New&Noteworthy 2019
LAREN PITCAIRN
Olga Pitcairn, ex-wife, also survived him.
Rev. Theodore Pitcairn, father of the groom, performing the ceremony at his chapel.
May 5, 1960—on our way to the Bahamas, visiting BRIDGES CAY, the island Laren had bought in January.
A Hollywood fairy tale: Dutch Cinderella, a World War Two Japanese concentration camp (JAVA) survivor, meets and marries her prince whose Dutch grandmother was their MATCHMAKER.
TRUTH is a religious concept.
In science there is NO TRUTH, there are only measurable and verifiable objective FACTS that “inform” knowledge.
RELIGION IS THE CULT OF THE INVISIBLE
(Erasmus of Rotterdam)
By making ourselves important
—the center of it all—
we restore the “illusion of purpose”.
WHAT YOU CANNOT PROVE—YOU CAN BELIEVE IN
ANGEL GABRIEL
The Lord’s Messenger
The Book of ENOCH was written in Aramaic as well as Hebrew (then translated into Greek) between 200-BCE and 100-CE:—the Fall of Jerusalem was in 70-CE.
Enoch was a scribe who wrote apocalyptic literature—the true child of prophecy—and his specialty were ANGELS and their adventures.
According to the Epistle of Jude—(Christian New Testament)—Enoch was the seventh (prophet) after Adam. The book mentions that “this higher theological writing in Judaism” found its “way” into Christianity.
Also according to this book, the Epistle to the Hebrews (New Testament) was most likely by Barnabas, companion to the apostle Paul, the prime mover of the “Christ(ian)” faith. Hebrews 11:5—By Faith . . . Enoch was taken from his life, so that he did not experience death; God had taken him away.
The WAY of LIGHT
Barnabas warns Christians against a Jewish conception of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). The literal interpretation of the “ceremonial laws”—moon sacrifices and Sabbath rules—was a device of an ‘evil angel’ who deceived the Jews.
Barnabas’ interpretation of God’s creation (Book of Genesis): And God made in six days the works of his hands and on the seventh day he made an end—and rested in it and sanctified it . . . means that when his Son comes he will destroy ‘the time of the wicked one’, and will judge the godless, and will change the sun and the moon and the stars, and then ‘he will truly rest on the seventh day’. The Sabbath is unacceptable but he will give ‘rest to all things’ and make the beginning of an eighth day: the beginning of “another world”. We celebrate the eighth day in which Jesus rose from the dead and was made ‘manifest’ . . . and ascended into Heaven.
The Jewish “feasts” were celebrated in accordance with the “moon’s phases”. According to the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Ezra (a scribe) relates that the Israelites presented at the Jerusalem Temple for their salvation burnt offerings: the New Moon blood sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed “sacred” feasts of the Lord.
The Epistle of the Hebrews (9:12) tells us about Christ that: he did not enter the Temple by means of the blood of goats and calves but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood—to take away the sins of this world.
The Book of Genesis was written in the IRON AGE (perhaps around 550 BCE): Genesis 4:2, Tubal-cain forged all kinds of TOOLS out of BRONZE and IRON.
Hebrew Bible:
Book of Genesis 16:9
The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert, and he said “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She answered, “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai.” Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be numerous to count.”
Genesis 21:8—Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away
Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, then sent her and Ishmael off in the desert of Beersheba.
Genesis 21:17
God heard the boy crying and the angel of the Lord called to Hagar from heaven: “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand … for I will make him into a great nation.”
ISLAM
THE FIVE ARTICLES OF FAITH
Belief in one GOD
Belief in ANGELS
Belief in the revealed BOOKS
Belief in the PROPHETS
Belief in the DAY OF JUDGMENT
NO STORY of HAGAR and ISHMAEL == NO HOLY KORAN
The (in my opinion cruel) story, taking place in the desert of Beersheba—why was
it included in the Book of Genesis? Is it possible that this
tribe—Ishmaelite—would otherwise had contested the supremacy of the tribe
Israel? In a patriarchal society the first-born son inherits the father’s position.
