There was this huge anti war rally last month in san francisco. Posting some pictures from the rally.

I recently wrote an article for my school newspapers on San Francisco school closures and merger. Here is an unedited version of the article that appeared in The Pioneer, Dated Jan26th, 2006

Last Thursday San Francisco’s Board of Education voted to close three schools, merge and relocate many others. In an auditorium at Everett Middle School filled with angry and distraught parents, the Board of Education announced their decision. “They are taking away our hearts by taking away our schools” said Laura Baker of Edison Charter Academy, a primary school operating in the city.
The move is reminiscent of the San Francisco school districts financial situation: inadequate State funding, declining enrollment and increasing operative costs led to the Board’s decision. The school closures will save the San Francisco Unified School District roughly $2.4 million dollars, a mere dent in the growing budget deficit which could well surpass the initial budget gap of $15 million dollars. “Board of educations long range plan, its absolutely myopic,” said district 5 supervisor Ross Mirkarimi “money is not meant for the elite few, it is needed for the schools”. Ross Mirkarimi has proposed a legislation that will give SFUSD $5.3 million advance from Prop H funds, one-third of the money is meant to be used for discretionary funding, which many believe are emergency funds that can be used to avert the school closure . Majority of the Board members are against the use of Prop H funds, according to Vice President of SFUSD, Sarah Lipson the Prop H funds are only meant to be used to improve school programs and are not meant for restructuring.
The School Board believes that using the Prop H money alone will not solve the SFUSD problem; the San Francisco school district has seen a steady decline in the enrollment over a number of years. Many of the students have been lost to private schools, rising living costs have forced families to move out of San Francisco and look for cheaper avenues. “We are losing students to private schools,” said Joan Livingston, a concerned parent “thirty percent of school age children are in private schools, we must support the resolution to halt the process for now”. Even with declining enrollment the number of schools operating in the city have remained the same since 1986, SFUSD believes that with growing employee salary and healthcare costs they have to bring the school system in line with the current situation. Majority of the children that will be affected by the closure or relocation belong to low income families and minorities, this adds another dimension to an already complex problem. “School closures have fallen disproportionately on the backs of Latino and African American kids” remarked Supervisor Sanchez, an active board member; similar concerns were raised by parents at the meeting. According to SFUSD this might not be the end of this, they might have to close or consolidate more schools if adequate funding is not obtained from the state and the local governments. There are other districts like Richmond and Oakland which might close and merge schools. Similar problems have plagued these school districts, both are dealing with dwindling enrollment and inadequate state funding.

askjeeves existed even before the commercialization of search engines and now the company it was bought over by is trying to change the name from askjeeves to ask.com. The reason the search engine has such loyal following despite the overated google mania is because of jeeves.
Any body who really cares about keeping the beloved butler pls visit this website.
www.savejeeves.blogspot.com and support the cause

Yesterdays match between Agassi and Blake only renforces the fact that you can do anything you set your mind to and age is as meangingless and restrictive as our idea of space and time. Agassi, 35 yrs old two sets down, third set a break down, comes back (in my books one of the best come backs)to take the third and the fourth set and wins the fifth in a tie break and this is a game where at 35 you are already considered an old dinosaur that's ready go extinct. Agassi has proved beyond doubt that if you have the will and the mental tougness you can overcome any physical hurdles.
I hope he beats Federer and wins the US open. GO AGASSI!!!!!

I have turned into a incureable insomniac, its 5 in the morning and i still can't sleep, this anomaly has given me a chance to go back and catch on some of my non scientific reading that i have been ignoring of late. This has given me a chnace for intropection, as Krishnamurthy would say: Creative thinking.
All of us seem to be stuck in a rut, according to K it is due to the imitative thinking, to understand ourselves we need to shut ourselves from the external propoganda that so surrounds us, this is the only way to discover our truth. Change has to begin inwards, it has to start wih our minds, the world can only be moved from the rut if there is deeper psychological change.
My grandfather once told me: we all owe the world we live in, world does'nt owe us. ..

Another interesting article in The New York Times

OPINION July 15, 2005 Op-Ed Contributor: All Rock, No Action By JEAN-CLAUDE SHANDA TONME Live 8 was an insult to Africans and to common sense.

