South and North Korea agreed over the weekend to reschedule the inter-Korean summit slated for late August in Pyongyang to October 2-4 after North Korea requested a delay because of its extensive flood damage.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had planned to meet in the North's capital August 28-30 to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and inter-Korean economic cooperation. ...
About 8 million Iraqis, nearly a third of the population, need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis brought on by the Iraq War, relief agencies said Monday. Those Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said the report by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq.
Siegesmund von Ilsemann
The Checkered History of American Weapons Deals
. . . After the Shah of Iran consolidated his power with CIA help in 1953 in what is known as Operation Ajax, the country became America's most important ally in the Middle East after Israel. In return for access to Iran's bountiful oil fields, Washington sold the Shah an arsenal of modern weapons. With state-of-the-art fighter jets, new rockets and powerful tanks, Iran became a leading military power in the Persian Gulf. Some 40,000 US military advisors taught Iranians how to use the weapons.
After the Islamic fundamentalist regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini toppled the Shah in 1979 and sparked a crisis by taking 52 Americans hostage, it became painfully clear to Washington that its weapons were now in the wrong hands. And so the US government quickly turned to the biggest enemy of the religious fundamentalists -- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
John Pilger
The Invisible Government
In a speech in Chicago, John Pilger describes how propaganda has become such a potent force in our lives and, in the words of one of its founders, represents 'an invisible government'.
. . . In Iraq, with America's departure, there could indeed be a near-genocidal civil war, a partition of the country into three or 33 parts, and even a brutal regional war - or there could not. In fact, any of these things - as the present threatened Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan reminds us - could happen while US troops remain in residence. All this aside, deaths in Iraq are already approaching staggering levels without America's departure. After all, if the Lancet study's estimate of 655,000 "excess deaths" by mid-2006 is accurate, then imagine what that number must be an even bloodier year later.
BBC
Timeline: Ethiopia and Somalia
Ethiopia is backing the Somali interim government against Somalia's Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). The BBC News website logs the two countries' troubled relationship.
Rashid Abdi
Quick guide: Somalia's Islamists
The Union of Islamic Courts controlled most of southern Somalia for six months after winning a battle for the capital, Mogadishu, in June. The US say they are linked to terrorist groups but they deny that... Almost all Somalis are Muslim but some are wary of the hardline elements.
BBC
On Somalia: Who supports who?
The Islamist group that has controlled much of Somalia for the last six months has been defeated after an Ethiopian-backed government offensive. But there are fears that hostilities could still engulf the region in conflict. So where does each side get its money, weapons and moral support?
. . . What is behind the genocides of the twentieth century if it is not the egocentrism and insecurity accompanying the affirmation of the individual's autonomy which characterizes modernity ? The temptation to project onto the other what is ours is strong. And a Rwandan proverb tells us : "Nta wiyanga nk'uwanga undi (Nobody hates himself more than he who hates others)".
In their quest to surpass, artists open themselves up to all influences and facilitate the removal of projections. They thus explore a fraternity in which the identities of each and everyone are no longer the centre of human identities : not a fraternity of blood, but a fraternity of sharing.
Shock and awe is a military doctrine and a method of unconventional warfare that attempts to destroy an adversary's will to fight through spectacular displays of power. Its authors label it a subset of rapid dominance, a doctrine that advocates defeating an adversary by swift action against all aspects of their ability to resist, rather than by strictly military forces. It is a product of the National Defense University of the United States, and has been notably applied in the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
However, "shock" and "awe" are both synonyms of terror. To that extent, or from the perspective of the insurgent forces fighting conventional forces in military theatres such as the Middle East who frequently use terrorist doctrines or methods, or both, shock and awe is difficult to distinguish from terrorism because of the large number of indiscriminate civilian deaths. Mortality due to violence in Iraq since 2003, for example, has been due to coalition forces far more than insurgents.
I think that as Americans, we must also make a clear distinction between "guilt" and "responsibility." The Al Qaeda group is indeed guilty of committing mass murder. But the United States government is largely responsible for creating the conditions for reactionary Islamic fundamentalism to flourish. During Reagan's administration, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided over three billion dollars to finance the mujahadeen's guerilla war against the Soviet Union's military presence in Afghanistan. The CIA used Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or secret police, to equip and train tens of thousands of Islamic fundamentalists in the tactics of guerilla warfare. . . .