The notion of ANGELS as “heavenly messengers” started when Zoroastrianism
became prevalent (c.600-BCE) in BABYLONIA.
Page 233:
Nebuchadnezzar II (Chaldean king) and the “Last Days of Ur—c.600-300-BCE”
Babylon = bab-il-ani = Gate of the Gods
(Link between Heaven and Earth)
It is not uncommon for countries to create “self-serving” or sanitized historical narratives. As George Orwell said: “Who controls the past, controls the future; who controls the present, controls the past.”
THIS IS MY “INPUT”
The Book of GENESIS was written (to be included) as a “foreword-introduction” to MOSES and the exodus of the Hebrews/Israelites from EGYPT to the land of milk and honey: CANAAN.
GENESIS relates the “adventures” of a man named Abram/Abraham. His story starts at UR, a city-state in Mesopotamia—UR was ruled by Moon-god Nanna (Sin) whose badge was the crescent—And so our hero sets out with his family “from Ur of the Chaldeans to Canaan.”
Genesis 15:7—I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it. 17:8—The whole land of Canaan where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you, and I will be their God.
Genesis 22:11 –The angel of the LORD called out to Abraham from heaven, “Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy.”
Genesis 28:12 –Jacob had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 31:11—The angel of God said to me in a dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am’. 32:30—And Jacob saw God face to face.
Abraham became the father of Ishmael, patriarch of the Arabs—their badge is the crescent of Ur.
Abraham was also the father of Isaac, the future Israelite people—their badge is a star because God had said: Genesis 15:5—“Look up at the heavens and count the stars—so shall your offspring be.”
GENESIS 46:2—And God spoke to Israel (Jacob) in a vision at night. “I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. 47:11—So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land.
BOOK OF EXODUS 12:40—Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years.
The last time an angel of the LORD appeared (in Scripture) was to Joseph.
New Testament Gospel of Matthew 2:13—An angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to
Egypt.” So they left. And so was fulfilled what the LORD had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.”
According to legend,
MOSES was born c. 1500-BCE: Late Bronze Age.
Also according to legend,
Moses was the author of five books:
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Book of EXODUS 20 –I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 23:31—I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines (Mediterranean) and the river Euphrates. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you.
[This job Joshua had to fulfill starting with the FALL OF JERICHO]
THE IRON AGE in “the land of milk and honey” started c. 1100-BCE.
Nomadic people do not celebrate “feasts” like planting and harvesting crops—agriculturists do.
GENESIS 4:2
Tubal-Cain forged all kinds of TOOLS out of BRONZE and IRON
Book of Deuteronomy 27:5--The Altar on Mount Ebal
Moses: Build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones (field stones). Do not use any IRON TOOL upon them.
After the death of Moses, his appointed leader Joshua led the Israelites into the land of milk and honey.
THE FALL OF JERICHO:
Book of Joshua 6:24—Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of BRONZE and IRON into the treasury of the LORD’s house.
Who controls the past, controls the future;
who controls the present, controls the past.
New Testament Gospel of Luke 24:44—Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. 24:46—The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of SINS will be preached in HIS NAME TO ALL NATIONS, beginning at JERUSALEM.
THE NATION WAS A RELIGION, THE RELIGION WAS A NATION
Articles:
TALK PEACE and CREATE FACTS on the GROUND
THE HISTORIC TRUTH
Without truth there can be no justice, and without justice, NO PEACE.
TRUTH is the daughter of TIME
[VERITAS FILIA TEMPORIS]
TORAH/Old Testament book of GENESIS 3:16—So the Lord said to the woman: Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.
Genesis 24: Isaac and Rebekah—24:65—Rebekah got down from her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?” The servant answered, “He is my master.” So Rebekah took her veil (bridal veil) and covered herself. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah (mother had to be witness to Rebekah’s virginity).
KORAN 4:34—Men have authority over women because God made the one superior to the other.
