We capture streetwhispers and blog them for you.

You have read thousands of books of knowledge

But have you ever read your soul?

You visit temples, mosques and churches

But have you visited the depths of your heart?

You go around fighting against Satan

But have you ever tried fighting against yourself?

Bulleh Shah
17th Century Poet

January 30th, 2005  Elections in a bubble or a vacuum
Elections in Iraq are over and everyone is talking in terms of percent turnout but no one is giving numbers. Some report 75 percent turnout others 90 percent. Well that might be the case but percentages are misleading. Elections will not bring calm to the culturally diverse and religiously divergent population. We may fool ourselves that the people have spoken. How close are the Iraqis to their dream? Has US turned into the problem rather then the solution? Will liberty erode from Iraq with the leaving of coalition forces? Will all the different factions be able to sit down and find a ruling body?

This elections was it on Iraqi timetable or out timetable, and if so then once again we are ruling and invaders and have our own mandate rather then what the people want. People in Kirkuk a oil rich area stayed away from the the polling booths. The voter turnout in Mosul was extremely poor.

January 27th, 2005 Condi Rice New SOS as elections loom in Iraq
Condi Rice was confirmed by the Senate. One wonders are all politicians alike. Why did the Democrats vote for her, while criticizing her at the same time? Were the criticisms by the Democrats just a show, with the exception of Barbara Boxer and a few others. Election looms in Iraq, but the outcome and the peace in Iraq can be predicted with certainty without a crystal ball. Iraq is a failed state, like Afghanistan, thanks to us. It is just a matter of time before all out civil war will take over. What we call terrorism is basically civil war. Take out American troops from Iraq and any historian or political scientist will confirm that Iraq is going through civil war. We should stop propping regimes. Unfortunately Condi Rice will make the already bad situation worst.

A rare picture taken by a camera on a security tower in Aceh as the Tsunami hit. We received the above image in email.

January 23rd, 2005  Snow storm over . Life goes on in the big apples
The storm is over and New Yorkers are back to their routines. They seem to get cabin fever if they are in their apartments/condominiums for more then six hours. Here are some pictures of the storm in its semi pristine form and after the snow was touched by man. The calmness and serenity of nature is gone. Decide for yourself.

January 22nd, 2005   Inauguration over - Now what?
12:09 pm Snow has started in New York city and every flake is sticking to the pavement.

The inauguration is over and now all of us sit back and watch, whether recklessness is the order of the day or well contemplated and effective but fair policy changes occur. The Powel legacy in Washington seems to have faded like the setting sun of so many political careers. His son resigned too. Suffering of Tsunami victims persists, as the Iraqi 's get ready to vote or not vote. Afghanistan is on the brink of civil war. Northeast USA is getting ready to brace whopper of a snow storm. Homeless folks are bundled under extra layers of card board boxes. After the snow hits they would be in their frozen "igloos" with their heads showing to mark their existence. For some unfortunate ones, it would be their snowy grave till they are carted away by the city. Is it a failure of capitalism or our social values, or is it 'The Economy Stupid'?

January 20th, 2005   Pomp, Pageantry, Poverty and Second Act - Coronation
3:20 pm  Unbelievable - Is this an inauguration or a Coronation of a Monarchy? However we have been seeing dynastic politics from the Kennedy's, the Cuomo's to the Powel's and not to mention Bushes. Tax payers money being wasted on fanfare. Prez motorcade seemed like an audition for the movie Men in Black, with the poor secret service men walking in blistering cold. The motorcade moved slower then a sloth. Mrs Bush looked very graceful in white surrounded by all the black suits of the Presidents detail.

1:00 am Second Term, Inauguration of President Bush. The people are worst off then they were during the first term. War Costs are spiraling past $150,000,000,000 with 1369 soldiers dead in Iraq and Afghanistan. Deficit out of control. The World is isolating us in a way we fail to see. Our foreign policy is not winning us any friends but loosing our existing alliances. Lets see what the second act shall bring? Would the curtain rise and bring in hope to the parched American soul? What a dumb ass thing to do to spend $40,000,000 on pomp and ceremony when we cant spend enough to provide correct and safe armor to our brave soldiers who are laying everything down for us. Guess the first act was fiscally irresponsible and the second act seems to be starting on the same footing.

