavada, the doctrine of non-absolutism, a multi-dimensional approach is of paramount importance in today’s troubled times.  Anekant is a basic principle of Jainism dealing with the multiple nature of reality. It deals with particular aspects, but does not deny the existence of other attributes or qualities.

Anekant means non-insistence on one’s view-point only. In the world of philosophy this doctrine adopts the policy of ‘coexistence,’The fundamental principle of Anekantvada is to tolerate others’ views or beliefs; one should not only try to discover the truth in one’s own views or beliefs, but also in other’s views and beliefs.  Anekantvada establishes the truth not by rejecting the partial views about reality but by taking all of them into consideration.

Anekāntavāda also does not mean compromising or diluting ones own values and principles. On the contrary, it allows us to understand and be tolerant of conflicting and opposing views,while respectfully maintaining the validity of ones own view-point.

Lord Mahavir stressed  freedom of expression through his unique doctrine of Anekantvad i.e. the “Principle of multiple views. It discards absolutism of thought. It propounds mutual understanding. Anekantvad teaches the lesson of religious tolerance, which is essential to remove the present air of hatred and conflict prevalent on the national and international arenas. Views are bound to differ, because we are guided by different conditions. Hence, it is wrong to think oneself absolutely right and all others absolutely wrong.  Such an outlook is imperialism in thought.

The world is sharply divided into multiple opposite camps.There is an ‘either . . . or’ in world politics. Peace, therefore, demands a new logic, a new outlook. Had the world leaders adopted the philosophy of Anekantof Lord Mahavir to understand others’ points of view, the mental reservations, misunderstanding and clashes would have been banished and an era of global peace would have prevailed.

Non-absolutism is the ideology of a new civilization of peace and non-violence. The ‘all or none’ approach has brought us to the brink of total annihilation, hence the non-absolutist approach in thought, word and deed is the only way before us.

For more :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekantavada

Anekanta is a Sanskrit word anekānta (manifoldness) and vāda (school of thought)

Peace for all

Disclaimer: The intent of post is not to propagate the Jain religion.

No one shot, wounded or jailed! That makes headlines, although I heard that some APPO people who wanted to protest were knocked around by the police, and so were the photographers taking their pictures.

URO, the Governor, had on hand 1500 cops, some in uniform and some plain clothes. He delivered the Grito dressed in a  New York-Miami suit, standing on the balcony of the former government palace now a museum, waving the Mexican flag.

A friend reports that in Zaachila, a nearby pueblo, one of the strongest movement towns, there were two Gritos delivered, one official by the municipal president Noe Perez, and the second alternative-popular. Azael Santiago Chepi, Sec General of Section 22 gave the alternative Grito speech. He is quoted as calling on the people to prepare themselves for the coming revolution  “which does not necessarily  have to be armed, but is a transformative consciousness raising force of the people to achieve a better level of life in all areas”.

Chepi was backed by the Zaachila Education Front which consists of 19 education institutions in the municipality , which chose girl students  to perform the national anthem  and one of them shouted the Vivas, which after the historic figures ended ¡Viva Mexico! ¡Viva Zaachila! ¡Viva el Frente Educativo Zaachilense!

In his speech Chepi added that people have to prepare themselves for the great revolution awaiting us. “it is the struggle that we teachers have to wage in every community: awaken the consciousness of our students, find solidarity with the parents, contact the true governors of the peoples such as the great grandfathers or councilors of elders, because the movement is in the phase of gathering force…. diversity makes us stronger, ideological concurrence makes us stronger too, to find points of agreement in this battle against the repressive governor; we have to prepare ourselves  because more complex situations are approaching where surely we will know how to reply to whatever aggression.”

He commented on the police presence in the Oaxaca capital zocalo which was “to gurad an attempt at a festivity which is not of the Oaxaqueños, but to the contrary, is put in play by all the repressive forces that reside in the state; likewise public plazas in the entire country because of the Mexican government´s fear of social dissent which day by day becomes generalized in the face of evident failure of neoliberal policy.”

“For the past nine months, ever since a certain somebody seized the White House, conservative pundits have dominated the ranks of nonfiction. There have been plenty of golden oldies, such as Bill O’Reilly (”A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity”), Ann Coulter (”Guilty”), Bernard Goldberg (”A Slobbering Love Affair”) and Joe Scarborough (”The Last Best Hope”). But it’s the relative newcomers — Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Dick Morris and Michelle Malkin — who’ve put a stranglehold on the top 10.

