Tuesday, September 10, 2002

What does the World need now? What qualities do we look for in each other, that if adopted by governments and corporations, could prove to be revolutionary in their effect. And, if there were a single impulse that might really make a difference in the world, what would it be? Reposted from ORION People & Nature. LISTENING Paul Hawken Imagine an America that had been listening to the voices in the Middle East. Not interviews with military consultants on CNN, but traumatized Palestinian children, the Israeli whose family disappeared in a bomb blast, the castigated Afghan widow, the Iraqi father who cannot find or afford medicine for his daughter. What if we had been listening for years, no, let's say decades? What if we had listened to the people who pay the price for oligarchic oil politics, instead of those benefiting from it? What country would we be? How much oil would we use? How stingy would our foreign aid be? Who would we believe in the media? But we can't truly listen to people far away. The people we can listen to are the people nearby who will talk to us. They are our children, neighbors, coworkers, spouses, or the sorrowful person we avoid on the street. We can practice by squatting on our haunches on a cold night and listening to a homeless person. The whole story. What happens when we don't listen? The main reason medical patients file malpractice suits is not because they believe their physicians are incompetent, but because they feel the doctors don't listen. The failure of communication leads to disappointment, anger, and frustration. That can lead to hostility and arrogance on the part of the practitioner, which inflames the patient's anger further. If this keeps up, the patient reaches for a lawyer. The resentment that results when people are not listened to, especially those in need or suffering arises everywhere. Listening is as different from hearing as a live animal is from a fur coat. Listening is generosity. Listening is consciousness. Listening is alive. Functionally, listening allows us to see a world we don't know, to understand experiences we haven't had, to reframe or drop a belief long held. It creates distinctions and it is from these distinctions that we create new possibilities. The language of war is the language of conflation. Concepts and distinctions are fused, nuances erased. Conflated, bellicose words masquerade as truth and dodge uncertainty. There is only good and evil. There is only us or them. Alternatives disappear, possibilities sink from sight. Listening is the opposite experience. It doesn't judge, know, or argue. When we listen to people, our own language softens. Listening may be the cardinal act of giving. It is a silent quality. I think it is the source of peace. Paul Hawken an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and the author of The Ecology of Commerce and Natural Capitalism. He is presently writing a book entitled Uprising about the growing worldwide movement resisting corporatization of the commons, which will be published by Viking Penguin in 2003.   Drain the Swamp and there will be No More Mosquitoes Noam Chomsky writes: The president is not the first to ask: "Why do they hate us?" In a staff discussion 44 years ago, President Eisenhower described "the campaign of hatred against us [in the Arab world], not by the governments but by the people". His National Security Council outlined the basic reasons: the US supports corrupt and oppressive governments and is "opposing political or economic progress" because of its interest in controlling the oil resources of the region. Post-September 11 surveys in the Arab world reveal that the same reasons hold today, compounded with resentment over specific policies. Strikingly, that is even true of privileged, western-oriented sectors in the region. ... Twenty years ago, the former head of Israeli military intelligence, Yehoshaphat Harkabi, also a leading Arabist, made a point that still holds true. "To offer an honourable solution to the Palestinians respecting their right to self-determination: that is the solution of the problem of terrorism," he said. "When the swamp disappears, there will be no more mosquitoes." At the time, Israel enjoyed the virtual immunity from retaliation within the occupied territories that lasted until very recently. But Harkabi's warning was apt, and the lesson applies more generally. Well before September 11 it was understood that with modern technology, the rich and powerful will lose their near monopoly of the means of violence and can expect to suffer atrocities on home soil. If we insist on creating more swamps, there will be more mosquitoes, with awesome capacity for destruction. (09/10/02) 911 Wake Up Call Barry Carter writes: As we transition into the Information Age knowledge power is replacing dollar power as the primary power fueling civilization. Today and more so tomorrow it takes knowledge more than dollars to create or destroy wealth. What we saw on September 11 was a knowledge event. A hand full of people learned the knowledge to fly jets and demolish building and created this great destruction. In the Industrial Age entire countries have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to damage the United States as was done on September 11, 2001 and could not do