Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Tibetan Dance"

This version of a live rendition of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Tibetan Dance" is from the blowout Heartbeat Tour, recorded February 6, 1992 at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, which has become my favorite concert of secular music. But I'd overlooked that one song until now, when I guess the YouTube music gods decided they'd heard enough of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's version of "Allah Hoo" for one night  (I do tend to play that qawwali a lot) and deposited "Tibetan Dance'" in the YouTube sidebar.

    
The Heartbeat version was uploaded to YouTube by "jack19998" on November 30, 2009. Thanks to him!  

The same song was recorded live in 1988 at another great Sakamoto playdate, the Neo Geo concert ni New York City. This version features a trio of Okinawan singers -- the same ones who brought down the house with the show-stopping "Neo Geo" song at that same concert, which I've already featured here. There's also a Western singer contributing to the "Tibetan Dance" set in New York, and there are lyrics with this version, whereas the Heartbeat Tour substitutes scat singing for lyrics. 

The Neo Geo concert version of "Tibetan Dance" was uploaded to YouTube on October 13, 2008 by Nightwalk -- many thanks.

Someone in the comment section, "Dominickaroo97," wrote out the lyrics, what he could understand of them:

"these skies are neon
dressed in a smile the music danceshigh blue skies before methey fill my eyes with love and joy inside look inside you what did I findthe east and west combined"yeah that's all I have

There are complaints from a few listeners at YouTube that "Tibetan Dance" has nothing whatsoever to do with Tibetan music or dance. The replies from other commenters are generally patient and wise; one commenter, "Razor Edge, noted in answer:

Like much of Sakamoto's music, this song is a fusion of Tibetan music with other traditions, such as Okinawan music (i.e. those female singers are Okinawan folk musicians). The titles for some of his songs are partially misnomers as they only represent one part of the song. For example, his 1989 song "Calling From Tokyo" sounds more like a fusion of Okinawan, African, Indian and Arabic music rather than Tokyo music.

Indeed. But my answer would be to ask whether the complainers had ever tried doing a Tibetan folk dance to the sounds of "Tibetan Dance."

[smiling] I don't think Tibetan dancers would have any trouble keeping up.

And if you imagine yourself on a very, very high mountain under a cloudless blue Tibetan sky, clapping and dancing to the riotously cheery "Tibetan Dance" you'll reflect, I think, the mood and meaning of the song. Life is a vale of suffering but sometimes, just sometimes, we stand at the peak and realize there's nothing to do but celebrate existence.

"these skies are neon 
dressed in a smile the music dances
high blue skies before me"

********* 

SPIEGEL reaching its gag limit on anti-Assad smear campaigns?

May 17 Moon of Alabama:

... The U. S. State Department claim that Syria built a crematorium inside a prison to burn executed prisoners saw no follow-up. But it had consequences. The presented "evidence" was too thin to make it believable. Even the staunchly anti-Syrian [German newsmagazine] SPIEGEL doubted it: USA bleiben Beweise für Assads Leichenöfen schuldig. Translated: "U.S. fails to give evidence for Assad crematorium claims."

The State Department claim was presented in a special news conference by Stuart Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. A day later Jones announced that he would retire:

Jones, 57, told colleagues the decision was his own and that he had not been pushed out or asked to leave the department.

Ahem. Sure. Maybe. Or Secretary of State Rex Tillerson disliked the lame propaganda shows Jones presented under the official State Department seal.

[...]

B at Moon of Alabama speculated on May 16 that the State Department's insinuation about the crematorium "may be propaganda preparation for a wider war on Syria."

That could be, but I think the immediate goal of the accusation is to pressure Russia to end support for Assad. The idea is that the crematorium is another horrifying reason Putin has to stop helping such a monster before Russia's reputation on the world stage is destroyed.  

Such an argument would studiously overlook that Putin himself has been portrayed as a monster by the same kind of smear campaigns used against Assad. And it would depend on the Kremlin ignoring the fact that the neither the U.S. nor any of its European allies have been inclined to scale back their cold war against Russia, no matter how much cooperation the Kremlin has offered them.

As to the veracity of the crematorium story:  

May 16 Moon of Alabama:

... Back in February Amnesty International (which promotes NATO interventions) issued a sensational report about alleged killings in Syrian prisons. As we wrote at that time:

A new Amnesty International report claims that the Syrian government hanged between 5,000 and 13,000 prisoners in a military prison in Syria. The evidence for that claim is flimsy, based on hearsay of anonymous people outside of Syria. The numbers themselves are extrapolations that no scientist or court would ever accept. It is tabloid reporting and fiction-style writing from its title "Human Slaughterhouse" down to the last paragraph.

The U.S. State Department has now reused that fake report and adds wrongly-interpreted satellite pictures to further slander the Syrian government:

US: Syria is burning bodies to hide proof of mass killings

In its latest accusations of Syrian abuses, the State Department said it believed about 50 detainees each day are being hanged at Saydnaya military prison, about 45 minutes north of Damascus. Many of the bodies are then burned in the crematorium "to cover up the extent of mass murders taking place," said Stuart Jones, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, accusing Assad's government of sinking "to a new level of depravity."

