'Soul-stirring Mourning'

Doing my darnedest to hold aid workers' feet to the fire of greater awareness, awareness of their profound effects in Nepal and beyond. With all due respect, this link is suggested reading for the foreign cohort intervening at all levels in Nepal. From my humble experience, intervention often supports (directly, and most often, indirectly) a dysfunctional and overpowering status quo and contributes to the endless political bandh (closure) that Nepal endures with prolonged economic strife and deathly suffering.

The country is filled with aid workers rushing in and around to cover for the government and inadvertently funding establishment goons with unmerited entitlements.

With external support and endowments, the ruling gang does not have to be accountable to the general population as they would have to be in a liberal democracy.

The country and majority of her people face crippling economic stagnation and dire poverty, and because of a lack of opportunity, the tragic option that many impoverished citizens turn to is to escape the frying pan of the motherland for the fires of work in faraway nations -- often, nations with dismal human rights records -- emigrant workers from Nepal to The Gulf and Malaysia have virtually no legal status and no representation...a grisly recipe for exploitation and suffering.

A migrant worker's journey ends with a coffin and soul-stirring mourning

#freeNepal, #donordarlings, #Bandh, #Nepal, #exploit, #modernslavery, #YellFire, #AidRiddenNepal, #AidBully

"Is your Love enough or can you Love some more?"

Michael Franti -- perhaps as close as it comes to a modern day 'prince of peace'.

He and bandmates Spearhead made a journey to war zones in Western Asia including Iraq, Israel and Palestine to witness the 'human cost of war' with their own senses, and the experience totally informed the writing of the album Yell Fire!

The material was too heavy, and the band went off to Jamaica to record and lighten it up.

That's the hearsay as I know it. Yell Fire! is one of my all-time favorite albums. 

Here is Franti yellin' fire...totally inspirational -- 'Power to the Peaceful'

The following is the studio version with a soul-stirring chorus with reggae artist Gentleman, 

Documentary, I know I'm Not Alone -- Franti and friends in West Asian war zones.
"Ring the alarm, we come to wake up the snorin' ...Yell Fire..."

#Franti, #YellFire, #IsLoveEnough?, #IsYourLoveEnough, #WestAsia, #princeofpeace, #Iraq, #Israel, #Palestine, #powertothepeaceful

Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting for World Peace?

It's a new idea in my scope of awareness.
Will have to see it to believe it...
That is, I'll believe it when I see everybody kung-fu fighting...

'ooooa oooa oooa oooa, oooa oooa oooa oooooaaaaa

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

Those cats were fast as lightning...

It's an ancient Chinese art

And everybody knew their part

From a feint into a slip

And a kickin' from the hip

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

We took the bow and made a stand

Started swaying with the hand

The sudden motion made me skip

Now we're into a brand new trip

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting

Make sure you have expert timing

Kung Fu Fighting

It's as fast as lightning'

#karate, #worldpeace, #kungfufighting, #fastaslightening, #Lainchaur, #Nepal, #kungfu, #carldouglas

"Humans Claim Distinction Of Unsustainable 'Super Predators'"

Not that it is a revelation about the bloodthirsty human beast...simply scientific notarization...read all about it here...
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6250/858.full

#climatechange, #notsonakedape, #climatechange, #dodobird, #Pollution, #WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, #WTF, 

Rebuilding Nepal: The rubble must go -- A Skeptic's Take

With all due respect to the talented author, her primary sources for the Al Jazeera piece (Rebuilding Nepal: The rubble must go) are organizations with vested interests--NGOs, the UN, the government—entities that have earned skepticism over decades of aid-industry ventures in Nepal. Rather than pay them more heed, the citizens of this great nation would do well to hold these groups up to greater scrutiny and demand transparency and hard evidence with quantifiable metrics, e.g., poverty reduction, worthy of 5-6 decades of aid and billions of dollars spent including dazzling salaries that put aid entrepreneurs in the top 1% of Nepal society, the very society that they endeavor to assist.

More reliable and convincing sources of information in this piece about the afflicted areas would be residents themselves from the rural areas most affected by the quake. A relatively small percentage of Nepal was badly damaged by this natural tragedy and people in these areas are receiving humanitarian aid and are also working together as communities to rebuild themselves. These worst hit areas will likely need a lot of continued assistance but this fraction of Nepal is not representative of the entire country regarding reconstruction needs by a wide margin.

It is extraordinary to read of the “urgent…task of reconstruction…small window of time… winter, which will be particularly brutal” juxtaposed with Executive Director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology’s statement, “Timeframe is not an issue…Nepal can be rebuilt in the five years outlined”.

It would be more convincing to hear from voices outside of the organizations that have monopolized aid. Despite the small pockets of Nepal in real need of humanitarian relief, the whole country seems to be portrayed as in dire need of outside help. An unsavory side-effect of that broad depiction is the complete sabotage of one of Nepal’s most vital industries—the hardworking tourism sector. Painting the picture as one of dire need  (e.g., “debris still blocking streets”) unnecessarily scares off potential visitors and is killing an integral industry that could immediately endeavor to revive Nepal’s post-quake economy.

.

The graphic portrayals though meant to help bring in more aid funds do real harm to many people especially, those who rely on tourism and their dependents. From hoteliers, restaurateurs, taxi drivers, goods sellers and suppliers, guides and porters, families and dependents and everyone else in between Kathmandu and tourist destinations and back again, such misrepresentations cause harm.

The following links are a bit scathing but at least might provide a counter-perspective to the implausible pleas in the Al Jazeera article for more money…Can these organisations iron out issues among themselves and get to work with the 4.4 billion USD that has already been pledged? This amount itself can scar Nepal indelibly if it goes to the wrong gang…and elements of that gang are very much aware of the wildly lucrative opportunity born from the true victims of tragedy.

Politely Don't Believe the Hype
&

Working from the Ground on Down

#FreeNepal, #AidBully, #AidEntrepreneur, #AidRiddenNepal, #DonorDarlings, #NepalQuake, #Nepal

How to Overcome Depression Naturally

From the good people of Reader's Digest: How to Overcome Depression Naturally (ho-la/maybe)
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***addendum to suggestion #1…defragging 'fuggwits’ as much as possible—my personal example and instant mood downer -- (most) aid-entrepreneur expats in Nepal (many of them deny that they are even working in aid—excusing role as something else,‘advisor’ or ‘consultant’, while receiving relatively massive payments from DFID, SNV, USAID, GIZ and others) and wreaking (often unwittingly from inside a self-serving bubble) havoc as they treat the country as a personal playground knowing little of the lingo and culture and plead ignorance about the hazards of the aid industry.

Life can be hard enough without these people adding to the burden of blues as they and the ruling gang that they help to sponsor trample and bully the real Nepalis.

#Depression, #DonorDarlings, 

Whisky-Tango-Foxtrot?...in other words...

WTF?

Arise, awake--wake up in this world....Home Sweet Home Samsara

"They called it paradise...to light their neon way and give them thngs to do...They called it paradise, I don't know why". Photo by Alonzo Lyons

#WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, #WTF, #Samsara, #HomeSweetHome