some Buddhist wisdom

"Suppose a goldsmith takes his tongs and puts some gold into the furnace to melt it. If he blows on the heat too much, it will get too hot, but if he sprinkles too much water, it will cool down. If he constantly takes it out and looks at it, it will not reach refinement. But if he does all these things from time to time, aware of the nature of gold, it will become easily molded and bright. In the same way, there are three qualities that a practitioner should pay attention to--concentration, determination, and equanimity. If he[/she] pays the right attention to these at the right time, then his [/her] mind will become like gold, pliant and brilliant and pure. "

-Anguttara Nikaya

Japanese PM apologises over war
Koizumi hopes to meet China's President Hu at the summit
(from BBC News)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has reiterated his country's "deep remorse" over its colonial aggression in Asia.

The speech at the Asia-Africa summit comes amid tensions over the approval by Tokyo of school textbooks which China says gloss over Japan's record.

Mr Koizumi later said he hoped to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday - although Beijing has yet to agree.

Leaders from 80 nations are attending the two-day summit in Indonesia.

The annual Asia-Africa summit has increasingly been dominated by global trade issues.
But the escalating row between China and Japan threatens to overshadow all other considerations.

Addressing delegates, Mr Koizumi said: "In the past Japan through its colonial rule and aggression caused tremendous damage and suffering for the people of many countries, particularly those of Asian nations. Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility."

The wording repeats previous Japanese apologies - but analysts say the international setting gives the statement added weight.

Asked by reporters if he would hold talks with President Hu, Mr Koizumi said he was hoping for a meeting on Saturday.

The BBC's Tim Johnston in Jakarta says the apology should go some way to placating Chinese anger, which was recently reignited by a history textbook that the Chinese felt paid insufficient attention to atrocities.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan welcomed Mr Koizumi's words, but said that Japan had to do more to "face up to history".

"That President Koizumi expressed this attitude in this arena is welcome. We welcome it," Mr Kong told reporters.

"But to express it is one aspect. What's of much more importance is the action. You have to make it a reality."

Separately, China protested over Friday's visit by Japanese lawmakers to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. The shrine honours the Japanese who died during World War II, including a number of war criminals.

"As Sino-Japanese relations are facing a serious situation, we express our strong dissatisfaction over the negative actions of some Japanese politicians who ignore the larger interests," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.


In his speech, Mr Koizumi also repeated Japan's call for an overhaul of the UN Security Council and underscored Tokyo's qualifications as a potential permanent member.

"The United Nations, particularly the Security Council, needs to be reformed, so that the organisation reflects the realities of today's world."

The Japanese leader emphasised Tokyo's past contributions to development aid and repeated its commitment to increase them.

Japan's campaign for a permanent seat on the Security Council has been one of the factors fuelling the recent anti-Japanese protests in Chinese cities.


This Asia-Africa summit has special significance since it marks the 50th anniversary of the Bandung Conference - the first summit of Third World nations, in the shadow of the Cold War.
The summit intends to make a declaration of a strategic partnership to increase trade and investment as well as emphasise the importance of multilateral efforts in solving conflicts.

Developments so far have included:

The highest level meeting between North and South Korean leaders for five years on the summit's sidelines. North Korean deputy Kim Yong-nam and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan met for 10 minutes, Yonhap news agency reported.

A pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to double Japan's aid to Africa to $1.6bn over the next three years.

A statement by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that corruption threatened the development of Asia and Africa as much as war, HIV/Aids, and poverty.

The first high-level meeting between India and Nepal since King Gyanendra became Nepal's monarch. Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh told the King to lift a state of emergency and free detainees held after his February coup.

Mr Yudhoyono said those taking part in the summit would make up for five decades of lost opportunities by establishing a new strategic partnership between Africa and Asia.

"Asia -Africa is the missing link in the worldwide structure of interregional relations," he said in his opening remarks.

The meeting is being attended by a number of African presidents and prime ministers, including President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, as well as the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Mounties To Escort Married Gay Couple To Philadelphia
by Jan Prout 365Gay.com Toronto Bureau
Posted: April 21, 2005 12:01 am ET

(Toronto, Ontario) The Mounties always get their man - in this case two men.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police honor guard, usually reserved for heads of state, will accompany a gay married couple from Toronto to Philadelphia this summer.

Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell will be honored at a GLBT civil rights event in Philadelphia on Sunday, May 1.

Bourassa and Varnell were the first gay couple to be legally married in North America. (story)
Two RCMP officers will accompany them to symbolize Canada's commitment to same-sex couples.

The trip will be a far cry from one Bourassa and Varnell attempted to make shortly after their marriage in 2003. The couple was turned back by US Customs and Immigration officers when they attempted to board a flight from Toronto to Georgia. (story)

US Customs and Immigration pre-check people traveling to the US at most major Canadian airports. They couple was rejected after filling out a form identifying themselves as a family.
Bourassa and Varnell were traveling to Braselton, Georgia to speak at a human rights conference.

Their appearance in Philadelphia is part of the 40th anniversary celebration of the GLBT civil rights movement Equality Forum.

"Kevin and Joe are Canadian heroes," said Malcolm Lazin, Executive Director of Equality Forum. "They symbolize Canadian family values and respect for individual liberty."

Bourassa and Varnell will receive the 40 Heroes Award in front of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, the site where the first US gay and lesbian rights demonstration took place on July 4, 1965.

"Kevin and Joe's successful battle for legal recognition of their marriage propelled marriage equality in Canada and across North America," said Lazin.

Also being honored is former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Chretien will receive the International Role Model Award. Following the Ontario court ruling that allowed Bourassa and Varnell to marry Chretien said the federal government would bring in legislation to allow same-sex marriage across Canada.