The department released commercial satellite photographs showing what it described as a building in the prison complex that was modified to support the crematorium. The photographs, taken over the course of several years, beginning in 2013, do not prove the building is a crematorium, but show construction consistent with such use.

If there was a crematorium being built in the Saydnaya prison how is it that none of the Amnesty witnesses said so in the recent Amnesty report? These witnesses, Amnesty claims, have been in that prison and observed all kind of details. They claim that any dead were buried in mass graves.

A Dutch military expert looks at the commercial satellite pictures and the interpretation State provided and asks:

Ian Grant‏ @Gjoene - 6:02 PM - 15 May 2017

Is this a joke @StateDept? Even before 27 Aug '13 these "vents" were present. See included Terraserver footage (03 april '13) #Sednaya

Another reconnaissance specialist expands on that:

Aldin Abazović @CT_operative - 5:33 PM - 15 May 2017

Pictures that allegedly show crematorium of Saidnaya prison, #Damascus #Syria. As much as I hate to get involved into this matter, these #1 [and] #2 images prove nothing at all. This building could be simple boiler/heating room for the prison compound. Unless you visit there is no
#3 way to prove anything. It's easy to manipulate with satellite imagery. You just put the right label on [a] thing and there you have it
#4 I can't confirm what the particular part of prison is nor for what it's used.

The State Department has no evidence for its "crematorium claim" but the Amnesty report, which says nothing about a crematorium at the prison, and some satellite pictures that do not show what the State Department claims. It is throwing dirt at the Syrian government in the hope that some of it will stick. 

This release of nothing will create some headlines in "western" outrage publications. It may be propaganda preparation for a wider war on Syria.

[...]

********

The most concrete part of an "Arab NATO" is $350 billion in US arms sales

"The most concrete part of the [Arab NATO] idea is a mammoth U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia that Trump will also announce in Riyadh. Final details are still being worked out, but officials said the package will include between $98 billion and $128 billion in arms sales. Over 10 years, total sales could reach $350 billion."

Comment on the following report is from "AARRA," which from the footnote looks as if it could have been taken in part from a Wikipedia article:

An "Arab NATO" already exists and has historically proven itself useless. The Joint Defense Council of the Arab League was established in 1950 to coordinate the joint defense of the Arab League member states. The Arab League voted in 2007 to reactivate the their joint defense arrangement and establish a peacekeeping force to deploy in South Lebanon, Darfur, Iraq, and other hot spots. It's still useless.

 At a 2015 summit in Egypt, member nations agreed in principle to form a joint military force.[39]

Trump to unveil plans for an ‘Arab NATO’ in Saudi Arabia

By Josh Rogin

May 17 - 6:00 AM EDT

The Washington Post

When President Trump arrives in Riyadh this week, he will lay out his vision for a new regional security architecture White House officials call an “Arab NATO,” to guide the fight against terrorism and push back against Iran. As a cornerstone of the plan, Trump will also announce one of the largest arms-sales deals in history.

Behind the scenes, the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia have been conducting extensive negotiations, led by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The discussions began shortly after the presidential election, when Mohammed, known in Washington as “MBS,” sent a delegation to meet with Kushner and other Trump officials at Trump Tower.

After years of disillusionment with the Obama administration, the Saudi leadership was eager to do business. “They were willing to make a bet on Trump and on America,” a senior White House official said.

In that meeting and during a follow-up meeting three weeks later, the Saudis proposed a broad elevation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship and proposed various projects to increase security cooperation, economic cooperation and investment, White House officials said. The Trump team gave the Saudis a list of Trump priorities, calling on the kingdom to step up actions to combat radical Islamic extremism, intensify the fight against the Islamic State and share the burden of regional security.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has tasked various government agencies to develop a series of announcements Trump will make this weekend. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is now heavily involved. One main objective is to put forth a framework and basic principles for a unified Sunni coalition of countries, which would set the stage for a more formal NATO-like organizational structure down the line.

“We all have the same enemy and we all want the same thing,” the official said. “What this trip hopefully will do is just change the environment.”

The idea of an “Arab NATO” has been bandied about for years — and has always had strong Saudi support — but until now was never openly endorsed by the U.S. government. Officials said the concept fits three major tenets of Trump’s “America First” foreign-policy frame: asserting more American leadership in the region, shifting the financial burden of security to allies and providing for U.S. jobs at home (through the massive arms sales).

The president is looking for an answer to the question of how the United States can eventually hand over security responsibility in the region to the countries that are there, officials said.

Reports from the region about early discussions of the project said that in addition to Saudi Arabia, initial participants in the coalition would include the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan, with the United States playing an organizing and support role while staying outside the alliance.

The White House admits that many of the details of how the new alliance will operate remain to be worked out. The countries of the region harbor deep historical grievances and don’t agree on key issues, including the way forward in Syria. A 2015 effort by Egypt to establish a pan-Arab fighting force collapsed due to squabbling among the countries involved.

