What is at the point of the spear? The edge of the knife? It is nothing.
Something, the metal, the material, what ever, sharpened to the point of nothingness. Behind the edge everything. Infront of the edge nothing.
And it is the more of nothing which makes the spear and the knife something.
Like our world: everything we see, the substance, the material. It is the nothing at the edge of the something. This nothingness makes our world everything!
Why? Because the strategy is short term focused, and forgets about what is really going on: a nation of disgruntled people with not much else to do, except wait for an exceptionally bleak future to roll over them. This disgruntled state is giving birth to the violent factions we now endeavor to “remove”.
Sending in brute force to quell the institute tribes of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan is akin to the invasion of Vietnam by the US in the 60’s and 70’s. That particular war failed because the local embedded defence forces knew what they wanted: to defend their home lands from invaders, to win at all costs. To fail was to loose not only their lives, but the identity of their people, their nation, everything they stood for. Their lives were secondary in this battle. The Taliban – and Al Qaeda – will do the same. Suicide bombers, bombings of public places like bars and accommodation units occurred in Vietnam as well – a dear friend of mine still has pieces of a grenade coming out of his body from one such attack by a child. These acts weren’t called “terrorist activities”.
The second much more fundamental reason for the failure that will become Afghanistan is the ancient knowledge that like-begets-like: bring in severe force against a group will only instil more retaliatory brute force in kind.
Additonally, local support from non-violent groups will tend to favour the local tribes, rather than the “invading” occupying forces and as the war drags on, this support will increase.
The World’s Fight Against Terror (it should be termed the “fright against terror”) means nothing to the people of Afghanistan. Food, basic shelter, education and a future to look forward to are their concerns.
So what is the answer? Again an ancient saying: “turn the other cheek”. Some 2,000 years old in some texts. Now I don’t mean walk away. Far from it.
Here is what will work: the US forces become a security force, an advanced form of police that enters the country with a specific task, not of attacking Taliban tribal groups (like Al Qaeda), but tasked with the defence of social and welfare infrastructure. This social welfare infrastructure is built in parallel – a Grand Master Plan – and defended by the defence initiative. This defence force will also protect the personal and private assets of individuals, thus allowing entrepreneurialism to flourish – a vital component of the establishment of a long term viable solution for the people of the region.
US money, UN money, world money, is spent to raise the standard of living for the Afghan people: to build and run schools, hospitals, sanitation, water supplies. Establish enterprises to grow and supply food, training, materials, trade, training. In short a future. Doing this will improve the living standard and the outlook for a people who presently have very little to look forward to, and will endear these people to those protecting them and this future.
I’m talking about rebuilding an entire social environment, building a nation, something that will be sustainable for the next 1,000 years! (Why not? We know what works and what doesn’t). (Sustaining the culture and lifestyle is an important element of this process).
What will happen if this is done? Well the Taliban’s key strategy now: suicide bombings will dwindle and become defunct. Why? Because prospect recruits will have an alternative: a future, something to drive them to live, not to die. Right now they have a bleak future, and with the oncoming escalation of war, of violence, even less to look forward to. Thus, with my proposed alternative strategy, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda will shrink: 1) because they will use up their resources (by blowing themselves up), 2) because recruiting will become harder and harder, there is a better alternative, and 3) because their like will defect, because of the better lives they can see growing up around them. Ultimately the need for them existing as an extremist group will cease to have any purpose.
Going in now with the intent to “crush the Taliban” will simply not work.
US President, Barak Obama, yesterday or even today stated “we have a clear goal to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and prevent their return to either country in the future”. This is a futile and near sighted goal for the reasons I have outlined above.
OK, so let’s answer another question: what about the financial benefits of waging war outside your homeland. I go into this in detail at this post: The Business of War. The argument is that, in the short term, war makes is good financially for a nation. Not in the long term.
What is the main resistance to the build and defend strategy I have outlined? It is the status quo, inertia and simply human practice.
Nation building is the newest and boldest of human strategies that we may – or may not – be ready for.
Think of the increase in national GDP if public services were provided in foreign lands rather than the destruction, death and disarray brought by the mightiest defence force on the planet? (The US Navy is larger than the next 13 largest navies combined, and 11 of these are allies or partners).
Will it be hard to stay focused? Yes. Will it be hard not to ignore the innocent deaths that occur whilst the building commences? (There will civilian companies engaged in the infrastructure building. Yes it will be. But in the long term the solution will be far superior.
In Iraq right now (2 hours from where I sit), 1 in 3 people live without access to municipal water and only 1 in 5 have access to a sanitation service (sewage). Universities and schools are closed most days, doctors and teachers receive death threats telling them to leave the country, which most have. What is left? Now that the US are pulling out (yes they are – I see it most days on the roads here), what is being left behind? A victory? Bitter sweet indeed.
