We human beings are subject to the same set of physical & natural laws as the rest of the world, & due to our gift of consciousness (self awareness) & the ability to choose our actions (choice and free will), we are further subject to these laws on a deeper, spiritual level. Inactivity of the body yields obvious results; atrophy, obesity etc. So do we become stagnant of mind & spirit through mental & spiritual inactivity. That's the reason why we need time for thinking & reflection, time for contemplation & devotion.
"We must be aware that nothing in this world holds stasis, but is constantly in motion, either growing or disintegrating. The mind and spirit are not excluded from these Laws. We must activate our mind and spirit to paint our dreams in vibrant color through visualisation and conversation, embellish your desires with fragrances, music or any image that would enhance those dreams. There is no such thing as over dreaming so long as you are continuing to follow through with intelligent plans and physical action. Manifest your dreams through activity of the mind, spirit and body and you will experience an abundance beyond belief."
- John Kanary
"Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen, even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind."
-Leonardo Da Vinci
King of the Birds, Lord of the Skies
Gather ye rose buds while ye may, old time is still a flying;
and this same rose that you see today, tomorrow will be dying.
CarpeDiem: Seize the Day!
- Dead Poets Society
Monday, April 30, 2007
The AK-47 Submachine Gun
The AK-47 (Автомат Калашникова образца 1947 года, Avtomat Kalashnikova 1947; English: Kalashnikov's assault rifle, model of the year 1947) is a gas-operated assault rifle that was used in many Eastern bloc nations during the Cold War. Adopted & standardized in 1947, it was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov & produced by Russian manufacturer Izhevsk Mechanical Works. Compared with the auto-loading rifles used in World War II, the AK-47 was generally more compact, with a shorter range, a smaller 7.62 × 39 mm cartridge, & was capable of selective fire. It was one of the first true assault rifles and remains the most widely used and known. More AK-47 rifles have been produced than any other assault rifle; production continues to this day.
Mikhail Kalashnikov began imagining his weapon while still in the hospital, after being wounded in the Battle of Bryansk. He had been informed that a new weapon was required for the 7.62 x 41mm cartridge developed by Elisarov and Semin in 1943. The genius in the design of the Kalashnikov rifle is in the simplification of those contributing designs & adaptation to mass production. The AK-47 can be seen as a fusion of the best that the M1 Garand offered combined with the best aspects of the StG44 made by the best processes was in the recombination of known elements into a compact, reliable & durable package.
Throughout the world, the AK-47 is among the plethora of commonly smuggled small arms that are sold to governments, rebels, criminals & civilians alike, with little international oversight. This trade ensures a ready supply of inexpensive weapons to a number of conflicts, including the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, & Somalia. In some countries that are recovering from war or that are at war, prices for AKs are very low, between $30–$125. After the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan, the Soviet Army left huge bulks of weapons including AK-47s which were used in its civil war between Taliban and Northern Alliance. Now, it is used a lot by tribes in Africa.
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During the Cold War, the Soviet Union, Communist China & the US supplied arms & technical knowledge to numerous client-state countries & rebel forces to promote their interests. This period saw the proliferation, sometimes free of charge, of AK-47s by the Soviet Union & Communist China to pro-communist countries and groups such as the Nicaraguan Sandinistas and Vietcong. The AK-47 design was spread to a total of 55 national armies.
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In the U.S., movie makers often arm criminals, gang members and terrorist characters with AK-47s. However, not all influences of the AK-47 have been violent. In 2006, Colombian musician & peace activist César López devised the escopetarra, an AK-47 converted into a guitar. One sold for US$17,000 in a fundraiser held to benefit the victims of anti-personnel mines, while another was exhibited at the United Nations' Conference on Disarmament.
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(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
United States Arms Trade
The U.S. is by far the largest exporter of weapons in the world, with a sales volume that exceeds the next 14 countries combined! Military sales equate to about 18 percent of the Federal budget, far & away the greatest proportion of any nation. John Ralston Saul states that the American government cannot reduce arms sales because of the consequent fall in GDP. (See John Ralston Saul's The Collapse of Globalism, 2005)
U.S. arms are sold either as Foreign Military Sales (FMS), in which The Pentagon is an intermediate negotiator, or as Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), where a company directly negotiates with its buyer. Many sales require a license from the State Department. The Defense Department manages the Excess Defense Articles (EDA), weapons from the US military given away or sold at bargain prices, emergency drawdowns, assistance provided at the discretion of the President, and International Military Education and Training (IMET).
