All In One Peace

The dangers of landmines should be well known, especially given their indiscriminate nature, Bock told OneWorld.

Yet, she added, ‘’landmines are a hard sell in the United States because people don’t have to worry about stepping on them. Imagine if you had to worry about your loved ones getting blown away while walking to school or fetching a pail of water.'’

That is what happens in Cambodia, where civilians accounted for 97 percent of all landmine casualties in 2003.

I took a look today to see if there had been any word if the US government decided to start producing and using the new ‘Spider’ landmines that

According to the US capmaign to ban landmines , the U.S. Army has spent $135 million since 1999 developing Spider, so I feel that our government might not want to stop this…

Unfortunatley, I have not been able to find ANYTHING on if our US government is actually producing these… the last thing I have seen dates December 2005- when our congress was supposed to decide if we were to produce them. I have searched for the last 20 minutes with no result… Does anyone know what our government is doing on this? It saddens me that our media hasn’t said anything about this. I agree with the above statement- if we had to watch our steps, and our childrens steps, then we would have signed the Treaty when it was first created…

I JUST FOUND THIS!!!!!

There are rallies all over the US to stop Dafur- check out this great video cartoon- and please let’s do something, even if it’s a rally! We can’t stand silent any longer…
PLEASE WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR US TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING???

So while I’ve been here, I have heard/learned much more about the culture here, and so comparitively, to my own culture… I thought this article about the Star Spangled Banner being sung in Spanish and the flag waving is quite compariable to things here, or was here… The question of all living together- assimilating to ‘one dominant culture’ or having various intermingling cultures is very fascinating- and very complicated- I mean what is dominant- and how to you people assimilate on one hand and the other- how to live with different cultures, since cultures are different life values and way of understanding? (see definition of culture)

The word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). In general, it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity. Anthropologists use the term to refer to the universal human capacity to classify experiences, and to encode and communicate them symbolically. They regard this capacity as a defining feature of the genus Homo.

I, as always, have more questions than answers. But what I do know is having people around of different expiriences and backgrounds and having people around me with similar values and ways of thinking have always been a source of has always helped me- both are valuable, but seem almost contradictory- hmmm?

So today, and the past few days, has been hectic… you know running-around-with-your-head-cut-off type of days…with little restful sleep. The real “free time” I’ve had with myself has been sitting on the bus…. or standing packed in sardnines, I should say… I should give some cultural insights and pictures of the buses here sometime…

It’s not that I do not want to be rested and balanced- it somehow seems that I follow the culture and say, but I NEED to do this I HAVE to… and I know some of you do this too (hint hint to some of you)

Anyway, during those times on the bus, I’ve been arguing with myself- with the voices in my head going back and forth between- “If only I can give just a little bit more,” and “Whoa, I’m not God! I can’t do it!” It’s a struggle I’ve had with myself for a long time- finding the line between doing the best I can and giving my all and letting go and doing only what I can do in a healthy manner. And by healthy, I mean physical, spiritual, and mental health.

This- “stop, and remember who God is” is a recurrent theme in my life… and of course today, once again, I had to stop and remember the true God. Today it also helped as I stumbled accross this article on sleep…Sleeping- From Christianity Today”

I know that I want to keep my head on my head- I do not want to be a sleepless zombie… and so today I started to say no… not just for me, but because it reminds me that I do not have to do it all- that if I am doing my share of serving people- and not more of less than my share- than it will not drain me but fulfill me.

“Yugoslavia was divided with guns,” laughed Sabrija Vulic of Montenegrin Television, “and Serbia and Montenegro will be divided by songs!”

Has anyone in the US ever heard of the Eurovision competition??? Yeah, me neither.
But when I first got to Bosnia, I soon became aware of it- and now here in Serbia and Montenengro, I have heard even more about it. From what the Western Europeans tell me it’s a really a cheesy competition- anyone could enter- but it’s no one famous- people who want to be on stage- and only ABBA has done anything since… everyone said that it’s part of culture for Europeans to stay up the night of the competition to laugh at the songs (which I guess are typically very bad love songs) and secretly root for their countries artist… while this BBC article seems to be skewed (they talk about Serbia, but not from teh Serbian perspective), it nonetheless shows the political environment of the Balkans… it’s informing of the culture that a contast that is a joke to most of Europe can cause such heartache here…

So right before I life Bosnia, a good friend of mine told me that I should stay- if for nothing else, stay because Bosnia will have many people coming because they found a pyramid here a few years ago… And sure enough, before I can even write about it, BBC and other news sources have picked up on the story- some say it’s ture some say it’s fiction… so here are both of the sites… you decide. Is it truth… or fiction?

Hey Did you all know that it is flooding here??
just wondering…

Some of these pictures are deciving, because only some of the City of Belgrade, and other cities, are flooded- it’s not the whole city- like where I live- but many places are flooded- Josip’s town has some areas that are flooded to the ceiling. Take a look at these pictures!!!