Blogs

I went to see Josh Phillips Folk Festival last night at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte. I went, as always, with the hope of finding Psychs. There was a guy who was at some other shows I've been to who was selling chocolate covered shroom candy, I happened to be standing the farthest away in my group of friends and others when it "went down" so I didn't get to get any from him. I had to practically beg my friend J. to sell me one of his two that he bought. He sold me half of one. There was probably about 1/16 oz of shrooms in each of those chocolates (not worth what we paid). I had a nice little trip that probably lasted about 45 minutes and was feeling good for the rest of the night. The show was very good, JPFF are a really talented group of musicians. The sax player from "Yo Mamas Big Fat Booty Band" played a bunch of songs with them. It was a really nice night.

So today I got a call from my friend that he had some quality green going for grabs, so I nipped over in happy anticipation of the right kind of THC. There is a connection in the feel of this JW-018 and good old herb. But it really is not the same profile at all. The duration of the drugs effects seem more drawn out. Like the smoke will hit you mentally full on say half an hour after a joint, and then leave you in a state of mild confusion, and anxiety, for up to 8 hours afterwards. This is why I'd be interested if Spice Gold's manufacturers actually have real customers who have given up the herb for one of their products. I strongly suspect that in the long term, not. So after a couple of hours at A-------s house, I'm back here and feeling more conventionally stoned.
Christmas was OK. My M+D have been unwell with flu over the period, so my brothers prepared the Christmas dinner between them Me and P were at her M+D for Christmas Eve/Morning, and we went to mine in the afternoon. Bro No1 had gone home to his new flat by the time we got there so I was sad to have missed him. I think that he wasn't really buying the Christmas cheer bit, what with still being chewed up over his relationship split and turmoil. Bro 2 and his Mrs are undergoing fertility treatments at the moment so fingers crossed for them. Bro No3 is in a sticky spot with his other half. He's 28 and she 38. She has had some uterine problem that has been checked out and requires a full hysterectomy. The implications and worries surrounding all this a fizzling as we speak. She is Sardinian and so has found it tricky to negotiate the medical jargon in this country, which has not been helped by the fact that the consultants have been confused themselves as to what exactly it is that they are dealing with. I went to the football with all three brothers on the 28th for a cold and fairly tedious match lost against Altringham. I agreed to attend at least one further game in the future on the promise it wouldn't be as bad as the one just witnessed.
In the week after Christmas I naughtily treated myself to a couple of things off my Christmas list which hadn't materialised. One was the DVD box for 'The Young Ones' tv series and the other was a bass amp. Yes I finally bought one of my own after borrowing/stealing/scrounging other peoples amps for most of my playing career. Part of me feels that as a musician, all I should have to offer is my groove, or what-have-you, and that overheads like amps, strings, leads, should be provided by the National Health service or some such body. Now I have a 300Watt Ashdown amp with that nice Sub Bass feature which I learned to love on the model I previously borrowed. If I sit on it and start grooving, my vision goes blurred. It is so crisply powerfull that it makes quietly caressed high notes sing out with sweet clarity, and deep riffage that would make the current Pope shuffle his feet.
P and me are good together. We are loving well and though things are going to be routine for a few months, we are looking forward to an adventure to Peru in November. We have started saving. She has helped me sort my money out a bit with a good 0% credit card , while I've started a savings account for the holiday. I plan to put as much money as I don't spend on Marijuana over the next few months into it. As soon as I crop this grow I'll start the next crop growing. Trouble is, although I have loved the Dutch Passion White Widdow strain each time I have grown it in the past, it takes so long to flower. Worth the wait, surely, for quality and quantity sake. The same can be said for the Blueberry, a different but equally charming smoke. I would like a quicker turnaround. These baby's have will have taken just short of three months from seed to reefer. I would like to grow another two crops before November so that I could pay of my credit card AND save for our proposed South American adventure.

A week into the new year and there is very little weed around. This is doubly frustrating since my own crop of 5 White Widdow plants is now maybe 10 days away from cropping. The garage/office space is now filled with the aroma of the nice chunky white buds with their dense trichomes, which are going crazy. When I cleared out the dead fan leaves lower down the plants today, I came away sticky and fragrant. Two of the plants are less mature so I'll give them another week and some more food, but in two days I will flush with pure water for a week to wash out the system before I crop the three that are ready. There is a real pleasure in the period of self sufficiency achieved after a good crop. No more messing around chasing odd bits from people. I tend to relax considerably and get more creative sometimes, when I don't have to waste time and energy finding a smoke. Plus my bank balance recovers quite pleasantly from not buying.
No, since around Christmas, I have kept a backup of some herbal weed alternative or other. My local head shop were selling what they called 'Gold' blend. I asked them if this was the 'Spice Gold' about which I head read bits about here on Bluelight, and they said not. It had some kind of effect, but nothing much. I begin to suspect that the nightly ritual and process of smoking itself may have an unconscious role in the induction of sleep, irrespective of whether there is much of a psychoactive ingredient present. It just gave me a dry mouth and made my eyes a bit hard to focus. I boosted it with a double dose of Kalms brand sleepers. They have valerian as a listed ingredient and have some kind of enhancing effect on my dreams.
Then I took the plunge and ordered Spice Gold over the internet. It too was disappointingly mild, but there was something slightly weedlike about it to my mind. I wasn't sure, but I felt it lacked some of my favorite things that the real thing has. But, it was mild enough not to worry about. I reordered the strongest formulation that I could find for a later rematch. By that point I had read that there was evidence that JH-018 was the active synthetic cannabinoid contained in the blend. This encouraged in me some kind of perhaps foolish bravado, based on the assumption that it must therefore be a weaker THC analogue. I rolled a couple of big ones one night when I was completely without weed or hash, and proceded to smoke them while reading Private Eye magazine before bed, I think it was last wednesday night. I was 3/4 through the second joint where I simply had to acknowledge a fact that had been nudging towards me for the passed hour. I was extremely stoned indeed. Yes, no doubt about that. Tricky on my pins. Squinting hard to read the printed word. It was not the familliar ground of THC that I found myself in though. It was a colder and less welcoming vista. Minor hallucinatory visual seemed to give things a shimmer but in a naturalistic way, rather than a phosphorescent way. I begin to giggle to myself about how surprising it was to find myself so peculiarly stoned. I had got, thankfully, a hot cup of tea to hand because I was getting a chronically dry mouth.
I imagined some chemistry boffin tinkering slightly with the proposed structure of a hypothetical THC analogue, ala Shulgin or Nichols. Except this guy just happened to have succesfully suppressed all known euphoric properties of the original, and even intensified the dysphoric. And since it was unlikey to be very abusable, some enterprising individual is able to market it as an 'incense' and 'not intended for human ingestion'. When I say it intensified the dysphoric, this was not clear all the time. I had some interesting trains of thought which made me think, yes this is somehow a bit satistying to me. However, after I had gone to bed, I heard P on the phone downstairs. She was talking to one of her friends who has just had a little boy by the name of Eli. For some reason my imagination played havoc with what I was hearing, and I kept thinking she was talking about me. The old faithfull rational part of my mind was saying, whoa there, you're getting paranoid matey, but even it was a little unsure for a moment. I have never experienced what I would classify as intrusive paranoid stuff on my favorite smoke, ever. I know it has bad effects in that department for some, but THC has not done so for me, and I have puffed my way through a staggeringly and some might say pitifully large amount over the years. No I have always enjoyed my herb with a happy heart. Occasionally I have had reason to curse the propensity for idleness it causes me, but in general I have given it the thumbs up through the ups and the downs.
But, here is JW-018 and its given me a dose of paranoia, and my mouth is as dry as the inside of Ghandi's flip flop. As I layed there in bed I went on to have a full on panic attack, the like of which I have never had before. The paranoid thoughts reached a crescendo of pointless gnashing of 'what if's and other self loathing nonsense that seemed to suddenly embody themselves in my minds eye, and my breathing became shallow and fast. I realised what I was sort of doing to myself, in a way, and started to rationalise and batten down. I took control of my breathing and calmed myself. But the application of this conscious control was not connected directly to my autonomic nervous systen whose response was in a time lag of 30 seconds or so it seemed. Because my heart beat began to ramp up frighteningly and I could feel the very sudden strong jerks of that poor muscle in my chest. And I felt that each breath was scarcely enough to deliver the oxygen I needed. I was really quite scared at that point. I almost gave P a shout if only just for her to hold me until it settled down, but I felt some shame at having got so foolishly walloped by some shady internet herb which I only took because I couldn't handle the thought of going a day without inhaling some funky thing or other. No I sat it out. Two possible options. It calms down and I get some sleep, or my heart bursts, or some equivalent sequelae of events. It turns out I was able to get some sleep of the non permanent kind. But not great sleep. Not just a terrible dry mouth, but reduced moisture in all mucosal tissues of the face. Meaning I woke up with a face full of sticky bogies and eyes like pissholes in the snow. I didn't properly occupy either the world of the awake or that of the asleep, during the whole night, but something in my bodyclock clicked at 4.53 am, as it invariably does just now and I got up for work on autopilot. I felt bad, not properly mentally located. All the machine like behaviours were intact although occasionly a little clumsier. At work, my error rate was better than usual when sorting, perhaps because I was trying hard not to fuck up. Socially I could have got on normally until at the end of a chat with A---y about guitars or something he looked up from what he was doing and caught my eye - 'You look like you've had a rough night pal.' To which I could only mumble some kind of token of agreement. After that I bumbled on frequently troubled by the question 'did what I just say make sense?' etc.