From 1989 to 1996, the global value of DCS was US$257 billion, of which 45% was exported from the US. According to the 2005 annual US congress reports, 58% of all US arms trade contracts are made with developing countries. The most recent World Policy Report, an annual update issued by the Arms Trade Research Center, a more detailed breakdown of US military spending is offered.
In it, it was stated that "In 2003, the US transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in active conflicts. From Angola, Chad & Ethiopia, to Colombia, Pakistan and the Philippines, transfers through the two largest U.S. arms sales programs (Foreign Military Sales & Direct Commercial Sales) to these conflict nations totaled nearly $1 billion in 2003, with the vast bulk of the dollar volume going to Israel ($845.6 million).
In 2003, more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world were defined as undemocratic by the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report: in the sense that "citizens do not have the right to change their own government" or that right was seriously abridged. These nations received over $2.7 billion in U.S. arms transfers under the FMS & DCS programs in 2003, with the top recipients including Saudi Arabia ($1.1 billion), Egypt ($1.0 billion), Kuwait ($153 million), the UAE ($110 million) & Uzbekistan ($33 million)."
In fiscal year 2002, $70 million USD was spent on International Military Education & Training (IMET) for 113 countries. During this same year, $46 million worth of drawdowns were provided to Nigeria ($4 million), Afghanistan ($2 million), Georgia ($25 million), the Philippines ($10 million) & Tunisia ($5 million).
Defense contractors are weapon manufacturers or companies participating in weapon research & warfare simulation. A list of major weapon manufacturers are given below:
AAI Corporation
BAE Systems Inc.
Boeing
Carlyle Group
Colt's Manufacturing Company
General Atomics
General Electric
General Dynamics
Honeywell
Lockheed-Martin
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Raytheon Corporation
United Defense (now BAE Systems Land and Armaments)
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
U.S. arms are sold either as Foreign Military Sales (FMS), in which The Pentagon is an intermediate negotiator, or as Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), where a company directly negotiates with its buyer. Many sales require a license from the State Department. The Defense Department manages the Excess Defense Articles (EDA), weapons from the US military given away or sold at bargain prices, emergency drawdowns, assistance provided at the discretion of the President, and International Military Education and Training (IMET).
From 1989 to 1996, the global value of DCS was US$257 billion, of which 45% was exported from the US. According to the 2005 annual US congress reports, 58% of all US arms trade contracts are made with developing countries. The most recent World Policy Report, an annual update issued by the Arms Trade Research Center, a more detailed breakdown of US military spending is offered.
In it, it was stated that "In 2003, the US transferred weaponry to 18 of the 25 countries involved in active conflicts. From Angola, Chad & Ethiopia, to Colombia, Pakistan and the Philippines, transfers through the two largest U.S. arms sales programs (Foreign Military Sales & Direct Commercial Sales) to these conflict nations totaled nearly $1 billion in 2003, with the vast bulk of the dollar volume going to Israel ($845.6 million).
In 2003, more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world were defined as undemocratic by the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report: in the sense that "citizens do not have the right to change their own government" or that right was seriously abridged. These nations received over $2.7 billion in U.S. arms transfers under the FMS & DCS programs in 2003, with the top recipients including Saudi Arabia ($1.1 billion), Egypt ($1.0 billion), Kuwait ($153 million), the UAE ($110 million) & Uzbekistan ($33 million)."
In fiscal year 2002, $70 million USD was spent on International Military Education & Training (IMET) for 113 countries. During this same year, $46 million worth of drawdowns were provided to Nigeria ($4 million), Afghanistan ($2 million), Georgia ($25 million), the Philippines ($10 million) & Tunisia ($5 million).
Defense contractors are weapon manufacturers or companies participating in weapon research & warfare simulation. A list of major weapon manufacturers are given below:
AAI Corporation
BAE Systems Inc.
Boeing
Carlyle Group
Colt's Manufacturing Company
General Atomics
General Electric
General Dynamics
Honeywell
Lockheed-Martin
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Raytheon Corporation
United Defense (now BAE Systems Land and Armaments)
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Movie Review: Lord of War
Lord of War is a 2005 film written & directed by Andrew Niccol & starring Nicolas Cage. I chanced upon this movie on HBO and decided to research more. Cage plays the antiheroic protagonist, an illegal arms dealer with a striking similarity to real life Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Plot: Illegal Arms Dealing, & Lies
Place: U.S.; Russia; Africa
People: Yuri Orlov (Arms-Dealer), Jack Valentine (Interpol)
Punchline 1: Where there's a will, there's a weapon.
