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*Thoughts of a Runner on a Sunday Morning "Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by the British author Alan Sillitoe was published in 1959. A book of short stories that included the title piece. The story was made into a great B&W film (1962) in which the actor Tom Courtney made his mark. One of the "angry young men" in post World War II England, Sillitoe's books reflected the angst of the British working class. I remember the powerful effect of his first book, "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (1958). That, too, was made into a film.Apart from the title, this post is not about Sillitoe but my own thoughts about distance running. For me, it is not a "lonely" experience. Far from it. Of course, there are the occasional hazards and physical problems--aches and pains, pulled hamstrings, and such. Yet, loneliness is not part of my world when I am out on a long run. It is mostly a good feeling, especially when I run on trails in fall, muddy patches notwithstanding. The changing landscape as the foothills turn into a lush green, the smell of bay laurel leaves, the look of the oak, madrone and buckeye trees never fail to give me pleasure. I don't need an electronic device to listen to music or news when I run. I feel close to nature; I feel at peace with the world.I am thinking of taking part in a marathon. Ran my last one more than 20 years ago. Age has taken its toll. I am slower but the aim is not to win a place or a prize....just to be one of the finishers. It is a personal thing. Only a runner would understand why. George Sheehan, the late marathoner, cardiologist, philosopher, said it best. "We distance runners are meditative men. If we have a religious tradition, it is one of non-conformity and withdrawal, the hermit, the anchorite. At best, we hope for a secluded meadow where we won't be disturbed."*Autumn haikus:"The winds that blow-- ask them which leaf of the tree will be next to go !"--Soseki (translated by Harold Henderson)"The falling leaves fall and pile up: the rain beats on the rain."--Gyodai (translated by Harold Henderson) Listening to Bill Evans on piano. The CD is titled "Solo Sessions Vol. I". Recorded at Soundmakers Studio (New York City), January 10, 1963. Produced by Orrin Keepnews.

The War Was Sold on Lies* Smoke and mirror. Doing what they best. Josh White and Bradley Graham writes in the Washington Post "Military says it paid Iraq papers for news". "In a statement, the command said the program included efforts, "customary in Iraq," to purchase advertising and place clearly labeled opinion pieces in Iraqi newspapers. But the statement suggested that the "information operations" program may have veered into a gray area where government contractors paid to have articles placed in Iraqi newspapers without explaining that the material came from the U.S. military and that Iraqi journalists were paid to write positive accounts." And pigs have wings. This administration has a record of planting stories and embedding reporters. It has done so here in the U.S. and it is doing so in Iraq and elsewhere; all part of the P.R. on which it exists.*Stop the Slaughter - Democrats, Stand up and be Counted Ten more American soldiers died in Iraq on December 2nd, 11 Iraqi soldiers on December 3rd. Civilian deaths mostly go unreported. The insurgents, whoever they are,keep coming and are relentless in their attacks. The Republicans in Congress are publicly standing behind the president. Some Democrats,too, are dithering about the pullout from Iraq. They let the president pull a snow job before the war began. Today they have no excuse for propping him up. Support John Murtha's suggestion for an early exit. Stop offering the soldiers as sacrifcial goats.In "Up In The Air", current online edition of The New Yorker, Seymour Hersh describes plans for increasing use of airpower in an effort to minimize army casualties at the risk of more civilian deaths. Excerpts: One person with whom the Pentagon’s top commanders have shared their private views for decades is Representative John Murtha, of Pennsylvania, the senior Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. The President and his key aides were enraged when, on November 17th, Murtha gave a speech in the House calling for a withdrawal of troops within six months. The speech was filled with devastating information. For example, Murtha reported that the number of attacks in Iraq has increased from a hundred and fifty a week to more than seven hundred a week in the past year. He said that an estimated fifty thousand American soldiers will suffer “from what I call battle fatigue” in the war, and he said that the Americans were seen as “the common enemy” in Iraq. He also took issue with one of the White House’s claims—that foreign fighters were playing the major role in the insurgency. Murtha said that American soldiers “haven’t captured any in this latest activity”—the continuing battle in western Anbar province, near the border with Syria. “So this idea that they’re coming in from outside, we still think there’s only seven per cent.” Robert Pape, a political-science professor at the University of Chicago, who has written widely on American airpower, and who taught for three years at the Air Force’s School of Advanced Airpower Studies, in Alabama, predicted that the air war “will get very ugly” if targeting is turned over to the Iraqis. This would be especially true, he said, if the Iraqis continued to operate as the U.S. Army and Marines have done—plowing through Sunni strongholds on search-and-destroy missions. “If we encourage the Iraqis to clear and hold their own areas, and use airpower to stop the insurgents from penetrating the cleared areas, it could be useful,” Pape said. “The risk is that we will encourage the Iraqis to do search-and-destroy, and they would be less judicious about using airpower—and the violence would go up. More civilians will be killed, which means more insurgents will be created.”

