the time traveller

Volcanic Crossroads of Guatemala

Isuru Seneviratne, July 2011

Travel: November 2010

With elevated spirits, “Team Dragons” reached the peak of the ridge, a mere fifteen minutes before sundown.  From this vantage point, we had a panoramic view of the scenic land around us.  Towards the West resided the majestic triangular peaks of Volcan de Agua, Acetenango and Fuego (3,760, 3,880 and 3,763 meters above sea-level, respectively).  The blood-red setting sun was accompanied by bands of faded yellow and blue sky as the backdrop to the highest peaks in Guatemala.  In the valley below, glistened Lago de Amatitlán, the volcanic lake.  To our east was our destination, the magnificent mountain of lava, Pacaya.  At the very top, 2,552m above sea level, a circular crater was fuming with noxious sulphur vapor.

Snowy likes volcanoes: Agua, Acetenango and Fuego

“Dragones! Vamos!” exclaimed our guide to the national forest, Carlos.  And downward we walked, along the ridge, leading towards the peak.

Guatemala sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” on the edge of the Central American and the Pacific tectonic plates.  While Fuego is the only active volcano today, the last eruption of Pacaya was not long ago, in May 2010, projecting smoke and debris 1,500m in the air and and covering Guatemala city, the capitol 30km away, with ash.  

Carlos and I

Ash the size of pebbles was the surface we walked on, as well as many meters below the surface.  The slope had a 45 degree gradient from our viewpoint to the valley in-between, and we took the surface along with us on the way down.  While this proved difficult for some, the skiers from Vancouver, Canada just slid down gracefully.  Almost suddenly, it became quite cold as the ridge exposed us to air current just when the sweat from our climb was cooling down.  

Team Dragons was a multi-national collective from Canada, Italy, USA, Germany, Netherlands, Sri Lanka plus two guides from Guatemala.  Most of the travellers were students, and they had set a brisk pace up the trail to the vantage point.  Many of the groups were travelling across a few countries in Central and North America - El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras & Mexico.  I was in the country the shortest time - 4 days, with only 1.5 days for personal travel.  

The our van ride to the base of Pacaya from La Antigua Guatemala, the ancient capital that was devastated in by volcanic activity in 1541, was a harrowing experience.  The driver seemed to not know where to go, and the van, full of tourists, did a couple of about-turns before reaching the destination.  In a country where street gangs known as maras kidnapping both locals and foreigners for ransom was a common business practice, we anticipated the worst: “OK gringos, when we pull up here, give us all your money and your left kidney.”  

Guatemala also sits squarely in the middle of the most lucrative drug trade-route in the world.  The U.S. cocaine market is estimated to be half of the $85 billion per annum global trade.  Colombia produces three quarters of global production, the flow of this contraband material north has caused much bloodshed and devastation along the way.  As the governments of both Colombia and Mexico have pushed against the cartels in the last couple of decades, Central America has become a haven for traffickers.  The underfunded governments of Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua are struggling to confront the well-financed and armed drug cartels.  

Drug Trafficking in Central America

Source: NPR, STRATFOR

Credit: Stephanie d’Otreppe/NPR

A definitional “banana republic,” powerful militarist leaders of Guatemala colluded with foreign private interests to develop banana plantations in the 20th century.  Today, the narcotics trade has penetrated most parts of the Guatemalan government, security apparatus and judiciary.  Vast swaths of the country (particularly the Department of Petén bordering Mexico, and the Mayan Highlands close to the Pacific Ocean) are under drug-lord rule, where police and mayors either survive by following their orders or get decapitated.  Drug cartels provide employment and safety nets in a country where seventy percent of the police force live in poverty.  Each president since 2000 has had to change the Interior Minister and the National Police Chief many times due to corruption or intimidation.  The murder rate in Guatemala is 48 deaths per hundred thousand people (for context, Colombia in the height of the late-eighties drug wars was almost twice as high at 80, and in the US, the number was 5.4 in 2008).  In Guatemala, impunity rules the day, with ninety-seven per cent of homicides remaining unsolved.  The deteriorating security situation has kept Guatemala from achieving its potential as a country with great natural beauty and generous people.

