Altruistic love of humankind not enough

What is the looked-for result? Loving-kindness among all human creatures and a firm, indestructible brotherhood which includes all the divine possibilities and significances in humanity.

--'Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity

Brotherhood or fraternity is of different kinds. It may be family association, the intimate relationship of the household. This is limited and subject to change and disruption. How often it happens that in a family, love and agreement are changed into enmity and antagonism. Another form of fraternity is manifest in patriotism. Man loves his fellow-men because they belong to the same nativity. This is also limited and subject to change and disintegration, as for instance when sons of the same fatherland are opposed to each other in war, bloodshed and battle. Still another brotherhood or fraternity is that which arises from racial unity, the oneness of racial origin, producing ties of affinity and association. This likewise has its limitation and liability to change, for often war and deadly strife have been witnessed between people and nations of the same racial lineage. There is a fourth kind of brotherhood, the attitude of man toward humanity itself, the altruistic love of humankind and recognition of the fundamental human bond. Although this is unlimited it is nevertheless susceptible to change and destruction. Even from this universal fraternal bond the looked-for result does not appear. What is the looked-for result? Loving-kindness among all human creatures and a firm, indestructible brotherhood which includes all the divine possibilities and significances in humanity. Therefore it is evident that fraternity, love and kindness based upon family, nativity, race or an attitude of altruism are neither sufficient nor permanent since all of them are limited, restricted and liable to change and disruption. For in the family there is discord and alienation; among sons of the same fatherland strife and internecine warfare are witnessed; between those of a given race, hostility and hatred are frequent; and even among the altruists varying aspects of opinion and lack of unselfish devotion give little promise of permanent and indestructible unity among mankind.

"Therefore the Lord of mankind has caused His holy divine Manifestations to come into the world. He has revealed His heavenly books in order to establish spiritual brotherhood, and through the power of the Holy Spirit has made it practicable for perfect fraternity to be realized among mankind. And when through the breaths of the Holy Spirit this perfect fraternity and agreement are established amongst men, this brotherhood and love being spiritual in character, this loving-kindness being heavenly, these constraining bonds being divine, a unity appears which is indissoluble, unchanging and never subject to transformation. It is ever the same and will forever remain the same. For example consider the foundation of the brotherhood laid by His Holiness Christ. Observe how that fraternity was conducive to unity and accord and how it brought various souls to a plane of uniform attainment where they were willing to sacrifice their lives for each other. They were content to renounce possessions and ready to joyously forfeit life itself. They lived together in such love and fellowship that even Galen, the famous Greek philosopher, who was not a Christian, in his work entitled "The Progress of the Nations" says that religious beliefs are greatly conducive to the foundation of real civilization. As a proof thereof he says, "A certain number of people contemporaneous with us are known as Christians. These enjoy the superlative degree of moral civilization. Each one of them is a great philosopher because they live together in the utmost love and good-fellowship. They sacrifice life for each other. They offer worldly possessions for each other. You can say of the Christian people that they are as one person. There is a bond amongst them that is indissoluble in character."

It is evident therefore that the foundation of real brotherhood, the cause of loving co-operation and reciprocity and the source of real kindness and unselfish devotion is none other than the breaths of the Holy Spirit. Without this influence and animus it is impossible. We may be able to realize some degrees of fraternity through other motives but these are limited associations and subject to change. When human brotherhood is founded upon the Holy Spirit, it is eternal, changeless, unlimited.

--'Abdu'l-Bahá, Foundations of World Unity

Read the whole talk here.

What is glory, and what vainglory?

"It is clear that whatever glory is gained outside the Cause of God turns to abasement at the end; and ease and comfort not met with on the path of God are finally but care and sorrow; and all such wealth is penury, and nothing more."

 

--'Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful p. 5.

Available from http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/MF/mf-1.html#pg5.

Regarding the Cause of God, consult www.bahai.org.

 

Showing one's Faith through deeds

From the Bahá'í writings

 

 

The cause of God is like unto a college.  The believers are like unto the students.... .  The students must show the results of their study in their deportment and deeds; otherwise they have wasted their lives.  Now the friends must so live and conduct themselves as to bring greater glory and results to the religion of God. To them the cause of God must be a dynamic force transforming the lives of men and not a question of meetings, committees, futile discussions, unnecessary debates and political wire-pulling.

