Report from Inside Syria

It seems that the US-paid Islamic terrorists which are labelled as the “moderate” opposition did their best to make Christmas 2014 memorable for the Christians in Syria and with the help of their Turkish friends again launched an attack on the Assyrian town of Kassab in Latakia near the Turkish border.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Liberators of the Levant Movement (Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham) attempted to infiltrate into Kassab from the Turkish border; however, they were repelled by the Syrian army as soon as they approached Eagle Mountain (Jabal al-Nissr).

The assault by Jabhat al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham was meant to be a surprise attack geared at retaking the areas lost last winter to the Syrian army and the NDF (National Defense Forces) in Kassab. The members of the army and NDF were well-prepared this time around, with multiple garrisons and fortified dugouts used to combat any militants attempting to infiltrate from the Turkish border.

Militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham fired a barrage of rockets at the army and NDF positions, but they were ineffective due to the strong fortifications and retaliatory bombardments from the Syrian forces. The air force targeted multiple convoys and pinned militants near Jabal Al-Nissr.

According to a military source, at least 30 fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham were killed during this infiltration attempt. 6 Syrian defenders were also killed.

After their failed attempt to breach the frontline defenses, Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar Al-Sham withdrew from the outskirts of Kassab in order to avoid the persistent bombing raids from the Syrian air force. There are still firefights reported from the Turkish border, but the majority of fighting in the Latakia Governorate takes place in the village of Doreen.

The following report about Christmas in Latakia appeared on the blog MY CATBIRD SEAT and was received from correspondent Lilly Martin Sahiounie by email. Lilly grew up in Fresno, California, but has lived in Latakia for twenty years with her Syrian husband and children, now young adults.

Hello all!

For the last week we heard that the FSA and other Radical Islamic terrorists in Turkey were meeting and actively planning another attack on Kassab. Kassab has suffered missile and mortar attacks, but no deaths in the recent past.

Several days ago, on or about Christmas eve (24th) the terrorists began a push to attack and occupy Kassab again. The Syrian Arab Army was able to push them back to Turkey. However, the terrorists are not stopping. They seem to believe they can take Kassab, and then march into Latakia. Latakia is their true target.

The residents of Kassab, (there are not many of them left), were told to gather valuables and paperwork and prepare for evacuation. They did so, waiting for the HORN to blast announcing the evacuation to begin, but they waited up all night, and they were not called upon to evacuate.

I phoned my friend living there last night at 7 PM. She said they were packed up and ready to go, but would not leave until told to. They were hoping that the Army would hold the line and they could stay in their homes.

Last night, after speaking with her, there was a huge rain storm and temperatures dropped to freezing. I felt that was good, as the temperatures in Kassab would be enough for snow, and perhaps the terrorists would back off and wait for better weather.

Last night many tanks and soldiers left Latakia for Kassab to prepare to prevent the occupation of Kassab. At this point I do not yet know how the battle went over the night. But, a tank did just drive by my house here in Latakia, to take up a position of defense, which may mean something. We have never had tanks inside Latakia city streets, until now.

We have only seen tanks being transported through Latakia on their way to other places.

There is a mountain called “#45” which lies between Latakia and Kassab. That is a high elevation, from which you can see the sea and Latakia, since the city is low at sea level. This Mt. 45 was made famous during the period when Gamal Abdul Nasser was President of Egypt, and he visited Syria, and stopped his car there and got out, looking at the scene and panorama and stated, “This is Paradise”.

For some reason, the terrorists are hell bent on capturing that hill. In the previous 3 month occupation of Kassab they also tried to capture that hill. I think they may envision setting up long range missiles there, and shoot at Latakia, or other targets. In other words, they would be so high up, they could take a visual target on anything, it would be clear.

As far as I can tell the terrorists are not IS (Islamic State), but they are FSA and their Jihadist associates. Perhaps this is a last ditch effort for FSA to hang on to their USA paychecks? Proving they can get something done?
As soon as I know more, I will pass it on.

About the media, as recent as yesterday, BBC Lyce Doucet reported on Syria: “The Children of Syria”. Pay attention to the Syrian child who lives in the refugee camp in Gazientep Turkey. He and his family repeatedly say they are on Jihad, and speak about killing Alowi, for no reason except sectarian differences. I was amazed that given the chance, the FSA family would not speak about freedom, democracy, or the need to remove a dictator. Instead, they showed themselves to be only sectarian, without any need for freedom and political change. They used the word Jihad repeatedly. Lyse Doucet, in typical BBC form, takes every opportunity to blame the Assad ‘regime’ for everything from A to Z.

The second important report from the media about Syria was by the German journalist Jugen Todenhofer: 10 days in Syria and Iraq with IS (Islamic State). He gave an interview in English with France24. I thought the TV presenter might faint when he said that the people in Raqqa support President Assad. (as opposed to IS). He also said that the weapons that IS uses are all from US and European sources, and were bought from the FSA. I hope that Obama and the US Congress are listening!

The US tax payer should be listening to where their tax dollars are going: directly into the hands of IS, so they can rape, maim, enslave, and kill innocent civilians.

A testimony to be considered

The following text is the English translation of the interview which a secret witness gave to journalists of Komsomolskaya Pravda. This is one more variant of the narrative that Ukraine shot down Malaysian Boing flight MH17, competing with Western claims that pro-Russian separatists shot it down with a BUK missile.

The story is partly incompatible with another version that is based on the use of a fighter jets machine gun and evidence of 30mm bullet holes in the fuselage and bullet fragments found in the bodies of the pilots.

The crucial point of the story is the alleged shot down of two Ukrainian fighter jets. The SU-25 with the air-to-air missiles could have accompanied these two airplanes just in case a Russian fighter jet would come across and when the planes crashed Captain Vladislav Voloshin maybe panicked and aimed at the Boing without checking if this was indeed a military aircraft.

