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Today's
Stories
December
2, 2004
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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December 2, 2004
Lana &
Me
Meetings
with Remarkable Apes
By
Dr. SUSAN BLOCK
Lana is a voluptuous 25-year-old brunette
with an easy smile, sparkling brown eyes and long chocolate-colored
hair, neatly parted in the middle. In many ways, she's like a
lot of women I know, but Lana is not a woman. Lana is a bonobo
chimpanzee.
I first met Lana in 1996. I
was in San Diego as part of a book tour for The 10 Commandments
of Pleasure, my book about Ethical Hedonism, seduction, long-term
love and lust. To a great extent, my book was inspired by bonobos.
Though I'd never before encountered a bonobo in real life, I'd
read everything I could find about them and seen them in several
television documentaries. I was fascinated by their uncanny closeness
to humans and awed by their amazing but real Make-Love-Not-War
"lifestyle," which I (somewhat anthropomorphically)
dubbed The Bonobo Way.
So, in between interviews and
seminars, I took a few hours off to visit the San Diego Zoo,
which I had heard housed some of these exceedingly rare Great
Apes that had inspired my philosophy of pleasure. The bonobos
have a nice big space at the SD Zoo, with plenty of foliage,
a waterfall, a creek, trees to swing from and grass to roll around
in. I arrived in mid-afternoon, and to my delight, found three
bonobos (two females and a male) engaged in various forms of
sexual activity, including deep kissing, oral sex, ear-tonguing,
masturbation, even using a rubber ball as a sex toy.
That time, Lana, then age 17,
bounded up to the glass partition between us, looked at me for
a few seconds, blew me a quick kiss and went back to playing
with her tribe. We met again in the summer of 2003, when she
gave me the same sort of greeting, something I saw that she and
some of the other bonobos did with many of the tourists, especially
the children, who came by to gawk at them.
When I returned to Lana's domain
on September 10, 2004, the situation was a little different.
I was accompanied by some friends from France who were interested
in learning more about The Bonobo Way. They had seen me doing
a show, as well as conducting Bonobo Therapy with a couple, in
which I helped them to open up to each other sensuously, playfully
and empathetically, "freeing their inner bonobo."
Now they wanted to see some
actual bonobos in action, so off we went to the Zoo. It was a
sweltering So Cal September day. We got there early, as soon
as the Zoo opened, but still the bonobos seemed overheated and
lethargic, especially compared to how they were that first day
I saw them in May 1996  when
they were licking and sucking and pleasuring each other like
bi chicks at a swing party.
Perhaps there were other reasons
that the bonobos weren't playing with each other sexually this
hot Indian Summer morning. The zookeeper, who kindly showed us
around, apologized for being late, saying she'd had to "separate
the females" and "keep them from bonding" or else
they'd "attack the males." Sounded reasonable enough.
But my hunch is that that "bonding" is euphemistic
Zoo Talk for female-female sex play, also called "genito-genital
rubbing" by primatologists, or "hoka-hoka" by
the Mogandu people indigenous to the bonobos' native habitat
in the Congo, and that the zookeeper was doing whatever zookeepers
do to keep the females from having sex with each other.
Female bisexuality is the centerpiece
of bonobo society. So perhaps when these (probably higher ranking)
females were physically separated, the rest of the tribe fell
into a bit of a funk. In any case, they weren't doing much, and
my French friends were slightly disappointed. Of course, even
when they're not engaged in sex, even when they're just lying
around looking hot and bored, bonobos are delightful to behold.
They look so similar to us, so almost-human in their physiognomy
and mannerisms; you can gaze into their big brown eyes and feel
as if you've found the Missing Link.
So there we were, the five
of us, Theron, Samantha, my two French friends and me, feeling
pretty lethargic ourselves in the gathering heat, but thoroughly
enjoying this opportunity to commune with our chimp cousins.
We noticed Lana, now the oldest, the Alpha female of the tribe
squatting by the creek with Kiri, a younger female with an extremely
expressive face. Kiri made faces at us as Lana calmly took in
the scene, a tiny month-old infant nursing at her ample breast.
Suddenly Lana, seemingly struck
by an powerful feeling, turned and bounded, baby still at her
breast, up to the window I was leaning against. She banged on
the glass, and then looked me in the eye as if she had something
to say. I felt an instant sense of intimacy, as if we were two
people drawn to each other who just didn't speak the same language.
At least, not verbally. She put her hand on the glass and I put
mine up to meet hers. When I put my other hand on the glass,
she put her other hand up to meet mine. Then she leaned back
on a branch and put her feet on the glass. I kicked off my sandals,
perched on the window ledge and put my bare feet up to hers.
I felt like the little kid touching fingertips with ET, except
this was no extra-terrestrial; this was a fellow Earthling, my
primate cousin, my new friend.