Yet, a new goal: Afghanistan?
Like the issues with Global Warming facing us, helping a disgruntled and deprived people, and building a nation for them – in their likeness, not ours – is a job for all of us and a challenge for our global society to shake from the shackle of brute force and isolated non-unifying solutions.
Waging war, being aggressive, using force is one of the oldest methods of trying to instil “obedience” or servitude in another. We do it between nations, inside our companies, our institutions, our schools and even within our families.
On a national scale, of course you want to avoid damage to your own civil infrastructure because it’s demoralising for the local population and difficult to justify or manage the truth of the devastation and death that war inevitably brings.
Let’s study the “economic” benefits of war, looking at the USA and the war effort in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For every soldier sent to war outside of the US mainland, what is the increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the country? How much in dollar terms is made, built, spent, acquired to send that single person away to wage war. What benefit does this bring the nation?
Let’s assume that the figure is USD1,000,000 per soldier per year. So if 20,000 troops are deployed in say, Afghanistan that means the GDP of the US increases by 20 billion dollars per year.
Now what does that mean? At a taxation rate of 30%, the government revenue is increased by USD 6 billion. This is more money to spend on health, infrastructure and other home base facilities. That’s good isn’t it?
Assuming that the average US wage is USD30,000, and assuming that half of the USD20billion per year is labour costs (the other half is materials) then that’s 330,000 people who are employed in this process. Isn’t that good as well?
In the short term yes. Very good.
In the long term, no. It’s terrible. It’s a downward spiral into high personal taxation, lowering world living standards, and police states (how else do you hang on to your income source?)
So, from this perspective, a foreign war, in simplistic terms taking the short term view, is good for the economy. And business will do what ever it has to so that it can continue, indeed thrive in times of war. Remember that Coca-Cola, a US company, invented the drink Fanta and sold it through subsidiary owned companies in German during the Second World War. There was an embargo on doing business with Germany – pretty much what is in place now with North Korea and Iran – so they invented Fanta, using ingredients sourced in Germany, to sell because they weren’t permitted to sell Coke. Before April 1917 the US was a neutral power in the Great War (World War I, or the Great War of Europe: 1914 to 1918), and was supplying materials and equipment to both the British and the Germans, despite the blockade that Britain had placed against Germany. During this same Great War, the German company Krupp sold brass to British companies that was turned into shell casings that was used by the British in Europe against German soldiers!
I had a very interesting experience the other night when buying a Viva internet account here in Al Khout, Fahaheel, Kuwait.
It was one of those small shopping kiosks you see spread along the center of the mall.
After I establishing that I wanted a service with Viva and I just pay 24 KD per month, I was told that I would get a free USB wireless dongle. I thought “Great, but I’ve got two laptops…”.
“Can I get two dongles” I asked and the answer was “yes, yes!”
Talking further about the two laptops, it was then explained that a wireless router could be obtained for an additional purchase of 25KD. OK good to know. Not needed by the sounds of it though.
OK, I understand: When I get an account. I get one free USB wireless dongle, apparently another free USB dongle if I ask for it, and if I pay 25KD I get a wireless router. The hardware would give me flexibility running the two X60 laptops my wife and I own.
So I go for it: I set up the account and get my free USB dongle. 2 minutes. Halas. Done! I then ask what about the other one, the other dongle, and yes, I can have one, but that’s another account – another 24KD per month.
Hang on, when I asked can I have another one, you said yes. Hmmm… OK, well that’s no good. I’ve got two laptops.
Just give me the wireless router instead. No problems, 25KD plus 24KD per month.
Huh?
Yes, it’s another account
But I only need one account. Just swap the USB dongle for the router and I’ll pay 25KD.
No, you’ll have to pay 50KD because we’ll have to cancel the account – there’s a 50KD cancellation fee, didn’t you read the contract you just signed?
But you said I’d get another USB dongle with the first account, and if I paid 25 KD I’d get a wireless dongle.
Nope – one bit of hardware, one SIM card. One SIM card – one account. To change you need to cancel the account, paying 50KD, and it can be set up.
But the account is only 30 seconds old?!
Not my problem. Billing look after it now.
Humph!
What happened? I got my wonderful mandoup Bashar Alainieh to sort it out for me: cancelling the first account (the one with the USB dongle) set up a new account (with the router) and not pay the 50KD cancellation fee. I made a note on the new contract documents saying this.
So what was lost in translation: Can I have another one? Of course, but you must pay for it too! 😮
90% Chickens pair up for the mating season, i.e. choosing only one sexual partner.