The Ukrainian air force reported the loss of a Sukhoi SU-25M1 on July 16 in the Ukrainian-Russian border region and the loss of a Sukhoi SU-25M1 on July 23 in Shakhtarks. If witnesses would come forward to confirm that these crashes occurred on July 17 it would be a very strong proof of this story.

The SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) has acknowledged that pilot Vladislav Voloshin is serving in Ukraine’s Armed Forces at Aviatorske airport near Dnipropetrosk. Three days after the tragedy, the pilot received the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Third Class, for courage and heroism, from Ukrainian President Pedro Poroshenko.

Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee into MH17 told at a press briefing: “The facts were reported by the witness clearly and with no inconsistencies. The investigators lean towards considering them truthful. A polygraph examination confirmed them too.” He urged Dutch and Malaysian experts to interview pilot Voloshin using a polygraph.

The anonymous witness is likely to be taken into protective custody in Russia because his life may be threatened.

On December 19 Vasily Vovk, Head of the SBU’s Central Investigation Department told at a briefing in Kiev that an air-to-air missile could not be ruled out.

The video of the interview in Russian is at
http://www.kp.ru/daily/26323.5/3204312/

Translation:

This man came to the editorial office of “Komsomolskaya Pravda” by himself. We checked his papers — he is not an actor and not a fake person. We cannot yet reveal his personal information — he still has relatives in Ukraine and is afraid of revenge and blackmail. Judging by what Alexander (let’s name him that) told us, the fear is substantiated. We provide a transcript of our conversation virtually uncut:

- Where were you on July 17, 2014, the day Malaysian Boeing was shot down?

– I was on the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, the village Aviatorskoye. It is a regular airport. There at this time were based fighter jets and helicopters. Planes regularly flew on bombing missions, Su-25 attack aircraft bombed Donetsk, Lugansk. This lasted a long time.

- The aircrafts flew every day?

– Daily.

- Why did you assume that these airplanes could be related to the downing of the “Boeing”?

– A few reasons. Out of the eight airplanes, which were based there, only two had “air-to-air” missiles. They were suspended.

- Why? Were there any aircraft battles in the air?

– No, the aircraft was fitted with missiles to cover themselves in the air. Just in case. Mostly they had air-to-ground ammunition. NURS, bombs.

-Tell us about July 17.

– Airplanes flew regularly. All day since the morning. In the afternoon, about an hour before the downing of the “Boeing”, three attack fighters were raised into the air. I don’t remember the exact time. One of the airplanes was equipped with such missiles. It was a Su-25.

- Have you personally seen it?

– Yes.

- Where was your vantage point?

– On site. Cannot tell you exactly.

- Did you have an opportunity to see specifically what the pylons of the aircraft where fitted with? Could you confuse “air-to-air” and “air-to-ground” missiles?

– No, I couldn’t confuse it. They vary in size, plumage, coloration. With a guidance head. Very easy to recognize. Anyway, after a short time, only one airplane returned, two were shot down. Somewhere in the East of Ukraine, I was told. The airplane that came back, was the one with those suspended missiles.

- It returned without the missiles?

– Without the missiles. That pilot was very scared.

- Do you know this pilot, have you seen him?

– Yes.

- Can you tell us his name?

– Last name Voloshin.

- Was he alone in the airplane?

– Yes. The airplane is designed for one person.

- Do you know his name?

– Vladislav, I think. Don’t remember exactly. Captain.

- Captain Voloshin came back. What happened next?

– Came back with blank ammunition.

- No missiles left?

– Yes.

- Could you tell us, Alexander, the airplane came back from the mission, you still do not know about the loss of the “Boeing”, but you were somehow surprised by the absence of “air-to-air” missiles. Why?

– These “air-to-air” missiles are not included in the basic ammunition package.

They are used only with a special order. Typically, the aircraft with such rockets were not to allowed into the air. Because this missiles should not be frequently transported in the air.

In all two such missiles can fit on this plane. Never before they had been applied. They were written off previously. But literally on the eve, a week before this incident (the loss of “Boeing” – Ed.) the use of these missiles was urgently renewed. And they put again into service. They have not been used for many years.

- Why?

– They were expired. Made back in the Soviet years. But by the urgent order their expiration date was extended.

- And on this day they were put on the plane?

– They always stood with these missiles.

- But didn’t fly?

– Tried to let them in the air less frequently — every flight depletes the resource. But on this day, the plane flew.

- And came back without them?

– Yes. Knowing this pilot a little bit… (quite possibly, when the other two airplanes were shot down in front of him), he just had a frightened reaction, inadequate. Could out of fright or in revenge launch the missiles into a Boeing. Maybe he took it for some other combat aircraft.

- Are these missiles with self-guiding heads?

– Yes.

- When he launched them, they began to look for a target?

– No. The pilot himself finds the target. Then launches the missile, and it flies at the target.

- Could the pilot use these missiles against ground targets?

– It’s pointless.

- What else do you remember this day? What did the pilot say?

– He said a phrase, when he was lead out of the airplane: “It was not the right plane.” And in the evening there was a phrase to a question from one pilot to him, to Voloshin: “What’s up with the plane?” To which he replied: “The plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

- Did this pilot serve there for a long time? How old is he?

– Voloshin is about 30 years old. His base is in Nikolaev. They were transferred to Dnepropetrovsk. Before they were sent to Chuguev near Kharkov. And all this time they bombed Donetsk and Lugansk. And, according to one of the officers of the Nikolaev base, they still continue to do so.

- Did the pilots have good combat experience?

– Those who were there, had experience. Nikolaev base was even one year, in my opinion, 2013, the best base in Ukraine.

- Was the story about the “Boeing” discussed among the pilots?

– All attempts to discuss were immediately stopped. And the pilots mostly talked among themselves only, they are so… stuck-up…

 – After everyone learned about this “Boeing” what happened to this pilot, captain Voloshin?

– After all of this flights continued. And the pilots did not rotate. The same faces.

