The Celestial Teapot

[1] A Doctor's Perversity... and A Girl's Naivete (ZOMG SEX SCANDAL)

2009-05-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Stupid little girl. You had it coming. You slept with a sleazebag and now your career and reputation could be over.

I'm not being insensitive here, I'm just amused by all the media mileage and political grandstanding that's been going on ever since the EKSKLUSIBONG EKSPOSE and EKSPLOSIBONG REBELASYON (try saying this 10 times straight) on the video sex scandal of Dr. Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili (among others).

It's been the talk of the town. It's so big right now that I'm sure plenty of people failed to read the headlines the other day about President Arroyo's wealth doubling since 2001.

We're all caught up with all the buzz and CHISMIS ('cheese' to some of you out there) and who can blame us? It's a SEX SCANDAL, and we just love those. In fact, we love them so much that Filipinos call all sex videos as SCANDALS. I still don't get it to this day.

Like I said in one of my previous blogs, those who love the gossip and the backstabbing, probably live very mundane and insecure lives. Why am I writing about this then if I hate gossip? Because I love bashing stupid people when they deserve it. Hehehe.

So what's wrong with Dr. Hayden Kho? He's probably a very insecure guy himself, being in the cosmetic industry and all and dating the horrific zombie Dr. Vicky Belo. Apparently he has over 60 sex videos (SCANDALS) of all his conquests in his computer. Only a lame douche would feel the need to video his girls so he can fool himself into believing that he has a semblance of a self-esteem.

What about Katrina Halili? As I said, she's a pretty stupid girl. PINATULAN NIYA ANG BOYLET NI VICKY BELO. LOLZ. I mean come on girl! You got it all going for yourself. You can practically date any guy you want, and you chose to settle for scum. It takes two to tango, or in this case, it takes two to dance to Careless Whisper. And to be honest, you enjoyed it very much.

On to Bong Revilla. Don't even get me started on this guy. This worthless piece of crap of a senator we have is now taking in all the spotlight he can get, because he usually doesn't have anything worthwhile to say during senate sessions. Don't our senators have more pressing issues to work on? This is all friggin' showbiz. Why don't you guys work on Manny Villar's corruption case?

Our showbiz reflects the kind of mentality our masses possess. MABABAW. No wonder our politicians can weave their magic and insult our collective intelligence every day. In fact they recently almost got away with taxing imported BOOKS. (BTW thank you to all those who joined my cause on Facebook. Because of our efforts GMA has ordered to lift the tax.)

They won't catch the illegal smugglers, but they're willing to tax books. It was a good thing some expat caught on before our education really went down the dumps for good. It took an expat to even talk about it. Are we really that numb already? We're so apathetic regarding our politics, that we elect actors and celebrities and pretty soon boxers into public office just to spice things up. Maybe we should vote Hayden Kho to replace Bayani Fernando so he can install cameras all over the city to monitor us.

Anyway I'm done ranting and I leave you with this sizzling video that has become the anthem of the beer houses and nightclubs all over. It's actually hilarious to see George Michael making out with a girl.

The 30-day Challenge!

2009-05-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

Alright, starting today I will force myself to write at least 500 words every single day for 30 days straight.

Why am I doing this you ask? I'm not doing this just to flood your inboxes. I'm not doing this to torture myself. In fact, I should love what I do and I am actually excited if I can pull it off. I want to program myself to write and write and write. This is the only way to hone this certain skill: PRACTICE.

I'd like to mention that this entry does not count. Just like when doing Indian Runs in our Frisbee training, NO CUTTING CORNERS. And do extra rounds when you're already dying from fatigue. I will get it done. I will push myself.

So what am I going to write about? Well, most certainly I'll have around 30 topics to busy myself with. I will do both fiction and non-fiction, from realism to unrealism, politics to philosophy, and even reviews and critiques.

What goals will I be focusing on? Most definitely on the effectiveness of each entry to provoke and make an impact. Writers would scold me that I should only write for myself and not for the audience. Well in this case, I want to learn how to make my thoughts and opinions heard. I want to get you to react and impulsively hit the reply button. I want you to click on my entries because the title and preview caught your attention. I want to draw you in and listen to what I have to say.

So the gauntlet has been thrown down and I accept this challenge. Wish me luck guys. Let's get it on.

The Curious Case of Mr. Chip Tsao

2009-03-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

'Tsao' actually means a lot of things in Chinese, and the first thing that came to mind after I read his article ain't the not so nice definition.

I'm Chinese and I'm proud of my heritage, but after living in Beijing for half a year, I've come to terms with my nationality and I've identified myself as a true-blue Filipino above anything else.

I was swelling with Chinese pride when I watched the Olympics. But I was screaming when the Filipino contingent came out, even if Manny Pacquiao was the one carrying our flag.

Hell, even if I hate the guy's guts, I still feel proud when he wins.

People confuse Nationality and Race and Religion all the time. Like American (Kano) and White, Muslim and Arab (Arabo), Mexican and Latino, etc, etc.

Here in the Philippines people call me 'Intsik'. I usually try to remind people that the correct term is 'Tsino'. Sometimes I jokingly add, "you can call me Intsik as long as I can call you Indio."

I'm not an outsider. I was born in the Philippines, I eat adobo and sisig, I can use 'tangina' in myriad ways, and most of all I'm proud of my country.

So here we have Chip Tsao calling us a "Nation of Servants". I take great offense with remarks like this.

I can understand the Middle Kingdom mentality because my parents espouse this kind of belief, albeit indirectly. Even the term 'Huana' is not something I like using.

I don't know when this was but I overheard a student teammate from Xavier say "I'm so dark now, I look like a 'Kang Lang'. I actually had to remind the kid that it's not right to talk that way. It got me thinking that he must have gotten that kind of talk from his parents.

But then again, on the flip side, we as Filipinos must think why foreigners think of us like they do. Maybe we don't give them enough reason to admire our country aside from our beaches and food.

These among other things we need to think over. This is not just some lame reporter saying some improper things. It goes down a lot deeper.

Discuss.

Super Bueno Roster

2009-03-30T04:51:00.000-07:00

00 lamberto datu - large
03 john tiong - medium
13 scott syling - medium
15 chicco fornier - medium
19 bong sia - small
23 rocky nuguid - medium
32 hans ang - medium
33 agu veloso - medium
36 mike tee - large
41 migs libre - small
58 benny lim - small

01 karla cabel - small
05 abby bauca - small
?? nicole hernandez

28 andy huang - medium

07 small
08 small
09 large
10 medium
14 medium
20 medium
24 medium

Are we human?

2009-03-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

Human
by The Killers

I did my best to notice
When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender
I was brought but I was kind
And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes
Clear your heart...
Cut the cord

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?

Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could
And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye
Wish me well..
You've gotta let me go

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?

Will your system be alright
When you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we're receiving
Let me know is your heart still beating

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer

You've gotta let me know

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human
Or are we dancer?

