I think one of the most amazing things God created has to be us. We are just such fantastic creations especially when you think about all the little things that make us tick. All the quirks and intricacies that make us truly unique. I noticed one of these little unique things today. I never really noticed this before but maybe most guys do it really without thinking? Or maybe it’s just me… well I’m unique. Anyway, I noticed that when I walk, or stand, I automatically suck my stomach in. Wow! I don’t even have to think to do it, it just happens! Now is it because of some inherent human need to hide things they aren’t proud of, or just some curious function of the body that just happens is not known to me. But I think it’s quite neat. And it makes my shirts fit better too.
I know Ash Wednesday has passed, but I’ve always wondered about the ashes on the forehead. Keeping the ashes on your forehead is a great way to witness to the world, and it was fine when you were at school or university. But now where I’m in a professional job where meeting clients is part of everyday work, what do I do with the ashes now? I have a duty to my employers to present a professional image to clients, but I also have a higher duty to God to proclaim Him to the world. It’s a tough question for me and one I usually avoid by going to evening Mass.
Wait I just saw on the news that the 8 new Indian Premier Cricket league teams just bid $40 million on ‘drafting’ various international players to their teams. Isn’t a lot of India in various states of poverty and disarray? I may be grossly misinformed but surely $40 million could go someway to improving conditions there. Well the masses have cricket so I guess they’re happy.
“Isn’t a lot of India in various states of poverty and disarray?”
Beardy,
India is a funny place. It has extreme poverty and extreme wealth, quite often in the very same neighborhoods.
Part of the problem there is Hinduism, which has a strict karmic class system, and it teaches that if you are in extreme poverty it is because you are paying for your sins from a previous life, and that if anybody actually helps you then you will come back worse off in your next life.
The result is that Hindu religious culture considers helping the poor to be a bad thing, because they wrongly believe that it harms the progress of the poor person you are helping.
When Mother Theresa set up in India she was doing something extremely countercultural in India, because she helped those most in need.
Beardy,
“I’m sorry. I can’t come in today. Religious holiday. The feast of… Maximum Occupancy.” A classic line.
Reminds me of one of my favourite exchanges on TV.
Joey: The big question is, “does he like you?” . . . Because if he doesn’t like you, this is all a moo point.
Rachel: Huh. A moo point?
Joey: Yeah, it’s like a cow’s opinion. It just doesn’t matter. It’s moo.
Haha, I remember that episode Scribey.
I saw this about India today and thought it might be of interest. It’s about India’s two plagues. The aborted girls and the violence against Christians.
“The first of these plagues has caused the tragedy of tens of millions of girls being killed in their mothers’ wombs or as infants. Then, there is anti-Christian intolerance, the latest explosion having taken place in Orissa. Behind this are fanatics of Hinduism and of the higher castes.
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=26918
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/190681?eng=y
Maximus, that’s really interesting about the cast system and the Hindus.
India apparently has a huge middle class, approx 400million.
Bigger than the USA apparently. I suppose the middle class in the USA would be more well-off than the middle class in India, but it is something that we don’t realise in the West.
The result is that Hindu religious culture considers helping the poor to be a bad thing
That might be true of the social structure of India’s traditional caste system but it isn’t true of the Hindu religion, which values charity and compassion.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that Hindus should be good Hindus, recognising the considerable spiritual good in the Hindu faith.
God Bless
I did development studies and my hope was that Christian especially Catholic countries did better in terms of equitable income distribution and helping the poor. However, the empirical evidence doesn’t really support this. It seems that greed has got to everyone. I should point however that India is particulaly bad at sharing. They now have the most billionaires in Asia and one dude bought a 747 with a playstation for his missus. The playstation is cool, but a 747 is a bit much.
In the long term, the indian league could become like the premier league in football which is a net export earner for the UK. The government would get taxes from the league and the players would pay indian taxes. The industry could employ tens of thousands. Long term this could really work out for India. It would then be up to the Indian government to spend those taxes wisely.
Lastly, I have all 240 episodes of Friends on DVD if anyone wants to borrow them.
Beardy,
These are my compromise solutions I’ve tried for work.
1) Grow a fringe and pull the hair forward
2) Blow most of it off by blowing upwards with the upper lip.
These ways there’s still a mark but it’s not so in your face. A few people notice and it can get a bit of a conversation going.
ah, what did the NZ govt squander on the America’s Cup by the way? Wasn’t it about $20mil?
The market cap of the Indian stock exchange is about $2trill compared to NZ’s $60bill.
Their economy is 6th largest in the world.
They’re not steaming peasants!
Maybe “peasant” can be reframed as the euphenism: “a person who really lives off local seasonal produce”.
Hmmm…
India has a middle class of about 240 million people, 99% of whom like cricket. India supplies the doctors that prop up our health care system and India designs, builds, and operates its own nuclear plants using domestic skills whereas we can’t even deploy our own wind turbines.
If they want to spend on a popular sport twice what we blew on an elitist debacle then, well, so what?
Careful who we condescend!
Greg,
I think the point is more around helping people say in Dharavi, Asia’s biggest slum. New Zealand doesn’t really have people below the poverty line. 25% of India’s population is. India’s rich and middle class have a responsibility to these people and it’s one they are largely neglecting. Cricket is a bit of a moo point.