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Our visit to the Holy Land – Church of St Peter’s Primacy & Church of the Annunciation
From the Sea of Galilee we proceeded to Tabgha to the Church of St Peter’s primacy. In John 21, Jesus appears to his disciples for the third time after his resurrection on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The night before, Peter and several other disciples had sailed out on the lake to fish, but caught nothing. In the morning, a man appeared on the shore and called out to them to throw their net on the right side of the boat. Doing so, they caught so many fish they couldn’t drag the net back into the boat. At this point Peter recognizes Jesus, and promptly jumps out of…
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Our visit to the Holy Land – site where Jesus was baptized and the Mount of Beatitudes
One thing to keep in mind when visiting the Holy Land is that some of the sites most important to Christians are based on tradition as to their location in the context of the life of Jesus Christ. Occasionally, there are differing opinions as to the correct location of a particular site. One such example of these differing opinions is where Jesus was baptized. We visited Yardenit that is viewed by some as the approximate location where Christ was baptized. There is an alternative location closer to the Dead Sea and there is no consensus as to which location is the right one. Frankly, it did not bother me. What…
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Our visit to the Holy Land – Crossing into Israel from Jordan
We stayed one night at the Amman Airport Hotel and left the next morning by bus for Israel driving through downtown Amman just in order that we get a glimpse of the capital since the previous day we were on the outskirts of Amman while visiting Madaba and Mount Nebo. We had wanted to visit Petra – which is not part of the itinerary of this tour but we were willing to pay the extra amount involved just so that we could see it given that we were within three hours of Petra while in Amman. Unfortunately there were logistical issues in doing so and therefore it will have to…
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Our visit to the Holy Land – Amman, Jordan
We flew from Cochin to Amman, Jordan. There was nothing remarkable or striking about Amman. It is essentially desert – probably akin to areas like Los Angeles and Las Vegas many decades ago before development occurred and sources of water were either found or redirected to those cities. Jordan is primarily Muslim but Christians live peacefully with Muslims and there is no tension between the groups – they socialize, work together and are respectful of the respective traditions and beliefs of the other group. Jordan also has a tradition of receiving refugees from other parts of the Middle East at times of upheaval in those regions. In the 70s’ there…
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Our visit to the Holy Land – Introduction & Overview
It has been months since I updated this blog so our visit to the Holy Land seems a good reason to restart the blog. We returned earlier this morning from our tour and I will try and capture the salient parts both in terms of our visit to the religious sites as well as other thoughts and observations. There is too much to cover in one single posting so I will break it out over multiple postings. A visit to the Holy Land is something that I have wanted to do for the best part of a decade. For one reason or another it never came to fruition until this…
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“The best kept secret in the hardwood flooring world”
We will be listing our house for sale in the next month and as anyone who has been through the process knows a series of tedious and time-consuming steps are involved in readying the house for sale to optimize its value and saleability. We have been busy having the house painted, giving away tons of stuff to charity and to people who wanted it – all in an effort to declutter the house. Our hardwood floors although basically in good condition looked rather dull after years of use so I wanted to find a way to “revive” its appearance. I did an extensive amount of research and made numerous inquiries…
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Political correctness run amok?
Last weekend, my grandson DJ, came over to spend the afternoon. After a while he asked if I had any funny DVD of TV programs to watch. I told him I had the whole series of “All in the Family” on DVD but I did not think he would find it interesting since although it was a hugely successful program over 40 years ago, it would be a bit dated for a teenager. Surprisingly he seemed to enjoy it but more relevant to this posting was his shock at the things that were said routinely during the program especially by Archie Bunker that today would be deemed politically incorrect and…
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A modern day “pogrom” – the expulsion of Indians from Uganda
It has been forty years since Idi Amin expelled all the Asians living in Uganda. Some of those who were expelled were born and brought up in Uganda – they were Ugandan citizens – and did not know have a sense of belonging to any other country. The trauma and upheaval experienced by these Asians are heart-wrenching in many cases but what is remarkable is the success that many have achieved in the countries that received them. What happened to the Indians in Uganda cannot accurately be described as a “pogrom” since that word connotes a massacre or organized violence against an ethnic group. This did not happen for the…
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Physician heal thyself ……….and other observations
Gender selection with a marked preference for male children has been a major problem in India and some other countries. It has resulted in severely skewed male/female ratios in some parts of India with major repercussions as a shortage in the number of eligible young females has caused social unrest in these locations and the need to find eligible young women from other parts of India where the ratios are not as skewed. The graphic below shows the extent to which these ratios are skewed because of gender selection which occurs mainly through the abortion of female fetuses. It shows the worst offenders among states in India where the greatest…
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“Frugality is in the Indian DNA”
The title of this posting was the headline of an article in an Indian publication. Indians have a reputation for being frugal or thrifty …. though some would describe them as being cheap. Perhaps some of the explanation is because of the absence of any social safety net in India which causes people to feel the need to save and invest money for the proverbial rainy day. I know my father was quite disapproving of my more profligate days when I was single and a lot younger when saving money was a low priority. He, on the other hand, graduated from college about the time of the Great Depression and…
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Al Gore and “A Convenient Hypocrisy”
“The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.” ~André Gide Gide’s observation came to mind in the context of Al Gore’s latest hypocrisy. The man who pontificated endlessly about the hazards of global warming and the need for the world to act responsibly in terms of the environmental impact of fossil fuels is now just another hypocrite! Gore was a visionary when it came to his early warnings about global warming and climate change. He was way ahead of the times. Sadly, like many other public figures there is a huge chasm between his convictions and sermonizing and what he…
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The times are a changin’ ………..
