Lol….. I don’t know if this is true or not, but it could be because they are the most insecure. They have spent most of their lives being rejected and as such they project their social anxieties and insecurities.
However, I doubt the validity of this statement. I have seen many a classically handsome man act in the most homophobic of manners.
Just my two cents.
Tom Friedman, one of my favorite columnists traveled to Singapore and had an opportunity observe and describe parts of their system of government. You can read the article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=thomaslfriedman&adxnnlx=1296501859-XidF7JYpzdW5FAb+HLbcrQ
On reading the article, there was one particular paragraph that summarized what was going on in terms of leadership in that country.
It is a sophisticated mix of radical free-market and nanny state that requires sophisticated policy makers to implement, which is why politics here is not treated as sports or entertainment. Top bureaucrats and cabinet ministers have their pay linked to top private sector wages, so most make well over $1 million a year, and their bonuses are tied to the country’s annual G.D.P. growth rate. It means the government can attract high-quality professionals and corruption is low.
That is indeed a fascinating analysis of a style of leadership and a way of running a government. For me I began to wonder whether that instance was applicable to some African countries. To many developing countries, Singapore remains the ultimate example of an ability to develop.
Reading this article I have to wonder if the government in a country like wer to be run as if it were a business would it be more effective? I also wonder how much of the success of the Singaporean government is due to the cultural ethics of the people who live in that city-state? Also given that it is a city-state, how much of the success can be attributed to the fact that slice of economic nirvana occupies a very small land area?
Whatever the case, it was still an eye opening piece by Tom Friedman.
I had no idea that there was concept such as an eternal sin. Shows you how much of the religion I was raised in. So apparently in Christianity, if you deny the Holy Spirit or blaspheme against it, you have committed a sin that can not be forgiven. You are cursed to spend all eternity in the fiery bosom of the devil, no matter how much you repent.
What I initially could not figure out was why this particular sin was considered as eternal or unpardonable. So, I turned to google to provide me with some answers. I happened to stumble on www.christiananswers.net, where they provide some answers to help worried people deal with this particular question.
Well, as I was reading I began to realize that I commit this unpardonable sin everyday of everyday, based on the simple fact that I am skeptic.
For instance, the article claims the following:
The Pharisees had long observed the sinless Jesus Christ. They observed him doing undeniable and powerful miracles that were, at the very least, clear evidence of power supplied by God. These impressive miracles were freely given in pure kindness and love to release people from obvious suffering and the oppression of horrible evil.
However, the Pharisees had so firmly set their hearts against accepting Jesus as the Messiah that they rejected the obvious truth before them and perversely twisted it to influence the crowds. They publicly credited the most ultimately evil being in the universe with these precious, godlymiracles. In other words, they called the precious and holy Spirit of God, the unclean spirit of Satan. In effect, they charged Jesus Christ withsorcery; one who is in league with Satan. These charges are not only appalling and extremely serious, but clearly absurd. As Jesus immediately responded,
- http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/unpardonablesin.html
In this passage, the Pharisees behaved just like anyone normal person would behave when some dude with a beard appears and begins to claim that he is the son of God. They became and acted as skeptics. Yet this act of skepticism constitutes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit/ God because doubting God and suggesting that his/her actions could come from another place is tantamount to throwing dirt in the eyes of god.
Of course there is the obvious question of how one is supposed to differentiate between the power of god and the power of a ungodly, particularly if you have never really encountered the power of god before, as exemplified by the Pharisees.
Ah well, we shall see what will happen.
I have got a new favorite song. It is by the late Johnny Cash, The Man Comes Around on his American IV: The Man Comes Around Album. Somehow I find it so appropriate given the turmoil I read about going on my home continent, Ivory Coast, Tunisia and more recently Egypt.
Though I am not religious and the the song has deep religious (Christian) overtones, the message resonates with me in some way. That the world has a way of taking care of its self. That justice comes to all eventually whether they be good, bad or just filthy.
Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still. Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still. Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still. Listen to the words long written down, When the man comes around.
There is one part of the song that I found a bit amusing actually. In the very beginning Johnny Cash sings:
There’s a man goin’ ‘round takin’ names. An’ he decides who to free and who to blame. Everybody won’t be treated all the same. There’ll be a golden ladder reaching down. When the man comes around.
This part sounds very much the song “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”, you know the part where they sing
He’s making a list and checking it twice
Gonna find out who’ naughty or nice
So be good for goodness sake
Santa Clause is coming to town
Blankfein is receiving base pay of $2 million effective Jan 1, up from $600,000, he company said in a filing.
People are going to be hatin’ Lol….
