A Challenging Job in Israel

And on the subject of Israel…. Isn’t it about time they got themselves some decent PR. There really is a job going begging in that country and boy do they need someone to fill it. The Palestinians have got the PR taped and unless Israel does something about their image they will always come off looking second best.

Sure the job would be a challenge but can you imagine if you cracked that message!

A Toot for TuTu

I heard on the radio news this morning that Archbishop Tutu is calling for a day of fasting to show support and solidarity with the poverty stricken and starving Zimbabweans. Yeah for the Arch – he is the one shining light that stays focused on the crisis taking place on our northern border.

I don’t mean to diminish the seriousness of the Israel/Gaza crisis but I sure as heck do wish that our politicians, diplomats and especially past and present presidents could have been as vocal and horrified with the human right violations in Zimbabwe as they have been about the Israeli/Gaza situation. So much for “silent diplomacy” for the Israelis - and they are not even our neighbours. It almost seems that the SA bunch has heaved a sign of relief and happily clambered onto the Israeli/Gaza band wagon - a welcome diversion to take the focus away from those poor benighted Zimbos.

So, keep up the noise Arch… some of us hear you.

The World Question Centre 2009

Every year, John Brockman of Edge.Org sends out a question to 150 odd scientists, biologists, philosophers, psychologists, writers, statisticians and so on. Answers to the question are published on : http://www.edge.org/q2009/q09_index.html

This years question is:

WHAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING?
"What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"

To name a few of the contributors: J. Craig Venter, Stephen Pinker, Patrick Bateson, Nassim Nicholas Taleb ….. and one of my personal favorites : Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – if anyone can pronounce his name I will send you a KitKat!

Now, just look at this example of the topics they come up with:
ROBERT SAPOLSKY - PEOPLE WHO CAN INTUIT IN SIX-DIMENSIONS
GLORIA ORIGGI - THE AGE OF REPUTATION
JOHN TOOBY & LEDA COSMIDES - THE GREAT PIVOT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES, NATIVE INTELLIGENCES, AND THE BRIDGE BETWEEN

A thoughtful answer I thought I would share with you is from James J. O’Donnell and is titled :

Africa
"Africa" is the short answer to this question. But it needs explanation.
Historians can't predict black swan game-changers any better than economists can. An outbreak of plague, a nuclear holocaust, an asteroid on collision course, or just an unassassinated pinchbeck dictator at the helm of a giant military machine—any of those can have transformative effect and will always come as a surprise.

But at a macro level, it's easier to see futures, just hard to time them. The expansion of what my colleague, the great environmental historian John McNeill, calls "the human web" to build a planet-wide network of interdependent societies is simply inevitable, but it's taken a long time. Rome, Persia, and ancient China built a network of empires stretching from Atlantic to Pacific, but never made fruitful contact with each other and their empire-based model of "globalization" fell apart in late antique times. A religion-based model kicked in then, with Christianity and Islam taking their swings: those were surprising developments, but they only went so far.
It took until early modern times and the development of new technologies for a real "world-wide web" of societies to develop. Even then, development was Euro-centric for a very long time. Now in our time, we've seen one great game-changer. In the last two decades, the Euro-centric model of economic and social development has been swamped by the sudden rise of the great emerging market nations: China, India, Brazil, and many smaller ones. The great hope of my youth—that "foreign aid" would help the poor nations bootstrap themselves—has come true, sometimes to our thinly-veiled disappointment: disappointment because we suddenly find ourselves competed with for steel and oil and other resources, suddenly find our products competed with by other economies' output, and wonder if we really wanted that game to change after all. The slump we're in now is the inevitable second phase of that expansion of the world community, and the rise that will follow is the inevitable third—and we all hope it comes quickly.

But a great reservoir or misery and possibility awaits: Africa. Humankind's first continent and homeland has been relegated for too long to disease, poverty, and sometimes astonishingly bad government. There is real progress in many places, but astonishing failures persist. That can't last. The final question facing humankind's historical development is whether we can bring the whole human family, including Africa's billion, can all achieve together sustainable levels of health and comfort.

