de lynn in paradise

Had to try and send this quick list i wrote days ago while I have the chance as another storm is coming in, the streets are flooding and the power keeps going out but... of all things to stop and make you think...today I saw a man die and his last words were...'the snorkeling is great here' then back under the water he went...
He was large and elderly but was enjoying his Cruise and time with family through these tropical parts and just had a heart attack while under water snorkeling. The whole island and all of us in proximity and those that did CPR are all reeling but comforted by his last words and the good time he was having. But it has reminded us all of friends and family that are far away so I wanted to send my love and remind you all that you are missed, and you should take that vacation you have been thinking about NOW! Note to self= no defibrillators or oxygen on dive boats down here...or probably anywhere near by...
More on diving and life lessons later but here are some previous random thoughts...
?<# Don't be surprised if your barefoot Island Doctor looks like a mix between Jimmy Buffet and Weird Al and offers no apology for your 7hour wait but informs you of all the island gossip and inbreeding that he blames for all the mental illness on the island, tells you that Island woman are the downfall of every good man...all while puffing on a cigarette. I think he lost his shaker of salt. A question in the local pub on 'quiz night' is 'how many countries can the Island Dr. still practice in?' the answer was two, i fell off my chair laughing. I felt most like Harpo Marx while 'acting out' that I am an experienced horseback rider...can't you picture me playing 'charades' all around the stable riding an invisible pony? Telling someone you don't speak Spanish will not stop the 3 hours of explanations about all the trees, plants, fruits, animals, insects in sight, so act appreciative. You can put 5 people on one motorcycle, babies hang off to the side. Coca Cola is the only true Super Power. A dorm room may only cost 5 dollars but your pizza is still $12 and a smoothie is $5= bring more money. Two types of divers/ those that pee in their wetsuits and those that admit to peeing in their wetsuits. Guess which one I am? I have now included this information during introductions. Can't get a good cup of coffee/ only Nescafe on the whole island of Utila / Central America what? Fruit and vegetables are hard if not impossible to find / Tropical Island what? Sometimes I pretend, unsuccessfully, not to speak English to avoid the frustration of 4hours of stories in Island accents that are too think to understand / English what? Avoid hearing all nightmare dive stories until after you swim with the sharks, dolphins and whales...phew...just made that one. Water Taxis are just cooler...well, because, they are Water Taxis. Speedos are alive and well just in case you were wondering. Just because you have paid for a private boat charter around the Island doesn't mean your captain wont stop to talk to all the pretty girls, visit friends, make a dozen phone calls and drink a dozen beers. Pretending to think I look around 25yrs old, does not make us better friends. Sometimes it's good to make friends with the local 'tough guy, but sometimes it's scarey to be friends with the local 'tough guy'/ he killed the shark that tried to attack him, cut him open and got his regulator back. I now have a 'diver's tan' which looks like I am wearing a 'white suit' at all times... No one gets their money back because it's called a 'fishing trip' not a 'catching trip'... An elderly man in a speedo, with his mullet in corn rows, is just...well, I don't know what that is... My favorite custom/ when you ask for your bill they ask you how many beers you have had (you are asking me? but i am the one who has been drinking...) or how many nights did you stay at the Hotel, I am not sure, I was the one asleep. Washing and drying your own clothes in 95% humidity is just funny... I am repeatedly asked how I was talked into eating termites, but I guess I keep forgetting to mention that my jungle guide's name was Darwin...it was an obvious choice. It's hard to leave a small tropical Island...literally, it's hard to leave...help... love to all, delynn speaking little Spanish since 1967

Carlos Marighella: ""Handbook of Urban Guerrilla Warfare"

Marighella was the strategic inspiration for urban insurgencies that have since mutated into toda's mideast terrorist tactics. He was killed by Brazilian police in 1969. The following is quoted in "The Battle for Algeria" from his "Handbook for Urban Warfare"-s

"It is necessary to turn political crisis into armed conflict by performing violent actions that will force those in power to transform the political situation of the country into a military situation. That will alienate the masses, who, from then on, will revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of thingsThe government can only intensify its repression thus making the life of its citizens harder than ever... The population will refuse to collaborate with the authorities, so that the latter will find the only solution to their problems lies in having recourse to the actual physical liquidation of their opponents. The political situation of the country will become a military situation..."

The book

Hannah Arendt from ' The Origins of Totalitarianism'

" While totalalitarian regimes are thus resolutely and cynically emptying the world of the only thing that makes sense to the utilitarian expectations of common sense, they impose upon it at the same time a kind of supersense which the ideologies actually always meant when they pretended to have found the key to history or the solution to the riddles of the universe.[ ] Ideologies are harmless, uncritical, and arbitrary opinions only as long as they are not believed in seriously. Once their claim to total validity is taken literally they become the nuclei of logical systems in which, as in the systems of paranoiacs, everything follows comphrehnsively, even compulsorily once the first premise is accepted. The insanity of such systems lies not only in their first premise but in the very logicality with which they are constructed. The curious logicality of all isms, their simple minded trust in the salvation value of stubborn devotion without regard for specific varying factors, already harbors the first germ of totalitarian contempt for reality and factuality."

Hannah Arendt booklist Here