"Music" by Maria Amiri at Afghan-Web.Com |
My patience has been running a little thin with President Obama's foreign policy. That is with troops to Afghanistan and missiles being fired into Pakistan. Certainly since I've done "my homework" on the region (especially via the PBS website) (March '09). I'm going to use the term "Tribalistani" for the people of the whole region, since they respond much more as one community of tribes than as two nations (especially to outsiders).
But I really liked Afghanistan expert, Tamim Ansary's approach. When I asked him (in March at the NW VFP Regional Conference) about NGO's building community amongst the tribes, he seemed to say, if I can summarize it, that he appreciated those few that have hung in there while not taking credit for the U.S. while doing it. He gave the example of Julia Bolz building schools (info & links below). More examples of what works, on Tamim Ansary, his bio, and why I think he should be advising President Obama with a clear-cut, do-able, and exitable strategy for Tribalistan is just below this article (and area maps).
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by Timim Ansary |
President Obama says a big part of the work of the GI's will be doing the community rebuilding and thereby the economic aid (while the righties get to feel good about troops being there). I don't know how well that's going to work, or how much of it is spin, or for the sake of transitioning our military, or transitioning certain corporations (and related addictions to them) in the Middle East, or little of all of that...
Perhaps if we made an effective presentation of the Costs of War - whenever we can stand the process of dealing with such (emotionally overwhelming) facts all at once. I'm speaking of an effective charted assembly of stats and related web-links on a) the killed and injured US soldiers in Iraq, b) on PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury - that's 1 in 5 Iraq Vets !!!), c) divorces and suicides among Iraq veterans, d) how "fast" Iraq veterans get treatment for themselves and/or support for their dependents as related to divorce (before or after), e) stats for Gulf-War Depleted Uranium and how "fast" victims have received truthful notification of their condition, let alone treatment for it. And maybe include projections on those stats for Iraq and Afghanistan based on the aforementioned. |
"Laughing Girls" from Afghan-Web.Com |
ReThink Afghanistan
See the Trailer at U-Tube
videos at ReThink Afghanistan .Com
or view on Twitter |
And then we'd say that what we really don't need in Afghanistan right now, is a bunch of walking (PTSD-loaded) time-bombs putting our worst US faces in the Tribalistani faces. (Or in economically depleted main-street American communities, but that's another essay.) One thing that really puts believers of Islam into a mood, is Christians acting like they are God in their own communities - and that's how some of our behavior hits them. That's a "holy war" message to them, whereas they do respond to what they believe are true acts of God. (I'm suggesting that) A big part of our approach, besides helping them meet their greatest support needs, needs to be around *patience* - letting their own extremists screw up - as all extremists do, revealing their hypocrisy as all extremists do - in spades. Because as long as we keep doing things that their extremists can call out as sacrilege, we might as well be marked, and the Tribalistani's will give way to their extremists. |
"Hunting Bird Man" from Afghan-Web.Com |
"Hug" from Afghan-Web.Com |
Why? It's kind of like our legal system. Here the courts will (officially) allow crooks to be treated like crooks only if we can prove they are according to our legal system. It's not like most Tribalistani's actually like their extremists any more than we like our hypocritical government or corporate "leaders." In either case, fear and greed for a share of the spoils lends to a kind of tolerance or worse, while most look the other direction). The Tribalistani's have to tolerate their extremists -especially during war- until the extremists' hypocrisy becomes sufficiently obvious (and publicized) to those Tribalistani's who can, by their own beliefs, "properly" ostracize them. After that happens enough times, extremist behavior will be restrained in the gun locker and otherwise tolerated only in times of war. Which times, we apparently need to remind ourselves, we are trying to end. For the US in Tribalistan, that means patience and "surgical diplomacy" more than it does "surgical strikes." |
That means we need to learn a deftness of awareness for the customs, needs, and feelings of others that we have not been practicing for at least a decade, and much longer in the Middle-East.
Howard Welsh, VFPCh.92 (4/13/09): "As a general rule compexity, as evidenced by at least 13 different factions ...well known and well entrenched, ...means there is no possiblity of a military solution. Keep in mind that the borders of Afghanistan are arbitrary and open... The so- called "warlords" are actually tribal leaders... The factions: Endogenous to Afghanistan: Hazara, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek, Aimak, Turkmen, Balock, Pashai, Hindki, Nuristani, Brahni, Hindkowan. Among the Pashtun themselves there are several rival factions. Cross- overs from neighboring countries: Iranians, Pakistanis, Chinese (several types)... Among these factions there are seven different endogenous languages with Farsi, Urdu, Tibetan and the Chinese languages externally imposed. Each tribal group has longstanding traditions of succession and will fight to stay intact. A logical approach to the problems in Afghanistan would be to work WITH not AGAINST the Iranians. Pakistanis and Chinese who between them have more than enough military power to contain the Taliban and have no interest in seeing them expand."
