Zimbabwe 14 April 2008

A Wounded Buffalo

Zanu PF is behaving just like a wounded buffalo. The African buffalo is one of the most dangerous adversaries in the world of wildlife. It has an enormous capacity to take punishment, is extremely difficult to kill outright and when wounded - even fatally, it has the ability to do great damage. It is also a highly intelligent adversary.

I have never hunted buffalo but have friends who have and had a senior in my department when I was a young man actually ambushed by a wounded buffalo in the Zambezi Valley. He was very lucky to survive and was never quite the same again. A frequent target of the trophy hunter are the lone bulls who move about in small groups or on their own and have a magnificent set of horns with that huge mass of bone across the head.

If the hunter gets a clean heart shot, the buffalo has the capacity to run for some considerable distance before collapsing. If the shot is not clean, then the buffalo is known to run and then circle back and lie in ambush for his hunter. That is what happened to my senior in the valley.

Although a large animal, the buffalo knows exactly how to stand in the shade and to blend in with his background. Often the only thing that might alert you to his presence is a flick of the ears or a tail. Fail to spot him and you could be on the receiving end of a short and furious rush and fall victim to the horns or just his mass.

Zanu PF lost this election massively - if you take the combined vote of Makoni and Tsvangirai, 73 per cent of the people who voted (2,4 million) voted against him - he only got 27 per cent of the vote. The poll was 41 per cent if you use the voter's roll but by my calculation (2,8 to 3 million actual voters) it was nearer 80 per cent. Even when the National

Command Centre had spent a day massaging the results they only got them down to 50 per cent for Tsvangirai and nearly 10 per cent for Makoni - still a huge defeat for a sitting President.

In addition they have lost control, even with the rigging, of the House of Assembly. In the Senate it looks as if we will have a stand off - but this does not make that much of a difference. But any measure, Zanu PF has taken a shot that has fatally wounded the old bull. However, like the buffalo I described above, he is still dangerous.

As things stand right now, the Zanu PF Politburo has decided that a full audit of the Presidential results can go ahead. We demanded this when we saw the results for Mashonaland Central four days ago. When this is completed (perhaps today) then we will hear if the final tally gives Morgan 49 or 50 per cent of the final count. If its 49, they want a rerun, if he gets 50 per cent plus one vote, he will be sworn in as President and we will get a new government.

I will not bore you with all the gory details of what has gone on this week, but just to say that Zanu PF and Robert Gabriel Mugabe have had a tough time accepting the reality of the loss of power and privilege. I understand that Grace Mugabe has left the country and has taken a very considerable sum of money (real money) with her. There is also a strong rumor that the man who led 5th Brigade during the genocide in the 80's has committed suicide. But that may or may not be true. Nevertheless it shows how much of a total shock this has been for the Zanu machine.

If there is a run off, I can only anticipate an electoral massacre. Ex President Mugabe will not even get the numbers he currently has in the poll.

It will be, in effect, a coup de grace.

So we are thinking through what a re-run might mean for us - how we might handle it. It is already clear that despite the fact that so far the people have committed no acts of violence in any way, that Zanu PF is going to use violence to try and get its way in the re-run. Already yesterday we have seen new violence in several areas, Masvingo especially. Morgan Tsvangirai said in his press conference yesterday that Mugabe is preparing to go to war against the people. It will not help him.

I just pray that there will not be a re-run. The country simply cannot take any more of this. Work is impossible - our factories are shut down as the staff cannot work, suppliers cannot fix prices and buyers are frozen in their tracks. The economy is virtually at a stand still and inflation is racing ahead. There is no food in the country and hunger is becoming a real problem, the Reserve Bank has been looted and I understand that enough foreign exchange has been taken out to supply the countries needs for all basic foods for 12 months. It is an absolute disgrace and to think they still want to hang onto power!