Volcanic ash is rich in natural nutrients, and most of our hike up Parque Nacional Volcan Pacaya was through a forest with no undergrowth.  Earlier still, we had climbed through maize and corn plantations.  However, other than the village of San Francisco de Salis at the beginning of the walking trail, we did not come across any Pacaya trees, a member of the palm family, that the the volcano is named after.

volcanic growth

After sliding down the ashen slope, we were faced with crossed a river of hardened lava.  Unlike the pebble-like circular and soft ash, the barren riverbed surrounding the puffing peak was crusty and prickly to the touch.  The narrow trail led us across the rugged and raw alien landscape.

The historic oppression of the Amerindian people (40-60% of the 13m population) started with Spanish colonization (500y ago), and was exacerbated by the military massacring many Mayan communities during the civil war (1960 to 1996).  This trend continues to-date, with 1.5% of the population controlling 62.5% of the land, diminishing the usefulness of the annual GDP per capita metric of $2,900 (or $4,900 on a PPP basis).   The Gini coefficient, which measures the inequality of wealth distribution, is close to 0.6 (a value of 0 stands for total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality.  Today, 8 big families (supercúpula) and the ex-military intelligence chiefs are the “power behind the throne” and operate a clandestine “shadow government.”  The elite and their interests avoid paying most taxes, and will not budge an inch to help the beleaguered government fight the deterioration of rule-of-law, let alone reduce social exclusion.

“Taxi Naturale”: from the village of San Francisco to the vantage point ascent, local Indio entrepreneurs chased us trying to sell rides.

Indigenous populations have risen in a groundswell against mining and hydro electric development projects.  Historically, development projects didn’t consult locals, and didn’t provide them any benefits.  In the backdrop of mismanaged developments of the ‘70s (e.g. World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank funded Chixoy Hydro dam, where the government massacred the indigenous opposition), came multiculturalism of the ‘80s and the environmental awareness of the ‘90s.  The strengthened local press, which sees itself as being the protector of the innocent; and the Catholic Church, which has historically distrusted capitalism; and international NGOs who have a bucolic vision of the countryside, are the key organizational hubs against development projects in the country.

From the riverbed, we ascended about ⅓ of the volcanic peak to where the surface of the conical peak was broken so as to provide a little window into the burning heart beneath.  The two-story high cave got warmer with each step inside, until we had to shed the many layers of clothing we had put on in face of the chilly dusk.  If we had bought marsh-mellows that were offered to us at the base of the mountain, we would have toasted them with the help of the burning earth.  Lava glowed red beneath the crust of the earth.  Carlos warned “do not get too close or breathe the fumes,” a little too late for my curiosity.  

As night settled over the mountain, surefooted Carlos lead the group across the prickly valley and down the mountain using a longer but safer route.  Moonlight helped at the top of the mountain, but when under the canopy of trees, it was pitch black.  Some of us has flashlights, but most did not.  Team Dragones left the volcanic land behind in its state of darkness.

sunset hiker

Continued…

1. Enjoy photos archive from my trip to Guatemala.   
2. Read the chilling, real-world, murder mystery of Rodrigo Rosenberg, uncovered in the New Yorker in A Murder Foretold: Unraveling the Ultimate Political Conspiracy, April 2011.  David Grann crafts a enveloping tale, where all levels of government are involved in intrigue, and depicts the challenges facing the UN-Guatemalan joint commission set up to address institutional decay in Guatemala.  Guatemalans will elect a new president in September 2011.  Their choices are between the former First Lady Sandra Torres de Colom, who has been heading Mi Familia Progressa, the government wealth transfer program for the poor; and the former General Otto Perez Molina, who headed branches of the military during the civil war.  
3. Listen to NPR’s 3-piece audio introduction - Mexican Cartels Spread Voilence to Central America, July 2011.
4. Learn about United Fruit Company and United States’ involvement in transforming Guatemala into a banana republic in the 20th century.
5. Support the International Crisis Group’s through and extensive research and policy recommendations for a better Guatemala.

