Paris Parfait

Shades of 1984

Our Homeland Security Secretary thinks our fingerprints are not "personal data."

Michael Chertoff was in Canada discussing the so-called “Server in the Sky” program to share fingerprint databases among the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Chertoff told Canadian reporters that fingerprints are "hardly personal data, because you leave it on glasses and silverware and articles all over the world, they’re like footprints. They’re not particularly private, " he said. Chertoff's claim contradicts Homeland Security's own definition of "personally identifiable information." In Privacy Impact Assessments used by the government, the department lists "biometric identifiers (e.g., fingerprints)."

Jennifer Stoddart, a Canadian official involved with privacy issues disagreed: “Fingerprints constitute extremely personal information for which there is clearly a high expectation of privacy.” There are compelling reasons to treat fingerprints as “extremely personal information,” Stoddart said. "The strongest reason is that fingerprints, if not used carefully, will become the biggest source of identity theft. Fingerprints shared in databases all over the world won’t stay secret for long and identity thieves will take advantage."

We are well aware of the Bush administration's reckless disregard for our civil liberties, including rights to privacy. Chertoff's claim about fingerprints not being personal is yet another example of the administration's lack of respect for individual rights.

Government scraps plan for "virtual fence"

Meanwhile, Chertoff's judgment was again called into question (remember Hurricane Katrina?), this time by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Two months after Chertoff announced his approval of a $20 million "virtual fence" on the Arizona-Mexico border, the government is scrapping the project. The GAO told Congress the plan "did not fully meet user needs and the project's design will not be used as the basis for future developments."

The fence would have consisted of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson. The glaring problem was the time lag between electronic detection of movement along the border and transmitting a camera image to agents patrolling the area, the GAO said. The project is to be replaced with towers equipped with communications systems, cameras and radar capability.

Travelers beware: Fourth Amendment again under threat

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that border agents can search laptops, cameras and mobile phones without cause. The ruling extends the government's power to look through personal belongings like luggage, briefcases and handbags. Further, the ruling allows agents to seize electronic devices and keep them for an indefinite period of time!

The unanimous three-judge decision reverses a lower court finding that digital devices were "an extension of our own memory" and too personal to allow the government to search them without cause. The previous ruling said US Customs agents would need "reasonable and articulable suspicion" a crime had occurred before searching a traveler's laptop.

On appeal, the government argued that was too high a standard, infringing upon its right "to keep the country safe and enforce laws." Civil rights and business traveler groups defended the lower court ruling, to no avail. In Arnold vs. USA, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the so-called border exception to the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on unreasonable searches applied not just to suitcases and papers, but also to electronics.

The court's ruling did not indicate whether a traveler must provide login information to help the government search his computer. The ruling also did not address the issue of encrypted data on the hard drive.

P.S. In the New York Daily News, Mike Lupica has a fascinating column about the Democratic presidential race.

I was going to write this, but then...

Last night I listened to the Democratic  presidential debate live via radio.  I was going to write about what a complete travesty it was, with stupid, inane questions pandering to the lowest common denominator of society - a penchant for gossip, mud-slinging and name-calling. Issues of substance such as torture, Iraq, China, Tibet and the economy largely were ignored. I was going to write that the moderators did a terrible job and ask what has happened to ABC News? No doubt the late Peter Jennings wouldn't have asked such lightweight questions - he would have focused on the substantive issues that affect us all.

I was going to write that it's hard to single out the most ridiculous question, as the majority were so idiotic. But the one asking Sen. Barack Obama if he respected the American flag was probably the dumbest and most inflammatory. Sen. Obama patiently responded and - unlike the moderators - kept trying to turn the subject back to real issues, saying Americans didn't want to waste time talking about manufactured ones.

I was going to write that people who think those who don't wrap themselves in the American flag, wear flag lapel pins - just in case you forget you're an American - and believe that wearing such a pin equates being patriotic -  deserve the government they get. And that those people probably should be reading books and blogs and newspapers and learning about the issues, rather than questioning someone else's patriotism.  Because wearing a flag pin has zip nada NOTHING to do with patriotism!

