Kerala Districts Overlaid with Rivers

I couldn't find this anywhere on the internet, so this is a map of districts in Kerala superimposed over a physical map with rivers and mountains. Just wanted to know which rivers pass through which districts.

Bye Bye, Miss Economic Pie

Meaningless Conversation with a Bigot

DINA NATH : How come you say nothing about Modi?

GEORGE : I don't want to.

DINA NATH : Why not?

GEORGE : I don't like him

DINA NATH : Then say it.

GEORGE : I am not interested.

DINA NATH : You should be. Anyway, why don't you like Modi?

GEORGE : Should I?

DINA NATH : Yes. He is charismatic, not corrupt, powerful, means what he says, etc.

GEORGE : OK.

DINA NATH : That's it? Just OK?

GEORGE : I hear this a lot. So I get it.

DINA NATH : But you don't agree?

GEORGE : No.

DINA NATH : Why not? What has he done?

GEORGE : I'm a minority, and few minorities trust him.

DINA NATH : Because of Godhra? The court found him not guilty.

GEORGE : We don't trust the court.

DINA NATH : Do you know something the court doesn't?

GEORGE : I know enough of our country's realities to understand that the judiciary is compromised

DINA NATH : But the verdict came under the Congress watch.

GEORGE : OK.

DINA NATH : Please say something to substantiate your position.

GEORGE : Your statement doesn't prove anything. The court doesn't implicate politicians easily, regardless of who is in power.

DINA NATH : Who cares what you think? They loved him in California.

GEORGE : I'm happy I don't have to tolerate his rule. Living in another country has some advantages.

DINA NATH : Why are you guys so prejudiced?

GEORGE : Trust is earned. It is difficult to earn it once you've lost it.

DINA NATH : I'm sure you talk ill about Modi all the time in private.

GEORGE : Not at all.

DINA NATH : Your friends sure do.

GEORGE : Many of them do. Some are like you.

DINA NATH : I'm sure they get filtered news from here and there to blame Modi.

GEORGE : Like today's news.

DINA NATH : What about today's news?

GEORGE : Beef eats man.

DINA NATH : You guys! Don't you know he was lynched for stealing cows?

GEORGE : Was he? Interesting they didn't fund any beef in him after the lynching.

DINA NATH : I'm sure you mock Modi for his selfie interest.

GEORGE : I find it funny but harmless.

DINA NATH : One of your Facebook friends posted a video of him posing with Mark Zuckerburg and used it to laugh at him.

GEORGE : It's political humor.

DINA NATH : You guys use every trick in the book to denigrate him.

GEORGE : Not really. Like I said, once you lose trust, every small thing is repulsive. Another leader who loved talking selfies may not be similarly laughed at. Just a matter of trust. Don't take everything literally.

DINA NATH : How much they pay your ancestors to convert?

GEORGE : Should I take that literally, or is it rhetorical?

DINA NATH : Don't think being a smart aleck will let you off. You know your ancestors were Hindu.

GEORGE : In my case, yes. I can't say that about everyone else. To my knowledge, my ancestor converted out of conviction.

DINA NATH : Baloney. You guys are all rice Christians.

GEORGE : Tell that to my ancestors. I know whom I have believed.

DINA NATH : Oh, you take refuge in that chestnut now, you intolerant bigot.

GEORGE : Just teach me how to be a tolerant person like you.

DINA NATH : Go to Pakistan and see if you can eat pork there.

GEORGE : You can't without fearing for your life. Your point is..?

DINA NATH : India is a much better country.

GEORGE : The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A man being killed for eating beef won't agree with you.

DINA NATH : The cow is sacred to us. Why can't you respect our beliefs?

GEORGE : I used to think it would be a gesture of goodwill to give up beef-eating rights. But after this incident I'm not sure. So much agenda-pushing going on.

DINA NATH : You think you are safe hiding in the US? How about the attacks on the sikh gentleman recently, or the police attack on the poor old Indian man?

GEORGE : Terrible.

DINA NATH : But you single out India?

GEORGE : Maybe I should be thankful the man wasn't raped before being beaten to death?

DINA NATH : Go ahead, be sarcastic. You will be thankful when the Muslims run amok and your precious Christians scream in terror.

GEORGE : And you are the only ones standing between us and certain death.

Evangelicals Are ...

Here is another attempt at a Word Cloud, this time in a tabular format. These are the suggestions from Google to the search terms "Evangelicals Are", followed by each letter of the alphabet. Scary and food for thought. And it is not all the culture's fault. Nor is it entirely a case of the world hating us because we follow Jesus. We have forgotten how to be salt and light.

