Everything is ablaze!

Things are happening.

2008-03-05T12:49:00.002-05:00

Apologies for the lull. I'm about to give birth to a new blog, one that needs a new home. It's a blog I'm far more qualified to write, and one that I will be able to update far more regularly. No more details for now. I want to build up the hype.

STAY TUNED. SO TO SPEAK...

U.S. will attempt to shoot down doomed satellite.

2008-02-15T08:56:00.005-05:00

US 193, a dud reconnaissance satellite carrying secret imaging equipment, is in a decaying orbit, expected to fall to earth next month. The military has decided to shoot it down, using a missile fired from a cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. (1)

The military and the federal government have been fervently making the case that this satellite carries highly toxic fuel called "hydrazine," which sounds scary, and could allegedly kill lots of people if allowed to fall to the surface.

They assure every foreign government that this is a necessary, non-aggressive action in the interest of protecting everyone.

But usually, we just let busted satellites break up in the atmosphere. That happens fairly regularly. The U.S. has ~~never shot down a satellite before~~ not tested anti-satellite weapons since the Cold War (wiki).

Only one country on earth has: China.

Is this a veiled attempt to answer China's space weapon, or a national security measure?

It doesn't matter. Either way, it's the beginning of an arms race.

EDITED 2/18: I didn't research anti-satellite weapons carefully enough

Socionomics

2008-02-13T10:41:00.003-05:00

Check out this video from the Socionomics Institute, a funky new economic think tank that has some insecurities about its mysticism.

In short, their theory is that humans obey the fractal, spiral patterns underlying all of biology and observable in every corner and on every scale of our observable universe (wow, how radical), and that our economic activity can be explained by herding behavior, a natural biological result of this pattern. They examine popular culture, war, politics, and stock market trends, and they argue that these are actually effects of overall social moods, as determined by natural growth patterns, rather than causes, as mainstream economic theory assumes.

I thought the film was wonderful. It was such a relief to see plain-speaking, scientifically-minded people with advanced degrees acknowledging the Underlying Pattern in such an enthusiastic, mystified way.

The one thing that seems rather arrogant about this group's approach, though, is the full, unrestrained extension of the idea that the "general human trend is upward." Their demonstration of the spiral surrounding the fractal pattern wasn't clear; it showed a spiral going around and around, intersecting once each turn with a "stock market" line that merely went forward and upward. It seemed as though these guys wanted this pattern to predict an upward, outward human trend with no end in sight, and if we're really, honestly following evolutionary models here, that's a pretty gross error.

Judging by predictors in evolutionary history, we're about due for a major extinction here on Earth (1)(2). That's an event driven by factors wholly outside the influence of "social mood," but fitting very nicely in the fractal, spiral pattern found on every observable scale in our universe, the pattern about which socionomists seem mystically enthusiastic, as I am.

I had a teacher in high school who liked to plot history on a different but related graph, in which the X axis is "frequency" and the Y axis is "intensity." This gives us a strongly descending curve. Events of relatively low intensity happen very frequently, but cataclysms occur very rarely.

I'm not saying this means we're doomed; who am I to say? But I think it's fair to temper this socionomic wonderment with the notion that systems exhibiting this natural growth pattern are, occasionally, violently interrupted by the regular "impulse waves" operating on a larger scale. We have no way of knowing whether to expect technological singularity, extraterrestrial encounter, the Revelation, or other positive, transhuman experiences, or an comet impact. All we know is that, throughout Earth's history, something has periodically knocked off the dominant organisms and rearranged evolution.

Now, the question is, are humans just glorified herd mammals, or are we something unprecedented?

Try DATING tonight!

2008-02-08T12:07:00.000-05:00

Want to find a mate you can trust? Want to choose a partner based on more than a drunken first impression? Do you prefer conversations to disinterested copulation?

Then try DATING!