But do it with a sexy voice and lots of heavy breathing


Comments allowed, NOT moderated replies

Back to normal. Yes, I'm attention-whoring.

Its 3:15 in the morning. I've had nothing to drink and I JUST CAN'T SLEEP.

Note to self... Pick up an OTC sleep aid and call the doctor to see what I can do about this restless leg thingy

When I'm laying here my right leg twitches violently, popping off the mattress rather significantly over and over and over. Its like some invisible trouble maker is testing my reflexes with one of those rubber mallets but instead of my lower leg just kicking up it adds a twitch in the middle of the kick

Soooo, I roll onto my stomach and the same thing happens.

Alas, yes, the same thing happens when I lay on my side.
Its a minor annoyance compared to other symptoms that can be had but its driving me crazy.

If I ever catch that invisible twerp with the rubber mallet I am going to FUCK--HIM--UP! Bastard!

I think I'm done having birthdays now.

Some people do not believe in luck. I happen to think "luck" is a very important thing to believe in.

Much of success or failure in life depends on being able to identify which opportunities have come your way through merit and which ones have come your way by pure chance. You must react to these two differently.

Because if an opportunity comes your way through luck and you delude yourself into believing that you somehow earned that opportunity, I can almost guarantee that you will fuck it up. And then you will never get another chance like that again.

You see, an opportunity come by from merit, you can afford to waste. With a little grit, you can re-create those circumstances. But luck, nah.

You see, that's my problem with women. In my life, I've lucked out a few times and ended up in relationship with women who should, by all rational calculations, be out of my league.

As a negative consequence of this, I have standards far higher than someone of my looks, personality, and income has any right to have.

For me to want to date someone, she must be thin and blonde with a personality comparable to Tallulah Bankhead.

However, someone who fit all my criteria would have to be insane to want to date me. And if they were insane, then I wouldn't want to date them anymore.

Nevermind anything said. Its my fault, always was always is my fault. I need to leave BL maybe. I need to leave DS alone. Get better or GTFO, is very much the message I got tonight. Loud and clear I hear you. Go away...
Fine, rejected by someone, rejected by the DS "family". I might as well let rejection go and be a part of my life because its not changing. Rejection from the ex, Rejection from S., Rejection from my brother, Rejection from my family, Rejection from D., rejection and rejection...rejection because I'm never good enough. I'm not even good enough where its supposed to be ok not be good enough.
Am I in my self pity mode here a bit? Yes. I'm hurt, and when I'm hurt this is what happens.
I get angry, I regret getting angry because its not acceptable, and then I feel bad and then I'm just hurt by what happened, what was said. Am I deleting blogs no, not yet. Have I deleted what I said from the thread if I could, yes. Take what is said and shut the hell up, I know that one all to well.
I FEEL attacked, hurt, depressed, sad, angry...all the emotions I don't like, even on MDMA...so you win. You win. You win, even though I didn't take it to feel better, you win because I don't feel happy. Isn't that what you wanted? You win.

I just had to post the lyrics to the song 'Stay Positive' by Pato Banton. Dude's got the right perspective.

-------------------

Situation in the world is crazy.
We got to stay positive.

Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.
Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.
Live the life you love, love the life you live
and no matter what the crisis is.
Stay positive, stay positive, stay positive.

Every time me take a little look on the T. V.
seems like the whole world gone crazy.
War, famine and poverty
people are dying continually.
So many people are getting confused
so many reasons to get in the blues.
But with a little faith in the most high's plan
it gives me strength to sing this song.

Positive! Ooh yes we have to stay positive.
Positive! No matter what the crisis is.
Positive! Even when things gone wrong.
Positive! This is the time when you got to be strong.
Positive! Black, white, pink or brown.
Positive! Live in the city or you live in the town.
Positive! Ooh yes we have to stay positive.
Positive! No matter what the crisis is.

Live the life you love, love the life you live
and no matter what the crisis is.
When there's life to live, and there's love to give
why should you be negative?
You got to stay positive!

I've been drinking about a 6 pack of Foster's Lager a night. Its not really a lot but the fact that it is everyday causes me to raise an eyebrow.

Also, I wasn't getting buzzed anymore so I switched to Molson XXX. This is all to familiar to me. Always chasing something to get out of myself.

Two other reasons for me stopping:

1) I NEED to be clean and happy again. (Gotta shake those fucking monkey's off my back).

2) Its not good to mix anti-depressants and alcohol. This will definitely cause more chaos in my head.

I've been clean before (two 5 year stints of recovery) so its a road I've travelled before. This time I need to walk this path with a different attitude.

My plan is to keep busy through exercise, chores that I've been putting off, work and, in the Spring, go to school for a Human Services degree that focuses on drug and alcohol treatment and prevention.

I know it will be tough at first but it will get easier.

Its time to stop running and pick up the pieces and rebuild my life.

Right now I feel motivated to do this.

I hope the motivation never leaves.

I did MDMA for the first time tonight. I like it. I feel good. Sadly still BL can push a button that I've had pushed one to many times and I still go off. Not that I really give a fuck at the moment. Just hate that "You're not trying" bullshit when ppl aren't here they don't know and when I actually fucking was... now time to leave BL alone and not let it ruin my damn trip

Relationships, man. They're for the birds. All this boyfriend/girlfriend business. Who needs it?

Let me tell you the trouble with relationships.

If I ever wanted to become a millionaire, I could do it. To become a millionaire, you need a million dollar idea. And I, dear readers, have one.

Let me tell you my million dollar idea.

I start a business, right? And it's called Kittens 4 Life. It's a very simple concept. You come in and sign up. There's a one-time activation fee and a monthly charge thereafter.

And after you fill out all the paperwork, you get a kitten. You go home, you play with your kitten and have a blast. Well, why would anyone pay me for that when you could just go to a pound and get one for free?

Well, you see, when the kitten grows up into a cat, you take it back to Kittens 4 Life, turn him in and then we give you another kitten.

Pretty cool, huh? Well, I've already patented the name so don't even think about it!

Now why this works is simple. Kittens are awesome. Kittens are cute. Kittens are fun. Kitten are amusing and they're amused by you. You get home and kittens are super-jazzed to see you.

But you know the only thing wrong with kittens? They grow up to be cats!