I grew up at a time when men were not supposed to cry …… and certainly not to do so in a public setting. It really was somewhat absurd because the expectation was that it was not “manly” to show such emotions and the thing to do was to repress them. Perhaps it was British influence …… what with the “stiff upper lip” and all! Even as recently as the 70s’ a man displaying such emotion was viewed negatively. The Democratic candidate for president in the 1972 election, Edward Muskie, was leading in the race against the incumbent Richard Nixon whose popularity was impacted by the war in Vietnam and…
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Pranks, humor and jokes
My family knows that I have a proclivity for pranks. In fact, there is a sense of puzzlement among some within the family as to why a man in his mid-sixties is amused by such frivolity. I don’t have an explanation for this. I have loved shows like “Candid Camera” and more modern equivalents that have taken the place of that show. Anyone who lives in the US knows that one of the irritations that one has to put up with is telemarketers who call, often at the most inconvenient times. In days gone by, this used to happen frequently but after legislation which allowed the registration of one’s phone…
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Born in the USA!
Tony Blair in an address to British ambassadors who had congregated in London said: “A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.” Blair was not the first person to make such a remark about the attraction that the US holds for millions of people all over the world. George Will, the political commentator, in 1992 said something similar regarding how the US is a magnet for people all over the world. Blair who clearly had an admiration for the US and Americans when he addressed Congress in 2003 said: “But, members of Congress, don’t ever apologize…
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The ultimate in outsourcing
I just love this story! “Bob” – his full/real name is not known – worked for Verizon as a software developer/programmer drawing a six figure salary and came up with a creative idea. We all know of companies who outsource their work to India and China to save money. Bob decided to take things one step further: he outsourced his own job to China without the knowledge of his employer! The software developer, who is in his 40s’ paid a Chinese firm about a fifth of his six-figure compensation to do his job for him while he spent his working days surfing the internet. Bob’s creative use of personal outsourcing…
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“You are going to die” – more on aging, death and longevity
I have been down with a prolonged bout of the flu and so I have not kept up with the blog. I hope to make up for this over the next few days given that there is a plethora of subjects I have wanted to comment about. But this post has little to do with my recent illness except in a very peripheral way – despite the post prior to this one also focusing on aspects of the same subject by Khushwant Singh. Over the past several years I have been involved in discussions with peers and family about aging and the ramifications of doing so ranging from medical care,…
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Khushwant Singh: About faith and aging
I am within spitting distance of reaching 67 years and although I don’t by any means obsess about aging, there are articles and discussions about aging that catch my attention in a way it would not have done a decade ago. It is in this context that a recent excerpt from Khushwant Singh’s latest book made for interesting reading and those of us who are seniors can relate to some or all of what he writes. I have always enjoyed reading Khushwant Singh’s writing – a combination of the thoughtful, the irreverent, the insightful and, occasionally, the vulgar. He has been a controversial figure over the years but even his…
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Thoughts about the 2012 Presidential election
Some thoughts regarding the recent presidential election: The saying “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative when you’re 40, you have no head” is widely and wrongly ascribed to Winston Churchill. In actual fact, the phrase originated with Francois Guisot, a French statesman who was born in the 18th century, who said: “Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head.” It was later revived by French Premier Georges Clemenceau who said: “Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of want of heart;…
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Images pertaining to the crash of Pan Am 217
Robert Contreras, who first commented on my blog entry regarding the crash of Pan Am 217 sent me a number of images ….. some of them quite graphic …… which were published in the Venezuela newspapers at the time of the crash. I am including all of the images ….. the script is in Spanish but barely readable except for the headlines. They can be viewed below. Thanks to Roger for taking the time to send me these images.
