41 tunnel workers were entombed for 17 dats after the tunnel they were digging collapsed.
Excavator teams deployed heavy auger machines to dig both vertically and horizontally through the debris. The first drilling machine broke down after developing snags, halting the operation until a second machine was brought in. However, after horizontally drilling about three-quarters worth of debris, the second machine also broke down.
After this, six miners from central India were tasked with drilling through the remaining rock with hand-held drills late on Monday, using a technique known as rat mining.
recent article about trade agreements between India and the Middle East.,
The corridor, which would include India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Israel and the European Union, would help boost trade, deliver energy resources and improve digital connectivity.
Biden’s national security adviser, said the network reflected Biden’s vision for “far-reaching investments” ,,,to boost economic growth, help bring countries in the Middle East together and establish that region as a hub for economic activity instead of as a “source of challenge, conflict or crisis” as it has been in recent history.
Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates are migrants or descendants of the Filipinos living in the United Arab Emirates. 679,819 Filipinos live in the UAE, of which 450,000 live in Dubai, and they form 6.1% of the whole UAE population, and they form 21.3% of the population of Dubai.
The document was signed in 2019 by Pope Francis and Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, during the pontiff's visit to the UAE. It calls for the reconciliation of people of all faiths and goodwill in service of universal peace. The Abrahamic Family House, a complex of a mosque, synagogue and church that opened in Abu Dhabi this year, aims to be the physical manifestation of the document.
But since it was signed under Trumpieboy, who is hated by the western press, it has gotten little publicity. However, Biden has supported this policy which is a good sign.
AlJ, who is very pro Palestinian, has this article from Sept 2023 discusses how the UAE links with Israel have improved since the Abraham accords, but also insists that Palestine is one thorn in this optimistic plan.
One problem: In my opinion the present terrorist attacks against Israel is about Iran trying to stop the Abraham accords. So it is not just bitter Palestinians being manipulated to hate by outside powers. Hamas is essentially an Iranian proxy, and the war in Gaza is Iran's proxy war against Israel (similar to how the Houthi rebellion is Iran's proxy war against Saudi and other Arab states).
Those behind the war don't give S... about the Palestinians: these leaders not only encourage this hatred, but are busy stealing literally billions of dollars of aid money: diverting some to make tunnels, buy rockets etc. but also a lot of that money is being diverted into their pockets. Follow the money.
but is also Iran's way of destroying the peaceful Arab world: but it is about undermining the West.
Iran's history is full of wars: against the Arab world and against the west. It not only has it's roots in the Sunni/Shiite rivalry or the crusades, but actually it predates Islam by a thousand years when the Persian empire took the area over, and of course, the wars of Persia vs Greece, the take over by Alexander the great, and the ancient Rome vs Persia wars being refought.
What: You think that the Muslim riots in the west are about Israel?
Thanks to the jeepney strike, Ruby has been home this week. She teaches in Manila and there was no way for the kids to get to school (except of course private car, which a lot of them didn't have).
The bad news? She had a sore throat/high fever/myalgia. I put her on Zithromax, and when she didn't get better, asked Dr. Danny who is a GP, what was going around and he said the flu and to keep her on this antibiotic. On day four her fever broke and now she is feeling better.
So far, no one else here has caught it....keeping my fingers crossed.
It is not too hot: partly crowdy but no thunderstorms.
The city is having a party tonite at the Plaza down the street: They have been putting up Christmas decorations and lights on the street for the last two weeks, and erecting the huge Christmas tree in the Plaza.
This evening is a big party: music, celebrities, and fireworks. Meaning the dogs will be hiding under my bed from the noise.
In the meanwhile, security is getting tight: We usually walk the dogs near the plaza but today the roads are closed, even for pedestrians. Hmmm... wonder what celebrity is coming. (we are the wild west of the Philippines).
Philippines’ jeepney drivers strike again as modernisation deadline looms: ‘it will bury us in debt’.
Jeepney drivers in the Philippines launched a three-day strike on Monday against a looming December 31 deadline by the government that will force owners to replace aged vehicles with environmentally friendly models, in what is seen by the industry as authorities’ attempt to snuff out livelihoods..
,,,,....
the traditional jeepney was a WWII jeep turned into a jitney or small bus where people can go in and out the back.
Often they are decorated by their owners. But many are old and produce pollution, hence the government trying to replace them with more modern engines that don't pollute so much, and even an electric vehicle
Electric jeepneys are now widely deployed in several parts of Metro Manila and in some provinces, either as a staple transportation that completely replaces conventional jeepneys or as a service vehicle. The deployments were in response to calls for reduced greenhouse gas emissions and the fluctuations in oil prices. These E-jeepneys will also be fitted with a Panta Card reader as part of the transportation unification set out by the DOTr. E-jeepneys have come into the economic question as the average cost per kWh of electricity in the Philippines is unsustainable for owner-operators. However, considering the uncertainty in diesel prices, E-jeepneys seem more economical in the long run compared to diesel-fueled jeepneys.
and this will hurt many owner/drivers. Will the gov't help them find alternative jobs?
and the modernization will end a popular cultural heritage.
