Michael Jackson in Brazilian slum

Michael Jackson singing "They don't really care about us" with a school of samba in one of Brazil's largest slums.

Why do people care that Michael Jackson has died?

It is during a time like this, when a huge celebrity dies, when people are gathering on the streets and crying over the loss that makes us all wonder why. Why do people care that much? Why is it that all the media outlets that constantly used him as a way of making money by pointing every single flaw, now treat him like a dear lost friend? The answer is simple:

There is one thing this culture enjoys more than making idols, and that is to destroy them, and it's particularly successful at that. Truth is, we will never know for sure what Michael Jackson did, what he didn't do. Is it possible that he's done a lot of harm? Of course it is, but we simply don't know. It is also very possible he paid people off for knowing he would have never had a chance in court. His weird behavior had been reported by the media for years and had become a joke of sorts. He exposed himself and his flaws in the most human of ways, and yet, people stopped looking at him as a human being, a child prodigy who was made even more flawed by living such a surreal life. People forget that behind the shiny gloves and the dance moves, was someone's child, someone's parent, someone's friend and that some basic human courtesy is due.

What cannot be denied is that he was the creator of the songs that permeated millions of lives. To me, he represents kids dancing on the streets while we tried to copy Thriller, dance parties and dressing up with a single shiny glove and having people think that was cool. Wondering what moves he'd come up with and understanding we could have never guessed.

He was absolutely unique. Not thinking and behaving like everyone else is what made him so brilliant, even if that is what made him lose his boundaries later in life.

"We are the World" was my first exposure to the fact that children were hungry in places other than Brazil and that solving it at home was not enough. "Beat it" showed homeless kids in the streets of Brazil that they could dance like "Makel"( how they called him) and make enough to have a few meals and have people actually clap and sing along instead of pretending they didn't exist. People all over the world have stories, moments in their lives and reasons to associate them with one of his songs and the wonder that it just seemed soooo perfect at the time.

That joy and that talent is what people are mourning. It is sad to know we will never see that talent in action again. RIP, Michael. It's about time...

Amazing follow up on Filipino singer, Charise Pempengco.

First saw this filipino girl sing when she was 12 years old doing a crazy Korean talent show and she blew me away. Few people can sing with their whole soul no matter how old they are. Amazingly she is even better today, at 16!!!

Below, Charise today with lyrics to her new song: Note to God.

It is our turn. Help president Barack Obama. Service is the way to change things.

Yes, we can...make history. Obama wins.

November 4th, 2008 will be known to history as the day Americans woke up from a dark, greedy, ignorant, aggressive, selfish, destructive, war loving and uneducated view of the world to a time of moderation, unity, intelligence, diversity and yes, major change.

As I walked down the street, shortly after the announcement that the African American Barack Hussein Obama (yes, even with a name like that) had been elected president of the United States, restaurants and bars exploded with cheer, people screamed Obama and honked their horns on the streets. Millions country wide felt a need to gather in public places and filled Times Square, national parks and surrounded the White House.
One stranger looked at me after I screamed Obama and said, "I am walking to Times Square. Who's with me?" And about 200,000 were there that night, with him. People of all races, all faiths, all social economic status were there to prove that what had separated us for so long had begun to finally crumble, not just in theory, but in a presidential election. Complete strangers gave me high fives when they recognized that my smile mirrored their own relief. And oh, so many of us cried tears of joy at the knowledge that a new era had begun, and that it had been brought about by people who had finally united to say ENOUGH...

Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom for a revolution to happen and we'd been on the bottom for a while now. So now that the air feels lighter, and the world seems to once again be celebrating something American, what has really changed?

The basics are obvious. Obama has built his campaign on reform of the economy, so it benefits people, not large corporations. On health care reform, so people won’t die from lack of treatment in a country as rich as this one. On immigration reform, so those who are working the hardest jobs in this country will have a chance to do so legally and contribute with taxes. On international reform, so the rest of the world stops fearing that the USA will continue to bully smaller countries to take their resources and attack without provocation, which should bring more stability and less aggressive behavior against America, as well as reducing the number of unnecessary deaths of young American people who have been sent abroad under false pretenses. And also on the constitutional values that we are all created equal and should have the same rights, no matter what your race, religion or sexual preference.

