red onion

Friday, April 04, 2003

THE DEEP SEA MONSTER

A creature is discovered deep in the ocean, whose long, elegant tendrils reach many lengths behind the massive, unusual, bulbous body. It probably doesn't see so much as it senses. It is very dark down there, where little light bleeds from the surface, having been swallowed by the massive depths above it. Why, why this creature? Why does it exist? What delicate role does it play in the underwater ecosystem? Does it play any role, directly or indirectly, in the ecosystem that we inhabit? Does the probable death of one species affect the probable reality of another? Why should we care that this species exists?

When I looked at this remarkable creature, with a head designed for flying underwater, I felt the touch of love. This creature exists to experience existence, and it exists to cause wonderment in the human species that now gaze upon it. Its synchratic appearance now, at this time, asking for our notice, and we, the human species, looking for beauty in deep, dark spaces. For beautiful it is, meant to strike such wonderment in the heart of the observer, that instantly is communicated an emotional attachment that can only be called love. This creature now is meant to communicate the wonder of creation, so that we may work harder to preserve and protect it. Behold!!

# posted by scorpiorising : 4:13 PM |

Thursday, April 03, 2003

CLUSTER BOMBS USED IN HILLAH

Robert Fisk, writing for the Independent.co.uk, discusses the use of cluster bombs in the village of Hillah, and possible violations of international law. The Dissident Voice offers a link to the article:

"The wounds are vicious and deep, a rash of scarlet spots on the back and thighs or face, the shards of shrapnel from the cluster bombs buried an inch or more in the flesh. The wards of the Hillah teaching hospital are proof that something illegal – something quite outside the Geneva Conventions – occurred in the villages around the city once known as Babylon.

The wailing children, the young women with breast and leg wounds, the 10 patients upon whom doctors had to perform brain surgery to remove metal from their heads, talk of the days and nights when the explosives fell "like grapes" from the sky. Cluster bombs, the doctors say – and the detritus of the air raids around the hamlets of Nadr and Djifil and Akramin and Mahawil and Mohandesin and Hail Askeri shows that they are right.

Were they American or British aircraft that showered these villages with one of the most lethal weapons of modern warfare? The 61 dead who have passed through the Hillah hospital since Saturday night cannot tell us. Nor can the survivors who, in many cases, were sitting in their homes when the white canisters opened high above their village, spilling thousands of bomblets into the sky, exploding in the air, soaring through windows and doorways to burst indoors or bouncing off the roofs of the concrete huts to blow up later in the roadways.

Rahed Hakem remembers that it was 10.30am on Sunday when she was sitting in her home in Nadr, that she heard "the voice of explosions" and looked out of the door to see "the sky raining fire". She said the bomblets were a black-grey colour. Mohamed Moussa described the clusters of "little boxes" that fell out of the sky in the same village and thought they were silver-coloured. They fell like "small grapefruit," he said. "If it hadn't exploded and you touched it, it went off immediately," he said. "They exploded in the air and on the ground and we still have some in our home, unexploded."

Karima Mizler thought the bomblets had some kind of wires attached to them – perhaps the metal "butterfly" that contains sets of the tiny cluster bombs and springs open to release them in showers.

Some victims died at once, mostly women and children, some of whose blackened, decomposing remains lay in the tiny charnel house mortuary at the back of the Hillah hospital. The teaching college received more than 200 wounded since Saturday night – the 61 dead are only those who were brought to the hospital or who died during or after surgery, and many others are believed to have been buried in their home villages – and, of these, doctors say about 80 per cent were civilians.

Soldiers there certainly were, at least 40 if these statistics are to be believed, and amid the foul clothing of the dead outside the mortuary door I found a khaki military belt and a combat jacket. But village men can also be soldiers and both they and their wives and daughters insisted there were no military installations around their homes. True or false? Who is to know if a tank or a missile launcher was positioned in a nearby field – as they were along the highway north to Baghdad? But the Geneva Conventions demand protection for civilians even if they are intermingled with military personnel, and the use of cluster bombs in these villages – even if aimed at military targets – thus crosses the boundaries of international law."

