Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Monday, January 09, 2006
filiberto ojeda rios
For a very long time I have had this problem with the way history is taught. Too many of our textbooks and professors teach history as if they were taking a droplet of water out of the river and presenting that droplet as the entire river itself. And they do so with little regard to those trillions of droplets that make a river possible. No one event, no one person, exists out of context. We are all part of some sense of continuum.
"...he run venezuela"
Saturday, January 07, 2006
the reason for the season
Edward Gibbon writes about the Ka'bah and its existence before the Christian era in his book, Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire:
Each tribe, each family, each independent warrier, created and changed the rites and the object of this fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion as well as to the language of Mecca. The genuine antiquity of Caaba ascends beyond the Christian era: in describing the coast of the Red sea the Greek historian Diodorus has remarked, between the Thamudites and the Sabeans, a famous temple, whose superior sanctity was revered by all the Arabians; the linen of silken veil, which is annually renewed by the Turkish emperor, was first offered by the Homerites, who reigned seven hundred years before the time of Mohammad.
Another interesting connection, which I first read about in Martin Ling's biography of the Prophet, but was reminded of by Sadiq M. Alam over at Inspirations and Creative Thoughts (He also has a lecture by Zaid Shakir on Hajj on his site).
In the Quran, an alternative name given for Mecca is Becca (3:96-97)
Most surely the first house appointed for men is the one at Becca, blessed and a guidance for the nations. In it are clear signs, the standing place of Ibrahim, and whoever enters it shall be secure, and pilgrimage to the House is incumbent upon men for the sake of Allah, (upon) every one who is able to undertake the journey to it; and whoever disbelieves, then surely Allah is Self-sufficient, above any need of the worlds.
But then the Bible, in Psalm 84 also seems to contain a possible allusion to the same place:
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.
5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6 As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
8 Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob.
9 Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
I don't think Islam needs that kind of validation but it is still fascinating to me to see how certain ideas, themes and practices echo back and forth between Islam and the Bible.
the wise men
I recently found out that in Chile and certain other countries, the day is also called La Pascua de los Negros. Some say the name is a reference to the idea that one of Wise Men was a black African.
But others say:
Es interesante notar que, en tiempo de la colonización española, especialmente en Cuba y Puerto Rico, este día era de asueto para los esclavos negros que salían a las calles a bailar al ritmo de sus tamboras. Esto origina el nombre de Pascua de los Negros con que el día es aún conocido en algunos países.
The period from December 26 (Boxing Day) to January 6 is also the origin of the 12 days of Christmas.
The Quran does contain a birth narrative of Jesus but doesn't mention the Wise Men. (Although, in 22:17 Magians are mentioned but not in reference to the birth of Christ). As far as I know, no authoritative Muslim accounts (i.e. Quran and sunnah) of the birth of Jesus include the Wise Men. But I wouldn't rule out the possibility that there is some obscure narration or a syncretic legend in the Muslim world which includes them... After all, if Muslims in Senegal celebrated Christmas this year then anything is possible. (I wonder if Christians in Senegal will be celebrating Eid? Just this morning I was hearing on NPR how African Christians were incorporating traditional African pracitices in the churches and they mentioned animal sacrifices)
Nevertheless, I would still argue that the story of the Wise Men suggests a different kind of similarity between Islam and Christianity.
Matthew 2:1-2
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
According to some, the three wise men symbolically correspond to Noah's three sons and represent all the people of the earth coming to pay their respects to Christ. (And so one is African, another Oriental, another European) But in other interpretations, the "Wise Men from the east" came from Persia and were likely to be Zoroastrian. In any case, if you take the Bible literally, they were Gentiles who had their own system of belief but were still able to correctly predict the birth of the Messiah. And so, in this way, the Bible is recognizing the validity of a pre-Christian non-Jewish religion. And so an argument can be made that from a Christian perspective, Zoroastrians (or whatever group the Wise Men belonged to) are People of the Book. (Allahu alim)
it's a beige thing
"It may be that in the future there will be more rather than fewer of us - the 2001 census suggested that mixed-race people had the youngest average age profile, and one in five of London's schoolchildren will soon be from mixed-race backgrounds. I know there can never be a box on those forms for every possible permutation of ethnic origin. But I also hope that as mixed-race people become more numerous and start to reach the higher echelons of British society, a more sophisticated understanding of ethnicity will evolve: one which allows people like me to be seen as a subtle shade of beige."
When I was younger, I would have felt more positively towards the above article. Now that I'm older, I think the article raises some good questions, but my attitudes towards racial/ethnic identity have in some ways gotten simpler. Now, alot of the identity questioning I engaged in seems like self-indulgent navel-gazing. We have more important questions to deal with in life other than which box to check.