The bill is currently before Parliament with a scheduled vote next month. Ironically though alleged political wrongdoing by some in the former Chretien Liberal government could topple the current Liberal administration before the vote occurs.

Other recipients of the 40 Heroes Award include Bishop Gene Robinson, Congressman Barney Frank, Ellen DeGeneres, Melissa Etheridge, and Martina Navratilova.

©365Gay.com 2005

Extreme Homophobe Ratzinger Elected New Pope

by Malcolm Thornberry
365Gay.com European Bureau Chief
Posted: April 19, 2005 12:57 pm ETUpdated: 1:15 pm ET, 2:27 pm ET, 4:32 pm ET


(Vatican City) Joseph Ratzinger one of the most conservative Cardinals in the Catholic Church was elected Pope on Tuesday.

Ratzinger was John Paul's deputy for theology as head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Congregation was the same organization responsible for the Spanish Inquisition.

The election of the 78-year old Ratzinger is seen as a desire by cardinals to have a caretaker pope.

Cardinals had faced a choice over whether to seek an older, skilled administrator to serve in this role while the church absorbs John Paul's legacy, or a younger dynamic pastor and communicator - perhaps from Latin America or elsewhere in the developing world where the church is growing.

Cardinal Ratzinger was the author of the a 2003 Vatican directive to priests around the world calling for a proactive stand to stop governments from legalizing same-sex marriage and for a repeal of those those already on the books that give rights, including adoption, to gay couples. (story)

The 12 page document called on Catholic bishops and lawmakers to oppose the legalization of same-sex unions.

Ratzinger opposes contraception and the use of condoms to combat HIV/AIDS. He advocates a diminished role for women in the Church and has called for mandatory celibacy for priests. A nun who was ordered by Ratzinger to stop ministering to gays and lesbians called his election to pope "devastating" for those who believe the Catholic Church needs to be more tolerant on social issues such as homosexuality.

Sister Jeannine Gramick said the choice of Ratzinger, who as the Vatican's guardian of doctrine silenced her and Father Robert Nugent in a 1999 order, will likely prevent the church from "moving into the 21st century and out of the Middle Ages."

"It does not bode well for people who are concerned for lesbian and gay people in the church," she said.

Gramick was a co-founder of New Ways Ministry in 1977 to provide educational programs for gay and lesbian Catholics nationwide.

She is no longer associated with the group, but its executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said Ratzinger "is the lightening rod for anger at the church by gay and lesbian people."

"Today, the princes of the Roman Catholic Church elected as Pope a man whose record has been one of unrelenting, venomous hatred for gay people," said National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman.

"As a long-time Catholic from a staunchly Catholic family, I know that the history of the church is full of shameful, centuries-long chapters involving vilification, persecution, and violence against others. Someday, the church will apologize to gay people as it has to others it has oppressed in the past. I very much doubt that this day will come during this Pope's reign. In fact, it seems inevitable that this Pope will cause even more pain and give his successors even more for which to seek atonement."

Chiming bells and white smoke from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel announced Ratzinger's election. Tens of thousands of people on St. Peter's Square erupted in cheers and applause.
Ratzinger will take the name Pope Benedict XVI.

Going into the conclave he was the favorite but the speed at which he was chosen took even Vatican Radio by surprise, and it is only the third time in a century that a pope had been chosen on the second day of a conclave.

Ratzinger was born in Marktl Am Inn, Germany but his father, a policeman, frequently moved the family.

In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He said he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

An accomplished pianist who loves Mozart, Ratzinger is said to have enjoyed playing the piano as a seminarian.

Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common task for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. A year later he was released, only to be sent to the Austrian-Hungarian border to construct tank barriers.

He deserted the Germany army in May 1945. When he arrived home, U.S. soldiers took him prisoner and held him in a POW camp for several weeks. Upon his release, he re-entered the seminary.

©365Gay.com 2005with files from the Associated Press

I can't believe they picked Cardinal Ratzinger to be the next Pope!!!!!! He's the closest thing to a Grand Inquisitor that the Roman Catholic church has these days. With his extremely conservative views, he'll probably make the R.C. church hierarchy even more removed from the realities of modern life than it is now.

It's the birthday of lawyer and writer Clarence (Seward) Darrow, born in Kinsman, Ohio (1857). He once said, "I never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure."

"Fix"
(from No Heaven, University of Pittsburg Press)
(reprinted with permission by "The Writer's Almanac", NPR)

by Alicia Suskin Ostriker


The puzzled ones, the Americans, go through their
lives
Buying what they are told to buy,
Pursuing their love affairs with the automobile,
Baseball and football, romance and beauty,
Enthusiastic as trained seals, going into debt, struggling

--True believers in liberty, and also security,
And of course sex--
cheating on each other
For the most part only a little,
mostly avoiding violence
Except at a vast blue distance,
as between bombsight and earth,
Or on the violent screen, which they adore.

Those who are not Americans think Americans are happy
Because they are so filthy rich, but not so.

They are mostly puzzled and at a loss
As if someone pulled the floor out from under them,
They'd like to believe in God, or something, and they do try.

You can see it in their white faces at the supermarket and the gas station
--Not the immigrant faces, they know what they want,
Not the blacks, whose faces are hurt and proud--

The white faces, lipsticked, shaven,
we do try
To keep smiling,
for when we're smiling, the whole world
Smiles with us, but we feel we've lost
That loving feeling.

Clouds ride by above us,
Rivers flow, toilets work, traffic lights work,
barring floods, fires
And earthquakes,
houses and streets appear stable

So what is it, this moon-shaped blankness?
What the hell is it?
America is perplexed.

We would fix it if we knew what was broken.

Kingsley Amis said, "If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing."

Charlie Chaplin said, "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot."