6 Jan 2010: The Ghetto Wall of Shame
Jerusalem and then yesterday to Bethlehem and Refugee Camps. That is the thing that is most difficult, hundreds of images in my brain.
The thing that is most horrifying is the Separation Wall - which I will call the Ghetto Wall of Shame. GWS.
Brutal, Stalinist, 30 feet high, 8 Meters tall. Thick slab of grey concrete with guard towers at each turn. A cyclone fence with barbed wire stands a few meters away from the wall. Rusting. Brutal. Who is secure with this wall? Are the Israelis also putting themselves behind the Ghetto Walls again? Separated from the world? Believing the myth of “The Chosen People.”Can I get a tape recording of God saying that the Hebrews are “The chosen ones.”?
The wall fills me with revulsion. As a Jew how could we who have suffered so much allow this to happen. Thick grey cement wall separating farmers from their fields. Separating families one from another. Separating a country. Why couldn’t the Israelis have built a wall around the pre-l967 boarders? That should shame every human to the core of his or her being. It should cause profound remorse for every Israeli. However, a few have spoken out. Some who are survivors of the holocaust
Racism and cultural genocide in Palestine. Trying to kill the culture, the people, and life of Palestine. Someone corrected me and said it was more of an Ethnic Cleansing. Ethnic Cleansing? Is that where you take some Ethnics and give them a good bath. Clean out all of their ethnic tendencies? In the case of Israel, washing out all that nasty Arab and Muslim "Salaam Wa Alakom" and make it into a proper "Shalom Wa Alakom." Ethnic cleansing giving the "filthy” Arabs a good bath and making them into proper Israelis where they can get up and sing the Hava Negela? No, it is not ethnic cleansing, it is genocide. Perhaps not as efficient as the Nazi’s, but if Genocide was an Olympic Sport I imagine the Israelis would at least medal in the event. Somewhere behind Stalin, Adolf, but there might be fierce competition for the Bronze – Pol Pot and Ariel Sharon duking it out for third. In this world of madness, I could also see this as an Unreality Show: Genocide in Palestine Served with good Public Relations.
Last night in an art gallery in West Jerusalem, and had an eye opening conversation with an ex pat Jewish woman from Montreal and a Jewish artist from Tunisia. They litany of racism was astonishing. At least in the US, many people have the rudimentary skills to mask it... but this was frank, with no apologies, the only thing that was missing was the word “nigger.”..."The Arabs are such children...No they're not Palestinians...there is no such things... they made this up. They saw that we were creating a nation and then the cry babies decided THEY wanted a country… they aren’t even native to this area…they were imported… when the Israelis came they thanked us from saving them from the Jordanians….the Jordanians were slaughtering them…. they had no water or life until the Israelis came…The Israeli Defense Force is the most ethical army in the world. All the Arabs have full rights as citizens in Israel….”
Full rights as citizens? Excuse me, what about the 1,800 dead in Gaza? The blockade and imprisonment of Gaza? The separation wall? The actions of Irgun and the slaughter of civilians in the l948 by Jewish terrorists?
I tried to speak to this woman, to get past this litany of hatred and bias, to listen, to draw her out. I invited her and her friend to come to Bethlehem with me, lunch on me, let us visit the refugee camps, let us visiting the new Wailing Wall, the Ghetto Wall of Shame. She declined. I would have paid for the taxi and meal for her to talk to this gentleman Dr. Abdelfattah.
Last night walking in West Jerusalem there was the feeling that we, Jews do not have to apologize for being Jews, we can have our language written boldly, the shetel Jews do not have to sulk through the streets. We do not have to worry about the next change of mind and heart of a King and suddenly thrown out of our country. Yes, I did get that sense of pride, of place, and safety for us as Jews. But it is an illusion. There can be no true sense of safety, peace, and belonging with this occupation. Racism is a beast that will devour itself. Hatred always consumes itself and others.
This occupation of the West Bank, with this Ghetto Wall snaking through land seized from Palestinians, with no legal recourse, with an Israeli Secretary of State who said last week, ‘There is a freeze on all new settlements, but the area of Jerusalem does not apply.’ However, the facts on the ground are different. He is a liar or blind, or worse. Settlements are started in Gelal. Settlements are expanding in Bethlehem. Perhaps, they are expanding elsewhere, but I can only speak of what I have seen.
The Israeli government is 100% lock, stock, and barrel behind all the settlements. They are not some isolated group of fanatics the government can’t do anything about, the government wants to increase all the housing, not just a group of small condominiums or a nice chalet, these are small cities of anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 people. Ultra orthodox Jews or some variation, who are given stipends, their housing is paid for, so that they can live in these apartment cities on the hillside of Bethlehem on land that is taken from Palestinians.
The government of Israeli is engaged in a program to build as many settlements as possible. As an Israeli friend said, “These are the facts on the ground, as the maps are drawn, we now see Israeli settlements all throughout the West Bank, and surrounding Jerusalem the government is building more and more apartment complexes solely for Jews to stake their clam to the land. Then more land is taken, without any kind of judicial process or claim of eminent domain.”
In Bethlehem, one Palestinian businessman invested in his property and built a small hotel and resort. He spent approximately $7,000 to build the necessary parking lot, and had all the permits. Then as the Israeli government sponsored settlers were expanding, they expropriated part of his land, and told him he could no longer have the lot.
In this one tiny area, there are hundreds of small and prominent injustices that make a daily life not only arduous, but also brutal and inhumane. I see one young Israeli female soldier with a German shepherd, the dog is playing on a leash, and it reminds me of the Nazis with their dogs. It reminds me also of the dogs at Birmingham Alabama when Bull Connor and his cowards would beat back the civil rights marchers. I cannot believe that a young Israeli would be using a German shepherd as the Nazi guards used them.
I feel like I am in a weird backwards world. Coming out of the Holocaust, the survivors took every grain of bitterness, gut level determination not to let this happen again, every lesson of brutality and humiliation, and savagery and brought it here to Palestine. Of course, with the technological prowess and innovation of modern European, and brought it here. For the most part a European modern culture squaring off against an agrarian people who had been under the occupation of the Ottoman and the British Empire.
I like the playful humor of Palestinians. In spite of a human rights situation that would break the spirit of most people, there is laughter and delight, children play, girls and boys flirt, and there is a fatalism that there will be a transformation. Yet, there is a weariness of spirit, an on-going frustration with making it through the day.
One film Checkpoint at 4 AM shows people lining up to go to work at checkpoint. Waking up so they can walk through the metal gates that look like the cattle gates at slaughterhouses. It can take them up to several hours to get through and then they have to return at night.
Israelis say ‘It is the only way that we can prevent them from killing us with bombs.” But the Palestinians point out to the hillside and say, “The people who are throwing the bombs come from over the hillside and don’t go through checkpoints.”
It is a page from life in the Warsaw ghetto.
In terms of this stark barren land, with a few hardy scrubs of cactus, I do not find a beauty in this arid hot land. In reality, the water will giver out, and despite the best technology, the Israelis will not be able to fill their swimming peoples in their villa settlements overlooking the villages of Palestinians.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
PALESTINE, JORDAN TRAVELS
Amman
Back to the tour guide -- the hills of Amman which if it were a verdant country there might be some charm, but even in the winter months it is unrelentingly bleak in the capital. However, south in the forest preserves there is vegetation and flora. The thought in my mind is that this is the future of so much of this beautiful planet, hot, dry and arid. Hopefully, a massive plague or some similar event will take hold before too long, or otherwise think of this rapacious global development as a form of planetary Euthanasia. Stand in the middle of Delhi at rush hour for 15 minutes and tell me you don’t believe in global warming. Or ride a bike through rush hour in Shanghai or NYC. Who needs climatologists? It is like standing on a street corner with a gale force wind and sticking your finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
I look at this hot arid capital or Melbourne last January, and can’t we all see this very apparent blend of climate change, increased population, and increased industrial output = our children and grandchildren will be heirs to an ecological suicide, no matter how much environmentally friendly toilet paper I use.
Philadelphia:
Another city of Brotherly Love so called because of Greek rule and the reign of one of Alexander’s general.
Today we are walking up to the citadel. My brain fogged head slowly grasping this strategic hillside. Trying to focus on Philadelphia the original Greek name for Amman.
Amman has served as the modern and ancient capital of Jordan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with a 1994 excavation uncovering homes and towers believed to have been built during the Stone Age, circa 7000 BCE. There are many Biblical references to the city, which by about 1200 BCE had become the Ammonite capital of Rabbath-Ammon. The Ammonites fought numerous wars with Saul, David and others.
The history of Amman between the end of its Biblical references (around 585 BCE)¬¬¬¬ and the time of the Ptolemies is unclear. We do know that the city was renamed Philadelphia after the Ptolemaic ruler Philadelphus in the third century BCE. After coming under Seleucid and Nabatean rule, Philadelphia was taken by the Roman vassal King Herod in 30 BCE. The city became part of the Decapolis League, a loose alliance of ten Roman-ruled cities including Jerash, Gadara (present-day Umm Qais), Pella, Arbila (Irbid) and others. Under Roman rule, Philadelphia was replanned and reconstructed in typically grand Roman style with a colonnaded street, baths, an amphitheater and impressive public buildings.
During the Byzantine period, Philadelphia was the seat of a Christian bishop, and several expansive churches were built. The city declined somewhat during the late Byzantine years, and was overrun by the Persian Sassanians in 614 CE. Their rule was short-lived, however, collapsing before the Arabian armies of Islam around the year 635. The name of the city then returned to its Semitic origin of Ammon, or "Amman." It remained an important stop on the caravan routes for many years, but eventually trade patterns shifted and dried up the lifeblood of Amman. The city declined to little more than a provincial village for many centuries.
Amman’s "modern" history began in the late 19th century, when the Ottomans resettled a colony of Circassian emigrants there in 1878. Many of their descendants still reside in Amman. During that time and the early decades of the 20th century, the neighboring city of Salt was more important as a regional administrative and political center. However, after the Great Arab Revolt secured the state of Transjordan, Emir Abdullah bin al-Hussein made Amman his capital in 1921.
Sights of Interest
"Most of Amman’s noteworthy historical sites are clustered in the downtown area, which sits at the bottom of four of Amman’s seven hills, or jabals. The ancient Citadel, which towers above the city from atop Jabal al-Qala’a, is a good place to begin a tour of the city. The Citadel is the site of ancient Rabbath-Ammon, and excavations here have revealed numerous Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic remains. The most impressive building of the Citadel, known simply as al-Qasr ("the Palace"), dates back to the Islamic Umayyad period. Its exact function is unclear, but it includes a monumental gateway, an audience hall and four vaulted chambers. A colonnaded street also runs through the complex. To the north and northeast are the ruins of Umayyad palace grounds.