50% of them split after the mating season (and go on to form other relationships the following season). The other 50% remain with the same sexual partner for successive seasons.
Humans have similar figures: 90% of people choose to have one sexual partner at a time (90% of us marry). Our divorce rate is 50%.
We are animals after all, but chickens?!!
Another interesting information about chickens:
The “pecking order” commences immediately the chickens hatch and is complete by 4 weeks. The order is then set for the rest of their lives. The strongest rooster never gets pecked; the weakest male and the weakest female are pecked constantly (with the weakest of the weak often perishing as a result).
See any similarities?
Is this where things like “Ethnic cleansing” come from?
And then consider, some of the strongest brightest minds who are living and have lived amongst us have issues that wouldn’t put them near the top of the pecking order if they were in a chicken coop: Stephen Hawkins has motor neuron disease, Richard Branson is dyslexic, Carl Sagan died prematurely from illness.
Do we have a fundamental “animal instinct” driving us one way to the “pecking order”, and another, creative expansive desire pushing us another?
I think so, but we’ll need to cross the road to find out!
Here’s an enlightening 1/2 hour audio visual that is well worth watching.
It’s a discussion between Lynne Twist and Deepak Chopra on “Social Profit”, money and butterflies.
Lynne Twist is a San Francisco based social activist who besides raising many hundred of million of dollars for social issues, in particular the Hunger Project, eloquently describes the present state of humanity, and together with Deepak discuss the caterpillar and its transition to a butterfly, and the similarities with today’s’ societies.
The caterpillar voraciously consumes all food in it’s path, in an unconscious automated state, oblivious to the amount that is available – it just eats. That is until the imagines cells inside the caterpillar form in large enough numbers and conglomerate, and a switch occurs. All other cells then become the nutritive soup that feed the imagines cells, and the transformation occurs: from caterpillar to butterfly. Is that where we are now: ravenous caterpillars’ approaching a new phase of development. Lynn and Deepak describe this quite well. (As does this link here: Butterfly Effect)
It’s a pretty good analogy.
And Deepak’s closing remarks: the genetic code responsible for the wings of the butterfly is the same gene code for the beating of the human heart.
Amazing.
Here’s the video:
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2799400187971883211]
Keep in mind these important facts:
God is a verb not a noun, and there are two states for creation: asking and allowing.
I sent this email to Arnold a few days ago.
Hi Arnold,
I don’t know whether to call you Mr Schwarzenegger, Arnold, or Sir, but as I’ve grown up in Australia and formalities, well just aren’t the thing we focus on, so I figure Arnold will do for now.
Today I drove for the first time east along CA-58 and saw an amazing gathering of electrical wind turbines on the western hills of the Mojave Desert.
I’m holidaying in your great state and thoroughly enjoyed the view I saw. I’m presently working in Kuwait managing the building a critical pipeline to keep their production at number 4 in the world, so to see such a plethora of “clean, green energy” product brought a tear to my eye.
I did some quick research to find that these turbines can produce up to 30% of California’s power requirements. Amazing! (I saw a few vacant hills – when will it be 100%?).
I researched some more and was a little dismayed to find limitations on using the electricity created because of infrastructure limitations: the electricity simply cannot be delivered to the users.
See here for more:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0331-01.htm
This is an old article – from 2001, so I do not know if the power transmission lines have been improved to connect the wind farms of the Mojave area to the rest of the Californian electrical grid, however I still saw a large number of inactive turbines, larger than what I would expect to be out for maintenance reasons.
Either way, I salute you for all your efforts, and all the best for the future. I understand that this is your last term as the Governator!.
Jeremiah Josey
www.linkedIn.com/in/jeremiahjosey
It was great to get his reply a few days ago:
—–Original Message—–
From: governor@governor.ca.gov [mailto:governor@governor.ca.gov]
Sent: Thursday, 5 March 2009 11:00 PM
To: jeremiahjosey@gmail.com
Subject: Re:Energy Issues/Concerns
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
California was built by the ingenuity and hard work of its people, and our great state continues to thrive because of their involvement and commitment.
I greatly appreciate receiving input from my fellow Californians about the issues important to them. Taking the time to communicate your opinions and offer suggestions is essential to good citizenship and good government.
Again, thank you for taking the time to write. I value the comments of people like you who care about the future of California.
Sincerely,
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Yesterday I was riding on the Storm Peak Express Ski Lift at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA, sharing that ride with a very felicitous beared fellow. He reminded me very much of the character “Chicken Joe” from that wonderfully light movie Surf’s Up (by Sony Pictures Animation, 2006). My ski lift riding companion was a boarder like his name sake (albeit on snow), and I suspect he may even have been from Wisconsin. ;o)
The conversation began with him asking me “do I know how to relax?” I replied that yes I did, and coming to Steamboat from Kuwait was part of that. We talked some more, about my experience in the Middle East, and then he asked me about my understanding at an intrinsic level of Islam and how it was different to Christianity.
After a few moments thought, I answered that intrinsically the religions are same [and reflecting now, they are similar to each other perhaps like no other religions]. I said that at the core each religion promotes ways in which to behave; towards others, towards ones self. They both promote how to act, how to eat, how to live, how to be. They were both life systems designed to manage the ones ego. They were both life systems spelt out many hundreds (thousands) of years ago by people who practiced what they spoke.
It was a very enlightening conversation for me.
Upon further reflection of the conversation it made me realise just how similar the two religions are. It helped put into perspective for me that the reasons the two religions appear so different is not because of their roots, but because of the layers of interpretation the various tribes and groups have placed upon them over the many years the practices have been in use. This has been influenced by many things: by the need for power, for control over others, by intermingling of local traditions and beliefs, and ultimately by the ego. Ironic because the systems are practices whose ultimate intention is to manage the ego. [I deliberately don’t use the phrase “control” the ego, for the ego cannot be controlled, much like a wave, representing the ego, cannot be controlled, it can only be surfed, or a slope, can only be skied, not changed].
So, in essence, Islam and Christianity are identical life practices. Both promote simple practical means to achieve peace and harmony in ones life, with others and espcially with ones’ self.
This quote summarises the practice very well.
Spread love everywhere you go, but first and foremost in your home. Love your children, your spouse, your neighbour… Let no one who comes to you, leave without being better and happier. Be the living expression of goodness, be it the goodness of your face, goodness of your eyes, goodness of your smile or the goodness of your warm welcome.
Mother Teresa
Helping me to remember: Become conscious. Meditate. Be with God.
When an email is sent or a blog is created, it is the written word that is transmitted – nothing more, nothing less. Many studies have shown that the written word – words – only transmit 10%, at most, of the intended meaning of the communication. My fellow Australian Allan Pease – specifically “body language” – pioneered these studies in the 1970’s. I am sure however that implicit and explicit knowledge has been around as long as we have been around.
So what happens to the rest of the communication? How does the recipient get to 100% of the message, or at least the message they think they get?
We make it up.
Without the balance of the information (the 90%) the recipient will draw on their own database of information to complete the message – to get to 100%.
That means that what is in the recipients database – their mind, their memories, their experiences – will have far more impact on the final message than the original 10% of the orginal message.
Sound like a good chance for miscommunication? Absolutely!
So, what are the chances that the 90% ADDED to the message by the recipient ALIGNS with the Sender?
That depends on one thing: the level of consciousness of the recipient. The message will be lost if the receipt is unconscious. Skewed by bias and innuendo, the recipient will create a message that fits only with their own world view, and will have very little relevance to the senders intended message.
With increasing levels of consciousness, the correctness of the message will approach 100%.
What does this mean – “increasing levels of consciousness”?
Well remember that each human on this planet – that means you and me – is a balance of two things: our conscious beliefs and our unconscious beliefs. An unconscious person draws heavily from their beliefs, their superstitions, their history, their parents, their peers, and the community around them. Are they an active participant in their lives? Not really. Look at them as a leaf in a stream. They will go wherever the stream takes them. Their Self determination is low. Awareness of the world around them – and their involvement in it – is low.
Consider a conscious person, even one in the early stages of awakening. They have assimilated their experiences and even developed their sub-conscious to be a reflection of their conscious self determination. They are either awake, awakening or somewhere in between. They understand their role in creation, their influence and their impact.
So what happens?
An “unconscious”, unaware person builds up the 90% missing information in an unconscious way. So much so, they even believe they are getting 100% of the message from the sender just by reading their words. This is how wars begin: email wars, and real wars…
The conscious person on the other hand, understands the limitations of the communication medium and will either, depending on their level of consciousness, ask questions until they are clear on the communication (an unconscious person will typically be fearful of asking questions for fear of “offending” the sender, or most commonly, being seen to be “ignorant” or a “lesser person”), or the conscious person will be in direct connection with the sender empathetically. But that my friends is another discussion.
Helping me to remember: Become conscious. Meditate. Be with God.
Friday, January 12, 2007, 7:51 am, a man stood at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that about one thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk. A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.
When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100. This is a real story.
Youtube Video
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw&hl=en&fs=1]
Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people.
The outlines were:
In a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour –
Do we perceive beauty?
Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
Helping me to remember: Become conscious. Meditate. Be with God.
