Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Faith, Race & Integration
I published this article today to report Sheikh Satardien's sound and simple guidance for the challenges of intercultural integration faced by Europe, and indeed the world over
Shaheed Satardien
INTEGRATION on the topic, "Exploring the Role that Faith & Race can play in the integration of culures."
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Waterwise landscape: Mediterranean garden design
Looking for plants that don't use much water? Those that originated in the Mediterranean region are ideal for a low-water landscape.
Traditional Mediterranean plants such as olives, lavender and other herbs, and Italian cypress mix with other boldly colored garden plants to create the feeling of warmth in Tuscan gardens.
If you're interested in creating a Mediterranean-inspired garden, here are some traditional plants to choose from, as well as some other waterwise plants that harmonize well with this style.
Mediterranean herbs for fragrance, color
Lavender, wormwood (Artemisia), sage, lavender cotton (Santolina), rosemary, oregano, and thyme all make excellent additions to a Tuscan-style garden. Because their foliage releases scent when they are brushed against, they can make an excellent planting for along a pathway or near a seating area.
The grayish-green foliage of many of these herbs harmonizes well with olive trees, and the cool purple-blue tones of many of the flowers contrasts nicely with the warm hues used in so many Tuscan garden designs.
Google flight search
Google has launched a sharp, seamless airline search tool called Google Flight Search that provides quick access to flight information and fares.
After selecting an outbound flight, the page shows which return flights match your results. Users can also use filters, such as non-stop flights and price, and the research results are almost instantaneous.
9/11: 10 Years After
I published this article today
"America cannot find the path to recovery while looking to elected officials, business leaders, policy makers, media stars and celebrities, nor tech companies and wizards. We have lost the mediating structures between self and public life."
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Prominent Alawite clerics denounce Assad regime’s ‘atrocities’
Bashar al-Assad is himself Alawite.
Such identities define social and political realities in the region. Assad's base and inner leadership are Alawites. This condemnation is momentous, and vital to end the tyrannicide entrenched in Syria
Dubai - Three prominent Syrian clerics of the Alawite sect, to which President Bashar al-Assad belongs, have denounced the “atrocities” committed by the regime against pro-democracy protesters.
“We declare our innocence from these atrocities carried out by Bashar al-Assad and his aides who belong to all religious sects,” Mohib Nisafi, Yassin Hussein and Mussa Mansour said in a joint statement from Homs.
The clerics denied state media reports that members of the Shiite Alawite sect are being subjected to acts of killing and kidnapping in Homs.
“The daily reports of kidnappings, killings and harassment of members of the Alawite sect are all untrue. They are designed and spread to cause divisions among people united against the regime.”
The clerics said the Assad regime is pursuing a policy of divide and conquer by spreading false reports of sectarian strife between the Shiite Alawites and the Sunnis.
“The children of Homs, Sunnis, Alawite and Christians, have lived and will continue to live in coexistence and harmony.”
There is no other way left to save the self except by joining the peaceful demonstrations.” The clerics said.
“This regime and its president will not rule you forever."
Monday, September 12, 2011
Pentagon Confirms U.S. Boots on the Ground in Libya
"repeated assurances,"
"They are armed, however ... "
"Obama assured Americans,"
"U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity have acknowledged,"
"Kirby wouldn't say if there are plans in the future... "
Is there an American alive who can believe anything uttered by any US government representative?
Despite repeated assurances from President Obama and military leaders that the U.S. would not send uniformed military personnel into Libya, four U.S. service members arrived on the ground in Tripoli over the weekend.
According to Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby, the four unidentified troops are there working under the State Department's chief of mission to assist in rebuilding the U.S. Embassy.
Kirby also made clear these troops are in no way part of a military operation on the ground. They are armed, however, if for some reason they need to protect themselves.
The troops are only expected to be there for a short while. After the assessment of the embassy is complete, they are expected to leave.
Obama assured Americans in March when the bombing campaign over Libya began that there would be no boots on the ground. From the East Room of the White House on March 18, he said: "The United States is not going to deploy ground troops into Libya."
"You need this kind of expertise to make it safe for diplomats to return," Bolton said.
Kirby wouldn't say if there were plans to send more U.S. troops in the future.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
10th Anniversary 9/11 reflections
Doug Johnston of the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy has a long track record of substantial reconciliation efforts on the ground in some of the most difficult environments today.
Here are his thoughts on present challenges to the pursuit of a peaceful world
determine how it should be honored.
countering religious terrorism has thus far focused on addressing
symptoms rather than causal factors.
do so remains a puzzle for most policymakers. Respectful engagement with
other cultures and countries only takes one part of the way, since that
has more to do with good manners than with religious faith. Its own
religiosity aside, America's proven inability to understand and deal
with the religious motives behind extremist violence has already led to
uninformed foreign policy choices in such places as Iran, Lebanon, and,
most recently, Iraq. To avoid similar mistakes in the future, we need to
move beyond the rational world view that has governed our practice of
international relations for most of the last century to a process that
includes religion and other so-called "irrational" factors. It will also
require that we broaden our basis for understanding the religious
dynamics at play and optimize our opportunities for responding
effectively.
