Ever heard that someone "has more money than a small African country"?

That country would be Namibia.

With a population just over 2 million and an average household income of just $2,400.00/year, the Pitt-Jolie Enterprise may just have more money!

They haven't bought the country yet, but Namibia's government is giving them whatever they want so far - control over the country's airspace, denying certain individuals (reporters) access to the country.

In October of 2004, Mel Gibson bought an entire island. Maybe this is what Pitt-Jolie is trying to do with Namibia.

In the event that they do start controlling Namibia in more ways than they already are, whether through "buying" the country or just threatening to take their money elsewhere and manipulating the politicians, what will this do to global politics?

Bono and other famous people are investing a lot in Africa to help with poverty, violence, crime, famine, AIDs, and other diseases, many of which are curable.

Will people regret letting Westerners access and influence countries due to Pitt-Jolie and others who try stunts like this, taking over - to some extent - an entire region or country just for selfish reasons? Surely them spending money in Namibia will help people, but they appear to be there for their own privacy than anything else.

Will the reaction be to cut off access to humanitarians? This has happened before in China and other countries.

Like the warriors of the past, will those who overtake regions or countries, will celebrities or westerners begin to be the most despised?

It sure would be interesting if international politics began to revolve, in part, around individuals made excessively wealthy through the American economy, who have taken over other countries.

I finished the book, Gender: Men, Women, Sex, Feminism by Frederica Mathewes-Green.

Quality!

She confronts very controvercial issues about parenting, gender interaction, feminism and homosexuality very directly. And she is an amazing writer. There were a few places in the text where I had to pause and just appreciate how much she communicated in 4 words.

I'll put up some quotes later. Now I'm with some family friends and should go help getting lunch ready.

Well, was at a big family event with tons of extended family that I've never met before, for a dinner. A few observations about Canadian culture from this dinner:

1. Ice Cream and Cake. No choice if you wanted iceceam and/or cake, or what type of cake you wanted. We think that usually in the States you'd get the choice. Not that the caterers value the choice more, but because they are compensating for the expected complaints and dissatisfaction.

2. Less Formal, More Polite. Two aspects of Canadian culture that come together to a unqiue combination: Lumberjacks and the Commonwealth. Lumberjacks: informal, hard working normal guys; Commonwealth, connected to England and the "Miss Manners" politeness.

3. American jokes. We constantly heard American jokes from our relatives. It's quite funny. On the one hand, it's not a big deal - we're still Canadian, we're still family, we don't act differently, with the exception of my father's political arguments he kept starting with extended relatives he'd never met before...

On a political side it is kind of funny - the Canadian government recently took a huge turn to the right - the liberal party that has been in charge for years and years was voted out and the conservatives voted in. Now my relatives are beginning to question the country's leadership under the liberal party. Makes me wonder if this will be a long term change.

Crazy Canadian Mosquitos....

They're so small you don't see them.

Ouch!

1. Spent 30 minutes looking for parking in a lot the sign said was not full. It was.
2. Had to pay for an hour of parking leaving the lot where we just drove around, then went to the $18/day parking garage.
3. Arrived 5 minutes after baggage check-in had closed for our flight. All of our bags were small enough to be carry-ons, but they wouldn't give us boarding passes.
4. Put on Standby for a flight with only 1 unbooked seat.
5. Had to pay for an hour of parking garage parking as we drove out to another lot.
6. Accused of stealing a shrimp dish at Panda express, and had to have the store manager search our food for shrimp before they would let us go. No, we didn't steal shrimp.

But then we got on that flight, and are now back in the home and native land with family.

And that is why... there has been no post about Cooking with Brandy/i. Give me a break :)

News stories about countries I've been to tend to catch my interest.. I usually skim them to get the gist of what's up.

So today's news story about Nepal has me really interested. (I spent a few months there once.)

Mini-history from the little I know of Nepal - there's been a long history of warring factions between Communists, loyalists, democracists (???), and other political groups, and there has never been long times of peace... at least not recently.

Nepal has been the world's only "Hindu Nation," officially. Because it is squished between Tibet and India, there are strong Buddhist and Hindu religious influences, and they kind of get mashed together for a lot of Nepali people - a mix of Buddhism and Hindusim, perhaps... "Buddhindu"...

Now, while limiting the King's power, the Nepali Parliament has declared the nation a secular nation.

I find it very interesting because of the collision of changing social norms.

1. Ethnic Identity: In many cultures, one's identity is as part of the group - I am "Muslim because I am Malay," - for many it seems impossible to draw a distinction between the two ideas. I suppose it is like a family who only drives Fords - they don't drive them for any reason other than that they do... It's the way their family does things.

2. Political Identity: When I was in Indonesia, some of the older people were telling me that the youth are becoming more "People of the Nation" rather than "People of the Tribe." That is, the primary identity used to be as a part of one's family line.... and it is transitioning to be as part of one's nation - more like the idea that you do something because you are a citizen of a certain country.

As family identity weakes, group identity may not, creating a very strong identity as part of a group other than one's family.

Now, I haven't studied Nepali culture, and all the dynamics therein, but I wonder: What sort of impact will this religious move by the national government have on individuals' faiths in Nepal?