There is a clear link between 9/11 and the shameful political maneuvering committed by the U.S. at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, only days before the terrorist attacks. There the U.S. government opposed the definition of slavery as "a crime against humanity." It refused to acknowledge the historic and contemporary effects of colonialism and racial segregation on the underdevelopment and oppression of the non-European world. The majority of dark humanity is saying to the United States that racism and militarism are not the solutions to the world's major problems. Transnational capitalism and the repressive neoliberal policies of structural adjustment represent a dead end for the developing world. We can only end the threat of terrorism by addressing constructively the routine violence of poverty, hunger, and exploitation that characterize the daily existence of several billion people on this planet. Racism is, in the final analysis, only another form of violence. . . .
... In conclusion, Jacob was victorious in taking responsibility for
the indemnity course to pay for Abraham's mistake. By using his wisdom
for the sake of God's Will, Jacob triumphed as an individual in his
struggle with Esau to win the birthright. He entered Haran and, as a
family, triumphed in a twenty-one-year struggle with his uncle Laban
to win the birthright. On his way back from Haran to Canaan, Jacob was
victorious in the fight with the angel. He was the first fallen man to
fulfill the indemnity condition to restore dominion over the angel.
Thereupon, he received the name "Israel,"75(Gen. 32:28)
signifying that he set the pattern and laid the groundwork upon which
the chosen people would be established. After returning to Canaan with
these victories, Jacob won Esau's heart, and together they fulfilled
the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature.
Jacob thus victoriously completed the model course to bring Satan to
submission. Moses, Jesus, and even the people of Israel would walk
this course after the pattern set by Jacob. The history of Israel can
serve as a good historical source for understanding the course to
bring Satan to submission on the national level. For this reason, it
is central to the study of the providence of restoration.
. . . This worst-case scenario may unfold unless Hamas meets the three conditions imposed by the �international community� � a technical term referring to the US government and whoever goes along with it. For Palestinians to be permitted to peek out of the walls of their Gaza dungeon, Hamas must recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past agreements, in particular, the Road Map of the Quartet (the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations).
The hypocrisy is stunning. Obviously, the United States and Israel do not recognise Palestine or renounce violence. Nor do they accept past agreements. While Israel formally accepted the Road Map, it attached 14 reservations that eviscerate it. To take just the first, Israel demanded that for the process to commence and continue, the Palestinians must ensure full quiet, education for peace, cessation of incitement, dismantling of Hamas and other organisations, and other conditions; and even if they were to satisfy this virtually impossible demand, the Israeli cabinet proclaimed that �the Roadmap will not state that Israel must cease violence and incitement against the Palestinians.�
Jerusalem Post
Ahmadinejad: Bombs won't fix world
... The Iranian president also said he did not deny the Holocaust but that he merely "raised questions on it."
"I said that in World War Two sixty million people were killed. They were all humans with self-respect. Why (do we talk of) just six million? If it happened, it is a historic event, so why do they not allow for an independent investigation? Moreover, how are the Palestinians at fault? These questions need to be answered," said Ahmadinejad.
Surah 41. Ha Mim Sajdah: Revelations Well Expounded
http://www.ishwar.com/islam/holy_quran_(pickthall)/sura041.html
34
The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed
with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was
enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend.
35
But none is granted it save those who are steadfast, and none is
granted it save the owner of great happiness.
Ser Myo-ja
Japan archives support Korea's Dokdo claim
September 14, 2006 ㅡ A South Korean scholar said yesterday he has found a 19th-century map commissioned by the Japanese cabinet that excludes the contested islets called Dokdo from Japanese territory.
Sunwoo Young-jun, the head of the Metropolitan Air Quality Management Office, said yesterday that he found the map at the National Archives of Japan in Tokyo on Aug. 15. He released yesterday a drawing of the map reproduced from a photograph he took of it at the archives.
Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi) -- September 29, 2006
Posted to the web September 29, 2006 -- Emmanuel Milingo, the renegade former Catholic archbishop of Lusaka, remained defiant on Wednesday, scoffing at the Vatican announcement that he had been excommunicated.
Milingo told a news conference in Washington, USA, that he would continue his campaign to force the Church to accept married priests, Reuters reports.
"We do not accept this excommunication and lovingly return it to His Holiness, our beloved Pope Benedict XVI, to reconsider it and withdraw it and join us in recalling married priests to service once again," Milingo said.
"I'm not excommunicated. Who says? No, I'm not excommunicated. I'm in line with God."