- Let’s try to recap the events. How could it develop? Three airplanes left on a combat mission. They were roughly in the same area, as Boeing. Two airplanes were shot down. This captain Voloshin was nervous, got scared, and possibly he mistook the Boeing for combat aircraft?

– Possible. The distance was long, he may have not seen specifically what kind of aircraft.

- What distance do these missiles need?

– At 3-5 kilometers they can find the target.

- And what is the speed difference between combat aircraft and the Boeing?

– No difference: the rockets have pretty good speed. Very fast rocket.

- Will catch up anyway? And height?

– It may easily at its maximum altitude – to 7 thousand meters – quite easily focus on the target.

- To reach it higher?

– Yes. The aircraft can simply lift the nose up, and can find the target with no problems and launch the rocket. The range of this missile is more than 10 kilometers.

- At what distance from the target does this rocket explodes? Does it hit the fuselage and explodes?

– Depending on the modification. Literally could when it hits the body or at a distance of 500 meters.

- We worked at the crash site and noticed that the fragments were trapped in the hull of the aircraft very closely. It seemed like it exploded literally two feet away from the Boeing.

– There is such a missile. The principle of fragments – it breaks, and the fragments hit. And then hits the main warhead of the rocket.

- Ukraine announced that on this day they had no combat flights. We checked different aggregate sources on the downed airplanes, Ukraine denied everywhere that its military aircraft flew on this day.

– I know about this. Ukraine also announced that two of these airplanes were shot down on the 16th, and not the 17th. And many times the date was changed. But actually, the flights were on a daily basis. I saw it myself. Even during the ceasefire there were flights, although, less frequent.

- What ammunition was on the aircraft at your airfield? Were phosphorus bombs used, incendiary devices? Ukrainian artillery used it very actively on the ground.

– I didn’t see phosphorus bombs. But space-detonating bombs were used.

- Are they prohibited?

– Yes. This bomb was intended for Afghanistan. It was prohibited and was not used until lately. It was prohibited by some Convention, I do not remember, can’t say. This bomb is inhumane, burns everything. Burns absolutely everything.

- They were attached and used during hostilities?

– Yes. And there were also banned cluster bombs. Aircraft cluster bomb – depending on size can hit a very ambitious target. One bomb covers a stadium. Entirely, the whole entire area – two hectares.

- Why did they use such weapons?

– They were following orders. And whose order is unclear.

- What’s the point of such weapons – scare tactic?

– Maximum annihilation of manpower.

- Why did you go to Russia, why decided to tell? Why, finally, no one learned this before? You’re not the only witness!

– Everyone is intimidated by the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine. – Ed.) and the National Guard. People can be beaten for every careless word, jailed on any insignificant suspicion of sympathies towards Russia or the militia. I was initially against this “anti-terrorist operation”. Did not agree with the policy of the Ukrainian state. The civil war is wrong. To kill your own people is not normal. And to take some part in it or not, but to be on the Ukrainian side and to be partially involved in this, I don’t want to in the first place!

Kobane – 100 days of Resistance

The Kurdish defenders of Kobane draw pride from holding out against an overwhelming force of IS (Islamic State) terrorists, which are blatantly supported by Turkey. On December 23 it were 100 days since the attack began.

Most of the eastern areas of the town have been destroyed, but the western side has been spared much of the intense fighting between the YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Unit) and IS.

There are still a fair number of civilians left in the city. In the streets of western Kobane children run around and play as if nothing unusual is happening. Many of the people who stayed have joined the YPG forces to help defend their town against IS.

As fearless and calm as the inhabitants of the town might look, Kobane is still a very dangerous place. On December 16 three civilians were killed by IS mortars which regularly fall in and around Kurdish-controlled areas. That morning, a father, his son, and their neighbor became victims of the senseless aggression. The father, Ahmed Abud, was an Arab man married to a Kurdish woman. After IS overran his village, he had sought refuge in Kobane. He is survived by his wife and a daughter who are still in the town.

“He was a very good man. We used to help each other in moments of need,” said Abu Yasin, another one of Abud’s neighbors. “He wanted to go back to his village once it was liberated.”

On the streets of Kobane there are craters everywhere, unexploded rocket shells and mortars are lying around. One particular type built by IS terrorists is called the Hell Mortar. It is made from a large gas capsule, used in this part of the world for cooking, soldered to a long pipe fitted with a multi-bladed tail.

The confrontation between Kurdish forces and IS has brought this once-unknown town in northeastern Syria worldwide attention. The feeling of pride is ubiquitous. Kurdish fighters and civilians alike boast how their small town has held fast against the terror organizations mighty military machine and brutal campaign for more than three months. Their fierce resistance is in stark contrast to many other areas in Iraq and Syria that fell to the militants in a matter of days without much resistance.

The sound of US fighter jets overhead is a constant feature of life in Kobane. On the night of December 14, US fighter jets carried out 12 rounds of strikes in response to an operation by IS to break through YPG lines on the eastern and southern fronts, the scene of the heaviest fighting in recent weeks.

In addition to YPG fighters, there are also a few units of the Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga and the FSA (Free Syrian Army) stationed in Kobane. The peshmerga are mostly deployed to the rear lines, acting as a support unit. When IS starts launching mortars or other types of attacks, the peshmerga can be heard firing their own mortars, canons and Doushkas, Russian-made heavy machine guns. One occasionally sees FSA fighters on the streets. Local officials claim that only one FSA group, the Northern Sun Battalion, is playing an active role in the fighting.

One particular location of interest in Kobane is the official crossing with Turkey, the Mursitpinar border gate. It was the site of heavy fighting between Kurdish forces and IS militants on November 29, starting at around 6 am, when a suicide bomber drove an armored military vehicle through the gate and detonated it. The large crater and the heavy destruction caused by the vehicle and some of its remnants are testimony to the magnitude of the incident.

Some senior YPG commanders were apparently sleeping in a nearby building that night, and their presence helped with a swift response to IS’ attempt to infiltrate Kobane from the north. After nearly 15 hours of clashes, Kurdish forces pushed the IS fighters back, preventing them from crossing into the town.

Kurdish officials in Kobane are still baffled by what happened and condemn Turkey for facilitating the passage of IS fighters through its side of the border. Video of the fighting and the scene at the border gate appear to strongly support Kurdish claims that the IS operation indeed originated from the Turkish-controlled side of the Mursitpinar gate. Turkish officials have denied that the terrorists used their territory for this attack.

“We knew Turkey was lenient with IS, but we could not believe they would go so far as allowing them to cross their territory to attack us,” said Ismat Sheikh Hassan, the defense minister of the local government in Kobane. “We do not know if this was done with the consent of the senior levels of Turkish government or just some local officials.” Hassan also said YPG forces subsequently occupied the grain silos and some buildings on the Turkish side of the border and only agreed to evacuate them after Turkish soldiers returned to their posts.

Kurdish fighters have been able to score gains against IS in recent weeks. US coalition airstrikes and the peshmerga’s deployment have played a role in boosting the YPG’s offensive and defensive capabilities. Morale appears to be high among the Kurdish fighters. They are optimistic that they will be able to reclaim the town, but taking the broader Kobane area of some 400 villages is a long way off and will be a difficult undertaking.

In addition to Syrian Kurdish fighters, there are also many Kurdish fighters from Turkey among the YPG’s ranks, along with foreign fighters from Iran and Algeria. Erdal, a 19-year-old Kurd from Turkey, who at the moment wears a bandage on his neck to protect a small shrapnel wound from a mortar, smiles as he speaks: “IS beheads people to scare their enemies. It’s psychological warfare. They want to make their enemies run away,” and he proudly states: “But they don’t scare us. We have proven they are not as strong as they claim. If we were afraid, we could not have stood here and fought them for so long.”

Crows are clever

Every now and then humans discover that their intellectual capabilities are not that outstanding in the animal kingdom and that other animate beings are able of reasoning too. It happened with elephants, wales, dolphins, our fellow great apes, and various other species.

Crows have long been heralded for their high intelligence — they can remember faces, use tools and communicate in sophisticated ways.

But a newly published study finds, that crows in addition to that have the brain power to solve higher-order, relational-matching tasks, and they can do so spontaneously. That means crows join humans, apes, and monkeys in exhibiting advanced relational thinking.

“What the crows have done is a phenomenal feat,” says Ed Wasserman, a psychology professor at the University of Iowa and corresponding author of the study. “That’s the marvel of the results. It’s been done before with apes and monkeys, but now we’re dealing with a bird; but not just any bird, a bird with a brain as special to birds as the brain of an ape is special to mammals.”

“Crows Spontaneously Exhibit Analogical Reasoning,” which was published December 18 in Current Biology, was written by Wasserman and Anna Smirnova, Zoya Zorina and Tanya Obozova, researchers with the Department of Biology at Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow, Russia, where the study was conducted.

Wasserman said the Russian researchers have studied bird species for decades and that a main theme of their work is cognition. He credits his counterparts with a thoughtful and well-planned study.

“This was a very artful experiment,” Wasserman says. “I was just bowled over by how innovative it was.”

The study involved two hooded crows that were at least two years old. First, the birds were trained and tested to identify items by color, shape and number of single samples.

Here is how it worked:

The birds were placed into a wire mesh cage into which a plastic tray containing three small cups was occasionally inserted. The sample cup in the middle was covered with a small card on which a color, a shape, or two items was pictured. The other two cups were also covered with cards — one that matched the sample and one that did not. During this initial training period, the cup with the matching card contained two mealworms; the crows were rewarded with these food items when they chose the matching card, but they received no food when they chose the other card.

Once the crows had been trained on identity matching, the researchers moved to the second phase of the experiment. This time, the birds were assessed with relational matching pairs of items.

These relational matching trials were arranged in such a way that neither test card precisely matched the sample card, thereby eliminating control by physical identity. For example, the crows would had to choose two same-sized circles rather than two different-sized circles when the sample card displayed two same-sized squares.

What surprised the researchers was not only that the crows could correctly perform the relational matches, but that they did so spontaneously — without explicit training.

“That is the crux of the discovery,” Wasserman says. “Honestly, if it was only by brute force that the crows showed this learning, then it would have been an impressive result. But this feat was spontaneous.”

Still the researchers acknowledge that the crows’ relational matching behavior did not come without some background knowledge.

“Indeed, we believe that their earlier IMTS (identity matching-to-sample) training is likely to have enabled them to grasp a broadly applicable concept of sameness that could apply to novel two-item samples and test stimuli involving only relational sameness,” the researchers wrote. “Just how that remarkable transfer is accomplished represents an intriguing matter for future study.”

Anthony Wright, neurobiology and anatomy professor at the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, says the discovery ranks on par with demonstrations of tool use by some birds, including crows.

“Analogical reasoning, matching relations to relations, has been considered to be among the more so-called ‘higher order’ abstract reasoning processes,” he says. “For decades such reasoning has been thought to be limited to humans and some great apes. The apparent spontaneity of this finding makes it all the more remarkable.”

Joel Fagot, director of research at the University of Aix-Marseille in France, agrees the results shatter the notion that “sophisticated forms of cognition can only be found in our ‘smart’ human species. Accumulated evidence suggests that animals can do more than expected.”

Wasserman concedes there will be skeptics and he hopes that the experiment will be repeated with more crows as well as other species. He suspects that future research will have more such surprises in store and that our relation to animals will have to be redefined.

“We have always sold animals short,” he says. “That human arrogance still permeates contemporary cognitive science.”

Love, Peace, and Happiness

Most people will feel positive about the emotions, mental states, moods of love, peace, and happiness and a text about ways to promote these emotions or states both individually and socially should be an easy task.