	SEARCH TERMS			GOOGLE SUGGESTIONS
	Evangelicals Are			Dangerous
				Annoying
				Evil
				Wrong
				A Cult
	Evangelicals Are		A	Annoying
				A Cult
				A Hate Group
				A Threat to National Security
				Are Evangelicals and Pentecostals the Same
	Evangelicals Are		B	Bigots
				Brainwashed
				Are Evangelicals Born Again
				Are Evangelicals Baptists
				Evangelicals Band
	Evangelicals Are		C	Crazy
				Creepy
				Cults
				Are Evangelicals Christian
				Are Evangelicals Calvinist
	Evangelicals Are		D	Dangerous
				Destroying Christianity
				Dumb
				Are Evangelicals Declining
				Evangelicals Definition
	Evangelicals Are		E	Evil
				Are Evangelicals Extremists
				Evangelicals Evolution
				Evangelicals Election
				Evangelicals Engaging Emergent
	Evangelicals Are		F	Are Evangelicals Fundamentalists
				Evangelicals for Social Action
				Evangelicals Focus Their Christianity on What Experience
				Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding
				Evangelicals For Romney
	Evangelicals Are		G	Getting High
				Are Evangelicals Growing
				Are Evangelicals Going to Vote for Romney
				Evangelicals Gay Marriage
				Evangelicals Gun Control
	Evangelicals Are		H	Hypocrites
				Heretics
				Hateful
				Hypocritical
				Are Evangelicals Homophobic
	Evangelicals Are		I	Insane
				Idiots
				Ignorant
				How Many Evangelicals Are There in America
				Are Evangelicals Mentally Ill
	Evangelicals Are		J	Evangelicals Josh Jones
				Evangelicals Jerusalem
				Evangelicals Judgmental
				Evangelicals Joining thr Catholic Church
				Evangelicals Jokes
	Evangelicals Are		K	--------------
	Evangelicals Are		L	Losing
				Are Evangelicals Liberal
				Why Evangelicals Are Leaving the Church
				Evangelicals Losing Ground
				Evangelicals Latin America
	Evangelicals Are		M	Morons
				Are Evangelicals Missing God At Church
				Are Evangelicals Mentally Ill
				Evangelicals Meaning
				Evangelicals Music
	Evangelicals Are		N	Not Christian
				Nuts
				Evangelicals Now
				Evangelicals Now Churches
				Evangelicals Now Book Reviews
	Evangelicals Are		O	Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail
				Evangelicals Obama
				Evangelicals on Romney
				Evangelicals on Homosexuality
				Evangelicals on Pope Francis
	Evangelicals Are		P	Pro-Trump
				Protestants
				Phony
				Evangelicals Push Immigration Path
				Evangelicals Politics
	Evangelicals Are		Q	Evangelicals Quotes
				Evangelicals Quebec
				Evangelicals Question Adam and Eve
				Are Quakers Evangelicals
	Evangelicals Are		R	Racists
				Ruining Christianity
				Ruining America
				Retarded
				Are Evangelicals Reformed
	Evangelicals Are		S	Scary
				Stupid
				Satanists
				Satanic
				Are Evangelicals Supporting Romney
	Evangelicals Are		T	Terrorists
				The Worst
				Are Evangelicals Turning Catholic
				Are Evangelicals the Antichrist
				Evangelicals Who Are They
	Evangelicals Are		U	Evangelicals are UnCanadian
				Evangelicals Uganda
				Evangelicals Uganda Antigay
				Evangelicals UK
				Evangelicals Used to be Pro Choice
	Evangelicals Are		V	Are Evangelicals Voting For Romney
				Why Evangelicals Are Vulnerable to Cults
				Evangelicals vs Fundamentalists
				Evangelicals vs Baptists
				Evangelicals vs Protestant
	Evangelicals Are		W	Wrong
				Weird
				Evangelicals Who Are They
				the Worst
				Evangelicals Wiki
	Evangelicals Are		X	-------------
	Evangelicals Are		Y	Evangelicals You Don't Know
				Evangelicals Youtube
				Evangelicals You Are Wrong About Mental Illness
				Evangelicals Yahoo
				Evangelicals Young Earth
	Evangelicals Are		Z	Evangelicals Zionism

Francis and Contextualization

David Brooks has a great article in the New York Times on Pope Francis, even as he landed yesterday in the US.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/opinion/pope-francis-the-prince-of-the-personal.html?_r=1 


I think a great learning from Francis' life is how to contextualize the Gospel in the lives of the marginalized. We are all to often comfortable with the idea of contextualization using a culture's metaphors, images, stories, customs, traditions and so on , and not so much when it comes to identifying with those suffering from economic and social injustice. What greater contextualization could there be in the slums of Buenos Aires where the 10,000 pound gorilla is such injustice? Evangelicals can talk at length about ideological differences, but its hard to argue with someone who connects with people like Francis does, especially with the poor.

