was Fante's death a surprise to you?
not really. he had diabetes, he went blind and had to have his legs amputated.
he was gradually, i wouldn't say losing his mind, but he would get confused about things.
i remember when my daughter was born, he would refer to her as a book. he would refer to his child as a book.

HAPPY NEW YEAR IF YOU DARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BE NICE TO YOURSELF
BE NICE TO YOUR BABIES

 

when the sun explodes our bodies will melt together (i am not a scientist, i just made that up, and i am not sorry)

 

But the United States congratulated Mr Kibaki on his re-election and called on all sides to respect the result despite the allegations of fraud.

 

there are riots in kenya over the election being stolen and 80% voter turn out
there were no riots in the usa for the elections being stolen twice
i am scared to death that angela at the nyumbani aids orphanage will get trapped there or much worse if the violence escalates
there are riots and killings in the kibera slums, where she had visited and sent photos from
i made her promise, actually say the whole sentence
"jamie i promise i will come home safely"
she is worried about oakland
devin was held up at gun point in front of our apartment
2 men tried to rape a women in our parking lot
there was a massive gun battle in the middle of the night last week, not like 3 shots but i counted around 50 shots
police have closed off our block twice this month
peace in the new year fellas and girls
no kicking muthafuckers asses

 

 

i can hear stuff.


Jamie is playing solo tonight at the Smell as part of the Smell's 10th anniversary series. Be there or be square.

 

flyer by MIA NOLTING.

IN BROOKLYN: Friday the 4th of January:

Come out for a night of solo performances and cameras: Jamie Stewart, Ches Smith, Disaster, Transformation Surprise (Mary Pearson from High Places).

It's going to be a camera happening. Bring polaroid film and cameras.

Yes, come celebrate the book, and also:

The 48th anniversary of Alburt Camus' Death, Rhea "Bird" Lewitski's birthday, The day for the survival of the Ogoni People (why xiu xiu doesn't buy Shell), The capture of Seol by North Korea and China, The independence of Burma, the fall of sputnik 1 (a literal fall), and last but not least, the 49th anniversary of the first spacecraft landing on the moon.

More Info

 

"The mark which has dominated all my work is this longing for life, this sense of exclusion, which doesn't lessen but augments this love of life."

Pasolini was brutally murdered by being run over several times with his own car, dying on November 2, 1975 on the beach at Ostia, near Rome.

 

as you are changing
it is most clear to me now
coco bean eyed girl

 

Some of my comrades are ministers and vice presidents and the rest. We're not going to ask ourselves now whether we should change our course or whether we should ask about life and death.

MALE VOICE: It's morally unacceptable to ask such a
question.

 

the polaroid book is finally in stock on amazon.com. here

i think they are in stock on other amazon sites around the world.

wait, update, i don't know what is going on. i just looked at the link i just posted and the page just changed. maybe people bought all the ones in stock in the seconds i was writing this blog. fuck, i don't know. there are some used ones up. fuck it, i'm confused. by it on the amazon.co.uk

fuck, nevermind this blog!

 

1. Henryk Mikolaj Górecki: String Quartet No. 3...Songs Are Sung

2. Deerhoof: Friend Opportunity

3. Angels of Light: We Are Him

4. (R): In Pink

5. Common Eider, King Eider: How to Build a Cabin

6. Hyunhye Seo: Candy Fawn, Dream Fawn, Dream Boat, Candy Bunny

7. Howard Wiley: The Angola Project

8. Oxbow: The Narcotic Story

9. Nels Cline Singers: Draw Breath

10. BARR: Summary

******
best mix cdr UNTZ OONCE
looking forward to = plastic operator

 