Cats are not cute. Cats are not fun and I can't think of anything less amusing than a cat. They don't come when you call them. And as long as they are well fed, they don't care wether you are home or not. They come when you call their name.

And when you come home from a long hard day at the coal mine, they don't greet you with any warmth. They just walk up and say one thing: "give". Or as they like to put it: "meow".

Gimme food. Gimme a warm lap. GIVE! And you know what happens if you don't give them what they want? They shit all over your laundry!

And that, dear readers, is the trouble with relationships.

You see, when you start seeing someone new, it's like having a new kitten. They're cute. They're fun. They're amusing and they're amused by you. They think about you when you're away and are super-jazzed to see you when you come home.

But as time goes by, things change. Needs change. The novelty wears off. One day it dawns on you, man. You're not dating a kitten anymore.

You're dating a fucking CAT!!!

They're no longer cute. They're no longer amusing and they've long since stopped being amused by you. And when you come home from a long and tiring day at the coal mine, they just walk up to you with hungry eyes and say one thing...

"GIVE!!!"

Now, dear readers, I know what you're thinking at this point. You're thinking the same two questions everyone asks me when I tell them about Kittens 4 Life. So let me go ahead and answer them.

The first question you are thinking is this: Well, why don't you do a Puppies 4 Life.

The answer is simple. It wouldn't work with dogs. You see, while puppies are certainly cuter and more fun than dogs, a dog has a few advantages over a puppy. For one, a dog is house broken whereas a puppy is not.

(Yes, a puppy will crap on your laundry but only because it doesn't that you don't want your laundry crapped upon. If it knew, it wouldn't do it. A cat, on the other hand, will crap on your laundry BECAUSE it knows you don't want it crapped on)

Secondly, a dog will come when you call it. A puppy takes a while to learn his name. And a dog eventually figures out what you do and don't like and tries his doggy best to accomodate you.

So a dog a few legs up on a puppy. Cat, however, is inferior to a kitten in every way imaginable. And that, dear reader, is why a Puppies 4 Life would not work.

And now on to the second question. The one you've been waiting 20 something paragraphs for me to answer.
Here it is:
"What do you do with the cats that get turned back in to you?"

The first few times I was presenteded with this query, I dismissed it outright. "I dunno. Kill 'em maybe. Make meat pies out of them. Invent some feline version soylent green and slang those for a few extra nickles. Who gives a shit?"

Of course, I couldn't keep the cats alive. After a while, I'd have shitloads of cats around the office. They'd be really expensive to feed and there is no way Kittens 4 Life could remain profittable if I did that.

But on further reflection, I realized that these answer were unsatisfactory if I was ever to make Kittens 4 Life work.
You see, dear reader, as they say with prostitutes "you don't pay a hooker for sex, you pay them to go away afterwards"; when a customer signs up with Kittens 4 Life, they wouldn't be paying me for the kitten. They would be paying me to relieve them of the guilt that would normally go along with giving up their cat.

So here is my solution for what to do with the cats that get turned into me. I tell them that I send them off to live with a farmer who has a serious mouse problem on his farm. I send them letters periodically showing pictures of the cat with his new master. Some action pictures of Mr. Cat chasing pesky mouses around the farm.
All these pictures would be photoshopped. In reality, the feline would become Soylent Cat Green almost immediately after being turned back in.

So there's your second question.

Earlier, I said that new relationships were like having a kitten. Old one were like having a fucking cat. But there is one difference.

There's no guilt to be had when giving up a person. Because guess what?

When you give up a person, they get to be a kitten again for somebody else.

Happiness, dear reader, is always have a kitten.

A kitten for life.

Still Wednesday, still Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 6:10 PM here in the Philippines.

There is still one more Islamic organisation to consider when discussing the wars here on Mindanao: "JI." JI stands for "Jemaah Islamiyyah," an organisation founded in Java in Indonesia.

Most people, even within Indonesia remain unaware that in the first half of the 20th Century that there was a huge influx from the Arabian region of Hadramut, which is right between Southern Yemen (which is now only a region BUT was a country for a while) and Aden, into Indonesia.

Born to an Arab father and a local Javanese woman was Bashir Abubak'r Ba'asyir Abdus Samad also known as "Ustad Abu" on Java, he and his childhood friend 'Abdullah Sungkar were greatly influenced by a movement called "Darul Islam" (House of Islam) which gained popularity in the 1940s.

Both men had founded a Javanese madrassa (Islamic school) called "al Mu'kim" in 1972 and it was there that both men developed a coterie of willing young men who would be more than happy to undertake the call of jihad,

The Indonesian dictator Suharto had formulated a nationalist ideology that he required all schools to instill and abide by. This greatly distressed Islamists and Samad and Sungkar refused to do so. Samad spent 5 years in an Indonesian prison for refusing to take an oath of fealty to Suharto and upon release he and his friend made their way to Malaysia but not before they had time to blow up Buddhist relics on Java..

It was in Malaysia, in 1993 that they officialy founded their Islamist movement on the first day of the year. They attracted a following and by the time that they returned to Indonesia in 1998, they had developed ties already with a network of Middle East radicals including Osama Bin Laden.

The name "Jemaah Islamiyyah" had been around since the early 1970s in one guise or another but the 2 founders of the terrorist organisation "JI" had not developed a core ideology until their sojourn in Malaysia. Then, when sectarian violence between Muslim and Christians on the Indonesian islands of Poso and Maluku (Moluccas) took place in Janurary of 1999, JI made the transition into a Jihadist organisation.

They were one of the groups, but by no means the only group that expressed their hatred for Christians by decapitating young schoolgirls snatched on their walk to school. Fort quite some time it became a kind of competition between these groups, or so it seems.

By the time THAT violence ended almost 2 years later JI was onto bigger things, manufacturing bombs and launching terrorist attacks, such as the "Bali Bombing" in 2002 where nearly 200 people died, many of them Australians.

In 2003 they bombed the Marriot in Jakarta, in 2004 the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and in 2005 back to Bali where they bombed two southern villages, one near a Four Seasons Hotel where they managed to kill 129 people.

Interestingly, after the last attack, Samad (AKA "Bashir") publicly condemned the actual attack but offered that it was Allah's will and a warning for all of Indonesia to wake up before it is too late.

One of the 2 bomb makers remains free and his whereabouts unknown although many believe him to be in the Philippines. JI has cells in Malaysia, Singapore (where several attacks have been foiled), Thailand, Philippines and possibly Cambodia.


JI and ASG operated a training camp together on Jolo, and JI bombmakers have been arrested as recently as last month in Cotabato and Zamboanga here on Mindanao so the threat is indeed real. They have also linked up with RSM on past operations as well, so that there is a very real linkage between all of the Islamic groups.

That finishes the information on the Islamic Armies.

Aside from those guerilla armies there are also criminal organisations usually made up of ex or even present guerillas. Gangs like the "Pentagon Gang."

Pentagon was led by Faisal Marohombsar, a high ranking MNLF leader from Cotabato. He was killed on Cavite, while holding one of the richest women in the country hostage for 100 Million Pesos (roughly 2.25 Million US). Like many in the MNLF and MILF he came from a clan of Muslim tribesmen living in Ligusan Marsh, the "Maranaw" Clan. Ligusan is a prime breeding ground for Muslim jihadists.

Then there was the "Mubarek" gang named for its leader, another MNLF leader, Abogado "Gado" Bago who went by the nom de guerre "Kummander Mubarek." After his faction of the MNLF deactivated became the leader of a a Muslim paramilitary made up of ex-MNLF fighters working as a bodyguard/private army of the ARMM Governor. When his patron lost the election he turned to kidnapping and robbery like so many of the ex-guerillas do.


Another of these groups, which still has retained some of its political agenda, is the "al Khobar Organisation." This is the group responsible for bombing bus after bus of a company headquartered in Cotabato City. One of its best known bomb makers has just escpaed from the Kidapawan City jail in Cotabato, for the SECOND TIME! You really have to love Mindanao. al Khobar holds political/religious Objectives as well but is primarily involved in illegal profit making schemes.