~ Abdu'l-Baha, in "Star of the West" Vol. 7, No. 18, p. 178, cited in Compilation of Compilations, Vol. I, pg. 202
 

The thoughts of universal peace must be instilled into the minds of all the scholars, in order that they may become the armies of peace, the real servants of the body politic - the world.  God is the Father of all. Mankind are His children.  This globe is one home.  Nations are the members of one family.  The mothers in their homes, the teachers in the schools, the professors in the college, the presidents in the universities, must teach these ideals to the young from the cradle up to the age of manhood.
 
~ From notes taken of talks given by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as quoted in: Star of the West, Vol. IX, p. 98, cited in Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 212

 

 

......A contributing factor to this process has been the inability of religious leaders to adhere to the fundamental truths enshrined in each religion. Instead of understanding the reality of their religions and explaining the verities of
their Faiths to their followers, they have, in their ignorance, introduced so many dogmas and man-made interpretations that the light of true religion has become obscured. Consequently many intelligent and honest people have discarded religion altogether and have swelled the ranks of agnostics and atheists.
 
~ Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v. 4, p. 155

 

With hearts set aglow by the fire of the love of God and spirits refreshed by the food of the heavenly spirit you must go forth as the disciples nineteen hundred years ago, quickening the hearts of men by the call of glad tidings, the light of God in your faces, severed from everything save God. Therefore, order your lives in accordance with the first principle of the divine teaching, which is love. Service to humanity is service to God. Let the love and light of the Kingdom radiate through you until all who look upon you shall be illumined by its reflection. Be as stars, brilliant and sparkling in the loftiness of their heavenly station. Do you appreciate the Day in which you live?

This is the century of the Blessed Perfection!

This is the cycle of the light of His beauty!

This is the consummate day of all the Prophets!

These are the days of seed sowing. These are the days of tree planting. The bountiful bestowals of God are successive. He who sows a seed in this day will behold his reward in the fruits and harvest of the heavenly Kingdom. This timely seed, when planted in the hearts of the beloved of God, will be watered by showers of divine mercy and warmed by the sunshine of divine love. Its fruitage and flower shall be the solidarity of mankind, the perfection of justice and the praiseworthy attributes of heaven manifest in humanity. All who sow such a seed and plant such a tree according to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh shall surely witness this divine outcome in the degrees of its perfection and will attain unto the good pleasure of the Merciful One.

 

 ~ Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 8

"I have never heard of Bahá'u'lláh," said a young man. I have only recently read about this movement, but I recognize the mission of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and desire to be a disciple. I have always believed in the brotherhood of man as the ultimate solvent of all our national and international difficulties. "
 
"It makes no difference whether you have ever heard of Bahá'u'lláh or not," was the answer, "the man who lives the life according to the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh is already a Bahá'í. On the other hand a man may call himself a Bahá'í for fifty years and if he does not live the life he is not a Bahá'í. An ugly man may call himself handsome, but he deceives no one, and a black man may call himself white yet he deceives no one: not even himself!"
 
~ Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 105

Start writing - some useful advice

I found these various tips quite helpful!

Advice for Students: 10 Steps Toward Better Writing

Writing well is easily one of the most sought-after and useful skills in the business world. Ironically, it is one of the rarest and most undervalued skills among students, and few professors have the time, resources, or skills to teach writing skills effectively. What follows are a handful of tips and general principles to help you develop your writing skills, which will not only improve your grades (the most worthless indicator of academic progress) but will help develop your ability to think and explain the most difficult topics. Although directed at students, most of this advice applies equally well to any sort of writing; in the end, good writing is not limited to one context or another.

