Lamingtons, recipe below:
Saturday, June 12, 2004
Aussie Food: Lamingtons Small squares of plain cake, dipped in melted chocolate and sugar and coated in desiccated coconut.
SPONGE CAKE
3 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cornflour
15g (1/2oz) butter
3 tablespoons hot water
Beat eggs until thick and creamy. Gradually add sugar. Continue beating until sugar completely dissolved. Fold in sifted SR flour and cornflour, then combined water and butter. Pour mixture into prepared lamington tins 18cm x 28cm (7in x 11in).
Bake in moderate oven approximately 30 mins. Let cake stand in pan for 5 min before turning out onto wire rack.
CHOCOLATE ICING
3 cups desiccated coconut
500g (1lb) icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
15g (1/2oz) butter
1/2 cup milk
Sift icing sugar and cocoa into heatproof bowl. Stir in butter and milk. Stir over a pan of hot water until icing is smooth and glossy. Trim brown top and sides from cake.
Cut into 16 even pieces. Holding each piece on a fork, dip each cake into icing.
Hold over bowl a few minutes to drain off excess chocolate. Toss in coconut or sprinkle to coat. Place on oven tray to set. (Cake is easier to handle if made the day before.
Sponge cake or butter cake may be used. May be filled with jam and cream.)
BARON LAMINGTON
Rt Hon Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane Baillie, Baron Lamington, GCMG, Governor of Queensland from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901.
Whilst the origin of the name for the lamington cake cannot be accurately established, there are several theories. One of these theories is that it was originally the slang term for the homburg hat, worn by Baron Lamington, and these cakes were named for him.
Another theory is that they were named after Lady Lamington, the wife of the Governor.
aussie-info
SPONGE CAKE
3 eggs
1/2 cup castor sugar
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cornflour
15g (1/2oz) butter
3 tablespoons hot water
Beat eggs until thick and creamy. Gradually add sugar. Continue beating until sugar completely dissolved. Fold in sifted SR flour and cornflour, then combined water and butter. Pour mixture into prepared lamington tins 18cm x 28cm (7in x 11in).
Bake in moderate oven approximately 30 mins. Let cake stand in pan for 5 min before turning out onto wire rack.
CHOCOLATE ICING
3 cups desiccated coconut
500g (1lb) icing sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
15g (1/2oz) butter
1/2 cup milk
Sift icing sugar and cocoa into heatproof bowl. Stir in butter and milk. Stir over a pan of hot water until icing is smooth and glossy. Trim brown top and sides from cake.
Cut into 16 even pieces. Holding each piece on a fork, dip each cake into icing.
Hold over bowl a few minutes to drain off excess chocolate. Toss in coconut or sprinkle to coat. Place on oven tray to set. (Cake is easier to handle if made the day before.
Sponge cake or butter cake may be used. May be filled with jam and cream.)
BARON LAMINGTON
Rt Hon Charles Wallace Alexander Napier Cochrane Baillie, Baron Lamington, GCMG, Governor of Queensland from 9 April 1896 to 19 December 1901.
Whilst the origin of the name for the lamington cake cannot be accurately established, there are several theories. One of these theories is that it was originally the slang term for the homburg hat, worn by Baron Lamington, and these cakes were named for him.
Another theory is that they were named after Lady Lamington, the wife of the Governor.
aussie-info
Friday, June 11, 2004
The Evil EmpirePresident Reagan's Speech to the House of Commons, June 8, 1982.
We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention -- totalitarianism. Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not at all fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none -- not one regime -- has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.
The strength of the Solidarity movement in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an underground joke in the Soviet Union. It is that the Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted because everyone would join the opposition party....
Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe--indeed, the world--would look very different today. And certainly they will note it was not the democracies that invaded Afghanistan or suppressed Polish Solidarity or used chemical and toxin warfare in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia.
If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly. We see around us today the marks of our terrible dilemma--predictions of doomsday, antinuclear demonstrations, an arms race in which the West must, for its own protection, be an unwilling participant. At the same time we see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What, then, is our course? Must civilization perish in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?
Sir Winston Churchill refused to accept the inevitability of war or even that it was imminent. He said, "I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines. But what we have to consider here today while time remains is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries."
Well, this is precisely our mission today: to preserve freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we live now at a turning point.
In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West but in the home of Marxism- Leninism, the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the fifties and is less than half of what it was then.
The dimensions of this failure are astounding: a country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people. Were it not for the private sector, the tiny private sector tolerated in Soviet agriculture, the country might be on the brink of famine. These private plots occupy a bare 3 percent of the arable land but account for nearly one-quarter of Soviet farm output and nearly one-third of meat products and vegetables. Overcentralized, with little or no incentives, year after year the Soviet system pours its best resources into the making of instruments of destruction. The constant shrinkage of economic growth combined with the growth of military production is putting a heavy strain on the Soviet people. What we see here is a political structure that no longer corresponds to its economic base, a society where productive forced are hampered by political ones.
The decay of the Soviet experiment should come as no surprise to us. Wherever the comparisons have been made between free and closed societies -- West Germany and East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Vietnam -- it is the democratic countries that are prosperous and responsive to the needs of their people. And one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our time is this: of all the millions of refugees we've seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward the Communist world. Today on the NATO line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the Soviet forces also face east to prevent their people from leaving.
