Happy birthday, Malcolm X! (video)

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Imixwhatilike.org; Donnie Mossberg (video); Wikipedia edit

"If you're not careful the [media] will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." - Malcolm X

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It would be Malcolm X’s 91st birthday today (May 19th) if he had not been assassinated. So it's a good time to learn more about this great American figure (Biography.com) and hear oral histories from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (mxgm.org). Here is one about the lesser known history of armed self-defense in the Black American liberation struggle: We Will Shoot Back.

• VIDEO: Malcolm X: Speeches and Interviews (1960-65) 
• VIDEO: The Honorable Malcolm X: Make It Plain

MALCOLM X (Malcolm Little, el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz) was born on May 19, 1925 and assassinated at age 39 on Feb. 21, 1965. He was a human rights activist and lapsed American Muslim minister. In the eyes of admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a leader who indicted white America in harsh terms for its crimes and biases against black Americans. Detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence in the name of self-defense and quote him by saying, "By all means necessary." He has also been called one of the best and most influential African Americans in history (Wiki).
 

Why racism? Hate, ignorance, greed

"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time." - Malcolm X

 

Three things poison the heart/mind.

It should be noted that "racism" implies social power, the power to oppress, which racial minorities in America do not have. So Malcolm X was not "racist." Some would argue that only whites in America can be "racist."

It's true anyone can be prejudiced, discriminatory, biased, fearful, hateful, angry, resentful, or ignorant, but only those in power can practice "racism." If Africans oppressed nonblacks, that would be racism.

The same goes for sexism (the systematic oppression of one sex over another, particularly the mistreatment of females). Why do people engage in self-serving behavior? Greed (self-interest, avarice, smallmindedness, selfishness, lobha).

White Christian terrorists love to instill fear. Do U.S. blacks face  "genocide"? (rap videos)

 
In ignorance, we may all be contributing to these two isms, but only those in power in a biased patriarchal society can impose it; the rest of us are foolishly promoting and perpetuating it by failing to resist or rectify it.

How can we awaken and free our minds so our b[odies] will follow?

We must decolonize our minds so that we do not advance the injustices of the racist-sexist power arrangement that makes us hate ourselves and serve in our own oppression. In other words:

"If you think the system works,
you must work for the system."

• VIDEO: Hidden History: Black Heroes of the U.S.
• Hidden History: US' black Founding Fathers
• VIDEO: Police State, Martial Law, Ed Snowden
• Do U.S. blacks face a "genocide"? (rap videos)
• Christian massacre of Native Americans (video)

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VOTE: Have you been purged from the voter rolls? Check. Call the free California Voter Hotline: 1(800) 345-VOTE. Vote on June 7th, Election Day, when Bernie Sanders trumps Clinton.
 

No one cares about stats.

Thai Martial Law: Coup or no Coup? (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Panarat Thepgumpanat, Amy Sawitta Lefevre (Reuters, 5-21-14); CNN

(CNN) Kristie Lu Stout reports on pre-dawn announcement of martial law and its implications

UPDATE 3: Talks to end Thai crisis inconclusive, new round called

• Army chief met political parties, rival protest groups
• Meeting inconclusive, said participants
• Army declared martial law on Tuesday, denies staging a coup
• Acting PM says he is still in charge, proposes Aug. 3 election

Theravada devotion, Thailand (WQ)

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's rival political factions would not agree to stop street protests on Wednesday during crisis talks aimed at ending the confrontation a day after the army declared martial law, a pro-government activist said.

Although the military denied Tuesday's surprise intervention amounted to a coup, army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha appeared to be setting the agenda by forcing groups and organizations with a central role in the crisis to talk.

Streets in the south: Phuket, 2012 (SR)

Issues raised during the meeting included reforming the political system -- a demand made by anti-government protesters -- and ending the demonstrations that have sparked violence, disrupted business, and scared off tourists.

"When asked whether each group can stop protesting, there was no commitment from either side," Thida Thawornseth, a leader of the pro-government "red shirt" political group, told Reuters. "There was no clear conclusion."

Tensions high in Bangkok (March 2010)

Puchong Nutrawong, secretary-general of the Election Commission, who was also at the talks, said all sides would meet again on Thursday.

"The army chief asked us to go back home and think about the things we discussed in order to find a solution for the country," Puchong told Reuters.

Protests continue in Thailand (2010)

Thailand has been riven for nearly 10 years by the rivalry between populist former Prime Minister [corrupt billionaire tycoon] Thaksin Shinawatra and the royalist establishment.