It is also all about small, but major steps. It started early in the day, with the excitement brewing just beneath the surface, when I heard a teenage African American girl talking to a friend and saying "I think I could be a good politician. I care about injustices and my teacher says I am a really good debater."
That seems like a simple small comment, but embedded in it is the transition from the victimized, angry position which some African Americans have found themselves, to the knowledge that.. "Yes, you can.", and if you think the color of your skin is the reason not to try, look at your president. For once, the example African American youth will see are not drug dealers on tv shows and video games and rappers with women shaking their bodies to them and giant diamond jewelry with references to violence and crime, but a Harvard educated, gracious and centered minded man, who has at his side an equally educated, intelligent and independent woman. A man who cares about his family and who happens to have become the president of the United States, against all odds. Her comment also shows another change, the thought that politicians can be there to HELP people. Something we haven't seen in about 8 years.

Talking to another teenage friend, one who had traveled, called and knocked on doors during this campaign, I was moved by one of her comments. She said “In all of my life, this is the first time I have something good I can tell my children I've been part of. So far it has only been tragedies... Bush president, 9/11, wars, Tsunami, Katrina... This is the happiest thing I've ever been a part of." She is one of many teenagers I know who traveled from NYC to Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, not because their parents went, but because they wanted their voices heard, even if they couldn't vote. And their voices were loud, determined and demanding a better future. Young people made this election a success because they haven't learned to be cynical and hopeless yet. Now there is hope that they never will.

So here we are. In the same country that "elected" Bush for the second time only four years ago, with an African American president with a weird name. With young people participating in politics and people celebrating a new elected president with complete strangers.

As a poster seen on tv from the coverage in Chicago said:
“Hold on people. Help is on the way. Obama is president...”



The numbers are below:
By winning 52 percent of the popular vote, Barack Obama joined the ranks of FDR and LBJ in being the only Democratic presidents to get more than 51 percent of the popular vote in the past 100 years.
52.3% of the popular vote to McCain's 46.2%
349 of the electoral votes, to McCain's 159
18% of the voters were aged 18-29. 66% of them voted for Obama
1 in 10 voters were voting for the first time.
13% of the voters were African American. 96% of them voted for Obama.
77% of the Jewish vote
%55 percent of young white voters supported Obama. No Democratic president in history has won more than 45% of young white.
67% of the Hispanic vote

The girl who silenced the world

It's very rare for me to be moved by a Youtube video. This one made me cry...

The Universe: A terrestrial perspective

Elections, mortgage payments, war and earthquakes, even celebrity gossip and the new fad diet.. they all keep us focused on the our lives and a very limited and small section of this great whole we belong to. But then, once in a while, human ingenuity comes up with a tool that reminds us of just how small we are in relation to the big picture and how even smaller our little bickerings seem from a different perspective.

This time, the tool came from big, old Microsoft, and it came to make a statement. I am a long time Google fan, and was excited to try Google Sky when they launched it, but the usages of the tool are limited and clunky. In a beautiful competitive move, Microsoft came up with World Wide Telescope ( yes, terrible title. They still need a lot of help with marketing), which happens to be one of the most user friendly and interactive tools around, sure to please kids curious about the universe and scientists alike. The software, which can be downloaded for free from:
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/
not only allows for the exploration of the universe from different satellite collections and perspectives, but also has a library of guided tours where professors, cosmologists and even curious amateurs can post their "tours" so you can learn about the universe from different minds all over the world.

Microsoft research, this humble geek with a penchant for quantum physics and cosmology thanks you... Let's see if Google can up the ante.