Colombo to Colombia

a traveler’s look at parallel causes of conflict in two golden lands

Isuru Seneviratne, October-December 2009

The Salt Dividend

Catedral de Sal, Zipaquirá

El Dorado

Christopher Columbus never set foot in the country named after him; it was Alonso de Ojeda, one of his companions on his second voyage to the New World, who arrived at the mouth of the Orinoco River in 1499 CE. The wealth of the local Amerindians, intricate gold jewelry and stories about inland treasures drove Spanish conquest into the interior. One of the fantastic stories was about the ritual surrounding the king of the Muisca Confederate of Bacatá. The Zipa, as he was known, would float into the middle of Lake Guatavita, strip and be covered in gold dust. He would then offer great treasures to the sacred waters and jump in himself.[1] The story of El Dorado (Spanish for ‘the golden one’) told and retold with elements of many other tales became a mythical empire with mountains of gold. While the conquistadors captured riches and sent them back to the coffers of the Spanish Crown, they never found their City of Gold. In contrast to El Dorado, which has come to represent an unending quest for love, riches or happiness, is the concept of Serendipity, unexpectedly finding riches, beauty and serenity. The Englishman Horace Walpole coined the term ‘serendipity’ in 1754 in reference to the Persian fairy tale, “The Three Princes of Serendip”[2]. Serendip is the Persian name for Sri Lanka. Coming from the island nation in the Indian Ocean, I had a delightful and insightful trip to Colombia in October 2009. Serendip is a derivation of the Sanskrit term Swarnadip. The roots of this word, swarna (gold) and dvipa (island) bring us full circle to ‘the golden one’. Contrast blurs to similarity.

Gonzales Forero Square, Zipaquirá

Towards the End of War

There are many parallels between Colombia and Sri Lanka. Beyond being tropical countries with warm people, delectable cuisine and a colonial heritage, both countries are at turning points in wars that ravaged the countries for a generation or more. While the causes and the development of the conflicts differ, much can be gained from learning the historical parallels of uneven development and political intolerance leading to violent unrest. The governments need to be fair to all citizens, by ensuring basic freedoms for all and even access to development. From positions that seemed intractable, both governments of Sri Lanka and Colombia have made great progress overcoming rebel groups and reclaiming territory during the last half a decade. While the recently achieved territorial integrity is a positive starting point for social development and capitalist enterprise, lasting peace would require responses that address the underlying needs of the people.

Simon Bolivar’s independence struggle resulted in the formation of Gran Colombia, which included modern-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador, in 1819. Even after the separation of Venezuela and Ecuador in 1830, the centralist forces, which formed the Conservative Party, were fiercely opposed by the federalist forces, which formed the Liberal Party. A series of insurrections and civil wars between these parties culminated in the ‘War of a Thousand Days’ at the turn of the century. After a period of relative peace, differences escalated and La Violencia from 1948 to 1958 killed 300,000 people. In the aftermath, the leaders of the two parties agreed in 1956-57 to alternate four-year terms of ruling the country for the next 16 years. While this arrangement provided stability, the inability for members of alternative political parties to participate in the electoral process or become public employees effectively forced dissenting voices into the darkness of guerilla insurrection.