*"Older men declare war. But its the youth who must fight and die!" - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United StatesThe list below shows that 66 out of 81 were in their 20's. Source: Iraq Casualties.org As of today, names of three soldiers remain to be confirmed by the DOD. Their bravery and sacrifice is admirable, the mission for which they gave their lives is open to questions. While grieving for our own we must not forget the Iraqi civilians--not insurgents--ordinary men, women and children no different than us. Some day history will judge the people who were responsible for the war against Iraq. I wonder how it would treat President Bush and his minions. Would they be portrayed as honorable and just who sacrificed lives of thousands of American and others for a worthy cause or as callous megalomaniacs with narrow visions and a warped sense of their infallibility ?Daniel A. Tsue, 27, Marine Sergeant, Nov 01, 2005Allan M. Espiritu, 28, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class, Nov 01, 2005Dennis J. Ferderer Jr., 20, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005Tyler R. MacKenzie, 20, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 02, 2005Joshua J. Munger, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005Benjamin A. Smith, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 02, 2005Mark J. Procopio, 28, Army National Guard 2nd Lieutenant, Nov 02, 2005Gerald M. Bloomfield II, 38, Marine Major, Nov 02, 2005Michael D. Martino, 32, Marine Captain, Nov 02, 2005Darren D. Howe, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 03, 2005Jeffrey P. Toczylowski, 30, Army Captain, Nov 03, 2005Daniel J. Pratt, 48, Army National Guard Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 03, 2005Kyle B. Wehrly, 28, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Nov 03, 2005Jason A. Fegler, 24, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 04, 2005James M. Gurbisz, 25, Army Captain, Nov 04, 2005Dustin A. Yancey, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 04, 2005Timothy D. Brown, 23, Army National Guard Specialist, Nov 04, 2005Darrell W. Boatman, 38, Marine Gunnery Sergeant, Nov 04, 2005Thomas A. Wren, 44, Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, Nov 05, 2005Joel E. Cahill, 34, Army Captain, Nov 06, 2005James F. Hayes, 48, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 06, 2005Ryan J. Sorensen, 26, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 06, 2005Brian L. Freeman, 27, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 07, 2005Robert C. Pope II, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 07, 2005Mario A. Reyes, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 07, 2005Justin S. Smith, 28, Army 1st Lieutenant, Nov 07, 2005Alwyn C. "Al" Cashe, 35, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 08, 2005Jeremy P. Tamburello, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 08, 2005Michael C. Parrott, 49, Army National Guard Staff Sergeant, Nov 10, 2005Joshua A. Terando, 27, Army National Guard Sergeant, Nov 10, 2005Daniel Freeman Swaim, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 10, 2005Tyrone L. Chisholm, 27, Army Sergeant, Nov 11, 2005Donald E. Fisher II, 21, Army Corporal, Nov 11, 2005Antonio "Tony" Mendez Sanchez, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 11, 2005Stephen J. Sutherland, 33, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 12, 2005David A. Mendez Ruiz, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 12, 2005Scott A. Zubowski, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 12, 2005John M. Longoria, 21, Marine Corporal, Nov 14, 2005Christopher M. McCrackin, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 14, 2005Ramon J. Mendoza Jr., 37, Marine Major, Nov 14, 2005James E. Estep, 26, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 15, 2005Travis J. Grigg, 24, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 15, 2005Matthew J. Holley, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 15, 2005Nickolas David Schiavoni, 26, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 