Why women wear headscarves
KORAN 33:59—Prophet, enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers to draw their veils close round them
so that they may be RECOGNIZED and not be molested.
CHINA
Modern FOOT-BINDING
NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE:
gospel of Matthew 10:34-38
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a SWORD. For I have come - - - - etc.
1 John 3:8—For this purpose the Son of God was manifested: that he might destroy the works of the Devil.
THE BOOK AND THE SWORD
Take the universe itself as God and there is no denying God
AS YOU THINK, SO YOU BECOME
The superior man understands what is right.
The inferior man understands what will sell.
Confucius
WE ARE WHAT WE EAT
Our MEDIA diet—“gated realities”—is it a “new” REALITY?
What IS reality today—personal perspective?
What at the “Coliseum” was once offered by Caesar: a bloody gladiator spectacle for the Roman population —today the “Media” is used by the Elite to provoke citizens to violence. To be noticed: Outrages falsehoods are presented as truths.
They make ready their tongue like a bow, TO SHOOT LIES (Jeremiah 9:3).
What are LIES?
How about a snaky slip of the tongue? Or spinning of facts to hijack reality so as to claim power over truth? How best to lie to yourself—especially when facts contradict?!
Fake realities are created for folks who listen with “their guts” (isn’t that where “fear resides”?) and learn by heart what is spoken?
THE PEN IS THE TONGUE OF THE MIND
(Horace)
So, let me repeat what the Jewish God (Deuteronomy 5:2—You shall have no other gods before me) said to Eve in paradise (Genesis 3:16): your husband will RULE over you.
And let me repeat as well that the book of Genesis could not have been written by Bronze Age Moses. Genesis 4:2—Tubal-Cain forged all kinds of TOOLS out of bronze and IRON. Book of Deuteronomy 27:5—Moses: Build an altar to the Lord, your God: an altar of stones. Do not use any IRON TOOL upon them.
Joshua 6:25—The Fall of Jericho. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and IRON into the treasury of the Lord’s house.
And lastly, let it be known that the KORAN is the CONFIRMATION of the Old and New Testaments.
ATHEISM: A Very Short Introduction
(Julian Baggini)
Atheism emerged from the rejection of myth; the belief in the rule of and by deities was considered superstition (Socrates, Plato, and etcetera).
To be liberated from religion—the external framework.
A NEW BEGINNING
A NEW WORLD
This is the SIGN of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth (Gen. 9:17).
GENESIS 1:3—Let there BE light . . .
Why 2015 is the UNESCO Year of Light
BOOK OF OPTICS:
KITAB AL MANAZIR
AMATERASU
Goddess of the SUN
JAPAN: Shinto religion
After the storm god SUSANOO had killed the dragon, he sent his magic sword to his sister AMATERASU, the sun goddess. One day Susanoo ran amok and destroyed the rice fields, the farmers’ livelihood. Angry, Amaterasu withdrew into a cave—closing the entrance—and that’s when day and night ceased to exist. This worried the gods, about eight million of them and they tried to lure her out of her cave, but had no luck. Then a female deity began a striptease and the gods laughed and laughed! Intrigued, Amaterasu looked out. The gods held a mirror before the sun-goddess. Thrilled, seeing herself for the first time, Amaterasu came out. The gods quickly passed a rope behind her so she couldn’t return to her cave. That’s when day and night returned to the world.
The bamboo Shinto shrines at ISE SHIMA National Park, dedicated to Amaterasu, are rebuilt every twenty years. Her shrine houses the sacred mirror symbolizing purity, as well as Susanoo’s sword symbolizing courage, and a jeweled necklace symbolizing benevolence. The mirror, sword, and necklace are the three treasures of the Imperial House.
SHINTO—The Way of the Gods
Shinto is a nature religion. It has no founder, no dogma, and no official sacred scripture. The manifestations of nature are deified. These in turn became Japanese manifestations of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It teaches the innate goodness of the human heart. Its most important feature is purification. Offerings and prayers are made at the family shrine at home and also at temples. Fasting periods are also important.