As the Cold War swept the world in the 1940s and 1950s, Colombia, with a colonial legacy of poor land distribution and impoverished peasants, became the perfect breeding ground for a plethora of armed leftist groups that plotted against what they deemed a self-serving and corrupt establishment. The landowners and business-cartel lords raised their own paramilitaries in response, leading to four decades of armed conflict starting from the 1960s. Leftist forces began farming and selling cocaine to support the insurrection, but as the conflict dragged on armed guerilla warfare was conducted to gain access to the cocaine trade. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC[3]), formed in 1964, was the largest of the insurgent groups, while National Liberation Army (ELN[4]) the second. Guerilla attacks on civilians (especially indigenous populations) and government establishments, child recruitment, taking hostages for ransom and political leverage, and planting landmines are some of the means used to further their cause. Due to these practices, FARC was branded a ‘terrorist group’ by US Department of State, Government of Canada and the European Union. Any validity to the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideology was lost to the cruel economics of cocaine versus human life. The right-wing paramilitaries also got into the cocaine trade in the eighties.[5] The groups formed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia or AUC[6] in 1997. As successive governments failed to bring vast swaths of the country under its rule[7], a generation of people grew up under guerilla rule, much like in Northern Sri Lanka.

The relative scarcity of natural resources drove northern Sri Lankans, Jaffna Tamils to diligently pursue education. Encouraged by British colonial policy of divide and conquer, which solidified ethnic identities that lead to polarization[8], Tamils held a disproportionately high level of government jobs (from clerks to doctors) and positions at tertiary level education at the time of independence in 1948. With universal suffrage, ethnic Sinhala (74% of population) displaced Tamils (18% of population) from positions of power.[9] Rather than build a national consensus and counter the control structures of the colonizers, politicians used populist measures to win votes and distributed opportunity through political patronage systems. A massive blow to pluralism was the majoritarian language policy ‘Sinhala Only’ act of 1956, which forced Tamils into being second-class citizens. Life-long government workers were required to pass Sinhala examinations to retain their positions and to win promotions.

Without a vibrant economy, the competition for government jobs was strong. In the 1970s, the government, having put down an armed rebellion of disenchanted Sinhala youth from the South, proposed a standardization scheme, where Tamils had to score higher to get into universities. While the eventual district quota system helped many rural students (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim), it was at the expense of city-dwellers - the middle class Jaffna Tamils and Colombo Sinhalas. The rhetoric of a separate ‘Tamil Homeland’ was picked up by Tamil politicians for mileage.[10] Many socialist liberation movements against an unresponsive government emerged as armed groups in the North. The most ruthless of them, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) emerged triumphant at co-opting or destroying all other groups. LTTE’s attacks against the military lead to the 1983 anti-Tamil riots and pogroms, fueling the separatist cry. Killing all who got in their way, including premiers of two countries - Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka and Rajiv Gandhi of India and many leaders - Sinhala and Tamil, the LTTE came to control almost one third of the country in a pseudo-state with “taxes”, “courts” and “police”. Any and all means were justified in this ruthless war, including conscription of children, terror attacks against pilgrims at temples, planting of innumerable anti-personal landmines, kidnapping and extortion, leading to thirty-two countries proscribing them as a ‘terrorist organization’.

In today’s post-war Sri Lanka, where secessionist rebels have been militarily defeated and land they held has been retaken by the government, examining the points of contention that lead to the war will help formulate the way forward. Since the twins of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism and Tamil nationalism grew up reinforcing each other, both have to be diffused in order to build a united nation.

Conquest versus Freedom

What the conquistadors of Colombia did not realize is that the Muisca Indians acquired their gold by trading emeralds and salt that they extracted regionally. In the Savannah of Bacatá, present elevation of 2.6km (~8,700 ft) above sea-level, salt came from the earth itself. When the Andes mountain range was forming during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, a saline lake evaporated all its water and the salt was trapped underground. The Muisca used water to melt small portions of the deposit and extract the valuable commodity. During the colonial era and after, progressively larger operations have mined this massive underground ore body of rock salt. Today the underground mine continues with modern mining methods, but the process flow-sheet for salt extraction is still quite similar to what it was in 5^th century BCE. I took a bus from the capital Bogotá to the town named Zipaquirá - ‘the land of the Zipa’ - at the foot of the salt mountain. In the 1930s, the miners had carved a sanctuary, to pray for protection during their work in the darkness. While a bigger cathedral for the public was built in the 1950s, it was deemed unsafe and was closed in 1992. A new Catedral de Sal (salt cathedral) was built below the old one and is one of the biggest tourist attractions around Bogotá. I got off the bus with a large ‘Zipa’ sign, without the ability to communicate in Spanish. However, a Colombian couple from the main city in the southwest called Cali, who got off the bus with me offered a ride in the cab they hired. Colombians are proud of their beautiful country and go out of the way to be hospitable to visitors, much like their counterparts in Sri Lanka.

