Switzerland II

So, despite some cloud cover and a bit of drizzle, I went hiking through the Swiss Alps yesterday. Let me tell you, with the edelweiss, the goats with bells tinkling, the green hills covered with snow, and the tiny Swiss wooden cottages, you really did feel you were in the middle of the Heidi story... all I really needed was my shepherd friend, and we'd be skipping about the mountains, eating cheese and whey. Sometimes it does strike me as quite odd when stereotypes come to life...
Another thing that I've noticed: There are A LOT of Korean tourists through here. I am not sure why that is. Additionally, there are A LOT of Indian tourists as well. For this, I have an explanation: apparently, a lot of Bollywood movies are now shot in and around the Swiss Alps, as it got too dangerous in the Kashmir lands, so many people from the Indian continent come here to check out site locales from their favorite movies... strange, isn't it? I'm currently in this tiny tourist town in a valley between two mountain ranges, and there are actually curry houses here... weird...

Switzerland I

So there are several things that the Swiss do that I note are strikingly similar to how I understand the world. The first is that of wearing socks with sandals; apparently they find it incredibly dirty to wear sandals without socks. I don't particularly think that, but I do like wearing my Birkenstocks with socks. I was actually going to walk out in my sport sandals this morning, sans socks, until my sister pointed out that truism about the Swiss, so I threw on some socks, and, lo and behold, so was everybody else! Secondly, I do also note the extreme punctuality here of all the transport system (I saw the last-second TTC strike on the Star's webpage - the bastards!) - no train, bus or ferry has actually been late; they show up on time, leave on time, and no delays! It's amazing, and jealousy provoking compared to the dumbass service from the TTC.
Thirdly, I'm also noting the care about food that the Swiss take; did you know they only have Fair Trade bananas available for sale here? You can't buy conventional bananas - good for them! Most of the produce in the stores is organic - organic as standard, not as optional. They also label meat, so that you know the country of origin, as well as whether or not the animal had been treated with antibiotics or not. That's amazing to be able to make some knowledgeable choice when it comes to buying food! Certainly, there's a plethora of cheese (no surprise there) as well.
Those are pretty much my observations thus far; based on those three things alone, I think I would fit in quite well here....

FFT

They [the question of what mankind's responsibility is on the earth] are also, both in origin and effect, religious. I am uneasy with the term, for such religion as has been openly practiced in this part of the world has promoted and fed upon a destructive schism between body and soul, Heaven and earth. It has encouraged people to believe that the world is of no importance, and that their only obligation in it is to submit to certain churchly formulas in order to get to Heaven. And so the people who might have been expected to care most selflessly for the world have had their minds turned elsewhere - to a pursuit of "salvation" that was really only another form of gluttony and self-love, the desire to perpetuate their lives beyond the life of the world. The Heaven-bent have abused the earth thoughtlessly, by inattention, and their negligence has permitted and encouraged others to abuse it deliberately. Once the creator was removed from the creation, divinity became only a remote abstraction, a social weapon in the hands of the religious institutions. This split in public values produced or was accompanied by, as it was bound to be, an equally artificial and ugly division in people's lives, so that a man, while pursuing Heaven with the sublime appetite he thought of as his soul, could turn his heart against his neighbours and his hands against the world.
- Wendell Berry

Folks, we need to PRAY!

I am going to enclose this link (it seems like I'm getting lazy, just providing links rather than actually writing anything of value), particularly as it is a request from my brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe asking for intervention. It worries me that this is the case, as I have friends who work there...
"'Genocide' warning in Zimbabwe"

D'oh!

So a friend of mine points out the other night that I am Lisa Simpson, present on earth in bodily form. Sure, I don't wear a pearl necklace, or have extremely pointy hair, but I think he was getting at the 'vegetarian-Buddhist-ish-social activist-genius' angle. Parallels also abound: extremely shrill and argumentative at times, prone to self-righteousness, love-hate relationships with Bart-type personalities, geeky/smart, independent, well-versed in many different disciplines and topics, tending towards the left politically especially when pushed by the Right to make a choice, and possessing a disturbing tendency to be able to attract only Ralph Wiggum and Milhouse-types...

FFT - really

Well, some thoughts from Michael Pollan, who I totally adore, and he also quotes Wendell Berry, another iconic hero of mine...
"Why Bother?"

The invisible workers

No, this isn't a rant about the plight of labourers the world over... this is actually wondering something else; on my way from work, there's a ramp connecting two highways which last summer was closed down to a single lane for a good chunk of the whole summer in order to repave it or something. They've just started the other side this week, and so have shut down all the lanes, except for one.
My question is, however, where all the workers actually are? I've been driving by at 1, 2, 3pm in the afternoon and have yet to see a single person, let alone a machine, in the whole area they've shut down. I'd understand, perhaps, if I was driving by at 5 or 6pm and no-one was there; I could explain it by saying it was after the work day. However, to not see anyone there in the middle of the afternoon? This doesn't really make sense to me. And certainly, I would imagine they would need some sort of machinery to help them do some of this imaginary work. Can anyone explain this to me, as it boggles my mind that they would block several kilometres of major highway and not actually do any work on it?

Some more about Utah

One of the things that bother me most about the fundamentalist, "religious right" point of view is how I have to defend it. It bothers me how it presents an unloving, unmerciful and uncompassionate face to society; I don't think anybody in our society can characterize them positively at all; words like 'bigoted', 'hateful' and 'ignorant' come to mind. It bothers me, in that, on occasion, on some issues, I too, fall under the "Christian right-wing" banner, and I thus have to explain and defend my brothers and sisters. Then I have to listen to: "Oh no, not like you, they're not like you at all," at which point I do need to clarify, that yes, they are like me, because they are still part of my family.
I feel like it's kind of like having a very annoying brother, who does all that he can to torment and bother you at home. However, in the schoolyard, if some other kid is bullying him, you need to come to his defence and stand by his side, whether you like it or not, and even though you know, once you get home, he'll just be back to his regular self, with nary a feeling of thankfulness. Sometimes, there may even be some hostility for you having had been there defending his back, instead of letting him fight his battle on his own.
I just really wish, sometimes, that they would go away, that we could work again to create a faith that is loving and compassionate and can balance mercy and justice. Something that could take people's breath away and say, "For surely the LORD is in this!".

