* Surveillance in the Modern World * A Garden in Sussex, UK Consultations with doctors; visits from friends and family members; taking care of the various mundane yet important tasks that must be dealt with, Sara M. continues to be active and energetic in pursuing her projects. Her messages convey no sign of despair. Sarah recently completed and published her research about surveillance societies. A lot of work went into it. For Sarah, it is a labor of love. The post reflects her passionate position about injustice and the widening use of technological advances in weapons of war that only the major nations can afford and use them to achieve ends which rarely have anything to do with democracy and freedom for the people of the countries under attack. A friend wrote to her that "prayers work". There is no argument about the fact that some people find solace, strength in prayers. Our ex-president G.W. Bush spoke on October 26th at a Get Motivated seminar (ticket price $225.00) in Fort Worth,TX, about being helped by god in his decisions. And former prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair, talked about "divine impulses" during a video interview published by The Washington Post. Two men with blood on their hands. Sickening. No doubt the grand inquisitors felt empowered by god to burn the heretics. And the Crusaders went on their looting and pillaging expeditions blessed by god. In Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, the Islamic fundamentalists are killing each other as if there is no tomorrow. They,too, believe in prayers and they blow up innocent people in the name of their god. It was what Sarah wrote about her garden that made me feel good. "Stefan is clearing the garden now, which is sort of a mirror ...I love the garden with the bare earth and compost. The red rosesare still blooming,along with the winter jasmine." A corner of Sarah's garden - June 2009 Comments Anonymous — 2009-11-14 This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

* "Especially when the October wind With frosty fingers punishes my hair,......."- Dylan ThomasStill have enough hair left to feel 'frosty fingers', and that is something to feel cheerful about. And there is more. Heading for 76, my knees holding up -- can run (jog), ride a bicycle, and enjoy hiking on local trails.The change in temperature is noticeable. Breezy and cold but sunny morning. Soon, leaves will begin to fall and pile up and then,hopefully, the rains will follow. After two winters of below-normal precipitation we need rains. Returned empty-handed from a foraging trip last week. Didn't find a single chanterelle. It was too early; the ground still dry and hard.Far away in South Asia, Islamic fundamentalists are on killing sprees. And we are on a mission to defeat the so called 'insurgents'. In the process we kill innocent civilians. Our government calls it collateral damage. "State terrorism" is a more apt description. According to NYTimes, the CIA had been in cahoots with Ahmed Wali Karzai (brother of president Hamid Karzai) who is said to be a key player in the drug trade. Nothing new. History is full of our shameful role in support of goons in different countries.

*A Friend's Decision to Die with Dignity * October 2009"The winds that blow-- ask them,which leaf of the tree will be next to go" ---Soseki (translated by Harold Henderson)As we grow old the circle of friends and acquaintances shrink. Inevitable. We are here for a limited time and sooner or later our time comes. In the last eight years I have lost two childhood friends to cancer. In both cases their suffering was not prolonged. I don't know what they would have done if faced with the decision to go through a long, expensive, and ultimately meaningless series of treatments.I have strong feeling about 'right to die' and 'death with dignity'. Simply put, I do not believe in an after-life. I accept the "blank certitude of death". If I should happen to be afflicted with terminal illness my decision would be to let the end come without going through lengthy medical procedures, certainly without being kept alive on life support. My children and friends are aware of my position. I have filed the necessary document with my health care provider and hope that there would not be any hitches but one cannot be sure. Some people not only want to cling to life regardless of the state they are in but they also do not wish to allow those who feel differently to opt for final exit.Only two states -- Oregon and Washington --in our country have enacted laws to permit physician assistance in dying. For the rest of us it is a different situation. Personally, I thought that Dr. Kevorkian did great work until he was imprisoned for assisting terminally ill people to die. We don't have anything like Dignitas, the Swiss organization. So, one has to plan in advance for the eventuality to avoid being a victim of the system, hooked up to life support.A friend, Sarah M, who lives in Sussex, UK, was recently diagnosed with cancer of the bladder. She has decided to avoid going through the various stages of treatment which could prolong her remaining days. It is a horrible, painful, degrading disease. Sarah is a passionate activist in human rights causes and justice for the Palestinians. Widely traveled, she is a voracious reader, enjoys gardening, pets, and music. While the NHS in Britain does not have provision for pro-active measures to hasten death, one gets the impression that it is less rigid in its position than the American system under pressure of religious and political organizations to which 'euthanasia' is a dirty word.Neither Sarah nor I believe in prayers. I think of her and hope that palliative medicine would help her to cope as she prepares for her final days in a hospice.Listening to Glenn Gould, Piano, A State of Wonder, The Complete Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) 1955. Sony Classical Legacy S3K 87703.

