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Announcements:
Need Venues in Southern California for Bill McKibben
Bill McKibben, author, educator and environmental activist, will be the Keynote Speaker at the 11th Annual Caring for Creation conference, sponsored by the Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment on October 25, 2008.
WE NEED YOUR HELP! We want to reduce Bill's carbon footprint by lining up different speaking engagements while he is in Southern California.
Preferred dates are: October 24, 2008 and October 26, 2008 or the evening of October 25, 2008.
If you can help, please contact Sherri Loveland at ocice@cox.net or (714) 552-0333.
Posted on 4/15/08 by Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment
Animal Rights 2008 Conference
Animal Rights 2008 National Conference
August 14-18 2008, Washington DC
World’s largest and oldest animal rights conference
100 sessions, including plenaries, workshops, raps, reports
90 speakers from 60 animal protection groups in 9 countries
Sessions on personal skills, activism, organizing, outreach
Presentations on whale wars and effects of global warming
Presentations by leaders of other social justice movements
Hundred exhibits, free entry
80 Videos with premieres
Celebrity & Activist Awards
Networking Receptions
http://www.arconference.org
Posted on 7/20/08 by
The 23rd Annual International Compassionate Living Festival
Speaking Their Truth: The 23rd Annual International Compassionate Living Festival
October 3 - 5 2008, Raleigh/Durham North Carolina
Founded in 1985 by Tom and Nancy Regan of the Culture and Animals Foundation, the ICLF brings together renowned scholars, authors, activists and artists who work for nonviolence social change on behalf of animals worldwide. These individuals represent a wide range of backgrounds, interests, experiences and perspectives.
This event is meant to provide novice and veteran animal advocates with information, inspiration and a means for respectful discussion of important, timely issues of many kinds. It complements rather than duplicates other animal rights conferences, and offers a unique forum for “thinking activists” and “activist thinkers.”
http://www.animalsandsociety.org/stt
Posted on 7/20/08 by
Radical Women Conference
On October 3-6, 2008, Radical Women is hosting "The Persistent Power of Socialist Feminism" conference at The Women’s Building in San Francisco, 3543 18th Street, San Francisco CA 94110.
The conference features activists and scholars from Central America, Australia, China, and the U.S. The agenda includes panel discussions, keynote speakers such as civil liberties attorney Lynne Stewart, organizer-training workshops and strategy sessions. Topics include: multiracial organizing in a society divided by racism, the dynamic leadership of youth and queers, a labor revival ignited by immigrants and women of color, and the need for an independent grassroots feminist movement.
In today’s tumultuous political climate, we hope this event will produce concrete plans to energize and focus the women’s movement on the many issues that affect us all. The event is open to all genders.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like more information.
Liz Biskar: Community Outreach Organizer
Radical Women
RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com
206-722-6057
Posted on 8/3/08 by
Environmental Health & Economic challenges of the 21st Century
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~ Invitation to participate ~
Environmental Health & Economic Challenges
of the 21st Century - ("The Last Frontier")
A Community Forum Presented by the
Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network
Monterey Beach Resort (Best Western)
2600 Sand Dunes Drive...Monterey, CA. 93940
May 31, 2008
Registration 8:30 am
An All Day Event
Addressing environmental toxins, your health, and possible solutions.