January 18th, 2005     $40,000,000 -  Inaugural Ball ?
Hmm 40 million inaugural Ball. We can think a lot  of ways to spend that money. Create a fund of 40 million for all the soldiers who died in Iraq/Afghanistan. Spend the money on armoring the Humve's with bullet proof armor. Add to the existing fund for the Tsunami victims. When a country is at war,  a patriot will quietly take oath without fanfare. A $40,000,000 Ball does nothing but to stroke egos. Has anyone been keeping on the deficit? Since the war began, today 1369 soldiers have been killed. If $40,000,000 were to be split amongst the families each one would get 29.2 thousand dollars. Currently a soldiers family gets twelve thousand dollars only. Go figure ...Treating a soldiers life after death like a discarded spent shell is shameful and disgusting. The families they left behind need to be sustained and supported. Its a collective national duty to protect their loved ones as they protected us.

January 17th, 2005 Europeans loosing their common sense over Swastika
Hatred around the world cannot be prevented by just banning a noble symbol that was hijacked by Hitler. Has the European community collectively lost its mind. What else are they going to ban... free speech or free expression in art, theater, film and television. By banning free expression and free speech aren't they propagating what Hitler stood for. When a Fatwa was issued for the death of Salman Rushdie for writing a book. There was a world wide outcry that freedom of speech should be upheld even though millions of Muslims took offence to his writing. There aught to be a law to educate people rather then passing one to incarcerate people for freedom of expression, regardless how vile the symbol. In this case the symbol of Swastika is over 3000 years old.

The Monarchy will have to purge all their oriental Bukhara carpets or Chinese and Greek pottery out of their many palaces for they do contain the symbol of Swastika in subtle but varied ways.

The Indophiles are lamenting the loss of their symbol. The word SWASTIKA is derived from the Sanskrit word: SVASTIKAH, which means 'being fortunate'. The first part of the word, SVASTI-, can be divided into two parts: SU- 'good; well', and -ASTI- 'is'. The -ASTIKAH part just means 'being'. The word is associated with auspicious things in India - - because it means 'auspicious'.

Prince Harry is certainly a typical 19 year old lad who lacks good taste. Instead of reacting the European community should act and find a way to educate and enlighten about the background of the symbol rather then being punitive about it. Irresponsibly clamping down on people for the Swastika symbol will make it into a modern day fad. It will rage like out of control wild fire.

Ms Susan Pollack 74 said, ..' "Ignorance is no longer acceptable about the Nazis. If [people] don't know what Nazis have done, they should drop their heads and look down at the ground." Ms. Pollack a holocaust survivor, her pain is understandable but in this case she is the one who does not understand the age of the Indian symbol of well being. Sadly a symbol that was hijacked by Hitler. If its proven that Prince Harry made flippant comments about the holocaust along with wearing the Nazi uniform then he should he taken to task other wise folks blow it off.  It was a costume party in which some of the invitees lacked sensitivity and common sense.   .

January 16th, 2005 Tsunami - Iraq war and elections
Interesting how one can move on with ones life, esp. if one was a tourist in any of the war stricken areas or those ravaged by natural calamity like the Tsunami. All one has to do is pack ones bags head for the airport and leave everything behind and watch the painful reality of life shrink to the size of a postage stamp as one's plane gains altitude. Soon the pain and devastation for tourists will turn into a drawing room social conversation. Its equivalent to turning ones face away from the garish pain inflicted by one human on to another. How cruel and heartless of Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt to have said, "CHANGE THE CHANNEL" to Iraqis who see TV images of innocent civilians killed by coalition troops. Yet there are others who continue to protest against war and for peace. Check out some of the images sent to us from a Hollywood war protest taken by Jim Kurkas. Do war protests help change the political minds or do they only stir up ones consciousness about the ugliness of war. Yet is the act of war justifiable or justified? Elections in Iraq will they reflect the true voice of the Iraqi people? What the Pentagon can do in secret is a scary article by Seymour M Hersh ( The Coming Wars ) published in the New Yorker Magazine (Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31). What he reports is scary, fiendish and dangerous. He writes

" .....The President’s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books—free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A. Under current law, all C.I.A. covert activities overseas must be authorized by a Presidential finding and reported to the Senate and House intelligence committees. (The laws were enacted after a series of scandals in the nineteen-seventies involving C.I.A. domestic spying and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders.) “The Pentagon doesn’t feel obligated to report any of this to Congress,” the former high-level intelligence official said. “They don’t even call it ‘covert ops’—it’s too close to the C.I.A. phrase. In their view, it’s ‘black reconnaissance.’ They’re not even going to tell the cincs”—the regional American military commanders-in-chief. (The Defense Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on this story.)....." 

