Here is a beautiful poem by Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti, who passed away only a couple of days ago. As I enter my 40’s, I can’t but look look with disappointment at all the roads not taken, all the things not done, and wonder if it’s not too late for me. I know other friends have the same concerns. So here is this poem. I’m sure there is an official translation somewhere, but I haven’t found it. I’m a terrible translator, but I hope I can convey the gist.
Don’t Give Up
by Mario Benedetti
Don’t give up, you still have time
to reach up and start anew,
Accept your shadows,
Bury your fears,
Free your burdens,
Fly again.
Don’t give up, that’s what life is
Continue the journey,
Follow your dreams,
Unstuck time,
Move the rubble,
And uncover the sky.
Don’t give up, please don’t give way,
Even if the cold burns,
Even if fear bites,
Even if the sun sets,
And the wind goes silent,
There is still fire in your soul
There is still life in your dreams.
Because life is yours and yours is the desire
Because you have loved it and because I love you
Because wine exists and love is true.
Because there are no wounds that time doesn’t cure.
To open the doors,
Take away the locks,
Abandon the walls that have protected you,
To live life and accept the challenge
Get back laughter,
Practice a song,
Lower the guard and extend the hands
Open the wings
And try again,
Celebrate life and take back the skies.
Don’t give up, please don’t give way,
Even if the cold burns,
Even if fear bites,
Even if the sun sets,
And the wind goes silent,
There is still fire in your soul
There is still life in your dreams.
Because every day is a new beginning,
Because this is the hour and the best moment.
Because you are not alone, because I love you.
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Here is a scam that I got today. A quick search online shows that the name Mariam Badda has been in other scam letters – I wonder why they don’t just come up with new names.
Dear friend,
My name is mariam badda and i am from the republic of mozambique based in london.i am a professional watercolour artist.i was diagnosed on the 15th of November 2008 with stage 111A breast cancer.on the 30th of November i had a lumpectomy and they had to take out nine of my lymph nodes, in which there were seven that were positive.the size of my tumor was 1.3cm and surgical margins were negative.i had the Her-2/neu protein,which is a varying aggressive cancer.after that i went through several series of radiation tests and did 3months of Adriamycin and cytoxan.My Doctor then advised to me to start recieving treatment at home.On the 10th of march this year my oncologist told me that after properly analysing my radiation test and treatment control reviews i had to do a chemo treatment.This treatment would be the last phase of medication to totally eliminate the cancer cells that are rapidly growing and dividing in my blood cells.I have spent all my hard earned money to ensure my survival.i have also had a lot of support from friends and relatives during my radiation tests and lumpectomy defect.
I solely appeal through this means to you out there to please support me in anyway you can so that i can go through this operation once and for all and return normal and healthy again because i have a very limited period of time to live.your generousity will be highly appreciated and honoured by me.i look forward to hear from you soon.thanks,
Mrs mariam badda
In other absurd news, Reprieve, a respected human rights organization, is trying to get artists to join their campaign against the use of music as torture. So far, they haven’t taken their calls. The use of music to cover screams during torture sessions is relatively common (in those countries where torture is used) – but music /as torture/ seems to be a new development.
Group Seeks Support to Ban Use Of Music as Torture
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Human rights activists seeking a ban on the use of loud music to exert psychological pressure on detainees in U.S. custody are appealing to Bruce Springsteen and Eminem to join their campaign against music as torture.
The campaign called the Zero dB project, standing for zero decibels, was launched at the end of last year by British legal charity Reprieve, which represents dozens of prisoners held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
It has already signed up British artists including David Gray, Dizzee Rascal and Massive Attack and is now setting its sights on American musicians, said Chloe Davies, a representative of Reprieve and Zero dB.
At a recent “Music and Torture” conference near New York, Davies described the experience of several former detainees including Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian who moved to Britain as a teenager. He was released from Guantanamo in February after nearly seven years in U.S. and Moroccan custody.
During interrogations in Morocco, Mohamed reported being physically tortured, including having his penis repeatedly cut with a scalpel, yet he said what he found hardest was having loud music blasted at him in the dark for days on end.
“After a while, I felt pretty much dead, I didn’t feel I existed at all,” Davies quoted Mohamed as saying.
Another former detainee, Rhuhel Ahmed, thought initially it was a joke when his captors played rapper Eminem’s music, Davies said.
