Lunch with Dr. Mengele

The global community of nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have not done enough to stop the illegal and unethical mistreatment of hostages held at the USA's Gitmo concentration camp (Guantanamo Bay).

Some of these people have been held for over ten years without charge. Some have been cleared for release, but remain imprisoned. This is systematic, unjust torture. Trials for those accused of crimes are long overdue. For others, probably angry at unjust incarceration, new arrangements must be devised.

Now some of the inmates are on hunger strike, and the US government force-feeds them under military medic supervision, although the American Medical Association (AMA) reportedly states "force-feeding mentally competent adults is an ethical violation."

Care and humane treatment are legal burdens for those keeping prisoners. Forced intubation is a highly questionable procedure, made worse if conducted unsupervised and against the advice of trained medical professionals.

Medical & military personnel of other nations should take note, and beware of  immoral and improper fraternizing or collaboration with those rudely violating international law & ethical standards. The torturer may seem congenial, and a delightful conversationalist, but must be shunned.

The American Medical Association and its President Jeremy Lazarus must do more to stop medical abuse of detained prisoners. If not, the AMA should be expelled from the World Medical Association. Former AMA President Cecil B. Wilson is now WMA President - embarrassing? Or a chance to use global leverage to fix the horrible situation at Gitmo.

Thanks 20 (CERN W3)

Twenty years ago today, 1993-04-30, CERN signed documents opening the World Wide Web as public domain, to use without hindrance or payment of royalties.

Only 20 years ago!

We're now linked as never before, with hugely growing access to information, the potential in real time to collaborate around the globe, and the ability to supplement the energies of others -- adding incrementally to knowledge & understanding. What a wonderful development.

Thank you CERN.
Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire
European Council for Nuclear Research

Bravo !

Korean Stew

Production has stalled in Korea's Kaesong Industrial Complex. At least in the short-term, renewed confrontation & militarism is bad for business.

The BBC quotes the following figures on the 10-year old Kaesong Industrial Complex collaboration:  123 firms and 53,448 North Korean workers producing US$470m worth of goods in 2012; "the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade."

Unwilling to fall quick victim to frictions, South Korean industry is surely pressuring their government and new President Park Geun-hye. President Park had pledged a renewed firmness in relations, to be "more decisive" - and now two months in office, she's successfully made her mark.

Commentators have variously labeled her & her new government:
"conservative"  (Heritage Foundation)
"hawkish" (Daily Beast)
"secrecy fetish"  (Chosun Ilbo)
"aggressive"   (Global Post)
"battle-ready"  (New York Times)
 
The Washington Post notes President Park's pledge to concentrate on denuclearization. But they don't explain enough. Making (DPRK unilateral) denuclearization prerequisite to progress may be bluntly saying nothing will be done. The paradox is that doing nothing is not an option; South Korea's hurry-hurry (빨리빨리) society expects growth & progress - not stagnation or backwards steps. 

To fully analyze this complex set of issues is sensitive & risky, and sniping from the sidelines is easier than sitting in the hot seat. Confrontation with North Korea is very costly and dangerous. Throughout Park's first 60 days in office, repeated frightening threats have been exchanged over divided Korea. External perceptions of Korea's attractiveness for investment, as a hub for regional business, and as a fully reliable business partner have suffered. Seoul will lose the war of words, because Seoul & Pyongyang are too close for comfort.

Seoul must compete with other regional locations outside Pyongyang's quick reach. North Korea is often cited as being strongly nationalistic and chauvinistic, with its juche ideology of self-reliance, but South Korea also can be dangerously xenophobic. As regards attitude of population to foreign visitors, the World Economic Forum asked "How welcome are foreign visitors in your country?" - South Korea ranks 129th of 140 nations, just behind Saudi Arabia  (Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, Data Table 12.02). Arbitrary bureaucratic interference adds risk, and the Lone Star fiasco (link) displayed South Korea's resentment to foreign investment. Notwithstanding many positive steps and huge progress, Korea still has many risky shortcomings.

