Malalai Joya

Malalai Joya, a very courageous Afghan woman, is on a speaking tour in the US.  We heard her at the Univ. of San Francisco last Monday evening.  Her message is simple, the US occupation of Afghanistan should end.  Whereas before, the Afghan people only had one enemy, the Taliban, they now have three, the Taliban, the warlords who are profiting from the millions of dollars pouring into the country, and now the occupation.  Joya was a member of Parliament until she was ejected for speaking out against government corruption.  Now she is forced to live underground, moving frequently, because of threats on her life.  She has written a powerful book, "A Woman Among Warlords, the Extraordinary Story of an Afghan Who Dared to Raise Her Voice". 
There are many, myself included, who fear for the plight of women under the Taliban.  Joya says that Afghan women are worse off under the occupation.   You may visit her website at www.malalaijoya.com

US helicopter pilots kill 9 Afghan boys, ages 7-13

It is way past time for the US to get out of Afghanistan as an occupying force.  Truthout.org published this story about the killing of nine boys collecting firewood on a hillside.  It is painful to image this incident, but please read about it.  From another source, I've learned the names of the boys.
Khalid, 13, son of Bismillah
Abid, 10, son of Bismillah
Khalid, 10, son of Ahmad Khan
Ziairahman, 12, son of Nisbah
Jawad, 11, son of Sabhanullah
Ihsanullah, 11, son of Sabhanullah
Shahidullah, 7, son of Rahman
Jawed, 11, son of Wali Mohammad
Umra Khan, 10, son of Safiullah

I want to be proud to be an American.  How can we be a proud nation when our troops are killing children?  I am ashamed and profoundly sad that we, as a nation, are killing children.

Drug resistant malaria along the Thai Cambodian border

photo from IRIN

IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports "Health officials warn that an ongoing border dispute and subsequent military build-up along the Thai-Cambodian frontier could undermine global efforts to contain drug-resistant malaria, citing limited access for surveillance, early diagnosis and treatment".
As if the pandemic potential for drug resistant malaria was already not severe enough, the struggle over ownership of an 11th century Hindu temple could make it worse.  I remember that in the 1980s, the fighting between the Peruvian government and Shining Path guerrillas made it nearly impossible for health workers distributing polio vaccine to get to some remote villages.  I remember how angry it made me to learn of the cases of polio that developed, completely unnecessarily, because of that.
Now, in 2011, how many deaths due to malaria will result because of the border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia.  I'm convinced that, if they so choose, the politicians on both sides could settle this dispute.  For political reasons, they let the games continue.  What better way to keep the people's attention on something other than the deficiencies of their governments than to keep them riled up about the "invasions" by a neighboring country?

Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell

I've been a Spalding Gray fan for some time.  I've seen him in the film, "The Killing Fields", and I've watched some of the 18 monologues he wrote and performed around the US, Australia and Europe.  There is nothing, apparently, about his life that he did not reveal in his monologues.   He writes, "I came to know my life through the telling of it".
One of his monologues is "Swimming to Cambodia" about making the movie "The Killing Fields".   In addition to "The Killing Fields", he also appeared in "Beaches" in 1988 and "The Paper" with Micheal Keaton in 1994.
The performance tonight was quite different than what I expected.  The stories were from the life of Spalding Gray but they were performed by a cast of five actors, both men and women.  Each one gave monologues.  None of the actors, well, interacted.  Each one was Spalding Gray.  Roberta thought that made it much more interesting.   I enjoy listening to, and watching, Spalding Gray so very much that I could have happily listened to a single actor delivering the lines instead of five different actors.  Nevertheless, the performance was quite entertaining and runs through the end of February at the Custom Made Theater in the Trinity Episcopal Church on the corner of Bush and Gough.  The run has, in fact, been extended because it is a popular show.

Celebrating the overthrow of a despot

We joined the Code Pink biweekly march on Golden Gate Bridge today.  Code Pink is a feminist anti war organization that actively protests our government's continual wars and the killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan often by unmanned aerial vehicles or drones flown by young airmen out of Creech AFB in Nevada, thousands of miles from the actual scene of the killings.

Roberta being interviewed by a Channel 2 reporter

Today was different, today the gathering was a celebration of the nonviolent overthrow of the Mubarak regime by the Egyptian people.  It was a celebration of the power for the human spirit for freedom and the manifestation that collectively people have the power to bring about change of such magnitude.

TV reporters looked for people to interview and I suggested Roberta, who is always articulate and passionate about issues of social justice.  She gave a great interview.