I believe we also need to send the message that we will not tolerate war crimes by our own "leaders." And send that both to our youth for the sake of their learning values, and to the world - especially to the Middle-East. Forgiveness need not rule out accountability - both necessarily have their place in all things, IMO. But we cannot tell our kids one thing, and then do another very long without consequences - any longer than we can do that with our world neighbors. |
"Afghani School Kids" from Afghan-Web.Com
Julia Bolz & Building Schools and Hope, Bridges of Understanding:
Tamim Ansary mentioned Julia Bolz's project “Journey with an Afghan School” as an optimal NGO for bringing peace to Afghanistan. Primarily because Julia Bolz is not affiliated with any church or religion. Her work is entirely secular and humanitarian. Together with her American teammates, Julia has built and supplied 15 new schools and repaired 15 others destroyed by war in Afghanistan. Julia on Educating and Empowering the Developing World (mp3) They also provide schools with clean water; textbooks and supplies; provide teacher trainings, libraries and computer centers; and facilitate cultural exchanges. Currently they serve over 25,000 Afghan students. Here's how we can all help. |
"Buzkashi" from Afghan-Web.Com |
And of course, the Islamic extremists have been expressing the tension that has been withheld for so long and which is due to our being disrespectful. All they needed to get away with such terrorism -to the degree that they still found support amongst their peoples [sic] even after "a 911" level attack... All they needed to perfectly meet their needs for such support, in fact, was a blustering cowboy as US president with a semi-covert Neo-Con government backup crew. And they find it hard to believe President Obama is talking "forgiveness" (which apparently means no accountability). |
The "military solution" is just not one, unless we can reframe our current military image as economic aid specialists and infrastructure rebuilders and hypnotize the folks there into forgetting the GI's are outsiders carrying weapons - in what makes our small southern towns look like looming liberal bastions of religious freedom.
Here's where we need to take another look at those stats, including over a million Iraqi deaths, not to mention permanent injuries and PTSD, loss of family members and community, displacement, etc. And we need to make our voices heard by Barrack Obama so that he realizes that we have to realize -to *make real* in this case- a balanced set of values when it comes to accountability, forgiveness, our desire to learn from our mistakes, and making our actions represent all that.
Thanks for listening,
-Chris Pringer (rev.5/12/09) |
"Pray" by Maria Amiri at Afghan-Web.Com |
 
 
More on Tamim Ansary and a "Tribalistan" Policy/Approach
Bio: Tamim Ansary is a native Afghani, whose American mother taught English at the first girl's school in Afghanistan. His dad taught science and literature at Kabul University. He came to America in 1964 with a scholarship for high school. He graduated with honors from Reed College and took to the 60's counterculture wholeheartedly. Besides a having solid writer/editor career, his commentary has been heard on the Bill Moyers show, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, the Opra Winfrey Show, Hardball, and numerous NPR radio stations. This very short bio hardly does him honor, but only serves to put these notes here. His website, complete with list of his books as well as a number of other interesting features, is at http://www.mirtamimansary.com/
Why I think Tamim Ansary should be advising President Obama:
from the Tamim Ansary talk
at (Seattle) TownHall May 14 2009
Tamim said, if I can paraphrase him correctly, that the word "Taliban" should be replaced with "Talibanism" because that was more akin to the actual reality in [Tribalistan]. That is, there were "good"/useful people as well as "bad"/destructive people that believed (to one degree or another) in the *ideas* of the Taliban. eg: If you want to rid the land of destructive ideas, killing "the bad people" was far from the best solution available.
On the more pro-active side of things, Tamim said (in effect, I believe) that he hoped Obama would use the military (so long as it was there) for protecting those support projects that the communities themselves expressed need for. These projects would be the actual objectives to be accomplished by the US presence, and "killing the bad guys" may happen only as necessary to accomplish the objective (and probably would, given the apparent tenacity of resistance to any outside military presence).
I don't remember if Tamim said the military should also try to initiate such community support projects, but I'm assuming he would prefer they be initiated by those who were the best available for the work at hand. Which in some cases the US military might be (?), at least until their NGO betters can get to each situation in question. Military initiation and maintenance of community projects seems to be what President Obama is hinting at. I've yet to hear more real details just yet [5/15/09].