Close to al-Qasr lie the remains of a small Byzantine basilica. Corinthian columns mark the site of the church, which is thought to date from the sixth or seventh century CE. About 100 meters south of the church is what is thought to have been a temple of Hercules, today also known as the Great Temple of Amman. The temple was built in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 CE), and is currently under restoration.
Also on Citadel Hill, just northwest of the Temple of Hercules, is the Jordan Archeological Museum. This small museum houses an excellent collection of antiquities ranging from prehistoric times to the 15th century. There is an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a copy of the Mesha Stele (see Madaba section for explanation) and four rare Iron Age sarcophagi."
Downhill from the Citadel and five minutes walk east from downtown, the Roman Theater is the most obvious and impressive relic of ancient Philadelphia. The theater, which was built during the reign of Antonius Pius (138-161 CE), is cut into the northern side of a hill that once served as a necropolis—or graveyard. It is very similar in design to the amphitheater at Jerash, and can accommodate 6000 spectators. The theater is still used periodically for sporting and cultural events
To the northeast stands the small theater, or Odeon, which is still being restored. Built at about the same time as the Roman theater, this intimate 500-seat theater is used now as it was in Roman times, for musical concerts."
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Jordan/Amman-1800107/Things_To_Do-Amman-citadel-BR-2.html
"The Citadel's best preserved structure, the square - now domed - served as the entrance hall to the Omayyad Palace Complex. It was completed with the rest of the Omayyad buildings in the Citadel, in 720 AD, on the foundation of a Byzantine church, which gave the structure its cruciform plan. The entrance to the hall faces the Omayyad Mosque further south, though the two have different orientations as the mosque had to face the direction of Mecca. While the Palace could just as well have faced Mecca, the fact that it utilised existing foundation made it difficult. The interior of the Entrance Hall has beautifully carved stone walls and a lofty courtyard with four iwans giving it the cruciform plan.
Built by the Omayyad dynasty in 720 AD, the Palace Complex housed the governor of Amman and his entourage. The Complex included a mosque, an Entrance Hall, residential and administrative buildings and a water cistern. The mosque was located just outside the complex, and the non-religious section was accessed through the entrance hall where visitors were received. The Entrance Hall (see separate tip) is the best preserved structure in the complex. The rest lies mostly in ruins, but whose foundations are clearly visible. The entire complex lasted only a short period as destruction befell it in the 749 AD earthquake."
Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.
The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.
The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers." Saudis are the ultimate whores. The guardian ship of the holy sites were wasted on them. While we are there – King Hussein that dwarf of a king who so readily sold out Jerusalem to sign a peace with Israel. In this brothel of the Middle East there are no shortages of whores and pimps.
Friday, January 01, 2010
First of the new year. Drinking a bottle of champagne with an Italian couple in Petra. Celebrating – the uncertainty?
Petra:
There are hundreds of photos on my camera of Petra. The camera is bursting with Images about this astonishing jewel. I have notes on my Blackberry, while sitting against a rock, undisturbed, one grain of sand observing another. In that moment, experiencing the profound humility of a life form that will be here at the most of 80 years or so and vanish.
Petra – Trying to capture the beauty of Petra from my imagination and photographs. In the town of Wadi Mousa, Moses River, a non descript Jordanian village that depends on the hoards of tourist that descend from all over the world to capture photos of this place. Spend one day taking photos and then 1,000 days astonished.
In the unfamiliar journey, we walked through the streets of Wadi Mousa, a coffee here and there, a sweet, and a bit of conversation. My rusty Arabic getting the kinks out, finding the local words, tossing out the fragments of Egyptian, Moroccan and Yemeni colloquial phrases. They always make for good color and a smile. I told the man I learned a bit of Arabic in Yemen, he then asked, “Why do you speak Arabic with a Moroccan accent?” Hmmm, my language skills are more of a source of amusement than scholarly appreciation. I thought I had a career as an international comedian, since my linguistic skills most often seemed to make people laugh. And that is even when I am trying to communicate seriously. Fully evident last night, chatted with Danielle in Italian, a bit of French, and as we were getting drunker on some very fine champagne, I slipped back into Spanish.
On the second day driving into Petra on the Donkey Wagon and called out “My people. The revolution is near!” “Greetings my people. Your king loves you!” “L’etat cés moi!” Zoe nearly beat me! My "people"loved it.
Enjoing the jari hasan, in this broken down cart for 15 dollars. The walking was getting to us. But I always want to walk as slow as possible. in The first part of the walk into Petra must be savored very slowly. I need to get to my hand written notes
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Genocide machine
FINAL SOLUTION: Essay
MUSEUM OF EXTINCT RACES in Jerusalem:
It is extraordinary and not generally available to the public at large, but I was able to gain access to a new museum in Israel it is called the museum of Extinct Races. Though it is called a museum of Palestine, since it is sponsored by the Israel government and their policy to remove all traces of the Palestinians.
The museum of Extinct Races is actually built here on this empty lot. It is a Palestinian home that has been razed. The reason is, there was no permit to build, though the house was built around the 1920s, 25 years before the found of Israel, the Israeli official said, Ä rule is a rule, who am to argue.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Intro
The thing about travel is that it "slaps you upside your head" It gets you out of your complacency. Traveling is the "travail" cést le vive petite dur, mais pour les gent qui sont blanc y riche, vraiment cést facile. At 55 I need to compel myself to get out of this easy rut in Hillbillyboro HBB, out of the sweet order of life. I spoke earlier I had spoken of the "fear," certainly with all the crazy stuff here, and guns I do get "concerned.
When I was a child I had lived in Spain during the Franco era. When I returned after a forty year absence to Seville, I said to a man who was about a decade older, the difference is that the "fear" is absent. That was a word I didn't understand as a child or able to articulate. This is the element as I am in an unfamiliar environment trying to navigate, with my Arabic rusty, my command of local culture a bit obscure. I am thrown into Terra Incognita. I hate the loss of control and yet it is what keeps me fresh and vibrant. Don't we all? But this is the teaching of traveling, surrender your expectations, surrender your knowing, keep your wits about you, keep your powder dry, and wet your finger to find out which way the wind is blowing.
Good to travel with Zoe, easy going, rolls with the punches, good traveling common sense, we complement each other well in this regard. And, fun to be with, her 5 or so languages, and mine, with a good sense of joie de vivre and roll with the punches.
Then somewhere along the way, I get out of my strange and needed desire for control, and open up to the day.
Once I surrender the past, of home, (Hillybillyborough HBB) and Blue Heron Pond, I feel such a sense of freedom and peace. The uncertainty of the road, the sudden hidden dangers, the necessity for survival and negotiation are part of the allure of travel. Though I readily admit I am not much for exotic travels, though I have traveled on five continents, I don’t have the desire to run with wolves or trek naked across the Kalihari… but then again, negotiating with Israeli soldiers might be a challenge.
PETRA MORNING
Morning in Petra and a longing to continue in this magnificent city. As always, I am too rushed in my understanding and experience of a place. In my fantasy I imagine I can travel down here from Turkey, through Lebanon, down into Jerusalem, and into Jordan. The world undivided, open, and available to travel fluidly.
This is the sadness in 2010, the world is divided into bitter camps, nations armed to the teeth, and ready to kill each other. A short time ago it was possible to travel from West to East overland, from Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, but there was the barrier of southeast Asia.
New Years eve, sitting in the lobby of Hotel Semah, playing guitar, sedately without trying to draw attention while waiting for my equipment to charge up, and the hotel fellows wanted a song. Their knowledge of English songs was limited -- Beatles, Elvis, and finally I taught them a verse or two of "Wild Thing." A universal favorite and easy to sing. Then an Italian couple sauntered by, we chatted them up, and before too long they said, "We have a bottle of champagne." My Italian feels a bit tenuous, but I managed to make my way through with a bit of French and Spanish, surprisingly very comfortable with the Italian, and the drunker I got, the better the Italian sounded too, or at least to my ear. Good champagne in south Jordan with Italians toasting in the New Year and singing “Wild Thing” with the Egyptian hotel keepers. Wild Thing indeed.
The real challenge later in the day to come. For 70JD a ride to the King Abdullah Bridge. Jzr Malak Hussein. We get there and the taxi driver is told that only the taxis in that town can take us to the bridge. Another JD to the boarder crossing. Ooops, we didn't read the guidebook clearly, or misunderstood. Despite my best effort, we could not get across until the next day at 8: 30 am. An overnight in this little one mule town? My stubbornness is growing. Arrrgh~! This is great stuff to observe. This is the lesson of travel. In my little town, I like the control, the ease, I know the ropes, there are no surprises, a few bumps, but it is on such automatic pilot, and for the most part it works. I can concentrate on writing and creating, all the bullshit that often gets in the way of writing/ creating/ thinking is mitigated.
So we get hustled a little bit, another 30 JD which is equal to 30 pounds, damn! Then the driver tells us now it is 40 JD. We negotiate to 35JD. Then we go to Sheik Hussein Bridge.
On the way we go to the site were Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist. We walk by the Jordan river and I don't feel an overwhelming sense of awe or praying like a Christian,"Where he walked." A dusty, hot region with lush vegetation by the river.
How much of this is the "true"location or a mere reference? Most of the New Testament was written down some 80 years and more after Christ died, and the gnostic tradition of direct knowing and faith was deemed as heresy.
We then get to another taxi spot and the taxi drivers are paid another one JD to take us to the boarder crossing two kilometers further. We get out of the taxi, process our suitcases and what not, then jump back in the taxi, another 500 meters further to the visa office. Then we purchase an exit visa. Careful to get this stamp on a separate paper, to avoid rejection in Syria at the end of the month. Then on to another bus for about a kilometer at most. Finally, we arrive in Israel.
Israel: The ogre. My ancestor’s home. The center of a lot of my attention for a long period of time. Israel with its square block letters, Israel with all of its contradictions. Ah, to be back in Israel, the homeland after all this time. What must it have been like for my ancestors? Who were my ancestors? The fact that I can locate some historical past going back two thousand years, it gives me the sense that I can knock on the door of the nearest Palestinian and say, "My ancestors were here two thousand years ago, please leave. I am sure I have some rights to your home. Yes?" Hmmm, that is the way I feel about all the expropriation of land in Palestine.
The place of immense pride with the reclaiming of this desert land? No, much of this is bullshit. The Zionist, bought, bullied, and stole some of the most prime and fertile land in the Middle East. When you read the early Zionist propaganda it makes it seems like they saved the Arabs from themselves.
Surely there were massacres and killings on both sides, but from the historical accounts it seemed like the majority of the killings from the Irgun and Stern gang, and other Zionists was pure brutal savagery. The longer story of the Palestinians betrayal by their neighbors and their leaders is better left for other books like "the Lemon Tree.
My new articles to come out of this trip are: The Genocide Project: The Museum of Extinct Races - This museum is in Jerusalem and dedicated to the memory of Palestinians: and The Final Solution.