“This is the sort of gesture many of America’s security partners have been looking to get from the United States for many years,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Center of American Progress. “The value of any such a pact would depend on the results it produces — whether it achieves greater stability, helps resolve conflicts like Yemen and Syria, and achieves progress in the fight against terrorist groups across the region.”

The most concrete part of the idea is a mammoth U.S. arms package for Saudi Arabia that Trump will also announce in Riyadh. Final details are still being worked out, but officials said the package will include between $98 billion and $128 billion in arms sales. Over 10 years, total sales could reach $350 billion.

The sales include huge upgrades for the Saudi army and navy to include Littoral Combat Ships, THAAD missile defense systems, armored personnel carriers, missiles, bombs and munitions, officials said. Some of the production and assembly could be located in Saudi Arabia, boosting MBS’s project to build a Saudi domestic defense industrial capability. But most of the items would be built by American defense contractors.

“The U.S. has sought for a long time to get the Saudis to do more to focus on its navy, to modernize and make the forces in the Gulf more effective,” said Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “From the U.S. perspective, the stronger the Saudi deterrent is, the lower the risk of any military confrontation with Iran.”

The pending announcements of the new security framework and the huge arms deal are evidence that the Saudi courtship of the Trump White House has been successful beyond expectations. Whether that results in real stability in the region, real progress against terrorism or real deterrence against Iran depends on what happens after Trump’s overseas trip is over.

[END REPORT]

********

A fed confirms Seth Rich transferred thousands of DNC emails to Wikileaks

Despite the sensational news about his involvement with Wikileaks it's entirely possible that Seth Rich was just a victim of a mugging gone bad after he put up a fight. There are a number of facts about the case that would support this theory. And given the details of the encounter it would have been a pretty lame pair of hit-men if the intention was to assassinate him.

But his involvement with Wikileaks, discovered on his computer, coupled with his job at the DNC and the controversy swirling around the DNC at the time, would have made a simple mugging/manslaughter case a political hot potato for higher-ups in the Washington, D.C. police department. 

That kind of scenario would be the old story of "It's not the act, it's the cover-up."  

On the other hand what's now been revealed about the Wikileaks angle is the stuff of conspiracy theories. And the former D.C. police homicide detective who broke open the Wikileaks angle believes that the solution to the mystery of who killed Seth Rich is on Rich's computer.  

Seth Rich, slain DNC staffer, had contact with WikiLeaks, say multiple sources

By Malia Zimmerman

May 16, 2017

FOX News

The Democratic National Committee staffer who was gunned down on July 10 on a Washington, D.C., street just steps from his home had leaked thousands of internal emails to WikiLeaks, investigative sources told Fox News.

A federal investigator who reviewed an FBI forensic report -- generated within 96 hours after DNC staffer Seth Rich's murder -- detailing the contents of Rich’s computer said he made contact with WikiLeaks through Gavin MacFadyen, a now-deceased American investigative reporter, documentary filmmaker, and director of WikiLeaks who was living in London at the time. [MacFadyen died a natural death at the age of 76; see full report.]

“I have seen and read the emails between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” the federal investigator told Fox News, confirming the MacFadyen connection. He said the emails are in possession of the FBI, while the stalled case is in the hands of the Washington Police Department.

The revelation is consistent with the findings of Rod Wheeler, a former DC homicide detective and Fox News contributor and whose private investigation firm was hired by a third party on behalf of Rich’s family to probe the case. Rich was shot from behind in the wee hours, but was not robbed.

“My investigation up to this point shows there was some degree of email exchange between Seth Rich and WikiLeaks,” Wheeler said. “I do believe that the answers to who murdered Seth Rich sits on his computer on a shelf at the DC police or FBI headquarters.”

The federal investigator, who requested anonymity, said 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments between Democratic National Committee leaders, spanning from January 2015 through late May 2016, were transferred from Rich to MacFadyen before May 21.

On July 22, just 12 days after Rich was killed, WikiLeaks published internal DNC emails that appeared to show top party officials conspired to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont from becoming the party’s presidential nominee.

That controversy resulted in Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning as DNC chairperson. A number of Sanders supporters refused to back party nominee Hillary Clinton, and some subsequently formed groups to work against Clinton and the party.

[...]

The FBI’s national office declined to comment, but sources said the bureau provided cyber expertise to examine Rich’s computer.

Wheeler believes powerful forces are preventing the case from a thorough investigation.

“My investigation shows someone within the D.C. government, Democratic National Committee or Clinton team is blocking the murder investigation from going forward,” Wheeler told Fox News. “That is unfortunate. Seth Rich’s murder is unsolved as a result of that.”

A spokesman for the Rich family said Wheeler was not authorized to speak for the family and called assertions Seth Rich sent emails to WikiLeaks "unsubstantiated." Brad Bauman said even if purported emails were to surface, it would not necessarily mean Rich had helped WikiLeaks.

"Even if tomorrow, an email was found, it is not a high enough bar of evidence to prove any interactions as emails can be altered and we've seen that those interested in pushing conspiracies will stop at nothing to do so," Bauman said. "We are a family who is committed to facts, not fake evidence that surfaces every few months to fill the void and distract law enforcement and the general public from finding Seth's murderers."

