121 Contact

Nov 18 2008 USS New York: travesty: 9/11 victims remembered in weapons

I don't know the author of this piece, but I do love what is said here. Part of moving the world to more peaceful tomorrows is changing how we use the memories of loved ones lost to political violence.
b

The Pacifist In Me 

I'm always surprised at the things that get a reaction from deep in my gut. I know that I'm opposed to war, but sometimes I find that my opposition sneaks up and surprises me.

A couple of days ago I got an email that featured photographs of the USS New York, a new warship. The unusual thing about this warship is that it was constructed out of the scrap metal recovered from the World Trade Center. On one level, I could appreciate the recycling of that material, and that it was probably somewhat labor intensive to create something out of masses of tangled scrap. Or maybe not, if all the steel was just put in a large smelter and reconstituted.

Aside from the "ingenuity" of it, I found myself feeling saddened and offended, that someone thought it was a good idea to use the World Trade Center remains to make a weapon of war. Under the last of the photos was the caption: "It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft." This ship is a massive new weapon in the war on terror. Why don't we realize that war IS terror? 

I know my reaction to this is heavily colored by the fact that my next-door-neighbor's brother was killed in the Cantor Fitzgerald offices on 9/11, and her parents were the ones to write the NY Times to say to the whole country, "Don't retaliate in our son's name. Don't bring this kind of pain and anguish to other families." Another one of my friends, who lost her husband on one of the planes that flew into the Trade Center is a member of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. Through these people, I have met others who lost their loved ones on 9/11, but who have chosen to pursue a pathway to healing through forgiveness. They have worked tirelessly to forge connections with others around the world who are working for peace through understanding and education. They have raised my consciousness regarding the human capacity to forgive, to "love your enemy as yourself," and to witness for peace every day.

Could we have used the 24 tons of steel to build a school or hospitall? Could we have used the steel to build new bridges in this country or to help rebuild the bridges we have wrecked in Iraq? Why did we have to use the wreckage of so many human lives to create another weapon which may be instrumental in wrecking more lives?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, " Wars make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows." I would amend that to say, "Warships make poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

Nov 15 2008 U.S. soldier: Why can't our countries agree?

This came in the morning mail. It's from a U.S. soldier who is frustrated by our inability to just simply stop killing and start working together to make things better.

To: mail@121Contact.org
Subject: Why can't our countries agree?

I know that you and I are two totally different people but in our hearts we are all the same. Our Countries maybe enemies but that does not mean that our friendships have to be. This war is nonsense we are fighting for no good reason and if we are fighting for a reason why can't we solve our problems as a unity instead of one individual?
I know times are hard even here in America it is hard I may be a soldier but I do not like to fight even when I am told to instead I surrender I call a truce why can't they follow my orders? Instead of acting like children?
I hate politics just as much as you do and the laws are unfair to the both of us but what can we do ? Why won't they listen? Are they to ignorant to listen? Do they think that their opinions are better than ours? It hurts when I am rejected by my own people they say that I will be a fool to give myself up to your country. But why not? at least you'll listen, at least you'll understand that we can stop the fighting and make a difference for our Economy and for the Citizens such as ourselves. I want to help but I am useless all by myself my words mean nothing.
I might have strength to help your people but it isn't strong enough. Your kids are the future just like our kids are the future if they keep on dying in this war there will be no future for us to host in next generations to come.We will be a total wasteland a(n) Earth without rulers and humans will be the next extinct species.
All that I am asking is to talk to your ambassador I am one person and one person alone but when I speak I speak for millions. If I could at least have his Email it would be fair enough if that I could speak to him all I want is peace and so do you, you can't deny because it is in your hearts I'll forget about my duties if I can only have a word with your Ambassador like I said your kid's are the future and so are ours but together we can create a better future with peace between two countries but I can not do it alone I need your help please before my people make the situation worse than it already is.
Truly your american ally and friend, Seargent First Class M. M.

Nov 14 2008 Iraq Water Treatment Plants

Hi,

121Contact is looking for help in supporting a few Iraqi engineering students to investigate the feasibility of creating a water treatment company.

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Project-Defined Needs: clean water and jobs.

Some 40%-50% of Iraqis are drinking water that is dangerously untreated. Cholera is on the rise. Unemployment varies from 40-60% (when curfews are not in effect).

 

SOLUTION:

Create a non-profit water treatment company that provides jobs and provides more Iraqis with clean water.

 

CURRENT THINKING:

Product: small, cheap, replicable water treatment systems with ‘neighborhood/village’ capacity.

Business model: non-profit, keeping the sale price of the water low while covering costs.

[One option is to procure the plants outside Iraq and concentrate on distribution and maintenance.]

 

CURRENT STAGE:

Feasibility studies.

-support the Iraqi engineers with contacts, research, and eventually grant procurements.

-communicate people who have done this before

 

If you would like to help please let us know:

bruce@121Contact.org

917 721-0743

 

 

In loving kindness,

Bruce and Noor

 

www.121Contact.typepad.com <- have you been to the blog lately?

