One of my friends is thinking of visiting Delhi for Christmas, with two of her friends.
It’s exciting because I wasn’t really sure if I’d see her again.
It’s still only a maybe but I reckon it will happen. So yay for that.
I really am enjoying watching World Cup soccer. It’s much more interesting then I thought it would be.
Walking home from my coffee shop in South Extension, listening to music on my iPod, feeling a dust storm gathering a thought hit me. We are going to win, poverty will be made history.
For so long I had doubted that victory was possible, much of my work seems to be so futile. The lack of commitment from rich countries like Australia to poverty reduction has been depressing for me. As is the seeming lack of interest from the general public.
I don’t know if it will be in my life time or not but I know in my heart we are going to eliminate poverty. It is simply not sustainable. I had a think about the people I know who are working to fight poverty and how many people are working on it that I don’t know. We have some of the brightest, hardest working and most passionate people working for our cause.
But the thing that convinces me the most is watching the local Indians setup a market as I was walking along. These people are so enterprising, there is no way that unfair trade rules will keep them down.
We have the most powerful weapon in the history of man on our side, love. You can’t suppress that, people have tried to do so and they have failed. Love also has a powerful and life changing network effect on people. One persons actions can inspire a nation, or even the whole world. I’m thinking of people like Mandela or Gandhi here.
So I sit here filled with hope.
It is just a matter of time before poverty will be history.
Just downloading Yell Fire! the new Michael Franti album. Listened to two tracks so far, very fun and good.
Michael Franti is just so good. I love his social justice angle, he covers everything from AIDS, the death penalty, and the war in Iraq. His music is also so good.
Does anyone know any good bands who’s name starts with Y and Z. I can think of a few but I thought I’d ask the comunity. I want to create an A-Z by Artist playlist to complement my A-Z by Song Name.
Sometimes I feel like doing very rash and possibly quite foolish things.
Tonight the 3 girls who where staying with us and one of their boyfriends visited us unexpectedly.
They just showed up tonight.. Such a fun suprise. I want to have a house when I get back home where people randomly drop in. We gave them some coffee (they like my coffee) and iced tea and then we ended up going out for Dosa which was great.
I love like the desert love the rain
I love you like alcohol loves pain
I love you like the morning loves the sun
I love you like one and one loves making one
I love you like the street life loves the night
I love you like lovers sometimes love to fight
I love you like hot oil loves to burn
I love you like making love loves taking turns
A Minutes All I Need
Michael Franti
Everyone must read The Road Less Travelled by M. Scot Peck. It is one of the best books I have read.
It comes up with a wonderful definition for both love and grace. It deals with spiritual development and mental health really well.
It is a book a read over a long period maybe even 8 weeks which is a long time for me with a book of that size. I recomend reading it slowly, I think you get far more out of it.
I love reading.
I can’t believe we won that world cup game…
It was such a good game!
I can’t believe how good a fight back we made at the end of the second half.
I am often have an internal conflict about idealism vs pragmatism.
It’s hard to work, trying to work out if idealism is worth holding on to in a particular case or whether being pragmatic and getting better results is more important.
Stupid thinking, makes life much more complex.
According to US Officials, 3 suicides at Guantanamo Bay were actually acts of war.
I’m wondering now about the implications of being able to claim suicide as an act of war. If I was overseas in the US and I killed myself (without injuring anyone else) would that be an act of war. Would that enable the US to declare war on my country.. hmmm..
In Australia with our suicide rate I think we might have a civil war going on. 100’s of people commiting acts of war.
I am sick of this manipulation of the English language, though I do enjoy doing it myself.
War is peace
hate is love
And in the general hardening of outlook that set in … practices which had been long abandoned … — imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions, the use of hostages and the deportation of whole populations — not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive.
George Orwell 1984.
TB Kills 500,000 a year in Africa alone.
We had 3 people stay out our house on Friday and Saturday night. It was quite fun, I like having guests. It gives an excuse to eat out more and have a bit more fun. I like practicing hospitality too. There where two from the US and one from Canada. Whilst they were very nice and fun I am feeling a little outnumbered. So what I want is to extend an offer for Australian’s and Kiwi’s to stay for a few nights at our house.
Our cleaner Moonie who comes twice a week to clean the house came today to explain why she didn’t show up yesterday and that her child was sick. She came seeking help, our language skills were not quite adequate for the situation, so we called over Victor(from EHA) who lives quite close to us. He chatted to her and I think that things are sorted out, she should take her girl to a hospital tomorrow if she’s still sick with fever. We also gave her some panadol for her child.
She has 5 children and her husband is apparently a lazy bum. I imagine that missing even a day of work stuffs her up. Stupid poverty!! So many sad stories, here in Delhi. I am glad at least that we are paying her a good wage for her work.
ANGEL
Done it. Came here. Spend every day lying to myself about making the world a better place.SPIKE
Welcome to the planet. We all paint on our happy faces every day, when all we really wanted is to pound the neighbor’s missis, steal his Ben Franklins, and while we’re at it, not think about the third of the world that’s starving to death.
(walks toward the window, looks out)ANGEL
I’m not saying that I can fix everything. I just .. I… I have to do better.
Underneath Season 5 Episode 17