Echo of troubles in Venezuela (AFP)

Thaksin, a former tele-com billionaire who won the loyalty of the rural and urban poor, has lived in self-exile since 2008 but still exerts a huge influence, most recently through a government run by his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra [the latest PM to be ousted, two weeks back].

China troubles Taiwan, April 2014 (UR)

Yingluck was forced to step down as premier by a court two weeks ago, but her caretaker government remains in power, despite the declaration of martial law and six months of sometimes violent protests aimed at ousting it.

The turmoil has driven the [largest Theravada Buddhist] country to the brink of recession and even raised fears of civil war.

"HOMEWORK HANDED OUT"

Thailand anti-government protests (2009)

The anti-government protesters are opposed to an election, which Thaksin's loyalist would be likely to win. They want a "neutral" prime minister installed to oversee electoral reforms aimed at ending Thaksin's influence.

 

[They also want to replace the PM system with a citizens' committee of leaders, a move seen as too radical by the military and business interests who need a stable platform to operate their capitalist enterprises extracting labor and resources and channeling it into private hands for the benefit of the few at a steep cost to the many.] More 

• Chinese nationals leave Vietnam after protests
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• Talks to end Thai crisis inconclusive, new round called (1) Thailand's rival political factions would not agree to stop street protests on Wednesday during crisis talks aimed at ending the confrontation a day...
• SE Asia Stocks mostly weaker; Thai index recovers
• Geopolitical tensions could hurt Asia growth: IMF...
• SE Asia Stocks mixed; Thai index up after martial law
• US urges Thai army to respect "democratic principles"
• SE Asia Stocks: Thailand falls after martial law; Jakarta...
• Factbox: Martial law in Thailand - What it entails

Punk Rock made me a Buddhist (video)

P. MacPherson, D. Seven, A. Wells, CC Liu (Wisdom Quarterly)

A Japanese punk scene across the sea later created cyberpunk masterpieces that focused on punks and freaks of all kinds (cinemastrikesback.com).

LOS ANGELES - Punk rock made me a Buddhist. A few hot spots in America (Boston, NYC, SF) gave rise to the American version of "punk," now devolved into pop-punk and bubblegum rock.

But it was once a rebellious act -- something that would get you arrested, beaten in Hollywood by riot police (LAPD/OCPD Gone Wild with a license to assault, jail, beat, and even shoot).

OC police now engage in brutality as bad as that of their brothers in blue next door -- killing for sport. RIP Kelly Thomas of Fullerton (abclocal.go.com).

I always thought police hated punk rock. But it seems what they hate are kids, freedom, rebellion, youthful exuberance.

Police/paramilitary troops (many back from active duty in the military killing freely in Afghanistan and Iraq) stand stiffly wielding sticks, covering their badges, deploying all sorts of "toys" -- Tasers, concussion grenades, choke holds, mace, tear gas, non-metal projectiles (that cause serious injury and death while claiming to be nonlethal, but lethality completely depends on how they are used), horses, military assault rifles, shotguns, revolvers, mace, and secret stuff (using microwaves and infiltrating provocateurs).

What's it to do with Buddhism? Like the liberating Dharma itself, punk goes against the stream. I didn't join Noah Levine in his movement. I didn't wait for Keanu Reeves to make a movie about it. And I was no Brad Warner fan, nor even a student of "Zen," except as articulated by Alan Watts on KPFK, the city's only free speech radio outlet. Their were genius front men like Jello Biafra, the person with the most integrity, to be inspired by. There were the Buddha's own words to go by, particularly the Kalama Sutra.

Steven Blush has documented what the music was really like at the time:

American Hardcore: Steven Blush Interview

Siran Babayan (Feb. 3, 2011, Live in L.A.)

"Hardcore is a Complete, Legitimate California-born Music Form"
In his 2001 compendium, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, New York writer and former promoter Steven Blush all but dispensed with your dad's glamorized spit-scabs-and-safety-pin punk, instead focusing on hundreds of DIY, anarchic hardcore bands from the scene's peak between 1980 and 1986, proving that this was one genre of rock that wasn't fun and games, especially when the crowd is trying to light the singer on fire.

While Blush interviewed the music's usual suspects, including the Dead Kennedys, Misfits and Bad Brains, a substantial amount the book is not surprisingly dedicated to SoCal, from Hollywood to Orange County to the South Bay of Black Flag and SST.

Or, as Blush rightly identified, where "American hardcore was born..." (Bad Brains singer H.R.'s interview in the accompanying 2006 Sony Pictures Classics documentary took place at Griffith Park with a quinceanera in the background).