[...]

Malia Zimmerman is an award-winning investigative reporter focusing on crime, homeland security, illegal immigration crime, terrorism and political corruption. Follow her on twitter at @MaliaMZimmerman

****

Plenty more in the report. Also see the website for a video report and photographs of Seth Rich. 

********

Uh oh. U.S. sounds hopping mad about de-escalation zones in Syria

May 15, from the Daily Mail: "Assad's murder machine: Syria has executed thousands of prisoners - mostly civilians opposed to the government - and burned the dead bodies in a giant crematorium, US administration claims."

The gist of these latest accusations against Assad:

Look at these photos from a commercial satellite. Do you know what these photos mean? They mean Assad is every day hanging scores of innocent prisoners by the neck until dead then to hide the evidence trucking the corpses to what sure looks to us from the satellite photos like a crematorium. 

(What is the difference, I wonder, between a Russian military satellite's eyesight and that of a commercial satellite and for that matter the American military's eyes in the sky? I got interested in satellite eyesight when I noted that only a Russian satellite was able to see Islamic State oil truck convoys driving from Raqqa in Syria to Turkey's side of the border.)

Moving along, last week America's 45th president informed TIME magazine that Assad had stored poison gas "all over the place." The revelation could explain why the 59 U.S. airstrikes, launched against a Syrian military airbase in alleged retaliation for a chemical attack against Syrian civilians, didn't raise toxic clouds of gas. Assad had most probably stored the poison gas in rabbit warrens all over Syria instead of the military facility.

So what does it all mean? For starters I think it means a weapons expert named Theodore Postol and a neuropharmacologist named Denis O'Brien ('Those aren't the symptoms of sarin poisoning you idiots') raised so many questions about the Khan Sheikhoun incident that governments wanting Assad gone are now hesitant to encourage terrorist groups to launch more chemical attacks to frame him. In that case the governments would have to focus on making other charges against Assad.

Secondly I think it means -- from the Daily Mail report above:

[Stuart Jones, acting US assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs] also said on Monday [May 15] that the United States should not wholeheartedly believe a deal to set up 'de-escalation zones' brokered by Russia during ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital Astana last week.

The deal was reached with support from Iran and Turkey during ceasefire talks in the Kazakh capital of Astana earlier this month. Jones attended the talks.

"In light of the failures of the past ceasefire agreements, we have reason to be skeptical," he said.

Jones said Assad's government had carried out air strikes, chemical attacks, extrajudicial killings, starvation, and other measures to target civilians and its opponents.

He criticized Russia and Iran for maintaining their support for Assad despite those tactics.

"These atrocities have been carried out seemingly with the unconditional support from Russia and Iran," Jones said.

"The [Assad] regime must stop all attacks on civilian and opposition forces. And Russia must bear responsibility to ensure regime compliance."

He did not say what measures America might take if Russia does not change its stance.

As to the present status of the plan for de-escalation zones -- 

ASTANA, May 16. /TASS/. Guarantors of Syria ceasefire - Russia, Turkey and Iran - are actively working on implementing a memorandum on creating de-escalation zones in Syria, including on drawing up a map and establishing checkpoints, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Tuesday.

"Currently, countries-guarantors and all parties concerned are working on implementing the memorandum on setting up the so-called de-escalation zones.

The recent working meetings between Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev in Beijing with the senior leadership of Russia and the Turkish Republic showed that the sides are actively working on various aspects of fulfilling this memorandum," Abdrakhmanov said on the sidelines of a government meeting. This effort mostly involves military experts, he said.

"This concerns designating the de-escalation zones geographically, on the map, and also establishing observation points and checkpoints along these zones," Abdrakhmanov said.

A particular task for the sides will be to agree on who will control the de-escalation zones and will be on duty at the checkpoints.

On May 4, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to set up four de-escalation zones in Syria. Under a memorandum signed at the talks in Kazakhstan’s Astana, these four zones include the Idlib province and some parts of neighboring provinces (Aleppo, Latakia and Hama), an area north of Homs, Damascus’s suburb Eastern Ghouta, and a number of provinces in southern Syria - Daraa and Al-Quneitra. 
In those areas, combat operations, including flights by military aircraft, are outlawed starting from May 6. 

The memorandum was concluded for six months and can be extended automatically [Pundita note: and to eventually include all of Syria].

In other words the de-escalation plan is moving ahead without the approval of the United States, United Kingdom, and Saudi Arabia. From the statements of Mr Jones this doesn't seem to be going over well with the American government, and probably not with other governments that have invested so much in using terrorist groups to fight the Syrian government.   