The Sea of Galilea is absolutely lovely and serene. No sign of Jesus and the storms. Maybe his 12 homeboys had been nipping the wine? They woke up and Jesus merely said, chill out boys. I could easily see living in a place like this, but I could not live, participate in an apartheid society. Even on the most superficial level of traveling you see this as an occupied country, kept in place by the Israeli Offensive Army, an offense to humanity, an offense to any semblance of the historical humanistic Jewish tradition. and now mainly to defend Israeli settlers as they continue to settle on Palestinian land. It is impossible to separate the land, history, and present politics from the discussions.
The struggle is Hebrew, I feel as if I "älmost" understand it, it feels like a first cousin of Arabic, though the letters mystify me. I do not feel comfortable with it.
Galilea: The surrounding area with huge fields of agriculture, and of course, the irony the day laborers are Palestinians. The same Palestinians who are compelled to build the large settlement houses. Why do I get the feeling of Jews in concentration camps working to support the Nazi war effort? I can't escape the parallels between Germany and Israel.
Palestine: The Bitter Harvest
It is a hard bitter harvest like the olive trees. It grows in stony soil, dry arid conditions, produces a harvest of bitter inedible fruit, and it is only edible by soaking in a salty brine. From the stony soil this harvest grows. The Olive trees like today in Gethsemany, massive twisted olive trees, some that are hundreds to some say a thousand years old, but regardless, the trees thick with character, shaped by the wind, heat, and arid climate. Almost as if it had eyes and witnessed the hundreds of wars, the thousands of killings in the name of religion, and it soaked all that pain into its pores. The gray sinewy bark, calloused, and dead; yet, beneath it new shoots of tender life grow.
Today, in Jerusalem, we were in Gethsemany, the garden where Jesus prayed before he was betrayed. Though I am not a Christian I am moved by the story of him praying in the garden, the simplicity of offering himself to, "thine Will, will be done."
I was moved by the gardens, by the witness of the faithful, who have created and have spoken this story of Jesus. True or not true, here or at another place, it is somewhat irrelevant. This space of convocation and witness.
Integuments of Faith: Garden of Gesthemane
Vile beaty of fatih
Garnished with heresy and love.
Wicked with desire for
baraka and benediction
The whores of the Apocolpse
dance the Hava Negila
in the desert of love
a lion awaits to devour
I too have wept in Gesthemane
Not for god's love
But for the faithless lies
in the city of peace
Harlots of war
March to Armageddon
Whores of hate dressed
in prayer and praises to god
Incense of frankincense
to staunch the bleeding
Driving down from Tiberius on the sea of Galilee where Jesus "walked" on the water. I think the Apostles really needed to get a handle on their drinking, but that aside, it is a marvelous town on the edge of the sea. Beautiful climate, but no tennis. Surrounded by all the historical elements of biblical times, including ruins of the Roman city.
The journey into Hebrew is familiar because of my Arabic, but it is like listening to one of the first cousins of a romance language I don't know, but I can almost understand. I was talking to one bus driver and i felt I understood, even though I don't speak Hebrew.
JERUSALEM
Getting a taxi from Galilee and arriving at Jerusalem at 9 PM ish. Wonderful to see Quds. Quds. Uunder the stem Quds means glorification of Allah. He is Al-Mutaqaddis (The one
attaining sancity); Al-Quddus (The Most glorified) and Al-Muqaddas (The sanctified). In
Quran angles adress Allah saying (While we glorify three and sanctify three).
Consequently the word Al-Quds the purified township elevated
over defects and shortcomings.
Al-Quds is an inseparable part of the Islamic faith. In the opening of the Sura (chapter) of
Isra'a Allah says: -
"Glory to (Allah)
"Who did take the servant.
For a Journey by night.
From the sacred Mosque (of Mecca).
To the Farthest Mosque.
Whose Precincts* we did.
Bless, in order that we
Might shoro him some
Of Gur Signs. For he (Allah)
Is the one who hearth
And sees (All things)
Jaffa Gate: Bab al Khalel:
The city is one of the few intact cities from the Medieval period. The walls built in the `15th century by Sulemain the Magnificent. Of course, the walls were attacked, rebuilt, and destroyed throughout the centuries. More history in a few meters of walls than most places around the world. We arrive at the New Imperil Hotel and drag our luggage up a 25 meter stair. Then he says, “We gave your room away.”Tired and bedraggled by the day, this was the last thing I needed. But the hotel clerk arranged for another room across town, paid for the taxi and apologized profusely. Arrrgh. I was not pleased.
This is the teaching: There are 1.5 million Palestinians under lock and key in Gaza by the brutual jackboot of the Israeli Army. And I am bitching about going a few hundred meters to another hotel?
Hussein at the Rivoli Hotel was a gracious host in this run down hotel. This is in the East Jerusalem Arabic quarter outside of the old city gates.
Palestinians: East Jerusalem: Under the jackboot, but not defeated
Though I am “the Tourist” and get a lot of freebies, and people defer to me. I get by with my sometimes dodgy Arabic which is kicking off the rust. I am a white European/ US guy. I get a pass. I can speak Arabic and not consigned to the living daily hassle of a Palestinian. To live as a Palestinian in January 2010 is to be a Negro in Alabama in l945. Free but not quite free. The petty brutality and disregard for treating Palestinians as humans is apparent at every turn. 36% of the population, paying 40% of the taxes and receiving 7% of the services.
Palestine is the ghetto of our ancestors. It is Prague where Jews lived behind the walls of the old city, fearing to venture out, and tightly controlled in all phases of their lives.
Despite this. This is what I want people to see and hear.
The Palestinians I’ve met, have been unfailingly courteous, kind, thoughtful. I am sure that in time I will see more of the hard and tough side, the side that has been brutalized by the occupation that consciously and otherwise endeavors to strip away the dignity and worth of Palestinians. It is a prison defined and controlled by Israelis. Though Palestinians make walk the streets, smile, laugh, their destiny in the Israeli eyes is to be only partially human. Like the old documents of slaves who were seen as 2/3rds human.
In the old Muslim Quarter, electricity is a slipshod affair, wires and internet connections run like a madly woven spider web from outlets, jerry rigged connections, things seem worn and needing maintenance. But the maintenance is on survival. Trying to survive each day. Schools are vastly inferior, students are denied exit visas to study abroad, school supplies limited and classes are overcrowded. Yet, the Palestinians despite the obvious repression, continue to learn and thrive.
However, for the Jewish Israelis, it is education as if this was modern Europe. They have the freedom to come and go. Access to health care and state welfare.
I asked earlier, how can we, Jews who came from 2,000 years of Diaspora even imagine treating others cruelly or revisiting the horrors of Germany in the l930’s and l940’s on others. What is this mad thirsting hatred or fear the Israeli Jewish state has? There is more than enough room in the north and around the country without having to destry homes in the West Bank, without having to tear down homes, or engage in the jackboot behavior that has so come to define this phase of Israeli history.
I wish I could write about the glories of Islam, the wonders of this fabled city with a thousand stories tucked into each nook and corner of the city, the way that sunlight dashes through the narrow souks, the way that buildings have been shaped by the shifting of time, the façade of buildings colored by centuries of wear, or the magnificence of the Al Aksa or the Dome of the Rock…. I wish my entire attention could be lavished on this journey of imagination and celebration of the holy land but it can’t be. This land fought and contested, argued, and suffered for thousands of year, and now with this savage occupation this lack of humanity draws my attention.
Yet, I will write about the children playing soccer/ football in the streets, their ball bouncing off the walls of narrow streets, the pitch a cobblestone street from Roman times, and a few meters wide. The laughter of children playing something like hopscotch on cobbled streets. This is the timelessness of children. Yet, how do allow for the future?
How do we fulfill the promise that one generation gives to another?
In this sacred time, in the days and weeks to come, I will observe, listen, sit on the narrow steps, with pen and paper. Watch the green bereted army soldiers in patrols of three and six, nervously playing with the triggers, one young soldier barely eighteen with a nervous tick is tapping the trigger. Was the safety off? Other soldiers looking bored. In their boredom it seems that their favorite game is to hassle the young men. They don’t even have the formality to look them in their eyes. It seems the whole vibe I get from the scene is, “Nigger, show me your papers….Worthless nigger your papers aren’t right.” Hassle the nigger? Hassle the Palestinians?
I like the young Palestinian women, with their colorful gypsy kind of style. Unlike anything I’ve seen in other Arabic countries. Despite the presence of the Occupation they smile brightly like young women, probably gossiping about boys. There is still a brightness in their dark eyes. I like how they can dress conservatively and yet still be sexy. A demure smile with lowered eyes or a laugh as girls are walking down the street.
My Palestinian friends… the history of dictatorships is that they end. This was the story of jews in Egypt, and after years of slavery there was deliverance. Stay steadfast, don’t sell, don’t move. The world is watching and though it seems like you are alone, there are true friends who see the suffering of Palestinians and stand with you.
There needs to be true Justice in Palestine in order to have a future for Muslim, Christian and Jew.
Back to the tour guide -- the hills of Amman which if it were a verdant country there might be some charm, but even in the winter months it is unrelentingly bleak in the capital. However, south in the forest preserves there is vegetation and flora. The thought in my mind is that this is the future of so much of this beautiful planet, hot, dry and arid. Hopefully, a massive plague or some similar event will take hold before too long, or otherwise think of this rapacious global development as a form of planetary Euthanasia. Stand in the middle of Delhi at rush hour for 15 minutes and tell me you don’t believe in global warming. Or ride a bike through rush hour in Shanghai or NYC. Who needs climatologists? It is like standing on a street corner with a gale force wind and sticking your finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
I look at this hot arid capital or Melbourne last January, and can’t we all see this very apparent blend of climate change, increased population, and increased industrial output = our children and grandchildren will be heirs to an ecological suicide, no matter how much environmentally friendly toilet paper I use.
Philadelphia:
Another city of Brotherly Love so called because of Greek rule and the reign of one of Alexander’s general.
Today we are walking up to the citadel. My brain fogged head slowly grasping this strategic hillside. Trying to focus on Philadelphia the original Greek name for Amman.
Amman has served as the modern and ancient capital of Jordan. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with a 1994 excavation uncovering homes and towers believed to have been built during the Stone Age, circa 7000 BCE. There are many Biblical references to the city, which by about 1200 BCE had become the Ammonite capital of Rabbath-Ammon. The Ammonites fought numerous wars with Saul, David and others.
The history of Amman between the end of its Biblical references (around 585 BCE)¬¬¬¬ and the time of the Ptolemies is unclear. We do know that the city was renamed Philadelphia after the Ptolemaic ruler Philadelphus in the third century BCE. After coming under Seleucid and Nabatean rule, Philadelphia was taken by the Roman vassal King Herod in 30 BCE. The city became part of the Decapolis League, a loose alliance of ten Roman-ruled cities including Jerash, Gadara (present-day Umm Qais), Pella, Arbila (Irbid) and others. Under Roman rule, Philadelphia was replanned and reconstructed in typically grand Roman style with a colonnaded street, baths, an amphitheater and impressive public buildings.