What has become clear over the past week is that Zanu PF can no longer command what happens in the administration, power is slipping away and they are already yesterdays men. It is also clear that the army and the police are both divided in their loyalties and now support change. This was the last pillar of support for the Zanu PF regime and with this gone it is just a matter of time.

The region is playing a key role and is trying to persuade Mr. Mugabe to step down and allow a peaceful transition. Mugabe is not co-operating and it is time regional leaders stepped up the pressure. As for the UN, this august body has yet to comment and do anything effective - must we slide into complete chaos and anarchy before they become engaged? Thabo Mbeki is in the UK for a summit of leaders - I am sure he is getting it with both barrels.

Last night Aziz Pahad was jousting with Kate Hoey - wish I could have seen that contest.

But for the rest, thank you to all who stood with us - through the criticism of our stand and strategy, through the long nights of despair and finally doing the hard work that will make democracy the tool we used to bring down a corrupt and cruel tyrant. We showed it could be done - not with guns and bullets, not with fire and machete's, just with the quiet strength of ordinary men and women going out and voting when they got the opportunity.

Your fellow in Zimbabwe.

© Michal Levin 2008

Heart peace 2 April 2008

At The Anatomy of Energy seminar on Saturday, we were working on the Heart, and Throat Chakras. The subject of Northern Ireland came up, and discussion of whether that peace could be described as a Heart peace - inspired by Love- or something else. I described it as it is an engineered peace, and none the less good for that. Much of the motivation is pragmatism, realism and a desire for peace and prosperity wining over ideological fanaticism- along with an utter sickness of the killing.

One of the group asked if I knew of any situation resolved from the Heart? or truly influenced by the Heart? Just one contemporary situation came to mind where a few representatives (how mnay?) of the two sides are genuinely trying to understand one another- to stand in the shoes of the other- a heart quality. That is in Israel. A group of Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost family members in the fight between them, have opened a free phone line 'Hello Shalom' to begin debate, one ordinary grieving person another, and begin to make human contact. I hope to investigate the scheme myself later in the year. Meantime- according to one BBC radio program (not know for pro Israeli views) 'Hello Shalom' has been very successful.

The BBC report astonished me with the moving accounts from people of all parts of the spectrum in the conflict wanting to reach out to one another. There was much pain and anger expressed. But ultimately, all were united in their gain thorough understanding and communicating with the other. It gave me hope in a most unhopeful situation. The piece below, published yesterday in the Herald Tribune does not.

Herald tribune, April 1, 2008
In Gaza, Hamas's Insults to Jews Complicate Peace
By STEVEN ERLANGER
GAZA - In the Katib Wilayat mosque one recent Friday, the imam was
discussing the wiliness of the Jew.

'Jews are a people who cannot be trusted,' Imam Yousif al-Zahar of Hamas told the faithful. 'They have been traitors to all agreements - go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing. Look what they are doing to us.'

At Al Omari mosque, the imam cursed the Jews and the 'Crusaders,' or
Christians, and the Danes, for reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. He referred to Jews as 'the brothers of apes and pigs,' while the Hamas television station, Al Aksa, praises suicide bombing and holy war until Palestine is free of Jewish control.

Its videos praise fighters and rocket-launching teams; its broadcasts
insult the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, for talking to Israel and
the United States; its children's programs praise 'martyrdom,' teach what
it calls the perfidy of the Jews and the need to end Israeli occupation
over Palestinian land, meaning any part of the state of Israel.

Such incitement against Israel and Jews was supposed to be banned under the 1993 Oslo accords and the 2003 'road map' peace plan. While the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has made significant, if imperfect efforts to end incitement, Hamas, no party to those agreements, feels no such restraint.

Since Hamas took over Gaza last June, routing Fatah, Hamas sermons and
media reports preaching violence and hatred have become more pervasive, extreme and sophisticated, on the model of Hezbollah and its television station Al Manar, in Lebanon.

Intended to indoctrinate the young to its brand of radical Islam, which
combines politics, social work and military resistance, including acts of
terrorism, the programs of Al Aksa television and radio, including crucial
Friday sermons, are an indication of how far from reconciliation Israelis
and many Palestinians are.