The hard evidence of totalitarian rule has caused in mankind an uprising of the intellect and will. Whether it is the growth of the new schools of economics in America or England or the appearance of the so-called new philosophers in France, there is one unifying thread running through the intellectual work of these groups -- rejection of the arbitrary power of the state, the refusal to subordinate the rights of the individual to the superstate, the realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses....
Chairman Brezhnev repeatedly has stressed that the competition of ideas and systems must continue and that this is entirely consistent with relaxation of tensions and peace.
Well, we ask only that these systems begin by living up to their own constitutions, abiding by their own laws, and complying with the international obligations they have undertaken. We ask only for a process, a direction, a basic code of decency, not for an instant transformation.
We cannot ignore the fact that even without our encouragement there has been and will continue to be repeated explosion against repression and dictatorships. The Soviet Union itself is not immune to this reality. Any system is inherently unstable that has no peaceful means to legitimize its leaders. In such cases, the very repressiveness of the state ultimately drives people to resist it, if necessary, by force.
While we must be cautious about forcing the pace of change, we must not hesitate to declare our ultimate objectives and to take concrete actions to move toward them. We must be staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings. So states the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, among other things, guarantees free elections.
The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.
This is not cultural imperialism; it is providing the means for genuine self-determination and protection for diversity. Democracy already flourishes in countries with very different cultures and historical experiences. It would be cultural condescension, or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote, decide to purchase government propaganda handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by the state instead of those who till it, want government repression of religious liberty, a single political party instead of a free choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of democratic tolerance and diversity.
Since 1917 the Soviet Union has given covert political training and assistance to Marxist-Leninists in many countries. Of course, it also has promoted the use of violence and subversion by these same forces. Over the past several decades, West European and other social democrats, Christian democrats, and leaders have offered open assistance to fraternal, political, and social institutions to bring about peaceful and democratic progress. Appropriately, for a vigorous new democracy, the Federal Republic of Germany's political foundations have become a major force in this effort.
We in America now intend to take additional steps, as many of our allies have already done, toward realizing this same goal. The chairmen and other leaders of the national Republican and Democratic party organizations are initiating a study with the bipartisan American Political Foundation to determine how the United States can best contribute as a nation to the global campaign for democracy now gathering force. They will have the cooperation of congressional leaders of both parties, along with representatives of business, labor, and other major institutions in our society. I look forward to receiving their recommendations and to working with these institutions and the Congress in the common task of strengthening democracy throughout the world.
It is time that we committed ourselves as a nation -- in both the public and private sectors -- to assisting democratic development....
What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people. And that's why we must continue our efforts to strengthen NATO even as we move forward with our zero-option initiative in the negotiations on intermediate-range forces and our proposal for a one-third reduction in strategic ballistic missile warheads.
Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil. Here among you is the cradle of self-government, the Mother of Parliaments. Here is the enduring greatness of the British contribution to mankind, the great civilized ideas: individual liberty, representative government, and the rule of law under God.
I've often wondered about the shyness of some of us in the West about standing for these ideals that have done so much to ease the plight of man and the hardships of our imperfect world. This reluctance to use those vast resources at our command reminds me of the elderly lady whose home was bombed in the blitz. As the rescuers moved about, they found a bottle of brandy she'd stored behind the staircase, which was all that was left standing. And since she was barely conscious, one of the workers pulled the cork to give her a taste of it. She came around immediately and said, "Here now -- there now, put it back. That's for emergencies."
Well, the emergency is upon us. Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.
During the dark days of the Second World War, when this island was incandescent with courage, Winston Churchill exclaimed about Britain's adversaries, "What kind of people do they think we are?" Well, Britain's adversaries found out what extraordinary people the British are. But all the democracies paid a terrible price for allowing the dictators to underestimate us. We dare not make that mistake again. So, let us ask ourselves, "What kind of people do we think we are?" And let us answer, "Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well."
Sir Winston led his people to great victory in war and then lost an election just as the fruits of victory were about to be enjoyed. But he left office honorably and, as it turned out, temporarily, knowing that the liberty of his people was more important than the fate of any single leader. History recalls his greatness in ways no dictator will ever know. And he left us a message of hope for the future, as timely now as when he first uttered it, as opposition leader in the Commons nearly twenty-seven years ago, when he said, "When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have," he said, "come safely through the worst."
Well, the task I've set forth will long outlive our own generation. But together, we too have come through the worst. Let us now begin a major effort to secure the best -- a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation. For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.
We're approaching the end of a bloody century plagued by a terrible political invention -- totalitarianism. Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refined their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not at all fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than thirty years to establish their legitimacy. But none -- not one regime -- has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.
The strength of the Solidarity movement in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an underground joke in the Soviet Union. It is that the Soviet Union would remain a one-party nation even if an opposition party were permitted because everyone would join the opposition party....
Historians looking back at our time will note the consistent restraint and peaceful intentions of the West. They will note that it was the democracies who refused to use the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly been in the hands of the Communist world, the map of Europe--indeed, the world--would look very different today. And certainly they will note it was not the democracies that invaded Afghanistan or suppressed Polish Solidarity or used chemical and toxin warfare in Afghanistan and Southeast Asia.
If history teaches anything, it teaches self-delusion in the face of unpleasant facts is folly. We see around us today the marks of our terrible dilemma--predictions of doomsday, antinuclear demonstrations, an arms race in which the West must, for its own protection, be an unwilling participant. At the same time we see totalitarian forces in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What, then, is our course? Must civilization perish in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?