Are we human?
Or are we dancer?

Are we human
Or are we dancer?

History Isn't Boring

2009-03-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying .. It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance way. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old...

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could,
bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with
tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead
and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive . So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a .. dead ringer..

IMMORTALITY

2009-03-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

I recently went on a trip with my dad to our hometown Shishi City (石狮市) just outside of Xiamen City, in the Fujian province of China. Boring? Well I thought so at first, but it turned out to be a SPIRITUAL JOURNEY.

The purpose of our visit was to exhume the remains of my great grandfather and his relatives because the Chinese government bought out the land where they were buried for development. Maybe they were going to build a new shopping mall or a NUCLEAR SILO, who knows. Only in China.

Anyway, our family was compensated for the inconvenience in typical Chinese fashion, meaning we got paid a meager sum of CASH. Also the trip was a good chance for me to finally trace back my roots and visit our ancestral home, and to have some bonding time with my dad.

The name of the town Shishi literally means Stone Lion, like the statues you see guarding ancient landmarks, because the entire area is actually an abundant quarry for unprocessed natural stones. Hence, most of the ancient houses were built from huge slabs of stone. Think THE FLINTSTONES. ;)

My dad told me our house was no exception back in the day, but we’ve come a long way since then. This was a huge understatement, because instead of the small shanty I was expecting, I was shocked to see two HUGE three-storey houses, fully furnished and probably just as, if not more comfortable than the setup we have in Greenhills!

But to really grasp how far we’ve come, I had a good glimpse of what it used to be like back then with some of the older houses around the area. They were really small and built of stone, and I was told it was common for up to five families to live in one small house.

(By the way, don't think for one second Xiamen is some poor place. It's a huge port city that's twice as developed as Manila. It has containers stacked around its ports as high as buildings. It's streets are lined with retail storefronts and boutiques.)

I met some of our distant relatives, my dad’s second cousins and their children and grandchildren. They were the ones now staying where my grandfather used to live, since my grandpa gave it to them when he moved to the Philippines. I surprisingly managed to communicate with them albeit just barely. They spoke Fookien, the same dialect most Chinese descendants speak here in the Philippines, but the very deep and heavily accented kind.

I discovered a few things that made me very proud of my heritage:

First, our clan association helped build a primary and secondary school in Shishi. Here in Manila, they have a huge association of all the Huangs from our hometown, and my dad’s brother is the current president. My real last name is Huang 黄 by the way. Gramps used his friend’s travel papers to get here.

Second, I’m a descendant of a long line of ancestors dating back to over four hundred years. They have a book that has all the names of my relatives in the family tree, and it’s a pretty thick book safely preserved and encased in A SHINY FIRE-RETARDANT METAL CASE. Now that’s PRETTY FRIGGIN’ AWESOME.

On a more spiritual note, while we paid our respects to our fourteen ancestors before we finally exhumed their remains and put them in a temple, I realized just how fleeting and ephemeral our time here on this earth can be.

It’s so easy to be forgotten, to be buried somewhere where relatives visit once in a while. Some of the names of my great grandfather’s siblings were already illegible and eroded, so we just had to guess which of them belonged to which name found in the book. What would you feel if someone mixed up your tombstone name for someone else’s? It’s sad enough that nobody remembers you but to be mistaken for somebody else? BUMMER.

If you think about all the famous (or infamous) people in human history, you realize it’s not really them we remember. Be it Mahatma Gandhi or Julius Caesar or Adolf Hitler or Alexander the Great or Jose Rizal or whoever you can think of, whether they did good things or bad, the people who we still remember after they’ve gone, WE REMEMBER THEM FOR WHAT THEY DID.

Yep, so think about what you’re doing now and ask yourself if this is the kind of work that will be your LASTING LEGACY. If your current work isn’t exactly ideal but a stepping stone, think of it as PRACTICE FOR THE REAL THING.

The work you do is your LIFE FORCE, a part of the living energy that will outlast you after you’re gone. Remember that line in Gladiator when Maximus was talking to his troops? WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY.

Ultimately, YOUR WORK IS A REFLECTION OF WHO YOU ARE.

If you want to live forever, do something great.

TOOLS AGAINST MMDA OFFICERS

2009-03-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

I had another encounter with those bastards yesterday along EDSA. I'm sick of those uneducated and unqualified ex-Metro Aides abusing their positions. Bayani Fernando is a son of a bitch who must die.

Anyway so I searched the internet for some ways to fight back against those pathetic morons. I got this from a forum:

TOOLS AGAINST MMDA OFFICERS

I just reached my limit last weekend, and decided to take action against the abusive MMDA enforcers. I basically called up the MMDA head office and inquired from the Personnel Officer, Antonio Pagulayan, to clarify their policies. Here is what I got.

If any of these abuses seem familiar to you, Mr. Pagulayan has asked that you call either the MMDA hotline (136) or call the METRO BASE at 0920 9389861 or 0920 9389875 and ask for an Inspectorate. They will send inspectors to the place where these MMDA officers are extorting, even while you are arguing out of your apprehension.

1. MMDA officers are not allowed to group together in order to apprehend. They are not even allowed to stand together in groups of 2 or more. The only time they are allowed to work together is for special operations (probably when they apprehend groups of buses for smoke belching).

2. Swerving IS NOT a traffic violation. Moving one lane to the left or right is not swerving, no matter where on the road you do it. And it is even less of a violation when you do it with a signal. Swerving is defined as shifting 2 or more lanes very quickly. So you can argue your way out of this, and call the Metro Base for help.

3. Sadly, using the yellow lane is a traffic violation and will get you a ticket. However, buses are really not allowed to go out of the yellow lane, so if you see selective apprehension of private cars only, you may complain.

[Benny: Fuck the Yellow Line, I take it whenever I can. Those lines are so stupidly drawn. Should the bastards harass you, you can always say you came from some place within the line, like a gas station or whatever establishment you see nearby.]

4. MMDA has confirmed that your license MAY NOT BE CONFISCATED at a traffic apprehension. The only time they can do so is if you are part of an accident, or it is your third violation and you have not settled your fines yet. They are only allowed to give you a ticket, which you can contest. He recommends actually receiving the ticket in some instances, so that you can report the officer who did it.

5. Also, you are free to ask any of these officers for their "mission order", which is written by their supervisor. If they apprehend you for a violation that is not in their mission order for the day, you can report them and they will receive disciplinary action.

We are all smart

2009-03-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

The Nine Types of Intelligence
By Howard Gardner

1. Naturalist Intelligence (“Nature Smart”)

Designates the human ability to discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock configurations). This ability was clearly of value in our evolutionary past as hunters, gatherers, and farmers; it continues to be central in such roles as botanist or chef. It is also speculated that much of our consumer society exploits the naturalist intelligences, which can be mobilized in the discrimination among cars, sneakers, kinds of makeup, and the like.

2. Musical Intelligence (“Musical Smart”)

Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone. This intelligence enables us to recognize, create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist, and sensitive listeners. Interestingly, there is often an affective connection between music and the emotions; and mathematical and musical intelligences may share common thinking processes. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are usually singing or drumming to themselves. They are usually quite aware of sounds others may miss.

3. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence ("Number/Reasoning Smart")

Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate, quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry out complete mathematical operations. It enables us to perceive relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and deductive thinking patterns. Logical intelligence is usually well developed in mathematicians, scientists, and detectives. Young adults with lots of logical intelligence are interested in patterns, categories, and relationships. They are drawn to arithmetic problems, strategy games and experiments.

4. Existential Intelligence

Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here.

5. Interpersonal Intelligence ("People Smart”)

Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives. Teachers, social workers, actors, and politicians all exhibit interpersonal intelligence. Young adults with this kind of intelligence are leaders among their peers, are good at communicating, and seem to understand others’ feelings and motives.

6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence (“Body Smart”)

Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills. This intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection of skills through mind–body union. Athletes, dancers, surgeons, and craftspeople exhibit well-developed bodily kinesthetic intelligence.

7. Linguistic Intelligence ("Word Smart")

Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings. Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect on our use of language. Linguistic intelligence is the most widely shared human competence and is evident in poets, novelists, journalists, and effective public speakers. Young adults with this kind of intelligence enjoy writing, reading, telling stories or doing crossword puzzles.

8. Intra-personal Intelligence ("Self Smart")

Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life. Intra-personal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of the self, but also of the human condition. It is evident in psychologist, spiritual leaders, and philosophers. These young adults may be shy. They are very aware of their own feelings and are self-motivated.

9. Spatial Intelligence (“Picture Smart”)

Spatial intelligence is the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic and artistic skills, and an active imagination. Sailors, pilots, sculptors, painters, and architects all exhibit spatial intelligence. Young adults with this kind of intelligence may be fascinated with mazes or jigsaw puzzles, or spend free time drawing or daydreaming.

From: Overview of the Multiple Intelligences Theory. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and Thomas Armstrong.com

You know you're a frisbee addict when...

2009-02-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

... while driving, your hand automatically forms a forehand grip on the steering wheel. -_-

Spirit of the Game

2009-02-20T20:31:00.000-08:00

“Spirit,” there’s a word you hear a lot in ultimate. In fact, spirit of the game is supposedly the founding concept of our sport. I say supposedly because, although everyone seems to agree on the term, exactly defining the essence of spirit is an elusive task. Spirit is fairly established as a cornerstone of our sport, and yet no two players can agree on what it looks like. With this in mind, I gave myself the task of shedding some light on what it means to “play with spirit.”

I started with a look at the roots of the game: Surely history would unlock the mysteries of our founding concept. Of course that ended up being a bust. It turns out some kids in New Jersey thought this sport up as a gag. While tossing the disc around one afternoon, one probably laughed to another, “Hey here’s another dumb rule: there’s no refs…and you have to sing to the other team! He he he!” Even the name “ultimate” was meant to be ironic. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the game those kids invented has evolved into a sport which, for most of us, truly does embody the ultimate team sport. Given that the spirit of the game has evolved since its conception, the next logical step seemed to be investigating how players today define it. Out of all the players that I’ve talked to, no one has admitted to reading up on any “spirit handbook” as a rookie. It seems most of us learned about the fabled spirit of ultimate through the experience of the game. We tried out this new sport and soon discovered a cult of freaks who played for enjoyment, who officiated every infraction themselves, who cheered to their opponents, and who partied as hard as they played (naked…in hot tubs!). We were hooked, we probably didn’t know why, but suddenly a plastic disc was our god.

Having reached this point, I felt like I had come to a firm understanding of player perception of spirit of the game. Yet, what I realized is that these things were just forms, or expressions, of spirit. This still left me with a burning question: What is the underlying philosophy that separates ultimate from other sports and at the same time unites us all in our fanatical love of the game? I thought long and hard on this and looked at it from many sides; I dug deep beneath the surface of what makes our sport unique. And finally, as if a swilly scoober caught me between the eyes, a single word floated into my consciousness: RESPECT.

Respect for others. This, to me, is the essence of the spirit of ultimate. I tossed that concept around in my head for a while, because I wanted to describe precisely what I understood. As the idea solidified in my mind I broke it down into two areas: physical respect and mental respect.

Physical respect comes in the form of respecting other people’s well-being on the field. For example, as I play, I am conscious of how my actions and attitudes affect other players. If I choose to play like a maniac, endangering others’ safety, I take away from the fun for everyone involved.

But on the other hand, if I choose to jog around half-assed, I do not challenge myself or my opponent. And I certainly disrespect my teammates,ultimately robbing the experience of it’s full potential. True ultimate lies in the attitude that I will push myself, my teammates and my opponents to be our best, but never to an unsafe level.

Physical respect is an aspect of spirit that most of us can understand, but mental respect is the real key to spirit of the game.

It is what separates those who understand sportsmanship, from those who do not. Mental respect is trusting that my teammates are capable as people, and so are my opponents. Whether it’s mistakes, bad decisions or foul calls, spirit of the game is recognizing that other players will always choose what to do, the best way they know how. In fact, true mental respect comes from the realization that my opponent is not my adversary, but my collaborator in the
experience: without the other team the game does not exist. You can choose to spend your time resenting and antagonizing other players, or you can choose to focus on yourself.

It’s not always an easy choice; however, your decision will significantly affect your performance and enjoyment of the sport. So what new enlightenment did I uncover out of all of this? Well, I discovered that the essence of “playing with spirit” lies somewhere beneath the experience of playing the unique game of ultimate. I have come to understand this underlying philosophy as a physical and mental respect for other players. I don’t pretend to have solved this vast entity we so often refer to as the spirit of the game, but I hope this was a start. I intend to look at the many other facets of spirit, and how it affects the way we play the greatest sport on earth: ultimate Frisbee.
— Jeff Warner

Jeff is a management training consultant in Edmonton, AB, is Team Leader of Edmonton E.M.U., and plays with Winnipeg Chaos.

Today's Headlines: COLLUSION

2009-01-28T14:32:00.000-08:00

From the Philippine STAR:
WB-banned firm bags P100-M road contract

A public works contractor blacklisted by the World Band for alleged collusive practices with corrupt officials has bagged a P100-million contract with the government.

"There is no sufficient proof of collusion,: Mercado said. "Even the World Band report states that collusion is 'more likely than not.'".

Excuse me? The proof of collusion is that the government still allowed a suspected company to get the contract! Why not just get a totally new company to handle it? The World Bank has warned us already, so why go through with it?

I just finished reading the Watchmen graphic novel, and I think Rorschach said it best:

The world will look up and shout "Save us!"... And I'll whisper "No."