About 95% of Colombia’s population is Christian, and a vast majority Roman Catholic. While many cathedrals beautify the countryside, I saw no signs of state involvement in religion. The Colombian Constitution of 1991 removed Roman Catholic Church from being the state church, and expressly guarantees freedom of religion. This was a contrast to my experience landing in Colombo, Sri Lanka in August 2009. I was surprised to see a white Buddha statue before the immigration counter at the airport. While I identify as a Buddhist, along with 70% of Sri Lankans, I wonder how excluded followers of Hinduism (15% of Sri Lankans), Islam or Christianity (7.5% each) feel at the sight. Sri Lanka provides ample religious freedoms, and has a culture of tolerance and respect. However, despite the fact that Buddhist monks were accepted as advisors to the Ancient Sinhala Kingdoms, Buddhist clergy’s increasing involvement and influence in modern Sri Lankan politics does not help a polarized populace unite under a secular democracy. Stories of soldiers having to guard newly constructed Buddha statues in prominent places in the Eastern province (areas with Hindus and Muslims)[11] highlight the hegemonic nature of state intervention in religion. Buddhism was instated as the state religion in the Republican Constitution of 1972. This was another majoritarian tactic aimed at winning over the Sinhala masses, which again strengthened the call for a ‘Tamil nation’.

What’s So Civil About War Anyway?

The 2002 election of President çlvaro Uribe in Colombia and Sri Lanka’s 2005 election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa were turning points for the two countries as these leaders have maintained hard-line stances on security, strengthened the military and fought back when many administrations before them let the wars fester. Both leaders have been criticized for their tactics, but both have won decisive victories. With the destruction of the top LTTE leadership, Asia’s longest civil war was declared over in May 2009[12]. While South America’s longest-running armed-conflict continues in remote areas and around the Colombian borders with Venezuela and Ecuador, most of the high population density areas are safe.[13]

Uribe may have had easier targets to attack than Rajapaksa. While FARC guerillas operated in the sparsely populated mountains away from population centers, one of LTTE’s core tactics in war was to launch mortar attacks against the army from areas with concentrations of people, for example schools and kovils (Hindu temples) full of displaced civilians. These cruel sacrifices were deemed necessary to further “the cause”, as the cry of “genocide” was used to raise funds from diaspora Tamil communities around the world. With the high-profile protest in Toronto and Tamil gang violence in London, the war in Sri Lanka has spread into the international arena. Both Colombia and Sri Lanka have to work towards dismantling the militarized society and a return to normalcy. In the Sri Lankan case, the Tamil diaspora also has a responsibility of constructive engagement, rather than continuing to push the same failed mantra of secession and polarization.[14]

Uribe has been successful at partially disarming the paramilitaries in Colombia, while under Rajapaksa, armed groups with extrajudicial powers have increased in Sri Lanka. Successive Colombian governments before Uribe had been sympathetic towards the armed groups like AUC that fought FARC. These paramilitaries are guilty of committing atrocities like killing all the children in certain villages sympathetic to FARC. The increasing level of accountability in Colombia is demonstrated by the ‘parapolitics scandal’, which lasted from 2006 until today. Almost 30% of the congress, including President Uribe’s cousin Mario Uribe Escobar, has been jailed for supporting AUC. With the press under muzzle[15] and any detractors being labeled ‘traitors,’ Sri Lanka has a long way to go before realizing cleansing of such a magnitude.[16] In Sri Lanka, the breakaway faction of the LTTE that called itself Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) joined with the ruling party United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) to contest for the Eastern Province elections in May 2008. TMVP members continued to carry firearms and contestants from other parties were afraid to campaign in the East. The coalition won the elections. While the developments in the East (and now the North) have benefited those within the patronage networks, much work is needed to bring the peace dividends to the population at large, especially those most affected by decades of war.[17]