Many people around the world, myself included, deeply & sincerely wish President Park's government great success. But she's a polarizing figure, and her mandate is narrow. Her father's authoritarian rule was firmly backed by the USA, which still bases 28,000+ troops throughout South Korea. Park has a good working relationship with America. But the appearance of more Yankee influence could easily alarm & ignite dangerous nationalism, with tragic blowback.

Is Boston Bomber in Custody?

There are many photos and videos of the Boston Marathon bomb attack. Substantive evidence was also recovered from the bombs.

We were shown a black backpack, reportedly shredded by the pressure cooker bomb planted inside. Was this the same backpack worn by the elder brother? Some unofficial commentators bluntly say "No way, Jose." And the younger brother had a smaller gray backpack... How much were others involved?

The bombing was horrible. The violent aftermath leaves much unexplained. The stories on this event are creepy.

Beyond belief?

Trained Slaves

"Free enterprise" sounds fresh, clean & good -- but too easily and too often, freedom is subverted corruptly for private profit.

This is not to say private profit is bad. Corrupt business practices are bad.

The good worker should be allowed to go into business independently.

But the 'haves' protect their domains. Bosses keep their workers in check. Too many free citizens are shunted to conditions of bare survival, subordinate lives that grow more rigid. Our masters have leverage and good reason to lean on the banks, to press them to deny loans, to keep finance away from workers with aspirations. Violence & arson are also used as weapons to cripple new ventures.

We might say workers need to stand up for themselves. If employers take advantage, that's part of capitalism. Not all laborers want to be business owners. What one person sees as a good secure job, another condemns as exploitation.

Workers who care for their work and bring positive passion to their jobs find themselves ensnared. Dispassionate work is more survivable, though it threatens the entire edifice. Work requires more than trading time for money. Thus is the system broken. Workers eventually get staked in the heart at their workplace; they're fully disposable. Making workers true stakeholders involves profit sharing, or in the case of public sector jobs, community esteem for social service.

But the real tragedy is in our school systems. We force the children to attend, and train them to be obedient. Slavish conformity is too often demanded by our school systems. Clever, eager, creative children are shaped to become trained slaves & dancing monkeys. A conniving 1% exploits the community, and tries to hobble future generations to continue to serve them.

  

Boston Strong

How could people be so callous & cynical to doubt the terrorist threat exploding in Boston last week?

OK, last week's trademark filings for "Boston Strong" immediately after the bombings may seem calculating, scarred by unsympathetic mercantilism. And the BS commemorative merchandise and BS tchotchkes suddenly being peddled about town can be annoying (Do those without a Boston Strong teeshirt side with terror? It's probably the disguise-of-choice for a terrorist!). But many Boston Strong product dealers pledge some percent of profits to a victims fund...

One Boston girl (link) blogs of repeatedly visiting the home of Zubeidat Tsarnaeva (the alleged bombers' mother) for intimate services


Other critics question the wider significance of this Boston massacre.

Here is criticism by Alex Jones (link) arguing the bombs were a staged false flag event with "patsy" suspects.

Paul Craig Roberts sees the Boston lockdown as disproportionate and a threat to liberty. Watch this clip (link) - judge for yourself.

Here's an argument for the suspect's innocence, from his Mom
(via RT of Russia)

It seems true that if the elder brother were under FBI surveillance, of concern enough to deny him citizenship, he should be on the Boston-area short list of potential scoundrels. Could law enforcement truly be so clueless? Even with poor photos, the elder brother should have quickly been tagged a suspect.

Boston's FBI office has yet to recover from their alliance with infamous local criminal Whitey Bulger. The Boston Globe noted just three weeks ago: "Because of Bulger’s evil alliance with law enforcement agents, the Boston office has a bad reputation when it comes to truth-telling. For decades, Boston agents protected Bulger, a notorious gangster who is charged with a trail of gruesome murders. The Boston office tipped him off so he could escape indictment, and he managed to evade capture for years." Whitey Bulger was given 16½ years of freedom on the run while his powerful younger brother was President of the Massachusetts Senate and later U.Mass.President. Boston's very familiar with brotherhood.

Boston, nicknamed Beantown or Bulgerville, is now Boston Strong

Sandy Hook Remembered

The Boston Massacre diverted attention from the Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre and butchery by Bushmaster. New regulations were discussed & rejected last week in the US Congress. Weren't non-politicized countermeasures possible? By requiring 60 supporting votes (of 100 Senators), this was clear political posturing. A simple majority could have made law.

