SOCIAL STUDIES - January 28, 2008
The study of languages gets increasingly difficult the further back you go. There are languages, language branches, language trees and language families each of which shows the derivative nature of the language. Let me explain using my lingua franca, English, which is from the West Germanic branch of the Germanic Tree of the Indo-European Language Family. You can see how this can be confusing because without going into dialect there are at least 30 major languages spoken today.
I have found, however, an interesting and socially challenging way to discover everything you need to know about languages. The only thing you need to do is travel to Walt Disney World for a week. Or if you are like me, make sure the next time you go to Florida you go at a completely different time of year.
I am pretty sure last week was some sort of Brazilian school holiday – as it seemed to be in the majority of languages spoken while casually strolling through the park. But a few years ago I went in August and there were more people speaking German than you can shake a stick at. Curiously, I have never been to Disney when the majority of people around me were speaking English.
Which sort of makes sense when you consider that we are only (perhaps) the third most spoken language in the world; there are 873 million people who speak Mandarin Chinese, 358 million Spanish speakers, Depending on who is doing the counting then you find Arabic at either 422 million (making it perhaps the second most spoken language, the problem is lack of census data in Arabic countries) or perhaps Hindi, but there is also a problem counting Hindi speakers where estimates range from 181 to 361 million.
English does make it somewhere into the top languages at 309 million native speakers. It also has the most people capable of speaking it, 1.5 billion; but I’ll save the commentary on colonialism for another day.
Science aside, if you find yourself at Disney, one out of every six people is probably speaking English. Which is what makes it even more fun, little kids excitedly speaking Dutch to each other, a Norwegian couple walking by chatting about, well, I don’t really know, I recognize Norske only by sound; the countless Brazilians speaking their loud version of Portuguese... French, German; you can hear almost any language being spoken at any moment.
One episode sticks out in my mind though. It poured rain, for an hour, the first day we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. A tropical downpour is enough to test anyone’s conception of the ‘happiest place on earth’ and this was magnified by the fact that the temperature was only in the upper 60’s and it felt cold. I must admit that I myself blew my cool at the kids for the most infinitesimal amount of time. As it was clearing up I went on a ride alone as it was too scary for the kids and when leaving I ran into an Italian couple out and out fighting about which ride to go on next.
They were toe to toe shouting at each other. I am almost sure it was derogatory and filled with expletives; and it sounded so romantic you would just melt if someone yelled at you like that. This is where Romance languages have it way over us guttural speakers. Even swear words sound, well, romantic.
I am convinced that we can save a lot on marriage counselling by taking up a few foreign languages instead. It is not impossible; I was in line at Disney for a Funnel Cake of all things (think fried dough poured out of a funnel into the fat) which was made by a Mandarin speaking cook who said to the Mandarin speaking cashier something witty in their dialect, which he instantly translated to English for my benefit. What shocked me was that the next person in line engaged the young cashier in Italian and he answered her fluently without a hint of an accent.
Most Europeans speak more than one language; most Quebecers as well when it comes right down to it. So here is my brand new 2008 resolution – I am going to learn episode specific languages. What I mean by that is that I am going to learn enough French that it is the language I always use to order in restaurants. I am going to keep English for telemarketers and tax assessors. German would do well for border crossing and police investigation with all of its harsh consonants, Norwegian for walking the dog when it is 40 below, and last but not least, Italian for fighting with my wife.
I do not mean to be derogatory – I think each and every language is beautiful and deserves to be learned and understood by all of us. Some languages just naturally seem to lend themselves to specific undertakings and we would be richer people if we broadened our own linguistic abilities. Maybe it is too difficult a goal, we will have to see. I still have a tin whistle, harmonica, yo-yo, and acoustic guitar at home collecting dust so I am not holding my breath. But I do encourage you to learn to fight in Italian. Trust me, it will be worth it.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Don't Blame God for Bad Days
RELIGION TODAY - January 26, 2008
It rained or was cloudy every day of our vacation. So much for a reinvigorating vacation in the South; or at least in terms of weather; but to be honest there was a lot about it that allowed for recharging the batteries. We were in Disney World after all, and I have to admit that just the very idea of being there brings a smile to my heart.
But why was the weather so bad? I am a reasonably good person, and I was taking my in-laws and young children there for the first time, and we were celebrating the last few weeks together as a family before my wife returns to her ministry at Mountain View – in my mind these are all good enough reasons that God would make it sunny.