I was going to write that patriotism does not require wearing a silly cheap plastic flag pin bought from Wal-Mart and made in China. I don't care if you drape your front lawn in flags and wear a flag pin every waking moment, if you aren't doing something to establish a dialogue and change the downwards spiral in America, you're part of the problem.

Patriotism is questioning what's happening in our country. Patriotism is being a soldier trying to stay alive amidst terrible conditions in a war fought under false pretenses. Patriotism involves the families who struggle to pay bills while their husband or wife is in Iraq or returning soldiers who have serious injuries, yet must fight to get the proper medical care they need.  Patriotism is those who fight for the underdog and try to protect the Constitution and our civil liberties. Patriotism is shining attention on critical issues affecting us all, such as global warming and human rights. Patriotism is helping insure a better future for our children and their children, by keeping informed and involved with issues that impact our lives. Patriotism is thinking for ourselves. It is not accepting blindly what someone else tells us to do - that's fascism.

I was going to write, please spare us any further presidential debates if they are going to insult the viewers and listeners' intelligence. Why can't the media raise substantive issues that really matter, rather than lazily catering to fabricated nonsense? I was going to ask are we really such an entertainment-lite culture that we have forgotten how to think for ourselves and question our leaders and potential future president?

All this I was going to write... then I saw the Hafiz poem Out of the Mouths of a Thousand Birds, a simple, yet powerful reminder of what's important in the grand scheme of things:

Listen
Listen more carefully to what is around you
Right now.

...There is an astonishing vastness
of movement and Life

Emanating sound and light
from my folded hands

And my even quieter simple being and heart.

My dear
Is it true that your mind
is sometimes like a battering
Ram

Running all through the city,
Shouting so madly inside and out

About the ten thousand things
That do not matter?

...Oh listen
Listen more carefully
to what is inside of you right now.

In my world
All that remains is the wondrous call to
Dance and prayer

Rising up like a thousand suns
out of the mouth of a
Single bird.

Pensive oil and mixed media on panel by Randall LaGro. Photo courtesy of Blue Rain Gallery, Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Save the Internet hearing at Stanford

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have a rare opportunity on Thursday to speak out about the Internet and remind policymakers it should remain free. Please try to attend a public hearing about the future of the Internet tomorrow, April 17 at Stanford University.

At the last Federal Communications Commission hearing, Comcast hired people to fill the room and keep the public from commenting. The hearing Thursday is a second chance to stand up to Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications and cable companies that want to block, filter and discriminate against Internet users.

The hearing begins at 12 noon and continues until 7 p.m. at Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford, 471 Lagunita Drive, Palo Alto. For maps, travel and parking information, go here.

If you are unable to attend the hearing, check out the webcast on the FCC website.

Salvage and pirates

A prototype for a light wing aircraft is among the many salvage items on these barges. Currently, the vessels are floating next to peniches or houseboats along the River Seine.

Speaking of salvage, certain officials are determined to save France's reputation. Some government officials are outraged about the French entry's English lyrics in the upcoming Eurovision song contest. Quel horreur!

And the six Somali pirates who seized a French yacht and held the crew hostage for a week have arrived in Paris for police questioning.

The French parliament has banned websites and magazines that promote anorexia among teenage girls. The French blog, Be Perfect, Be Pro Ana, encourages teenage girls to refuse food, make themselves sick and take laxatives to emulate the body shape of their "thinspirations" such as Nicole Richie and Victoria Beckham.

Government figures suggest between 30,000 and 40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia. Most are female aged 12 -19. French advertisers, model agencies and fashion houses have agreed to sign a government charter to "refuse to publish images, especially of young people, which could promote an ideal of extreme thinness."

Obviously this problem is not limited to France.