Contextual Witness to the Poor

Jesus told Peter to cast his nets out for a catch of fish despite experience and evidence told him it would be a waste of time. After the miracle that followed, Peter put his trust in Jesus.

Jesus fed the five thousand with seven loaves and two fish, but later told them that they are following him because he gave them food. He told them also that even Moses and the Jews who crossed the Red Sea were fed directly with manna from heaven, but they died. However, Jesus said he himself was the true bread from heaven eating which the believer lives eternally and shall not die.

To the rich young ruler who had many possessions, he asked to follow him after selling all his possessions.

Each conversion (or lack thereof) happens after a contextual presentation of the Savior.

If we believe that presenting the Savior to an unbeliever is the mission of God, then we must present it in her context. C gospel that is not contextual is just a set of facts. To believe these facts is to open the way to the Savior. To believe, these facts must enter into the context of the unbeliever. The Holy Spirit does this. Why should we, his followers, not do this as well? Is our job simply to state the apostles’ creed and back away?

If we are to contextualize the gospel, we must understand that such activity does not only take place in the form of challenging or engaging social customs, beliefs, religious ideas, philosophies, work and other aspects of life- but if the unbeliever’s most pressing context is social injustice, can a gospel that does not enter that context be real to the hearer?

If a man is unemployed, why shouldn’t the believing world strive to help him with a job? Isn’t that contextualization? Too often, we are merely comfortable with adapting the gospel message to the outward signs of cultural expression- music, storytelling, familiar images in a cultural setting, images, metaphors and so on. Jesus himself did this a lot through his parables. Too often, we do not think that standing with the poor or marginalized in their fight against social injustice is not actually contextualization, rather it just what a child of God should do in order to exhibit the character of God that she has been clothed with. I think this impoverishes the missional intensity of God’s commandment to make disciples of all nations. To make disciples, we cannot afford to differentiate between contexts based on our comfort. To fight injustice in our day and age is very costly and involves fighting our own prejudices.

And how the Bible talks about these things- albeit in different ways! How could we miss the forest for the trees?

“Hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom.” “You cannot serve God and money.” “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.” “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.” “For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” ““Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” 

Understanding Justice

There is a picture making rounds trying to explain the difference between equality and equity:

Somehow this disappoints me. If equity is endeavoring to ensure that everyone is at a level regardless of the work they have expended on getting there, it seems to me that noone would be interested in working at all. I made this diagram to try to explain my thoughts on what justice really means:

In this picture, everyone is safely above water level, but not at the same level. The tallest person is above the water from the hip, the next person from the waist and the smallest from the shoulders. If a toddler were present who could not stand on her own, the tallest person would carry her.

To me, this represents justice. There is a line which demands fundamental rights- water, healthcare, education, opportunities for advancement, electricity, shelter, access to the internet, etc are all part of this. However fundamental or basic rights are not always found in nature- they are sometimes refined or created by people, so those of us who are resource-rich have an obligation to help others in need to get these. People are also motivated to rise above this "dependent" level once they know they have a safety net.

One Day- a poem for my wife

ONE DAY

One day we will feast and rejoice

One day our fears will be stilled

And there will be no more darkness

As light streams in and faces shine

One day beyond the eastern hills.

There’s hope for us in our waiting,

Our desires and unbending hearts,

Though we see our souls dimly

I see your shadow as you see mine,

Longing to touch even as they part.

There is a greater love than ours,

That paints stars and makes the tides rise,

With him no season or day is lost,

Good and perfect gifts from his hand,

Plans from ages past, divinely wise.

Our struggles strain our feeble arms,

I see his face in yours as tears fall,

Forgive me as even raging seas subside,

And stars shine upon the clear night sky,

From a distance the welcoming trumpets call.

Journeys to the Sick

The day begins early in Haiti. It is now about 4:30 AM. I’ve been awake for a while, reflecting on the days that have gone past this week. Unlike last year I had not felt the urge to record my experiences here until now. I have just been absorbing the experience, talking to my friends here in Creole and getting to know them better. But it hits you hard sooner or later because the choices we make in situations and their consequences are sobering.