* High Finance to War Against Terror, the Same Old Pattern"Dark Pools". Something ominous about the term. To those of us who are not familiar with the workings of the world of high finance, it sounds as though the same masterminds who created "collateral damage" and "extra-ordinary rendition" are responsible for it. One can imagine our ex vice-president drooling over dark pools although his 'dark pools' might be unrelated to high finance.The fact remains that they exist, and are not going to disappear anytime soon. Very little is being done to curb abusive practices by the giants of Wall Street. The changes are mostly cosmetic.From Bloomberg.com:Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will propose toughening its limits on the amount of anonymous trading carried out on stock platforms called dark pools, according to two people familiar with the deliberations.The commission will propose lowering the amount of daily volume in a company’s shares that can be executed on the networks before prices must be made public to 0.25 percent from 5 percent tomorrow, said the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions weren’t public. John Nester, an SEC spokesman, declined to comment.The rule change may curtail the number of transactions on dark pools, off-exchange platforms run by firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Getco LLC that have drawn scrutiny from Democratic Senators Ted Kaufman of Delaware and Charles Schumer of New York. The systems usually shut down trading in a security when they approach the current 5 percent limit.In our war against terror,too, not much has changed from the way things were done during the G.W. Bush presidency. President Obama, despite his criticism of Bush Administration policies during the campaign of 2008,has not stopped 'extraordinary rendition'.Los Angeles Times"Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States."As our military activities in Iraq dwindle down, 'collateral damage' continues unabated in Afghanistan.And so it goes."We're all mad here"--Cheshire Cat , Alice in Wonderland

* Islam and Virginity * Phyllis Schlafly on FeminismA device to fake virginity! Funny if it were not for the implications for women in Islamic countries. In today's world virgin brides are in short supply.BBC News 28 September 2009 A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty. Abdul Mouti Bayoumi said supplying the item was akin to spreading vice in society, a crime punishable by death in Islamic Sharia law. The device is said to release liquid imitating blood, allowing a female to feign virginity on her wedding night. Why is it OK for muslim men to have pre-marital sex but not for the women they marry? Although, to be fair, it is not only Islamic countries where men expect the women they marry to be virgins. Things are no different in India. And one gets the feeling that here in the United States the politicians who publicly champion family values, rail against homosexuals and birth control, and then get caught in sleazy extra-marital affairs are not much different than the muslims who want to marry virgins. Think of David Vitter, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, and Mark Duvall, the California congressman. All Republicans. Sure, the Democrats had their John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer. But they were not bible-thumping hypocrites.Wonder if the device and fake blood do the trick -- convince the husbands that they married virgins, hymens intact. It is the same religion that, under Hudood Ordinance required rape victims in Pakistan to produce four adult male witnesses to pursue charges. Ya, Habibi. Where do they crawl out from?Strangely, the neanderthals - Islamic and others -- enjoy support from some women. Check out Ann Telnaes' animated strip about Phyllis Schlafly in The Washington Post,Sept.30, 2009.