,,,,,
--------------
update: I should add that the pollution in Manila is terrible (I have to use an ashma inhaler when I visit). So this is a good policy. However, unless you have in place a policy to aid the independent drivers who will not be allowed to use their old jeepneys that they rely on for an income, then you will run into resentment.
This is a commercial but gives you an idea of the life of a jeepney driver...
I almost skipped the StrategyPage essay on Yemen, since it is a bit outside my interests. I am vaguely aware of that country causing trouble with Saudi etc. but this essay points out something that needs to be recognized: The corruption means that there is not a decent public health system: not only for treatment but for basic immunizations, water supply, etc. that is vital for keeping people healthy.
One side effect of the chaos and corruption is the absence of a public health system. That means children do not receive vaccines for common, and sometimes fatal, childhood diseases like measles.... so far, this year 60 Yemeni children a month have died from measles.
another side effect of corruption is the failure to provide basic infrastructure for things like clean water and sewage. So we see:
Even more children die each from a cholera epidemic that started in 2016 and continues.
Cholera has often broken out across Zimbabwe in recent years with deadly consequences and has surged and spread again over the last month, driven by the sometimes terrible sanitation conditions in poor, neglected townships and neighborhoods in the capital, Harare, and elsewhere.
and not just Zimbabwe: South Africa had a similar problem recently
the Philippines has small outbreaks of cholera on and off, but nothing major LINK'
and no, it's not global warming but just the failure to keep up the infrastructure, partly from lack of money and expertise, and diverting such money to other projects (including lining the pockets of those supposed to be doing the work).
Sigh. That part is often overlooked in the big important reports but our intrepid reporters do report on such things, often risking their lives to do so. And remember: The Philippines is far from the worst country in such things. In most corrupt countries, the reporters don't even try to dig up such stories because the gov't runs the press.
This is a chronic problem. Right now we use city water, (we had a good mayor in the last decade) but until a few years ago we used our own deep well because often the water pressure was low. But the water supply problem continues in many areas of the Philippines.
We see this when we see water seeping from leaks from pipes (shoddy pipes made in China? I suspect but can't prove this) under the roads. And the open ditches that are out sewers did get concrete covers a dozen years ago: These covers are now deteriorating and crumbling, (shoddy Chinese concrete?) leaving the ditches open... meaning mosquito breeding (and dengue)... and of course periodic typhoons destroy the infrastructure. We have a decent mayor, but this is not true of everywhere, alas.
In 2019, anti-corruption lawyer Cyril Ramos claimed the country has lost around 700 billion pesos (US$12.8 billion), or around 20 percent of the national budget to corruption per annum, ABS-CBN reported.,
what frustrates me is that often those who demonstrate miss the point: it is corruption.
Religion is the answer: (hey popey boy, try preaching thou shalt not steal instead of global warming). People know this, which is why a lot of countries have embraced strict Islam, or in India, a strict version of Hinduism.
Alas, as Iran shows, (or in history, the Vatican showed), religious leaders can be just as corrupt when it comes to money. And yes, here I point out that communism is a religion that also is notorious for it's corruption. And that includes China...
a big problem: get rid of the corrupt is a good policy, but sometimes the only ones with the expertise to run the country or the company are these same folk...
sigh.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
back to SP... the essay has lots of information here about Iran and weapons, including shooting missiles into Saudi and now Israel.
Money for weapons, not for clean water I guess: Priorities.
then there is this: Drugs.
usually drugs mean meth/shabu/captagen, or heroin/fentanyl, but in Yemen the problem is the traditional drugs Khat and hashish.
Khat production has been a major problem for Yemen as well as the Saudis....While Yemen contains most of the only arable land in the Arabian Peninsula, only one percent of Yemen is suitable for agriculture. Rather than produce food, most Yemeni agricultural production is of khat and nearly all of that is smuggled into Saudi Arabia....
that is not as harmful as cocaine (more similar to chewing cocaine leaf. Like many such drugs, the abuse is in higher doses or more frequent use).
but a bigger danger is hashish: think of this as concentrated marijuana.
Hashish is a concentrated form of cannabis, produced by removing the sticky resin, which is the most narcotic portion of the cannabis plant. Put simply, khat is for relaxation while hashish is for intoxication, it will get you high and largely unable to function....
Khat and hashish do have harmful side effects as they reduce inhibitions and the ability to safely operate vehicles or machinery of any kind.
a lot of the drugs used in Saudi are actually used by their hard working contract workers from other countries. No families, hard work, long hours, and the temptation is to take drugs to relax.
the drug problem is world wide, but that's another essay for another time.
Prepfar has saved millions of Africans. This program was started by President Bush and aimed at giving (expensive) drugs to people to slow down the evolution of the HIV infection.
L____
A lot of people hated the program, because they claimed it took money from other disease, or that it encouraged local docs and nurses to work for Prepfar instead of other programs (reality: without a decent salary a lot of these people would have emigrated to get a better job, but the argument sounded good for Bush haters).