Roberta and her new Egyptian friend, Mawra

 While we were marching to join the Code Pink group from Marin in the middle of the bridge, Roberta passed a young couple who were smiling at the passing celebrants.  Roberta asked if they were from Egypt.  They had delayed a long planned business trip to the US until Mubarak stepped down.  They had been going to Tahrir Square every day since the beginning of the mass protests.  They were disappointed not to be in Cairo for the victory celebration there, but were delighted to join the celebration on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Mawra, Ahmed and Omar ( the face of the future of Egypt )

Ahmed and Mawra are both engineers in Cairo.  They are in the US on a business trip and will be here for ten days.  It was our good fortune to meet them and their young son, Omar, today.  Both Ahmed and Mawra, of course, were interviewed by reporters from the local TV stations and they talked about how the future for their son will now be much brighter with the fall of Mubarak.

Killing the Mekong

We watched a very powerful film by our friend, Tom Fawthrop, "Where have all the fish gone, Killing the Mekong Dam by Dam".  Tom packs a great deal of information into this 23 minute documentary.  Dams on the Mekong in China are already causing changes on the Mekong and planned hydroelectric dams in Laos and Cambodia will very likely wreak ecological damage.  Cambodians are dependent on fish from the Mekong and Tonle Sap for much of their protein.  Annually during the rainy season, the powerful Mekong forces the Tonle Sap river to reverse flow and the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap, enlarges to 4-5 times its size during low water.  Thousands of fish ponds are created.  These fish then swim down the Tonle Sap and up the Mekong.  Land surrounding the Tonle Sap is enriched with sediment from the river.   All that will likely dry up if planned construction of dams along the Mekong continues.  Many fish species, including the iconic Mekong River catfish, will become extinct.  The revered Irrawaddy dolphins at Kratie will disappear.  Go to www.savethemekong.org for more details and see how you can help.  "Save the Mekong coalition urges the Mekong governments to keep the Mekong flowing freely to save this critical source of food, income and life for present and future generations".

Zella takes Grandpa and Avo for a walk

Another beautiful day in San Francisco.  Zella took us for a walk from 28th St. and Noe to Dolores Park, up and down hills.   I was pushing Zella in the McLaren stroller and had to improvise a safety strap with my belt because I worried about the a runaway stroller if I tripped on one of those steep downhills.  Along the way we noticed other strollers including some doubles because Zella will have a brother or sister later this year.  One babyjogger.com model with large wheels looked good.

The park was packed with people of all stripes.  We headed to the playground with Zella.  For some reason she was trying to stretch between two poles of the jungle gym but couldn't quite make it.  She also likes to try to climb up the slide.  She was walking a lot while holding onto one of our hands.  She can stand up on her own and walk with assistance.  Very soon, she will be walking on her own.

Preah Vihear Temple damaged by artillery fire

Cambodian and Thai troops have been fighting over the ownership of an 11th century temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Shiva.  The World Court decided that the temple belongs to Cambodia in 1962. But that decision is disputed by Thailand. 
The Preah Vihear temple is located on a cliff in the Dangrek Mountains about 150 miles north of Phnom Penh, the capitol city of Cambodia.  Fighting over the temple has lasted for over two years now and Cambodians regularly drive to the site to leave gifts for the troops.
I don't know how many soldiers and local people have been killed or wounded over those two years.  Now Thai artillery fire has allegedly damaged a wall of the temple.  The Phom Penh Post carried the following story.  http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011020746608/National-news/preah-vihear-shootings-continue.html Maybe if the temple is totally destroyed, the fighting will stop.  There must be a moral to this story.  I looked in Aesop's fables but couldn't find one that fits.

Larry Blake's on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley closes

The SF Chronicle reports that Larry Blake's the funky watering hole on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley closed for good last week. Well, I disagree with the "for good" part of that sentence. Larry Blake's was supposed to be there for good, forever. Roberta and I had our first date there. After meeting at the Howdy Hop at the Cal Women's Gym in September 1958, we walked to Larry Blake's for something to eat. Roberta ordered a piece of pie for 75 cents and that left me 25 cents for a cup of coffee (remember this was 1958). I don't know what I'd have done if she'd ordered one of Blake's famous hamburgers. Well, our lives might have been quite different. We celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary this year.

The Rooster's Revenge, or stories I'd like to know more about

According to an article in the SF Chronicle, a man attending a cockfight in Tulare County, CA died two hours after being stabbed in the leg with a knife attached to the limb of a fighting cock. The coroner suggested that a delay in seeking medical care may have contributed to his death. Cockfighting is not legal in California, so perhaps the man was reluctant to seek medical care with what would, excuse me, appear to be a cock and bull story.
How does one die within two hours after being stabbed in the leg? How deep could that wound have been? That must have been one very sharp knife or was it dipped in poison? Will we ever know the whole story?
You can read the story, incomplete as it is, at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/08/BAQ91HK19F.DTL