Our brothers and sisters in Myanmar (Burma) and China

It has been a difficult month for millions across the world. Besides all of the issues already happening, there have been 2 major natural disasters.
First, Cyclone Nargis hits Myanmar and death tolls can reach as many as 100 000 and as many as 2 million people could be homeless. Not much later China suffers it's largest earthquake in 30 years and as many as 10000 people were killed in a province of just over 160000. it is believed that at least 900 of them were students buried when their schools collapsed.Our thoughts, prayers and wishes for some peace are with the victims and their families.
..
Help Children in Myanmar (Burma)

Another stupid video worth sharing. Two Chinese Boys at their best.

For those who don't know, "2 Chinese Boys" have a series of internet stupid videos that have become a sensation in China. They even do live performances now. Below is one of their videos.

Why are the Tibetans protesting? And what you can do to help.

Over 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed by the Chinese government.

6000 monasteries were destroyed. And the tortures, killings and human rights violations continue. After 50 years, and watching their monks being beaten and arrested for a peaceful protest people revolted.

Learn more at: http://www.wearetibet.org/

Sign our petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/003/petition.html

Because there are times when we all need to laugh...

I received the text below from a mass mailing, and usually I just delete them, but I was actually tempted to pass this one along, and decided I should post it here instead:

Spread the Stupidity

Only in America ......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America ......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America ......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America ......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America ......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America ......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America ... ...do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

EVER WONDER .... Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin ?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery'?

Why is 'abbreviated' such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do 'practice'?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?

Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Now that you've smiled at least once, it's your turn to spread the stupidity and send this to someone you want to bring a smile to (maybe even a chuckle)...in other words, send it to everyone. We all need to smile every once in a while.

Steven Spielberg pulls out of Olympics in protest at China’s policy on Darfur

Recent news show that at least some of the entertainment heavyweights still put values ahead of profit. The Chinese communist regime is responsible for the murder of 1.2 million Tibetans, the destruction of 6000 monasteries of for on-going torture and imprisonment of Tibetans who are trying to retain their freedoms. They are now prohibited from having a religion, from saying the name of or carrying images of the Dalai Lama. Most of their cultural and societal traditions have been banned and those who try to escape into India, where they can ask for exile, get shot by Chinese guards.
China has also been trying to destroy any signs of the Tibetan culture in an attempt to eradicate their identities so that any claims to freedom can disappear forever. it is currently almost impossible to find Tibetan speakers in Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) and polution and overpopulation are dripping from China into Tibet.

It is no surprise that there would be reluctance from the Chinese regime to interfere in other human rights issues. But it is important to maintain international pressure for a needed change in their policies. .

Below is an excerpt of an article on Spielberg's decision written by Philip Stephens.:


SMALL tremors sometimes foreshadow bigger shocks. Few people will have known before last week that Steven Spielberg — he of Jaws, Jurassic Park, ET and other Hollywood epics — was to lend his creative talents to the Beijing Olympics.
Of itself, his withdrawal on grounds of conscience scarcely registers on the Richter scale. Spielberg’s protest, though, is not without significance. It maps out uncomfortable terrain for China that reaches well beyond the choreography of this summer’s Olympic ceremonies.
Spielberg concluded that Beijing had not deployed sufficient influence to help bring a halt to the killing in the Sudanese province of Darfur. China is Sudan’s most important economic partner. It has invested heavily in its energy industry and buys most of its oil. In Spielberg’s view — one shared, incidentally, at the United Nations (UN) — it could apply much more pressure on Khartoum.
The Sudanese regime has obstructed all efforts by the international community to bring an end to the terror wrought in Darfur by the so-called Janjaweed militias. Only last week fighting spilled over into neighbouring Chad. Sudan has blocked the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force. China is the only big power with real leverage.
Spielberg is far from alone in his disquiet. The actress Mia Farrow has led a celebrity campaign labelling this summer’s event the “genocide Olympics”.
A clutch of Nobel peace laureates have added their voices to the protest, writing to Hu Jintao, the Chinese president.
These gestures are keenly felt. The Olympics have been planned meticulously to showcase China’s rise. Beijing expects the games to confer the prestige and respect it considers its due as a fast-emerging global power. Boycotts and protests over Darfur — alongside separate calls for China to loosen its grip on Tibet — provoke a mixture of anger and angst.