Well, anyway, this program was accepted by Africans, and ended up saving millions of lives. But Bush was Republican so of course few in the USA or Europe ever heard about it.
But now Biden seeks to subvert this popular program to push birth control and abortion on Africans.
Why does this matter? Because it's a bad policy. Because it will cause a suspicion that the policy is about population control, not saving lives. And that will decrease the trust in this lifesaving program. Don't believe me? False (and partly true) similar rumors have stopped measles and polio vaccine in Muslim areas and Tetanus vaccine to prevent neonatal tetanus in Uganda by Christian bishops.
Trust is a delicate thing. Just look at the distrust against the Covid vaccine because the side effects were covered up.
Like the Biden State Dept etc who pushes gay rights on countries by linking this policy to aid given to these governments, subverting Prepfar, which saves lives, with organizations who openly push the idea that there is a need to stop Africans from having children will be seen as a racist plot to stop Africans from having babies because of racism.
and if you don't think China notices this and quietly points this out to the leaders of these countries, then you are naive.
ah but the western press will pretend this is about evil Republicans opposing Prepfar because racism, and ignore that this policy is being changed by Biden, as one more way to push the gender agenda on poor countries.
essentially this will let them hijack the funds to go from those saving lives by giving out HIV drugs to NGOs whose object is to push birth control and abortion, and worse, to pressure these countries to change their laws.
When I worked in Africa, every village had a "pill lady" to give out birth control, because we did the public health for the area, and as a Catholic hospital we did not give out birth control
however, although we had pill ladies, a lot of these villages had no wells for drinking water etc. Essentially: Lots of money to stop babies from being born, but no money to provide water so they didn't die of diarrhea.
The sisters started a program for villagers to dig shallow wells, line the holes, and then we got funds to cover the well with a concrete slab (so no one would fall into the well) and install a simple pump. True, this water was not always clean (we still urged them to boil it or use filters for drinking water) but it enabled them to wash and clean. Before this, often the only water in the dry season would be from rivers which might mean walking a long distance and carrying the water home.
We also funded village health workers, who could give out simple Rehydration fluid for diarrhea (a simple rememdy that can cut the rate of death up to 90 percent), teach basic hygiene and nutrition, and monitor children for malnutrition, care for minor wounds etc. And we started a nutrition village to feed up children whose weight was going down, and we sponsored programs for chicken raising for eggs etc.
True, that was 40 years ago, but if you are interested in how Africans run rural clinic not just to give out medicine but to treat the underlying problems (nutrition, water, etc) I advise you to check out the videos at Andrew Wefwafwa's site).
As for Prepfar: I predate HIV....We probably had cases when I worked there (people dying of minor infections, two cases of Kaposi sarcoma) but it was not a known disease so no, I didn't know about it until I got home and heard in my National Guard unit about this mysterious STD that was fatal.
However, the hospital where I had worked in Africa, and some of the sisters became active with Prepfar to save lives, and several of our nurses reported family members whose lives were saved by this program.
So again I stress: By diverting the funding to birth control and pushing sexual policies to limit population, the danger is that people will no longer trust these caregivers: They might see them as part of the evil west trying to stop Africans from having babies because of racism.
and of course, such ideas won't just be pushed by locals who remember colonialist racism, but will be believed by religious leaders (Bishops and Muslim leaders). And of course, China will quietly push this idea. Already the Biden administration and the EU is pushing their sexual agenda (gay rights, encourage teenage sex by sex education), and pushing countries to change their local laws.
By the way: African women who have jobs might indeed want to space their babies, and this should be available: But as I pointed out, these organizations have been busy for years, and of course now Mrs Gates is using oodles of money for it.
However, most women in the villages might merely want to space their children. In the past this was done by taboos against genital sex while breast feeding and prolonged breastfeeding. Alas, in urban areas, women working outside the home might find this difficult, hance the need for birth control... however, hormonal birth control leads to decreased breast milk. The birth control shot increases breast milk, but causes vaginal dryness that increases the risk of HIV and other STDs. IUDs result in infections. And local barrier methods are often not used because they are not culturally friendly.
So anyway: You might want to ask yourself why the Biden administration is willing to become unpopular by pushing this type of policy that caused sexual anarchy and destruction of the family in the west. In the more affluent countries, government programs will pick up the slack on those without families, but in poor countries it is the families that are literally the basis of society and the ones to care for the sick, the young, the elderly and their needy members.
The situation for Palestinian Christians (in Gaza) is very, very different than that of Palestinian Muslims.
Palestinian Christians are terrified of being forced to go south.
Why?
Because they have seen the genocide that ISIS launched against Christians in Iraq and Syria just a few years ago.
Palestinian Christians are therefore terrified that they will be slaughtered if they go south.
They are terrified that their wives and daughters will be raped if they go south.
If they are forced out of the historic church buildings -- the safe havens, in which they are currently sheltering in and around Gaza City -- and are sent to the south, they believe they face genocide, too.
There are no safe havens for Christians in southern Gaza.
