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October 31, 2006

Response: [Rationalists_1] Some facts... It is all about OIL?!?

Gracias Brother Manohar ~ With all due respect it is ultimately not all about any Earthly material source, such as oil, in relation as to the whole Amerikan war on terrorism. It ALL goes far far deeper and wider.
The whole situation is increasingly complex but it involves the actual inner character of man in general: his greed, his lust, his perversion of power and other related character defects. Unless we deal with these inner character defects we will merely replace one set of slaveowners for another over and over until we all make fundamental internal changes in our inner character.
What happened to the Soviet Union, Red China and the dreams of Gandhi?
More people have been killed in the name of religion than just about any other reason. Why?
In practical terms, in relation to oil, remember that Afghanistan is the key route for the ancient Silk Road
used by Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great and other foreign conquerors.
Glance @
http://www.silk-road.com/artl/buddhism.shtml
Buddhism and Its Spread Along the Silk Road
"There one sees a structure of an elevation prodigious in height; it is supported by gigantic pillars and covered with paintings of all the birds created by God. In the interior are two immense idols carved in the rock and rising from the foot of the mountains to the summit....One cannot see anything comparable to these statues in the whole world."
---Yakut describing Bamiyan in his geographical dictionary in 1218
As I wrote yesterday, we need to integrate our theories with our practices, our ideas with our actions and keep a real balance in our lives when we are online, offline and keep inline with our own inner character and spiritual growth.
There are some good books that have been written about the whole situation in Afghanistan
Click=
http://www.afghan-network.net/Books/1.html
Check out about Ghost Wars ~
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/10/1425222
Thursday, June 10th, 2004
Ghost Wars: How Reagan Armed the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan
"During Reagan's 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We take a look at America's role in Afghanistan that led to the rise of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda with Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001."
Plus, we need to consider how many of our people are functional illiterates? What are we doing to combat our own ignorance and its oprhan stepchild stupidity?
All vital social issues in class society are intrinsically interconnected in the context of connected reality.
There are no stupid questions, just stupid answers.
In connected reality, much needs to be done and we are blessed to have Internet Access, but a lot of the work in my humble opinion needs to be done on ourselves, focusing on our own priorities, establishing our own agendas and ~as is often the case here inside the United States~ not just reacting to the acting out of our enemies: the Amerikan Empire and its political-military-propaganda machine.
Are our neighbors hungry next door? Are the homeless walking by outside like domestic refugees outside our windows? Are we balanced, centered and integrated?
<><><><><><><><><><><>
Liberation Now!!!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta
Humane Liberation Party
Email= sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Aztlannet_News/

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Manohar Roy <centrum_journal@yahoo.com> wrote:
Did you know that:
a.. USA supported Bin Laden and the Taliban for
years, and viewed them as freedom fighters against the Russians?

b.. As late as 1998, the US was paying the salary of
every single Taliban official in Afghanistan ?

c.. There is more oil and gas in the Caspian Sea ,
but you need a pipeline through Afghanistan to get that out?

d.. UNOCAL, a giant oil conglomerate, wanted to
build a 1000 mile pipeline from the Caspian Sea through Afghanistan to the Arabian Sea?

e.. UNOCAL spend $ 10,000,000,000 on geological
&nb sp; studies for the pipeline construction, and courted the Taliban for their support in allowing the construction to begin?

f.. All leading Taliban officials were in Texas
negotiating with UNOCAL in 1998?

g. In 1999, Taliban changed its mind and threw
UNOCAL out of the country and awarded the pipeline project to a company in Argentina?

h.. John Maresca, VP of UNOCAL testified before
Congress and said no pipeline should be set until the Taliban was gone and a more friendlygovernment was established?

i.. After 1999, the Taliban became the most evil
people in the world

j. In 2001, Bush declares war against Afghanistan , though not a single Afghani was involved in the plane hijacking?

k.. Bush blamed Bin Lade n, but did not offer any
proof, saying it was confidential?

l.. Talibans offered to hand over Bin Laden if there
was proof, but Bush bombed Afghanistan instead?

m.. We now have a new government in Afghanistan ,
which is friendlier?

n.. That the leader of the new government is one
gentleman called Hamid Karzai, who formerly worked for UNOCAL?

o.. Bush appoints a special envoy (Lakhdar Ibrahimi)
to represent the US to deal with the new government. This special envoy was formerly chief consultant to UNOCAL?

p.. The US government quietly announces in January
2002 that it will support the Trans-Afghan pipeline construction?

q.. President Musharraf and Hamid Karzai announce
agreement in February 2002 to build proposed gas pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan through Afghanistan?

.And you thought we were fighting terrorism
here, didn't you?

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Buddhism and Its Spread Along the Silk Road

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/buddhism.shtml
"There one sees a structure of an elevation prodigious in height; it is supported by gigantic pillars and covered with paintings of all the birds created by God. In the interior are two immense idols carved in the rock and rising from the foot of the mountains to the summit....One cannot see anything comparable to these statues in the whole world."
---Yakut describing Bamiyan in his geographical dictionary in 1218
Besides silk, paper and other goods, the Silk Road carried another commodity which was equally significant in world history. Along with trade and migration, the world's oldest international highway was the vehicle which spread Buddhism through Central Asia. The transmission was launched from northwestern India to modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Xinjiang (Chinese Turkistan), China, Korea and Japan. Buddhism not only affected the lives and cultures on those regions but also left us with a world of wonders in arts and literature. (Figure on the right: Princes from Central Asian states in Lamentation, Dunhuang Cave 158. After Sakyamuni entered nirvana, princes of different Central Asian states gathered to express their grief, crying, beating their chests, piercing themselves with swords or knives, or cutting off their noses or ears. This painting not only depicts their devotions to Buddha, but also accurately presents the appearances, garments and customs of different nations along the Silk Road and the history of cultural exchange between them.)

Birth of Buddha and the Development of Buddhism in India
According to legend, the Buddha (The Awakened), or Gotama (Sanskrit) lived in northern India in the 6th century BC. Gotama was his family name and his personal name was Siddhattha in Pali language. He was born in a noble family and ancient lineage, the Sakyas. A title by which Siddhattha came to be known as 'the Sage of the Sakyas', Sakyamuni. To the West, he is known as the Buddha.

What is known of the Buddha's life is based mainly on the evidence of the canonical texts, the most extensive and comprehensive of which are those written in Pali, an ancient Indian language. According to the canon, Buddha's birth place was Lumbini, near the small city of Kapilavastu on the borders of Nepal and India. In his twenties, he renounced his life in the palace and left home in search of enlightenment after witnessing sights of suffering, sickness, aging and death. He achieved Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and gave the first sermon at Sarnath. He spent his remaining life in travelling, teaching and spreading Buddhism.

