687 UN still lagging in relief for Tsunami victims

Diplomad is a career foreign service officer who blogs under a pseudonym. On day 9 of the disaster s/he writes:

"In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore now in and coordinating closely with the US and Australia. Other countries are also signing up to be part of the US-Australia effort. Nobody wants to be "coordinated" by the UN. The local UN reps are getting desperate. They're calling for yet another meeting this afternoon--" Read the full account(s) here. World Food Program has finally arrived with an assessment team. Doesn't this sound like committees and task forces you've been on at work? Assess, deny, die.

Diplomad goes on to say this is absolutely no joke: "The team has spent the day and will likely spend a few more setting up their "coordination and opcenter" at a local five-star hotel. And their number one concern, even before phones, fax and copy machines? Arranging for the hotel to provide 24hr catering service. USAID folks already are cracking jokes about 'The UN Sheraton.' "

This is really sickening. Worse than the tourists who returned to the beaches while bodies were still rotting. At least they were already on vacation--not planning one at the expense of the victims.

Compare that story to the one Amit has to tell--about neighbor helping neighbor, Muslim helping Hindu, a couple giving up their wedding feast to feed the victims. It is a wonderful story.

686 When in the course of human events. . .

There is a renewed interest in the Declaration of Independence because of the movie, National Treasure. There is a website where you can sign your name to the Declaration of Independence. You select the type of printer, the type of quill, insert your name, and then you are warned that by doing so you are a rebel against the King of England and given the opportunity to withdraw your signature! Go here to sign and print your own copy.

685 The value of a human life

“Consider that there are nearly 121 million people living in low lying areas within 4km of the shoreline of the Indian Ocean. According to TAOS/MIDGARD model projections made late on the 26th, 18 million people live in the tsunami impact area. Assuming a 5% casualty rate, that’s 900,000 injured in some way (probably 250k seriously). Assuming a 1 in seven fatality rate, that’s 128 thousand dead. I hope and pray it’s not that high, but it’s a realistic possibility.” Satellite photos here, at a site by Chuck Watson, many photos obscured now by smoke.

I have two suggestions.
1) People who think unearthing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in mass political graves was not cause enough to go after Saddam, need to peer into the mass graves caused by the December Tsunami and ask themselves if they could have stopped Nature’s forces, would they have done it? Is a dead Iraqi mother or child not of the same worth to God and humankind as a dead Sumatran or dead Sri Lankan? Is the force of the ocean somehow make their deaths more tragic and worthy of aid than death by poison or gun by a madman?

2) Shouldn’t we ask those European (Germans, French, Swedes), Russian and Chinese diplomats and business men who stole 20 billion from the Food for Oil program and then pointed fingers at us as "warmongers" to return it to the United Nations so it can be used for disaster relief? Instead of pointing fingers at “stingy” western countries who’ve completely lost faith in the UN to organize anything remotely resembling “relief,” they need to review their own behavior in response to man made tragedies. Their names are on a list. We actually know who they are. Have those individuals donated one krona, mark or rouble out of their own dirty pockets of wealth?

Who on this newspaper staff was asking this question in Iraq when graves were uncovered? "Faith in God is sure to be shaken by the disaster, admits the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. "Every single accidental death is something that should upset a faith bound up with comfort and ready answers," he writes in today's Sunday Telegraph. "Faced with the paralysing magnitude of a disaster like this, we naturally feel outraged and also deeply helpless. The question 'How can you believe in a God who permits suffering on this scale' is very much around, and it would be wrong if it weren't. Religious believers don't see prayer as a plea for magical solutions that will make the world safe for them and others. The reaction of faith should always be one of passionate engagement with the lives that are left, a response that asks not for understanding but for ways of changing the situation in whatever ways are open to us." The Independent (01-02-05).

684 New Link on my List

Most of the bloggers I link to, I've never met in person. Many are librarians, many are writers, many are Christians. Some are all three. I am adding "Siouxlander" who is a Professor of English and a writer and a Christian. I've written about him before, and have actually seen him, having attended a presentation he gave in April at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College. At that time, I wrote:

"James Calvin Schaap (pronounced SKOP) was chosen because I got lost and couldn’t find the presentation I had marked. (Lovely campus; horrible signage) What a wonderful serendipity. He is a professor of English at Dordt College in Iowa and explained how he used ideas from his career as a journalist to be fleshed out in his fiction. If you are homesick for Iowa (or any of those flatter Midwestern states) we were treated to a 12 minute CD of his photography called “Chasing the Dawn; a Meditation,” which I think is available through Dordt College Press.