During the Byzantine period, Philadelphia was the seat of a Christian bishop, and several expansive churches were built. The city declined somewhat during the late Byzantine years, and was overrun by the Persian Sassanians in 614 CE. Their rule was short-lived, however, collapsing before the Arabian armies of Islam around the year 635. The name of the city then returned to its Semitic origin of Ammon, or "Amman." It remained an important stop on the caravan routes for many years, but eventually trade patterns shifted and dried up the lifeblood of Amman. The city declined to little more than a provincial village for many centuries.
Amman’s "modern" history began in the late 19th century, when the Ottomans resettled a colony of Circassian emigrants there in 1878. Many of their descendants still reside in Amman. During that time and the early decades of the 20th century, the neighboring city of Salt was more important as a regional administrative and political center. However, after the Great Arab Revolt secured the state of Transjordan, Emir Abdullah bin al-Hussein made Amman his capital in 1921.
Sights of Interest
"Most of Amman’s noteworthy historical sites are clustered in the downtown area, which sits at the bottom of four of Amman’s seven hills, or jabals. The ancient Citadel, which towers above the city from atop Jabal al-Qala’a, is a good place to begin a tour of the city. The Citadel is the site of ancient Rabbath-Ammon, and excavations here have revealed numerous Roman, Byzantine and early Islamic remains. The most impressive building of the Citadel, known simply as al-Qasr ("the Palace"), dates back to the Islamic Umayyad period. Its exact function is unclear, but it includes a monumental gateway, an audience hall and four vaulted chambers. A colonnaded street also runs through the complex. To the north and northeast are the ruins of Umayyad palace grounds.
Close to al-Qasr lie the remains of a small Byzantine basilica. Corinthian columns mark the site of the church, which is thought to date from the sixth or seventh century CE. About 100 meters south of the church is what is thought to have been a temple of Hercules, today also known as the Great Temple of Amman. The temple was built in the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 CE), and is currently under restoration.
Also on Citadel Hill, just northwest of the Temple of Hercules, is the Jordan Archeological Museum. This small museum houses an excellent collection of antiquities ranging from prehistoric times to the 15th century. There is an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a copy of the Mesha Stele (see Madaba section for explanation) and four rare Iron Age sarcophagi."
Downhill from the Citadel and five minutes walk east from downtown, the Roman Theater is the most obvious and impressive relic of ancient Philadelphia. The theater, which was built during the reign of Antonius Pius (138-161 CE), is cut into the northern side of a hill that once served as a necropolis—or graveyard. It is very similar in design to the amphitheater at Jerash, and can accommodate 6000 spectators. The theater is still used periodically for sporting and cultural events
To the northeast stands the small theater, or Odeon, which is still being restored. Built at about the same time as the Roman theater, this intimate 500-seat theater is used now as it was in Roman times, for musical concerts."
http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Jordan/Amman-1800107/Things_To_Do-Amman-citadel-BR-2.html
"The Citadel's best preserved structure, the square - now domed - served as the entrance hall to the Omayyad Palace Complex. It was completed with the rest of the Omayyad buildings in the Citadel, in 720 AD, on the foundation of a Byzantine church, which gave the structure its cruciform plan. The entrance to the hall faces the Omayyad Mosque further south, though the two have different orientations as the mosque had to face the direction of Mecca. While the Palace could just as well have faced Mecca, the fact that it utilised existing foundation made it difficult. The interior of the Entrance Hall has beautifully carved stone walls and a lofty courtyard with four iwans giving it the cruciform plan.
Built by the Omayyad dynasty in 720 AD, the Palace Complex housed the governor of Amman and his entourage. The Complex included a mosque, an Entrance Hall, residential and administrative buildings and a water cistern. The mosque was located just outside the complex, and the non-religious section was accessed through the entrance hall where visitors were received. The Entrance Hall (see separate tip) is the best preserved structure in the complex. The rest lies mostly in ruins, but whose foundations are clearly visible. The entire complex lasted only a short period as destruction befell it in the 749 AD earthquake."
Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.
The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.
The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers." Saudis are the ultimate whores. The guardian ship of the holy sites were wasted on them. While we are there – King Hussein that dwarf of a king who so readily sold out Jerusalem to sign a peace with Israel. In this brothel of the Middle East there are no shortages of whores and pimps.
Friday, January 01, 2010
First of the new year. Drinking a bottle of champagne with an Italian couple in Petra. Celebrating – the uncertainty?
Petra:
There are hundreds of photos on my camera of Petra. The camera is bursting with Images about this astonishing jewel. I have notes on my Blackberry, while sitting against a rock, undisturbed, one grain of sand observing another. In that moment, experiencing the profound humility of a life form that will be here at the most of 80 years or so and vanish.
Petra – Trying to capture the beauty of Petra from my imagination and photographs. In the town of Wadi Mousa, Moses River, a non descript Jordanian village that depends on the hoards of tourist that descend from all over the world to capture photos of this place. Spend one day taking photos and then 1,000 days astonished.
In the unfamiliar journey, we walked through the streets of Wadi Mousa, a coffee here and there, a sweet, and a bit of conversation. My rusty Arabic getting the kinks out, finding the local words, tossing out the fragments of Egyptian, Moroccan and Yemeni colloquial phrases. They always make for good color and a smile. I told the man I learned a bit of Arabic in Yemen, he then asked, “Why do you speak Arabic with a Moroccan accent?” Hmmm, my language skills are more of a source of amusement than scholarly appreciation. I thought I had a career as an international comedian, since my linguistic skills most often seemed to make people laugh. And that is even when I am trying to communicate seriously. Fully evident last night, chatted with Danielle in Italian, a bit of French, and as we were getting drunker on some very fine champagne, I slipped back into Spanish.
On the second day driving into Petra on the Donkey Wagon and called out “My people. The revolution is near!” “Greetings my people. Your king loves you!” “L’etat cés moi!” Zoe nearly beat me! My "people"loved it.
Enjoing the jari hasan, in this broken down cart for 15 dollars. The walking was getting to us. But I always want to walk as slow as possible. in The first part of the walk into Petra must be savored very slowly. I need to get to my hand written notes
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Genocide machine
FINAL SOLUTION: Essay
MUSEUM OF EXTINCT RACES in Jerusalem:
It is extraordinary and not generally available to the public at large, but I was able to gain access to a new museum in Israel it is called the museum of Extinct Races. Though it is called a museum of Palestine, since it is sponsored by the Israel government and their policy to remove all traces of the Palestinians.
The museum of Extinct Races is actually built here on this empty lot. It is a Palestinian home that has been razed. The reason is, there was no permit to build, though the house was built around the 1920s, 25 years before the found of Israel, the Israeli official said, Ä rule is a rule, who am to argue.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Intro
The thing about travel is that it "slaps you upside your head" It gets you out of your complacency. Traveling is the "travail" cést le vive petite dur, mais pour les gent qui sont blanc y riche, vraiment cést facile. At 55 I need to compel myself to get out of this easy rut in Hillbillyboro HBB, out of the sweet order of life. I spoke earlier I had spoken of the "fear," certainly with all the crazy stuff here, and guns I do get "concerned.
When I was a child I had lived in Spain during the Franco era. When I returned after a forty year absence to Seville, I said to a man who was about a decade older, the difference is that the "fear" is absent. That was a word I didn't understand as a child or able to articulate. This is the element as I am in an unfamiliar environment trying to navigate, with my Arabic rusty, my command of local culture a bit obscure. I am thrown into Terra Incognita. I hate the loss of control and yet it is what keeps me fresh and vibrant. Don't we all? But this is the teaching of traveling, surrender your expectations, surrender your knowing, keep your wits about you, keep your powder dry, and wet your finger to find out which way the wind is blowing.
Good to travel with Zoe, easy going, rolls with the punches, good traveling common sense, we complement each other well in this regard. And, fun to be with, her 5 or so languages, and mine, with a good sense of joie de vivre and roll with the punches.
Then somewhere along the way, I get out of my strange and needed desire for control, and open up to the day.
Once I surrender the past, of home, (Hillybillyborough HBB) and Blue Heron Pond, I feel such a sense of freedom and peace. The uncertainty of the road, the sudden hidden dangers, the necessity for survival and negotiation are part of the allure of travel. Though I readily admit I am not much for exotic travels, though I have traveled on five continents, I don’t have the desire to run with wolves or trek naked across the Kalihari… but then again, negotiating with Israeli soldiers might be a challenge.
PETRA MORNING
Morning in Petra and a longing to continue in this magnificent city. As always, I am too rushed in my understanding and experience of a place. In my fantasy I imagine I can travel down here from Turkey, through Lebanon, down into Jerusalem, and into Jordan. The world undivided, open, and available to travel fluidly.
This is the sadness in 2010, the world is divided into bitter camps, nations armed to the teeth, and ready to kill each other. A short time ago it was possible to travel from West to East overland, from Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, but there was the barrier of southeast Asia.
New Years eve, sitting in the lobby of Hotel Semah, playing guitar, sedately without trying to draw attention while waiting for my equipment to charge up, and the hotel fellows wanted a song. Their knowledge of English songs was limited -- Beatles, Elvis, and finally I taught them a verse or two of "Wild Thing." A universal favorite and easy to sing. Then an Italian couple sauntered by, we chatted them up, and before too long they said, "We have a bottle of champagne." My Italian feels a bit tenuous, but I managed to make my way through with a bit of French and Spanish, surprisingly very comfortable with the Italian, and the drunker I got, the better the Italian sounded too, or at least to my ear. Good champagne in south Jordan with Italians toasting in the New Year and singing “Wild Thing” with the Egyptian hotel keepers. Wild Thing indeed.
The real challenge later in the day to come. For 70JD a ride to the King Abdullah Bridge. Jzr Malak Hussein. We get there and the taxi driver is told that only the taxis in that town can take us to the bridge. Another JD to the boarder crossing. Ooops, we didn't read the guidebook clearly, or misunderstood. Despite my best effort, we could not get across until the next day at 8: 30 am. An overnight in this little one mule town? My stubbornness is growing. Arrrgh~! This is great stuff to observe. This is the lesson of travel. In my little town, I like the control, the ease, I know the ropes, there are no surprises, a few bumps, but it is on such automatic pilot, and for the most part it works. I can concentrate on writing and creating, all the bullshit that often gets in the way of writing/ creating/ thinking is mitigated.
So we get hustled a little bit, another 30 JD which is equal to 30 pounds, damn! Then the driver tells us now it is 40 JD. We negotiate to 35JD. Then we go to Sheik Hussein Bridge.