January 15th, 2005 Prince Harry and Swastika
All this brouhaha about poor Prince Harry wearing an emblem of the Third Reich is such a waste of time and effort, much ado about nothing, spinning a mountain out of an ant hill. After all the spin masters and foul screamers forget that it was a private costume party the prince attended. It was not an official gathering nor did the prince in anyway belittle the memory of holocaust victims. It was a case of poor judgment which all young men and women are prone to commit in abundance as they grow and yet some old people commit blunders including our politicians. Lets not forget Trent Lott's comment about the blacks. Let us not crucify the young prince for an error in judgment. Come walk the streets of  New York and you shall see many a kid wearing the swastika in their belts or some have the bad sense of having it tattooed on their bodies.

The history of Swastika is a symbol that is 3000 years old, and even predates the Egyptian symbol of the ankh. Does the symbol of swastika represent good or evil? Artifacts from ancient troy show swastika as a commonly used symbol on such items as coins and pottery from ancient Troy.  It was a symbol used as far back as 1000 BCE. Swastika was used in many cultures, including China, India, Greece, Japan, and England, not to mention that the Swastika an emblem was to be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division in World War l, and on the Finish Air force until World War ll. Until the Nazi's hijacked the swastika, it has represented, life, strength, and good luck. Even though atrocities were committed by the Germans by the emblem of The Third Reich, lets not allow Hitler to win in death by making this a symbol of evil, but let it reflect what it meant 3000 years ago. Even the early Christians used the symbol (Crux Dissimulata: Latin "Cross Dissimulated') to avoid persecution.

Let evil be associated to Hitler's act but not with noble emblem Hitler defiled by committing atrocities. Now this is not an apology for Prince Harry. Probably the poor prince does not understand the uproar his poor judgment caused. Let his naivety rest and lets move on to graver issues that surround the world. While prince Harry intentions might had been to shock the prudish Monarchy of England and guess he succeeded in the shock effect but as most youngsters he did not think of the ramification. So lets smile at a young mans silliness on the path of growing up and move on.  The commotion in the press we hope has taught him the lesson to weigh his decisions, and that a cute act of rebellion can back fire too. SW wonders how many people understand the meaning of a right and left facing swastika. Following are some sites on swastika - India, China, Ancient Greece, Israel, America and Europe. A concerted effort needs to be made to defuse the negative connotation of the swastika based on its 3000 year history               . Back to top

January 14th, 2005  George Bush - Tsunami - Palestinans
Watching President George Bush on TV today, reflects how, Bush is trying to mould his legacy. He seemed sober and realistic. Would his dream of his legacy be realized .... time shall tell as well as the events that follow for the next four years and our foreign policy. While we still continue to commit torture at Guantanamo even after the expose on Abu Gharib prison. Would President Bush do anything towards that, for the world is watching us? In the last four years our record on human rights has gone down the drain. The elections in Iraq would be a sham like Afghanistan. President Karzai of Afghanistan cannot travel outside Kabul and is being protected by American security detail paid for by the American tax payers.

Elections have been held by the Palestinians and it seem the Israel's are back to their art of deception in negotiations. The purpose of peace between the Palestinians and Israelis is to coexist peacefully and not to live under the terror of cobra helicopters and suicide bombers. Ariel Sharon cutting off all communications with the elected representative of the Palestinian people will not bring peace in the region. One has to engage in constructive political dialogue to achieve peace.

Peace in the middle east is what will make President George Bush's legacy eternal and survive the test of time. To achieve the elusive Middle east peace President Bush will have to be tough with the Israelis and Palestinians and not take sides the way he did in his first four years by not speaking with Yasser Arafat. Bush will have to be an honest broker and not play favorites. President Clinton wanted to include peace in the middle east as a part of his legacy but unfortunately that did not happen under his watch. Today the golden opportunity knocks at our doors and hope that we seize it too and Condi Rice does not steer President Bush away from what could be his legacy.

January 6th, 2005   Tsunami - ' I cried I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet '
Watching images of Tsunami death and destruction is a very humbling experiencing and a very painful one for those who lived through it and will carry the Tsunami emotional scars till eternity. Material things seem meaningless in comparison to life. The less said the better. " I cried I had no shoes till I saw a man who had no feet" sums it all up. Let us all be compassionate and human to those less blessed or facing the treacherous hand of fate so bravely.

