Making a new fake threat: CIA's "Boko Haram"

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY); BBC

Is it possible to control the weather? Can social media catch bogeymen? Some agencies already wield the power to make it rain (by cloudseeding with toxic heavy metals), "drive" hurricanes/cyclones and cause/avert catastrophic weather disasters (with HAARP). But let's pretend they are not yet doing it: the BBC investigates.

 
UPDATE: The photos of the "abducted" girls are fake

American invaders arrive to find, rape, kill...

BORNO, Nigeria (BP News) - More than 200 Christian girls Boko Haram [is said to have] kidnapped a month ago from a state school are not the same girls shown in a ransom video the ["]terrorists["] released, Nigerian relations expert Adeniyi Ojutiku told Baptist Press today (May 13).

When the Borno state government shared copies of the video with the parents of the kidnapped [CIA abducted] teenagers, none of the parents could find their children in the video, Ojutiku said he learned from the Borno government.

"They are not the same. They are not the girls abducted," said Ojutiku, a Southern Baptist in Raleigh, N.C., who receives frequent updates from members of the grassroots group Lift Up Now. He co-founded the group to address political, economic and social challenges in his homeland Nigeria. More

• Video of Boko Haram killing a girl found to be fake

Fear, fear, don't forget to be afraid! They're savages! They're monsters! Protect us, military-industrial complex, protect us! They're mean to innocent little schoolgirls and puppies! They're black! They're Muslims! And worst of all they hate "Western education" for girls!

 

First it was the Red Menace, those darn Cold War communists taking over the capitalist world like a big Dominoes game, one nation falling after another trying to set up a just economic system that does not exploit workers. Then it was Al Qaeda and the Bogeyman (Emmanuel Goldstein/Osama bin Laden). Now it's Bo Go Harm, Bogeyman II, the BOGUS black monsters of Boko Haram ("Western-style education is forbidden"). What kind of Fear of a Black Planet is this farce exploiting?

The CIA paid me to launch a media campaign

Look, they confessed! They say Allah is making them do it! Jehovah would never sell kids! Be afraid, be more afraid! Hey, let's not forget to vote to get some boots on the ground in Africa with American troops searching for Kony, too!

Who are Boko Haram?

The group that has claimed responsibility for abducting hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls has long waged a campaign of terror. BBC News takes a look at the leadership, methods, and beliefs of Boko Haram.

Boko Haram "to sell" abducted girls

Oh no! Be afraid, very afraid! The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram says it will "sell" the hundreds of schoolgirls it abducted three weeks ago.

Elves' Faire 2013 (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; 28th Annual Elves-Faire.com

Nov. 23, 2013: The magic will unfold rain or shine on Saturday at 209 East Mariposa St., Altadena, California 91001. It's that time of year. The community is working to pull off another old-fashioned, heart-warming day for parents and children to treasure. Come experience the magic at the Pasadena Waldorf School Elves' Faire. FREE admission. ALL welcome. More

"At Berkeley" (new film)

CC Liu, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Frederick Wiseman (zipporah.com); KPFK.org

"At Berkeley" is a documentary film by Frederick Wiseman about the University of California at Berkeley -- the oldest, most prestigious, and most radical member of California's ten-campus public university system.

Berkeley is one of the finest research and teaching facilities in the world, excelling most of the world's private institutions while rivaling Ivy League schools. This film shows the major aspects of university life with particular emphasis on the administrative efforts to maintain the academic excellence, public role, and the economic, racial, and social diversity of the student body of America’s premiere public university.

(Mandy Whittles) "Berkeley in the Sixties" documentary of the student movement in Berkeley in the 60's. Uploaded for educational, informational, and entertainment purposes only.

 

Berkeley in the Sixties

All of this is taking place in the face of drastic budget cuts imposed by the State of California, big business (represented by its hand selected Board of Regents), and competing colleges. The goal of the film is to show how a major American university is administered and to suggest the complex relationship among its various constituencies -- students, faculty, administrators, alumni, the City of Berkeley, the State of California, and the federal government.

 

In a more abstract way, the film looks closely at Berkeley’s intellectual and social mission, its obligation to the state, and to larger ideas of "higher" education. It illustrates how decisions are made and implemented by the administration in collaboration with its various constituencies. Tickets

Rave review (The New Yorker)
Jordan Moore (Nov. 13, 2013)
Frederick Wiseman, one of our greatest and most prolific documentarians, always delves deeply into his subjects. And for his latest, "At Berkeley," that’s truer than ever. He found one of California’s great treasures, U.C. Berkeley, such a rich subject that it required a four-hour film. It is receiving some rave reviews, including one from astute film critic David Denby of The New Yorker. Laemmeles is proud to open the movie at the Music Hall, Beverly Hills.