And yet, because these three words mean different things to different people, a discourse about them can be easily misunderstood. Many people will associate the terms with the counterculture of the 1960s or the New Age spirituality of the 1970s. Skeptics and down to earth persons will be repulsed by the headline, anticipating metaphysical drivel. Readers who are inclined to spirituality will start reading anticipative, only to be bitterly disappointed because of the sober and dry argumentation. 

As emotions cannot only be explained by dry scientific data, but also by poetry, quotes, music and song lyrics, pictures, stories, some of these are included to give an intuitive understanding of the theme even if one doesn’t like to follow the scientific argumentation.

“Love, Peace and Happiness” was a double album by The Chambers Brothers from 1969. This is unexceptional, standard Soul music, but it is not bad and the album includes classics like the Traditional “Wade in the Water,” Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” and Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” The lyrics of the title song are bearable:

All our love, peace, and happiness
We’re gonna give to you
All our love, peace, and happiness
You can share yours too

It’s a small step for man
But it’s a giant leap
For all mankind

I got love, I got peace
I got happiness and
You can have it too

Together, we stand
Divided, we fall
Love, peace, and happiness
Is the best part of all

The song lyrics of Peace, Love, and Happiness from Superhero Brother are a bit more rich in content:

Why let this world just wait on your shoulders?
Pick it up, push it off, before you let yourself get colder
Just look into the eyes, the good eyes of a child
And see that love rise like a river and float for a thousand miles

Breathing deep, feel your heart beat
Just to know that life’s worth living
Feel your feet on the earth
You better love it while it’s still here spinning

I got no time to worry
About troubles or misgivings
You’ve let it flow, let yourself go
‘Cause if you’re hating then you sure ain’t living

I go and eat this daily bread
But so many people starving
How come the presidents just build more bombs
When nations start dissolving?

With all that money spent on guns
Instead of food and education
Need to buy a little peace and love instead
Start the healing of the nation

What is love?

love is the mystery of water and a star
Pablo Neruda

From a scientific point of view, love is a state of mind as well as the resulting condition of the endocrine and autonomous nervous systems. It is nearly impossible to describe the complex interaction of the various brain areas, especially the interaction of the limbic system (olfactory bulbs, hippocampus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, etc.) with the conscious mind, represented by the working memory (central executive) and more or less the whole cerebral cortex. A short lexicological study may help to get an idea of what is going on.

Synonyms of Love:

adoration, affection, appreciation, attachment, devotion, fondness, passion, generosity.

Antonyms:

hatred, dislike, animosity, acrimony, antipathy, enmity, malice, rancor.

The relation between people can include:

1. Sexual attraction.
2. Economic necessity
3. Social necessity
4. Empathy, compassion

Sexual Attraction

It includes affection, longing, desire, lust, and is depending on the looks, the smell, the feeling of the body warmth, the feeling of skin and hair.

Sexual urges are basic hormonal (testosterone, estrogen) functions of human reproduction. Sexual arousal is a function of the sympathetic nervous system, but the orgasm and its aftermath involves the parasympathetic nervous system too.

Economic necessity

People will join groups and communities to support each other and pursue common goals. Women who face economic hardship and uncertainty will try to find an affluent partner who can support them. Couples will found a family to jointly build their future.

The evolutionary angle: Sharing communities had an advantage in early history and allowed humans to survive in a hostile world. Natural selection (including not only the genetic evolution process but also the social-cultural evolution process) has imprinted an inclination to cooperation and sharing in humans, though the necessity to share and cooperate diminished as parts of societies became affluent and resources plentiful (this is the reason why there are more one person households in the affluent societies of the West).

Social necessity

Most humans need social contact and they suffer from loneliness. This is a genetic predisposition and a social/cultural predisposition (established by our upbringing and education). Contact with other humans and intellectual exchange are necessary to develop our brains.

The social component includes gratitude, which is a social function necessary for maintaining the social contract. Gratitude is mainly learned and to a lesser extent genetically programmed. Synonyms are appreciation, thankfulness, grace, respect.

The brain plasticity makes it possible to reprogram and dedicate wide areas of the cerebral cortex to a close partner. These areas communicate with similar areas of the partner via language, mimic, gestures, and any other kinds of expressions. The close linking and synchronization of the two minds creates a network which has access to two sets of intellectual resources and greatly enhanced capabilities beyond the simple addition of the two intellects.

When one of the partners dies, the dedicated ares of the survivor are suddenly useless and immobilized, quit similar to what is happening in a stroke. This is the essence of loss. It needs a long time to reprogram such areas again. Loss rehabilitation is like stroke rehabilitation.

Empathy, compassion

The mirror neurons in the premotor cortex enable us to imagine the pain and suffering of fellow humans. Empathy is a derivate of imitation and therefore it is felt more intense for humans which are similar to us (because they are more easy to imitate). Empathy for people of the same ethnic group, the same nationality, the same race is higher.

Synonyms of empathy are compassion, sympathy, pity, mercy, affinity, appreciation, understanding.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
I love you simply, without problems or pride
I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving
but this in which there is no I or you
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand
so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close
Pablo Neruda,

Anthropologist Helen Fisher defines three sequential phases of erotic love: Lust, appearance, and attachment.

1. Lust is driven by the sex hormones testosterone and estrogen, both of which occur in men & women and enhance a person’s libido & carnal yearnings. These lead to a heightened sense of basic sexual drivers such as appearance and pheromones.

2. Appearance is a factor, though no one wants to admit to be superficial. Evolutionary psychologist Devendra Singh discovered that, on average, men tend to prefer women with a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7. Psychologist Robert Kurzban added BMI (body mass index) and facial symmetry as factors in attractiveness. Men typically look for features that hint at fertility, health, and youthfulness. Women typically look for features that hint at virility, strength, health, and ability to provide (meaning social status indicators like salary and education).

Smell and pheromones have a big impact. Women have a more sensitive nose that men and are drawn to the smell of men whose immune system is different from their own. The more different the immune system, the wider the range of immunities their offspring would have (disassortative sexual selection). Women are also drawn to men whose smell is similar to their father.