But from this point, I can see a US strategy that would be drawn fairly directly from the above: select as many towns and villages, and networks there-of, as can be supported in their best interests, provide that support on an ongoing basis until the communities are sufficiently self-supportive and/or intra-supportive as a community network, and protect that community/network as necessary until they can be self-protected or protected by Afghan nationals; bring more communities into the those developed networks as resources allow, keep the network of networks growing and expanding as appropriate for long-term stability as can be managed by Afghan national government authorities. Assist in the stabilization of the later to the degree that it supports a true Afghan autonomy. Set goals for all the aforementioned such that the US military involvement has a stopping point as regards it's interaction and deployment. Provide motivation and assistance as needed for NGO's taking over community/network support roles where this will serve the higher good of Afghanistan.
Extending this to the areas that are officially parts of Pakistan should be far less complicated (in the long run certainly) than any military strategy that we've heard about so far.
I'm not calling all this simple, nor is it as non-violent and peace-oriented as I'd prefer. But given where we already are (Spring 2009), not to mention where we most apparently are already going, the above can be a strategy that, for starters, may be sufficiently clear-cut, do-able, *and exitable* for the US in "Tribalistan."
[-cp, 5/15/09; original article with all addendums on the "Obama Momentum" page]
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Updates from Re-Think Afghanistan
Robert Greenwald's great video documentaries include:
 Worse Than Vietnam? [June 2010] The Afghanistan War is now the longest war in U.S. history. As Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg says in our new video, "It was always a bad year to get out of Vietnam." We need to make sure the same doesn't happen with Afghanistan.
We're spending $1 million per troop, per year, and we've already lost 1,000 people in Afghanistan. "Please donate today, and watch our latest video showing why we need to end this war next year." Rethink Afghanistan and partners at TrueMajority.org plan to buy a full-page in Politico telling Congress and the President that we want our combat troops out of Afghanistan by December 2011.
Tax Day: Have You Paid For The War Today? Tax Day in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Many are still out of work. Times are tough. People are hurting. We don’t have hundreds of billions of dollars to waste, but we are wasting them anyway--on the Afghanistan war.
Part Six from Re-Think Afghanistan brings you three former high-ranking CIA agents explaining why there is no "victory" to be won in Afghanistan. Watch part six in its entirety online for free.
Part Five questions the assumption that war can liberate Afghan women. Watch part five in its entirety online for free.
Part Four examines the civilian casualties caused by recent U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan. Watch part four in it's entirety online for free, or watch the trailer.
Part Three focuses on the staggering costs of the war, which could easily exceed $1 trillion. Watch part three in its entirety online for free, or watch the trailer.
Part Two looks at how the war could further destabilize a nuclear-armed Pakistan. Watch part two in its entirety online for free, or watch the trailer.
Part One focuses on what military escalation will achieve in Afghanistan. Watch part one in it's entirety online for free, or watch the trailer.
Other Updates
Feingold, McGovern, Jones Introduce Bill to End Afghanistan War [Apr 15, 2010] Introduced legislation that - if it attracts enough support - could end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, and bring the troops home. Link to Action Letter
"Fwd: Afghanistan Policy - 'UnPrepared'" a collection of chosen short postings from different perspectives - which strikes me as very useful for illuminating the current debate. [Nov'09]
"Fwd: Summarys & Links McChrystal, Obama, Afghanistan Policy precipitates 'crisis'" - chronological assembly of 3 weeks of those originally posted on the subject by Mark Jensen of United for Peace of Pierce County. [Nov'09]
More postings may be found at the PolyPsy List Archives (w/great search engine there)
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Peace Flag Color Guard in March through Seattle, 3 Veterans for Peace in full camo dress, incl. yours truly, 3/21/10; Photo/Permission by Cliff Wells
Peace Flag Color Guard in March through Pike Place Market, Seattle, 3/21/10; Photo/Permission by Cliff Wells |
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These two versions of the "Bring Our Kids/Troops Home Whole" bumpersticker were inspired by the Peace Sign'ed American Flag (photos of the "Peace Flag Honor Guard" further below), and of course, the continuing need to bring our kids/troops home "Whole."
Printable PDFs are available with Full (8.5x11) page(s) of Three (3) B-stickers (each pdf about 3.3 MB in file size):
 bumper-sticker WITHOUT VFP Logo
bumper-sticker WITH VFP Logo
To download you can right click on below link(s) and then click "save as", if you don't want to open the pdf in your browser)
 The Original version was created in Jan'04 (shown just to the left) with the logo for Veterans for Peace Chapter 92 over a star-field from the American Flag. EG: we (psychologically astute vets) knew then that the soldiers were being trained differently, and the repeated tour-rotation policy was already being indicated, and how that relates to PTSD.
