Good joke: Zero Tolerance: Then and Now
Do you know about Randy Cassingham? He publishes a weekly e-newsletter called This is True with true outrageous stories he culls from the press & Internet. Subscriptions to This is True are free at http://www.thisistrue.com . Try it out -- he does not sell his mailing list, so you are safe to use your regular email address. Anyway, one of his big beefs is Zero Tolerance, which is esp. evident in the educational sector. So the joke above (from his Jumbo Joke site, [www.jumbojoke.com], which consist mostly of funny true stories, not actual jokes) hits the nail on the head rather painfully...
Randy also publishes a free monthly newsletter called The True Stella Awards, about outrageous lawsuits. The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that's not the whole story. [See http://www.stellaawards.com/stella.html for the truth.] Ever since, the name "Stella Award" has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits -- including bogus cases! He searches for true cases, and you can subscribe by e-mail for free to get the case reports as they're issued. [http://www.stellaawards.com/]
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
How well traveled I am...
I thought this would be a pretty interesting quiz since I've actually traveled quite a lot. But for Africa, they only gave you the choice of 4 places I've never been ... not quite fair, since I LIVE in Africa and have travelled to several countries & capitals! The rest, however, is fairly accurate.
Your Travel Profile: |
 You Are Very Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (71%) You Are Very Well Traveled in Western Europe (64%) You Are Well Traveled in the Midwestern United States (50%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Canada (40%) You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Southern United States (31%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Eastern Europe (20%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in the United Kingdom (13%) You Are Mostly Untraveled in Southern Europe (7%) You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%) You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Australia (0%) You Are Untraveled in Latin America (0%) You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%) You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%) You Are Untraveled in the Western United States (0%) |
My Kids R Home!
Ruthanne (Lizzi) & Benjamin got home from Dakar yesterday for Spring Break! They actually left 2 days early b/c our Brazilian co-worker, Alliné de Mota, was returning from a 3-month medical leave. She was to come on Tuesday, so I wrote and asked if she could delay just a couple days, b/c it also saved me making a trip out there and back. They all rode as far as Tamba with Walter, one of the other Brazilian miss'ys who was going to Kédougou, then got a bush taxi to the border, where we picked them up as usual. The only 'glitch' in the whole thing was that the kids were being picked up at 5am and Ben's clock didn't go off! But Walter had forgotten something and had to run home, so they got him up and he was dressed when he got back. It's soooooooo great to have them here!
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Politics in Everyday Life
FIRST OF ALL, HAPPY 3RD BD TO DYLAN H.!
Today I realized that when I think of politics, I mean Republicans & Democrats, House & Senate, Libertarian & Leftie, etc... But at this moment, in our work here in Mali, we are involved in a political brawl of sorts that has nothing to do with parties or elected representatives or any of that. We are trying to dig a well in a remote, dry, crummy little village. But because of ethnic politics, we are being blocked from performing this good work for poor, destitute people who really need water.
Dictionary.com defines politics as:
1. the science or art of political government.
Pretty straightforward (boring) stuff. But then you get to the definition that describes our situation with the village here:
6.use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control, as in business, university, etc.
Or even better, here's the idiom to "8. play politics:"
Now we're getting down to it. Politics is about power.
Here's the situation: We are working in a village which is really 3 villages. Ethnic group A were the original inhabitants of what we'll call the A Quarter. Ethnic Group B has had their own 'neighborhood,' the B Quarter, for as long as anyone remembers. The C Quarter was formed over 15 years ago when the C people group were chased out of their homeland (a country ruled, incidentally, by Ethnic Group A) and became refugees. So the local A's in this particular village invited the C refugees to live in an uninhabited sector of their village, perhaps even seeing it as a kind of compensation for the wrongs perpetrated by their brethren in that other country.
Mind you, the A's were not making any great sacrifice. The reason this sector was uninhabited was that it was nearly uninhabitable. It's very rocky, unsuitable for farming, but not too bad for livestock, and group C just happens to be a shepherding tribe. So for them it wasn't too bad, except for one little detail -- no water. They were able to dig some shallow wells which were filthy, plus each day they would send a donkey cart to the A Quarter, a mile or more away, to fill several barrels with clean well water -- a job which takes about 5 hours daily. So when my DH started visiting the C Quarter, b/c of his interest in this ethnic group, all they could talk about was their need for water. They were coping, but certainly not thriving.
The last time we tried to do a water project for C, the leadership of A said, "Only if you help us first." (This project was a less expensive option than a deep well, a first effort). So we did our project there first, and they said, "The C's can keep coming here for their water. You are not to do a water project there." Within a few months, that water project failed. There were a lot of reasons for this, but could the hand of God have been part of it?
