Awake

U.S. Landmine Policy

In my LLL post, there were a couple of references to landmine policies and their impact on human beings around the world. I was channel surfing last night and heard a 10 second blurb on the West Wing that happened to be about the U.S.'s policy on landmines and the caveats created by the situation in the DMZ (demilitarized zone on the border of N. and S. Korea). So I thought I'd google U.S landmine policy and korea to see what I could learn.

Top two hits:
U.S. Landmine Policy— U.S. Department of State. This is a relatively new Bush policy dated February 2004

New U.S. Landmine Policy: Questions and Answers— Human Rights Watch. A sort of FAQ on the February '04 policy

It's not a clear cut issue by any means.

Laundry List of Links (LLL)

Tonight's LLL is brought to you by one very good night's sleep, a mid-afternoon nap, and three cups of coffee.

Thought I'd take a moment to post some of the more interesting links I've learned about from various e-mail newsletters I receive on a regular basis...

First up is Goshen College's Advent Devotions. On a technical note, I noticed they're using blosxom to power their content. Kudos to them. I've installed blosxom and played a little bit with it, but I'd really like to look into again for powering "sideblog" type content. It's a very lightweight weblog application and has a very simple interface. But I digress... here's the welcome message to Goshen's Advent devotions:

Goshen College Advent Devotions

Next on the list is last in National Catholic Reporter's Global Perspective Journey's in Theology: Women's Stories. To quote Gemma Tulud Cruz, the author of the article, Faith seeking empowering understanding:

Theology lies not only in the carefully worded propositions of erudite theologians but also in the songs, poems, stories, testimonies and reflections on the day to day struggle of ordinary people by ordinary people themselves. Much of the Filipino contextual theology called "theology of struggle", for instance, is expressed and embedded in these forms.

The diverse, complex, and immense problems we face today impel us to expand our theological imaginations. A theology that inspires hope must learn to speak not just about the metaphysics but the aesthetics of existence. Just as Jesus' story ends not with his death but with his resurrection, theology must insist that the Christian's final experience in God's great economy of salvation is love and life not suffering and death.

Also from Global Perspective, Indian minorities are again anxious, which discusses the anxiety of religious minorities (Christian, Muslim, Buddhist) in India over the BJP's recent change in party leadership and in their public rhetoric, a reiteration of fundamentalist, anti-minority, Hindutva idealogy.

From Human Rights Watch:

• D.R. Congo: End Arms Flows as Ethnic Tensions Rise
• Malaysia: Mass Expulsion Puts Migrants at Risk
• Sudan: Human Rights Accountability Must Be Part of North-South Peace Agreement
• Millions of Landmines Destroyed

From Reuter's AlertNet:

• Photo Album : PICTURES: Landmines around the world
• FACTBOX: NGOs respond to renewed conflict in Ivory Coast
• CRISIS PROFILE-Why is tension resurfacing in Georgia?

Haven't read all of these, but I'm posting them here as a reminder.

Happy reading.

Brant Himes: A Theology of Christian Community in a World of Strangers

Little bro' just posted a paper he submitted for his "Theology of Christian Community and Ministry of the Church" class at Fuller Theological Seminary. Give it a read over at his blog, "dream":

A Theology of Christian Community in a World of Strangers

Thanks for sharing this with us, Brant!

short sista.

Powell resigns.

Curses.

BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | Colin Powell resigns: Your reaction

Frontline: Is Wal-Mart good for America?

frontline: coming soon: is wal-mart good for america? | PBS

FRONTLINE offers two starkly contrasting images: one of empty storefronts in Circleville, Ohio, where the local TV manufacturing plant has closed down; the other--a sea of high rises in the South China boomtown of Shenzhen. The connection between American job losses and soaring Chinese exports? Wal-Mart.

On PBS November 16, 2004 - check local listings.

Drooling over a Delicious Library

Wow. It's pretty. It's functional. It's pretty. (Did I mention their site is very pretty.) Now that both my brothers are on OS X and my parents considering a G5 iMac after the wedding, maybe we can do some serious DVD/Book/CD swapping, instead of this 4-copies-of-everything-LOTR business at Christmastime.

Check it out: It's Delicious Monster's Delicious Library. (No relation to this del.icio.us social bookmarking site ...see awake's sidebar for my latest del.icio.us links.)

Thanks, Andrew Jones for the ref.

To India I Go

To India I go and a new site I launch. Global Fixation will be my journey to discover a niche that I have noticed becoming more and more prominent in my life: that of connecting missionaries with the resources they need to more effectively communicate to their supporters. I am only beginning this journey myself; this is only my second time to India as the so-called visual communications ministry team leader. But, I want to pass along what I'm learning and hopefully someone will benefit from my mistakes and blunders.

I am also interested in missionary responsibility to understand and protect the human rights of indigenous people groups and I hope to explore that more in depth on Global Fixation.

This new site is really just an attempt to better define myself to others in terms of my interest in becoming more globally missional as I seek to grow deeper in the knowledge of Jesus and deeper still in his love.

iPod Photo

This is weird. I was just wondering yesterday if iPods could display photos on the display. If you've got $500 bucks, they will:

Apple - iPod Photo

Very very cool, but I think I'll stick with my digital camera and the yellow video cord that lets me share my photos on a TV.

Talking politics with a 3rd grader

Had an interesting conversation about the elections with a sweet little 3rd grade girl the other day. Though she is young, she displayed a uncanny ability to reflect the political views of many voting adults this past election.

Sweet little girl: "I'm happy that Mr. Bush won the presidential election."

Me: "You are?"

Sweet little girl: "Oh yes."

Me: "Is that who you would have voted for if you were old enough to vote?"

Sweet little girl: "Uh-huh."

Me: "What do you think makes him a good president"

Sweet little girl: "He's a Christian."

Me: "Do you think any Christian should be able to be president"

Sweet little girl: "No."

Me: "What else do you like about him?"

[long pause]

Sweet little girl: "I like the laws he made."

Me: "Ok. Which ones?"

Sweet little girl: "I don't know. You're asking me lots of hard questions."

Me: "I know. It's OK. I just want to get you thinking."

Sweet little girl: "Oh. Ok."

Read Jim Wallis' commentary: Progressive faith did not lose this election (No, I didn't tell her to read it, I'm asking you to. ;-)

Shameless

Seen this?

Apple - iPod U2 Special Edition

Africa's Challenge: Moving from "Free Schooling" to "An Education"

This story describes the effect of a new policy which makes primary school free in Kenya (and soon in other sub-Saharan countries). Previously a World Bank loan condition required fees of $16/year, beyond the reach of literally millions of poor families. Now enrollment swells and in some places teacher to student ratios are 111:1.

In Africa, Free Schools Feed a Different Hunger (NY Times)

Hat tip: ERR 11/01/04 (Dean Baker)