Sunday, June 21, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
listless
“Fear breeds a deadening caution, a holding back, a stagnant waiting until people no longer can recall what they are waiting for or saving themselves for. When we fear failure more than we love life; when we are dominated by thoughts of what we might have been rather than by thoughts of what we might become; when we are haunted by the disparity between our ideal self and our real self; when we are tormented by guilt, shame, remorse, and self condemnation, we deny our faith in the God of love. God calls us to break camp, abandon the comfort and security of the status quo, and embark in perilous freeedom on the journey to a new Canaan. But when we procrastinate our of fear; this represents not only a decision to remain in Haran, but also a lack of trust.”
~Brennan Manning
Saturday, May 30, 2009
brighten my heart
my heart is as dark as the soil sodden with winter rains
(Lord, brighten my heart)
my soul is as heavy as the peat freshly dug from the bog
(Lord, lighten my soul)
my thoughts swirl like willow branches caught in autumn winds
(Lord, still my thoughts)
my body is as tense as a cat's as it stalks its prey
(Lord relax my body)
help me open my heart to You
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
MIA / sri lanka / clothing
Labels with ties to Sri Lanka, you've been put on notice.
Earlier this week, Sri Lanka's long civil war was declared over, after tens of thousands of casualties and government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers both put untold numbers of civilians in harm's way. M.I.A., a Sri Lankan native, has been extremely vocal recently about the appalling human rights abuses happening in Sri Lanka. And on her Twitter, M.I.A. spent yesterday listing companies that manufacture in the country, helping to finance Sri Lanka's government in the process.
FULL OFFICIAL LIST: not to sri lanka
Thursday, May 14, 2009
from a friend - from SRI LANKA
I know of two priests who have decided to stay with their people in the so-called No-Fire Zone in northern Sri Lanka, where tens of thousands of Tamil civilians are trapped in a living hell. One of those priests described the shelling that killed so many on Saturday night: All sorts of heavy weapons were used for more than 12 hours from all four directions on May 9-10, 2009. The night was a deadly night. Children, women, and elders were screaming at the peaks of their voices. It was callous, heinous and indiscriminate shelling and bombing. Words are lacking to describe [it]. … The eyes of the world are blinded. The people were the deliberate target of the attack of the Army. It was a bloodbath. People who sustained minor injuries also eventually died because no rescue mission was possible due to the incessant shelling and bombing. Even from the sea, the Navy has been using heavy weapons. People have nowhere to go and hide. The rate of killing by shelling earlier was in the hundreds and now it is in the thousands. An Internet phone connection allows us to hear the sounds of the bombs exploding in the background. Crammed into a tiny strip of coastal land, the civilians are caught — literally — in the middle of a ferocious battle between the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military. The LTTE, fighting for their very survival, is keeping them there as a bargaining chip, hoping the international community will force the government to accept a cease-fire. The government, for its part, has called them all LTTE supporters and terrorists. They are children and their parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles — members of whole villages that fled the Sri Lankan Army as it advanced north. The LTTE is outnumbered at this point, but refuses to surrender. They are clearly using the people as a human shield — they have been shooting at people who try to escape from the area. Apparently, they are banking on the international community caring enough about the civilians to stay the hand of the government. But this is not what is happening. More than 1,320 people were killed in just 48 hours last weekend. The trapped civilians can’t believe that the international community — the U.S., Britain, France, Norway, Japan, and others — is allowing the slaughter to continue. An aid worker we are talking to tells us the death toll for the day and the details of the recent ICRC shipment of food and some medicines. Conditions are grim: food, water, and medicine is scarce, and sanitation facilities nonexistent. What supplies the ships are able to bring in are far short of what is needed. People are beginning to starve. An ICRC ship got in last week, but two others were forced to turn around because of heavy fighting — without offloading supplies or taking away the 500 wounded people who were hoping to get out. That is about the only way people can escape the area. (ICRC ships have taken out some 10,000 wounded and people accompanying them). In the past the ICRC has gotten agreements from both sides to stop fighting so supplies can be landed, but this has been hard to get recently. There has been unconfirmed fighting between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Navy in the Bay of Bengal. The doctors said they were really relieved last week when some antibiotics were included in the ICRC shipment — they had been without these essential supplies for two months. They have also been without anesthesia for several months — and they still don’t have any. The government is said to have to okay everything that goes onto the ICRC ships, and anesthesia is not on the approved list. This is not an oversight on the part of the government. I can’t imagine what it is like to have a hand or a leg amputated without anesthesia. Yet I must have a hundred pictures of kids or their parents with bandaged stumps. It is, after all, a war zone.Hello friends and fellow lovers of humans everywhere.