We deserve this government because we are blind and we are apathetic.

Sleeping Beauty: The Science of Sleep

2009-01-28T03:49:00.000-08:00

Most people don't realize how under slept they are. Even if you go to bed early there's still usually light leaking into your room that deprives you of sleep.

Generally you want the room you sleep in to be so dark you can't see your hand in front of your face. Even if you go to bed early there is still light that comes in around 5AM that reduces the ability of sleep to renew you.

The pineal gland (also called the pineal body, "Third Eye", epiphysis cerebri, or epiphysis) is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of wake/sleep patterns and photoperiodic (seasonal) functions.

Production of melatonin by the pineal gland is inhibited by light and permitted by darkness. For this reason melatonin has been called "the hormone of darkness" and its onset each evening is called the Dim-Light Melatonin Onset (DLMO). Secretion of melatonin as well as its level in the blood, peaks in the middle of the night, and gradually falls during the second half of the night, with normal variations in timing according to an individual's chronotype.

Photosensitive cells in the retina detect light and directly signal the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), entraining it to the 24 hour clock. Fibers project from the SCN to the paraventricular nuclei (PVN), which relay the circadian signals to the spinal cord and out via the sympathetic system to superior cervical ganglia (SCG), and from there into the pineal gland. The function(s) of melatonin in humans is not clear; it is commonly prescribed for the treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders.

A circadian rhythm is an approximate daily periodicity, a roughly-24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioural processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria.

Circadian rhythms are important in determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including human beings. There are clear patterns of core body temperature, brain wave activity, hormone production, cell regeneration and other biological activities linked to this daily cycle. In addition, photoperiodism, the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of day or night, is vital to both plants and animals, and the circadian system plays a role in the measurement and interpretation of day length.

Timely prediction of seasonal periods of weather conditions, food availability or predator activity is crucial for survival of many species. Although not the only parameter, the changing length of the photoperiod ('daylength') is the most predictive environmental cue for the seasonal timing of physiology and behavior, most notably for timing of migration, hibernation and reproduction.

It is thought that the direction of the light may have an effect on entraining the circadian rhythm; light coming from above, resembling an image of a bright sky, has greater effect than light entering our eyes from below.

So, if you want to sleep better, better make your room pitch black. Make your curtains thick. Wear a sleep mask or an eye mask. Make sure the window is not above your head. Better yet, don't sleep near a window at all.

Sleep tight folks.

Our Religions: Are they the Religions of Humanity Itself?

2008-09-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

Daniel Quinn

Delivered October 18, 2000, as a Fleming Lecture in Religion, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas

Contrary to popular opinion, Charles Darwin did not originate the idea of evolution. By the middle of the 19th century, the mere fact of evolution had been around for a long time, and most thinkers of the time were perfectly content to leave it at that. The absence of a theory to explain evolutionary change didn't trouble them, wasn't experienced as a pressure, as it was by Darwin. He knew there had to be some intelligible mechanism or dynamic that would account for it, and this is what he went looking for--with well known results. In his Origin of Species, he wasn't announcing the fact of evolution, he was trying to make sense of the fact.

In my mid-twenties I began to feel a similar sort of pressure. The modern Age of Anxiety was just being born under the shadows of rampant population growth, global environmental destruction, and the ever-present possibility of nuclear holocaust. I was surprised that most people seemed perfectly reconciled to these things, as if to say, Well, what else would you expect?

Ted Kaczynski , the Unabomber, seemed to think he was saying something terribly original in his 1995 diatribe blaming it all on the Industrial Revolution, but this was just the conventional wisdom of 1962. To my mind, blaming all our problems on the Industrial Revolution is like blaming Hamlet's downfall on his fencing match with Laertes. To understand why Hamlet ended up badly, you can't just look at the last ten minutes of his story, you have to go right back to the beginning of it, and I felt a pressure to do the same with us.

The beginning of our story isn't difficult to find. Every schoolchild learns that our story began about 10,000 years ago with the Agricultural Revolution. This isn't the beginning of the human story, but it's certainly the beginning of our story, for it was from this beginning that all the wonders and horrors of our civilization grew.

Everyone is vaguely aware that there have been two ways of looking at the Agricultural Revolution within our culture, two contradictory stories about its significance. According to the standard version--the version taught in our schools--humans had been around for a long time, three or four million years , living a miserable and shiftless sort of life for most of that time, accomplishing nothing and getting nowhere. But then about 10,000 years ago it finally dawned on folks living in the Fertile Crescent that they didn't have to live like beavers and buzzards, making do with whatever food happened to come along; they could cultivate their own food and thus control their own destiny and well being. Agriculture made it possible for them to give up the nomadic life for the life of farming villagers. Village life encouraged occupational specialization and the advancement of technology on all fronts. Before long, villages became towns, and towns became cities, kingdoms, and empires. Trade connections, elaborate social and economic systems, and literacy soon followed, and there we went. All these advances were based on--and impossible without--agriculture, manifestly humanity's greatest blessing.

The other story, a much older one, is tucked away in a different corner of our cultural heritage. It too is set in the Fertile Crescent and tells a tale of the birth of agriculture, but in this telling agriculture isn't represented as a blessing but rather as a terrible punishment for a crime whose exact nature has always profoundly puzzled us. I'm referring, of course, to the story told in the third chapter of Genesis, the Fall of Adam.

Both these stories are known to virtually everyone who grows up in our culture, including every historian, philosopher, theologian, and anthropologist. But like most thinkers of the mid-19th century, who were content with the mere fact of evolution and felt no pressure to explain it, our historians, philosophers, theologians, and anthropologists seem perfectly content to live with these two contradictory stories. The conflict is manifest but, for them, demands no explanation.

For me, it did. As evolution demanded of Darwin a theory that would make sense of it, the story in Genesis demanded of me a theory that would make sense of it.

There have traditionally been two approaches to Adam's crime and punishment . The text tells us Adam was invited to partake of every tree in the garden of Eden except one, mysteriously called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As we know, Adam succumbed to the temptation to sample this fruit. In one approach, the crime is viewed as simple disobedience, in which case the interdiction of the knowledge of good and evil seems entirely arbitrary. God might just as well have interdicted the knowledge of war and peace or the knowledge of pride and prejudice. The point was simply to forbid Adam something in order to test his loyalty. Under this approach, Adam's punishment--banishment from Eden to live by the sweat of his brow as a farmer--was just a spanking; it doesn't "fit the crime" in any particular way. He would have received this punishment no matter what test he had failed.

The second approach tries to make some connection between Adam's crime and his punishment. Under this approach, Eden is viewed as a metaphor for the state of innocence, which is lost when Adam gains the knowledge of good and evil. This makes sense, but only if the knowledge of good and evil is understood as a metaphor for knowledge that destroys innocence. So, with roughly equivalent metaphors at either end, the story is reduced to a banal tautology: Adam lost his innocence by gaining knowledge that destroyed his innocence.

