Emerging Expressions

My latest adventure was to videotape and interview Women’s Groups in rural Nepal.  These women groups were formed by a local NGO (nongovernmental agency) with Heifer International www.heifer.org.. The idea is to get women more involved with helping feed their families.  For as long as time can remember, women have been discriminated throughout Nepal.  (I’m sure it is the same with the rest of Asia but I only have experience and facts from Nepal.) Women were not aloud outside of their yard unless they asked their husband. Women could not open up a business unless she got a loan from her husband.  Women could not talk to other women unless they asked their husband first.  It goes on. 

 

Now, Heifer and the NGOs don’t want to go in and change traditions or cultures but the country is the 12^th poorest in the world.  The families are starving and the children are not getting any kind of education.  This is an issue.  Heifer taught the NGOs about their techniques which is to teach people simple values before receiving an animal to help them out with getting food or an income.  These simple values consist of Gender Equity, Justice, how to take care of an anima. Sharing and Caring… stuff that seems basic to any westerners but remember these women have been shut in a cave and need some awareness to live peacefully and sustainable.  Part of the education was to also teach these women how to read and write.  There are many 60-year old women who have just learned how to read and write their names. 

 

The outcome is like anyone getting an education.  That light bulb that goes off on top of ones head … to move forward and make progress.  These women have started their own businesses from vegetable sellers to buying sewing machines to make clothes.  They have also been able to help feed their families and pay for their children’s education.  (In Nepal the families have to pay for public education starting at middle school).

 

The men are very supportive.  Part of me thinks they got a great deal.  The women now do everything cook, clean and make money but this is not what I saw.  The men and women are balanced.  Both are making a living and both share responsibilities to help the family.  The women still cook but the men go out and get firewood.  (Approx. 75% of the country still uses wood to cook and for heat)  The family structure seems to be getting better and the next generation will hopefully have a better life. 

 

I say Nepal Rocks… not only because they learn quickly to live a better life but because they love to dance.  Every group I visited pulled out a drum; started singing and one woman would get up and do what we would call a spacey, hippie dance.  Then they would ask me to join… I have not danced in years and found myself doing the twist to a break-dance.  They laughed… I would too if this was the first time I saw these kinds of dances. 

 

Keep on rockin’ my Himalayan girlfriends! 

It seems the spirit of Christmas has faded every year that we have been at war with Iraq.  I thought this was the time to initiate peace and bring families together.  I am sorry for the troops in Iraq. 

Apparently, no one can seem to agree on what should be done with a country that has become what seems to be more of a cemetery than a war zone.  At the same time, our country has lost respect with many nations across the world.  We are becoming second hat to China.  This is not only in numbers but with how the world sees super powers progressing. We are turning into warmongers who like to keep poor people out of our country. 

It is time we speak up more.  We talk more of peace.  We open our hearts up to our neighbors.  The biggest question is how to we shake hands with the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq after all the destruction we have done?

Maybe if we start a mail campaign to them, telling them we did not support the war and that we only want to live in peace.  It would be great to hear back from them and hear their messages. How can we start a peace letter campaign without it being scanned by our government? Get to the people of Iraq. But the only real message they probably want is for us to leave their country.  Then what?

 

I’m starting to feel that there are too many young people being killed in Iraq.  So many that we are loosing a whole generation of people.  The ones that are left maybe bitter from all the violence and grow up distrusting the world. 

 

Casket makers are now becoming very rich.  It is time we put a stop to the creation of so many black boxes.

 

Peace.

Nonviolence- A book Everyone Should Read

 

‘Nonviolence, Twenty-five lessons form the history of a dangerous idea’ by Mark Kurlansky is a book that shows how nonviolent actions have been a way of suppressing wars.  This is a book I wish George Bush read.   Kurlansky’s book goes into various disputes through out history and how many lead into blood shed and others held peaceful demonstration that lead into talks over an issue.  The result … peace.

 

This is a very hard issue to tackle since as we all know power, greed and ego don’t stop warmongers.  But if we pass this book around and share it with many maybe the future generations can have a chance to learn from our past.  

Visiting an exotic cat refuge is a real eye opener to anyone who owns a pet.  I have cats and occasionally feel guilty not letting them outside to roam.  But when I saw these mammoth kittens at the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka springs Ark, I realized my tiny cats have more room to move in my one bedroom house than the large cats have in their habitats. 

 

Turpentine Creek Refuge is a place where wild animals have been brought to by owners who realized they could not handle owning a wild cat.  While walking by a huge tiger that had paws the size of my head and teeth the size of my fingers, it amazed me people actually thought they could have this cat inside their homes. Isn’t this one of the reasons why they are called wild? Most of these animals are on the endangered species list. Maybe people thought they could save them? What they did was abuse these animals by taking them out of their natural habitat. These animals are needed more in the areas that they come from to balance the ecosystem.  Do these people get that? Or where they selfish or thought it would be cool to raise a wild animal. 