Also Spraying Pesticides & EJ & "Reducing GreenHouse Gas Emissions & Burning"
Featuring: Doctor Dr. Lovell Jones, Renowned Oncologist
Peter de Fur, Ph.D, of Environmental Stewardship Concepts" &
Technical Advisor to Fort Ord Env. Justice Network,
Donald & LeVonne Stone, Founders, "Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network"
Bradley Angel, Executive Director, "Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice"
George Riley, Co-founder, "Citizens for Public Water"
Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control
Environmental Art Presentation by
Peninsula, Salinas, & South County High Schools
US Environmental Protection Agency - Region 1X
Cal/EPA Environmental Justice "Status of EJ in California"
Local, State and Federal Elected Officials
Alexander Glass, CSUMB Student & Intern
(ATSDR) - Agency of Toxic Substances
Please call or email with your interest ASAP to
LeVonne Stone, Executive Director 831-582-0803 - 831-277-5241 Ondrea Kahlenberg, Event Advisor
ejustice@mbay.net Ada Hynes, Secretary
\http/www.foejn.org
Request For Sponsors & Donors
Open Letter from Iraq Veterans Against the War
03-09-08 UPDATE to Open Letter:
Iraq Veterans Against the War - Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan - March 14 and 15, 2008
This spring, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) is revealing the reality of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. In what will be history's largest gathering of U.S . veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors, eyewitnesses will share their experiences in a public investigation called Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan. Please visit this page to find out how you can support this important campaign.
WINTER SOLDIER will be shown on Free Speech TV, March 14 and 15, 9:00AM - 9:00PM EST on DishNetwork Channel 9415 Also, contact your local Public Access cable channel and ask them to carry all or part of Winter Soldier that will be broadcast on Free Speech TV.
~ Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan
-----------------------------------
An Open Letter to the Anti-War Movement From Iraq Veterans Against
the War
As we approach the fifth anniversary of the quagmire known as the invasion/occupation of Iraq, many of us feel a need to mark this occasion with an appropriately momentous show of resistance. For the past few months, IVAW has been organizing "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan." From March 13-16, 2008, we will assemble the largest gathering of US veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in history, as well as Iraqi and Afghan survivors, to offer first-hand, eyewitness accounts to tell the truth about these occupations â€" their impact on the troops, their families, our nation, and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Winter Soldier will require IVAW's full attention and organizing capacity leading up to and during the event. We would like to have as many people as possible attend the event and we are making arrangements to provide live broadcasting of the hearings for those who cannot hear the testimony first hand, as space will be limited. We ask all of you to help us to spread the message of the testimony, raise funds, and get more veterans and GIs involved.
We have been inspired by the tremendous support that the movement has shown us and we believe the success of Winter Soldier will ultimately depend on the support of our allies and the hard work of our members. Because Winter Soldier will provide a unique venue for those who experienced war on the ground to expose the truth and consequences of the "War on Terror" to the nation and the world, we are requesting that, from March 13-16, the larger anti-war movement call no national mobilizations and that there be no local protests or civil disobedience actions in Washington, DC.
Some leaders of the movement have expressed a desire to have a mass assembly to mark the fifth anniversary. Some have expressed support for a concert/rally. IVAW would support any events that do not interfere with the Winter Soldier hearings, our strategy, or goals. We would encourage our members to continue participating in events of the larger movement to end the occupation of Iraq, as we acknowledge both the significance and the necessity of such actions for movement building. IVAW will also arrange to make available copies of the Winter Soldier transcript highlights to support the various efforts of the antiwar movement.
We are thankful for your enduring support of IVAW and Winter Soldier.
Let us all continue to think strategically and act in a spirit of
cooperation.