* October * Onitsura * BashoAlmost seamlessly or, one can say, without losing a stride we moved from summer into autumn. October is around the corner. Two days back the day-time temp. was in the 90's (31 deg. C). Today it is in the 70's. Hopefully, the rains will come soon. We need them."Early autumn:Tree leaves flutter, and autumn begins."-- Uejima Onitsura (1631-1738)Translated by Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson, From the Country of Eight Islands"Mottoes:Don't mention others' shortcomings, Don't dwell on your virtues.Speak, and your lips feel cold in the autumn wind."--Matsuo Basho, 1692Translated by Hiroaki Sato and Burton Watson, From the Country of Eight IslandsIt is the time of the year when I think of hot soups, roasted root vegetables, and foraging for wild mushrooms. Last season was disappointing. I have a feeling that this year the chanterelles would be back in force.

* A daunting, brute of a Mountain There are scads of items - reports about ascending Mt. Whitney to be found on the Internet. Neil Modie of Seattle Post Intelligencer climbed the mountain three years ago, in August 2006, and this is what he wrote: "Mt. Whitney: Not a technical climb, but it's every bit an endurance test From the trailhead, it is 10.7 miles to the top, with 6,137 feet of elevation gain. Of the 21.4-mile round trip, nearly 10 miles are above 12,000 feet. Under normal circumstances, the climb isn't hazardous, although the high elevation can bring on altitude sickness or even potentially deadly pulmonary or cerebral edema for someone not properly acclimatized. But it's really only a hike, albeit a long one, and not a mountaineering feat. That makes the Whitney failure rate all the more humbling. After all, more than half the 9,000 or so climbers a year who attempt 14,411-foot Mount Rainier make it to the top, despite needing ice axes, crampons, carabiners, ropes and other mountaineering gear necessary to arrest a slide down steep glacial ice or climb out of a crevasse. We had decided not to try a "day hike" -- from Whitney Portal to the summit and back -- in one day, a distance of more than 21 miles. We carried our packs to the Trail Camp on the afternoon of Sept.19th and set up tents. Our plan was to start for the summit on Sunday morning, break camp after descending and hike back to Whitney Portal. Howard Higley began suffering from altitude sickness on the way to Trail Camp. On Sunday morning, he felt that he was not in a condition to ascend the summit and would return to Whitney Portal to wait for us. It was the right decision. Howard had wanted to do this for a long time and it was he who won a place in the permit lottery. Johnny and I left camp at 8:00 AM. Sunday, Sept.20th. Johnny reached the peak long before me; I got there at 12:46 PM. Some climbers do it in less time, others take longer. Met an 87 year old man who was descending after celebrating his birthday by hiking up to the summit! We had the usual pictures taken, signed the register in front of the Smithsonian hut, Then it was time to descend to the camp site. Our original plan was to break camp and head for Whitney Portal 4.7 miles away. But I suffered injuries in a fall during descent and decided to wait until next morning to hike back to Whitney Portal. Negotiating thousands of stone steps