Sir Winston Churchill refused to accept the inevitability of war or even that it was imminent. He said, "I do not believe that Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines. But what we have to consider here today while time remains is the permanent prevention of war and the establishment of conditions of freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries."
Well, this is precisely our mission today: to preserve freedom as well as peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we live now at a turning point.
In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West but in the home of Marxism- Leninism, the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the fifties and is less than half of what it was then.
The dimensions of this failure are astounding: a country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people. Were it not for the private sector, the tiny private sector tolerated in Soviet agriculture, the country might be on the brink of famine. These private plots occupy a bare 3 percent of the arable land but account for nearly one-quarter of Soviet farm output and nearly one-third of meat products and vegetables. Overcentralized, with little or no incentives, year after year the Soviet system pours its best resources into the making of instruments of destruction. The constant shrinkage of economic growth combined with the growth of military production is putting a heavy strain on the Soviet people. What we see here is a political structure that no longer corresponds to its economic base, a society where productive forced are hampered by political ones.
The decay of the Soviet experiment should come as no surprise to us. Wherever the comparisons have been made between free and closed societies -- West Germany and East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Vietnam -- it is the democratic countries that are prosperous and responsive to the needs of their people. And one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our time is this: of all the millions of refugees we've seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward the Communist world. Today on the NATO line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the Soviet forces also face east to prevent their people from leaving.
The hard evidence of totalitarian rule has caused in mankind an uprising of the intellect and will. Whether it is the growth of the new schools of economics in America or England or the appearance of the so-called new philosophers in France, there is one unifying thread running through the intellectual work of these groups -- rejection of the arbitrary power of the state, the refusal to subordinate the rights of the individual to the superstate, the realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses....
Chairman Brezhnev repeatedly has stressed that the competition of ideas and systems must continue and that this is entirely consistent with relaxation of tensions and peace.
Well, we ask only that these systems begin by living up to their own constitutions, abiding by their own laws, and complying with the international obligations they have undertaken. We ask only for a process, a direction, a basic code of decency, not for an instant transformation.
We cannot ignore the fact that even without our encouragement there has been and will continue to be repeated explosion against repression and dictatorships. The Soviet Union itself is not immune to this reality. Any system is inherently unstable that has no peaceful means to legitimize its leaders. In such cases, the very repressiveness of the state ultimately drives people to resist it, if necessary, by force.
While we must be cautious about forcing the pace of change, we must not hesitate to declare our ultimate objectives and to take concrete actions to move toward them. We must be staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky few but the inalienable and universal right of all human beings. So states the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, among other things, guarantees free elections.
The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.
This is not cultural imperialism; it is providing the means for genuine self-determination and protection for diversity. Democracy already flourishes in countries with very different cultures and historical experiences. It would be cultural condescension, or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote, decide to purchase government propaganda handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by the state instead of those who till it, want government repression of religious liberty, a single political party instead of a free choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of democratic tolerance and diversity.
Since 1917 the Soviet Union has given covert political training and assistance to Marxist-Leninists in many countries. Of course, it also has promoted the use of violence and subversion by these same forces. Over the past several decades, West European and other social democrats, Christian democrats, and leaders have offered open assistance to fraternal, political, and social institutions to bring about peaceful and democratic progress. Appropriately, for a vigorous new democracy, the Federal Republic of Germany's political foundations have become a major force in this effort.
We in America now intend to take additional steps, as many of our allies have already done, toward realizing this same goal. The chairmen and other leaders of the national Republican and Democratic party organizations are initiating a study with the bipartisan American Political Foundation to determine how the United States can best contribute as a nation to the global campaign for democracy now gathering force. They will have the cooperation of congressional leaders of both parties, along with representatives of business, labor, and other major institutions in our society. I look forward to receiving their recommendations and to working with these institutions and the Congress in the common task of strengthening democracy throughout the world.
It is time that we committed ourselves as a nation -- in both the public and private sectors -- to assisting democratic development....
What I am describing now is a plan and a hope for the long term -- the march of freedom and democracy which will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people. And that's why we must continue our efforts to strengthen NATO even as we move forward with our zero-option initiative in the negotiations on intermediate-range forces and our proposal for a one-third reduction in strategic ballistic missile warheads.
Our military strength is a prerequisite to peace, but let it be clear we maintain this strength in the hope it will never be used, for the ultimate determinant in the struggle that's now going on in the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The British people know that, given strong leadership, time, and a little bit of hope, the forces of good ultimately rally and triumph over evil. Here among you is the cradle of self-government, the Mother of Parliaments. Here is the enduring greatness of the British contribution to mankind, the great civilized ideas: individual liberty, representative government, and the rule of law under God.
I've often wondered about the shyness of some of us in the West about standing for these ideals that have done so much to ease the plight of man and the hardships of our imperfect world. This reluctance to use those vast resources at our command reminds me of the elderly lady whose home was bombed in the blitz. As the rescuers moved about, they found a bottle of brandy she'd stored behind the staircase, which was all that was left standing. And since she was barely conscious, one of the workers pulled the cork to give her a taste of it. She came around immediately and said, "Here now -- there now, put it back. That's for emergencies."
Well, the emergency is upon us. Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.