Virtue is a conservative Anglican site.
However, CNEA, a Catholic site, puts the diaspora of Arab Christians from this area into perspective of the Vatican, who tends to back the Palestinians and Arabs in this dispute.
Since 1948, some 230,000 Arab Christians have left the region (Dr. Bernard Sabella, Bethlehem University), including refugees from 1947 and 1967; moreover, some 35% of the total Palestinian Christian population has emigrated since the Six Day War, June 1967.
and they note:
the most recent demographic survey of the West Bank and Gaza, Muslims comprised more than 97 percent of the population, while Christians made up just 2.3 percent.
this site blames Israel for not letting the Palestinians have their own state.- Israelis would point out that their elected leaders have openly proclaimed they want to destroy Israel and kill everyone there, which sort of suggests at the present time the happy happy dream of a two state solution wouldn't work.
More importantly, the article gives a good economic analysis of the problem, and this can be blamed on Israel...
The problem of Israeli settlers taking Arab land is a sore spot, but fails to note that a lot the economic policy, including limiting imports, and fewer Palestinians being allowed to work in Israel, is because of Israeli realistic fear of terrorist attacks.
Recent reports that the latest terror attack on civilians from Gaza was aided and abetted by Gaza citizens working in that area suggests this fear is real.
Not even mentioned: The fear of local Christians when countries are taken over by the radicals suggest it might be fear of persecution.
one of our cousins just won an election for a local office, and the maid mentioned that the ballots were paper and being counted by hand.
Hmm... I had thought the Philippines, worried about fraud (pre filled out ballots hidden in the back room) had changed to machines to vote and count ballots.
But apparently the machines, bought at great expense, have problems.
...Garcia was referring to two types of machines—precinct count optical scanners (PCOS) and vote-counting machines (VCMs)—both of which were provided by Smartmatic Corp...The government spent at least P7.2 billion for the lease of the PCOS machines, and another P2.2 billion for the VCMs alone in 2016. The poll body had also funded their refurbishment.,,,so the plan is to repurpose the machines for other uses and spend oodles of money buying new machines. From whom? Smartmatic...
Malfunctioning machines caused voting precincts to open much later than 6 a.m., the scheduled time for voting to begin. These issues—compounded with delays caused by COVID health protocols—resulted in long waiting lines and overcrowding in key localities.
Rappler further reported that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said at least 1,867 vote-counting machines exhibiting glitches had been fixed as of 10 a.m. on Monday, while 51 defective machines were replaced by 8 a.m.
I am reading that Musk will censor any tweet that says decolonization.
it is his way of fighting those who hate him for opening twitter to all voices (read Republicans and anti vax propaganda). Certain groups are already pressuring X by pressuring companies to remove their ads.
it is aiming at the anti Israel hatred of the mindless there, who insist that Jews are colonizers of Palestine.
But I tweeted: you know, the word decolonization can be used to describe other countries.
Since the 1940s, the Han Chinese have colonized Tibet, and are settling their ethnic group in western China to replace the Uighar population.
In between chants of "People over profits," or "from Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine,"
translation: Let China take over the Philippine resources (oil, fish) in the west Philippine sea, and presumably later presumably take over Luzon or have their proxies take over the government and let China loot all our resources.
forward to 49 minutes.
and follow the money? Powerline finds who is funding codepink and the islamicist riots.
and don't forget how Omidyar, a suspected CIA front, funded opposition to the pro Russian president of the Ukraine and the anti Duterte site Rappler here.
The crescent moon on the flag of South Carolina were added as a tribute to the decorative crescent that was on the South Carolina military uniforms during the Revolutionary War; the palmetto tree was added during the Civil War as the South Carolina state tree. The flag was updated and revised several times before it achieved the design seen on the current flag.
photo courtesy Champion Flags
and a small correction: It is not a palm tree but a palmetto tree:
Nothing says South Carolina quite like the Palmetto tree. It’s on our state flag, and just about everything else across the state. South Carolinians unique love for the palmetto tree is a sense of pride that goes way back.,,
The palmetto is celebrated in historical significance dating back to the Revolutionary War. The British assault on Charleston on June 28, 1776 was denied by the thick palmetto walls of Fort Moultrie (called Fort Sullivan at the time). The walls were created by laying down large containment-forms of interlocked palmetto-trunks, then filling up their interior spaces to a considerable height with shoveled sand topped off with stacked sandbags.
British cannonballs simply bounced off the dense mass of the palmetto logs.
At that moment, a legend was born
We are organic rice farmers, and this year the harvest is good, and the price for the rice is high thanks to government policies, so we might actually make a profit this harvest (the high price of fertilizer and diesel to run farm machinery and irrigation pumps had made a lot of farmers consider just letting the land go fallow instead of losing money).
Now the problem:Will the government subsidize the price of cheap rice (usually imported from Viet Nam etc) so the poor can eat?
Ah, but the pointy head scientists have other priorities: Save the planet by eliminating farms altogether?