Nov 13 2008 Iraqi Revenge, Palestinian Revenge, Yugoslavia Revenge...Taha Muhammad Ali’s Revenge

Wait a minute. Yugoslavia? It doesn't exist any more. And this poem was sent to me by a woman who lived there...in a country that vanished in violence and prompted many to contemplate revenge. No matter where we are from, many of us have been given the tools that allow us to feel the anger and then not act violently.

The most common thread: a recognition of the humanity of 'the other.' And this recognition redefines 'the other' as 'one of us'; one of the humans sharing the planet.

Taha Muhammad Ali’s Revenge

REVENGE
translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin

At times ... I wish
I could meet in a duel
the man who killed my father
and razed our home,
expelling me
into
a narrow country.
And if he killed me,
I’d rest at last,
and if I were ready—
I would take my revenge!

*

But if it came to light,
when my rival appeared,
that he had a mother
waiting for him,
or a father who’d put
his right hand over
the heart’s place in his chest
whenever his son was late
even by just a quarter-hour
for a meeting they’d set—
then I would not kill him,
even if I could.

*

Likewise ... I
would not murder him
if it were soon made clear
that he had a brother or sisters
who loved him and constantly longed to see him.
Or if he had a wife to greet him
and children who
couldn’t bear his absence
and whom his gifts would thrill.
Or if he had
friends or companions,
neighbors he knew
or allies from prison
or a hospital room,
or classmates from his school …
asking about him
and sending him regards.

*

But if he turned
out to be on his own—
cut off like a branch from a tree—
without a mother or father,
with neither a brother nor sister,
wifeless, without a child,
and without kin or neighbors or friends,
colleagues or companions,
then I’d add not a thing to his pain
within that aloneness—
not the torment of death,
and not the sorrow of passing away.
Instead I’d be content
to ignore him when I passed him by
on the street—as I
convinced myself
that paying him no attention
in itself was a kind of revenge.

Nazareth
April 15, 2006

Nov 11 2008 Iraq Veterans Day

Maybe we ought to have a second Veterans Day. It would honor not the soldiers, but the politicians working to use everything at our disposal to avoid war; to avoid creating more veterans.

N and I are headed to Judson Memorial Church this evening (Tues. Nov 11) to listen to Elaine Brower, a leader of The World Can't Wait and mother of a Marine who has been in Iraq for a while now. The Browers have long been generous supporters of 121Contact. I think they got the idea right from the beginning.

                         Our country, our government, our occupation, our responsibility.

Scott Ritter, Larry Everest, and Jeremy Scahill will also be there. They'll be talking about how to stop the endless U.S. wars of empire.

We'll probably stop for falafel sandwiches at Mamoun on McDougal before the event.

Y'all have a good day now.
b

Nov 8 2008 Iraq AlQaida created by usa

We just  got this in the mail@121contact.org box:

...

Yeah. 9/11 was the worst. AlQaida was created by usa by the way, but they don’t say that. So you can thank your government for 9/11; for creating alQaida.

 

I was up all night. It is 5 AM now. I was too scared to sleep. Not anything happened, just scared of…

Yeah, scared every day of a usa raid and of crazy alQaida. I still go to school sometimes. Sometimes is too risky.

 

..have to go..candle time soon..

 

usa need to re-build everything they broke soo badly. And they need t oleave saddam palaces. They are swimming in the pool like they are on vacation; not to work.

 

usa is 100% responsible. They came here to protect us, not kill us. And they are soo rude to us. They are not keeping their word and we are not terrorist cuz we are muslem. We are terrorist to protect our lands from un-wanted people.

 

They are not welcome. Yeah, Inshallah.

Bush=devil

Bush sr.=bigger devil

Reagan even bigger devil

Hah

They are resistance. In Germany WWII, when Germans fight usa they were not terrorists. They were resistance.

 

The only thing I like from usa is hip hop music.

 

Now usa wants to build a usa base in Iraq. We don’t want them.

Unless they help us, and not bomb, and respect us like people equal to them, then they can stay. They are soo rude and no feeling what so ever.

You can use my words but not my name.

A’hd

Nov 7 2008 Iraq Contractor bids: a simple solution

Like all jokes, good and bad [and this one is pretty bad], there is a kernel of truth at the core. This joke speaks to the depth of corruption that pervades the effort to rebuild. Simply throwing money at the problem is not enough. There has to be a renewal of moral authority to accompany the good intentions.

"Three Iraqi contractors were bidding for a contract for the construction of a wall around a local municipal council. The first contractor proposed a bid of $1000 ($400 for construction materials, $400 for the laborers, and a profit of $200). The second contractor proposed $700 ($300 for materials, $300 for workers, and a profit of $100). The third contractor offered a bid of $2700. The head of the municipal council angrily asked the contractor why he proposed such a high bid. "It's very simple," said the contractor, smiling. "A thousand for me, a thousand for you, and we'll give the $700 to the second contractor to finish the job."

And as soon as I had posted the first version of this I was reminded, from Baghdad, that corruption in contracts is merely a drop in the bucket. Why, to even get a job one must pay up to $ 2000US to a 'broker' and then you get the interview. Of course no one gets arrested for this, so that implies come collusion on the part of law enforcement, and so on, and so on...