Chiva band, Medell’ín

Getting on The Fun Bus

Colombians used to travel between cities on chivas, busses with elaborately painted wooden bodies. When in Medell’ín, my hosts organized a chiva tour around town and to the botanical gardens for the visiting foreigners. We had a great time taking in the sights and enjoying Aguardiente, sugarcane alcohol, which lives up to its name - “burning water”. A band of musicians in the back-seat played popular tunes; our Colombian friends sang; the whole bus clapped along. This practice gave me flashbacks of Sri Lanka, where no group trip is complete without singing, clapping and banging on anything that would act as a drum – metal cans, plastic boxes, glass bottles or anything handy.

Both the governments of Colombia and Sri Lanka propose development as the cure to all woes. While roads, running water and electricity will help improve the conditions for people in the former war zones, these development plans have to ensure equal access to opportunities, and empower local institutions. In 1956 Colombia limited political expression to the Liberals and Conservatives, while around the same time, Sri Lankan politicians tried to dislodge the Tamil speaking population from the state apparatus. These exclusionary developments, followed by uneven opportunity distribution and narrow-minded nationalism lead to decades in the darkness of war. Today, both countries have golden opportunities to address the root causes of conflict with intelligent dialogue incorporating dissenting voices, rather than gloat in military victories without building political cohesion. Let us ensure that everyone can get on the fun bus, rather than leaving some by the roadside waiting to topple the next.

Chiva town, Bogotá

Readings

Ahilan Kadiragamar, Interview with Ragavan on Tamil Militancy (Early Years)

Kafila, February 2009

Dayan Jayatilleka, Tamil politics in Sri Lanka: Time to stop being suicidal

            Groundviews.org, December 2009

GlobalSecurity.org, accessed October 2009

International Crisis Group [http://www.crisisgroup.org/]

Development Assistance and Conflict in Sri Lanka: Lessons from the Eastern Province,

April 2009

The Virtuous Twins: Protecting Human Rights and Improving Security in Colombia,

May 2009

Lasantha Wickrematunge, And Then They Came For Me

The Sunday Leader, Editorial, January 2009

Lonely Planet Colombia, 4^th Edition, June 2006

Pradeep Jeganathan, Sri Lanka’s Conflict: An interview with PACT, May 2009

Rupert Stebbings, Sri Lanka & Colombia - Heading for the same final solution?

The Bulldog, May 2009

Viveka Kudaligama and Sahan Dissanayake,

Sri Lanka’s Peace Dividends: The End of War and Beyond

            The Illinois International Review, October 2009

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[1] El Carneo (The Billygoat) written by Juan Rodriguez Freyle in 1638 is a novel about the conquest of America, which describes the Muisca tradition at length.

[2] Their highnesses, traveling in exile from their kingdom of Serendip, writes Walpole, “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.”

[3] Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - EjŽrcito del Pueblo

[4] EjŽrcito de Liberaci—n Nacional

[5] In 2000, the former AUC leader Carlos Casta–o Gil claimed that 70% of AUC’s funding was from cocaine.

[6] Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia

[7] Estimated at 40% of total area at the peak.

[8] Pradeep Jeganathan explores Sri Lanka’s colonial past for clues to the roots of the conflict in this interview with PACT, Peace and Conflict Timetable.

[9] The census of 1989 is the best source, since war has prevented the collection of representative numbers since that time. The ‘Indian Tamil’ population (5% of the 18%), originally brought over by the British for plantation labor, never had much power, and was disenfranchised after independence.

[10] In this interview on Kafila, Ragavan, one of the founders of LTTE, provides a perceptive analysis of the development of Tamil militancy, particularly of the group he left in 1984.