During the dark days of the Second World War, when this island was incandescent with courage, Winston Churchill exclaimed about Britain's adversaries, "What kind of people do they think we are?" Well, Britain's adversaries found out what extraordinary people the British are. But all the democracies paid a terrible price for allowing the dictators to underestimate us. We dare not make that mistake again. So, let us ask ourselves, "What kind of people do we think we are?" And let us answer, "Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well."
Sir Winston led his people to great victory in war and then lost an election just as the fruits of victory were about to be enjoyed. But he left office honorably and, as it turned out, temporarily, knowing that the liberty of his people was more important than the fate of any single leader. History recalls his greatness in ways no dictator will ever know. And he left us a message of hope for the future, as timely now as when he first uttered it, as opposition leader in the Commons nearly twenty-seven years ago, when he said, "When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have," he said, "come safely through the worst."
Well, the task I've set forth will long outlive our own generation. But together, we too have come through the worst. Let us now begin a major effort to secure the best -- a crusade for freedom that will engage the faith and fortitude of the next generation. For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
LOVE YOUR ENEMY
The prescription to love your enemy and to requite evil with good is sometimes thought of as an impractical and perfectionist ethic, able to be practiced only by a few exceptional souls. But, in fact, this doctrine is widely taught in all religions as a fundamental principle for pursuing relationships with others. The person who insists upon vengeance or retribution is not necessarily committing a crime, but neither will his act of revenge be helpful to spiritual advancement. Revenge, which requites evil with evil, only multiplies evil in the world, while love, by in which one strives to overcome evil with good, spreads goodness in the world.
True love is unconditional and impartial--thus the metaphor of the sun that shines down on all life. It is tested and proven by encounters with those who are difficult to love. Where true love prevails, there no enemies are found.
The concluding passages dispute the prescription to love your enemy when it apparently contravenes the principles of justice and right. Sometimes the best way to love an evil person is to make him face justice, or to hinder him from doing wrong. Nevertheless, these corrective actions should be done with a loving heart and with the other person's welfare uppermost in mind.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!" In those who harbor such thoughts hatred is not appeased.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!" In those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred is appeased.
Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world; through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law. 1.Buddhism. Dhammapada 3-5
Dhammapada 3-5: Cf. Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9.4, p. 850.
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Christianity. Matthew 5.43-48
My Lord! Others have fallen back in showing compassion to their benefactors as you have shown compassion even to your malefactors. All this is unparalleled.
Jainism. Vitaragastava 14.5
Of the adage, Only a good man knows how to like people, knows how to dislike them, Confucius said, "He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon Goodness will dislike no one."
Confucianism. Analects 4.3-4
I should be like the sun, shining universally on all without seeking thanks or reward, able to take care of all sentient beings even if they are bad, never giving up on my vows on this account, not abandoning all sentient beings because one sentient being is evil.
Buddhism. Garland Sutra 23
What kind of love is this that to another can shift? Says Nanak, True lovers are those who are forever absorbed in the Beloved. Whoever discriminates between treatment held good or bad, Is not a true lover--he rather is caught in calculations.
Sikhism. Adi Granth, Asa-ki-Var, M.2, p. 474
The sage has no fixed [personal] ideas.
He regards the people's ideas as his own.
I treat those who are good with goodness,
And I also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
I am honest with those who are honest,
And I am also honest with those who are dishonest.
Thus honesty is attained.
Taoism. Tao Te Ching 49
It may be that God will ordain love between you and those whom you hold as enemies. For God has power over all things; and God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
Islam. Qur'an 60.7
Aid an enemy before you aid a friend, to subdue hatred.
Judaism. Tosefta, Baba Metzia 2.26
Do good to him who has done you an injury.
Taoism. Tao Te Ching 63
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Christianity. Romans 12.21
God said, "Resemble Me; just as I repay good for evil so do you also repay good for evil."
Judaism. Exodus Rabbah 26.2
Conquer anger by love. Conquer evil by good. Conquer the stingy by giving. Conquer the liar by truth.
Buddhism. Dhammapada 223
Man should subvert anger by forgiveness, subdue pride by modesty, overcome hypocrisy with simplicity, and greed by contentment.
Jainism. Samanasuttam 136
May generosity triumph over niggardliness,
May love triumph over contempt,
May the true-spoken word triumph over the false-spoken word,
May truth triumph over falsehood.
Zoroastrianism. Yasna 60.5
The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo!, he between whom and you there was enmity shall become as though he were a bosom friend.
But none is granted it save those who are steadfast, and none is granted it save a person of great good fortune.
Islam. Qur'an 41.34-35
A superior being does not render evil for evil; this is a maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct. One should never harm the wicked or the good or even criminals meriting death. A noble soul will ever exercise compassion even towards those who enjoy injuring others or those of cruel deeds when they are actually committing them--for who is without fault?
Hinduism. Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda 115
Someone said, "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" The Master said, "With what will you then recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness."
Confucianism. Analects 14.36
According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet said, "Help your brother whether he is oppressor or oppressed."
According to Anas, after the Messenger of God said, "Help your brother whether he is oppressor or oppressed," Anas replied to him, "O Messenger of God, a man who is oppressed I am ready to help, but how does one help an oppressor?" "By hindering him doing wrong," he said.
