21 March 2012

Invasion, by Choman Hardi


Invasion

Soon they will come. First we will hear
the sound of their boots approaching at dawn
then they’ll appear through the mist.
In their death-bringing uniforms
they will march towards our homes
their guns and tanks pointing forward.
They will be confronted by young men
with rusty guns and boiling blood.
These are our young men
who took their short-lived freedom for granted.
We will lose this war, and blood
will cover our roads, mix with our
drinking water, it will creep into our dreams.
Keep your head down and stay in doors –
we’ve lost this war before it has begun.
~Choman Hardi

How to confront empire?

I've been asked to speak about “How to confront Empire?” It's a huge question, and I have no easy answers.

When we speak of confronting “Empire,” we need to identify what “Empire” means. Does it mean the U.S. Government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that?

In many countries, Empire has sprouted other subsidiary heads, some dangerous byproducts -- nationalism, religious bigotry, fascism and, of course terrorism. All these march arm in arm with the project of corporate globalization.

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.
― Arundhati Roy, War Talk

14 March 2012

"It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence. Violence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no such hope for the impotent."
Mahatma Gandhi

04 March 2012

What with gardening season coming right up...

I ordered spawn for reishi and shiitake mushrooms...I'll be cutting some oak logs for plugging and plan on keeping them in the shady area behind the summer screened house...accessible to water in the event that rain doesn't suffice to keep the logs moist.

Started varsity, copra and red zeppelin seeds before we went to Kaua'i for a couple of weeks...they're up and growing...we harvested onions late August last year and dried them well...we've given a number of bags of onions away and still have bags hanging about the house. Even the red zeppelins are still as good as when harvested nearly seven months ago.

Sweet potato is going to be a major crop for me this year...I've had relatively good success the two years I grew them in the lower garden...I've learned, from my experiment with peppers this past season, that 2 mil clear poly over the raised beds and covered along the edges with the soil to form an airtight seal works well to solarize the soil and raise the soil temperature. I cut an X in the plastic where I want to plant...press down to make a depression for water to pool, plant the sweet potato slips or the pepper plants...cover the depression with sand to, once again, provide an air tight seal...and voila! No weeds, constant temps and moisture of the soil above 60 degrees...happy peppers...and by extension...happy sweet potatoes.

And happy us.

03 March 2012

Bruce Springsteen - Jack Of All Trades

i’ll mow your lawn, clean the leaves out your drain i’ll mend your roof to keep out the rain i’ll take the work that god provides i’m a jack of all trades, honey, we’ll be alright i’ll hammer the nails, and i’ll set the stone i’ll harvest your crops when they’re ripe and grown i’ll pull that engine apart and patch her up ’til she’s running right i’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be alright a hurricane blows, brings a hard rain when the blue sky breaks, feels like the world’s gonna change we’ll start caring for each other like jesus said that we might i’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be alright the banker man grows fatter, the working man grows thin it’s all happened before and it’ll happen again it’ll happen again, they’ll bet your life i’m a jack of all trades and, darling, we’ll be alright now sometimes tomorrow comes soaked in treasure and blood here we stood the drought, now we’ll stand the flood there’s a new world coming, i can see the light i’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be alright so you use what you’ve got, and you learn to make do you take the old, you make it new if i had me a gun, i’d find the bastards and shoot ‘em on sight i’m a jack of all trades, we’ll be alright

As I sit staring out of the window in the woods, birds flutter by...Veterans' Day 2023

 With wars and conflicts raging in multiple locations, I'm living in relative peace now.   I went to the Wikipedia page to see how many ...