at night with a pack on my back would have been fraught with risks in the shape I was in. On Monday, Johnny transferred some of my stuff into his backpack. We left Trail Camp soon after 7:00 AM and reached Whitney Portal at 12:40 PM. What a pleasure it was to see our friend Howard Higley! We had taken a bottle of Pauillac '04 to celebrate, or to drown our sorrows if we failed. We were famished. Ordered burgers and requested permission of the manager to open our bottlle of wine. She graciously said it was OK. There were no crystal stemware to drink from but the only thing wrong with the paper cups was that they did not show the lovely, plum color of the wine. We finished the bottle and headed home. Saturday morning,Johnny getting ready for the hike to Trail Camp © Rana Sircar Our packs in front of the the Whitney Portal Store © Rana Sircar With Howard Higley at trailhead adjacent to Portal Store - © John Lazar,Jr. @ Rana Sircar Looking down on Owens Valley @ Rana Sircar Johnny slogging up to Trail Camp @ Rana Sircar Nice, but soon it became rocks and more rocks @ Rana Sircar Above tree-line, past Mirror Lake @ John Lazar,Jr. Up the trail to Outpost Camp @ John Lazar,Jr. A bristlecone pine above Mirror Lake @ John Lazar,Jr. Distant view - Mt. Whitney at far right @ Rana Sircar Consultation Lake, 11,680 ft - near trail camp @ John Lazar,Jr. Trail camp area, right of the lake @ John Lazar,Jr. Johnny's tent at camp site @ John Lazar,Jr. Sept.20th -Climbers using wire rope railing in a steep, icy area @ Rana Sircar Looking down at Consultation Lake from top of the switchbacks @ John Lazar,Jr. Getting closer to the summit, Smithsonian Hut visible - @ John Lazar,Jr. On the ridge at 13,650 ft. The trail is at right of the marker @ John Lazar,Jr. Sign post at the intersection of the John Muir and Whitney Portal Trails @ John Lazar,Jr. Getting close to summit. Tough hiking; poles essential @ John Lazar,Jr. The summit at last. Smithsonian Hut, built 1909 @ John Lazar,Jr. The register at the Smithsonian Hut. Nos.31 and 34 were us @ Rana Sircar National Park Service Plaque @ John Lazar,Jr. Looking south towards Keeler Needle and the top of the switchbacks @ John Lazar,Jr. How sweet it was! At the top of the 48 states - A friendly climber took this picture Climbers on top. The weather couldn't have been better - @ Rana Sircar Descending. Johnny at Trail Crest @ Rana Sircar Monday morning returning to Portal, Mirror Lake was a welcome sight @ Rana Sircar I did a lot of groaning, Johnny (with a 46 lb. pack) never sweated @ Rana Sircar At Portal. Took 5 hrs from Trail Camp because of my slow pace @ Howard Higley Johnny and Howard enjoying the '04 Pauillac - @Rana Sircar "Adventure is not outside man; it is within." --David Grayson Comments Anonymous — 2009-09-23 Congratulations! --- Sarbajit Unknown — 2009-09-23 Good show! (In more ways than one!) Unknown — 2009-09-23 I knew you would succeed Rana. Great to see the photos. Anjana Sammy — 2009-09-24 Great achievement at this age !! BG from Palo Alto — 2009-09-26 Rana-babu, What a delight and inspiration you are to all of us. Please take me with you next time. Anything for a Pauillac 2004! :-) Unknown — 2009-09-27 Rana: So exciting! You really did it!! Congratulations, great job!! Malabika Anonymous — 2009-09-28 Rana Sircar .. Well ..

