Saturday, September 29, 2007

Japanese Photojournalist 'deliberately shot'.


I just came across this shocking report in The Home of Attila


It contained a link to a YouTube video showing Japanese photojournalist being deliberately killed by Burmese troops.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUUQi1ooEAs

September 29, 2007

Video shows Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai ‘being shot deliberately’


Filed under: BurmaAtilla89 @ 7:16 pm


I’m sure that many of you have been watching the situation in Burma very closely. Once again I really hope these protesters are successful and overthrow the military. Anyway, here’s the shocking video of Japanese journalist, Kenji Nagai being deliberately shot through the heart. This video does contain disturbing scenes.


Here is more on the subject from the UK Times.


Footage capturing the last, terrible seconds of Kenji Nagai’s life has been aired on Japanese television – horrifying a nation and raising official suspicion that the 50-year old photo-journalist was murdered by Burmese troops (writes Leo Lewis in Tokyo).


The shaky, indistinct moments of footage appear to show Nagai, who was on the edge of a crowd of panic-stricken demonstrators, shoved violently to the ground by a soldier and shot dead at point-blank range.


The crowd flees, leaving behind a visibly agonised figure believed to be Nagai – dressed casually in shorts and flip-flops – on his back in the street. In his right hand is a video camera, held above the ground to protect it from the fall.


A loud crack is audible as a soldier points his rifle at the prone figure before launching himself at the dispersing crowd of protesters.


A doctor at the Japanese embassy in Burma confirmed a bullet entered Nagai’s body from the lower right side of his chest, pierced his heart and exited from his back.


The footage, say Japanese experts, squarely contradicts the official Burmese explanation of Nagai’s death – that he was killed by a “stray bullet”.


In the few seconds before he was killed, Nagai appeared to being filming the Burmese military as it faced down the crowd. One of the soldiers seems to spot him doing so, and launches his deadly response.



The Unsung Heroes.



I apologized to my regular readers for deviating from what I usually write for this blog but I know you will all understand and support me. Sometimes, there comes into our life a cause that is much bigger than any of us and an urgency that demand our immediate and complete attention. We cannot stand aside and watch it go by without doing anything. Here we are presented with a chance to do something from wherever we are. We must grasp it.


We have no idea if what we do will make any impact but that is no excuse for not taking action. The least we can do is to provide some solace to the poor people of Myanmar that there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world who feels their anger and their pain. And that - cannot be wasted effort.


Sorry if I offend anyone by saying - if you just sign up, you've not done enough. Please help to spread the words. Parents, share it your children. Teachers, share it with your students. Clubs, share it with your members. Friends, colleagues and lovers, share it with your close ones. Shout it out in MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, or wherever you congregate. Link it back to my blog or start your own links. Let us together try to make a difference. If we fail, it shall not be for lack of trying.


Yesterday, the tally stood at 173,000+. At this hour the new figure is 215,000+ nearing the targeted 250,000. But why stopped there? With all your help, let us go the distance - one million caring individuals of the world demanding an end to the atrocities happening in Burma. Use whatever imagination and ingenuity that you may have to get people to add on to the petition. Let our voice be heard - loud and clear.


I'm very happy to note a sudden spike in new readers yesterday after I posted the information on Avaaz in Flickr. I assumed you are all here to lend support to the Myanmese cause. Let us do more.


For my readers, old and new. I've selected a few quotations from Aung Sang Suu Kyi which proved not only to be insightful but prophetic. If you've any difficulty remembering her name, I liked the memory aid used by Jim Carrey "And let's face it: the name's a little difficult to remember. Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like 'unsung,' as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero." The people of Myanmar are also unsung heroes. Let us change that - let us sing their praise.


Ghostwise shall refrain from making any comments out of respect and not wanting to trivialize the gravity of the situation:


It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.


Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be described as "grace under pressure" — grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.


Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.


