Quote of the Day

“We are seeing at the United Nations if we can’t implement the responsibility to protect, given that food, boats and relief teams are there, and obtain a United Nations resolution which authorizes the delivery and imposes this on the Burmese government.”

-Bernard Kouchner,  co-foundeder of Doctors Without Borders; in response to the cyclone disaster in Myanmar

Cyclical violence and ancient hatred

Recently, I attended a lecture series on the conflict in Israel. Entitled A Look at Palestine: the Struggle for Peace. Clearly, the three session carried with them a sort of bias towards the Palestinian side of the conflict.

What made the series ever more intriguing was that the sessions were held at St. John’s United Methodist Church in North Austin and that most members of the audience were old enough to remember different phases of the Israeli occupation.

At 21, I was basically one of the youngest peeps in the room… which, of course, meant that I got a lot of stares… slightly awkward but I got over it…

And… we’re back.

I know you’ve missed me … blame the irresponsibility and laziness of those darn college students who intern, take a full course load, run organizations and get involved with projects ‘in their spare time.’ I am shame faced. Do forgive…

or don’t.

Just be happy!

-L.M.

Peanuts: Not Charlie Brown

An eithgrader in Kentucky faces felony charges for putting peanuts in the lunchbox of a another student with a severe allergy.

“We hear these stories all the time,” said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of the Food Allergy and Anaphylactic Network. “The child is called peanut-kid, or the classmates wait outside the classroom and chase them with peanut butter sandwiches.”

What the heck?!!! Slightly Lord of the Flies atmosphere don’t you think? Clearly this kids don’t know what’s up. InsertcutekidtalkingaboutallergiesHERE:

 

Good or Bad?

Cruising the net, I stumbled upon this little mulitmedia tidbit from the Austin-American Statesman:

It’s pretty much like a commercial for a serious of stories the paper will begin running soon. Online commercials for newspaper stories? VERRY INTERESTING…

Thoughts?

Avoiding Confrontation

Many pundits are currently dismissing former President Jimmy Carter for meeting with Hamas leaders to discuss Isreali and Palestinian relations. And (surprise, surprise) Israel and the United States have also condemned Carter’s actions by equating Hamas to terrorism. Israel’s welfare minister, Yitzak Hertzog:

“He’s giving this image some sort of recognition with one of the world’s most brutal arch terrorists and, worst of all, I think Jimmy Carter is forgetting the lessons of 9/11,” he said.

“And Jimmy Carter, in a way, is forgetting his own legacy.”

(Nevermind that Carter’s legacy includes negotiating Palestinian-Israeli agreements and receiving a Noble Peace Prize….)

This is just another example of the profound misunderstanding (or misstepping) on behalf of U.S. foreign policy. If Israel and the United States believe that peace will be achieved in the region without ever speaking to Hamas, they are kidding themselves.

Obviously, sucide bombings and other terrorist activities committed by Hamas are not something the United States should support. Although they claim to represent Palestinian ideals, many Palestinians would fervently refute any connection to the organization.

I wonder, however, if by remaining so one-sided in this conflict, if we are fueling the fire of fundamentalism on BOTH sides of the conflict.

I recently watched excerpts of a documentary entitled Promises, featuring children in Palestine and Israel:

Over the course of the film, it became abundantly clear that not only was there evidence of culturally embedded idealogy on both sides, but in some children the destain for the opposing people group only appeared to grow as they were forced to deal with a world of checkpoints and fear. Despite the fact that these children expressed a desire to meet and talk with one another, I wonder what the future will hold.

Who will these children be when they are my age? What wars are they already fighting? What about those not being followed by an American documenting their every move?

I think there needs to be a redefinition of the United State’s role (as well as that of the international community) in the Middle East to one of a more mediation standpoint. I don’t really know if any solution will ever be found otherwise. And I think that’s something Carter also understands.

Note from LM

Hello out there!

This is just a heads up that things might get a little sparse and in between over the next three weeks. And I wanted to get some feedback from all of the lovely fans of amateur on what they think about how the blog is going, what they want to see more/less of as well as advice on improving the site’s widgets/user-friendliness.

Love notes are welcomed. Haters will be tolerated. ( )

Just FYI: I want people to feel like they can contribute posts, photos, videos as well as ideas (just imagine your little name in the byline… fame… ladies and gents… fame). Anyways all this rambling to say that I added a contact e-mail on the side bar last month. Here it is again for all you newbies: lmullikin@gmail.com.

 

Holy Travelers

So apparently the Dali Lama and the Pope are on their way to American soil.

I seriously doubt there will be any efforts on any of higher ups to visit the Dali as he gives his speech in Seattle. In fact, most of the press today is focusing on the fact that he will make a pit-stop in Japan.

Here’s part a radio interview discussing the visit…

Well he says that his visit to the United States is not political, it’s entirely to promote his spiritual causes and that when people’s hearts are filled with compassion he says, that physically they’ll be better off.

He says he’s not visiting to make any political point, he’s giving a speech in Seattle that was arranged some time ago. And he even remarked that his stop off here in Tokyo he didn’t actually know… he wanted to know rather what it was that we wanted to ask him because he had nothing to say. He was saying it was just a stop off on his way to give a speech in the United States…

Should be interesting how articles change post-Japan. At this point, I think U.S. officials will do anything to avoid the issue. That’s where the Pope comes in… Thank goodness for more than one spiritual figure on tour!

Here’s an article talking about how ‘controversial’ that visit will be. That’s right. Maybe if they plan their speeches at the same time, the American public will continue to ignore the non-role that the U.S. is playing in the humanitarian issues of Beijing. As displayed in this article:

Let me make this as plain as possible: Tibetans do not come before Americans. Sorry. They just don’t.

Freaking idiot.

Quote of the Day

“Too little, too late. That’s the feeling that your proposals have provoked. It is obvious that the majority of the people don’t believe any more in the capacity of your government to take courageous measures to ease the misery that the population is facing daily.”

- a letter from 16 out of 27 Haitian senators in opposition to the country’s high cost of living. Most of the population live off of $2 per day, courtesy of Reuters

Parental Control

UPDATE ON THIS POST: IT WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE VIDEO WAS TAKEN DOWN THIS AFTERNOON. RACHEL POSTED ANOTHER LINK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION.

So on this morning’s Joe, there was a discussion concerning the video above about these eight Floridian cheerleaders ganging up on one girl. Naturally (or unnaturally.. you decide), I wanted to see if YouTube had taken the segment down. To my surprise, not only was the thing still up but it has been viewed over 127,000 times and commented on over 900 times. Here’s one of the comments left by a viewer….