For the book's second edition, which includes more interviews, flyers, and a new chapter, Blush hosts a readings/discussion at Book Soup today, with Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks), Tony Cadena (Adolescents), Lisa Fancher (Frontier Records), and photographer Edward Colver. Before he left the frigid cold for sunshine, we caught up with the author and talked local pride:

• How did the book come about?
  

I started in the mid-'90s when the punk revival had happened with Green Day, Offspring, and Rancid. Everybody was talking about hardcore, but it had never really been documented. There was never any written lore other than fanzines, and some great ones, like Flipside in the L.A. area and Maximumrocknroll in San Francisco, notably. More

Anti-War Protests (San Francisco, Hollywood)

Wisdom Quarterly

SAN FRANCISCO, California (R56) - On March 19, 2011 the people of Northern California as well as UC Berkeley and UCSF students braved the rain to peacefully protest US aggression abroad. On the same day, the US bullied and maneuvered the UN into yet another costly (but backhandedly profitable) war. Now the pretext is "humanitarian" concern for foreigners being killed by another dictator we propped up, armed, and financially supported.

It's a selective concern for others. Of all the human rights abuses going on, how is it we have to help Libya but not other oppressed people? It's not help we are there to offer but our own strategic interests. Anti-war protests are more important than ever with the US now engaged on FIVE fronts none of them declared as our federal constitution mandates. But never mind that. And never mind the war the US is waging against truth by torturing Bradley Manning undermining WikiLeak's co-founder Julian Assange.

These acts of empire-building are simply called conflicts, temporary invasions or surges, "anti-terrorist crusades" that just happen to employ terrorist tactics specifically targeting civilian populations (that Manning so famously revealed) and infrastructure by design (not as collateral damage) because how does one distinguish combatants from noncombatants? After all, the US is not fighting against a regular standing army.

It is simply subjugating independent nations and killing people it will later label "militants," "terrorists," or "enemy combatants," later as in when they're too dead to prove otherwise. Although these acts of US aggression are not declared wars, they are rubber stamped after the fact by congressional representatives terrified by even the possibility of being portrayed "unpatriotic."

• The next NoCal protest is in Dolores Park on April 10, 2011.

LOS ANGELES - (Shudderbug) Thousands gathered in Hollywood to protest the US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, and on truth. This date marks the 8th anniversary of the US war on Iraq. While no protester had any idea when this date was chosen, it also happened to be the first day the Pentagon chose to start another war with air strikes on Libya killing the very civilians we are told we are there to protect. This scene is from the tail end of the protest as it passes the CNN building on Sunset Blvd. In this video are protestors from various groups, including Koreans Against War, 9-11 Truth Movement, Spanish groups, Buddhists for Peace, Native Americans, Veterans for Peace, and others. More>>

Thai monks, like Burmese monks, protest

THAILAND (Mar. 14, 2010) - Large parts of downtown Bangkok have turned red, where tens of thousands of opposition supporters -- part of a "Red Shirt" movement -- are demanding the government's ouster and fresh elections. The Red Shirts are supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, the country's deposed prime minister. They want political change now.

• VIDEO: It got bloody for the Thai Red Shirts in 2009

The demonstrators have warned that they will press ahead with their agitation until their demands are met -- even if it means "paralyzing" Bangkok. Aljazeera's Wayne Hay reports from the Thai capital, where about 50,000 troops have been deployed. Flashback to Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007:

Adventure Travel: Thailand and Pictures

NOTES ON A CULTURE (Wisdom Quarterly)

Thai novices (temporarily ordained monastics-in-training) (AP/BBC)

What is Thailand? Thai ("free") land is a Theravada Buddhist country in Southeast Asia. It is predominantly Buddhist with a small percentage of animists in the forested north and Muslims in the tropical south. There are no fully ordained nuns, but there are Mas. They are 10-precept nuns who usually wear white. A professor made tremendous waves by seeking full ordination, becoming the first woman to do so. However, nearly all men of means become (temporary) monks at some point. To do so makes them sought after marriage material. Prostitution, which seems semi-legal, is certainly a quietyl accepted fixture in Thai culture. The majority of patrons are Thai, in spite of its legendary red light districts. It also has a third gender (kathoey).

Buddhas, monks, temples, and beaches (Edmund Lou/Demund on Flickr.com)

There is a tremendous influx of spiritual and sensual foreign tourists from the West, who seem to be in search of exotic culture, religion, and morals, flaunting Thai standards of modesty. Worldwide travel by Wisdom Quarterly staff confirms that Thailand is perhaps the most hospitable and kind place to travel. The people are enormously generous, innocent, and mild. Of course, this is changing, particularly in the larger cities. Buddhism has exercised a sense of decorum and propriety, notably on how guests are treated, that is remarkable. Unfortunately, this does not extend to neighbors and age-old rivals in Cambodia. (A border and temple complex dispute still flares up from time to time).

Political turmoil in April 2009 rocked the capital with the red shirts versus yellow shirts (AP).

Economically, like most of Asia, it is trying to be Japan. It may get there. But some political upheavals and corruption have brought strife to an otherwise passive and peaceful kingdom. The king, who is the longest reigning monarch in the world, is not involved in daily affairs. But he is revered, and it is unthinkable and illegal to criticize him or his policies. One does not come away with the impression that Thais want to criticize. While politicians and even the Sangha (monastic order) may be of questionable repute, the king is untainted and very helpful to the people.

Freed Thai protesters roar defiance of gov't

Woman takes part in an anti-government march 10/9/08 condemning police (Reuters/Chaiwat Subprasom). Buddhist monks wait for offerings outside the gates of Wat Bencha near Government House. Thai soldiers have helped maintain an uneasy calm in Bangkok but anti-government protestors have vowed to avenge those killed and injured in clashes this week with police.(AP Photo/David Longstreath)

Ambika Ahuja (AP)

BANGKOK, Thailand - A protest group seeking to unseat Thailand's government was buoyed Thursday by court rulings that ordered insurrection charges dropped against its leaders and called for the authorities to use "soft means" to quell demonstrations.

The court actions came after violent clashes Tuesday between police and protesters incited broad but not universal criticism of the government, blamed by much of the press and professional and academic groups for using unnecessary force.

The fighting left 423 protesters and 20 police injured, medical authorities said. One woman was killed, and a man died in what appeared to be a related incident. It was the worst political violence since 1992, when the army killed dozens of pro-democracy demonstrators seeking the ouster of a military-backed government.

The People's Alliance for Democracy, which is seeking to topple the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, continued to roar its defiance of the authorities and challenged them to a showdown. They accuse Somchai of being merely a proxy for former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup for alleged corruption and misuse of power. Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law.

"It is the final war. We cannot lose. If we lose, the country will be gone," top protest leader Sondhi Limthongkul said from the grounds of the prime minister's office compound, which the protesters have occupied since Aug. 26.

A day later, arrest warrants were issued for the alliance's nine leaders.

Two were arrested and released Thursday. Seven other leaders gave themselves up to police investigators Friday and leader Chamlong Srimuang hoped they would soon be released on bail.

The Appeals Court on Thursday revoked three of the five charges on the warrants — insurrection, stockpiling of weapons and refusing to disperse. It said it would issue new warrants with the two remaining charges of inciting a public disturbance and illegal assembly, which carry prison terms of seven and three years respectively.

Protest leaders had said they were willing to fight all the charges except treason, which carries a possible death sentence, and which they deemed unjustified.

Sondhi said he and his colleagues would report to police and apply for bail on Friday.

The Criminal Court, meanwhile, granted the release of Chamlong and Chaiwat Sinsuwong who were detained over past week.

The court waived bail of $2,900 when a senator agreed to act as their guarantor.

Yet another court appeared to rule in favor of the protesters, issuing an order for the prime minister to "adhere to international standards" on crowd control measures following Tuesday's violence.

Both sides have accused the other of using excessive force in those clashes.

Police insist they only used tear gas and that some demonstrators may have been hurt by explosives they themselves were carrying, but AP reporters saw police using stun grenades.

Protesters said their gathering was peaceful, but many used iron rods, slingshots, firecrackers and bottles to attack police. An AP Television News reporter saw at least three protesters carrying guns.

The Administrative Court instructed authorities to "use soft means before using tough measures when they disperse protesters in the future." The temporary order will hold until the court rules on a lawsuit filed against the government by protesters and senators, charging that riot police used excessive force.

Chamlong said that the protesters were not daunted by the clashes.

"We are not scared of them. They would not dare hurt us again because that would be the end of their administration. If you (the government) want things to be over, you should come out to crack down on us right now and you would know the meaning of hell," he said.

The protest alliance claims Thailand's electoral system is susceptible to vote buying. It derides Thailand's rural majority — who gave landslide election victories to Thaksin and his allies — as too poorly educated to responsibly choose their representatives.

The alliance wants Thailand to abandon one-man, one-vote democracy, and instead have a mixed system in which some representatives are chosen by certain professions and social groups. They have not explained how exactly such a system would work or what would make it less susceptible to manipulation.