We have faith in the power to change what needs to be changed but we are under no illusion that the transition from dictatorship to liberal democracy will be easy, or that democratic government will mean the end of all our problems. We know that our greatest challenges lie ahead of us and that our struggle to establish a stable, democratic society will continue beyond our own life span. But we know that we are not alone. The cause of liberty and justice finds sympathetic responses around the world. Thinking and feeling people everywhere, regardless of color or creed, understand the deeply rooted human need for a meaningful existence that goes beyond the mere gratification of material desires. Those fortunate enough to live in societies where they are entitled to full political rights can reach out to help their less fortunate brethren in other areas of our troubled planet.


Sometimes, 24 hours can bring a total revolutionary change.


The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.


We will prevail because our cause is right, because our cause is just. ...History is on our side. Time is on our side.


What is there to be discouraged about? Gandhi said the victory is in the struggle itself. The struggle itself is the most important thing. I tell our followers that when we achieve democracy, we will look back with nostalgia on the struggle and how pure we were.


(All quotations are extracted from Wikipedia)



Friday, September 28, 2007

Free Burma!


Thursday, Sep. 27, 2007

Burma's Agony

By Hannah Beech

(This is a Times article)

Tear-gassing protesters on Sept. 26
National League for Democracy-Liberated Area / AP



The burgundy robes of Buddhist monks usually evoke a sense of spiritual calm. But for the repressive junta that has ruled Burma for 45 years, the recent sight of shaven-headed clerics marching the streets has been anything but soothing. For more than a week now, tens of thousands of Buddhist clerics have rallied across the country, their daily alms routes turned into paths of protest. Some walked quietly with their begging bowls overturned — an implied excommunication of the military leaders whose punitive fuel hikes provoked the first demonstrations back in August. Initially, Burma's generals tried to extinguish the protests by arresting dozens of pro-democracy activists who had kick started the civil disobedience. But with the Buddhist clergy quickly taking over leadership of the movement, on Wednesday Sept. 26 the regime unleashed a violent crackdown on the protesters — a potentially dangerous move in this deeply devout nation. "The monks are the only ones who really have the trust of the people," says Khin Omar, an exiled dissident now living in Thailand. "When they speak up, people listen."


And when they act, people follow. By Sept. 24, thousands of ordinary Burmese had overcome their fear of the regime and joined the demonstrations, their shoes slapping through the monsoon downpours alongside the monks' bare feet. While marching monks recited prayers in the commercial capital Rangoon, civilians raised their fists and chanted their own mantra: "Democracy, democracy." The participation of normal citizens has turned what had been a series of sporadic rallies into the largest sustained display of dissent in Burma in nearly two decades. "The people's only weapons are their hands," said an elderly teacher watching the procession of protestors with teary eyes. "The government wants to wipe them out, but the people are not afraid."


Monks march through Yangon city centre as bystanders join in an anti-government demonstration, September 24, 2007. Reuters



Could this be the start of a burgundy revolution, another rebellion that upends a long-standing dictatorship? Back in 1988, the Burmese military unleashed a brutal assault on student protestors, leaving thousands dead. This time, the junta at first avoided direct confrontation with the demonstrating monks — after all, this is a country where the 300,000-plus clergy is second in numbers only to the 450,000-strong military. But this is not a regime given to restraint. With the monks' protests showing little sign of abating and civilians joining the movement in large numbers, Burma's top brass reverted to their old ways. On Monday Sept. 24, the nation's Religious Affairs Minister was quoted on state television ordering the monks back to their monasteries. The following morning, trucks mounted with loudspeakers patrolled Rangoon, threatening to arrest anyone who dared join the protesting clerics. The junta then announced a nighttime curfew and said they would enforce an already-present ban on any assembly of more than five people. By Wednesday, riot police and soldiers were stationed around pagodas in Rangoon, and hundreds of marchers had been detained.