University of California researchers in Irvine have developed a way to create farm-free food. Believe it or not, UCI professor Steven Davis says we could create edible materials with biological and chemical methods, removing the need for agriculture. As a result, we may not need to use large tracts of land to grow our food.
That could stop people from burning patches of wilderness to convert them into farms. Also, that may reduce our use of pesticides and water to prevent the spreading of poisons and maintain a vital resource. More importantly, farm-free food production may remove our supply’s reliance on sunlight and might reduce our carbon emissions.
,,,
“Such ‘food without the farm’ could avoid enormous quantities of climate-warming emissions while also safeguarding biodiverse lands that might otherwise be cleared for farms,” he added.
An increasing number of academic studies and for-profit ventures have recently demonstrated that edible molecules can be synthesized via chemical and biological processes without need of agricultural feedstocks. Whereas plant-, cell- or fungi-based proteins and meat substitutes made from processed agricultural commodities are increasingly available, synthetically produced food may contain carbon from fossil fuels, waste or the atmosphere—that is, feedstocks that are not the product of agricultural photosynthesis.
in other words, fake food. Better living through chemistry.
Yet the prospects for producing food in this way raises many questions, prominent among them: what kind of food might feasibly be synthesized and with what advantages over agricultural products?
uh what's wrong with this picture?
uh, what will you do with the unemployed farmers? How will you stop them from farming? And would artificial food be cheap enough to feed the urban poor?
fake food factories will need an investment...follow the money...who will get rich on it? And will those who will get rich on fake food push (bribe) governments to encourage farmers not to farm?
What about small farmers?
On my "to read" list: CoryDigs has a long essay about food. and discusses many of these questions. True, it is a conspiracy site but she does put up links to check on the stories and then you can google to find different opinions.
Most of her report is about GMOs, big agri etc (which the left would considered evil) but then they go into the ecology types including those in the governments, buying up farm land to stop growing crops (a far right conspiracy). And even about mRNA vaccines for the anti vax conspiracy types to hyper-ventillate about.
So anyway, what does this mean for our farmers?
The reason I say our farmers is that years ago, land reform meant much of our family's land was given to the farmers who actually farmed it. Now, years later, their kids are educated, moved to Manila or to get overseas jobs, and there is actually a labor shortage in farm areas because no one wants to work that hard to stay poor.
One result: Many elderly farmers are selling the land to the rich from Manila to build summer homes, or to returning OFW for investment.
Since we no longer own our land, the rice for our organic rice company is grown by local farmers who we subcontract with, and we help them with the price of irrigation, ferilizer, handplows, machinery to harvest, etc. with the agreement that we have first dibs to buy their crop....
Back in the 1990s, much of the harvest was done by hand, and we supplied the thresher, but now we use a harvester/thresher (rented: Too expensive for us to buy). And bye bye waterbuffalo: Handplows are now used (sort of a large rototiller). The next step will be to rent a machine to plant the rice seedlings.
all of this means fewer people working in agriculture, of course, but the dirty little secret is that few younger people are willing to live in poverty doing back breaking farm work.
For our fields, since the young folk are leaving for better paying jobs, not only have we mechanized, but we import help.
some of our own farm land is farmed with people Joy's area in the Visayas, which is a lot poorer than our area and has fewer jobs
but the high price of fossil fuel is complicating matters: making it too expensive to grow food.
Then there is a huge story about farming that rarely gets in the news
Kuya is being pressured to sell his good rice growing land to a company to put solar panels on it. With the government policy to buy rice at a higher price, we probably will not do this...but you see how these things are connected.
and that doesn't even include conspiracy theories about the Chinese telecom company putting up the superduper fast internet antennas on our land (refused by Kuya)... uh, who can afford high speed internet in a rural area, so why are they placing them there? maybe because we are near a major military base?
sigh. Must stop reading internet conspiracy theories.
CNN shows traditional rice farming: which was how it was done when I first moved here but is slowly changing : something to remember the next time you read about those low carbon life style
that was how we did it up to a few years ago, and this is how it is now being done.
The synod is about reminding Catholics that we welcome everyone.
The problem? in reality is is about pushing the heresy of niceness for sinners, who don't need to believe (let alone need to repent) while the Pope openly insult ordinary pious believers. (some of his comments reminds one of Hillary's taunt about deplorables.)
But don't dare criticize the Pope. I've even heard it is a sin to criticize Pope Francis (Hmm... wonder if St Athanasius knew that)...
Strickland, 65, has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including women in governance roles and ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics. In a tweet earlier this year, Strickland accused the pope of “undermining the deposit of faith.",,,
Italics mine.
How dare he believe what Catholics have believed in for 2000 years. And how dare he preach clearly: I guess he didn't get the memo on how to confuse people by using jargon from the 1960s...
.
Sigh.
this is why most of the bishops criticizing the Pope's heresies are retired (and can't be fired) or laypeople (who can't be harmed).
Not only are a lot of US bishops still Catholic, but they control a lot of money. I suspect they have noticed the weekly donations (and attendance) in the church has gone down, partly from the Covid shutdown, but also because of confusion coming from on high. That is why last year they got out the big guns and started pushing prayer aka Eucharistic adoration.