Furthermore, Latin America with its long and extensive history of miscegenation already has developed a rich vocabulary of terms, in Spanish, Portuguese and even French, which can be used to describe different racial mixes. So centuries ago in certain parts of the New World, society had already "evolved" past seeing things in black and white and even beige, and had moved on to dividing people into mestizo, castizo, espomolo, mulatto, lobo, zambo, coyote, moreno, trigueno and many other categroies. But it wasn't at all clear that this richer and more detailed language did anything to limit or prevent the effects of racism/colorism/prejudice in these societies. So I would definitely question whether Mokades' train of thought does anything to significantly to make the world a better place.
At the same time, I don't think my attitudes would be what they are now, if I hadn't obsessed over these sorts of questions then. So ultimately I would settle on saying that on an individual level, especially in the case of people who come from any kind of a mixed-background a period of racial navel-gazing is useful, and maybe even necessary, but in the long run we need to look elsewhere to create a truly free society.
padilla likely to face terror trial in miami
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive ''dirty bomb,'' to be released from a military brig and moved to Miami, where he faces a criminal trial on lesser terror-related charges.
In some sense this is a good thing for Padilla because it ends his Kafka-esque status of being in a legal limbo. On the other hand, according to the Herald, Padilla is being released from military custody in order to prevent the Supreme Court from making a ruling on the administration's "right" to consider U.S. citizens as enemy combatants.
Friday, January 06, 2006
ex-prisoner rights
This is actually an issue I think alot about from time to time. What is the whole purpose of punishment and the criminal justice system (I'm still not sure how to diagram that last phrase). If the goal is rehabilitation then as a society, you want to do everything you can to help people get re-integrated in society when they get out. But if we aren't willing to do that, what was the point of letting them out in the first place?
comment moderation
pat robertson is evil: reason #865
Also see: pat robertson is evil: reason #873
Thursday, January 05, 2006
the chappelle theory
she meant it in a good way...
DELTONA -- A handful of angry residents Tuesday night denounced a city employee's recent use of an ethnic slur toward Hispanics and called for her to resign or be fired.
A group of about 15 to 20 people applauded and cheered during a City Commission meeting as three residents gave passionate speeches lashing out at city officials for not anticipating such a negative reaction to the term "spic" used in jest by public information officer Jeannine Gage at a media-only event last month.
During a "media appreciation day" at City Hall on Dec. 1, Gage jokingly announced a mud-wrestling match that would feature celebrity "hicks vs. spics."
Though the city gave Gage a written reprimand, residents who spoke Tuesday said that if she is not dismissed, they will start a petition for her removal.
(full story at Orlando Sentinel)
sisters gonna work it out
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
evangelical roots of economics
"Economics, as channeled by its popular avatars in media and politics, is the cosmology and the theodicy of our contemporary culture. More than religion itself, more than literature, more than cable television, it is economics that offers the dominant creation narrative of our society, depicting the relation of each of us to the universe we inhabit, the relation of human beings to God. And the story it tells is a marvelous one. In it an enormous multitude of strangers, all individuals, all striving alone, are nevertheless all bound together in a beautiful and natural pattern of existence: the market. This understanding of markets—not as artifacts of human civilization but as phenomena of nature—now serves as the unquestioned foundation of nearly all political and social debate. As mergers among media companies began to create monopolies on public information, ownership limits for these companies were not tightened but relaxed, because "the market" would provide its own natural limits to growth. When corporate accounting standards needed adjustment in the 1990s, such measures were cast aside because they would interfere with "market forces." Social Security may soon fall to the same inexorable argument.
"The problem is that the story told by economics simply does not conform to reality."
bahai thought police
Basically Sen McGlinn was a Bahai scholar but was disenrolled from the Bahai faith for some of his political opinions. On top of that, the Bahai publishing house which distributed his works and certain other Bahai scholarly writings is receiving some flack from the Bahai officials as well. For more info, check out Dervish:
Blackwhite - Part One
Blackwhite - Part Two
Past Grenada entries:
gentle bahai
bahais and divorce
muslim scholars were paid to aid u.s. propaganda
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.
The Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations company, was told early in 2005 by the Pentagon to identify religious leaders who could help produce messages that would persuade Sunnis in violence-ridden Anbar Province to participate in national elections and reject the insurgency, according to a former employee.
From Common Dreams: (full story)
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
again third resurrection
interview with a christmas card
In the second half of the novel, Rice continues with more Smallville-ish moments where Jesus alludes to or has interactions with characters we know will play larger roles later in the story.
The other remarkable aspeect to the novel is the way in which Rice sticks literally to the most conventional elements of the story, from the Wise Men, to the star, to angels saying "Glory to God in the Highest", even to the length of saying it snowed in Bethlehem on the night of Christ's birth!
Given the job Anne Rice did with this first slice of the story, I think it will be interesting to see what she does with the later years.
see christ: the prequel