All of this happens unconsciously, within systems as primal as thirst and hunger. But one can see the evolutionary foundations — we’re seeking out a mate that is capable of producing healthy offspring.

3. Attachment is driven by oxytocin and vasopressin. Whether we like it or not, our bodies physically deemphasize lust and attraction sooner or later. That’s where these two hormones come into play; they foster long-standing relationships and bonds that keep couples together as they have children and form families.

Brain plasticity makes it possible to reprogram the brain. Hebb’s principle (neurons which fire together, wire together), means, that one can learn to consciously control the neurons, which produce the for “love, peace, and happiness” relevant neurotransmitters and emit them in the synaptic cleft. The decision to do so and doggedly determination are the only thing needed.

Breathing exercises, various meditation methods and other mind-body intervention, music and other arts can help. Nerves which control motor functions are two-way, which means slow breathing, slow motion movements, slow and mindful eating will calm down a person.

The most effective training program for love though is the determination of a couple (or a group of people) to stay together, beat the odds, muddle through, and let their love grow.

What is peace?

poetry is an act of peace
peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread
Pablo Neruda

Counter culture and new age spirituality have written peace on their banner, but pop artists, advertisers, politicians, and anybody else who wants to sell something have used it in abundance too. The term peace has been trivialized, devoid of any meaning, misused, and turned on its head.

The German Peace Offensive (Friedensturm) of July 15, 1918 is one example. Peace is protected and if necessary forcefully defended by tanks, cannons, fighter jets, bombs, missiles. The UN peacekeeping force MINUSTAH takes care that Jean-Bertrand Aristide is not elected again and US puppets can turn Haiti into a sweatshop paradise for global corporations. UNMIK peacekeepers in Kosovo aid NATO to keep the notorious criminal Hashim Thaci in power.

US peace activists like Daniel Berrigan, the late Philip Berrigan, Megan Rice, Michael Walli, Greg Boertje-Obed, Mary Anne Grady-Flores, Bonnie Urfer, and others were sentenced to long prison terms. That these activists are still allowed to be called “peace activists,” instead of compulsory labelled as terrorists or communists or whatever else derogatory terms are available, shows that peace is not something US society is holding in high esteem.

US society is not peaceful, a fact proven beyond doubt by 310 million privately owned firearms, frequent mass shootings, 640 billion US$ (nominal) military spending, and 7,315 nuclear warheads.

According to a opinion poll in 2013, only 25 percent of US-Americans support a handgun ban, a record low.

The motto Love, Peace, and Happiness has been commercialized of course, an issue which needs not to be discussed here. A few examples for the interested reader: 

http://innerpeacemovement.org/
http://propertyintangible.com/2008/06/no-peace-in-inner-peace-movement.html
http://peacelovehappinessfoundation.org/

The motto “Love, Peace, and Happiness” has also been used for proselytizing by sects, cults, religions. We are told, that Islam is a religion of peace, and accordingly jihadists fight to spread peace around the world.

As written before, the term peace has been trivialized, misused, abused, perverted. Has peace lost its innocence? Is it tainted or damaged beyond repair? Can the word peace ever be used again in a meaningful way?

Synonyms of Peace:

harmony, serenity, calm, composure, tranquility, placidity.

The words amity, concord, friendship, unity are used to characterize the peaceful relation between people.

The words truce, armistice, cessation are used when a conflict ends either by exhaustion or by a sudden outbreak of sanity.

Antonyms

hate, anger, aggression, discord, fighting, violence, war.

Looking through the words it becomes clear, that there is nothing which could replace the term peace. We are stuck with it and just have to ignore the ongoing profanation and desecration by demagogues, propagandists, religious fanatics, and other evil actors.

Definition by exclusion

Antonyms are a useful method to define a word. Peace is clearly the absence of hate, discord, fighting, violence, and war. It is also the absence of evil, immorality, cruelty, brutality, barbarism, ferocity, ruthlessness, sadism, viciousness. The antonyms of love can be added to this list and they fit perfectly, which implies, that without love, peace is not possible.

There is a useful Wikiversity page which contains the following proposals:

Connect Help and Self-Help

The main solution to the world hunger problem is the principle of self-sufficiency. Every farmer should have the right to own his piece of land from which he can live with his family. The landless farmers have to get fertile land by the governments.

The landlords must give portions of their land to the poor. Without land reforms, the world hunger problem cannot be solved. New agricultural land should be created, which can happen by the forestation of desert areas. Deforestation must  stop. Instead establishing monocultures (oil palm, biofuel) for export, each country should provide sufficient land for the population. Small farmers in developing countries must be helped by agricultural experts to start effective organic farming, with cooperative structures, and fair global trade.

Promote common sense in the world

Without a return to the values of frugality, inner happiness, universal love, and mutual aid the world cannot be saved. If egoism dominates, happiness in the world has no chance. We need a world family, which consists of many small families, and where everyone helps everyone.

Build islands of happiness

The village communities should become places of happiness, so that rural migration ends. If people have arrived in the city slums, it is very difficult to get them back. In the slums we have to built up positive structures in a different way. But everywhere a new culture of civic spirit is necessary.

Work for the cooperation of all positive people

We need global change. This can happen only through a global alliance of all positive forces in politics, science, culture, and society. This can happen only  by the intensive efforts of many individuals, each in her/his place and within her/his means.

At the moment selfishness dominates the world and the sense of community is small. But things can change. We only have one earth. If we destroyed our earth, we will all perish together. We are a world family. A good family will help the most vulnerable members and does not let them starve. In a good family everyone helps everyone. All work for the happiness of the whole family an in that way all become happy.

http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Happiness/A_World_of_Peace,_Love_and_Happiness

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to earth
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops
I compose happy verses
about life’s decay, decay and beauty.
I come back. The fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear
Anna Akhmatova

What is happiness?

