Angelina Jolie in Buddhist Cambodia (video)

Amber Larson, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Nat Geo; U.N. Ambassador Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie meditates, contemplates, and waxes philosophical in Cambodia.

(KJ09) 3-D animation of the central temple in the massive city and suburbs of Angkor, Cambodia. Angelina Jolie appears at Min. 4:50 and talks of her son, the U.S. wars on Vietnam and Cambodia and how it now taught in American schools.

Jolie's adopted son is Cambodian, and she is the United Nation's "Goodwill Ambassador," and even a dual citizen of the U.S. and Cambodia. Her interest and/or karma brought her to the Theravada Buddhist nation when she was working on the "Tomb Raider" franchise as the character Lara Croft, which sealed her worldwide fame as a stunningly beautiful and eccentric celebrity.

 
But what's the real story of Angkor, Angkor Wat, and the ancient Khmer Buddhist and Hindu empire of modern Cambodia?
 
Some power took Buddhism and Hinduism from Afghanistan deep into the jungles of Southeast Asia and across the sea to Indonesia in the south, leaving some of the largest and most magnificent Buddhist temple complexes in the world. The largest is at Borobudur, Indonesia, but the extent of Angkor, Siem Reap, and other lost temples in Cambodia are massive beyond belief using more stone than was used for the pyramids of Egypt.

Angkor Wat (National Geographic)

Jolie's Cambodian tats

(National Geographic) Where Lara Croft raided tombs in fantasy, there really are magnificent Buddhist and Hindu temples sunk in jungle thickets once hidden to the world. Now some are exposed, as others remain lost in the jungles of Southeast Asia and the former Khmer empire that extended east of India to Vietnam.

The Imperial Rulers of IRAQ: U.S.

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Peter Van Buren (wemeantwell.com); PRI.org

Emperor Bush, Neocon Republicans to their mirror image Democrats like Obama, Feinstein

Tank u, Amerikkka! We greet u as liberators. U killed my family. As-salām 'alaykum!

The U.S. Embassy as a lush campus in the middle of a uranium-contaminated Iraqi desert

This yard will be your "campus," guys. That embassy will be ours. Deal, Maliki? Deal!

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We left Iraq a long time ago, didn't we?

Road to Ramadi is paved...

As the U.S. “relocates” personnel (rather than “evacuating” them) out of the World’s Largest Embassy [military base] in Baghdad, it is valuable to look at our one billion dollar monument to American hubris (overarching pride and ambition).

Hey, we meant well! And everyone knows the road to Ramadi is paved with good intentions.

Though likely tens of thousands of people have been inside the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and a great many of them have scattered photos of the place across the social media landscape, actual official photos of the embassy have been limited to a handful of narrow views. The stated reason for all this is “security.”

 

Battle for one of Iraq's major oil refineries

Of course a simple Google search [which can be done better and more privately at Startpage.com, which incorporates Google search without tracking users] will reveal many images; there even were 3-D model of the place online.

• What does it mean when one says they're Shia vs. Sunni?
• PHOTOS: Iraq troubles photographer who covered first war 
• MAPS: How foreign investment fuels Sunni-Shia divide 
• The battle is on for one of Iraq's major oil refineries 

"It's heartbreaking" - veteran on Iraq crisis

US veterans are reflecting on the crisis in Iraq. Blake Hall served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, in Mosul and in Baghdad among other places. Nowadays, Hall runs a tech company in Washington, DC, and he's been following the news from Iraq closely. That's been frustrating, he says, and heartbreaking. 

 

Still, what has been missing is a really nice color shot of the lawn. We have that now, posted online by someone:

There is a very interesting backstory to that nice lawn you see pictured above. If you’ve read my book about Iraq, We Meant Well, you may already know the story:

 

Iraq: Babylon, Mesopotamia, Sumeria

The World’s Biggest Embassy (104 acres, 22 buildings, thousands of staff, a $116 million vehicle inventory), physically larger than the Vatican, was a sign of our commitment to Iraq, at least our commitment to excess. “Along with the Great Wall of China,” said the ambassador, Chris Hill at the time, “the Baghdad Embassy is one of those things you can see with the naked eye from outer space.” 