Hamas's grip on Gaza matters, but what may matter more in the long run is its control over propaganda and education there, breeding longer-term
problems for Israel, and for peace. No matter what Israeli and Palestinian
negotiators agree upon, there is concern here that the attitudes being
instilled will make a sustainable peace extremely difficult.

'If you take a sample on Friday, you're bound to hear incitement against
the Jews in the prayers and the imam's sermon,' said Mkhaimer Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University here. 'He uses verses from the
Koran to say how the Jews were the enemies of the prophet and didn't keep their promises to the prophet 1,400 years ago.'

Mr. Abusada is a Muslim and political independent. 'You have young people, and everyone has to listen to the imam whether you believe him or not,' he said. 'By saying the same thing over and over, you find a lot of people believing it, especially when he cites the Koran or hadith,' the sayings of the prophet.

Radwan Abu Ayyash, deputy minister of culture in Ramallah, ran the
Palestinian Broadcasting Company until 2005. Hamas 'uses religious language to motivate simple people for political as well as religious goals,' he said. 'People don't distinguish between the two.' He said he found a lot of what Al Aksa broadcast 'disgusting and unprofessional.'

Every Palestinian thinks the situation in Gaza is ugly, he said. 'But what
is not fine is to build up children with a culture of hatred, of closed
minds, a culture of sickness. I don't think they always know what they are
creating. People use one weapon, language, without realizing that they also use it against themselves.'

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli group, said Hamas took its view of Jews from what it considered the roots of Islam, then tried to make the present match the past.

For example, in a column in the weekly Al Risalah, Sheik Yunus al-Astal, a
Hamas legislator and imam, discussed a Koranic verse suggesting that
'suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next.'

'The reason for the punishment of burning is that it is fitting retribution
for what they have done,' Mr. Astal wrote on March 13. 'But the urgent
question is, is it possible that they will have the punishment of burning
in this world, before the great punishment' of hell? Many religious leaders
believe so, he said, adding, 'Therefore we are sure that the holocaust is
still to come upon the Jews.'

At the end, Mr. Marcus points out, Mr. Astal switches from 'harik,' the
ordinary word for burning, to 'mahraka,' normally used to connote the
Holocaust.

Some Hamas videos, like one in March 2007, promote the participation of
children in 'resistance,' showing them training in uniform, holding rifles.
Recent shows displayed Mr. Abbas kissing Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, under the slogan 'Palestine
doesn't return with kisses, it returns with martyrs.'

Programs for Children

Another children's program, 'Tomorrow's Pioneers,' has become infamous for its puppet characters - a kind of Mickey Mouse, a bee and a rabbit - who speak, like Assud the rabbit, of conquering the Jews to the young hostess, Saraa Barhoum, 11. 'We will liberate Al Aksa mosque from the Zionists' filth,' Assud said recently. 'We will liberate Jaffa and Acre,' cities noin Israel proper. 'We will liberate the whole homeland.'

The mouse, Farfour, was murdered by an Israeli interrogator and replaced by Nahoul, the bee, who died 'a martyr's death' from lack of health care
because of Gaza's closed borders. He has been supplanted by Assud, the
rabbit, who vows 'to get rid of the Jews, God willing, and I will eat them
up, God willing.'

When Assud first made his appearance, he said to Saraa: 'We are all
martyrdom-seekers, are we not, Saraa?' She responded: 'Of course we are. We are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of our homeland. We will sacrifice our souls and everything we own for the homeland.'

Along with Mr. Marcus's group, the Middle East Media Research Institute, or Memri, also monitors the Arabic media. But no one disputes their
translations, and there are numerous Palestinians in Gaza - in the hothousatmosphere of an overcrowded, isolated territory where martyr posters and anger at Israel are widespread among Fatah, too - who are deeply upset about the hold Hamas has on their mosques and on what their children watch.