It is not clear when the first Buddhist community was established in India. By the time of Buddha's death at the age of 80 he had become a famous and respected figure and had allies and supporters among rich and poor. In 484 BC, seven days after the Buddha's death at Kushinagara (modern Kasia), his body was cremated and the relics were divided equally among eight clans. Each of these built a sacred cairn over the relics, a form of memorial known in India as a stupa, which later became the focus for Buddhists' devotions. For the next two centuries, there was a steady growth of Buddhism in India.

Not long after the Buddha's death, the followers gathered at Rajagriha for the first general council. The second council was held in Vaishali one hundred years after the death of Buddha. The third one is said to be held in Pataliputra in the time of the Mauryan king Ashoka.

The Indian King Ashoka (273-232 BC), the grandson of the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, demonstrated his conversion to Buddhism by vigorously promulgating the religion across India. His edicts were carved on pillars of stone and wood, from Bengal to Afghanistan and into the south. He celebrated the distribution of the ashes of the Buddha, according to legend, placed inside 84,000 stupas. His best-known dedications are the Sarnath lion capital imprinted on India's currency and the Wheel of the Law at the center of the national flag of India. Ashoka's empire extended to the northwestern borders of the Punjab. The Buddhist monks were free to move throughout the whole area. As the result, the Buddhist community probably had reached the Hellenized neighbor, the Kushan/Bactrian kingdom, by the end of Ashoka's reign.

The Dissemination of Buddhism by Kushan/Bactria
The Kushans dominated the areas of Hindu Kush into Kabul, Gandhara, northern Pakistan and north-western India. They controlled the trade between India, China, Parthia and the Roman Empire. This provided an ideal medium for the further spread of Buddhism. From the 2th century BC to the 2nd century AD, Buddhism gradually developed in northwestern India and the great Kushan ruler, Kanishak reigned from 144-172, was converted. Under his influence, Gandhara, a Buddhist settlement, flourished and created a distinctive Graeco-Buddhist art form, which affected the arts in Central Asia and eastward in the first four centuries of our era, which is to be discussed later.

According to Prof. A. Litvinskii, Buddhism had reached Merv and Parthia as early as Achaemenid times. The Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Ceylon described that Parthian and Alexandrian delegates were in attendance at a Buddhist council held by King Duttha Gamani (108-77BC). With the extension of Kushan influence, Buddhism further penetrated the realm of the Parthians and Sassanians. Parthian's Buddhist faith was also confirmed by the Chinese records of the missions of the Parthian Buddhist preachers, An-Shih-Kao and An Hsuan during the 2nd century.

Bactria was introduced to Buddhism by the 1st century AD as suggested by the Buddhist settlement discovered at Airtam, 18 kilometers northwest of Termez. For the next few centuries Kushan/Bactrian Buddhist centers were expanded to Hadda, Bamiyan and Kondukistan. Among them the most important one is Bamiyan, 240 kilometers northwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. It became one of the greatest Buddhist monastic communities in all Central Asia by the 4th century. At the west stands the 53 meter Buddha (Figure on the left), still the largest statue in the world. With its strategic location at the intersection of roads to Persia, India, Tarim basin, and China, it developed an art style with a fusion of Iranian, Indian, Gandharan and local style into an independent mode of its own. This style of Buddhist art traveled eastward and was quickly adopted at Kizil, Xinjiang and ultimately Dunhuang. Buddhism reached the height of its power in the 8th and 9th centuries in Afghanistan before it fell to the Arabs.

In terms of the distribution of Buddhist schools, we rely on the travel accounts of the pilgrims and envoys. Hadda was a center of Hinayana (Small Vehicle). Bamiyan, described by Xuan Zang in the 7th century, practiced Hinayana Buddhism whereas by 727 AD, another visitor Hui-chao described the monastery devoting to Mahayana (Big Vehicle) Buddhism. Other centers such as Kapisa, Kakrak and Fondukistan seemed to also follow Mahayana Buddhism, from the evidence of their paintings and sculptures.

Buddhism in the Tarim Basin
We learn that by the 7th century all the small kingdoms of the Tarim region had been entirely won over to Buddhism, which brought with it so much of Indian culture that Sanskrit had become the religious language. As Buddhism advanced towards the Tarim basin, Kashgaria with Yarkand and Khotan in the west, Tumsuk, Aksu and Kizil in the north, Loulan, Karasahr and Dunhuang in the east, and Miran and Cherchen in the south became important centers of Buddhist art and thought. The Buddhist texts were translated from Sanskrit into various local Indo-European dialects such as Tocharian or Kuchean. By 658 Kucha developed to be a leading center of Hinayana Buddhism and the paintings were found at the cave temples of Kizil (near Kucha) (Figure on the right: Goddess and Celestial Musician, Wall-painting at Kizil cave. 600-605 AD) dated from the 1st to 8th centuries. The early art form in the Tarim area were strongly Indo-Persian in style, but Persian elements were gradually overlaid by the Chinese in the 6th century after Tang's power dominated the Tarim basin.

It is impossible to make any general rules about the precise schools of Buddhism that flourished in the Tarim basin, but the early pilgrims who traveled there gave some clues. Fa-hsien and Xuan Zang appeared to indicate that most of the kingdoms such as Kashgar, Kizil, Karashahr and Kucha on the northern route followed the Hinayana Vehicle whereas Mahayana flourished along the southern route including the kingdoms of Khotan and Yarkand.

The Nomads Established the Buddhist Faith in the Steppes
The information on how the nomads adopted Buddhism is fragmentary but the Chinese seemed to indicate that Buddhism penetrated Hun, or Xiongnu (Early Hun), as early as the 2nd century BC. The Xiongnu lost few major battles at Hexi Corridor (Gansu province) and surrendered to Han general Ho. It was reported that the Xiongnu chief Kun-hsieh offered General Ho a golden statue called "Great Divinity". The statue was later placed in the Kanchuan Temple. People burned incense and worshipped him. This incident seems to indicate that the conversion to Buddhism had taken place among the Xiongnu at an early stage of Buddhism.