The story of the Fall is coupled with a second that is equally famous and equally baffling, that of Cain and Abel. As conventionally understood, these two brothers were literal individuals, the elder, Cain, a tiller of the soil, and the younger, Abel, a herder. The improbability that two members of the same family would embrace antithetical lifestyles should tip us off to the fact that these were not individuals but emblematic figures, just as Adam was (Adam merely being the Hebrew word for Man).

If we understand these as emblematic figures, then the story begins to make sense. The firstborn of agriculture was indeed the tiller of the soil, as Cain was said to be the firstborn of Adam. This is an undoubted historical fact. The domestication of plants is a process that begins the day you plant your first seed, but the domestication of animals takes generations. So the herder Abel was indeed the second-born--by centuries, if not millennia (another reason to be skeptical of the notion that Cain and Abel were literally second-generation brothers).

A further reason for skepticism on this point is the fact that the ancient farmers and herders of the Near East occupied adjacent but distinctly different regions. Farming was the occupation of the Caucasian inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent. Herding was the occupation of the Semitic inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula to the south.

Another piece of background that needs to be understood is that in very ancient times farmers and herders had radically different lifestyles. Farmers were by the very nature of their work settled villagers; but herders (by the very nature of their work) were nomads, just as many present-day herding peoples are. The herding lifestyle was in fact closer to the hunting-gathering lifestyle than it was to the farming lifestyle.

As the farming peoples of the north expanded, it was inevitable that they would confront their Semitic herding neighbors to the south, perhaps below what is now Iraq--with the predictable result. As they have done from the beginning to the present moment, the tillers of the soil needed more land to put to the plow, and as they've done from the beginning to the present moment, they took it.

As the Semites saw it (and it is of course their version of the story that we have), the tiller of the soil Cain was watering his fields with the blood of Abel the herder.

The fact that the version we have is the Semitic version explains the central mystery of the story, which is why God rejected Cain's gift but accepted Abel's. Naturally, this is the way the Semites would see it. In essence, the story says, "God is on our side. God loves us and the way we live but hates the tillers of the soil and the way they live."

With these provisional understandings in place, I was ready to offer a theory about the first part of the story, the Fall of Adam. What the Semitic authors knew was only the present fact that their brothers from the north were encroaching on them in a murderous way. They hadn't been physically present in the Fertile Crescent to witness the actual birth of agriculture, and in fact this was an event that had occurred hundreds of years earlier. In their story of the Fall, they were reconstructing an ancient event, not reporting a recent one. All that was clear to them was that some strange development had saddled their brothers to the north with a laborious lifestyle and had turned them into murderers, and this had to be a moral or spiritual catastrophe of some kind.

What they observed about their brothers to the north was this peculiarity. They seemed to have the strange idea that they knew how to run the world as well as God. This is what marks them as our cultural ancestors. As we go about our business of running the world, we have no doubt that we're doing as good a job as God, if not better. Obviously God put a lot of creatures in the world that are quite superfluous and even pernicious, and we're quite at liberty to get rid of them. We know where the rivers should run, where the swamps should be drained, where the forests should be razed, where the mountains should be leveled, where the plains should be scoured, where the rain should fall. To us, it's perfectly obvious that we have this knowledge.

In fact, to the authors of the stories in Genesis, it looked as if their brothers to the north had the bizarre idea that they had eaten at God's own tree of wisdom and had gained the very knowledge God uses to rule the world. And what knowledge is this? It's a knowledge that only God is competent to use, the knowledge that every single action God might take--no matter what it is, no matter how large or small--is good for one but evil for another. If a fox is stalking a pheasant, it's in the hands of God whether she will catch the pheasant or the pheasant will escape. If God gives the fox the pheasant, then this is good for the fox but evil for the pheasant. If God allows the pheasant to escape, then this is good for the pheasant but evil for the fox. There's no outcome that can be good for both. The same is true in every area of the world's governance. If God allows the valley to be flooded, then this is good for some but evil for others. If God holds back the flood then this too will be good for some but evil for others.

Decisions of this kind are clearly at the very root of what it means to rule the world, and the wisdom to make them cannot possibly belong to any mere creature, for any creature making such decisions would inevitably say, "I will make every choice so that it's good for me but evil for all others." And of course this is precisely how the agriculturalist operates, saying, "If I scour this plain to plant food for myself, then this will be evil for all the creatures that inhabit the plain, but it'll be good for me. If I raze this forest to plant food for myself, then this will be evil for all the creatures that inhabit the forest, but it'll be good for me."

What the authors of the stories in Genesis perceived was that their brothers to the north had taken into their own hands the rule of the world; they had usurped the role of God. Those who let God run the world and take the food that he's planted for them have an easy life. But those who want to run the world themselves must necessarily plant their own food, must necessarily make their living by the sweat of the brow. As this makes plain, agriculture was not the crime itself but rather the result of the crime, the punishment that must inevitably follow such a crime. It was wielding the knowledge of good and evil that had turned their brothers in the north into farmers--and into murderers.

But these were not the only consequences to be expected from Adam's act. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is harmless to God but poison to Man. It seemed to these authors that usurping God's role in the world would be the very death of Man.

And so it seemed to me when I finally worked all this out in the late 1970s. This investigation of the stories in Genesis was not, for me, an exercise in biblical exegesis. I'd gone looking for a way to understand how in the world we'd brought ourselves face to face with death in such a relatively short period of time--10,000 years, a mere eyeblink in the lifespan of our species--and had found it in an ancient story that we long ago adopted as our own and that remained stubbornly mysterious to us as long as we insisted on reading it as if it were our own. When examined from a point of view not our own, however, it ceased to be mysterious and delivered up a meaning that not only would have made sense to a beleaguered herding people 8,000 years ago but that would also make sense to the beleaguered people of the late twentieth century.

As far as I was concerned, the authors of this story had gotten it right. In spite of the terrible mess we've made of it, we do think we can run the world, and if we continue to think this, it is going to be the death of us.

In case it isn't evident, I should add that of course my reading of Genesis is only a theory. This is what creationists say of evolution, that it's "only a theory, it hasn't been proved," as though this in itself is grounds for dismissal. This misrepresents the point of formulating a theory, which is to make sense of the evidence. So far, Darwin's theory remains the very best way we've found to make sense of the evidence, and my own theory has to be evaluated in the same way. Does it make sense of the evidence--the stories themselves--and does it make more sense than any other theory?

But solving this particular riddle only began to alleviate the pressure I felt for answers that were not being looked for at any level of our culture. The philosophical and theological foundations of our culture had been laid down by people who confidently believed that Man had been born an agriculturalist and civilization builder. These things were as instinctive to him as predation is to lions or hiving is to bees. This meant that, to find and date Man's birth, they had only to look for the beginnings of agriculture and civilization, which were obviously not that far back in time.