There is “happy music,” “happy shopping,” “happy hours” (a marketing term for a period of time in which a public venue, such as a restaurant, bar, bowling alley, stadium, or state/county fair, offers discounts). The retailers report happy returns, people spend happy holidays, McDonalds sells Happy Meals.

Happiness is a popular theme in romantic novels, self-help books, and columns from agony aunts.

Happiness is a smiley-face emoticon and it is a popular theme on social networks, but the discussions concerning it are superficial or completely beside the point. People often have widely differing views about the nature of happiness and about possible ways to achieve it.

Happiness is something that everybody would like to experience, and yet many people are unhappy at one point in their life, most of their life, or even all of their life. There are areas of environmental or economic deprivation, disaster zones, war zones, where most people or all people are deeply unhappy.

Why is happiness so difficult to achieve? What is the true nature and the essence of happiness? Beyond the use as cliché, adage, buzzword, and platitude, happiness is usually regarded as a state of mind and a feeling, but that doesn’t help much to explain it. Maybe semantics and a correlation with related words can help:

Definition by meaning (semantics)

Happiness is a pleasant and contented mental state.

Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.

Happiness means flourishing, prospering, living a good life.

Related feelings and states of mind: love, peace, hope, pleasure.

Definition by synonyms

well-being, felicity, eudaimonia, joy, content, delight, gladness, cheerfulness, beatitude, satisfaction, fulfillment, glee.

Agitated and temporary states of happiness are: bliss, exhilaration, elation, exuberance, euphoria, ecstasy.

Antonyms:

unhappiness, despair, misery, melancholy, gloom, depression, dissatisfaction, displeasure, sadness, sorrow, worry, woe, pain.

Definition by quote

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

Learn to let go. That is the key to happiness.
Buddha

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.
Dalai Lama

I believe compassion to be one of the few things we can practice that will bring immediate and long-term happiness to our lives.
Dalai Lama

The man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.
Euripides

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus

Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change.
Friedrich Schiller

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.
Herman Hesse

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Robert A. Heinlein

A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
Leo Tolstoy

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

Definition by philosophy

Happiness in the hedonistic tradition (Epicurus) means seeking pleasant and avoiding unpleasant experiences.

Happiness in the eudaimonic tradition (Stoics) means living life in a full and deeply satisfying way, living a life based on virtue and excellence. Zeno defined happiness as a “good flow of life”; Cleanthes suggested it was “living in agreement with nature,” and Chrysippus believed it was “living in accordance with experience of what happens by nature.”

Aristotelian ethics defines happiness similar, with the addition that external goods such as health, wealth, and beauty also contribute.

Happiness is a central theme of Buddhist teachings, it is achieved by overcoming craving and longing in all forms. Buddhism encourages loving kindness and compassion, the pursue of happiness and welfare for all beings.

The four noble truth of Buddhism:

1. The truth of suffering (life is suffering)
2. The truth of the cause of suffering (the cause are aspirations, cravings, longings)
3. The truth of the end of suffering (ending cravings and longings)
4. The truth of the path that frees us from suffering (The Eightfold Path)

The first truth tells what the illness is, the second truth tells what causes the illness. The third truth tells a cure: Through diligent practice, one can put an end to craving, longing, aspiring. Ending the hamster-wheel chase after satisfaction leads to enlightenment. The forth truth tells the actual practice to achieve happiness by ending craving, longing, ambitions. This practice is called The Eightfold Path.

The Path is divided into three main sections: wisdom, ethical conduct, and mental discipline.

Wisdom includes Right View and Right Intention. Right View is not about believing in doctrine, but in perceiving the true nature of ourselves and the world around us. Right Intention refers to the energy and commitment one needs to be fully engaged in Buddhist practice.

Ethical conduct includes Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood. This demands to take care in our speech, our actions, and our daily lives to do no harm to others and to cultivate wholesomeness in ourselves.

Mental Discipline: Through Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration one develops the mental discipline to cut through delusions. Most schools of Buddhism encourage members to meditate for achieving clarity and focus of mind.

Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk and advisor of the Dalai Lama, has been called the “happiest person in the world” by popular media. He was a volunteer subject in a study performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on happiness, scoring significantly above the average of hundreds of volunteers. He also co-authored a study on the brains of long-term meditators, including himself.

His books The Monk and the Philosopher, The Quantum and the Lotus, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill were all best-sellers. In his audio courses he emphasizes that happiness can be trained like an art and just like any advanced skill it mainly needs endurance and time.

There are many free available courses and lectures on the internet and a computer savvy person will find easily all of his publications and courses in the hidden (Google banned) places.

http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2004/None/MatthieuRicard_2004-480p.mp4
http://www.diydharma.org/audio/by/artist/matthieu_ricard
http://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Vajrayana%20Institute%22%20AND%20subject%3A%22Matthieu%20Ricard%22

The courses and lectures are interesting and entertaining, especially when one likes English spoken with a French accent.

Definition by psychology

Psychologist Carol. D. Ryff defines happiness as a six-factor structure:

1. Autonomy
2. Environmental mastery
3. Personal growth
4. Positive relations with others
5. Purpose in life
6. Self-acceptance

http://www.liberalarts.wabash.edu/ryff-scales/

Psychologist Martin Seligman correlates happiness with:

1. pleasure (tasty food, warm baths, etc.)
2. engagement or flow (the absorption by an enjoyed yet challenging activity)
3. relationships (social ties)
4. meaning (a perceived quest or belonging to something bigger)
5. accomplishments (having realized tangible goals)

Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs and culminating in self-actualization and happiness.

Definition by neurology

The word happiness is a memory pattern in our cerebral cortex with various connections to other memory patters and receptive cell clusters in other locations of the brain. One connection leads to a memory pattern in the auditory cortex which is the coding of the sound bite happiness. Another connection leads to the visual cortex in the back of our head with various visual representations.