When will we know? That's a scary question. One future timeline has us peaking now and subsiding, as we wrestle with the challenges we have made for ourselves, into some long period of not-quite-success, while Africa and the failed states of other continents linger in waiting for—what? Decades? Centuries? There are no guarantees about the future. But as we think about the financial crises of the present, we have to remember that what is at risk is not merely the comfort and prosperity of the rich nations but the very lives and opportunity for the poorest.
James J. O'DonnellClassicist; Provost, Georgetown University; Author, The Ruin of the Roman Empire

Virtual glider trip

If you want to take a really surreal glider trip, click on this link:

http://www.electricoyster.com/electric3d/index.html

Use your mouse to steer you over the landscape - you can do 180 turns and explore the icy canyons!

Eggs again

On the 14th April last year I wrote a blog on how to do the perfect poached egg - this was just prior to my sojourn in the B&B in Haarties - and they thought that I might just have to knock up a breakfast or 2 (fortunately not).

So now here is another little egg trick I am sure will keep you and the kids amused for a while. Click on the link below and watch this 30 second video by Tim Ferris and learn how to “Peel Hard Boiled Eggs Without Peeling Them” – this is magic and not to be missed.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN2gYHJNT3Y

Progress

Progress - hahahaha

Liz's Cartoon - January 2009

Liz's cartoon - October 2008

The Big Greek Funeral

My friend Irene’s father died 2 days after Christmas. Mike was 87 and had been ill for a while. But he died peacefully with his beloved wife Olive (of 64 years) and daughters at his bedside.

Mike was Greek and his offspring, who are first generation South Africans, honoured his request for a Greek funeral. The service took place in a beautiful little Greek church in Orange Grove. The church probably seated 130 odd people and was packed with people standing at the doors. The inside of the church is exquisite – beautiful murals of saints and angels covering the walls, gold chandeliers, gold lattice work, deep sky blue ceilings and wonderful paintings of the last supper and other saints. The senior priest was all dressed up and looked imposing in his robes – he also had a white beard that went down to his waist. The second priest was dressed in a white a blue robe and look just as imposing and was wearing Crocs *grin*. The cantor was dressed in civvies and chanted beautifully.

The service was quite long and all done in Greek - although a bit was read out in English. The senior priest gave a eulogy for Mike (in Greek) and he was quite animated and spoke with great feeling – even we non-Greek speakers could feel his respect and affection for Mike. When we filed out of the church Olive said to me that she was sorry I did not understand the lovely words the priest said – but she would tell me at another time. During the service the junior priest lit the censers and the church was permeated with the whiffs of incense.

After the service we proceeded in convoy to the cemetery and, prior to the coffin being lowered, the priest poured olive oil, soil and fresh flower petals over the coffin and prayed. Once the coffin was lowered, we all sprinkled flower petals on the coffin. We were then off again to the church hall for something to eat and drink – tables laden with glorious Greek food.

And, I guess by this stage you are all asking “where the heck is she going with the blog posting?” Well, where I am going is that it was a very impressive funeral. I think Mike would have been pleased. Yes it was lengthy, but it had wonderful gravitas. It was just what was needed to say goodbye to a man had a good long life, the service and graveside prayers were dignified and his family were comforted by these ceremonies.

Conversely, my mother’s cremation service was (not quite what we were expecting) a quick 20 minute service and the minister spent the last few minutes or so trying to recruit new members for his church. We were also asked to bring a cd of her favourite music – which took up another couple of minutes - Dean Martin belting/slurring out a song didn’t quite do it, although she might have thought this was funny! I think I would have felt a bit better with a bit more pomp and I also think she would have preferred something along the line of Mike’s funeral.

We need to set aside more time on these occasions to immerse ourselves with the ceremony – switch off the cell phones, mark off the whole day in our diaries and be in the moment.