Then she kissed me. This was
not just a quick peck hello like before, but a slow, dramatic,
tantric smooch right on the glass in front of my face. Perhaps
it was a good thing there was a glass separating us for the kissing
part, because I might have been a bit startled to get ape spit
all over my face. But with the glass safely between us, I felt
enchanted, drawn into a spiritual and very physical expression
of love that I had, quite frankly, never experienced before.
This was a serious connection, but extremely playful at the same
time. I kissed her back, our lips meeting but not touching, a
modern inter-species same-sex version of Tristan and Isolde.
Two beings of just slightly
different species, but totally different worlds, drawn to each
other. Why? Well, I know why I was drawn to Lana. I've been studying
bonobos for years, thinking about why they are so peaceful and
so sexual, how we are like them and how we are not, how they
have sex with so much sensitivity and savoir faire, and how they
use sex to reduce violence in their societies. Bonobos had grown
mythic in my mind. And now here was one who apparently wanted
very much to communicate something to me. I felt touched by an
angel who looked like a chimpanzee.
Of course, it's harder for
me to say why Lana was drawn to me. One of the many amateur primatologists
who hang around the ape exhibits, said, "She's angry with
you," when she first saw Lana--later joined by Kiri making
faces and Mchumba doing handstands--banging on the glass at me.
Then when this same woman noticed how Lana gently touched the
glass just where I touched it, kissed me through the glass and
looked at me, she revised her opinion. "She likes your hat,"
she declared. I was wearing a wide-brimmed white straw hat that
did look a bit like a halo around my long hair. Maybe I was Lana's
"angel." Perhaps our almost universal notion that angels
have bright halos is pre-human, who knows? Then as Lana continued
to "chat" with me like a best girlfriend, in between
kisses and communing via hands and feet, the lady said, "I
hope you appreciate how much attention Lana is paying you. She
never does that with anybody. You should feel honored."
I certainly did feel honored.
I only wish I knew what she was trying to tell me. Maybe it was
just "girl talk." Could be she was asking, "What's
with the halo, lady?" Could she be flirting with me? Perhaps
she was one of the female bonobos that the zookeeper had "separated"
from another female and, feeling sexually frustrated, she focused
some of her intense libido on a "safe" target that
wouldn't get her into trouble with the zookeeper: me. My French
friends were so *impressed,* they insisted that Lana somehow
recognized that I'm a big bonobo advocate among humans, and she
was greeting me, as the Alpha female of the San Diego Zoo tribe,
ambassador-to-ambassador, to give me her encouragement and blessing.
Even though I don't believe that (how could this chimp know I'm
a bonobo advocate?), I have come away from my Close Encounter
with Bonobo Lana feeling greatly encouraged and truly blessed.
In "On Tortoises, Monkeys
and Men," Dr. Tony Rose writes about "profound interspecies
events (PIEs)" which he describes as "natural epiphanies
reunion(s) of humanity and nature" that occur when "humans
experience profound connections with animals." My meeting
with Lana was the closest thing I've ever experienced to a PIE,
but what did it mean? I can only guess about what it meant to
Lana, but for me, it was a physical affirmation of a powerful
connection between our two species that I believe could save
us both.
In these deadly times of human
war, terror and error, it is vital that we reach out to our kissin'
cousins who hold the erotic key to peace: the bonobos. As I see
it, Lana and I were reaching out to each other through the glass
because we both need each other more than ever now. Not Lana
herself; she and her tiny baby are safe and pretty well taken
care of in their plush digs at the San Diego Zoo (though I can't
help but worry about the zookeeper preventing the females from
bonding). But the bonobos as a species are teetering on the edge
of extinction, thanks to the toll on their numbers taken by human
war, poaching and destruction of the Congolese rain forest. Ironically
enough, though they've been decimated by humans, now they need
human help more than ever to survive as a species and as individuals.
They even need the help of humans like me, controversial as we
may be in these censorious times, because we love them, and we
spread the Gospel of the Bonobos to our fellow humans everywhere.
We are trying to shake up America
and the world to a new way of doing business, the Bonobo Way,
the way of love, not war. This is the way of the future, if there
is to be a future, for all of us. In saving the bonobos, we just
might save ourselves. In reaching out to me through the glass,
perhaps Lana was giving a kiss and a helping hand to one terrorized
human race.
Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cultural commentator,
host of The Dr. Susan Block Show and author of The
10 Commandments of Pleasure. Her essay on John Ashcroft's
"breast fetish" is included in CounterPunch's Serpents
in the Garden: Liaisons with Sex and Culture. Visit her website
at http://www.drsusanblock.com.
Please Write Me! Send me your
tired, your poor, your hate mail, love letters, commentary, photos,
questions and confessions at liberties@blockbooks.com.
© December 1, 2004, Dr.
Susan Block. For reprint rights, please contact rox@blockbooks.com
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
|