Help save Windows XP

Microsoft is planning to stop sales of Windows XP on June 30, forcing users to convert to the Vista operating system. Infoworld is circulating a petition to save Windows XP here.

In May 2007, XP had 82.25 percent of the OS market. Vista had just 3.75 percent, according to Net Applications, which measures the market share of operating systems. As of March 2008, XP maintained 73.59 percent of the operating system market, while Vista had only 14.02 percent. Yet Microsoft intends to force the majority of its users to switch to an operating system that's still full of bugs, runs slower and requires more memory? This hardly seems fair. If you oppose the idea of switching from XP to Vista, consider signing the petition or writing Microsoft with your concerns.

Microsoft is facing a class-action lawsuit in federal court over misleading advertising claiming computers sold with XP are capable of running Vista. The suit alleges that labeling some PCs as “Windows Vista Capable” was misleading, as many of the computers were not powerful enough to run Vista’s features.

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If you're an American, fed up with stupid spin in the presidential campaign cycle, this is well worth your time.

Dumb and dumber

It seems Sir Elton John, a British citizen, can't legally contribute money to the Clinton campaign. Now both Clinton and McCain are breaking campaign finance laws!

And the Army Times slams John McCain for his confusion over Iraq.

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years

When I mentioned in a previous post that I was looking for a copy of a favourite book from childhood, readers came to the rescue. Nancy Sotham in Canada and Vida in Australia forwarded links to the same online bookseller, Abe Books.

I ordered a 1929 edition of Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Rachel Field's classic book was first published in 1929 by MacMillan. It is a library version, with an orange cover with black marks meant to resemble wood and a few torn pages repaired with now-yellowed tape. The lovely illustrations are by Dorothy P. Lathrop. I was thrilled to get it and re-read Hitty's adventures - including long ocean voyages and falling at the feet of Charles Dickens! Thank you, dear readers!

Civil liberties groups sue Homeland Security

The Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for denying access to public records regarding the questioning and searches of travelers at U.S. borders. Filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the suit responds to growing complaints by U.S. citizens and immigrants of excessive or repeated screenings by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.

Last year the Asian Law Caucus, a civil rights organisation based in San Francisco, received more than 20 complaints from Northern California residents who said they were grilled about their families, religious practices, volunteer activities, political beliefs, or associations when returning to the United States from traveling abroad. In addition, customs agents examined travelers' books, business cards collected from friends and colleagues, handwritten notes, personal photos, laptop computer files and cell phone directories and sometimes made copies of this information. When individuals complained, they were told, "This is the border and you have no rights."

"When the government searches your books, peers into your computer and demands to know your political views, it sends the message that free expression and privacy disappear at our nation's doorstep," said Shirin Sinnar, staff attorney at ALC. "The fact that so many people face these searches and questioning every time they return to the United States, not knowing why and unable to clear their names, violates basic notions of fairness and due process."

ALC and EFF asked Homeland Security to disclose its policies on questioning travelers on First Amendment-protected activities, photocopying individuals' personal papers and searching laptop computers and other electronic devices. The agency failed to meet the 20-day time limit that Congress set for responding to public information requests, prompting the lawsuit.

"The public has the right to know what the government's standards are for border searches," said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "Laptops, phones and other gadgets include vast amounts of personal information. When will agents read your email? When do they copy data, where is it stored and for how long? How will this information follow you throughout your life? The secrecy surrounding border search policies means that DHS has no accountability to America's travelers."

When Nabila Mango, an American citizen and San Francisco therapist, returned from a trip to the Middle East in December, customs agents at San Francisco International Airport asked her to name every person she had met and every place she had slept during her travels. They also searched her Arabic music books, business cards and cell phone, and may have photocopied some of her papers. "In my 40 years in this country, I have never felt as vulnerable as I did during that interrogation," Mango said. "I want to find out whether my government is keeping files on me and other Americans based on our associations and ideas."