“But after so long, when he started to hallucinate, he said he got why they were doing it,” she said, quoting Ahmed as saying, “The music torture stripped away the last sanctuary you had in your mind.”
Davies said Ahmed, who was released from Guantanamo in 2004, had been trying to contact Eminem directly to explain what he went through, but “he’s not taking Rhuhel’s calls.”
“The big people like Bruce Springsteen, who we thought would care because he’s quite political, we’re still trying to reach him,” Davies said. “It’s just so hard to get through the walls of managers.”
Representatives for Eminem and Springsteen did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
POSSIBLE LEGAL ACTION
Davies said Reprieve was also discussing with U.S. lawyers possible legal action that musicians may take against the U.S. government to claim compensation for copyright infringement. She said musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was among those interested in pursuing legal action.
According to Reprieve, music that has been used ranges from heavy metal such as AC/DC, Aerosmith and Metallica to the theme tune from the children’s show “Sesame Street.”
Detainees also reported the use of songs with overtly American titles, such as Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and Don McLean’s “American Pie,” or with sexual content, such as Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty.”
In one of his first acts after taking office in January, U.S. President Barack Obama said he would close Guantanamo and ordered detainees to be held in conditions that comply with the Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of prisoners.
Thomas Keenan, director of the Human Rights Project at Bard College, which organized Friday’s conference, said it was still important to push for explicit U.S. government recognition that music can amount to torture, and a ban on its use as such.
He said the U.S. Army Field Manual, which lays out how to treat detainees, does not specifically address the use of music, which has a long history of being used to exert psychological pressure by the U.S. military.
The most famous instance was in 1989 when U.S. forces blasted military dictator Manuel Noriega with loud rock music when he was holed up in the Vatican Embassy in Panama.
Keenan said it was hard to define what amounted to torture, but it was vital to address the issue.
“There’s a tendency to think ‘The world has changed, now we’re not doing that any more, it’s a thing of the past,'” Keenan told Reuters. “That worries me.”
“What’s needed is a debate … a terrible debate on the benefits of torture, with or without music,” Keenan said. “We need to repudiate it explicitly.”
(Editing by Peter Cooney)
This is just bizarre. Cambodians victims of the democide that took place in that country mark an annual “Day of Anger” by re-enacting the torture and executions that took place under the Khmer Rouge.
(AP) Cambodians marked their annual “Day of Anger” Wednesday to remember victims of the Khmer Rouge regime by re-enacting torture and distributing new textbooks about the era largely ignored by schools run by a government whose leaders once served the movement.
About 2,000 Cambodians, including hundreds of Buddhist monks, gathered at Choeung Ek, a former Khmer Rouge “killing field” dotted with mass graves about nine miles (15 kilometers) south of Phnom Penh.
Some 40 students re-enacted the torture and executions inflicted by the ultra-communists under whose rule in the mid-1970s about 1.7 million people perished.
The performance was staged just yards (meters) away from a memorial filled with victims’ skulls and mass graves where thousands of people were buried.
Relatives of the victims expressed hope that some of the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders will finally be brought to justice by a U.N.-backed tribunal.
Currently on trial is Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who commanded the notorious S-21 prison where as many as 16,000 people are believed to have been tortured before being sent to Choeung Ek for execution.
Duch (pronounced Doik) is the first senior Khmer Rouge figure to face trial, and the only one to acknowledge responsibility for his actions. Senior leaders Khieu Samphan, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary and Ieng Sary’s wife, who are all detained, are likely to be tried in the next year or two.
“Why is the court taking so long to prosecute these leaders?” asked Tat Seang Lay, 47, whose two brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge. “I want to see justice. I wish the court could end its trial process within the next few months.”
About 3,000 copies of the new schoolbook were distributed Wednesday in the province around Phnom Penh, with a half million more to follow throughout the country, said Youk Chhang, director of the private Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has amassed information about the Khmer Rouge.
Youk Chhang said the book, “A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979),” is aimed at educating Cambodia’s youth about an era that is part of the living history of every family and at bringing about reconciliation.
He said the government-approved book was reviewed by Cambodian and foreign scholars and includes lessons from genocide in Nazi Germany, Rwanda and elsewhere.
Cambodia’s leaders have been reluctant to dig deeply into the Khmer Rouge period. Several, including Prime Minister Hun Sen, defected from the movement after serving in military or political positions.
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