While the Palestinian Authority of Fatah also causes some concern - its
textbooks, for example, rarely recognize the state of Israel - Yigal
Carmon, who runs Memri, said Hamas and its media used 'the kind of
anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish language you don't really hear any more from
the Palestinian Authority, which hasn't talked like that in a long time.'

Abu Saleh, who asked that his full name not be used because of his critical views, is worried about his children. His eldest son, 13, likes to watch Al Aksa, especially the nationalist songs and military videos. 'I talk to them about Hamas, but to be honest, it's scary and you have to watch it over time,' he said. 'When kids are 17 or 18, you don't know what happens. They get enraged and can attach themselves to radical groups.'

Excluding Reconciliation

The Prophet Muhammad made a temporary hudna, or truce, with the Jews about 1,400 years ago, so Hamas allows the idea. But no one in Hamas says he would make a peace treaty with Israel or permanently give up any part of British Mandate Palestine.

'They talk of hudna, not of peace or reconciliation with Israel,' said Mr.
Abusada, the political scientist. 'They believe over time they will be
strong enough to liberate all historic Palestine.'

Saraa, the host of 'Tomorrow's Pioneers,' is the niece of Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman. Some of the language used against other Arabs upsets him, Mr. Barhoum said, but he insisted that Israel was illegitimate. 'No one can deny that all this was Palestinian land and Jews occupied the land,' he said firmly. 'Therefore the Hamas charter is based on what Israel has committed against our people and our understanding of Israel and its
practices.'

The charter is a deeply anti-Semitic document and cites a famous forgery,
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as truth. But 'our battle is not with
Jews as Jews,' he said, 'but those who came and occupied us and killed us.' After all, Mr. Barhoum said, 'the Jews who recognized the evil of the
occupation stayed outside and refused to come to Palestine as occupiers.'

'The Jews who came, came to occupy and to kill,' he said.

Marwan M. Abu Ras, 50, an imam who taught at Hamas's Islamic University for 25 years, has an advice show on Al Aksa. He is proud that his show uses sign language for the deaf.

The chairman of the Palestinian Scholars League, and a Hamas legislator,
Mr. Abu Ras is popularly called 'Hamas's mufti,' because he is ready to
give religious sanction to Hamas political structures.

Last month, he criticized Egypt for closing the Gaza border at Israel's
request. He complained, 'We are besieged by the sons of Arabism and Islam, as well as by the brothers of apes and pigs.'

He tried to distinguish between religious and political language, and then
said: 'The Israelis can't accept criticism. They overreact, like any guilty
person.' Israel for him is an enemy. 'This is an open war with Israel, with
each side trying to press the other,' he said. A war? 'If it's not a war,
what is it?' he asked.

Then he spoke of his son, who tried to volunteer to fight the Israelis at
17. 'I convinced him to wait, he had no weapon, until 20,' Mr. Abu Ras
said. 'Now he's a member of Qassam,' the Hamas military wing, 'and an
example for young people.'

Promoting an Ethos

Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr. Olmert, called on 'Arab leaders who are
moderate and believe in peace to speak out more strongly against extremist elements.' He called the 'incitement to hatred and violence standard Hamas operating procedure,' adding, 'In Hamas education and broadcasting they turn the suicide bomber who murders the innocent into a positive role model, and they portray Jews in the most negative terms, that too often reminds us of language used in Europe in the first half of the 20th century.'

The 'serious question,' he said, 'is what ethos are they promoting?'

Hazim el-Sharawi, 30, the original host of the Farfour character on Hamas
television, and known as 'Uncle Hazim,' has no doubts. It was his idea to
have Farfour killed by an Israeli interrogator, he said. 'We wanted to send
a message through this character that would fit the reality of Palestinian
life.'

Israel is the source, he insisted. 'A child sees his neighbors killed, or
blown up on the beach, and how do I explain this to a child that already
knows? The occupation is the reason; it creates the reality. I just
organize the information for him.'

