The young guard, however, had a set of surrogate parents: the Israelis. Palestinians in territories may have learned occupation from Israel, but they were also exposed to Israel's democratic system of government.

"We learned democracy from Israel," one Palestinian woman told me. "If you discount Israel's treatment of the Arab Israelis (who are subjected to a great deal of de facto, and a certain amount of de jure, discrimination), they still have regular elections, parties, a working parliament. Even when we were under occupation we saw this."" (Salon)

The first intifada was started and innovated by the current young guard of the Palestinian people. The PLO was in exile Tunisia at the time. Compare the success of the first Intifada (which resulted in 1992 Oslo agreement and outpouring sympathy from the world to the cause of Palestinian people;with image of group of youth throwing stones at Israel tanks burned in the world concsiousness) to the murderous Arafat approved second Intifada which turns the world against Palestine.

We will see peace in between Palestine and Israel in our lifetime.

Today is holy Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross, so I think I will use this occasion to write more about what I thought about the Schiavo case.

First my conviction is life is precious and death is not a defeat. It might sounds paradoxical but it is not. Without death, nobody will value life. Death is meaningless if life is not fought and cherised.

Schiavo case is about her wish. It's not about her husband or her family. The conflict we are seeing right now is whether we are willing to trust her husband's version or her family's version. No matter what side we choose, we have to bear the risk of being wrong. There is no way out about it. Being err on the side of line is not better that being err in letting her go. If her husband is right, keeping her alive against her wish will be amount to torture, restraining a soul in a lifeless body in an indefinate amount of time. If her parents is right, we are ending a life that still have a chance.

In Indonesia, we have a proverb for this type of situation. It's called eating the fruit of Simalakama: if you eat it, your mother will die;if you don't, your father will die.

Either way it's a tragedy.

And the only way to deal with such tragedy is with outpouring respect and sympathy from the public to the family. In which many in America, including members of the congress and shameless opportunists have failed to do in this case. Both the husband and the family have been demonized by the harsh spotlight and incessant hubrish of national attention. Do not try to own this tragedy on the back of their pain. No, nobody is trying to kill her.

Stop that.

Now I have chosen side in letting her go. Why? Because I rely the court system in Florida that have handled this case repeatedly over in multiple years to get it right, that her husband's version of her wish is correct. Maybe I'm right or maybe I'm wrong, but this is the only mechanism I can rely my judgement upon right now. I cannot not care so I decide.

Instictively I think removing feeding tube is cruel, but people working in hospice industry have presented a view that it gives a gentle death. Regardless, in this country, removing feeding tube is quite commonm in cases where the person is being let go; Had Schiavo been in visible pain and agony and everybody agree it is best to let her go, removing feeding tube is still the only course of action taken. Every day somebody's feeding tube is being removed.

For me personally, should I ended up in a vegetative state with no chance of recovery, do me one last favour, pull the plug, inject me with with the finest Jack and throw a party on my name; I have always been ready.

"Is it possible that the soul of Terri Schiavo has been floating – held in some prolonged and excruciating limbo – waiting for doctors to stop interfering with the process of her death?  I believe that this is so, and that is why I have supported her husband’s desires to have her feeding tube removed.   Terri Schiavo isn’t being murdered.  She’s being allowed to die.  Death will not be an end for Terri Schiavo, it will be a beginning.  She will finally be allowed to claim the reward that ultimately we all seek, a reward she’s earned and deserves." (Neal Boortz) via Andrew Sullivan

The Rev. John J. Paris

NEWSWEEK: The church has said that providing food and water does not constitute an extraordinary way of sustaining life.
John J. Paris: What you’re quoting is a statement that was issued by the pope at a meeting of [an] international association of doctors last year in Rome. This was really a meeting of very right-to-life-oriented physicians. It was an occasion speech. The pope meets 150 groups a week—a group comes in and the pope gives a speech. If the pope tells the Italian Bicycle Riders Association that bicycle riding is the greatest sport that we have, that doesn’t mean that’s the church’s teaching, that the skiers and tennis players and golfers are out. It wasn’t a doctrinal speech.

