Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Corn on the cob

This morning I had a session of Spanish conversation practice with a young indigenous woman from Guatemala, Zelaida Guox.  She is currently going to school to become a teacher.   She had on a pair earrings that were small plastic corn cobs, maize – corn – being very important in the cultures of Mexico and Central America.

We talked about her earrings for a bit, then she asked me if we eat corn here. Claro que sí, señorita… But of course we do, corn on the cob being a very typical food of summer. I then went on to describe how we tend to soak our corn on the cob in butter.  She thought this a little strange. She then described how they commonly eat corn on the cob in Guatemala.  One way is that they squeeze lemon juice, followed by salt, followed by squeezing lime juice on the cob.  Or they put ketchup (salsa dulce) on their corn on the cob or sometimes mayonnaise.  I had heard the mayonnaise addition before, and I am betting it is very good.

Something different to try next time you have one of the emblematic foods of summer.

And so it goes.

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State Violence

Another quote to meditate on from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow.  For some reason the last part of this sentence keeps echoing in my mind, that part of the definition of a sovereign state is that the state has sole proprietorship of legitimate violence within its boundaries.  It is something I knew before, but I had never articulated in quite that manner.

“…is confident that an objective statistical analysis, shorn of sentiment, will show us to be living in an age of unprecedented peace and security. And this, he suggests, is the logical outcome of living in sovereign states, each with a monopoly over the legitimate use of violence within its borders…“

Well…not an earwig, but definitely a mental perseveration.

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Gendered Appropriation

“….we saw in earlier chapters, tracing the place of women in societies without writing often means using clues left, quite literally, in the fabric of material culture, such as painted ceramics that mimic both textile designs and female bodies in their forms and elaborate decorative structures. To take just two examples, it’s hard to believe that the kind of complex mathematical knowledge displayed in early Mesopotamian cuneiform documents or in the layout of Peru’s Chavín temples sprang fully formed from the mind of a male scribe or sculptor, like Athena from the head of Zeus. Far more likely, these represent knowledge accumulated in earlier times through concrete practices such as the solid geometry and applied calculus of weaving or beadwork. What until now has passed for ‘civilization’ might in fact be nothing more than a gendered appropriation – by men, etching their claims in stone – of some earlier system of knowledge that had women at its centre.“

The above quote is from The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Their book is an attempt to upend the linear, inevitable  human history as we have been taught and is currently de rigueur in popular books of overarching human history.

No earth shattering conclusions…I am just putting this out there as a nugget to meditate on.  That ‘civilization‘ may not have been the product of men breaking the mold and having a sudden intellectual epiphanies on various subjects and endeavors, but the slow accumulation of knowledge by women that men appropriated. Although I am not sure appropriation is the proper word as many of these past societies were less gender stratified than became the norm later.

Now assume the lotus position…

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The Other Side of Qatar

Luisito Comunica is a Mexican YouTuber  who is SUPER popular in in Latin America with almost 40,000,000 followers.  He travels around the world making YouTube videos of the various countries he visits. Occasionally you will also see his girlfriend (may be ex now) in the videos.  She is a very hot Venezuelan model.  Talk about a couple of opposites. Go figure!

I watch his videos to have another channel of Spanish input into my old brain, plus he is VERY entertaining.  Most of the time his videos are on the lighter side or pointing out cultural oddities. Occasionally he gets serious as he has done in this video.

In early 2017, Qatar’s total population was 2.6 million, with 313,000 of them Qatari citizens.  Basically you have millions of imported workers supporting the Qatari few. I wonder what Mohamed would think about that situation in light of the squalid living conditions?

Since his audience is Latin America, English subtitles are not available, but I think a few minutes watching this video and you will get the idea… even if you do not understand him.

This is his third video in Qatar.  The first two were of the side of Qatar the powers to be there would like you to see.  I sincerely hope that he has left Qatar before posting this one.

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Our Father, Which Art at Red Lobster… 

This posting is more this old curmudgeon thinking out loud than anything else… so take it in that spirit.

