Distractions

So many distractions! My visit to the Urologist on 10 February did not go well. My PSA count had multiplied ten times, but at least he said I can have another three months before having to go back on to the hormones, get bone scans and so on.
And who can ignore the troubles in the Middle East and northern Africa? Courageous people are making peaceful stands for human rights that should be available to everyone, and they are being killed! How interesting it is that these people defy Western sterotypes of crazed Jihadists.
I also find it disturbing that America is trying to define itself on the side of democracy and freedom, and yet it has sponsored so much evil. For how many years have they propped up these dictators? One reason given for a compliant military in Egypt is that they are addicted to the billions of dollars in aid from the US that they siphon off to their own pockets. How can the Americans condemn oppressive religious states, like Iran, and be friendly with equally repressive religious states, like Israel and Saudi Arabia? Everything the Americans claim to do in the name of freedom and democracy seems to have the opposite effect. Look at Pakistan. How many American dollars have been poured into that country to reduce its people to miserable poverty and life lived in terror from religious gangsters.
Would it be too cynical of me to suggest that Israel has been a convenient distraction for these dictators? If a sensible compromise could have been reached then attention might have been focussed on the greedy parasites collecting all the wealth in the Arab world that should have been shared among their people. Anyway enough of my political rant. What would I know?
My little Subud group is contributing in a small way to a better world. I've just forwarded our yearly contribution of $1,000 to the Subud school in Kalimantan to sponsor a local student who would otherwise not be able to get a good education and $500 to Subud New Zealand to help our brothers and sisters affected by the Christchurch earthquake.
I have managed to have four articles placed in Articlesbase (http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/william-logan/57251): "Looking for spiritual satisfaction?"; "Queen for the day" about a woman living through disappointment in the nineteenth century, "Mateship and Military Madness" about fighting in Papua New Guinea during World War Two; and "Saying the right thing". I've also been doing other writing that I'll report on when it is published.