Friday, March 21, 2008

[pascha] western and eastern


Russian Pascha is in a few weeks in April. Western Good Friday is today.

The time leading up to today, for me, has been a personal rollercoaster of faith related matters and if the blogging has been distinctly strange, you don't know the half of it - devastating day in the Christian calendar and ditto on the personal front.

I still stand by the idealism and the chivalry though. I still believe they are better than the alternative.

I wish all of you living in the west the very best on your Easter break.

Ryan Campbell

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genelogy - Family history

Hannah Banana

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Roots

[chance] and the rejection of the dream


The fragility of life was shown yesterday in two incidents, one private and one public:

A 34-kilogram stingray killed a Michigan woman when it flew out of the water and struck her face as she rode a boat in the Florida Keys in the United States, officials said.

Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Michigan, was sitting in a boat going at 40kmh when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 1.5 to 1.82 metres, leaped out of the water, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"It's a bizarre accident," said Jorge Pino, an agent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

What are the chances? The fragile impermanence of those things we hold dear.

And in the light of this savage rebuff to this, there is always this. How vehement the reaction, how effusive the praise for the rebuffer and how savage the rejection of any notion of goodness in human relations, of normalcy and happiness in the west.

All I see is anger and defensiveness of the indefensible instead. We can't see the forest for the trees.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

[idealism] don't dance to their dirge


I've been looking at all the dark despair that Brown and all the other cynics have wrought on the common man - just look at our blogs, people and the gloomy, resigned, "yet another dagger thrust for democracy" mood which permeates.

Are we happy with things? Do we think a change of party political government will greatly alter that? We have been reduced to their agenda and I, for one, don't dance to their dirge.

What happened to joy? What happened to enthusiasm? What happened to idealism? Did we set these things aside as a man sets aside the things of youth?

Invariably the injection of youthful idealism has been to the benefit of our democracy and made the rest of the nation sit up and think.

So I won't play Mr. Brown's and his masters' game. By way of analogy, in football, when the other side is ahead then the opposition is always reactive and playing "catch up football". They are not setting the agenda themselves.

We have abandoned our code for hope. If we put aside the grubby, greedy, bankrupt sexual and moral relativism and just get back to first principles on how to deal with one another, then the oxygen which fuels Brown and cronies would dry up.

We have a far greater chance by being buoyant rather than depressed, simply each one refusing to go along with the new oppressive agenda but we don't have faith in ourselves and each other, do we? We shake our heads and say James, James, such an idealist from a better time which never existed.

I like the quote yesterday that four fifths of the idealism is guff but it still doesn't alter the idea as a governing notion for life. So instead of wandering around like lost sheep which we saw yesterday at one of my regular blogfriends - we both went in and looked at her blog, doing things which are unworthy, we should get on with the purer things and just enjoy them.

And those of us of a "certain age"? Anything is possible at any time, my colleagues - it's all in the mindset.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

[virtue] the forgotten art

Provocative picture in this day and age


How far are we today from the old Proverbs 31:
"Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies."
Have to chuckle running that line - I can feel the apoplexy from here.

In our current days of being ruled by the dollar, the gonads and the ID card, who is actually remembering the old ways, the eternal values? So, in attempting to ascribe modernist meaning to this phrase, some revise the text to mean:

"Who can find a woman of strength?"

... when, of course, it means nothing of the kind. A virtuous woman will have inner strength merely by dint of her own virtuousness. A virtuous woman once [well last evening actually] came out with concerns such as:

I see that people in here are crazy enough to do anything so they can "eat". This is pathetic. And I hate to see greedy people. Anyway, the most concern is on the young people. These are the people that will change this country. But, we're facing the new problem: ideology. Now, young people think it's funny to be a virgin, it's "cool" to attend parties in clubs/bars, etc.

Quite unfashionable in these days to concern oneself with virtue, chivalry and the higher things which is why the more ornery among us would like to concern ourselves with these things. After all, if we're slipping into the new feudalism, why not go the whole hog and slip back to some feudal ideals at the same time?

More than a code of manners in war and love, chivalry was a moral system, governing the whole of noble life. That it was about four parts in five illusion made it no less governing for all that. ... With the help of Benedictine thinkers, a code evolved that put the knight's sword arm in the service, theoretically, of justice, right, piety, the church, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed ...

Was it Crosby, Stills and Nash who sang:

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.

? :) [Oh dear, James has finally gone off the deep end, poor chap, hankering after days of yore where ladies were ladies and real men had hair on their chest.]

[poo] an increasing hazard for the unwary

Keep an eye on that overhead feathered friend


Ross Fountain quite rightly points out that poo can get you into all sorts of trouble. As Koreans are well aware, it can leave to you needing to withdraw from university and suffer public humiliation and satire.

However, there is a serious side to this:

Scientists are now reconsidering that notion after having made disturbing discoveries such as bacteria levels being so high at some beaches that people have to stay out of the water. One of the culprits that has been found to significantly raise the bacteria levels is dog poop.

So clearly it's time for Mrs. Beaton's Guide to Dog Poop, with such gems as:

1. Take your dog for a walk. [presumably prior to casing your hare] ...

This is a serious issue which all dog-walkers and non-walkers alike should step into. Once we get onto the topic of bird poo however, the advice is even more apt:

It happens to us all at some time or another. You're minding your own business in the outdoors when you feel something warm land on your head ... and so on ...

It's always seemed to me that it's a question of the feral rather than the owned pet which is the problem, either cats or dogs, after all:

once a queen always a queen, she will mate and mate again and again

This causes me to pause and reflect on my own current thrust and the eternal question - who holds the whip hand, the king or the queen?

Monday, March 17, 2008

Delusions of Grandeur - The Link between Bird Poo, Coral and Subprime Mortgages


Why Nauru is like Bear Stearns.

Nauruans were high on the hog on a mix of Bird Poo and Coral until they dug it all up and spent the money on frivolous things. And then along came Kevin Rudd and shut down their last cash cow, the immmigration detention centre with about two refugees and two hundred employees. Cash cow to beat all cash cows.

Nauruans realise that the party is well and truly over.

Now comes the hangover and then, with luck, some sort of recovery. But it will take squeaky clean governance, hard work and rock-solid investments for Pleasant Island to once again live up to its name.

It may not yet be paradise lost, but it is most definitely paradise postponed.


And delusional Bear Stearns employees, who believed that everything would always go up in value lost that bet when their customers smelled the roses.

The deal values Bear Stearns, which has been at the centre of the US mortgage debt crisis, at just $236m (£116m).

Its shares have lost 98% of their value since their high of $158 in April one year ago, when the bank was worth $18bn.


Sometimes life is just not as rosy as we would like to think it should be.

Cross Posted at Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Soon, baby

It must be perfectly clear that something abnormal is going on with the Higham but that doesn't necessarily mean bad. Major changes being negotiated, that's all - we all do that. I can't promise when I'll be back. Take care.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

[housekeeping] how to stay alive

Not to put too fine a point on it, world's turned on it's head on the personal front. More - once I come up for breath.