I want a pet elephant...

I have been on an animal kick lately...and have decided that I must go to Borneo and find a baby pygmy elephant to bring home and keep in my backyard....

Something to Cheer Us Up...

Currently very stressed, but still finding time to watch Animal Planet in order to remain sane. One of my favorite shows is about a island of Orangutans (I probably did not spell that correctly) which have been rescued from poachers as babies and are going to "school" to learn how to survive in the jungle without their families. The "tangs" are all grown up, but here are some pictures from when they were little "tangs," and they should make you smile...

"You and I Are Disappearing"

A poem by Yusef Komunyakaa from his book "Neon Vernacular." I am using part of it in a paper I am writing and thought I would share it with the rest of the world. It is beautiful, haunting, terrible, sad, the list goes on...

"The cry I bring down from the hills

belongs to a girl still burning

inside my head. At daybreak

she burns like a piece of paper.

She burns like foxfire

in a thigh-shaped valley.

A skirt of flames

dances around her

at dusk.

We stand with our hands

hanging at our sides,

while she burns

like a sack of dry ice.

She burns like oil on water.

She burns like a cattail torch

dipped in gasoline.

She glows like the fat tip

of a banker's cigar,

silent as quicksilver,

A tiger under a rainbow

at nightfall.

She burns like a shot glass of vodka.

She burns like a field of poppies

at the edge of a rain forest.

She rises like dragonsmoke

to my nostrils.

She burns like a burning bush

driven by a godawful wind."

Today...

Today someone asked me

if I had prayed.

I prayed

in silent hope and despair

for Darfur and its blood torn skies

for Juarez and its valley of dry bones

for Afghanistan and its empty ice cream parlours

for Guantanamo Bay and the rusty skeletons of justice

for Tibet and Burma and the persecuted in Vietnam

for Argentina and the bloody coat hangers of the barrios

for the United States and its borders of barbwire and metal factories

for the Earth and her ailments

I prayed

for change.

(EC)

ABSOLUT-LY!

Check this article out....once again Americans (a generalization....of course) can only be defensive about a history they don't know or would like to forget. God forbid, we ever take responsibility for some of the crappy things we have done to other countries/people (and "crappy" is a nice word for a lot of very "not nice" things)....

Absolut vodka pulls ad showing California in Mexico

Mon Apr 7, 9:36 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The distillers of Sweden's Absolut vodka have withdrawn an advertisement run in Mexico that angered many U.S. citizens by idealizing an early 19th century map showing chunks of the United States as Mexican.
The billboard ad has the slogan "In an Absolut World" slapped over a pre-1848 map showing California, Arizona and other U.S. states as Mexican territory. Those states were carved out of what had been Mexican lands until that year.
Although it was not shown in the United States, U.S. media outlets picked up on the ad, and after a barrage of complaints, Absolut's maker said on Sunday the ad campaign would cease.
Defending the campaign last week, Absolut maker Vin & Spirit said the ad was created "with a Mexican sensibility" and was not meant for the U.S. market.
"In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," a spokeswoman wrote on Absolut's Web site.
"Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal," she wrote.
Absolut's blog cite has received more than a thousand comments since the ad campaign was launched a few weeks ago, with many calling for boycotts of the Swedish company.
"I have poured the remainder of my Absolut bottles down the sink," one blogger wrote.
A war between Mexico and the United States from 1846 to 1848 started with Mexico's refusal to recognize the U.S. annexation of Texas and ended with the occupation of Mexico City by U.S. troops.
At the end, Mexico ceded nearly half of its territory to the United States, forming the states of California, Nevada, Utah and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.
Mexicans remain sensitive about the loss and the location of the border. At the same time, the United States is fortifying barriers to keep out undocumented Mexican migrants.
Some Mexicans use the term "Reconquista" (reconquest) to refer to the growing presence in California of Mexican migrants and their descendants.
France's Pernod Ricard is taking over Absolut vodka, one of the world's top-selling spirit brands, after buying Vin & Spirit from the Swedish government at the end of March.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich, editing by Philip Barbara)

Check it Out

Check out GLOBAL COMMENT...www.globalcomment.com.

It has fabulous articles and even one of my poems is featured right now.