Riverdave's Middle East Peace Commentary - Initiated 4/18/08

7/14/08 Entry:

Unbalanced Ruling from the Hague 

       The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed genocide charges today against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of masterminding attempts to wipe out African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder, rape and deportation.  As much as I deplore what seems to be the complicity of the Sudanese government's behavior in relation to the suffering of the tribes of Darfur, I find the charges made by this European based court in the Hague to be unbalanced, if at the same time, the court does not file charges against the President of the United States, George Bush and his Vice President Dick Chaney, for their masterminding the mass murder and ethnic chaos that has resulted form the U.S. led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

5/13/08 Entry:

Psychic Decolonization

        Speaking of his experiences with the Pueblo in Taos, New Mexico in 1950, Carl Jung began to describe the shadow of colonialism: "What we from our point of view call colonization, missions to the heathen, spread of civilization, etc., has another face--the face of a bird of prey seeking with cruel intentness for distant quarry--a face worthy of a race of pirates and highwaymen" 

        As we find ourselves in America half a century later, how does colonialism and its morph to transnational capitalism afflict our psyches, as well as immigration, foreign, and environmental policies? What are the practices of psychic decolonization that we could put into place within ourselves and between ourselves and others from our communities?

        Working with an interdependent understanding of psyche, culture, and environment,  Mary Watkins will address the individual, community, and national healing that is necessary at this moment in American history, October 16-19, 2008 at the Summit Conference Center near Greensboro, NC. Mary Watkins, Ph.D., is coordinator of Community and Ecological Fieldwork and Research and a core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

4/18/08 Initial Entry:

After thirty-five years of carefully following events in the Middle East, I want to state unequivocally that

I am opposed to:

* the U.S. led war and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq

* the U.S. threats of military action against Iran

* the presence of U.S. military bases anywhere in southwest Asia

* the unconditional U.S. military and political support of Israel

I am in favor of:

* the U.S. government and its people objectively examining the roots of U.S. imperialism and European colonialism in the Middle East and the morph of both into transnational capitalism

* the U.S. government and its people pursuing a cultural and spiritual dialogue with Muslims worldwide that is both open and mutually respectful

* former U.S. president Jimmy Carter's courageous leadership by meeting with Hamas Party officials - the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian People