Orphan Tourism

Namaste,

According to an article by Charlotte Turner, there are 269 orphanages and 12,000 orphans in Cambodia.

"Visitors see some poverty and they feel bad about it," said Ashlee Chapman, a project manager with Globalteer, an organisation that matches volunteers with local organisations.

"They want to do something," she adds, saying they might visit a children's project for a few hours, donate money and toys, "take a holiday snap and feel that they've contributed."

"Constant change of caregivers gives emotional loss to children, constant emotional loss to already traumatised children," Jolanda van Westering, a child protection specialist at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) told AFP.

Read more.

The Cambodian children pictured here are not orphans.

Metta.

Cycles

Namaste,

The cycle of existence.

A person creates subjective reality and illusions. People feel pure joy with compassion, gratitude and forgiveness. Your center is clear and unified. No past regrets, no future fears.

The Chinese-Tibetan puppet leaders in Lhasa ordered monks to increase 24/7 patriotic education classes in all monasteries. Re-education through reform, ideology, propaganda and control.

It’s about power and control, ruling through fear and intimidation. The Chinese after looting and destroying monasteries in Tibet and mainland China during the 10-year Cultural Revolution, restricted the number of monks at the three major Lhasa monasteries, Sera, Drepung and Ganden.

They recruited Tibetan monks to live and work as spies and infamous informers. This system proved effective during the Cultural Revolution when family members reported on each other, neighbors and capitalist running dogs. It was a practical peoples campaign of fear and suspicion creating paranoia and ideological control.

Monks and nuns allowed to live and practice who resist or question this form of subtle patriotic education risk imprisonment, torture and death. They well know what has and continues to happen to liberal monks and nuns at the notorious Drapchi prison outside Lhasa.

There are two kinds of suffering, said a girl weaving wool carpets in her yurt on the Tibetan plateau below bare brown mountains. Suffering you run away from and suffering you face.

Metta.

child labor

Namaste,

190 countries celebrate World Day Against Child Labor on 12 June.

1.5 billion children labor around the world.

2.14 million child workers in Nepal are in industries, service and agriculture. 

In Nepal 600,000 children work in hazardous jobs. Half of the child workers are 10-14. Fifty-percent are between 5-9. 

12% work away from home.

Poverty and illiteracy are the primary causes.

Let's celebrate! sang 1.5 billion children.

Metta.

new constipation

Namaste,

40 million Nepalese ran into streets, paths, jungles, mountain villages this week.

National Crisis Averted! We're going to get a new constipation!

The 601 elected representatives waited (delayed) until the last minute to agree to extend their deadline on writing a new constipation another three months.

Wow! Hooray! Congratulations! They've had two years and couldn't get the job done. Now they have another ninety days. It's a beautiful mess. Squabble. Cluck-cluck. Quack-quack. 

As a foreign anthropologist said, "They act like teenagers. They waste their opportunities."

As a local teacher said, "They politicize everything here in Nepal. They're good at calling general strikes. They're good at not providing enough water or electricity. They want democracy but not the responsibilities." 

Everyone walks around with a morning radio attached to their ear swallowing the latest cynical political intrigue. A free hand carries a red plastic bucket of water from the community well. Everyone brushes their teeth outside. Hawking and spitting is popular. Accurate. 

Common life is simple. Home. Family, community inside small shops. Food, conversation, peace. 

Fishtail (Machapuchare) the sacred Shiva mountain weeps ice at 22,943 feet. It will never be climbed.

Metta.

Vice Puppet

Greetings,

Sullyman, the Magnificence, my acting heroic Vice Puppet in the never ending charade of manipulative lies told the people to GO HOME, leave the square, forget your dreams and aspirations, we have heard your voice, we listen with benign neglect, we respect your human rights. However, to prevent a messy democracy totalitarian draconian emergency laws will stay in effect for 3,000 years.

Bait and switch stalling blather. The people don't buy it. We are home, they said. 

What did you expect from a trembling CIA funded friend? Oh, my. He is closer to me than white on rice. Closer than spots on a dice. I am the dice man. I am the dealer and the house always wins, my friend. My house is crumbling down around my deaf ears. When 80 millions citizens begin yelling and marching and singing and dancing demanding freedom and democracy I change the channel. Denial is bliss.

I sit behind my ornate golden desk trembling with fear. I am worrying out my worry beads. I am a fractured remnant of my old stubborn self. I am an old man. I am 82. I have sacrificed my life for Egypt.

I have amassed $70 Billion dollars in a small tidy personal fortune over 30 years of graft, corruption, business manipulation, Pentagon contracts and plain theft.

I am really an honest man. Believe me. I have wives and rich children to support. I have outstanding mortgages in Geneva, Paris, London, New York, Shanghai, Jerusalem, and a million destitute Egyptian villages.

It ain't nothing but the blues.

Being a corrupt dictator is a pain in the oligarchy. 

Metta.