Shinto worship is known as the ‘Outer Gate’ and Buddha worship as the ‘Inner Gate’.
TELESCOPES changed our VIEW of the UNIVERSE
MICROSCOPES revolutionized our VIEW on BIOLOGY
Powerful LASER BEAMS can stay thin all the way to the moon and back.
IMAGINATION depends on PERCEPTION—the ECHO of a THOUGHT
(Ludwig Wittgenstein)
INVENTING THE FUTURE
(John Naughton)
A Brief History of the Future
From radio days to Internet years: visionaries and dreamers
EMPIRES of LIGHT
(Jill Jonnes)
EDISON—TESLA—WESTINGHOUSE
The RACE to electrify the world
BRILLIANT: the evolution of artificial light
(Jane Brox)
What changed when we TURNED ON LIGHTS
The good fairy: LIGHT without FIRE
From CAMP FIRE TALK (hunter-gatherers) to MASS SPEECH on the INTERNET (today’s market place)
Killing and cutting up an animal: the meat supply
FORAGING FOR FOOD
Apes—EAT their food RAW
Homo sapiens, at the camp fire, started to COOK their food
21st century: MEAT available year round
Cooking/broiling MEAT started our long trip from homo erectus and then homo sapiens.
When MEAT became scarce, we began to grow our food by domesticating the wild grasses. Planting, harvesting, and “storing” cereals became a full-time job.
Photo by Gunther Benes, Vienna, Austria
HEIRS TO FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS
Mandaeans—Yazidis—Zoroastrians—Druze—Samaritans—Kalasha—Copts
FASCINATING STORIES
Zoroastrian Fire
Angel
Yazidi Peacock Angel
THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS
Attar’s great mystical poem opens when all the birds of the world gather
together to begin the search for an ideal king.
Encounters with Stone Age Islanders
THE LAND OF NAKED PEOPLE
A riveting story about the Andaman islanders in the Bay of Bengal
VERY ENTERTAINING—not to be missed reading!
According to the Andamese,
possession of FIRE marked the difference between humans and animals.
MAN IS A COOKING ANIMAL
By eating cooked—SOFT—foods
our digestive system was altered accordingly.
The energy theory of cooking: brain foods.
ERUDITE!
AN ETERNAL LAMP
to light up the universe
A fan wants to know why I chose the pen name CAMELIA ROSE
This book, Persian Gardens and Garden Pavilions, changed the direction of my life.
SHIRAZ
city of roses
1972: the tomb and garden of the poet Hafiz in Shiraz
Hafiz celebrated the intoxicating fragrance of roses and the sweet songs of nightingales. The poet toasted exaltedly its famous nectar: red wine.
Rosewater was used for flavoring foods: cakes, compotes, and sauces. Oil was the basis for making “perfumes” and “attar of roses” was much coveted.
Building their cathedrals, Christianity made the rose “sacred” in stained glass rosette windows.
In England the rose became famous thanks to the legend of the Wars of the Roses: The Lancaster red rose of Henry 7th and Richard 3rd white rose of York.
The two roses were united into one emblem when Henry married Elizabeth of York, niece of Richard and the white rose was tucked inside the red rose.
October 1986, President Ronald Reagan announced that Americas floral emblem was to be the ROSE. The White House Rose Garden—outside and in front: the Oval Office became the corner stone of presidential power.
The red rose became the universal token of LOVE
The CAMELLIA, an evergreen shrub/tree, is native to East Asia.
In China the white camellia is known as the “tea flower”; its leaves are used to brew tea. The ornamental camellia, grown in England, became popular when Queen Victoria preferred bouquets of camellias in her living quarters.
Age 30
Rosewater “eau de toilette” and “bath gel” by Crabtree & Evelyn
Coco Chanel, the French fashion designer, was famous for her emblem: two entwined C’s. My favorite accessory was Coco’s pristine white sateen camellia pinned on a dress, scarf or hat.