It would be easy enough, and rather predictable, to lament this state of affairs and to find in it evidence of an anemic literary culture, a dangerously aggrieved minority, or at the very least the diabolical efficacy of bulk sales.

But such liberal cant totally misses the point. Having spent the past two weeks in what I might call a spiritual communion with these authors, I can assure you that these texts are not the psychotic, fact-challenged rants of the mad, but carefully crafted metafictions in which the mundane terrors of cultural dislocation are recast as riveting epics of paranoia.

As such, they fit into a long literary tradition, one that extends from the rhapsodic delusions of “Don Quixote” to the airborne toxic events of Don DeLillo, from the surreal prophecy of Revelations to the post-apocalyptic visions of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” Though written in different eras and wildly divergent styles, these works are all about the incursion of sinister forces on an unsuspecting populace.

Which brings us back to Beck and Co. Rather than accepting the standard narrative — that a disillusioned electorate rejected eight years of conservative mismanagement in favor of a pragmatic (and frankly wonky) Democrat with an inspirational pedigree — they have created a vivid “counternarrative” in which the events of November 2008 represent a coup d’état. Actually, Malkin regards the arrangement as an oligarchy, while Levin goes all in with nascent totalitarianism. Either way, you get the point. The point is danger, urgency, what we in the fiction biz call “stakes.’” It goes on.

I might be out in left field (so to speak) but reading this article, I was imagining how similar the paranoia on the far right is to the paranoia on the far left. Hmmm. Newt Gingrich’s goal was to foment the “cultural equivalent of civil war” (as stated by Robert Reich in On Reason.

I am wondering if what we have in Obama is another Czar Nicholas II…(who introduced the original glastnost and freed the serfs and we know what happened to both Nicholas and President Lincoln.)

In those days in Russia gradual reform was seen by the revolutionaries on the left as leaving people satisfied with the status quo…wanting society to coil like an overtightened spring so that when it popped, it would break. The Bolsheviks got what they wished for after they assassinated Nicholas II and the rest is history.

In the 1960’s, 100 years after Nicholas II, the revolutionaries in the U.S. thought they had their chance but failed. Now we have revolution coming from the right that is spawning violence that makes the the radical leftist Weathermen look like babes. I am reminded what the Russian anarchist Bakunin said about revolutionary change…that revolutionary change must not come from authoritarian methods but libertarian ones.

It feels like now in the U.S. the liberals are caught in no man’s land and change is being co-opted by the far right, most often by voice and pen but increasingly by violence precipitated by a feeling of cultural displacement by a liberal black president and could result in a disastrous 2012 election. Alaska has had a separatist movement going for years which Palin and her husband has been implicated in supporting. Palin anyone?

But don’t make the mistake of thinking this is something only recent. It has been fomenting since the Continental Congress and the Civil War which we are essentially still fighting. Rep Joe Wilson from South Carolina who called Obama a liar (he was wrong) during his speech to Congress is a secessionist and one of only seven Republicans to go against their own party and vote to keep the Dixie Rebel flag flying over the South Carolina capitol. So much for reconstruction.

A farmer, my own father who I loved dearly, used to read really scary far right wing literature to the eternal embarrassment of my mother who wouldn’t let him read the stuff in the house so he had to sit outside. As a small girl I would ride with him in his pick-up truck as he made the rounds…whispering in low tones with his farmer friends who were all members of a national far right-wing farmer group that I can’t remember the name of. I used to hear him say that if the “govment” ever came to his house he would shoot the hell out of them. And then I worked for state government for 10 years.

No one talks about the Ku Klux Klan anymore, but their off-shoots like the White Aryan supremacist survivalists and their militias have been digging shelters and stockpiling arms for years. Kirk Lyons attended Pete Peters’ 1992 gathering at Estes Park, Colorado that is widely credited with giving birth to the militia movement. At the session, he led discussions on how to establish common-law courts throughout the country.

Rep Joe Wilson is director of a North Carolina legal organization called the CAUSE Foundation, (whose initials ostensibly stand for Canada, Australia, United States and Europe — everywhere that white people are established) describes itself as a defender of unpopular causes and the powerless: “I will always support the rights of radicals,’’ Lyons has said. “The more radical they are, the more they need to be supported for their rights. If you take away their rights, we’re all losers.’’ So then we have a yokel who shows up at a Health Reform town hall presided over by Obama with a side-arm in full view strapped to his leg. And the gun lobby buying off the Congress left and right. Who the hell needs an MK47 to hunt?

