Marcelin Pleynet

Marcelin Pleynet, dans "Situation" dans le n°100 de L'Infini, écrit sur le secret selon lequel il a vécu depuis des décennies et qui me plaît énormément:

« Qui pense le plus profond aime le plus vivant. »

In English this can be rendered:

"The deepest thinker is the liveliest lover."

And is what Marcelin Pleynet describes in the most recent issue of L'Infini as the secret by which he has lived for decades. I agree.

Auf Deutsch:

»Wer am tiefsten denkt, liebt am lebendigsten.«

Was Marcelin Pleynet als sein Lebensgeheimnis beschreibt in der neuesten Ausgabe von L'Infini. Toll !

Reading recommended ...

Salmon Rushdie: Shalimar the Clown

Frédéric Berthet: Journal de Trêve

Jonathan Littell: Les Bienveillantes

Ohan Pamuk: Snow (Eng. transl.)

Martin Heidegger: Feldweg-Gespräche

Philippe Sollers: Un vrai roman

Philippe Sollers: Guerres secrètes

Noam Chomsky: Failed States

Yannick Haenel: Cercle

Reform Iran

Promote all efforts for democratic reform and human rights in Iran !

Iran : le parti réformateur désapprouve la politique internationale d'Ahmadinejad
LEMONDE.FR 26.10.07

©

The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2007
Filed at 3:22 p.m. ET

"U.S. military action would also likely silence the domestic opposition to Ahmadinejad as people rally around the government. The head of the largest pro-reform party, Mohsen Mirdamadi, has warned a U.S. attack would set back chances for reform and democracy in Iran by decades."

Can Europe Teach the Playpen Justice ?

At least there is another effort to force one denizen of the playpen to answer to charges he condoned &/or ordered torture of prisoners. Rumsfeld has been charged in France. Perhaps he will, under cross-examination in a court of law, finally have to explain what he thinks his actions had to do with protecting the system of justice and law on which democracy is based.

The following links provide more information. The French link has further links to the court documents themselves.

Rumsfeld poursuivi en France pour tortures
Libération, 26. octobre 2007

Donald Rumsfeld dans le viseur de la justice. Plusieurs organisations de défense des droits de l’homme ont déposé plainte pour torture à l’encontre l’ancien secrétaire américain à la Défense Donald Rumsfeld (2001-2006), de passage à Paris depuis jeudi.
La Fédération internationale des droits de l’Homme (FIDH), la Ligue française des droits de l’Homme (LDH), l’organisation américaine Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) et l’association allemande European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) reprochent à Rumsfeld d’avoir été l’instigateur de sévices contre des prisonniers détenus dans les geôles de Guantanamo à Cuba et d’Abou Ghraib en Irak.

The New York Times
International / Europe
Groups Tie Rumsfeld to Torture in Complaint
By DOREEN CARVAJAL
Published: October 27, 2007

PARIS, Oct. 26 — Several human rights organizations based in the United States and Europe have filed a complaint in a Paris court accusing former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture.

The Washington Post
Torture Complaint Filed Against Rumsfeld
By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD The Associated Press Friday, October 26, 2007; 2:57 PM

PARIS -- American and European rights groups filed a legal complaint in France accusing former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for torture in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay.

Tantamount to a Declaration of War ?

The military of another sovereign nation, whether it's a nation one likes or dislikes (and I sure have NO positive feelings for the current Iran), is one of that nation's institutions. If one declares the military, or a part of it, a terrorist organization -- which for the playpen means enemy, means incarcerable, means to be fought at all costs, means to be eliminated -- isn't that tantamount to declaring the entire government terrorist? ...the entire country? Isn't that the first announcement of war against that country? Isn't that the way the bushbaby did it with Afghanistan (where Karzai yesterday questioned why the US is still bombing his country six years later) and later with Iraq (where Turkey now wants to get in on the game, this time against playpen Kurdish pets)? Wasn't it the bushbaby who last week said we should be worried about WWIII in connection with Iran? Is it possible he knows why? ...and that he's the reason? Is bushbaby war 3 on the way? BBW3

US imposes sweeping sanctions on Tehran Iran - Guardian Unlimited:

"The sanctions target the 125,000-strong Iranian revolutionary guard (IRG), one of the best-resourced parts of the country's military, with its own tanks and planes. It also owns hotels, oil companies and other businesses. The Bush administration went a step further with the IRG's elite Quds division, responsible for covert actions abroad, labelling it a terrorist organisation, the first time a state's military has been put on America's terrorist list."