I have not even touched on the Communists but that will wait for now (sigh of relief from the readers).

Today is still Wednesday, Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 3:57 PM here in the Philippines.

So, in late 1977 the MILF and BMLO had just begun operations and the MNLF is struggling on Mindanao with its only real effectivness on points south.

The MILF took off with a vengance, while the BGLO was wracked by infighting of its own and soon became the MNLF-RM, with the "RM" standing for "Reformist Movement," trying to capitalise once more on its much more powerful previous incarnation (MNLF).

By 1983 the once gigantic and powerful MNLF had only 15,000 armed fighters, which still represented a formidable force except that its mass base of support, absolutely crucial to any guerilla campaign was all but gone on Mindanao. This was reflected by what took place in the near future, when voting took place for the ARMM for the 2nd time.

Marcos was overthrown and Cory Aquino rose to power. One of Aquino's promises had been dialogue with the MNLF and a solution to the Mindanao stalemate. With the Organisation of the Islamic Conference once again supporting the MNLF both sides entered into Peace Talks in 1986.

In Jaunrary of 1987 the MNLF agrees to Aquino's push for autonomy at the expense of independance and formally reneges on its long standing Objective of Muslim Independance. Instead Aquino will allow any provinces wishing to from Mindanao and all points south, to join the soon to be autonomous region.

The MILF was adamant about rejecting this offer but one month later it too laid down its arms so that Muslim Mindanao would progress forward, before resuming its battle for seccession.

When it came to a vote though even the govt was suprised that only Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur provinces on Mindanao, and Sulu and
Tawi Tawi in points south opted for the new autonomous status.


By the end of 1987 all sides were hopelessly deadlocked and in Feburary of 1988 when the Organisation of the Islamic Conference accedes to Aquino's wishes and denies the MNLF membership in the organisation the MNLF resumed its guerilla campaign.

In 1990 the MILF agrees to a short Cease Fire in honour of the progress made towards realisation of the ARMM Agreement, but soon resumed business as usual.

I know this sounds complicated, all this explaining but someone, somehwere just might want to learn about this now, or sometime in the future and who is to say I would even be around to talk about it?

In 10/92 the MNLF agreed to talks and headed back to Tripoli, Libya to give it one more shot with the govt. These talks continued in Jakarta, Indonesia in 4/1993 and lasted a total of 47 months before they came to a viable agreement over implentation of ARMM.

1996, ARMM was finally realised with then President Ramos appointing Misuari to be the region's 1st Governor, a position he would hold until his failed bid for seccession in Jolo, in 2001. Most of the MNLF is deactivated in Mindanao, except for his personal paramilitary which receives new weapons from the govt, and has an estimated 7,000 full time soldiers.

The MNLF-RM is the faction that disagrees with both Misuari's leadership AND the direction of the MNLF, and continues waging a small but ineffective war and finally ended up dissipating into oblvion after which its more committed members joined other armies.

President Ramos agreed to a Reintegration Programme for the MNLF under Misuari that saw a little over 5000 MNLF soldiers and commanders that were not accepted into Misuari's paramilitary being assimilated into the AFP, with the commanders becoming 2nd Lts and the rest of the rank and file becoming privates. Of that number, only 4300 managed to comeplte the AFP's required training.

In 7/97 the MILF agreed to a bi-lateral Cease Fire but the next President, Estrada, breaks it unilaterally in 2000. Again , in 2003 the MILF agrees to yet another Cease Fire with Preisdent Arroyo, the President that year as well as currently.

In 2000 a new vote is taken to expand the ARMM, but only Basilan (excepting its mostly Bisaya capital city of Isabela) and Marawai City ( a city in the province of Lanao del Sur which itself was already included in the ARMM ) opted to join.

In 2001 the MNLF that had neither been "Assimilated" or coopted into Misuari's private paramiliatary force in ARMM regained a tad bit of momentum in the southern islands and Chairman Misuari capitalised on that as he launched a bid for a coup on Jolo. He planned to declare independance but was beaten back by the Philippine Marines.

His followers in Zamboanga then staged a diversionary tactic by taking more than 100 civlians hostage as Misuari snuck out of the country and took refuge in Malaysia.

Ironically, Malaysia ended up arresting him in late 2001 for illegal entry, despite the fact that there is unimpeded transit between Sabah and Mindanao (not to mention the southern islands). There is no passport or immigration controls to facilitate both trade and family ties for southern Philippine tribals and relatives on Sabah and Borneo. It holds true for Indonesian islands nearby as well.

Misuari was then deposed as Chairman and replaced by MNLF-RM factional leader Parouk Hussin (sic) who had been idle when MNLF-RM dissipated in power.

In 1/2005 a small force of MILF led by Kummander Abdul Rahamn Binago , joined by a small guerilla army called "Abu Sofia" led by his brother Bebis Biago, and Abu Sayyaf surround a military unit and killed nearly 50 govt. soldiers reiniating hostilities. The MILF leadership stresses that the organisation did not authorise this attack and was willing to remain engaged in the Cease Fire but the govt refused the offer and so hostilities take off once again.

In 2005 a scion of a powerful Maguindanao Province clan, the Ampatuan Family was hand picked by President Arroyo to run for Governor of ARMM and despite accusations of outright fraud he still kept the seat, and was reelected this past year..

In 2006 both sides were able to effect a Cease Fire once again, until the summer of 2007, in July when on Basilan 14 Philippine Marines are killed and 9 are decapitated by a joint MILF/Abu Sayyaf operation, reacting to stepped up military activity on the island in response to the Abu Sayyaf kidnapping of Italian citizen and priest, Father Bossi.

MILF and the military come to an understanding and no hostilities take place until the summer of 2008 when the Philippine Supreme Court issued an injunction against implementation of the "Ancestral Domain Memorandum" which guaranteed both tribals and Muslims that they would have the level of autonomy they had been counting on.

The court declares the Memorandum must be ruled on by the Surpeme Court and decides to effect such Ruling at a later date to be determined, which in turn leads 3 Base Commands of the MILF to go "off the reservation" and begin slaughtering Bisaya villages which are a minority in those particular 3 provinces. The 3 Brigades, known as "Base Commands.":

I) 102, commanded by Ameril Umbra Kato, AKA "Kummander Kato" in Lanao del Norte.

II) 105, commanded by Abdullah Macapa'ar, AKA "Kummander Bravo" in Maguindanao.

III) 103, commanded by Solaiman Pangalian, AKA "Kummander Solaiman" in Lanao del Sur Province.

The Court then ruled, in October that the Memomarandum is illegal and un-Constitutional and is nullified.

Since August, 2008 the MILF has insisted, even as these 3 Brigades expand their scopes of operation and miraculously seem to have gained many new Battalions that they are acting against the wishes of the MILF leadership, and are called, "Lost Commands" a phase that has special meaning on this island, which I will eventually get around to explaining.

The MILF scope of operations are from ARMM all the way iup to Cagayan on the north coast of the island, but are heaviest in Cotabato N. and S., Lanao N. and Sultan Kuradat.


There is also one Base Command on Basilan, 114, that is also engaging govt. forces but in tandem with ASG and the MILF leadership denies that the 114 is actively in rebellion.

MNLF is still active in Sulu now, with the last large scale engagement having taken place this past July (2008) when an MNLF Battalion killed almost 50 people, roughly half of whom were Govt Marines, the rest being govt paramiliary soldiers.


Nur Misuari, the man who has probably had more to do with Islamic Insurrectionism on Mindanao than any other single person is finally free and back on the island, last seen a couple of weeks ago in Bukidnon Province, over seeing the conversion of some Lumad (animist tribals) recruits in the MNLF, which is just bizarre.