15, 2005Dylan R. Paytas, 20, Army Private, Nov 16, 2005Alexis Roman-Cruz, 33, Army Specialist, Nov 16, 2005Roger W. Deeds, 24, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 16, 2005John A. "JT" Lucente, 19, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 16, 2005Donald R. McGlothin, 26, Marine 2nd Lieutenant, Nov 16, 2005Jeremy E. Murray, 27, Marine Sergeant, Nov 16, 2005Jeffry A. Rogers, 21, Marine Corporal, Nov 16, 2005Joshua J. Ware, 20, Marine Corporal, Nov 16, 2005Ivan Vargas Alarcon, 23, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 17, 2005Vernon R. Widner, 34, Army Specialist, Nov 17, 2005Anthony Alexander "Alex" Gaunky, 19, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 18, 2005Luis R. Reyes, 26, Army National Guard Sergeant, Nov 18, 2005Christopher M. Alcozer, 21, Army Private, Nov 19, 2005Jonathan F. Blair, 21, Army Corporal, Nov 19, 2005Dominic Joseph Hinton, 24, Army Specialist, Nov 19, 2005Michael J. Idanan, 21, Army Specialist, Nov 19, 2005Edward Karolasz, 25, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 19, 2005Anthony R. C. Yost, 39, Army Master Sergeant, Nov 19, 2005Dennis W. Zilinski, 23, Army 1st Lieutenant, Nov 19, 2005Miguel Terrazas, 20, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 19, 2005Tyler J. Troyer, 21, Marine Lance Corporal, Nov 19, 2005Dominic J. Sacco, 32, Army Sergeant, Nov 20, 2005John Wilson "J.W." Dearing, 21, Army National Guard Private 1st Class, Nov 21, 2005Denis J. Gallardo, 22, Army Sergeant, Nov 22, 2005Aram J. Bass, 25, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 23, 2005Allen J. Knop, 22, Army Specialist, Nov 23, 2005William B. Meeuwsen, 24, Army Sergeant, Nov 23, 2005Ryan D. Christensen, 22, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005Marc A. Delgado, 21, Army Private 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005Eric P. Pearrow, 40, Army Sergeant 1st Class, Nov 24, 2005Steven C. Reynolds, 32, Army Staff Sergeant, Nov 24, 2005Javier A. Villanueva, 25, Army Specialist, Nov 24, 2005Gregory L. Tull, 20, Army National Guard Specialist, Nov 25, 2005Brett E. Angus, 40, Marine Master Sergeant, Nov 26, 2005Donald J. Hasse, 28, Army Sergeant, Nov 29, 2005Jerry W. Mills Jr., 23, Army Sergeant, Nov 29, 2005Joshua D. Snyder, 20, Marine Corporal, Nov 30, 2005 .

* Reading the column by Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey in Newsweek made me think that the question that we must ask is "Can we believe what he says?" There is a wide chasm between reading a speech at Annapolis and past actions, or lack thereof, by President Bush. By now majority of Americans know of the lies and deceptions that went into the misadventure in Iraq. We are paying for it and shall go on paying for it long after the president's second term ends. The rosy picture he drew about conditions in Iraq was far from the truth. And where is VP "....the insurgents are in their last throes" Cheney ? Just this morning we read about concerted mortar attacks by insurgents in Ramadi. Then, of course, there is 9/11. That cow has been milked so often and so hard that it must be screaming. The president isn't about to give up tactics that served him so well in the past. But even that is beginning to lose its impact. What is he to do!*"The Most Foolish War" So commented Professor Martin Van Creveld of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in the American Jewish Weekly "Forward". Also see Brian Whitaker's article "Nowhere to run" in the Guardian. "There is a remarkable article in the latest issue of the American Jewish weekly, Forward. It calls for President Bush to be impeached and put on trial "for misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them". Comments Anonymous — 2005-12-01 Yes- I need to get back and read through your links when I am not half asleep. I think the shouts for impeachment need to get louder and louder...great post, Musafir. Figured I'd check in with you! I was looking at the photo section a while back and meant to thank you because vicarious travel is about all I can manage these days!!!!