To make a lo-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g story short, we managed to find some funding for a well in C neighborhood. There is an African-American organization that wants to do a lot of good things for the C's, and the C people have said, If you get us water, you can do anything else you want. There is a C Christian worker who wants to promote education, hygiene, improved animal husbandry, farming, and not incidentally, preach the Gospel. Water is the key to all.
This time, DH asked the C village chief to go to his A counterpart and negotiate. (Let's keep the foreigner out of the picture!) Chief A told Chief C, "That's fine, we're all one here, if you can get a well, go for it!" Mind you, this is a culture where you can never say no to someone's face. So his response was really the only thing he could say within the confines of his world view (but it is also okay to stab your neighbor, at least figuratively, in the back.) Nevertheless, DH decided to go to the next higher political entity, the mayor of the commune, to get official permission. You're supposed to do that anyway, so the government knows what's going on.
So there was a meeting at the mayor's place in another village. The chiefs & elders of A & C were all there. The A's were conspicuously silent. So the mayor wrote up an official document, authorizing the well. They were delighted, in fact, since it is a project of this country for every village and hamlet to have clean water, and they can't afford to do it all.
So the day came for the ground breaking, last Monday the 12th. There were several local officials there to each dig up their token spadeful of dirt. No one from A Quarter tho -- in fact, the mayor said Chief A had called him that morning to lodge a protest. "Why didn't they speak up when we all met together?" asked the mayor. "It's too late now, and besides they know that these people have a right to a well!"
By Tuesday 13th the work had been stopped b/c Chief A contacted the next higher government authority, the prefect, who has authority over the mayor. So now we wait...
Okay, so what is political about all this? Lots of things:
1. The person who controls the water holds the power. If C Quarter gets water, they will be less dependent on the A's.
2. If the little boys of C are freed up from getting the water for 5 hours every day, they will be free to attend the village school, where as yet no C children attend. Education is power, too!
3. Chief A says he fears that if C gets water, more people will come to live there. Again, he feels a threat to his power.
There are ethnic conflicts going on here, too, but this is too long already, and I don't want to go into that anyway. One really hard part is that we have a burden for the A people to be reached with the Gospel as well, and are praying for Christian workers to come to our Region in that capacity. We have showed the J film in the A language twice in the village. We fear that this conflict is cutting us off from future positive contact with these A's. :-(
Today I realized that when I think of politics, I mean Republicans & Democrats, House & Senate, Libertarian & Leftie, etc... But at this moment, in our work here in Mali, we are involved in a political brawl of sorts that has nothing to do with parties or elected representatives or any of that. We are trying to dig a well in a remote, dry, crummy little village. But because of ethnic politics, we are being blocked from performing this good work for poor, destitute people who really need water.
Dictionary.com defines politics as:
1. the science or art of political government.
| 2. | the practice or profession of conducting political affairs. |
| 3. | political affairs |
| 4. | political methods or maneuvers |
| 5. | political principles or opinions: |
Pretty straightforward (boring) stuff. But then you get to the definition that describes our situation with the village here:
6.use of intrigue or strategy in obtaining any position of power or control, as in business, university, etc.
Or even better, here's the idiom to "8. play politics:"
| a. | to engage in political intrigue, take advantage of a political situation or issue, resort to partisan politics, etc.; exploit a political system or political relationships. |
| b. | to deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way, as for job advancement. |
Now we're getting down to it. Politics is about power.
Here's the situation: We are working in a village which is really 3 villages. Ethnic group A were the original inhabitants of what we'll call the A Quarter. Ethnic Group B has had their own 'neighborhood,' the B Quarter, for as long as anyone remembers. The C Quarter was formed over 15 years ago when the C people group were chased out of their homeland (a country ruled, incidentally, by Ethnic Group A) and became refugees. So the local A's in this particular village invited the C refugees to live in an uninhabited sector of their village, perhaps even seeing it as a kind of compensation for the wrongs perpetrated by their brethren in that other country.
Mind you, the A's were not making any great sacrifice. The reason this sector was uninhabited was that it was nearly uninhabitable. It's very rocky, unsuitable for farming, but not too bad for livestock, and group C just happens to be a shepherding tribe. So for them it wasn't too bad, except for one little detail -- no water. They were able to dig some shallow wells which were filthy, plus each day they would send a donkey cart to the A Quarter, a mile or more away, to fill several barrels with clean well water -- a job which takes about 5 hours daily. So when my DH started visiting the C Quarter, b/c of his interest in this ethnic group, all they could talk about was their need for water. They were coping, but certainly not thriving.
The last time we tried to do a water project for C, the leadership of A said, "Only if you help us first." (This project was a less expensive option than a deep well, a first effort). So we did our project there first, and they said, "The C's can keep coming here for their water. You are not to do a water project there." Within a few months, that water project failed. There were a lot of reasons for this, but could the hand of God have been part of it?