On the way we go to the site were Jesus was Baptized by John the Baptist. We walk by the Jordan river and I don't feel an overwhelming sense of awe or praying like a Christian,"Where he walked." A dusty, hot region with lush vegetation by the river.
How much of this is the "true"location or a mere reference? Most of the New Testament was written down some 80 years and more after Christ died, and the gnostic tradition of direct knowing and faith was deemed as heresy.
We then get to another taxi spot and the taxi drivers are paid another one JD to take us to the boarder crossing two kilometers further. We get out of the taxi, process our suitcases and what not, then jump back in the taxi, another 500 meters further to the visa office. Then we purchase an exit visa. Careful to get this stamp on a separate paper, to avoid rejection in Syria at the end of the month. Then on to another bus for about a kilometer at most. Finally, we arrive in Israel.
Israel: The ogre. My ancestor’s home. The center of a lot of my attention for a long period of time. Israel with its square block letters, Israel with all of its contradictions. Ah, to be back in Israel, the homeland after all this time. What must it have been like for my ancestors? Who were my ancestors? The fact that I can locate some historical past going back two thousand years, it gives me the sense that I can knock on the door of the nearest Palestinian and say, "My ancestors were here two thousand years ago, please leave. I am sure I have some rights to your home. Yes?" Hmmm, that is the way I feel about all the expropriation of land in Palestine.
The place of immense pride with the reclaiming of this desert land? No, much of this is bullshit. The Zionist, bought, bullied, and stole some of the most prime and fertile land in the Middle East. When you read the early Zionist propaganda it makes it seems like they saved the Arabs from themselves.
Surely there were massacres and killings on both sides, but from the historical accounts it seemed like the majority of the killings from the Irgun and Stern gang, and other Zionists was pure brutal savagery. The longer story of the Palestinians betrayal by their neighbors and their leaders is better left for other books like "the Lemon Tree.
My new articles to come out of this trip are: The Genocide Project: The Museum of Extinct Races - This museum is in Jerusalem and dedicated to the memory of Palestinians: and The Final Solution.
The Sea of Galilea is absolutely lovely and serene. No sign of Jesus and the storms. Maybe his 12 homeboys had been nipping the wine? They woke up and Jesus merely said, chill out boys. I could easily see living in a place like this, but I could not live, participate in an apartheid society. Even on the most superficial level of traveling you see this as an occupied country, kept in place by the Israeli Offensive Army, an offense to humanity, an offense to any semblance of the historical humanistic Jewish tradition. and now mainly to defend Israeli settlers as they continue to settle on Palestinian land. It is impossible to separate the land, history, and present politics from the discussions.
The struggle is Hebrew, I feel as if I "älmost" understand it, it feels like a first cousin of Arabic, though the letters mystify me. I do not feel comfortable with it.
Galilea: The surrounding area with huge fields of agriculture, and of course, the irony the day laborers are Palestinians. The same Palestinians who are compelled to build the large settlement houses. Why do I get the feeling of Jews in concentration camps working to support the Nazi war effort? I can't escape the parallels between Germany and Israel.
Palestine: The Bitter Harvest
It is a hard bitter harvest like the olive trees. It grows in stony soil, dry arid conditions, produces a harvest of bitter inedible fruit, and it is only edible by soaking in a salty brine. From the stony soil this harvest grows. The Olive trees like today in Gethsemany, massive twisted olive trees, some that are hundreds to some say a thousand years old, but regardless, the trees thick with character, shaped by the wind, heat, and arid climate. Almost as if it had eyes and witnessed the hundreds of wars, the thousands of killings in the name of religion, and it soaked all that pain into its pores. The gray sinewy bark, calloused, and dead; yet, beneath it new shoots of tender life grow.
Today, in Jerusalem, we were in Gethsemany, the garden where Jesus prayed before he was betrayed. Though I am not a Christian I am moved by the story of him praying in the garden, the simplicity of offering himself to, "thine Will, will be done."
I was moved by the gardens, by the witness of the faithful, who have created and have spoken this story of Jesus. True or not true, here or at another place, it is somewhat irrelevant. This space of convocation and witness.
Integuments of Faith: Garden of Gesthemane
Vile beaty of fatih
Garnished with heresy and love.
Wicked with desire for
baraka and benediction
The whores of the Apocolpse
dance the Hava Negila
in the desert of love
a lion awaits to devour
I too have wept in Gesthemane
Not for god's love
But for the faithless lies
in the city of peace
Harlots of war
March to Armageddon
Whores of hate dressed
in prayer and praises to god
Incense of frankincense
to staunch the bleeding
Driving down from Tiberius on the sea of Galilee where Jesus "walked" on the water. I think the Apostles really needed to get a handle on their drinking, but that aside, it is a marvelous town on the edge of the sea. Beautiful climate, but no tennis. Surrounded by all the historical elements of biblical times, including ruins of the Roman city.
The journey into Hebrew is familiar because of my Arabic, but it is like listening to one of the first cousins of a romance language I don't know, but I can almost understand. I was talking to one bus driver and i felt I understood, even though I don't speak Hebrew.
JERUSALEM
Getting a taxi from Galilee and arriving at Jerusalem at 9 PM ish. Wonderful to see Quds. Quds. Uunder the stem Quds means glorification of Allah. He is Al-Mutaqaddis (The one
attaining sancity); Al-Quddus (The Most glorified) and Al-Muqaddas (The sanctified). In
Quran angles adress Allah saying (While we glorify three and sanctify three).
Consequently the word Al-Quds the purified township elevated
over defects and shortcomings.
Al-Quds is an inseparable part of the Islamic faith. In the opening of the Sura (chapter) of
Isra'a Allah says: -
"Glory to (Allah)
"Who did take the servant.
For a Journey by night.
From the sacred Mosque (of Mecca).
To the Farthest Mosque.
Whose Precincts* we did.
Bless, in order that we
Might shoro him some
Of Gur Signs. For he (Allah)
Is the one who hearth
And sees (All things)
Jaffa Gate: Bab al Khalel:
The city is one of the few intact cities from the Medieval period. The walls built in the `15th century by Sulemain the Magnificent. Of course, the walls were attacked, rebuilt, and destroyed throughout the centuries. More history in a few meters of walls than most places around the world. We arrive at the New Imperil Hotel and drag our luggage up a 25 meter stair. Then he says, “We gave your room away.”Tired and bedraggled by the day, this was the last thing I needed. But the hotel clerk arranged for another room across town, paid for the taxi and apologized profusely. Arrrgh. I was not pleased.
This is the teaching: There are 1.5 million Palestinians under lock and key in Gaza by the brutual jackboot of the Israeli Army. And I am bitching about going a few hundred meters to another hotel?
Hussein at the Rivoli Hotel was a gracious host in this run down hotel. This is in the East Jerusalem Arabic quarter outside of the old city gates.
Palestinians: East Jerusalem: Under the jackboot, but not defeated
Though I am “the Tourist” and get a lot of freebies, and people defer to me. I get by with my sometimes dodgy Arabic which is kicking off the rust. I am a white European/ US guy. I get a pass. I can speak Arabic and not consigned to the living daily hassle of a Palestinian. To live as a Palestinian in January 2010 is to be a Negro in Alabama in l945. Free but not quite free. The petty brutality and disregard for treating Palestinians as humans is apparent at every turn. 36% of the population, paying 40% of the taxes and receiving 7% of the services.
Palestine is the ghetto of our ancestors. It is Prague where Jews lived behind the walls of the old city, fearing to venture out, and tightly controlled in all phases of their lives.
Despite this. This is what I want people to see and hear.
The Palestinians I’ve met, have been unfailingly courteous, kind, thoughtful. I am sure that in time I will see more of the hard and tough side, the side that has been brutalized by the occupation that consciously and otherwise endeavors to strip away the dignity and worth of Palestinians. It is a prison defined and controlled by Israelis. Though Palestinians make walk the streets, smile, laugh, their destiny in the Israeli eyes is to be only partially human. Like the old documents of slaves who were seen as 2/3rds human.
In the old Muslim Quarter, electricity is a slipshod affair, wires and internet connections run like a madly woven spider web from outlets, jerry rigged connections, things seem worn and needing maintenance. But the maintenance is on survival. Trying to survive each day. Schools are vastly inferior, students are denied exit visas to study abroad, school supplies limited and classes are overcrowded. Yet, the Palestinians despite the obvious repression, continue to learn and thrive.
However, for the Jewish Israelis, it is education as if this was modern Europe. They have the freedom to come and go. Access to health care and state welfare.
I asked earlier, how can we, Jews who came from 2,000 years of Diaspora even imagine treating others cruelly or revisiting the horrors of Germany in the l930’s and l940’s on others. What is this mad thirsting hatred or fear the Israeli Jewish state has? There is more than enough room in the north and around the country without having to destry homes in the West Bank, without having to tear down homes, or engage in the jackboot behavior that has so come to define this phase of Israeli history.
I wish I could write about the glories of Islam, the wonders of this fabled city with a thousand stories tucked into each nook and corner of the city, the way that sunlight dashes through the narrow souks, the way that buildings have been shaped by the shifting of time, the façade of buildings colored by centuries of wear, or the magnificence of the Al Aksa or the Dome of the Rock…. I wish my entire attention could be lavished on this journey of imagination and celebration of the holy land but it can’t be. This land fought and contested, argued, and suffered for thousands of year, and now with this savage occupation this lack of humanity draws my attention.
Yet, I will write about the children playing soccer/ football in the streets, their ball bouncing off the walls of narrow streets, the pitch a cobblestone street from Roman times, and a few meters wide. The laughter of children playing something like hopscotch on cobbled streets. This is the timelessness of children. Yet, how do allow for the future?
How do we fulfill the promise that one generation gives to another?
In this sacred time, in the days and weeks to come, I will observe, listen, sit on the narrow steps, with pen and paper. Watch the green bereted army soldiers in patrols of three and six, nervously playing with the triggers, one young soldier barely eighteen with a nervous tick is tapping the trigger. Was the safety off? Other soldiers looking bored. In their boredom it seems that their favorite game is to hassle the young men. They don’t even have the formality to look them in their eyes. It seems the whole vibe I get from the scene is, “Nigger, show me your papers….Worthless nigger your papers aren’t right.” Hassle the nigger? Hassle the Palestinians?
I like the young Palestinian women, with their colorful gypsy kind of style. Unlike anything I’ve seen in other Arabic countries. Despite the presence of the Occupation they smile brightly like young women, probably gossiping about boys. There is still a brightness in their dark eyes. I like how they can dress conservatively and yet still be sexy. A demure smile with lowered eyes or a laugh as girls are walking down the street.
My Palestinian friends… the history of dictatorships is that they end. This was the story of jews in Egypt, and after years of slavery there was deliverance. Stay steadfast, don’t sell, don’t move. The world is watching and though it seems like you are alone, there are true friends who see the suffering of Palestinians and stand with you.