There is a deeper problem: many American's don't trust their government, they don't trust their neighbors. Too many people feel exposed, vulnerable and under attack.

America's political leaders show most concern for their own jobs. This translates to "you're on your own" for normal people. It's no wonder guns are considered a necessity. But too many people are killed needlessly and foolishly - especially kids.

Cruel Crime: Boston & Elsewhere

Last Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon (15 April) were an outrage, focusing world attention on America's tragedy and subsequent manhunt. Greater Boston is still in shock, yet there's been a huge outpouring of community support & compassion for the innocent victims and their families, and especially for the three persons suddenly & cruelly killed.

The Wall Street Journal (16 April 2013, page A9 - link) does professionally note others were suffering elsewhere that day: "More than 25 bombings across Iraq left at least 61 people dead on Monday, adding uncertainty and instability ahead of the first elections since U.S. troops left the country in December 2011."  At least 14 candidates for this Iraqi election were assassinated prior to last Saturday's voting. 

If not for the Boston massacre, there may have been more concern in the USA for Iraqi suffering. Perhaps some Americans would have contemplated the huge costs of the unpopular US war, remembering the many thousands of American lives lost before & after Pres. George W. Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" ten years ago... How could the democracy we brought to Iraq, at the expense of some US$6 trillion (link) avoid the spotlight last week?

Some people surely would reflect on being manipulated by their government.

Last week's outrage overwhelmed such discussions.
All of us, together, are sudden tragic victims.
The world watches.  Many pray with us.  Boston Strong !
Evil smog?  Wag the dog.   USA USA

Bush kriminull

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opens April 25, 2013

George W. Bush

kriminull

Yew don't need lie berry

Better bean prison

yew ara reelscum

Molesting Migrants

Republican Party Briefing Points:  Immigrants

Let's take off the white gloves and talk of illegal migrants.

• Migrant labor is often cheap
• Employers favor hiring undocumented migrants as these people have little leverage and are unable to negotiate.
• Home-grown labor expects minimum wage (or more), costly health & safety protections; seniority benefits; etc.
• Home-grown workers expect respect.  (Boorrinngg!)
• Illegal immigrants have no such entitlement expectations.
• Good workers shut up - and work.
• Hiring illegal workers lowers local labor salary expectations & job prospects - cutting costs, padding our profits
• Migrant workers are more easily manipulated than locals
• Sexual exploitation of immigrants is very often unreported (tragic!)
• Migrants can easily disappear; few questions are raised
• Illegal migrants often don't know / won't use the law

Haiku

Haiku for birthday girl. Sorry not more romantic. B

Distant past monsoon

April Stockholm birthday rains

Vasanthi swimming

Echo fuelled blossoms

Squawk of Daughter's discoveries

Eco fueled blossoms

Amidst all of this

A moment's gap. Moisture smell

What I have is now.

Finding a Bomber

Three days ago, bombs ripped through the Boston Marathon -- an outrage.

Video evidence is cited of a possible bomber, with confusion today over whether a suspect was arrested. Law enforcement ultimately said no arrests have been made.

Can we trust Justice officials? Might they manipulate this situation?

Remember the hurried evacuation abroad for at least 140 Saudis on eight aircraft within days of 9/11 (link), when the rest of the USA was forbidden to fly?  Proper procedures were neglected.

The scariest 1% of official strategists play grand games with our lives. They okay collateral damage. Wag the dog.

In this case, who knows who committed the crime? The perpetrator(s) themselves know, they're already alert, and until law enforcement makes an arrest, bomber freedom endangers the community, with growing risk for escape. Hiding details of these criminals intensifies our unease & terror. Better the public sees potential evidence and helps justice find these bombers - before they disappear.

Update:
After officials published photos of suspects, public response provided key information & pressure toward resolution.