To make a lo-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g story short, we managed to find some funding for a well in C neighborhood. There is an African-American organization that wants to do a lot of good things for the C's, and the C people have said, If you get us water, you can do anything else you want. There is a C Christian worker who wants to promote education, hygiene, improved animal husbandry, farming, and not incidentally, preach the Gospel. Water is the key to all.
This time, DH asked the C village chief to go to his A counterpart and negotiate. (Let's keep the foreigner out of the picture!) Chief A told Chief C, "That's fine, we're all one here, if you can get a well, go for it!" Mind you, this is a culture where you can never say no to someone's face. So his response was really the only thing he could say within the confines of his world view (but it is also okay to stab your neighbor, at least figuratively, in the back.) Nevertheless, DH decided to go to the next higher political entity, the mayor of the commune, to get official permission. You're supposed to do that anyway, so the government knows what's going on.
So there was a meeting at the mayor's place in another village. The chiefs & elders of A & C were all there. The A's were conspicuously silent. So the mayor wrote up an official document, authorizing the well. They were delighted, in fact, since it is a project of this country for every village and hamlet to have clean water, and they can't afford to do it all.
So the day came for the ground breaking, last Monday the 12th. There were several local officials there to each dig up their token spadeful of dirt. No one from A Quarter tho -- in fact, the mayor said Chief A had called him that morning to lodge a protest. "Why didn't they speak up when we all met together?" asked the mayor. "It's too late now, and besides they know that these people have a right to a well!"
By Tuesday 13th the work had been stopped b/c Chief A contacted the next higher government authority, the prefect, who has authority over the mayor. So now we wait...
Okay, so what is political about all this? Lots of things:
1. The person who controls the water holds the power. If C Quarter gets water, they will be less dependent on the A's.
2. If the little boys of C are freed up from getting the water for 5 hours every day, they will be free to attend the village school, where as yet no C children attend. Education is power, too!
3. Chief A says he fears that if C gets water, more people will come to live there. Again, he feels a threat to his power.
There are ethnic conflicts going on here, too, but this is too long already, and I don't want to go into that anyway. One really hard part is that we have a burden for the A people to be reached with the Gospel as well, and are praying for Christian workers to come to our Region in that capacity. We have showed the J film in the A language twice in the village. We fear that this conflict is cutting us off from future positive contact with these A's. :-(
Monday, March 19, 2007
But I wanna be a political blogger...!
Everybody knows it's the political bloggers who get famous, like Michelle Malkin or Mike Adams. Occasionally the religious ones make a name for themselves, like Al Mohler, but I'm not quite in his league. We're both Baptist, but that's all.
The problem is that politics make me very uncomfortable. I just hate the partisanship, the nastiness and the name-calling that goes along with it. And I don't like conflict, so I'm not comfortable debating politics.
And I really hate the thought of getting pigeonholed. Like I wasn't really in favor of the war in Iraq in the first place, so that puts me on the side of the Dems or the lefties or the progressives, choose your epithet. But now that we're in Iraq, I think we would be crazy to just pull out -- so I guess I'm a Republican or a conservative or something.
Take gun control -- I believe in the right to bear arms as enshrined in the 2nd Amendment. But I do not see why that right has to extend to assault weapons and all the crazy stuff Mike Adams buys for himself all the time; so I favor some limited gun control. So what am I?
I read about this woman the other day, a conservative evangelical like me, with a son in Iraq (unlike me) who has started peacefully protesting the war. Basically, everyone who thinks the way she does on other issues (pro-life, etc.) reviles her for this, and those who agree with her about the war revile her for her stance on typically conservative issues. Didn't someone say, If everyone hates you, you must be doing something right? I guess that's where she fits in.
So here I am, a non-political blogger, doomed to anonymity.
The problem is that politics make me very uncomfortable. I just hate the partisanship, the nastiness and the name-calling that goes along with it. And I don't like conflict, so I'm not comfortable debating politics.
And I really hate the thought of getting pigeonholed. Like I wasn't really in favor of the war in Iraq in the first place, so that puts me on the side of the Dems or the lefties or the progressives, choose your epithet. But now that we're in Iraq, I think we would be crazy to just pull out -- so I guess I'm a Republican or a conservative or something.
Take gun control -- I believe in the right to bear arms as enshrined in the 2nd Amendment. But I do not see why that right has to extend to assault weapons and all the crazy stuff Mike Adams buys for himself all the time; so I favor some limited gun control. So what am I?
I read about this woman the other day, a conservative evangelical like me, with a son in Iraq (unlike me) who has started peacefully protesting the war. Basically, everyone who thinks the way she does on other issues (pro-life, etc.) reviles her for this, and those who agree with her about the war revile her for her stance on typically conservative issues. Didn't someone say, If everyone hates you, you must be doing something right? I guess that's where she fits in.
So here I am, a non-political blogger, doomed to anonymity.
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