Putting 2&2 Together For Children Caught in War What Kind of Monster Have We Become

This country, The U.S.A. is at the top of the abuse of Children related to WAR. According to a recent ACLU report, "The United States is failing to protect its own youth from abusive military recruitment, and is simultaneously failing to protect the youth of other countries who have already been forcibly involved in armed conflict," said Jamil Dakwar, Director of the ACLU Human Rights Program. "The United States should take immediate action to bring its policies and practices on military recruitment and treatment of former child soldiers in line with internationally accepted standards."

Another report from Human Rights Watch, has as its headline:

US: Respect Rights of Child Detainees in Iraq
Children in US Custody Held Without Due Process

This report includes the following information about U.S. treatment and detention of children.

On May 22, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will meet in Geneva to review US compliance with the Optional Protocol on children in armed conflict, which the US ratified in 2002. The treaty bans the recruitment and use of persons under 18 in hostilities by any party to a conflict, and requires states to provide all appropriate assistance for the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of such children under their jurisdiction or control.

Since 2003, the US has detained some 2,400 children in Iraq, including children as young as 10. Detention rates rose drastically in 2007 to an average of 100 new children a month from 25 a month in 2006.

"The vast majority of children detained in Iraq languish for months in US military custody. The US should provide these children with immediate access to lawyers and an independent judicial review of their detention," said Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East children’s researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Democracy Now, comments on the report. "The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the Bush administration of holding the youths in violation of international standards. The US has joined Somalia as the only states to refuse to ratify the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Around 2,500 youths have been jailed in US prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo since 2002."


There is an overwhelming link between the military's recruitment policies and it's treatment of children in detention. There is a huge problem that demands a revolution in thinking from the top down. Is there hope for change?

Another article on Common Dreams stated that Congress had invited Murat Kurnaz, an ex-Guantanamo prisoner to testify via satellite. Only about 6 members showed up.The first to speak after Kurnaz was finished was ranking member on the committee, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who expressed doubts about the testimony and recalled that the United States was “at war” and needed to protect itself even at the price of making some errors. This comment brings me so much shame after causing 5 years of suffering to an innocent man. What kind of monsters have we become?

Troops/Earthquakes /Cyclones & Revolution

I'm always amazed that we can continue send soldiers to a tiny country to kill people in a war that almost no one supports, while outrageous human and earth disasters go almost unattended. The money, the human effort, all thrown down an enormous black hole that causes wounds so deep we will need unknown medicine to heal them.

Spies are being created by the thousands while children may die in the thousands because a few cruel men refuse to allow them to be helped, and the monster Bush keeps the aid at bay by continuing to aggravate the military monsters of Burma.

We don't want any of this any more. The ordinary people of the world are fed up. We are tired of lives that have no meaning. We are up to our necks in horror paid for from our labor. We are over destroying the earth that sustains us. We are ready for goodness, kindness, hope, peace, and some for all, not most of it for a few.

We want revolution in our thoughts, what we allow, what we buy, and how we live. Got any ideas? Let's use this amazing wealth of creativity born in us for our own lives and the lives of each other and our children, not to increase the wealth of a few obscenely wealthy few who think they own the world.

The Sound of Life

I'm starting a new "Writing for Life," class in a few days, so am preparing. Sound is my first thought. Kids love the sound of language, whether their own invented speech or whatever native language their community speaks. We have rhythm like music when we write or speak or maybe we can't hear ourselves, so we loose our the sense of the sound of our words.

I'm taking some of my more recent writing and reading it out loud to myself, loudly! Which reminds me of how we have taken to being so silent in our current American culture. We do not hear ourselves yell or sing or just speak truth. During Nazi occupation of many parts of Europe, silence was required for survival. There was a saying about that time that was taken by the gay community as this part of our population tried to exist. Death was sometimes the consequence of "coming out." The saying was, "Silence is Death."

If we are to maintain life, we must not be silent. We need to gather with each other and speak hope into what looks like a hopeless void. We need to give our language in poetry, in articles, in books, in song, in conversation, in speeches, in protests in the street. We need to go together to the meetings of our government and speak, hear the sound of our own bodies, give our sound as a gift to the greater community that is dying from our silences.

Speak to friends, speak to power, but for god's sake and ours, SPEAK!

More on The Gift Economy

Just wanted to give you a little more on the subject of a Gift Economy. I'm just beginning an experiment to see how the concept works in real life. Seva Cafe in India has been doing a version of it for a while. I'm researching not only online, but in my daily life to see what happens. Stepping out in a way that is new even to me. Stay tuned.