Prince Lazar his patron saint doth honour
On the fair and pleasant field Kossovo,
With his lords is seated round the table
With his lords and with his youthful nobles.
On his left the Jug Bogdan is seated,
And with him nine Jugovitch, nine brothers;
On his right Vuk Brankovitch is seated,
And the other lords in their due order;
Facing him is Milosh, that great warrior,
And with him two other Serbian leaders
Kossanchitch, and young Toplitza Milan.
Tsar Lazar lifts high the golden goblet,
Thus he speaks unto his Serbian nobles:
“Unto whom shall this my cup be emptied?
If it be old age that I should honour
Then, oh Jug Bogdan, I must now pledge you;
If it be high rank that I should honour
Then Vuk Brankovitch, I must now pledge you;
If the voice of feeling I should follow
To the Tsaritsa’s nine well-lov’d brothers
To the Jugovitch, my toast is owing;
If it beauty be that I should honour
Ivan Kossanchitch, I must now pledge you;
If heroic looks I now should honour
Then Toplitza Milan, I must pledge you;
If heroic deeds are to be toasted
I must drink to that great warrior Milosh,
I can surely pledge no other hero.
Milosh Obilitch, I drink to thee now,
To thy health, oh Milosh, friend and traitor!
Friend at first, but at the last a traitor.
When the battle rages fierce to-morrow
Thou wilt then betray me on Kossovo,
And wilt join the Turkish Sultan, Murad!
Drink with me, and pledge me deep, oh Milosh,
Drain the cup; I give it thee in token!”
To his feet leaps Milosh, that great warrior,
To the black earth bows himself, and answers:
“Tsar Lazar, for this thy toast I thank thee,
Thank thee for the toast and for the goblet,
But for those thy words I do not thank thee.
For—else may the truth be my undoing—
Never, Tsar Lazar, was I unfaithful,
Never have I been, and never will be.
And to-morrow I go to Kossovo
For the Christian faith to fight and perish.
At thy very knees there sits the traitor,
Covered by thy robes he drains the wine-cup,
’Tis Vuk Brankovitch, th’ accurséd traitor!
And when dawns the pleasant day to-morrow
We shall see upon the field, Kossovo,
Who to thee is faithful, and who faithless.
And I call Almighty God to witness
I will go to-morrow to Kossovo,
I will slay the Turkish Sultan, Murad,
And I’ll plant my foot upon his false throat;
And if God and fortune so befriend me,
I will take Vuk Brankovitch then captive,
Bind him to my battle-lance! Yea, tie him
As a woman ties hemp to her distaff,
And I’ll drag him with me to Kossovo.”

 

 

ILOV EY OU

 

when she stares at you she she wants to say: "stop stealing my internet, or i'm going to download your songs!"

you can make a compromise and tell her to go get the new ANP Quarterly magazine. it's free! no need to steal it, or download it, just take it!

issue #9 is printed. it is out in some places i think? actually, i think it will be out in more places in january. look for it now, or in january. i did a conversation article with Uta Barth in it. i think it's good. i'm too scared to re-read it.

jamie, are you ever too scared to listen to your album once it's been done for a while and you haven't heard it in a while? whenever i do something, and then it's been a while since i've looked at it, i'm too scared to re-look at it. ahhhhhh!!!!!!!

find places that have them here, subscribe, get it in january, if you live somewhere else i will mail you one! (they did a nice mention of the polaroid book in the forward, thanks brendan!)

http://www.rvcaanp.com/

 

100kg Man, 2004 by Satoru Tamura.

 

we would like to think of moments
of sorrow as being those moments
in which FUCK YOU himself felt the
light wrinkles of forgetfulness on his terrible body.

 

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

 

WHAM RAP

 

 

Today angela told me a child appeared at the nyumbani aids orphanage named innocent

when i was 18 i worked in a bookstore that was destroyed in an earthquake. but before that i stole a copy of querelle and tried to read it but at the time it was over my head. i was still a virgin.
the boy soprano then gave me a copy and i reread it and gave it to angela after that.
genet came up again in an email from a polite stranger and i rented fassbinders version of it tonite. i am going to watch it and fall asleep on the floor.
it is raining.
kid 606 who has stopped talking to me is sleeping at his girlfriends. she lives in my building.
i read edmund whites biography of genet when i was teaching preschool at a right wing Christian school. largely i read it while the children were napping. i had to make a brown paper bag book cover to hide the title.
i was eventually fired anyway for not being Christian enough.
it has come to my attention that the pastor who fired me is being sued for embezzlement and was also having an affair while he was the pastor. that church and school is being torn down and replaced with low income housing. that is Christian enough.
What Would Genet Do?
he would interview greg saunier from deerhoof about star trek. that is what he would do.
he would interview nels cline about drummers.
he would interview eugene robinson over tea, wine and chocolate.
cute attack
fruit cop
the death of a raccoon
no face no cock

 

to the innocent bystanders at shows...
to the harmless victims...
to those who want nothing more but to see the show...

if a "professional" photographer or film crew thinks they have the right to stand in front of you, put your hand in front of their lenses. don't be passive. stand up! you think they can capitalize off the fact that there aren't mosh pits anymore? bring back the pit and take them down!

