Thirst 4

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

This is the story of Tencia, a widow in Mozambique who bakes bread and supports three sons.

Making the bread to sell used to be a very slow business. She had to spend hours fetching water because "Every bit of her bread-making process requires water: The dough mixture. Washing hands, utensils, plates and bowls. . “Without water it’s impossible to bake."

Still, she managed to make a yearly profit of $89.

photo

Then in 2010 charity:water partnered with World Vision to bring a brand new well right into the center of the community. Tencia now had all the water she wanted, and it eliminated many labor hours for her.

"She began baking and selling 40–50 loaves in a single day, doubling her profit from $89/year to more than $178!

"This is the difference that [accessible] clean water makes. Tencia isn’t just earning income for her family anymore, she’s building a better future. Water has given her the chance to dream and the means to make her dreams a reality."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Thirst 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

When charity:water started up in 2006, there were about a billion people in the world without access to clean water. Now it's down to under 750,000,000, still a huge number. 

This charity figures that they provide about 2700 people per day, or one every 30 seconds, with clean water. And they have stories upon stories.

photo

Fetching water is a woman's work in Africa, taking up to eight hours a day. "Young girls learn how to balance the weight of a water bucket, with a baby on their back, while boys their age are learning how to read in school.

"Even at a young age, Devison saw it all around him. And he refused to do nothing while his mother and sister shouldered the burden of this work, so Devison started walking for water too.

"Devison wasn’t trying to be a hero or take a stand; he just wanted to do the right thing. He wanted his mom to have time to do more important things. He wanted his sister to be able to go to school too."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Thirst 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

"At 28 years old, Scott Harrison had it all. A top nightclub promoter in New York City, his life was an endless cycle of drugs, booze, models—repeat. But 10 years in, desperately unhappy and morally bankrupt, he asked himself, "What would the exact opposite of my life look like?" 

Working for a medical charity ship in Africa gave him the opposite of his NYC life.

He saw African women walking for hours every day to carry water home to their families. He saw children get sick from it. He got their water analyzed, and sometimes it was alive with disease-causing bacteria. 

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He found out what it would take to get clean water to these villages and became obsessed with making it available to millions who don't have it. A new charity was born - it's called "charity:water" and he's still CEO/founder today.

A natural promoter, he put his talents to work on a global project to accomplish something good.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Thirst 1

This week's content is from Thirst, by Scott Harrison

The Harrison family became Christian in the 1980's. The couple and their little boy, Scott, became active in their church, and they were all in.

Scott played the piano, which led to joining a band that played for events and clubs during his high school years. In New York after high school, he found a niche where he could monetize his drive, charm, intelligence, good looks . . as a club promoter.

photo

It was like making a living as a perpetual life-of-the-party. For ten years he immersed himself in celebrities, drinking, models, drugs, money. But then his faith re-awakened and he started looking for a better way.

A few months later, he was on a charity ship with no luxuries, no glamour, no money . . his lifestyle of indulgence was over.

(cont'd tomorrow . . the better way he discovered, making a difference in the world)

Neocolonial 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Obianuju Ekeocha wrote an open letter to Melinda Gates when the Gates Foundation started their $4.7 billion drive to promote population control in Africa back in 2012. She claims that their project is an affront to the the values of African women.

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Here is her view:

"[Melinda Gates wants] to collect pledges for almost $5 billion in order to ensure that the African woman is less fertile, less encumbered and, yes, she says, more "liberated." With her incredible wealth she wants to replace the legacy of an African woman (which is her child) with the legacy of "child-free sex." 

Without the health care or sanitation systems of Europe or the U.S., she expects more health risks to result from the Gates project.

She doesn't want sex turned into a "casual pleasure sport." "With most African women faithfully practicing and adhering to a faith (mainly Christian or in some cases Muslim), there is a high regard for sex in society, especially among the women. Sex is sacred and private."

From a more recent interview: "When I came to the United Kingdom 13 years ago, what shocked me the most was the loss of the value of human life,"

"We’ll keep struggling and fighting so one day the African people rise up. With a unified voice, we will have the confidence to say: We don’t want your neocolonialism on our continent."

Neocolonial 1

Heavy-handed, inappropriate influence by a stronger country over another country, that's neocolonialism. Some Africans resist this unwanted "influence."

Obianuju Ekeocha is one of these. "[As] the scientist and author of Target Africa, her goal has become to expose what she views as unwanted and even perilous efforts by Western charities and governments. . .  "I’ve learned about a horrible dynamic between African and Western nations. One could best describe that relationship as neocolonialism.”

She says that hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent by organizations like the Gates Foundation to control population in Africa.

Born in Nigeria and educated there, she now lives in Europe but speaks as an African woman who opposes Western elite attempts to limit African births.