1. Pace yourself. Far too many students start their papers the night before they are due and write straight through until their deadline. Most have even deceived themselves into thinking they write best this way. They don't. Professors give out assignments at the beginning of the semester for a reason: so that you have ample time to plan, research, write, and revise a paper. Taking advantage of that time means that not only will you produce a better paper but you'll do so with less stress and without losing a night of sleep (or partying) the evening of the due date. Block out time at the beginning of the semester — e.g. 2 weeks for research, 2 weeks for writing, 2 weeks to let your draft "sit", and a few days to revise and proofread. During your writing time, set aside time to write a little bit each day (500 words is incredibly doable, usually in less than an hour — a short blog post is that long!) and "park downhill" when you're done — that is, end your writing session at a place where you'll be able to easily pick up the thread the next day.
2. Plan, then write. For some reason, the idea of planning out a paper strikes fear deep into the hearts of most students — it's as if they consider themselves modernist artists of the word, and any attempt to direct the course of their brilliance would sully the pure artistic expression that is their paper. This is, in a word, dumb. There is no successful writer who does not plan his work before he starts writing — and if he says he does, he's lying. Granted, not every writer, or even most, bothers with a traditional formal outline with Roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numerals, lowercase letters, lowercase Roman numerals, and so on. An outline can be a mindmap, a list of points to cover, a statement of purpose, a mental image of your finished paper — even, if you're good, the first paragraph you write. See the introduction to this post? That's an outline: it tells you what I'm going to talk about, how I'm going to talk about it, and what you can expect to find in the rest of the paper. It's not very complete; my real outline for this post was scribbled on my bedside notebook and consisted of a headline and a list of the ten points I wanted to cover.

Whatever form it takes, an effective outline accomplishes a number of things. It provides a ruler to measure your progress against as you're writing. It acts as a reminder to make sure you cover your topic as fully as possible. It offers writing prompts when you get stuck. A good outline allows you to jump back and forth, attacking topics as your thinking or your research allows, rather than waiting to see what you write on page six before deciding what you should write about on page seven. Finally, having a plan at hand helps keep you focused on the goals you've set for the paper, leading to better writing than the "making it up as you go along" school of writing to which most students seem to subscribe.

3. Start in the middle. One of the biggest problems facing writers of all kinds is figuring out how to start. Rather than staring at a blank screen until it's burned into your retinas trying to think of something awe-inspiring and profound to open your paper with, skip the introduction and jump in at paragraph two. You can always come back and write another paragraph at the top when you're done — but then again, you might find you don't need to. As it turns out, the first paragraph or so are usually the weakest, as we use them to warm up to our topic rather than to do any useful work.
4. Write crappy first drafts. Give up the fantasy of writing sterling prose in your first go-around. You aren't Jack Kerouac (and even he wrote some crummy prose) and you aren't writing the Great American Novel (and Kerouac beat you to it, anyway). Write secure in the knowledge that you can fix your mistakes later. Don't let the need to look up a fact or to think through a point get in the way of your writerly flow — just put a string of x'es or note to yourself in curly brackets {like this} and move on. Ignore the rules of grammar and format — just write. You can fix your mistakes when you proofread. What you write doesn't matter, what you rewrite is what matters.
5. Don't plagiarize. Plagiarism is much more than lifting papers off the Internet — it's copying phrases from Wikipedia or another site without including a reference and enclosing the statement in quotes, it's summarizing someone else's argument or using their data without noting the source, it's including anything in your paper that is not your own original thought and not including a pointer to where it comes from. Avoid ever using another person's work in a way that even suggests it is your own.

Be sparing in your use of other people's work, even properly cited. A paper that is essentially a string of quotes and paraphrases with a minimum of your on words is not going to be a good paper, even though each quote and paraphrase is followed by a perfectly formed reference.

6. Use directions wisely. Make sure your paper meets the requirements spelled out in the assignment. The number one question most students ask is "how long does it have to be?" The real answer, no matter what the instructions say, is that every paper needs to be exactly as long as it needs to be to make its point. However, almost every topic can be stretched to fill out a book, or condensed down to a one-page summary; by including a page-count, your professor is giving you a target not for the number of words but for the level of detail you should include.

Contrary to popular opinion, writing shorter papers well is much harder than writing longer papers. If your professor asks you to write 8 - 10 pages, it's not because she doesn't think you can write more than ten pages on your topic; more likely, it's because she doesn't think you can write less than eight.