Angels & Demons

Mrs. Gina Marie Clark (age 42, Marstons Mills, MA, USA), founder of Touched By Angels, is now on trial in Barnstable Superior Court. She's charged with 15 counts of larceny over $250, one count of larceny under $250, one count of larceny under $250, one count of gross fraud over $250, one count of operating an illegal lottery scheme, 10 counts of failing to pay minimum wage, two counts of failing to pay overtime, one count of failing to furnish suitable pay stubs, and one count of independent contractor misclassification.

Mrs. Clark worked with broken families that suddenly lost a loved one, and with the gravely ill. Using the family tragedy to generate local sympathy, she raised money for survivors and their crucial needs. She's under indictment for how she distributed the monies raised ("the split") and how she managed the charity operations. More about Touched by Angels (now defunct) is here (link); and also here. Here (link) is an Aug. 2010 interview with Gina Clark. Video interviews critical of Gina & her husband Chris Clark are here (or here at Vimeo).

It's claimed the Clark family "Angels" operations generated more pain than help. Justice will soon decide.

Well, that sounds good... But the bottom line is:
"Don't hold your breath waiting for Justice to arrive" 

It's unjust those families are in distress. It's unjust their friends are bled for money. It's not justice when innocent children die. The bottom line: we've chosen to justify a dog-eat-dog system where we're cruelly chomped by dirty dogs.

Many people in our communities are kind & honorable, helpful to their neighbors. (Surely Mrs. Clark has helped some people). But there's an abundance of desperation and unnecessary suffering. Weasels run the country. Cronyism & corruption are common. Unapologetic conquerors such as Dick Cheney are manipulative predators. Many more people & scummy organizations persist as opportunists & parasites, feeding on scraps of human misery.

Gina Clark is not an angel; neither is former NASDAQ boss & flim-flam weasel Bernie Madoff & Company. Defrauding the needy is vile & ghoulish. But we all suffer from more widespread ills: militarism, big bank deprivations, the infamous & illegal robo-signing, and other mega swindles. Far darker forces continue profiting from such frauds; remaining in the shadows and celebrating the troubles of small-scale grifters. Minor demons are a sideshow of distraction. Meanwhile, the worst devils continue to suck dry community energies & livelihood, polluting minds to ensure our continuing servitude. We envy the wealthy lifestyles of overabundance, though the excesses often leech from exploitation and victimization of neighbors. We support freedom of choice, but nobody chooses to be defrauded. What disincentives might minimize predatory behavior & discourage fraud?

Margaret Thatcher Dead

Margaret Thatcher's finally dead.
Our privations on her head.

Was she wickedly misled?
Or outmaneuvering us instead?

victims of The Iron Lady
Know her reputation's shady.

Fueled by media mystique
Utter disdain for the weak.

Avaricious prime offender
Trailblazer of her gender

Resolute to court the rich
Middling ogress; fiscal witch

By our bootstraps, we're despised,
Bled by poll tax, much chastised

Commons oft encroached upon
Tory cronies, Cousin Ron

Wealth forked out for guns & swords
Wily at the House of Lords

Entitlement's presumptive curse
Wry Baroness or prancing purse?

Friend of Pinochet & Reagan
Dear Suharto - Fan unshaken

Cruelly treated? Dear departed!
Crabby Queen of all hard-hearted

Must her name be venerated?
Rename Heathrow? Why's she hated?

List her victims. Do them honour.
Bloody Thatcher's now a goner.

Jump !
( Swede request )

Rite of Passage

An article on today's BBC website speaks of the fake ID as an American rite of passage (link). What archetypical rites of passage exist in other societies & cultures? (Or what are others from the USA?). What signifies a young person is 'cool' -- or what becomes important for self development?

When I was a USA young'un,  getting a drivers license as soon as possible was important. In my state, earliest possible was 16½ years old if completing certified driver's education training. I got my license the first week eligible.

Stories of owning (and using) a fake ID strike a chord... back when drinking age was 18.

The above two 'rites of passage' don't mix well together. Fortunately, I've no personal horror stories to relate.

Chosen to Suffer

How dangerous are conditions in Korea today?

In the midst of massive USA & South Korea military operations which an emasculated press is instructed to label "war games" -- the DPRK has been strident & condemnatory.

