Jordan Leads at World Economic Forum

(Dead Sea in high winds with salt deposits Photo courtesy of M. Disdero)

His Highness, King Abdullah, is the annual host of the World Economic Forum in his kingdom at the Dead Sea at the King Hussein Convention Center. Her Highness, Queen Rania of Jordan, put it best that some of the highest young minds were appearing at the lowest spot on the Earth at the Summit she addressed before the advent of the WEF. Jordan is a sovereign entity clearly engaging in the world community to forge Peace in the Middle East. Navigating world opinion and exhorting peace in the Middle East does not come easy with the changes in leadership in Israel, America and other republics that bring wildly divergent agendas to the table with each trip to the ballot box. (Preparation at the Convention Center before the WEF/Reuters photo)

Benjamin Netanyahu will never be among my favorite political retreads. He does/did/does/did/does have the right granted to him by the Israeli people to form a government and shop his hawkishness on the world stage. In an effort to make it clear where the United States stands, Leon Panetta, Director of the embattled CIA and its controversies made a trip to put things in as clear a manner as possible to Bibi about Americas expectations and the path to peace and no surprises in Iran. Prior, King Abdullah had a contentious direct meeting about Palestine with Netanyahu that bodes ill for a two state solution and peace in the region. Sharing a cup of tea between friends and allies in the president's private dining room just off the Oval Office was a much more amicable way to promote peace.

First American meeting of a Head of State for President Obama as he has tea & a formal meeting with His Majesty, King Abdullah on April 21, 2009.
The World Economic Forum meets each January in Davos with a May meeting. This year it is in Jordan. Israel's President, Shimon Peres had a heated run-in with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on stage in Davos over the relentless bombing of Gaza. Against this recent history, Jordan steps up to forge a new step forward out of two thousand plus years of history for all to live in a state of peace. The King is clear that 57 recalcitrant members of the United Nations need to get with the inevitable program and acknowledge Israel's right to exist with a 57 state solution to bring more security to the region. The ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are meeting next month in Syria which leaves a perfect opportunity to re-opening the dialogue to get Muslim countries to support a full solution rather than trying to piecemeal it all together one country, nation or kingdom at a time.

"I was encouraged that in all my conversations in Washington it was clear that people know inaction is not an option," Abdullah told the opening meeting of an international economic gathering in Jordan sponsored by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

"The new American commitment has now opened an opportunity to change the direction of events," Abdullah told the business executives and government officials gathered at the meeting, which is being held along the shores of the Dead Sea.

Business deals shall reach agreement in the shadow of the World economic Forum. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is partnering with Jordan to explore their shale reserves. Therein lies the economic rationale for peace in the region - fossil fuels will reign supreme for many decades to come and a good portion of the developed world knows that peace in the region opens up new channels of economic prosperity. Other business agreements are being finalized at the Dead sea resort in Jordan as all of the decision makers convene in one location. Photo courtesy AP

Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hotspots from Alanna Mitchell takes a look at places in the world and their reactions to to the changes in climate. The Dead Sea holds many keys based on the amount of salinity in the sea.

Gaza Powers Down - Literally

People packed into a small strip amidst a desert, untold amounts of heavily armed local and private security armies with an economy dependent on fuel to power the city is what the Las Vegas Strip has in common with the Gaza Strip. Imagine Vegas being unlit during its peak season. It is winter in Gaza, a time for when fuel is most needed. Their land border controlled by Israel, dictates the range of their economic fortunes between bad and awful.

From Gaza, homemade rockets landed in Sderot, prompting Israel to attack and again hermetically seal the borders, cutting off Gaza's ability to fuel Gaza's main power station. Israel's latest blockade's intended action is to put more strain on the Palestinian government to control its borders and ultimately Hamas. Just last week, the White House was trumpeting President Bush's ability to reignite Peace talks, but a Bush led initiative never had a solid coalition to get the two sides back to serious negotiations in a well lit room. The UN's Secretary General weighed in on Israel's action to harshly punish all of Gaza for the actions of several snipers after Israel launched retaliatory strikes killing two Hamas militant leaders and capturing four others. (David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images)

The organisation has criticised Israel's decision to close border crossings into Gaza, preventing aid deliveries to the 1.5 million people living in the territory, saying on Saturday that the move could provoke a humanitarian crisis.

"Such action cuts off the population from much-needed fuel supplies used to pump water and generate electricity to homes and hospitals," Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said.

