I had lunch with my good friend Jenny the other day, As usual, the food was good (I had lemon scampi linguine at Mary Grace and then chai tea later at Starbucks) but the company was even better. I was interested to find out how things had been with my friend – it had been two months since we had our last “session”.
Jenny may be more outspoken than I am, and has more opportunities to enjoy the finer things in life, but I sense we are similar. Childhood, background, some interests, even relationship patterns. As a result, the sessions go on for hours. We meet for lunch and I am startled it is 4 o clock already (time to go to work). Sometimes we meet for dinner and I am taken aback it is midnight already (time to go home).
This time, Jenny is trying to learn to do tarot readings. Over dessert, we did the very basic stuff on me: the past, the present and the future cards. I am the Empress in my me-now state. The two of wands stood for my past. My future is governed by the ace of wands.
Here are the supposed meanings of my cards courtesy of www.tarotteachings.com.
PAST: TWO OF WANDS
The two of wands speaks of overseeing our dominion. And as the number two is symbolic of making choice, the card seems to ask us "Ok, I?ve gained my kingdom, now what?"
Indeed, as wands express the passion that lights up our motivation for action, the theme of this cards spurs us to tally up our inventory before we choose too hastily which action to take.
The central figure of the card is facing west, which is esoterically symbolic of seeing into the past as a means to predict our future. Simply put, the card encourages us to take stock of past events to more prudently rule over our kingdom in the future.
The card also suggests a hindrance with its presence of the brick wall. However, see how our central figure firmly places one wand on top of the wall? This symbolic gesture insures our victory over obstacles.
Furthermore, the central figure grasps this wand with his left hand indicating creative, higher awareness and subconscious means should be used in dealing with potential obstacles.
The two of wands asks us to survey our surroundings, add up our assets, and then live out our driving passion from this well-educated position.
PRESENT: THE EMPRESS
The mother figure of the Tarot deck, the Empress Tarot card meanings are all about love, abundance, nurturing, and pleasure. When we observe the card we see elements of nature - all exploding on the card - the Empress brings about the flood of growth and is the epitome of abundance. She reminds us that there is always enough for everyone to enjoy. There is no shortage.
Many decks depict the Empress as pregnant. This is very symbolic, and when pulled, this card conveys a message that the situation is pregnant with promise - full of opportunity. Along with the symbolism of pregnancy holding promise, comes the waiting period. Just as there is an incubation time until the child comes forth, so too is there a time of waiting until our desires become manifest.
FUTURE: ACE OF WANDS
Key Words for the Ace of Wands:
* Passion
* Direction
* Ignition
* Expansion
* Initiation
* Creativity
* Energization
* Resourcefulness
The ace of wands Tarot card meaning deals with high volume energies bursting forth in assertive confidence.
The art of the ace of wands Tarot card is all about passion and energy.
Those who pull this card in a reading are in for an incredible adventure. This card marks the beginning of a new direction - particularly in matters of creativity.
The ace of wands also reminds us of the creative control we have in our lives. Specifically when we look at the card, we note the hand holding the out a rod symbolizing our passion. This is indicative of our ability to take hold of our desires and allow that passion to fuel us up to reach our goals.
The beauty of this card stands out loud and clear. It is a beacon amongst the Tarot pantheon, ever holding its light bright for all to see the way to clarity.
As such, the ace of wands Tarot card meaning often deals with creative insight. Many times this card shows up after the querent has gone through a period of murky waters or a time of stagnation in which he/she seemed to be "stuck." Hence the symbolism of the flame thrust out of the thick, obscuring clouds.
In this case, the ace of wands Tarot card is a bright jolt in the Tarot spread. A promise of motion, direction, and positive energy building to a delightful result.
This card is calls loudest to artists, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and those seeking to set out on a new creative path. To them, it is the "green light" card - a sign of positive encouragement, a signal to go for gusto! in their endeavors.
I learned that these readings are not as external as we usually think. What the cards say, if they are to be believed in the first place, are already potentials of the individual.
I'm pretty happy with the cards I picked out. They are so... me. Uncannily me if I may say so. I mean, how many cards are there in the deck, right, and some of the images can be really creepy. My future card, especially, agrees with this warm fuzzy gut feeling that I may just be on to something good soon.
Then again, even of we did not do those readings in the first place, I still feel as giddy and optimistic about what's ahead for me. Generally, I do pass my days humming a happy tune.
After everything I've seen, I think it's a gift that I can still feel these good things . (Like Marina Picasso who had so much love to give after a loveless childhood.) I must really be so blessed.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Picasso's granddaughter
Last night I finished reading Picasso My Grandfather, an autobiographical account of Marina Picasso, granddaughter of the great Spanish-born painter.
Marina talks about how members of her family were driven to despair by the overwhelming personality, both in presence and absence, of the great Pablo Picasso. Marina's father Paulo was a weakling who acted as Pablo's chaffeur and who had to beg him for money. Her mother cared only for herself and appearances besides. Marina and her brother Pablito felt unwanted and stupid and guilty for their dysfunctional family, cursed with the Picasso name.
Marina and Pablito begged for their upkeep while their grandfather was this hotshot billionaire painter hailed as a genius the world over. Alas, when he was in his early twenties, Pablito committed suicide, infected by the Picasso virus as well, and Marina was left to deal with her troubles on her own.
She was lucky. She had a good heart, a good head on her shoulders and a genuine concern for sick children. She took jobs in health centers for mentally sick kids. Much later, when her grandfather and father died, she became an heiress. Marina felt weird about having lots of money after growing up deprived of the most basic things. She bought a few luxury items without becoming attached to, or deriving pleasure out of, them. She gave fur coats to friends. Coats were a way fo remembering her grandmother Olga, a Ukrainian ballerina whom Picasso seduced and lost interest in only a few months into their marriage. Olga was the only person who showed love to Marina and Pablito. But the genius Pablo taught their son Paulo to hate his mother.
Marina set up her own center for orphans in Vietnam. She felt for abandoned children; after all, she and Pablito felt like orphans themselves while they were growing up.
Marina is blessed, not for becoming an heiress after years of having nothing, but for having the will to do something more with her life, undefeated by the absence of love, the rejection and the selfishness her elders displayed. She was not unscathed: she had to battle anxiety attacks and other lasting effects of her harrowing childhood. After she emerged from her therapy, she went out of her way to give others the love that she grew up so hungry for.
**
As a footnote to this blog entry I would like to share this article written by Jeremy Josephs entitled Marina Picasso on the Art of Survival.
Talk about posh. Of course it pains me somewhat to admit to being so superficial and shallow as to be bowled over by fabulous wealth and riches. But Marina Picasso’s pad in Cannes – and I’ve seen a few des res in my time as a writer on the road – surely takes the biscuit. Not an altogether inappropriate turn of phrase, as it happens, since her stunning white villa overlooking the Iles de Lérins and the Med has been described as a wedding cake of a house. A wedding cake which happens to contain dozens of Picasso originals – a dazzling and unrivalled mélange of paintings, sculptures, bronzes and ceramics – each and every item crafted by her grandfather’s fair hand. Fair hand? Hardly. For Marina is poised to relate what to her has become an all-too familiar tale: that the legendary Pablo Picasso was in fact a cruel and sadistic monster who needed to be appeased with human sacrifices in keeping with the best traditions of an Aztec god. “No one in my family managed to escape his stranglehold”, she says. “He needed blood to sign each of his paintings.” Marina was duly called upon to become a blood donor herself but, unlike others, she survived.
For those who might be thinking ‘poor little rich girl’ Marina is obliged to rattle off a series of rather unpalatable home truths, each one chipping away at the enduring myth of the dominant creative genius of the twentieth century. It involves so much misery, such disproportionate quantities of death and destruction that one hesitates to label the Picassos as merely dysfunctional for fear that the word is too weak. Marina’s brother Pablito tried to commit suicide just a few days after Picasso’s death in 1973 – “my grandfather’s second wife, Jacqueline, wouldn’t let us near him, whereas all Pablito wanted to do was to say goodbye to the dead body.” Whereupon she found her brother lying on the kitchen floor, blood haemorrhaging from his mouth, having downed the best part of a bottle of bleach that perforated his stomach lining. Three months of intense suffering later, aged just 24, he was dead. Marina was obliged to borrow money to pay for his coffin - which rather knocks the ‘poor little rich girl’ theory for a six, does it not?
Her beloved grandmother (the most formative influence in her life) – the once beautiful Olga who had danced in Diagilev’s Ballets Russes died ‘not only paralysed but humiliated, degraded and betrayed’. Then it was Jacqueline’s turn – she chose to end her own life by putting a bullet through her temple at Picasso’s home Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci in Mougins – while Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist’s muse, duly hanged herself from the ceiling of her garage in Juan-les-Pins. In other words it was not exactly happy families chez les Picassos – and I have spared you the details of the miserable life and times of Marina’s own parents where the watchwords were alcoholism, abuse and neglect. It is entirely attributable to the Picasso effect, Marina will have you believe, a burden which she too has been carrying for the whole of her life. But she considers that with the modest tally of just one nervous breakdown, dozens of fainting fits and fourteen years of psychoanalysis - that she got off rather lightly.
“When I began my therapy I introduced myself not as ‘Marina Picasso’ but as ‘Picasso’s granddaughter’. For I too had succumbed to the Picasso virus - we all fell victim in our different ways. This virus was subtle and undetectable”, she says, “a combination of promises not kept, abuse of power, mortification, contempt and, above all, incommunicability. We were defenceless against it.”
Far be it from me to spring to le Maître’s defence, especially after what I’ve just heard. But I do feel obliged to point out that in life things are seldom black and white – even Hitler loved dogs, for heaven’s sake – and that there surely must have been some tender moments together, as one would expect between a grandfather and granddaughter.
“I am sorry to disappoint you but there were not. I would love to be able to tell you how he had loved us all, of how he would take me in his arms with my dolls and hug me. But that just didn’t happen.” And Marina Picasso proceeds to develop her theme of contempt – describing how her grandfather would only have to sign a paper tablecloth in a restaurant to pay the bill for forty people. And of a man who would boast of being able to buy a house without needing a lawyer by handing over three paintings that he would not hesitate to describe as ‘three pieces of crap smeared in the night’.
Which leads me to enquire if Marina appreciates the works of art that adorn her very walls. Having inherited a quarter of her grandfather’s fortune (including some 400 paintings) you can hardly look up, or to the left or right for that matter, without a Picasso of some shape and form staring back up at you.
“That’s precisely why I refused my inheritance”, she explains. “I was convinced that all of our family’s misfortunes flowed from this man – this God, this King, this Sun, this Genius”, she says dismissively, mocking the adjectives of adoration which are bandied about as soon as his name comes up for dinner party discussion. “You might think that that sounds rather funny – but when I would try to go and visit my grandfather in Cannes – this was precisely the message which Jacqueline would communicate to my brother and I via her gatekeeper – that ‘the Sun is resting.’”
When the director of the BNP bank in Paris offered to open the doors to the vault containing her share of Picasso’s work, she flatly refused. Persuaded by her legal advisers that the refusal of a legacy was not possible according to French law, she duly but reluctantly accepted –promptly stacking the paintings against the walls on the grounds that out of sight meant out of mind. Meanwhile, the artist’s three illegitimate offspring – Claude, Paloma and Maa – had thrown their hats into the legal ring, anxious to see their slice of the action. Whereupon there followed an acrimonious ten-year legal battle – all part and parcel of Picasso’s plan, according to Marina, to suck everyone into his vortex upon his death, precisely as he had planned.
Call me cantankerous if you will. But my unconscious desire seems to be to want to speak up for the old man. I can’t even explain why. Maybe I too have digested and imbibed the myth that Marina is so anxious to dispel. And unlike other reporters who know that there job is to sit down and shut up, I can’t help but throw in my two centime’s worth.
“Nevertheless the fact remains, Madame Picasso, that here you are, hugely wealthy, living in this amazing home which once belonged to your grandfather, with his works of art adorning each and every wall. Is there not something a little unwholesome about your describing him as a kind of blood-sucking vampire whose sole ambition in life was to destroy?”
Convinced that I am about to be given my marching orders, Marina Picasso is entirely unfazed. Maybe she has heard it all before.
“I am perfectly well aware”, she retorts, “that everything I have in financial terms is entirely attributable to Picasso. All I have been trying to do is to tell my side of the story. I have come to appreciate both the quality and quantity of his work. In fact I have even gone out of my way to buy some of his works to be able to complete my collection.”
“Does this mean”, I enquire, “that you have been able to forgive him for all that you, and the other members of your family, have been through?”
“To forgive implies that I am in a position to be able to judge him”, she replies matter-of-factly. “What I can say is that I have made a huge effort to understand him.”
“Pardon my impertinence - but that doesn’t sound like much of a forgiveness to me.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but some of the past simply can’t be undone –especially the death of my brother. I was at his bedside for 3 months watching him die and that’s beyond repair. I too am a Picasso – and even though you may see me now in this somewhat luxurious setting I too have paid dearly I can tell you.”
It was at this point that a bubbly 13-year-old Vietnamese girl walked into the lounge. Having completed her day at school she was evidently happy to be home.
“Bonsoir Maman”.
“Bonsoir, cherie.”
Marina Picasso then explains that she has made the plight of abandoned children her particular concern. And through the work of the Marina Picasso Foundation – she says she has been able to recapture the childhood she was denied. These were no idle words. For back in 1990 she adopted a four-month-old Vietnamese boy, Florian. So successful was this adoption that she returned to adopt two more Vietnamese babies, Mai and Dimitri. It was Mai who had just walked in. Marina’s ‘Village of Youth’, as it is called, is situated in Thu Doc, a northern suburb of Ho Chi Minh City and it consists of a school, gymnasium, swimming pool, a park and a number of small houses designed to create a family atmosphere – precisely what was denied to Marina in her own upbringing.
Having recently published her no-holds-barred biography I conclude by asking what le Soleil might have made of her book. Of course it’s an impossible question to answer.
“To be honest I think it would have done him a power of good. It might have got him thinking and made him realise that he was not the only person in the world where everyone was speechless, in awe or on their knees before him. My greatest regret is that I was never able to get to know him as a mature woman. No guardian of the sleeping soleil would have prevented me from seeing my grandfather. Now I know that you have to learn to climb walls, to break windows to get what you want in life. But then, as a child, I stayed in my place – suffering in silence. It does give me great pleasure though, I must say, to know that its Picasso’s legacy which underwrites my Foundation and which gives hundreds of children a chance in life which would otherwise have eluded them.”
I am just about to set off when there is a sudden downpour. As Marina sees me packing up my affairs and doing my best to prevent my tape-recorder and camera from getting wet, she waves goodbye. She has been a delightful hostess.
“You know what you could really do with now?”, she shouts out across the forecourt, “its le Soleil! Terribly sorry but he’s not in just now!”
Which indicates to me that unlike others in the fold, Marina Picasso knows all about art: the art of survival and of winning through.
All rights belong to Jeremy Josephs.
Permission is granted to make and distribute complete verbatim electronic copies of this item for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright information and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. All other rights reserved. To correspond with the author, send email to josephs3@wanadoo.fr
Comments welcome. Jeremy Josephs can be reached on the Web at: www.jeremyjosephs.com
Marina talks about how members of her family were driven to despair by the overwhelming personality, both in presence and absence, of the great Pablo Picasso. Marina's father Paulo was a weakling who acted as Pablo's chaffeur and who had to beg him for money. Her mother cared only for herself and appearances besides. Marina and her brother Pablito felt unwanted and stupid and guilty for their dysfunctional family, cursed with the Picasso name.
Marina and Pablito begged for their upkeep while their grandfather was this hotshot billionaire painter hailed as a genius the world over. Alas, when he was in his early twenties, Pablito committed suicide, infected by the Picasso virus as well, and Marina was left to deal with her troubles on her own.
She was lucky. She had a good heart, a good head on her shoulders and a genuine concern for sick children. She took jobs in health centers for mentally sick kids. Much later, when her grandfather and father died, she became an heiress. Marina felt weird about having lots of money after growing up deprived of the most basic things. She bought a few luxury items without becoming attached to, or deriving pleasure out of, them. She gave fur coats to friends. Coats were a way fo remembering her grandmother Olga, a Ukrainian ballerina whom Picasso seduced and lost interest in only a few months into their marriage. Olga was the only person who showed love to Marina and Pablito. But the genius Pablo taught their son Paulo to hate his mother.
Marina set up her own center for orphans in Vietnam. She felt for abandoned children; after all, she and Pablito felt like orphans themselves while they were growing up.
Marina is blessed, not for becoming an heiress after years of having nothing, but for having the will to do something more with her life, undefeated by the absence of love, the rejection and the selfishness her elders displayed. She was not unscathed: she had to battle anxiety attacks and other lasting effects of her harrowing childhood. After she emerged from her therapy, she went out of her way to give others the love that she grew up so hungry for.
**
As a footnote to this blog entry I would like to share this article written by Jeremy Josephs entitled Marina Picasso on the Art of Survival.
Talk about posh. Of course it pains me somewhat to admit to being so superficial and shallow as to be bowled over by fabulous wealth and riches. But Marina Picasso’s pad in Cannes – and I’ve seen a few des res in my time as a writer on the road – surely takes the biscuit. Not an altogether inappropriate turn of phrase, as it happens, since her stunning white villa overlooking the Iles de Lérins and the Med has been described as a wedding cake of a house. A wedding cake which happens to contain dozens of Picasso originals – a dazzling and unrivalled mélange of paintings, sculptures, bronzes and ceramics – each and every item crafted by her grandfather’s fair hand. Fair hand? Hardly. For Marina is poised to relate what to her has become an all-too familiar tale: that the legendary Pablo Picasso was in fact a cruel and sadistic monster who needed to be appeased with human sacrifices in keeping with the best traditions of an Aztec god. “No one in my family managed to escape his stranglehold”, she says. “He needed blood to sign each of his paintings.” Marina was duly called upon to become a blood donor herself but, unlike others, she survived.
For those who might be thinking ‘poor little rich girl’ Marina is obliged to rattle off a series of rather unpalatable home truths, each one chipping away at the enduring myth of the dominant creative genius of the twentieth century. It involves so much misery, such disproportionate quantities of death and destruction that one hesitates to label the Picassos as merely dysfunctional for fear that the word is too weak. Marina’s brother Pablito tried to commit suicide just a few days after Picasso’s death in 1973 – “my grandfather’s second wife, Jacqueline, wouldn’t let us near him, whereas all Pablito wanted to do was to say goodbye to the dead body.” Whereupon she found her brother lying on the kitchen floor, blood haemorrhaging from his mouth, having downed the best part of a bottle of bleach that perforated his stomach lining. Three months of intense suffering later, aged just 24, he was dead. Marina was obliged to borrow money to pay for his coffin - which rather knocks the ‘poor little rich girl’ theory for a six, does it not?
Her beloved grandmother (the most formative influence in her life) – the once beautiful Olga who had danced in Diagilev’s Ballets Russes died ‘not only paralysed but humiliated, degraded and betrayed’. Then it was Jacqueline’s turn – she chose to end her own life by putting a bullet through her temple at Picasso’s home Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci in Mougins – while Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist’s muse, duly hanged herself from the ceiling of her garage in Juan-les-Pins. In other words it was not exactly happy families chez les Picassos – and I have spared you the details of the miserable life and times of Marina’s own parents where the watchwords were alcoholism, abuse and neglect. It is entirely attributable to the Picasso effect, Marina will have you believe, a burden which she too has been carrying for the whole of her life. But she considers that with the modest tally of just one nervous breakdown, dozens of fainting fits and fourteen years of psychoanalysis - that she got off rather lightly.
“When I began my therapy I introduced myself not as ‘Marina Picasso’ but as ‘Picasso’s granddaughter’. For I too had succumbed to the Picasso virus - we all fell victim in our different ways. This virus was subtle and undetectable”, she says, “a combination of promises not kept, abuse of power, mortification, contempt and, above all, incommunicability. We were defenceless against it.”
Far be it from me to spring to le Maître’s defence, especially after what I’ve just heard. But I do feel obliged to point out that in life things are seldom black and white – even Hitler loved dogs, for heaven’s sake – and that there surely must have been some tender moments together, as one would expect between a grandfather and granddaughter.
“I am sorry to disappoint you but there were not. I would love to be able to tell you how he had loved us all, of how he would take me in his arms with my dolls and hug me. But that just didn’t happen.” And Marina Picasso proceeds to develop her theme of contempt – describing how her grandfather would only have to sign a paper tablecloth in a restaurant to pay the bill for forty people. And of a man who would boast of being able to buy a house without needing a lawyer by handing over three paintings that he would not hesitate to describe as ‘three pieces of crap smeared in the night’.
Which leads me to enquire if Marina appreciates the works of art that adorn her very walls. Having inherited a quarter of her grandfather’s fortune (including some 400 paintings) you can hardly look up, or to the left or right for that matter, without a Picasso of some shape and form staring back up at you.
“That’s precisely why I refused my inheritance”, she explains. “I was convinced that all of our family’s misfortunes flowed from this man – this God, this King, this Sun, this Genius”, she says dismissively, mocking the adjectives of adoration which are bandied about as soon as his name comes up for dinner party discussion. “You might think that that sounds rather funny – but when I would try to go and visit my grandfather in Cannes – this was precisely the message which Jacqueline would communicate to my brother and I via her gatekeeper – that ‘the Sun is resting.’”
When the director of the BNP bank in Paris offered to open the doors to the vault containing her share of Picasso’s work, she flatly refused. Persuaded by her legal advisers that the refusal of a legacy was not possible according to French law, she duly but reluctantly accepted –promptly stacking the paintings against the walls on the grounds that out of sight meant out of mind. Meanwhile, the artist’s three illegitimate offspring – Claude, Paloma and Maa – had thrown their hats into the legal ring, anxious to see their slice of the action. Whereupon there followed an acrimonious ten-year legal battle – all part and parcel of Picasso’s plan, according to Marina, to suck everyone into his vortex upon his death, precisely as he had planned.
Call me cantankerous if you will. But my unconscious desire seems to be to want to speak up for the old man. I can’t even explain why. Maybe I too have digested and imbibed the myth that Marina is so anxious to dispel. And unlike other reporters who know that there job is to sit down and shut up, I can’t help but throw in my two centime’s worth.
“Nevertheless the fact remains, Madame Picasso, that here you are, hugely wealthy, living in this amazing home which once belonged to your grandfather, with his works of art adorning each and every wall. Is there not something a little unwholesome about your describing him as a kind of blood-sucking vampire whose sole ambition in life was to destroy?”
Convinced that I am about to be given my marching orders, Marina Picasso is entirely unfazed. Maybe she has heard it all before.
“I am perfectly well aware”, she retorts, “that everything I have in financial terms is entirely attributable to Picasso. All I have been trying to do is to tell my side of the story. I have come to appreciate both the quality and quantity of his work. In fact I have even gone out of my way to buy some of his works to be able to complete my collection.”
“Does this mean”, I enquire, “that you have been able to forgive him for all that you, and the other members of your family, have been through?”
“To forgive implies that I am in a position to be able to judge him”, she replies matter-of-factly. “What I can say is that I have made a huge effort to understand him.”
“Pardon my impertinence - but that doesn’t sound like much of a forgiveness to me.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but some of the past simply can’t be undone –especially the death of my brother. I was at his bedside for 3 months watching him die and that’s beyond repair. I too am a Picasso – and even though you may see me now in this somewhat luxurious setting I too have paid dearly I can tell you.”
It was at this point that a bubbly 13-year-old Vietnamese girl walked into the lounge. Having completed her day at school she was evidently happy to be home.
“Bonsoir Maman”.
“Bonsoir, cherie.”
Marina Picasso then explains that she has made the plight of abandoned children her particular concern. And through the work of the Marina Picasso Foundation – she says she has been able to recapture the childhood she was denied. These were no idle words. For back in 1990 she adopted a four-month-old Vietnamese boy, Florian. So successful was this adoption that she returned to adopt two more Vietnamese babies, Mai and Dimitri. It was Mai who had just walked in. Marina’s ‘Village of Youth’, as it is called, is situated in Thu Doc, a northern suburb of Ho Chi Minh City and it consists of a school, gymnasium, swimming pool, a park and a number of small houses designed to create a family atmosphere – precisely what was denied to Marina in her own upbringing.
Having recently published her no-holds-barred biography I conclude by asking what le Soleil might have made of her book. Of course it’s an impossible question to answer.
“To be honest I think it would have done him a power of good. It might have got him thinking and made him realise that he was not the only person in the world where everyone was speechless, in awe or on their knees before him. My greatest regret is that I was never able to get to know him as a mature woman. No guardian of the sleeping soleil would have prevented me from seeing my grandfather. Now I know that you have to learn to climb walls, to break windows to get what you want in life. But then, as a child, I stayed in my place – suffering in silence. It does give me great pleasure though, I must say, to know that its Picasso’s legacy which underwrites my Foundation and which gives hundreds of children a chance in life which would otherwise have eluded them.”
I am just about to set off when there is a sudden downpour. As Marina sees me packing up my affairs and doing my best to prevent my tape-recorder and camera from getting wet, she waves goodbye. She has been a delightful hostess.
“You know what you could really do with now?”, she shouts out across the forecourt, “its le Soleil! Terribly sorry but he’s not in just now!”
Which indicates to me that unlike others in the fold, Marina Picasso knows all about art: the art of survival and of winning through.
All rights belong to Jeremy Josephs.
Permission is granted to make and distribute complete verbatim electronic copies of this item for non-commercial purposes provided the copyright information and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. All other rights reserved. To correspond with the author, send email to josephs3@wanadoo.fr
Comments welcome. Jeremy Josephs can be reached on the Web at: www.jeremyjosephs.com
Monday, September 21, 2009
Natural progression
It was bedlam early Saturday afternoon on Katipunan Avenue. I was on a cab with my Bea, on the way to Ateneo for her college entrance exam. It's a good thing we decided to leave Trinoma, where we had lunch, at noon; we figured being early would help her get into the right condition for the test that could decide a lot of things for her.
I remember my own ACET. November ninety-two and I got the morning slot, which meant that I had to leave Valenzuela when it was still half-dark. Nobody dropped me off. Those days, we couldn't even afford a cab ride. My mother had just died the previous month and I was still sporting my black mourning pin on my left chest. I don't remember much about the test except that the math was terrible. In fact, I was dejected as I walked out of the Ateneo Grade School, convinced that I was going to fail.
Four months later, I found out I didn't fail. In fact I got full scholarship and was cast in one of the merit sections. I was blessed. I still am.
At first we thought Bea was assigned to a room at the HIGH school department, which was on the northern end of the campus adjacent to Miriam's College. Good that we gave her exam permit on quick last look. At the last minute, we discovered that her assignment was in fact the GRADE school building, on the south (Aurora Boulevard) side of the school. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek as a way of wishing her well. And then she was off -- with her "supot" of groceries we picked up along the way: bottled coffee, bottled green tea, ketchup-flavored fried potatoes, a Snickers bar. Funny, my daughter felt the test was a real adventure; she definitely looked as though she was going on a field trip.
Traffic was also bad inside the campus so I was able to observe my daughter as she got a preview of freshmanhood: looking for a classroom in a sea of unfamiliar faces. I would not have dared get out of the cab myself and help her look for Room 5. I did not want to deprive her of the opportunity of getting lost – so she could find her way on her own.
Six hours later, she texted me. “Am done, :)” I felt silly for worrying too much. Any child of mine would be okay. And do better than I ever did.
I remember my own ACET. November ninety-two and I got the morning slot, which meant that I had to leave Valenzuela when it was still half-dark. Nobody dropped me off. Those days, we couldn't even afford a cab ride. My mother had just died the previous month and I was still sporting my black mourning pin on my left chest. I don't remember much about the test except that the math was terrible. In fact, I was dejected as I walked out of the Ateneo Grade School, convinced that I was going to fail.
Four months later, I found out I didn't fail. In fact I got full scholarship and was cast in one of the merit sections. I was blessed. I still am.
At first we thought Bea was assigned to a room at the HIGH school department, which was on the northern end of the campus adjacent to Miriam's College. Good that we gave her exam permit on quick last look. At the last minute, we discovered that her assignment was in fact the GRADE school building, on the south (Aurora Boulevard) side of the school. I gave her a quick peck on the cheek as a way of wishing her well. And then she was off -- with her "supot" of groceries we picked up along the way: bottled coffee, bottled green tea, ketchup-flavored fried potatoes, a Snickers bar. Funny, my daughter felt the test was a real adventure; she definitely looked as though she was going on a field trip.
Traffic was also bad inside the campus so I was able to observe my daughter as she got a preview of freshmanhood: looking for a classroom in a sea of unfamiliar faces. I would not have dared get out of the cab myself and help her look for Room 5. I did not want to deprive her of the opportunity of getting lost – so she could find her way on her own.
Six hours later, she texted me. “Am done, :)” I felt silly for worrying too much. Any child of mine would be okay. And do better than I ever did.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Back to basics (Part 1)
The fuss over embryonic stem cells and the promise of adult ones
published 21 Sept 2009, Manila Standard Today
The mention of “stem cells” can result in only a few reactions. You can go blank, not knowing anything about it. Or you can claim to have an idea what it's about --- before you are overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy. For all the things said and written about stem cells, both on their science and morality, you realize that no matter how much you read up on the matter, you cannot grasp everything you need to know about these two deceptively simple one-syllable words. .
But why the fuss? Let's get the definition out of the way. Stem cells first attracted attention in the 1960s, thanks to two Canadian scientists, Ernest McCulloch and James Till. Stem cells are the basic or master cells in any multi-cellular organism's system from which all other specialized cells stem from (hence the term.) Their value lies in the fact that should any of these specialized cells be damaged in the event of disease or injury, stem cells could be manipulated so that they regenerate into new healthy specific cells to replace the worn out ones. Parkinson's disease, pancreatic abnormalities, cancer and spinal cord injuries are the more common sicknesses that have given rise to research on the power of stem cells. The field is also becoming known as regenerative medicine. Think of organ transplants, only that you are not talking about hearts and livers but something more basic: cells.
Much of what we've heard about stem cells are actually about EMBRYONIC stem cells. (There is another kind and I shall revert to that later on in this article.) They are called embryonic because they can only be found in embryos that are about four to five days old. At this point, the embryo is called a blastocyst. It is precisely that stage AFTER a woman's egg has been fertilized by a man's sperm but BEFORE the embryo is implanted into the uterus. But if you extract stem cells from the embryo at this point, the consequence is the destruction of the embryo – hence there is a moral controversy surrounding the matter. You discard a potential human being.
These embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, or those places that perform in vitro fertilization. There are embryos that somehow never find their way into a woman's uterus because they are no longer wanted or needed. Instead, these discarded embryos are frozen and donated for research purposes, the Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic,com) says.
A University of Wisconsin professor, James Thomson, observed that stem cells extracted from embryos could be maintained a certain way so that they go on multiplying yet stay basic (i.e., without differentiating) for long periods of time. In a 2001 interview with Time Magazine, Thomson revealed a more fundamental reason for his passion than the replacement of faulty cells in the event of disease: He wanted to be able to explain why some cells grow up healthy while others get sick and die.
But politics soon stepped in. In the same year, citing moral concerns, the Republican President George W. Bush restricted federal funding for the study of human embryonic stem cells. Under this policy, government funds could only be used to study already existing embryonic cell lines, not discover new ones. This had a disheartening effect on American scientists, some of whom flew to Britain, Singapore or China where there was more support for their work.
Some stayed on US soil but relied on private funding, like Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Melton's passion was driven not by philosophy but by a near-tragedy in his immediate family. Seventeen years ago, he almost lost his six-month old baby to Type 1 diabetes, a condition where the pancreas cannot discharge its functions and the patient has to rely on external means -- insulin doses -- to break up sugar in the blood. As a consequence, Melton devoted years to cultivate insulin-producing cells from, what else, stem cells. He also distributed the cells he cultivated to his colleagues.
And then the Democrats returned to the White House this year. Soon after taking office, United States President Barack Obama lifted his predecessor's federal restrictions on stem cell research. "Rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values. I believe the two are not inconsistent. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly," Obama said.
Much of those opposed to the science are scared that the technology would be used for cloning. Obama assuaged the public's fears, saying that strict regulations would be in place to guard against cloning, which was “dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society.”
The lifting of the ban was praised by former First Lady Nancy Reagan, the widow of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Mr. Reagan died in 2004 from Alzheimer's disease, which is believed to be treatable using stem cell therapy. Indeed, federal support for further research could help more people live better and longer.
In January 2009, the first embryonic stem-cell based treatment for a spinal cord injury was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The cells to used were those extracted from human embryos. But the tests, carried out by a Nasdaq-listed company called Geron, hit a snag just last month: initial tests on mice revealed a higher-than-expected occurrence of cysts.
What now? Remember that stem cells from embryos are not everything there is to the technology. One need not get entangled in the moral debate – or live with the alleged risks of cyst (or tumor) development.
This is where the other, non-embryonic sources of stem cells come in. Adult stem cells, or those that are inside already living organisms (normally in the placenta, umbilical cord and the bone marrow) also offer a universe of possibilities even as they were earlier thought to be less workable than those obtained from discarded embryos. Adult cells' potential for morphing into specialized cells were thought to be a lot limited than the embryonic ones.
Thankfully, scientists around the world did not stop trying until they came up with their own breakthroughs in the field. What's even better is that the technology has started coming to the Philippines.
(continued next Monday)
published 21 Sept 2009, Manila Standard Today
The mention of “stem cells” can result in only a few reactions. You can go blank, not knowing anything about it. Or you can claim to have an idea what it's about --- before you are overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy. For all the things said and written about stem cells, both on their science and morality, you realize that no matter how much you read up on the matter, you cannot grasp everything you need to know about these two deceptively simple one-syllable words. .
But why the fuss? Let's get the definition out of the way. Stem cells first attracted attention in the 1960s, thanks to two Canadian scientists, Ernest McCulloch and James Till. Stem cells are the basic or master cells in any multi-cellular organism's system from which all other specialized cells stem from (hence the term.) Their value lies in the fact that should any of these specialized cells be damaged in the event of disease or injury, stem cells could be manipulated so that they regenerate into new healthy specific cells to replace the worn out ones. Parkinson's disease, pancreatic abnormalities, cancer and spinal cord injuries are the more common sicknesses that have given rise to research on the power of stem cells. The field is also becoming known as regenerative medicine. Think of organ transplants, only that you are not talking about hearts and livers but something more basic: cells.
Much of what we've heard about stem cells are actually about EMBRYONIC stem cells. (There is another kind and I shall revert to that later on in this article.) They are called embryonic because they can only be found in embryos that are about four to five days old. At this point, the embryo is called a blastocyst. It is precisely that stage AFTER a woman's egg has been fertilized by a man's sperm but BEFORE the embryo is implanted into the uterus. But if you extract stem cells from the embryo at this point, the consequence is the destruction of the embryo – hence there is a moral controversy surrounding the matter. You discard a potential human being.
These embryos are obtained from fertility clinics, or those places that perform in vitro fertilization. There are embryos that somehow never find their way into a woman's uterus because they are no longer wanted or needed. Instead, these discarded embryos are frozen and donated for research purposes, the Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic,com) says.
A University of Wisconsin professor, James Thomson, observed that stem cells extracted from embryos could be maintained a certain way so that they go on multiplying yet stay basic (i.e., without differentiating) for long periods of time. In a 2001 interview with Time Magazine, Thomson revealed a more fundamental reason for his passion than the replacement of faulty cells in the event of disease: He wanted to be able to explain why some cells grow up healthy while others get sick and die.
But politics soon stepped in. In the same year, citing moral concerns, the Republican President George W. Bush restricted federal funding for the study of human embryonic stem cells. Under this policy, government funds could only be used to study already existing embryonic cell lines, not discover new ones. This had a disheartening effect on American scientists, some of whom flew to Britain, Singapore or China where there was more support for their work.
Some stayed on US soil but relied on private funding, like Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. Melton's passion was driven not by philosophy but by a near-tragedy in his immediate family. Seventeen years ago, he almost lost his six-month old baby to Type 1 diabetes, a condition where the pancreas cannot discharge its functions and the patient has to rely on external means -- insulin doses -- to break up sugar in the blood. As a consequence, Melton devoted years to cultivate insulin-producing cells from, what else, stem cells. He also distributed the cells he cultivated to his colleagues.
And then the Democrats returned to the White House this year. Soon after taking office, United States President Barack Obama lifted his predecessor's federal restrictions on stem cell research. "Rather than furthering discovery, our government has forced what I believe is a false choice between sound science and moral values. I believe the two are not inconsistent. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research -- and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly," Obama said.
Much of those opposed to the science are scared that the technology would be used for cloning. Obama assuaged the public's fears, saying that strict regulations would be in place to guard against cloning, which was “dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society.”
The lifting of the ban was praised by former First Lady Nancy Reagan, the widow of former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Mr. Reagan died in 2004 from Alzheimer's disease, which is believed to be treatable using stem cell therapy. Indeed, federal support for further research could help more people live better and longer.
In January 2009, the first embryonic stem-cell based treatment for a spinal cord injury was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The cells to used were those extracted from human embryos. But the tests, carried out by a Nasdaq-listed company called Geron, hit a snag just last month: initial tests on mice revealed a higher-than-expected occurrence of cysts.
What now? Remember that stem cells from embryos are not everything there is to the technology. One need not get entangled in the moral debate – or live with the alleged risks of cyst (or tumor) development.
This is where the other, non-embryonic sources of stem cells come in. Adult stem cells, or those that are inside already living organisms (normally in the placenta, umbilical cord and the bone marrow) also offer a universe of possibilities even as they were earlier thought to be less workable than those obtained from discarded embryos. Adult cells' potential for morphing into specialized cells were thought to be a lot limited than the embryonic ones.
Thankfully, scientists around the world did not stop trying until they came up with their own breakthroughs in the field. What's even better is that the technology has started coming to the Philippines.
(continued next Monday)
Letter from Bea
Following is my daughter Bea's letter to me written during her retreat last month. It was handed to me by her adviser only last Friday. I publish it here with her permission. Suffice it to say I was really floored by her words. I share them now with you, dear readers. Read on...
**
13 August 2009
Mamesh Itesh,
Sometimes it gets hard for me to express my love and admiration for you. I am like you in that way (and I hope you don't see this in the wrong way). I suppress the most significant emotions. I try to act as calm and poised as I can, even when confronting problems that for a girl my age may sometimes seem like the slow deterioration of the world. I may sometimes act like a total ice queen, a complete self-centered bea-tch-- but while it's not completely a facade, it's a defense mechanism. You are my symbol of power and of independence, of never accepting too much crap. (I know that sounds so cynical, I don't mean it that way.) Thank you.
Good luck to us. I know we both want to do so much with our lives and I hope we'll find meaning, as you say, in doing such.
I love you, Mom.
For how long?
For always and forever.
That's how long I'll love you, too.
(Smart WOmen, a novel by Judy Blume)
Touche.
Nagmamahal,
Ate Charo.
......uuuy, sobrang cheesy!
**
13 August 2009
Mamesh Itesh,
Sometimes it gets hard for me to express my love and admiration for you. I am like you in that way (and I hope you don't see this in the wrong way). I suppress the most significant emotions. I try to act as calm and poised as I can, even when confronting problems that for a girl my age may sometimes seem like the slow deterioration of the world. I may sometimes act like a total ice queen, a complete self-centered bea-tch-- but while it's not completely a facade, it's a defense mechanism. You are my symbol of power and of independence, of never accepting too much crap. (I know that sounds so cynical, I don't mean it that way.) Thank you.
Good luck to us. I know we both want to do so much with our lives and I hope we'll find meaning, as you say, in doing such.
I love you, Mom.
For how long?
For always and forever.
That's how long I'll love you, too.
(Smart WOmen, a novel by Judy Blume)
Touche.
Nagmamahal,
Ate Charo.
......uuuy, sobrang cheesy!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The general's new cause
published 14 Sept 2009, Manila Standard Today
The man behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse investigation now helps keep Filipino war veterans and their families informed about the status of their claims.
Antonio Taguba was born in Sampaloc, Manila in 1950. His father, a Cagayan native, was a soldier who had fought the Battle of Bataan and survived the Bataan Death March during World War II. The family migrated to Hawaii when the boy was eleven.
That boy eventually joined the United States Army, which he served for 34 years. The high point of his career came in 2004 when, as a general, he was stationed in Kuwait. The Army needed somebody of at least a two-star rank to probe the alleged abuse and torture suffered by detainees in the hands of the American personnel in the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq. Taguba stepped up to the challenge.
The general and his team reviewed photographs taken and conducted interviews with the people in Abu Ghraib. They obtained written confessions from some of the suspects, statements provided by detainees themselves and some witnesses. What the team found was appalling. More popularly known as the Taguba Report, military inquiry article 15-6 concludes that “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees” and that these acts were “systemic” and intentionally perpetrated.
What were these acts? “Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time; Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear; Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped; Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck; Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee; Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.” Among others.
The Taguba report created a stir long before “Guantanamo” and “waterboarding” became household names. By saying that the abusive acts were systemic, Taguba implied that these things had the authorization, or at least the tacit permission of the higher-ups in the military. Pentagon officials naturally were not thrilled with the report – especially since it had been leaked to the media. An article at The New Yorker written by Seymour Hersch and published on June 25, 2007 (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh) tells us about Taguba's encounter with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in May 2004, the day before the latter appeared in a Congressional hearing on the scandal.
“Here . . . comes . . . that famous General Taguba—of the Taguba report!” Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. Speaking to the New Yorker, Taguba described his former boss: “He [Rumsfeld] was in denial.” Rumsfeld said he did not know about such conditions sooner but Taguba was incredulous: the pictures were there for Rumsfeld to see all along.
But the high point of Taguba's career was also the start of his downfall. In June 2004, Taguba was ordered back to the Pentagon headquarters, to work in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs (where he could be”watched closely,” he was told), when in fact he was up for rotation to Fort MacPherson in Georgia. It was then he realized his career was over. Still, he reported for work faithfully every day, serving “at the pleasure of the President.” And then in January 2006, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army called him up and told him he would be retired by January 2007. No reason was given for his hastened retirement.
The new commander-in-chief, President Obama, has made promises about stopping the US' interrogation “techniques”. He has signed an executive order that would close the Guantanamo facility in Cuba next year even as questions remain on what to do with its present occupants.
This year, retired Gen. Taguba joined human rights organizations in asking Obama to create a commission to investigate abusive practices in US prisons – and have some people accountable for them. Taguba also wrote the preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by the US by Physicians for Human Rights (http://brokenlives.info/?page_id=23).
**
Now that Taguba has retired, he has more time for other things. Presently he serves as chairman of the advisory committee on minority veterans at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Given his – and his father's – history, this cause is another close to his heart.
In my column of March 9 this year (A tribute to war heroes), I wrote about my interview with the administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, soon after the US economic stimulus plan – which included a $198-million provision for Filipinos who fought alongside Americans during World War II – was signed into law. Veterans who have since become US citizens are entitled to a lump sum payment of $15,000 while non-citizens can claim $9,000.
I have since received two e-mails from a reader, Maria Elizabeth Embry, based in Antioch, California who advocates Filipino veterans' welfare. Ms. Embry's latter e-mail to me was a forwarded message from Gen. Taguba himself, asking for help to disseminate information about the progress of veterans' claims per information from the veterans affairs department itself.
I reprint the rest of the forwarded message.
The Center for Minority Veterans (CMV) is now providing updates on the claims status of WWII Filipino Veterans. This data can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/ and will be updated periodically by the Minority Veterans Programs Coordinator (MVPC) which can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/page.cfm?pg=7. Furthermore, the CMV has also published a lists which identifies the local representative that can help Veterans. This lists is called Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The VBAs are available in major cities across America to help Veterans file their claims as well as help with other VA related matters. This lists can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/page.cfm?pg=13.
As of September 1, 2009, 31,876 claims have been received. The initial benchmark for the number of eligible applicants was estimated at 18,000 Filipino WWII Veterans. In addition to these claims, the Manila Regional Office (RO) has received more than 4,400 duplicate or incomplete applications.
As of September 1, 2009, 8,990 applications have been processed through the first four and a half months since processing began: 3,414 approved for non-United States citizens, 3,138 approved for Filipino Veterans with U.S. Citizenship, and 2,438 applications disapproved. There are 22,886 pending claims.
VA continues to conduct numerous successful outreach programs to inform veterans and their families about this benefit. This aggressive outreach will continue as FVEC claims may be submitted until February 16, 2010 .VA is unable to predict the volume of additional claims and is unable to predict a future processing completion date. The Manila RO has established a dedicated team of employees who solely process FVEC claims. To date, over $77 million has been awarded to eligible Filipino veterans.
The Philippines is home to the only VA Regional Office located outside the United States or its territories. This is evidence of the strong commitment VA has to Filipino veterans and their dependents.
Two options are available to claimants who do not agree with a VA decision. The first option is to provide VA with evidence that may lead VA to change the decision. The notification letter will clearly identify any potential missing evidence the claimant should provide in order to substantiate their claim.