They were converting to Islam, and promised a salary of 12 to 15,000 Pesos a month which is a real fortune here abouts. There were only 18 but it is still almost unheard of in otday's world to see Lumad converting to Islam, but then there are many tribals who are horribly marginalised. Lumad probably have it worst here and have for as long as records have been kept.

Minsuari had been reinstated as the Chairman, in 2007, and then last April pushed back out by the then mayor of Cotabato City, the capital of ARMM and an old leader of the MNLF as well. Now Misuari has gathered most of the actual fighting force of the MNLF behind him and is seeking to reassert his leadership. Until this autumn he had been on house arrest in Manila and now that he is back in the south he very well probably will take control once more. He has committed himself to enlisting 200,000 soldiers by next summer (2009) and has formed a political alliance with the current Sultan of Sulu, and seems to be trying for independance once again.

More to come...

Still Wednesday, Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 3:07 PM here in the Philippines.

So...The British were forced to hand off Sabah to Malaysia, but it has been ruled in various court proceedings over the preceeding 50 years to be Philippine territory by virtue of the Sulu Sultanate. The Sultanate still exists, albeit with not much power or wealth, and yet the Malaysians continued to ignore Philippine pressure to ajudicate this matter in International Court, and meanwhile gave a token payment of 1,500 US annualy to the Sultan of Sulu, via their Embassy in Manila (still do by the way, what a joke!).

When Malaysia refused the Philippines request to return Sabah in 1963 the country broke off relations with Malaysia, and it remained thus until 1989 although you would never know it today.

Finally getting to the part I was aiming for...So, late 1960s, Marcos has stolen power and is sitting in his Dictator Hot Seat and gets this fabulous idea to send a covert force, a la American Bay of Pigs, into Sabah to sow dissent and serve as the foothold for the larger Philippine force that will win Sabah back (although the Philippines have never controlled it to start with).

The Sultan of Sulu in the meanwhile willed the territory to the Republic of the Philippines, no doubt for some modicum of financial consideration.

For this covert force, Marcos had his minions recruit 300 young Muslims from the Tausug and Sama Tribes, which originated in Sabah on Borneo but which had expanded over the years into the Sulu archipelago and Tawi Tawi, another Philippine island.

These men were trained in what was to become "Operation Merdeka" (Op. Freedom), first on Tawi Tawi and then transferred north to Corregidor Island which sits off Manila in Manila Bay.

Correigdor is a tiny island, used before that time as a penal colony, etc and as such it had very spartan surroundings. The training for these tribal youth was no doubt very stressful and when they were at last told, in the final segment of their training, that their Objective was to land on Sabah and make war against their own tribes they naturally were aghast.

They mutineed, and to make a long story short they were marched out to the airstrip there and executed to the last person (1 managed to live) on March 18th, 1968. Just one survivor managed to play dead after getting shot in his kneecap. He bobbed in the bay for several hours until rescued by a fishing boat that saw him hanging onto a piece of drift wood.

A Philippine Seantor blew the story wide open, and the press ran with it, this being the early period of Marcos reign when this was at all possible (Censorship was not yet in firm implementation). Had it taken place even 5 years later we certainly would never know about it today.

Muslims were furious, one in particular, a professor at University of Philippines in Manila, the intellectual Nurallaji "Nur" Misuari took it upon himself to found a left leaning Muslim Rights organisation, "Kabata'ang Makabayan."

By 1970 two Muslim leaders on Mindanao, already involved in the MIM (Moro Islamic Movement) recognised the need to form a cohesive inter-tribal organisation with a military wing to pursue their vision of Muslim self-determination for the southern part of the country. MIM was just atarting out, having been founded just after the Coerreigdor incident (known as the "Jabidah Massacare").

These men, Abul Khayr Alonto and Jallaludin Santos tapped Misuari to be the charismatic front man who would lend their new organisation widespread appeal among both the intellgentsia AND the common folk. Misuari then became the first Chairman of the "Moro LNational Liberation Front," the MNLF. For its first 2 years it was mostly an underground think tank but by 1972 they began recruiting Muslims from southern Mindanao at a fantastic pace.


The organisation was centered in the heart of Islamic Mindanao, the area bordering Cotabato and Maguindanao. Almost from day one they received much political, financial and military support from Libya and more telling, Malaysia which obviously had a vested interest culturally, religiously and more importantly perhaps politically.

The group met a pressing need and within its first 6 months their military apparattus had grown to include 20,000 well armed and well trained fighters who quickly took control of 7 provinces on Mindanao, plus most of Basilan, Jolo, and Sulu.

By 1974 they had 45,000 fighters and looked as if they would obtain independance for Mindanao,
et al until Marcos stole some of their momentum by cajoling them into a Cease Fire.

Owing to a simultaneous communist insurgency centered on Mindanao more than 60% of the military had already been deployed on the island, which Marcos now increased to an astounding 80%, which in turn inspired the communist insurgency to steamroll through 7 other theaters of operation throughout the regions of the country, including the heart of the capital, Manila.

By New Year's 1976 more than 60,000 people on Mindanao alone had been killed in the MNLF's area of operations (not even talking about the communist areas) and so there was widespread disenchantment amongst the groups' base of support, Moros and Islamicised tribals. At the same time Malaysia was maturing as a nation and feeling the heat in terms of International scrutiny and so they rapidly decreased both the flow of arms and the political backing.

This led to a wall in terms of momentum and the MNLF was forced to agree to bilateral negotations to be hosted by the MNLF's still loyal sponsor, Libya's Khadaffi, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, to be held in Tripoli, Libya. The agreement reached there, known popularly as the "Tripoli Memorandum" offered the MNLF a generous level of autonomy in a rather large area of Mindanao (13 Provinces including Sulu et al).

Both sides came home elated, but it soon became clear that Marcos had merely been maneuvering the MNLF to get some much needed breathing room, not to actually come to an agreement. Marcos offered that before he could implement the agreement a ratification would need to be effected by the citizens of Mindanao in the effected areas.

This vote was held and much as Marcos had planned it led to a crushing defeat for the MNLF. More than a year had passed and the MNLF's base of support was in no mood to rehash a way of life that had killed roughly 60,000 people in less than 5 years. The MNLF still tried to restart its iniative but once momentum is lost it becomes increasingly harder to stay the course.


Later that same year, 1976, 1 more violent faction broke off, the "Moro islamic Liberation Front." The MILF was under the leadership of an even more charasmatic Hashim Salamat and took a very large number of the groups' best fighters with him.

Then came the next factional division, the "Bangsamoro Liberation Organisation," BMLO which took many of the remaining Maranao Tribesmen, leaving a core of Misuari's Tausug Tribe and Sama which left the MNLF incredibly weakened in its traditional sphere of influence, southern and central Mindanao. Tausaug and Sama are only minorities even within the Muslim minority on Mindanao, leaving the MNLF only still effective on Jolo and in Sulu.

I will continue...

one of my friends is moving here in 3 weeks. he is going to stay with me until he can figure out what he wants to do.

Today is still Wednesday, Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is 1:50 PM here in the Philippines.

So, RSM and its military wing, KTA is all about done or so it seems.

ASG however is not only still functioning, it now has dozens of factions and is gaining strength as well as increasing its scope of operations. On 12/30th in Barangay Santa Catalina, a Bisaya village, in Zamboanga City, 2 ASG men tried to kidnap an 8 year old girl but were scared off by gunwielding Bisaya paramilitary soldiers.

This is a disturbing trend actually with ASG seeming to kidnap young girls almost weekly here.

The same day, 12/30, a 4 year old girl was snatched by ASG in Sinulatan village on Basilan but was released the same evening when the militants realised that they had kidnapped a girl related to a powerful Muslim clan on the island. They cannot afford to alienate their base of operations although they amazingly do just that by their heinous actions.

One of the first rules in guerilla warfare is to have a wide base of support and to never shit where you sleep. Even housecats are smarter than these dummies!