Islam. Hadith of Bukhari
from the moonies no less
The prescription to love your enemy and to requite evil with good is sometimes thought of as an impractical and perfectionist ethic, able to be practiced only by a few exceptional souls. But, in fact, this doctrine is widely taught in all religions as a fundamental principle for pursuing relationships with others. The person who insists upon vengeance or retribution is not necessarily committing a crime, but neither will his act of revenge be helpful to spiritual advancement. Revenge, which requites evil with evil, only multiplies evil in the world, while love, by in which one strives to overcome evil with good, spreads goodness in the world.
True love is unconditional and impartial--thus the metaphor of the sun that shines down on all life. It is tested and proven by encounters with those who are difficult to love. Where true love prevails, there no enemies are found.
The concluding passages dispute the prescription to love your enemy when it apparently contravenes the principles of justice and right. Sometimes the best way to love an evil person is to make him face justice, or to hinder him from doing wrong. Nevertheless, these corrective actions should be done with a loving heart and with the other person's welfare uppermost in mind.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!" In those who harbor such thoughts hatred is not appeased.
"He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me!" In those who do not harbor such thoughts hatred is appeased.
Hatreds never cease through hatred in this world; through love alone they cease. This is an eternal law. 1.Buddhism. Dhammapada 3-5
Dhammapada 3-5: Cf. Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim 9.4, p. 850.
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Christianity. Matthew 5.43-48
My Lord! Others have fallen back in showing compassion to their benefactors as you have shown compassion even to your malefactors. All this is unparalleled.
Jainism. Vitaragastava 14.5
Of the adage, Only a good man knows how to like people, knows how to dislike them, Confucius said, "He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon Goodness will dislike no one."
Confucianism. Analects 4.3-4
I should be like the sun, shining universally on all without seeking thanks or reward, able to take care of all sentient beings even if they are bad, never giving up on my vows on this account, not abandoning all sentient beings because one sentient being is evil.
Buddhism. Garland Sutra 23
What kind of love is this that to another can shift? Says Nanak, True lovers are those who are forever absorbed in the Beloved. Whoever discriminates between treatment held good or bad, Is not a true lover--he rather is caught in calculations.
Sikhism. Adi Granth, Asa-ki-Var, M.2, p. 474
The sage has no fixed [personal] ideas.
He regards the people's ideas as his own.
I treat those who are good with goodness,
And I also treat those who are not good with goodness.
Thus goodness is attained.
I am honest with those who are honest,
And I am also honest with those who are dishonest.
Thus honesty is attained.
Taoism. Tao Te Ching 49
It may be that God will ordain love between you and those whom you hold as enemies. For God has power over all things; and God is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
Islam. Qur'an 60.7
Aid an enemy before you aid a friend, to subdue hatred.
Judaism. Tosefta, Baba Metzia 2.26
Do good to him who has done you an injury.
Taoism. Tao Te Ching 63
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Christianity. Romans 12.21
God said, "Resemble Me; just as I repay good for evil so do you also repay good for evil."
Judaism. Exodus Rabbah 26.2
Conquer anger by love. Conquer evil by good. Conquer the stingy by giving. Conquer the liar by truth.
Buddhism. Dhammapada 223
Man should subvert anger by forgiveness, subdue pride by modesty, overcome hypocrisy with simplicity, and greed by contentment.
Jainism. Samanasuttam 136
May generosity triumph over niggardliness,
May love triumph over contempt,
May the true-spoken word triumph over the false-spoken word,
May truth triumph over falsehood.
Zoroastrianism. Yasna 60.5
The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo!, he between whom and you there was enmity shall become as though he were a bosom friend.
But none is granted it save those who are steadfast, and none is granted it save a person of great good fortune.
Islam. Qur'an 41.34-35
A superior being does not render evil for evil; this is a maxim one should observe; the ornament of virtuous persons is their conduct. One should never harm the wicked or the good or even criminals meriting death. A noble soul will ever exercise compassion even towards those who enjoy injuring others or those of cruel deeds when they are actually committing them--for who is without fault?
Hinduism. Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda 115
Someone said, "What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?" The Master said, "With what will you then recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness."
Confucianism. Analects 14.36
According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet said, "Help your brother whether he is oppressor or oppressed."
According to Anas, after the Messenger of God said, "Help your brother whether he is oppressor or oppressed," Anas replied to him, "O Messenger of God, a man who is oppressed I am ready to help, but how does one help an oppressor?" "By hindering him doing wrong," he said.
Islam. Hadith of Bukhari
from the moonies no less
Wednesday, June 09, 2004
The Guardian UK has three stories of Darfur:
Ewen Macaskill in Darfur Tuesday June 8, 2004
'They came at dawn and killed the men' Sudan refugees tell of world's worst humanitarian disaster
Richard Dowden Tuesday June 8, 2004
Broken on the old battlelines drawn in the Saharan sands
Ewen MacAskill in Khartoum Wednesday June 9, 2004
Britain prefers monitors to military action to avert disaster in Sudan
Please talk about Darfur to your friends and workplace associates and spread the word!
Ewen Macaskill in Darfur Tuesday June 8, 2004
'They came at dawn and killed the men' Sudan refugees tell of world's worst humanitarian disaster
Richard Dowden Tuesday June 8, 2004
Broken on the old battlelines drawn in the Saharan sands
Ewen MacAskill in Khartoum Wednesday June 9, 2004
Britain prefers monitors to military action to avert disaster in Sudan
Please talk about Darfur to your friends and workplace associates and spread the word!