WHAT IS GOD?

So I've been writing in too many different places to update my own blog. Dreadful, I know, but figured if I at least link to some of the articles it will be one step in the right direction.

I've had so many things to write about. The vicious attacks on the Burmese monks, Bhutto's assassination, the american elections.It all just seemed too overwhelming to write a small post about, so I ended up writing long dissertations in other places. The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC) came and went and I didnt manage to write one word about it...

I figured that I should at least link to my newest articles since so many people have been writing to me to ask what I think of the new anti-religion movements.So my reply is below:

What is the true core of every religion? What is God?
by Taty

Anticipating the angry emails I ask you to please use the forum at that site for any replies. I will not be responding to personal emails.

Peace

A Call to Action - A Mouse Story

Hello All
Trying to get back to the blog and post some updates. Have had a lot to say, but action has taken the time I would have used to post about things. Below is a post from my martial arts school ( http://www.worldmartial.com ). It was relevant and worth posting, so here it goes:

A Call to Action - A Mouse Story
By Sabumnim David Herbert
From The World Martial Arts Center

There was a mouse, who lived on a farm and his life was perfect. Until one day the farmer asked his wife lay down a mouse trap. The mouse watched in horror because it knew that this was not good, but the mouse did not know what to do or who to turn to. So it ran out of the house in search of help. Hysterically and frantically the mouse ran to the chicken and said, “There’s a mouse trap in the house, there’s a mouse trap in the house!, can you help me, can you help me?” The chicken said, “I’m too busy tending my eggs and I don’t even go into the house and it’s a mouse trap that’s no concern of mine, I’m a chicken”. So the mouse, in despair, ran down to the pig pen and told the pig, “There’s a mouse trap in the house - I told the chicken, but the chicken would not help and the pig said, “What has this to do with me, I’m further away from the house than the chicken it’s none of my concern—maybe you should go and talk to the cow”. So the mouse ran all the way out in the field and said to the cow, “Mr. Cow, Mr. Cow, there’s a mouse trap in the house can you help me?” and the cow said, “Moooooo life is good, but the house is too far away for me to go back there and help you. You should do your best to just avoid it and probably nothing will happen”.

So the mouse finally gave up and in great despair walked back toward the farm house and as he approached the house he heard a ruckus. A snake had gotten his tail caught in the mouse trap. The farmer’s wife after hearing the mouse trap snap ran and reached under the cupboard to pull out the mouse in the trap not knowing it was a snake. The snake bit her and she fell on the floor unconscious and developed a high fever. The farmer tried to contact a doctor but couldn't. He knew that chicken soup was good for fevers, so he went out to that barn and killed the chicken to make chicken soup. Shortly thereafter, the wife’s condition worsened, she grew weaker and weaker. The farmer thought that pork would give his wife strength, so he went out and killed the pig, but the wife died and the farmer was devastated. So they had a funeral and all the relatives came over and he had to feed all of them, so he took an ax and went out and killed the cow. Somehow we are all connected.

All over the world there are people suffering from atrocities beyond belief and this is nothing new. Most of the world simply says it’s not my problem, I can do nothing or pretend it does not exist. What is new is this— with 60 seconds of your time you can go onto this website and simply click 3 buttons to request that world powers address this issue. As you wake up in the morning and have your nice breakfast and go about your pleasant day, there are others who wake up to genocide, rape, starvation or the death of their 2 year old child. When you go home at night and get into your warm bed, you are relatively sure that tomorrow you will wake up refreshed looking forward to the new day. But there are thousands of families that could not even imagine such a thing—they get to huddle together on the hard desert ground, hungry and dehydrated not sure if they will see tomorrow. Learn something—do something. Contact: www.savedarfur.com.

APPLE COMPUTERS BAD ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL PRACTICES

(Pictures below of Greenpeace protest in from of the Apple Store in NYC.)