The next day, 12/31, New Year's Eve, in Tuburan village on Basilan ASG released a 9 year old girl they had kidnapped back in the beginning of November after her family paid a 200,000 Pesos ransom (about 4,000 US which is an actual fortune, takes a couple of lifetimes to earn for most here). I do not want to even think about the very real fact that child mariage is not only allowed but often supported among Islamic groups in the Philippines (and around the world. On Basilan 14 year olds are literally considered old maids.

Basilan is home to 3 ASG factions who operate pretty much independantly of one another. This is why none of them really make any progress as far as their stated military objectives.

The 3 on ASG factions on Basilan are: I) "Ampul" led by Mauran Ampul AKA Abu Mauran

II) "Apting," led by Abu Apting,

and

III) "Hapilon" led by Sahiron Hapilon, one of the oldest surviving members of ASG.

Then you have Zamboanga which is expanding, with 4 factions currently: I) "Danggatil," led by Moto "Mata" Danggatil

II) "Isnilon," led by Abu Insilon

III) "Jainuddin" led by Nadjalin Jainnudin.

IV) "Janjalani" led by yet another brother of the founder, Hector Janjalani who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Abral.

There is 1 other on Basilan and 2 more on Zamboanga but they have not been active for 3 or 4 months now and their true status is unknown.

The other faction from Basilan is "Kaw- Jaljialis" led by Kalaw Jaljialis who goes by the moniker "Boy Grandda."

The 2 from Zamboanga are: I) "Salagin" led by Abu Salagin and II) "Masiraji - Sali" led by Hamsiraji Sali.

On Jolo and Sulu there are 16 and I really do not think that people reading this will be too concerned, so I will only mention the top 3 there: I) "Badja" led by Datu Panglima Badja.

II) "Hadji (sic) al Radzip" led by a man of the same name who also uses the moniker "Abu Rayhan."

and

III) Sa'abdula" led by Nadzmi Sa'abdulla who is also known as "Kummander Global."

Of the ones in Sulu and Jolo, on 12/31, in Barangay Umangay in Patikul village, just before midnite on New Years, 4 children and 1 adult were severely injured when ASG fired an M79 rifle grenade at them on the road out of the village.

That same night, another M79 was fired into a building on ther huge military base on the east side of the island, where a party for Marines' familes was being held. This happened at around the same time as the Patikul viallage attack ,despite ultra heavy perimiters around all base compounds and with more than 6,000 Marines on duty on that one base. Amazing. Several women and children, not to mention military personel were severely injured. the military does not willingly divulge casualties so some might have died on that second attack.

In addtion to ASG, JI, MILF and clan warfare/family feuds there is also the added danger of rogue MNLF units. The MNLF signed a Peace Agreement with the govt. in 1996 and yet some remain unsatisfied and over the past few months more and more MNLF companies have been taking to the hills. there were originally 2 renegade factions, the MNLF-RM (MNLF Reform Movement) and MNLF-Misuari which is the strongest group today in 2009 , dedicated to the first chairman of the MNLF Nur Misuari.

It actually started on the western half of Jolo, with an MNLF commander known as "Kummander Malik" who is in the Misuari Faction, when he first engaged Philippine Marines and their US handlers on 11/2006 and it has snowballed since then.

The MNLF is actually the oldest of the Muslim geurilla forces, founded in 1968 in response to the "Jabidah Massaccare."

The island of Borneo has a very close relationship to many Philippine ethncitieis. It is the home of the Visayans (Bisaya), my wife's tribe (ethnicity now since tribal structure was oblierated by Spaniards), as well as the Sabah Bisaya which is the original Bisaya Tribe, which now has a different language and is 90% Muslim leaving them all but unrecognisable to one another. Imperialism is great, yes?. It is more recently the historical home to most Philippine Muslims like the Tausag, Sama, and other Islamicised tribes.

While the Philippines were conquered and ruled by Spain, the Indonesian islands, including most of Borneo, were ruled by the Dutch but the Portugese AND the British also had their hands in the pie there. Borneo is divided into 4 main areas: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei (an independant nation) and Kalimantan AKA Borneo Proper.

Sabah was tradtionally part of the Sulu Sultunate which included Jolo, and was ruled by a Muslim that would be called Filipino today. The British basically stole it, worked out one of their Hong Kong perpetual lease deals, but when Malaysia won independance in 1963 (if I am remembering the date), Sabah reverted to the new Malaysian nation by default although not at all legally in any sense of the word, OR morally.

I will have to continue in a following post but I promise to not get it too stuffy...

Still Wednesday, still Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 12:34 PM here in the Philippines.

After the first leader, and founder, was killed the group began associating with other radical groups with similar agendas. They had always had a grudging cooperation with the far stronger MILF , but the MILF was more focused on an a convetionally fought and ethnically fueled struggle, which did not allow for very close contact with the far more radical ASG.

The Philippines though has always offered a great variety of armed groups. While the ASG was just forming in the mind of its founder in 1991, another Filipino who would figure largely in Abu Sayyaf was also reaching a personal watershed of his own.


Muslims make up only 5% of the entire population in the Philippines, but like in every other corner of the globe, conversions to Islam are outpacing any other religion by increadible lengths. A huge factor in this is the fact that the Filipino economy depends on Over Seas Filipinos, those Filipinos who leave hearth and home so that they might help their familys succeed financially.

Most of the time this means the Middle East, due to the ease in which visas can be procured and most of the time the Middle East means Arab Countries. Sometimes the conversions are due to financial realities, sometimes it is for love, and other times it is for purely religious reasons.

One such Filipino was Hilarion del Rosario Santos who was working in Saudi Arabia in 1991. It was there that Rosario has a religious awakening and formally converted to Islam, taking the name Ahmed Islam Santos.

Santos is but one of 200,000 Filipinos who have converted to islam only since 1980. They are collectively known as "Balik Islam." Islam as a religion believes that all people are naturally Muslim, even if the do not realise it yet. Ergo, when one converts it is actually a "reversion," a returning to their roots as it were. Additionaly, most in Balik Islam believe that all Filipinos were originally conscious Muslims and only became Catholic at the hands of violent Spanish Conquistadores.

While it IS true that Manila was an Islamic territory when Spain came upon it, it had only been so for less than 100 years. Islam only predates the Spaniards, in almost all areas of the country, by a mere 60 to 100 years! Muslim Filipinos are not any more Filpino than Catholic Filpinos but that is now how Muslims see it.

Returning home to Luzon, the island that is home to the capital Manila, Santos set about diving into the Islamic World with the zeal only seen in converts.

Some have posited that this is due to these new Muslims feeling that they must prove their sincerity, others feel that it is just due to the sudden realisation late in life and trying to make up for lost time. In any event, Santos was not alone and soon found himself leading a small but growing group within the Balik Islam community. This organisation was called "Fi Sabilliah."

Fi Sabilliah was not extremely radical but was meant to be, as the general theory goes, to be a farm camp of sorts for the prospective holy warrior. It was in Fi that Santos met his first members of what would be called, in 2001, "Rajah Soliman Movement." The name started out as a joke by Santos, Rajah Soliman being the Islamic chieftan who ruled Manila until overthrown by the Spaniards, and represents what the Balik see as the true Filipino.

Mindanao is the 2nd largest island in this nation of 7,107 islands, but is said to be the most heavilty populated of all with 18 million residents. It is not even mostly Muslim (although MOST Filipino Muslims DO live here), but is home to the ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao), an autonomous Islamic region and as such is the capital of militant Islam in the region. Santos made his way to Mindanao where he took a second wife, who happened to be the
sister -in- law of two factional leaders of the ASG, one of whom was the noted Khadaffi Janjalani.

With major backing by ASG Santos orchestrated a plot to assasinate then and current Philippine's President Gloria M. Arroyo in 2002. The plot was unknown for years though, because of an inadvertant arrest of some of its major players in an unrelated investigation.