So firing an inconvenient bishop is a shot across the bow by this Pope to warn priests and bishops not to oppose reform, i.e, making the church into a politically correct NGO that welcomes everyone but believers, especially those on the trad side of the church.
Now I tend to think the trads are overdoing it a bit and tend to be on the social justice side of the church, but you need both: And to do social justice work leads to burn out if you don't have a relationship with Jesus to get you through the hard times.
But my main annoyance at the SJW is that they seem to think if you don't do that type of work you aren't really a Christian....
The SJW emphasis makes the meaning of religion all about them and their deeds, leaving the rest of us out to be scolded by them as self centered and rigid because we still believe in the ten commandments and think we can serve God by ordinary work and caring for our family... sort of like Mama Mary, who was a simple housewife and mother.
.............................
In other news, we went to early mass this morning and it was packed and overflowing, and people dressed in good clothes.
Usually this mass is full of workers who attend before they go to work, and so most are in blue jeans and tee shirts or casual clothing.
And I noticed lots of vendors were in the parking lot selling small statues of Jesus and the cross.... hmmm... What is going on?
The church is sponsoring (a replica of) the Black Nazarene.
The Black Nazarene is a statue of Jesus carrying the cross, and is black in colour from a fire.
The Black Nazarene devotion is about picking up our cross and following Jesus, who also suffered like we do and will help us in our suffering.
So there were extra hymns and prayers after the mass, and tomorrow there will be a procession around the town.
This is how one teaches the faith in the days before everyone could read or write: Through stories and fiestas, and with pictures or statues that remind one that Jesus cares for us, and stories of the struggles and joys of the saints help us see God in our daily life.
"The kernel is the belief that God is love and, in Catholicism, God's love is present in the world. It is in the sacraments, in the Eucharist, in our families, in our friends, in our neighborhood, and forgiveness in the touch of a friendly hand, in a rediscovered love God is there." ~ Andrew Greeley
The replica statue of the Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno de Quiapo is carried by members of the Hijos del Nazareno on its way outside the St. Anthony Abbot Parish Center as it ends its three-day visit in San Antonio town on Sunday, June 18. Photo by STEVE A. GOSUICO.
Strategy Page discusses what the Israelis will face, and what the locals will face: They will be caught between fanatics who will use their deaths as propaganda and so won't protect them, and the Israelis, who will try to protect civilians but know if they don't root out Hamas that they will face more atrocities.
read it and weep.
SP compares the urban warfare not to Marawi, but to the siege of Manila in 1945, a story few Yanks know about,
The battle of Manila lasted a month. At least 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed of whom 60,000 were massacred by the Japanese, and 40,000 during the fighting, mostly by American artillery.
American casualties were 1000 dead/missing and 5600 wounded. Another 250,000 civilians were wounded.
Comparable casualties for an Israeli ground conquest of Gaza would be two months duration, 276,000 civilians dead (mostly massacred by Hamas), and 2300 Israeli dead/missing and 12,900 wounded, which would be similar to those of the Yom Kippur War.
and they go into the details.
Something to remember when discussing war: What is the alternative?
Making peace is always better: but the history of the twentieth century suggests that premature peace that does not completely eliminate an enemy who is fighting for an extremist ideology (Nazi, communism, radical Islam) results in a resurgence of war later (e.g. WWI, Sadam Hussein, the many wars of Israel),
Blackpink star Lisa removed from Chinese social media after cabaret show...
SHANGHAI, China - K-pop singer Lisa of megastar girl group Blackpink has been banned from China's Weibo social media platform, sparking speculation among fans Friday that the censorship was tied to a burlesque performance she gave in Paris.
Lisa, whose full name is Lalisa Manobal, disappeared from Weibo this week, with her personal page replaced by an error message saying her account was "not viewable due to being reported for violating laws (and) regulations".
Also banned from posting was Hong Kong actress Angelababy, whose real name is Angela Yeung, due to "violations of relevant laws and regulations", a message on her official Weibo account says.
How dare she dance (no it's not burlesque: she keeps her clothes on)...
Weibo is a Chinese social media platform, but is under the thumb of the government there.
But of course the US government would never pressure social media sites (/sarcasm).
But this is not about K pop: it is about China pushing people around... because they can.
Chinese censors are quick to block content considered politically sensitive or going against the ruling Communist Party’s socially conservative values, with stars targeted in the past for tattoos and “effeminate” fashion.
The blocking of the two stars comes after President Xi Jinping called on women to help in “promoting traditional Chinese virtues and sound family values”.
hmm... wonder if that includes traditional Chinese values like polygamy, infanticide, and foot binding...
BLACKPINK has faced a torrent of online criticism this week after referring to their Macau fans as "Macanese" rather than "Chinese" following its concerts there, spawning a disapproving hashtag from nationalistic social media users. ....
so how dare they use the wrong pronoun ethnic description!
Or is there a backstory to that backstory?