For the past several years Dr. Pak has been working on some projects to raise a large endowment fund for the continued operation of the Korean Cultural Foundation, the Little Angels and the Universal Ballet. In addition he was trying to set up a new foundation called "The Korean Peoples Unification Foundation" in order to promote and realize the dream of the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. He had many other ideas and programs that he wanted to realize for the spiritual and ethical revitalization of the Korean people. As anyone who is acquainted with Dr. Pak knows he is an irrepressible man of action to whom retirement or idleness is an impossibility.
For these reasons he was desperately pursuing some ill advised and ill-fated fundraising schemes introduced to him by some church members. To make a long story short Dr. Pak became a victim of international criminal scam artists who defrauded him of all of his money with the promise of huge financial support to the foundations.
American Clergy Leadership Conference
Exchanging the Cross for the Crown
Christian Leaders to Carry Cross,
Then Take It Down in Effort for Peace and Reconciliation
The denomination has seen a steady stream of defections since its decision to consecrate as a bishop an openly partnered homosexual. That decision was reaffirmed this summer at a national meeting of the denomination.
THE INFUSION OF SEX INTO POPULAR CULTURE
HAS BEEN SO SEAMLESS THAT SOME CRITICS
ARE CALLING IT A PUBLIC-HEALTH CRISIS
Lorna Martin at Negril Beach
Sex, Sand and Sugar Mummies
in a Caribbean beach fantasy
A controversial new West End play will explore sex tourism in Jamaica, where lonely women flock for flings with young black men. But are these holiday romances sleazy or simply harmless?
In "The Overhauling of Straight America: Waging Peace Part Two" written in 1987, it outlines the recommended steps to be taken in order for America to accept homosexuality as normal... "To desensitize the public is to help it view homosexuality with indifference instead of with keen emotion...if you can only get them to think that it is just another thing, with a shrug of their shoulders then your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won..."
To bring a balance of resource sites I recommend visiting Changing Worldviews' Issues Library under Dr. Christopher Wolfe's and Dr. Warren Throckmorton's interviews with us for links such as People Can Change, and Is Homosexuality Genetic?
Human sexuality, especially male sexuality, is polymorphous, or utterly wild (far more so than animal sexuality). Men have had sex with women and with men; with little girls and young boys; with a single partner and in large groups; with total strangers and immediate family members; and with a variety of domesticated animals. They have achieved orgasm with inanimate objects such as leather, shoes, and other pieces of clothing, through urinating and defecating on each other (interested readers can see a photograph of the former at select art museums exhibiting the works of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe); by dressing in women's garments; by watching other human beings being tortured; by fondling children of either sex; by listening to a woman's disembodied voice (e.g., "phone sex"); and, of course, by looking at pictures of bodies or parts of bodies.
There is little, animate or inanimate, that has not excited some men to orgasm. Of course, not all of these practices have been condoned by societies -- parent-child incest and seducing another's man's wife have rarely been countenanced -- but many have, and all illustrate what the unchanneled, or in Freudian terms, the "un-sublimated," sex drive can lead to.
By and large, it is society, not the individual, that chooses whether homosexuality will be widely practiced. A society's values, much more than individual tendencies, determine the extent of homosexuality in that society. Thus, we can have great sympathy for the exclusively homosexual individual while strongly opposing social acceptance of homosexuality. In this way we retain both our hearts and our values...
Even if the majority of men became incapable of making love to women, it would still not be normal. Men are designed to make love to women, and vice versa. The eye provides an appropriate analogy: If the majority of the population became blind, blindness would still be abnormal. The eye was designed to see. That is why I choose the third response -- that homosexuality is unhealthy. This is said, however, with the understanding that in the psychological arena, "illness" can be a description of one's values rather than of objective science (which may simply not exist in this area)...
... Gay or straight, we are all becoming homosexual because we cannot achieve the spiritual union or permanent intimacy that we really crave.
Sex is mistaken for love and replaces it, thereby assuming a deceptive importance. We are obsessed with it. Because it cannot satisfy our real need, we continue to up the ante and become kinkier.
We judge people strictly by their sex appeal and are cruelly indifferent to those who are not physically attractive. Women develop eating disorders. The aged naturally are treated with contempt.
We compensate for failure to find permanent love by making a public display of our promiscuity. This is supposed to affirm our freedom and identity. TV and movies testify to this perverse trend. In many cases homosexuals now are defining heterosexual norms. ("Sex and the City"; "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"; "Kinsey: Let's Talk About Sex")
We are in constant denial about our malaise and the forces that enslave us. . (See my "Is this Gay Behavior Sick? http://www.savethemales.ca/201101.html )
In contrast, heterosexuality is monogamous, exclusive and private. It is concerned with procreation, nurturing, and personal development.