Des microbes dans la glace de l'Arctique suggèrent la présence de vie sur Mars (2005-oct-06)
         OSLO (AP) - La découverte de microbes vivants dans une glace peut-être vieille d'un million d'années, dans un archipel lointain de l'Océan Arctique, soutient la théorie de la présence de vie sur les pôles gelés de la planète Mars, ont annoncé mardi des scientifiques norvégiens. Une équipe internationale de chercheurs a effectué des forages sur la calotte glaciaire des îles Spitzberg (Norvège), à l'emplacement du volcan éteint Sverrefjell. C'est selon eux le seul endroit sur Terre où l'on peut trouver des cristaux de magnétite, des minéraux semblables à ceux qui avaient été trouvés sur un météorite provenant de Mars et découvert dans l'Antarctique en 1996.
         "Nous avons découvert une oasis microbiologique dans des carottes de glace bleue sur les Spitzberg. C'est un milieu extrêmement dur, dans lequel nous ne nous attendions pas à trouver de la vie", a déclaré le responsable de l'Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition, Hans Amundsen, de l'université d'Oslo. "De telles carottes volcaniques remplies de glace peuvent probablement être trouvées sur Mars aussi, et pourraient accueillir la vie sur la planète", a estimé Andrew Steele, le responsable scientifique américain de l'expédition, qui a entamé ses recherches en 2003 sur le Sverrefjell, dont l'éruption a transpercé la calotte glaciaire il y a un million d'années.
         Des sondes spatiales envoyées sur Mars par la NASA et par l'Agence spatiale européenne ont prouvé la présence d'eau gelée sur les pôles de la planète rouge. L'eau est une condition importante à l'apparition d'organismes vivants, mais de nombreux scientifiques estiment que Mars est actuellement trop froide pour accueillir la vie, ce que les découvertes de l'équipe d'Hans Amundsen pourrait contredire. Notre planète voisine partage avec les Spitzberg un permafrost (sol gelé tout au long de l'année), la présence de volcans et peut-être de sources chaudes dont l'eau transperce la surface gelée, a affirmé l'équipe. [Sympatico.Msn.ca]

The Antebuddha... or the Antechrist ? (2005-Oct-01)
Cambodian villagers beat suspected robber to death

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - About 100 people from five villages in central Cambodia spent seven hours chasing down a suspected thief that they later beat to death with sticks and stones, police said Thursday. The villagers Monday attacked 19-year-old Bou Soben, who has long been accused of stealing locals' motorcycles and money. He spent time in prison last year for theft, said Touch Naroth, police chief of Kampong Chhnang province. They pursued him through rice fields and the jungle after his latest alleged crime: he was accused of attacking his uncle two weeks ago, stealing the man's motorcycle and later selling it, Touch Naroth said. "We really regret that the villagers killed this (man)," he said, adding that authorities found out too late about the incident to save him. No villagers were charged in the attack.

         Vigilante attacks against suspected criminals are common in Cambodia. Human rights advocates have said people often take justice into their own hands because of weak and corrupt law enforcement. Police often arrive too late to rescue the mobs' victims. [Copyright 2005 The Associated Press]

           N.P. : This happened at the beginning of Pchum Ben, one of the holiest Cambodian Buddhist celebrations : the holidays of the Deaths. These peasants (100 from 5 villages!) are supposed to be more Buddhist than the citydwellers. Yet they forgot the teaching of Buddha and of God (thou shall not murder) and obeyed only their evil impulse of hatred and vengeance. The Antebuddha (or the Antechrist) may not be a person but a multitude!
          Till now no statement whatsoever has come from the Cambodia Buddhist clergy hierarchy as regard to this murder.

Simon Wiesenthal, le "chasseur" de nazis, est mort (2005-sep-20)          Le Monde : Simon Wiesenthal est mort, mardi 19 septembre, à Vienne, à l'âge de 96 ans, a annoncé le centre qui porte son nom sur son site Internet. Toute sa vie durant, il a traqué des criminels nazis et permis d'en traduire plus d'un millier en justice, parmi lesquels Adolf Eichmann, responsable zélé de "la solution finale du problème juif". "Ce que j'ai fait, c'est à la fois pour les jeunes et pour ceux qui sont morts, car j'ai survécu et ce privilège implique un devoir", disait ce rescapé des camps d'extermination. Pour ce faire, il a créé après la seconde guerre mondiale un centre d'information sur les criminels nazis, point de départ de la traque des bourreaux.