 

REVIEW (Oliver Lyttelton, The Playlist, indiewire.com) Over the years, veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman has covered what sometimes feels like almost [every] kind of institution and every aspect of life in America (and occasionally, life abroad too). "Titicut Follies," "Juvenile Court," "Zoo," "Racetrack... More

Buddhist Global Relief, L.A. (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Bhikkhu Bodhi (BuddhistGlobalRelief.org)

Monastics in Theravada Burma tour by foot promoting generosity or dāna (mirror.co.uk)

  

Buddha in walking pose

Join Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Quarterly, Dharma Punx, Dharma Vijaya, Insight LA, and others for a day of compassionate action to promote food aid, sustainable farming, and education for girls and women in Asia, Africa, North America, and Haiti. Where? Santa Monica, California. When? Sunday, Nov. 17, 2013. How? Check in time begins at 8:30 am and continues until the walk starts at 9:30 am. We will begin and end at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society (West), 1001a Colorado Blvd., Santa Monica 90401-2809. The distance we will cover is three miles looping through the beautiful beachside city and tourist mecca of Santa Monica (Los Angeles). Register online or donate. To give life a percentage of the proceeds will benefit the Westside Foodbank.

• Info: Tom Moritz (310) 963-0199 (tom.moritz@gmail.com)

(BGRelief) Ven. Bodhi presents the mission of Buddhist Global Relief

at Clodagh Design, New York City in November 2009.

Buddhist nomads of India (photos)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; photographer Dietmar Temps (flickr.com)

Nomadic Buddhist children in Himalayan Ladakh, India (DietmarTemps/flickr.com)

Lamayuru monastery under a full moon, Ladakh, Himalayas (dietmartemps.com)

  

Changtang in Ladakh (Buddhist India in the Himalayas) is the home of the Changpa nomads, a semi-nomadic Tibetan ethnic group.

When the nomadic children grow older, they are lucky to get the chance to attend school, usually a year-around boarding school. Their parents would welcome the opportunity of a better life afforded by the education.

Although their elders are proud of their traditions, they realize that the new generation will probably not follow the difficult nomadic life once they have an easier option. Childhood education opens up the possibility of a job in the capital of Leh or other cities in Ladakh, the "rooftop of the world."

• PHOTO GALLERY

On the one hand from the viewpoint of a tourist it is, of course, a bit sad that the traditions of the nomadic people might disappear entirely in the future. But it is completely understandable that nomads might also like to participate in the educational system to get a fair share of a growing economy.

On the other hand, there is almost no industry in Ladakh, other than the tourist industry. Many of the youth work in the sprawling tourism business in their early 20s. But the season in Ladakh, perched high in the Himalayas, is very short. The tourism industry cannot offer all of the people good jobs to earn enough money to raise a family.

When I asked young people about their dreams, I often got the answer of dreams of office jobs in public administration. Only a desperate few would consider going into the military, which has a presence in Ladakh as India attempts to fend off China to the north and Pakistan to the west.

Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir, northern India

The days when a family's youngest son inevitably started life as a Buddhist novice (samanera) in a local monastery (gompa) are over. These are interesting developments in Ladakh, in general, not only for the nomadic children of Changtang. More

The Malala Fund: Education

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Stacy Jones (fastcompany.com)

When Shiza Shahid was a student at Stanford University, she saw a YouTube video of a young, female Pakistani education advocate. Shahid reached out to the girl's father and organized a week-long camp for the girl and a handful of others, putting them in touch with women who could act as mentors. The girl's name was Malala Yousafzai -- and a little over a year ago, the Taliban tried to assassinate her [by shooting her in the head, but she survived to make it onto the Daily Show with Jon Stewart]. 

Shiza Shahid and Malala (fastcompany.com)

When Shahid got word of the shooting, she flew to Birmingham, England, where 15-year-old Malala was hospitalized, and acted as buffer between the family and the onslaught of media attention that ensued. "I saw the evolution from when the doctors said she was going to die, to when the doctors said she was going to lose her voice," she recalls. "Then to see her wake up and be so healthy and unchanged and strong and whole -- it was a miracle." [All credit to merciful Allah, Malala's god]. The 24-year-old has spent the past year harnessing all of the energy and emotion surrounding Malala and converting it into the driving force behind The Malala Fund. More

• The Malala Fund
• A Case for Girls (ad campaign)
• Nikita: A Girl Who Codes (XX Hacker)
• Did one man change the war on Afghanistan?