DATING is an ancient tribal ritual proven by thousands of years of practice. The secret is in the DATE, a prearranged meeting between two star-crossed young lovers-to-be at a restaurant, movie, cultural event, or other meeting place. The DATE is a comfortable mix of the public and the personal, perfect for setting up that get-to-know-you atmosphere. The DATE's stimulating setting provides a reliable topic of conversation, a comforting relief from those ghastly moments of silence. You and your love interest can't help but get to know each other on a DATE!

In this 21st Century World, it's easy to feel as though we don't have time for DATING. There's so much wild and crazy stuff happening all the time, we think we can't focus on one thing for more than a couple of minutes; everything else would pass us by! But if you're like most people, you're vaguely unsatisfied by today's drunken "hook-up" atmosphere. You want something more out of your love life!

Just ask Mary from Providence, RI:

"I used to set out on a Friday night not knowing whom I'd wake up next to on Saturday! Now that I found DATING, there are no more nasty surprises! Thanks, DATING!"

- Mary, Providence, RI

Or John from Foxboro, MA:

"Before I tried DATING, life was hard. I couldn't get anyone to sleep with me unless we got totally wasted first. But now, since I heard about the DATE, it's easy! All it takes is a little conversation!"

- John, Foxboro, MA

These testimonials come from real, live people just like you! If their stories sound familiar, give DATING a try! You've got nothing to lose!

The best part about DATING is that each DATE comes with a special Quality Guarantee. Don't enjoy yourself on a DATE? Can't come up with anything interesting to talk about? Spill red wine down the front of your DATE's shirt? No problem! Just say "I had a great time tonight. Thanks for coming out with me," and leave it at that! No harm done!

To order a DATE, just call your crush's cell phone number. Calls are toll-free on nights and weekends, but evenings fill up fast, so call tonight! You can have the perfect DATE for the low price of ONE MEAL, TICKET, or DRINK, depending on the kind of DATE you choose. For the DELUXE DATING EXPERIENCE, try paying for your partner's DATE, too!

But wait! There's more! Don't want to spend any money? Nothing good playing at the Multiplex tonight? You can have a world-class DATE, ABSOLUTELY FREE! Just find a nice place to sit and chat, meet your future love there, and wing it! It's totally up to you!

So come up with a nice DATE, and try DATING tonight!

Tuff Gong

2008-02-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

Roots people, it is Bob's birthday today! Let his memory serve as a force for healing across all nations and a cause for celebrations and groundations.

PEACE. ONE LOVE. OM.

Super Tuesday.

2008-02-06T09:28:00.001-05:00

I've been quiet for the last few days, because I'm working on a longer piece, but I want to respond to the results of Super Tuesday.

First of all, I'm proud of the Republicans for, by and large, voting for their most sane candidate. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the amount of delegates Mike Huckabee has received, but I can rest assured that John McCain is way out in front, and even the insufferably bland Romney has more delegates than Huck Norris. I don't want John McCain to win the election, but at least I won't have to worry about being tried in the Supreme Court for heresy if he's the nominee.

Secondly, I want to proudly point out that, although Georgian Republicans voted for Huckabee, Obama stomped Clinton in my home state (1).

Lastly, I just want to thank Democrats across the country for defying the electoral and media mechanisms that try to simplify our political system and grind it into little meaningless soundbytes. We did not let one media orgy on one Tuesday in February decide for us who our nominee will be. This is an ongoing conversation that will go on through the year, and in the end, we will be able to feel confident that the candidate we end up nominating should be the next president of the United States.

Because we are above infighting!

Right y'all?

Right?

Fish Company Dada Puddle Spawn.

2008-01-31T12:47:00.001-05:00

Last night, my friends all went to the Fish Company to dance. They also planned to drink like fishes. I stayed home and watched the fishes swimming in their fluids up the sidewalk stream. It would have been quite easy to catch one of these lazy fishes. I plucked on the strings of a guitar and wondered whether it was still fun to dance in this world, or if all the sopping fishes flopping on the floor made things too slippery. Dancing in a school of spawning fishes sounded sticky. I was much too clean and dry.

