J. M. Verville

It is pretty amazing how far people will go in attempt to correct social ills:

Heads will be forced to list children as young as five on school ‘hate registers’ over everyday playground insults.

Even minor incidents must be recorded as examples of serious bullying and details kept on a database until the pupil leaves secondary school.

Teachers are to be told that even if a primary school child uses homophobic or racist words without knowing their meaning, simply teaching them such words are hurtful and inappropriate is not enough.

Daily Mail

I am not sure what to say to this idea — certainly there are issues, but isn’t part of being young the notion that you get punished for your action, and it doesn’t follow you throughout the rest of your secondary school? I thought youth was about ’second chances.’

A five year old who has a target on his back because he said something “homophobic” is a laughable idea.

As a secondary note: Education has been used conversely to liberate and to imprison people since the dawn of man. It is either a tool of the rich and privileged and ruling folk, or it is a tool of the good at heart genuinely attempting to make better people.

Confucius didn’t say “Yo dawg, I am putting you on the hate register because you say mean things to folk.”

Confucius said: “人不知而不慍 不亦君子乎.” 

“To get mad at another person without knowing them is not the way of the noble.”

You shall know the intentions of an educator by the way they educate. You shall know the intentions of a school by the way they execute policy.

You can correct pupils with words and deeds or you can correct them through shaming them and branding them. It is obvious which is better.

The five year old will spend the rest of his school career on a hate register and the only lesson he takes from this is that saying what he heard from a parent or from a neighbor will get him punished; no lesson is learned. The only thing that is learned is a confounding fear of a system which bears grudges.

①골짜기의 여신(女神)은 영원히 죽지 않고 만물을 창조해 낸다. 이를 현빈(玄牝)이라 한다.

 ②유현하고 신비스러운 여신의 문이 바로 천지 만물의 근원이다.

 ③곡신(谷呻)은 보이지 않고 없는 듯하면서 있고, 그 작용은 무궁무진하다.

도덕경

골짜기 여신이 바로 하나님이다. 그리고 하나님이 볼 수 없어서 우리 인생에 없는 것 같다. 하나님이 없어서 만물의 근본을  파악할 수 없다.

근본을 보이지않으면 우리는 자연을 이해할 수 없다 — 자연을 이해하지않으면 우리가 빨리 결론을 내리고 모든 개를 판단하다.  하나님이 없어서 우리는 하나님 때신 판단하다.

자연이 무위 이다.이 사실을 이해하면 우리의 삶도 이해할 수 있다. 세상에 악한 일이 많아서 세상이악하다고 생각하는 분이 많다. 그런데 세상이 진짜 악하지않고 선(善)하지않다. “악”하고”선” 인간의 만드는 개념이다.

“선(善)을 착하다고 인식하기 때문에 불선(不善)의 관념이 나타나게 마련이다.” (도덕경제2장)

강한 동물이 약한 동물을 먹다. 강한 인간이 약한 인간을 도구로 사용하다. 약한 것이 “악하다”고 생각하지만 자연이 악하지않고 선행도 하지않고 자연이 무위이다.

자연을 이해하니까 악행이나 선행 뭔지 빨리 판단하지말고 자연에 어느 부분 인지 생각해봄.

내가 나이를 더 먹어서 조심성이 많아졌다.

This is the point where we have to wonder if this is the beginning of the end.

The shrewd Chinese have not sustained such high growth rates by being dummies, and they are looking with doubtful eyes to the current US government on whether or not we can resolve our crisis. The current plans do not look fruitful not to mention we have to truly consider whether we could have even expected the US economy to exist as it has traditionally existed, without change; that view now seems naive.

We are looking at a situation where the confidence in the US economy is eroding:

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao has said he is ‘a little bit worried’ about the safety of his country’s investments in US bonds. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP

China sold $34bn (£21.5bn) worth of US government bonds in December, raising fears that ­Beijing is using its financial ­muscle to signal that it has lost confidence in American economic policy.

US treasury figures for the period ending in December 2009 show that, following the sale, China is no longer the largest overseas holder of US treasury bonds. Beijing ended the year sitting on $755.4bn worth of US government debt, compared to Japan’s $768.8bn.