7. Avoid Wikipedia. I admit, I am a big fan of Wikipedia. It is generally well-researched, authoritative, and solidly written. But I cringe when students cite Wikipedia in their papers, especially when they use the worst possible introductory strategy: "According to Wikipedia, [subject of paper] is [quote from Wikipedia]." Wikipedia — and any other general-purpose encyclopedia — is really not a suitable source for college-level work. It's there as a place to look up facts quickly, to gain a cursory understanding of a topic, not to present detailed examinations of academic subjects. Wikipedia is where you should start your research, but the understanding that forms the core of a good academic paper (or nearly any other kind of paper) should be much deeper and richer than Wikipedia offers. But don't take my word for it: Jimmy Wales, one of Wikipedia's founders, has very openly discouraged students from using his creation as a source.
8. Focus on communicating your purpose.Revise your paper at least once, focusing on how well each line directs your readers towards the understanding you've set out to instill in them. Every sentence should direct your reader towards your conclusion. Ask yourself, "Does this sentence add to my argument or just take up space? Does it follow from the sentence before, and lead into the following sentence? Is the topic of each paragraph clear? Does each sentence in the paragraph contribute to a deeper understanding of the paragraph's topic?" Revising your paper is where the magic happens — when you're done with your first draft, your understanding of your subject will be much greater than it was when you started writing; use that deeper knowledge to clarify and enrich your writing. Revision should take about the same time as writing — say 15 - 30 minutes a page.
9. Proofread. Proofreading is a separate thing entirely from revision, and should be the last thing you do before declaring a paper "finished". This is where you'll want to pay attention to your grammar — make sure every sentence has a subject and a verb, and that they agree with each other. Fix up all the spelling errors, especially the ones that spell-checking misses (like "there" and "their"). Certainly run your word processor's spell-checker, but that's the beginning, not the end, of proofreading. One good trick is to proofread your paper backwards — look at the last word, then the second-to-last word, then the third-to-last word, and so on. This forces your brain to look at each word out of its original context, which means that your memory of what you wanted to write won't get in the way of seeing what you actually did write.
10. Conclude something. Don't confuse a "conclusion" with a "summary". The last paragraph or two should be the culmination of your argument, not a rehash of it. Explain the findings of your research, propose an explanation for the data presented, point out avenues for future research, or point out the significance of the facts you've laid out in your paper. The conclusion should be a strong resolution to the paper, not a weak recapitulation tacked on to pad out the page count.

The best way to improve your writing is to write, as much as you can. The tips above will help give you direction and point out areas where you are likely to find weaknesses that undermine your written work. What tricks have you come up with to make the process of writing more productive and less painful?

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http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/writing-%E2%80%93-just-do-it.html

Writing – Just do it!

I used to be an English teacher and the most dreaded task that I could assign my students was to write a short essay. Perhaps that fear is a product of our technological environment where the art of writing to introduce or share an idea has given way to terse or coded phone messages, happy faces or computer emoticons to convey a thought. Sometimes a student spends hours searching the Internet trying to uncover something that has been written before, in hopes that a teacher will not discover the plagiarized material. Unfortunately, many students graduate from school with minimal writing skills and enter the adult world unprepared to meet the challenges of having to write to survive in many professions.

There are many tips, tricks and gimmicks that are available that would suggest that if you follow this rule or that rule that writing ability will suddenly appear out of the mist and bless the afflicted with a talent that has hitherto been undiscovered - poppycock! Writing is just like any other endeavor in life. One does not wake up and become a football player because they think it will be a good career choice or enter into the field of investment banking without preparation, practice and some set backs along the way.

So what does one do when they are confronted with a mission to write something and they are unprepared? I recommend the well known Nike motto - “just do it”. I can hear the reader thinking now - “yeah sure – fine for you to say, but I don’t know what I’m doing.” Wrong! If you can read, you can write. There are only two obstacles to successful writing. They are fear and lack of desire. Fear can be overcome. Lack of desire is a terminal affliction.

If you lack desire, stop reading now. You are wasting time. If fear is the only obstacle, please continue and I will provide two simple rules for improving your writing. First let me assure you that I had to conquer a fear of writing so I know the difficulty, but I also recognized that my career would be handicapped substantially if I did not learn to write so I set out to conquer my fear and improve my writing. In fact teaching English was my second career – I never would have “thunk” it!

Writing is like a child learning a game. Do you remember when you were a child and entered the playground to engage in some sport with your playmates? Did you know the rules? Of course not – you simple engaged in the activity and learned the rules as time progressed. Here is where Nike enters the picture as rule number one – just do it! Get the paper and pencil or sit at the keyboard and write. What do you have to write - a sales report, a letter of recommendation, a plan to improve some function or some other writing activity? All require a start – so start! No rules – just start! In fact, stop reading this article and begin. You can come back after the first 50 words are written.