[11] World Socialist Web Site, Erection of Buddha statue produces communal tensions in Sri Lanka

[12] Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence, LTTE defeated; Sri Lanka liberated from terror

[13] US State Department Travel Warning

[14] Dayan Jayatilleka, Tamil politics in Sri Lanka: Time to stop being suicidal

[15] BBC, Gunmen raid Sri Lanka TV station

TimesOnline, J.S. Tissainayagam, journalist lauded by Obama, is jailed in Sri Lanka

[16] British-Colombian blogger Rupert Stebbings raises the concerns of an all-out offensive - the enormous human cost of lives lost and a divided society in Sri Lanka & Colombia - Heading for the same final solution?

[17] The International Crisis Group report “Development Assistance and Conflict in Sri Lanka: Lessons from the Eastern Province” addresses the dire need for local engagement in the development process, while Kudaligama and Dissanayake address Sri Lanka’s Peace Dividends: The End of War and Beyond in the Illinois International Review.

Jedi, compromised: A portrayal of the Jedi Council’s dark position during the disintegration of the Galactic Republic

“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic.”
- Obi-wan Kenobi [A New Hope by George Lucas]

The Star Wars prequel trilogy of this millennium portrays the downfall of Anakin Skywalker, the powerful Jedi who becomes a twisted tool of the Dark Side; the Galactic Senate, where political squabbling and ineffective leadership leads to the dictatorship of the Empire; and the Jedi High Council, which is manipulated to fight a war that leads to the disintegration of the Republic.

“Jedi do not fight for peace. That’s only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. We fight for justice because justice is the fundamental bedrock of civilization: an unjust civilization is built upon sand. It does not long survive a storm.”
- Mace Windu [Shatterpoint by Matthew Stover]

This charcoal/water-color drawing is of Master Yoda on Geonosis instructing a clone commander to “concentrate all your fire on the nearest starship.” Yoda is leading the clone army against the separatists, who are plotting to break free from the Galactic Republic. Here, most of the separatist forces are of The Trade Federation, the galactic shipping and trade cartel. Demarking the beginning of The Great Clone War, this moment captures compromised nature of the Jedi Council.

“Clones can think creatively. You will find that they are immensely superior to droids.”
- Lama Su, Prime-Minister of Kamino [The Attack of the Clones by George Lucas]

Jedi leading an army by itself is not out of character for the Warrior Monks. Samurai warriors lead the Japanese armies since the 7th century BCE. For a thousand years, the Republic had been downscaling its military forces with the help of the Jedi Order, thus the Jedi becoming commanders when the Republic commissioned cloned troops is a natural fit. The clones are highly optimized humans – they are tough, aggressive, think creatively and follow commands without question, while the Jedi are great strategists. On two counts the Jedi are out of their element in the picture at hand. The first being their continued backing of the Republic after the rescue operation at Geonosis and the second being the involvement with ultimately mindless weapons that are clones.

“We’re often called a militant Order, but do you know one of the principal differences between the military and the Jedi Order? The military are expected to follow orders, even when they feel those orders are not what’s right. The Jedi are expected to do what’s right, even when the course of action runs contrary to orders.”
- Jedi Master Cilghal [Outcast by Aaron Allston]

Back in the capital city of Coruscant, in private, Senator Padmé Amidala raised the concern that maybe the Jedi are fighting on the wrong side. She pointed out that the war is a result of a failure to listen to the concerns of the people. Under Chancellor Palpatine, Republic had become increasingly warmongering and not accountable. If the Jedi intent was upholding civilization, they had to cleanse the government (which they were increasingly closely aligned with) from internal corruption as much as from separatist forces of the outside. The 200-Jedi-strong mission at Geonosis was to rescue Obi-wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala from near-certain death. The droid army of the separatists had destroyed much of the Jedi force and would have completely overwhelmed it if not for Yoda arriving with the newly minted clone army, even before its incorporation as the Grand Army of the Republic.