Ban also urged an immediate end to violence in Gaza and Palestinian sniper and rocket attacks into Israel. He called for "maximum restraint on the part of the Israel defence forces".

Another calamitous humanitarian crisis on Bush's deplorable unthinking watch as Leader of the Free World cannot his harm his dude ranch cowboy reputation, but the suffering of tens of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians will continue hardening attitudes in the Middle East, making positions intractable as a future more responsible America tries to help forge the Palestinian territories into a fledgling nation state. In past Peace talks, Israel traded valuable land for Peace, in a real effort to live and trade side by side in an Arab region. Recently, Israel suffered acidic world condemnation for its actions in the bombing of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and its strident tone on its sovereign right to protect its people and its borders. No nation on earth is exempt from terrorist attacks, but every nation or kingdom has an inalienable right to protect itself. That point is where things get bogged down in the blowing sands of the Sinai or Mesopotamia - on the issue of retaliatory actions versus preeminent strike doctrines with all involved having a polished granite position.

The Palestinian Energy Authority said two turbines at the plant had shut early on Sunday and the plant would be closed within 24 hours.

The Energy Authority said more than a million Gazans would be affected by power outages, which would also hit hospitals, sewage works and food refrigeration systems.

But Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the situation was not as bad as the Palestinians made out.

"They have an interest in exaggerating," he said. (AFP)

Well, minimizing another's pain and suffering is not going to win the hearts and minds of third parties. This week, the UN rights forum is holding a special meeting to discuss this issue, not the Bush White House that was so interested in brokering its version of peace last week amidst all the photo ops.

A few years ago, an Israeli journalist went to Palestine to understand and listen to the stories. This heartfelt book is the result of her journey and received richly deserved praise for telling a story through the yes of those who live in the blotches of territories known as Palestine. From Wendy Pearlman is the book, Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Infitada.

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.

Better Chance of Peace on Mars

On Earth, Peace is MIA and the trail is growing as cold as the Tibetan Himalayas. A number of nations are grumbling and pointing fingers at the USA because of its perceived meddling. China is beside itself with outrage that His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, received America's highest civilian honor, the Congressional medal of Honor over their strenuous objections in the rotunda of the US capital today. Pretty sure China's Ambassador to the US skipped the great eats and abundant drinks at the Dalai Lama's sweet after party and huffily pulled out of a meeting with Iran. Its beside the point the Dalai Lama has lived in exile since 1959. (AP photo)

The 1915 Ottoman Turks are on the verge of being declared the cause of the Armenian genocide by the 2007 US Congress. Timing is everything. Turkey is wildly exercised at even the mere idea of being called to account for the deaths of over 1.5 million Armenians. First, in a diplomatic harrumph, the Turkish envoy left Washington at the behest of his government. Today, in a mix of self-preservation and political savvy, the Turkish parliament granted hunting rights for their army to invade the northern Kurdish areas to get PKK rebels in American-occupied Iraq. Under control of the Kurds, Iraq's oil rich northern border provides a base for separatists who want part of Turkey as their own state, to use guerrilla tactics and snipers against Turkey's military positioned on the border. The weather is worsening and leaves a short window for incursions for either side. (AP Photo)

Led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congress is appreciating that Turkey's leaders in Ankara are our only Muslim angry NATO ally and may choose to delay the non-binding blame measure. President Bush gave a butt-numbing press conference today exhorting the Congress to do what he says: No on the genocide bill, fund his Iraq war for 100 times more than it takes to cover poor children, and his contention that Iran could start World War III. The Bush trademarked Global War on Terror used to be the neoconservative's World War III. (AP Photo Kadir Konuksever)

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, went to Iran to forge ties and a possible arms deal with their controversial president, partly in reaction to president Bush speaking to putting missiles back on European soil as part of a defense shield.

Mr. Putin told a summit of five Caspian Sea nations, "We should not even think of using force in this region" – a veiled warning to the US not to strike Iran. But the Russian leader also sought a delicate balance on the nuclear issue, after a week of rebuffing top American officials over Washington's missile defense plans for Europe, and despite French and German leaders' hopes for a tougher line against Iran.

"From Iran's vantage point, this could not have come at a better time to drastically improve the geostrategic climate in Iran's favor, when Iran is under escalating pressure from the US and some allies," says Kaveh Afrasiabi, an Iran expert at Bentley College near Boston. "This summit works as an antidote to these pressures."

