Category: Personal

I was listening to New Sounds tonight and heard a South Indian devotional song that was described as a “Nirguni bhajan.” I knew the second word, but was surprised by the first, because among Chassidic Jews, a niggun is a wordless tune, often sung by rebbes and thought to possess (or express, or unleash) great spiritual power. They are sung as acts of passionate devotion, like Sufi prayers. The Jewish Encyclopedia has a slightly different interpretation of the word, defining it as “a droning, formless intonation set to a text, and, more especially, the particular mellody-type or prayer-motive to which a service is traditionally rendered, e.g., the Sabbath Niggun.”

A Google search on the term Nirgun turns up a fascinating set of associations. The term itself seems to mean “formless,” “unmanifested,” and also to refer to a genre of devotional music — just as the niggun is a formless (or at least wordless) devotional song. The term seems to have importance in the Sikh religion, and the search turned up a number of links to Sikh “Nirguni saints.” For the Sikhs, the word also appears to refer to the Absolute that is God.

I don’t know what to make of all this, except to say that it seems once again that the religions of East and West have been talking to each other pretty intently since the 17th century or so, and chatted now and again before then, too.

But why can’t they take up a nice, normal hobby like pole sitting or extreme ironing? Would that be so bad? Heck, I’ll bet most of these decapitators can’t even hum the Macarena or the theme to Super Mario Bros. Considering the insane lengths to which me and my friends went to alleviate boredom during our suburban teenage years — when cable TV, record stores, movie theaters, video games, cadged alcohol and a stolen porno stashed under the overpass were not enough to prevent us from setting fire to our bedrooms now and again — I can see how the dearth of entertainment options might make an afternoon decapitation seem like a good idea. Heck, I know a guy who claims to have huffed freon on his family farm in Arkansas. And rural Arkansas, while boring, is like a trip to Vegas with the Pogues compared to fun-filled Basra or Jeddah.

Clearly, what the Middle East needs right now is board games, and lots of ’em: Parcheesi, Connect Four, friggin’ Candyland will do. Because think about it: even though Candyland sucks, would you rather play Candyland or cut off a guy’s head? Exactly. If only our leaders were brave and wise enough to ship over tons of Milton Bradley and fling it out of helicopters, we would be loved by all. They would greet us with flowers and call us liberators, and a glorious new day would dawn, in which Iraqis would cry out to the rising sun, “You sunk my battleship!”

Really, I think this might work. And anyway, it’s not like our government’s got a better plan.

Well, yes. Unfortunately, however, the Declaration is merely that — a declaration of principles — and as such is not considered binding international law, even if the U.S. did vote for it.

The United Nations Association in Canada has a helpful FAQ on the Declaration, which explains, among other things, that it doesn’t have the force of law.

Which, I guess, just means there’s lots more work to do. But then, you knew that.

The New York Times is right: Bush should apologize for lying to us.

But he won’t.

More soon.

If you’re feeling particularly perverse, you can even send an email to North Korea. Which raises important questions of etiquette: is it “Dear Dear Leader,” or just “Dear Leader”?

More and more, South Korea seems to be the best model in East Asia. Taiwan has followed a similar path from pro-development nationalist dictatorship to democracy; one hopes that China is in the process of following suit, and that North Korea — perhaps one day after the Dear Leader has gone to the great gymnastics festival in the sky — will one day follow suit as well. If Korea is to be unified successfully, the North will require extensive economic development and reeducation. Those processes will either happen gradually under North Korean rule or more suddenly under South Korean colonization should the North either invade the South or collapse. While the former choice runs the risk of strengthening the North Korean regime, the experiences of South Korea, Taiwan, and hopefully China will demonstrate that it is better to engage and develop under dictatorship than to preserve the North’s isolation and await its total collapse.