It appears the Goldman Sachs board has no concern for the feelings of the American people. Ha ha ha People are starving and the company that seems to be face of the American financial crisis seems to only seems to want to continue to enrich themselves.
However, if it makes people feel better Blankfein and his people at Goldman Sachs are not as bad as we would like to believe.
Blankfein’s 2010 pay was dwarfed by John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who earned an estimated $5 billion in 2010.
“It’s quite possible that Blankfein got paid something in the same ballpark as Paulson’s secretary,” said James Ellman, president at hedge fund manager Seacliff Capital.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110129/bs_nm/us_goldmansachs_pay
Title: Ama Bonsu
Artiste: The Ramblers Dance Band
One of my all-time favorite highlife songs. There used to be a radio show in Ghana when I was a young tyke, that played only classic highlife. I always associate eating plantain and beans on a rainy Sunday afternoon with this song. Lol
Protesters continued to defy a nationwide curfew in the early hours of Saturday, as Mr. Mubarak, 82, breaking days of silence, appeared on national television, promising to replace the ministers in his government, but calling popular protests “part of bigger plot to shake the stability” of Egypt. He refused calls, shouted by huge, angry crowds in the central squares of Cairo, the northern port of Alexandria and the canal city of Suez, for him to resign.
You have to wonder if Mubarak is now just deluding himself into believing that every protest that occurs in the country is an attempt to destabilize the country. I mean the world recognizes what he did in terms of maintaining stability in Egypt for the last couple of decades, but he needs to move on. Give someone else a chance to rejuvenate the position of head of state.
As the pundits were busy celebrating the contribution of Twitter and Facebook to protests in Tunisia and Egypt, most of them ignored the terrifying news from Iran, where on Monday two activists were hanged for distributing video footage on the Internet from the country’s 2009 “Twitter Revolution.”
It might not be all that it is cracked out to be. First you would probably be nude Lol….
Beggars are the same wherever you go even a place where you do not speak the native language. I do not mean this in a bad/cruel way it is just an observation. This morning I was at the subway station preparing to catch the station. There I was approached by this woman holding a pack of cigarettes in her hand. At first she was mumbling to herself a bit and then she caught my and it was on. She directed her efforts at me.
She launched into a some song, using that voice that those who ask for money seem to always have. The kin that tugs at your heart strings until you give up something. What was funny in this situation was that I had no clue as to what she was saying and I could only shake my head in sympathetic solidarity. What baffled me the most, was why she chose me of all people to ask money from. I am fairly tall black man in my mid 20s. I think I was the only person of color at the subway station that morning. What made that woman choose me of all people? It baffles me.
You can find a link to the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/africa/28uganda.html?_r=1&ref=world
So Uganda has been have problems with this particular issue of gay rights for a while. Some politicians in the country have even suggested some absurd and most irrational policies to deal with the social issue. They have suggested that people caught having a homosexual relationship be put to death.
The situation is being exacerbated by some spiritual leaders in the country with a lot of influence. Some gay activists in Uganda have suggested that the efforts of the spiritual leaders in the country were bolstered by the actions of some evangelicals who visited the country sometime ago.
“David’s death is a result of the hatred planted in Uganda by U.S. evangelicals in 2009,” Val Kalende, the chairwoman of one of Uganda’s gay rights groups, said in a statement. “The Ugandan government and the so-called U.S. evangelicals must take responsibility for David’s blood.”
While I will not go so far as to say the hatred was planted by the American evangelicals, I will say that flames of hatred and violence were stoked by the evangelicals.
Today was another cold and snowy day here in Vienna. The spring and summer better be as nice as everyone claims it will be. This kind of weather is not making me feel the city.
I can not believe that in all my 25 years of life, I have not come across this term. I mean I think of myself as being well educated and well read, but I have never come across this term which refers to bringing about gender equity. It is a concept that is heavily promoted by the UN and all its adjunct agencies.
I feel terrible. Anyway, it shows you that there is always more to learn. Everyday, we must approach the new day with fresh open minds.
Anyway, apparently the city of Vienna is breaking grounds in this particular of area of promoting gender equity.
Pictograms and information display charts feature a male silhouette holding a baby in his arms to advise passengers on the underground railway to offer seating to parents with children. This is to hopefully to disperse cultural norms that associate children solely with women.
What I find interesting is that chants and recitals emphasizing the patriarchal family model and traditional male-centric gender roles have been banned from kindergartens and elementary schools
Sign from the underground
Road work signs
.
Anyway the picture below is from trip over on Air Austria while at 32,000 feet. The clouds below us looked so gorgeous, I felt like jumping out the window into the fluffy embrace of cotton below.