Buteo jamaicensis

2008-01-29T10:31:00.000-05:00

I was sitting at my desk working just a minute ago, when this guy flew up into the tree right outside my window:

Sorry about the blur. My camera sucks, and I had to use max digital zoom to get in close enough.

Buttering the sky, cont'd.

2008-01-27T17:18:00.002-05:00

I posted this poem for lack of anything coherent to say, but now that I've posted the poem, I can say something coherent about that.

This poem speaks to me of overwhelmingness, a time-honored human experience for which we desperately need a better English word. I'm relieved that Hafiz could be overwhelmed by making breakfast, because his was a vastly more capacious heart than mine, and sometimes, when I make breakfast, I'm afraid to open my mouth and expose my insides to the outside world. It makes me wonder how people do it.

People throw around words like "intense" and "epic" all the time these days to describe experiences of being alive. To me, this is a postmodern American recognition of the most obvious thing in the universe: that being alive is amazing. When we view our experience mindfully, with clarity, attention, and full appreciation, we realize things like our own mortality, the impermanence of our bodies, our dependence on others, and, gosh, those things are intense, man! And Hafiz has picked a perfect example here of a common "epic" experience: breakfast. We wake from dreamy oblivion and, suddenly faced with a swirling world of responsibilities, we get a little fear in the pit of our stomach, which we recognize as hunger, and we confront this awesome fear with breakfast.

But I eat breakfast anyway, and that fear turns to excitement as the salty richness and silken butter texture meld with the tiny serrated teeth of the toast and my stomach swoons with nourishment. Without that crazy fear, the satisfaction would be severely diminished.

The fear is overwhelming, though, and that's exhausting. I think most of us run around exhausted. We wear out our awareness, so it's deadened to the craziness of making breakfast, refueling our precious bodies, or doing anything else of such great importance (i.e. anything). The degree to which we're aware of the importance of every single thought and movement we make is the degree to which we are bathed in craziness.

This gives us three options:

Minimize our awareness by exhausting, intoxicating, or distracting ourselves, such that we can go about our business on zombie autopilot and not appreciate anything. Call this option the 5-Hour Energy option.
Push through the fear, push ourselves to expand our capacity for awareness, and get used to the simple fact that life is a breathtakingly gorgeous and damned crazy experience.
Go crazy.

People who are into option #1 tend not to know the difference between the symptomatology of options #2 and #3. Hafiz, beholding our 5-Hour Energy society, would probably burst into tears in the street, cry out in many languages, and try to kiss every passerby on the lips. Homely little guy that he was, this would probably get him arrested, which would freak him out even further, undoubtedly resulting in a life sentence in a mental institution on heavy option #1 drugs. That these drugs would dry up one of the broadest and deepest rivers of poetry ever to rain down from Heaven would surely be of no consequence to the judge.

But Hafiz was an option #2 kind of guy, and all of his poetry gently invites us to join him in that pursuit. Compare "Buttering The Sky" to this commercial. Which would you rather have for breakfast?

Buttering The Sky

2008-01-27T10:13:00.000-05:00

Slipping

On my shoes,

Boiling water,

Toasting bread,

Buttering the sky:

That should be enough contact

With G!d in one day

To make anyone

Crazy.

- Hafiz (channeled by Daniel Ladinsky)

Inflation.

2008-01-24T19:52:00.000-05:00

If you're worried about the decline of the U.S. economy, here's something to keep in mind.

Zimbabwe's central bank just issued a $10 million bill, and you'll need a couple of them to buy lunch... today. A month from now, it could be worthless. That's inflation. Americans are only seeing what it's like to fall from total global hegemony.

New Dispatches

2008-01-24T10:11:00.000-05:00

Let it be known that Jonathan, the yin to my yang, the Ron Paul to my Ralph Nader, my former partner in the tag-team blogging blitzkrieg that was WiredOpinion.com, is still throwing down at New Dispatches under the mysterious moniker of "The Writer Guy." I suggest you make his blog your homepage, so you'll always know exactly what's going on in the world.

Wreckonomics.