Iraqi troops reject puppet gov't, go militant

The newly-opened embassy was made up of large office buildings, the main one built around a four-story atrium, with overhead lights that resembled sails. If someone told us there was a Bath and Body Works in there, we would not have thought it odd.

Iraq's next PM? Peddler of WMDs

Iraq's next PM? Peddler of false WMDs The embassy itself, including juicy cost overruns, cost the American taxpayer about one billion dollars. [And never mind that Donald Rumsfeld lost a 2.3 TRILLION U.S. dollars in Iraq the day before 9/11 then never bothered to explain it. We were already illegally invading during the first Gulf War under Emperor Bush I and his boy wonder Dan Quayle threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons on Iraq.]

 

The World’s Biggest Embassy sat in, or perhaps defined, the Green Zone. Called the Emerald City by some, the Green Zone represented the World’s Largest Public Relations Failure. In the process of deposing Saddam, we placed our new seat of power right on top of his old one, just as the ancient Sumerians built their strongholds on top of fallen ones out in the desert.
 

Less Mesopotamia but more MESS

In addition to the new buildings, Saddam’s old palaces in the Zone were repurposed as offices, and Saddam’s old jails became our new jails. Conveniently for Iraqis, the overlords might have changed, but the address had not. The place you went to visit political prisoners who opposed Saddam was still the place you went to look for relatives who opposed the Americans.

 

Read in reverse, add zeros for civilian deaths

The new Embassy compound isolated American leadership at first physically, and, soon after, mentally as well. The air of otherworldliness started right with the design of the place. American architects had planned for the Embassy grounds to have all sorts of trees, grassy areas and outdoor benches; the original drawings made it look like a leafy college campus. More

• Obama sends 300 "advisers" to Iraq by executive order, leaves open potential U.S. strikes
• NYC to pay $40 million to wrongly jailed Central Park 5
• Federal court strikes down Los Angeles law that bars people from living in parked vehicles 
• Tens of thousands displaced, dozens killed in Pakistan
• Ukraine claims killing of 300 separatists rear Russia
• Israel kills Palestinian teen in West Bank crackdown
• U.S. cuts aid, cooperation over Ugandan anti-LGBT
• Obama admin extends Fed benefits to same-sex couples
• House GOP elect new majority leader, whip
• Prosecutors: Wisconsin Gov. Walker engaged in "criminal" fundraising scheme
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange marks 2 years confined in Ecuadorean Embassy
• 50th anniversary of Miss. slaying of Civil Rights workers

AUDIO: What's the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims? (The World/PRI.org)

Russian jets over Crimea, Ukraine (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; EnglishRussia.tv (?ER#55d46TpN8tI)

Russian jets fly over Crimea, Ukraine, then annex it into Russian empire (englishrussia.tv)

• Will this election unite Ukraine?

Will this election unite Ukraine? (video)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman (democracynow.org)

As unrest grows, is Ukraine paying price of U.S.-Russian ties stuck in Cold War era?

Abuse of female protester, Ukraine (FEMEN)

At least 30 pro-Russian rebels have reportedly died in fierce fighting at the airport in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. The Ukrainian government bombarded the airport with air strikes, then paratroopers, after rebels seized it on Monday. The fighting began just hours after the pro-European billionaire candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine’s first presidential election since the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych.

Sexism may be alive and well in Europe, Russia

After his election, Petro Poroshenko said he was ready to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he ruled out any talks with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. To discuss these developments, DN is joined by three guests: Christopher Miller of the Kyiv Post, reporting just steps from the embattled airport in Donetsk; Jack Matlock, the former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991; and Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, who just returned from Kiev and wrote the article in The New York Review of Books titled Ukraine: The Edge of Democracy. More

• VIDEO: Russian jets over Crimea, Ukraine

• After chaotic autonomy votes, negotiations could be sole path to prevent Ukraine’s disintegration 
• Remembering Vincent Harding, the great civil rights activist who wrote MLK’s speech against the U.S. War on Vietnam Theologian and civil rights activist Dr. Vincent Harding died on May 19 at the age of 82 in Philadelphia. He lived in Denver, but was in Pennsylvania where he had been teaching at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat center. Harding was a close adviser to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and wrote King’s famous antiwar speech, "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence." King delivered the address at Riverside Church in New York City on April 4, 1967 — exactly one year...

Buddhism in Russia: Lhasa's Emissary to Tsar

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; John Snelling; J. Anderson

The Kremlin in Red Square, Moscow: imperial capital of vast land holdings that again include Crimea but not the "Stans" of Central Asia, formerly Buddhist countries overtaken by Islam.

 

Buddhism in Russia: The Story of Agvan Dorzhiev: Lhasa's Emissary to the Tsar is a fascinating story of political and religious intrigue.

It tells the story of Agvan Dorziev, a Mongolian Buddhist Lama, who was instrumental in the founding of Buddhism in Russia.

 

[Russia/USSR as an empire spread out to include many formerly Buddhist lands in Central Asia. It also contains Kalmykia -- Europe's only indigenous Buddhist country, the home of international chess tournaments and Lenin's grandmother. The shamans of Siberia practice a shramanic/shamanistic form of Esoteric Buddhism from Mongolia, Tibet, Western China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and faraway Afghanistan (Gandhara, India), Russia's "Vietnam." With secret CIA help, Afghans eventually repelled the USSR so the USA/MIC could illegally invade, occupy, and plunder it.]

The book includes an update on the status of Buddhism in Russia since Glasnost.

NUMBERS: There are under-counted Russian Buddhists throughout the country -- particularly in Buryatia, Yakutia (Sakha Republic), Kalmykia, and Siberia -- with census numbers reflecting more "atheists," "animists," and "Eastern Orthodox Christians" as if any of these designations negated one's Buddhist beliefs or practices. A Moscovite who practices the Dharma will still routinely be listed as an official atheist (formerly a good Communist party member) unless s/he is from a Buddhist Russian republic or territory.
 

Soviet slice of Buddhist history

J. Anderson, edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

Gorgeous Russian Buddhist temple, Buryatia, Russia (J. Weeks/VOA.com)

 

Civil war in Ukraine gathering pace

John Snelling's major work was being completed when he passed away in 1992. It tells a fascinating story about Ven. Agvan Dorzhiev, a brilliant Mongolian lama and the Tibetan capital's emissary to Russia in the 19th century.
 

Arrayed against the backdrop of the fiercely Orthodox court of the Russian Tsars -- with its sacred religio-political [unseparated church and state] dominance over nearly every aspect of Russian life, the extraordinary progress made by Ven. Dorzhiev in setting Tibetan Buddhism on a solid footing in that land is a story of remarkable courage and success.
  

Odessa's tragedy buries Ukraine's hope

Snelling's books can be a bit dry and academic, but his scholarship shines, and the text is surefooted and informative. The book's success rests on its thoroughness. Snelling takes a comprehensive look at the early and post-Communist state of Buddhism in Russia.
 

The enormous expanse of Russia bordering the rest of Northern Europe on the left and Siberia on the right with America just to the right beyond the Bering Straits. Buddhist Kalmykia is shown in red on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Russian Buddhist monk, Vesak 2013 (rbth.ru)

This, indeed, makes a valuable contribution to the study of the spread and influence of Buddhism as a world religion. It even speculates with respect to the future of the Dharma in Russian Asia.
 