THE ISSUE:
Globally, between 22 and 55 million tons of electronic waste gets trashed every year. Many of these materials are toxic and carcinogens (lead, PVC, BFRs) and end up in landfills and incinerators, and often get shipped to the developing world to get dismantled by hand in horrendous conditions by poor workers and their children. Many of these children use the parts as toys after they are done helping their parents assemble parts. The waste leaks into water sources and planting areas and end up being consumed by the whole region. Since 2003, Greenpeace has been working with the main electronics companies in the world to help reduce or eliminate these toxic materials, and most companies have agreed to reduce, and in some cases eliminate the most dangerous chemicals. With one main exception.: Apple Computers.



THE CAMPAIGN:
Apple computers has scored one of the lowest of all main computer companies: 2.7/10Apple now uses of the highest concentrations of carcinogens and toxic chemicals on their production.Their products are now manufactured with a life span of about a 1 year ( just about as long as the warranty lasts and as often as new Ipods come in the market). After Greenpeace had been discussing the issues with Apple for about 3 years, back in April 2005, Steve Jobs publicly called environmentalists' concerns about Apple "bullshit". Come on Steve, we'd expect that kind of reaction from fat corporate CEOs who dump polychlorinated biphenyls into rivers, not from a cool, potentially eco-friendly titan of the information age.



THE ACTION:
All we want is for Apple to agree to the same changes all the other companies have already agreed to, so we are planning a friendly, visual way to ask them to change their ways.

You can find more information at:
http://www.greenmyapple.org/itox.html

Election Day NY Style

New Yorkers were trying to make a very clear point today. We are sick of what's been going on, sick of politicians using The World Trade Center as a means to getting their way and tired of how misrepresented we have all been. But in typical manner, we at least had a sense of humor about it. A few moments from today:

- Astor Place, 2 PM.
A man with a megaphone (who happened to be a retired veteran who was evicted), asking people to vote because "rent is too damn high". Also publicizing his personal party and website: http://rentistoodamnhigh.org/.
Which is.. well... interesting. EVERY page plays the "rent is too damn high" song which is distributed by Hamster Records (seriously..) and takes forever to load since nothing was optimized. He is also looking for sponsors to pay for the "rent is too damn high" merchandise.
As crazy as the whole thing is.. gee, rent IS too damn high in NYC.

- Brooklyn Heights, 4 PM

A dog is sitting on a chair in front of the subway, and a small crowd is gathering to read the sign below:



One has to love NY....(yes, you guessed it. I am in a good mood because the Democrats seem to be taking most of the seats... Yeepee)

Barbra Streisand Concert Woes and Freedom of Speech

To anyone who has known me for a while, it comes as no surprise that I am a very avid Barbra Streisand fan. I had been a little disappointed because what attracted me most to her (besides what I consider to be one of the greatest voices of our times) was the courage she has always shown, be it in the career moves she has made or in the honesty of her opinions and how passionately she defends them, and I had been feeling that she had only be making safe choices recently, with her music and her movies.

It is also known to anyone who has followed her career that she is an outspoken liberal who has started using he influence early on and even participated in her first political fund-raiser, for George McGovern (an act that would place her on Richard Nixon's enemies list), and continued to support liberal causes and singing at benefits, like she did for Clinton.

And yet, during her recent tour, in every city she's been in, there has been some kind of "audience outburst" whenever she does a skit in which she jokes with a Bush impersonator. It happened in Philadelphia, here in NY (though we are mostly liberals) and now in Florida, where someone actually threw a drink at her during the show.Why? How? And why does it seem so much like a set up?

Let's see the facts:
~ Barbra Streisand comes back to the stage to get funds for the Streisand Foundation (http://www.barbrastreisand.com/foundationguidelines.html). Her organization which has made grants totaling nearly 15 million dollars to national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament.
~ She is one of the most known democratic and liberal celebrities in this country (Bill and Hillary Clinton were sitting by me at Madison Square Garden) who regularly posts political statements on her blog (http://www.barbrastreisand.com/statements.html).
~ The ticket prices varied from a few hundred to $5000 dollars, being that those sitting on the cheaper seats were too far to be able to reach her with anything, so the assumption is that the turmoil was caused by someone from the $5000 section, which was most of the lower levels of the stadiums.
~ Anyone willing to pay $5000 to see someone would have to be a very big fan.

