Bethlehem: Peace Came Upon a Midnight Square

A 20 foot high concrete wall keeps Bethlehem isolated as the full scope of Jesus's homeless beginnings in a manger and his death on a cross on the hill a few kilometers away, play out still in modern times with no end in sight. Glimpses of what could be present themselves rarely in the Middle East, but today, Bethlehem hosted thousands of pilgrims in the Spirit of Peace. Palestinians saw the poor, the prominent, the devout, the tourist, the Christian and the Muslim gather together to celebrate and honor the birth of Christ in Manger Square. The Israeli occupation has taken Bethlehem off of the list as a top tourism spot, but the city and its impoverished inhabitants soldier on, bleakly hoping and paying for economic salvation too in their own land.

Sansour also believes that visitors and pilgrims who do come show support but at the same time many are also in Bethlehem as part of "the fairy-tale story of Christmas".

Father Garret Edmonds, a Franciscan monk from California who works with pilgrim groups in Palestine and is spending his fifth Christmas in Bethlehem, said: "There are moments of hope but then everything returns to the status quo. It goes on and off like this all the time."

Father Edmonds also highlighted the increasing erosion of the Church and the increasing number of Christians choosing to emigrate from in Palestine.

"It's important to have a viable, living Church, but if things continue the way they are in 25 years there might not be a living church. Bethlehem could become one giant museum," he said.

The Grotto at the Church of the Nativity had long lines to pay homage to what is believed to be the birthplace of Jesus. In the recent past, security concerns from the 2000 Palestinian uprising dampened enthusiasm for pilgrimages into Bethlehem devastating the local economy with rising unemployment and no other means of income. This year was a different scene with kids in bright red Santa hats under Palestinian led tight security and the usual Bethlehem nativity scene in Nazareth. The Catholic leader called for peace in the Middle East while the Pontiff made Christmas greetings in 60 languages. (AP Photo Kevin Frayer)




And a little child shall lead them... makes for the children's book, from Michal Hudak An Uproar in Bethlehem told from a Christian perspective of the night Jesus was born and the three Magi.

The War On Words on Writers

From 4 pennies to 8 pennies per CD/DVD is just too big of an increase for producers and giant corporate media moguls to bear to part with for mere writers. They moan it would eat into their thin margins as they wage vicious see and be seen ratings wars, ongoing battles of which bloated scripts to be put in executive rehab and it unilaterally disarms the rich by giving a pittance to poor WGA writers. Thy writer may have a few other jobs to keep their health care and food on the table. This will not be the reality TV show America gets to see during the newest Dark Laptop Ages of the Writer's strike. Instead, US television drivel will come from the untested mind of some milquetoast MBA with an urge to prove that Fear Factor 13 is economically viable. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

All of the trappings of a union protest were there — signs, chanting workers, an inflatable rat, and a discarded bag of wrappers and cups from Dunkin Donuts. The rat was borrowed from Local 79, an AFL-CIO laborers’ union, and commuted in from Queens.

But instead of hard hats and work boots, the people on the pickets had arty glasses and fancy scarves.

“A lot of the public probably feels like we are brats,” said Sarah Durken, a writer for children’s programs. “We are not hospital workers and firefighters, we know that — the world is going to keep turning. But I think everyone understands that the issue of corporate greed versus the needs of workers and their families.” (30 Rock's writer Tina Fey/AP Photo)

Stay on a pre-paid script. Put a bunch of dysfunctional people together in awkward circumstances with a big shiny prize that will bring out the semi-cognizant and Behold, a 46 minute burning reality show paid for by corporate entities hawking pills, diapers and the next reality show born of dire doom. Note to television audience: those same dysfunctional people on the show are mirror images of those deciding to air the show. Whew, makes you really rush to get to the TV. A half billion dollars of losses during the last strike in 1988, was a mere rainy day piggy bank to some big shots while others watched financial and professional ruin advance at the speed of light with scripts withering in the dust bowl of boring entertainment. The War on Words is a spiffy acronym - every marketer will say, you need that to get the public's attention, so WOW is officially on, over a few pennies. Call me when they speak in terms of folding money...

Writers produced an incredible amount of original product before hitting the picket and bread lines. The immediate audience ouch comes from those who like the topical late night shows like fake news star John Stewart's The Daily Show and ex-presidential premature panderer Stephen Colbert, of The Colbert Report. There is no one left to write his campaign speeches. Whoa, is business going to be better with YouTube since the content of the reality shows have a few decency limits. YouTube can sink to new depths of depravity with a bored audience or become the heights of drama capturing audience share never to return to TV again with web sensation classics like Obama Girl, Britney Spears howling Public Defender or the shocked squirrel.

Let the Word go Forth to media producers and executives alike - Writers own the Words and you need those to make the entertainment industry actually work. It's not rocket science, its the writing, stupid.


Steven Colbert has a satirical genius book out to keep us amused and suitably entertained, I Am America: And So Can You. John Stewart is a New York Times Bestselling author of The Daily Show with John Stewart Presents America: A Citizen's Guide to democracy Inaction - that word thing again in the ironic hands of awesome crafters.

New Silk Road has Mighty River of Oil

What is old becomes new again just by changing the players, not the game. World domination in trade was the province of a superpower like the USA. America cemented its standing by helping to found a little organization called NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization, complete wih a standing Army - always under the command of an American. Europe got their collection of smaller countries together to up their trading, political and potentially military clout to form something called the EU - European union. There are Asian versions that meet; APEC, ASEAN with Climate Change dominating the agenda.