Then the violence began, with at least two monks reported killed. As an eyewitness at Rangoon's best-known landmark, the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, tells it, the authorities had locked the famous monument's gates to prevent the monks from gathering. Security forces guarded the entrances. A little after noon, hundreds of monks, students and other Rangoon residents approached the police, sat on the road and began to pray. The troops responded quickly, pulling monks from the crowd and striking both clerics and ordinary citizens with canes. Several smoke bombs exploded, and the riot police charged. Some protestors fought back with sticks and rocks. A car was set alight — by the soldiers, claim the demonstrators — and then the air filled with the unmistakable crack of live ammunition. Soldiers were shooting volleys of bullets into the air. "They are not Buddhists," cried Thurein, a 24-year-old student, clutching half a brick and fleeing from the smoke. "They are not humans. Tell the world. We were praying peacefully and they beat us. They beat the monks, even the old ones." An elderly monk stood with him, bleeding from a baton gash on his shaven head.


Nearly 400 Burmese Buddhist monks march through Yangon to protest the military junta's alleged use of violence against Buddhist monks at Pakoku, a site in the upper part of Myanmar. EPA


The protesters regrouped, though, and surged forward again. Minutes later, a tear-gas canister arced through the air toward the pagoda's eastern entrance. The monks retreated, many still armed with clubs of scavenged wood, one brandishing a riot shield he had snatched from the police. Suddenly, there was an enormous explosion: a clap of thunder. The demonstrators applauded this sign of cosmic solidarity. One monk raised his hands to the heavens, shouting "The rain is coming! The soldiers will be struck by lightning!" Nearby, a woman responded, "Lightning is not enough. They deserve more." A cheer went up with each subsequent clap of thunder.


Eventually, the battle stopped. The clerics gathered at a nearby monastery to march downtown. But first came a chilling display of the people's anger — and the monks' moral influence. A man on a motorcycle rode up. Most motorcycles have been banned for years because, the story goes, the paranoid generals feared being shot by an assassin riding one of them. Those few people who can tool around on motorcycles are therefore assumed to be government spies. The mob pounced on the man, pulling him off his bike and raising their wooden sticks. "Beat him," they cried. "Kill him." Quickly, the monks intervened and hustled the man to the safety of a monastery. The crowd was forced to take out their ire on the motorbike, smashing it to bits with clubs and rocks. "If the monks had not saved him," said a Burmese cameraman filming the scene, "he would be dead for sure." In 1988, some lynchings of government agents were stopped by monks and students; far more were not.


Su Su Nway, center, during the Aug. 28 demo in Rangoon
Democratic Voice of Burma / Reuters


Despite the clash at Shwedagon, the monks continued on, their fervor broadcast over loudspeakers: "Let us overthrow the government." By early afternoon, the demonstrators had marched the two miles to the Sule Pagoda, another holy site. Again, the path to the pagoda itself was blocked by hundreds of security forces, many with bayonets fixed. The protestors sat and prayed in front of them. More soldiers armed with rifles arrived, though, and most of the crowd stood up and walked away. Twenty minutes later, the troops opened fire — a 10-second burst above the heads of those marchers who had dared to stay. People fled, but not for long. Another column of ralliers, at least a mile long, wound through the streets to join them. But as dusk approached, the crowds dispersed again. Shops in the Sule area had been shuttered all afternoon. In a city where the streets are vibrant and bustling until late, most residents had taken refuge at home. No one wanted to be out after dark.


Other nations, most of whom greeted the '88 crackdown with silence, are keeping a much closer watch this time on the unfolding drama in Burma. On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the turmoil in the country. A day before in his address to the U.N General Assembly in New York City, U.S. President George W. Bush criticized the "reign of fear" in Burma; he unveiled further restrictions on the regime, including travel bans to the U.S. for members of the junta and their families, extending sanctions that have been in place for a decade. The same day, Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke of how "brilliant" it was to see monks march on Saturday to the home of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of the independence hero who led Burma's struggle against the British. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 18 years under house arrest. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) won elections back in 1990, but the generals refused to honor the results. "It will be a hundred times better," said Miliband, "when she takes her rightful place as the elected leader of a free and democratic Burma."