 

 

 

everyday i take a constitutional. i walk as fast as i can for 30 minutes in different parts of town. i cant do it at night in most of oakland so that is only in the day time. i drive to berkeley after the sun goes down.
today, walking in down town oakland near broadway and 12th and a 6 year old boy holding a ragged piece of cardboard with an empty sign up sheet attached, comes up to me, clearly hustling, barely able to get out his spiel about his team needing money.
clearly, truth or not if a child this young is on the corner doing this he needs some help. so i gave him some money. his even smaller friend with a piece of card board but not even an empty sign up sheet then asked me a second later, claiming to be on a different team. he is maybe 5 at the oldest. i give him the same amount.
i take a step to leave and a child who was with them who up until that point i had not seen, maybe 7 or 8 years old, says, "can you donate to me."
i just smile and keep continue walking. he screams at me, "fuck you bitch!"

 

http://www.buyolympia.com/killrockstars/Item=KRS484dvd

 

scratch the BERLIN plan. i want to sail across an ocean now. how do i do it? i've been looking up crew-wanted web-sites. i can be a cook on a boat! fuck, i am getting so fucking anxious and restless. sail boat? who will take me aboard?

add this to the magazine section: DOT DOT DOT. i've only seen one copy though. mylinh and miya said they liked it, and i was skeptical at first b/c i thought it would just be some hip design publication, but then i read it and it was interesting. it was like, all the interesting theory left art and went to design, which is maybe why...

but the real post - the alignment of something - and all hell revealing itself - is this you? are you there? has the hell submerged itself, or is it still there? has everything been drawn into question? has everything been broken and holes grown bigger? huh? did the psychic forces trample you and tear you apart? can you recuperate? are you going to be dead forever? where is spring? summer will come soon after, and the sun will not go away for another 4000 years, and we'll be dead by that time, so we've already survived the cataclysm, you don't know what i'm talking about unless you do, and to those that do, this is written for you: you will not be swallowed, you will explode the world.

 

I am going to be playing a show with my wonderful friend Chris Garneau tonight at the Hemlock in San FRancisco. here's chris's myspace page: myspace.com/chrisgarneau it has all the addtional show information there. boom boom boom.







also i got a new kitten who is all black and has extra toes and looks llike a mess. im not sure what to name him. my other cat is super pissed as of right now. i hope they can be friends some day!

 

when seven cop cars
are outside of our bedroom
a new life unfolds

 

who has a job for me for 3-5 weeks in BERLIN? email me!

 

nothing's changed, i still love you
only slightly more, only slight more than i used to
uh ho ho

 

> here is a little 5 ? interview for the xiu xiu blog
>
> what are your favorite magazines?
> Where do you come up with these questions Stu... These are great! And yet I hate magazines...

> what is the last animal you ate?
> I chew my nails especially when I'm nervous like last night when I had to play a show and Devin and Ches were in the audience.

> in the most basic terms, how would you describe yourself physically?
> All muscles atrophied except the one to hit drums.

> what is your favorite sound?
> When the barber cut the hairs right in front of my ear.

> what are 3 objects you have on a shelf?
The Rolling Stones "The Biggest Bang" live DVD set; as yet unredeemed Song of the Day card from Starbucks - (Joni Mitchell "Night of the Iguana"); stack of overdue bills and termination notices from Professional Musicians, Local 47 - I didn't realize what I was getting into by playing on Carson Daly...

 

i am the one who wrote the stupid thing on the shzine blog today
i am sorry for being a bitch
i did not say those things because i dislike the song or the album or the band, but because xiu xiu has meant a lot to me, and i am afraid that IF i dislike the song or album i will lose something that is very important to me.
does that make sense? it made more sense in my head, i think.
basically, i panic about things like whether or not i will like an album, and whether i will still like xiu xiu.
i am sorry for posting stupid shit
i am sorry for all of this
but i would be lost without xiu xiu
i am really sorry!

-~----~~----~~~----~

dont be sorry!!! i am sorry!
it is i who am lost without you
i try as hard as i can to make something that is meaningful to you and when i fail i feel like i
have failed at my purpose in life
BUT all you can do is be honest in your feelings and all i can do is be honest in mine
i hope that although that song you do not like, well there are 13 more on that record and i hope you can find something in them that touches in the way you need
if not
i will always keep trying for you!