So it’s been taken out of context?
It has to be seen in the context. This has to be seen in the context of the pope’s 1980 Declaration on Euthanasia, which says that one need not use disproportionately burdensome measures to sustain life. Even if the treatment is in place, if it proves burdensome it can be removed. The terms you’ll hear them talk about all the time are “ordinary” and “extraordinary.” Well, those words are so confused in the minds of the public that they no longer serve any useful purpose. People think of extraordinary as respirators or heart transplants. Extraordinary never referred to technique or to hardware—it referred to moral obligation. What are we obliged to do?

When a white racist government was oppressing Zimbabwe, the international community united to demand change. These days, a black racist government is harming the people of Zimbabwe more than ever, and the international community is letting Mr. Mugabe get away with it. Our hypocrisy is costing hundreds of Zimbabwean lives every day.

The sun managed to sneak through the foggy cover over Chicago this weekend nourishing the young sprouts growing to the call of Spring. Joy. These two days of supposedly relaxation time were spent instead on working with copious amount of code, although a badly needed run was successfully completed, injecting a jolt of energy to this dying body. Unfortunately my memory of these passing days  is failing, vivid pictures turned to greyish dust. Ah, me the happily stressed guy, working with eight tentacles and sparing only seconds of neurons before deciding things, rightly or wrongly, having the burden of relying on your own judgement, satisfying but tiring.

Soon I've reach that third quarter to the big three, a supposedly peak age for a young man and I yet to invent a new aircraft nor solve the world's hunger. I may have the energy but keeping my attention together only with a single thin thread of concentration is perolious at the best of situation, dispriting at the worse, like a wolf with a distaste of blood.

Self doubt, ah those are wonderful words afforded only to the ones with luxury of time. May I be that lucky some time in the future as right now I'm pretty much tied up on a projectile to a coordinate of my own choosing. The pain has subsided due to habit, but it still lingers like a smell of burning weed the next morning.

It is a curse that the one I miss are miles and miles away and only isolation and loneliness are nearby. You can't really deserve to get everything that you want.

angela mia, salva me. 

This company expansion thingy can simply get really ridiculous sometimes and this Sunday is one of those days you sit down and look at your todo list  and simply throw your hand up in frustation, "it's fucking hard man".

But again, there's nothing can't be solved with a 10 mile run.

"At the World Bank, Mr Wolfowitz will be dealing not with tank divisions and theories of deterrence but rather with using America’s “soft power” to tackle poverty. Two well-known development economists, Jeffrey Sachs and Joseph Stiglitz, have bemoaned his nomination, as have the world's aid agencies. But Mr Wolfowitz's lack of experience in the development community does not necessarily make him a bad candidate. Having served under Donald Rumsfeld during the controversial “Revolution in Military Affairs”, Mr Wolfowitz might, some argue, be well placed to bring radical change to an organisation sorely in need of it.

The World Bank has spent much of the past decade responding to charges that its funding did little to achieve its primary mission: helping developing countries to grow their way out of poverty. The conventional wisdom is that aid is of little benefit unless the recipient country is a model of political and economic rectitude. These are hard qualities to find in a developing nation, and many complained that the Bank wasn’t looking very hard, preferring the showy headlines of massive infrastructure projects to the tedious slog of gradual poverty reduction. "

Economist

"Remember the recent debate about gay marriage and the sanctity of the bond between husband and wife? Nearly all of those now trying to push their views forward about what should be done with Terri Schiavo told us that marriage is a sacred trust between a man and a woman. Well, if that is what marriage means then it is very clear who should be making the medical decisions for Terri — her husband." (MSNBC)

She has been in a vegetative state for 16 years. Let her go. All these grandstanding should end. Let her go.

 Paola is flying to to Chicago from Colombia. For business and debauchery. Hopefully Chicago is warm by then.

"btw.. I just got my flight ticket yesterday to Chicago.. I'll be there on the weekend of the 8th of May... taking care of business... enougth complainting for today.. back to my programming view.. :)... " (paito)

Sarah

PS> For the Americans getting this email, a kind of interesting aspect of my life: I take a shuttle to work everyday with about 8 co-workers who start at the same time as me. Two of them are brothers and are from Iraq. One of them has lived in Turkey for 12 years, but the other just arrived from Baghdad about 5 months ago. He wanted to leave earlier but because of the regime, he wasn't allowed to. We have talked a lot about what it is like to live in Baghdad now. I have always just imagined the city in ruins, but the way he explains things and living there, it's amazing how they live daily life and work and go to school or what not and how 'used' they all are to war surrounding them. We talk also a lot about their opinions on the war. Both of them are mixed about what is going on and how it will work out and what is right...and they say, the people are just so confused, after years and years of mess, they do hope for restoration of the country and standard of living and growing economy. Well never-the-less, it's great to get to know them, they are smart and intelligent  and so nice. "

The big news of today: Microsoft acquires Groove Networks.

Groove is known for its excellent yet sometimes cumbersome peer to peer group collaboration software. This purchase signify Microsoft interest in ad-hoc remote team collaboration (Groove software doesn't need any server installation).

This make sense. We are just in the beginning of a distributed, loosely connected, creative, ad-hoc, decentralized teams that operates in different physical location, time zones and accross language and cultural barrier.

There is no place in the world that are not connected to the Internet. (a slight exaggeration, but will be less so as time advances)

If you think outsourcing is amazing, you should see the next trend of “cell” oriented collaboration networks. The technology is catching up and the practice is being experimented globally in business or any other legal or illegal human endevours. You already can send money anywhere in the world for a long time, through multiple means.

New Management practices will rise on the face of this beginning trend. This phenomena will impact on how your project are managed, decision created, budget created and concensus reached.

Where you are will matter less and less because you can always go anywhere, work with anyone and settle at any place.

This vision is nothing new, but before it was just a vision, soon enough, we will see more of this trend to accept it as reality.

Welcome to the age of the modern nomads.

How to start a startup essay by Paul Graham.

What he writes, I'm living it right now except for the VC parts.

Finding out that the mix of food poisoning and influenza don't mix really well is really an eye opener.

”In a widely noticed interview, Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze, told the Washington Post that Iraq's election was the Arab equivalent of the fall of the Berlin wall. Hisham Kassem, a former publisher of the Cairo Times, called the elections the “start of a ripple effect”. Khaled al-Meena, the editor of Saudi Arabia's Arab News, says that if elections can be held under foreign occupation in Iraq and Palestine, it should be much easier to hold them in Arab states said to be “free”. “ (The Economist)

Damn straight.

”Expensive College Prep School: $90,000
Test Prep Classes: $10,000
Donations to School by Parents: $5,000

Blowing your future because you can't wait a month: Priceless.

There are some levels of satisfaction that money can't buy, like watching 100+ snot-nosed future pointy hairs take it up the pooper from Harvard. “ (a slashdot poster) on HBS online application fiasco.

”Transnational crime (not your local thug) is a $1.5-2 TRILLION a year black economy (I think this is an undercount). If global guerrillas in aggregate could capture 20% of that, it would be a $400 billion a year budget (about equal to the US defense budget). Given that global guerrillas have opted not to provide social services, most of it could be allocated to violence at a level of efficiency far in excess of conventional militaries. Something to think about. “ (John Robb)

“They say you can't understand people until you've walked a mile in their shoes. I just walked across Belgrade in a brand-new pair of Nikes. Now I understand something: The citizens of this city are the vanguard of a new phase of capitalism. They're busily subverting conventional multi-national commerce and creating a dark parallel process - call it black globalization.”(Bruce Sterling)

Black Globalization : Distributed, networked, loosely organized, flexible, work on a common protocol, resilient, each node is easily replicated, pragmatic.