Rule number two. The last rule! There has to a beginning, a middle and an end in your writing efforts. You’ve probably heard of the old standby – an introduction, a body and a conclusion. So make sure you have introduced your subject, presented some material to support that subject and conclude with your findings or recommendations.

Alright! I know I have oversimplified a bit, but I’m assuming that if you can read this that you recognize what a sentence is and have at least a basic knowledge of punctuation. If you have those skills you can write! Just like the playground experience, you can learn the finer techniques as you practice the game.

In fact, after you’ve written a bit – I recommend the “50 tools that can help you in writing” that are posted on this website. They offer additional information that can improve your writing techniques and add finesse to your game.
In conclusion, enjoy the experience! You can do it if you “just do it.”

David Richards is a retired teacher and former business owner that lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. He enjoys sharing any knowledge gained or lessons learned in his life in hopes that they may be applicable to others.

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http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/six-ways-to-start-the-writing-process.html

First, decide what you actually want to write. Getting down the bare minimums for your piece will help you construct a bare draft for whatever it is you’re planning to end with. Either jot it off on a sticky note and put it next to your notebook, or write it on the top of your Word document.

How long is whatever you’re trying to write? What are you writing about? Are there any other requirements you have to worry about? While you might know exactly what you need before you start to write, putting it down is a good way to focus your mind on exactly what you need to accomplish.

Make sure you’re interested in what you’re writing. If you aren’t fascinated with the subject you’re writing about, it will almost certainly show in your writing. If you don’t have a choice as to what to write about, try to find some element in your subject that interests you, and focus on it. If you’re just writing to finish whatever it is you’re supposed to write, getting yourself to write it will take much longer than if you take just a little time to get yourself interested.

Facilitate your writing: Self-interview for Writers

This post by Druzelle Cederquist offers an intriguing means to further the writing process.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

"What Surprised Me Today?" - Self-Interview for Writers

Ollie Hartsfield at June 2008 Workshop: Creativity, Craft & Connection

My last post was about a simple interview project with a person who matters to you, with help from StoryCorps – a project for everyone. This post is about self-interview and speaks more to writers, although it is a good exercise in awareness for everyone. After all, we may learn from listening, reading, interacting with others, but for first-hand experience of the world each of us has one resource – ourself.

The self-interview below comes from Donald R. Murray, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and award-winning teacher of writing. He advised writers to always carry a notebook or 3 x 5 cards – something on which to capture snatches of the day's encounters and those shimmering bits of thought and feeling that drift through us, and are easily forgotten if we don't jot them down.

These sketch-notes become a rich resource for the fuller writing process through which we excavate thought, memory, experience to create vivid, insightful writing. The more keenly we pay attention to the details around and within, the richer the creative soil we have to muck around in – that raw, unformed stuff that is transformed by the writing process into what "we did not know we knew" – Murray's words.

"The interview always makes my world expand," writes Murray. "My life that seemed dull and ordinary becomes more interesting as I listen to the answers to my own questions. The same thing may happen to you if you answer my questions."

What am I thinking about while waiting in line?
What irritated me today?
What made me laugh?
What made me angry?
What did I learn today?
What contradicted what I know – or thought I knew?
What made me feel good?
What made me feel bad?
What confuses me?
What does somebody else need to know that I know?
What questions do I need answered?
What surprised me today?

"Try this," Murray advises. "Write down your answers in fragments. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or neatness or fully developed paragraphs or sentences. You are trying to catch an idea, a half of an idea, a quarter of an idea, just the quick glint of where an idea was a moment ago. Play with words, images, facts. See if any of them connect. Pay close attention to anything that surprises you, that is different from what you expected. Follow the surprise or connection in your mind or on paper to see where your thinking may take you." **

For excellent practical insights into the nitty-gritty process of writing I highly recommend Donald R. Murray's book The Craft of Revision. Murray, who died December 2006, was a true mentor of writers -- one of those who possessed "a lucid mind and loving spirit" and loved to see others learn and excel. For a taste of what Murray had to say, see this online copy of his speech What a Writing Life Has Given Me.