Actually, Lyons himself is a white separatist who sneers at the current American system. “Democracy in America is a farce and a failure, ’’he once wrote.” It has led us to the brink of a police state.’’ Words that could easily have come from the radical left.

One of these, Tom Metzger, precipitated a hate crime in 1988 when a 28 year old Ethiopian student and father, Mulugheta Serew, who went to the US to attend college, was killed with a baseball bat in Portland, Oregon by three racist skinheads who were members of a group known as East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR). Seraw’s father and son, represented at no cost by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, successfully filed a civil lawsuit against the killers and Tom Metzger, head of WAR, and his son John, holding them liable for the murder for a total of $12.5 million. Meanwhile Metzger said the skinheads did a “civic duty” by killing Seraw. More in “In God’s Country: The Patriot Movement and the Pacific Northwest” Then we have the bombing in Oklahoma, murder of abortion doctors, the stand-off by the Freemen in Montana etc.etc.

On the other hand, Glenn Greenwald,, in Salon.com on the same day as the NY Times booklist article was written, maintains that trying to destroy the presidency of the opposite party is not unprecedented.

“To see that, just look at what that movement’s leading figures said and did during the Clinton years. In 1994, Jesse Helms, then-Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, claimed that “just about every military man” believes Clinton is unqualified to be Commander-in-Chief and then warned/threatened him not to venture onto military bases in the South: “Mr. Clinton better watch out if he comes down here. He better have a bodyguard.” The Wall St. Journal called for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the possible “murder” of Vince Foster. Clinton was relentlessly accused by leading right-wing voices of being a murderer, a serial rapist, and a drug trafficker. Tens of millions of dollars and barrels of media ink were expended investigating “Whitewater,” a “scandal” which, to this day, virtually nobody can even define. When Clinton tried to kill Osama bin Laden, they accused him of “wagging the dog” — trying to distract the country from the truly important matters at hand (his sex scandal). And, of course, the GOP ultimately impeached him over that sex scandal — in the process issuing a lengthy legal brief with footnotes detailing his sex acts (cigars and sex talk), publicly speculating about (and demanding examinations of) the unique “distinguishing” spots on his penis, and using leading right-wing organs to disseminate innuendo that he had an abandoned, out-of-wedlock child. More intense and constant attacks on a President’s “legitimacy” are difficult to imagine.
This is why I have very mixed feelings about the protests of conservatives such as David Frum or Andrew Sullivan that the conservative movement has been supposedly “hijacked” by extremists and crazies. On the one hand, this is true. But when was it different? Rush Limbaugh didn’t just magically appear in the last twelve months. He — along with people like James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Bill Kristol and Jesse Helms — have been leaders of that party for decades. Republicans spent the 1990s wallowing in Ken Starr’s sex report, “Angry White Male” militias, black U.N. helicopters, Vince Foster’s murder, Clinton’s Mena drug runway, Monica’s semen-stained dress, Hillary’s lesbianism, “wag the dog” theories, and all sorts of efforts to personally humiliate Clinton and destroy the legitimacy of his presidency using the most paranoid, reality-detached, and scurrilous attacks. And the crazed conspiracy-mongers in that movement became even more prominent during the Bush years. Frum himself — now parading around as the Serious Adult conservative — wrote, along with uber-extremist Richard Perle, one of the most deranged and reality-detached books of the last two decades, and before that, celebrated George W. Bush, his former boss, as “The Right Man.’”

But those folks (with the exception of Pat Robertson (who I believe got the ball rolling with the populist Christian fundamentalist sector) were inside-the-beltway hacks. How many people read their books? I argue now that the difference is that the radio and TV pundits are reaching far more people (Rush with 7 million listeners) who are personally affected by the economic downturn, are and have been feeling culturally displaced and have a real stake in the outcome of a threatening Black presidency. (Who really cared about Clinton’s sperm on that blue dress.) We really should be ignoring them which I think is the point Greenwald is trying to make. But I blame the mainstream media for hopping on the ratings train and giving air time and even more influence to these people who are essentially media personalities on an ego and money trip.