Included are some marvelous photos of Ven. Dorzhiev and a brilliant mini-history of the Buryats (from which he arose). While readable, it is definitely a specialist's book. More than biography, less than hagiography -- it concerns itself with what is rather than what if.

I want a Pussy Riot! - We do, too, Comrade.

In any case, it is a tale unlikely to be told anywhere else.
 
Certainly, it is told nowhere else with as much authority, passion, and carefully wrought scrutiny as Snelling delivers. Recommended for anyone inclined toward the myriad diversity of Buddhist history beyond India and Southeast Asia. 

World War II: Behind Closed Doors

J. Anderson, edited by Wisdom Quarterly 

This is a welcomed reappraisal of Churchill, a film incorporates information from Soviet files not available until the 1990s. One important outcome is a new and welcome delineation of the lying duplicity of England's Winston Churchill, his involvement in handing half of Europe to Russian Dictator Joseph Stalin, sentencing the Eastern Bloc nations to half a century of Stalinist (Orwellian) suffering. On the whole, it presents a view of history distinct from stories regurgitated in the West... More

• The Shakyans (Scythians) of Central Asia?
• Ukrainian forces prepare to "provoke" Russia in Donetsk
• Ukrainian military contingent involved in punitive raid reaches 30,000 servicemen 
• Ukrainian army may use rockets against protesters in Slavyansk - local militia
• Russian, German FMs stress necessity of joint efforts in Ukrainian dialogue
• Drone use in US National Parks could end in fine and prison
• Surprise! $350,000 gov’t drone mailed to US student
• Pentagon chief urges US to press foreign policy harder
• Victory Day concert for veterans in Dnepropetrovsk put off pending threats from radicals
• US experts: data collection [spying by corporations for gov't] opens door to abuses and discrimination
• Illegal alcohol kills at least 50 people in Kenya

• Pravda was more powerful than fourth power
• Germans demand referendum: independence from US yoke
• Second mystery around Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

UN: Vatican tortures, rapes children (NPR)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sylvia Poggioli (NPR, 5-6-14)

Yeah, we molest kids, of course. We even make "sacred" art about it for our churches.

 

UN grills Vatican officials on sex abuse

Maybe I still run things in secret. *Giggle*

A U.N. committee has found that the systematic sex abuse [of children] by Catholic priests in the Vatican's corporate body (the Roman Catholic Church) amounts to torture.

["Torture" is defined by international treaties to which the Holy See is apparently a signatory, or the court might not have any say over their crimes against humanity. 

Small "country" but very, very rich

The Vatican is not only Roman Catholic HQ. It is also a tiny city-state independent of Italy and Rome. Vatican City is its capital. It has massive cash, art, and gold reserves in its own corrupt banking system and private financial institutions. It has a tiny population of roughly 1,000 elite clerics and Swiss guards, and a CEO whose rotating position is popularly called "the papacy," which Pope Francis currently fronts, and which Benedict may still run the way Dick Cheney ran the U.S. while G.W. Bush shook hands and acted a bumbling fool too simple to be much of a threat.]

At the Holy See's first appearance before the committee, experts on the panel peppered the representative with questions. On Tuesday, the Vatican has a chance to respond. LISTEN

News from Russia

A strange, soulless man and his utterly failed presidency

Russian interests not limited to Ukraine alone

Hiding the US-NATO military overkill

Whatever happens, Belarus will stay with Russia - Lukashenko

Canada's Ukrainian borsch has bitter anti-Russian taste

Washington drives the world to war

Topless protests to go worldwide (video)

Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Seven, CC Liu (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly; FEMEN.org/en

FEMEN means death to patriarchy, life to gender equality, and topless "sextremism"

WARNING: Toplessness, drinking, mild nudity, revolution! (CinemaCopainLtd) Produced by Alain Margot 2014 (montage by Loredana Cristelli, music Cristina Yakovleva). Runtime: 95 min.