**The Craft of Revision, 5th edition, p.9-10

This was copied from National Geographics website article 28 January 2009.

Best Fish For Your Health and The Sea's

By The Green Guide Editors

>Photograph Courtesy Shutterstock Images

Fish provide essential nutrients and fatty acids—especially for developing bodies and brains—and make a perfect protein-filled, lean meal whether grilled, baked, poached or served as sushi. Yet overfishing, habitat loss and declining water quality have wreaked havoc on many fish populations. Furthermore, many are contaminated with brain-damagining mecury and other toxic chemicals. If the pickings appear slim, check out our "Yes" fish where you'll find many options available. As for our "Sometimes" fish, these may be eaten occasionally, while "No" fish should be avoid entirely.

YES Fish

Low mercury (L), not overfished or farmed destructively

Abalone (farmed) L
Anchovies L
Arctic char (farmed) L
Barramundi (U.S. farmed) L
Catfish (U.S. farmed) L
Caviar (U.S. or French farmed) L
Clams, soft-shell and steamers (farmed) L
Crab, Dungeness (U.S. , trapcaught) L
Crab, imitation (AK, wild-caught) L
Crab, snow (Canada) L
Crab, stone (FL) L
Crawfish (U.S. farmed) L
Cuttlefish L
Herring (Atlantic)
Hoki L
Lobster, spiny/rock (U.S., Australia, Baja west coast) L
Mackerel, Atlantic (purse seine-caught) L
Mussels (U.S. farmed) L
Oysters (Pacific farmed) L
Pollock (AK, wild-caught) L
Prawn, spot (BC, wild-caught) L
Salmon (AK, wild-caught) L
Sardines L
Scallops, bay (U.S. farmed) L
Shrimp, pink (OR, wild-caught) L
Squid, longfin (U.S. Atlantic) L
Striped bass (farmed) L
Tilapia (U.S. farmed) L
Trout, rainbow (U.S. farmed) L

SOMETIMES Fish

Recovering and/or moderate mercury (M) - once/month

Black Sea Bass
Bluefish M
Calamari L
Clams (caught) L
Cod (Pacific) M
Crab, blue (Gulf Coast) M
Crab, king (AK) L
Crab, kona (HI, Australia) L
Crab, snow (AK) L
Croaker (Atlantic) L
Flounder (Pacific) L
Haddock (hook and line)
Hake, silver, red and offshore (wildcaught) L
Halibut (Pacific, wild-caught) M
Jacksmelt M
Lake Trout (Lake Superior) high PCBs
Lake Whitefish high PCBs
Lingcod
Lobster, Maine M
Mackerel, Spanish (Atlantic) M
Mahimahi (troll-caught) M
Mussels, blue M
Octopus (HI, Gulf of California; wild-caught) L
Pomfret, big scale
Prawn, spot (U.S., wild-caught) L
Round whitefish (Lake Huron, Lake Michigan)
Sablefish/black cod M (best if from Alaska or Canada)
Salmon (CA, OR,WA; wild-caught) L
Sanddabs L
Scup/Porgy
Shrimp (U.S. Atlantic, U.S. Gulf of Mexico; farmed or trawl-caught) L
Shrimp, northern (Canadian and U.S. Atlantic; wild-caught) L
Sole (Pacific) L
Squid, jumbo (Gulf of California)
Tilapia (Central America farmed) L
Trevally L
Tuna (canned light) M
Tuna (troll-caught Pacific albacore) M
Yellow Perch (Lake Huron, Lake Ontario)
Wahoo

NO Fish

Overfished, farmed destructively and/or high mercury (MM)