The point is simple, he said: 'We want to connect the child to Palestine,
to his country, so you know that your original city is Jaffa, your capital
is Jerusalem and that the Jews took your land and closed your borders and are killing your friends and family.'


© Michal Levin 2008

For TIBET - ELU for 30th March 2008 31 March 2008

Land of the Sky

A pony charging from
The hills, caught on your front page.
A troupe of horsemen
Pounding through the streets
Fuelled by passion and
An ancient title that will be heard.

The flat landscape blighted
By squat building, is softened now
Under a dull cloak of snow
That masks the thud of the
Military vehicles, and the sharper
Crack of rifle fire.

In your removed world,
cont...

For the full text, and to listen to the audio version of 'Land of the Sky', which is an Energy Link Up message, and to receive instructions for participating in the Energy Link Up, please go to the Energy Link Up page.


© Michal Levin 2008

Energy Link Up for Sunday 23rd March, 2008 23 March 2008

Tide Turned

The quiet noise of the breakers
Falling on the sand. The click
Of a few small pebbles dashed
Against one another.
Then the same again,
And again. Looking out
To where the grey skies meet
The grey water, there is
Only the play of light to distract
The eye; and the steady, rhythmic
Sound of the curled water
Unfolding onto the beach.

CONT...

For the full text and audio listen version of Tide Turned, an Energy Link Up message, and to receive instructions for participating in the Energy Link Up, please go to the Energy Linkup page.

© Michal Levin 2008

A TED talk that is well worth listening to 19 March 2008

... in case you have not heard it: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor woke one morning and realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened, as she felt her brain functions slipping away - speech, movement and understanding, she studied and remembered (amazingly) what was happening. Later a blood clot the size of a gold ball was removed and she made a full recovery. Her story has many implications for the way we live our lives, and use our brains. So, I am doing more meditation, and working more with energy.






© Michal Levin 2008

Energy Link Up for Sunday 16th March, 2008 15 March 2008

In the Moment, on the Cusp.

You are present in the moment,
Energy is flowing past you
On all sides,
Roaring, like a river rushing
Through a valley, tumbling
Round an outcrop, pulling down
Any stray, trailing vegetation
Into its bubbling flow: swallowed.

Life is thundering ahead and about you,
Sweeping you forward
In an unbridled torrent.

For a moment you think to resist
Cont...


To read and listen to the full version of In The Moment, On the Cusp, which is an Energy Linkup message and receive the instructions for participating in the Energy Linkup, please go to Energy Link Up.

© Michal Levin 2008

Energy Link Up for Sunday 9th March, 2008 8 March 2008

The Night Witch.

Sit still. Let stillness sink
Through your mind, inch by inch,
Ounce by ounce.

Now your inner world is settling,
And the space around you is
Slowly being revealed,
As your gaze pulls back,
And millions upon millions of
Tiny points, like painters' marks,
Fill your view.

A broad vista begins to appear
From the haze:
Rolling low hills and
Distant horizons emerge
In the half light
That is somewhere
Between night and day.
As you wait for the vision
To clear, a shadow descends.

A myriad silver reflections quickly
Turn to gunmetal grey,
Which turns to black,
Blotting out the view and

Cont...

To read and listen to the full version of The Night Witch, and receive the instructions for participating in the Energy Linkup, please go to http://www.michallevin.com/energy_link_up.php.


© Michal Levin 2008

Energy Link Up for Sunday 2nd March, 2008 1 March 2008

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Energy Linkup.


Between the moons

In the quiet between the moons
You are listening for spring,
For the new wind in your face,
Like fingers that gently ruffle your hair,
Or stroke your forehead.

You are waiting for
The ripple of Light to break
That heralds the coming
New swell. And as you wait
Your feelings switch and swirl -
Now silent, now clamoring
For your attention. Then deadly
Quiet again; so quiet that you
Fear they are buried
And gone forever.