There needs to be true Justice in Palestine in order to have a future for Muslim, Christian and Jew.
Monday, December 28, 2009
3rd Day in Jordan.
Trip News:
Yesterday at the citadel in Amman, a short taxi ride from the hotel. Amman last night with the three quarter moon rising over the hills of the city. From this angle, Amman holds very little charm, square blocks of concrete and a grey stucco finish. Bleak almost Soviet style architect. None of the grace of the Ottoman period It was a backwaters city until the founding of modern Jordan in one of those post WWI rwanglings that was to give the Arab states full independence.
The Roman ampitheater on the hillside. The seven hills of Jordan, bleak and arid, looking more like a provincial capital. Too short of a time to make any assessment and real connection with Jordanians, as a tourist, there is a formality, I am the tourist and they are the local. Even with a modicum of Arabic I can leap over that threshold more easily than most, but my accent is Yemen with a weird inflection of Moroccan. When I told a guy I learned Arabic in Yemen he said, "Then why do you speak with a Moroccan accent?"
I was almost offended, but not. Like my French some years ago was a heavy Moroccan accent and such that when I spoke to Moroccans in France some thought I was trying to "rap like a home boy.
Anyway, the real juice of Jordan, is the Dead Sea, Jaresh the Old Roman city, and the stunning Petra. Part of me is feeling guilty that I am not in Egypt with the Gaza marches, but even as a leftist, I am a leftist to my own drummer. Yes, I do want to spend time and help draw attention to Gaza, but I want to do it on my own terms and what feels comfortable to me. Even though I like the politics of the left more, I hold the right and left with equal wariness. A healthy skepticism is my most sincere form of religion.
Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.
The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.
After all, who doesn't hate the Palestinians? The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers."
More to come. Listening, talking to people about life politics, love the area, like the language, even my stumbling attempts.
More to come
Yesterday at the citadel in Amman, a short taxi ride from the hotel. Amman last night with the three quarter moon rising over the hills of the city. From this angle, Amman holds very little charm, square blocks of concrete and a grey stucco finish. Bleak almost Soviet style architect. None of the grace of the Ottoman period It was a backwaters city until the founding of modern Jordan in one of those post WWI rwanglings that was to give the Arab states full independence.
The Roman ampitheater on the hillside. The seven hills of Jordan, bleak and arid, looking more like a provincial capital. Too short of a time to make any assessment and real connection with Jordanians, as a tourist, there is a formality, I am the tourist and they are the local. Even with a modicum of Arabic I can leap over that threshold more easily than most, but my accent is Yemen with a weird inflection of Moroccan. When I told a guy I learned Arabic in Yemen he said, "Then why do you speak with a Moroccan accent?"
I was almost offended, but not. Like my French some years ago was a heavy Moroccan accent and such that when I spoke to Moroccans in France some thought I was trying to "rap like a home boy.
Anyway, the real juice of Jordan, is the Dead Sea, Jaresh the Old Roman city, and the stunning Petra. Part of me is feeling guilty that I am not in Egypt with the Gaza marches, but even as a leftist, I am a leftist to my own drummer. Yes, I do want to spend time and help draw attention to Gaza, but I want to do it on my own terms and what feels comfortable to me. Even though I like the politics of the left more, I hold the right and left with equal wariness. A healthy skepticism is my most sincere form of religion.
Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.
The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.
After all, who doesn't hate the Palestinians? The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers."
More to come. Listening, talking to people about life politics, love the area, like the language, even my stumbling attempts.
More to come
Sunday, December 27, 2009
27 December 2nd day on the road
I am always the reluctant travel who is at the same time a total travel junkie. I am the one who loves sitting by his fireside in rural vermont watching snow and plotting revolutions. Though i am content in spirit to write at Blue Heron Pond, my sou is starving for the open road, new languages, new faces, I am dreadfully bored by the narrow aesthetic and the pablum served for Art.
Today I'm in Amman Jordan and meeting folks from the Gaza March. Thousands of folks will converge on the boarder of Gaza and Israel, thousands of folks from around the world asking that Palestinians have some basic human rights. Right now, the 1.5 Gaza people in a state of lockdown. Like an prison around the world. They cannot visit the West Best for work or congress, no work or food supplies come in. Kind of like the Ghettos of Warsaw. For years Ive been writing about Palestine, the pain of Palestine, and now... tasting it and seeing the suffering here in a way that I did somewhat remoetly.
We can all feel the pain of our brothers and sistens worldwide. The oppression of our muslim brothers and sisters, the opression in Egypt: the small fascist state of Israel with its wonderful political freedoms for white jews, but a gradual diminishment if you're a brown jew or god forbid ... a Muslim Israeli. It makes the apartheid system seem somehow rationale. Yet, the US gives 3 to 4 billion dollars a year to enable the occupation of all the people of Palestine. And of course the various other jewish charities and russian mafia that keeps this state afloat. Is this state really held afloat by the Russian gangsters, who may be jew in name, but makes his living as a gangster, or is Israel the gangsert state, stealing land and giving it to the settlers.
Why not find the setters a nice apartment in Tel Aviv or Haifa? Why take over a Palestinians home and move in an Israeli family? How would you, Western reader, to have a family that never lived there, suddenly moved in by the fiat of the state? Or, that you had been kicked out of the area for 2,ooo years, without title or papers, without even a clear idea of a village, and decided it was time to take over again.
If Israeli truly wants freedom...end the occupation of Gaza, end the occupation of Palestine, give Golan back, resettle Lebanese Palestinians in Golan, and make Jerusalem an international city for Jews, Muslim, and Christian. But I don;think that is the case.
Or I should refer to it as Al Quds ... the Land in Arabic... where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
But Israel is interested in maintaining the illusion of the victim. Playing on the anti semite card. "Oh, you don't agree with us? You must be an antisemite?" The vulgar truth of racism is the trump card here. Zionism, that proclaims all of the Palestinians areas as rightfully Jewish, is a racist proposition.
For example, Birmingham Ala in the early l950s Blacks were relegated to the back of the bus, not allowed to vote, had to step off the sidewalk when a white person walked by, or god help the young black man who smiled at a pretty white girl. The same exact racism pervades.
The racism after Crystallnacht that took away German Jews businesess, expelled them from the universities, the same barbarity that lead to the Holocaust, is being played out every day in the West Bank.
There are no Palestinians taking over Israeli homes. There is no massive imprisonments of Israelis by Palstinians. There is no destruction of Israeli culture.
Yes, the rockets of Gaza fired on to Israel, against the 4th largest Army in the world is a situation that should be pitied. FIghting Goliath with stones.
This writing does not serve Jew, Muslim, Christian, or any religion well. Religion is the refuge for the spiritually lazy cowards. Hiding behind theology, nostroms, prayers, and history versus standing naked -- physicially, emotionally, and yes spiritiaully... confronting god...declaring your own spirit and faith. Yes, I Namaya, worship trees and life, I worship the spirit of all life that sustains this planet. I pray in any church or meadow where the fundamental rights and dignity of each person can be preserved and nurtured. I want not part of a faith that denies the dignity, joy, and revelation of each person. I abhor war and hatred to mend and heal human differences. It is wrong to kill. Wrong to kill animals, and humans. It is wrong to harm or hit another person. It is a philosophy that brings me back to my Zen roots.
Zen such a profound part of my spirit, I rarely talk about it. MY ZEN, MY ZEN, with all of my hubris, ignorance, etc.is about LOVE. This is paradise. This place some of us call HELL is paradise. My zen spirit is alivened by the possibilities of what it is to be human. To have the capacity to love. The capacity to be FULLY HUMAN. Alive in the world. Compassionate and filled with reverence for each living creature. Filled with care in how we treat and treasure the earth.
Today in Amman, I worship the moon. Moon light three quarters full, though seen for millions of years, from the most barbaric neanderthal who also would sit in wonder...
Moon over Jordan
brown city with scarcely
a grain of green or serenity.
Two thirds moon hangs over
the city.
Moon is pregnant with possibility
Moon marks the same spot in Gaza
Where the future and each day,
grows bleaker
There is no pretty poem for
Gaza.
It is a moon painted red
Getting my bearings, brushing off the rusty arabic, getting ready for the trip into Westbank and Gaza.
Moreover, making my self ready to make the transition to living in Israel, As a jew by culture every fiber of my being is repulsed by the occuption and I know that given half a chance the Palestinians would have driven them to the sea. But now, in 2010 the SS component of the Israeli army is in a new process of Genocide. Not the obvious killings, but the genocide that destroys a culture and future. Life is so miserable that Pakestinian Arabs have to leave. This is the policy of genocide.
As a jew, a student of Jewish history and the diaspora, all the sins and evil of the occupiers in aeons past has now burned into the soul of Israel. Israel committed to a new collective genocide of jews. This kind of barbaric, hateful treatment by a government, sancitioned by the US, virtually ignored by the world, and suffered by Israelis will eventually be destroyed. As one visits evil on their perceived enemies, the blowback will be profound.
Wanting to meet some extended family in Israeli. There is a revulvsion to the Zionists who believe that this whole area from the Mediterannan to The Jordan north to Lebannon and down through Gaza was their empire. Hardly, Jews have had a very tenuous hold on the land, thrived, and then displaces. The same as hundreds of other cultures. Yet, remarkably Hebrews we have seemed to hold on to an identity through this exile.
Simply my sould screams this is not just. Faults, hatred from Muslims as well, atrocities in the past, but the jews are redefining barbarity and hatred. I, a jew by culture, a jew who values our history and culture, yet is repulsed by the barbarity of Zionism. An SS should be painting on each Mogen David. We have learned well from the Nazis. It is not enough to destroy the enemy, you must first break their spirit, you must break their will to live\\
Writing the pain at 3 in the morning. Half asleep, inspired by the moon. Trying to find the humanness in all this. Zoe and I have started in our tiny first steps. Meeting people, talking, and listening. Half English. Half arabic when I can. Good to be back in an Arabic speaking country, though I could have gone to Paterson.
Good to connect with Zoe. Enjoying our traveling time together, Great traveling buddy. I am a bit concerned, difficult for me to make schedules and appointments.
Tomorrow, the mooon rises, and the possibilities of tomorrow shed a bright light on us.
Today I'm in Amman Jordan and meeting folks from the Gaza March. Thousands of folks will converge on the boarder of Gaza and Israel, thousands of folks from around the world asking that Palestinians have some basic human rights. Right now, the 1.5 Gaza people in a state of lockdown. Like an prison around the world. They cannot visit the West Best for work or congress, no work or food supplies come in. Kind of like the Ghettos of Warsaw. For years Ive been writing about Palestine, the pain of Palestine, and now... tasting it and seeing the suffering here in a way that I did somewhat remoetly.