Buddhism certainly had a strong effect on some other lives in the steppes. Grousset has pointed out that once a nomadic tribe adopted the Buddhist faith, they no longer possessed tough barbaric and soldierly qualities. Eventually they lost their nomadic identity and were absorbed by the civilized neighbors. This can demonstrated by the Tobgatch Turks or the Toba, whose empire extended to Mongolia and northern China. From 386-534, they controlled northern China under the Northern Wei dynasty. These eastern Turks had contact with Chinese Buddhism early on. Some of the Turkic emperors were foremost patrons of Buddhism. In 471 Toba king Hung was so devoted to Buddhism that he had his son become a monk. This son, Toba king Hung II (471-499), was equally devoted to Buddhism and under his influence he introduced a more humane legislation. By the time he moved his capital from Pingcheng in Jehol to the south, Loyang in 494, he and his Turkic people have been completely sinicized. At his instigation, work began on the famous Buddhist Longmen caves, south of Loyang. According to Chinese sources, Turkish Buddhist temples were erected for the Turkish ruler, Mu-han (553-572) in Ch'angan and other places during Northern Chou dynasty (556-581). Mu-han's successor and younger brother Tapar Qayan (To-po, 572-581) was also devotee to Buddhism and erected a Buddhist temple. In 680 Eastern Turks, the kingdom of Kok-Turks (682-745) disassociated themselves from Chinese Buddhism and returned to their nomadic native life style and religion.

The next time Buddhist activities were seen in this area were by the Uighur Turks who became masters of the steppes around 745. Around 840 the Uighur Turks were driven out from Mongolia and many settled in the area of the northern Tarim oases, mainly Turfan from 850 to 1250. They practiced Manichaeism but quickly abandoned it in favor of the local Buddhist faith. In the early 20th century, much Turkish Buddhist literature was discovered in Turfan, Hami and Dunhuang. At the end of 10th century, a Chinese envoy, Wang Yen-te, found in Kaochang (near Turfan) a flourishing Buddhist culture with some fifty Buddhist convents and a library of Chinese Buddhists texts. Turfan remained the main center of Turkish Buddhism until the end of the 15th century when its ruler converted to Islam.

As for the Western Turks, who came in power in the steppes during the middle of 8th century, we have the records that they established Buddhist sanctuaries in the Kapisa (Begram) area. When the Chinese Buddhist monk Wu-kung visited Gandhara between 759-764, he found there Buddhist temples, which as he believed, were built by the Turkish kings. Even though their empire stretched far to the Sassanian border and may have included some Buddhist communities, little is known of their Buddhist activities.

While the Mongols were controlling the Silk Road, Kublai Khan clearly showed his preference for Buddhism even though most of the Mongol kingdoms converted to Islam. Buddhist doctrine was expounded by Na-mo, who won the debate with Taoists in 1258. Marco Polo tell us that Kublai Khan accorded a magnificent ceremonial reception to the relics of the Buddha, sent him by the raja of Ceylon. Most of Kublai's successors were equally fervent Buddhists. Khaishan Khan (1307-1311) had many Buddhist texts translated into Mongolian.

Buddhism Introduced to China from the Silk Road
It is not certain when Buddhism reached China, but with the Silk Road opened in the second century BC, missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China, Central Asia and India. The record described that Chang Ch'ien, on his return from Ta-hsia (Ferghana) in the 2nd century BC, heard of a country named Tien-chu (India) and their Buddhist teaching. This is probably the first time a Chinese heard about Buddhism. A century later, a Buddhist community is recorded at the court of a Han prince. However the most famous story is the Han emperor Mingdi's dream about Buddha. In 68 AD, Mingdi sent his official Cai Yin to Central Asia to learn more about Buddhism after a vision of a golden figure appeared to him in a dream. The next morning he asked his ministers what the dream meant and was told that he had seen the Buddha - the god of the West. Cai Yin returned after 3 years in India and brought back with him not only the images of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures but also two Buddhist monks named She-mo-teng and Chu-fa-lan to preach in China. This was the first time that China had Buddhist monks and their ways of worship. A few years later, a Buddhist community was established in Loyang, the capital, itself. From then on, the Buddhist community grew continuously. They introduced the sacred books, texts and most importantly the examples of Buddhist art, never before seen in China. In 148 AD, a Parthian missionary, An Shih-kao arrived China. He set up a Buddhist temple at Loyang and began the long work of the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The work of scripture translation continued until the 8th century when access to Central Asia and India by land was cut off by the Arabs. In 166 AD Han Emperor Huan formally announced Buddhism by having Taoist and Buddhist ceremonies performed in the palace. The unrest situation in China at the end of the Han dynasty was such that people were in a receptive mood for the coming of a new religion.

During the 4th century, Kumarajiva, a Buddhist from Central Asia organized the first translation bureau better than anything that had existed before in China. He and his team translated some 98 works from many languages into Chinese, of which 52 survive and are included in the Buddhist canon. By around 514, there were 2 million Buddhists in China. Marvelous monasteries and temples were built and the work of translating the scriptures into Chinese was undertaken with great industry.

Buddhism in China reached its apogee during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907). Popular forms of Buddhism percolated down to the ordinary folk. A fully sinicized Buddhist religion and art. (Figure on the right: Buddha preaching to his disciples. Silk banner from the Dunhuang cave, 8th century) emerged and spread into Korea, and thence into Japan by the end of the sixth century. However in 845 a persecution of Buddhists in China had 4600 temples destroyed and 260,500 monks and nuns defrocked; this was a severe setback Buddhism.

While numerous pilgrims arrived China from the West, Chinese Buddhist pilgrims were sent to India during different times and the accounts which some of them have left of their travels in the Silk Road provide valuable evidence of the state of Buddhism in Central Asia and India from the 4th to the 7th centuries. Some of the more famous Chinese pilgrims were Fa-hsien (399 to 414), Xuan-zang (629-645), and I-tsing (671-695).

Decline of Buddhism
The decline of Buddhism along the Silk Road was due to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in the East and the invasion of Arabs in the West. The conversion to Islam started in the 8th century in Central Asia. Since Islam condemned the iconography, most of the Buddhist statues and wall-paintings were damaged or destroyed. Buddhist temples and stupas were abandoned and buried beneath the sand. By the 15th century, the entire Central Asia basin had been converted to Islam.

Buddhist Art and its Impact
It is impossible to talk about Buddhism without mentioning its profound impact on the development of Central Asian art. It is through those artworks that a fusion of eastern and western cultures was demonstrated. The art of Buddhism left the world the most powerful and enduring monuments along the Silk Road, and among them, some of the most precious Buddhist sculptures, paintings and murals. Furthermore the contact with the Hellenized Gandharan culture resulted in the development of a new art form, the Buddha statue, sometimes referred as a Buddha image. Before Buddhism reached Gandhara in the 3rd century BC, there had been no representation of the Buddha, and it was in the Gandharan culture that the use of Buddha images had begun. The earliest Buddha images resembled the Greek god Apollo. (Figure on the left: Buddha image, Gandhara, 2-3 century) It has been suggested by the scholars that the earliest Buddha images in Gandhara were created by the local Greeks who carried their classic artistic conception and Indianized it by transforming it into the figure of the Greek-featured Buddha, dressed in a toga and seated in the yoga pose. The Gandhara style represented a union of classical, Indian, and Iranian elements continued in Afghanistan and the neighboring regions throughout most of the first millennium until the end of the 8th century.