THIS IS A GREAT ARTICLE I READ IN BANGKOK POST ON RELIGION AND SAME SEX MARRIAGE.
HERE IS THE ARTICLE


Will gay marriage be allowed by Buddhists in Thailand?
By METTANANDO BHIKKHU
The endorsement by the Spanish parliament of same-sex marriage has turned Spain into the third country in the European Union that recognises the rights of homosexual couples, after the Netherlands and Belgium.Canada will soon be the fourth country in the world to adopt the same law. Despite strong protests by the Catholic Church, most likely the legalisation of same-sex marriage will domino in Europe and could easily spread to Asia.In a Buddhist culture like Thailand, many Thai people are pondering whether the law could be applied in the country as Theravada Buddhism, the most orthodox form of the religion, has put down deep roots here.Soon there will be lobbies and campaigns in support of the same law in Thailand. Is there any objection of the Buddha against same-sex marriage?The answer to the question is ''No.''There is no objection of the Buddha found in the Tipitaka. To be precise, the Buddha was neither supportive nor against marriage between members of the same gender.This is not because Buddhism is naive about homosexuality. In fact, in the first book of the monastic code, the Vinaya, in the Buddhist Pali canon, there are hundreds of references to sexual relationship and most forms of deviant sexual practices, as appeared in Indian society over 2,500 years ago.Many of the cases often raise the eyebrows of psychologists and psychiatrists, such as bestiality (sex between a man and an animal), necrophilism (sex between a man and a corpse), paedophilia, etc.These cases reveal that Buddhism had spread far and wide into Indian society, and all these problems were unearthed to the growing Buddhist community.Also, from the Tipitaka, it is clear that the Buddha acknowledged the difference between hermaphrodites and homosexual practitioners. Hermaphrodites and eunuchs are not allowed to be ordained, but there is no sanction against homosexuality.Of course, there was a case of a gay monk who was overcome by sexual desire and could no longer restrain himself. He was seducing his friends and novices to have sex with him. They rejected him so he left the monastery and had sex with men who were elephant keepers and horse keepers. When news spread around the entire Buddhist community that he was homosexual, the Buddha was alerted to the problem and he issued a rule for the community not to give any ordination to a homosexual, and those ordained gays are to be expelled. (Vin.I, 86).The Buddha was more tolerant of lesbianism than male homosexuality. Nuns who were caught in lesbian practices were not expelled from the order. They must confess to the fellows about their practice, and then the offence will be redeemed. (Vin. IV, 261)The monastic rules do not guarantee Buddhist monasticism is entirely free from homosexuals. Indeed, they only say that monks and nuns are required to live a celibate life. Often in history, the monastic community has been plagued by homosexual scandals.In Thailand, the worst such scandal took place in 1819, during the reign of King Rama II, when a high-ranking monk, a Somdet who was also the abbot of Wat Saket who had just been promoted to take the position of the Supreme Patriarch, one day was found guilty of enjoying homosexual activities with some of his good-looking male disciples.It was a shock to all Buddhists of the time, and the case was considered the scandal of the century of Buddhism in Siam.Interestingly, the graveness of the mistake was not severe enough to defrock him, although the King had him removed him from his position of honour and ordered him to leave the royal monasteries.As for the lay homosexual people, the Buddha gave no rule or advice as to whether they should be allowed to marry or not. The Buddha posted himself simply as the one who shows the way. He did not insist that he had any right to enforce on others what they should do. With this principle, the original teachings of the Buddha do not cover social ceremonies or rituals. Weddings and marriages of all kinds are regarded as mundane and have no place in Buddhism.The principle of universal compassion does not allow Buddhists to judge other people based on the nature of what they are, which practice is considered discrimination.Unlike Christianity, where gender is a part of God's creation, Buddhists see genderisation as a sign of decay. In the Buddhist version of the Genesis, Agga-asutta (also known as the Aphorism on the Knowledge of the Beginning), male and female genders were a part of the fall. Originally, the primordial ancestors of humans were self-luminous, mind-born and sexless. So the mind is supreme and sexless, which is consistent with the higher form of existence. The most important principle to derive from that is there is no superiority of one gender over the other. The first sin among them which perpetuated the fall was the prejudice of appearance, when those of brighter skin looked down on those with darker skin.Based on this principle, homosexual people should not be discriminated against; they are humans who deserve all the rights and dignity endowed upon them as members of human race.This does not mean that Thai Buddhists are supportive of gay rights and homosexual marriage, or that liberal activists will be successful in their social campaign. Human rights issues have always received poor attention in Theravada countries, as the culture is rooted in the belief in the Law of Karma, which is more popular among Thai Buddhists than philosophical and advanced scriptural studies in Buddhism.Many monasteries and monks advocate their lay followers to see the world through the lens of karma, i.e., every person is born to pay back their sins. According to their explanations, all homosexuals and sexual deviants were once offenders of the Third Precept (prohibiting sexual misconduct) _ at least in their past lives, and they must pay off their past sins in their present life. Therefore, they deserve all that society gives to them. This belief system creates strong conservative values in Theravada Buddhist culture. For these reasons, it is unlikely that Buddhists will easily approve a law to allow gay marriage. Gay and lesbian activists in Thailand will not be as successful as their fellows in European countries or Canada.Mettanando Bhikko qualified as a physician before he ordained as a Buddhist monk. He holds an MD from Chulalongkorn University, an MA from Oxford, a ThM from Harvard and PhD from Hamburg.

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i was recently in Thailand, we stayed there for two weeks, spent a little time in Banglamphu, the backpacking farang central of Bangkok city. From there we took a bus to Phuket(highly recommend it, eventhough it took us 12 hours to get to phuket). First stayed at Phuket town at the infamous On on hotel, this is one of the oldest buidings intown, built in 1920's, then moved to karon for a few days and from there to Patong beach. In between visited Phang Nga and Koh Phi phi don and ley. I know its hard to beleive but we did this all in 2 weeks!!!.
The above account sounds really routinsque and boring but you should have been there to see what i saw. I saw a country so beautiful and heartbreaking it would leave me speecheles and some times teary eyed. . .In all its perversions and digressions Thailand for me stands out as a country where there is a certain amount of tolerance for the so called socially deviant.
When you tavel there dont be ignorant nonchalant faranag, get rid of the supefluous facade (sadly guides most tourists in these countries) ,and maybe you will get to the deph of this place.

Maya island near the famous koh phi Phi island in Thailand 

A picture i took during my recent visit to Thailand. This a picture of a 200 year old muslim village called Ko Panyi near Phang-Nga(pronounced as: phg ahhhhhh)