We can all feel the pain of our brothers and sistens worldwide. The oppression of our muslim brothers and sisters, the opression in Egypt: the small fascist state of Israel with its wonderful political freedoms for white jews, but a gradual diminishment if you're a brown jew or god forbid ... a Muslim Israeli. It makes the apartheid system seem somehow rationale. Yet, the US gives 3 to 4 billion dollars a year to enable the occupation of all the people of Palestine. And of course the various other jewish charities and russian mafia that keeps this state afloat. Is this state really held afloat by the Russian gangsters, who may be jew in name, but makes his living as a gangster, or is Israel the gangsert state, stealing land and giving it to the settlers.
Why not find the setters a nice apartment in Tel Aviv or Haifa? Why take over a Palestinians home and move in an Israeli family? How would you, Western reader, to have a family that never lived there, suddenly moved in by the fiat of the state? Or, that you had been kicked out of the area for 2,ooo years, without title or papers, without even a clear idea of a village, and decided it was time to take over again.
If Israeli truly wants freedom...end the occupation of Gaza, end the occupation of Palestine, give Golan back, resettle Lebanese Palestinians in Golan, and make Jerusalem an international city for Jews, Muslim, and Christian. But I don;think that is the case.
Or I should refer to it as Al Quds ... the Land in Arabic... where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.
But Israel is interested in maintaining the illusion of the victim. Playing on the anti semite card. "Oh, you don't agree with us? You must be an antisemite?" The vulgar truth of racism is the trump card here. Zionism, that proclaims all of the Palestinians areas as rightfully Jewish, is a racist proposition.
For example, Birmingham Ala in the early l950s Blacks were relegated to the back of the bus, not allowed to vote, had to step off the sidewalk when a white person walked by, or god help the young black man who smiled at a pretty white girl. The same exact racism pervades.
The racism after Crystallnacht that took away German Jews businesess, expelled them from the universities, the same barbarity that lead to the Holocaust, is being played out every day in the West Bank.
There are no Palestinians taking over Israeli homes. There is no massive imprisonments of Israelis by Palstinians. There is no destruction of Israeli culture.
Yes, the rockets of Gaza fired on to Israel, against the 4th largest Army in the world is a situation that should be pitied. FIghting Goliath with stones.
This writing does not serve Jew, Muslim, Christian, or any religion well. Religion is the refuge for the spiritually lazy cowards. Hiding behind theology, nostroms, prayers, and history versus standing naked -- physicially, emotionally, and yes spiritiaully... confronting god...declaring your own spirit and faith. Yes, I Namaya, worship trees and life, I worship the spirit of all life that sustains this planet. I pray in any church or meadow where the fundamental rights and dignity of each person can be preserved and nurtured. I want not part of a faith that denies the dignity, joy, and revelation of each person. I abhor war and hatred to mend and heal human differences. It is wrong to kill. Wrong to kill animals, and humans. It is wrong to harm or hit another person. It is a philosophy that brings me back to my Zen roots.
Zen such a profound part of my spirit, I rarely talk about it. MY ZEN, MY ZEN, with all of my hubris, ignorance, etc.is about LOVE. This is paradise. This place some of us call HELL is paradise. My zen spirit is alivened by the possibilities of what it is to be human. To have the capacity to love. The capacity to be FULLY HUMAN. Alive in the world. Compassionate and filled with reverence for each living creature. Filled with care in how we treat and treasure the earth.
Today in Amman, I worship the moon. Moon light three quarters full, though seen for millions of years, from the most barbaric neanderthal who also would sit in wonder...
Moon over Jordan
brown city with scarcely
a grain of green or serenity.
Two thirds moon hangs over
the city.
Moon is pregnant with possibility
Moon marks the same spot in Gaza
Where the future and each day,
grows bleaker
There is no pretty poem for
Gaza.
It is a moon painted red
Getting my bearings, brushing off the rusty arabic, getting ready for the trip into Westbank and Gaza.
Moreover, making my self ready to make the transition to living in Israel, As a jew by culture every fiber of my being is repulsed by the occuption and I know that given half a chance the Palestinians would have driven them to the sea. But now, in 2010 the SS component of the Israeli army is in a new process of Genocide. Not the obvious killings, but the genocide that destroys a culture and future. Life is so miserable that Pakestinian Arabs have to leave. This is the policy of genocide.
As a jew, a student of Jewish history and the diaspora, all the sins and evil of the occupiers in aeons past has now burned into the soul of Israel. Israel committed to a new collective genocide of jews. This kind of barbaric, hateful treatment by a government, sancitioned by the US, virtually ignored by the world, and suffered by Israelis will eventually be destroyed. As one visits evil on their perceived enemies, the blowback will be profound.
Wanting to meet some extended family in Israeli. There is a revulvsion to the Zionists who believe that this whole area from the Mediterannan to The Jordan north to Lebannon and down through Gaza was their empire. Hardly, Jews have had a very tenuous hold on the land, thrived, and then displaces. The same as hundreds of other cultures. Yet, remarkably Hebrews we have seemed to hold on to an identity through this exile.
Simply my sould screams this is not just. Faults, hatred from Muslims as well, atrocities in the past, but the jews are redefining barbarity and hatred. I, a jew by culture, a jew who values our history and culture, yet is repulsed by the barbarity of Zionism. An SS should be painting on each Mogen David. We have learned well from the Nazis. It is not enough to destroy the enemy, you must first break their spirit, you must break their will to live\\
Writing the pain at 3 in the morning. Half asleep, inspired by the moon. Trying to find the humanness in all this. Zoe and I have started in our tiny first steps. Meeting people, talking, and listening. Half English. Half arabic when I can. Good to be back in an Arabic speaking country, though I could have gone to Paterson.
Good to connect with Zoe. Enjoying our traveling time together, Great traveling buddy. I am a bit concerned, difficult for me to make schedules and appointments.
Tomorrow, the mooon rises, and the possibilities of tomorrow shed a bright light on us.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
26 December 2009 Fears and Hopes
Initial notes, spirit and heart opening wide. Though I had thought that I would do a lot of planning, having a complete program of activities, instead i have the basic outline of what I want to do and accomplish. First to observe, listen, absorb, breathe, and savor the complex pathos of Palestine.
For several years I had been writing a series of travel articles under the broad title of Geometry of Time. I had been in Venice, old Cairo, Prague, Taj Mahal, and other buildings and cities shaped by the slow conversation of time, from aeon to aeon, buildings and city created with an intention in the best plans, but a city that has soul, character, and life is one that is shaped by the passage of time and people.
Some cities are easier to see this, like Venice, where the hundreds of years have
Today, and for the past few days, the predominant emotion is a fear, not of travel or even death, but leaving before I've finished what I need to do and say. Some regrets over the vast amounts of time squandered in making a living, away from writing. Now at 55 a fairly good body of work, but not the complete scope of what I want to leave.
Yesterday with nieces and nephews, appreciating their growth as people, conner, annique, kenny, and jg. A poignant and whistful sense as I saw Annique in the years to come. As a mother and her transformation. Wanting to be witness first hand this change.
As with all travels, time to go to the train, on to NYC. Web in NYC on Park Avenue.
More of the whistfulness. A full month of travel. Yes initially, I hate to travel and then when I put my feet on the ground I am ready to roll.
Hopefully, time to chat tomorrow. Plane flight tonight to Paris, but not 2 0r 3 day layover. A perfect treat of Paris.
For several years I had been writing a series of travel articles under the broad title of Geometry of Time. I had been in Venice, old Cairo, Prague, Taj Mahal, and other buildings and cities shaped by the slow conversation of time, from aeon to aeon, buildings and city created with an intention in the best plans, but a city that has soul, character, and life is one that is shaped by the passage of time and people.
Some cities are easier to see this, like Venice, where the hundreds of years have
Today, and for the past few days, the predominant emotion is a fear, not of travel or even death, but leaving before I've finished what I need to do and say. Some regrets over the vast amounts of time squandered in making a living, away from writing. Now at 55 a fairly good body of work, but not the complete scope of what I want to leave.
Yesterday with nieces and nephews, appreciating their growth as people, conner, annique, kenny, and jg. A poignant and whistful sense as I saw Annique in the years to come. As a mother and her transformation. Wanting to be witness first hand this change.
As with all travels, time to go to the train, on to NYC. Web in NYC on Park Avenue.
More of the whistfulness. A full month of travel. Yes initially, I hate to travel and then when I put my feet on the ground I am ready to roll.
Hopefully, time to chat tomorrow. Plane flight tonight to Paris, but not 2 0r 3 day layover. A perfect treat of Paris.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Updates December 2009
Happy and Safe Holiday to all.
I'm pleased to share with you two books: On the Island of Binga Bonga The War that Never Was
that is at - http://www.vermontpoet.com/books.html
It is a free download of a book and story for children. My friend and colleague Naomi Bennett has
made this into a play that she is performing with children in Cambridge. I saw the preliminary play
it was fun.
Also, Journal of the Plague: Living and Working with AIDS. The first chapter is on line. It is the story
of the patients and my work as a nurse working on end-stage AIDS ward at a Veterans Hospital.
Also, the new video, How to Make a Child a Suicide Bomber.
BEATNIK CAFE:http://www.vermontpoet.com/beatnikcafe.html. Will debut in NYC on 11 April 2010
Sunday 7 PM. At the Richmond Shepard Theater. Directed by Naomi Bennett. Buy tickets early!!!
Kulandia: Our space- sci fi ecological performance is on YOU TUBE at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0swEwNQf0
This has now been turned into a full length play that we are hoping to debut in 2010 it
is called LOVE FIRE REDEMPTION. Naomi directing this circus, sci fi eco story!
New Play FOUR PROPHETS is in the final stages. Part installation project, part play. Jesus, Mohammed, Moses,
and Satan meet in a public restroom to discuss what has failed - religion, the disciples, or humans.
Peace Garden/ Land Mine Project: Peace Garden installation fountain for Sarasota made of old military weapons
is in the early stages in Florida. Possible installation of Land Mine Garden in Cambridge.
$680 Billion Dollar Projects: Series of projects on the outrageous military US budget of $680 billion dollars. We actually
spend far more. Stay tuned. Looking for volunteers to help. We need to invest and rebuild America
Grace Cares: New projects at our not for profit http://www.gracecares.com/ new projects scheduled
for Morocco a reforestation project, on-going projects in India.
GREAT HOLIDAY PRESENTS: You can support Grace cares directly or purchase VERMONT ART POETRY http://www.vermontartpoetry.com/
posters, poems, books VERMONT MY HOME and GOD SEX POLITICS. GREAT CHRISTMAS/ Holiday presents. For every donation
to Grace Cares we will send you a book or poster!
On going updates at www.vermontpoet.blogspot.com
APPLE SEED HEALTH in 2010: Grass roots patient education for holistic health care modules. 20 top ailments
with common sense treatment, herbal, homeopathic. Cost of the course, each participant has to train 10 others.