That sentiment echoes the wishes of many in the Buddhist clergy, who through the newly formed All-Burma Monks Alliance, have called for Suu Kyi's release and, even more dramatically, the junta's expulsion "from Burmese soil forever." "We must not retreat," vows a 23-year-old monk in Rangoon. "If we retreat, we fail." Historically, Buddhist clerics have been a key element of resistance in Burma, from British colonial days through the democracy rallies in 1988. But this time, the monks are not simply adding their moral authority to the movement; they are leading the protests. The shift is significant, particularly for a junta that has tried to burnish its influence by linking itself to Buddhism. Burma's government-run newspapers regularly display generals lavishing money on building new pagodas and monasteries. "The junta has bent over backwards to show how good Buddhists they are," says Josef Silverstein, a Burma expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "For them to legitimize a crackdown, they will have to prove that the protests are being led by misguided monks who are actually misusing Buddhism."


Burma's generals will have a tough time convincing the public they hold more spiritual suasion than the monks. Holed up in Naypyidaw, a city that was constructed out of jungle in 2005 to replace Rangoon as the national capital, the military leaders have virtually barricaded themselves from their subjects. While ordinary Burmese get ever poorer because of the junta's economic mismanagement, the generals live in swanky mansions and drive fancy cars. The government has signed lucrative gas-pipeline and timber deals with other nations, but little of the money trickles down to ordinary people. The steep fuel hikes in August only heightened the economic disparity, as some formerly white-collar workers could no longer afford to take the bus to the office. Buddhist clerics are experiencing privation, too, since their lives depend on offerings from the people. "The monks are an economic barometer in Burma," says Sunai Phasuk, a consultant for Human Rights Watch in Bangkok. "They feel the deterioration of the economy and the hardship of their followers."


The ruling class' isolation stands in contrast to the increased connectivity of the Burmese people. Technology has revolutionized dissent. Cell phones can now be rented for $50 a month, and a click of a button sends pictures of protests to the outside world. Aung Zaw, an exiled student activist who edits the Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based publication that covers Burmese affairs, recalls how it took nearly a month for word of student protests in the early 1990s to reach Thailand. "Now we get information about protests almost instantly," he says, "and it's then sent back to people in Burma so they know what's going on across the country." The flow of information has even spawned a group of Burmese bloggers, some of whom operate out of Rangoon's 200-plus Internet cafés. (Just four years ago, there were fewer than 30 such Web cafés.) On Sept. 1, as protests against the fuel hikes were gathering momentum, 600 people showed up at the inaugural meeting of the Myanmar Bloggers Society in Rangoon. One member, a computer instructor who later witnessed Suu Kyi's Saturday meeting with the monks, uploaded a grainy digital photo she took of the momentous event. A few hours later, the picture had traveled across the globe.


Such powerful images may hearten democracy advocates worldwide, but will they persuade Burma's soldiers to disobey orders to shoot directly at the protesters? For all its economic incompetence, Burma's junta has managed to hold together the military remarkably well. Most high-level government positions are held by army officers, and lowly grunts can work their way up the ranks. Junta leader General Than Shwe, for instance, started off as a rank-and-file soldier whose psychological-warfare expertise and loyalty to predecessor Ne Win won him promotions. Still, there may be some cracks in the military's façade. "Than Shwe or senior military leaders might not care about international opinion or the feelings of the people, but some middle- and lower-ranking officers surely do," says Win Min, a Burmese military analyst based in northern Thailand. "These younger officers don't want to be hated by the people for the next 30 years."


Key to the equation may be China, Burma's largest trading partner and ideological ally. But despite calls from the West for China to use economic leverage over Burma, it's not clear how much influence Beijing really has. "China will urge Myanmar to use peaceful means to solve the problem, [because] China would like to see a stable environment in Myanmar," says Zhai Kun, an expert on Southeast Asia at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing. "But because Myanmar is a closed society, I don't think they listen to advice from the outside, including China."