 

man, who cares what some lame head has to say. people talk so much shit, but what do they do? sit around on their ass all day and write things on the internet? shit, that's what i'm doing right now. the idea of the "critic" is so pointless. they are like an in-between position. there is the artists, there is the people who listen to the music - and then there's these people who try to get inbetween and try to seem important, but it's so pointless. record reviews are pointless. write ups are pointless. people's opinions are pointless... 99% of the world is completely and utterly stupid. wait, that's not true. maybe like 65% of the world. there's a lot of good things still: snow, the beach, clouds, etc...

but then: if someone has something good to say...... i really don't care what someone doesn't like, it's a waste of time. if there is something that someone does like, then i'd be interested in figuring out for myself if it is interesting.

 

"this


is going to suck? :(
sounds like



sloppy, boring, monotonous xitsj..............?


what happened to xiu xiu? this is upsetting.................?

?????????????
?????????????????
???????
??????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????

sorry?"

this sort of thing i really should just be above and not care about. but wow, it really makes me sad.
that is silly huh? oh i am too thin skinned! i quit the internet forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

he last few days have been hard in the cottage. S has rapidly gone blind in one eye, and the other is not doing so good either. he's been spending most of his time in bed, trying to shut out noise of the other dozen kids. last night, before dinner, he started weeping. he sobbed right through dinner and past it. until he finally tired himself out. i made him a peanut butter sandwich, and he wanted another one, and i felt bad because i had run out of peanut butter. i told sister julie about the last few days, and so this morning, he finally went to the hospital. i think all that really happened was that they changed his medication, because they think that perhaps some combination of his AIDS medication is making him blind.

and monene's left side of the face is all banged up. first he busts his eyebrow open from a swing, and then his eye right below it got the worst infection yesterday. so this afternoon, we finally slapped an eye patch on it because it was just getting to be ugly. and he cried and wailed this afternoon because of the pain.

more than half the kids in my cottage has an eye infection of some sort. some of the kids' eyes look really pretty changed. the pupils and the irises are all warped. but S's blindness is the toughest. I can tell it's hurting him a lot, physically and emotionally. He just doesn't have the energy to do anything anymore, and barely speaks nowadays.

sometimes i feel like i have no idea how to relate to a 11 year old boy. i can't tell when they want to be left alone and when they need me. all i want to do is hug him and cry and cry. but i think that is the worst thing i can do with an 11 year old boy. so i just hold it and cry in my room alone and make peanut butter sandwiches.


to find out how to help please see the web site below
http://nyumbani.org/help_donate.htm

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DkdklcGbojc

thank you cockass

 

-anp quarterly, cabinet
-chicken
-tall, thin, ice cold epidermis, dark hair
-a bus drove by me too and i was amazed by the sound coming out of the back, i thought it was the most perfect ambient sound i have ever heard. it was the sound i would want to make if i made sound.
- japanese tea pot, st anthony, polaroid of a girl, a chocolate bar with an endangered tiger on the wrapper. (that's 4, sorry)

 

http://www.newstarget.com/022308.html

the sky over the USA is falling toward the 4th reich

please please please read this and please please please
call your senators about it.

you can look up your senators here

http://www.senate.gov/

 

hi this will be so dumb
my last post was dumb also
do you know about dumb land?
my address is
1+2 = i don't know street
dumbland village, STUPID ISLAND
i am too dumb to remember my zip code
USASSHOLE

this is my post:
i use 5 different skin care products on my face
that is out of control right?
a scrub
a pore refiner
a mud mask OR on a special days a face polish
a wrinkle (eeeeek!) cream in the day
a moisturizer at night before bed

that said i am spending nearly every moment of december and almost all of january alone.
does this mean i have hope that someone will ever look at my face again? or am i just afraid of death?
the new issue of BUTT magazine is really good.
the love of my life called me from africa crying at 7 in the morning and i was too worried to get back to sleep so i read the whole thing. and then-
i
took
care
of
my
fucking
face.

 

SHIMMY, funereal ghat,
there are more widows in india than any other place on earth
why? por que
professional
WHAT? pro que
CELOSA
CIELO
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE ZACH HOLTE
ESTA CANCION ES UN DISASTRE Y YO SOY TAMBIEN
ANDY AND MIKE FROM THE SMITHS
SOON WE WILL MEET AND I WILL DRINK YOUR AMBROSIA (like a moth htom to a brassy dame)
sign
your
name
across
my
Goh! Cart!!!!!!! robertagh

 

 

this place gives meaning to life. well, i don't know if meaning is the right word... it's that, life is so precious because it is so fragile here. and it is something that is not taken for granted. to suggest the meaninglessness or the pointlessness of life seems to imply the meaninglessness and pointlessness of these children. of their lives.