Punchline 2: He sells guns... & he's making a killing.
The movie begins with Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) standing in a sea of spent shell casings (empty bullet) matter-of-factly stating, "There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do you arm the other eleven?" The opening credits follow the life of a bullet: from a munitions assembly line in Ukraine, to various arms dealing intermediaries, & ending in the head of a small African boy.
The rest of the movie is told in flashback, starting in the 1980s & ending in the completion of the opening scene.
Yuri Orlov describes how he first became an arms dealer. Yuri & his family came to U.S. from Ukraine when he was a young boy. His family owns a restaurant. After Yuri sees a Russian Mafia boss kill his two would-be assassins, he decides to provide another necessity: guns. He partners up with his brother, Vitaly (Jared Leto), & begins selling arms. Yuri keeps his multiple identities & paperwork in a security container. He starts small & begins selling Israeli Uzis & M-16 rifles that the US Army left behind from the 1982 Lebanon War.
As he grows, Yuri tells of his first incident with Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), an Interpol agent who cannot be bought with money. During his latest business deal with a Bolivian drug lord, Yuri is paid in cocaine instead of cash. Vitaly is unsure of what to do next & asks Yuri what to do. Yuri answers by saying "let's celebrate." They both end up snorting cocaine, but Vitaly becomes addicted, & Yuri takes him to a rehabilitation center.
From then on, Yuri conducts the arms business alone. Shortly after this episode, he begins to court Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), a successful model who came from the same neighborhood. They marry, move into Manhattan and later have a son.
Yuri gets his big break when the Soviet Union dissolves. Yuri rushes to Russia after watching Gorbachev's Christmas Day 1991 resignation speech on television. He contacts his uncle, Dimitri, a general of the former Red Army, & begins buying Dimitri's tanks and AK-47s to expand his inventory. Shortly after this, Yuri moves on to selling arms to the West African dictator of Liberia, André Baptiste. Baptiste, pleased with the relationship, proclaims that Yuri is a "Lord of War".
Meanwhile, Jack continues his pursuit of Yuri. He discovers that Yuri will soon be making a cargo run to Sierra Leone & intercepts Yuri's cargo plane. Yuri instructs the pilot to land the plane on a dirt road. To destroy the evidence, he gives the entire arms shipment away to passers-by. When Jack finally arrives, the plane is empty, & there is no evidence of the arms shipment.
One day Jack reveals to Ava that Yuri is an arms dealer. At first, she does not believe him, but eventually realizes the truth. Ava confronts him about his business; he promises that he will stop. He makes more legal deals to exploit the resources of poor nations, but complains that the margins are low & competition is high. Six months later, Baptiste & his son come over & visit Yuri (on their way to United Nations headquarters for a peace talk) with another arms deal offer. Yuri initially refuses, but when Baptiste indicates that he will be much more generous than usual, Yuri relents.
He takes Vitaly along to the deal, which turns out to be in Sierra Leone. However, during the deal, Vitaly becomes distressed: he sees men kill a mother & child in a nearby village of unarmed civilians. He pleads with Yuri to cancel the shipment. Yuri tries to convince him that someone else will sell the weapons if they do not; he also argues that both of them will be killed if they try to cancel the deal. Vitaly pretends to agree. However, he takes two grenades, destroys half of Yuri's shipments, and kills Baptiste's son before nearby guards kill him. Yuri only receives half of the payment due to the destruction of the weapons. He then delivers one of the film's most memorable lines, "They say that 'evil prevails when good men fail to act.' They ought to say 'evil prevails.'"
Yuri ships his brother's remains back to the U.S.. He pays someone to remove the bullets from Vitaly's body & forge a death certificate, but one bullet remains, & Yuri is stopped by customs. Meanwhile, while being followed by Jack, Ava finds Yuri's security container, finally establishing the definitive proof of Yuri's guilt. Ava takes their son & leaves him. When Yuri calls his parents, his mother says, "Both my sons are dead."
Jack detains Yuri & tell tells him that he has a long jail sentence ahead of him, but Yuri abruptly brings him back to reality. He then proclaims himself as a "necessary evil," as he does transactions that the United States federal government is afraid to do. Yuri also explains that the U.S sells more guns than he does & that a trial would reveal these embarassing truths. Yuri is released as a result.