*"Crooked Capital", Howard Kurz writes in the Washington Post about the cozy relationships between lobbyists and legislators: "Of course, the Democrats don't have totally clean hands. Abramoff was friendly with some D's as well. Ohio's Jim (Beam Me Up) Trafficant is in jail on a 2002 bribery conviction. And Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson is under investigation over a telecommunications deal in Niger. The larger point is that both parties in Washington engage in what critics have called legalized bribery: taking money from special interests while voting on the legislation that affects them; taking golfing and other trips with lobbyists and then doing their bidding on the Hill. The scandal here is what's legal, not the relative few who have run afoul of the law. If Republicans are doing more of it, that may reflect the fact that they run Washington these days."Don't expect things to change much. It is mutual--the legislators and special interest groups feed on each other. They will find ways to maintain the status quo.*Two Speeches - A World of Difference The president read a speech at the Naval Academy, Annapolis,MD. See Daniela Deane's report in The Washington Post. About halfway through, when the president was describing how great things have become for the Iraqis, and then brought up the spectre of 9/11 (it has worked for him in the past) I switched him off. To use a cliché, I wouldn't buy an used car from him.It was more interesting to read the speech to be given by Lord May, president of the Royal Society. Excerpts from Ian Sample's article "Fundamentalists threaten scientific progress" in the Guardian,UK: "All ideas should be open to questioning, and the merit of ideas should be assessed on the strength of evidence that supports them and not on the credentials or affiliations of the individuals proposing them. It is not a recipe for a comfortable life, but it is demonstrably a powerful engine for understanding how the world actually works and for applying this understanding," he will say. The problem is most prominent in the debate over climate change, Lord May claims, comparing the climate change denial lobby, which is "funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars" by the petroleum industry, with the tobacco lobby, which continues to deny that smoking causes lung cancer. The green groups were not spared criticism."We need to recognise that on the one hand there are huge problems with nuclear energy, while on the other hand there are huge problems with putting carbon into the atmosphere." It was hard to see renewable energy replacing nuclear power "on the timescale we need." Lord May is particularly critical of the Catholic church and its comments on the use of condoms, which are proven to reduce the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. "The Vatican in particular promotes abstinence outside marriage, and condemns condom use. This disapproval, for all its putative high-mindedness, simply is not an effective strategy for preventing dissemination of HIV." The speech warns of the emerging problem of creationism being taught in school science lessons as a theory on equal footing with evolution. Lord May called on scientists to be more proactive in making their voices heard. Comments Anonymous — 2005-12-01 Readers interested in nuclear power may want to check out "Rad Decision", a techno-thriller novel about the American nuclear power industry. Written by a longtime nuclear engineer, it provides an entertaining and accurate portrait of a nuclear power plant and how an accident might be handled. “Rad Decision” is at RadDecision.blogspot.com, at no cost to readers. James Aach (author)

Washington Post*BBC*In his column today "More than a Mistake In Iraq", Richard Cohen , The Washington Post, comments about Democratic presidential aspirants who are now trying to do somersaults to explain their support for the war. A pox on all of them, the gutless opportunistic, unprincipled politicians. Hundreds of thousands of of people all over the world were protesting and marching against the obviously orchestrated efforts to sell the war while they were being briefed by the neo-cons and solemnly falling in line. Why ? The proponents of war were not believable; they had an agenda; they had records. The Democratic leaders' attempts to put a spin on their support for the war is pathetic. They didn't even display a sense of skepticism ! What do they see when they look at themselves in the mirror ? Following from Richard Cohen's column: "As it turned out, neither did Vice President Cheney or Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Cheney said, "Increasingly, we believe that the United States will become the target" of an Iraqi nuclear weapon, and Rumsfeld raised a truly horrible specter: "Imagine a Sept. 11th with weapons of mass destruction" that would kill "tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children." Imagine a defense secretary who thought he was propaganda minister. I quote this trio of braying exaggerators -- all of them still in the administration -- because they emphasized the purported nuclear weapons threat. Yet by the time the war began, March 20, 2003, it was quite clear that Iraq had no nuclear weapons program. All the evidence for one -- the aluminum tubes, the uranium from Africa -- had been challenged. What's more, U.N. inspectors in Iraq had found nothing. "We have to date found no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq," said Mohamed ElBaradei of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. That was on Feb. 14. The next month, the United States went to war anyway." Col. Larry Wilkerson Fires Another SalvoNot for the first time, Col. Wilkerson targeted the vice president--his role in abuse of prisoners. In an interview by the BBC, Col. Wilkerson stated:"I look at the relationship between Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld as being one that produced these two failures in particular, and I see that the president is not holding either of them accountable... so I have to lay some blame at his feet too," he went on.In the BBC interview, Col Wilkerson also developed his views on whether or not pre-war intelligence was deliberately misused by the White House.He said that he had previously thought only honest mistakes were made.But recent revelations about doubts in the intelligence community that appear to have been suppressed in the run-up to the war have made him question this view." The more I read about Col. Wilkerson's accusations about the Bush administration, the more I think about his former boss. General Powell's failure to speak out or resign from his position has been explained by some as the acts of a 'good soldier' who could not go against the commander in chief. Sorry, but that does not wash.

