Freedom Friends Forum

The Haiti telethon is on tv. The songs are wonderful. I made a couple donations so far. I'll figure out if I can give more.
     F is tutoring an undergraduate in engineering math over in the office area. F has many years teaching experience in the area of math and science. He is known by students as the "black genius." This two hour tutoring session has expanded into five so far. This student is really into this because it is saving his mathematics neck.
    The fact that F hasn't already worked for many years is a tribute to the HR system in this country. Indeed it is a tribute that exacts all it can. The system ought to stand and take a bow for this one. Barbarism is often well dressed. So, perhaps they can get a pass for style. He doesn't look like what most people would think of as a professor of engineering. Perhaps this is what HR's problem is. Still, I figure front line HR employees are just deploying amoral corporate policy not of their making.
    He has thoroughly solved the most public and propaganda soaked math problem in existence. I will enjoy it all vastly when the poop hits the fan. May HR melt like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. I'm meeeeeeltiiiing! Melt away.

Last edited by Platonicmonic (2010-01-24 21:45:37)

Today has been an okay day. A good day would have been better. One of these days will be the one where I get a permanent job, insofar as anything is permanent.
      Yeah I am pretty blue collar in more ways than a Magee is supposed to be. I should expect that I'm in violaton of rules of decorum more often than I know. An elevated perception of the world I don't aspire to all that much. I say higher is not always better. I am a lot like my dad, who did not seek elevation and the higher life all that much.
      I think God is in the dirt with us humans. I say angel wings aren't for this realm.

I get to hear many stories of the Congo and points beyond. There aren't too many things more entertaining than stories of Africa. Never could I have imagined that I'd get to hear stuff like this.

I have a "New King James" Bible on my bed. It is an edition with many bells and whistles. It isn't quite altered enough to be the full equivalent of a copy of John Calvin's "Institutes," but it is an edition that isn't meant to be understood as what it is, a collection of stories, but is constructed as a lexicon of traditional Christian metaphysics. Still, tell me the story of Jesus, it's there beneath the gingerbread.

I have been at least skimming wikipedia articles on the subject of narrative theology. My African friend nearly always speaks in the narrative form. I by contrast can barely tell a story, but I am quite capable in the area of dialog. Mr African can do dialog, but he prefers narrative. He keeps the UFO's corralled by making everything into a humorous story that goes on for weeks. The UFO's are his Indian study partners.

Even though I think that the Republicans and their alter ego the Democrats in congress are bought and paid for by military contractors, medical insurance companies, and such, I think there are even worse people in the background. An economist on cspan said that the WTO and the World Bank are institutions that work furiously to prevent banks, hedge funds, and the lot from ever experiencing regulation. Transnational corporations mean to drain the wealth of the planet into their poskets, and what doesn't make it to their pockets is to go down the rabbit hole. So far as I know it has nearly always been thus since the first financial record, whenever that was.
Our nation's founding fathers tried to create a country that was not to be primarily characterized by cheating, thieving, and thuggery. Perhaps a check here and a balance there was the idea.
     I got a temporary machine shop job that starts Tuesday. It sounds like a good deal, professional work atmosphere, and familiar work. The job will last two or three weeks. This is a mighty fine development. I mean to go to PCC for Mastercam software classes. This temporary job will help me make it to school.
     I am hoping that the gloom and doom economic prognosticators are wrong, and an economic recovery will happen.

I got the temporary job, and the first day was today. The day went well. Still, I feel freaked out because jobs are so scarce, and I'm amazed I got one, even a temporary one. It is supposed to last two or three weeks. I hope it goes longer.

I have two work related books that I love. They are titled "Shop Class as Soulcraft," and "In Praise of Hard Industries." This new temp job I have reminds of why I ever wanted to take shop classes in the first place. Hostile work environments can discourage even the most determined would-be workers.
     I have been thinking about the way I feel about the Evangelical Friends, largely my relatives. My feelings about Evangelical anything are hostile at best. I have a tough time feeling okay about my relatives because I oppose their form of religion/society and subculture. Their insularity alone is morally questionable, and things only go downhill from there. I was trying to be generous to a relative and profess my ignorance of the good things Evangelical Friends do. Yet I am angry and grief stricken. I value Childhood's End. Evangelical society won't go there now or ever. I can only watch with stunned and incredulous eyes.
     The Evangelical Friends have way worn out their welcome at the static latch where they are established. A period of dynamism would be required to get to the next level. Such a period of dynamism will not happen for any reason but the demands of external forces and realites should they collide with the evangelical's world view.
     I am but a mere mortal. Who am I to complain about the will of the powerful?
      I think that evangelicals can love people from many walks of life, but the issue of respect is a lot tougher.
     As a contrast, my pastor has a regular job, and is not beholden to church authorities for a living. To be a dynamically effective actor in the world of men, a certain material autonomy appears to be required for a pastor to follow the way of God. To me, the way of God does not get everybody's souls saved for them so much as it ends slavery, homelessness, hunger, and rejection of people for what they are in the way of biological makeup. People are what they are biologically, and so far medicine has not been sufficiently clever to make people fit the proscribed norm as set by the powerful.
     If I had a choice between being a Shetland Pony or an Evangelical, I don't know which I'd choose.

Last edited by Platonicmonic (2010-02-27 18:39:26)

This youtube video is in Chaluba language.
It has a line, "the bird builds it's nest bit by bit."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTWhRAfdehM
Homesick expatriates might decide to walk home if
that's what it takes!

Last edited by Platonicmonic (2010-03-01 20:37:24)

http://obedienttothelight.blogspot.com/ … -life.html

a post you might find interesting, Tim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1FQmUQ1-mM
Grand Theft Congo - DRC

Bear,
      This lapidary stuff is a whole lot more involved than I ever imagined. Shopping a gift for Marie revealed the tip of the iceberg to me where the variety of gems are concerned. I had no idea. Some gems that come from South Africa are perhaps not "blood gems," mined by slaves.
      There are apparently gems that come from war zones. The trade in gems is not a small matter. The lapidary stuff is not a small matter. The reason for this is that excellent jewelry can be made using stones that look wonderful after they have been "lapidized."
Tim

Last edited by Platonicmonic (2010-03-07 18:35:22)

Re: the grand theft Congo video.

It is a mistake to think that the Kabila government in Kinshasa has any direct control over these soldiers. Local generals do exactly as they please, and pocket the proceeds personally.  They are like many personal armies. There is little communication and less control over these soldiers. Consider them mercenaries. The low levels soldiers you see are not much better off than the miners. They probably have not been paid for months either.  They carry guns, and commit much mayhem and violence, but they do not benefit  personally from their larceny either.

Been sick as a dog with a cold. These "colds" seem like the very plague to me. Was out of it and showed up to church an hour late. Pathetic enough.
      People must have spent a lot of time in the library in decades past. I find people publishing articles they wrote 25 and 30 years ago now on the internet. One paper I read recently went to great and patient length to explain how St. Paul's and Jesus' teachings diverge in approach to a great degree. The article in essence said that
if Jesus' teachings are held to be the legit voice of the Christian religion, probably St. Paul should be allowed to fall into disuse. Be it all as it may, the Bible keeps getting thinner and thinner.
      Perhaps doing as churches do now is really the only way. They simply ignore parts of the Bible they don't find useful.
      Pointing out that ancient religions are mostly gingerbread with a core of truth within might be stating the obvious, but in the real world I think it will have to be enough. I am willing to alllow that a lot of times, the truth is more trouble than it's worth. Being too much of a stickler makes a man a religious nutball or an atheist for all his earnest trouble. I think atheism is a heavy backpack to carry, and nutballitis is no picnic.