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Photographer Kevin Carter: An image that took its toll
The pastor at the church I attend said in the context of this Sunday’s lesson from the gospels that some times one sees some thing that is so disturbing or traumatic that it is impossible to “unsee” it. Within this category is one of the iconic photographs of human suffering and cruelty by human beings to their fellow humans. In March 1993, photographer Kevin Carter made a trip to southern Sudan, where he took now iconic photo of a vulture preying upon an emaciated Sudanese toddler near the village of Ayod. Carter said he waited about 20 minutes, hoping that the vulture would spread its wings. It didn’t. Carter snapped…
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A teacher’s remarkable story
I have never met Kersi Rustomji and first came to know of him through a Yahoo group consisting of mainly Asians who are or were residents in East Africa. We both lived in Kenya until the sixties. Through our common membership in the Yahoo group we occasionally exchanged private messages. We have not always agreed on various issues but Kersi has always come across to me through his communications within the group and privately as an idealist and humanitarian. His opinions are very much founded on these underlying themes. He was a teacher in Kenya and then in Australia where he currently lives. Recently after the death of Neil Armstrong,…
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Random thoughts and facts about the Indian diaspora
Those of us who live outside of India occasionally express amazement because one can go to relatively remote locations around the world and one still finds Indians who reside in those countries. In fact – and I don’t know for sure if this is accurate – I read that Indians are to be found residing, either permanently or temporarily, in just about every country in the world with the exception of North Korea! But although Indians have emigrated and have settled in so many diverse countries what is surprising is that as a percentage of India’s population the Indian diaspora is actually relatively small. It is estimated that there are…
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“The Eagle has landed”
These were among the first words uttered by Neil Armstrong after the Apollo 11 mission landed on the moon in 1969. He actually said: “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” The recent death of Neil Armstrong brought to mind memories of that extra-ordinary year when humans first landed on the moon. It was a remarkable technological achievement and a testament to American ingenuity and determination. Just about everyone around the world followed the event closely and with bated breath. With all the news surrounding Armstrong’s death, I became aware for the first time about some facts which I suspect most people would not be familiar with. When the…
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Honoring America’s veterans and fallen
The US, like many other countries, has had a long tradition of honoring its veterans and those who have died in the line of duty. There are specific days in the US – Veterans Day and Memorial Day that are dedicated for that purpose. There are also hospitals dedicated to veterans and favorable financing available to veterans to purchase homes. After World War II, the GI Bill was introduced to offer those who served in the war to go to college – many who availed of the GI Bill were able to attain the educational qualifications to obtain gainful employment. My son-in-law’s father, Richard Stahl Snr, died in April 2012.…
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My pilgrimage of nostalgia
Guest post by Sotantar Sood who lived in Kenya until the mid-1960s, attended Allidina Visram High School and returned to Kenya recently after 46 years. Sotantar currently lives in Canada with his family In February and March of 2012, my wife and I spent 2 weeks in India followed by 3 weeks in Kenya. We go to India every 1 to 2 years to visit my wife’s side of the family. On this trip, after spending 2 weeks in India, we connected to Kenya via Mumbai, on a trip which I called my “pilgrimage of nostalgia”. This trip had been due for 46 years. After completing “A” Levels at Allidina…
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Much ado about nothing …….. or about very little
I was made aware about a huge controversy regarding some comments that Oprah Winfrey made during the airing of a documentary about India called “India: The Next Chapter”. Most of the criticism centered around a remark that Oprah Winfrey made while dining with an Indian family when she asked quite casually: “I heard some Indian people eat with their hands still?” It was this comment that caused umbrage leading to a tirade of criticism by columnists, opinion writers and many (mostly) Indian commenters. The criticism ranged from disappointment to being offended to outright racist comments about Oprah. Perhaps it was the use of the word “still” that caused offense but…
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Tribute to Juanita Martinez who died on Pan Am Flight 217
Guest posting contributed by Jill Breitbarth in memory of Juana Maria Martinez. Jill says: “I hope others who knew her will see this and add their own memories.” When I was six-years-old until seven months beyond my twelfth birthday, Juanita Martinez was my other mother, my confidante, and my mentor. Her mothering was not tied up in a complex family legacy of guilt, projection, and survival at all costs: she loved me as clearly as the Caribbean water in the shallows near our home. She showed me how, even with firm tones, guidance could be a kind offering. Juanita also showed me how laughter and sympathy go hand-in-hand; how the…
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An iconic moment in the history of the Olympics
For the most part, I have only a passing interest in sports. During my years in Kenya and later in the UK, I was interested in cricket but that faded over the years after I moved to the US. However, I have maintained a sustained interest in the Olympics – an interest that commenced with the Melbourne games in 1956 when I lived in Kenya. It was my mother who got me interested – she, too had only a passing interest in most sports except when it came to the Olympics. I recall talking to her about Roger Bannister breaking the four minute barrier in the mile for the first…
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Coincidence or can dogs detect cancer?
I had read some months ago that dogs were being trained to detect cancer ……. with some success. But nothing could have been more remarkable than what happened with our very own dog, Max …… a German Shepherd who is just over five years old. Max is an intelligent dog and seems to have a strong sense of smell as evident in the way he goes about finding items as he sniffs around and locates them. German Shepherds are often viewed as “one owner” dogs, in that they develop their greatest affinity to one person in the house. In the case of Max that affinity was towards me. He would…
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“The Arrow of Time”
I am not sure what it is that fascinates me about a website a South American, Diego Goldberg, started some years ago. Goldberg started to take pictures of his family from 1976 to the current year with following explanation: “On June 17th, every year, the family goes through a private ritual: we photograph ourselves to stop, for a fleeting moment, the arrow of time passing by.” Diego’s first pictures are of him and his wife in 1976 and over the years we see pictures of his children – three sons. There is a picture of the family every year right up to 2012 …… fascinating to watch how time has…