Though it was largely as a result of Greek influence that Gandhara became the center of development in Buddhist sculpture, it was on the Indian foundation from which Buddhist architecture evolved. The development of Buddhism along the Silk Road resulted in a proliferation of monasteries, grottoes, vishanas and stupas throughout the entire Buddhist communities. However the cave temples hold the most unique position in the development of Buddhist architecture. The Buddhists' devotion was deeply reflected by the wall paintings of its rock-cut caves. From Gandhara, Bamyin, Kumtura, Kizil, to Bezeklik, and Dunhuang, the Buddhist artists, with arduous labor , created the most impressive wall paintings of cave temples dedicated to the Buddha, his saints, and his legend. They present us an astonishing pageant of local societies with kings, queens, knights, ladies, monks and artists. Aside from their artistic values, those cave temples provide us with an immense amount of historical information. The portraits of Kizil donors with light complexions, blue eyes, and blond or reddish hair teach us they are more Indo-European than Mongol in appearance. The processions of Uighur prince and princess from Dunhuang illustrate how Uighurs dressed in the 9th century. It is from these wall paintings that we can have a glance at the lives and cultures of these fascinating but vanished ancient peoples.

Timeline on the Buddhist Activities Along the Silk Road

Periods Events
560s BC Buddha's birth
484 BC Buddha's death
484-494 The First Council in Rajagriha.
350-300 The second Council in Vaishali.
272-231 Buddhism flourished in India under king Ashoka.
272-231 Missionary activity started under Ashoka's reign.
272-231 The first known carving of monumental shrines into the sides of mountains appeared in Bihar, India
250 The Third council of Buddhist monks met at Patna in Ashoka's reign.
100BC-200AD Buddhism flourished in Kushan.
0-100AD Mahayana school appeared.
0s Buddhist settlement in Airtam-Termez, Bactria
100 Gandhara art school flourished. Artform of Buddha images introduced from Gandhara. The site was destroyed by Hephthalites in 6th century.
144-172 Kushan ruler, Kanishka disseminated Buddhism.
148 An Shih-kao, a Parthian missionary arrived China. Scriptures translations.
170 Chu-sho-fu, an Indian missionary arrived China. Scripture translations.
181 An Hsuan, Parthian missionary arrived China.
200s Buddhist shrine at Giaur Kala (Merv).
223-253 Che K'ien Yueh-chih missionary translated several Buddhist writings into Chinese in China.
300s Buddhist stupa at Merv.
300s Buddhist settlements at Hadda, Afghanistan. Destroyed by the Hephthalites in 450.
300s Buddhist community established and the world's largest statue of 53-memter Buddha created at Bamiyan. The site was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1222, but the statues remain.
300s Sassano-Buddhic art seen Kabul valley and penetrated into the Tarim basin.
300s Anti-Buddhist propaganda of Varahran IIs adviser, Kartir, the Mazdean evangelist in Sasania (Persia).
344-413 Kumarajiva, Indian pilgrim, built the largest Buddhist text translation bureau in China.
366 Mogao caves started in Dunhuang.
395-414 Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India.
450-750 Buddhist caves started in Kizil, Xinjiang
446 Persecution of Buddhism by Toba Turkic king
450-494 Yunkang cave temples
494 Buddhism again adopted by Toba Turkic King Hung II. Buddhist crypts of Longmen started. Gupta kingdom in India. Strong Buddhist faith and art development.
500s strong Buddhist faith in the Tarim basin, especially Kucha - religious culture developed.
515-528 Queen Hu of Toba sent the Buddhist pilgrim Sung Yun to northwestern India.
520 Sung Yun's pilgrimage to India. passed through Lob Nor, Khotan, the Pamirs, and Hephthalite Huns in Badakhshan, Udiyana and Gandhara.
520 Persecution of Buddhism in Gupta empire by the invading Hephthalites
553-582 Muhan
550s Paramartha, an Indian, lived in China and translated some seventy works.
629-644 Xuan Zang's pilgrimage to India.
682-745 Kok Turks abandoned Buddhism and returned to nomadic religion.
800s Buddhist Uighur kingdom appeared in Turfan until 1250.
845 Persecuation of Buddhists in China.
1258 Buddhist debated with Taoist and won in Kublai Khan's court.
1307-1311 Translation of many Buddhist texts into Mongolian.


Central Asian Translators Working in China (to 316 AD)
K=Kuchean; Kh=Khotanese; P=Parthian; S=Sogdian; Y=Yueh-chih

Names Periods
An Shih-kao (P) Parthian prince 148-170
An Hsuan (P) Parthian merchant who became a monk in China 181
Lokaksema (Y) 167-186
Chih-yao (Y) Yueh-chih origins; 185
K'ang Meng-hsiang (S) Forefathers from K'ang-chu; 194-207
Chih Ch'ien (Y) Grandfather had settled in China during 168-190;220-252
Chih Yueh (Y) worked at Nanjing; 230
K'ang Seng-hui (S) born in Chiao-chih in extreme south a Chinese empire, son of Sogdian merchant; 247-280
Tan-ti (P) Parthian origins; 254
Po Yen (K) Kuchean prince; 259
Dharmaraksa (Y) Family had lived for generations at Dunhuang; 265-313
An Fa-chi'in (P) Parthian origins; 281-306
Po Srimitra (K) Kuchean prince; 317-322

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    October 28, 2006

    Kahlil Gibran: Quotes & The Prophet

    http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2006/10/kahlil_gibran_q.html


    DK Matai - October 28, 2006

    . I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

    . Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.

    . God made Truth with many doors to welcome every believer who knocks on them.

    . If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

    . If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

    . If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.

    . Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

    . Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'

    . The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

    . To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do.

    . Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.

    . In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.

    . It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.

    . Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.

    . And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

    Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a poet, philosopher, and artist and he was born in Lebanon, a land that has produced many prophets. The millions of Arabic-speaking peoples familiar with his writings in that language consider him the genius of his age. He was a man whose fame and influence spread far beyond the Near East. His poetry has been translated into more than twenty languages. His drawings and paintings have been exhibited in the great capitals of the world and compared by Auguste Rodin to the work of William Blake. In the United States, which he made his home during the last twenty years of his life, he began to write in English. The Prophet and his other books of poetry, illustrated with his mystical drawings, are known and loved by innumerable people across the world including many in America, who find in them an expression of the deepest impulses of man's heart and mind.