Still very much wanting to prove itself, RSM agreed in 2004 to undertake a major bombing which it would then share credit for, with ASG. in a country made up of many islands, stretching almost 1,000 kilometers north to south, ferries are the major mode of transportation. Philippine ferries are ocean going ships that often carry more than 1,000 passengers on trips taking up to 4 days over rough and very deep seas.

Choosing a Manila to Cagayan del Oro (Mindanao)ferry RSM deployed a bomber from the group's armed wing, "Khalid Trinidad Army" named after an early member who had been one of the first RSM members arrested by police who had been trying to arrest him for a minor terrorist act on Luzon.

Next, the group agreed to participate in a join operation with ASG AND JI, the Indonesian based terror group responsbile for the Bali Bombing. that operation was a simultaneous bombing of Davao City, General Santos City (AKA Gen San), and Makati outside of Manila. It took place on Valentine's Day 2005 and killed more than a dozen people.

A month later the group was again prevented from undertaking yet another assasination attempt on President Arroyo. In that operation JI's Omar Palek who had spent time with Santos on the latter's last trip to Mindanao contributed funds AND expertise but all for naught when the group's 600 kilograms of explosives were uncovered in Quezon just outside Manila, in what became known as the "Ermita Plot."

The Ermita Operation was just before yet another bloody plan was foiled, the so called "Holy Week Bombing" of that same year, 2005. After a run of terrible luck Santos was busying himself with his evangelising and with his assumed role as the media savvy spokesperson of the ASG.

Late in 2005 Santos was arrested where he remains today, along with most of his organisation. Thus far it is belived that ASG is dismantled but one can never tell with 200,000 odd "Reverts."

I will continue...

Today is still Wednesday, Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is 11:53 AM here in the Philippines.

I am seeing soemthing new on the Blogs, instead of having all "Comments" posting automatically it is now telling me "Approve Comments." Is that optional? If so, how can I turn it off because I hate censorship of any kind. Anyone that knows what to do , let me know (HINT Crystal and Dtergent since you two are Mods hahaha).

Well, I thought, that since most Filipinos do not even know what is happening in the southern part of their own country ( not their fault, but the govt's), that I would make a quick list of all the major players in this hellhole I call home.

On the govt's side, you have:

AFP = Armed Forces of the Philippines which means Navy (rarely ever worth mentioning), Marines, and Army. the Marines generally stay to the south of Mindanao, busy battling "ASG" and "JI," which I will talk about later.

There are less than 8,000 Marines in the entire nation and more than 7,000 are stationed on Jolo island. Jolo is a small island comparitively speaking, and even with that flood of armed power the govt does not control Jolo or the surrounding Sulu islands.

There is actually 2 groups of Marines on Zamboanga and Basilan but they are very small.Zamboanga is a peninsula on my island, and Basilan is attached to us in terms of govt administration but is a separate, small island.

US Army, Marines, and National Guard, most of which are stationed on Jolo, although some are on the western half of Mindanao as well. There is a clause in this nation's Constitution that strictly forbids foreign forces from ever engaging in armed conflict, either assisting the Philippine Govt or otherwise. The govt here gets around that prohibition by simply denying that it takes place. Actually, I will talk about that a bit later because it requires a bit of explanation.

Fact of the matter is, despite people saying otherwise they do engage guerillas although it is certainly not something they want to do more than the very rare occasion. August of 2007
(8/30/2007), in Baragay Bonbon, Patikul village on Jolo, they were in an outlying district assisting the 11th Marines (Ph. Marines Battalion Landing Team 11) when they were engaged by "ASG."

American gunships (copters with heavy cannons) entered into combat although both govts (US and Ph.) said that the Yanks only ferried dead and wounded from the site.

The US Task Force is biouvaced in private homes in 2 places called "Seit Lake" and "Seit Poblasion" on the eastern half of Jolo, both right on the shores of a volcanic crater lake. Beautiful place, been there actually but not in a few years. As I age I become less and less adventurous. I actually worry about Rizza too much. What would happen to her if I died?


Anyway, with all this military firepower and manpower you would think that Jolo is buttoned down and tight. it is anything but. The US personel are forbidden from even sitting in the yard of the homes that they live in. When they need supplies they have the landl-rd (stupid on their part) go into town and get them things, and heavy supplies are run from the Philippine base.

Not too long ago one of them was murdered although the case is officialy ambiguous, "Cause Unknown." The guy, a kid really, was Social Forces and just on the island. He was an expert diver, in fact that was his specialty in SF. He was found fully clothed and floating face down in the lake.

They have a PC in the house, they talk to their girls, their kids, and that is about it save Filipino TV, mostly in Tagalog/Filipino. One of my friends, a Harvard Professor was stationed there and he hated it. He is still SF but now assiged to the USMC university, and splits his time between Harvard (JFK School) and Washington DC for the Marines University. Tony Abady, great guy. I can only say his name now, since he will not be redployed outside of the US and is about to cash in his chips.

On 12/17 a Chinoy (Filipinos of Chinese descent) was kidnapped by "ASG" in Jolo City, the capital of the island, by the ASG faction under Kummander (means Commander) Albadir Parad. The Chinoy, Peter Go ( actually named Wu Xili) was on Marina St when ASG , wearing pitch perfect Ph. Army Uniforms threw him into a van and sped away. With almost 8,000 troops in total, PLUS Americans (!), ASG still kidnaps in broad daylight, in the biggest city! Go figure!

"ASG" of course is "Abu Sayyaf Group." "Abu Sayyaf" means, in Arabic, Father of the Sword Bearer" and refers to a famous Islamic warrior from about 500 years ago.

It was founded by'Abdujurak Janjalani, the son of a fisherman family on Basilan. In the late 70s oil rich Arab states, and Pakistan as well, took the southern Philippines up as their pet cause. Sending many missionaries, investing money in "madrassas" (Islamic day schools) and and conservative mosques.

Here to fore Islam had only been a very casual affair in virtually all areas of the region. With the oil money things began to change. Islam was more of an ethnic feature than a cause in and of itself. There had been Muslim guerilla forces since the late 1960s but none that carried a real Islamic message.

People like 'Abdujurak, founder of "ASG" were sent, on scholarships, to study Arabic and Qur'an in Arab and other Muslim Nations. There they met other, more radical Muslims, and were exposed to many ideas which they carried with them on their return. Some , like 'Abdujurak entered the Afghan Mujahadin guerilla war and fought the Soviets.

'Abdu met many people, such as Osama Bin Laden who would figure prominently in both his life and world history. Returning to Basilan he formed a group called "Mujahadin Commando Freedom Fighters" with fellow veterans of the Afghan struggle.

Within a year, in 1994 it was renamed "al Harakatul al Islamiyya" ("The Islamic Movement"), but because of his nom de guerre, Abu Sayyaf, the organisation was called "The Abu Sayyaf Group," or "ASG" for short.

It was in 1994 that he began getting direct funding from Laden, as well as Ramzi Youseff, the red haired Pakistani who was the brains behind the 1st World Trade Center bombing, as well as the first attempts at bombing airliners, the so called "Bojinka Plot," that was only averted when a fire in their apartment building led authorities to their bomb making materiels spread throughout their Makati (Manila) apartment.

They began kidnapping for ransom in 1993 and by 2000 this was their main form of revenue. Unfortunately for the leader, he never lived to see them reach international fame, having been killed in a 1998 engagement.

By the time of his death the organisarion had factionalised into 4 distinct branches, all largely independant of one another. 1 in Zamboanga, 1 on Basilan, 1 in Jolo and the last spread through most of the Sulu Islands.

By the time of this death the next leader of stature was his boyhood friend and fellow Afghan vet, Galib Andang who went by the name "Kummander Robot." For some reason the people of the southern Philippines love corny names. "Kummander Sexy" fighting "Kummander Macho" who in turn is fighting "Kummander Rambo" and so it goes. Sounds like a bunch of child soldiers in Liberia or Sierra Leone but that is part nad parcel of the culture here.