Abuse, Torture and Killing of Civilians*G.W. Bush,"Cowboy Khan"*Saddam Hussein is no longer in power but abusive fiefdoms are being created by Iraqis with money and influence. In "Private Security Crews Add to Fear In Baghdad" Jackie Spinner, Washington Post, covered only part of the deplorable situation. It is not only private security forces under payroll of Iraqis in high positions in the new government but also the government forces that are feared by the people. According to recent reports they have good reason to be afraid of them. Abuse of power is rampant. No less a person than our handpicked former Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was quoted by the BBC on November 27th" "Such abuses are as bad today as they were under Saddam Hussein", Mr Allawi told Britain's Observer newspaper two weeks after 170 detainees were found at an interior ministry centre, "some allegedly suffering from abuse and starvation". The Iraqi blogger Riverbend in her November 25th post wrote about random killing of civilians by government security forces.*"Cowboy Khan", A New Moniker for President Bush Oh, to be Genghis Khan. Howard Fineman commented in Newsweek, All Quiet in DC, about the president's stop in Mongolia on his way back from Far East: "No wonder Bush loved Mongolia. My colleagues in the White House press corps reported that he seemed relieved to be able to spend a few hours there. Nothing like a 36 percent job-approval rating to make you feel fondly towards the vast, empty steppes of the Far East."Perhaps Bush was thinking jealously of Genghis Khan, who probably didn’t need to be concerned about the polls and pundits. He just conquered a lot of territory, and that was that.Would that it were that simple. It’s not. Voters are worried, perhaps more than ever, about what the president and Vice President Dick Cheney, and the rest of the Bush Administration now call “Islamo-fascism” or “radical Islamist fundamentalism.”"But those same voters on this Thanksgiving seem to doubt that Bush’s Cowboy Khan approach is wise, at least in Iraq. They’re becoming more inclined to think that it was, is, folly."Cowboy Khan, very appropriate.

An Iraqi Woman Comments * I found and started reading "Baghdad Burning", the Riverbend Blog, soon after the beginning of the war in 2003. The author is eloquent, passionate and incisive in her posts from Baghdad. Baghdad Burning is listed among the links under "Magnets" on the left-hand side of my page. Her November 25th post is so moving that I decided to copy most of it here. I try to imagine what would happen to me, personally, should this occur. How long would it take for the need for revenge to settle in? How long would it take to be recruited by someone who looks for people who have nothing to lose? People who lost it all to one blow. What I think the world doesn’t understand is that people don’t become suicide bombers because- like the world is told- they get seventy or however many virgins in paradise. People become suicide bombers because it is a vengeful end to a life no longer worth living- a life probably violently stripped of its humanity by a local terrorist- or a foreign soldier. I hate suicide bombers. I hate the way my heart beats chaotically every time I pass by a suspicious-looking car- and every car looks suspicious these days. I hate the way Sunni mosques and Shia mosques are being targeted right and left. I hate seeing the bodies pile up in hospitals, teeth clenched in pain, wailing men and women… But I completely understand how people get there. One victim was holding his daughter. "The gunmen told the girl to move then shot the father," said a relative. Would anyone be surprised if the abovementioned daughter grew up with a hate so vicious and a need for revenge so large, it dominated everything else in her life? Or three days ago when American and Iraqi troops fired at a family traveling from one city to another, killing five members of the family. "They are all children. They are not terrorists," shouted one relative. "Look at the children," he said as a morgue official carried a small dead child into a refrigeration room. Who needs Al-Qaeda to recruit 'terrorists' when you have Da’awa, SCIRI and an American occupation?