What upsets me, is that these far right “pundits” are using hate speech that, wittingly or unwittingly, foments hatred and violence. No different than yelling “fire” in a crowded theater. They should be held responsible for the violence that I believe they have precipitated already. Some have salient ideas that without the inflammatory name-calling (Obama is a Hitler and a communist) could result in rational discourse. But we have radio and TV ratings to tend to. We have to entertain and cater to a basically uninformed and civically illiterate populace.

So the revolutionaries and anarchists don’t have to do anything but sit back and watch society coil like an overtightened spring so that when it pops, it will break.

Heaven forbid we should have a cool rational wonky president trying to reform a system with his hands tied behind his back by lobbyists, corporations and financial institutions with their billions. And to make it worse the Supreme Court is about to rule that a corporation is an individual. They are about to grant corporations the right to spend unlimited amounts of money to attack political candidates right up until an election, which would destroy the very fabric of our voting structure…such as it is.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Obama expected this kind of opposition. We are a very resilient society and ultimately I have to trust that we will find our way through this.

But Obama is becoming Blacker by the day. I just hope he makes it to the end of his term. The alternative gives me shivers.

But more than that he worked tirelessly for ALL Americans. I remember his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last summer, even when we knew he was dying of brain cancer.

For me this is a season of hope — new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few — new hope.And this is the cause of my life — new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.

After the death of John, when I was a little older and more politically aware, I, however, thinking we had a second chance, was personally most shattered and disappointed by the assassination of Bobby of whom Teddy said at his eulogy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York:

“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it,” Mr. Kennedy said, his voice faltering. “Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world.

”Teddy, perhaps, although not as mythically loved, was foreshadowing his own legacy.

R.I.P.

My husband wrote me and our three sons an email the other day telling us what he wants done with his body if something happens to him in Thailand…where he lives…where he has regular bouts of road rage…while driving…or dodging threatening cars while on his motorbike. I have to admit, drivers are worse in Thailand than they are in Mexico and that is saying something!

My husband:

I just stumbled onto a site re USA embassy procedure for a death of a US citizen in Thailand. The embassy makes an effort to notify the next of kin, coordinates wishes re transfer of the remains, organizes and disperses the personal property and forwards all the official necessary documents.

Not always a palatable subject but I do have some preferences: -no need to transfer any remains — arrange for a cremation in Thailand, ashes left under a tree anywhere.  And prefer no memorial service. - I have little personal property of any value in Thailand (beatup pickup, obsolete computers, generic TV, poorly functional gold clubs and misc shorts, T-shirts and sandals). I will arrange for local dispersal.

I am registered with the embassy and receive their periodic updates, warnings etc. It is a worthwhile feature. Statistically, most likely, I will be around for a while. But an accident –esp with my motorbike riding is always a possibility so when I saw what the embassy does I just wanted to express common sense wishes.

Also in Thailand the medical profession goes to inappropriate heroic measures to prolong life.  Shutting off a ventilator is apparently not an option so step in if I am incapacitated and veging inappropriately…

Not anticipating checking out anytime soon but just wanted to simplify any decision making……..

A friend recommended Effexor for road rage but received no comment…:))

Son number 1 who lives in Las Vegas:

Ok.

As long as we’re on the topic.

My preferences.

I want to be buried in the middle pasture at Black Butte Ranch. I’ve often thought about this. It’s the happiest and most serene and most beautiful place I can ever remember.

I dont care if it’s my whole body, but I think the BB folks would NOT be cool with something like this (full burial in public w/o permission with guests passing by with frowning faces) so it will probably have to be clandestine. So that means cremation and then plunk me under a cow pie somewhere while no one else is aware of whats going on.

Im serious. I dont want a headstone. I dont want to be in some no name cemetery.

As far as my belongings, I dont care about any of it. Disperse it, share it, trash it. It wont matter to me. My estate attorney, he’ll help with all that.

Ok. Got it? Black Butte Ranch. Cremated. Buried in the pasture, maybe a couple meters off the bike path that cuts across it. NO sign or maker. I just want to be where I can see the sisters, Mt Washington and Jeff.

K?

Got it?

Good. Im not kidding.

Afterward, hike up Black Butte, stand at the top breath the clean eastern oregon air and think, “it’s good to be alive and not under a cow pie!”

You dont all have to be there, but at least got to be one of you otherwise it wont happen.