Amir Khan, an IT consultant from Fremont, Calif. and a U.S. citizen, is stopped each time he returns to the country. Customs officials have questioned him for more than 20 hours and have searched his laptop computer, books, personal notebooks and cell phone. Despite filing several complaints, Khan has yet to receive an explanation of why he is repeatedly singled out. "One customs officer even told me that no matter what I do, nothing would improve," said Khan. "Why do I have to part with my civil liberties each time I return home?"

Poster from Micah Wright's Propaganda Remix Project.

News of note

Twilight by Randall LaGro, oil on wood panel. Photo courtesy of the Blue Rain Gallery, Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

In the news:

Sarkozy's bling-bling lifestyle annoys the French.

The Australian government finally says "sorry" to the Aborigines.

The Bush administration's "kangaroo court" draws international criticism.

Military and spy agencies share blame in producing false information for media.

Scientists trace fake anti-malaria drugs to southern China.

Bush redux

On Tuesday, John McCain told reporters in Richmond, Va. that "anyone who worries about how long we’re in Iraq does not understand the military and does not understand war.” Defying the opinions of military experts, McCain said it is “really almost insulting to one’s intelligence” to question “how long we’re in Iraq.” He said he believes the current “strategy” is “succeeding.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen and Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey, have voiced concern that “a protracted deployment of U.S. troops”in Iraq would not benefit the military. In October, Casey said it will take "three or four years and a substantial amount of resources to put” the Army “back in balance” and that the time frame depends on when “the conflict ends.” Mullen testified last July before the Senate Armed Services Committee that failing political and economic progress in Iraq, “no amount of troops and no amount of time will make much of a difference.” He said “a protracted deployment of U.S. troops to Iraq…risks further emboldening Iranian hegemonic ambitions.”

But McCain denounces questions about how long US troops will remain in Iraq as "naive." In McCain’s stated views, neither the Army Chief of Staff nor the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “understand the military” as well as he does. In a recent presidential debate, McCain claimed he is "the expert” on Iraq.

Let's see: Ignoring the military experts actually involved in the war and spinning his own reality. Sounds remarkably like George "I'm the decider" Bush.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration is pouring $2.35 million per week of our tax dollars into an Iraqi group of concerned citizens/former insurgents. Yet this money is accomplishing "nothing," the group leader says.

Obama takes the lead

I stayed up past 4 a.m. Paris time to watch the Potamac Primary results. I was thrilled to see Sen. Barack Obama's landslide victory. But before Obama supporters get too excited, don't forget: the real work lies ahead. Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania will be important challenges. So help rock the vote!

Other people's gardens

 

"You can give a fool a thousand intellects, but the only one he will want is yours." - Arabic proverb

 

"When we start planting the garden of our life, we glance to one side and notice our neighbour is there, spying. He himself is incapable of growing anything, but he likes to give advice on when to sow actions, when to fertilize thoughts and when to water achievements.

"If we listen to what this neighbour is saying, we will end up working for him and the garden of our life will be our neighbour's idea. We will end up forgetting about the earth we cultivated with so much sweat and fertilized with so many blessings. We will forget that each centimeter of earth has its mysteries that only the patient hand of the gardener can decipher. We will no longer pay attention to the sun, the rain and the seasons; we will concentrate instead only on that head peering at us over the hedge.

"The fool who loves giving advice on our garden never tends his own plants at all."

Flowers in Yorkshire, England. Excerpt from Paulo Coelho's book Like the Flowing River.

With friends like these...

It's not enough that American civil liberties are in jeopardy. Now Bush & Co. want to force a series of annoying and invasive measures on our allies in the European Union, making it more difficult for them to travel to the United States.

The increasingly-paranoid Bush administration is trying to force the European Union (EU) to implement new security measures for transatlantic travel, including allowing American armed guards on all US airline flights from Europe to America. EU states also would have to supply personal data on all air passengers flying over -but not landing in - the US, to gain or retain visa-free travel to America, EU officials told reporters. Even more outrageous, the Bush administration is asking European airlines to provide personal data on non-travelers - for example family members - who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help elderly, young or ill passengers to board aircraft flying to America. European airlines have rejected this demand as "absurd."