it. In the Industrial Age they were unable to do what a hand full of people with knowledge power can now do in the Information Age. The problem is that great power that was once only available to and controlled by a few people at the top of the pyramid has now shifted to individuals and small groups including people at the bottom of the pyramid. However we still operate on the pyramid shaped wealth creation system as though nothing has changed. Many people think that 911 is merely about the West verses Islam. We forget the Okalahoma City Bombing, the L.A. Riots and many other riots. We should not confuse symptoms with root causes. One root grows many blades of grass but we tend to want to see the blades of grass as having nothing to do with one another. The Industrial Age pyramid shaped wealth creation system is a competitive win/lose system that created hundreds of millions of losers. It has created classes of permanent losers over the past 500 years who stay at the bottom of the pyramid generation after generation. Many people are angry. Being of Native and African American decent I understand exactly where the people who bombed the world Trade Center are coming from. I am angry as hell, as well, as I look back over the losses of my ancestors over the past 500 years. Up until the pass few decades all of my family in the South lived in continuous terror. This is nothing new to us. My great uncle was lynched in the 1920’s in my hometown. Today, as we transition into the Information Age, knowledge is giving angry losers, at the bottom of the pyramid, the power to cause many others higher up to lose with them. In simple terms the Knowledge Era unleashes too much power to individuals to continue operating on the win/lose Industrial Age foundation and the consequences will be staggering if we do. (09/10/02) Follow Thought, Eyes Blur On September 12, 2001, I wrote: Caution! We need to move slowly and carefully. Yesterday's events have left me and many others numb, bewildered, sad and angry. It all seems like an opening Chapter of a Tom Clancy novel. And like Tom Clancy's stories, it may only be the first act. We must be very careful. Our first need it to protect ourselves and our country. ... We must avoid any rush to judgement. This was one of the most devastating and successful attacks in the history of human warfare. Those behind it are very dangerous. And, they may not be those we first suspect. ... Now Jeffrey Allen Miller tells us the rest of the story. (09/09/02) Learning to live with George, Dick and John John Brand writes: Admittedly, it will not be easy living with this triumvirate.  ... Of course, we cannot wait until God's judgment balances the account. We have to live with present evil deeds. Wherever one looks, wrongdoing in proportion to assumed power is everywhere. One stares with dismay at the intent to destruct the environment for the sake of perpetuating the insanity of an economy driven by oil. One looks with consternation at the limitation of Civil Liberties under the guise of protecting our Vaterland. One is horrified by unilateral decision-making, in a world getting smaller and smaller every day, under the pretense of preempting the Axis of Evil. With an assumed self-righteousness that the triumvirate is God's anointed, the agenda of aggression and suppression reaches into every corner of the land. How do we learn to live with such iniquity? Of course, as long as we can, speak out and dare to hope that reasonable men and women will stem this juggernaut. But what if removing this leader turns out to be more difficult? Like Caesar, drunk with power, the new emperor will place himself upon the throne. Like Napoleon, this American Emperor will wrest the crown from whatever ecclesiastical authority is willing to proclaim his rule by divine right, and himself will place the crown upon his own head. (09/09/02) 100,000 U.S.Troops within Striking Distance of Iraq The World Tribune --The United States continues its military buildup in and around the Persian Gulf with analysts estimating up to 100,000 troops within striking distance of Iraq. U.S. military sources and analysts said Washington has sent tens of thousands of soldiers and military personnel to Gulf Arab states, Central and South Asia and the Levant. They said the force includes at least 1,000 military planners who have prepared for a rapid airlift of forces in case Washington decides on a war against Iraq. The U.S. Defense Department has been bolstering its transport ship fleet as well as preparing its air cargo fleet to defend against Islamic insurgents and Iraqi forces, Middle East Newsline reported. On Aug. 27, the Pentagon said it awarded Northrop Grumman a $23.2 million contract to provide the C-17 transport aircraft with systems to defend against infrared surface-to-air missiles. ... Moreover, more than 1,000 military planners, logistics experts and support specialists have been deployed in command posts throughout the Persian Gulf, the report said. They are in real-time contact with U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Fla. by video teleconferencing, satellite imagery and data link and have drafted plans to ship up to 200,000 tons of heavy weapons and other equipment to the region. (09/09/02) 6:01:13 AM

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