That was just yesterday in Our World. The topic of peace is a prolific one in books. Leo Tolstoy's epic Russian novel War and Peace remains one of the all time great contributions to literature. This translation is by Richard Peavere and Larrissa Volokhunsky.

And the Nobel Peace Prize Goes to....

The Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth went to the Executive Producer, not the star of the production, the newest Nobel Peace Prize winner, Albert Arnold Gore, Junior, Environmentalist Extroardinaire and to the exemplary and exhaustive work from Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC).

Al Gore now walks in the pantheon with the following Nobel Peace Laureates:

Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, James Earl Carter, Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Yunnus, and Wangari Maathai.

Al Gore, The Champion For The Planet brings the issue of Global Warming and Climate Change to every village and hamlet, from sea to shining sea with his unstinting and focused attention on an environmental issue many dismissed or denied. Thursday night Gore brought down the house with thunderous ovations at California senator, Barbara Boxer's fundraiser. Well Done Al Gore, Well Done. IPCC as well as a group shares this honor with Al Gore.

... Gore focused on what has become his signature issue - global warming - telling the crowd at the Westin St. Francis that it is critical for citizens and leaders alike to be "coming to an agreement on how we can work together, quickly, to solve these moral imperatives and crisis."

Global warming, he said, shouldn't be seen "as an ideological issue."

"We have everything we need to get started," he said. But it's important "not to paralyze people with the fear that we're facing."

"We have to call upon our courage as free men and women ... and it's our whole civilization that's at risk."

The actual receipt of and the awarding of the Nobel prize, the Nobel Medal, the Nobel Prize Diploma and the document confirming the Nobel prize winnings are given by His Royal Highness King Karl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on December 10th, 2007. Nobel Laureates participate in a series of Lectures in Stockholm, culminating with the Nobel Peace Prize winner delivering their lectures in Oslo during the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony before King Harald V of Norway.

Gustav Vigeland is the designer of the prestigious and world famous medal. As always, Alfred Nobel's visage is the face of the medal.

The Nobel Peace Prize Medal

Registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation

The inscription reads:

Pro pace et fraternitate gentium meaning "For The Peace and brotherhood of men".
Prix Nobel de la Paix", the relevant year, and the name of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is engraved on the edge of the medal.

Registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation

Nobel Week Suspense - Will Al Gore Win Friday?

Crossed fingers and churning stomachs turn in anticipation towards Norway and the Nobel Foundation this week. Intense speculation is rife with rumors about the identity of winners for Nobel Prizes. The whole week starts a festival of activity preparing for the winners' December acceptance speeches. So as not to disturb the ozone, many (me too) are holding their breath for Friday's announcement to see if a particular cause - Global Warming - Climate Change, receives recognition in the Peace category for a particular high profile American environmental activist, Al Gore and the less famous Canadian Sheila Watte-Cloutier.

"I've been surprised almost every time," Nobel watcher Stein Toennesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute - Oslo, said Friday.

"It would have to do with climate change, and it would be a prize that included both a man and a woman," he said.

Watt-Cloutier, who lives in Iqaluit, has highlighted the impact of climate change on life for Arctic communities. She has spoken about people in Nunavut drowning because of melting glaciers and unstable ice, and rising suicide rates because traditional hunting life has been disrupted.

"I have a feeling that climate change is appropriate (for a prize)," Dan Smith, a former director of Oslo's peace research institute, said by telephone from London. "I also have a feeling that it would not be Al Gore. He does not need it."

Others mentioned include Finnish peace mediator Martti Ahtisaari or activists like Lida Yusupova from Russia, Rebiya Kadeer from China or Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Do.

Medicine announced today the mice were outstanding and got their three doctors plaudits from the Committee; Oliver Smithies, Martin J. Evans and Mario Capecchi, for successfully creating specific genetic changes. Tomorrow, the Nobel spotlight is on Physics. Wednesday, my birthday, highlights the winners in Chemistry, Thursday illumination and erudition from the world of Literature with Friday dedicated to the significant contributions towards World Peace.

The winners stories are compelling and the Dr. Capecchi is no exception as he recounts some of the hardest times of his life. to win a Nobel Prize in medicine after what he endured is a testament to perseverance strength of character and a testament to will.

The prize was particularly rewarding for Dr. Capecchi, who lived as a street urchin in Italy during World War II and who later had to prove his scientific peers wrong after they rejected his initial grant to the National Institutes of Health in 1980, saying his project was not feasible.