That puts all the more pressure on Burma's monks, as the only force whose authority can challenge that of the military. Monks have urged the generals to avoid bloodshed by sitting down for reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi's NLD. The hope is that dialogue might lead to a power-sharing agreement that recognizes the 1990 election results. So far, the junta has pointedly ignored the 62-year-old democracy activist. Indeed, recently passed constitutional guidelines bar Suu Kyi from holding power because she lacks military experience and was married to a foreigner. But Suu Kyi clearly has the vote of some in the Buddhist clergy, as evidenced by their symbolic visit to her house. "Even if they are not political, the monks hear stories about the daily struggles of the Burmese people and the repression of the junta," says Aung Naing Oo, a Burmese political analyst based in Thailand. "They feel their pain, and they cannot just sit back idly." The NLD, even with its ranks ravaged by imprisonment and exile, may be the only political alternative Burma has — and many monks know it.


A monk runs as tear gas fills the air in downtown Yangon during a police crackdown on protestors, September 2007. The Irrwaddy / AFP / Getty


Of course, no amount of Buddhist mantras chanted in Suu Kyi's name are likely to convince Burma's generals to give up power quietly. They have ruled with an iron grip, and with impunity, for nearly half a century, and have already brutally crushed one major democracy movement. With the clashes on Sept. 26, the regime once again displayed its capacity for violence. Burma's burgundy revolutionaries can only pray that their robes will not be stained further — by the color of blood.