 

karlheinz stockhausen is dead

 

if you ordered the polaroid book from Amazon you may have received an email that says it will shippied in Feb. This is not true, the books have arrived, and they should be shipping now.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/06/congress.hatecrimes.ap/index.html

 

hi david
you are a good person.
tear your lungs out and i will get a loan from the bank to buy gold and i will leaf them and then put them back inside for you
being bipolar suits you.
love
jim

 

1) the world is pointless and meaningless and everything is pointless and meaningless and who cares about anything and i will just rot and i feel empty and like nothing and i will just dissolve into a puddle and then i'll be mud and then i'll dry up.

2) the world is pointless and meaningless and everything is pointless and meaningless so who cares and i don't give a fuck, so i will do whatever because who gives a fuck, and i will do what i want and everything i want and i will make anything happen because there is no other point and i don't know what i want but i will do something regardless, fuck it.

so, i have been juggling between the two lately. but i see a constant: pointless meaningless. so, it's either, take the pointless/ meaningless aspect, and then do nothing and rot. or, take the pointless/meaningless aspect, and just run around crazy. i say, run around crazy!

so here is my advice, it is the holiday time, and maybe you feel depressed and sad and pointless because everyone around you is jolly and full of love and you think everything is stupid - instead of taking the meaninglessness and feeling down, take it the other direction. RUN AROUND CRAZy WHO CARES WHO FUCKING CARES (did what i just write basically say that i'm bi-polar? fuck)

-

extended version in a global context:

3) the rest of the world is rotting away in puddles of blood while your world is empty and plain and pathetic, and you have so much time on your hands to sit around and do nothing and think about the empty and plain and pathetic.

shit, does this mean that in another part of the world there is non-pointlessness and non-meaninglessness? does this mean that the construction of your world has constructed the meaninglessness? is it that your world presents the POSSIBILITY of the meaninglessness because of the underpinnings of your world? obvioiusly meaning itself is its own construction, i am merely referring to a world that is not dull.

wait, what if you feel fine? does that mean you're a tool or i'm just cynical?


TO BE CONTINUED IN ANOTHER BLOG...

 

 

"This is too much - I don't feel like dancing any more"
Former dancing girl Nasreen

 

http://www.savethemanatee.org/

 

to be 3 days old
asleep in piss and half dead
please live through the night

 

if you are in MIAMI:

go to the NADA art fair, find the ANP booth. they have the xiu xiu books for sale, and other things i've done. they also have the NEW ANP Quarterly, which i have not seen, but i have an article in it. tell brendan and andrea, "banananas"

 

hi sapling hello burning bush

on Decmeber 6th at 21 Grand in Oakland

John Dieterich! (deerhoof)

Devin Hoff! (nels cline singers, xiu xiu )

Caralee McElroy! (xiu xiu)

Jamie Stewart! (xiu xiu)

Howard Wiley! (angola project, lauren hill)

will be playing an improv set together

hope to see you there

 

the art of today will be the overthrow of artists, or nothing! no more artists! look at my great find in the newsprinting plant! it's hanging on my wall, got to hang them on my wall (does danzig getting punched out symbolize the refreshing of punk idols? the negation of heroes? what happens when you get old? the work of art in the age of youtube? all of the above?)

---

this is the cover for the showpaper: two disappearing acts. if you don't live in NY and want one, email me. if you don't know my email, it's easy to find.



original digital file:




a stupid video i made at the newsprinter

 

sijo of the day by.Hwang Chin-i (1522-1565) (most revered female Korean classical poet)

Oh that I might capture the essence of this deep midwinter night
And fold it softly into the waft of a spring-moon quilt
Then fondly uncoil it the night my beloved returns.

 

thank you AngelA!!!!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22723895@N00/sets/72157603366725727/

if you want to learn more about the orphanage..

http://nyumbani.org/orphan_need.htm

cut and paste these links to see them

xoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoox
o0o0oo0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
X0X0X00X0X
XoXoXoXoXoXoXoxen

 

haiku of the day by jamie the fruit cop circa 2007











































































stuff it in your mouth
do not regret your cop hat
she knows you love her

 

HELLO NYC AND SURROUNDING AREA:

Do you know showpaper? that small publication that comes out every fortnight listing all the all ages shows in the area w/ an artist on the cover. i just got back from the newsprinter, it's 4am, i am on the cover of #15. i curated the designer for the back, my friend mylinh did it. there are 10,000 of them. go find them!

i will post an image of it later.

i will also post the greatest thing i've ever found: a three color printing of a NY hatian newspaper w/ hugo chavez on the cover. they didn't do the black yet, so there is no text - and they didn't cut it yet - just a long piece of blank newspaper with a three color printing of hugo chavez every other crease. it looks so strange. an orginal art-find. when the next paradigmatic shift occurs, there will no longer be artists, it's not even a question of authorship or originality or WHO did that - it's just a matter of THAT. it will be a world of art-work without the artists. this find is the beginning of that era.

if you don't live in NY, tell your friend to mail you one, and you can stick it on your wall.