The white flower became famous when the French writer Dumas wrote his “limelight” novel La Dame aux camelias. A playwright as well, Dumas’ Paris stage-production of La Dame aux camelias became a huge hit.
VERDI composed his immortal opera LA TRAVIATA after he had attended the “three-hanky-stage-story”.
PERSIAN HISTORY AND TRAVEL MEMOIRS
LIFE IS A PILGRIMAGE
The personal story of the World’s Debate: First World War (a vanished world) and Second World War (the Issue of India).
THE ROCK OF ALAMUT
THE VALLEYS OF THE ASSASSINS—AND OTHER PERSIAN TRAVELS
by Freya Stark
The author states that she enjoys travelling and doing things “for fun”. Freya learned to speak, also for fun, a bit of Arabic as well as Persian (Farsi). Needles to say, “officials/police” checking her passport and travel documents raised many an eyebrow. In rural areas Frey was a sensation as the native population had never before met a “European lady”.
This very personal travel log is FASCINATING and definitely written with FUN in mind.
THE ASSASSINS
The story of Medieval Islam’s secret sect
by W.B. Bartlett
This book is a detailed HISTORY—separating fact from fiction/legend—of the infamous ASSASSINS; feared was the OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN.
The Persian Empire was founded 550-BCE by the Achaemenid Cyrus the Great and ended when the Greek Alexander the Great took over in 530-BCE.
In 224-CE, the Persian Empire was re-established by Ardeshir and was known as the Sasanian Empire. The Zoroastrian religion became the official state religion; the battle between “good” and “evil”—Ormuzd/Ahriman.
This second empire lasted until the arrival of the Muslim Arabs in 651 CE.
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
rendered into English verse by Edward Fitzgerald
It is a translator’s duty to conserve the spirit of the author, Fitzgerald wrote.
There was the Door to which I found no Key:
There was the Veil through which I could not see:
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was—and then no more of THEE and ME.
Omar Khayyam, known as the astronomer-poet of Persia, lived circa 1100 CE and was born in Naishapur, Khorasan. Omar studied under the guidance of the famous Imam MOWAFFAK of Naishapur together with two other pupils: Nizam ul Mulk and Ben Sabbah, who became head of the Persian sect of the Ismailians—and in 1090 CE seized the castle of Alamut in the mountains south of the Caspian Sea.
Omar was asked by Malik Shah to reform the calendar which became known as the Jalali era. He also wrote an Arabic treatise on Algebra. Omar: “Khayyam, who stitched the tents of science..
A scholar/philosopher, preferring to concentrate on Truth and Justice, Khayyam was dreaded by the Sufis whom he ridiculed. Though his heart sang: Let us drink (the juice of the grape), for To-morrow we die . . .
[The prohibition of WINE (in Islam) made it possible for a poor man to entertain his friends in dignity]
Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into the Dust descend;
Dust into Dust, and under Dust, to lie,
Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and—sans End.
A religion cannot become a global faith without books to teach.
Tomb of Hafiz in Shiraz
The Way of the Mystics:
The early Christian mystics and the rise of the Sufis
by Margaret Smith
PARADISE
Persian word for royal hunting preserves
New Testament, Gospel of Luke 23:43
Jesus answered him: I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
The Koran—Sura 11:108
As for the blessed, they shall abide in Paradise as long as the heavens and the earth endure--
The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan
by James Morier
First published in 1824
Bridges of Isfahan, photos taken in 1972
James Justinian MORIER was a British diplomat, traveler and novelist born 1780 in Smyrna (now Izmir,Turkey); his father was consul at Constantinople.
HAJJI BABA is a travel log comprising of 80 delightfully, witty, adventure stories about camels and caravans as well as “romance”.
The Epic of the Kings: Shah-nama
the national epic of Persia
by Ferdowsi; translated by Reuben Levy
This book is about the creation of the world until the Muslim conquest in 651 CE.
Jamshid, the primal “priest-king”: the divinely inspired creator of CIVILIZATION, the bringer of world order whose “arrogance” causes his fall and plunges mankind into evil and darkness.