When in 1650 Irish theologian James Ussher announced the date of creation as October 23, 4004 B.C., no one laughed, or if they did, it was because of the absurd exactitude of the date, not because the date was absurdly recent. In fact, 4004 B.C. is quite a serviceable date for the beginning of what we would recognize as civilization. This being the case, it's hardly surprising that, for people who took it for granted that Man began building civilization as soon as he was created, 4004 B.C. would seem like a perfectly reasonable date for his creation.

But all this soon changed. By the middle of the 19th century the accumulated evidence of many new sciences had pushed almost all dates back by many orders of magnitude. The universe and the earth were not thousands of years old but billions. The human past extended millions of years back beyond the appearance of agriculture and civilization.Only those who clung to a very literal reading of the biblical creation story rejected the evidence; they saw it as a hoax perpetrated on us either by the devil (to confound us) or by God (to test our faith)--take your pick. The notion that Man had been born an agriculturalist and civilization builder had been rendered totally untenable. He had very definitely not been born either one.

This meant that the philosophical and theological foundations of our culture had been laid by people with a profoundly erroneous understanding of our origins and history. It was therefore urgently important to reexamine these foundations and if necessary to rebuild them from the ground up.

Except, of course, that no one at all thought this was urgently important--or even slightly important. So human life began millions of years before the birth of agriculture. Who cares? Nothing of any importance happened during those millions of years. They were merely a fact, something to be accepted, just as the fact of evolution had been accepted by naturalists long before Darwin.

In the last century we'd gained an understanding of the human story that made nonsense of everything we'd been telling ourselves for 3,000 years, but our settled understandings remained completely unshaken. So what, that Man had not in fact been born an agriculturalist and a civilization builder? He was certainly born to become an agriculturalist and a civilization builder. It was beyond question that this was our foreordained destiny. The way we live is the way humans were meant to live from the beginning of time. And indeed we must go on living this way--even if it kills us.

Facts that were indisputable to all but biblical literalists had radically repositioned us not only in the physical universe but in the history of our own species. The fact that we had been repositioned was all but universally acknowledged, but no one felt any pressure to develop a theory that would make sense of the fact, the way Darwin had made sense of the fact of evolution.

Except me, and I have to tell you that it gave me no joy. I had to have answers, and I went looking for them not because I wanted to write a book someday but because I personally couldn't live without them.

In Ishmael, I made the point that the conflict between the emblematic figures Cain and Abel didn't end six or eight thousand years ago in the Near East. Cain the tiller of the soil has carried his knife with him to every corner of the world, watering his fields with the blood of tribal peoples wherever he found them. He arrived here in 1492 and over the next three centuries watered his fields with the blood of millions of Native Americans. Today, he's down there in Brazil, knife poised over the few remaining aboriginals in the heart of that country.

The tribe among aboriginal peoples is as universal as the flock among geese, and no anthropologist seriously doubts that it was humanity's original social organization. We didn't evolve in troops or hordes or pods. Rather, we evolved in a social organization was was peculiarly human, that was uniquely successful for culture-bearers. The tribe was successful for humans, which is why it was still universally in place throughout the world three million years later. The tribal organization was natural selection's gift to humanity in the same way that the flock was natural selection's gift to geese.

The elemental glue that holds any tribe together is tribal law. This is easy to say but less easy to understand, because the operation of tribal law is entirely different from the operation of our law. Prohibition is the essence of our law, but the essence of tribal law is remedy. Misbehavior isn't outlawed in any tribe. Rather, tribal law prescribes what must happen in order to minimize the effect of misbehavior and to produce a situation in which everyone feels that they've been made as whole again as it's possible to be.

In The Story of B I described how adultery is handled among the Alawa of Australia. If you have the misfortune to fall in love with another man's wife or another woman's husband, the law doesn't say, "This is prohibited and may not go forward." It says, "If you want your love to go forward, here's what you must do to make things right with all parties and to see to it that marriage isn't cheapened in the eyes of our children." It's a remarkably successful process. What makes it even more remarkable is the fact that it wasn't worked out in any legislature or by any committee. It's another gift of natural selection. Over countless generations of testing, no better way of handling adultery has been found or even conceivably could be found, because--behold!--it works! It does just what the Alawa want it to do, and absolutely no one tries to evade it. Even adulterers don't try to evade it--that's how well it works.

But this is just the law of the Alawa, and it would never occur to them to say, "Everyone in the world should do it this way." They know perfectly well that their tribal neighbors' laws work just as well for them--and for the same reason, that they've been tested from the beginning of time.

One of the virtues of tribal law is that it presupposes that people are just the way we know they are: generally wise, kind, generous, and well-intentioned but perfectly capable of being foolish, unruly, moody, cantankerous, selfish, greedy, violent, stupid, bad-tempered, sneaky, lustful, treacherous, careless, vindictive, neglectful, petty, and all sorts of other unpleasant things. Tribal law doesn't punish people for their shortcomings, as our law does. Rather, it makes the management of their shortcomings an easy and ordinary part of life.

But during the developmental period of our culture, all this changed very dramatically. Tribal peoples began to come together in larger and larger associations, and one of the casualties of this process was tribal law. If you take the Alawa of Australia and put them together with Gebusi of New Guinea, the Bushmen of the Kalahari, and the Yanomami of Brazil, they are very literally not going to know how to live. Not any of these tribes are going to embrace the laws of the others, which may not only be unknown to them but incomprehensible to them. How then are they going to handle mischief that occurs among them? The Gebusi way or the Yanomami way? The Alawa way or the Bushman way? Multiply this by a hundred, and you'll have a fair approximation of where people stood in the early millennia of our own cultural development in the Near East.

When you gather up a hundred tribes and expect them to work and live together, tribal law becomes inapplicable and useless. But of course the people in this amalgam are the same as they always were: capable of being foolish, moody, cantankerous, selfish, greedy, violent, stupid, bad-tempered, and all the rest. In the tribal situation, this was no problem, because tribal law was designed for people like this. But all the tribal ways of handling these ordinary human tendencies had been expunged in our burgeoning civilization. A new way of handling them had to be invented--and I stress the word invented. There was no received, tested way of handling the mischief people were capable of. Our cultural ancestors had to make something up, and what they made up were lists of prohibited behavior.

Very understandably, they began with the big ones. They weren't going to prohibit moodiness or selfishness. They prohibited things like murder, assault, and theft. Of course we don't know what the lists were like until the dawn of literacy, but you can be sure they were in place, because it's hardly plausible that we murdered, robbed, and thieved with impunity for five or six thousand years until Hammurabi finally noticed that these were rather disruptive activities.

When the Israelites escaped from Egypt in the 13th century B.C., they were literally a lawless horde, because they'd left the Egyptian list of prohibitions behind. They needed their own list of prohibitions, which God provided--the famous ten. But of course ten didn't do it. Hundreds more followed, but they didn't do it either.