2008-01-22T13:12:00.000-05:00

I thought I would begin my blogging resurgence with a clever portmanteau. Wreckonomics. You know you like it.

To disclaim: I am not a scholar of economics. On the contrary, I study meditation. I've literally heard a student state that "1 + 1 = 1" in class, and he received a smile of encouragement from the professor in response. My musings on the economy here at Eia! arise solely from my personal experiences of riding its choppy waves as a consumer, student, and part-time earner. Maybe my friend Jonathan, former WiredOpinion partner in crime, can weigh in from a more widely informed perspective.

Now then (my favorite oxymoron),

This morning, I decided to celebrate my second breakfast in Providence this year with a trip to Bagel Gourmet. I have frequented this perennially packed establishment, as well as Bagel Gourmet Olé, its equally crowded cousin up the street, for two and a half years now. Their bagels are quite adequate, and they also offer superb Mexican fare after lunchtime. You might not expect such an avant-garde combination of cuisines to succeed, but the lines at both restaurants are out the door more often than not.

Today, however, was a "not" day. I walked right up to the counter, and on it was taped a printed sign:

Due to unprecedented increases in the cost of energy and basic ingredients we are raising prices on some items. We appreciate your understanding and your patronage.

Thank you,
Bagel Gourmet

For a second, the sign did not fully compute. There should be a comma after "ingredients," I thought. Then the seriousness of the sign's tone sunk in. Bagel Gourmet has always been fairly well decorated. Their signs are usually hand-written, and they often have some in-house artwork on them. This was just a typed sign printed in Times New Roman. It looked as stark as it sounded.

I ordered my usual two bagels ("Not toasted!") with cream cheese, and today I decided to jump start with a medium coffee ("Just black"). My total came out to $7.90.

Determined to see Bagel Gourmet stay in business, I forked over the cash. I couldn't recall exactly, but I seemed to remember paying $5.50 for this exact breakfast sophomore year. Last semester, it set me back $7.00 or so, but the price had jumped the better part of a dollar since mid-December.

I got back to my icy dormitory, discovered to my dismay that the card-swiping contraption to open the front door was broken, walked briskly around to the back and went in. I fired up Google News to peruse as I ate, and I observed that the Dow Jones average had dropped some 465 points (1), and that stock markets around the world had nosedived in anticipation (2).

The aforementioned Jonathan's status on Facebook read "October 24, 1929; October 19, 1987; ... January 22, 2008?" Our friend David had posted on his wall "I hope you're wrong," and I hoped so, too. Since this morning, the Dow has climbed back up and then tumbled back down to around -104, which is where we stand at this instant.

The banks are projectile vomiting profits following the subprime mortgage collapse (3). Energy costs have soared so high that even Bagel Gourmet, the most successful restaurant I've ever seen in my life, is feeling the burn. And despite his responsibility to govern, which he must find quite irritating at this point, President Bush just took a little break from his pet invasion to sell billions of dollars worth of missiles to the Saudis (4), which our government will gladly accept as a drop in the bucket to fund his trillion-dollar war (5). That bucket, of course, would prove very useful in the United States right about now.

Jay-Z recently made a video in which he subtly states the obvious: The United States is no longer the best place on Earth to live in excess. F*** dollars, I stack €uros! This statement has provoked some snide remarks from American talking heads (6), but I can't figure out what the criticism is. It seems from the news, to an ignoramus like me, that the U.S. economy is managed by a bunch of drunken pirates. Why should anyone expect American consumers or investors to have confidence?

In the next installment of Wreckonomics, I'll speak with Brown University students to see if they have any clue that their economy is in jeopardy. That ought to be interesting. Stay tuned.

Reigniting.

2008-01-22T12:08:00.000-05:00

Hi.

I have decided that it's time to reignite this blog. I've left a few posts up from the previous incarnation (the rest are just hidden, not deleted), but I'm trying for a fresh start.

I wanted to keep the name, though. As earthly conditions have deteriorated over the couple of years since Eia!'s inception, the phrase "Everything is ablaze!" has taken on a new layer of seriousness, and I intend to emphasize this.