A few of the cougars were rescued from drug dealers.  These poor cats were probably drugged and used as ‘watch dogs.’  A black panther was owned by a cop.  He took out his front canines and when the animal had a hard time eating because of the loss of teeth, he turned on his owner.  Oh, and he used pliers to get the teeth out. 

Greedy people crossed breaded a few white tigers and cougars.  What they came up with was crossed eyed, short legged, limping creatures.  Is this fair?

The refuge is not a zoo but a place where these poor animals can live out the rest of their lives comfortably.  The animals cannot be reintroduced back into the wild because most were raised inside people’s homes and could not defend themselves in the wild.  They have built three quarter acres fenced lots for the animals to be able to roam but they have too many cats and too little money to build more areas.

Many states have limited laws for people to own exotic animals which make it easy to acquire a tiger or a lion.  I assume people who want these animals have an affinity to want to care and love them.  But they must realize this is a selfish and possibly dangerous move.  They are hurting the cat and possibly themselves. 

The staff at Turpentine Creek wildlife refuge stood outside of cages of a few cats and scratched them through the wire.  I wanted to go and pet the cat, as I am sure many of the owners once did.  But as the staff explained that they have learned how to handle them and keep visitors safe.  I realized this desire to want to pet the cat was selfish and this urge is much safer and relaxing when I touch my house cat.  These big cats seemed lonely and sad.  They wanted love but not from humans but from their own kind.  Their human owners took that away from them for the rest of their lives. 

For those who still desire to get a wild cat, I hope you go and see the animals first at Turpentine Creed Wildlife Refuge and realize how many people have disrupted these poor kitties’ lives.  They deserve to be free and happy with many miles to roam.

There are plenty of domestic cats that need to be adopted…. Go get one of those and love them. 

     I also found out house cats live longer lives when they are indoor.  They also have different needs than wild cats and would rather play with a cat toy then have to fend for themselves out in the wild.  This is why they are called domesticated. 

Pink always represented baby girl, being gay or even a shade of lipstick you wear in the spring.  Now it represents cure for cancer, adult woman and now peace.  I found this website http://www.codepinkalert.org that has mirrored the Breast Cancer attitude and of course color to engage people into signing a petition for peace.  The way I feel these days is anything to get our troops out of Iraq. 

The president keeps saying that we need to stay and I really wish he would give us a good reason why.  It seems we are causing more destruction and killings while we are there.  I wonder if we left would the country be taken over by fundamentalist Muslims. Who knows?

Then we can move on to the problems with Israel and the Palestinians.  I feel for both sides but it is over land.  How did they live in peace for several years without any killings? 

What is the answer to peace? Maybe it’s pink?

Did you know the easy flip tops on canned food contain some sort of poison that can kill your pet prematurely?  Now, I am not a doctor and can understand all the long definitions of the poison or the name of what happens to ones pet, but studies have shown the old time can opener tops did not cause this deadly condition. 

Now, what is happening to humans?  Next time you want to eat or give your pet from canned food…think pouch! Or other ways to eat.

 

Do you actually go to your farmers market and buy food?  Most people don’t because it is easier to purchase your food from the supermarket.  Most people don’t realize that by buying food from their supermarket helps large ‘corporation’ farmers and doesn’t help the little farmer.  What this means is by buying at a supermarket you are paying the rich.  These farmers are getting good subsidies from the government on top of selling their produce at what sometimes can be a very, very high price.  It is an imbalance of the system. 

It is actually healthier to eat local farmer’s food.  Most of them are organic and do not use the pesticides that the larger farmers use.  What this means is by eating organic you may save your self some cancer treatment in the future. 

I don’t know enough about the WTO talks but I do know that republicans back the large corporate farms.  Because our government gives them backing we have thrown off world wide trade that hurts many, many different small businesses. 

Please support your local farmers.  They are the ones who are trying to feed you well and at the same time keep your local economy balanced. 

 

As an American who travels around the world to help end world hunger, I am very saddening that I maybe putting my life on the line in order to get to my destination or home.  I am speaking selfishly because this past week’s findings of the Britain bombers has made it difficult for me to help people and to get back home.  It’s apparent that this gorilla group does not look beyond their beliefs or see the world from someone else’s point of view.  We know that they don’t care about life because they are willing to take their own. But do these people have any compassion? Empathy for people who just want to get by day to day until their deaths?

 

Unfortunately for any aggressive group to make a huge statement, they always have to kill innocent victims.  It is apparent that act like a rapist.  A rapist does the act for control.  They get their pleasure from terrified victims to satisfy a sick need.  In the end, no one knows if they ever have any remorse.  Anyway it is too late.