“A weapon they are. Obey orders without question for good or ill. For now they fight for us. Who is to say what the future holds?”
- Yoda [Honor Bound by Ian Edginton/Steve Pugh]

The great army of clones is said to have been commissioned by the mysterious Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas without the consent of others in the Jedi High Council. Clones are biologically engineered to follow the commands given to them without question. When Chancellor Palatine issued the proper signal, Order 66, the very clone forces that the Jedi led turned on them destroying most of the Order. Given the Jedi penchant to not follow orders without critical assessment, they should not have been aligned with clone armies that do exactly the opposite.

Who Watches the Watchmen?

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light meaning in the darkness of mere being. – C. G. Jung in Memories, Dream, Reflections.

Could reading/watching such a dark tale of human nature leave one in a lighter state than where he started? Or, as midnight approaches, should he heed Fredrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s dire warning, “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Are there terrible battles worth fighting for, or would the fighter/reader get stuck in the darkness like those touched by the Black Freighter, the viscous pirate ship portrayed in the story-within-a-story employed by the visionary Alan Moore?

Who watches the Watchmen?
Moore explores the superhero motif like never before or after. What would motivate men and women to dress up in costumes, to be the laughing stock of the world, saving society from itself? In what forms do power manifest in such individuals? What effects do their violent lives have on their psyches? A maybe a more interesting question that Moore poses to the viewer is whether good intentions coupled with a super-powers can bring about a better world.

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look at my works, ye mighty, and despair! - Ozymandias by Percy Byssle Shelley.

The progressive writer spits on the audio-visual interpretation of his creation, much like he did of the movie adaptations of his other work, ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.’ However, Dave Gibbons, the brilliant artist of the graphic novel, stands with me to commend Zack Snider’s movie Watchmen of Mar09 for staying true to the book as much as possible. This is particularly interesting given that Moore chose the comic book format to tell a story that cannot be told in any other format. The material in The Watchmen takes time to process, and a reader can flip back to prior pages for details he missed and have “aha!” moments, which are wonderful. With amazingly-cast characters and a rockin’ soundtrack, the movie packs almost half a century worth of story (from 1939 to 1986) into 2 ¾h effectively. Each crease and curl has a reason, and ultimately adds depth to the complex and troubling chronicle.

It would be a stronger world, a stronger loving world, to die in. – John Cale

The thoughtfully crafted contemporary masterpiece does not offer any easy answers to burning questions about nuclear armageddon, homophobia, child pornography or political organizations (the Left of ‘Nova Express’ vs. Right of ‘The New Frontiersman’). However, in the words of Daniel Dreiberg in the Journal of American Ornithological Society (fall 83) sums up my reaction, “stretches of descriptive prose which nonetheless conveyed the violent and terrible essence of their subject matter effortlessly.”

Minutemen, costumed heroes of yesteryear

5k closer to a cancer free world

i will be running a 5k race on Saturday October 18th
please visit our team website and help a worthy cause

About Terry Fox

At 18 years of age, Canadian Terry Fox learned that due to bone cancer his right leg would be amputated above the knee. Terry had a terrific spirit that cancer could not defeat. During his ordeal, Terry became convinced that a cure for cancer could be found through cancer research but funds were needed.

On April 12, 1980 at St. Johns, Newfoundland, Terry dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic Ocean and began what he called the Marathon of Hope. Terry planned to run across Canada, some 6,000 miles to raise money and awareness for cancer research. For the next 142 days he ran 26 miles per day, the marathon distance, crossing 3,000 miles until, on September 1, 1980 near Thunder Bay, Ontario, he was forced to stop. The cancer had spread to his lungs. He died on June 28, 1981, a month shy of his 23rd birthday.

Since his death, thousands of runs have been held in Canada and around the world in Terry’s name raising funds for cancer research. Terry Fox has become an international symbol of perseverance and dedication. Help us to continue and celebrate Terry’s legacy with the New York Terry Fox Run.