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Darfur Update:
Jun 7, 2004 Washington
The Bush administration Monday defended its handling of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region. It reiterated that U.S. relations with Sudan cannot be normalized as long as the situation in Darfur continues. US Aides Reject Criticism of Darfur Role
World Must Act on Darfur Crisis, Says Kerry Jun 8, 2004 Washington
The presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, expressed concern about Darfur in a statement Monday. Also Monday a Washington Post newspaper editorial said that the United States and key allies had been so anxious to get an agreement ending Sudan's north-south civil war that they have "shrunk" from pressuring Khartoum on greater access to Darfur. Meanwhile the Bush administration defended its handling of the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region.
'Disaster' in Sudan draws world leaders' attention
Rising concern over the refugee crisis in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region burst onto government radar screens in Washington and London yesterday, with key cabinet ministers warning of a looming disaster.
At the same time, a key United Nations agency called for a dramatic boost in international aid to stave off catastrophe among an estimated 350,000 people facing death from hunger and disease.
Sudan: Incommunicado detentions, unfair trials, torture and ill-treatment - the hidden side of the Darfur conflict
Amnesty International:While international attention has focussed on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the failure of the legal system which underpins the human rights crisis has gone largely unnoticed, Amnesty International said today in a memorandum to the Sudan Government and the recently-appointed Sudanese Commission of Inquiry.
The vast majority of detainees in Darfur and those arrested outside Darfur in connection with the conflict are not told the reasons for their arrest and are not allowed access to lawyers, families, and medical assistance. They are denied their right to be brought promptly before a judge or other judicial official; the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and the right to be treated humanely. Torture is widespread.
"The failure of the justice system cannot be ignored. Injustice is not just a consequence of the conflict, it is one of its causes. These abuses, like the fighting, will worsen if immediate preventative measures aren't taken," Amnesty International warned.
Darfur's Desperation Todays editorial from latimes:
The death toll in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, in the last year is staggering: 10,000 by conservative estimates, 30,000 by a reckoning of the nonpartisan International Crisis Group. In response, President Bush last month said Sudan "must immediately stop local militias from committing atrocities against the local population"; the European Union said it was "essential that the Sudanese government fulfill its commitment to control the irregular armed forces." These well-meaning demands have proved pathetically ineffective in stopping Sudan's government-backed ethnic cleansing. Stronger measures, up to and including military intervention, are needed.
The heads of the world's leading industrial nations should put Darfur atop the agenda at the Group of 8 summit in Sea Island, Ga., this week. European nations, which failed to intervene in the face of similar atrocities in the Balkans and Rwanda, should warn Sudan they will dispatch troops if the ethnic cleansing is not halted. France has peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast, and British troops helped end a civil war in Sierra Leone two years ago. A troop commitment from the European powers is needed because the United States is simply stretched too thin by the Iraq conflict to send a significant peacekeeping force to Darfur.
Sudan's Arab rulers, in part by agreeing to share oil revenues, completed a preliminary peace deal with Christian and animist rebels in the south who had waged a 21-year civil war. The peace talks inflamed two rebel groups in the west, which protested being left out of the spoils. Militias armed by the government in the capital, Khartoum, have battled the rebels and pillaged civilians of the Zaghawa, Fur and Massalit tribes. The civil war has forced more than 1 million from their homes, more than 100,000 of them fleeing into neighboring Chad. The lucky ones live in refugee camps in terrible conditions; the less fortunate brave sandstorms in the brutal desert.
Lack of water and food means that many more Darfurians will die. Last week Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that even if relief efforts were accelerated, more than 300,000 forced from their homes would die of starvation and disease. If Sudan keeps blocking aid or foreign governments hesitate, Natsios said, the "death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching 1 million people."
The U.S. joined the rest of the world a decade ago in watching Hutus kill Tutsis in a genocide in Rwanda that left more than 800,000 people slain. The anniversary of those killings brought great international lamentation two months ago. But the global community possessed the power to stop that crisis, just as it does this one. What it requires is political will to exercise that power, especially from European nations that in the past have been all too reluctant to commit troops in the face of mass slaughter.
Jun 7, 2004 Washington
The Bush administration Monday defended its handling of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region. It reiterated that U.S. relations with Sudan cannot be normalized as long as the situation in Darfur continues. US Aides Reject Criticism of Darfur Role
World Must Act on Darfur Crisis, Says Kerry Jun 8, 2004 Washington
The presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, expressed concern about Darfur in a statement Monday. Also Monday a Washington Post newspaper editorial said that the United States and key allies had been so anxious to get an agreement ending Sudan's north-south civil war that they have "shrunk" from pressuring Khartoum on greater access to Darfur. Meanwhile the Bush administration defended its handling of the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region.
'Disaster' in Sudan draws world leaders' attention
Rising concern over the refugee crisis in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region burst onto government radar screens in Washington and London yesterday, with key cabinet ministers warning of a looming disaster.
At the same time, a key United Nations agency called for a dramatic boost in international aid to stave off catastrophe among an estimated 350,000 people facing death from hunger and disease.
Sudan: Incommunicado detentions, unfair trials, torture and ill-treatment - the hidden side of the Darfur conflict
Amnesty International:While international attention has focussed on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the failure of the legal system which underpins the human rights crisis has gone largely unnoticed, Amnesty International said today in a memorandum to the Sudan Government and the recently-appointed Sudanese Commission of Inquiry.