No number has ever done it for us. Not a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand. Even millions don't do it, and so every single year we pay our legislators to come up with more. But no matter how many prohibitions we come up with, they never do the trick, because no prohibited behavior has ever been eliminated by passing a law against it. Every time someone is sent to prison or executed, this is said to be "sending a message" to miscreants, but for some strange reason the message never arrives, year after year, generation after generation, century after century.

Naturally, we consider this to be a very advanced system.

No tribal people has ever been found that claimed not to know how to live. On the contrary, they're all completely confident that they know how to live. But with the disappearance of tribal law among us, people began to be acutely aware of not knowing how to live. A new class of specialists came to be in demand, their specialty being the annunciation of how people are supposed to live. These specialists we call prophets.

Naturally it takes special qualifications to be a prophet. You must by definition know something the rest of us don't know, something the rest of us are clearly unable to know. This means you must have a source of information that is beyond normal reach--or else what good would it be? A transcendent vision will do, as in the case of Siddhartha Gautama. A dream will do, provided it comes from God. But best of all, of course, is direct, personal, unmediated communication with God. The most persuasive and most highly valued prophets, the ones that are worth dying for and killing for, have the word directly from God.

The appearance of religions based on prophetic revelations is unique to our culture. We alone in the history of all humanity needed such religions. We still need them (and new ones are being created every day), because we still profoundly feel that we don't know how to live. Our religions are the peculiar creation of a bereft people. Yet we don't doubt for a moment that they are the religions of humanity itself.

This belief was not an unreasonable one when it first took root among us. Having long since forgotten that humanity was here long before we came along, we assumed that we were humanity itself and that our history was human history itself. We imagined that humanity had been in existence for just a few thousand years--and that God had been talking to us from the beginning. So why wouldn't our religions be the religions of humanity itself?

When it became known that humanity was millions of years older than we, no one thought it odd that God had remained aloof from the thousands of generations that had come before us. Why would God bother to talk to Homo habilis or Homo erectus? Why would he bother to talk even to Homo sapiens--until we came along? God wanted to talk to civilized folks, not savages, so it's no wonder he remained disdainfully silent.

The philosophers and theologians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries weren't troubled by God's long silence. The fact alone was enough for them, and they felt no pressure to develop a theory to make sense of it. For Christians, it had long been accepted that Christianity was humanity's religion (which is why all of humanity had to be converted to it, of course). It was an effortless step for thinkers like Teilhard de Chardin and Matthew Fox to promote Christ from humanity's Christ to the Cosmic Christ.

Very strangely, it remained to me to recognize that there once was a religion that could plausibly be called the religion of humanity. It was humanity's first religion and its only universal religion, found wherever humans were found, in place for tens of thousands of years. Christian missionaries encountered it wherever they went, and piously set about destroying it. By now it has been all but stamped out either by missionary efforts or more simply by exterminating its adherents. I certainly take no pride in its discovery, since it's been in plain sight to us for hundreds of years.

Of course it isn't accounted a "real" religion, since it isn't one of ours. It's just a sort of half-baked "pre-religion." How could it be anything else, since it emerged long before God decided humans were worth talking to? It wasn't revealed by any accredited prophet, has no dogma, no evident theology or doctrine, no liturgy, and produces no interesting heresies or schisms. Worst of all, as far as I know, no one has ever killed for it or died for it--and what sort of religion is that? Considering all this, it's actually quite remarkable that we even have a name for it.

The religion I'm talking about is, of course, animism. This name was cut to fit the general missionary impression that these childlike savages believe that things like rocks, trees, and rivers have spirits in them, and it hasn't lost this coloration since the middle of the nineteenth century.

Needless to say, I wasn't prepared to settle for this trivialization of a religion that flourished for tens of thousands of years among people exactly as smart as we are. After decades of trying to understand what these people were telling us about their lives and their vision of humanity's place in the world, I concluded that a very simple (but far from trivial) worldview was at the foundation of what they were saying: The world is a sacred place, and humanity belongs in such a world.

It's simple but also deceptively simple. This can best be seen if we contrast it with the worldview at the foundation of our own religions. In the worldview of our religions, the world is anything but a sacred place. For Christians, it's merely a place of testing and has no intrinsic value. For Buddhists it's a place where suffering is inevitable. If I oversimplify, my object is not to misrepresent but only to clarify the general difference between these two worldviews in the few minutes that are left to me.

For Christians, the world is not where humans belong; it's not our true home, it's just a sort of waiting room where we pass the time before moving on to our true home, which is heaven. For Buddhists, the world is another kind of waiting room, which we visit again and again in a repeating cycle of death and rebirth until we finally attain liberation in nirvana.

For Christians, if the world were a sacred place, we wouldn't belong in it, because we're all sinners; God didn't send his only-begotten son to make us worthy of living in a sacred world but to make us worthy of living with God in heaven. For Buddhists, if the world were a sacred place, then why would we hope to escape it? If the world were a sacred place, then would we not rather welcome the repeating cycle of death and rebirth?

From the animist point of view, humans belong in a sacred place because they themselves are sacred. Not sacred in a special way, not more sacred than anything else, but merely as sacred as anything else--as sacred as bison or salmon or crows or crickets or bears or sunflowers.

This is by no means all there is to say about animism. It's explored more fully in The Story of B, but this too is just a beginning. I'm not an authority on animism. I doubt there could ever be such a thing as an authority on animism.

Simple ideas are not always easy to understand. The very simplest idea I've articulated in my work is probably the least understood: There is no one right way for people to live--never has been and never will be. This idea was at the foundation of tribal life everywhere. The Navajo never imagined that they had the right way to live (and that all others were wrong). All they had was a way that suited them. With tribal peoples on all sides of them--all living in different ways--it would have been ridiculous for them to imagine that theirs was the one right way for people to live. It would be like us imagining that there is one right way to orchestrate a Cole Porter song or one right way to make a bicycle.

In the tribal world, because there was complete agreement that no one had the right way to live, there was a staggering glory of cultural diversity, which the people of our culture have been tirelessly eradicating for 10,000 years. For us, it will be paradise when everyone on earth lives exactly the same way.

Almost no one blinks at the statement that there is no one right way for people to live. In one of his denunciations of scribes and pharisees, Jesus said, "You gag on the gnat but swallow down the camel." People find many gnats in my books to gag on, but this great hairy camel goes down as easily as a teaspoon of honey.

May the forests be with you and with your children.

http://ishmael.org/Education/Writings/southwestern.shtml

Celebrating Humanity

2008-07-25T20:29:00.000-07:00

The Beijing Olympics is barely a stone’s throw away, and you can literally feel the vibe in the air in the city. Not to mention the increased security in all establishments. I can’t even go in and out of the school without an ID anymore.

