PERSHIBLE GOODS

Mention of the word "CRUSADES" was responsible
for an international tirade directed at the United States
and specifically at then president Bush. This makes one
wonder if the balance of good and evil in religion has
benefited society all that much. Make no mistake this
is not about Catholicism or any other specific religion,
but about all religions that make claims to profess faith,
hope and charity in some form. The balance may be on
the side of evil when you realize millions of people have
perished under the banner of various religions. Most
people who exclude themselves from participation in
formal religious activity seldom commit mass murder or
genocide. Of course there are exceptions but far less than
imagined. Religions on "specific crusades of promotion"
have killed, maimed and caused incalculable suffering
for centuries. Religions are often at the root of Racism
and economic manipulation of the masses. Mass
genocide has resulted and continues by misdirected
Muslims who now have declared a Jihad to eliminate
all who are not "true believers". The Catholic church
sweeps under the rug major crimes by the catholic
clergy. Possibly thousands of children have been
molested and injured for life. This is not just in specific
countries but is a global problem. Is this not evil
and injurious to society? Crimes committed by the
catholic clergy in the present and past are now in the
global spotlight.

Perhaps the problem with religions is that men write
the rules and not an illusive God. Man has always been

less than perfect. Most religions are headed by men who
claim the exclusivity of direct communication with
God through a most complicated system that most
people accept with "blind faith" . It would seem that
man in his ant-like existence in the universe would
have a low priority on any Gods list of things to do. We are
specifically not important in the grand scheme. Our
tiny satellite universe is infinitesimal when viewed as
part of the wider Universe.

Global warming is only important to those affected directly

, it would be presumptuous for all to wage a war on

Global warming when it might just be a glitch that is

a normal or abnormal continuous evolution of the universe.

Should it be man made then a correction of this massive

error in judgement is a hopeless challenge. The best man

can do is adapt to this change. I doubt that global

warming can be halted or slowed significantly.

However It has the potential to unite all nations on earth
who must adapt and work in unison together or perish.
The goal should not be to stop this natural or unnatural

evolution of the universe but to adapt to the change. A

common enemy may put a stop to the killing if nations unite

against a single inhumane catastophe instead of seeking

destruction of each other through aggressive wars.

However "Global Warming" may only result in more
chaos as protectionism becomes the new rule of survival.
I am not optimistic about prayers to the Gods at your
local church, temple or place of meeting. A plea to the
"God's", your special God, or your comercial representative

with a direct line to God will probably not stop the

evolution of the natural or unnatural Universe. One

option might be global peace, unification will allow

energy and resources to be redirected. Using these

resources for Destructive wars based on political,

economic, or religious platforms seems to be the norm

now. Stopping this useless waste of energy and money

may be critical to the survival of all who inhabit the

earth.

Like the Dinosaurs man can perish from the face
of the earth.

THE NOISE SURROUDING ME

There are two kinds of noise "the ordinary",

birds, dogs , nature , thunder , lightning all

normal and part of the natural universe.

Then with the introduction of humans

the noise I hate came to the earth.

Offensive temporal noise like farting,

burping, etc. and the accompanying

mechanical noises that humans

generate with their infernal machines,

car alarms, lawn mowers, weed whackers,

macho mufflers etc. The scientific name

in movies for this is "white noise"

and must be brought into the sound

proof world of the movie studios, in

other words all the noise that humans

bring to the table are combined and

mixed into a palatable background of

an offensive latent mix. Humans need

this latent sound in movies to feel that

things are "normal" and are not aware

of this "white noise". We now have a

plenitude of this man made offensive

garbage to combine into white noise.

I would like to have been here to

experience the silence before the

advent of humans on earth. White

noise did not exist. In my opinion it

was a sad choice the creator made.

People are incredibly self centered

and arrogant using the two feet God

gave them to carry garbage in the

form of real decomposing matter

and offensive sounds to different

locations where they can stop and

dump this shit in random patterns

on the face of the earth.

Some now predict the end, hooray!,

what an event to look forward to. It

should happen sooner. But there is

no regret by humans they only

celebrate this by taking a bigger

and more toxic shit extending it to

the deepest oceans and the far

poles north and south. Humans pretend

to care but continue to take a dump on

the Universe.

SLUM TOURS

The ugly American, the ugly English, the ugly German, the ugly French and other uglies have added another outrageous, silly activity to their insensitive arrogant habit of using the worlds poverty as a toy to amuse themselves. This would be the emerging and well organized "slum tours of the world" a group of on line companies who offer well organized tours to the worst slums in Africa, India, Brazil and even Ireland. These tours hide behing the mask of "education". How could you possible feel if you and your family were forced to live in a compound of cardboard and tin shacks that your government had ordered you into by diminishing choice? Demeaning is the only single word I can think of to describe this trend of nations forcing the poor to live in compounds that have no sewers, water, electricity, few schools and have no real physical, social or economic infrastructure. They are no better than the internment camps that were used in world war two and are alarmingly emerging again as a way of isolating undesirables in many nations. Now the slums have become "safe" tourist attractions were people are viewed by the enlightened tourist in a fishbowl habitat. This adds to the original demeaning actions of countries by allowing tourist to pay for tours to what are no more than internment camps for the poor and homeless. How much of the profits from the tours go towards helping alleviate the misery that permeates these slums is in question and should be.

info@favelatour.com.

http:www.nicheafricaholidays.com/

http:www.belfastcityblacktaxitours.com

http:www,realitytoursandtravel.com/

http:www.belfastcityblacktaxitours.com/

http:wwwrealitytoursandtravel.com/

All offer safe, "Educational" tours mostly in air conditioned mini vans, with tour guides and in some cases armed security. Some excerpts from tour sites follow,

"For the 2008/09 tourist season we introduced a market tour (2.5 hrs duration) through the busy areas of Crawford Market and surrounding bazaars of Kalbadevi and Bhuleshwar. Mumbai is all about the amount of people and the chaos and there's no better way to experience this than visiting this area. There are a few oasis of tranquility within the madness such as Jama Masjid Mosque and Mumbadevi temple where the guide will talk to you about the area and its people and their beliefs."

from sand travel.