********

Private eye claims evidence Seth Rich in contact with Wikileaks prior to his murder UPDATED

Update May 16 1:15 PM EDT

Latest report from FOX on the Wikileaks angle in the Seth Rich case; it's now a national story:


"Family of slain DNC staffer Seth Rich blasts detective over report of WikiLeaks link"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/05/16/slain-dnc-staffer-had-contact-with-wikileaks-investigator-says.html

Also see my post today at 11:37 AM EDT for excerpts from an earlier version of the above report:

http://pundita.blogspot.com/2017/05/a-fed-confirms-seth-rich-transferred.html

END UPDATE

FOX5 News [Washington, DC local FOX network television station "WTTG"]  
POSTED May 15 2017 10:41PM EDT

UPDATED May 16 2017 12:39AM EDT

Family's private investigator: There is evidence Seth Rich had contact with WikiLeaks prior to death

By: Marina Marraco

"A full report with the new details will air Tuesday morning on FOX News."

It has been almost a year since Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered in the nation's capital. There have been no solid answers about why he was killed until now.

Rich was shot and killed last July in Northwest D.C and police have suggested the killing in the District's Bloomingdale neighborhood was a botched robbery. However, online conspiracy theories have tied the murder to Rich's work at the DNC.

Just two months shy of the one-year anniversary of Rich's death, FOX 5 has learned there is new information that could prove these theorists right.

Rod Wheeler, a private investigator hired by the Rich family, suggests there is tangible evidence on Rich's laptop that confirms he was communicating with WikiLeaks prior to his death.

Now, questions have been raised on why D.C. police, the lead agency on this murder investigation for the past ten months, have insisted this was a robbery gone bad when there appears to be no evidence to suggest that.

Wheeler, a former D.C. police homicide detective, is running a parallel investigation into Rich’s murder. He said he believes there is a cover-up and the police department has been told to back down from the investigation.

"[Neither] The police department nor the FBI have been forthcoming,” said Wheeler. “They haven't been cooperating at all. I believe that the answer to solving his death lies on that computer, which I believe is either at the police department or either at the FBI. I have been told both.”

When we asked Wheeler if his sources have told him there is information that links Rich to Wikileaks, he said, “Absolutely. Yeah. That's confirmed."

Wheeler also told us, "I have a source inside the police department that has looked at me straight in the eye and said, ‘Rod, we were told to stand down on this case and I can’t share any information with you.’ Now, that is highly unusual for a murder investigation, especially from a police department. Again, I don’t think it comes from the chief’s office, but I do believe there is a correlation between the mayor's office and the DNC and that is the information that will come out [Tuesday May 16]."

A full report with the new details will air Tuesday morning on FOX News.

[END REPORT]

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/254852337-story

The Tuesday AM report will show up online at FOX5 website, for those outside the station's viewing area, and if the report has legs it will be picked up by FOX News national cable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Seth_Rich

A Perfect Banquet for China's Belt and Road Forum

Every detail of the May 14 banquet for the opening of the One Belt One Road forum/summit was perfect. From the Sputnik photo gallery of the banquet: the photos of the food sculpture table illustrating the lands through which One Belt One Road will travel and the place setting for the banquet, held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, are by Damir Sagolj for Reuters; the photo of the thousand or so guests seated at the banquet is by Wu Hong for Reuters. 

Wish I knew the menu. Not too long ago the Western press would have been full of news about every last detail of the banquet including the menu. Times have changed.  

*********

"Yadaan Vichhre Sajan Diyan Aiyan"

"The memories of my love have come
there is a rainstorm in my eyes
Let separations drown in this world
there is a rainstorm in my eyes"

This qawwali is sung by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Co. at a performance in the U.K. in 1985. (The boy on the left of the stage is none other than Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, age 11, who was practically raised onstage from that time on. ) 

Trying to figure out the English translation of the lyrics of "Yadaan Vichhre Sajan Diyan Aiyan," as it's sung in the video, is not easy. The verse I posted above is from an introduction to a version of the same qawwali sung by Rahat when he was an adult.  

In response to a plea from a reader at AllTheLyrics.com, someone posted what seems to be the entire lyrics (in Punjabi) to the version of the qawwali sung by Ustad Nusrat & Co. But another poster at the same website, who is Punjabi, underscored the difficulties with translating qawwalis sung by Ustad Nusrat after he translated some of the lyrics for "Yadaan Vichhre Sajan Diyan Aiyan" into English:

==> i didn't heard some parts before, because Nusrat used to add some new/old parts of the song in each version. this is genius, the same song, always sung with different styles/vocalizes/lyrics/impro !!!

==> i used to translate it by listening the same songs for almost 15 years, i always discoverd news meanings and i love it. I also asked parents, friends to translate some words because this is not really the punjabi as talked in pakistan know [now?]. It almost lyrical/literal punjabi which is very rich as language.

In other words even people who are fluent in Punjabi can find it hard to come up with a precise translation of the lyrics in Punjabi, let alone English.

And so one is left to fall back on the heart's translation, which is the best anyhow.

********

The ability to be happy: Longevity secrets from 100+ year old man in Afghan village

"Every day I dance, too, and laugh. Mostly at myself."

By Hollie McKay
May 8, 2017
Fox News

[See the website for McKay's photos of Satar, his home, and Panjshir Valley]

PANJSHIR VALLEY, Afghanistan – Every day, just before sunrise, a hunched figure moves down the mountain from his mud-hut home in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, ready to work from dawn to dusk collecting wood, cutting stones and using them to build houses.