Need volunteers to help. Please. Fun project.
Off to Jordan, Israel, Palestine December 26 to Jan 23.
Our Annual Holiday Letter
http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-letter.html
A few updates and hope everyone is well, safe, and joyful in the new year
Namaya
Real Joy
Give me a *Christmas of joy
and keep all those useless toys.
Tinsel and wrap, just more trash,
now listen to my rap and stash
Forget Donner, Comet, Blitzen
and those other fancy kibitzens.
The elves are underpaid midgets
for sweatshops to make widgets!
Scrooge or curmudgeon my name?
Humbug!
Dig my crazy Christmas dream.
Every child who hungers would be fed,
loved and each night sleep well in their bed.
The homeless would wake safe and snug
with a sleepy contented smiled on their mug.
Every prayer of peace would be answered
and every single aspiration for hope heard
truly at last, through the land
we can call out
A merry Christmas to you all.
Ho! Ho!Ho!
++++++
***Happy Christmas, Pagan Solstice, Hanukkah,etc.
namaya
www.vermontpoet.com
www.thejazzpoet.com
I'm pleased to share with you two books: On the Island of Binga Bonga The War that Never Was
that is at - http://www.vermontpoet.com/books.html
It is a free download of a book and story for children. My friend and colleague Naomi Bennett has
made this into a play that she is performing with children in Cambridge. I saw the preliminary play
it was fun.
Also, Journal of the Plague: Living and Working with AIDS. The first chapter is on line. It is the story
of the patients and my work as a nurse working on end-stage AIDS ward at a Veterans Hospital.
Also, the new video, How to Make a Child a Suicide Bomber.
BEATNIK CAFE:http://www.vermontpoet.com/beatnikcafe.html. Will debut in NYC on 11 April 2010
Sunday 7 PM. At the Richmond Shepard Theater. Directed by Naomi Bennett. Buy tickets early!!!
Kulandia: Our space- sci fi ecological performance is on YOU TUBE at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0swEwNQf0
This has now been turned into a full length play that we are hoping to debut in 2010 it
is called LOVE FIRE REDEMPTION. Naomi directing this circus, sci fi eco story!
New Play FOUR PROPHETS is in the final stages. Part installation project, part play. Jesus, Mohammed, Moses,
and Satan meet in a public restroom to discuss what has failed - religion, the disciples, or humans.
Peace Garden/ Land Mine Project: Peace Garden installation fountain for Sarasota made of old military weapons
is in the early stages in Florida. Possible installation of Land Mine Garden in Cambridge.
$680 Billion Dollar Projects: Series of projects on the outrageous military US budget of $680 billion dollars. We actually
spend far more. Stay tuned. Looking for volunteers to help. We need to invest and rebuild America
Grace Cares: New projects at our not for profit http://www.gracecares.com/ new projects scheduled
for Morocco a reforestation project, on-going projects in India.
GREAT HOLIDAY PRESENTS: You can support Grace cares directly or purchase VERMONT ART POETRY http://www.vermontartpoetry.com/
posters, poems, books VERMONT MY HOME and GOD SEX POLITICS. GREAT CHRISTMAS/ Holiday presents. For every donation
to Grace Cares we will send you a book or poster!
On going updates at www.vermontpoet.blogspot.com
APPLE SEED HEALTH in 2010: Grass roots patient education for holistic health care modules. 20 top ailments
with common sense treatment, herbal, homeopathic. Cost of the course, each participant has to train 10 others.
Need volunteers to help. Please. Fun project.
Off to Jordan, Israel, Palestine December 26 to Jan 23.
Our Annual Holiday Letter
http://vermontpoet.blogspot.com/2009/11/2009-letter.html
A few updates and hope everyone is well, safe, and joyful in the new year
Namaya
Real Joy
Give me a *Christmas of joy
and keep all those useless toys.
Tinsel and wrap, just more trash,
now listen to my rap and stash
Forget Donner, Comet, Blitzen
and those other fancy kibitzens.
The elves are underpaid midgets
for sweatshops to make widgets!
Scrooge or curmudgeon my name?
Humbug!
Dig my crazy Christmas dream.
Every child who hungers would be fed,
loved and each night sleep well in their bed.
The homeless would wake safe and snug
with a sleepy contented smiled on their mug.
Every prayer of peace would be answered
and every single aspiration for hope heard
truly at last, through the land
we can call out
A merry Christmas to you all.
Ho! Ho!Ho!
++++++
***Happy Christmas, Pagan Solstice, Hanukkah,etc.
namaya
www.vermontpoet.com
www.thejazzpoet.com
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Final Solution to the Palestinian Problem?
The Palestinian problem has been an enormous thorn in the relations between Israel and the greater world. This has prevented a capable Western styled government from bringing the full fruits of its democracy to the Middle East. With the constant niggling and debate of rights, it is time for Israel to assert its full historic right to the full and final occupation of Greater Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River to Lebanon and south to Sinai. We can stop the illusion and fantasy of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. Historically, this land was Israel, with stretches of time occupied by every power in the region. Though we had left the area for two thousand years, does it matter whether it was two days or two thousand years? Of course not. It is now time to fully reclaim this land and come to a final solution to the Palestinian problem. The moral clarity of my argument and this solution will shatter any sentimental notions. How absurd the notion of Palestinians with any rights to their “ancestral homeland.”
Though one can object to some “final solutions” previously, there were merits to it. Ironically, Germany’s final solution, allowed for the creation of the state of Israel, and Adolph Hitler may have inadvertently done more for Jews than Herzog. Though it is easy to condemn Hitler, there was a grain of clarity to his final solution, and Netanyahu has copied Hitler’s unflinching moral clarity. Israel needs to stop depending on the United States for $3 billion dollars annually and to stop spending 45% of its GNP on military. This money can really bring back the Garden of Eden in the greater Levant. Before the creation of the state of Israel, the area was farms, fishing enterprises, and some minor industries, a backwards society that lived for generations tending the land. It was only when Israel took over the archaic farms and made them into modern agribusiness, created arms industries, one of the world’s largest armies, and yes, a very capable nuclear weapons system. It is time to rip off the veil of this illusion. Israel is the most powerful army in the Middle East and the sooner we take this necessary and, albeit politically awkward public relations problem of the Palestinians, the sooner we can get on with fulfilling the prophecies.
Gaza can be a beautiful beachfront resort once we relocate Hamas to Somalia or Sudan. We have worked diligently to get the world to see that this so-called National Liberation Movement is in truth a terrorist organization and that all of our actions to wipe out this scourge are a blessing for Israel and all peace loving democracies. Not all Gazans need to leave; there are many positions available in the service industry where we will need labor, but maintaining absolute fealty to the fatherland -- Israel. The genius of Israelis and labor of loyal Palestinians is a perfect answer to a previously backwards hot bed of terrorism.
All Palestinians who choose not to become citizens of Israel (of course not full citizens, since full citizenship requires conversion to Judaism, but a limited citizenship in the way that Black Jews and other Palestinians have been incorporated into our society) would be shown the bridge to Jordan. In the way that the US uses illegal aliens, we too need people to work our farms, wait on tables, and do the necessary manual labor. Of course, with the talented tenth, the extraordinary Palestinians who accept the notion of an Uber Israeli Jewish state we can accommodate them and integrate them into our society. After all, most Muslims in the region were Jews forcibly converted to that Mohammed or the Christian ideology. Those who chose not to participate in this great democracy will be removed to Jordan, which is already sixty percent Palestinian. This would also provide a great opportunity for the people who claim displacement in Lebanon to reunite with their families. Our vision of a pure homeland that allows for democracy and security to flourish in the context of a Jewish state is a logical conclusion: Wouldn’t you agree?
Though the removal will initially be traumatic the final solution in greater Israel will allow for unprecedented opportunities for Palestinians in Jordan or other countries in the Middle East. Unless there is the preposterous notion of Palestinians having their own fully functioning independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, which can peacefully, co-exist with Israel? Two state solution of Palestine and Israel, or choice of an Uber Israeli Jewish state? The choice is clear.
Though one can object to some “final solutions” previously, there were merits to it. Ironically, Germany’s final solution, allowed for the creation of the state of Israel, and Adolph Hitler may have inadvertently done more for Jews than Herzog. Though it is easy to condemn Hitler, there was a grain of clarity to his final solution, and Netanyahu has copied Hitler’s unflinching moral clarity. Israel needs to stop depending on the United States for $3 billion dollars annually and to stop spending 45% of its GNP on military. This money can really bring back the Garden of Eden in the greater Levant. Before the creation of the state of Israel, the area was farms, fishing enterprises, and some minor industries, a backwards society that lived for generations tending the land. It was only when Israel took over the archaic farms and made them into modern agribusiness, created arms industries, one of the world’s largest armies, and yes, a very capable nuclear weapons system. It is time to rip off the veil of this illusion. Israel is the most powerful army in the Middle East and the sooner we take this necessary and, albeit politically awkward public relations problem of the Palestinians, the sooner we can get on with fulfilling the prophecies.
Gaza can be a beautiful beachfront resort once we relocate Hamas to Somalia or Sudan. We have worked diligently to get the world to see that this so-called National Liberation Movement is in truth a terrorist organization and that all of our actions to wipe out this scourge are a blessing for Israel and all peace loving democracies. Not all Gazans need to leave; there are many positions available in the service industry where we will need labor, but maintaining absolute fealty to the fatherland -- Israel. The genius of Israelis and labor of loyal Palestinians is a perfect answer to a previously backwards hot bed of terrorism.
All Palestinians who choose not to become citizens of Israel (of course not full citizens, since full citizenship requires conversion to Judaism, but a limited citizenship in the way that Black Jews and other Palestinians have been incorporated into our society) would be shown the bridge to Jordan. In the way that the US uses illegal aliens, we too need people to work our farms, wait on tables, and do the necessary manual labor. Of course, with the talented tenth, the extraordinary Palestinians who accept the notion of an Uber Israeli Jewish state we can accommodate them and integrate them into our society. After all, most Muslims in the region were Jews forcibly converted to that Mohammed or the Christian ideology. Those who chose not to participate in this great democracy will be removed to Jordan, which is already sixty percent Palestinian. This would also provide a great opportunity for the people who claim displacement in Lebanon to reunite with their families. Our vision of a pure homeland that allows for democracy and security to flourish in the context of a Jewish state is a logical conclusion: Wouldn’t you agree?
Though the removal will initially be traumatic the final solution in greater Israel will allow for unprecedented opportunities for Palestinians in Jordan or other countries in the Middle East. Unless there is the preposterous notion of Palestinians having their own fully functioning independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, which can peacefully, co-exist with Israel? Two state solution of Palestine and Israel, or choice of an Uber Israeli Jewish state? The choice is clear.
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