Come on, admit it, you’ve thought this way too – “I am a good person so why is this happening to me?” This has to be one of the most primal of all religious questions. Despite our best efforts to the contrary we all think that we are the center of the universe and everything that happens, well, it should revolve around us.
There are religious people of every stripe who subscribe to this way of thinking. In Christianity there was a big surge of it when a book was published called “The Prayer of Jabez” in 2000 by Bruce Wilkinson. There is a very short passage in the Old Testament where someone most of us never remember reading about, Jabez, prays that his land and wealth may be increased, and they are. Well, this got Mr. Wilkinson to thinking that if we only pray hard enough...
This is remarkably similar to the Prosperity Gospel teaching that comes from some evangelicals and a lot of televangelists. There is, again, one passage in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 8:18 if you are curious) where it says that God will grant you the power to become rich.
There was also a popular book and DVD called “The Secret” which took away the explicit Christianity and said that if you ask the power of the universe for anything, and ask it long enough and loud enough – your wish will be granted.
Back to the rain; a very easy reality check would be whether or not it rained on your vacation in Florida. I mean, I spent months thinking about the sunshine, hoping for a good time, praying for everything to be perfect... and the clouds rolled in; never mind the fact that Central Florida is experiencing a drought and the amount of rainfall didn`t amount to the proverbial drop in the bucket... I am a Christian, I am a clergy person, and I am good. It SHOULD have been sunny! Right?
But come on, I have seen the best people I have ever known suffer needlessly and I have seen outright criminals prosper and be, by every category I can conceive of, blessed. God is certainly not a Djinn, or Santa Claus, or even our own personal fairy Godmother. I don’t claim to actually know who or what God is like completely, but I do know that God doesn’t work through wishes.
Here is the best I can figure so far – There is a divine purpose to the universe; God created everything hoping it would turn out in a certain way. But God did not want this to be a solo project, it was all about relationship – and so God made us to be co-creators and gave us a whole lot of freedom. We have enough freedom that we can choose to mess things up, and choose to go to Florida during the coldest two weeks of their season – almost everything is up to us; and it is that way because God loves and trusts us.
To be honest we have not done so well with this freedom over the last 10,000 or so years. Still, God believes in us and hopefully we will earn that trust.
But the main point of this is that God does not make one day sunny or the next rainy; God does not make one person sick and the next person well; God does not make one stock go up in value and another fall. Instead, God sends the spirit to remind us of the core values we need in order to survive, Love, Hope, Faith... and hopes we make the right choices in spite of the circumstances.
That doesn’t mean we should not pray – or hope, or change – It just means that whatever happens, good or bad, it’s not God’s fault.
It rained or was cloudy every day of our vacation. So much for a reinvigorating vacation in the South; or at least in terms of weather; but to be honest there was a lot about it that allowed for recharging the batteries. We were in Disney World after all, and I have to admit that just the very idea of being there brings a smile to my heart.
But why was the weather so bad? I am a reasonably good person, and I was taking my in-laws and young children there for the first time, and we were celebrating the last few weeks together as a family before my wife returns to her ministry at Mountain View – in my mind these are all good enough reasons that God would make it sunny.
Come on, admit it, you’ve thought this way too – “I am a good person so why is this happening to me?” This has to be one of the most primal of all religious questions. Despite our best efforts to the contrary we all think that we are the center of the universe and everything that happens, well, it should revolve around us.
There are religious people of every stripe who subscribe to this way of thinking. In Christianity there was a big surge of it when a book was published called “The Prayer of Jabez” in 2000 by Bruce Wilkinson. There is a very short passage in the Old Testament where someone most of us never remember reading about, Jabez, prays that his land and wealth may be increased, and they are. Well, this got Mr. Wilkinson to thinking that if we only pray hard enough...
This is remarkably similar to the Prosperity Gospel teaching that comes from some evangelicals and a lot of televangelists. There is, again, one passage in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 8:18 if you are curious) where it says that God will grant you the power to become rich.
There was also a popular book and DVD called “The Secret” which took away the explicit Christianity and said that if you ask the power of the universe for anything, and ask it long enough and loud enough – your wish will be granted.