And the question is, what kind of fan who would be willing to pay $5000 for a ticket to see an artist would be ignorant enough to offend her and throw things at her during the show?What kind of person would do that to an artist under any circumstances? And what are the chances of that randomly happening in SEVERAL CITIES?

If that really were a random event, then, by gosh, this country is in worse shape than we think. If it were, as many suggest, someone planted in the shows to discredit her (they managed to make her curse here in NYC and that was all over the news), then this country is STILL in worse shape than we think.

Below is a reminder of some basic principles we seem to be forgetting:

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, provides, in Article 19, that:

Everyone has the right to opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.

Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

N.J. and Gay Marriage

The times have been sobering to say the least. So much violence, so much suffering and the inescapable feeling that the world is moving backwards. We seem to have taken a turn towards religious sectism, narrow views, intolerance and war. The issues have been so depressing and so many I have chosen not to write about them. It feels like every topic almost deserved a book, not the concise and easy read format of a blog.
Well, a topic has just caught my attention in a black hole of bad news. N.J. is moving towards legalization of gay marriage.

I have to admit to having fallen for the NYer stereotype. I was not a huge fan of N.J. Having dwelled there for a short period of time, I don’t have many good memories of the town where I lived. I was always aware of how ridiculous the usual comments were, that people who moved to N.J. have exchanged a rich cultural life for a large house, but deep inside I couldn’t help but have my own thoughts that maybe there was some truth to the comments.

And then something happens to prove us all wrong. In a moment of enlightenment and civil rights justice, N.J. starts moving towards the legalization of one of the most basics of social steps towards a truly democratic system, that which ensures all of its citizens the same basic legal privileges to all direct family members. Seems logical, doesn’t it? But because of extremist religious groups (and the amount of money they have been using to manipulate the system) and a lack of understanding of what liberty and democracy really means, this country has been denying its citizens the right to pick the people they love and to provide for them in times of need.

I am still to understand why some people believe they have a right to dictate who others can or cannot love. I live under the principles that your life is yours to live unless your choices harm someone else. And love is never really the reason why people get harmed, now, is it? If anything, we are in dire need of some more of that to go around.

So I bow my head in shame. Shame for not giving N.J. the respect it deserved. For making the same generalizations I criticize others for making, and for assuming the narrow minded influential minority would make enough noise to bring us one more step towards the middle ages
So there is hope...
Bravo, N.J.
Let’s just stay the course (the right one)…

September 11th, 2006

So we wake up on Sept 11th like we do every day, except that there is some tension in the air that we try to ignore to help us go through the day as if it were any other day. But the truth is that it's not. It can't be. At least not yet.

There is a lot of pain still in the hearts of all of us affected by this atrocity, and there are many reasons why we cannot settle and just move on. The main reason is, of course, because that hole in our souls that was caused by the sudden death of our friends and family members will never really disappear. But there are other reasons, many other reasons...

If you are watching the news coverage of the events, in particular the reading of the names of the three thousand victims of 9/11, one thing becomes clear watching some of the readers stumbling or mispronouncing many of the names, the victims were from all over the world, all kinds of backgrounds, all religions.

One brutal, prejudiced, unjustified, criminal, cowardly act does not justify another, and most of what we have seen since 9/11 has been a reaction from individuals and from the government that mirror what has been done here.

The terrorists attacked us due to an uneducated and enlightened view of the world that is composed of manipulative leaders who brain wash them into believing that what they think is right, religious fanaticism that increases their hatred for anyone who doesn't have the same believes they do and a desire for revenge that makes them lose their humanity and make them incapable of realizing that the people they are attacking are just like them.