(My day is coming, just like everyone else’s)

Then son number 2 who is married to a Thai wife and lives in Thailand:

creamate me, add the ashes to soil, grow a pot plant and my friends can smoke me.

Not a peep from son number 3 who lives in Hong Kong…yet…:))

I told my husband that in Mexico, where I am, any unclaimed bodies are cremated…no charge! :)) Of course all this is predicated on at least one of us being around to honor various wishes.:))

But all is duly noted..and recorded here…:))  Mainly so as to not drive future genealogists crazy who would uselessly be looking for headstones.

The case of JUAN MANUEL MARTINEZ MORENO, incarcerated for the murder of Indymedia journalist Brad Will in Oaxaca October 2006, is being railroaded by the Mexican government in Oaxaca.

Moreno’s next court hearing to have the case dismissed for lack of credible evidence will be held in Federal court in Oaxaca IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS.

Significantly, case of Brad Will’s murder was singled out by the U.S. Congress when they passed the 1.4 billion funding bill for the Merida Initiative in July 2008 (popularly called Plan Mexico to help Mexico fight the “drug war,”) calling in that bill for “progress in conducting a thorough, credible, and transparent investigation to identify the perpetrators of this crime and bring them to justice” as a condition for 15% of the funds. (more…)

1/3 of all prescriptions by a doctor ever get filled…which means that

2/3 of all people who get prescriptions never even go to the pharmacy

Of the 1/3 of people who get their prescriptions filled…

Only 1/3 will take it as directed

Which means that

1/9 of all prescriptions are getting filled and taken as directed.

Source:  my anesthesiologist son. Don’t know his source.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html

Suddenly, I am realizing what the answer is to the fact that so many  people I have seen all over the world, in deepest poverty, in wretched conditions, no  choices, no expectations, with or without a faith in a religion, generally seem so happy and joyful.

I’ve always thought that disappointed expectations (which is really the desire to control our lives) is what makes us unhappy. Buddhism, as my friend Jiraporn says, says just accept…in fact all religions preach surrender.  Maybe it doesn’t matter what makes you surrender, or what you surrender to…God or the 12 steps, or the gods, or nature or the laws of the universe.  Maybe there is an inherent wisdom deep in all societies that we need to surrender to be happy and the concept of God is a “synthetic” construct to encourage this…or demand it as the case may be.

Have always felt, on an intellectual level,  that the whole concept of a God seemed artificial…not in the same sense as Marx thought…but in the sense that we know we need to surrender in the face of mystery, to the need to understand.  It may be that faith in God is just as artificial as a chemical that allows us to transcend an ordinary state of consciousness.  I think that maybe this creates the bliss we feel when we do it…the bliss during a born again experience is the same bliss we feel during meditation. For me anyway. I know. But whatever, opening the “doors of perception” and letting go at times seems to be a universal need.

At the same time, it doesn’t mean that we surrender to abusing spouses, corrupt governments or poverty.  It doesn’t mean that we surrender to ignorance.  We still will explore the universe and the laws of nature and man itself.  It is just the basic attitude in the meantime while we ponder the choices we do have to improve and move life forward. The trick is to realize what improvement means and what moves us forward and what doesn’t…politically or personally.  And the ability to feel happy in the meantime. Our Declaration of Independence guaranteed our freedom to pursue happiness.  It just didn’t tell us how. Maybe they were wise.

We practice surrender when we meditate and then it becomes a habit. Just sitting down and letting go of the stimulants of the outside world  helps us to practice surrender…maybe doesn’t matter what technique we use…a mantra, a prayer…our breath. Maybe we use faith.

Letting go of the expectation that a certain outcome will make us happy (more money, a perfect spouse) makes us feel invulnerable on the inside to life’s whims. Then  ”bad” outcomes can not touch  our interior…our ability to feel happy and secure. Fear of a bad outcome makes us feel more pain than the outcome itself.

When we were counseling foreign exchange students and host families when you were in high school we told them not to judge an experience as bad or good.  It is just an experience that we learn from. We don’t allow it to knock us off our feet.  Of course that is easy to say when we are not in the middle of an event. But things always work out, I always say, not just the way we expect.

Couple more things to leave you with:

“When do you know your God is man-made?
When he hates the same people you do.”

The Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a
battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son,
The battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.
One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow,
regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment
inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

“The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,
empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute
and then asked his grandfather,
“Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

These are just my thoughts.  You get to choose.

Update:  You might like to check out the comments to this post.