The second option is to file a notice of disagreement (NOD), in writing, explaining the reasons for disagreement. The time frame to file a notice of disagreement is one year from the date of the notification letter explaining the reasons and basis VA used to make their decision. VA encloses a VA Form 4107, "Your Rights to Appeal Our Decision," with FVEC notification letters to help explain appeal rights to claimants.
Once an appeal is received, the claimant will be provided hearing options to include a video hearing or a face-to face hearing at the nearest regional office.
Due to Privacy Act provisions the list of applicants and claimants are not subject to public disclosure.
As a reminder, applications must be submitted no later than February 16, 2010.
The man behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse investigation now helps keep Filipino war veterans and their families informed about the status of their claims.
Antonio Taguba was born in Sampaloc, Manila in 1950. His father, a Cagayan native, was a soldier who had fought the Battle of Bataan and survived the Bataan Death March during World War II. The family migrated to Hawaii when the boy was eleven.
That boy eventually joined the United States Army, which he served for 34 years. The high point of his career came in 2004 when, as a general, he was stationed in Kuwait. The Army needed somebody of at least a two-star rank to probe the alleged abuse and torture suffered by detainees in the hands of the American personnel in the Abu Ghraib facility in Iraq. Taguba stepped up to the challenge.
The general and his team reviewed photographs taken and conducted interviews with the people in Abu Ghraib. They obtained written confessions from some of the suspects, statements provided by detainees themselves and some witnesses. What the team found was appalling. More popularly known as the Taguba Report, military inquiry article 15-6 concludes that “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees” and that these acts were “systemic” and intentionally perpetrated.
What were these acts? “Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees; Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing; Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time; Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear; Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped; Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck; Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee; Taking photographs of dead Iraqi detainees.” Among others.
The Taguba report created a stir long before “Guantanamo” and “waterboarding” became household names. By saying that the abusive acts were systemic, Taguba implied that these things had the authorization, or at least the tacit permission of the higher-ups in the military. Pentagon officials naturally were not thrilled with the report – especially since it had been leaked to the media. An article at The New Yorker written by Seymour Hersch and published on June 25, 2007 (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh) tells us about Taguba's encounter with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in May 2004, the day before the latter appeared in a Congressional hearing on the scandal.
“Here . . . comes . . . that famous General Taguba—of the Taguba report!” Rumsfeld declared, in a mocking voice. Speaking to the New Yorker, Taguba described his former boss: “He [Rumsfeld] was in denial.” Rumsfeld said he did not know about such conditions sooner but Taguba was incredulous: the pictures were there for Rumsfeld to see all along.
But the high point of Taguba's career was also the start of his downfall. In June 2004, Taguba was ordered back to the Pentagon headquarters, to work in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs (where he could be”watched closely,” he was told), when in fact he was up for rotation to Fort MacPherson in Georgia. It was then he realized his career was over. Still, he reported for work faithfully every day, serving “at the pleasure of the President.” And then in January 2006, the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army called him up and told him he would be retired by January 2007. No reason was given for his hastened retirement.
The new commander-in-chief, President Obama, has made promises about stopping the US' interrogation “techniques”. He has signed an executive order that would close the Guantanamo facility in Cuba next year even as questions remain on what to do with its present occupants.
This year, retired Gen. Taguba joined human rights organizations in asking Obama to create a commission to investigate abusive practices in US prisons – and have some people accountable for them. Taguba also wrote the preface to Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by the US by Physicians for Human Rights (http://brokenlives.info/?page_id=23).
**
Now that Taguba has retired, he has more time for other things. Presently he serves as chairman of the advisory committee on minority veterans at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Given his – and his father's – history, this cause is another close to his heart.
In my column of March 9 this year (A tribute to war heroes), I wrote about my interview with the administrator of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina, soon after the US economic stimulus plan – which included a $198-million provision for Filipinos who fought alongside Americans during World War II – was signed into law. Veterans who have since become US citizens are entitled to a lump sum payment of $15,000 while non-citizens can claim $9,000.
I have since received two e-mails from a reader, Maria Elizabeth Embry, based in Antioch, California who advocates Filipino veterans' welfare. Ms. Embry's latter e-mail to me was a forwarded message from Gen. Taguba himself, asking for help to disseminate information about the progress of veterans' claims per information from the veterans affairs department itself.
I reprint the rest of the forwarded message.
The Center for Minority Veterans (CMV) is now providing updates on the claims status of WWII Filipino Veterans. This data can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/ and will be updated periodically by the Minority Veterans Programs Coordinator (MVPC) which can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/page.cfm?pg=7. Furthermore, the CMV has also published a lists which identifies the local representative that can help Veterans. This lists is called Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The VBAs are available in major cities across America to help Veterans file their claims as well as help with other VA related matters. This lists can be found at http://www1.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/page.cfm?pg=13.
As of September 1, 2009, 31,876 claims have been received. The initial benchmark for the number of eligible applicants was estimated at 18,000 Filipino WWII Veterans. In addition to these claims, the Manila Regional Office (RO) has received more than 4,400 duplicate or incomplete applications.
As of September 1, 2009, 8,990 applications have been processed through the first four and a half months since processing began: 3,414 approved for non-United States citizens, 3,138 approved for Filipino Veterans with U.S. Citizenship, and 2,438 applications disapproved. There are 22,886 pending claims.
VA continues to conduct numerous successful outreach programs to inform veterans and their families about this benefit. This aggressive outreach will continue as FVEC claims may be submitted until February 16, 2010 .VA is unable to predict the volume of additional claims and is unable to predict a future processing completion date. The Manila RO has established a dedicated team of employees who solely process FVEC claims. To date, over $77 million has been awarded to eligible Filipino veterans.
The Philippines is home to the only VA Regional Office located outside the United States or its territories. This is evidence of the strong commitment VA has to Filipino veterans and their dependents.
Two options are available to claimants who do not agree with a VA decision. The first option is to provide VA with evidence that may lead VA to change the decision. The notification letter will clearly identify any potential missing evidence the claimant should provide in order to substantiate their claim.
The second option is to file a notice of disagreement (NOD), in writing, explaining the reasons for disagreement. The time frame to file a notice of disagreement is one year from the date of the notification letter explaining the reasons and basis VA used to make their decision. VA encloses a VA Form 4107, "Your Rights to Appeal Our Decision," with FVEC notification letters to help explain appeal rights to claimants.
Once an appeal is received, the claimant will be provided hearing options to include a video hearing or a face-to face hearing at the nearest regional office.
Due to Privacy Act provisions the list of applicants and claimants are not subject to public disclosure.
As a reminder, applications must be submitted no later than February 16, 2010.
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