    In The Prophet, Gibran wrote of Friendship as follows:

    And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

    Your friend is your needs answered.

    He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

    And he is your board and your fireside.

    For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

    When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

    And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

    For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

    When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

    For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

    And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

    For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

    And let your best be for your friend.

    If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

    For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

    Seek him always with hours to live.

    For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

    And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

    For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

    What do you think of Kahlil Gibran? What are your thoughts, observations and views.

    Do you have some similar favourite poems to share?

    With warm wishes


    DK

    DK Matai
    The Philanthropia, ATCA, mi2g.net

    Posted by DK Matai at October 28, 2006 05:40 PM
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    October 21, 2006

    Mission in Asia: Telling the Story of Jesus


    http://www.theindiancatholic.com/newsread.asp?nid=4059

    October 21,2006

    The first Asian Mission Congress that is underway in Thailand is exploring ways to tell the story of Jesus in Asia. While presenting papers and personal experiences, participants are searching new ways of telling the story in Asia.

    In this column, Bishop Luis G. Tagle of Imus, Philippines says telling the story of Jesus in Asia requires the Church's living encounter with Jesus in prayer, worship, and interaction with people.

    Here is the text of Bishop Tagle's address to the Congress:

    The Asian Mission Congress is an occasion to celebrate the calling of the Church to be missionary. It recalls with gratitude the missionary paths the Church has already taken in Asia. It rejoices at the continuing efforts at mission, with testimonies of valor, faith and love. It invites us to commit ourselves once again to the perennial bidding of Jesus Christ that we bring the Good News of the Reign of God to all the earth. It urges us to seek new ways of understanding and doing mission, faithful to the Church's rich Tradition but responsive to the realities faced by the peoples of Asia.

    It can be said that the history of the Church is the history of mission. This multi-layered and multi-colored history, dating from New Testament times, testifies to the many ways by which the Church has understood and practiced mission. We can add the fact that while the one Church is universal it exists in local Churches that have quite unique histories and situations, and therefore quite unique experiences and notions of mission. Pope John Paul II affirms in Redemptoris Missio (RM) a basic insight of Ad Gentes (AG)[1] that mission, a single but complex reality, is developed in a variety of ways.[2] In continuity with the Church's dynamic search for ways of doing mission appropriate to specific times and places our congress proposes an understanding and practice of mission focused on the Story of Jesus in Asia.

    A story is never just a story. A story is truly a story when told or narrated, and hopefully listened to. Nowadays, one of the names of story telling is sharing. In Ecclesia in Asia (EAs), Pope John Paul II describes mission as sharing the light of faith in Jesus, a gift received and a gift to be shared to the peoples of Asia[3]. That sharing can take the form of telling the story of Jesus. I believe that story telling provides a creative framework for understanding mission in Asia, a continent whose cultures and religions are rooted in great stories or epics. Pope John Paul II also recognizes the narrative methods akin to Asian cultural forms as a preferred way of proclaiming Jesus in Asia (EAs 20).

    Understanding 'Story' and Telling Story

    Human life is unimaginable without stories. Life itself has a narrative structure. Story mediates life and its meaning. Telling stories comes so naturally to us that we do not reflect sufficiently on its significance for our lives. In recent years, scholars have been rediscovering the role of narrative in their respective disciplines. Theology and spirituality have benefited from this "turn to the story."[4] Mission can equally be enriched. Let us devote some time to reflect on story and storytelling. My presentation will be far from exhaustive. As an invitation to further reflection and discussion, this paper will dwell only on those aspects that might have a bearing on understanding mission as telling the story of Jesus.

    1. Good stories are based on experience. There are good stories and bad ones. But the difference does not always depend on the style of the narrator or the ending of the story. Ultimately we want a credible story, a story that is believable because it is true. The strongest basis of truth is the first hand experience of the narrator. While credible reporters of somebody else' experience can be believed in, nothing matches the story of someone who actually was there when an incident happened, for the event is now a part of the person. We tell our best stories when they are about our experience. Our best stories are about who we are.

    2. Stories reveal personal identity and people and events that shaped that identity. Stories reveal who we are, the flow and sense of our lives and where we are going. My story is my autobiography, my identity in the great scheme of things.[5] As I tell my little stories, my fundamental life story is revealed not only to the listener but also and primarily to me, the narrator. I make sense of myself. But I realize in the process that the story is not simply about me. It is also always about other people, my family and friends, society, culture, the economy, or what we call 'the times'. My story is not developed in a vacuum. I am what I am because I am immersed in other people's stories and the stories of my time. If I neglect or deny them, I have no personal story to tell. In telling my story, I make sense also of the world I inhabit.

    3. Stories are dynamic, open to reinterpretation and re-telling, and transformative. Personal identity is shaped by interaction with the world put into memory. Remembrance is vital if we want to grow in self-knowledge. But we remember by telling stories.[6] Memory is made of stories rather than mere chronology and stories bring experience back to mind.[7] By remembering, we realize that the past is not at all static. It continues to mold us. It can also be seen in a new light from the optic provided by new experiences. In fact we tell the same story in different fashions. Stories reveal what made us what we are now while differentiating us from what we were before and opening possibilities for the future. Through stories we get in touch with the dynamism of transformation of personal identity: how much we have changed and how much more we have to change.

    4. Stories are the ground for understanding spiritual, doctrinal and ethical symbols. Stories disclose personal identity by surfacing the values, moral norms and priorities of a person. The spirituality of a person emerges in his/her story. Ethical, spiritual and doctrinal symbols precious to a person are derived from that person's life stories. Those profound living symbols are understood only when the story is known and heard.[8] Stories are indispensable to the meaning of a person's faith and moral symbols.

    5. Stories form community. What we have said so far about story and personal identity is also true of the identity of a community. Common experience and memories bind unique individuals into a cohesive body. The narrative privileged by a community becomes the nucleus of its values, ethics and spirituality.[9] A community's distinguishing beliefs, rituals, celebrations, customs and lifestyle will make sense to us only if we go back to the stories that the members of that community hold and cherish in common.