Ferdowsi did not invent the stories but put them in verse form. Basically—it’s the struggle between GOOD and EVIL—the core of Zoroastrian religion.
This epic tale is about the careers of the 50 kings and queens who reigned during the era of myth and legend. [it reminds me of ancient Elam/Sumer].
It took Ferdowsi 35 years to write “the Epic of the Kings”: to immortalize the glory and identity of his “fatherland”. Ferdowsi, born in Khorasan, died circa 1023 CE.
The Road to Oxiana
by Robert Byron
This entertaining travel log is a work of genius. In my opinion, it’s a British version of the adventures of our endearing Hajji Baba! Robert Byron has a saucy way of describing his surroundings, events, and people (dialogues) that made me giggle all the way. Although his search/story for the origins of Islamic architecture
—tombs, mosques, minarets, shrines, ruins—is not a la mode, I learned ‘along the way’ that
THE PERSIAN COLOR IS-----BLUE
Song of the pansy: BANAFSHE
Robert’s “pleasure” Odyssey:
Jerusalem
September 1933
The King David Hotel—description of the interior: Assyrian, Hittite, King Salomon, Greek-Syrian “periods”. Robert compared Jerusalem and its surroundings with that of Toledo (Spain). How to COPE, a la Robert, when visiting Holy Places. Talk about those Jewish revisionists wanting to be rid of the English and then set up a Jewish state. Robert observed/remarked that the Arabs would ‘not suffer’ a single Jew to exist once the English went.
By car to Damascus (Syria). Side trip to the ruins of Baalbek (Lebanon). Then by “the aero-bus” to Baghdad; passing on the way a convoy of armored cars escorting King Feisal’s brothers returning from Feisal’s funeral.
Tidbit: Mesopotamia remains a land of mud ever since Hulagu had destroyed the irrigation system. Baghdad—the city of the Arabian Nights—lurks in a mud fog.
By car to Persia. A stop at Kasr-i-Shirin to get “a permit for Tehran”. A stay at Kermanshah and a visit to the Sasanian grottoes at Tak-i-Bostan. At Hamadan a look at a 12th century Seljuk mausoleum. On to Tehran and then Tabriz (Azerbaijan) first by car/lorry and then on horseback—with a visit to the observatory (Rasatkhana/star house) built by Hulagu. More visits to ruins on horseback. These adventures included “fleabites” so severe that his companion’s legs were covered with water blisters. Return to Tehran.
TEHRAN—MESHED—H E R A T
By bus to Meshed, home of Omar Khayyam. On the way, at DAMGHAN, Robert looked up a ruined mosque known as the “History House”; it reminded him of an English village church of the Norman period—Romanesque. According to Robert, the whole of Islamic architecture borrowed from the Sasanian tradition—once Islam had conquered Persia. At Damghan he took the Reo Speed Waggon but at Nishapur the lorry’s lights went out and he switched to a British Bedford pilgrim bus to Meshed: the holy city of the Shiahs. A side trip to Tus, visiting Ferdowsi’s grave.
Arriving in H e r a t –capital of the Timurids—by car, Robert spotted ruins across from his hotel. He visited seven sky-blue pillars (minarets) with in their midst a blue melon-dome with the top bitten off: a mausoleum. More architectural trips—and visiting gardens with fragrant rose-bushes.
“The Memoirs of Babur” were written in the early 16th century and translated into English twice. Babur (Tiger) lost his princedom of Oxiana to the Uzbegs but then conquered India. Babur became the first MOGUL.
After one week, Robert left by car for Turkestan but had to return to H e r a t because the road was as greasy as Vaseline.
BABUR’S GARDEN BLOOMS AGAIN
The last part of this hilarious log is about past politics and predictions. I especially like Robert mentioning that the Timurids’ (Mongols by birth) idea of domestic life came from China—that paradise of masterful women.
At Maimena he saw a regiment marching—every other rifle had a rose in the muzzle.
The Russian forces on the river Oxus led to the expulsion of the (lambskin trade) Jews from Afghanistan.
Afghan nationalism became supreme: change of the official language Persian to Pushtu.
Whisky(alcohol prohibition) is to be known as sherbet.
Lavatory is jawab-i-chai is “the answer to tea”.
The trip to the valley of Bamian was lyrical— flora: blue chicory, pink hollyhock, lemon-colored cornflowers; pistachio bushes, pomegranate trees in scarlet flowers, bushes of pink spiraea—on and on . . .
Then, like enormous wasps’ nests—the caves of the Buddhist monks clustered about two giant Buddhas.
BAMIAN
Robert’s architectural description is “unflattering”.
The smell of the yellow-green olive flowers of Afghanistan reminded him of a cedar wardrobe of his childhood.
Robert meets a colonel; they converse on “Mohammedan architecture”. The colonel uttered in a ghoulish whisper that the “whole (architecture) was phallic”.
Robert travels from Kabul to Peshawar/India
Then by boat to England
A passenger asked where he had been. “Afghanistan”, he replied. “Ah, Afghanistan, that’s in India, isn’t it?”
Robert gives tribute to his mother—his final words on paper:
What I have seen she taught me to see.
And for sure—I shall read/see this wonderful trip to Oxiana at least once more because it’s truly too funny for words!
About
-----TRUTH-----
SCHOPENHAUER
Every TRUTH
passes through three stages before it is recognized.
In the first, it is ridiculed.
In the second, it is opposed.
In the third, it is regarded as self-evident.
The PEN is the TONGUE of the MIND.
(Horace)
WRITING is the graphic expression of actual SPEECH.
LANGUAGE is the doorway into our virtual world.
We live in a linguistic universe where reality is what we construct in WORDS.
(Wittgenstein)
In SUMER (Mesopotamia) the LIFE of the universe was the CREATIVE WORD.
In the BEGINNING was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God.
(John 1:1)
Man was created from dust of the ground and shall return to dust—
(Sumer)
For dust you are and to dust you will return—
(Genesis 3:19)
Maggots are your bed and worms are your blanket—
(Prophet Isaiah 14:11)
You do not know life—how could you know death (Confucius).
Logic will get you from A to B—
IMAGINATION will take you everywhere
(Einstein)
WHY people love the TRUTH but don’t want to be proven wrong
and refuse to be shown that mistake?
BECAUSE:
Questions about death always refer to “a time . . . after death”.
Jesus preached: “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17)
I tell you the TRUTH: (John 6:47)
He who believes has everlasting life.
Whereof one cannot speak—thereof one must be silent (Wittgenstein).
Science teaches how the heavens go
and
religion teaches how to go to heaven.
A religion cannot become a global faith without books to TEACH.
The pope in Rome had the Bible (Old & New Testaments) translated into Latin—
the lingua franca of the fifth century.
Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people (Heine).
China today:
Where they burn “free speech (freedom of religion)”,
they will also “burn/punish” the dissenters.
FREE SPEECH —what is left over when a community has determined in advance
what it does not want to hear (censorship).
TRUTH by its very nature is cruel, and to protect themselves against the TRUTH
—to see things as they really are—
people believed what they wished to believe—in order to SURVIVE.
What you cannot prove—YOU CAN BELIEVE
BELIEF is thicker than critical thinking.
The TRUTH you believe and cling to— makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
In the past, at royal courts,
the CLOWN
was the only one allowed to
TELL THE TRUTH
LIFE isn’t about “finding yourself”.
LIFE is about “creating yourself”.
(George Bernard Shaw)
HAPPY OCTOBER 9th!
THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES
Beautiful illustrations
THE FIRST ANGLO-AFGHAN WAR
1838-1842
The Objective:
To keep Russia out of Afghanistan
A JOURNAL OF THE DISASTERS IN AFGHANISTAN—
The memoir of Lady Florentia Sale
BRITAIN AND THE PASHTUNS
1897-1947
This region became the HUB of a worldwide terrorist network
BUGLES AND A TIGER—a novel
by John Masters; Indian Army officer and novelist
Photo by Guenther Benes, Vienna, Austria
When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.