— with reporting by Robert Horn/Bangkok and Austin Ramzy/Beijing

~~~~~~~~~~"

The following photos are from gmhembree from flickr. You can go into flickr for more pictures.

26 September 2007 - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) Monks march west on Shwegondine Road in Yangon...

September 27 - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) The police began beating the demonstrators savagely,...

September 27 - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) After regrouping, red-helmeted riot police carried...

26 September 2007 - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) Protests spread in different parts of the city....

26 September 2007 - Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar) This was the first protest march that we saw,...

Support the Myanmese cause - sign up in the petition in previous post.

More than 173,000 people had signed in by now - make it 250,000 or more and please help to spread the words. Every signature counts. Get your friends & family to sign up.



Thursday, September 27, 2007

They're Shooting Monks in Myanmar.


Source: Avaaz.org

The Burmese protests are widening, the international response is building--and the Burmese generals are panicking. Today, the Burmese junta banned gatherings of more than 5, and sent thousands of troops to take control of the streets -- but still the monks and protesters march. Desperate officers have beaten, tear-gassed and fired on their own people, reportedly shooting five monks in Rangoon.


The next 36 hours are crucial. Leaders have called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council-- but only a decisive initiative will prevent a massacre like the one from 1988. Already, 75,000 people from 192 countries have signed our emergency global petition. Please forward this email to others who haven't yet signed--they can click below to add their name, and we'll send an updated petition to the Chinese government and the UN Security Council members every day:


http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/h.php/?cl=20596352

We're calling for UN powers--above all China, which holds the economic strings of the Burmese regime--to apply decisive pressure now to stop the violence, and to broker a peaceful transition. If they fail to do this, the massacres will be sudden. The protesters have declared they will not back down. The Burmese have showed their courage. The scenes fill our television screens--now the world must act.


In hope, Paul, Ricken, Graziela, Ben, Galit and the whole Avaaz team
To all my readers - please support the Myanmese cause - add your voice by clicking on the link above.


Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Change Humanity Or Change Ourself?





"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being."

- Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist


The sole purpose of human existence is to have meaning for the life we lead.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

“Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

- Leo Tolstoy


If we cannot find meaning in our life, maybe we should be changing ourself.

- Ghostwise


Tuesday, September 25, 2007

God Bless The Moon.





Soon as the evening shades prevail,

The moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the listening earth

Repeats the story of her birth.

- Joseph Addison


Listen to the tale of the moon tonight.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

I see the moon,

And the moon sees me;

God bless the moon,

And God bless me.

- Nursery Rhyme


Wishing all my readers a Wondrous Mooncake Festival tonight.

- Ghostwise



Monday, September 24, 2007

Do You Know?





We have more information now than we can use, and less knowledge and understanding than we need. Indeed, we seem to collect information because we have the ability to do so, but we are so busy collecting it that we haven't devised a means of using it. The true measure of any society is not what it knows but what it does with what it knows.

- Warren Bennis



Do you know?


- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~"

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."


- Confucius



Do you know the extent of your ignorance?


- Ghostwise



Sunday, September 23, 2007

Imagine.





To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

- William Blake


Imagine.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

Your imagination, my dear fellow, is worth more than you imagine.

-Louis Aragon


All realization starts with imagination.

- Ghostwise

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Growth Is Optional, Choose Wisely





"As long as we are persistence in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow. We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time."

- Denis Waitley



Better that it does not fully bloom. So that it will not start to wither and die.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

"Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely."

- Karen Kaiser Clark


If we do not want our Life as a change in decline, Growth is not optional.

- Ghostwise


Friday, September 21, 2007

You Have To Be There.




In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

- Tao Te Ching


Whatever good you desire for your family is just intention, being there is action.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it is like a storm that plays havoc with the garden.

- Buddha


We can have a family without harmony, but we cannot have a family without love.

- Ghostwise


Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Box Of Crayon.




While walking in a toy store
The day before today,

I overheard a Crayon Box

With many things to say.

"I don't like red!" said Yellow.

And Green said, "Nor do I!

And no one here likes Orange,
But no one knows quite why."

"We are a box of crayons

that really doesn't get along,"

Said Blue to all the others.

"Something here is wrong!

Well, i bought that box of crayons

And took it home with me

And laid out all the crayons

So the crayons could all see

They watched me as I colored

With Red and Blue and Green

And Black and White and Orange

And every color in between

They watched as Green became the grass

And Blue became the sky.

The Yellow sun was shining bright

On White clouds drifting by.

Colors changing as they touched,

Becoming something new.

They watched me as I colored.

They watched till I was through.

And when I'd finally finished,

I began to walk away.
And as I did the Crayon box

Had something more to say...

"I do like Red!" said the Yellow

And Green said, "So do I!

And Blue you are terrific!

So high up in the sky."

We are a Box of Crayons

Each of us unique,

But when we get together

The picture is complete.


- Anon., Box Of Crayons (Original Author Unknown)



We are all of different colors, it matters and it matters not.

- Ghostwise



Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Like A Butterfly.



The butterfly's attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly decoded message, a symbol, a sign.


- Primo Levi (1919-1987), Italian chemist, author.


The beauty of a butterfly lies in its transformation.


- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"

I became the butterfly. I got out of the cocoon, and I flew.


- Lynn Redgrave (b. 1943), British actor;


We all wished to be transformed like the butterfly.


- Ghostwise


Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The Intoxicating Loneliness.





“Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.”


- Henry Rollins



The moon reveals its true beauty only to those who view it alone.

- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"

Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

- Dag Hammarskjold (1905 - 1961)



Most men yearn for love, only after they have tasted the wine of loneliness.

- Ghostwise


Sunday, September 16, 2007

If He Cries, Can You Cry?





“Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.”

- Frederick Buechner