Since the sub-prime crisis that began on Main Street USA grew to engulf the global economy, China’s leaders have repeatedly expressed concerns about US policy. December’s $34bn sell-off made only a tiny dent in Beijing’s total holdings of US assets, which amount to well over $1tn when stakes in American companies, as well as treasury bills, are taken into account.

The Guardian

  제5장  

①천지는 무정한 존재이다. ‘인간적인 사랑도 하지 않고’ 모든 인물을 추구(芻拘)같이 담담하게 여긴다. ‘만물이 자연의 도리를 따라 제물로 있고 제물로 자라게 내버려 둔다.’

우리 모두다 중요하지 않다. 모든 인간이 자기가 중요하다고 생각하지만 지금 세상의 인구가 60억이상 이다. 그리고 모든 살아있던 인간이 세면 240억이다. 우리가자신을 주요하는지 어떻게 생각할 수 있냐?

물론 모든 인간이 가치가 있다. 그런데 우리의 문제가 작다. 인생의 목적이 뭐냐? 돈 아니고 유명아니다. 자연과 만물을 이해하는 것이 중요하다.  바로 도를 이해하면 우리의 문제와 걱정이 없어질수 있다. 도를 알면 우리의 진짜 가치를알수 있고 자기의 잛은 인생을 더 이해할 수 있다.

 도를 터득한 성인도 무정하고 무자비하다. 백성들을 추구같이 여긴다. 백성들에게 사사로운 인정이나 사랑같은 것도 베풀지 않고 스스로 무의자연의 도를 따르게 내버려 둔다.

우리 인생에 나쁜 것이 일어날 때 우리 탓이 아니다. 성인도 고생하다. 자연이 도덕이 모르다.

 ②하늘과 땅 사이는 마치 풀무와 같다고는 할까! 텅 비었는데도 원기(元氣)가 끝없이 일어나고 그의 활동으로 생육화성이 더욱 잘 나타난다.

 ③말이 많으면 이내 막히고 만다. 허정한 도를 지키는 것이 가장 좋다.

도덕경

This is an interesting situation — could prove to be beneficial for encouraging many Alaskan students to work harder:

Gov. Sean Parnell is proposing the state pay the entire Alaska college or job training tuition for every high school student who graduates with a A average and takes four years of math, science and language arts. Students who graduate with a B could get 75 percent of their tuition covered under the plan.

Anchorage Daily News

There is the question of constitutionality: is it appropriate to use the tax payer dollars of Alaskans to pay for the college of people who are not their children, etc.?

I think the answer might be’yes.’ The entire community is bettered by students who work harder in school, and students who have more opportunity; and if this offer is open to all future Alaskans it is an investment in the future of Alaska itself.

Consider that there is already free public education through high school  — why not reward the hardest working students, who have not squandered the funds that were provided to better themselves?

I agree with the proposal — it is merely a shame that not every state can afford to do such a thing.

This is a very necessary piece of news for healing — both for the victims and for the Church:

Pope Benedict XVI has upbraided Irish Roman Catholic bishops over their handling of child sex abuse scandals.

He condemned abuse of children by priests as a “heinous crime”, and said Irish bishops must act to restore the Church’s “moral credibility”.

During two days of meetings at the Vatican, the Pope reprimanded the bishops for a “failure… for years to act effectively”, a statement said.

Last year the Irish Church admitted covering up abuse for decades.

Two state-ordered reports revealed how abuse was rife in many Irish Catholic-run children’s institutions, and how priests who were accused of abuse were just moved by bishops to new parishes.

BBC

Who knows how all the cover ups started — I imagine it was a combination of cronies covering for one another, refusing to believe that the accusations could possibly be true, and not wanting to believe them to be true turning the other cheek. It is essentially a whole web of lies, lies people wanted to believe, that spiraled entirely out of control.

This could bring up some debate concerning whether or not Priests should be celibate — it makes sense that celibacy should have a role in the Church, but certainly it has become clear that some of the clergy cannot even keep their hands off of even children, and we have borne witness to  gross crimes as a result.

The Church lost so much of its honor by not coming clean about this.

미국에서 우리 건강제도와 모든 병원들이 (군대 병원 배제) 다 사립이에요. 우리 건강보험제도도 대부분 사립이고 제일 가난한 사람과 늙은 사람들만 보험을 받을 수 있다. 물론 다른 나라들 우리의 건강제도를 비판하지만 우리가 이런 문제 없다:

국민 건강보험 재정이 지난달 말 2,000억여 원 적자를 낸 것으로 나타났습니다.