One example, the Hawala underground international money transfer system where you can practically send money from one country to another undetected and guaranteed to be delivered.

I never cease to be amazed by the inventiveness by people and groups that operate successfully outside the boundary of the mainstream systems.

101 Zen Stories.

I grew up reading these stories because they are always funny and full of subtleties.

”Boeing Co. on Monday said its board forced out president and chief executive officer Harry Stonecipher because of a relationship the married, 69-year-old Stonecipher had with a female executive at the company.

The unexpected ouster makes Stonecipher, who spent just 15 months in the top job, the second consecutive CEO to depart the Chicago-based airplane maker and defense contractor in disgrace.” (AP)

You can be a 69-year-old executive and still be a dumbass. I like the Boeing Co but the parades of some stupid decision making, corruption and inept chief executives starts to get stale.

”If Europe wants to go pacifist, that's fine. But there is nothing worse than a pacifist that sells arms “  (Tom Friedman) on Europe ending their arm sales embargo to China.

He's got a point.

”Illinois is perfect no more. Ohio State reserve forward Matt Sylvester hit a 3-pointer with 5.1 seconds left on Sunday to hand the top-ranked Illini their first loss, 65-64.

The Illini (29-1, 15-1) were trying to cap the Big Ten's first unbeaten season in 29 years. Instead, they frittered away a 12-point lead in the second half and didn't score over the final 3 minutes.” (AP)

Fuck. We're gonna roll 'em up at St. Louis.

”In an audacious move, Jessner decided to pursue the death penalty for nearly all the gang’s top leaders. “It’s the only arrow left in our quiver,” he told me. “I think even a lot of people who are against the death penalty in general would recognize that in this particular instance, where people are committing murder repeatedly from behind bars, there is little other option.”” (New Yorker)

on the effort to dismantle the notorious Ayran Brotherhood prison gang.

”In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?”  (Spiegel)

The Tragedy

“In many cases, fathers -- and sometimes even mothers -- single out their youngest son to do the killing, Boehmecke said, "because they know minors will get lighter sentences from German judges." In some cases, these boys are revered by their community and fellow inmates as "honor heroes" -- a dementedly skewed status they carry with them for the rest of their lives. Currently, six boys are serving time in Berlin's juvenile prison for honor killings. "In a way, these boys are victims, too," she said. Sometimes they are forced to kill their favorite sister.”

So why not jail the fathers as co-conspirator to premeditated murder? I don't know about German law but were this to happen in the US, the fathers will be accussed of Murder of the first degree, thrown to jail and let rot for the rest of their life (at least). I don't know where these macabre tradition got pick up on because we don't have this in the Muslim communities in South East Asia.

Thomas, what's your opinion?

Get a rice cooker. A rice cooker is a multi-purpose cooking device. You can cook everything in there, not just rice. Caseroles, Pasta, Soup, Porridge, Rice, etc.

I've been on a diet of Self Made Chicken Soup for the past 6 days trying to be productive while sick (4 types of onions, ginger, chicken thigh, pasta, black pepper, potatoes, parsley all went to the boiling water in the rice cooker). I hate flu medication because it renders me useless.

” Americans, let's face it: We've been a spoiled country for a long time.
Do you know what the number one health risk in America is?
Obesity. They say we're in the middle of an obesity epidemic.
An epidemic like it is polio. Like we'll be telling our grand kids about it one day.
The Great Obesity Epidemic of 2004.
"How'd you get through it grandpa?"
"Oh, it was horrible Johnny, there was cheesecake and pork chops everywhere." (LazyBoy - Underwear goes inside the pants)

I'm lovin' it.

“This homeless guy asked me for money the other day.
I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol.
And then I thought, that's what I'm going to use it on.
Why am I judging this poor bastard.”