"What I learned from my own upbringing and community is that human life is precious from the beginning. We have names like Ndubisi, which translates as “human life is first" . . the first thing we hold on to is life. As long as you have life, there is hope."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Nature 3

(continuing re-posts about nature)

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Planet Earth 2

A second "Planet Earth" has come along from the BBC and it looks beautiful. Eventually I'll watch and enjoy it. But John Stonestreet already has, and found something weird.



The script makes statements like these:

"This frog “discovered a way to avoid wasps by becoming transparent,” these hummingbirds have “traded convenience for longer beaks,” this jaguar, sloth, penguin, or bat has “found” a unique solution to the challenges of its environment."

Really? A frog discovered, a hummingbird traded, a jaguar found? No hummingbird has ever weighed the pros and cons of trading away convenience to get a longer beak. The writers of this script know that but they can't resist saying it this way . . for a pretty good reason: intuition.

It's almost impossible to learn about this incredible world and conclude that it's all just random. Our universal intuition says it was designed intelligently. Either our Creator did that, or (according to the BBC) the hummingbird designed its own features.

Nature 2

(Continuing the re-posts)

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

To morally and responsibly care for our planet is part of the mission that God gave to humanity.  The National Association of Evangelicals has put it pretty well in this excerpt from the statement on their website: Creation Care

Laboring to protect God's creation As we embrace our responsibility to care for God's earth, we reaffirm the important truth that we worship only the Creator and not the creation. God gave the care of his earth and its species to our first parents. That responsibility has passed into our hands.  We affirm that God-given dominion is a sacred responsibility to steward the earth and not a license to abuse the creation of which we are a part. We are not the owners of creation, but its stewards, summoned by God to "watch over and care for it" (Gen. 2:15). This implies the principle of sustainability: our uses of the Earth must be designed to conserve and renew the Earth rather than to deplete or destroy it. image: pinterest

Nature 1

Note: Posts from four years ago will be featured this week, on the subject of the natural environment

Re-post:

Monday, April 14, 2014

Stewardship

Environmentalism means, for most of us, to take care of our natural world.  There is no other planet for us except this one, and there is only mankind to protect and sustain it.  This is the common ground for all people everywhere, of every persuasion.

For Christians, this concept originated at the beginning - the very beginning, when God created the cosmos (Genesis 1). He then created life and made humankind responsible for managing this beautiful world like a garden.

photo: forbes

A garden is an apt metaphor.  A resource for the maintenance of life, a garden has beauty and fragrance, an appropriate place to set humanity. It's also the source of good and meaningful work because it must be carefully tended.

This is the Christian view.  But it's not held by everybody.  Example:  Sir David Attenborough (you may have seen him on public tv) says that humanity is a plague on the earth.  He's only one of a number of celebrities and academics of like mind.  

(cont'd tomorrow)

Hamilton

Of all the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton had the roughest early life, losing both parents by the time he was 14. But he went on to fill an essential and unique role in the startup of the United States of America.

Lin-Manuel Miranda read his biography and was inspired to write and star in the popular musical "Hamilton."

Cheesy support

Those nice Canadian air traffic controllers thought of a way to show friendly support for their American counterparts, who haven't been paid since Dec. 22 because of the government shutdown across the border.

photo: NYT

"[E]mployees at an air traffic control center in Edmonton, Alberta, decided to buy pizzas for their colleagues at an office in Anchorage, Alaska. Soon, dozens of other Canadian traffic control centers joined in . . .By Monday, about 400 pizzas had been delivered to air traffic control towers across the United States."

The recipients were grateful. 

"I might have to cheer for a Canadian hockey team."

"O Canada! We don't deserve you!"

"I know who I'm voting for next election: Canada!"
"Pizza diplomacy, eh!"

DNA sold

Picture this. A company starts up which offers to analyze your DNA for $99-199, using a saliva sample that you send them. If you purchase their service, you will be asked whether it's okay that they "share" your results with other companies. 

Will you sign up? Is it okay with you if your genetic makeup goes to other companies? 

"23andMe" is this company. The founder claims that customers are helping to improve health care for all.

Some people agree and send in their cells. Others stay away because they don't like the idea of their personal DNA being out there, in public. 23andMe just did a deal to "share" - sell? - customer DNA results to a big pharmaceutical company.

In other words:

"Big Pharma just bought access to your DNA from genealogy company 23andMe."

"Fact checking" 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Atlantic's writer says that "latent anti-American prejudices [are] routinely aroused by Der Spiegel’s brand of yellow journalism masquerading as high-minded critique."

Really? "Yellow journalism"? Yes, really. One of Der Spiegel's magazine covers is below. This is deeply offensive, terrible stuff:

image

"Fact checking" 1

German news organization Der Spiegel has taken a hit, and it appears to be well-deserved. It's their "fact checking" department. They do not check facts. Or, they allow "fabrications" to be published under their name if they like the fabrications.

Der Spiegel magazine has been publishing "fabrications" (non-truth) written by award-winning journalist Claas Relotius (see posts January 2-4) for years. As this writer at Atlantic points out, Der Spiegel is happy to trash America.