Only this is no ordinary mountain man. This is Abdul Satar, known by locals simply as "Sheikh." At an estimated 105 years of age – Afghanistan does not have standardized birth records in some rural areas – he has the mental and physical aptitude of men half his age.

With his cheeky toothless smile and a notorious penchant for pulling pranks, Satar has survived through decades of successive rulers, invasions, wars and famines.

His No. 1 longevity secret? He eats butter by the spoonful.

"It makes me very relaxed and strong," Satar tells Fox News, taking an afternoon break in the spring sunshine. "In the winter when there is a lot of snow, the butter makes me very warm and I am not affected by the cold."

Waving his cane around animatedly, he also attributes his long life and ability to work full time to spending all his years in the high altitudes, sleeping just three to five hours a night, and carving out time for his favorite pastime, which is hunting deer.

"And things aren't always happy, but I try just to be happy anyway," Satar goes on. "I tell people not to stress. I like a lot of organic food from the mountain, but the specific food itself is not important. It's important that people just enjoy it."

But equally as fundamental, Satar vows, is giving back to those in the community. During the Soviet war, he devoted his time to carrying refugees to safety, on the back of his horse. Still now, when there is a death in his Panjshir village of Jangalak -- the Persian word for forest -- Satar is often the first to dig the grave and assist in preparing the body for burial.

The hallowed Panjshiri never learned to read or write, has never owned a car -- just once a friend let him steer from the driver’s seat while the friend operated the brake -- and he eschews all modern technology. Nonetheless, Satar is deemed something of a "wise guy" who locals come to for advice.

"If someone goes the wrong way, I try to help them get back to good," he quipped.

However, the younger generation is proving a challenge.

"If you tell them right, they want to go left," Satar laments. "And the girls now wear too much makeup and perfume. God gave us eyes, ears, hands, beauty. Why cover it up with makeup?"

The passage of time, Satar says, has taken only a tiny toll. Once upon a time, he had more than 100 animals on his farm and collected feed from the most far-fetched mountainous terrain to distribute around the villages, but he had to surrender that task several years ago. Today his skin is carved with deep wrinkles and cataracts cloud his sight. 

Nevertheless he dismisses any aches and pains with a shrug.

"Every day I dance, too, and laugh," he says. "Mostly at myself."

When Satar looks back through the lens of history at his nation, which he has never left -- except one short trip to Pakistan decades ago -- two epochs stand out. His military service in his early adulthood, which "made him a man," and Afghanistan in the years prior to the communist coup of 1978, termed the Saur Revolution, in which the leader, Mohammed Daoud Khan, and his family were killed and Soviet-allied leadership took their place.

"Before that, Afghanistan was a very peaceful and very beautiful place," Satar reminisces.

The situation in his conflict-decimated country now, he stresses, is getting to be the worst he has ever seen.

"I am very happy the Americans came, but every day now there are suicide bombers," he laments. "Why are they not being killed first? We need Americans to eradicate the enemies."

Satar also doesn't underestimate the value of a good woman by his side. He married for the first time at age 35, and had two sons and a daughter -- one son was later killed near their home fighting against the Soviet invaders in the 1980s.

He married a second time at 75, falling for a much younger girl in her 20s in a nearby village amid that same brutal war that bloodied much of his beloved province. He visited her little farmhouse every day, promising to respect her, and finally after she accepted his proposal they were married in a small ceremony eight days later.

The couple had six boys and two girls and his youngest child is a mere 13 years old. Today, just six of his children are still alive.

Satar is certain he can "still produce babies" -- and he does want more children -- only his wife, now around 50, long ago mandated no more.

"Still, I worship her," he adds. "Every day I look at her and want to marry her all over again."

Hollie McKay has been a FoxNews.com staff reporter since 2007. She has reported extensively from the Middle East on the rise and fall of terrorist groups such as ISIS in Iraq. Follow her on twitter at @holliesmckay

[END REPORT]

********

The gathering storm in Islam

"For the statement, obviously approved by Vladimir Putin, is as close as Sunni clerics have got to excommunicating the Saudis."

This report, told from Robert Fisk's inimitable viewpoint with plenty of his editorializing stuffed in, is one of only two English-language news reports on a stunning turn of events in Islam that should have been headline news in all the mainstream press last year. 

For the first time, Saudi Arabia is being attacked by both Sunni and Shia leaders
By Robert Fisk

22 September 2016

The Independent

The Saudis step deeper into trouble almost by the week. Swamped in their ridiculous war in Yemen, they are now reeling from an extraordinary statement issued by around two hundred Sunni Muslim clerics who effectively referred to the Wahhabi belief – practiced in Saudi Arabia – as “a dangerous deformation” of Sunni Islam. 

The prelates included Egypt’s Grand Imam, Ahmed el-Tayeb of al-Azhar, the most important centre of theological study in the Islamic world, who only a year ago attacked “corrupt interpretations” of religious texts and who has now signed up to “a return to the schools of great knowledge” outside Saudi Arabia.