In the clinic yesterday morning, we had a little girl about 9 years old with 3 large abscesses around her neck which needed surgery and we could not perform. Without it she will likely die. Dr. Tom Graves pulled me in to lay hands on her and pray. We prayed for healing. Late last night I kept thinking of her and an account of a boy named John in the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, in which he had cancer which had spread to his lungs and Farmer’s team undertook an epic initiative to get him treated in Boston, but sadly he died there. I think of Jesus leaving the 99 sheep to look for the one that got away and I just cried uncontrollably that we could not do anything. A poor black girl in one of the poorest countries, insignificant in the eyes of men, having nothing, isolated and alone in the backwoods of the world. Isn’t there anyone to shed tears for her?

I prayed with some of the patients yesterday when I worked with the ophthalmologist. I gave them eye exams, and they thanked me for the prayer. Some prayed for me in Creole. My Haitian friends who interpreted for me also began treating patients with kindness and respect. God’s love spreads around.

Joyce delivered a baby boy yesterday- they called him John Metson (?), but due to the placement of the boy during delivery, they needed to maneuver him and it resulted in the mom hemorrhaging about 2-3 liters of blood.  They rusher her to the hospital in Port au Prince with baby in tow to breastfeed. Joyce, tired and hungry as she was from not having eaten all day, went with her. It is now the next morning and she still hasn’t returned but we hear that the mom is safe. Thank you Jesus for your kindness.

GDP Statistics of Some Rich Countries- Or Why North America Has Done Better

Barring small countries like Singapore or Qatar, most countries or geographically continguous free market entities have done hardly as well as the US. Lifting 318 Million people into one of the world's highest per capital income brackets is no small feat. Countries with higher GDP per capita are in red. Except Australia no country above a population of 10 million is in the list.

More Ads from the 80s

Mourning Dove

My favorite bird call is that of there Mourning Dove in the afternoon. There is a little guy in our backyard which has been giving me some joy the past couple of weeks. He does his Coo-Poo-OO-OO-OO with the keys B-F (transitioning in the end to C or C#)- C-C-C. I like his sense of scale.

Thoughts on Pew's Findings on Christian Decline in the US

The new Pew poll results showing Christianity suffered a big decline in the US is not surprising. NYT carried this article, which received over 750 comments at the time of this writing (the article was published today):

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/12/upshot/big-drop-in-share-of-americans-calling-themselves-christian.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0#permid=14937370

I like to scroll the comments section to understand the zeitgeist. Nearly all the comments were from people in the 25% or so of the population that Pew determines are the "nones"- those who identify themselves as atheists, agnostics, undecided or not affiliated with any of the categories of religion or irreligion.

I wanted to make a word cloud of the descriptors of the major themes in these comments, but stuck to an old fashioned table containing 4 themes. A summary of the descriptors are below:

IRRELIGION	RELIGION	CHRISTIANITY	GOD
Improvement	Irrational	Indoctrinated	Myth-maker
Grown-up	Blind	Stupid	Authority' (in negative context)
Good news	Training for the simple in moral values	Narrow-minded
Years of education is paying off	Morality is separate	Bigoted
A natural outcome of thinking societies	Sterile	Stupid
People are free to me more moral, compassionate, helping the poor	Incalculable evil	Judgmental
Politicians should pay attention (to cater to this demographic)	Explanation of the unknown	Repulican party has manipulated Christianity
	Does not explain bad things	Conservatism of evangelicals a threat
	Institutional faith demands faith	If only evangelicals could be down to zero
	Racism	Evangelicals only a slight decline (in negative context)
	Misogyny	Maybe it comforts some, but all untrue
	Politicized
	Denying reproductive rights
	Denying gay rights
	Backwards-thinking
	Idiotic
	Brain-washed
	No need to tolerate them
	Among the worst scourges of the world
	No religious people = No religious wars
	Keep your religion private, leave others in peace

There were only 3 or 4 comments from those who admitted to being religious or Christian, and these were in the nature of seeing a silver lining in these results (as I too tend to see them)- that, cultural Christianity is declining and a more honest Christianity is hopefully replacing it. I also hope that a less politicized (not apolitical) Christianity would take its place- a Christianity which plays in the public sphere, whether political or not, but not interested in seeking power, rather seeing all human institutions as natural ecosystems to live out and proclaim the Gospel in a winsome manner.