From the Atlantic article:

"Though it is respected abroad as an authoritative news source, Der Spiegel has long peddled crude and sensational anti-Americanism . . ."

"Relotius, I submit, was able to get away with his con for so long because he confirmed the preconceived notions of people who fashion themselves worldly yet are as parochial as the red-state hicks of their imagination."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Athletes 2018

Crazy athletic moments of 2018 - just for fun

Mexican fight

Back in 2006, the government of Mexico deployed the army to "crack down on drug cartels." There's been a social cost: 200,000 murders since that time. 

The record for yearly murders was set in 2017. Mexico's population then was 123 million, and they suffered about 28,700 murders. That's roughly one in 4,285.

To get an idea of the scale of this violence, compare it to the United States. There were about 17,000 murders in the U.S. population of about 326 million in the year 2017. That's roughly one in 19,000. 

Mexico's 2017 murder rate was more than four times that of the U.S.

image

Future cities

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Predictions can be made from population trends. That's what yesterday's video was about. Populations are growing in parts of Asia, and growing even faster in African cities. 

By 2075 - Neither China nor Europe have cities on the "20 biggest cities" list, while the Western Hemisphere has only New York and Mexico City. African cities are huge.

If trends continue, by 2100 the largest city in the world will be Lagos, Nigeria, with maybe 88 million people which is more than twice as big as today's biggest city, Tokyo (38 million). 

Biggest cities

If you have followed the "demography" label on this blog, you will not be surprised at the information in this video prepared by Visual Capitalist.

The trends are obvious. Europe's population has been dropping for decades while Africa and Asia see population numbers climbing.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Sears

Sears, Roebuck & Co. used to be the biggest employer in the U.S. and the biggest retailer in the world. Railroad man Richard Sears in 1886 started the mail-order catalog that made elite goods available anywhere that railroads and the postal service could go.

In 1925, Sears' second wave of retail innovation came from a vice president who saw that cars were going to drive commerce. He bought land at the crossroads outside of cities and towns - which became suburbs - and Sears stores began popping up.

Today Sears is bankrupt. What happened?

Absurd lies

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

From Michelle Anderson's fact-checking of the claims in Relotius' article:

Claim - near a "dark forest" there's a welcome sign with flag banner and slogan "Welcome to Fergus Falls, home of damn good folks." Truth - see photo of welcome sign

Claim - the single city administrator carries a Beretta 9 mm to work, has no experience with women, has never seen the ocean. Truth -  he has no Beretta, lives with his girlfriend, has picture of them beside the ocean.

Claim - the town is obsessed with "American Sniper" which opened in 2015 and was still running in 2017. Truth - it ran from January to February 2015.

Claim - a sign warns "Mexicans Keep Out." Truth - no one has seen that sign.

Dumb, made-up stuff, and there's much more. Why did journalist Relotius do it??

His fiction served his purpose better than the truth of the actual town and its diverse citizens. Michelle says she doesn't appreciate the "false historical documentation" of a town and people she knows, all to reinforce the stereotype of small town America held by "overseas readers."

Michelle and co-writer Jake

Lies about US

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

German journalist Claas Relotius spent 3 weeks in early 2017 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, U.S.A., to get first-hand information for a European article he wanted to write about small town America. (Find Minnesota along the northern border.)

When Der Spiegel published the article, Fergus Falls citizens discovered it was an "insulting, if not hilarious, excuse for journalism."  Blogger Michelle Anderson started fact-checking Relotius' claims around town.

Except for a few facts, she says it's "uninhibited fiction . . which begs the question of why Der Spiegel even invested in Relotius’ three week trip to the U.S., whether they should demand their money back from him, and what kind of institutional breakdown led to the supposedly world-class Der Spiegel fact-checking team completely dropping the ball on this one."

"There are so many lies here, that my friend Jake [co-writer] and I had to narrow them down to the top 11 most absurd lies . . for the purpose of this article."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Fake

Fake News is not just an American media phenomenon. 

"A top European news magazine has fired one of its star journalists after discovering that he had fabricated facts and sources in more than a dozen articles over a seven-year period.

"Claas Relotius, a reporter and editor, falsified his articles on a grand scale and even invented characters, deceiving both readers and his colleagues," Germany's Der Spiegel said . . ." He admitted to it.

Relotius received two awards from CNN in 2014, including "Journalist of the Year."

Der Spiegel says he "falsified his articles," which in common language means he lied in order to deceive.

He lied about a certain American small town - and they are not amused.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Dubai NYE

Whatever you spent celebrating New Year's Eve, you almost certainly didn't spend what you would have if you were in . . Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

map

There were spectacular fireworks and extravagant parties for those with deep pockets. The adult party ticket could be roughly $700US (but kids get into theirs free with an adult).  

Or, for those who prefer a low-key celebration, you could take some friends to Five Guys: "For burgers near the action, fast food chain Five Guys charged $408 per person." 

But everyone could have unlimited burgers, fries and drinks.