(Rudyard Kipling; 1865-1936)
SOVIET—AFGHAN WAR
1979-1989
US INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN
October 7, 2001------
THE TALLEST WATCH TOWER
Canadian National Post, 17 September 2009, page 25:
“We’ve lost the war: Recall the troops” by Tarek Fatah
Excerpt:
Today we are fighting Islamist jihadism, yet neither Obama nor the British PM nor Harper or Ignatieff dare utter one word against the IDEALOGY that attacked us all on 9/11.
So—WHAT is this war for?
To sustain the 60.000 private corporations that feed what Eisenhower referred to as the American Military-Industrial complex?
If we and our American-British allies do not have the spine to challenge the Islamist DOCTRINES, send our soldiers home. To fight malaria, we need to drain the swamp—not kill individual mosquitoes, one at a time {Saddam, Osama, Baghdadi}. Our young men and women must not be gun fodder for the profiteers who befriend the Saudis—but bomb the Afghans—while trading with the Iranian ayatollahs.
This sham must END.
So long as we remain unwilling to challenge the IDEOLOGY of JIHAD, let us admit defeat and retreat.
National Post
INVISIBLE ARMIES:
GUERRILLA WARFARE
A cool and balanced account ranging from—prehistory—through ancient China—to the Ku Klux Klan: one of the largest and most successful terrorist organizations in HISTORY—to Hezbollah, Hamas and Chechnya. (review by John Gray—New Statesman)
My input:
Indeed, this book is an epic war story on territorial imperative (plunder and gain of riches)
Imperialism:
Scotland vs England: 1296-1746
The American Revolution against Britain: 1775-1783
The “Forest Wars” in Eastern North America: 1627-1842
The Winning of the West (America): 1848-1890
Britain’s Boer War (S. Africa): 1899-1902
The Irish War of Independence: 1919-1921
Spanish-American War: 1898—the Philippines annexed
Chapters on International Terrorism
Guerrillas in the World Wars
Wars of National Liberalism
The Rise of Radical Islam
The Bibliography is amazing
However, editorial services were absent as slab dash errors were made.
Page 201. “Nineveh and Tyre were, of course, cities in ancient SUMERIA that were ravaged by nomadic guerrillas.”—
Page 14. “The city dwellers of SUMERIA, etc—
A quote during the Egyptian uprising from a youth:
It is better to die for something than to live for nothing
My trip to Iran, 1972
My first attempt at learning FARSI at Berlitz School of Languages, Philadelphia, PA.
Shiraz, city of roses and the poet Hafiz
Entering SHIRAZ-main gate
Park Hotel
Garden of Hafiz
VIENNA: The concert, 1951, was taped by Uncle Eugen; I have a (rather faded) copy.
The composer, Sergei Bortkiewicz, rehearsed the songs with my aunt Olga in their “tower apartment”; In einem Ort in Persien singen die Nachtigallen—HAFIS!
When auntie was late, the composer and I played a quatre mains; and he shared hot chocolate and cake served by their housekeeper.
Our CAMEL
The tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae, his capital
Posing in front of a column, 36 ft tall
View of Persepolis, capital of Darius
Naqsh-e-Rajab, depicting Sassanian kings
Temple/ziggurat: Chogha Zambil, 13th century BCE, Elam; excavated by Professor R. Ghirshman.
Sushan, capital of Elam; neighbor of SUMER
TO SUMER THE WORLD OWES ALL ITS BASIC ARTS OF LITERATE CIVILIZED LIFE—
STORE OF KNOWLEDGE
The beginning of the CREATIVE WORD
{spoken and then written}
The Sumerian breath of LIFE: FOOD
{we “are” an accumulation of “food”}
The year 2020 will be devoted to the CRADLE of HISTORY:
TEMPLE LIFE
WHY and HOW our ancestors began to
PRODUCE FOOD