REUTERS/HEINZ-PETER BADER

         Simon Wiesenthal est né le 31 décembre 1908 à Buczacz, en Galicie, province de l'Empire austro-hongrois aujourd'hui polonaise, qu'il doit quitter à 7 ans, à l'arrivée des cosaques. Il étudie ensuite l'architecture à Lemberg, ville de Galicie devenue soviétique en 1945, puis à Prague. L'arrivée des troupes hitlériennes bouleverse sa vie. Arrêté en 1941, il est interné dans cinq camps d'extermination, dont Buchenwald et Mauthausen, d'où il sortira le 5 mai 1945.
           DÉBUSQUER LES BOURREAUX SOUS LEUR NOUVEAU MASQUE
         Il s'établit alors à Linz (Autriche) et, ironie du sort, à quelques mètres seulement de la famille d'Adolf Eichmann. Il retrouvera sa piste après des années de traque, et les services secrets israéliens l'enlèveront à Buenos Aires en 1960. En 1947, il fonde à Linz, à l'ouest de Vienne, un centre de documentation chargé de collecter des informations sur la vie des juifs et leurs tortionnaires. En 1961, c'est en partie grâce au travail du centre qu'Adolf Eichmann peut être traduit en justice, comme quelque 1 100 criminels nazis.
         Après l'exécution d'Eichmann en Israël, le 31 mai 1962, Simon Wiesenthal transfère à Vienne ce centre qui entend également lutter contre l'antisémitisme et toutes les formes de préjugés et de révisionnisme car, souligne son fondateur, "les assassins de la mémoire préparent les conditions aux meurtres de demain". Dans Justice n'est pas vengeance, son autobiographie publiée en 1989, le "chasseur de nazis" s'est attaché à montrer comment, inlassablement, il a traqué, débusqué les bourreaux sous leurs nouveaux masques, leurs nouvelles identités, dans le monde entier. Une seule fois, raconte-t-il, il a eu envie de sortir du cadre de la légalité, d'appliquer la loi du talion en découvrant dans les papiers d'un nazi la photo d'un enfant juif pendu par les testicules.
         Mais celui qui a voulu "vivre pour les morts" a aussi vécu pour les vivants, en particulier les réfugiés des pays de l'Est. Quelque huit mille personnes ont transité par les centres qu'il a créés pour les accueillir, avant d'émigrer vers les Etats-Unis principalement. Simon Wiesenthal, lauréat de nombreux prix, avait aussi ses détracteurs. Ceux-ci l'accusèrent ainsi d'avoir entravé la recherche et la traduction en justice de criminels de guerre, notamment l'ex-président autrichien et secrétaire général de l'ONU Kurt Waldheim. Simon Wiesenthal avait rétorqué qu'il s'était donné pour but de chasser des criminels de guerre et que Kurt Waldheim, critiqué pour son passé dans l'armée hitlérienne, n'en était pas un.
           Avec AFP

C A M B O D I A MONK C O N G R E S S 14-Sep-05

           N.P. : Communiqué officiel : "Notre religion est en pleine croissance. Il y a de plus en plus de pagodes, de plus en plus de bonzes." (sic!)      [Photos Radio Free Asia et Koh Santepheap]

         koksa...@yahoo.com : The Congress may need to consider agendas with serious steps in reformation from top to bottom in order to re-instill the religious morality and ethical responsibility. The reformation in religion will alleviate communal poverty and fraudulency as a whole. Remarkably unacceptable is that Buddhist Religion in Cambodia uses no profound Khmer literacy but foreign languages that did no good to the majority comprehension. It reminds me -- everytime I heard the monks recited Sri Lankan verses of Pali or other abandoned language Sanskrit -- that those men were taught to uplift foreign superiority and influences rather than their own origins ; yet people blindly accepted without any question.
         Some of the men whom I personally knew and who had been monks admitted they still did not comprehend what they used to chant daily is all about. It appears Cambodia religion practices oblige no reciprocation as in economic principles. Temples overpopulated with monks are serving not assets but societal liability. I have been around and grown in Buddhist environment from childhood to date but I am still not convinced Cambodia Buddhism branch impacted something of outside but its own with very questionable practices. That broke the very Khmer heart as we strive to re-evaluate and re-invigorate our native pride and dignity.
         Population wise Cambodia has approximately 11 millions with two archpatriarchs with glamorous temples. Cambodia has its own incognito religious hierarchy without other nations' recognition/affiliation, which in itself is a counterproductive and an isolated fiefdom. Cambodia is the poorest country in the region and yet it has more religious men in temple than its viable armed forces. These men (at least 70%) are in idle mode periodically and contribute none to the feeding system (deficit). Typically the poorer commune has the largest number of monks that required more buildings and sustenance (deficit). Cambodia Buddhism practices inflating quantity rather than quality thus the needs to maintain infrastructures were un-proportional (deficit). Cambodia has created an immune society with privileges but less active and productive for the greater community good (deficit).
         It is my sincere concern that it may be soon a downfall of society as a whole in allowing such societal incompetency and burden to sustain itself out of religious devotees' poverty. This is a non-apologetic suggestion which the monk congress should consider in order to help alleviate Cambodia poverty and -- needless to say -- corruption and fraud. It is a moral and spiritual duty for the monks who also are citizens to, at least, do for the society. [Camdisc]