So-called defensive joint operations Exercise Key Resolve 2013 and Foal Eagle Exercise 2013 may be designed to distract. Who knows? Surely the North Koreans remember the Mukden Incident when the Imperial Japanese Army created a lame excuse to invade a neighbor... Similar cases of deceptive aggression are easy to uncover. As always: War is misrepresented and common people suffer.

The leaders of both segments of divided Korea are novices at steering global power politics & directing warfare. Both leaders spent childhood as a member of their nation's First Family, with unique entitlements. Due simply to leadership inexperience, each is now highly exposed to being strategically stifled by menacing influences. Recognizing weakness, either might prevaricate, or suddenly issue capricious commands to challenge enemy psychologists & strategists, or to outmaneuver domestic resistance.

• South Korean (ROK) President Park Geun-hye (박근혜) is daughter of ROK former military ruler Park Chung-hee (박정희) who was assassinated while in power; her mother had been assassinated five years earlier. President Park has not yet completed two months in office, and has yet to finalize many key appointments to government.

• North Korea (DPRK) Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un (김정은) is 30 years old, in power for about one year. He spent some of his school years in Switzerland. Kim Jong-un follows his father Kim Jong-il (김정일) and grandfather Kim Il-sung (김일성) in leading his nation.

War is sure to be horribly cruel to Korea.
Let's sincerely hope further hostilities can be avoided.

Hawaiian Power

Bravo to Hawaii State Senator Russell Ruderman and Senator Will Espero, who persevered through the US Federal smokescreen to interview Hilo political prisoner Roger Christie.

Reverend Christie, a US Army veteran, has been imprisoned for over three years in the grim US Federal Detention Center, Honolulu. He's held without opportunity for bail and without trial, accused of marijuana crimes. Christie, now 63,  is not charged with using or advocating violence. But every day as an inmate, violence and cruelty are imposed on him, and on his distant family. Many in his community now fear the perverse & arbitrary central government. Terrible!

Christopher Deedy, the 3AM McDonalds killer, walked free on bail after a few hours, and flew off home to the mainland, but a popular local guy is forced to rot for years awaiting trial in the despised federal fortress. Pretrial inmates are not generally allowed visits by other than their immediate family (who in Roger's case live on a distant island). So cruel!

Mahalo to Russell Ruderman & Will Espero for standing up and refusing to be bullied. Federal employees Michael Kawahara and Beverly Sameshima, both Assistant U.S. District Attorneys, and judges Alan Kay, Gary Chang and Alan Ezra reportedly serve as point persons for the Federal Government. Roger sadly remains an imprisoned hostage, held three years without trial, basically incommunicado, a non-violent Island Warrior in distress. Talk & reason with his captors. Do something to help him!

Nuclear Waste Dumps

Yesterday a number of worried Cape Cod (Massachusetts) residents had opportunity to air their fears & frustrations in a meeting at Plymouth Town Hall with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials.















Plymouth is home to the infamous Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station, an aging nuclear plant the same type & design as Japan's disabled Fukushima Daiichi that suffered meltdown due to earthquake & tsunami. Pilgrim is also perched at beachside. Their license to operate was due to expire in 2012, and although the Massachusetts Attorney General opposed re-licensing, the State's objections were overturned by the NRC.

Anyhow, two important strategies worth recording were employed in yesterday's meeting:
1) The NRC refused to offer a normal question-and-answer session, instead seeding the room with officials who could answer individual questions. This is great for shy people afraid to speak in front of a crowd. But the negative dimension is that discussions with individuals are mostly unrecorded. Officials brush-off individual questions & complaints with any type of bullshit, avoid accountability, and others with concerns learn nothing of or from the exchange.

2) Plymouth Selectman (town official)  Belinda Brewster raised the key point that Pilgrim is now a de facto nuclear waste site. This perspective is important: nuclear generating stations should be required to admit they are nuclear waste storage facilities. Waste storage is related to power generation, but they are not the same thing. Sites are chosen for the generating business, not as ideal permanent nuclear waste dumps. They've become terribly dangerous.

Pilgrim Power Plant sounds like a whitewash. There are very real dangers from the combined Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station and the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Storage Site. We know from Fukushima the downside to these plants is death & destruction, evacuation & no return.