Guy Môquet ( 26-IV-1924 — 22-X-1941 )

Brief information about the young communist imprisoned by his own countrymen in France and turned over by them to the Nazis for execution in reprisal for the assassination of a German Nazi officer in France. Here is the letter that Sarkozy has ordered read in all French schools today in memoriam, as well as the poem Guy was carrying when he was arrested by French police on October 15, 1940. Sarkozy has NOT included a reading of that poem in his order.

The letter:

Ma petite maman chérie, mon tout petit frère adoré, mon petit papa aimé,
Je vais mourir ! Ce que je vous demande, toi, en particulier ma petite maman, c’est d’être courageuse. Je le suis et je veux l’être autant que ceux qui sont passés avant moi. Certes, j’aurais voulu vivre. Mais ce que je souhaite de tout mon coeur, c’est que ma mort serve à quelque chose. Je n’ai pas eu le temps d’embrasser Jean. J’ai embrassé mes deux frères Roger et Rino. Quant au véritable je ne peux le faire hélas !

J’éspère que toutes mes affaires te seront renvoyées, elles pourront servir à Serge, qui je l’escompte sera fier de les porter un jour.

A toi, petit Papa, si je t’ai fait, ainsi qu’à petite Maman, bien des peines, je te salue une dernière fois. Sache que j’ai fait de mon mieux pour suivre la voie que tu m’as tracée. Un dernier adieu à tous mes amis et à mon frère que j’aime beaucoup. Qu’il étudie bien pour être plus tard un homme.

17 ans et demi ! Ma vie a été courte !

Je n’ai aucun regret, si ce n’est de vous quitter tous.

Je vais mourir avec Tintin, Michels.

Maman, ce que je te demande, ce que je veux que tu me promettes, c’est d’être courageuse et de surmonter ta peine. Je ne peux pas en mettre davantage. Je vous quitte tous, toutes, toi Maman, Serge, Papa, je vous embrasse de tout mon cœur d’enfant.

Courage !

Votre Guy qui vous aime

The poem:

Parmi ceux qui sont en prison
Se trouvent nos 3 camarades
Berselli, Planquette et Simon
Qui vont passer des jours maussades

Vous êtes tous trois enfermés
Mais patience, prenez courage
Vous serez bientôt libérés
Par tous vos frères d’esclavage

Les traîtres de notre pays
Ces agents du capitalisme
Nous les chasserons hors d’ici
Pour instaurer le socialisme

Main dans la main Révolution
Pour que vainque le communisme
Pour vous sortir de la prison
Pour tuer le capitalisme

Ils se sont sacrifiés pour nous
Par leur action libératrice.

Wikipedia English:

On 20 October 1941, the commanding officer of the German occupation forces in Loire-Atlantique, Karl Hotz, was assassinated by three communist resisters. Pierre Pucheu, Interior Minister of the Pétain government, chose Communist prisoners to be given as hostages “in order to avoid letting 50 good French people get shot.” His selection comprised 18 imprisoned in Nantes, 27 at Châteaubriant, and 5 from Nantes who were imprisoned in Paris.
Two days later, the 27 prisoners at Châteaubriant were shot in three groups. They refused blindfolds, and died crying out “Vive la France” (“Long live France”). Guy Môquet, the youngest, was executed at 4PM.

Wikipedia Deutsch:

Als am 20. Oktober 1941 der deutsche Oberstleutnant Karl Hotz in Nantes Opfer eines Attentats wurde, ordnete Hitler drakonische Vergeltungsmaßnahmen an. "Um zu verhindern, dass man 50 gute Franzosen erschießen lässt," lieferte der französische Innenminister Pierre Pucheu aus verschiedenen Gefängnissen 50 Geiseln den Nationalsozialisten aus, davon 27 aus dem Lager Châteaubriant.
Am 22. Oktober 1941 wurde der erst 17 Jahre alte Guy Môquet zusammen mit 26 anderen Geiseln in Châteaubriant von deutschen Soldaten erschossen. Unter den Opfern befanden sich auch die Widerstandskämpfer Charles Michel und Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Guy Môquet war das jüngste Opfer.