Back to the rain; a very easy reality check would be whether or not it rained on your vacation in Florida. I mean, I spent months thinking about the sunshine, hoping for a good time, praying for everything to be perfect... and the clouds rolled in; never mind the fact that Central Florida is experiencing a drought and the amount of rainfall didn`t amount to the proverbial drop in the bucket... I am a Christian, I am a clergy person, and I am good. It SHOULD have been sunny! Right?
But come on, I have seen the best people I have ever known suffer needlessly and I have seen outright criminals prosper and be, by every category I can conceive of, blessed. God is certainly not a Djinn, or Santa Claus, or even our own personal fairy Godmother. I don’t claim to actually know who or what God is like completely, but I do know that God doesn’t work through wishes.
Here is the best I can figure so far – There is a divine purpose to the universe; God created everything hoping it would turn out in a certain way. But God did not want this to be a solo project, it was all about relationship – and so God made us to be co-creators and gave us a whole lot of freedom. We have enough freedom that we can choose to mess things up, and choose to go to Florida during the coldest two weeks of their season – almost everything is up to us; and it is that way because God loves and trusts us.
To be honest we have not done so well with this freedom over the last 10,000 or so years. Still, God believes in us and hopefully we will earn that trust.
But the main point of this is that God does not make one day sunny or the next rainy; God does not make one person sick and the next person well; God does not make one stock go up in value and another fall. Instead, God sends the spirit to remind us of the core values we need in order to survive, Love, Hope, Faith... and hopes we make the right choices in spite of the circumstances.
That doesn’t mean we should not pray – or hope, or change – It just means that whatever happens, good or bad, it’s not God’s fault.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Changing the World and How to Do It
SOCIAL STUDIES - Times & Transcript
I have a confession to make. I want to change the world. I always have.
It is entirely possible that this marks some form of mental deviance, perhaps an under-developed ego, or id, or whichever psychological terminology is in vogue these days; but I doubt it.
You see, I imagine that deep down this is a goal we all secretly harbour. Admittedly, there are times when I would want to change it in a completely self-serving sort of way; creating, for example, a world where hot wings were a vegetable, or where video games counted as self-improvement tools.
When sanity returns I find myself wishing that milk cost less than Diet Coke; or that education and health care were of higher priority to those who dole out budgets. I wish that religious and social freedom were available to everybody, equally, in every country. And I want someone to develop a better system of economics than the ones we use now.
I guess I am a hippie at heart, wishing for peace, love, and hopefully even a bit of joy.
But then there are those days, and I know you have had them too, when you wake up with a headache, and life unfolds in a way to make you miserable.
Each moment seems to sap another ounce of hope out of your soul with such exacting vehemence that you swear there is absolutely no way that any of us could possibly make a difference.
Admittedly some of us spend our whole lives tilting at windmills, fighting enemies real and imagined only to find ourselves nursing the wounds of indifference with such bitterness and anger that our dotage is filled with sarcastic rage.
To save you from such a fate I want to offer a few suggestions, very tangible and practical that will help you to change the world.
Let's start with the most modest of activities; you could smile.
This is my favourite form of social deviance. It seems to be a dying art, go ahead and look around yourself today, at the office, on the bus, at the person next to you while you idle waiting for the light to change, at the clerk punching in numbers on the cash register.
Almost none of them are smiling.
How much better do you feel when someone smiles at you? Go ahead and try it, randomly smile at people and see what happens. For the most part they will smile back; and you, my friend, have changed the world.
Advancing to stage two would require you to go out and watch an Al Gore movie, or read some David Suzuki articles. Then you will shut that car down while idling, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, flick a few light switches and choose to walk up and down two flights of stairs.
There are in fact a million little things you can do to change your energy consumption (just don't let NB Power find out or they might level some form of surcharge on energy efficiency).
Now let's start into financing the revolution. Bill Clinton wrote about a way that you could actually use the Internet to change lives. Oprah Winfrey picked up on it, and since then every major news source in the Western Hemisphere has introduced us to kiva.org There was even an article in the business section of the Times & Transcript talking about the wonders of this wealth sharing website.
Kiva works like this. They host a lending program for entrepreneurs in developing countries who post business plans and start up costs. Ordinary people like you and me can then read their stories and put up our own capital, as little as $20 dollars, to get them off the ground.
Kiva posts a picture of each loan recipient on the Internet, so that contributors can see who they are helping, read their name and learn their story through their business description. Field Partners post updates to each business throughout the loan term, and lenders can post comments in reply to the Partner Representative, asking questions about the business or expressing their encouragement for the entrepreneur.