The vast majority of detainees in Darfur and those arrested outside Darfur in connection with the conflict are not told the reasons for their arrest and are not allowed access to lawyers, families, and medical assistance. They are denied their right to be brought promptly before a judge or other judicial official; the right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention and the right to be treated humanely. Torture is widespread.
"The failure of the justice system cannot be ignored. Injustice is not just a consequence of the conflict, it is one of its causes. These abuses, like the fighting, will worsen if immediate preventative measures aren't taken," Amnesty International warned.
Darfur's Desperation Todays editorial from latimes:
The death toll in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, in the last year is staggering: 10,000 by conservative estimates, 30,000 by a reckoning of the nonpartisan International Crisis Group. In response, President Bush last month said Sudan "must immediately stop local militias from committing atrocities against the local population"; the European Union said it was "essential that the Sudanese government fulfill its commitment to control the irregular armed forces." These well-meaning demands have proved pathetically ineffective in stopping Sudan's government-backed ethnic cleansing. Stronger measures, up to and including military intervention, are needed.
The heads of the world's leading industrial nations should put Darfur atop the agenda at the Group of 8 summit in Sea Island, Ga., this week. European nations, which failed to intervene in the face of similar atrocities in the Balkans and Rwanda, should warn Sudan they will dispatch troops if the ethnic cleansing is not halted. France has peacekeeping troops in Ivory Coast, and British troops helped end a civil war in Sierra Leone two years ago. A troop commitment from the European powers is needed because the United States is simply stretched too thin by the Iraq conflict to send a significant peacekeeping force to Darfur.
Sudan's Arab rulers, in part by agreeing to share oil revenues, completed a preliminary peace deal with Christian and animist rebels in the south who had waged a 21-year civil war. The peace talks inflamed two rebel groups in the west, which protested being left out of the spoils. Militias armed by the government in the capital, Khartoum, have battled the rebels and pillaged civilians of the Zaghawa, Fur and Massalit tribes. The civil war has forced more than 1 million from their homes, more than 100,000 of them fleeing into neighboring Chad. The lucky ones live in refugee camps in terrible conditions; the less fortunate brave sandstorms in the brutal desert.
Lack of water and food means that many more Darfurians will die. Last week Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that even if relief efforts were accelerated, more than 300,000 forced from their homes would die of starvation and disease. If Sudan keeps blocking aid or foreign governments hesitate, Natsios said, the "death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching 1 million people."
The U.S. joined the rest of the world a decade ago in watching Hutus kill Tutsis in a genocide in Rwanda that left more than 800,000 people slain. The anniversary of those killings brought great international lamentation two months ago. But the global community possessed the power to stop that crisis, just as it does this one. What it requires is political will to exercise that power, especially from European nations that in the past have been all too reluctant to commit troops in the face of mass slaughter.
I just watched part of the BBC World news.
A feature item was a look at the waves of USA aircraft flying into Afghanistan to create a huge new airbase. This is being built to try and finish the hunt for UBL. One USA grunt who was interviewed stated inter alia that this was going to stop terrorist attacks in the USA, he will feel safe from aircraft crashing into buildings and will be able to go shopping without worrying about someone have explosives strapped on them going into the malls...
He really meant what he was saying, a true believer that the war on terror will stop terrorism. I remember as a kid the red brigade, the IRA, and the weather underground and assorted attacks on Israelis. There is a collective amnesia that dulls the reasoning of many alive today...
I feel almost paralysed in my ability to do anything about it...
Global concerns however must be addressed at the local level. I will continue to try to be more friendly to those around me, and be more active in promoting peace in the Canberra community.
shameless advert for the blogger network:The Sound of Blogging
What is the sound of one blogger blogging? If you post to your blog from the woods and nobody hears it, did you really post? Audioblogger will solve these riddles.
A feature item was a look at the waves of USA aircraft flying into Afghanistan to create a huge new airbase. This is being built to try and finish the hunt for UBL. One USA grunt who was interviewed stated inter alia that this was going to stop terrorist attacks in the USA, he will feel safe from aircraft crashing into buildings and will be able to go shopping without worrying about someone have explosives strapped on them going into the malls...
He really meant what he was saying, a true believer that the war on terror will stop terrorism. I remember as a kid the red brigade, the IRA, and the weather underground and assorted attacks on Israelis. There is a collective amnesia that dulls the reasoning of many alive today...
I feel almost paralysed in my ability to do anything about it...
Global concerns however must be addressed at the local level. I will continue to try to be more friendly to those around me, and be more active in promoting peace in the Canberra community.
shameless advert for the blogger network:The Sound of Blogging
What is the sound of one blogger blogging? If you post to your blog from the woods and nobody hears it, did you really post? Audioblogger will solve these riddles.
ON a serious note (hattip Tina)
Darfur starvation will be televised ... eventually
By Andrew Stroehlein
BRUSSELS – When people are starving en masse, television is there to capture their fly-covered faces as they expire. The world is appalled by the repeated images of the dying and is stirred to action: People open up their purses to charity appeals, and politicians feel strong public pressure to address the famine and its root causes at the highest level.