Wikipedia French:

Le 20 octobre 1941, Karl Hotz, commandant des troupes d'occupation de la Loire-Inférieure, est exécuté à Nantes par trois jeunes communistes. Le ministre de l'Intérieur du gouvernement de collaboration de Pétain, Pierre Pucheu, sélectionne des otages communistes « pour éviter de laisser fusiller cinquante bons Français » : dix-huit emprisonnés à Nantes, vingt-sept à Châteaubriant et cinq Nantais emprisonnés à Paris.
Deux jours plus tard, neuf poteaux sont dressés à la Sablière, vaste carrière à la sortie de Châteaubriant. En trois groupes, les vingt-sept otages s'y appuient, refusent qu'on leur bande les yeux et s'écrient: « Vive la France ! » devant le peloton d'exécution. Guy Môquet est le plus jeune. Il a un évanouissement mais il est fusillé dans cet état. Il est abattu à 16 heures. Avant d'être fusillé, il avait écrit une lettre à ses parents.

In a Different Light ...

Berlin's Festival of Lights as we saw it yesterday evening in just our part of town and photographed it less than perfectly. Nonetheless, the illuminations are captivating; the photos give a bit of an idea of what light can do and remind me of how much better the eye is than a camera lens.

So don't listen to the bushbaby threatening a world war while claiming to warn against the one only he and his fellow fundamentalists of all colors, religions, and countries want. The bombs blew up in Pakistan yesterday, the land the playpen claims as ally. Turkey plans to invade the Kurdish portion of Iraq because it harbors terrorists (which reminds one of the justification for attacking Afghanistan 6 years ago, still no success).

Instead of crying and moaning over all that be open for what you can do nothing but enjoy and relish in. Let something beautiful gaze at you and gaze back at it. Love, and gaze with the four eyes of two lovers at the wonders abound you. Light up your world!

Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2007

Take the time to see how freedom of the press is doing. Reporters Without Borders has just issued its new ranking, and also provides complete insight into how the statistics were prepared.

Germany is now at rank 20, up from last year; France now up to 31; USA up to 48; UK up to 24. Russia is "up" to place 144; China "stable" at 163.

Top ranked and tied for 1st place are Iceland and Norway.

At the bottom are Eritrea (169), North Korea (168), and Turkmenistan (167).

Use the link to view the entire report in English or French, download it, or share it.

Reporters sans frontières - Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index - 2007

Peace Outside the Playpen

Congratulations to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize !

Here the press release from the Norwegian Nobel Committee:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.
Indications of changes in the earth's future climate must be treated with the utmost seriousness, and with the precautionary principle uppermost in our minds. Extensive climate changes may alter and threaten the living conditions of much of mankind. They may induce large-scale migration and lead to greater competition for the earth's resources. Such changes will place particularly heavy burdens on the world's most vulnerable countries. There may be increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states.
Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over one hundred countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming. Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent.
Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.
By awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 to the IPCC and Al Gore, the Norwegian
Nobel Committee is seeking to contribute to a sharper focus on the processes and decisions that appear to be necessary to protect the world’s future climate, and thereby to reduce the threat to the security of mankind. Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control.
Oslo, 12 October 2007

And let us hope that those in the playpen, those in Peking, and those elsewhere resisting efforts to rescue the environment will hear the bell tolling ... finally.

Documentary on the Caricature Controversy

To get more information on the inflammatory reactions to the Mohammed caricatures, the trials, the murders, the arsons, the cowardice, the bravery, it's a good idea to watch this new film.
It is being shown on the German/French cultural channel ARTE on Tuesday, Oktober 16, at 8:40 pm. The French title is Sacrées caricatures, and under the title link on the ARTE site you can view the entire documentary in French. The German title is Teuflische Karikaturen, and under that title link at ARTE you can view the German trailer with Caroline Fourest's introduction to the film.
In English, it is being shown on BBC World on 20-10-2007 at 12:10, 19:10, and 07:10 (GMT); on 21-10-2007 at 17:10, 04:10, and 09:10 (GMT); and on 22-10-2007 at 01:10 (GMT) under the title Bloody Cartoons. Under this link is info about the film and the English language trailer for it.
And finally, a link to the Danish caricatures themselves that served to remind us of who is for and who is against freedom of speech and thinking as opposed to canting and believing.
Thinking is not easy, but it IS liberating, it IS what being human is all about...