Here is what I find most amazing; in the two years it has existed Kiva has lent out $19,171,685. The average amount that any one individual has lent is $86. They have helped to start 29,339 new companies. When someone in Morocco, Afghanistan, Thailand, or the Ivory Coast makes an application for a loan, the funds are usually raised by breakfast the next day. Finally, the repayment rate for loans made through Kiva is an astounding 99.84 per cent.
It is almost too simple to use Kiva to help other people and there are very few of us who do not have an extra $20 dollars kicking around once or twice a year.
If you actually keep your eyes open, I would wager that you could find a different way to change the world every day.
If we all started trying just a little bit harder, imagine what we could do.
And for gosh sake, sign that organ donor card.
I have a confession to make. I want to change the world. I always have.
It is entirely possible that this marks some form of mental deviance, perhaps an under-developed ego, or id, or whichever psychological terminology is in vogue these days; but I doubt it.
You see, I imagine that deep down this is a goal we all secretly harbour. Admittedly, there are times when I would want to change it in a completely self-serving sort of way; creating, for example, a world where hot wings were a vegetable, or where video games counted as self-improvement tools.
When sanity returns I find myself wishing that milk cost less than Diet Coke; or that education and health care were of higher priority to those who dole out budgets. I wish that religious and social freedom were available to everybody, equally, in every country. And I want someone to develop a better system of economics than the ones we use now.
I guess I am a hippie at heart, wishing for peace, love, and hopefully even a bit of joy.
But then there are those days, and I know you have had them too, when you wake up with a headache, and life unfolds in a way to make you miserable.
Each moment seems to sap another ounce of hope out of your soul with such exacting vehemence that you swear there is absolutely no way that any of us could possibly make a difference.
Admittedly some of us spend our whole lives tilting at windmills, fighting enemies real and imagined only to find ourselves nursing the wounds of indifference with such bitterness and anger that our dotage is filled with sarcastic rage.
To save you from such a fate I want to offer a few suggestions, very tangible and practical that will help you to change the world.
Let's start with the most modest of activities; you could smile.
This is my favourite form of social deviance. It seems to be a dying art, go ahead and look around yourself today, at the office, on the bus, at the person next to you while you idle waiting for the light to change, at the clerk punching in numbers on the cash register.
Almost none of them are smiling.
How much better do you feel when someone smiles at you? Go ahead and try it, randomly smile at people and see what happens. For the most part they will smile back; and you, my friend, have changed the world.
Advancing to stage two would require you to go out and watch an Al Gore movie, or read some David Suzuki articles. Then you will shut that car down while idling, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, flick a few light switches and choose to walk up and down two flights of stairs.
There are in fact a million little things you can do to change your energy consumption (just don't let NB Power find out or they might level some form of surcharge on energy efficiency).
Now let's start into financing the revolution. Bill Clinton wrote about a way that you could actually use the Internet to change lives. Oprah Winfrey picked up on it, and since then every major news source in the Western Hemisphere has introduced us to kiva.org There was even an article in the business section of the Times & Transcript talking about the wonders of this wealth sharing website.
Kiva works like this. They host a lending program for entrepreneurs in developing countries who post business plans and start up costs. Ordinary people like you and me can then read their stories and put up our own capital, as little as $20 dollars, to get them off the ground.
Kiva posts a picture of each loan recipient on the Internet, so that contributors can see who they are helping, read their name and learn their story through their business description. Field Partners post updates to each business throughout the loan term, and lenders can post comments in reply to the Partner Representative, asking questions about the business or expressing their encouragement for the entrepreneur.
Here is what I find most amazing; in the two years it has existed Kiva has lent out $19,171,685. The average amount that any one individual has lent is $86. They have helped to start 29,339 new companies. When someone in Morocco, Afghanistan, Thailand, or the Ivory Coast makes an application for a loan, the funds are usually raised by breakfast the next day. Finally, the repayment rate for loans made through Kiva is an astounding 99.84 per cent.
It is almost too simple to use Kiva to help other people and there are very few of us who do not have an extra $20 dollars kicking around once or twice a year.
If you actually keep your eyes open, I would wager that you could find a different way to change the world every day.
If we all started trying just a little bit harder, imagine what we could do.
And for gosh sake, sign that organ donor card.
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