 

 

Ten years ago, 122 countries signed a treaty, pledging to stop using anti-personnel mines and to clear land of a weapon which kills and injures indiscriminately long after a conflict has ended.

Clearing land of mines is a painstaking process

The international agreement, now signed by 155 states, is hailed as a rare success.

It is credited with having established a global norm which has made the use of such mines unacceptable practice.

In 2006 alone, more than 450 sq km of land was cleared of mines.

And although 5,751 people still died in landmine-related incidents, this was lower than in previous years.

"It has achieved almost as much as it had the potential to achieve," Tamar Gabelnick, Treaty Implementation Director for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), told the BBC News Website.

Yet the treaty has not been an unmitigated success. Some states, including Russia, Burma and Korea continue to use landmines, as do armed rebel groups and militias in 10 countries.

There are also countries that, while they may not use landmines, have refused to sign up to the treaty. These include the US, China, India, and Pakistan.

Ms Gabelnick describes the landmine as a "flawed weapon" because it cannot differentiate between a civilian and a soldier.

"It's not like a gun. The soldier has an opportunity to say, 'Here comes an enemy soldier, I press the button and I target that soldier,' and that's war," she said.

"What is not war is letting the weapon lie there for whoever happens to come along and set it off first."

But the US argues that the anti-personnel mine still has a military function on the battlefield, protecting high-risk areas such as borders, convoy routes and weapons depots.

The US military hopes to develop mines that can be de-activated once a conflict has ended, and reserves the right to use them.

"We believe mines can and do have a military utility which is not bounded by geography," said Richard Kidd, the US Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.

"But given that, the question is: how can we make them as safe as possible?"

He defends the US choice to not sign up to the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Convention.

"We were faced with a formulation of the treaty that forced us to choose between signing the treaty and meeting our military commitments to allies. We chose our military commitments," he said.

We, as the US, are not going to clear the million dollar mine on top of a mountain or in the middle of the jungle
Richard Kidd
US State Department

He argues that the US' own policy goes far beyond the limitations of the treaty, which he says is too narrowly focused.

"We have made a commitment to leave no mines of any type on any battlefield in the world, a commitment that has not been made by any other major power," he said.

"We are not limiting ourselves to any one munitions type. We are saying if there is an impact we should treat that regardless of whether that impact is a landmine, unexploded ordnance, AK47 or a weapons dump."

He says that the focus on landmines exclusively is misplaced as they cause just a fraction of the total number of munitions-related casualties.

Yet, he argues, from beyond the strict confines of the treaty, the US has been leading the way in efforts in de-mining efforts, contributing some $1.2bn - almost a third of total funding - since 1993.

The US says it is investing money in safe mines that can be de-activated

"Were it not for the US one-third more mine fields would be out there," Mr Kidd says.

But while welcoming this contribution, the ICBL criticises the US for failing to help countries remove each and every known mine on their territory - as they are obliged to do under the treaty.

It's an argument that the US regards as absolutist.

"We, as the US, are not going to clear the million-dollar mine on top of a mountain or in the middle of the jungle. Instead we will use that money to help victims from small arms and weapons," saus Mr Kidd.

Ms Gabelnick counters that the only way to be mine-safe is to be mine-free.

"There might be mines along a border that nobody is using today, but tomorrow there could be a refugee crisis," she says.

Jody Williams, whose leadership on landmines won her a Nobel Prize, argues that there will always be a fundamental difference between thinking militarily and thinking morally.

"Militaries have never met a weapon they didn't like," she says.

"One can argue the military value of any weapon - even a nuclear bomb - but does that make it moral? No.

"In a democratic society it is not OK to use any weapon to get the job done."

 

to people in NY, I think they are selling the xiu xiu polaroid book at the NY indie and small press book fair. http://www.nycip.org/ it was today and tomorrow. this is late.

 

haiku of the day by hjaimegh the opener and the splitter of the fallen apple and the friendless onyx, circa 2007

clamouring to read
to be in total silence
held down by your thought