 

These Middle Eastern groups that are waging war against the west are sufferers of a spiritual brainwash.  It is not right that they think their religion speaks the truth in order for the world to operate correctly.  They do not realize that diversity of religions is the beauty of ultimate peace.  If we all walked to the same beat, the world would be imbalanced and ruled by a monarchy.  No one would be happy; no one would ever find nirvana. 

 

  My hope is that someone who is part of any of these diseased religious groups read this and possibly be inspired to stop.  I hope they become educated of other religions, other cultures.  Hopefully, they will find that everyone wants to live in peace and control and power are for those who are imbalanced and need serious help.   Maybe then these world rapists will stop threatening the airlines and let most of us do our jobs peacefully. 

With all the fighting going on in the middle east and emotions starting to arise within developing countries, have we stood back and really stop thinking about which side is right or wrong but how to stop the killing? For example Mel Gibson ranting about Jewish people being responsible for war. His supposed drunken outrage was showing that he is a one sided person. He is not looking for the whole which is peace for everyone. After seeing many documentaries on our boys and girls who are over in Iraq fighting for the US, it is hard for me to believe many of them have true hate in their hearts.

The documentary Operation Dreamland follows a platoon of soldiers in Faluqua. They come from different backgrounds and most got into the army because they were not doing anything with their lives. After living in a war zone and talking to the people and getting reports from the pentagon, many of these soldiers saw this war for power and oil. A few who lost buddies from insurgents turned into warmongers. Stating things like they didn’t care about the Iraqis and it didn’t bother them that they killed them. They are working off grief. Most of these soldiers felt that if they were an Iraqi they would be pissed if someone came into their homes looking for bombs. So, when they forced their way into a home, they moved the women and children to safety and aggressively questioned the men and moved on when they were done. They saw this as their job, not as something they liked doing.

I am writing this from the safety of my own home. I have not lost any love ones in the war(s) nor am I connected to any government job. I feel like I am another one of those ranters who wants peace but I am helpless to do anything about it. Sure I can vote democratic, sure I can write letters to the White House but I wish I could be the one with the voice to get inside everyone’s hearts and tell them to stop and not pick a side just live peacefully.

Anyone out there have any suggestions on how to literally get into peoples souls?

I don’t. I don’t understand when any country goes into another country that has not done anything to truly harm them. Sadam is a nut we all know that. But he was not hiding any weapons of mass destruction. If Bush didn’t invade could he build an arsenal of weapons? Yes. Maybe Bush would have proof by then. I think Bush and his cabinet should be put on trial for all the deaths that have happened in Iraq. He had no solid proof to invade. How do we know Iraq is doing better by having democracy? We don’t. Anyway, how could they really care about democracy when they can’t step out their front door without the fear of a suicide boomer or a crazy American solider might go off and kill them?

I am rambling but I also want some peace to happen soon. I also believe the war is also causing chaos at home. I believe the crime rate is up in every city and people still have fear about another terrorist invasion that may happen somewhere in the country. Life is not peaceful nor does it feel safe. This is just a theory I have but if I looked into the numbers I would find proof. Not like Bush who jumped to conclusions.

Do I have a solution? I wish. But I know there is a conglomerate of people out there who understand Iraqi cultural, religion and their needs. Put them together with a peaceful American group and find ways to live in harmony. But how does one get to the Islamic fundamentalist or the warmonger Americans together? That is the missing link.

Instead of putting a new TV series on called Treasure Hunt, put one on that gives people an opportunity from all over the world to find the treasure…. Which is World Peace!

 

I am one of those people who try to recycle and not double purchase items that already exist in my life.  I am trying to become a minimalist but it is very difficult since one of my favorite past times is shopping.  I love to shop for anything including household cleaners.  Which I recommend getting Seventh Generation products since it is all natural and will not give out any cancer causing poisons and it won’t hurt my cats. But I wish there were more old fashion types of shopping like putting the milk bottle outside your house so that the next morning the milk man will pick up and replace.  Sure offices do that with water coolers but why not smaller items like reusing a plastic container for cereal or reusing detergent boxes or containers?  People would show up at supermarkets with their reusable containers and refill them from large vats.  Like cat food.  We don’t need to keep buying the bags but bring some kind of Tupperware to refill.

 

We throw a lot of stuff out that does not turn into ashes for centuries.  We also do not reuse items for small purposes.  For example a toilet paper tube can be used to keep electrical cords together.  I got this idea from the magazine Real Simple Magazine. I would also like to point out to all those who take their clothes to Good Will.  Yes, they are being reused.  Some being sold in a second hand store but also while I was in Africa it was apparent these people were getting used clothing from Americans.  I could tell by the logos on a lot of the T shirts.  My point is we need to think about all this shit we have and figure out creative ways to keep it around for a while.  Try not to let it sit in a dump for all eternity.