And now (Spring 2010) we find already that more vets of Iraq-Afghanistan have committed suicide than have been killed in combat. Compare this to the 30+ yrs it took for Viet Nam vets to reach that statistic. I repeat here the resource that I put at the vUSPeace Academy pages in 2004, and which has since been confirmed to be applicable for/with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans:
Co-Counseling or Re-Evaluation Counseling (REC) - because Listening Can be healing
While Harvey Jackins, the originator, has passed on, Re-Evaluation Counseling has continued to develop and mature
into a most valuable, while relatively easy to learn, healing methodology).
For more information, you might use these KEYWORDS in your search engine: Co-Counseling, Re-Evaluation Counseling, Harvey Jackins.
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facebook Postings
Below is a sample facebook posting. The links WORK for the noted articles by Karen Vlahos, as well as for most of the fcbk tabs, the Share link, etc.
(Usually these postings are not repeated via the Poly-Psy Mailing List.)
At Right is a WORKING mock-up of my fcbk *NOTES* block [May'10].
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My Comment on the above facebook Posting [At my fcbk page, 6-07-10]
[Quoting from the article:] "The number of Guard and reserves as a percentage of the total force in Iraq and Afghanistan has fluctuated over the years. Official estimates in 2005 were at 28 percent; it was about 7 percent in Iraq and 15 percent in Afghanistan at the end of 2008. Manski estimates it’s closer to one-third today. ..."
Remember the report on increased military sign-ups? And we were wondering where our priorities went (and other political psych-outs)... Well, check these stats (from Karen Vlahos's article):
"So here is the situation. The secretary of defense ordered, and Congress authorized, an expansion in the size of the Army. But the Army reduced the recruitment goal – and reduced the retention goal. The size of the Army is in fact shrinking. It may look as if it’s growing – the Pentagon report gives the impression it’s growing – but it’s growing only in comparison with the officially set goals."
Ahhhhhhh! Karl Rove & students are still at work in the smoke & mirrors factory, not to mention the Project for a New American Century [PNAC] (just in case we forgot).
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Body-Mind Integration
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Christopher Pringer
Reiki Master, Ordained Minister
Chalice Bridging Ministries
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ABOUT THE SYMBOLIC ART: The symbols for the "Chalice" - or Holy Grail - that I often use are drawn essentially from ancient archetypes - including the symbol(s) composing what is known as "The Star of David," which symbols actually pre-date(s) the Jewish faith by many centuries or more. They all have their own rich meanings as related to the spiritual dilemma or paradox, balancing or synthesis of qualities (such as Yin & Yang), and healing transformation. Here, the Chalice is essentially a "cauldron" for the balancing and integrating of Humanity with the Divine - individually and communally. The "Chalice-Star" over the three traveling magi is used in my Solstice or Christmas Card design to represent our quest - in this earthly dimension of body, mind, and spirit - for the inner-most Source of one's spirit and faith -- whether that would be the Inner Christ, Inner Buddha, Inner Mohammed, or the Divine Mother's Spirit connecting All Life, etc.
That disclaimer said, you may find out the actual origins of my relationship with these archetypes at Home Page for Body-Mind-Chalice Integration (and related artwork). If you feel well served by what you found here, I would certainly appreciate your support. Although there is virtually 3 large books (and probably over a thousand hours) worth of written material and artwork here, nothing has ever been sold at this site (although I do promote my therapy practice and desktop publishing skills).
In any case, IF YOU FEEL YOU HAVE BENEFITED BY YOUR VISIT TO THIS SITE AND WOULD LIKE TO SUPPORT THE WORK HERE (which support this site may depend on soon), please check out the Chalice Bridging Ministries / PolyPsyArts Support System.
REPRODUCTION: I welcome my writing/artwork being reproduced, provided that it is in it's original and complete form (or an editing or excerpt by agreement with the author), and contact info are intact and readable ("Chris Pringer, chrispringer@chalicebridge.com, www.chalicebridge.com"), and so long as the following conditions are applied:
a) Hardcopy reproduction is ok so long as it is for personal or non-profit organizational use only; b) Distribution and posting on web pages, blogs, and forums with my permission (mostly because I want to know where it's been put, and I'd be most honored to be asked). c) Any distribution of my writings or artwork must be w/o charge unless with prior agreement in writing with the author. d) The only exception to that regards the World Healing Prayers, which I encourage people to make all the copies they think will be used effectively without obligation to get my permission or even contact me. By the way, I have yet to ever sell -or give permission for anyone else to sell- any of my artwork on E-Bay or anywhere else. [noted 12'07 ...10'09]
DISCLAIMER: None of my writing or artwork is intended to be, to replace, or discourage the appropriate use of, medical attention and/or treatment, but as educationally informative for the purpose of overall health enhancement and preventative maintenance. So far as I know, I have not quoted any other person without saying so. I have emulated a number of writers and teachers, so I wouldn't be surprised if many of my statements have similar words and meanings as they.
