Missing Links: Beyond Category

In this world we presume many ambitions, we make many observations, such as:

(a) Everyone's aloneness... There really are no categories, you know... Everyone is so alone ~ the basic, essential state of humankind..

(b) The paradox that is communication ~ the built in answer to that feeling of aloneness

Communication itself is what baffles the multitude. It is both so difficult and so simple. Of all mens fears, I think that men are most afraid of being what they are ~ in direct communication with the world at large.

They fear reprisals, the most personal of which is that they "won't be understood" . . Yet, every time God's children have thrown away fear in pursuit of honesty ~ trying to communicate themselves, understood or not ~ miracles have happened.

~ Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington, Charlie Mingus & Max Roach

Caravan ~ 1962

From the album "Money Jungle"

Bill Clinton Meets With 'Vast Right Wing Conspiracy' Financier

The day before that publicized meeting between Clinton and Obama, a Clinton associate tells Fox News, that Richard Mellon Scaife, was meeting with Bill Clinton at the former president's Harlem Global Initiative office. Scaife is the principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune and known for his financial support to conservative organizations and owns the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

LONDON: Britain's first STATE FUNDED Hindu school is all set to welcome its first batch of 30 pupils from Monday, promising to merge the best of British education with Hindu religious and cultural values.

GOD (who?) help the STATE if it should fund any remotely JUDEO-CHRISTIAN religious and cultural values though, right?

HINDUTVA's "religious and cultural values"

Hindutva’s Violent History in Orissa

Orissa Christians cower from Hindu backlash

"US raids on Taliban, Al Qaeda in Pakistan may provoke attacks in UK"

Mennonites & Quakers invite genocidal madman to supper

The ADL has issued a statement criticizing Mennonite and Quaker leaders for hosting a dinner reception for Iran's president in New York later this month

2/24/2007 TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) meets with the members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s (FOR) a religious Christian delegation looking for peace between Iran & the US. The delegation, which spent 12 days in Iran, is part of FOR’s ongoing commitment to working for peace, justice, and the nonviolent resolution of conflict. A total of 24 US citizens representing several faith traditions, were traveling as “civilian diplomats” to meet with ordinary Iranians as well as leaders from the religious, non-governmental, and political sectors.

George Orwell: Pacifism and the War

"Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist."

Muslim cleric: McCartney is suicide bomber target
I gotta say, I think SO MUCH more of Paul now.

The Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat reports that Iraq is in an uproar, following the news that a Member of Parliament has visited Israel for the second time

Anti-Baath Iraqi MP Mithal Alusi, head of the Democratic HaUmah party and of the Organization to Oust the Baath Party from the Iraqi Government, apparently visited Israel last week. His office refused to confirm that he was in Israel, saying only, "He is outside Iraq"

U.S. to 'Guarantee' Palestinian State

Abbas: We'll ask new U.S. Administration to support peace

Abbas stressed that the Palestinians "don't want to postpone any of the six permanent status issues, which are Jerusalem, the settlements, the refugees, water, security and borders.

Hamas to appoint president

Abbas aims to stay in office to 2010 despite Hamas

Meat-plant owner "uncooperative" in Muslim prayer fight

6.1 in Iran

AFRICAN OIL & GAS RESERVES: CLICK TO ENLARGE

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008:

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has approved deployment of 200 Russian military peacekeeping contingent to Chad and neighbouring Central African Republic in support of a United Nations mission in the region, government officials said.

SEPTEMBER 3, 2008:
Russian military force to assist EU mission in Chad

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008:

Chevron Corporation, the US oil company, has agreed to pay taxes it owed to the central African state of Chad and it can, therefore, continue to operate in the country, a Chadian presidency spokesman said on Friday.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008:

Taiwan, Mainland China to Expand Oil-exploration in Australia, Africa

CPC Corporation, Taiwan is negotiating with China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China`s third-largest oil company, to expand oil exploration from Taiwan Strait to East China Sea.

This is the first substantial step for both sides to engage in cooperative oil exploration after the establishment of a mutual oil-exploration program between Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation and the mainland China-based Association (SEF) for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) in June.

Both sides will also discuss cooperative oil and natural gas exploration in Australia, Kenya and Chad.

9/11/08: Chad Prepays Pipeline Debt to World Bank

The government of Chad has paid down early a loan from the World Bank for the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project

9/11/08: Zoellick ends World Bank "experiment" in Chad

World Bank President Robert Zoellick this week ended the Bank's biggest experiment in trying to show that Africa's oil wealth can help the poor.

The withdrawal by the world's largest development agency from the Chad oil pipeline agreement reopens debate over its role in funding oil, gas and mining projects, especially in corrupt and volatile parts of the developing world.

The World Bank heralded the 620-mile (1,000 km) Chad-Cameroon pipeline as a model project when it backed an Exxon Mobil-led consortium to develop oilfields in southern Chad in 2001 and get the oil to market with the pipeline.

In 2000, Chevron became a partner in two major projects in Chad

The first of these projects was the development of the Doba oil fields in southern Chad (DOBA IS ON THE NIGERIAN BORDER - bz) The second involved construction and operation of a pipeline to transport oil from those fields to an export terminal facility in Cameroon for shipment to world markets. Together, they represent one of the largest industrial projects ever undertaken on African soil.

The World Bank and a number of nongovernmental organizations have been instrumental in the establishment of the overall project.

Above all, since the famous meeting between President Franklin D Roosevelt and Ibn Saud at Great Bitter Lake in 1945, the al-Saud have enjoyed the protection of the United States

This relationship, which sits most unhappily with US support for Israel, has passed through periods of intense pressure: the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, the Palestinian intifada of 2001, and after the 11 September 2001 attacks, an operation financed by Bin Laden and largely executed by Saudi rebels. The US guarantee of Saudi security, implicit since 1945, became explicit with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the despatch of half a million US troops to Saudi Arabia.

Duke Ellington
The Mystery Song ~ 1931