Nov 7 2008 Iraq views: A'hd of Baghdad says...

Here's a piece of an email, from last Friday, that I'm making part of my presentation at LaGuardia College on Monday, 11/10. I don't know A'hd very well. We've only written back and forth a couple of times. He seems sincere to me...an 18 year-old college student in a city far away...

Yeah. 9/11 was the worst. AlQaida was created by usa by the way, but they don’t say that. So you can thank your government for 9/11; for creating alQaida.

I was up all night. It is 5 AM now. I was too scared to sleep. Not anything happened, just scared of…Yeah, scared every day of a usa raid and of crazy alQaida. I still go to school sometimes. Sometimes is too risky.

  ..have to go..candle time soon..

 usa need to re-build everything they broke soo badly. And they need t oleave saddam palaces. They are swimming in the pool like they are on vacation; not to work.

usa is 100% responsible. They came here to protect us, not kill us. And they are soo rude to us. They are not keeping their word and we are not terrorist cuz we are muslem. We are terrorist to protect our lands from un-wanted people. They are not welcome. Yeah, Inshallah.

Bush=devil     Bush sr.=bigger devil    Reagan even bigger devil    Hah

They are resistance. In Germany WWII, when Germans fight usa they were not terrorists. They were resistance.

The only thing I like from usa is hip hop music. Now usa wants to build a usa base in Iraq. We don’t want them.

Unless they help us, and not bomb, and respect us like people equal to them, then they can stay. They are soo rude and no feeling what so ever.

You can use my words but not my name.

A’hd

Nov 6 2008 Iraq: Sadr City 'school children' without schooling

The Raad brothers, and tens of thousands of children like them in this poor walled-in Shiite Muslim district, have been shaped by war, honed by poverty. They are witnesses to sectarian violence, Shiite militias, angry sermons echoing through mosques, Humvees gurgling through streets and pictures of religious leaders and wanted men hovering on billboards. These children may not know grammar and punctuation, but they know what to do when the bullets come, how to take cover, to hide from the kidnappers, the militants and the soldiers.

Bloodshed and years of unrest are harsh teachers, especially in Sadr City, where 30% of children have quit school, according to a Baghdad human resources office. That estimate is probably low. A United Nations report found that 94% of boys in Iraq attend elementary school, but that drops to 44% by high school. For girls, 81% start elementary school; 31% go on to high school.

By Jeffrey Fleishman and Raheem Salman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

Nov 6 2008 Iraq troop withdrawals as violence flairs

Things are quieter in Iraq these days, but 'quiter' is a relative term.

We are drawing down the troops as the violence increases a little. We hope the Iraqis can step up and take care. This is the dream, isn't it? We're taking about 7000 troops out quickly as a new drawdown begins. Albuquerque News

And we note that the small murders we hear about from our friends in Iraq aren't even reported in most Iraqi news media. A killing or two in a walled neighborhood hardly gets reported these days. It's just part of the 'normal' background activity in areas where there are no police, no army; only militias fighting for turf and keeping ethnic murders alive.

Reported Security incidents Nov 6 2008: War News Today

Baghdad:
#1: The deadliest attack Thursday came near a checkpoint in central Baghdad when two bombs exploded during the morning rush hour, police said. Four people were killed and seven wounded in the blasts. The twin blasts in the capital's Sunni enclave of Sheik Omar happened at a checkpoint manned by members of an Awakening Council, the mostly Sunni groups that have joined forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq.

#2: Another bomb targeting a government convoy injured six people, police and hospital officials said. Police said the convoy was carrying city workers. The police spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release information.

#3: Another two Awakening Council members was killed in a bombing just before noon in southeastern Baghdad. The councils come under frequent attacks by insurgents because they have sided with U.S. forces.

#4: Roadside bombs targeting two separate convoys carrying Baghdad city officials injured eight people, the mayor's office said in a statement. The municipal officials were not hurt in the attacks.

Also Thursday, a roadside bomb targeting a government pick-up truck in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr city injured nine people including five city employees, police said.

#5: Nine other people were wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad's sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City, police said.

#6: Another roadside bomb detonated near the Al-Gailani mosque in Baghdad's central Baba Alsheikh neighbourhood, killing one person and injuring four others, police said.

#7: Around 1 pm a roadside bomb targeted an American patrol in Boub Al-Sham neighborhood (north Baghdad). No casualties reported.

Muthanna Prv:
#1: Police forces on Thursday managed to defuse an anti-shields bomb found inside the Muthanna health department, a police source said. “Anti-bomb squads defused an explosive charge placed in the Muthanna health department near the office of the director,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

Kurkuk:
#1: Also Thursday, in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, police found the bullet-riddled body of a man believed to be in his late 40s.

Mosul:
#1: Police found the body of a woman shot in neck and chest in eastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, on Wednesday, police said.

#2: A U.S. helicopter killed two suspected al-Qaeda militants as their aircraft come under fire in an area northwest of Mosul on Wednesday, the U.S. military said in a statement.