Losing people, losing history

I saw this in the news today:

An activist group says the death toll in the three-year Syria's conflict has exceeded 150,000.

Think about that: one hundred and fifty thousand people. Gone. When I read those words this morning, it brought me back to the AIDS deaths of the 1980s. When you lose an enormous number of  people, it's not only the individuals that are lost. You also lose the flavor and history and reality of an era. And of course, and not least, you lose all the shared experiences. No more the joy of getting together with people who played pivotal roles in your life. All gone.

NYC wasn't the same after gay men began to die in large numbers. That was such an awful time. So many talented, productive young people lost their lives, for no reason, really. At the time, it felt like the landscape itself was being altered on a daily basis. "Did you hear who died?!" That was the constant call. It felt like an attack, especially in light of daily casualty counts. It bred fear in us, which was followed by anger. Fury, really.

A pervasive sense of loss spread throughout NY's gay community. And there was also the matter of those missing talents. Stunning young artists, actors, dancers, painters and writers dropped from the ranks of the living. As Robyn Hitchcock said in his song about the passing of Nick Drake: "And when you're gone, you take the whole world with you."

New York was never the same after these mass deaths. And Syria will not be the same country after the current atrocities end. You can't lose that many people and simply restart your country at a later date, as if it had been on hiatus. It's not just people but history, memory and sensibility that is being obliterated. 

It makes you wonder what kind of a world this is. And then you remember that it's all chance, all luck. It's about where you were and what you were doing on a particular day. There's no hiding from it. Death is the grim reaper, paring the world around us on a daily basis. Nothing is assured, nothing is promised -- not really. Life is what it is.

But AIDS was an unknown virus. There is no effective way to elude something you know nothing about. That's not the case in Syria (and in so many other places). People's greed and lust for power should not be allowed to decimate an entire population.

But they are, Blanche, they are. Again and again and again. 

Birth defects, cancer rampant among Iraq's children

Uranium-tipped munitions used by the United States in the Iraq war are apparently causing birth defects and multiple cancers in the children of Iraq. Der Spiegel has the story. It's only conjecture at this point, but the children are all located in areas where battles were waged.

That we invaded the wrong country makes this doubly obscene.

Religion is good for the world. Uh-huh.

From this morning's NYT/AP headlines:

• The Russian Orthodox Church is asking for clemency for three jailed members of the rock band Pussy Riot if they repent for their "punk prayer" for deliverance from President Vladimir Putin at Moscow's main cathedral.
• Gunmen detonated a bomb Sunday near an Islamic boarding school in northern Nigeria and later exchanged gunfire with security forces, causing unknown casualties in the region's latest round of violence, officials said.
• A group of Muslims suspected of ransacking a Hindu temple in southern Pakistan may be charged with blasphemy, police said Sunday. The case is a rare twist on the use of the country's harsh blasphemy laws, which are more often invoked against supposed offenses to Islam as opposed to minority faiths.
• The acting police chief in Kenya's capital says an explosive device set off in a Sunday school class killed one child and seriously wounded three.
• Thai police believe Islamist insurgents fired grenades at a fair in southern Thailand, injuring 30 people, in anger over government efforts to win over local Muslim religious leaders.
• Thousands of Bangladeshi Muslims angry over an alleged derogatory photo of the Islamic holy book Quran on Facebook set fires in at least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes near the southern border with Myanmar, authorities said Sunday.
• An Iranian official says Tehran plans to create its own search engine and e-mail service to replace Google and its Gmail e-mail service, even as it weights lifting a ban on Gmail enacted in response to an anti-Islam film.

So don't forget to go to church today. Because religion is a good thing. You can tell by the constant joy that it brings to the world.

On the dreamy peacefulness of religion

I was amused to see this today:

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Representatives of some of the world's major religions have concluded a three-day interfaith meeting in Sarajevo by calling for peace around the world.

These people are living in a dream world. Almost all the atrocities in the world are committed by religious zealots for religious reasons. But religion is peaceful, doncha know. Uh-huh.

From today's news:

A movie attacking Islam's prophet Muhammad sparked assaults on U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt on Tuesday. A Libyan security official reported an American was shot to death as protesters burned the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and in Cairo, protesters scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy walls and replaced an American flag with an Islamic banner.

And as you know, it never ends. Yet they blindly insist that religion is a good thing. Like hell it is.

Harry's cute but what's with the military schtick?

Harry on military adventure.

Okay, sometimes I think "Prince" Harry is cute(ish). Men don't really get cute until their mid-40s, but for a young feller he's not so awful. The nicest thing about him is that there are tons of photos of him with his pants falling off. One always approves of such behavior in moderately attractive men. But what is this military thing all about? To me, he seems to adore it in a fan-boy sort of way -- can't get enough of his military adventures, our Harry. (Their Harry?)

There's a story out today about him doing even more army stuff:

EL CENTRO, Calif. (AP) — Prince Harry — a British Army captain — will train at two U.S. military bases in California and Arizona as part of an Apache attack helicopter course conducted by his country's Defense Ministry. 

What's with this guy? I'll bet he has sex with his uniform (partly) on (and partly falling off). Seriously, I think the guy's got issues. He loves war (and soldiers; just saying). The lad loves his mates and says so quite often -- can't bear to be parted from them. Perhaps he played with soldiers too often when he was little. You'd think Diana would have put the kibosh on that, but there you go. He makes no sense to me at all, but he is cute(ish).

Another lesson from the geese

The fine and excellent Milo.

I've written here before about how geese handle their aggression in sensible ways. They provide lessons for humans who, as a species, do not handle aggression well at all. I saw one of these lessons unfold the other day.

There was Milo, the male leader of the flock, chasing a goose and biting its tail feathers (and the rear end itself). I've seen them do this countless times but this time seemed different, more intense. By the time I caught wind of it, Milo was already on the tail end (no pun intended) of his rampage. What I saw was a goose's rear end, sticking out of the bushes on the edge of the property. Milo was biting that rear end and honking at him/her fiercely.

All the while, the goose lay perfectly still. I thought maybe Milo had killed it and I was horrified, but then I noticed that the geese weren't bothered at all. It was a very different response than the one I saw when one of their babies was killed. The flock was totally cool with this event so I returned to what I was doing, which was sitting on the steps and hanging out with them. I like these guys.

Later on, I checked the goose in the bushes. Its body and tail end had not moved, but now its neck was giving its head a tour of the nearby leaves, eating this and that green delicacy. The goose remained like this for a very long time.

It was obvious that it was playing dead to resolve a difference between it and Milo. What a sensible routine! Milo got his aggressive rocks off by chasing and biting tail feathers. And the "victim" paid homage to Milo by making believe s/he was dead for a time. Then, all debts paid and emotional balance restored, the goose came out of the bushes and normal flock activities resumed.

Why can't humans deal with their aggressions in similarly sensible ways? These geese -- and other animals -- are teaching us important lessons but we're not paying attention. I urge everyone to read Konrad Lorentz's wise book, "On Aggression". It should be required reading in our insanely violent world. There are countless ways to deal with aggression -- and war doesn't have to be on the menu.