Compassion? Can you feel his joy? Can you feel his loneliness? Can you feel his pain? If he cries, can you cry?

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

“For those who may not find happiness to exercise religious faith, it's okay to remain a radical atheist, it's absolutely an individual right, but the important thing is with a compassionate heart -- then no problem.”

- Dalai Lama


It is truer to be a non-believer with compassion than a believer with none.

If we compare how compassionate we are instead of how religious, this world would be a much kinder place to live in.

- Ghostwise

Friday, September 14, 2007

Man and Nature.




Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.

- Hal Borland


Trees teach me endurance. Grass teaches me perseverance.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"


Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

- John Muir


Because there is no man around.

- Ghostwise

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Zen is Now is Life.





“We could say that meditation doesn't have a reason or doesn't have a purpose. In this respect it's unlike almost all other things we do except perhaps making music and dancing. When we make music we don't do it in order to reach a certain point, such as the end of the composition. If that were the purpose of music then obviously the fastest players would be the best. Also, when we are dancing we are not aiming to arrive at a particular place on the floor as in a journey. When we dance, the journey itself is the point, as when we play music the playing itself is the point. And exactly the same thing is true in meditation. Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment.”

- Alan Watts


Zen is Now. Zen has No Purpose. Zen is Life.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

“The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there”

- Robert M. Pirsig


When you can bring the top of the mountain to you, you have approached Zen.

- Ghostwise

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again.





I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

-Stephen Grellet



Do not wait for the day when you can do a greater good. Do little acts of kindness now. For you will not have the same chance to do good while you can.

- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"

"Kindness in words creates confidence, Kindness in thinking creates profoundness, Kindness in giving creates love."

- Lao-Tzu



Kindness benefits both but more the giver than the receiver.

- Ghostwise




Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Feed Just One.



They that die by famine die by inches.

- Matthew Henry


No crueler way to die.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~"

“If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”

- Mother Teresa


And less one hungry person in this world.

- Ghostwise





p.s. I tried to keep this blog separate from the others that I wrote. I'll make an exception this time. Both in the picture as well in the linkage. Please check out my current blog in "Ghost Walk". There is still an opportunity for any reader who wants to make a difference this Saturday. I'm not trying to do much except trying to feed just one.



Monday, September 10, 2007

Accept Regret, Accept Life.





"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret."

- Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-81), Swiss philosopher, poet


My life has been a whole series of regrets. But I'm still better off than the man who has none.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

- Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)


Our first mistake causes our regret. Not letting go causes our second mistake.

- Ghostwise



Sunday, September 9, 2007

Honesty can be hard to swallow.





"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one rascal less in the world."

- Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881)


Be an honest man first, before you lament about a lack of honesty in this world.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

"We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip little by little at a truth we find bitter."

- Denis Diderot (1713-84), French philosopher, writer



Lie is sweet where truth is bitter. Even when we realize, we still tend to go for the sweet than the bitter.

- Ghostwise


Saturday, September 8, 2007

The Music Of Silence.




“A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.”

- Leopole Stokowski


Which is why, the best way to listen to music is to close our eyes, and to close our mind.

- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"


"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

- Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963), British writer



The sweetest sound in the entire universe is silence.


- Ghostwise



Friday, September 7, 2007

I Hate Love.




“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”

- Neil Gaiman


And yet like a moth to the naked flame...

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

“The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other”

- Ashleigh Brilliant


Can love be measured by the amount of hurt?

- Ghostwise


Thursday, September 6, 2007

Money & A Football Team.




"Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger


We would love to bury him with his money.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

"Money, get away.
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay.
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team."

- Pink Floyd (Waters/Gilmour)


Thaksin loves Pink Floyd.

- Ghostwise.


Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Hope Is Free.





"May every sunrise hold more promise, every moonrise hold more peace."

- Anon.


He who can say that when there is despair in his heart and tears in his eyes knows what hope is.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

"Hope" is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-Emily Dickinson


Hope is "free", in every sense of the word.

- Ghostwise


Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Full Moon On A Dark Night.






“When a finger points to the moon, the imbecile looks at the finger”

- Chinese Proverbs



The imbecile's finger is larger than the moon.


- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"


“May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door.”


-Irish Blessings quotes



On a dark night without a moon, your kind words will still warm a cold evening.


- Ghostwise

Monday, September 3, 2007

I Walked With Sorrow





I walked a mile with Pleasure

She chattered all the way

But there was nothing I could learn

From all she had to say


I walked a mile with Sorrow

And never a word said she

But, oh, all the things I learned

When Sorrow walked with me.


- Anon.



Sorrow speaks with me not with words

Because words cannot describe

What Sorrow has to say.


- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~~~

"
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad. "

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Man is quick to share his joy but slow to share his sorrow. He would rather be cold than sad.


- Ghostwise


Saturday, September 1, 2007

Gratitude.





"We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought."


- Chinese Proverb



We, of little gratitude.


- Ghostwise


~~~~~~~~~~"


If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

- Mark Twain,


Do you agree that dog generally understands Gratitude better than man? What does that say of man?

- Ghostwise


Travel & Home




No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.

-Lin Yutang


We love to travel because we know we have a home to come back to.

- Ghostwise

~~~~~~~~~~"

One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness; one only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere...

- Willa Cather (1873-1947)


But one is more likely to stumble upon the chance meeting if one is moving than being stationary.

- Ghostwise