Notes for writers: “Great stories are in your neighborhood--use experience and imagination.” Notes about life: He is currently writing a book about Laotian Christians, relocated in the USA. Working through a translator, he interviewed a Laotian woman about her job in an Iowa meat packing plant, a job he thought too terrible to even imagine. She told him she loved her job because, “In Thailand I had to butcher the entire cow.”

I quoted him again at my other, other blog, Church of the Acronym for his comments on Christian fiction, an essay that was on his department homepage. Now he has started his own blog, and if you enjoy Ariel (AJ), I think you'll like Jim.

683 Who in the world is Orlando Bloom?

Happy New Year. Let's begin with trivia. Who is Orlando Bloom?
Today I visited the Google Year End Search patterns, trends, and surprises page. George W. Bush was the top political search (John Kerry didn’t make the top ten). However, I don’t put much faith in this because Orlando Bloom was #8 in most popular queries and #1 in most popular men. I’d never heard of him--and maybe a lot of other people hadn’t either, so they’ll be Googling his name all week, which will keep him on the list for 2005. So I peeked. Yes, I clicked on his name. I’ve never seen this man. Who is he? How important can he be if this blogger has never blogged about or searched for "Orlando Bloom?"

682 Nebraskan chosen Poet Laureate

Next to my own family, I've known Nelson (Tom) longer than just about anyone else on my Christmas card list. We used to ride our tricycles around the block together, and had our photo taken together at graduation for the school yearbook. His Christmas letter this year mentioned that 26 years ago he asked a friend, a local poet, to write a wedding poem for him and bride Kathy (a librarian). Now that friend, Ted Kooser, has been appointed Poet Laureate of the United States. I'd say Nelson had a good sense for poetry (he is a philosopher) to recognize this man's talent a quarter a century ago. Library of Congress announcement here.

The Washington Post article states: "Kooser, says former poet laureate Billy Collins, "is a poet who has deserved to be better known. This appointment will at least take care of that problem."

Collins says Kooser is distinguished from the rank and file by two things. First, Kooser has spent most of his life in the corporate world. "I won't be the first or the last to compare him to Wallace Stevens," says Collins, referring to the sublime Connecticut poet who was also an insurance executive.

And Kooser is from the Midwest. Collins suggests that Kooser's appointment is "an intentional pick." He says, "The middle section of the country needed greater poetic representation."

Kooser, he adds, "is a thoroughly American poet laureate."

Enjoy Ted Kooser's poetry here  Ted Kooser | Poems.

Most Disgusting Story of 2004

The worst story I've heard this year was on the last day and I heard it on the radio this morning--tourists have returned to the beaches in the area where thousands have died from the tsunami on December 26. So, maybe their tickets won't be up for awhile, or they've paid for the hotel room. How about putting on some rubber gloves and helping with the clean up? Money. Sometimes it rots brains and metastacizes to their hearts.

Checked it out when I got home. Yes, it's here and here.

680 Beautiful winter scenes

If you live in central or northern Ohio or Indiana, you've probably seen more snow this past week than you care to. Anvilcloud, a retired Canadian teacher who has been taking a Christmas break in the country, has posted some lovely winter photographs on his blog.

679 Dear Preferred Former Member

Considering the letter I sent them some years ago, I'm really surprised they want me back. It was a "record club," although I guess that is a cd club now. I'm old enough to remember vinyl. But here's what I told them:

Please discontinue my membership for the following reasons:

Your mailings are omnipresent, never-ending, stuffed with things I'm not interested in. If I'm interested in music why assume I want new checks, skin care products and Disney junk?

Your bills are confusing, hard to read, and difficult to find in the envelope.

The due date is so small and hard to find in the mailings, one needs a magnifying glass. If it is a good service/product there is no need to trick the unwary and careless into buying it.

The offers are monotonous. Although I expressed an interest in a type of music, "Christian," that is all I hear about and they all sound the same--like boy bands.

Your shipping charges are so high that after having ordered only 2 disks and 2 tapes, I owe $31.46. That is no bargain. I can do better at Kroger's.

Thank you for removing me immediately as a member of whatever it is this company is called. You may keep my free points and the free subscription bonuses--they are too expensive to cash in.

As I said, why would they want me back? Why would I rejoin? This letter is from the "Office of the President." He says he's serious about wanting me back. Wants me to test the music at his website. 100,000 sound samples. 12 CDs for the price of 1. Sure, sure. Tell me another story. And how did they find me? I've moved since I took this scam the last time.

678 An expensive vote count

The recount bill is in--$1,500,000 for the Democrats to gain 300 votes. $5,000 per vote we Ohio taxpayers have shelled out. Story here.