But something crossed my mind as usual while pondering on being involved in this epic event. What are we celebrating in this Olympics? Humanity? What is humanity? I look at Beijing, the frightening machinery of human efficiency, then I think of the cost of this vicious determination. You might think the entire Chinese population is really jubilant, but that’s not really the case. In any totalitarian state, there is a shroud covering what’s really going on.

A lot of Chinese Nationals live a life that I don’t envy. I can see and feel how they are not in control of their own lives. I can see how they are driven by outside forces beyond their control. I can see how they they don’t have much choice as to what they want to do with their lives. I have heard stories that outside the city, children are taught to do one thing, and do it for the rest of their lives because they don’t have access to education. Their dads might just teach them how to drive a truck, and they’ll be a truck driver forever because that’s the only thing they know what to do.

On the other hand, I can see the foreign powers at work as well. I can see why Chinese distrust anybody not from the mainland. China was forced to open up because foreign nations wanted a piece of the enormous market. This was way back when Britain, America, France Germany, Russia, and other countries were out for conquest because they were rapidly using up all their resources. They needed to penetrate the Middle Kingdom, and that’s what they did. To put it bluntly, it’s like raping a little girl. The imagery is not so far from the truth, and not so much an exaggeration. Just think Opium Wars, and what lengths Britain and other countries went to make sure China opened their borders. Until now, you can hear these same countries on the news trying to tarnish China’s moment of glory in the coming Olympics.

So back to humanity. We are now at a precipice in human history. You can see it, hear it, feel it everywhere around you. You know something is not right, and things are going down the dumps. You know in you gut that the shit is about the hit the fan. You can see it on CNN, the conflict in the Middle East, food crisis, oil prices, disease, human rights violations, and so on. What is it again that we are celebrating? Those ephemeral instances when we show an act of kindness? Is that what humanity is all about? In a constant state of suffering and despair, only to be rewarded by a brief moment of respite?

It wasn’t always like this. I went to a couple of museums yesterday and last week that showed our ancestors like the Peking Man and the Jiuniushan Man, and I remember what I read in the Story of B by Daniel Quinn. The Law of Nature always made sure we never went out to intentionally obliterate our own competition, our own species. There was a law written in stone that we compete for food and sustenance, but we never go make it our business to kill our competitor and take his food, or prevent him access from food. This only began to happen when the Agricultural Revolution happened, or when so called ‘civilization’ began.

We like to call early humans primitive and barbaric, but when you look at the world today, after the Enlightenment, the Rennaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the internet, amidst tremendous technological progress and standards of living, there is more suffering than ever. In Ancient Wars, people died in thousands. Today, people die in millions, and they aren’t even casualties of war, but casualties of our great human civilization.

So what should we be celebrating again? I can go on and pretend, just like you, that as long as we’re not the ones suffering, that life is great and we should celebrate the heights of human achievement. But let’s face it, we are also celebrating the heights of human cruelty and indifference.

Rest in Peace Father Mena

2008-07-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

He passed away this morning in Spain. He was the last of the original Jesuits if I'm not mistaken. He was probably my favorite priest. He was jolly and always full of energy. My most memorable encounter with him was when he called me to his office a week before Days With The Lord. He knew I was agnostic (now atheist) and he talked to me whether I wanted to attend DWTL or not. He advised me to go with an empty cup, and that I did. Although Days did not accomplish its intended purpose on me, that brief meeting with Fr. Mena was probably what made me attend with an open mind. My Days experience would have been totally different had he not talked to me that week.

He's done so much for Xavier. I'm not sure if Xavier still has more buildings to name after him, but he deserves one (correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think he has one yet). Surely the new Xavier in Alabang will have some buildings named after him at the very least. But it would have been more appropriate if it was in our Xavier.

Life really is too short. But it's up to us how to live it to the fullest, making as much difference as we can. Father Mena is someone who made a difference in a lot of people's lives. That alone is a life worth emulating. May he live forever in our hearts and memories, a beacon of light, shining brightly 'til the journey's end.

Gan Ha Ya!

2008-07-11T02:07:00.001-07:00

The first three weeks went by like a blur. Time indeed flies fast if you're having fun. But a few nights ago I met up with some Filipino friends, mainly high school buddies who've been here for some time already. I realized how different the topics of conversation are compared to what I talk about with the kids in my program. Most of them are still relatively young, mostly sophomores and juniors in college and some high school kids. Anyway this insight made me realize the difference in objectives I have in studying in Beijing. It's easy to forget and get carried away with the fun and games, but I need to keep in mind that I'm here to build a life of my own, and I take this really seriously.

I remember having a conversation like this with some friends back home, wherein people nowadays shy away from having the 'serious' discussion. It's like people have shrouds over their eyes and have different realities. It's like The Great Forgetting in the Story of B by Daniel Quinn (a must read by the way). We forget why we are here and what we are doing with our lives. It's so rare to have meaningful and profound talks with people, and it's a shame because all we care about now are trivial matters that don't really add value to our lives.

So the next few weeks, I'll be focusing on what I'm really here for. I'll try to update you on my progress. As it is, I feel I've made some leaps with my reading and writing, but my conversation skills still needs a lot of improvement. Oh and the meaning of my blog entry title is what Northerners in China say that really means, "What's up". :)

[FYI: I'm using Blogger to cross-post to Multiply, since accessing Multiply is a pain. If you want to leave replies that I can read immediately, just go to tipsytilter.blogspot.com. You can still reply on Multiply but I won't be able to check it as regularly since there are days I can't access it.]

Greetings from Beijing!

2008-07-06T08:45:00.001-07:00

Hello people! I finally found a way to access Multiply, through www.surfall.net. I'm going to start working on my two-week account of my adventures here in Beijing. For a brief summary, I have writing and speaking classes in the morning from 8am to 12nn. I have Chinese painting Tuesdays and Thursdays 130-330. I found an Ultimate Frisbee team here and I play tournaments during Sundays, and I think I'll be playing some pick-up games on Tuesday or Saturday night. I haven't been going to the gym as often as I want to because I play basketball with my friends in the program. The people in my program are mostly Americans from the West Coast so it's kinda tough trying to practice.

All the stuff I learned in Xavier are slowly coming back to me, but more on the reading and writing part, my speaking still needs a lot of work. My goal for the month is to be able to talk to taxi cab drivers and street vendors. As for the nightlife, well I'll need a totally different post for that one. ;)

The reason I didn't bring a laptop because I didn't want to be spending so much time online instead of exploring this amazing city. It's a shame I found a way to post in Multiply since I'll be posting more often, but hey I need to keep in touch with my fans right? hehehe.

(On a side note, congratulations to Xavier Ultimate for being an official club now. When I first heard the news I was totally ecstatic. Keep it up guys, I want to see you a lot better when I go back in August.)

That's all for now, if you need to reach me, just text my Globe number. I may or may not reply to your message, but if I do it will be through my local China SIM. You can also leave me a message on YM. If it's an offline message, I will get it in my phone anyway.