In solidarity,
Iraq Veterans Against the War
IVAW Board of Directors
Camilo E. Mejia
Jabbar Magruder
Margaret Stevens
Phil Aliff
Jason Lemieux
Adam Kokesh
Liam Madden
Anita Foster
Jose Vasquez
Winter Soldier Organizing Team
Aaron Hughes
Fernando Braga
Adrienne Kinne
Perry O'Brien
Martin Smith
Lily Hughes
Amadee Braxton
For detailed information on how your organization can support Winter Soldier please write to: wintersoldier@ivaw.org
History of Nuruj, Kurdish New Year
Kurdish American Education Society
History of NuRuj
Kurdish New Year
By: Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur
Kurdish American Education Society
NuRuj, as is pronounced in parts of Kurdistan, and Newroz, as it is known in Iran and other parts of the Middle East, is just around the corner, arriving on vernal equinox, which occurs on a certain precise moment usually on March 21. For year 2008, it occurs on March 20, at 05:48 UT. This occurs when Earth completes its journey around the Sun with vernal equinox as a reference point. Since the Earth is 149,600,000 kilometers, (one hundred forty nine million and six hundred thousands kilometers) from the Sun, it takes 365.2422 days (one solar year), for the Earth to complete one orbit around the Sun. This means that Earth travels at a speed of approximately 29.8 km/sec or 1788 km per minutes or 107300 km per hour to travel the 939,992,130 km (584,100,000 miles) around the Sun in one year. Note that this is about 900 times the speed of a car moving at typical highway speed of 120 km per hour. As we move forward, at this speed, the earth also rotates around its axis like a spinning basketball. The Earth's axis of rotation is tilted at a fixed angle of just over 66.5 degree from orbital plane. Given the earth's equatorial radius of 6380 km, and 40090 kilometers circumference, and the 24 hr duration of a solar day, the rotational speed of a point on the earth's equator is 1670 km per hour, which is about four times the speed of a Boeing 737 passenger airplane.
Imagine now that this spinning basketball grows a circumferential wing from its equator (the equator is a plane that divides the Earth into two, half-spheres called the Southern hemisphere, and the Northern hemisphere). Imagine this wing, expanding outward into the surrounding space perpendicular with the polar axis, until it touches the inside of the imaginary inner surface of the sky, which is called the celestial sphere.
At this traveling and rotating speeds, Earth, with a fixed angular tilt moves around the sun like a spherical airplane, the top of the wing or the upper (northern hemisphere) is exposed more directly to the Sun during the half of the journey and, the bottom of the wing (and the southern hemisphere) is exposed more directly to the Sun during the second half. The point at which this switch takes place (that is, from southern exposure to northern exposure) is called the vernal equinox. This signals the start of the season Spring. At this position, the length of the day-time, is exactly equal the length of the night-time, and indeed, the name vernal equinox means "renewed equality". The vernal equinox usually takes place at a certain precise moment on March 21. After the switch, which sometimes occurs on March 20, the days get longer in the northern hemisphere and the nights shorter until Earth Summer Solstice (June 21, or 22, the start of Summer season), when the length of the day-light is the longest. After summer solstice, and as Earth moves on, the days begin to shorten and nights start to get longer until their durations again equal one another at the Autumnal Equinox, which occurs on September 21 (the start of Fall season) 180 degrees opposite the vernal equinox. At the autumnal equinox, the bottom portion of the imaginary wing of the Earth and the Earth's southern hemisphere receives the more direct sunlight. The northern hemisphere begins to get cooler and cooler until the Earth reach the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21 (and starts the season of Winter). During this time, duration of the day-light in northern hemisphere is shortened and nights are longer and life in the northern hemisphere begins to take a deep sleep. Winter continues until the earth approaches yet another switch at the point of vernal equinox, to bring once more the Spring season. This is the time of good news of returning sunshine, refreshing air and clear water and warmth as nature and life awakens from their deep winter sleep. This rebirth of life and nature is called NuRuj, meaning a Day of Renewal and is what our Kurdish ancestors started to celebrate in the lash and beautiful green hills and mountains of Kurdistan in 728 B.C.
This is the year when the Medes, through the accumulated knowledge by the Pre-Zoroastrian Magi of astrological and planetary motion, declared that the beginning of Spring to be celebrated as the calendarical NuRuj, meaning the New Day which also marked the beginning of a new year.