ASG reached its peak both in pwoer and notieriety as the new millenia neared. After 2002 it was all down hill. "Robot" was killed breaking out of prison in 2005, but he had already been eclipsed by Janjalni's younger brother Khadaffi Janjalani who controlleed both the Zamboanga and Basilan factions .

The younger brother had less commitment to juhad and much more ambition to become rich and the organisation suffered for this avarice, becoming weaker than it had ever been. Indeed, as the clock struck midnite on New Years 2006 many Analysts belived that ASG was on the way out.

Will continue...

Today is Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 and it is now 1011 AM here in Philippines.

Today I will tell the story of what is taking place in my own Clan, since I am always talking about my wife's family.

Some who followed my Journal will remember a bit of my family history. My Clan is *Dwek,* which is sometimes spelled as *Dweck,* or when the Arab portion of my clan spells it in English, they do as as *Dweick.*

In Jewish Law your mother makes you Jewish, as our descent is matrilineal, but your father gives you your Clan. In the 1948 War my dad who was a young man then, fought, and afterwards, when we were finally independant he and some other males in our family Hebracised our name to *Ben Ami* which means *Son of My People.*

My Clan home area is Chevron, the town known in English as *Hebron.* In Arabic it is called *al Khalil* but even so called *Palestinians* will almost always call it *Hebron,* etc.

My Clan has been there, at least we know through well kept genealogies, since the beginning of the 10th Century CE/AD, meaning at least more than 1000 years, but in all likelihood since the Bible.

Hebron after all is the most Jewish town in the most Jewish country. Hebron is the town where Avraham Aveenoo (Abraham) passing through with his herds and Clan bought graves and it is where Suruh (Sarah) is buried, it is where Ya'akov/Yisroel (Jacob) is buried, and so on.

The town has always had a Jewish community since the day Avraham passed through and some of the Clan settled there to make sure our graves were kept sancrosanct. This is supported not only by legend and the Bible but by actual archaeology and independant histories of surrounding populations.

My Clan, being an ancient Clan, lost a segment to Islam when we were occupied by the first Muslims under 'Umar Khalifa, known in English as the Caliph Omar and today they still live in the town, same surname, spelled a bit different in english but sounding exactly the same in Arabic or Hebrew. We have not talked to most in many centuries, and all the more so since 1929, the year I need to focus on.

That year, my paternal grandfather Rabbi Eliezer Dan Sloneem Ben Ya'akov Ben Yosef Dwek, usually known as Rabbi Eliezer Dan Slonim Dwek who was 29 years old was the Mukhtar Yahood, or the Jewish Chief, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron (I will call it by its usual English name to avoid confusion).

Like his father Rabbi Ya'akov, my great grandad, my grandad Rabbi Elizer was a man of great fame even at his realtively young age. He had 3 sons by his 2 wives, my dad being the youngest at just under 1 year of age. The eldest had died of a Jewish genetic disease that also killed my eldest son. But he had another son, who was just about 3 and what a handful, from what people to say. He was my eldest uncle.

Like most Jewish families there, ours had ancient roots and as a result, since we predated Arabs there even before the first Arab existed in history, we naturally owned most land, and most major buisnesses. My own Clan had 4 US million in holdings, in 1929 value mind you, in the city limits of Hebron alone.

The Clan compound sat on a street still called Worshippers' Way in English and it is the route that leads to the Caves of Machpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs where Avraham, etc. are buried and revered, which is nearer the village of Kiryat Arbah than Hebron itself. Most Jews lived in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, then as now.

On August 20th with sporadic violence breaking out, against Jews by Arabs, all through the British Mandate, the Haganah, the underground Jewish Army came to Hebron to confer with my Grandfather. They brought a healthy load of weaponry but instead of showing gratitude my here to fore wise grandad got angry and threw the men out of his home!

He said that in his lifeitme and that of his father even when Arabs killed Jews elsewhere they never killed in Hebron. In Hebron most Arabs have Jewish blood, some like us come from the same stock, and my proud grandfather thought that again we would ride it out without even a wave or rumble.

The Haganah reps went to the Beit Romano Police Station where Cafferta, the only Jew on the force kicked them out of the city.

Rumors swirled throughout the country and those sporadic attacks became even more frequent and yet Hebron remained safe.

Then on Friday, August 23rd, just before evening and the start of the Jewish Sabbath a truckload of Arabs came from Jerusalem 30 km. away and announced that Jerusalem's Jews had entered the Temple Mount and began slaughtering worshipping Arabs (this never happened of course).

That was all it took. They killed many and when they came to our main house, on Worhsippers' Way, my grandad Eliezer stood there holding my eldest uncle in his hands, with more than 100 Jews in our home, most of them clansmen, but others as well, he pled for the peace they had always shared...and as he stood there on our front stairs outside, they said later that my uncle began whining his head off, as my dad hung to his mum's leg before being stowed in a cupboard, as both wives stood behind my grandad, and the Arabs stabbed my grandad to death, snatched my uncle and tore him limb from limb, ripping him to death literally.

My grandfather tried, as he lay dying, to pull his old pistol but it did not even work! He trusted Arabs so much!

In the aftermath, they took all surviving Jews and bussed them to Jerusalem telling us our lands and holdings would be guarded by British Police until our short return, a return that never came. From Jerusalem our Clansmen went to Alleppo where the majority of our Clan had lived for a couple of centuries.

My dad was covered in blood but he and his mum lived. My dad who was to be a Mukhtar and an reknowned Rabbi instead became a labourer in a Syrian factory until he emigrated to Jerusalem, and began selling nuts and fruits on a pushcart!

Fast forward to 2004 and my Clan decided to reclaim what was ours, by the only way left us, BUYING IT BACK! An Arab was living on the land, of course, and now had title thanks to the PA which makes it a capital offence to sell land to Jews, even when said land was owned by Jews in the first place!!!

So we took teams of attroneys, used some of our companies (Clan owned), and even used a Jordanian business associate as our face man, although the seller knew what was what. We paid , in cash, the first installment of 700,000 US Dollars, in 100 dollar bills as he demanded and we filmed it, the entire counting down to last hundred dollar bill.

We allowed 20 Jewish families unrelated to us live in the property, and we called it *Beit HaShalom,* which ironically means *House of Peace.*

I will finish in a following post...

I want to yell,
I want to scream,
I want you to see what I mean!

But the louder I yell,
the less you hear.
Then I'm overwhelmed with fear.

I spoke too soon.
I said to much.
Anger, with a violent touch.

I should have kept silent.
I shouldn't have said...
all this now racing through my head.

I'm sorry I beg
and start to cry
to you, its just another thorn in your eye.

I'm not worth it to you.
You think I play a game.
It always happens just the same.

"I don't need this shit."
and off you go.
This is all to well know.

I wish I could fix it,
but its too late.
Now I must just accept my fate.

Another rejection,
another one gone.
It always has to go so wrong.

I can't forget you,
even though I wish I could,
and after all, I really should.

But for some reason, I can't.
Just like the one before,
who walked out, slamming the door.

You think I'd run out of room,
run out of pain and tears,
you don't when being alone is one of your greatest fears.

There I am, alone again.
I tell myself this is the way its gonna be.
And I have no one to blame,
no one but me.

(I don't know why I'm still here (on BL) anyone have any other suggestions of a place I can go?)

thanks you for making feel like complete shit once again. thank you for pushing me until I become angry when I finally show anger I'm a horrible person. this isn't a fun night for me, I had the MDMA for awhile but I waited until I felt good, because I let the family bs roll off, and bl which I was on incase something happened because it was new, never tried it before has helped to make me depressed. I guess I control my emotions and no one can MAKE me feel anything, but other people can hurt you and thats exactly what happened. DS wasn't safe, shit I knew that I just thought it was a few people that liked to get on me, target me, attack me. Guess I have a target on me. I hate this...I hate that I let BL and people that don't even have to be in my life or really know me make me cry because I care. I wish I just didn't care...