AUTHORSHIP: Unless otherwise noted under the titles, all essays, artwork, prayers, pages at this site and sub-directories (as at my previous site at AOL), and with exception of some of the solid color and cloudy-sky color backgrounds and logo/headers for others' sites as noted) has been composed, rendered, and/or web-authored © by myself, Christopher Pringer, practitioner in Body-Mind-Energy Integration Therapies since 1984, ordained minister (Chalice-Bridging Ministries) since 1987, web editor for vUSPA (virtual US Peace Academy), member of Veteran's for Peace, ch.92 and of the "Seattle 12" of SNOW (Seattle Non-Violent Opponents of War). Most of the personal health-oriented essays at this site were written in the early 90's, as compared to the social/political/peace oriented pages since 1997. |
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Transition Mandala w/ Transforming Heart Overlay - cp, 2008
"Chalice Forming 3D w/Subtle 3DPi-Chalice" © Chris Pringer 2009 [Description]
"Pragmatic Idealism"
for getting "from here to there"
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Commentary/Feedback
is MOST APPRECIATED
via the Guest Book or directly via Chaliser@iinet.com. I Hope you have found this page useful. Please let me know if it (or any parts of it, or other pages here) do not make sense to you, or don't seem consistent, etc. Thank you. --Chris Pringer |
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Click here to see the
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as well as "How and Why this Site Is Different - A study in Cross-Discipline Knowledge Sharing and Utilization." About the critical challenge of, and our potential for, optimal integration of diverse perspectives, talents, and capabilities - eg: *Chalice-Bridging* on the world level. Also: how that relates to personal, community, and planetary healing. (includes full-size graphic) |
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Professional Bio & Training
Chris by Artwork
(a 2005 photo over 2009 artwork)
Chris at Massage Chair, 2005,
w/Beard in 2001 and 1984
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I began my studies in multi-level self-healing when in the service, in Thailand in the Winter of '73. The focus then was on self-help psychology, consciousness, and eastern and western mystical perspectives. This continued through my university studies in Norman, OK '74-'79. 1980 took me into naturopathic studies, primarily nutrition and herbology when I lived in Oklahoma City. Not seeing the naturopathic doctor route as affordable at the time, I found direction via a five-evening massage course, Fall '83. That led to a six month professional practice, followed up with the training in Sante Fe, NM, '84-'85 (detailed in my on-line brochure).
Since then I have practiced massage and/or healing facilitation for others, initially in Santa Fe, NM (during/after my training), then San Louis Obispo, CA, and Seattle, WA. This includes exploring personal challenges and self-healing methodology. A session may include various energy-body-work modalities, Body/Energy-Awareness based Preventative Health Maintenance Instruction, or only Reiki or relaxation work in total silence. A client chooses based on whatever stress, pain, or concerns are present at that session. A client may request a "Body Pattern Reading," as well as various massage/bodywork therapies, all of which techniques are listed & described in the Body-Mind Integration Therapies Brochure. Individual, program, and 3-6 week interval-based rates are available.
My professional interests have primarily centered in three areas:
1) Body-Centered Psycho-Spiritual Process (as in "Hakomi" style of) counseling and bodywork, including as assessing an individual for the most efficient means of addressing connective tissue injury, short and long term, and the most efficient application of the results of that assessment (on physical and/or emotional levels);
My training includes
over 1370 hours of classes and practicum, including with the New Mexico Academy of Massage and Advanced Healing Arts in Santa Fe, NM (1984-85), and with various accredited bodywork and therapy workshops (`86-present), as well as 100 hours training with the Alchemical Hypnotherapy Institute (1989), over 100 hrs apprenticeship with healing practitioner Robert "Mitra" (`85-`86), 150 hours apprenticeship with Silena Heron in Herbal Studies (`83-`84), Training, Certification, & Empowerment as Reiki Master (3rd Degree Johrei, 1991; Kundalini Reiki to 9th Level w/Gtunmo & Devic Template, 2004). For the detailed version my training, you may go to the latter half of the Body-Mind Integration Therapies Brochure. Which also includes (and relates context for) links to essays elaborating on aspects of imbalance and injury, assessment, and healing.
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