Alewife, River Herring
Arctic char (freshwater) MM
Basa (China farmed)
Bass/sea bass (wild) MM
Catfish (China farmed)
Catfish (wild) MM
Caviar (Russian/Iranian) L
Chilean sea bass MM
Cod (Atlantic) M
Conch, queen L
Crab, king (imported) L
Crawfish (farmed, imported) L
Croaker (Pacific) aka White Croaker MM
Dace (China farmed)
Eel (American and European)
Eel (China farmed)
Flounder (Atlantic) PCBs L
Grenadier
Groupers MM
Gulf corvina (white sea bass)
Haddock (trawl-caught) L
Hake, white
Halibut (Atlantic) MM
Lake Trout (Lake Huron, Lake Michigan) high PCBs
Lobster (Caribbean) L
Lobster, spiny (all imports but Australia) L
Mackerel, king and Spanish (Gulf of Mexico) MM
Mahimahi (imported longline) M
Marlin MM
Monkfish M
Octopus (imported, trawl-caught) L
Opah MM
Orange roughy MM
Oysters (eastern, Gulf Coast)
Paddlefish (wild)
PCBs, MM
Pike MM
Pompano, Florida M
Rockfish (Pacific red snapper; trawl-caught) M
Salmon (Atlantic, farmed, Wild from CA,OR or WA) PCBs, Great Lakes M
Sea Scallops (Mid Atlantic)
Sea turtles
Shad
Shark MM,
Shrimp (imported) L
Skate M
Snapper (mutton)
Snapper (rimported, red, silk, vermillion, yellowtail) M
Sole (Atlantic) L
Spotted Seatrout
Sturgeon (Atlantic, wild-caught imported)
Swordfish MM
Tilapia (China, Taiwan farmed) L
Tilefish MM
Totoaba
Tuna, canned white, albacore, bigeye, bluefin, yellowfin MM
Turbot (Greenland halibut) L
Yellow perch MM
Walleye MM
Weakfish

Warnings are based on populations of highest concern (children and women who are pregnant, nursing or of childbearing age). To learn which fish from local water bodies are safe to eat, call your state department of health, or see www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish. Besides mercury, toxins can include PCBs, dioxins and pesticides.

In compiling this list, the Green Guide referred to resources at the web sites of the Food and Drug Administration, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Environmental Working Group, Environmental Defense Foundation and Oceana among others.

Mideast Politics - KEY STEP: Approach problem from broader regional perspective

"So solving this Rubik's cube may not be so difficult after all. If we understand how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together and we pursue the right strategy, progress on one front will facilitate progress on the others. The key step is to approach the problem from broader regional perspective and a realistic assessment of U.S. interests, and to be willing to act as an honest broker, using our influence to push all the parties in the right direction."

- Stephen M. Walt
Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations at Harvard University.

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/01/26/its_easier_than_tom_friedman_thinks_a_realistic_middle_east_strategy

It's easier than Tom Friedman thinks: a realistic Middle East strategy

Mon, 01/26/2009 - 12:15pm

Tom Friedman almost gets it, but what he leaves out is at least as significant as what he puts in. In his column in Sunday's New York Times, he informs us that we really are at a cross-roads in the Middle East, and that the two-state solution will fail if it isn't achieved very, very soon. Glad he noticed!

Friedman says there are two big problems: extremist settlers in Israel and extremist groups like Hamas among the Palestinians. And for good measure, he tosses in the obstructionists in Syria and those dangerous mullahs in Tehran, whose opposition makes solving this problem nearly impossible. We also need help from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but it's hard to count on them. His conclusion: "whoever lines up this diplomatic Rubik's cube deserves two Nobel Prizes."

Actually it's not that hard, although I doubt the Obama administration will summon the political will and diplomatic stamina that will be necessary to pull it off. To see why, you need a fuller picture of the situation than Friedman provides.

To begin with, Friedman would have you believe that settlement expansion is just the work of some isolated religious extremists, and the only problem is that no Israeli government has "mustered the will" to face them down. In fact, settlement expansion has been the conscious policy of every Israeli government since 1967 -- Labor, Likud, and Kadima alike. If you don't believe me, just read Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar's Lords of the Land; Gershom Gorenberg's Accidental Empire, Neve Gordon's Israel's Occupation, or retired IDF general Shlomo Gazit's Trapped Fools. Thus far, Ehud Barak is the only Israeli leader to make a serious effort to negotiate a two-state solution, and even his best offer at Camp David fell well short of a viable two-state proposal. And when Oslo collapsed, Friedman's columns helped spread the false claim that PLO leader Yasser Arafat had turned down a great deal and was solely responsible for the failure, a myth that undermined the peace camp in Israel and reinforced the political dynamics that Friedman now blames for the current impasse.