"Within months," US Homeland Security will force all potential travelers to apply online for permission to enter the country before booking or purchasing travel tickets. Such a procedure is expected to take several days.

The data is to be combined with extensive passenger details already being provided by EU countries to the US as part of the Passenger Name Record system, a controversial data exchange program supposedly aimed at combating terrorism. For the past few months, the EU has been supplying American authorities with 19 items of information on every traveller flying from the EU to the US!

Brussels has told Washington that its Draconian demands raise legal problems in Europe over data protection and guarantees about how the information is handled. The EU also is concerned about which US agencies have access to the information or with whom it might be shared, as well as issues of compensation if the data is misused. (What? The Bush administration misuse information? They have lots of practice with the personal info they've gained through illegally spying on Americans' email and telephone calls).

The Association of European Airlines (AEA), representing 31 major European airlines has told American authorities "no international legal foundation" exists for supplying them with data about passengers on flights flying over US territory. The AEA said the idea of vetting those who accompany travelers to the airport was "absurd," as the airlines neither obtain nor can obtain such information. The request was "fully unjustified," the AEA said.

Hmm, let's see. Any non-American - including our longtime friends and allies - planning a trip to the US will be treated with suspicion. They must provide extensive personal information before even purchasing a plane ticket. So is it any wonder business investment in America is declining and tourists are choosing to travel elsewhere?

Someone to believe in...

Spires of building in Oxford, England featuring carved angel figures.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a president we could believe in - someone we could trust to do the right thing, rather than focusing energies on looking after special interests and adding to the fortunes of already-wealthy friends?

Today, in presidential primaries or caucuses, voters in 24 states have an opportunity to help change America. Please get out and vote for the candidate that you believe can help restore faith in our government - a government as our founding fathers envisioned, by and for the people. Make your voices heard!

Meanwhile, this important piece of news escaped the mainstream media's radar. George W. Bush appointed a long line of failed nominees - Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, et al - who left their posts under clouds of suspicion and mistrust. But he hasn't bothered to appoint a single person to a board charged with overseeing our privacy rights. Read the sordid story at Wired.

Yes, we can!

 

"...In the unlikely story that is America, there's never been anything false about hope."

Roots of fear

Roots of time - Tree roots entwined with a 19th-century wrought-iron fence in Paris.

Former counter-terrorism head Richard Clarke wrote this op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer about George W. Bush's tactics designed to keep Americans in the grip of fear. Senators should consider his words before resuming debate Monday on a new surveillance bill:

"When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda.

This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed. Besides overstating successes in Afghanistan, painting a rosy future for Iraq, and touting unfinished domestic objectives, he again used his favorite tactic - fear - as a tool to scare Congress and the American people. On one issue in particular - FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) - the president misconstrued the truth and manipulated the facts.

Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire. If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.

Simply put, it was wrong for the president to suggest that warrants issued in compliance with FISA would suddenly evaporate with congressional inaction. Instead - even though Congress extended the Protect America Act by two weeks - he is using the existence of the sunset provision to cast his political opponents in a negative light.

"For this president, fear is an easier ...

tactic than compromise."

With FISA, he is attempting to rattle Congress into hastily expanding his own executive powers at the expense of civil liberties and constitutional protections.

I spent most of my career in government fighting to protect this country in order to defend these very rights. And I know every member of Congress - whether Democrat or Republican - holds public office in the same pursuit. That is why in 2001, I presented this president with a comprehensive analysis regarding the threat from al-Qaeda. It was obvious to me then - and remains a fateful reality now - that this enemy sought to attack our country. Then, the president ignored the warnings and played down the threats. Ironically, it is the fear from these extremely real threats that the president today uses as a wedge in a vast and partisan political game. This is - and has been - a very reckless way to pursue the very ominous dangers our country faces. And once again, during the current debate over FISA, he continues to place political objectives above the practical steps needed to defeat this threat.