국민건강보험공단은 지난달 말 현재 건강보험 재정 수입이 2조 5,000억 원인데 반해, 지출은 2조 7,000억 원으로 나타나 2,200여 억원의 적자를 기록했다고 밝혔습니다.

건보 공단은 연초에는 보험료 수입에 지난해 건강보험 인상분이 아직 반영되지 않는 구조적인 문제가 있다며, 적자 규모는 예상됐던 수준이라고 설명했습니다.

다만, 올해 임금 수준이 지난해와 비슷해 보험료 수입은 늘지 않으면서 건강보험의 보장성 강화로 지출이 크게 늘 것으로 보여 앞으로 큰 폭의 적자가 불가피할 것으로 전망됐습니다.

YTN

진짜 보면 좀 이상하다 — 미국에는 돈이 있는 사람들이 스스로 돈을 내니까 더 좋은 것 같다. 우리 정부가 필요하는 사람들에게만 보험을 보장하니까 그 사람들위해 돈이 더 많다. 한국과 여럽식 제도에는 부자도 보험을 받으니까 정부가 돈을 누수하고 이렇게 대규모 영업을 쉽게 관리할수 없다.

계속 정부에게 이런 권력과 책임을 주면 앞으로 정부가 자기 인생을 통제할 수 있다. 벌써 미국에는 술과 담배의 값이 올라가면서 다른  특세금을생기고 있다.

I am becoming physically ill from some of what I have been reading. I just struggled through a pulp novel and am starting another one… The last one was more bearable even though annoying in different ways.

I just hit points where I have to put the book down…

In each novel, every main character is physically beautiful and possesses great prowess; their greatest fault is something like alcoholism or being socially withdrawn and this is caused by a tragic incident that was beyond their control. There are 1-2 supporting characters that fill the role of imperfect people.

Not only this, but they play off of stereotypes that I have been bored of since the 8th grade: Forbidden love, the agony of lost friendship and love, man against stereotypical evil monolithic powers that have no redeeming features.

Characters are so two dimensional. They have such simple motivations, and they are of such pure hearts it is inexcusable.

One of the only genres where the books can be said to be consistently OK  are crime novels where often the murderer suffers from a mental disease so you at least get more than a few simple stereotypes — the writer has to actually develop a little depth to a person as they are both a normal person and in part a diseased person.

I need to do some research and expand into some different authors because this is just not cutting it.

I used to be able to go through a pulp novel without being terribly bothered and merely enjoy the development of the plot but after reading George R. R. Martin and before that Steven Erikson, Glen Cook and Raymond E. Feist I just cannot bear to read anything so bad.

I am going to jump into the Stephen King novels that Matt lent me because I imagine these will be good. They will be what I need until I can find something else.

Certainly an amazing and revolutionary concept. I have heard the argument before and it does make sense on one hand, and I am inclined to believe that at least limiting or changing the nature of funding could be helpful to Africans; it is almost as if the regular people never get to see the benefits of the money because it is put through either corrupt governments or put into projects that do not actually benefit the people.

What do you think?:

“For God’s Sake, Please Stop the Aid!”

The Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati, 35, says that aid to Africa does more harm than good. The avid proponent of globalization spoke with SPIEGEL about the disastrous effects of Western development policy in Africa, corrupt rulers, and the tendency to overstate the AIDS problem.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa…

Shikwati: … for God’s sake, please just stop.

SPIEGEL: Stop? The industrialized nations of the West want to eliminate hunger and poverty.

Shikwati: Such intentions have been damaging our continent for the past 40 years. If the industrial nations really want to help the Africans, they should finally terminate this awful aid. The countries that have collected the most development aid are also the ones that are in the worst shape. Despite the billions that have poured in to Africa, the continent remains poor.

SPIEGEL: Do you have an explanation for this paradox?

Shikwati: Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.

Spiegel

I really do see his point and I think that it is worth some thought.

Dream 7: It was the apocalypse and we were scrambling for food and survival. A man who was leading us showed us he had sheep, and that this was the hope of humanity — that these sheep would live and that we could somehow make it.  There were few of them, but many of us still believed in our small, ragtag band we could make it. Read the rest of this entry »