Am I in, like, Utah, or something?

As many of you know, I spent today FUMING (I still am!) at the audacity of a sermon that I heard at church this morning. Basically, the gist of the sermon was along the same old fundamentalist lines of disempowering women, and ignoring all basis for reality by informing us it was our God-given responsibility to have as many children as humanly possible. The same old arguments that those darn Muslims are outpacing us in their birthrates, and if we don't hurry up and make as many babies as they do, they will outnumber us on the planet, oh heaven forbid. The argument that it is our mandate to be fruitful and multiply, ignoring many other mandates that God gave us in that small, often misquoted passage in Genesis. That if a couple chooses to be childless, then they are ignoring and disobeying the command upon their lives and living selfish and self-centred lives.
What particular blew me away were the very humanistic "arguments" given for having children as well: The tax credits (what?? Just the speaker mentioning that made me decide I cannot vote for the Conservatives in the next election (not that I would've anyways), if these are the wingnuts that they are appealing to), the "fact" that we need to have more children in order to help support the baby boomers in their old age (I'm sorry; but if they didn't prepare adequately for retirement, then that's their own problem), the point made that children keep marriages together (I'm sorry, but having a child for the sake of keeping the marriage together is a VERY VERY VERY BAD reason to have a child), the reasoning that you women have to have a lot of children, otherwise men, whose hearts tend to stray, will not have a strong compulsion to head for home (Excuse me? If a husband doesn't want to come home to his wife alone, again, VERY BAD reason to have children).
We were also told that we shouldn't stop at just one or two children, oh no! In "fact", it was the Devil's LIE that the world is overpopulated and that there aren't enough resources on the planet to sustain the, oh 6.5 billion of us on the planet, that we should counteract all evidence to the contrary, and have a gazillion children apiece.
What I found particularly interesting was how the speaker, in another part of his sermon, pointed to Jesus as our example as to why we should do some other thing, not related to this subject that I'm speaking about. I did note, however, how he was silent on Jesus' example on this issue: namely, that He had ZERO children. Obviously, Jesus was not living out His God-given mandate.
I'm pretty sure the women sitting in the pews this morning weren't wearing kerchiefs on their heads and unadorned in jewellery and braided hair, but really, for all intents and purposes, they might have as well been...

FFT - really

These are a few articles published in the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star this morning; this is a critical issue that really needs a lot of pondering and prayer about our own consumption patterns... it's actually starting to frighten me, at our complacency in the issue...
"Why Food Costs are Rising"
"The Coming Hunger"

Housekeeping

OK, now that I'm a bit post-rant (geez! Who would've thought I would've become so attached to a possession, for crying out loud!); I haven't really had to deal with much in the way of flooring, as I'm currently baby-sitting a house. One thing that I've become aware of is: I don't really like being in a big house all by myself, all the time. I suspect this is partly due to my urban upbringing, so the 'wide open spaces' likely tugs at the subconscious insecurities of being but a wee speck in the entirety of the cosmos. I find it odd, though, how we humans kind of like being in our small rooms, in our small houses, and find it a bit ?scary?intimidating?frightening? in being exposed to the vastness of nature. There are exceptions of us out there, of course, but for the most part, we tend to like being nestled, coddled, snuggled into our spaces rather than launched out into the grand vistas...

Stuff White People Like... (or don't notice)

So, one thing that continues to astound me is how people somehow think it's OK to be walking all over people's floors in their shoes. It's really starting to drive me nuts; I have a small patch of granite tile at the front door - a very logical place to leave your shoes. But oh no! Somehow people think it's OK to be walking over the hardwood with their grimy boots, which makes me want to scream, "Where the heck does it look like it's OK to be walking on wood floors with your shoes?"
It's really making me reconsider if I ever want non-Asians in the house again, or at least people I don't know very well, if at all. I couldn't believe one person recently who walked all the way into the house, despite the mounds of shoes at the door demonstrating that shoe removal was not optional, it was compulsory. Again, someone I didn't know at all, but in trying to use my house hospitably, was at my house anyways.
Obviously, by the title of the post, this is a particular crime of white people. However, I have noticed it transcending many different cultures and ethnicities. The other thing I've noticed is that a lot of white people don't find Russell Peters funny, but every single ethnic minority person I know does. Weird.

Arg! Still wishing for a Joseph...

The dreams are re-occurring again... this time, they've been a mish-mash of being accused, and brought to trial as a terrorist, alien abductions and brainwashing, kangaroo court-type scenarios, being black-mailed into doing something distasteful or illegal... it's really odd, and, of course, cutting into my sleep again...

FFT

Food shopping drives me crazy. I find myself standing behind my grocery cart paralyzed by all the voices in my head: buy local, buy organic (what does organic mean?), don't use plastic bags for produce (not even for bean sprouts), don't buy anything in a package, don't use gas to drive around to different stores for sales, be economical so that you can give more money away, just be thankful you can buy any food at all since people in Africa are starving, never mind whole wheat because you should be baking your own bread, rice is healthier than potatoes, brown rice is healthier than white rice, but don't buy rice 'cause it comes from so far away....
-Donna-Jean Brown

Here, here... and I do hear... the same voices are in my head too...