Captain Ed comments: “That certainly proved a productive use of Ohio's resources. The Secretary of State estimated that Ohio's taxpayers will eat about $1.5 million for the complete recount, far outpacing the $113,000 the Greens and Libertarians paid for the effort. When that money isn't available for more voting machines or a few workers get laid off because of the budget crunch, perhaps Buckeye State voters will remember that this useless bill was brought to them by the Democrats and fringe parties.”

677 Insurers to Natural Disasters--"Stop It!"

``The terrible effects spreading all around the Indian Ocean and reaching as far as the Horn of Africa are a further reminder of the global threat from natural catastrophes,'' executive board member Stefan Heyd wrote in Munich Re's annual disaster report.

"They underline our long-standing demand for prompt and rigorous measures against global climate change. After the disappointing outcome of the recent climate summit in Buenos Aires, time is running out." Reuters Story here.

2004 will be the second most expensive disaster year for insurers, second to 1995 which had the devastating Kobe earthquake.

And how about that Jan Egeland of Norway who first called the US stingy in its response and now is backtracking. I personally wouldn't give a nickel to the United Nations after the way it misused the oil for food program. Find a good church agency like Mennonite Central Committee or Lutheran World Relief that has low overhead and a small administrative staff and put your relief money there.

676 Fetus starts kindergarten?

The St. Louis Post Dispatch is still calling that baby girl Stinnet who was removed from her dead mother's womb a "fetus" two weeks after she was brutally "born." I can see the headline when five years from now this precious little one starts school. Past, present, future. A human being.

675 Christmas Surprise

Of course, gifts should be a surprise, but when you make lists and check them twice, you sort of know. However, my husband surprised me BIG with a lovely painting of my mother working in her garden, a scene that everyone in the family remembers so well. Her motto was, "I can't change the world, but I can change four acres," and her family farm property looked like a well kept park. This format is too small to see how lovely this painting is, but even though her face is hidden by the sun hat, I'd know this lady anywhere.


My Office

674 Celebrating with Baby Jesus in many shapes and sizes and nationalities

The list of nativities and creches ran to over 20 pages as we toured yesterday the 19th century home of Donna and David, friends of ours from church. Providing four viewing times on three days near Christmas, they helped us enjoy their wonderful collection with personal reflections on the history, collectibility, value and meaning of each piece and set. They ranged from 19th century Russian paintings to carved wood from the Philippines, metal from India, ceramic from Peru, and porcelain from Hallmark. From kitschy-tourist trinkets to handmade by their children, to valuable sets by known contemporary designers and craftspeople, each piece is loved and receives pride of place in windows, walls, chimney columns, corner cupboards, tables, buffets, refrigerator, and doorways. Some of the most loved and precious were those played with or selected by their daughter who died 8 years ago in an auto accident. Glancing through the cataloged list I see:

• Holy Family by Josef Ammann, wrought iron, 1998, purchased in Erfuhrt, Germany, July 2002.
  
• Nativity Figures by Kim Laurence, Christmas present for David, 1999.
  
• Papier mache and plastic, hand painted Fontinini. Italian. Gift from Donna's mother, 1974.
  
• Painting with cactus needle, Elvis Castillo, Mexico. Purchased in San Antonio, 2003.
  
• Straw Madonna Plaque, East Germany. Purchased York, England, 1989.
  
• Precious Moments, Cloth. Lil's Hallmark, 1986.
  
• Neapolitan Santons, Chalkware. Naples.
  
• Sarcophagus relief from Catacombs in Rome reproduction. Vatican Museum Shop, Rome 2003.
  
• Italian Crucifix, wood, 18th century. Colorado Springs, 1970.
  
• Miniature Pewter, Spoonbill Pewterers, Massachusetts. Purchased from Columbus Cancer Clinic Shop, 1987.
  
• Baby Jesus, redware, Ann Entis. A show of hands. 1988.
  
• Nativity plaque, enameled brass. Israel. 1987.
  
• Wire in Goose egg, Slovakia. FOTC convention, 2003.
  
• Holy Family Figurine, Christopher Radko, 2004. Curio Cabinet, 2004.
  
• Peaceable Kingdom Christmas Plate 1989, Edna Hibel. Gallery Art Center, 1991.
  
• Linen needlework, early 16th century in 19th century frame.
  
• Nativity figures, Kenyan soapstone. Imported by 10000 Villages, 2004.
  
• Peanuts Holy Family, Hallmark, 2001.
  
• Flight into Egypt, Peru, Ceramic. Augsburg, 1993.

And hundreds more. But each set and piece announced the first coming of Jesus in its own unique way. After the tour and our hosts' comments we gathered around Donna's kitchen table for wonderful homemade refreshments and memories appropriate for the season--and even the kitchen window spaces were filled with scenes of that first Christmas.