Have we been acting any differently? We have attacked a country that never attacked us because our leaders lied and convinced a large part of the population that it was for the best. Since that Invasion of Iraq by the USA, it is estimated that over 46000 civilians have been killed. That is over 15 times the number of people killed at 9/11. But somehow, that is viewed as being acceptable.There have been 2,897 coalition deaths, 2,668 Americans, two Australians, 117 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, four Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, one Hungarian, 31 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, two Romanians, two Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians in the war in Iraq as of September 11, 2006. That is as many people as those killed in the World Trade Center. And for what? Oil?

There is also another interesting twist to the government's excuse that this is all being done for our safety and so that we can keep our "democratic and free" way of life.Instead of trying to fix the causes for terrorism in the world, we have been reduced to a cat and mouse game.
In a new age of government monitoring of private conversions and actions and all the civil rights violations of the Patriot Act, of lies about the handling of political prisoners, abuses and the recent admission of secret illegal prisons found by an European investigator which held detainees in Europe that were hurriedly shipped out to North Africa a month ago when word leaked out.

The current American freedom of widespread ID checks, locked and bulletproof cockpit doors in airliners, armed pilots, tracking foreigners' visas and monitoring Muslim and Arab communities, to even prohibiting shampoo from being brought on board, tapped phones and monitored internet access. All done for our freedom and safety.

Let's also consider, as we watch the images of ground zero, that that same Department of Homeland Security has just slashed New York City anti-terror funds by 40 percent. FORTY PERCENT!!!Their explanation is that New York has no national monuments or icons. Of course, The Empire State Building, The United Nations, The Statue of Liberty and others found on several terror target hit lists are probably not important. There are also landmarks, such as the New York Public Library, Times Square, City Hall and at least three of the nation's most renowned museums: The Guggenheim, The Metropolitan and The Museum of Natural History.

Let's also forget that NYC is the financial capital of the world, home to Chase, JP Morgan, Citi Group, The New York Stock Exchange, The Commodities Exchange, American Express, George Soros funds, Michael Gabelli's funds, Lazard Frere and Salomon Brothers, to name just a few of the more prominent banking interests located here.

How about ignoring a commuter population of more than 16 million around the city twice struck by fundamentalist terrorists and twice more targeted in plots halted in pre-operational stages. Or more than eight million residents and the largest rail ridership in the nation - more than five million. It is those commuters and rail riders who are expected to suffer most from the cuts since mass transit is listed on most DHS alerts as the top terror target.

Yes, there is a lot of sadness today. Let us all hope for better days...

FringeNYC has come of age...

Every year a mysterious phenomenon happens in lower Manhattan. Theater lovers find incredible shows they want to see. Audience members find out they can actually afford to see many shows without going broke. People who have never been to the theater discover its magic. Teens find out theater is actually cool. And all of that is caused by a marvel called The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC.org).
FringeNYC, for those who don't know is the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues with almost 2000 performances, art events, free classes and outdoor performances.

FringeNYC started this year with a series of internet issues, with a British company stuck at the airport for 3 days and with one of the actors suffering from collapsed lungs and having to cancel his show, and yet, its spirit and power has been stronger than ever. For the 16 days of the festival, lower Manhattan is transformed. It changes from being the business area of NY, the sad resting place of 9/11, the executive stronghold of the Big Apple to becoming the heart of the creative pulse of NYC.

Streets are taken over by characters and artists, volunteers race to get to theaters so they can help with the crowds, shows move about spreading the word about their perfomances and audience members come to FringeCENTRAL (27 Mercer street) to share their experiences. They talk about being moved to tears by "Sakura", a show from Japan, about laughing until their cheeks hurt at the crazy guys with spatulas from "Minimum Wage", about being shocked at the honesty of the art of "Billy The Mime" or about the hypnotizing dialogue of a jewel called "Americana Absurdum".

FringeNYC has come of age. It has turned 10 this year. Let its spirit, passion and art endure for many decades to come...

FRINGENYC
http://fringenyc.org/
For information on the shows, podcasting and more.