This remarkable meeting took place in Grozny and was unaccountably ignored by almost every media in the world – except for the former senior associate at St Antony’s College [Oxford], Sharmine Narwani [writing for RT on 15 September], and Le Monde’s Benjamin Barthe – but it may prove to be even more dramatic than the terror of Syria’s civil war. For the statement, obviously approved by Vladimir Putin, is as close as Sunni clerics have got to excommunicating the Saudis. 

Although they did not mention the Kingdom by name, the declaration was a stunning affront to a country which spends millions of dollars every year on thousands of Wahhabi mosques, schools and clerics around the world.

Wahhabism’s most dangerous deviation, in the eyes of the Sunnis who met in Chechenya, is that it sanctions violence against non-believers, including Muslims who reject Wahhabi interpretation. Isis, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are the principal foreign adherents to this creed outside Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The Saudis, needless to say, repeatedly insist that they are against all terrorism. Their reaction to the Grozny declaration has been astonishing. “The world is getting ready to burn us,” Adil Al-Kalbani announced. And as Imam of the King Khaled Bin Abdulaziz mosque in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, he should know.

As Narwani points out, the bad news kept on coming. At the start of the five-day Hajj pilgrimage, the Lebanese daily al-Akhbar published online a database which it said came from the Saudi ministry of health, claiming that up 90,000 pilgrims from around the world have died visiting the Hajj capital of Mecca over a 14-year period.[1] Although this figure is officially denied, it is believed in Shia Muslim Iran, which has lost hundreds of its citizens on the Hajj. 

Among them was Ghazanfar Roknabadi, a former ambassador and intelligence officer in Lebanon. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has just launched an unprecedented [verbal] attack on the Saudis, accusing them of murder. “The heartless and murderous Saudis locked up the injured with the dead in containers...” he said in his own Hajj message.

A Saudi official said Khameni’s accusations reflected a “new low”. Abdulmohsen Alyas, the Saudi undersecretary for international communications, said they were “unfounded, but also timed to only serve their unethical failing propaganda”.

Yet the Iranians have boycotted the Hajj this year (not surprisingly, one might add) after claiming that they have not received Saudi assurances of basic security for pilgrims. According to Khamenei, Saudi rulers “have plunged the world of Islam into civil wars”. 

However exaggerated his words, one thing is clear: for the first time, ever, the Saudis have been assaulted by both Sunni and Shia leaders at almost the same time.

The presence in Grozny of Grand Imam al-Tayeb of Egypt was particularly infuriating for the Saudis, who have poured millions of dollars into the Egyptian economy since Brigadier-General-President al-Sissi staged his doleful military coup more than three years ago. 

What, the Saudis must be asking themselves, has happened to the fawning leaders who would normally grovel to the Kingdom? 

“In 2010, Saudi Arabia was crossing borders peacefully as a power-broker, working with Iran, Syria, Turkey, Qatar and others to troubleshoot in regional hotspots,” Narwani writes. “By 2016, it had buried two kings, shrugged off a measured approach to foreign policy, embraced ‘takfiri’ madness and emptied its coffers.” A “takfiri” is a Sunni who accuses another Muslim (or Christian or Jew) of apostasy.

Kuwait, Libya, Jordan and Sudan were present in Grozny, along with – you guessed it – Ahmed Hassoun, the grand mufti of Syria and a loyal Assad man. Intriguingly, Abu Dhabi played no official role, although its policy of “deradicalisation” is well known throughout the Arab world.

But there are close links between President (and dictator) Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechenya, the official host of the recent conference, and Mohamed Ben Zayed al-Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince. The conference itself was opened by Putin, which shows what he thinks of the Saudis – although, typically, none of the Sunni delegates asked him to stop bombing Syria. But since the very meeting occurred against the backcloth of Isis and its possible defeat, they wouldn’t, would they? 

That Chechnya, a country of monstrous bloodletting by Russia and its own Wahhabi rebels, should have been chosen as a venue for such a remarkable conclave was an irony which could not have been lost on the delegates. But the real questions they were discussing must have been equally apparent. 

Who are the real representatives of Sunni Muslims if the Saudis are to be shoved aside? And what is the future of Saudi Arabia? Of such questions are revolutions made.

[END REPORT]

1) I haven't seen the database, but I'd find it unlikely the entire death toll of 90,000, if accurate, relates to Saudi government negligence. Probably many terminally ill Muslims choose to spend their final days in Mecca. And given the large numbers of people who make pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia during the month of Ramadan and during the Hajj, surely there are deaths among pilgrims from illness and accident that would have nothing to do with lax security/safety measures on the part of the Saudis. 

The high death toll for the September 2015 stampede/crush incident at Mina, however, does point to negligence on the part of the Saudi security forces during that year's Hajj. See Sharmine Narwani's article, linked above, and the Wikipedia article on the incident, for information on the death toll.    

******** 

Why did I have to learn about severe flooding in US from Russian news site?

"We're surrounded by water. The water is rising one foot an hour. We don't know what to expect." -- Mayor of Portia, Arkansas
Nothing about the flooding at Google News. [shaking her head]  But it's not even worth complaining about anymore. For more than a year I've been checking at Google News only as an afterthought, and often not for days at a time, or when I'm searching for additional news reports on a specific topic. 