Ernesto Reyes Martinez, an editor for Noticias Voz e Imagen de Oaxaca and radio correspondent for the program Hoy por Hoy” on radio XEW, was grabbed by members of the 9th Infantry Battalion, subjected to violent handling and held for an hour and a half. This occurred at 9:30 AM on Monday July 20. Reyes was not involved in any criminal act. He was riding in his car with his wife, trying to take photos with his cell phone of men of the State Investigative Agency (AIE). The newspaper Noticias says he was taking photos of “an unusual event” when he was stopped. The unusual event seems to have been an extortion attempt (police do this to get bribe money) operating on the highway. The first press release (July 21) indicated that extortion was involved;  the second article, put out by the National Commission for Human Rights and the National Center for Social Communication, (CENCO in its Spanish initials)  focused only on Reyes.

I am assuming that since Reyes is affiliated with Noticias, the account they printed is his.

Combining accounts,  Reyes observed five individuals chasing a man on a bicycle. The chase vehicles made the bicyclist stop. Reyes got out of his car and took photos with his cell phone camera. His car was thirty meters from a military post, a check-point on highway 190 which inspects vehicles for drugs and guns. However, at that moment the barrier was not operating because the soldiers were inside eating breakfast.

After he was stopped, 14-18 armed soldiers appeared and arrested the police participants in the chase. Reyes and Reyes’ wife were as also detained. Everyone was held in the military encampment, where Reyes’ cell phone was confiscated.  Reyes identified himself and told the military he is a reporter. In addition to his personal cell phone they also took his work phone which belongs to Noticias. The illegal detention lasted an hour and a half while he remained incommunicado, although his wife was released after half an hour without her cell phone.  According to the first report, Reyes’ personal identification was also retained.

Weapons of the AIE police were also confiscated. The police were released,  along with another  presumed accomplice in extortion who had been taken earlier, after the State Attorney General’s office came to get them.

After Reyes and his wife were released,  the reporter lodged a formal complaint with CENCO,  which responds to aggression against reporters.

In 2009, up until June 30, the 147 acts of aggression against free communication registered with CENCO  (i.e., national numbers) included five murders, six demands to stop (reporting or broadcasting), 32 intimidations and threats, 10 attempts to harm, 46 physical assaults, and 14 kidnappings. These figures indicate a rise in crimes against the news media and reporters.

In 2008, 223 cases of obstruction of speech and communication occurred through direct and indirect aggressions. Thirty-six radio stations were smashed.  85.1% of the attacks were against journalists; 14.7% were against media. The states which had the highest incidence of crimes against reporters and news media were the Federal District (Mexico DF) with 15.3% , followed by Oaxaca with 11.7% (this data is from Informe Buendia 2008). In third place  was Veracruz with 9.9%, then Chiapas with 7.2%, then Tamaulipas and Hidalgo with 4% each. The northern states’ media also get threatened not only by government agents but also by narcotraffickers.

In addition to Ernesto Reyes, Manuel León López of the News Agency “Reflexión Informativa Oaxaca” was recently attacked, on April 2, 2009.  In fine rhetoric,  state director of the Convergencia political  party, Mario Arturo Mendoza Flores, demanded an immediate halt to actions “orchestrated by the government of Ulises Ruiz against reporters dedicated to freedom of expression and against the media they represent.”  Taking advantage of an opportunity to attack the rival political party of the PRI, Mendoza Flores said ,  “This constitutes a clear demonstration that the only form of governing that Ruiz Ortiz has left to him is the billy-club and deployment of many police wherever he is or will  pass; therefore the  ordinary Oaxaqueño who has a tranquil conscience endures fear and difficulty in moving about.… If recognized journalists suffer this type of aggression, you can imagine what happens to ordinary citizens.”

Some military personnel may not know how to read (or understand the significance of) Reyes’ identification; soldiers are often recruited from the very lowest level of national education, and they are not well trained either as soldiers or as readers. Possibly the military didn’t distinguish Reyes from any other person. They beat up on everyone; that’s normal.

And where have the extortionists gone?

Tlaxiaco (IPA: /tla.’xia.ko/) is a Nahuatl name containing the elements tlachtli (ball game), quiahuitl (rain), and -co (place marker). It thus approximates to “Place where it rains on the ball court”. Its name in the Mixtec language is Ndijiinu, which means “good view.” Population about 20,000. 600 taxis…most of them illegal.