The furor over Macau's status came as a major pro-democracy party in the city disbanded in the wake of tighter restrictions on public dissent in the city under Chinese rule.
The New Democratic Macau Association dissolved in the wake of changes to the city's national security law that make it far more risky to continue with open political opposition in Macau, ... "Even striving for democracy could be regarded as trying to overthrow the current political system," Au said.
Fast forward to minute 53 and this satire site discusses what was going on:
in other words, stealth euthanasia by medical personnel.
In the USA, what killed a lot of elders in nursing homes was the policy to put infectious patients into nursing homes.
I have written in the past how Dr Levine instructed the governor to send still infectious covid patients to be placed back into nursing homes, a policy that caused thousands of deaths in Pennsylvania. His/her reason was that this was mandated by Medicare regulations (which it was: I fought them over this policy years ago). and the bureaucrat in the office insisted that there was no danger because proper use of protective equipment would prevent the disease from spreading. So despite putting his mom into a hotel for safety, he insists that the covid in nursing homes came from staff, not from spread via other patients because the overworked and often poorly trained care givers didn't use the protective equipment properly.
But just the practice to isolate the elderly probably led to some giving up and dying, and lack of staffing meant often they didn't eat properly (my mom used to go to feed her sister in a nursing home, because the staff merely put the tray there and took it away if she didn't feed herself, but she would eat when my mom fed her).
Here, in the Philippines, I am not familiar with the problems in hospitalized patients, but the main problem was everyone was afraid to go to the hospital when they were sick, and we had many who died at home. Even last year, when I had collapsed at home with dengue, I was not allowed into the hospital until I tested negative for covid.
I don't know how much is being investigate in the USA...
however, Nurse Claire reported such things back in 2021 on that crazy Jeremiah AnnBarnhardt's podcast. Which is one reason one sometimes needs to pay attention to reports dismissed as conspiracy theories.
Indeed, right now I am listening to Senator Rand Paul's book on the coverup of Covid's origin: not that it came from a Chinese biolab but that the US government was giving them funding through a third party despite laws against gain of function research.
Lots of coverups going on: including bad information by government health officials (italics mine) to the presidents, to the congress, to the governors, etc. in the USA.
and now? lots of pushing of mRNA vaccine on kids who are at low risk, while the internet is full of anecdotal stories of sudden death from spike protein associated myocarditis or clots. Well, that's the way to make a lot of people refuse to get any shot, and so expect a lot of kids sick or dying of childhood diseases that could be stopped by routine shots that have been around for 30 or more years.
Why do I say that? because that is what we saw here in the Philippines after some kids died from the experimental Dengue vaccine.
Former nurse now linked to 17 nursing home deaths. ” A former Pennsylvania nurse who, in May, had been accused of killing two patients with doses of insulin now faces more murder charges and has confessed to trying to kill 19 additional people at several locations, authorities said Thursday. Heather Pressdee, 41, is accused of administering excessive amounts of insulin to patients in her care, some of whom were diabetic and required insulin, and some of whom were not, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
:One of the people she murdered was my neighbor. He was a good guy and had been sick for a while, but he was hanging in there and doing fairly well. Then she murdered him.
The worst kind of psychopath is the kind who believes they are "doing the right thing," and I think that's where this particular stain on humanity falls. If you think your countrymen can't be convinced to load you into the boxcars "for the greater good," remember this putrescent sack of guts and think again.
I hope she rots in Hell.
and alas as euthanasia is pushed more, we will seee more such deaths....
Shadowlands: a story of CS Lewis and how he got married to an American divorcee. A two handkerchief movie.
I had a friend who scoffed and dismissed the film saying CSL was a Christian. I think he thought that it was a religious film: It is actually a well written drama about a person who had closed his emotional life after the childhood loss of his mother, and in middle age unexpectedly finds love, and learns about pain and how to face death.
and yes, in this play the actor playing him is Anthony Hopkins, best known for playing Hannibal Lector. When people forget and think actors are the same as the roles they play, I often point to Hopkins.
the film is best seen in high def but hey it's youtube and free.
If you are not familiar with CSL: this is a one man show about his early life and conversion to Christianity.
CS Lewis is best known as the author of the Narnia series (which I believe is now being remade by Netflix.) One shudders at that announcement: Presumably it will be made politically correct.
However, the older film version is worth finding on a streaming service:
trailer here:
or you can watch the BBC TV miniseries version:
CSLewis has written quite a few books to explain Christianity, which if you google his name you can find the audio versions on youtube.
I don't especially like his religious writings: too brittle for me. But Mere Christianity is as good a book to explain the basics to the ignorant as you can find, although it is a bit out of date.
Ironically, I predate the Narnia books so didn't read them as a child: which is good because they tend to be a bit preachy.