    6. Stories when received can transform the listener. Important experiences are named and told in stories.[10] When we experience something positively or negatively significant, we cannot wait to tell it to someone. This dynamic tells us that story begs for a listener, for someone with whom to share. One's story can awaken memories of similar experiences in a listener, open new meanings, create wonder and shake from slumber. The engagement and response from the listener begins when the narrator concludes.[11] The narrator's story is woven with the listener's story to produce new stories. Usually a good listener will become a good storyteller. The one who has experienced weaving other person's stories into one's own by listening will be secure enough to share one's story as a thread in someone else' story.

    7. Stories can be told in a variety of ways. A story can be told in many ways, even when not literally telling a story. Oral narration is still the most common. But stories can be told through writing letters, novels or poems. Photographs and video productions are technologically inspired ways of telling stories. A person's gestures, mannerisms, tone of voice, facial contortions, and body postures are as present as any character in a story. A person's silence can be a powerful way of telling a story. By extension, a person's attitudes, lifestyle and relationships tell stories and generate new stories. A community's dances, music, art, architecture, and food are essential elements of its story. Stories are so richly textured that they are open to many ways of being narrated.

    8. Stories can be suppressed. Even if telling stories come spontaneously to us, some factors can suppress storytelling. The pain brought about by a traumatic memory, shame or guilt can prevent a victim from telling his/her full story. In order to preserve a bit of dignity after a harrowing experience, a victim can deny that a story is part of his/her personal identity and memory. Dictators forbid stories of corruption, oppression, killings and destruction from being told, lest their regime be put into jeopardy. They impose an official national history that erases memories that would put them in a bad light. Some stories are too dangerous to tell, for listeners might hear the call for transformation. The fiercest battles being waged daily are over stories. But healing is possible. Where victims are allowed to tell their stories to compassionate friends, counselors or professionals who show compassion and understanding, their self-worth slowly comes back. Where communities reclaim their true story, they reclaim too their power for societal change.

    We spent time reflecting on story and storytelling to uncover its potentials for the understanding and practice of mission.

    Mission as Telling the Story of Jesus in Asia

    At the outset, we affirm with Ad Gentes of Vatican II that the pilgrim Church is missionary by nature because it takes its origin from the mission of Jesus Christ and the mission of the Holy Spirit in accordance with the saving will of the Father (AG 2). So that what Jesus has accomplished for the salvation of all may come in time to achieve its effect in all, He sent the Holy Spirit from the Father to carry out His saving work inwardly and in the Church (AG 3-4). It is therefore just fitting to call the Holy Spirit the principal agent of Mission, as Pope John Paul II does (cf. RM, chapter III). It is the Holy Spirit that enables the Church to accomplish the mission entrusted to it (EAs 43).

    From this perspective, the missions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit can be considered God's own story. God is the "teller of the tale".[12] The Holy Spirit will tell the story of Jesus to the Church. Jesus promised, "the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn 14:26). The three persons of the Trinity are even depicted by Jesus as "telling stories" to one another. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak...He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." (Jn 16:13-15). The Church's mission is a fruit of the Story that the Holy Spirit declares to it from Jesus and the Father. The origin of the Church's mission is the Great Storyteller, the Holy Spirit, to whom it must listen so it can share what it has heard. The Church is God's Storyteller of Jesus Christ as it listens to the Holy Spirit.

    That the Church should tell the story of Jesus goes without saying. The great question for Asia is how to share the story, as Pope John Paul II accurately points out (EAs 19). The 'how' aspect of the mission has been the concern of many Asian theologians, like Michael Amaladoss, S.J.[13] Using some of our reflections on the understanding of story, let us look at mission as telling the story of Jesus under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

    1. The Church tells the story of Jesus from its experience of Jesus. Telling the story of Jesus in Asia is more effective if it springs from the experience of the storyteller. Pope Paul VI's observation in Evangelii Nuntiandi[14] that people today put more trust in witnesses than in teachers is universally true but more so in Asia where cultures put particular emphasis on the experientially verified truthfulness of the witness. The earliest apostles, who were Asians, spoke of their experience - what they have heard, they have seen with their eyes, they have looked upon and touched with their hands concerning the Word of Life (I Jn 1:1-4). There cannot be any other way for the contemporary Church in Asia. Without a deep experience of Jesus as Savior, how I can tell his story convincingly as part of my personal story? The experience of St. Paul is truly the root of mission when he says, "it is not longer I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). Telling the story of Jesus in Asia requires the Church's living encounter with Jesus in prayer, worship, interaction with people, especially the poor, and events that constitute the "signs of the times."

    2. The story of Jesus manifests the identity of the Church among the poor, cultures and religions of Asia. Just as a story reveals personal identity, a story of faith in Jesus reveals also the identity of the narrator as a believer. A witness who tells his/her story of encountering Jesus cannot and should not hide his/her identity as a disciple of the Savior. But just as a web of relationships with people, culture, and societal currents form a personal story or identity, so is Christian storytelling in Asia to be done in relationship with others. The Christian identity and story in Asia is always with and not apart from those of other cultures and religions. The story of Jesus is to be told by Asian Christians who are with and among the poor, the diverse cultures and the various religions of Asia that partly determine their identities and stories as Asians. This reality of Asia has prompted Jonathan Yun-Ka Tan to propose that missio ad (towards) gentes should be understood now according to the new paradigm of missio inter (among or with) gentes.[15] But I hold that missio ad gentes should not eliminated but should rather be done inter gentes. There can never be a genuine mission towards people without it being at the same time mission with people. And genuine mission with people encourages mission towards people. With and among the poor, cultures and religions, Asian Christians are Asian. To and for the poor, cultures and religions, Asian Christians are Christian. The blending of these stories, I believe, can enrich the numerous reflections of the FABC on mission as dialogue with the poor, cultures and religions of Asia.[16]

    3. The Church keeps the memory of Jesus dynamically alive. Among and for other Asians, the Church tells the story of Jesus in the mode of keeping the memory of Jesus alive. Keeping the memory of Jesus does not mean locking it up in some untouchable realm of existence. It is kept when re-appropriated and shared. Trusting in the Holy Spirit and faithful to the memory guaranteed in the Tradition of the Universal Church, the Church in Asia should have the courage to rediscover new ways of telling the story of Jesus, retrieving its vitality and freeing its potentials for the renewal of the Asian realities.

    The story of Jesus, when guarded as a museum piece, fails to be life giving. In Ecclesia in Asia (EAs 19-20, 22) Pope John Paul II poses the challenge of finding the pedagogy that would make the story of Jesus closer to Asian sensibilities, especially to theologians. He is confident that the same story could be told in new perspectives and in the light of new circumstances.