So raise your eyes,
Tilt your face towards the darkness
And with your whole heart
Worship the day, the week,
The season, the rhythm of
Your life that brings you
Ever closer to the core,
Like the music flowing from
Your fingers in the house
On the marshes.

Listen to the notes in
The night, caught by the
Unexpected gust that
Flattens the reeds and provokes
The first sea bird's croak.
As the promise of the sun
Gleams over the water.

Now the movement
Of the stars is shifting slowly,
Inching towards the changing
Of the season.
And the rise
Of the new moon is
Coming towards you.

Travel well.

Go well, be well.

© Michal Levin 2008

Energy Link Up for Sunday 24th February, 2008 23 February 2008

The BBC thought for the day on 19th February - my birthday - was remarkably to the point. Hindu leader Akhandadhi Das said: "There's an anniversary this week of an event that you may not have heard of. It happened yesterday morning, five thousand, one hundred and ten years ago, according to the precise astronomical descriptions of that moment. The occasion was the dawning of the current Age of Kali.

You may think that something so pre-historic can hardly be relevant to modern society. But, the sages back then believed that the significance of the dark Age of Kali would not be felt in their time, but thousands of years later. They forecast a series of worrying trends that might come to pass and, as I again read their predictions, I feel an eerie chill.

Principally, this epoch is characterised by quarrel and hypocrisy. People will feel disturbed and agitated - afflicted by exhaustion, fear and depression. Many Vedic texts mention the general ill-effects of the Age of Kali, but the Bhagavat Purana gets quite specific. Here are a few of the adverse trends and I leave it to you to make the topical connections.

"People will suffer shortages of natural resources, yet be overburdened with taxes. They will no longer look after their elderly parents. The cities will be dominated by thieves. But, justice will be bought through power and influence. Businesses will run on deceit; and wealth alone will determine a person's status. It will be considered unholy to be poor. But, even in ordinary circumstances, people will accept degraded livelihoods. Men and women will unite on the basis of superficial attraction and each will be judged by their expertise in sex. Beauty will depend on one's hairstyle. People will confuse audacity with truth; hypocrisy becomes a virtue; and someone good at juggling words will be considered a great scholar. Political leaders will cling to power and greedily squabble over territory. They will go to war with no real cause. Their efforts to exploit the bounty of the land and sea will make the Earth lament."

The sages who compiled these predictions identified a common cause - that our joint aspirations for spiritual progress and material well -being would be separated and people's intelligence would be diverted more and more into purely materialistic pursuits.

Not a happy outlook. Fortunately, these sages also recognised a remedy. "The Age of Kali is certainly an ocean of faults," they concluded, "but it has one redeeming feature: all of its effects can be mitigated, even reversed, by one simple spiritual process - meditation on the holy names of God."
We can't change the great wheel of time that has brought us the harsh winter age of Kali, but by calling on the name of God in whatever way we relate to our Creator, we can protect ourselves from the worst of its influences and usher in the respite of the Indian Summer that was also foretold by the sages."

I have little to say after that!

This week's Energy Link Up is below. Remember details of how to use it, and the audio version are on my website, www.MichalLevin.com. (There are also several new visualizations to down load in the site shop now.)

The piece was not inspired by the I Ching, but looking at after a gap of some months, I saw a connection with Hexagram 50, The Cauldron. That talks of the content of the cauldron, the "ting", and the outer form of the "ting". In contrast, this is about the self becoming the vessel. The vessel that holds your sprit and your soul, the golden nectar of life everlasting, so that vessel and self, in the widest terms become one. May you become one.

Oneness


The bowl before you is perfectly round
And golden in color.

The grain of the metal sweeps in an endless curl
To make the shape.

The color and the form of the bowl
Are perfectly matched.

The bowl tilts slowly towards you to allow
A thin stream of liquid to flow from it.

The liquid is golden and soft.
Liquid, form and color unite.

You stand below the flow.
It trickles through your body.

Liquid, metal, form, color and your body unite.


© Michal Levin 2008