My introduction to CS Lewis was because as a kid I hated kid books aimed at girly girls, and read my brothers sci fi books (Heinlein, Clarke, etc) and one of these books was CSL's SciFi book Out of the Silent Planet, where a clueless professor of language (who some say was based on Tolkien) is kidnapped and taken to Mars by two PC scientists whose attitude toward Martians is a satire on the British Empire's mindset (i.e. they view Martians as inferior beings who need to be exploited so humans can live there and steal their gold etc.). They assume the locals want to meet another human to dissect him.(actually the Martians just want to learn about humans but think the scientists are crazy so want to meet a sane member of humanity)... Again outdated but still part of the classic sci fi universe.
Hamas had a lot of equipment, like bulldozers and trucks, that were needed for the attack on Israel but had legitimate uses inside Gaza. All the missiles and rockets were concealed in a network of tunnels underneath Gaza. Israel knew of some of these tunnels but had not been able to monitor their current status or use. Hamas prepared tunnel exits that allowed rockets and missiles to be quickly brought to the surface and launched....Hamas forces are mostly in the vast network of tunnels below Gaza, along with the remaining hundreds or thousands of guided missiles and rockets which are still being launched at Israel.
italics mine.
as this Japanese editorial points out, this is not a war of Israel against the Palestinians but a war of Israel against Hamas terrorists, who are using hostages and innoscnt civilians as human hostages to protect them.
UKExpress discusses that an RT report from a few years ago toured the tunnel system.
The video clip emphasises the strategic importance of these tunnels for Hamas and other militant groups in the region. The journalist says: "All military activities come from these places, the group confirms." This underlines the pivotal role these tunnels play in the organisation's ability to carry out military operations and evade Israeli surveillance.
italics mine.
so much for all that aid money sent to help the Palestinians, but which is diverted from civilians to fund jihad.
There are a lot of articles on the tunnels that someone finally noticed were there: I guess the MSM just ignored that RT article about their plans because it was in Arabic, but now finally there seems to be a lot of articles about them.
We are told the locals, who for some reason didn't evacuate, are lacking food and water and hospitals lament no diesel to run their generator.
and of course when Israel aims a rocket at the tunnels and storage areas beneath apartment buildings or hospitals, you can be sure that the local authorities will first insist that Israel was aiming at civilians, second, they will exaggerate the numbers, and third, they will post horrible photos of the dead where the bodies are shown in a way that you can't tell if they are combatants or just ordinary civilians.
Alas, the world correctly laments civilians being killed, but without this context it is a form of disinformation (dare I say propaganda?), and for some reason no one seems to be asking why Hamas dangerously hides munitions inside or under buildings in civilian areas.
And those lamenting the civilian deaths seem to believe Hamas is being honest. The calls for a cease fire assumes that Israel is fighting logical people who would make peace.
So why not offer a peace plan to release the hostages and get UN inspectors into their tunnels? Nope. No one is proposing this,
Dirty little secret: it's hard to make peace with those who admit they don't want peace: They want to kill you. But only satire sites dare to notice this.
'We May Never Know Exactly What Hamas Wants' Says Reporter In Front Of Hamas Holding 'Exterminate Jews From Existence' Banner
GAZA — Members of the media remain unsure of the motivation behind Hamas' violent attacks against Israel, with a reporter on the scene left speculating… pic.twitter.com/3iddddJiiE
Of course, lots of food and water etc. are in the tunnels, but Hamas won't help the starving civiliansbecause the supplies are for the military.... but they will put out propaganda videos blaming Israel for this, and pretending that when aid is sent it will be given only to the suffering civilians and not stolen like millions of dollars of aid have been stolen in the past.
Diverting aid money into military operations is is not new, of course; it is the same problem that NGOs have run into in North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan etc. where many NGOs have left in frustration because those in need are not getting the aid.
And remember how Biden just released oodles of Iran's money back to them asking them to be nice? How much of this will go to their proxies making war, not just on Israel, but Hezobollah against the Sunni Muslim/Christian Lebanese government.
A lot of leftist who lament the civil war in Yemen and blame the Saudis ignore that Iran is behind the Houthis who are making war against the Saudis by attacking Saudi border guards, and aiming missiles at that country. And these same human rights activists seem to look the other way at the Houthi's anti woman policies that make Mohammed look like Gloria Steinum and the Taliban as feminists.
But never mind: The left ignores atrocities unless they can figure out how to blame them on the west.
however, the Arabs and the Turks are playing along with the anti Israel propaganda for now, partly because of their common faith and years of reflexive anti Israeli propaganda has made their citizens take the side of the Palestinians...
but the dirty little secret is that a lot of Arab countries know that this is not about the Palestinians, but a plan by Iran to use Hamas, an Iranian proxy terrorist group, to start a war to disrupt the growing peace in the area thanks to the Abraham agreements.
And these countries also are aware that they have extensive terrorist networks (both ISIS and Iranian) in their own countries that could cause violence/terrorism/civil war if they dare admit that Hamas had it coming, and that the suffering of the Palestinian people is only partly due to a stubborn Israel: most of their suffering is due to bad leadership who sponsor terror, and make things worse by their leaders who steal millions of aid money. Starting war is a tried and true way for tyrants to deflect anger against them by blaming all their problems on a scapegoat: in this case, Israel.