An Anniversary Call to Arms
Douglas M. Johnston
Searching For Answers In A Post-9/11 World - 92nd Street Y
I've discounted tickets for any in the NY area interested to attend. Drop me at note at tl1@rcn.com
Searching For Answers In A Post-9/11 World
Date: Thu, Sep 8, 2011, 8:15 pm
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd St
Arthur Miller, Emmy Award winning moderator
Ralph Singh, convener
Panelists: Karoline Buys, James R. Doty, M.D., Richard A. Ehst, Dr. Noor Gillani,
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, Dr. Stuart A. Kauffman, Rabbi Irwin Kula, Dr. Nina Lynn Meyerhof, Ed.D., R. Gustav Niebuhr, Iyafin Amibelle Olatunji, Carlos Portes, Diane Schenandoah, Dr. Naresh Singh, Asma T. Uddin
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Again the question: Is Osama winning?
Yesterday I posted in synopsis Andrew Sullivan's Newsweek offering recommending that the US "took the bait," by entering into the costly wars that 9/11 attacks were meant to provoke.
Here Daveed Gartenstein-Ross extends this thesis in a concise, clearly written book delineating his thesis that "the terrorist network has defined its strategy as bleeding the United States to bankruptcy."
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross's new book, Bin Laden's Legacy, wonders which side actually is winning the war on terror.
The American approach, as Gartenstein-Ross describes in unrelenting detail, is defined by extravagance, putting its emphasis on security at all costs -- with cost being the operative word. Because of a combination of missteps, hypervigilance, and political fear, virtually any program, policy, or plan that offers a shred of reassurance to the American public can get funded in this environment, whether it's sci-fi technology for airports or an intelligence community so big that no one knows how many people it employs. This results in vast expenditures for security benefits that are sometimes marginal, sometimes nonexistent.
Al Qaeda's strategy, unhappily, is exactly the same: provoke the United States into profligate spending and interminable military engagements, with a vision of the country's eventual economic collapse. Inspired by Osama bin Laden's romanticized view of the Soviet Union's back-breaking war against the mujahideen in Afghanistan, the terrorist network has defined its strategy as bleeding the United States to bankruptcy. This strategy does not require traditional tactical success. In recent years, al Qaeda has learned that even its most embarrassing operational failures can produce an expensive response.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Turkey Overturns Historic Religious Property Seizures
Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the surprise decision on Sunday evening
(Aug. 28) in Istanbul, addressing a large gathering of Istanbul's
non-Muslim religious leaders representing 161 minority foundations.
Invited as the honored guest for an iftar (breaking the fast) meal near
the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan,
Erdogan declared, "The times when citizens in our country were
oppressed for their beliefs, their ethnic heritage or the way they
dressed is over."
Acknowledging past injustices inflicted
on those of different faith groups, he vowed, "Those days are over. In
our country, no citizen is superior to another."
In a deliberate
clarification the next day, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
emphasized that the government's formal decision was "not a gesture
toward minorities, but the return of the rights of legally equal
citizens."
The Terrible Missed Chance
Philip Sehnon in Newsweek presents persuasive, carefully researched background that US had more than sufficient evidence to prevent the 9/11 attacks, and good background as to why they failed to do so.
Did Osama Win?
Andrew Sullivan posts a penetrating confession in Newsweek in this 9/11 decennial, commemoration week.
Sullivan explains the evolution of his understanding, arguing that Bin Laden hoped to provoke a civilizational war between Islam and the West. And we took the bait.
And in that very formulation, in the depths of our psyches and souls, we took the bait.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
CIA, MI6 helped Gaddafi on dissidents: rights group
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Documents found in the abandoned Tripoli office of Muammar Gaddafi's intelligence chief indicate the U.S. and British spy agencies helped the fallen strongman persecute Libyan dissidents, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.
The documents were uncovered by the human rights activist group in the abandoned offices of Libya's former spy chief and foreign minister, Moussa Koussa.
The current military commander for Tripoli of Libya's provisional government, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, was among those captured and sent to Libya by the CIA, Human Rights Watch said.
The files shed new light on the practice known as rendition, used by the United States under former President George W. Bush, in which the terrorism suspects were handed over to other countries for interrogation. Rights groups have criticized the United States for sending these suspects to countries where they were likely to be tortured.
Belhadj has said that he was tortured by CIA agents before being transferred to Libya, where he says he was then tortured at Tripoli's notorious Abu Salim prison.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Sony's unveils HMZ-T1
Technology giant Sony has unveiled a head-mounted display that takes the wearer into a 3D cinema of videos, music and games.
The HMZ personal 3D viewer is being targetted at people who prefer solitary entertainment rather than sitting in front of a television with family or friends.
is far more sophisticated, delivering an experience that is as immersive
as sitting in one of the best seats in a cinema.