Torture by any other name...

... remains a crime against humanity, and is certainly no method to convince would-be fundamentalist terrorists to see the light of democratic principles of freedom, rights, and justice.

So, that means, Auntie Times got it right again:

The New York Times
Editorial
On Torture and American Values
Published: October 7, 2007
Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values.
The Bush administration has dishonored that history and squandered that respect. As an article on this newspaper’s front page last week laid out in disturbing detail, President Bush and his aides have not only condoned torture and abuse at secret prisons, but they have conducted a systematic campaign to mislead Congress, the American people and the world about those policies. [...]
Is this a nation that tortures human beings and then concocts legal sophistries to confuse the world and avoid accountability before American voters?

Brita Entered a New Half-Century ...

... and we forgot to congratulate her. Excuses abound: literature festival, sister's visit, etc., etc.
But it's embarrassing and she's one of our dearest friends and now she's fifty and probably even more sensitive.
We beg forgiveness and send belated best wishes for a wonderful new semi-century!

/for a new second half of the first decade of that second century/ is what should have been said here, as it was her 55th b'day we simple minds forgot to congratulate her on !

Hölderlin...

This poet speaks hope, truth, being; don't forget, think, go forward, see light.

"Wo aber Gefahr ist, wächst

Das Rettende auch."

- Friedrich Hölderlin, Patmos, Dem Landgrafen von Homburg, 1802-03/1805

Mais là où il y a danger, croît

Ce qui sauve aussi.

But where danger is, increases

that which saves as well.

- trad./trans. RG

The Worried Mom Overture

Thanks to my sister for putting me on to this musical tribute to mothering types everywhere (and to those who survived them and thrived because and despite but also only due to them).

And this is also a little tribute to the Countess. If anyone from Chicora Court catches it, it's also a tribute to all of you.

YOU CANNOT READ THIS IF YOU'RE IN BURMA !

Yet another example of the fear dictators and repressive regimes have of free exchange of information is so-called Myanmar's government shutting down the Internet in Burma: too much information was getting into and out of the country that some of the starving population were nudging towards change.

The New York Times
Monks Are Silenced, and for Now, Internet Is, Too
By SETH MYDANS
Published: October 4, 2007
BANGKOK, Oct. 3 — It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet.

Such examples bear recalling whenever anyone in our western democracies calls for more control over information, access to it, and exchange of it. Governments have no right to control what the inhabitants of the countries they serve read, watch, say, hear, write, or otherwise express or perceive.

UPDATE: Use this link to sign the petition in support of the Burmese people. (And thanks to Jennifer for providing the link.)

China Veiling Light

Would you like to ensure that your blog or internet site or newspaper or book, etc. is made inaccessible for over one billion people? Then simply point out how little respect for human rights, freedom of speech, protection of minorities, the right freely to demonstrate, and especially the chance to criticize the government exists in the so-called People's Republic of China, a country of unbridled capitalism for the few, immense poverty for the masses, freedom for none, privilege for cronies, and exclusive power in the hands of what claims to be a communist party allowing no political competition. The Olympic games there will provide the ultimate proof of the games' commercial philosophy while disregarding any claim to promoting the fellowship of mankind.

Reporters sans frontières - China

Forty per cent of the 163 China-based foreign journalists polled by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) in 2007 said they had experienced some form of interference by the authorities since 1 January. A total of 157 incidents (arrests, surveillance, intimidation of sources, violence or threats) were reported to the FCCC. Asked if China had kept the promise made in 2001 by Wang Wei of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games to give the foreign media complete freedom to work, 67 per cent said No. Only 8.6 per cent said Yes.

And this doesn't even begin to explore China's denial of rights to its own citizens, as the following excerpt from an article from today's newspaper, with link to the full story, reveals !