Days You Remember

Fritidsresor is a Stockholm-based travel company. They've a highly effective ad campaign labeled "Dagarna du minns" or translated, Days You Remember.

Days you remember -

Life consists of 29 000 days
Of those days we sleep away 10 000
An additional 9000 are spent working
We're watching TV around 2000 days
And also sit at the computer more & more
And how many days consist of nothing…
For each of us the days soon end
So take care of them
For me it's not days that pass
There are days you remember.

(video w/ Mads Mikkelson is here - Swedish)

(Here's another)

Eight hours working, one and a half to get there & back.
Five hours in front of the television, computer & phone ..
Shopping: twenty minutes;
Cook dinner: twelve minutes, consumed in fifteen...
Of course we always crave time together.
For life's not those days flying by
There are days you remember!

Dagarna du minns -

Livet består av 29 000 dagar
Av dem dagarna sover vi bort 10 000
Och arbetar ytterliggare 9000
Vi tittar på tv ungefär 2000 dagar
Och sitter dessutom framför datorn allt mer
Och hur många dagar går inte bara åt till ingenting
Dem tar fort slut alla dagarna
Så var rädd om dom
För mig är det inte dagarna som passerar
Det är dagarna du minns

----------------------------------

Åtta timmar på jobbet, en och en halv dit och hem.

Fem timmar framför tvn, datorn och i telefon..
Handla: tjugo minuter;

Laga middag: tolv minuter, som vi sen äter på en kvart.
Inte konstigt att vi alltid längtar efter tid tillsammans,
för livet är inte dagarna som passerar,
det är dagarna du minns!

Rudely Defined World

Much of the world is ill-defined and beyond our understanding.

But we reasonably try to define & explain what is happening around us. Such efforts are commendable, and have led humankind to huge achievements. However, serious problems regularly arise when interpretation & speculation become rigidly assumed to be fact. Scientists often note & comment upon the bits not fitting their model before defining them out of further consideration. As an arbitrarily-defined field of inquiry becomes a rigid paradigm, we become corralled into accepting something actively resistant to redefinition. Our peer community forcibly seeks to ignore that which has been defined as anomaly. More on these topics can be found in Popper's analysis of falsifiability, and in Kuhn (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Let's look at the example of "full time" work: in the USA and South Korea this is generally defined as a 40+ hour work week over some 50 weeks per year. Such working life impacts on wider life in numerous ways: the rewards of work are used during free time and for maintenance, the quality of non-work time is affected by the large (by definition "full") time dedicated to employment.

In Sweden, all employees have a guaranteed five-week holiday each year. Further, many people are able to work part of the week at home, or to arrive late & depart from work early due to family obligations. Many permanently employed people (tillsvidareanställda, fast anställda) choose voluntarily to work only a percentage of the normal work week. (I know many such people; I'll try to insert data here on how many such people exist). In sum, operating under the Korean definition of "full time work" there are very few Swedes working full time: perhaps five percent (5%) of the population... or even less.

This is not implying Swedes are lazy, or poor. Rather, many have found a balance of living in a flexible, more human focused system. The Korean "Pali Pali" (빨리빨리) hurry hurry system is defined here as unhealthy.

I'll write more later - time now for a coffee break.

Hard Sell Nossel

Suzanne Nossel was recently named Executive Director of PEN American Center.

PEN American Center is the key US component to the worldwide literary & human rights PEN organization, so many around the world are disappointed when a government insider quickly can encroach into territory protecting dissenting voices. Hundreds of people have served as dedicated volunteers over decades. This lawyer wench suddenly vaults in, and shows salary comes before sincerity.

Complaining PEN members include Chris Hedges.

Nossel lasted only a year as Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, before abruptly leaving, purportedly for personal reasons. In fact, her appointment there was widely criticized. Her thirst for advocacy and human rights has been distinguished & consistent: she's a salaried apologist for big government and American/Israeli hegemony. Nossel's unlikely to protect the free expression of dirty little writers or grimy dissidents (no support for Bradley Manning or Julian Assange or Haneen Zoabi). Nossel's a well-groomed lackey of the ruling class. Expect her to help the powerful, and to help herself.