Will they become secular because that is the official stance of the government? Will there be a movement to explore other religions after realizing that if the country can change it's stance, so can I?

Here continued are my observations about this hit American TV show.

2. Characters and Connections

Current movies and TV shows tend to substitute any number of things for Character development. If you don't care about the people in a movie or a tv show, they haven't done a good job.

• George Lucas replaced this with CGI.
• Quinton Tarantino replaced this with violence.
• Napoleon Dynamite replaced this with stupidity.
• Jerry Seinfeld replaced this with humor.

Lost has capitalized on the Macro-Plot, as I posted yesterday, but has a very strong emphasis on character development as well.

As the story continues, we find out more and more background on each of the characters. We find out that though the characters didn't realize it, many if not all of them are interconnected in one way or another.

As they discover these loose coincidental connections they have, they help each other. Jack the doctor, for example, had a horrible relationship with his father. His father was a drunk, in a bar in Sydney with Sawyer shortly before flight 815. He told Sawyer how he wished he could be reconciled with his son but was too ashamed. Sawyer carried one of the pieces of information that Jack needs to be reconciled with his (apparently dead) father.

Each character carries secrets they hope no one finds out about who they are, what they've done.

• Kate was a fugitive
• Sawyer a con-artist and murderer
  
• Ana-Lucia a bad cop
• Hurley a mental institution patient

But the only way for these characters to get over their struggles and their pasts is to work together.

Somehow I find this so easy to miss in real life - the value of relationships, bearing each others' burdens, and helping each other live.

ABC's hit show Lost is pushing the limits of television shows in a number of very exciting ways.

Perhaps these limits have been pushed before, but not so publicly or so strongly as the writers, directors, and producers of Lost have. Here's my first observation:

1. Storytelling: The Macro-Plot

J.J. Abrams and the other writers involved wrote out the entire storyline from start to finish before they marketed the show to ABC. They know what is going to happen in season 3, in season 5, etc. They tweak it, yes, but they aren't just making this up as they go. They know the story. And it is a story.

Are we over the reality shows yet? No plot, neverminda story. Friends and Seinfield had lots of jokes, but the shows didn't really lead anywhere. It wasn't storytelling. Nor was sitcom TV. The closest I can think of was "The Pretender" where it seemded that the writers made up the macroplot as they they went, or Nowhere Man, where they had a macroplot to the detriment to the individual episodes.

C.S. Lewis expounds on a conversation he had with J.R.R. Tolkein in which Tolkein said that every story is a parallel of the gospel. The story of Jesus is the greatest "Fairy Tale" or "Myth" - terms he used to mean stories told to covey truth and values. The distinction is that not only is the story of Jesus one of handing down truth and values through a story, but it is also a historical story - the greatest fairy tale and the greatest fact. Every good story in history is merely a parallel to that story - just an intersting though. That's why every good story has a redeemer figure, etc.

One thing I love about the story of Lost is that it is repeatedly brought back to an echo of the fall and redemption. Through broken relationships, violence, hatred, inner struggles, people are pulled apart, they hurt each other - but then people are reconciled to each other - Sun and Jin the Korean husband and wife; Michael and Walt, the father and son who have been separated for most of Walt's life; Jack and Kate; Jack and Sawyer; Charlie and Claire - over and over people are being reconciled.

Another pattern is that of redemption - people change. Then always happen to die almost immediately after they get over whatever their big problem is... but they do change. Only Libby has died without a very clear personal change... perhaps we'll find out more about that later.

At my workplace, questions about Lost lead to discussions of faith, storytelling, and wicked conspiracy theories.

I love the storytelling dimension of Lost; Now the storytelling is captivating to the younger audience (twomps and teens) because it is being brought online - into an interactive story. Check out thelostexperience.com for more info about that.

This is now drawing the audience into the story - those of us who are really sucked in no longer just observe the TV show, we participate in uncovering the clues hidden on various websites, phone numbers, etc. The most obsessive watchers are now participators in the story, and an online community of seekers is out there, contributing clues they find to the collective discovery of the story.

This makes me wonder what we should be doing today in the suburbs to communicate thruth and values to the twomps and teens around us? How do we get out of exegetical textbook studies and into the story. The story of the fall and redeption reoccurs every day in relationships and in the world around us.

We miss it. Life is a story, and we just don't notice.

Like the story of Lost, regardless of what may surprise us, the author has already charted out each chapter, and has already written the ending.

Oh, the beauty of owning a home... while working with highschoolers.

On Wednesday night our house was toilet papered (by the Junior class and Luke, a sneaky senior).

Discovered a new sign that we live in a wealthier suburb than where I grew up - They used 4-ply absorbant toilet paper. This stuff is higher quality than the stuff we can afford!
I'm going home tonight to finish rolling it up so we can use it.

Our response, of course, was a modern-day Tar and Feathering. We hosed them down and got them (and their cars) covered with flour. Of course, they all decided to use the windshield washer fluid which combined with the flour to create something similar to what we used to use for paper mache... these students probably grew up using plaster of paris or something.

Really... 4 ply woven super-absorbant toilet paper?