The probably strongest connection leads from the main memory pattern to the amygdalae deep inside the medial temporal lobes. The amygdalae are a part of the brain which organizes the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events. From here many specialized neuronal clusters, muscle contractions and relaxations, the parasympathetic / sympathetic nervous system, and via hypothalamus metabolic processes and activities of the autonomic nervous system are influenced.

From a neurological point of view emotions are controlled by the levels of neurotransmitters in certain brain areas, mainly the limbic system, which includes thalamus, hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, two hippocampi, two amygdalae, and a few other. The hypothalamus links to the endocrine system (hormones) via the pituitary gland, it also controls the autonomic nervous system (breathing, digestion, transpiration, sexual arousal, etc).

The autonomic nervous system consists of the enteric nervous system (digestion), the sympathetic nervous system (quick response mobilization, fight- or-flight), and the parasympathetic nervous system (dampening, relaxing).

There are many other brain areas involved, like for instance the basal ganglia, the orbitofrontal cortex, the insular cortex, and the prefrontal cortex (with the main parts of the working memory areas). The whole right hemisphere of the brain is thought to be involved to some extent in the processing of emotions.

Important neurotransmitters concerned with emotions are oxytocin, vasopressin, dopamine, serotonin, endorphin, testosterone, norepinephrine (adrenalin).

Oxytocin gives the feeling of trust and encourages teams to work together. Social trust feels good because social alliances promote survival. Oxytocin helps couples fall in love, makes mothers bond with their babies, and is most involved in social behaviors of women.

Serotonin is involved in confidence, self esteem, it inhibits aggression, appetite, sleep, mood, and sexuality. Serotonin levels drop when we are in love, but low levels of serotonin are associated with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), which means that love can easily become an obsession. Serotonin has an important role in patience during delayed reward, lack of serotonin causes impulsive behavior.

Dopamine triggers an intense rush of pleasure, increases energy, focused attention, and decreased need for sleep or food. It also stimulates the reward center of the brain,  boosting motivation but also causing addiction.

Vasopressin increases long time attachment.

Endorphin is involved in feeling of bliss, exhilaration, elation, exuberance, euphoria, ecstasy.

Definition by common sense

At a first glance it appears, that happiness and its related terms are depending on the satisfaction of biological and mental urges and desires (Maslow’s physiological needs), the achievement of goals, the fulfillment of wishes and hopes.

In case of good luck, success, achievement we will feel bliss, exhilaration, elation, exuberance, euphoria, ecstasy. Both sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are involved. These varieties of happiness are only temporary and depending on outside influences. They are limited by unfulfilled ambitions, wishes, goals, and unmet urges and desires.

Pleasure, another emotion related to happiness, is depending on objects, locations, occurrences. One can get tired of pleasures (music, delicious food, pastimes). Pleasure uses itself up, as we experience it.

give me, for my life, all lives
give me all the pain of everyone
I’m going to turn it into hope
give me all the joys, even the most secret
because otherwise
how will these things be known?
I have to tell them
give me the labors of everyday
for that’s what I sing
Pablo Neruda

Life is an up and down, life can be a series of blows punctuated by occasional good luck. For many people life means constant misery and suffering (the four noble truth of Buddhism).

Happiness determines the quality of every instance of our life and every sane person has a deep and profound desire of happiness. Wouldn’t it be preferable to feel happiness all the time of our life?

To be happy all the time, no matter what occurs is not a dream, a phantasy, an impossible aim, it can be achieved by systematic and disciplined mental training, by long term meditation practices leading to serenity, composure, inner strength, inner freedom.

This wider and more encompassing form of happiness or well-being means the general predisposition to the ups and downs of life. It is not just a mere pleasurable sensation, it is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment. It is a condition which underlies all other emotional states.

It includes: being calm and composed, feeling safe and warm, being proud, being honored, being delighted.

In this kind of happiness mainly the parasympathetic nervous system is involved and it helps us to rest and relax whenever the situation allows it.

The outside conditions still matter but as they are decoded and translated by the mind, the individual experience very much depends on our general disposition.

and that’s why I have to go back
to so many places
there to find myself
and constantly examine myself
with no witness but the moon
and then whistle with joy
ambling over rocks and clods of earth
with no task but to live
with no family but the road
Pablo Neruda

Meditation has been found to lead to high activity in the brain’s left prefrontal cortex, which in turn has been found to correlate with happiness.

Brain plasticity makes it possible to reprogram the brain. Hebb’s principle (neurons which fire together, wire together), means, that one can learn to consciously control the neurons, which produce the for happiness relevant neurotransmitters and emit them in the synaptic cleft. The decision to do so and doggedly determination are the only thing needed.

Breathing exercises, various meditation methods and other mind-body intervention, music and other arts can help. Nerves which control motor functions are two-way, which means slow breathing, slow motion movements, slow and mindful eating will calm down a person. A focus on the naval area (belly) will regulate digestion and give feedback to the brain via the vagus nerve.

Hebb’s principle means also that every time we feel anger, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, obsession, the inclination to these feelings becomes stronger. We have to consciously avoid these destructive emotions over a long time and instead practice love, peace, and happiness.

As already stated, peace of mind without love is not possible, and similarly happiness without peace and love is not possible. Love, peace, happiness, hope, kindness, patience, grace, forgiveness, serenity, they are all part of one positive mindset, they are one integrated view of life.

if we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving
and for once could do nothing
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death
perhaps the world can teach us
as when everything seems dead
but later proves to be alive
Pablo Neruda

P.S.:

Pablo Neruda was a pipe smoker and maybe it was good that I never met him in person and didn’t have to cope with the stink of his smoking pipe, but I’m grateful that he gave to the world his marvelous poetry, in which he revealed things that most other people wouldn’t be able to express neither with words nor with any other means of communication.

This text is a preliminary version and it has many weaknesses, deficiencies, and flaws. I will continue to work on it and one day in the future republish an improved version. Any kind of feedback (advice, comments, corrections, criticism, hints) is appreciated.

I wish all readers peaceful holidays, love, and happiness.