673 Christmas for new Christians

According to my FamilyTreeMaker genealogy software, we are step-relatives, but I've only seen him once--at the wedding that put us in the same database. However, I do know that this year Christmas has a whole new meaning for him and his family. And for others refreshed, renewed, or newly aware.

James Davis, Religion Editor of the Sun-Sentinel (Florida) had a unique Christmas story to share for the Christmas issue, "A Newly Found Faith," stories about new Christians and how Christmas this year was going to be different. Instead of "Giftmas" or parties until they dropped, or an occasion for huge family get-togethers, this year it was going to be about Jesus Christ.

Story tip from Terry Mattingly at GetReligion. This site is not always kind to Christians (covers all faiths), but has had good coverage of the "Christmas culture wars," even the accusations that the stories we hear amount to summer "shark attacks" news stories--i.e. overblown.

Looking forward to 2005

Karol has had a really, really bad year, and is looking forward to things getting better in 2005. She writes very movingly, particularly about her grandmother's death. Read the whole essay here.

671 Christmas--the Word

The disappearance not only of nativity scenes and wise men but even the mention of the word "Christmas" has been quite a story this year. I saw a news item about a pastor (in Atlanta?) who was telling his flock not to buy at stores unless the word "Christmas" was mentioned in the promotions. It is sort of an odd backlash for Christians, who for years have been telling each other that Christmas is way too commercialized and losing its meaning. There is an old tradition of Christians attempting to put the skids on the commercializing of the holiday.

Mark Roberts writes: "My own theological ancestors, the Reformed Puritans of Britain, attempted to get rid, not only of Christmas carols, but also of Christmas itself. They attempted to “purify” the church of both secular and Roman Catholic elements. When they were in power in Britain in the middle of the 17th century, the Puritans actually succeeded in making the celebration of Christmas illegal. No carols, no fun, no Christmas! The earliest Europeans in America, coming from English Puritan stock, did not celebrate Christmas, and in fact made a point of not doing so. In fairness to these folk, however, we should understand that the secular and pagan celebrations of Christmas were often filled with drunken excess, rather more like Mardi Gras in New Orleans than most secular Christmas celebrations today (except, perhaps, for office parties run amuck)."

Little did we know that the valiant and ever ready ACLU would help us with that problem by taking the holiday away from us! However, I saw a story in the Washington Post, "Money Is Not Enough at Christmas; Many Filipino Immigrants Ship Presents Overseas," By Phuong Ly, Washington Post Staff Writer, on Friday, December 24, 2004; Page B05, in which "Christmas" the word is in the headline, and used 5 or 6 times in the story. The writer may not chose the headline, but it could be that WaPo watches the news too. Anyway, I wrote Ly expressing my appreciation for the acknowledgement of the reason we have this celebration each December.

670 Kittens

Fatboy Slim in three and a bit minutes performed by kittens!
Via MonkeyFilter

Can't decide if I like this. Opinions?

669 Festive Christmas Salad

The family gathers here tomorrow for dinner and gifts. The table is set and most of the food is prepared. I'll pop the meat in the oven before we leave for church. I'm not using the "good" china, but rather my colorful blue and white color scheme with special Christmas plates and mugs.


Snowflake by Debbie Mumm

I'll be serving a festive red, white and green salad. In my recipe box it goes by the name, "Broccoli Salad," but its colors are so seasonal I've renamed it. I think the original (before my revisions) came from the premiere issue of Taste of Home.

1 bunch broccoli, separated into florets
1 head cauliflower, separated into florets
8 bacon strips, fried and crumbled
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 dry pint grape tomatoes
2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced
1 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/3 cup sugar (I use Splenda)
2 tablespoons vinegar

In a large salad bowl, combine broccoli, cauliflower, bacon, onion, tomatoes and eggs; set aside. In another bowl, combine mayonnaise, sugar and vinegar; mix until smooth. Just before service, pour dressing over salad and toss. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Tips: Amounts are quite flexible. Use any amount of broccoli and cauliflower you have on hand. Doesn't seem to make much difference--same with bacon. I don't use the onion. Added a little crisp celery for some extra. I don't use that much sugar/Splenda, but doesn't seem to change flavor much. Serve in a clear glass bowl to show off the pretty colors of the season. And oh yes, I use a small red bowl of my mother's to mix the dressing--that's just an extra touch for memories.

668 Winter Wonderland

Yesterday it rained; then it snowed 6 or 8 inches; then early this morning at about 34 degrees, it started raining again; now the temperature is dropping and it is turning to snow. Icicles are dangling from the trees. I'm watching the weather channel, and the change from snow to rain runs right through our county, north to south. Going out this morning doesn't look like a good plan.