Author: mara.ahmed

People Killed on Gaza Boats

meet the nine peace activists who were killed on the mavi marmara, while trying to break the 3 year long blockade on gaza:
Ibrahim Bilgen, 61, electrical engineer; Ali Haydar Bengi, 39, telephone repairman; Cevdet Kiliçlar, 38, reporter and webmaster for IHH; Çetin Topçuoglu, 54, former amateur soccer player and taekwondo champion; Necdet Yildirim, 32, IHH aid worker; Fahri Yaldiz, 43, firefighter; Cengiz Songür, 47, from Izmir; Cengiz Akyüz, 41, from Iskenderun; Furkan Dogan, 19, in his senior year at Kayseri High School. Click here for pictures and more.

Pearl Jam – World Wide Suicide

a diff side of pearl jam:

And in all the madness. Thought becomes numb and naive. So much to talk about. Nothing to say. It’s the same everyday and the wave won’t break. Tell you to pray, while the devils on their shoulder. Laying claim to the take that our soldiers save. Does not equate, and the truth’s already out there…

You will have no protection

Is “my” government capable of insisting on respect for their dead bodies? Can it demand that those who are injured but alive be treated with care? Not only with care, but the tenderness and honor they deserve? If it cannot do this, such a simple, decent thing, of what use is it to the protection and healing of the planet? We the people; who ultimately hold all the power. We the people, who must never forget to believe we can win. We the people. It has always been about us; as we watch governments come and go. It always will be. (Alice Walker) Full article.

Helen Thomas: An Illustrious Career

I don’t think a tough question is disrespectful. I say. “Mr. President…” I say, “Thank you.” What else do you want? The presidential news conference is the only forum in our society where a president can be questioned. If he’s not questioned, he can rule by edict; by government order. He can be a monarch. He can be a dictator, and who is to find out? No. He should be questioned and he should always to able to willingly reply and answer to all questions because these aren’t our questions. They’re the people’s questions. (Helen Thomas, Correspondent/White House Press Corps Reporter for 57 years)

Rochester area ranked third-best to raise a family

The Rochester area has been ranked the third-best metropolitan region in the country for raising a family by Forbes magazine.

The business magazine compiled the list from seven criteria applied to the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas: cost of living, prevalence of home ownership, median household income, housing costs, commute time, crime and high school graduation rate. The statistics were taken from the federal government and Moody’s Economy.com.

The Rochester area scored particularly well in the cost of living and commuter rankings. Full article.

people of conscience and power

I have for many years understood that we, people of conscience, are the true holders of power in this world. Frustratingly however we have largely relinquished that power and failed to reach our full potential. Our potential to create a better world, a just world. Nonetheless I have conspired with others of like mind to reveal and exercise our true power. (Ken O’Keefe, former US Marine and peace activist)

“I Love the US Republic, and I Hate the US Empire”: Johan Galtung on the War in Afghanistan and How to Get Out

We turn now to the second part of my interview with Johan Galtung. Known as a founder of the field of peace and conflict studies, he’s spent the past half-century pursuing nonviolent conflict resolution in international relations. His latest book is The Fall of the US Empire – And Then What?: Successors, Regionalization or Globalization? US Fascism or US Blossoming? I spoke to him last week about his prediction of the collapse of US empire in ten years, by 2020. In this second part of our interview, Galtung discusses his assessment of President Obama, the US corporate media and more. But we began with the war in Afghanistan, where he has worked extensively in attempts at conflict resolution. Watch interview.

What Does Patience Mean?

Ninth Rule: Patience does not mean to passively endure. It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process.
What does patience mean? It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn. Impatience means to be so shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome. The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.

~ Shams of Tabriz, from The Forty Rules of Love

Obama No

Adolph Reed on Obama in 1996: He’s a vacuous opportunist. I’ve never been an Obama supporter. I’ve known him since the very beginning of his political career, which was his campaign for the seat in my state senate district in Chicago. He struck me then as a vacuous opportunist, a good performer with an ear for how to make white liberals like him. I argued at the time that his fundamental political center of gravity, beneath an empty rhetoric of hope and change and new directions, is neoliberal. Full article.

Israel slams ‘cultural terrorism’ as Pixies cancel gig

Israel is falling victim to “cultural terrorism,” a top music promoter charged on Sunday, after US alternative rock group The Pixies cancelled their first-ever gig in the Jewish state.

The band was to have performed a single gig on Wednesday as part of a five-day music festival in Tel Aviv, but pulled out just days after a deadly Israeli naval raid on a foreign aid flotilla that left nine activists dead.

“It is with great regret that we announce today The Pixies’ decision to cancel their appearance in Israel on June 9,” promoter Shuki Weiss said in an initial statement, which also included an apology to fans from the band. Full article.