Friedman also fails to mention the role that the United States has played in bringing this situation about. What was the United States doing while all those settlers were moving into the West Bank? The answer: we were helping pay for it, by continuing to give Israel billions of dollars of aid each year. Of course U.S. officials told the Israeli government that it couldn't spend our aid in the West Bank, but money is fungible and generous U.S. support inevitably freed up resources that Israel could then spend spend on the settlements, on the land-grabbing separation fence, or on the IDF forces assigned to protect the settlers themselves.

Although it was the official policy of every President since Lyndon Johnson to oppose the construction of settlements, none of them put any serious pressure on Israel to stop. The first President Bush briefly withheld some loan guarantees in 1992 over this issue, but the guarantees were authorized a few months later and settlement construction continued apace. The number of settlers more than doubled during the Oslo period (1993-2001), yet former U.S. negotiator Aaron David Miller recently reported that:

In 25 years of working on this issue for six secretaries of state, I can't recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity -- including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions -- does to the peacemaking process."

Israel has added another 70,000 settlers since 2001, and the Bush administration never took any serious action to stop them. The question you might ask yourself is: why not?

Friedman is right that Palestinian rejectionists are a big problem too. The difference is that the United States has never hesitated to turn the screws on them. Persistent U.S. pressure helped persuade Arafat and the PLO to recognize Israel, which paved the way for the Oslo Accords in 1993. Back then, Hamas had only about 15 percent support in the Palestinian community. Unfortunately, the Oslo process failed to deliver a Palestinian state and the combination of Fatah's corruption and Israel's ever-expanding occupation made Hamas more and more popular over time. So when the United States insisted on elections in 2006, Hamas ended up winning. Then Washington refused to recognize their victory and Israel imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza. The United States actively worked to destroy the Palestinian unity government and foolishly tried to sponsor a Fatah coup in Gaza, only to have Hamas move first and rout the Fatah forces, thereby solidifying its position. The recent Israeli assault on Gaza -- which the Bush administration backed and Congress voted overwhelmingly to endorse -- has deepened these divisions even more. To a considerable extent, therefore, the situation that Friedman now deplores is of our own making.

Finally, Friedman's suggestion that the involvement of Syria and Iran makes this problem nearly intractable misses the key point: it's not their policies that make our problems more difficult, it is our policies that have helped drive some otherwise unlikely allies together and given them an issue they can exploit for their own reasons. Syria has no other way to pressure Israel, so it uses the Palestinian issue (and its support for Hamas and Hezbollah) as part of its long campaign to get back the Golan Heights, which Israel conquered in the Six Day War. Similarly, as Trita Parsi has shown, Iran supports Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups in part to pressure the United States to acknowledge its legitimate security interests in the Persian Gulf and partly to discredit conservative Arab states like Saudi Arabia and make it harder for them to form an anti-Iranian coalition in the Gulf. This situation explains why Saudi Arabia has been pushing its own peace plan since 2002 (a plan now formally adopted by the Arab League): they know that ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would strengthen their position and undermine Iran's.

From a realist's standpoint, therefore, the obvious strategy is one of "divide-and-rule" (except that we aren't seeking to rule the region; we're just trying to protect certain key strategic interests). Achieving a two-state solution would remove one of the issues that Iran is using to bolster its regional position. Encouraging Israel and Syria to finalize their peace treaty -- an agreement whose main elements have been in place for nearly a decade -- would end Syria's support for Hezbollah and Hamas and drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. Serious diplomatic engagement with Iran and a genuine willingness to satisfy Tehran's security concerns (especially its fear of U.S.-sponsored regime change) would reduce its incentive to play the spoiler's role over Palestine and make it easier for Israel to make the concessions that are necessary for peace. Lastly, the prospect of diminishing Iranian and Syrian backing would force Hamas to confront some hard choices -- i.e., on recognizing Israel's right to exist -- especially if a two-state solution begins to take shape and they are seen as the principal impediment to it.

So solving this Rubik's cube may not be so difficult after all. If we understand how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together and we pursue the right strategy, progress on one front will facilitate progress on the others. The key step is to approach the problem from broader regional perspective and a realistic assessment of U.S. interests, and to be willing to act as an honest broker, using our influence to push all the parties in the right direction. Happily, acting in this way would not just be in the interests of the United States, it would also be in the interest of our other friends in the region, Israel included.

For an especially thoughtful set of reflections on this issue, see Bernard
Avishai's two-part essay here and here.