The city is formally known as Heroica Ciudad de Tlaxiaco (”heroic city”) in honour of a battle waged there during the 1862–67 French invasion.

Three and half hours in a comfortable van into the Mixteca Alta northeast of Oaxaca City with my friend Paula who has been here this past year teaching English to second graders in a private school. We met friends Max, Sandy and Budd there who came up the next day. Stayed in a beautiful recently remodeled hotel across from the plaza with a huge German clock installed in 1947…one of several in the Mixtec area…and it was working and on time!

Saturday was the weekly rotating market day so the plaza was full of vendors selling just about everything possible that began setting up 4-5am…including outside my hotel window I might add. Side streets full of women vendors selling huge pots of posole, chicken soup, big fat tamales, memelas, atole, cafe de olla (sweet coffee made in a pot…we called it sheep camp coffee when I was growing up). I bought a big pottery casserole with lid for 30 pesos…about $2.50 and a smaller one with lid for 20 pesos.

Toward evening we took a taxi ride up a hill so we could look out over the valley…stopping for blanco mescal for Max (ugh) before heading back to the hotel and something to eat.

Sunday, after a buffet of chilaquilles, beef burria, scrambled eggs and ham etc etc…and some of the best Mexican hot chocolate we’ve ever had, (the coffee tasted like dishwater as my mother used to say) Paula and I walked up to the house where Lila Downs, the famous Oaxacan singer, grew up…Paula knowing them because she had spent several weeks in the village during college.

Paula had wanted to see an old friend who owned a tienda…but about 20 days before we got there he had been drinking and fell and hit his head and died…a sad disappointment. But we had several nice conversations with other locals some of whom had worked in the states before and wanted to practice their English.

Then we took another taxi ride through the valley before scrambling on the van back to Oaxaca City…Sandy and Budd having gone on before us.

Quiet and friendly, none of us wanted to leave.

On the way there, along a winding dirt road, we passed a raggedy little kid…about 6…on an old bicycle…with a little piggy mask on!  A heart-warming sight not to forget.

The mid-term elections are being held today so no alcohol sold yesterday or today.  Same in Thailand as I remember.

Today I am going with my friend Gerardo to Mica and Bardo’s in Huayapam again today for a party.  It is son Pavel’s graduation from secondary school to high school and Angelita’s graduation from primary school to secondary school.  Gerardo is taking mescal.

Always something happening in Oaxaca.

The military coup in Honduras is providing an unexpected test of Mexico’s immigration and refugee policies. On Friday, July 3, dozens of Honduran nationals arrived at a church-run migrant shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca seeking refugee status because of the political situation in their
country.

Alejandro Solaline Guerra, spokesman for the Mexican Episcopal Conference, said a group of Hondurans sought assistance at the House of Mercy inCiudad Ixtepec on the Tehuantepec Peninsula. The migrant advocate said the bishops’ organization will contact the National Migration Institute to request refugee status for the Hondurans under international law.

“Migrants from a country in a state of war should not be denied refugee status,” Solaline declared.

The Honduran political crisis could aggravate an already-conflictive situation in Mexico’s southern border region. Despite the international economic crisis, thousands of Central Americans and other Latin migrants continue crossing the country’s southern border en route to the United States. Along the way, migrants remain a favorite target of corrupt Mexican officials and bands of organized criminals.

A report from Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) last month documented the kidnappings in Mexico of nearly 10,000 Latin American migrants, mainly from Central America, from September 2008 to February 2009. At least 157 women were among the victims; two women were murdered and others raped, according to the CNDH.

In the latest case to the hit the national press, the Mexican Army and law enforcement officials from Tabasco and Chiapas states detained 8 alleged kidnappers last week. A Honduran national, Francisco Handall Polanco, was among the group of alleged Zetas gang members arrested. Accused of holding 51 migrants against their will at a ranch in Tabasco, the group reportedly demanded ransoms reaching $5,000 from family members in return for releasing loved ones.

Once in the hands of authorities, migrants from Honduras and other nations are usually quickly deported. Emilio Chavez, director of the pro-migrant Sin Fronteras organization, charged that Mexico maintains a “double standard” when it comes to  migrant issues. While pressuring the United States to improve its treatment of Mexican migrants, Mexico fails to protect Central Americans within its own borders, Chavez contended.