Berliner Zeitung

Chinas Polizei trainiert für Olympia
Bernhard Bartsch

Knapp ein Jahr vor den Olympischen Spielen und kurz vor dem am 15. Oktober beginnenden Parteikongress verschärft Chinas Regierung die Repressionen gegen Regimekritiker. In den vergangenen Wochen wurden zahlreiche prominente Aktivisten festgenommen, meist ohne Haftbefehl.
Berliner Zeitung, 04.10.2007

Playpen Power Russian Style !

The Russian playpen's putative potentate finds a way to make the American bushbaby playpen extremely envious...

Putin's Plan to Stay in Power - TIME

It has long been assumed that President Vladimir Putin, whose term of office expires next March, would prefer to remain in power. But how he might try to do so while operating within the terms of Russia's constitution has been a source of endless speculation. On Monday, Putin provided what may be the answer, when he announced that he would head the list of the ruling United Russia (UR) party in December's election to the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament. While it may sound like a step down for an executive president to run for a seat in a legislature that has largely served as a rubber stamp to his policies, the move suggests that Putin may opt to reorganize the Russian power structure — if he can't hold on to the seat of power, he could always shift power to a seat he can hold.

Vladimir Poutine se voit en premier ministre de la Russie
LEMONDE.FR 01.10.07

©

The New York Times

Putin Says He Will Run for Parliament
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: October 2, 2007

The suggestion seemed to confirm that President Vladimir V. Putin plans to hold on to the power he has accrued.

That's the way to do it, playpenalers ! Constitutional change for the fable of stable power as those power mongers keep on keeping on despite those who demand accountability and rights and justice!

Άλήθεια

Άλήθεια:

„Das Hereinblicken des Seins in das von ihm selbst und als es selbst gelichtete Offene, offen für das Unverborgene alles Erscheinens.“

…

„Sein, das selbst west als das Freie, in dessen Lichtung das Seiende den Eingang zur Unverborgenheit und aus dieser den Aufgang zum Erscheinen und mit diesem den Fug der Anwesung findet.“

MH: GA Bd.54, S.240

Being peers into the illuminated openness that it itself illuminated and is, open for the unconcealed of all appearing.

...

Being that itself essentially sways as the Free, in whose illumination beings find access to unconcealment and, from that, ascent to appearance and, from this, the joint of swaying temporal existence.

Playpen Seeking New Rattle: Iran

Annals of National Security: Shifting Targets: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker:
Shifting Targets
The Administration’s plan for Iran.
by Seymour M. Hersh
October 8, 2007 issue of The New Yorker

"In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran. “Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people,” Bush told the national convention of the American Legion in August. “The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased. . . . The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And, until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops.” He then concluded, to applause, “I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran’s murderous activities.”

[...]

“A lot depends on how stupid the Iranians will be,” Brzezinski told me. “Will they cool off Ahmadinejad and tone down their language?” The Bush Administration, by charging that Iran was interfering in Iraq, was aiming “to paint it as ‘We’re responding to what is an intolerable situation,’ ” Brzezinski said. “This time, unlike the attack in Iraq, we’re going to play the victim. The name of our game seems to be to get the Iranians to overplay their hand.”

[...]

Another recent incident, in Afghanistan, reflects the tension over intelligence. In July, the London Telegraph reported that what appeared to be an SA-7 shoulder-launched missile was fired at an American C-130 Hercules aircraft. The missile missed its mark. Months earlier, British commandos had intercepted a few truckloads of weapons, including one containing a working SA-7 missile, coming across the Iranian border. But there was no way of determining whether the missile fired at the C-130 had come from Iran—especially since SA-7s are available through black-market arms dealers.

Vincent Cannistraro, a retired C.I.A. officer who has worked closely with his counterparts in Britain, added to the story: “The Brits told me that they were afraid at first to tell us about the incident—in fear that Cheney would use it as a reason to attack Iran.” The intelligence subsequently was forwarded, he said.
The retired four-star general confirmed that British intelligence “was worried” about passing the information along. “The Brits don’t trust the Iranians,” the retired general said, “but they also don’t trust Bush and Cheney.” ♦"