I want to go it alone this time. There will be no particular thrust or angle to the blog; I'm really just using it for my own purposes, to sharpen my writing back up. You see, I've been thinking about moving into the field of journalism, and I want to hone my craft. I will inevitably write about current events, but I also plan to review some music and, of course, to ruminate heavily and generally.

I welcome and appreciate your comments, and would be flattered if you returned time and again. I'm writing for myself, but I plan on doing a good job, so maybe you'll enjoy it.

Peace (please),
jonathan isaac

Everything is ablaze!

2006-02-02T19:03:00.000-05:00

The time has come for me to weigh in on the controversy in Europe surrounding the twelve depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in a Danish paper, Jyllands-Posten, the ensuing chaos in the Muslim world, the ensuing publication of another depiction of the Prophet in a French newspaper, France Soir, and the ensuing firing of France Soir's managing editor. For those of you that don't know, depictions of the Prophet are forbidden in Islam. For an account of the situation that will give you an impression both of the seriousness of the offense and the ridiculous overzealousness of elements of the Muslim response, try Al Jazeera's story.

My response is particularly motivated by the hard-line stance voiced here by our friend Jonathan. I believe that his argument is as good an example as any of the orthodox Western position on the primacy of free speech, dare I say the importance of free speech as an intrinsic good, and I am here to challenge that position.

A preface: For me, this is not a question of legality or rights. The legal arguments surrounding free speech itself are obviously more nuanced, and I intend to voice no opinion on the legality of the publication of these cartoons, which, if questioned, I would defend. Much more importantly, though, this is a question of personal responsibility and journalistic integrity, a question of how to use legally protected free speech in a socially responsible manner. The cartoonists and journalists of this scenario have abused their right to free speech. They are the time-honored people crying "fire!" in a crowded theater. The people at Jyllands-Posten incited violence, and the people at France Soir flaunted their intellectual arrogance, doing a disservice not just to the image of their people in the Muslim world but to the image of their publication itself. Thus, my argument is that the firing of France Soir managing editor Jacques Lefranc is entirely justified, as would be punishing the person crying "fire."

Now, to begin, it would make sense to discuss the initial depiction of the Prophet, peace be upon him, that started this mess. Of course, I will not reproduce the images, but you may find them online yourself. Matt Drudge, to whom I refuse to link, posted a particularly high resolution version of the most offensive one, because he is what we like to call an "asshole."

Suffice it to say that, depiction of the Prophet aside, many of the images were quite problematic for other reasons, most notably the fact that the Prophet was depicted with, what else, a BOMB in his turban. It is not as if the West (by which I mean Westerners united by the common bond of public disdain for cultural differences and defending the unnecessary provocation of others) needs another cultural item reinforcing the idea that Islam is an inherently violent religion. Haven't we been over this? Don't we realize that it does us no more good to make that generalization than it does Muslims to make generalizations about us? Free speech or not, does the publication of this cartoon not harm our society, even just internally, by perpetuating our ignorance?

So that is one level on which the publication of the first cartoon was problematic. The next level is far more serious. We, as Westerners, reinforce Muslim world preconceptions of us, bad preconceptions, when we flagrantly offend Islam in the public sphere by being ignorant of its teachings. Our ignorance of Islam is impressive, in its own way, considering the prominence of Islam in the world. There are almost as many Muslims in the world as there are Roman Catholics, and there are nearly four times as many Muslims as there are Protestants. To disregard Islam as obviously and ostentatiously as we do, considering the current geopolitical state Islam and the West are in, is just unconscionable. And sure, many if not most of the public characterizations of the West in the Islamic world are equally problematic, but can we not even try to take the high road? Who in the world started public characterizations of whole groups of people? Who carved up the parts of the world in which Muslims live along artificial, Western-originating, profit-driven lines, grouping together warring peoples and dividing real nations? The point is that when we do things like publish pictures of the Prophet in a newspaper, Muslims see us attacking them yet again! This is not an isolated incident! So of course they are going to be outraged!