[an article from sojo]
Witness to Sri Lanka’s Onslaught
by Christina Cobourn Herman 05-14-2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
0 to 4
yesterday, the Kerry-Lugar Amendment to restore the $4 billion previously cut from the international affairs budget—the source of almost all u.s. international anti-poverty funding—passed the senate in a unanimous voice vote.
in short this means millions who will potentially lead healthier, more productive lives because of AIDS medicine, schools, infrastructure projects, clinics, and other development projects funded by the international affairs budget.
we'll see if this new government aid come along side the beautiful work being done in africa right now.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Monday, March 02, 2009
immigration in ri: a brief historical perspective
[ Scott MacKay has a great blog post up at WRNI calling on Rhode Islanders to remember their history when debating immigration: ]
In the neighborhood we call Rhode Island, every family comes from somewhere else. If any state can be said to be a laboratory of immigration, it is our tiny corner of New England.
The first white settler, Roger Williams, was a rebel and advocate of religious freedom who landed in Providence in 1636 because he was banished from the suffocating theocracy of Massachusetts.
Later, thousands of immigrants would come to Rhode Island. Some, like Williams, were fleeing tyranny. Many more were seeking jobs and a foothold in a society where they could support their families.
The Irish, running from a poor and famine plagued country, were first. They were followed by French Canadians, Scots, Swedes, Aremenians, Jews, Russians, Polish, Portuguese, Greeks, Italians and Cape Verdeans.
By 1905, 7 of every 10 Rhode Islanders were either first or second generation Americans. This ethnic ballet made Rhode Island the first state to have a Roman Catholic majority, in 1905.
Just about every immigrant group had the same experience. The first generation endured discrimination in every realm of life and at work, where they labored as maids, gardeners, maintenance workers or in the mind-numbing clatter of a textile or jewelry sweat shop.
Now, Rhode Island again is the golden door for a new stream of immigrants, fleeing an African civil war or the poverty of a dusty back road in Latin America. And once again, natives are debating how to treat them.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
the ever-complex issue of immigration
"For us to spend our time pitting neighbor against neighbor was a sacrilege."
- Judith Camp, a city councilwoman in Oak Point, Texas, who voted to kill the city's English-only resolution in December. Her vote is part of a trend of local lawmakers repealing or modifying heavy-handed measures against undocumented immigrants, citing such reasons as the cost of implementation and the negative publicity and racist abuses associated with such laws. (Source: USA Today)
Monday, February 09, 2009
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
air force one
Renewable energy
Feb 3rd 2009
From Economist.com
[thanks cuch]
America has become the world leader in wind power
IN ONE policy area, at least, there is good news for President Barack Obama: his pledge to find alternative energy sources to wean America off its dependence on foreign oil is already being put into action. Last year America ramped up wind-power capacity to 25 gigawatts (GW), overtaking the previous leader, Germany, according to new data from the Global Wind Energy Council. America added 8.4GW of installed power in 2008, more than any other country. China is also investing heavily in wind power, nearly doubling its capacity for the fourth year running. Global capacity grew by 29% last year, the highest annual increase for six years.
(click to see graph)
Monday, February 02, 2009
diva is a female version of a...
the infamous mary b has made providence monthly's most eligible singles.
Friday, January 30, 2009
gaza: nature of war
"We in Gaza are 1.5 million people in need of immediate psychotherapy. But the children especially. They have experienced severe trauma. They should cry. They should shout. But the way they are talking about this tragedy, it's not normal."
-Issam Younis, director general of the al-Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza. At least 280 children were among the 1,300 Palestinians killed in Gaza. Thirteen Israelis died in the war, including three civilians. (Source: The Washington Post)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
john updike 1933-2009
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market –
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That’s it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren’t the same.
-John Updike
shepherd fairey back in providence