But mass starvation doesn't just appear out of nowhere in an instant, so where are the TV cameras just before the emaciated bodies start piling up?
continues:
CSM 8th June 2004
ON a lighter and fluffier note:
You may not know that many non-living things have a gender. For example:
1. Ziploc Bags - They are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2. Copiers - They are Female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3. Tyre - Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4. Hot Air Balloon - Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it and, of course, there's the hot air part.
5. Sponges - Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6. Web Page - Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7. Subway - Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8. Hourglass - Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9. Hammer - Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10. Remote Control - Female...... Ha! You thought it'd be male. But consider this -- it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.
Darfur starvation will be televised ... eventually
By Andrew Stroehlein
BRUSSELS – When people are starving en masse, television is there to capture their fly-covered faces as they expire. The world is appalled by the repeated images of the dying and is stirred to action: People open up their purses to charity appeals, and politicians feel strong public pressure to address the famine and its root causes at the highest level.
But mass starvation doesn't just appear out of nowhere in an instant, so where are the TV cameras just before the emaciated bodies start piling up?
continues:
CSM 8th June 2004
ON a lighter and fluffier note:
You may not know that many non-living things have a gender. For example:
1. Ziploc Bags - They are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2. Copiers - They are Female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3. Tyre - Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4. Hot Air Balloon - Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it and, of course, there's the hot air part.
5. Sponges - Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6. Web Page - Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7. Subway - Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8. Hourglass - Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9. Hammer - Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10. Remote Control - Female...... Ha! You thought it'd be male. But consider this -- it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.
Sunday, June 06, 2004
NEVER EVER TALK TO CHILDREN IF YOU ARE FAMOUSE, and when you google news (venus) never be surprised:
Post-Clinton blow to ego Alan Taylor's Diary
SEEING John Updike at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival gladdened the heart. The Guardian, ever alert to accusations of dumbing down, asked him if he felt like Tom Cruise. Updike, who is 72, said: “I feel like an elderly Tom Cruise.” His appearance at Hay – “the Woodstock of the mind”, according to Bill Clinton, last year’s star turn – was presented as a coup, the next best thing to exhuming JD Salinger.
But it is worth remembering that long before Hay had been conceived Mr Updike was the top of the bill at the first Edinburgh International Book Festival 21 years ago. On being told that he was in the presence of greatness, one mightily impressed toddler asked: “Is he the man who blows up the balloons?”
sundayherald
Post-Clinton blow to ego Alan Taylor's Diary
SEEING John Updike at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival gladdened the heart. The Guardian, ever alert to accusations of dumbing down, asked him if he felt like Tom Cruise. Updike, who is 72, said: “I feel like an elderly Tom Cruise.” His appearance at Hay – “the Woodstock of the mind”, according to Bill Clinton, last year’s star turn – was presented as a coup, the next best thing to exhuming JD Salinger.
But it is worth remembering that long before Hay had been conceived Mr Updike was the top of the bill at the first Edinburgh International Book Festival 21 years ago. On being told that he was in the presence of greatness, one mightily impressed toddler asked: “Is he the man who blows up the balloons?”
sundayherald
Sunday, a winter morning, it got below freezing again overnight.
Nearly every sunday morning since my return from the UK Helen and I and Ms 6 have a ritual. We take a 8 minute walk thru the suburb to the kippax shops and visit a gardening shop, where a middle eastern family have the food franchise. Coffee for the adults and a baby 'cino for Ms 6. I sometimes indulge in a plate of hot bacon, toast, tomato, and sausage and try not to think of the waistline. I did again this morning. The walk there was bitterly cold, even though the sun was shining. The walk back was not too bad.
Later in the morning I took Ms 6 to Lake Ginniderra, an artificial lake off the central shopping area of Belconnen (to the west of Canberra) that has childrens playgrounds scattered around it. I was dismayed to see the effect of the drought, the water level has dropped several feet and the stench of the exposed mud was a bit much. The once green fields are a 'burnt off' dry brown color. Tree roots are coming up out of the ground in a lost search for water.
My daughter did not notice any of this of course, she was happy kicking the fallen leaves and twigs that cover much of the parkland, and climbing over the play equipment.
Such is the civilised bliss I enjoy whilst in Sudan and the Congo it all gets worse and worse...I ponder these things in my heart and mind, and feel uncomfortable.
Nearly every sunday morning since my return from the UK Helen and I and Ms 6 have a ritual. We take a 8 minute walk thru the suburb to the kippax shops and visit a gardening shop, where a middle eastern family have the food franchise. Coffee for the adults and a baby 'cino for Ms 6. I sometimes indulge in a plate of hot bacon, toast, tomato, and sausage and try not to think of the waistline. I did again this morning. The walk there was bitterly cold, even though the sun was shining. The walk back was not too bad.
Later in the morning I took Ms 6 to Lake Ginniderra, an artificial lake off the central shopping area of Belconnen (to the west of Canberra) that has childrens playgrounds scattered around it. I was dismayed to see the effect of the drought, the water level has dropped several feet and the stench of the exposed mud was a bit much. The once green fields are a 'burnt off' dry brown color. Tree roots are coming up out of the ground in a lost search for water.
My daughter did not notice any of this of course, she was happy kicking the fallen leaves and twigs that cover much of the parkland, and climbing over the play equipment.
Such is the civilised bliss I enjoy whilst in Sudan and the Congo it all gets worse and worse...I ponder these things in my heart and mind, and feel uncomfortable.
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