On Linux.com, Jem Matzab writes about the gift economy in his article, The Gift Economy and Free Software. He states that, "AGift Economy is a social system in which status is given by how much one shares or gives to one's community, as opposed to an "exchange economy" where status is given to those who own or control the most stuff. Capitalism was founded on the premise that money would encourage people to be more productive; the key here is encouraging people to be more productive, not the means by which it is achieved. A productive society is also prosperous."Gifford Pinchot says in his article, The Gift Economy, "In the potlatches of the Chinook, Nootka, and other Pacific Northwest peoples, chiefs vied to give the most blankets and other valuables. More generally, in hunter-gatherer societies the hunter's status was not determined by how much of the kill he ate, but rather by what he brought back for others."In his brilliant book The Gift: The Erotic Life of Property, Lewis Hyde points to two types of economies. In a commodity (or exchange) economy, status is accorded to those who have the most. In a gift economy, status is accorded to those who give the most to others.Lest we think that the principles of a gift economy will only work for simple, primitive or small enterprises, Hyde points out that the community of scientists follows the rules of a gift economy. The scientists with highest status are not those who possesses the most knowledge; they are the ones who have contributed the most to their fields. A scientist of great knowledge, but only minor contributions is almost pitied - his or her career is seen as a waste of talent."

And from a more feminist perspective," Exchange creates and requires scarcity. If everyone were giving to everyone else, there would be no need to exchange. The market needs scarcity to maintain the level of prices. In fact when there is an abundance of products scarcity is often created on purpose. An example of this is the plowing under of 'overabundant' crops (which may happen even when people are standing by who are hungry). On a larger scale scarcity is created 1. by the channeling of wealth into the hands of the few who then have power over the many; 2. by spending on armaments and monuments which have no nurturing value but only serve for destruction and display of power; and 3. by privatizing or depleting the environment so that the gifts of nature are unavailable to the many. The exchange paradigm is a belief system which validates this kind of behavior. Individuals who espouse it are functional to the economic system of which they are a part. Exchange is adversarial, each person tries to give less and get more, an attitude which creates antagonism and distance among the players. Gift giving creates and requires abundance. In fact, in scarcity gift giving is difficult and even self sacrificial while in abundance it is satisfying and even delightful." by Genevieve Vaughan

Gift Economy/Food Riots/and Gardens

It's time for us to do something. I just came from watering our plot in our community garden. There are food riots in many countries and the UN says that 33 countries are on the verge of total disruption of their governments because of food prices and shortages. There are many reasons for this, but here are a few sited now even on conventional news media.

1. Global warming is disrupting production.
2. Prices are soaring because of manipulation of agriculture by the U.S. the World Trade organization and other wealthy powerful governments.
3. Bio fuels are taking over farm land as well as causing the destruction of rain forest land to produce bio fuel crops.
4. The cost of fuel is soaring and distribution of food across thousands of miles also raises the price of food.

What we need is to revamp the whole basis of world wide economies. It is no humane to have people starving while some have millions of times more money than they can spend in a lifetime.

Another issue that feeds into economies is the slavery of labor. Even in countries where equality and democracy are high held ideas, as the U.S. was purported to be at some point in our past, when we enter the workplace, democracy and equality go out the window. Very few people are doing what they were born to do nor can they even figure out what that would be. Even in very wealthy countries people spend their lives doing what they think will bring them wealth or at least a livleihood instead of what gives their lives purpose and meaning.

Gift economies are circular. They involved a giving based system where the point is to give what each person has to give to the community and through a circle the giver has his or her needs met.

G.W. meets D.L.

So, Congress and George W. will meet with the Dali Lama come hell or high water or a huge objection from China. How do great powers, mostly led by old men, get off on pretending they did not do away with a sovereign nation? We did it most recently with Iraq and China did it so long ago with Tibet, it feels more like a bumper sticker campaign than a nation with an ancient history and a vibrant culture. Will we launch a bumper sticker campaign for Iraq? Free Iraq with some photo of some antiquity needlessly destroyed or peed on by some American troops in need of entertainment, housed with some priceless artifacts of all of our past?

Can't blame the Dali Lama, I guess. Shaking hands with the devil might be more prudent than pretending he doesn't exist. What does this mean for a born again Christian who sees Buddhisms as anti-heaven, God and Jesus? Maybe G.W. just wants anyway he can come up with to be associated with something popular in this country.

I for one am in awe of the Dali Lama for not wanting to destroy China. He inspires people all over the world. I have to say, looking around, though, we're not doing all that well with his teachings. Wonder what he'll say to G.W. One thing for sure, it won't be, "Way to go buddy."
What I would say to G.W. would probably get bleeped. For now, I'm going to work on staying on the Gandhi side. Got any suggestions?

Doris Lesing Is Less than Impressed with Nobel Prize

Can't say that I'm not jealous. Someone could at least try to get my novel published. I gave up trying to get an agent and am writing a second tome, but at 88 Doris has been published for dozens of years. She says she got all the prizes and now kind of expects this one.

Seems like this is the way our global culture works. A lot for the few. She didn't even seem impressed with the 1.5 million dollars the prize would bring her. Said she could imagine all the letters asking for money she would get. I guess even being famous and making it to 88 doesn't necessarily mean she has become a mature adult as David Korten explains. http://www.thegreatturning.net/WNkorten.php One who sees their connection to all of creation and is fulfilled by sharing. Still I have to admire her disinterest in the publicity.

How are we ever going to make the Great Turning toward the world we want to live in?