If the Honduran crisis drags on, Mexico could see greater-than-expected numbers of migrants on its southern border. The Mexican Episcopal Conference’s Solaline said more Hondurans are reportedly on their way to Oaxaca. Identified only as “Janet,” an 18-year-old Honduran already in Ciudad Ixtepec described the situation in her country as grim.

“Schools are closed and the hospitals have no medicine,” she said, adding that electricity and propane gas shortages were also a problem.

Sources: La Jornada, July 4, 2009. Articles by Octavio Velez, Emir
Olivares and Angeles Mariscal. El Universal, July 4, 2009. Article by
Oscar Gutierrez. Cimacnoticias.com, July 3, 2009. Article by Alejandra
Gonzalez. CNDH.org.mx

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico

And of course many of those Honduran immigrants who manage to get across the Mexican border will end up in the U.S.

Then there are the band concerts in the Zócalo in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday generally starting at 6pm. Noon concerts on Wednesday and Saturday.

The Oaxacan State Band Concert plays weekly on Sunday in the Zocalo

A wonderful tradition, there is Danzón with the Marimba Band weekly on wednesdays at 6 :30pm in the Zocalo.  A tradition imported from Cuba, the danzón is a stately dance with syncopation. The citizens of Oaxaca gather weekly to dance and watch the dancers.There is a Jazz Concert weekly on Saturday from 5-7 in the Centro Arte Biulu.  Last night I went with my friend Jae to listen to her saxaphonist partner, Miguel,  play with his band after a video movie of the great Coltrane.

There is an Open Mike for Poets and Musicians weekly on Tuesdays at 8pm  at La Nueva Babel

Last Tuesday, June 30 - 8 pm - You had your choice between a free Organ Concert: Claudia Reyes Saldaña Basílica de la Soledad, or the Dance Group from Ciénega, Zimatlan at the Casa de la Cultura Oaxaquena

On Thursday, July 09 - 4 pm - A free Dance Group from the Mixteca (Huajuapan de Leon) in the Jardín el Pañuelito will perform…an event that had been previously delayed by the swine flu.

Friday, July 10 - 8 pm - Free Concert: Colegio de Oaxaca Chorus at Colegio de Oaxaca. The chorus under the direction of Christophe LaFontaine will perform works by Bach, Bruchner, Dowland, Mozart among others.

Saturday, July 11 - 4 pm - Free Dance: Music, Dance and Costumes of the Mixteca at the Jardín el Pañuelito Constitución & 5 de Mayo

Sunday, July 12 - 5 to 7pm - $50 pesos at the door Jazz in a Tropical Garden at the Casa Colonial Miguel Negrete 105 with Miguel Samperio (my friend’s partner), Charles Gray, Pablo Porras and Ornell Martinez and some of the best margueritas in town.

Monday, July 20 - 10 am & 5 pm - $400 pesos Guelaguetza 2009 at the Guelaguetza Stadium which you can see from my apartment veranda.

Friday, July 24 - 8 pm - $100 pesos Dance: Hilos de Viento at the Teatro Juárez
Av. Juárez at Llano Park

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, for the month.

My maid works 4 hours a week…and often cooks so I can learn to cook Oaxacan food…for about $15 a week.  The big thing is picking up the rugs and sweeping and mopping the dust off all these floors which I pick up on my feet and track onto the sheets. Quite a luxury.

I’ve been saving $ for travel.. Living among people who have little to spend kind of rubs off.  I get huffy when the taxi wants to charge 5 pesos more than he should. (about 25 cents.)

I have a friend, Paula, from Minneapolis, who has been here a year teaching English to 2nd graders in a private school.  She has this week to go and then she’s finished so we are planning on a couple overnight visits to mountain villages.  Will be nice to get out of the city.  These mountains are beautiful and besides I miss being in the mountains. But she’s going back on July 15 so will miss her when she’s gone.  Maybe it’s time to sign up for some language classes.:((

I got my visa…unlimited coming and goings…if I want to renew at the end of a year I have to go back to immigration 30 days before the end date…which will be sometime in May of 2010. I saved $200 again this time by doing it myself instead of using somebody.

People were practicing indigenous dancing in the park today along with music from a band to get ready for Gueleguetza in July.  So I got serenaded for free.

Looks like the Iran thing will peter out for the moment…but guess there is a split among the clerics. And looks like  Amadinejad will still be the one Obama will have to deal with.