All right; here's a report from Sputnik; see the website for videos and several photographs of the flooding, which is so severe in Arkansas that the governor said it was the most extensive flooding in an urban area he'd during his time as governor.  

Cities Submerged: Swollen Rivers Flood the US Mid-South (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)
22:27 - 04.05.2017 (updated 23:39 - 04.05.2017)

Swollen rivers have caused severe damage in Missouri, Arkansas and other US states. Five Missourians have been killed, as have at least seven Arkansans, including an 18-month-old girl who is presumed dead after she was swept away by floodwater.

​Damage has also spilled into neighboring states like Illinois and Tennessee. Since the flooding began on the weekend, more than 20 people have died.

​Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson has deployed 100 members of the National Guard as well as 25 guard vehicles to fight the floods and rescue those endangered by floodwater. Numerous levees throughout the state have been breached, he said.

​"This is the most extensive flooding in an urban area that I've ever seen as governor," said Hutchinson as he declared a state of emergency. More than 500 people have been evacuated throughout Arkansas.

The US Coast Guard has halted water traffic along a 14.5 mile stretch of the Mississippi River. US Highway 63 has also been shut down in Arkansas' Lawrence County after floods from the Black River breached nine levees and forced an evacuation of the city of Pocahontas (population 6,500).

"We're surrounded by water," Portia Mayor Kelly Duckworth told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "The water is rising one foot an hour. We don't know what to expect."

Towns fewer than 30 miles from St. Louis like West Alton (population 522) and Eureka (population 10,189) have experienced severe flooding of their own. While the former was evacuated, the latter managed to avoid major flooding damage through the use of 250,000 sandbags. Eureka was badly damaged in a December 2015 incident, but the city has learned its lesson about flood safety.

"We were able to save a lot a lot of homes and businesses that before we lost," said Eureka Mayor Kevin Coffey.

More than 100 highways around St. Louis and 270 roads throughout Missouri are closed, according to the state Department of Transportation.

[END REPORT]

********

DEBKAfile's take on Syria portion of phone call between Putin and Trump

I have no comment on the following report, no idea how much 'spin' if any is reflected in it; it simply is what it is -- a view of the phone call from an Israeli website with a strong connection to the IDF: 

Trump-Putin call focuses on Syria, security zones
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

May 2, 2017, 10:12 PM (IDT)

One of the most consequential exchanges on the disposition of Syria’s border lands with Israel and Jordan - and the future of the Syrian conflict at large - took place between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in a phone call on Tuesday, May 2. The call took place when German Chancellor Angela Merkel was visiting Putin at his Black Sea residence in Sochi.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that the two presidents focused strongly on an effort to agree on how de-escalate the Syrian conflict now in its sixth year and bring it to an end. The Russian leader proposed drawing armistice lines between the warring sides under the guarantee of a special Russian military mechanism. The Americans have not released any ideas, but they are believed to be contemplating establishing safety zones barred to the Syrian air force. One of those zones would be marked out in the south on Syria’s borders with Israel and Jordan.

The Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, the Iranian military-political command and Hizballah are resisting US feelers for the introduction of these safe zones, regarding the plan as a ploy hatched by the Saudis, Israelis and Jordanians to take control of South Syria by engaging local Syrian rebel groups as their vehicle. Damascus, Tehran and Beirut believe that if they allow the scheme to go forward without resistance, it will be the start of similar off-limits enclaves in other parts of Syria, and the country will quickly fall apart into self-ruling segments.

That is why late last month, Syrian army units, the Shiite militias under Iranian Revolutionary Guards officers' command and Hizballah combined their resources to push against the local Syrian rebels of the South in the regions of the borders with Israel and Jordan.

It is doubtful whether Trump and Putin were able to work out something tangible in their first phone conversation since the US fired Tomahawk cruise missiles against the Syrian Shayrat air base on April 7. The Russian president used the shock of that event to cultivate closer ties with the Syrian ruler and strengthen his missile defenses, in case of an American repeat attack or Israeli air strikes on military targets in Syria.

At the same time, Putin became more careful about infringing on parts of Syria deemed to be under American influence, especially the Kurdish enclaves.

The US president was also careful not to direct personal attacks on Putin or criticize Russia’s military involvement in Syria, merely expressing the hope that at some point the two powers could reach an understanding to end the vicious conflict.

When reporters in Sochi asked the Russian president if he thought he could sell his plan to Assad, he replied: “A ceasefire is the first priority and cooperation with Washington is critical.”

At the same time, Russia operates in tandem with Turkey and Iran and was trying to “create the conditions for political cooperation on all sides,” he said.

Clearly, Putin was making the point that, just as the US deals with the Syrian issue in alignment with Saudi Arabia, Israel and Jordan, Russia coordinates its actions with Iran and Turkey. Since both presidents are similarly weighed down by their allies, the road to a consensus between Washington and Moscow is destined to be long with many convolutions. 

Therefore, the tension on the Israeli and Jordanian borders of southern Syria will continue to escalate before it abates.

[END REPORT]

********