In these still treacherous times, we can't afford to have a president who leads by manipulating emotions with fear, flaunting the law, or abusing the very inalienable rights endowed to us by the Constitution. Though 9/11 changed the prism through which we view surveillance and intelligence, it did not in any way change the effectiveness of FISA to allow us to track and monitor our enemies. FISA has and still works as the most valuable mechanism for monitoring our enemies.

In order to defeat the violent ... extremists who do not believe in human rights, we need not give up the civil liberties, constitutional rights and protections that generations of Americans fought to achieve. We do not need to create Big Brother. With the administration's attempts to erode FISA's legal standing as the exclusive means by which our government can conduct electronic surveillance of U.S. persons on U.S. soil, this is unfortunately the path the president is taking us down.

So it is no surprise that in one of Bush's last acts of relevance, he once again played the fear card. While he has failed in spreading democracy, stemming global terrorism, and leaving the country better off than when he took power, he did achieve one thing: successfully perpetuating fear for political gain. Sadly, it may be one of the only achievements of his presidency."

Richard A. Clarke is former head of counter-terrorism at the National Security Council and the author of Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror.

These roots are so intricately entwined with the fence, to separate them, either the tree or the fence would have to come down.

P.S. All these scare tactics/fear-mongering are enough to give anyone a headache. Visit here and toss your name into the hat for a prize at the One World One Heart giveaway. Help spread the love!

A red letter day

Here, have some cake. Perhaps some tea, or a glass of champagne? We're celebrating!

For me, it's a red letter day! Paris Parfait turns two: 1,105 posts and more to follow. Thank you - Merci - Gracias for your encouragement and support - and for always coming back for more!

"Cake Girl" art doll by Vanessa Valencia.

Warning about email theft and deception

This handcarved wooden boat and figurine - along with cases of vintage wine, an Alexander Calder hanging mobile and two robots - are among the diverse items for sale at an upcoming auction in our neighbourhood.

A Canadian drug company has broken into my rarely-used Yahoo.co.uk account and is sending bogus email purporting to be from "parisparfait@yahoo.co.uk." I rarely use the Yahoo account, other than a couple of times per month when checking for email from readers who never noticed my change of email address.

As of today I have closed this account; if you email me there, your message will be lost in cyberspace. But the Canadian company/sleazy spammer may have accessed my address book. If you receive email purporting to be from "parisparfait@yahoo.co.uk" please DO NOT OPEN IT: delete any such messages as spam. My email address associated with Paris Parfait is here. For future reference, the email address is linked on my sidebar.

Have you experienced similar incidents of your email account being hacked into or someone stealing your password and personal information?

Sarkozy's skewed logic

Just a few months ago, French president Nicolas Sarkozy was chastising France 24 - broadcasting in French, English and Arabic - for not being competitive enough with other 24-hour news services such as BBC and CNN. Apparently, he's had a change of heart.

In order to "give the world a French perspective," Sarkozy has decided to stop all international broadcasting by French television in any language other than French. Monty Python couldn't have made this up, my husband noted. Read more of the logic-defying decision here.

Telling our stories

The Light Dances at Night by Randall LaGro, oil on canvas, photo courtesy of the Blue Rain Gallery, Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico.

"If there is magic in story writing, and I am convinced that there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader."- John Steinbeck

Update 5:45 p.m.: Et voila! This afternoon I installed a new modem; so far it's working! All being well, normal programming will resume Tuesday. I'm looking forward to catching up with the writers' groups from which I've been missing in action, as well as with you and your blogs. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

As most of you know, I've been without internet access for nearly a week now. I've been reading and working on my book - telling a series of stories - when not having extremely frustrating conversations in French with the hopeless LAN access provider. I was touched by Scott Russell Sanders's Ten Reasons Why We'll Always Need A Good Story from the book A Writer's Book of Days:

"We delight in stories because they are a playground for language, an arena for exercising this extraordinary power. Stories create community. They link teller to listeners and listeners to one another. Stories help us to see through the eyes of other people. Through stories we reach across the rifts not only of gender and age, but also of race and creed, geography and class, even the rifts between species or between enemies.