"Welcome to Cape Town South Africa, the gateway to Africa.Cape Town, is the jewel of the Western Cape and home to the many customs and cultures of its rainbow nation. The Mother City hosts the majority of it's population in townships on the Cape Flats. Many of these vibrant and welcoming people originally hail from Madiba's (Nelson Mandela - former President) birthplace. It's a must for every visitor to Cape Town to experience a day in the life of the locals. Interact with the township dwellers as they go about their daily routine and find out more about their past, their future and what currently drives them."

from Nomvuyo's Tours

Recently I met a group of young eco. tourist wearing the Pura Vida t shirts that most tourist buy in Costa Rica. They were a well behaved group of obviously affluent young people in their teens and early 20s. (the price of such two to three week eco tours is well above $2000.00 USD without the air fare) They were form my native state of New York and none of them had accents that would indicate they were from Brooklyn or the Bronx. I would suspect most were from some of the more affluent suburbs not far from New York City but in reality worlds away from Brooklyn or the Bronx.

I put to them the same question that I would ask the slum tourist. Do you truly have a concern for the environment or poor people and just how much "good" are you doing?

The fact is most will return to their comfortable, affluent habitat and use the experience to write unusual, unique papers in college. The older ones will tell stories to the other members at the country club, or cocktail parties that will single them out and impress others. These activities, eco tourism and slum tours, just add to the bad taste activities that the "Haves" participate in. The tour companies reap profits by putting on a show that is less than humane and everybody goes home thinking that they have experienced the hunger and poverty of these unfortunate people. Actually the last time they experienced even a tinge of hunger is when they left a bicycle in the driveway and were sent to bed without supper. In reality the young ones are spoiled from the riches of an affluent environment and the older ones are one step away from becoming diabetic via glutony. My advice to all of them, donate the entire cost (including air fare) of your trip directly to the slum people through a viable agency. The average cost of a tour group of 20 from the US can exceed some $80,000.00 USDA. That would go a long way towards possibly wiping out a slum or at least improve it's infrastructure. Stay home and become an activist, wipe out poverty that is only a few miles away and enter the slums of America to help your own. I dare you to stop gawking at the rest of the world and clean up the mess you are responsible for first. Perhaps that might qualify you to try conquering the rest of Global poverty.

SARAH PALIN TAKES A WALK

The media buzz is hurting my ears. The noise about Palin'a shrill resignation as Alaska's lame duck governor comes as no surprise. This makes one wonder what other issues truly out weigh this media event. The world seems to now host politicians and personalities who like clowns in a circus , well clown around, and take a back seat to the real lion tamers who are the Banks and Corporations who represent the real time acts. Often I feel that this three ring circus is truly three rings of activity operating as separate entities. In Ring one we have the media who now have less control mostly because of a real hosing down by the internet. This dilution of power probably leaves the public confused. In Ring two we have the politicians and so called World leaders and the other people who sweep up the resulting manure. They are performing independent of reality or at least it is difficult to tell reality from hopes and dreams and outright deceit. Ring three has the Banks, Financial institutions and corporations who collectively brought down the world economy and continue to reap outrageous profits while utilizing taxpayer money. These guys are the real evil lion tamers and stars of the Circus. However they would like to lie low and have unbridled freedom to continue fleecing the public with their own tax money. The world leaders/politicians dance around like puppets in ring two trying to put patches on the economy while feeding the lion tamers in ring three prime steaks in the form of support from the Feds. Unfortunately there is no Ringmaster. Perhaps one effective Ringmaster could bring the show to order. The world is a disorganized circus.

Diffused, confused power is the theme. Hopes for a new leader or Ringmaster fade. Obama held out some hope for "a world leader" but he is now diminishing his potency by involving himself in local racist leaning issues and moonwalking backwards like the late Michael Jackson. Shuffling one step forward and two back while secretly puffing on a cigarette and "rethinking" statements/actions to shore up the American Economy and therefore the world economy. Other leaders down south like Oscar Arias, who has trouble holding a tea party for Central American players, are the norm. Then there is the French Prime Minister who finally forced Europeans to draw a line on a politicians private moral behavior. Most "leaders" are clowns performing their usual act in ring two oblivious to what is going on in ring three and focused on the press in ring one. Where is the Nation or individual leader who can bring order? That is a depressing question. Some real potential world leaders have unfortunately aged beyond the energy level needed to lead us out of this chaos. They are also exhausted from dealing with their own national problems. Perhaps our readers can see a world leader emerging by looking in unlikely places like Africa or Latin America. America is leaning left but not by design. America simply lost it's balance and will "right" itself with the next presidential election. Republicans will probably take control again in spite of twitter or any other technology used by clever Democrat/technocrats. The resulting time lag that a change in administrations causes is hardly something America needs. Change will not solve the problems and change will not bring peace.