Here is where I am obligated to stop, make a line break, and talk about how the most public of the Islamic reactions to the cartoons were utterly ridiculous. It is also time for the Islamic world to learn that Westerners do not respond kindly to ostentatious display of automatic weapons, or even just verbal threats (note the "KILL THOSE WHO INSULT MUHAMMAD!" article). As I obviously should be, I am hesitant to try, especially as a Jew, to prescribe morals for the Muslim world. I would much rather talk it out in an atmosphere of mutual respect at a very low volume. But at the very least, Muslims who take up arms in situations like this are doing a disservice to their people that is exactly identical to the disservice these two newspapers have done to Westerners. The most extreme examples of Muslim saber-rattling have always, especially recently, brought great suffering upon Muslim countries at the hands of Western powers. These days, people can incur such wrath for just looking like Muslims, or being geographically close to Muslims, all because of the modern Western narratives about Islam. So please, put away the Kalashnikovs. There are people out there who will voice your indignation in ways to which Westerners are more likely to listen.

Or some Westerners, I should say. Others plan to burn the Qur'an in public, (story), a pointless gesture of macho dick-waving to prove... what? That Danes can incite worldwide violence if they damned well please? Cool. You go, Danish youths.

No, don't. Where is the lack of computation here? Westerners flout Islam, Muslims go ballistic, and the Western response is to flout Islam even harder?! What good does that do anyone!? Where is the intrinsic good of free speech now? Speech has been made freely, and now people on both sides just want to kill each other more. Where is the good inherent in provocation? Defend the "right" to offend all you want, but how can you defend offending, especially when it makes things undeniably worse for everyone!?

And again, just to belabor the point for people who see free speech as good in and of itself, this is not a question of legal rights, of the protection of some artificial tenet. This is an issue of the responsibility of one human being to another on a personal basis, not an ideological one. What good are ideologies, legal rights, and especially modes of expression if they don't facilitate better personal relationships? Were these tools, these human inventions, not created for the very purpose of ameliorating the human condition? For bringing disconnected individuals together to live better in a society?

Is it not clear from what has happened in this situation that these inventions can and frequently do fail us? Or that we can and frequently do fail them? On one side of this situation, people are thumbing their noses, entrenching their own harmful stereotypes about ONE FIFTH of the world, and threatening the needless destruction of texts that many consider holy and most (with the care to read it) at least consider enlightening. On the other side, we have gun-waving, calls for and threats of murder, and, of course, reinforcing their own harmful stereotypes, setting the stage for the next violent global miscommunication in the name of free speech!

Just because we like the right to free speech in the West does not mean that any instance in which that right is exercised is good. The right is unfortunately necessary for Western purposes because it is better than tyranny, but with that freedom comes the responsibility to use it for the betterment of society rather than the detriment. Journalism is a key institution of a democratic society, and it must, at all times, uphold its responsibility to keep the populace educated and informed. This requires free, unbiased reporting, free of censorship. However, for the exact same reason, it must, at all times, refrain from misinforming the populace as it did by the publication of this first cartoon, which perpetuated an ignorant conception of Islam. The journalists actually failed in their responsibility to keep the public informed by not informing the public that depiction of the Prophet is absolutely forbidden in Islam! This depiction caused great ills for the world, even manifesting themselves as economic consequences for Danish people due to boycotts, and yet more journalists depicted the Prophet again! In short, those responsible are bad citizens and even worse journalists. They brought international disrepute to their publications, which to me sounds like as good an argument for firing an editor as any. So adieu, M. Lefranc, and may your society, which you have wronged, treat you kindly as you search for new employment.

As I said at the commencement of this Everything is ablaze! project, the Buddha's Fire Sermon represents for me a triumph of human growth, a self-evidently righteous act in which he reached out to very different people in order to develop a mutual understanding. He learned their ways, understood their vocabulary, and explained himself to them on their terms, and together they became more at One. If that event was an apex of human understanding, the event of which I write today is a nadir. Don't speak because you can, speak because you must! Speak so that you can be heard and understood! And if what you have to say can't be heard and understood, don't speak. Only in the modern West do we have this irrational aversion to silence. I only write here to help us understand each other, and if I didn't think it could be done, I wouldn't write at all.

Irony

2006-01-30T17:47:00.000-05:00

[cross posted @ WiredOpinion.com -- I'd prefer you commented there]

Perhaps it's time for a consulting firm to offer pro-bono PR courses to the so-called "Arab Street."

A flurry of violent anti-Danish sentiment has swept through parts of the Middle East in reaction to a series of offensive cartoons which ran in Scandinavian newspapers last week depicting the prophet Mohammed as, among other things, a terrorist.

As Saudi Arabia and Libya cut off diplomatic relations with Denmark, thousands of Palestinian protesters marched and burned the Danish flag, demanding an apology. Palestinian gunmen seized an EU office in Gaza and warned that Danish and Swedish nationals traveling in the Territories would be subject to attack. Employees of a Danish-owned dairy firm were beaten in Saudi Arabia, and the Danish government has warned its citizens to avoid travel in Muslim countries.

All of this in response, ironically, to a cartoon which depicted Islam as a violent religion. Such an overblown and violent reaction does not speak to the offended parties' political savvy; it would seem self-evident that wanton violence is a poor response to allegations of violent tendencies.

The unfortunate turn of events is even more ironic when one considers the bigoted tendencies of the mainstream Arab media, which regulary portray Jews as -- among other things -- greedy and conspiratorial murderers. Jewish indignation at such hateful propaganda is present but, as far as I can tell, remains civilized. I haven't heard any American Jews warn Muslims not to set foot in Brooklyn for fear of their lives, but I'll keep my ears open.

It isn't an encouraging sign of Arab societies' possibilities for democratic reform when their response to free political speech -- be it offensive or benign -- consists of severing diplomatic discourse, beatings, and death threats.

The Niger Delta, revisited.

2006-01-30T14:51:00.000-05:00

As an update to the situation I reported on here, the hostages in Nigeria have been released without their captors' demands being met (story). I wonder how they pulled that off?

The Niger Delta

2006-01-16T22:32:00.000-05:00

So it has come to this. Nigerian militants have taken four oil workers hostage and are demanding that the wealth that the indifferent oil empire stole from their land be returned. They tried peaceful protest in the 1990s; three-fifths of the population of the Niger Delta turned out to protest the environmental destruction the oil companies were causing while giving none of the land's wealth back to those that live on it. Their demands were ignored, government troops protecting the oil companies killed protesters and razed homes, and the leaders of the protest were hanged. In the last year, the people of the Niger Delta have become more desperate, and here we are today.

Check out this entry I wrote for WiredOpinion for more information on the subject, including sources.

Firstly,

2005-05-07T14:26:00.000-05:00

The title of the blog, "Everything is ablaze!", is a quotation from the Buddha's Fire Sermon, one of the most resonant religious texts I've ever encountered. I think it's so important to me because the Buddha realized that there is an underlying Truth to our life experience that transcends silly intellectual narratives. He gave this sermon to a bunch of fire-worshipping ascetics, people who clearly, on paper, did not feel the way the Buddha did about the world, but he explained his teachings with language that penetrated to the heart of his audience, using the fire that these people worshipped to illustrate his view of the world as united, alive, and interdependent.

Not only do I find the Buddha's metaphor totally compelling, I think his understanding that everybody is taking the exact same world and interpreting it differently remains one of the most timely lessons we can learn today. The filthy, greedy nihilists that run the U.S. government and the faith-blind fundamentalists they've co-opted and I, the upper-middle class, privileged, uncertain teenage know-it-all are all taking the same data and putting our own words to them until we really convince ourselves we are looking at different worlds.

We're not. Same world, different person.

That is what this blog will be about: drafting the collective Fire Sermon of the 21st century so that we can all learn that ancient and forgotten lesson of the Buddha's, that everything is ablaze.