"Stories show us the consequences of our actions. To act responsibly, we must be able to foresee where our actions might lead and stories train our sight. Stories educate our desires. Instead of playing on our selfishness and fear, stories give us images for that which is truly worth seeking, worth having, worth doing.

"Stories help us dwell in place. Stories of place help us recognize that we belong to the earth, blood and brain and bone and that we are kin to other creatures. Stories help us dwell in time. History is public; a tale of influences and events that have shaped the present; the mind's time is private, a flow of memory and anticipation that continues, in eddies and rapids, for as long as we are conscious. Narrative orients us in both kinds of time, public and private.

"Stories help us deal with suffering, loss and death. Stories reek with our obsession with mortality. Stories teach us how to be human. We are creatures of instinct, but not solely of instinct. More than any other animal, we must learn how to behave. Stories acknowledge the wonder and mystery of Creation. (They) give us hope of finding meaning within the great mystery."

I am hoping to be back soon, exchanging stories with you! Also, I will post a piece about George Bush's lamentable attempts at Middle East diplomacy. On a brighter note, our German friends Ralf and Jutta, who moved to Budapest are in town. We had a wonderful dinner Saturday evening - my first outing this year, other than to the doctor's office. Better days ahead...

Computer woes

Update Jan. 14: Alas, Noos France still has not resolved the issue of internet access. I have had numerous frustrating phone conversations with their technicians, to no avail. Today I'm at my husband's office using his computer (while he's out to lunch). I have written Noos a letter outlining the problems and taking them to task for their lack of cooperation. I am missing you all and hope my LAN access will be repaired soon!

You may have noticed the deafening silence from here the past couple of days. That's because my LAN service provider is experiencing problems and I have no internet access. At first I thought it was my computer, but have just had the technician round, who informed me otherwise. This being France, with bureaucracy galore, it could take a few days to get the problem resolved. I'll be back ASAP with lots to say, especially about George Bush's clueless attempts at diplomacy vis a vis the Israeli/Palestinian peace talks.

Watermarks and intellectual property

Penguins wearing tuxes and tails conduct an orchestra of baby penguins in a Paris holiday vitrine.

As some of you have noticed, this weekend I began placing a "watermark" on my photos. This was done reluctantly, in an effort to protect my photos from misuse. I first purchased the software in April, after a conversation with Di Mackey, a friend and professional photographer in Belgium. For months I resisted using software (Corel Paintshop Pro Photo XI) to layer "watermarks" over my photos, as I find their placement distracting.

In the past few months, I have discovered several instances of my photos being used without credit and for profit - someone else's. The last straw came when a friend published a lovely collage of holiday photos - including mine - she'd found on Flickr. As I had not posted any photos on Flickr, I investigated further. Turns out, someone else put my photos on Flickr, claiming them as their own. I now feel forced to use "watermarks" as discreetly as possible, so as not to distract from the photos. Another watermark is embedded electronically within the photos. Have you experienced similar cases of people using your work without permission? If so, how have you reacted?

Website posts Freedom of Information documents

Photo of suspended sculptures of lighted words at Centre Pompidou in Paris by Jordana Shalhoub.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation and a coalition of government watchdog groups have launched governmentdocs.org. The site consolidates United States government documents produced by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests from various organizations. The FOIA requires the federal government to disclose documents detailing its activities, when asked.

FOIA requests seek to hold the government accountable for abuse, corruption and unfulfilled promises to citizens. Governmentdocs.org allows visitors to search a database of documents uncovered by watchdog groups. Registered site users may comment on the documents.