the Art of Peace

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Sunday December 05, 2004 15:59

by iosaf read and iosaf understood-

a round up of weekend news links.

A Polish general once remarked that the diplomacy was the war carried out through other means. A Chinese sage once founded a school of War which was through the milenia as influential as the school of debating at Rhodes.

I have like many others been exposed by others to terror again these last days in Spain as five bombs exploded in Madrid and I watched others wait for that half hour before they knew via the TV that no-one was killed another day till they spoke to their parents and friends.

it will take you a long time to make a good crane, but you will learn - of Peace of Patience and of Thaumaturgy

The Art of diplomacy continues.

Bush talks to Pakistan.
Putin talks to India.

you could call them the WMD club.

Ghandi wouldn't be happy, he knew about the arts of peace, sewing, and so on et cetera et cetera et cetera...

Thailand to mark the King's birthday will drop thousands of origami cranes from the back of military aircraft suitable to deliver aid and move refugees over the Muslim dominated southern region.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/120751/1/.html

Germany has outlawed Human Cloning.
Reclaim the Genome!
The move by the Berlin federal parliament will ensure that even if the European Constitution as drafted these last years is not accepted (with it's ban on human cloning) by the peoples of the contintent, that at least one economy wealthy enough to clone won't.

The UK could move to emulate the USA and stop its experimentation.

http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,330835,00.html

Ramon Rivera the released Cuban dissident journalist and poet has published 11 poems in today's El Pais, which is subscription only here is one, I will not without permission translate it-

*********************
Noticias de Turquía

Maya, ¿por qué has ido a morirte a Estambul
si en Grecia y en Caracas te querían
y el La Habana una persona seguía pensando en tí?
¿Por qué, solitaria, tuviste que cerrar los ojos verdes en esa cuidad donde dijeron:
mirad, se ha suicidado la extranjera?
En Atenas, en tu casa vacía, Maya querida,
te queadaban aún penas para vivir.

- Raúl Rivero written whilst imprisoned-
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67753

***********************

Ryanair the Irish company has been allowed to take over the running of failed airline Volare which due to European competition rules and the laws of free markets could not maintain it's operations.
Ryanair will be expected to treat the staff nicely and
not go annoying anyone over wheelchair charges.

http://www.repubblica.it/news/ired/ultimora/rep_nazionale_n_893551.html

**************************

It takes a long time to make a good origami crane.
You must practise, like any art for a very long time.
There are no quick fix Quentin Tarrantino masters who will impart the craft of patience and practise.
Before you make a good crane, you will make many bad cranes. There is an ancient legend that simply by surrounding a sick person with a thousand cranes, they will be cured. Perhaps this means that they must be cared for by those with patience, whatever the meaning the legend is found from Vietnam to Japan. Here is a link to monkey.org where Aidan Dysart brings you through the process step by step photo by photo.

http://www.monkey.org/~aidan/origami/crane/

I agree with Raul Rivera that life as either a journalist or a poet is filled with fear. But with practise you get over it.

save preference

Comments (4 of 4)

the father of modern Origami has died (he was a "national treasure") .:. REST .:.

by obit

Thu Mar 31, 2005 15:53

Akira Yoshizawa, who has died aged 94, was regarded as the father of modern origami and acknowledged as its greatest living exponent.

Origami - "to fold paper" in Japanese - is thought to have originated in China at about the same time as the discovery of paper at the end of the 1st century AD. The secret of the material's manufacture was brought to Japan in the early 7th century, where origami was elevated to the status of an art form on a par with painting, in part because its practice could be invested with ceremonial and spiritual significance.

Japan's cultural isolation meant that for centuries origami was little known in the West, though Tolstoy, among others, had seen its creations. An independent tradition of making models from folded paper had sprung up in Europe, but its secrets were largely confined to professional magicians, such as Harry Houdini. It was Yoshizawa who in the 1950s united the two streams, revolutionising the art and popularising it around the world.

Although there were many recognised styles of origami in Japan, Yoshizawa was self-taught, and it was this experience which allowed him to break away from the rigid and sometimes overly complex rules which then governed the art. In particular, he developed a new method of dampening the paper which enabled him to fashion more naturalistic shapes that held their form when they dried. He also insisted on never cutting the paper - as was then common - and on folding the models with his hands raised, instead of on a surface such as a table.

His work, which reflected his perfectionist nature and evident kindness of character, was animate to a degree never before achieved in origami. Owls, dragons, butterflies and cranes - all sprang to life under his fingers, which could even turn a bath mat into a swan. Moreover, the diagrammatic system of lines and symbols he devised allowed for the first time those who did not speak Japanese to learn origami's forms and methods.

Akira Yoshizawa was born into a family of farmers at Tochigi, central Japan, on March 14 1911. He moved to Tokyo as a teenager, and after qualifying as a draughtsman found work in a tool-making factory. There he began to teach geometry to other employees by folding paper. Later, he studied for the Buddhist priesthood for two years before opting not to enter a monastery.

Having decided instead to make origami his life's mission, he endured several decades of extreme poverty, supporting himself as a door-to-door salesman of traditional foods. During the Second World War, he served in the army medical corps in Hong Kong, where he made models to cheer up the patients, before himself falling ill and being sent home to Japan.

His work was first discovered and publicised by a popular magazine, Asahi Graf, in 1951, and its editor thereafter became his champion and helped him secure his first exhibition in Tokyo, where his genius was at once recognised. Then, in 1955, he finally made contact with Gershon Legman, an American enthusiast for paperfolding and an assistant to Alfred Kinsey, the sex researcher. Legman had heard of his work and had written to him dozens of times, but until then Yoshizawa had lacked the money even to post a reply.

The years after the war had seen a growing appreciation of Japanese culture abroad, partly disseminated by GIs who had been stationed there. By the mid-1950s, origami had gained some devotees in the United States and Britain, notably Robert Harbin, the television magician, and Rolf Harris. Legman helped Yoshizawa to have exhibitions in Amsterdam and New York which gave new impetus to origami's practice in the West and forged important contacts between its principal practitioners and collectors.

For many years, Yoshizawa worked as a goodwill ambassador for the Japanese government. He was a member of the Order of the Rising Sun, and had been declared a Living National Treasure. He was a vice-president of the British Origami Society, an appointment that gave him much pleasure.

Akira Yoshizawa died on March 14. He is survived by his wife Kiyo, whom he married in 1956.

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
published 30/3/05 as Tory leader Howard called for further defence integration with the USA and a non voter TV Chef got c@$h for school dinners.
some things matter & some don't - your choice.

best intentions

by redjade

Sun Dec 05, 2004 18:23

"Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute."

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1202-25.htm

Does Not Compute

Sun Dec 05, 2004 18:18

"The paper birds are not a traditional symbol for us," said leader of Abdullaham Abdulsamad of the Narathiwat Islamic Council. "It's a different culture. Our people do not understand what the birds stand for."

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/12/04/origami_bomb.html

For the more literary instruction types- (sorry about my mis-spellings quite a few)

by :-)

Sun Dec 05, 2004 16:14

1. Fold a square piece of paper in half horizontally.
Then fold (A) back to bottom center (D) and
(B) forward to front bottom center (C).

2. Your paper should look like this.

3. Pull (C) (the front) and (D) (the back) apart all the
way until you have a flat diamond (as in small diagram).

4. Fold top layers of (C) and (D) inward to center line
at (E) and fold down (F) along dotted line.

5. Your paper should look like this.

6. Now here's the tricky part: Unfold step 4. Take top
layer only at (G) and pull it up making use of the crease
(dotted line). This allows points (C) and (D) to fold
back to center line along creases. Turn paper over and
repeat steps 4, 5, and 6, ignoring new flap topped by point (G).

7. With split at bottom, fold (H) and (I) inward so that
edges meet center line. Turn paper over and repeat.

8. Temporarily open flaps at (L1) and (L2). Pull(J) up to
top between flaps and close flaps (L1 and L2).
Repeat with (K). Fold down head. Fold down wings.
http://phillesh.net/philzonepages/friends_stuff/nye-cranes2.html

(though the monkey org is better but requires even more patience for those with a slow modem.
http://www.monkey.org/~aidan/origami/crane/ )

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Comments (4 of 4)