Vlad the Adolf Reincarnation?

NYON, Switzerland - April 29th, 2014 saw the first screening of the newest documentary on the FEMEN women's movement.

The world premiere of "I am FEMEN" was held at "Visions du Réel," the largest Swiss documentary film festival.

 
The film, shot by Swiss director Alain Margot, tells the story of the Ukrainian women's movement becoming a worldwide phenomenon.

 

Devas agree. Topless for attention (femen)

"I am FEMEN" analyzes the organization, reveals its secrets of how it successfully creates protests, slogans, tactics, and strategic "sextremism." to advance liberty and equality and oppose patriarchy and sexism. 

It gives viewers insight into the thoughts and experiences of female activists living in a world of constant provocation.

This is a film about the world of feminism, protest, and revolution.

 

Look, mom, I'm meditating with my shirt on!

Alain Margot began the documenting process literally from the beginning of the movement. She was able to capture the formation and development of the organization, experience its growing pains -- its losses and the joy of its victories. 

 

It is a cinematic "masterpiece" that will NOT be showing at the local corporate cineplex. But it will be screened in some daring theaters with a planned release date of May 14, 2014. More

In French, too!

"Poor for being [a] woman?" (FEMEN)

"Je suis FEMEN" (un film documentaire d' Alain Margot): Oxana ["Shachko"] est une femme, une militante, une artiste. Adolescente, sa passion pour la peinture d'icônes la pousse à entrer au couvent, mais c'est au sein du mouvement Femen qu'elle met finalement à contribution son talent. Elle a co-fondé avec Anna, Inna et Sasha le fameux groupe d'opposantes féministes au régime, qui l'amène de son Ukraine natale aux quatre coins de l'Europe. Entre rage de créer et envie de changer le monde, Oxana livre sa personnalité discrète, envoûtante et multicolore, à l'image de ses œuvres passionnées. Montage: Loredana Cristelli, musique: Cristina Yakovleva. Documentaire cinéma durée: 95 minutes.

Worldwide May Day marches: Cali, Russia...

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; AP/Yahoo News; NBC; FEMEN

With rise of Putin-ism and patriotism, former USSR restores May Day rally in Moscow (AP)

Topless FEMEN Int'l training at Paris HQ ends: We are returning to Ukraine and our countries to fight patriarchy with FEMEN! Be strong, sisters and brothers! We will win! (femen.org)

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MOSCOW, Russia - About 100,000 people have marched through Red Square to celebrate May Day, the first time the annual parade has been held on the vast cobblestoned square outside the Kremlin since the fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991.
 

May Day anti-US drone protest (crwflags.com)

In keeping with Soviet-era traditions, Thursday's parade was organized by trade unions and honored the working person.

But it also celebrated Russia's annexation of Crimea and was seen as part of Pres. Vladimir Putin's efforts to stoke patriotic feelings. Marchers held up signs saying "Let's go to Crimea for vacation" and "Putin is right." Russian flags fluttered through the crowd. More

• 

  Workers unite! (openmediaBoston.org)

  New Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert: John Oliver (HBO, Sundays, 11:00 pm)
• Money for sexual harassment training on Capitol Hill
• College Sex Crimes: 55 colleges and universities under investigation, including Univ. of California
• Harvard staff claims retaliation by Management for sexual assault complaint
• SLIDESHOW: California burning: Etiwanda Fire burns, Buddhist temple impacted, schools closed
• Student DEBT "celebrated" outside the Dept. of Education
• Brockton traffic stop leads to allegations of assault by PD

Los Angeles May Day 2014

"Capitalism divides - Mayday unites"

(NBC) Thousands of community advocates and immigrant rights supporters took to the streets of downtown Los Angeles today (Thursday, May 1st) and marched for worker rights and immigrant justice. Three different May Day marches were planned by three different groups. As a result of the marches, some downtown streets were closed Thursday, starting at 9:00 am. More + Video