A free man again, & without his family and friends, he returns to selling arms without guilt. The movie ends by proclaiming on-screen that it is "based on actual events" and that, while arms traders like Yuri Orlov continue to thrive, the U.S., the UK, France, Russia and China (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) are the world's leading arms dealers.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Plot: Illegal Arms Dealing, & Lies
Place: U.S.; Russia; Africa
People: Yuri Orlov (Arms-Dealer), Jack Valentine (Interpol)
Punchline 1: Where there's a will, there's a weapon.
Punchline 2: He sells guns... & he's making a killing.
The movie begins with Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) standing in a sea of spent shell casings (empty bullet) matter-of-factly stating, "There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do you arm the other eleven?" The opening credits follow the life of a bullet: from a munitions assembly line in Ukraine, to various arms dealing intermediaries, & ending in the head of a small African boy.
The rest of the movie is told in flashback, starting in the 1980s & ending in the completion of the opening scene.
Yuri Orlov describes how he first became an arms dealer. Yuri & his family came to U.S. from Ukraine when he was a young boy. His family owns a restaurant. After Yuri sees a Russian Mafia boss kill his two would-be assassins, he decides to provide another necessity: guns. He partners up with his brother, Vitaly (Jared Leto), & begins selling arms. Yuri keeps his multiple identities & paperwork in a security container. He starts small & begins selling Israeli Uzis & M-16 rifles that the US Army left behind from the 1982 Lebanon War.
As he grows, Yuri tells of his first incident with Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke), an Interpol agent who cannot be bought with money. During his latest business deal with a Bolivian drug lord, Yuri is paid in cocaine instead of cash. Vitaly is unsure of what to do next & asks Yuri what to do. Yuri answers by saying "let's celebrate." They both end up snorting cocaine, but Vitaly becomes addicted, & Yuri takes him to a rehabilitation center.
From then on, Yuri conducts the arms business alone. Shortly after this episode, he begins to court Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan), a successful model who came from the same neighborhood. They marry, move into Manhattan and later have a son.
Yuri gets his big break when the Soviet Union dissolves. Yuri rushes to Russia after watching Gorbachev's Christmas Day 1991 resignation speech on television. He contacts his uncle, Dimitri, a general of the former Red Army, & begins buying Dimitri's tanks and AK-47s to expand his inventory. Shortly after this, Yuri moves on to selling arms to the West African dictator of Liberia, André Baptiste. Baptiste, pleased with the relationship, proclaims that Yuri is a "Lord of War".
Meanwhile, Jack continues his pursuit of Yuri. He discovers that Yuri will soon be making a cargo run to Sierra Leone & intercepts Yuri's cargo plane. Yuri instructs the pilot to land the plane on a dirt road. To destroy the evidence, he gives the entire arms shipment away to passers-by. When Jack finally arrives, the plane is empty, & there is no evidence of the arms shipment.
One day Jack reveals to Ava that Yuri is an arms dealer. At first, she does not believe him, but eventually realizes the truth. Ava confronts him about his business; he promises that he will stop. He makes more legal deals to exploit the resources of poor nations, but complains that the margins are low & competition is high. Six months later, Baptiste & his son come over & visit Yuri (on their way to United Nations headquarters for a peace talk) with another arms deal offer. Yuri initially refuses, but when Baptiste indicates that he will be much more generous than usual, Yuri relents.
He takes Vitaly along to the deal, which turns out to be in Sierra Leone. However, during the deal, Vitaly becomes distressed: he sees men kill a mother & child in a nearby village of unarmed civilians. He pleads with Yuri to cancel the shipment. Yuri tries to convince him that someone else will sell the weapons if they do not; he also argues that both of them will be killed if they try to cancel the deal. Vitaly pretends to agree. However, he takes two grenades, destroys half of Yuri's shipments, and kills Baptiste's son before nearby guards kill him. Yuri only receives half of the payment due to the destruction of the weapons. He then delivers one of the film's most memorable lines, "They say that 'evil prevails when good men fail to act.' They ought to say 'evil prevails.'"
Yuri ships his brother's remains back to the U.S.. He pays someone to remove the bullets from Vitaly's body & forge a death certificate, but one bullet remains, & Yuri is stopped by customs. Meanwhile, while being followed by Jack, Ava finds Yuri's security container, finally establishing the definitive proof of Yuri's guilt. Ava takes their son & leaves him. When Yuri calls his parents, his mother says, "Both my sons are dead."