I am not a fan of religion.  In my calculus the amount of harm that religion has done far outweighs any good that can be attributed to it.  Given that the basis of any religion is essentially unprovable (hence we talk about faith), the amount of prosecution, violence, even killing and wars, suppression of other beliefs and non-believers, etc. done in the name religion, in the name of God, is incredible. The history I am most familiar is of the history of the Catholic Church, not because I am Catholic, but it because it longest and best documented. This history continually makes me cringe the more I learn about it.  Protestants, Muslims, Hindus and probably many others religions do not get a pass on this horrible chronicle either.

In spite of having said the above, I totally understand the impulse to be religious. Hell, at times Continue reading “Our Father, Which Art at Red Lobster… “

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Tlaxcala Boot Camp

I am still in the process of listening to the audio book of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This book is a reexamination of the current narrative of how our civilization, culture, social institutions, etc evolved in the light of new evidence and new interpretations.   I came across another passage that really spoke to me.

“Those who aspired to a role on the council of Tlaxcala, far from being expected to demonstrate personal charisma or the ability to outdo rivals, did so in a spirit of self-deprecation – even shame. They were required to subordinate themselves to the people of the city. To ensure that this subordination was no mere show, each was subject to trials, starting with mandatory exposure to public abuse, regarded as the proper reward of ambition, and then – with one’s ego in tatters – a long period of seclusion, in which the aspiring politician suffered ordeals of fasting, sleep deprivation, bloodletting and a strict regime of moral instruction. The initiation ended with a ‘coming out’ of the newly constituted public servant, amid feasting and celebration. Clearly, taking up office in this indigenous democracy required personality traits very different to those we take for granted in modern electoral politics.”

On the off-chance that you are not up on your 16th century mesoamerican Continue reading “Tlaxcala Boot Camp”

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Quote of the Day – Billie Holiday

“Nobody’s perfect. Which is another way of saying there’s no escape from this world.” — Billie Holiday in Crazy They Call Me

 

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,611

yeah I know you did not ask!

Need more exercise to work on that Thanksgiving/Christmas belly?  Get a small dog.

I am not sure how many times a day I bend over to scratch The Wee Dog’s head, but it is a significant number. Princess Lily is only 7 kilograms and stands 30 centimeters at the shoulder, the dachshund portion of her DNA being expressed in her body shape.  She is slightly larger than your average cat and smaller than some of the larger felines.

It is nearly as good as doing 25 toe touches a day.

1 Lily scratch, 2 Lily scratch… no cheating now, bend from the waist, 3 Lily scratch…

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The Book of Genesis: A Promulgator of Misogyny?

This is really just one of my random thoughts… something I have been ruminating on as I  listen to the audio book of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This  book is a reexamination of the current narrative of how our civilization, culture, social institutions, etc evolved in the light of new evidence and new interpretations.   In it I came across the following passage:

“Rejecting a Garden of Eden-type narrative for the origins of farming also means rejecting, or at least questioning, the gendered assumptions lurking behind that narrative.  Apart from being a story about the loss of primordial innocence, the Book of Genesis is also one of history’s most enduring charters for the hatred of women, rivaled only (in the Western tradition) by the prejudices of Greek authors like Hesiod, or for that matter Plato.  It is Eve, after all, who proves too weak to resist the exhortations of the crafty serpent and is first to bite the forbidden fruit, because she is the one who desires knowledge and wisdom. Her punishment (and that of all women following her) is to bear children in severe pain and live under the rule of her husband, whose own destiny is to subsist by the sweat of his brow.”

I have no excuse why Continue reading “The Book of Genesis: A Promulgator of Misogyny?”

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Cultural Differences, the US Dollar, Ecuador

I have been visiting with a young lady, Micaela Vallejo, from Ecuador every two weeks for over three years for conversational practice using Spanish. She is a little north of 30. How far I do not remember.  She is unmarried, a fact I find remarkable given all she has going for her, but she seems quite content with her status. Micaela lives in Coca, a small town of around 45,000 souls in the northeast corner of Ecuador, close to the border with Colombia.  It is located in the Amazonian rain forest at the confluence of two large rivers and a smaller third. According to the web and Micaela Continue reading “Cultural Differences, the US Dollar, Ecuador”