The Eye of the Storm

Glued to the TV, on despite a decision to turn off service totally and sell the equipment, I watch the horrors in Japan unfold along with the rest of the world.  This triple catastrophe is so beyond words and comprehension that really I can not write without sounding trite and redundant. Of course my heart goes out to those directly affected in their loss, shock and suffering.

One of my teachers from my teens, Paulo Knill, intent on helping us to ground,  would instill our confidence in Mother Earth by claiming She would always be there for us, support us, hold us. How wrong he was. I suspect as a civilization now a days we have greatly underestimated the power of nature. How else to explain the building of nuclear power plants along fault lines, be they in Japan, California or elsewhere? It does not make sense, never has, yet still our President insists that nuclear power will be part of the United States future. Sure, President Obama must be beholden to the nuclear industry, we know he received a lot of campaign monies from it. At least the Swiss and Germans put an immediate moratorium on further expansion, even plans already approved for the nuclear industry. If there is one good to come out of this let it be a radical rethink of energy demand and supply. Despite voices to the contrary, we do have the means now to go ahead with alternative, renewable energy. Nobody says that we have to continue to support a life style that wastes enormous amounts of energy. Locally we were able to shift in to a radically lower level of water consumption within only a few years. We can become more mindful in regard to electric necessities as well.

The political right calls for deregulation, but look at the horror of those 6 nuclear power plants in the control of one private company that does not communicate openly and honesty with the public. Can it get much worse? This is what my and maybe my generation's nightmares are made of. A destructive power on the prowl that we can not detect with our normal senses - horror of horrors.

Astrologer Erin Sullivan likens the harvesting of nuclear power to the stealing of fire by Prometheus, something terribly offensive to the gods. Do we consider a 9.0 earthquake normal, or an other effect of global warming or as some would have it punishment of the gods or Gaia or  others would  want to see it as the coming of Christ in the last days of earth? The flood and destruction does appear biblical for those that grew up in the Christian tradition. Who knew that tidal waves  would come in such a low, relentless force rather then those humongous super waves we imagined? Global warming has my vote. It gives us an opportunity to make amends and correct our errors and live more in harmony with nature as we strive towards a more sustainable life style individually and as a people.

Finally please, I heard that if you text in your support for Japan, the banks will take longer to deliver  your donations, so it seems best to go with the traditional organizations like the Red Cross, but please do not forget all those pets that no doubt are in dire need of our help as well. 

Transparency of a kind

President Obama must have had something other in mind then leaks when he vowed to make government more transparent.

"another cable shows that a 2009 claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran was months away from achieving military nuclear capability was dismissed by the Americans as a ploy.

According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which also received advance information from WIkiLeaks, a State Department official says in a classified cable that Netanyahu informed the United States of Iran's nuclear advancement in November 2009, but that the prime minister's estimate was likely unfounded and intended to pressure Washington into action against the Islamic Republic." (Wikileak)

"After delays, an official launch ceremony of Iran's first nuclear power plant, Bushehr I reactor was held on 21 August 2010, and the plant is expected to go on line ...  by the end of 2010." (Wikipedia)

"The nuclear program of Iran was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program." (Wikpedia) I had no idea.

"Ahmadinejad has been a vocal supporter of Iran's nuclear program, and has insisted that it is for peaceful purposes. He has repeatedly emphasized that building a nuclear bomb is not the policy of his government. He has said that such a policy is "illegal and against our religion."^[101][102] He also added at a January 2006 conference in Tehran that a nation with "culture, logic and civilization" would not need nuclear weapons, and that countries that seek nuclear weapons are those which want to solve all problems by the use of force.^[103] In a 2008 interview Ahmadinejad elaborated that countries striving to obtain nuclear weapons are politically backward nations and those who possess them and continually make new generations of such bombs are "even more backward". (Wikpedia)

"Despite Ahmadinejad's vocal support for the program, the office of the Iranian president is not directly responsible for nuclear policy. It is instead set by the Supreme National Security Council. The council includes two representatives appointed by the Supreme Leader, military officials, and members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and reports directly to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who issued a fatwa against nuclear weapons in 2005.^[112] Khamenei has criticized Ahmadinejad's "personalization" of the nuclear issue." (Wikpedia)

I do wonder if Iran is close to having nuclear power available for military purposes? My Tea Party contact dismisses this as nonsense and stresses their right to nuclear power as a sovereign power and believes the Iranian president Ahmadinejad enjoys goading others and does not believe him to be as ignorant as he may sound.


Did you know that as Major of Teheran, Ahmadinejad worked to improve the traffic system and focused on charity such a as the distribution of free soup to the poor?

.."after returning from his 2005 speech to the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad stated he had "felt a halo over his head" during his speech and that a hidden presence had mesmerized the unblinking audience of foreign leaders, foreign ministers, and ambassadors." Wow, the Iraninan president, a mystic and/or religious fanatic?

This is where one might want to resort to prayer, and plead to the higher powers to interject and save us from rogues gaining access to nuclear destruction.

For an interesting interview with Julian Assange check out this link.

4 months earlier, August 3. 2010 on Democracy Now, another interesting interview.

Interpole, usually involved with international affairs has put out a warrant because supposedly not of the leaks, but the charges of rape against Julian. While I take accusations of rape very seriously, this one smells suspicious. 

Since Amazon took down the Wikileak site, you can follow the developments on twitter or facebook.

Der Spiegel offers a highly organized means of studying the documents and seems to still function.