    4. The Story of Jesus provides meaning to the Church's symbols of faith. We said that stories contain the meaning of the spirituality, ethics and convictions embraced by a person. It can happen that the Church can be so identified with some "standardized" or stereotyped symbols of doctrine, ethic and worship that the story that gives impetus to them is forgotten. Then the symbols themselves lose their power to touch people. The symbols of faith must be rooted back to the foundational story of Jesus. For example the breaking of bread at the Eucharist should be seen in many stories of sharing, caring and communion, without which the ritual is deproved of significance. A bishop's ring should spring from a living story of service to the community, without which the ring is reduced to a piece of jewelry. A priest's symbolism as Jesus' presence should spring from a living story of availability to people, without which the priesthood becomes a status rather than a vocation. The symbols of faith must be traceable to the foundational story of Jesus. A return to the story of Jesus would also enable the Church in Asia to correct the impressions of foreign-ness attached to its doctrine, rituals and symbols (EAs 20). Detached from the originating story of Jesus, the symbols of the Church might tell of a story foreign to Jesus Himself.

    5. The Story of Jesus generates the Church. Stories also form a community, as we have already stated. In common experience and memory communities find cohesion and common value. The common memory of the story of Jesus generated by the Holy Spirit should be the fundamental source of unity and identity in faith of the Church in Asia. The Scriptures, the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, the doctrines, the rituals and the whole Tradition are ways of constantly telling the story of Jesus so as to keep His memory the core of the Christian community. But this sense of community is not an excuse to isolate the Church so that it could preserve its identity. The story of Jesus that makes it a Christian community is the same story that the whole community must share. In the paradigm of storytelling, the Church loses its identity if it fails to tell the story that is its very identity. "For whoever would preserve his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it," Jesus says (Mk 8:35-36). It has been the conviction of the FABC that it is the whole Church that is called to mission.[17] The local Churches need to discern and develop the many gifts inspired by the Holy Spirit so that they could contribute to the telling of Jesus' story. The whole Church, the fruit of the story of Jesus, becomes its narrator.

    6. A listening Church tells the Story of Jesus. Stories find their completion in the listener. But stories that are imposed are not listened to. The Church in Asia must trust in the vitality of the story it offers, without any thought of forcing it on others. Pope John Paul II tells us in Ecclesia in Asia that we share the gift of Jesus not to proselytize but out of obedience to the Lord and as an act of service to the peoples of Asia (EAs 20). Let the story speak and touch. Let the Holy Spirit open the hearts and memories of the listeners and invite them to transformation. The multitudes of poor peoples of Asia can find compassion and hope in Jesus' story. The cultures of Asia will resonate with the disturbing challenge to true freedom in Jesus' story. The various religions of Asia will marvel at the respect and appreciation towards those seeking God and genuine holiness in Jesus' story. The Church in Asia is called to humbly allow the Spirit to touch its listeners. As a storyteller of the Holy Spirit, the Church in Asia is to enter the worlds and languages of its listeners and from within them to tell Jesus' story just like at Pentecost.[18] But that means the Church in Asia must be a good listener to the Spirit and to the poor, cultures and religions if it is to speak meaningfully at all. A storytelling Church must be a listening Church.[19]

    7. The Church tells the Story of Jesus in a multiplicity of ways. Stories can be told in a variety of ways. So can the story of Jesus. The Church in Asia, with its rich heritage of storytelling acquired from Asian homes, neighborhoods, religions and traditional wisdoms, can be creative in telling the story of Jesus. The witness of a holy, ethical and upright life is still the best story about Jesus in Asia.[20] The lives of holy men and women and martyrs show how the story of Jesus is inscribed in persons and communities.[21] Men and women who have dedicated themselves to service of neighbor, like Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, are living stories that Asian peoples love to hear. Defense of the poor, work for justice, promotion of life, caring for the sick, educating children and the youth, peacemaking, alleviation of foreign debt and stewardship of creation are some ways of retelling Jesus' story in Asia today.[22] But the Church must also be ready to accept the Holy Spirit's surprising ways of retelling the story of Jesus.

    8. The Church is the voice of suppressed stories. It is a scandal that suppression of stories is a daily occurrence in many parts of Asia. The poor, the girl-child, women, refugees, migrants, the minorities, the indigenous peoples, the victims of different types of domestic, political, ethnic violence and the environment are but a few of those whose stories are suppressed. Many are afraid of the stories they will tell. Or are they afraid to hear the truth and its demands? The Church tells the story of Jesus whose words often fell on deaf ears and who was executed so that he could be prevented from telling His story. So in Asia the Church pays tribute to Him by allowing itself to be the storyteller of the voiceless so that Jesus' voice may be heard in their suppressed stories.

    Conclusion

    Mission as telling of the story of Jesus is already taking place in Asia. We celebrate the many storytellers of the Holy Spirit whose stories, though hidden, have generated new stories in the lives of many Asian brothers and sisters.

    I close by turning to Jesus, the Logos or Story of God and master storyteller of the Reign of God. Let us behold Him. Let us listen to Him. Let us learn from Him. Let us open ourselves to His story and His storytelling. His story is about the Abba He has experienced and the fullness of life Abba offers. His life and identity were rooted in this constant union with Abba. Yet he lived like an ordinary Jew, an ordinary Asian, with family, friends, women, children, foreigners, temple leaders, the teachers of the law, the poor, the sick, the friendless, the sinners and enemies. They were all part of who He was. He gathered a community, a new family of those who would listen to God's word and act on it. He told them stories of Abba and life in Abba. He used their language. His parables were simple yet disarming. He told them about Abba through his meals, healing, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and critique of false religiosity. His story leads him to a supper where he was food and where he washed the feet of his friends. Nothing could stop him from telling his story, even on the cross. His humiliating death should have been the end of His story. But Abba had something more to say, "My Son - He is truly risen." Pouring his gift of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, Jesus entrusts His story to us. I hear Him saying, "Listen to my story. Go and tell my story again where it began, my beloved Asia!"

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    October 17, 2006

    Now Google sets sights on solar system: 10-17-2006

     
    Tuesday, October 17, 2006
    Now Google sets sights on solar system
    All it's searching for this time is a 1.6-megawatt power source that is simply out of this world
    David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer
     
    Google Inc. will mount solar panels on the rooftops and parking lots of its Mountain View headquarters, in what could be the largest such installation in the United States.
     
    The project, announced Monday at the opening of this week's solar industry expo in San Jose, will generate 1.6 megawatts of electricity when finished in the spring.
     
    That's enough to light 1,200 homes. It won't, however, meet all of Google's needs. The Internet search engine will still need to buy 70 percent of the power consumed at the "Googleplex," the company's 1-million-square-foot headquarters.
     