Long suspicious and resentful of NATO, Russia and China - former bitter enemies, are creating a strategic alliance that is fraught with peril and possibility. SCO is the Shanghai Co-operation Organization. To get into that exclusive nation club next to presidents Putin and Jintao, requires one or more of the following: massive energy provider, hungry energy consumer with spare megabucks/rubles/yuan with nothing to do but sit there collecting compound interest or a teeny tiny poor country bordering the biggies for a pipeline or ahem, an oil road - the new Silk Road is a mighty flowing river of oil.

To celebrate an engagement and show a bit of the Central Asia
dowry, China and Russia just started the biggest joint military war game, together. Two, million "man" armies practicing together with the USA only able to watch from a pay per view spy satellite. Top it off with a terribly unpopular incompetent US president and an ineffective US Secretary of State - a supposed Russian expert with a PhD, and America is feeling a bit jilted. Iran, Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan are bringing flowers and candy to gain entrance into the SCO. Two or more of that group have nuclear bombs or technology and three of that group are still dating America for the foreign policy goodies. Besides it takes an awful lot of oil to make armies that big work effectively.

Pretty sure the American media will catch on sometime during the SCO's energetic honeymoon phase as the balance of power rocks American professional navel gazing. Russia is reverting back to a Cold War stance by resuming their own patrolling of the global skies. Its been sixteen years since Russia last did it and you can bet your last penny, pound or paisa, they "pimped their rides" with amazing new technology.

Russia and China invited Iran's bombastic president to dinner for a quickie tête - à - tête at an Anti-US summit. The message to America is way past subliminal.

The ancient Silk Road is famous for opening trade to new partners in Europe. Tourists traveled to Afghanistan and China to partake of the scenic beauty and the dangerous trek. Venetian Marco Polo (1254 - 1324 CE) is credited with founding it.

History has a way of repeating itself. Books illuminate past mistakes while providing illumination for those so inclined. An elegant, illustrated version of The Silk Road by Frances Woods is a keeper. Two thousand years of history in this review. Russian and Chinese history, especially since Stalin and Mao are excellent maps for current events under the new leaders.

Hide and Seek with Water

Water, the liquid of Life, is a topic of discussion; within the UN, inside plush boardrooms, and always with the most impoverished amongst us. The darned H2O keeps playing hide and seek from where Nature poured it and sometimes turns up where People are saying too much water in so many soaked places around our globe. Most critical, is everyone having enough fresh clean water when needed and why that happens in some places and not in others, is the subject of two fascinating books about Water; the clear Nectar of the wealthy.

Insightful Books on the Topic with my Reviews

Thirst is a documentary that first garnered attention on PBS. The authors/producers, (Alan Snitnow, Deborah Kaufman with Michael Fox), updated the film's message to shine a brighter spotlight on the stories of grassroots activists - willing and accidental, corporations and their sense of entitlement with oft times befuddled or greedy politicians as partners. The dirty business of water is in the book Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water. (Emphasis by the Authors)

Thirst is a story about water told through people who run the sewage to those elected, though in some cases they are the same product. Water and its infrastructure in the US have caught the attention of international conglomerates because of the potential profits. For the most part, Americans pay some attention to their own town or city's water, but don't yet see the national pattern. The squeeze of Public Private Partnerships in the water business have led to courtroom high-powered squirt pistol duels over eminent domain and local control. Thirst is the book that ties similar stories together, yet shows an array of outcomes as ordinary citizens learn hard water lessons at the hands of elected officials, egos and corporate players sent to live amongst the public.

The authors name names and trace the corporate feeding trough as they sell off and reorganize seeking bigger juicier markets. A must read if you want to know why water bills are going up, services are declining while the infrastructure delivering your water is increasingly in deplorable condition. Is your town next? This book is an eye opening prep for what lies ahead for the unwary and the thirsty.

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water-The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century by Fred Pearce is now in paperback. Vignettes of rivers and regions tells stories of feast and famine depending on the river and Man's attempts to control them. Catastrophic effects of dammed, dry or diverted rivers, erosion and evaporation are escalating to crisis proportions. It is a book of details and despair from Pearce as he recaps the devastation and at the same time delivers a compelling travelogue.

Pearce lists the disturbing effects of using some aquifers at increasing rates that are causing wells to be dug deeper and deeper as more people mine the water to win the race for available funds. More water is pumped in locales - like the desert, for crops that take immense amounts of water. People are displaced as dams divert water for other purposes. In China, the Three Gorges Dam was to produce a certain amount of electricity after displacing millions of indigenous people with no other skills. It didn't. The story of Libya's Great Manmade River and the billions of dollars going to Halliburton via a subsidiary for tepid results is instructive. The writing is evocative and factual, teeming with explanations and first hand accounts for the general reader.

Frustration arises from me at Pearce because while there is an index in the hardbound edition, there are no endnotes for factual material in the book. It makes me nuts to see a quote for how much virtual water is used in exports, but nary a footnote in sight. There's a certain ironic symmetry of the rivers being dry while seeking a rich vein of original source notes. (I have to hurl a deserved lemon at that missed opportunity.) This is a compelling read for seekers of knowledge outlining why wars over water are looming. There is info on sewage issues that swamp fresh vegetables to understanding the lack of long range planning while corporations are developing booming water businesses with negligible results for the public good. Great source of knowledge and of various nations and kingdoms' water issues.