Another important reason for this celebration was that, the Medes after a thousand years of nomadic and migratory living, had just dominated the indigenous cultures in the Zagros mountains. For these victories, they decided to establish their first organized and regimented government in Eastern Kurdistan in the city of Ekbatana in 728 B.C. with a ceremonial festivity marking the start of their victory with the season of Spring. Under King Farvartish (Phraortes), 675-653 BC, Pasargadae (Pasar=parapet, -Gadae=a base for lookout), meaning an outpost, was founded on the edge of their eastern frontier. The local people appointed to -Patrol and Guard- (Paras-tin) the Kingdom of the Medes, at the outpost against the Scythians, were called the Parasian or Parsian, known today as the Persians. Later, in 615 BC, under Cyaxares (kna: Ha-Khoy-Sara, Kay-Sara or Uvakhshatra), Arrapkha, (Kirkuk), was captured and brought under the Medes control. It is important to notice that the modern word Kaiser is derived from the title of King Cyazares.
Later in 545 B.C., when the Parsians, a vassal tribe to the Medes, received their freedom from the Medes, they maintained the celebration of NuRuj, which later in Persian language its pronunciation changed from NuRuj to NuRooz as it will be explained further below.
Cyrus the Great (in Kuridsh known as the Little Caesar), was born to Mondana, the daughter of the last King of the Medes, King Astyages who had been given in marriage to Cambyses I, the feudal lord and head of the Parsians. The King's second daughter, Amytes, was given in marriage to Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of Babylon who lived from 605 to 562 B.C.
These political marriages however, did not secure the King's life and the future of his kingdom (the Kingdom of the Medes) from plots instigated against him by the internal revolutionaries and the Parsians. An internal revolt led by a revolutionary blacksmith named Kaveh was mobilized to overthrow the King because of the alleged King's cruelty against his subjects. Parsians, seeking an opportunity to free themselves from the Medes, and knowing of Kaveh's intention to overthrow the King, further instigated internal agitation against Astyages. In a Battle between Astyages and the Parsians, Cambyses head of the Parsis, lost his life and was replaced by the minor prince Cyrus, the grandson of the king Astyages. After making a secret pact with his Babylonian in-laws in 545, Cyrus led the Parsians in revolt against his grandfather Astyages . In a battle near the Pasargadae, the last king of the Medes was killed and the Young Cyrus, with the help of Kaveh the blacksmith, combined the two people and brought under Cyrus's rule, the Medes and the Parsians to form the Great Iranian Empire, known in the West (erroneously) as the Persian Empire. This false credit given to the Persians, by the Greek historian, is because by the time Cyrus and his successors expanded the Medes empire further west, they were introduced to the Greeks as Parsians without mention of the near one thousand years history of the Medes predating the Persians. Thus, the Western literature from that time on has occasionally given credit to those who do not rightly deserve such credit for the history of civilization.
In celebration of their victory and freedom from the Medes, the Parsians, threw a big celebration in the Pasargad the place where King Astyages was killed and celebrated their own NuRuj of freedom. In 1971, the Shah of Iran, commemorated this event, with a big celebration at the tomb of Cyrus, in Pasargad. He called the pompous festivity the Festival of 2500 years Imperial Celebration. Actually, the rule of the Persians over Iran ended in 330 BC, by Alexander the Great conquering Persipolis. Persipolis is the name given by the Greeks to Takht-e-Jamshid a place where Darius I build his palace a few miles away from Pasargade. After the Greeks victory over the Persians in 330 BC, Takhte-e-Jamshid changed name to Persepolis, meaning the city of the Parsis. More about the history of Iran after the fall of the Parsians will be explored in future articles by the KAES.
Now, why NuRuj and not NewRooz?, Kurdish is the original language of the Iranians, it predates the accession of the Persian rule and their language by nearly 1200 years.
The original Kurdish Language is derived from the Fahli language (or as it should be pronounced correctly, the Pahli language, which in ancient times was known as Pahlavi. After the Arab invasion, "F" replaced "P" sound in pronunciation). It is ironic that Reza Shah, when came to power, changed his last name from an Arabic last name to Pahlavi, trying to acquire an authentic Iranian identity. Since the invasion of Islam into Kurdistan and Iran in 640 AD, and domination of Arabic language, the pronunciation of many authentic Iranian words had changed from their original phonetic values to the current phonetic values. This is more pronounced in the modern vernacular Persian language. In Kurdish, however, the language has remained relatively purer with less Arabic influence because of their less accessible cultural and territorial environment. For example, when comparing the Kurdish language to Farsi (Parsi), one can use a general rule of vocabulary conversion between the two languages. One such general rule of vocabulary conversion is that the sound "Zh" in Kurdish becomes the "Z" sound in Farsi after the introduction of Islam. This is apparent in the following examples:
Kuridsh Farsi English
roozh (RuJ) rooz day
teyzh tiyz sharp
zheyr zeyr below
derizh deraz long, to stretch
zhen zan women
reazh reaz to pour or small
zhanin zadan to play, or to beat
ghazh ghaz goose-a bird
zhynin zistan to live
zhaar zahr poison
zhari zari to mourn - weeping
There are many other similar examples.
So, based on recorded historical information and current linguistic comparison mentioned above and modern cultural practices, it is recommended that we revert back to the way that New Rooz originally was pronounced as NuRoj. NuRuj is a time of universal celebration to let light enter the hemispheres of our mind. It is also the time for the Kurds and the Persians to celebrate in joint festivity the spirit of celestial harmony. Let the awesome depth of celestial vision, with music, poetry, and spring fragrance of the lash green nature bring us all, the people of Earth together, to hold hands in celebration of NuRuj, to keep pace with the rhythm of life on earth.
This moment of rhythmic awareness as it should be pronounced NuRuj, should once again, enter our vocabulary of the celebration of life, as it is a fine and authentic way to celebrate life on earth. For me, as we approach the vernal equinox, I like to say to you and all:
NuRuj-etan Pir-Ruj Be.
May your New Day be victorious till your Old Days-
With Peace & Joy
Ardishir Rashidi-Kalhur
Kurdish American Education Society
WSF: Dying, or More Alive than Ever?
Analysis by Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 1 (IPS) - There are plenty of prophets of doom foretelling the death, or at least a deep crisis, of the World Social Forum (WSF), based on reports about organisational problems and a great fall in numbers at the 7th WSF, held in Nairobi in January.
Some champions of the WSF, in contrast, tend to exaggerate its alleged triumphs, such as a decisive contribution to the election of left or centre-left governments in eight Latin American countries, and the inclusion of social issues on the international agenda.
But this global gathering of civil society, first launched in January 2001 in the south of Brazil, could not have had the influence attributed to it on the political current now sweeping the region. The Latin American leftist movement arose from processes that are now decades old, when grassroots and social movements swelled the leftwing electorate.
The first WSF in Porto Alegre also took place after the major United Nations conferences on the environment, human rights, social development, population, women, habitat, and even the U.N. meeting that approved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which mobilised tens of thousands of heads of state, diplomats and experts between 1992 and 2000, giving civil society delegates a major voice in the discussions for the first time.
The usual critics of the WSF, for their part, are forgetting the recent history of diversification, or fragmentation, of social and political movements, which destroyed the monopoly enjoyed by trade unions, the class struggle and political parties in fighting the injustices of capitalism, and added various forms of discrimination and inequalities to be battled.
The WSF is a response to the need to overcome the dispersal of the diverse initiatives and efforts that make up society, and to make international connections between them, without using traditional mechanisms of representation via elections or unions. It is developing new ways of doing politics and creating a more participative kind of democracy.
Thus, the WSF may change its methods, how it organises its meetings and even its name and its key ideas, but global civil society will no longer be able to do without a forum for representatives from all over the world to articulate and energise their struggles, exchange experiences and reflect together.
The WSF is a new actor on the world stage. Its organisational style is diffuse, but at particular moments it can reach a consensus that has mobilising power, such as the 2003 demonstrations against the war in Iraq. It is here to stay, and it plays a role in democratisation. And it is searching for the best ways and means to empower participants and get their voices heard.
Read on: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36402