    Google's solar system will, however, be far larger than most. Many businesses have been slapping solar panels on their facilities as a way to help chip away at high energy costs. But those systems rarely top 1 megawatt.
     
    The array at San Francisco's Moscone Center, for example, can generate 675 kilowatts. Panels installed at FedEx's Oakland airport hub provide about 904 kilowatts.
     
    EI Solutions, which designed the Google solar project, says it will be the largest corporate installation in the United States. Google, for its part, sees the project as one more way to lessen the company's impact on the environment. David Radcliffe, Google's vice president of real estate, likened the project to the company's shuttle bus service for employees, which carries about 1,000 people per day.
     
    "I like to think of this as the tip of the iceberg," he said. "If we can dispel the myth that you can't be green and be profitable, that would be great."
     
    Both Google and EI Solutions declined to say how much the project would cost. Starting in November, 9,212 solar panels built by Sharp Electronics will be installed on roofs and carports at the Google headquarters. By cutting the amount of electricity Google must buy off the state's grid, the panels should pay for themselves in five to 10 years, Radcliffe said.
     
    Google's announcement was perhaps the most eye-catching to emerge Monday from the start of Solar Power 2006, the industry's largest annual gathering. Other companies also seized the opportunity to trumpet their latest achievements, in the time-honored tradition of tech expo one-upmanship.
     
    SunPower Corp., a subsidiary of Cypress Semiconductor Corp., unveiled panels that can convert sunlight to electricity more efficiently than older models, generating more power with less surface area.
     
    Fat Spaniel Technologies of San Jose reported that its system for monitoring the performance and output of solar systems in real time will be tested in Canada, Florida and Missouri.
     
    The expo serves as a way for established companies and startups alike to attract attention, customers and venture capital. Some of the companies make solar panels that can track the movement of the sun or use less silicon than their competitors. Others are developing "thin-film" solar cells, made of light, flexible materials. The expo will continue through Friday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
     
    Page C - 1
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    U.S. reaches historic population point: 300,000,000 = 10-17-2006


    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/15778070.htm
    Tue, Oct. 17, 2006
    U.S. reaches historic population point: 300,000,000
    IMMIGRATION DRIVING GROWTH
    By Mike Swift / Mercury News
    Email= swift@mercurynews.com or (408) 271-3648

    When the nation's odometer clicked over to 300,000,000 people at 4:46 this morning, it was a milestone more figurative than literal.

    Someone is born in this country every seven seconds; someone dies every 13 seconds; and one new immigrant arrives every 31 seconds. Put them together, and presto: the United States has added one new resident every 11.25 seconds since the U.S. Census Bureau made the last official count in 2000.
    The actual 300-millionth person could be an Indian software engineer who arrives in Silicon Valley, or an American Indian girl born in Truth or Consequences, N.M.

    Demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution speculated -- partly tongue in cheek -- that No. 300 million would be a Latino boy born in Los Angeles County, based on the fact that Latinos are growing more than other U.S. ethnic groups, that Los Angeles has the biggest numeric increases and the fact that boy babies outnumber girls.

    ``We have no way of knowing where the 300-millionth individual would be,'' said Robert Berenstein, a spokesman for the Census Bureau.

    The where and when are less important than the fact that 300 million represents a historical turning point.

    What's been going on, in a word, is immigration. A growing percentage of Americans are foreign-born. And they are spreading from traditional hot spots such as California to every corner of the United States.

    Without this influx of immigrants, the United States and California, its most populous state, would be following the path of many industrialized countries that are seeing their populations stagnate and age as women have fewer children.

    When the nation marked 200 million people in 1967, only 5 percent of the population was foreign-born. That changed dramatically in the wake of the Immigration and Naturalization Services Act of 1965, when Congress abolished quotas that limited the number of immigrants arriving from certain nations, particularly in Asia.

    About 12 percent of the nation is currently foreign-born -- less than the 15 percent peak in 1910, but a far greater share than in the late '60s. And while it took the nation 52 years to grow from 100 million to 200 million people, the United States reached 300 million in just 39 years. The Census Bureau says it will reach 400 million even more quickly, by 2043.

    In places like Santa Clara County, where about 36 percent of the population was foreign-born in 2005 -- tops in the state along with Los Angeles County -- immigrants are not only fueling population and economic growth, they are starting to reshape their home countries as well. Unlike past generations where immigration was a one-way trip, global jet travel and the Internet have allowed the most successful immigrants to become pollinators of their home countries as well as their adopted home.
    Consider entrepreneurs and venture capitalists Hasan Kamil and his wife, Talat Hasan, of Saratoga, natives of India. They have so many investments and philanthropic interests on both sides of the Pacific that they recently bought a house in New Delhi because they travel back and forth so much.
    ``You have to have lawyers on both sides and accountants on both sides,'' Talat Hasan said.
    Since the 1990s, new arrivals have spread out beyond California to corners of America that had few or no immigrants for much of the 20th century.

    In 1990, almost half the counties in the United States were more than 99 percent native-born, including vast swaths of the South and the Midwest. By 2000, just one-quarter of the nation's counties were devoid of immigrants, as Latinos and other immigrant groups followed work to states like North Carolina, according to an analysis of census data by the Population Reference Bureau, a research group in Washington, D.C.

    Organizations such as the Center for Environment and Population warn that America's immigration-fueled growth, coupled with wasteful patterns of consumption, is causing environmental problems not only for the United States, but for the planet.

    However, in many other industrialized countries without a significant number of immigrants the problem isn't growth, it's contraction.

    In Germany, legislators are worried about their country becoming, in Frey's words, a ``geriatric ghetto.'' They are considering a plan to pay women who leave the workforce to have a child about $2,500 a month. In Spain, there are only half as many children younger than 5 than people in their parents' age group.

    ``You can't go back now and say, `Oops, we forgot to have kids,' '' said Carl Haub, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau. He said those countries are headed for a time when one-third of the population will be older than 65.

    Meanwhile, in the lobby of Census Bureau headquarters in Suitland, Md., the digital ``population clock'' ticked past 299,995,000 Monday afternoon, moving steadily toward 300 million. And a government agency more comfortable dealing with statistics than media hype was coping with a different consequence of immigration -- media interest from across the globe, from Brazil to China.
    ``Man,'' said Stephen Buckner, a Census Bureau public information officer. ``We've been flat-out for the past two days on this.''

    Charts: Population growth (PDF)
    http://www.mercextra.com/multimedia/news/population.pdf

    On the Web: Population Clock
    http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

    Peter S. Lopez ~aka Peta

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