* America, America No longer dominated by whites, our country is truly becoming a melting pot to the dismay of some politicians and groups of conservatives who resent the eroding of their power. And that is good. As I begin my 41st year in America, I rejoice that those who claim that America is a Judeo-Christian nation are going to be a spent force. I hope for a truly Jeffersonian America in which the wall between church and state will remain inviolate. There is much to celebrate. The victory of Barack Obama was a clear sign of the sea changes taking place. Paraphrasing an ad for cigarettes "We have come a long way". According to signs (my personal interpretation) President Obama's administration would not be vastly different from others before him but that is how our political system works.....far from an ideal good government. The government that President Lincoln envisaged in his Gettysburg Address:".......and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." never took shape, and remains unattainable. Government and politicians aside, it is a great country. The diversity, the incredible energy, the natural splendor are overwhelming. Not always proud of it but I love my adopted country. As the NY Times blogger Maira Kalman wrote "Happy to be here". I am, I certainly am.

* Is TAP or TAPI the real cause for the war * Megrahi * Obama Administration "August is the Cruelest Month" is the title of a novella by Edna O'Brien. Historically, August has played a role in wars.As the August of 2009 winds down, reports indicate heavy toll paid by soldiers. Since Americans form largest contingent of NATO forces, more of them have lost their lives (reported to be 47) battling the Taliban. Some call it a war of "liberation". The primary reason was, of course, to crush bin Laden's al Qaeda operating from the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The administration of Hamid Karzai, installed by us as president, is corrupt. Karzai is leading in the recent election but there are allegations of "widespread" fraud. No surprise there, although it is doubtful whether victory of his opponent would mean much of a difference for the people of Afghanistan.In the meantime, plight of civilians continues to worsen. Fundamentalist Islamic groups are engaged in daily incidents of bombing and killing.Pakistan, recipient of huge sums of money and weaponry from the United States, is outwardly an ally of America. It,too, has its share of militant Islamic groups who have influence over the populace. The current prime minister, Asif Zardari, was once known as Mr. Ten Percent when his wife, the late Benazir Bhutto, held that position.The high number of civilians killed in attacks by U.S. drones have not earned us friends.The NY Times reported on August 27th:Last week, during a visit to Pakistan by Richard C. Holbrooke, Mr. Obama’s special envoy, Pakistanis told his entourage that America was widely despised in their country because, they said, it was obsessed with finding and killing Osama bin Laden to avenge the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A mess, and no end in sight. Because of our history of engineering coup d'etats for the benefit of transnational oil companies one cannot shrug off reports about the natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan -- TAPI --being the real cause for America's involvement in Afghanistan. Release of Megrahi as part of a deal between UK and the Libyan Government is a recent example of major powers and the politics of oil.British Petroleum and Libyan Terrorist MegrahiBP was finally given the go-ahead six weeks after a volte-face by the British government to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya under which prisoners could serve out sentences in their home countries. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, revealed this decision in a letter to his Scottish counterpart. He cited “wider negotiations” and the “overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom”. Jewish Settlements"U.S. drops demand for Israel building freeze in East Jerusalem" (Haaretz 8-27-09)Following a now familiar and predictable pattern, the Obama Administration softened its position on construction of settlements by the Israelis.And so it goes. Comments Anonymous — 2009-09-01 I don't know how the U.S. is planning on protecting such a long pipeline from sabotage. Maybe we should start being nice to the Taliban. I say give them a cut of the profits and kill two birds with one stone. The war would end and the pipeline would be protected. But that would be the honorable thing to do and we all know that there is no honor among thieves.

* Rieselda"Dining room" is a somewhat grand term but harmless. It sounds good.It began in San Francisco. Franciscan Fr. Alfred Boeddeker (1903-1994) was the moving spirit behind opening of St. Anthony's Dining Room in 1950.Now, in addition to San Francisco there is a St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room in Menlo Park. CA 94025, which began serving low-income elderly residents of the Peninsula in 1974 and has grown into a large operation. Monday to Saturday, the door opens at 11:00 AM and meals are served until 1:00 PM to all comers ".....without regard to age, sex, race, religious beliefs, national origin, or disabilities". No questions asked....and no proselytizing.It has paid staff but depends on volunteers for performance of various duties.In addition to cash donations from individuals and local businesses, the dining room receives foodstuff from super markets and other stores. St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room has not escaped the fallout from the current state of economy. Cash contributions have suffered as have donations of food items.But the dining room continues to serve 400-600 people six days a week. It is a clean, bright place. Everyone receives a freshly cooked meal. Service is friendly and courteous.During my years as a volunteer (since 1992) I have come to know some of the "regulars"; have seen them grow older. Have seen young girls become mothers and come with their children. Inevitably, few of the elderly drop out because of illness or disability; and death takes some of them.Rieselda, a young Nicaraguan, was one of the regulars. She stood out because she wore colorful berets and she always smiled. She didn't speak English and I don't know Spanish. Didn't matter. It made me happy to see her smiling face in the line. One day she came with an elderly woman and said "Mi Madre". I usually serve the vegetable of the day -- often zucchinis steamed, sprinkled with grated cheese, or in some other form. Not a very popular item. Rieselda was among those who declined it. Then, about two years ago, Rieselda stopped coming to St. Anthony's. I missed her but it was not unusual. And new faces always become a part of the line.Yesterday, while tending my station at the serving counter I saw a woman wearing a beret in the line. It was Rieselda! Looking older and carrying a baby girl but with her trade-mark smile. I asked where she had been and she said "San Antonio". I was serving zucchinis. The line moved on.*"For double the vision my Eyes do see,And a double vision is always with meWith my inward Eye 'tis an old Man grey:With my outward, a Thistle across my way."--William Blake