REAL FRIENDS TEACH

My perspective has been changing.

Newsworthy persons and personalities mean less to me than do the folks who empower me by their real presence and honest dialogue in the course of a day.

The "newsworthy" folks, be they entertainers or politicos, are simply stories in the news. I give them minimal credence- even the "good gals" and "good guys". Experience is the best guide; and those people I experience, know, like, and respect are more reliable friends and guides than the storybook personalities of the news.

Storybook characters instruct and act; real friends teach and care.

OCCUPIED IRAQ: AN IRAQI WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE

For a Young Baghdad Woman's Experiences and Perspectives in Occupied Iraq, find her


@ http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

You will find her reports newsworthy.

ASK GANESH

Last night on Independent Film Channel I watched one of the best movies I've seen in awhile, a 1998 movie called "Salaam Bombay!" It is a film about the world of the homeless children and youth in the underworld of Mumbai (formerly, "Bombay").

The film is classic and universal. It could have been made in the les Halles district in Paris, the Tenderloin in San Francisco, the old Wanchai district in Hong Kong, the former Shinjuku district in Tokyo- that part of large cities that attract the prematurely destitute, homeless, helpless, and hopeless: havens for the addicted and those who trade in pleasures of the flesh for sustenance and survival.

In "Salaam Bombay!" the protagonist is Krishna (aka "Chaipau")a homeless preteen, living on the street with other street kids. He earns a few rupees delivering hot chai for a tea-walla. He has a friend Manju, the beautiful daughter of the consort-wife of the handsome, seductive, and cruel drug-lord, Baba (not worthy of a respectful "-ji" at the end of his name). Baba consigns his little girl, Manju, to the street; makes a sex-slave of "sweet sixteen", another friend of Chaipau; fires the drug-runner friend of Chaipau ("drug-runner" eventually "o.d."s on drugs).

At the time of the Festival of Ganesh ("elephant deity"), everything comes to a head. Baba's evil deeds have caught up with him. Because Babas's wife-consort cannot bring herself to kill him, "innocent" Chaipau (Krishna) takes the knife she has dropped and stabs Baba through the back.

I will leave the denoument undiscussed;likewise, the historic detention and social service centers for children. The children at these centers sing devotion to Ganesh...so, perhaps it is best if we let Ganesh, whose memory and love of learning is legend, fill in the rest of the story: after all, Ganesh- with his elephantine nose- tells the best stories. Stories like the Ramayana...and the Mahabharatha.

The story of Homelessness and Children is ancient and very sad. Only Ganesh knows the whole story. But "Salaam Bombay!" speaks to the HEART- as do all good stories: Ask Ganesh. He knows...

BIG CHANGES ARE COMING: A SEA CHANGE

The Ward Churchill Affair at the University of Colorado has caught my interest. Because it involves so many elements- academic freedom, free speech, manipulation of the University by professional politians, misreporting and poor reporting, exploitation of 9/11 emotions, Native American issues, politicization of the student population, neo-McCarthyism, intellectual hazing, interest from many other academic institutions, attempting to tighten the hammerlock on informed dissent at a time of growing student unrest- my sense is that this man's confrontation with entrenched political power is but the beginning of a "sea change" in the nature and quality of contemporary political dissent in the USA. Big changes are in the offing.

Think Peace: TAKE ACTION

Today is CHINESE NEW YEAR: Happy New Year!

I've been home nursing a cold...that isn't what you want to do: "nurse a cold". You want to exterminate a cold, but this one is hanging on a little bit; still, I will exterminate it soon, I hope.

As always when I am "laid up", I lie in bed and do "life review": proverbially kicking myself for all the wrong or misguided things I have done in my life...sort of like picking at scabs. Satisfying in a perverse sort of way, but painful.

In any event, I am ready for a new beginning! Somewhere, deep down, I believe in myself, my integrity, my honesty, my ability. This year (with the aid and powers of GREAT SPIRIT) I shall MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I will THINK PEACE and TAKE ACTION: peace action, the waging of peace in service to a GREATER GOOD.

Bring Our Troops Home

SUPPORT THE TROOPS


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