Dr. Capecchi’s mother had lived in a luxurious villa in Florence and had become a Bohemian poet, writing against Fascism and Nazism. She refused to marry his father, an Italian Air Force officer with whom she had a love affair. When young Mario was not yet 4, the Gestapo came to their home inTyrol, in the Italian Alps, to take his mother to the Dachau concentration camp.

Because she knew her time of freedom was limited, she had sold all her possessions and given the proceeds to an Italian farming family with whom he lived for about a year. When the money ran out, the family sent Mario on his way. He said he wandered south, moving from town to town as his cover was blown. He wandered, usually alone, but sometimes in small gangs, begging and stealing, sleeping in the streets, occasionally in an orphanage.

At the war’s end, the malnourished boy was put in a hospital for a year. During that time his mother, who had survived Dachau, searched hospitals and orphanages for him. A week after she found him — on his birthday — they were on a boat to join her brother in a Quaker environment in Pennsylvania.

Al Gore had the most privileged of childhoods with private schools and meeting his sweetheart, Tipper. His life of luxury did little to prepare him to watch everything he cherished be suddenly at risk with the near death of his son, the loss of his only sibling Nancy, winning the popular vote in 2000 to become President to only have it snatched away by a partisan US Supreme Court decision. Since college Al Gore has written, cajoled and argued on behalf of environmental issues.

People became transfixed with one man holding a seminar teaching about Global Warming that turned out massive audiences worldwide to hear how what happens in your neck of the woods with greenhouse gases affects someone else acutely. Gore is the environmental CFL-Gold standard. Many environmental and political activists will be hitting refresh on their browsers Friday to see if he is one half of the team advancing the cause of Peace through his contributions of film, writing, lecturing and participating in getting the world to comprehend the coming destruction ofour Earth if we don't immediately change our behaviors.

The battle against global warming is seen as a strong candidate for the prestigious award, with former US vice president Al Gore and Canadian Inuit Sheila Watt-Cloutier believed to be contenders.

Gore has brought the issue to the top of the international agenda with his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth , while Watt-Cloutier, the former head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, has campaigned to draw attention to climate change in the Arctic.

Climate change has a direct impact on world peace, according to observers who note that humanitarian efforts around the world will amount to nothing if low-lying countries are wiped out by rising sea levels and massive waves of refugees.

The resources of dwindling fresh water, dirty air and lack of arable land cause wars. That is the direct effect of environmental policies that are good only for first world nations that obstruct world peace when others try to acquire the same standard of living. Peace through a shared world that we all keep clean and respect is a cause for celebration, Nobel aside. But still, a validation that this is tremendously important would not go amiss.


No matter the final Friday outcome, a hearty congratulations on their contribution towards Peace. There will always be the Academy Award winning, An Inconvenient Truth.

New Cold War: Canada's Arctic Military Bases

A fiery desire for a New Age of Polar Empire has several nations succumbing to Arctic allure and demanding their rights to the ice. This pits nation against nation to freeze each other out as the victor claims Manifest Destiny or plants a frozen flag. In the hopes of being crowned the ultimate victor, Canada will build several bases in the Northwest Passage as a bulwark against other claims. The controversial decision announcing bases, one in Resolute Bay is kind of a polar Suez Canal.

Resources are hot commodities beneath the Arctic Sea. There are no other resource fields left remaining untouched, unmined and without a crystal clear claim by any nation. Control of the vast oil and natural gas fields plus gateway access is a fierce contest amongst nations. Canada aims to have its international voice and sovereign might heard and felt. The United Nations is the arbiter gathering facts to determine which nation owns these fields within their international boundaries. Russia lost an UN claim in 2001, but has undertaken a new forceful 2007 push by planting a titanium flag in recent days, demonstrating their claim of ownership and sovereign rights. The US sneered and thinks it is a Russian stunt. Presidents Putin & Bush have not been best friends forever, lately. It definitely pushes an eyebrow due north hearing tough rhetoric from Canada. entering the fray.

“Canada’s Government understands that the first principle of Arctic sovereignty is use it or lose it,” Mr Harper said. The move comes a week after Russia planted a rustproof titanium flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in a blatant attempt to stake a claim to the billions of tonnes of untapped energy resources believed to be under the Arctic Ocean.

Canada, with many long not happy with some of its military direction, is under the new leadership of Prime Minister Harper. In part, it will be hard to be a/the gatekeeper of the Northwest Passage as ice floes are melting. Ice no longer blocking subs or ships further complicates jurisdiction as the Northwest Passage become larger territory to defend. America has SOFA's or Status Of Forces Agreements to build military bases on international soil. Odd, if it ever came to that type of agreement in North America.