# posted by scorpiorising : 7:27 AM |

HILLA, IRAQ IS THIS WAR'S MAI LAI MASSACRE

Hilla, just south of Baghdad, and scene of recent carnage by American bombing, is going to become this war's Mai Lai Massacre. There will be an international investigation, no, there must be an international investigation. The description of the physical carnage done to the villagers of Hilla, provided by Tyler Hicks and John Burns of the New York Times in the link above, will be a cry for justice. Who perpetrated this indecent bombing and why?
Then again, all of war is indecent, and it remains to be seen that in the face of what is a looming coalition "victory", will the rest of the world that opposed this war dig deep in its gut to continue to express outrage and demand change, change that will possibly prevent another war like this from happening? Will the rest of the world have the courage to stand up to the imperialist aggression of the United States? Will Americans have any interest in hearing about, and demanding an explanation for civilian deaths in this war? Are Americans capable of feeling the pain of any who aren't their own?

It is my belief that it was this indifference to the pain of others, notably, the Palestinians, that originally led to another group of people targeting our country for attack. Are we destined to repeat this pattern, over and over again, like the Isrealis and Palestinians, trapped on the treadmill of war and destruction? Who is next after Iraq? Iran? Syria? North Korea? And the countries that dare to disagree with us, will we continue to react in such a juvenile fashion and continue to erode international relations, and continue this path towards isolation? We're the bully on the block, and eventually the bully gets socked in the nose; its only a question of how, and when.

# posted by scorpiorising : 6:46 AM |

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Where have I been?

My last entry is dated March 27. I've been in the blogsphere since then, documenting the war casualties, or as much info on as many as I could find. It has been difficult, and lonely. Not many seem to want to hear about the way that civilians are dying in Iraq. But I have received quite a number of hits. This tells me there are some hungry for the information as to how people are dying in Iraq. If not hungry, they are at least willing , or seeking.

How does it affect one to hear such news, to hear of babies losing their limbs, or being blown apart. To hear that the Red Cross said today the hospitals in a recently "liberated" southern city in Iraq "are filled with horror"?. I tell you, it grounds you, like no other events that you could hear. Well, this is it , the world we created. Priorities fall away and new ones created. It is as though you were there by osmosis, when you start paying attention. You learn, when you pay attention. Yes, there is turmoil. There is anger. There is gnashing of teeth and fury directed at the knowns and unknowns who brought this about. There is sobering reality that this is real, and everything was changed, forever, when the first bomb was dropped.

The re-ordering of priorities can be momentous and life-changing and subtle, compelling and explosive all at once. Folks, I'll say it out loud. The rich gotta go. And please, I do not advocate violence. What I am advocating is a completely new system of economics, so that no one will ever have the power, through their money, to wage war again. Because, as far as I can see it, this is a war by the people with money, who want more of it, and don't care how they get it.

I do not attack all of those with money. I direct my words towards the ones who will make a profit from this war, and who advocated this war with not so secret intentions: to make themselves more powerful, with more control over more of the world's resources, and money. I don't need to name them. You are probably too many to name. You know who you are. You are being exposed daily in the media that is the true expression of democracy in this country, the internet.

I will say this to rich folks who don't support this war, who won't make a profit from it: Have you spent a portion of your wealth to help the needy causes for social, economic and environmental justice in this county? Because these causes sure do need a helping hand right now. The poor, the middle and lower classes, peace loving peoples, animals, the environment are all under attack from greedy, me-firsters, who have no clue what it means to share. If you aren't sharing a portion of your wealth with the people in need, the worthy causes in need, then you may be part of the problem. I can't tell you what portion of your wealth you ought to be sharing; you will have to decide that for yourself. I will say this, the causes are struggling to take form right now, and they need your help. Perhaps this war would not have happened if we had had more of your help, much earlier on, when the first dangerous signs of the rise of the christian far right came into focus.

I can remember when that happened. I was in my last year of college, studying sociology, in 1979. Reagan had just been elected, and the despair among the liberals in our little department was palpable. My radical, lesbian sociology professor called a meeting, of all concerned. In that meeting, I tried to reassure her the pendulum would one day swing back, to social sanity. I think of her now, and my need to reassure her, and her complete resistance to feeling any hope.

Here we are now, in the midst of a human tragedy and disaster, brought on by my country, with eggheads everywhere proclaiming we are in the process of liberating Iraq. Is there hope?

We no longer have the option of apathy; we no longer have the option of daydream of utopia; we no longer have the option of let someone else do it; we no longer have the option to escape into our entertainment, our harmless diversions. If our diversions keep us from seeing the nightmare the greedy ones are making of this country, of this world if they have their way, then our diversions are no longer harmless.

The antidote to the poison that is infecting this country is energetic action towards the good. Nothing magical, unless you measure the consequences of good works, which can sometimes seem like a kind of magic. There is so much that needs be done. The environment, civil rights, economic justice to name a few. Get busy.

# posted by scorpiorising : 4:38 PM |