Jack detains Yuri & tell tells him that he has a long jail sentence ahead of him, but Yuri abruptly brings him back to reality. He then proclaims himself as a "necessary evil," as he does transactions that the United States federal government is afraid to do. Yuri also explains that the U.S sells more guns than he does & that a trial would reveal these embarassing truths. Yuri is released as a result.
A free man again, & without his family and friends, he returns to selling arms without guilt. The movie ends by proclaiming on-screen that it is "based on actual events" and that, while arms traders like Yuri Orlov continue to thrive, the U.S., the UK, France, Russia and China (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) are the world's leading arms dealers.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Desire - Key to Energy
“The key that unlocks energy is desire. It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited”
- Earl Nightingale
- Earl Nightingale
Christian Bear
A country preacher decided to skip services one Sunday to spend the day hiking in the wilderness. Rounding a sharp bend in the trail, he collided with a bear and was sent tumbling down a steep grade. He landed on a rock and broke both legs. With the ferocious bear charging at him from a distance, the preacher prayed, "O Lord, I'm so sorry for skipping services today. Please forgive me and grant me just one wish - make a Christian out of that bear that's coming at me!"
At that very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to his knees, clasped his paws together, and began to pray aloud at the preacher's feet: "Dear God, please bless this food I am about to receive."
At that very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to his knees, clasped his paws together, and began to pray aloud at the preacher's feet: "Dear God, please bless this food I am about to receive."
Peanuts Anyone?
A preacher visits an elderly woman from his congregation. As he sits on the couch he notices a large bowl of peanuts on the coffee table. "Mind if I have a few?" he asks.
"No, not at all!" the woman replied.
They chat for an hour and as the preacher stands to leave, he realizes that instead of eating just a few peanuts, he emptied most of the bowl.
"I'm terribly sorry for eating all your peanuts, I really just meant to eat a few."
"Oh, that's all right," the woman says.
"Ever since I lost my teeth all I can do is suck the chocolate off them."
"No, not at all!" the woman replied.
They chat for an hour and as the preacher stands to leave, he realizes that instead of eating just a few peanuts, he emptied most of the bowl.
"I'm terribly sorry for eating all your peanuts, I really just meant to eat a few."
"Oh, that's all right," the woman says.
"Ever since I lost my teeth all I can do is suck the chocolate off them."
A Series of Reflections Leading to Mother's Day IV
GROWING OLD & GRAY
When you were 30, she called with some advice on the baby.
You thanked her by telling her, "Things are different now."
When you were 40, she called to remind you of an relative's birthday.
You thanked her by saying you were "really busy right now."
When you were 50, she fell ill and needed you to take care of her.
You thanked her by reading about the burden parents become to their children.
And then... and then, one day, she quietly died.... And everything you never did came crashing down like thunder.
"The hand who rocks the cradle...may rock the world".
Let us take a moment of the time just to pay tribute & show appreciation to the person called MOM though some may not say it openly to their mother. There's no substitute for her. Cherished every single moment. Though at times she may not be the best of friends, may not agree to our thoughts, she is still your mother! She will be there for you...to listen to your woes, your braggings, your frustations, etc.
Ask yourself:
Have you put aside enough time for her, to listen to her "blues" of working in the kitchen, her tiredness? Be tactful, loving and still show her due respect though you may have a different view from hers. Once gone, only fond memories of the past and also regrets will be left.
When you were 30, she called with some advice on the baby.
You thanked her by telling her, "Things are different now."
When you were 40, she called to remind you of an relative's birthday.
You thanked her by saying you were "really busy right now."
When you were 50, she fell ill and needed you to take care of her.
You thanked her by reading about the burden parents become to their children.
And then... and then, one day, she quietly died.... And everything you never did came crashing down like thunder.
"The hand who rocks the cradle...may rock the world".
Let us take a moment of the time just to pay tribute & show appreciation to the person called MOM though some may not say it openly to their mother. There's no substitute for her. Cherished every single moment. Though at times she may not be the best of friends, may not agree to our thoughts, she is still your mother! She will be there for you...to listen to your woes, your braggings, your frustations, etc.
Ask yourself:
Have you put aside enough time for her, to listen to her "blues" of working in the kitchen, her tiredness? Be tactful, loving and still show her due respect though you may have a different view from hers. Once gone, only fond memories of the past and also regrets will be left.
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