The latest we hear about Osama that the fundamentalist have set up their own camps to help the victims of Tsunami. Each side may try to out do the other in generosity but lets hope the aid goes to the rightful recipients and the dollars being doled out by the world are not funneled into the coffers of terrorist groups. SW feels that the aid money should be closely monitored and tracked.  Back to top

January 5th, 2005  Tsunami - donations
Reporters from all over the world are overwhelmed by the plight of the people affected by Tsunami. Each one of us who has seen the images on TV  can feel those haunted images of death flash before our eyes. The world is gradually especially governments are loosening their grip on money and increasing the amount of donations and support. The British Soccer clubs have pulled their resources together and donated $1.3 million. Where are American athletes, from baseball to football players whose yearly contracts run into millions of dollars. Do the players  feel part of the human community and if so why have no donations been forthcoming from them.  Why has Tigerwood's not spoken up, after all Thailand is his mother's land? Has the Tiger turned into a jackal?  People of very meager means are opening their hearts but SW has yet to hear of any donations being made from Hollywood or different players from different sports. Colin Power and Jeb Bush cannot believe what they have seen. Once again SW hopes that cash donations are not made to any of the governments in the region. With the exception of Sandra Bullock whom we hear donated a million dollars of her own money. 

January 4th, 2005   Tsunami, natures fury and our compassion and aid
The world is stunned and does not know how to respond to the aftermath of Tsunami. Affected people look skywards at the humanitarian helicopters as giant God sent birds. Suddenly all difference, local, national and ethnic have come to rest as all suffer equally in pain and how to cope with it. This was a small belch from the belly of earth that wrecked so much havoc. Imagine if all the volcanoes were to burp under the sea simultaneously , what would happen then?  Would humanity survive? Yet we forget that different nations around the world pack enough atomic power to create devastation many times in magnitude compared to Tsunami.

Where is Osama the bastard who claims to be the protector and helper of the underdogs. He should know that the country he calls the devil is pouring in millions of dollars in monetary help and not to mention human aid, while Osama and his goons are busy blowing up innocent people. Wonder what religious cult he belongs to...certainly not Islam. American people are opening up their hearts like no other nation. Where is Saudi or Arab wealth hidden, why have they not come up to help their Islamic brethren? Yet when it comes to American aid and money everyone welcomes it but when its democracy we are labeled as demons.

We at Streetwhispers do earnestly hope that the aid being provided will be material and not monetary. Monetary aid will tend to vanish and line the pockets of corrupt regimes. Let each country take up a project in the afflicted countries by  building schools to planning new safer cities. Third world countries are not to be trusted till they show and can prove that they will disseminate the aid honestly under the watchful eye of some world body. Another suggestion is let this not be aid but a loan given to these countries and X number of dollars allocated for each project,  every time the project is completed the loan amount is written off  there by limiting and controlling corruption. This aid should be closely monitored....If you don't believe watch, and you shall even find the aid stuff ( blankets, clothes, milk, diapers  et al ) appearing in store shelves in the ravaged countries.    Back to top

January 1st, 2005         HAPPY NEW YEAR - PEACE AND LOVE TO ALL
Goodbye 2004 we shall remember you but not with the best of memories, yet you shall forever live on in time. You were tumultuous and yet changed the way we live our lives. Your last gift to us on the shores of time was the tsunami reminding us of how vulnerable we all are in this world before nature.

December 31st, 2004 Last day of life for some and last day of year for some as hope is toasted
The ball shall fall in Times Square as lovers, friends and strangers will toast the New Year. The custom of New Year was first started in Babylon about 4000 BC. About 2000 BC the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon ( the first visible crescent) after Vernal Equinox or first day of spring. The beginning of New Year on the first day of spring seemed to be logical. Time to plant new crops and have hope. The Babylonians celebrated their New Year for 11 days. Roman emperors tampered with the dates till Julius Cesar decided to set it as January 1st.  Before this turns into a lesson in history, Babylon is located on the east bank of the Euphrates, about 50km south of Baghdad. The city that we occupy today and where a lot of blood has been spilt. What would be the resolution of the modern day Babylonians and Iraqis in particular and the world in general be? Some will dream of freedom as others would plan about control and subjugation, yet hope is evident in both scenarios. One side of hope, is a whiff of  fresh blossom laden wind and for some it will be the smell of gunpowder and power.