I'm also glad that Evangelicalism has been shown to be in decline- it has long been a contention that Evangelicals do not need to worry as much, it is only the mainline Protestants and Catholics who are facing the decline. Clearly, this should give Evangelicals pause for thinking. The descriptors above show what atheists and other 'nones' think of us. I'm also glad that these comments are seeing the light of day- most people who read them and have even a little wisdom will understand how intolerant and patronizing these comments are, disregarding completely the many scientists, compassionate humanitarians, social/political workers around the world who have positively changed the world through their faith and inspired actions. One commentator, whose displayed name had the suffix PhD, made the comment that one should not tolerate the backwards-thinking, stupid, idiotic and brain-washed people who believe in God.

One commentator, tellingly, remarked that he hoped this would be the end of politicians saying 'God bless America'. A friend of mine recently mentioned he hoped we would say instead 'America, bless God' and that our problems are rooted in the fact that we have not found our rejoicing in God. I agree with this sentiment- I also believe that we (Christians) are to blame for this. Telling all Americans to bless God would be silly- clearly not all of them believe in God in the first place. Those who need to bless God are those who believe, specifically those who have known his saving grace.

I'm convinced that it is not our lack of knowledge that contributed to this decline, but rather our loss of Jesus' central command to love our neighbor, especially here in the US. My Christian friends in Nepal and India are risking life and limb at this very moment to rescue those trapped under buildings, nursing the injured and the sick and providing food, shelter, water and healthcare to those affected by the earthquake. Despite a lot of bluster from Richard Dawkins following the Haiti earthquake, I have not seen any specifically non-religious effort outside of governmental initiatives to help such people.

If Christianity is in decline in the US- or for that matter, anywhere- it is because we have become, as Ron Sider put it, 'rich Christians in an age of hunger'- in other words, not Christian at all, at least in terms of our patterns of living. A Christian commentator saw a silver lining in that he thought this may mark the bottom of the decline and the time may be now ripe for a revival. I doubt this. Looking around I still see the politicking, the narrow confines of our vision in regards to those who need God's grace and our grace the most- the LGTBQs, those who have had abortions, undocumented aliens for whom our healthcare pay or provider systems have precious little to offer, the incarcerated, the poor, the colored, and all others to whom we have denied our grace.

I also share no enthusiasm for the idea that the 'new generation' will embrace these values. If anything, the young are more likely to be nihilists and far more selfish than their parents were or are. But I believe in the supernatural acts of grace that God brings about to alter the hard hearts of Americans (I use the word intentionally). This is surprising and unpredictable. On that I hitch my hope- and on nothing else. In other words, God help us!


 

Cover Art Gone the Way of the Dodo

Cover art used to be covert art. Humble and creative. Now it is rarely art and never covert. Sad how things have changed. Several people I know like to buy old books not simply from a store, but used items from eBay or Amazon, and not just for the low prices. Today’s cover art leaves a lot to be desired. Am I making a lot of noise over nothing?

There is a reason why people still like to read books on paper despite Kindle taking over a big chunk of reading space. This is the same reason why tablet interfaces for books tend to mimic pages of a real book- the layout, the little dog-ear when you turn the page, the sound it makes and so on. There is a mysterious and timeless quality to a page.

Getting back to cover art, take for instance the following contemporary covers of perennial favorites- PG Wodehouse and Enid Blyton.

 

 

 

This degeneration of a magnificent, if self-effacing form of art is reflective of our attitude towards literature in general- impatient, ill-willed, indecent and mercenary, instead of reflective, inspiring, principled and holding in balance the experience of reading and the edification from the source material to our knowledge or skills. We have lost the art of listening, and along with it the ageless art of reading. Cover art is meant to capture moments, themes and attitudes the reader will encounter in the book. I believe cover art began degenerating in the 80s and it has been downhill ever since. In my view it achieved its peak in the 60s and 70s. Here are some examples to prove it. And don’t talk to me about pulp fiction paperbacks- these are not representative of the best cover art, and should be relegated to the recesses of the mind in order to make a fair comparison.

1. WODEHOUSE CLASSIC COVERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. BLYTON CLASSIC COVERS

 

 

 

 

3. MAGNUM EASY EYE CLASSIC COVERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

This applies to covers of LPs, singles and other music publications as well. We all know the high art in Pinkfloyd covers. Take also for instance the following cover art for a collection of George Melachrino compositions:

Granted, it is mostly a photograph, but isn't the picture and the layout so much more appealing than the appalling contemporary Carrie Underwood album below?

QED, I think!