Chalmers Johnson, former CIA veteran and Asia expert, emphatically warns of SOFA's around the world and their true costs in terms of American prestige and treasure in the second book of his trilogy, Sorrows of Empire. Nations are trying to be the "New Rome" - it wasn't built in a day or in a frigid atmosphere. An earlier post by me outlines Russia's recent race to the North Pole.

China Demands Bhuddas Apply for Reincarnation

That is not satire. China's bureaucratic ham-fisted attempt to 'manage' the choice of the next Dalai Lama by regulating who is the potential successor by requiring a formal application for reincarnation, opens the communist country up for ridicule. In 1995, His Holiness named the Panchen Lama and the six year old promptly vanished from public view under Chinese detention. Meanwhile, China has put on a publicity campaign of sorts for their choice for the Panchen Lama to step into the role of Dalai (Great Ocean of Wisdom) Lama (Spiritual Master). China is formalizing a nefarious role in selecting the Dalai Lama or stating one can not be found.

China's nerves are a bit overworked as they have set a deadline for applications for September 1, 2007. Arrests by jittery Chinese armed police, Wu Jing, for about two hundred Tibetans occurred after a speaker praised the Dalai Lama at a horse festival. Tibet continues to fight against the 1951 takeover by China. The Four Noble Truths continue to hold the tenets of Buddhism for Believers. China is again using governmental authoritarianism as an instrument to disrupt religion to gain control over the population. That hasn't worked since the 12th century.


Tibetan Treasures offers a variety of books covering Buddhist philosophy for the beginner and the master and notable authors. An exhaustive list of works by and with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama are listed here on his government in exile page.

August 2, 1939 A Historic Day

Two events on that specific date make it possible for you to read this. Neither, in my mind, is more important than the other.

Albert Einstein wrote a letter to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, catapulting America into action warding off stockpiling of uranium by enemies of the state. Uranium was and is critical to the making of a nuclear device, especially a bomb. Albert Einstein, at the behest of other scientists and scholars made it clear that uranium was the active ingredient to set off a chain reaction. They were using the fabled formula E=mc2.

Einstein writing that letter is credited with pushing the USA to work speedily via the Manhattan Project to beat the Germans and others working on an Atom Bomb in secret. Einstein came to regret that letter, not because of America's actions, but because it set off the arms race of the nuclear age. He was a committed pacifist, suspected by his adopted country; America, and wanted no parts on working on weapons of mass destruction.

The second event that happened that day was the birth of my mom. It is her birthday. I wish her much love, peace and happiness in the years ahead. She works hard, gives of herself and makes life better for others in all the great ways she knows how. I am glad she is my Mom. I love her very much and thank her for all of her sacrifices and things she has done in a life well lived. Happiest of Birthdays, Beloved Mom!

There are no books about my Mom, but there should be. To me, both are fascinating people. Mom's hair is white, but under control. Einstein, ever the gracious definition of a totally warped space time continuum bad hair day.

There are books on Albert on the wide range of his life and his interests. Einstein is captured in a lively biography dedicated to his years in Berlin by Thomas Levenson entitled, Einstein in Berlin. Denis Brian offers a lifetime review with Einstein: A Life.

The Elders Seek Peace with Madiba Magic

An esteemed group of World Leaders gathered together Wednesday, on Nelson Mandela's birthday, to begin working on Peace as The Elders. Slowed by physical age, yet filled with the eternal spirit of Peace, the fighter for social justice lent his presence to the auspicious gathering. Mandela is the source of the wise and generous Madiba Magic.

Among The Elders & Nobel Laureates

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest which garnered her a prominent empty chair honoring her absence. None of The Elders has a formal role or government mandate, but they have global connections and clout, which the group will leverage to wage Peace.

Learning more about The Elders is a Google click away, yet nothing gives profound insight quite like what is revealed inside a book's pages. Some of the bibliography of notable books on or by the group include: The Long Walk to Freedom a riveting and detailed Nelson Mandela's autobiography (plus I must mention the brand new Shades of Freedom describing the Apartheid Movement in rich and painful detail with an extended foreword from Nelson Mandela), Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter, God Has A Dream by Desmond Tutu. Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's autobiographical contribution to the fascinating world of micro-finance. Mary Robinson the former United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights was the seventh president of Ireland and serves on several high profile and powerful global initiatives and boards.