Philanderers Want Virgin Brides* Learned from a report in The Telegraph (UK) that an Indian actress, Khusboo is facing the wrath of her countrymen because of her comments that a modern man should not "expect his bride to be a virgin". Khushboo, a 35-year-old Tamil film star and television game show host, made her controversial statement in a magazine which surveyed celebrities' views on pre-marital sex. The resulting outcry - which saw Khushboo being served with a gagging order to keep the peace - has ignited fresh debate over the gap between public morality and private attitudes towards sex in India. Yesterday the High Court of Tamil Nadu, the state where the controversy began, ordered its police director general to draw up a plan to prevent the Khushboo protests growing violent. Ah, the insecurity of the males. I applaud Ms Khusboo for publicly stating what needed to be said. As to the men in her home state, Tamil Nadu, they deserve a kick in their goolies (balls). I watched the movie "Kinsey" last night on video. The men who are up in arms in India over virgin brides might learn something from it. But probably their minds are closed to the concept of sexual equality. This 2004 film caused an uproar among the conservative Christians here in America too. "The most mediocre of males feels himself a demigod as compared with women."--Simone De Beauvoir

* A report in USA Today , 11/24/05, by Dan Vergano makes dismal reading. Physical violence against women is continuing unabated in many countries. Mr. Vergano's article is based on a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO). "Wife beating and sexual violence against women are "common, widespread and far-reaching," says a World Health Organization report released Thursday. "The "WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women" is based on a survey of 24,000 women in 10 nations It says the percentage of women reporting having been physically or sexually assaulted, or both, in their lifetime ranges from 15% in Japan to 71% in rural Ethiopia. The violence has severe health and economic consequences, the report says. "Domestic violence, in particular, continues to be frighteningly common and to be accepted as 'normal' within too many societies," says the report, the first global look at these kinds of assaults. All of the women surveyed had had a male partner at some point. "In the USA, about 1.5 million women a year are assaulted by a husband or boyfriend; about one in six women have been sexually assaulted at some time in their life, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."It is a problem here, one that many communities face," says Diane Stuart, director of the Office on Violence Against Women at the Justice Department. "This is a crime committed behind closed doors." Stuart says the isolation reported by domestic violence victims in the WHO report is also experienced by American women." Commenting on the WHO study, Alertnet.org states: "It paints a harrowing picture of broken bones, bruises, burns, cracked skulls, dislocated jaws, rape and fear. Often the cycle is repeated from one generation to the next. A child that is brought up in an environment where there is domestic violence tends to accept it as the norm and they will then practise it," said Phumaphi." (Joy Phumaphi is assistant director-general of Family and Community Health at the WHO.)My post dated October 30, 2005, about "Bride Burning", based on a Washington Post article, brought me a number of messages from India. The writers (assumed to be men) pointed out the flip side of the Dowry Act (Sec. 498A of the Indian Penal Code)--"widespread misuse of dowry laws by Indian daughters-in-law". Many instances of abuse of women in India are related to payment of dowry. When I asked the writer (one of them didn't leave a valid reply-to address) to provide specific instances of husbands being physically abused and tortured to death by their wives, I received no response. I do not dispute that there could be instances of women taking unfair advantage of Sec.498A.Here in the San Francisco Bay area the number of South Asian immigrants has grown exponentially in the past eight years and with it the number of cases of abused women in the community.Maitri is a non-profit organization run by volunteers to assist South Asian women who need help. From legal assistance to medical care, job search, and shelters, the volunteers of Maitri spend long hours to provide much-needed service to rehabilitate abused women who find themselves without money and a roof over their heads.