Buddha, the feminist (2005-Sep-04)
           "Kao-Ly Yang" <k...@sbcglobal.net> : Hi, Bonjour;
           Here is certainly one of the most interesting article I ever read about Buddha and Buddhism. 2,500 years ago, the Lord Buddha said: "Many women are superior to men. Geniuses as well. They give birth to male children, many of whom become kings".
           Voici certainement un très intéressant article que j'ai lu avec admiration sur le Boudha et le Boudhisme. Il y a 2500 ans déjà, le Bouddha a dit: "Beaucoup de femmes sont supérieures aux hommes. Des génies aussi. Elles donnent naissance à des enfants males dont certains sont devenus rois". [Soc.Culture.Cambodia]

           Buddha, the feminist , by Chandrabhan Pasad
         http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&fi...

         According to a UNICEF study conducted in 1984 in Mumbai, out of 8,000 sex determination cases, where fetuses were terminated, 7,999 were of females. According to another study, in Jaipur alone, about 3,500 female fetuses are terminated annually. Sita Agrawal in her groundbreaking work The Vedic Obliteration establishes that 50 million women have been killed in the past century. The sex determination technology which has now reached every nook and corner of small towns in North-West India is witnessing female infanticide.
         We all live in the man's world, patriarchy running deep in our blood. Dalits are increasingly turning to Buddhism, a religion based on reason and basic human wisdom, and hence a greater need to understand Lord Buddha. Buddhism is not so much about ritualism it is more about the intellectualism. Once when Lord Buddha was in Shravasti for a short stay, Kosal's king Prasanjit called on him. While they were in deep conversation, a messenger arrived from Kosal with an urgent message - that Queen Mallika Devi had delivered a girl child. The king was visibly upset. Reading the King's body language, Buddha gave him dhamopdesh: "Many women are superior to men. Geniuses as well. They give birth to male children, many of whom become kings".
         In other words, Buddha was reminding the King that he himself was born out of a woman. In Buddha's philosophy men and women depend on each other and that must reflect in mutual recognition and respect. Buddha, on this occasion, was siding with women. A fact that I was unaware of even though I am an avid reader. It was brought to me when I read Anand Shrikrishna's latest book Gautam Buddha and His Updesh. As a leader-scholar of Buddhism, Shrikrisna is reviving the way Babasaheb Ambedkar had perceived the great philosophy of Buddhism. Any philosophy, be it religious, or political, stands to serve its adherents, not vice versa. In the case of religion, the moment the adherents put themselves at the service of their faith, they land up doing it disservice. They tend to imbibe ritualism rather than the rationale. In the case of modern day Dalits embracing Buddhism, the tendency is to deviate from the path shown by Buddha and Ambedkar.
         Ritualism is being preferred over the intellectual aspect of Buddhism. By deploying his scholarly insight, Shrikrishna has brought out Buddhism as a service to humanity. The way his book explores Buddha's approach on the gender question, it makes the Lord the first feminist of history. Buddha established an independent bhikkhuni sangha or, Sangha of Buddhist nuns. The Buddhist scholar-nuns wrote Therugatha, deconstructing the Vedic notions of emancipation, re-birth and salvation. A host of women in the Buddhist circle explored their genius and rose to greater heights in realm of philosophy, religion, social work, and humanism than their male counterparts. Names such as Sumangal Mata, Gautami, Amrapali, Princess Khema and Vasanti make Buddhism the most gender-correct religion.
         One must always remember, as Anand Shrikrishna reminds us, that Buddha held this opinion on women 2,500 years ago when under the Vedic system women were considered vehicles of all that was evil in the world. The present day Buddhists, therefore, should be diehard feminists. Emancipating themselves from patriarchy would be first step in that direction.
         Impact: The Union Government has decided to restore Iyothee Thass' name to The National Centre for Siddha Research in Chennai. Ravikumar, the Pondichery-based Dalit theorist had raised his concern in this column dated August 28, 2005, over deletion of the Dalit hero's name from the proposed institution.

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